Today I am taking it easy as a blogger. My house needs a couple hours of focused attention, and the Oregon sky just might eke out enough sunshine for a load of laundry. Have a great Friday! Katy Wolk-Stanley “Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.” Click HERE to follow The Non-Consumer [...]

I wrote a post in 2008 describing what I called my Non-Consumer Living Room, but I thought I’d write up an update as much has changed. (By the way, you can click on the photos for better detail.) Here’s the before. Very sedate, to the point of humorless. Like maybe your grandmother would really, really [...]

It’s time again for Non-Consumer Mish-Mash, where I write a little bit about this and a little bit about that. Chair Addiction Regular readers may have noticed that I have a teensy-weensy touch of a chair obsession. I buy them, I sell them, I fix them up and I gaze lovingly at them. Hello, lover [...]

I just finished reading Scratch Beginnings: Me, $25 and the Search for the American Dream by Adam Shepard. In this book, the young author chronicles a year spent in Charleston, South Carolina as he rises from life in a homeless shelter to a comfortable existence with $5000 in savings, a functional car and a furnished [...]

The following is a reprint of a previously published post. Enjoy! My name is Katy and I am a recovering packrat. It’s been two weeks since my last thrift store excursion. I have spent the majority of my adult life stalking garage sales and thrift stores for diamonds in the rough. That perfect Fiestaware platter, tha

Your favorite recent purchase was actually a curbside find. Your answer to your child’s question of “Why are our kitchen sponges so small?” is “What are we, Rockefellers?!” (This is because you cut sponges into half or even thirds!) You’re careful to properly care for your belongings beca

Remember my antique card catalog coffee table? Well I finally got around to addressing the dried out wood issue yesterday, and look at what a difference a coat of Restore-a-Finish makes! It supposedly needs a finish coat of Howard’s Feed-n-Wax, but for now I’m really happy with how lush the wood looks. I didn

When Winco was selling two-pound packages of strawberries for $1.48, I made sure to buy the limit of four. I then whipped up a quickie batch of freezer jam. I don’t know about you, but I always run out of homemade jam sooner than I think I will. Slurp, yum, urp. I used a set of a [...]

The following is a reprint of a previously published post. Enjoy! I work for one of the largest private employers in the state of Oregon, and with this job comes some great benefits. Deals on cell phones, gym memberships, discounts for local businesses and my favorite – a free all-zone adult public transportation pa

I grew up in an enormous house. And because the house has almost endless amounts of storage space, my father and step-mother have been pretty tolerant about how much stuff we adult children keep at the house. However, my younger sister Sara took it upon herself to address some of the attic boxes and invited [...]

Clean towels billowing on the clothesline, book holds waiting for me at the library and a pantry full of bulk purchased (and attractively stored) foodstuff. It’s a happy Saturday. Katy Wolk-Stanley “Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.” Click HERE to follow The Non-Consumer Advocate on Twitter. Cli

Five Things That Make Me Happy: 1) Reading and hearing about the soccer game between Mt Tabor Soccer Club’s Green Machine and Major League Soccer’s Portland Timbers. This was a Make-a-Wish Foundation event between an eight-year-old boy’s team and Portland’s popular soccer team. It was attended by mo

Although I had a number of tasks on my to-do list yesterday, I was able to nip into a couple of thrift shops on my way to Winco. (Hello, $10-off $50 coupon!) I’ve been keeping an eye out for a low dresser for awhile, as I want to reconfigure our bedroom for better feng shui [...]

It’s time for another edition of Today I am . . . Happy to see the rain return to Portland after a week of unpleasant sunshine. ( <– This is how you can tell I’m a true Oregonian.) Thinking about how I read that you should have everything in your home “be like a fork.” [...]

One of the great things about The Non-Consumer Advocate is how readers are able to find answers to life’s problems both great and small. This is especially true over at The Facebook Group.  Just this morning, Renee posed this question: Looking for frugal ideas for my son’s 4th Birthday party: He has decided he

Enjoying this outtake from last week’s Zero Waste blog post: Waiting to see if the nest on our house that showed up overnight will start to see some action: Cringing at some of the bulk options at Winco. Yes, they have organic cane sugar, oats, quinoa and pasta, but they also have powdered nacho cheese! Click [...]

I am heartbroken to write another blog post about unsafe garment worker conditions in the country of Bangladesh. Because yes, there is news today of yet another factory collapse that has killed “at least 87″ workers. This building had known structural cracks and “workers told Bangladeshi news outlets that

My husband and I just finished meeting with an investment planner, and in preparation, we needed to list all of our monthly expenses. To say it was an eye opener would be an understatement. I wouldn’t go so far to say that my family has undergone a lifestyle creep, but our expenses have definitely risen. [...]

Today, being April 22nd, is Earth Day, which means we dedicate a day to abstaining from environmentally harmful activities and instead do something helpful for our lovely planet. Right? Wrong! It’s a day for very special Earth Day products and retail promotions! Like these: Safeway wants you to celebrate Earth Day and

Today is Day Seven of Zero Waste Week here at The Non-Consumer Advocate and I am wiped. Mind you, I’m not tired of making Zero Waste choices, I’m just tired of writing about it! Today I brewed a cup of loose leaf tea, drove kids to soccer, sat in my car reading library books until [...]

Today Day Six of the Zero Waste Week and although I normally take a break from blogging on Saturdays, today is a bonus day! Why? Because yesterday was all about stocking the kitchen back up on Zero Waste goodies. Unlike regular grocery shopping which can be accomplished at one or two locations, Zero Waste has [...]

  Today is Day Five of the Zero Waste Week here at the Non-Consumer Advocate. And although I still have the weekend to get through, I have now successfully packed ten individual school lunches and two work lunches for myself. Mind you, my kids’ lunches are never filled with pre-packaged stuff to begin with, but [

  Today is Day Four of Zero Waste Week, and I work again. The grumbling about the project is starting to starting up, although I nipped that in the bud with bribery of bulk purchase of yogurt covered pretzels and fruit gummies from New Seasons. Yesterday was more about what I didn’t do, rather than [...]

  Today is Day Three of Zero Waste Week, and although the day was mostly devoted to laundry, (seriously, where does it all come from?!) there was a definite waste-free bent to the day: Drank loose leaf tea throughout the day. Everyone’s lunches (work and school) were zero waste. Dinner was back bean chili made [.

It’s Day Two of Zero Waste Week, and so far my focus has been on food, food and . . . wait for it . . . food. Searching for businesses who sell without packaging, finding bulk sources and adjusting how my family cooks and eats. So far, it’s been a delicious experiment. However, a [...]

It’s Day One of Zero Waste Week, and I’ve already messed up. How? Well . . . I planned out the kids’ school lunches to be baguettes with bulk purchased gourmet cheese, (Maybe Brie?) homemade cookies and cut up oranges. My first thought was to buy the baguettes and cheese at Pastaworks, but then I [...]

Tomorrow starts The Non-Consumer Advocate’s Zero Waste Week, but I wanted to switch my mind over a few days in advance. So I spent the last few days practicing Zero Waste and figuring how to get through the week without going insane and eating nothing but bulk purchased oatmeal and lettuce. I want to see how [...]

Would you be interested in participating in a Non-Consumer Advocate Zero Waste Week? I am very inspired and intrigued by Bea Johnson’s Zero Waste lifestyle, but am hesitant to make a full commitment. I guess my qualm is that I’m pretty sure it would cost my family more money. I know that Bea Johnson says [...]

It’s time again for another Non-Consumer Photo Essay, where like Being John Malkovich, you get to see what I see. Like this antique mirror, which recently enjoyed a golf-leaf pen makeover. (Like a spa treatment for crappy old mirrors!) Remember these targeted savings banks? Well, they are never-freaking-ending! And ap

As the Non-Consumer Advocate I write a lot about food waste. (Heck I’m even in Jonathan Bloom’s American Wasteland book!) But sadly, I’m also a shameful and closeted food waster. Well maybe not technically a food waster, more of a delayed food waster. What is a “delayed food waster?” Someone