My New Green Friend

I consider myself a pretty environmentally friendly person. We recycle newspapers, plastic bottles, and aluminum cans. We use energy saving bulbs. I reuse Ziploc bags whenever I can. I turn off lights when I leave the room and unplug appliances we aren't using. I don't mess with Texas. You see, not all Christians believe Global Warming was made up by "those liberals". I'm getting way too close to discussing politics, a topic which is forbidden on this blog - one of those perks of being a preacher's wife. Anyway, my point is I try to do my part. But for some reason, I have been resisting buying my own shopping bags. I'm not sure why. Maybe I thought it would be too much trouble to remember them. Maybe they're not stylish enough and I am subconsciously concerned about that. Whatever the reason, I didn't want to jump on that bandwagon. I've been seeing people use them more and more though and every time I saw someone walking into the grocery store with their little green bags I would feel a little guilty. So last week I took the plunge. I bought five 99 cent bags. I was pleased not to have those plastic grocery bags in my house that seem to multiply. I felt good about myself. Today when I went grocery shopping, I realized how much I LOVE these bags. Last week's shopping trip was a small one, since I had a nice little stockpile going on thanks to thegrocerygame.com. If you don't know what that is, you should check it out. It is saving us hundreds of dollars every month on groceries. Anyway, this week my list was pretty long. I figured I might need to buy more little green bags. I was pleasantly surprised when I checked out that all of my groceries fit into those 5 bags with plenty of room left over. They have hard bottoms, so they loaded into the van without falling over one each other. My favorite part though was when I got home and began to unload. These bags have these big handles that fit over your shoulder so I was able to unload a week's worth of groceries in TWO trips. That is even with 2 gallons of milk. So, even if you could care less about the environment (maybe YOU don't believe in Global Warming???) you will still love these bags. It sounds like I'm selling them, but I wish someone would have told me how wonderful they were earlier. Take the plunge! Mother Earth will thank you!