Going green...

Well, the title can be a little misleading. I'm not really going green, just going frugal. This all started last night when I went to Lowe's. I found garden lights for 78% off (only $4.50 a piece!) needless to say, I snatched them up, only to realize they were 12 volt lights. After wiring the lights to plug in to the outlet, I realized that 12 volt lights do not like to work well with 120 volt light sockets and I blew out both bulbs. I then went back to Lowes to buy some new bulbs, thinking that I had seen $0.75 bulbs for these lamps... I didn't. The bulbs for this type of light were more than $3 a piece! Because I really wanted to get these lights to work , I bought the bulbs.


Once I got home, I realized that I had several cords around the house that converted 120v to 12 v. I rewired the lights and then plugged in the light. Success!!!


Unfortunately, the plug overheated and died. This, however, did not dishearten me. I decided to rewire the whole dang lamp. I had some 4th of July lights that I had gotten on clearance in 2003 and had never used. I took off the excess lights and put one light in the globe of the garden lights. Now, I have a 120 v plug that will work with my garden light and it only costed $4.50 a piece (because I am not using the bulbs that I had bought... they will be returing to Lowe's shortly).

For the other lamp, I used the left-over wire from the rewiring and concocted another light, using a spare replacement plug and light socket I had lying around the house. Now, I have two garden lights!

Now, to the green part. Did you know you could make your own dishwashing detergent and laundry detergent? I just recently found this out. Here are the directions for the dishwashing detergent and laundry detergent. I might try this because I cringe every time I have to spend $9 for laundry detergent. (and the fact that I'm breaking out in a mysterious rash from the new detergent I'm using... but that's TMI ;) )