Slow Death by Rubber Duck – Book Review


Back in early March, I told you about the dangers of eating microwave popcorn, because of a chemical called PFOA. And earlier this month, I told you that the Government of Canada had declared a chemical called triclosan toxic to the environment. Both of these chemicals are things we come into contact with on a regular basis in our daily lives. To find out just how much we’re affected by these and other household chemicals, authors Rick Smith and Bruce Lourie locked themselves in a chemical-laden apartment for a weekend. They tested themselves before and after the experiment, and the results were published in a terrific book called Slow Death by Rubber Duck: How the Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Life Affects Our Health.

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Planning a Green Frugal Wedding – Food

Wedding Food | Source: avlxyz on FlickrLast week, I wrote the first instalment of my green, frugal wedding series by talking about how I was foregoing traditional paper invitations in favour of electronic invites and wedding websites. Today, I’m going to talk about food and drink, another issue where you can either stick to traditions, be green, be frugal or better yet, be both.

As I said last week, being either frugal or environmentally responsible when it comes to weddings often requires you to challenge the status quo or the established wedding traditions, and food is no exception when it comes to this. In our case, we are challenging the established traditions about as much as possible, but I’ll get to that in a second.

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Stop Price Shopping for Groceries Now!

Groceries | Source: mjb84 on FlickrAs people find increasing opportunities to be frugal, I hear more and more stories about people who advocate price shopping when it comes time to buy anything. What do I mean by price shopping? I mean shopping at the place that offers the product you want at the lowest price. In some cases, where you are making a one-time purchase such as an electronic device, this can make sense. But, in the case of buying groceries, going to multiple grocery stores to take advantage of sales on different items is a complete waste of time and resources.

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You Are What You Eat – Microwave Popcorn

Popcorn - Credit: Tripp FendersonThis is the first in a series of posts I’m going to entitle You Are What You Eat. In the case of microwave popcorn, you’re both broke and unhealthy. But wait, isn’t microwave popcorn supposed to be the cheap, healthy alternative to traditional snack foods? Well, in fact, popcorn can be a cheap, healthy alternative to traditional snack food – if you buy a bag of popping corn and pop it yourself.

Let’s look at the economics of consumer popcorn first. I went to two of my local grocery stores (one a big chain store, the other an independent store) to survey the prices of microwave popcorn and bags of popping corn, both organic and non-organic varieties. I used the cheaper price of the two stores to compile the table below.

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