If you’re asking what hummus is, it’s basically mashed-up chickpeas with some oil and spices. It’s a really tasty dip hailing all the way from the Middle East. In fact, the world’s largest hummus was made in the Middle East, check it out:

Tribe Hummus proudly boasts that it keeps its hummus “all natural“, without preservatives, hydrogenated oil, or the delicious (yet not so nutritious) high fructose corn syrup.

I ended up getting the sweet roasted pepper hummus and the roasted garlic hummus. Both of them were insanely good, and seemed to be purty healthy for you. I ate them both within a week or two, with vegetables and crackers. Word on the street is pita chips are “dank” with hummus, too.

If you haven’t tried hummus before, I’d suggest picking up some Tribe Hummus and giving it a shot. If you don’t like it, at least you’ll have tried it and will know to avoid it at all costs in the future.

The Tribe hummus comes in lil’ plastic containers, which is not great. But never fear, you can still recycle them once you’re done. Just make sure you don’t waste the food and throw away the hummus by mistake!

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Eco-Friendly

Lisa decides to combine helping the environment with making some cash-money. Go on, peruse her post about recycling for cash.

Miss T provides us with her handy compost recipe. Dispose of your household waste by turning it into garden gold.

College and Educación

Over at the delightfully named Money Sprinkles, Dee dishes out some good money-saving wisdom for college students, and anyone else too.

Banks, Credit Cards, n’ Insurance

Glen “Agro crag” Craig wants to warn you that good ol’ Bank o’ America is coming up with some new fees for their customers. Watch out, y’all.

Check out the latest finance product review from SB, wherein he delves into whether or not the Best Buy Reward credit card is worth it (he ain’t think so).

Melissa at Fiscal Phoenix investigates how technology can help save you some skrilla on car insurance.

Do you want a better credit score? Sure, we all do. Someone named Miranda inscribed words on how to raise your credit score, rotch hur.

Frugal Toad himself pipes up and lets us know about the Home Affordable Modification Program, or HAMP, as it were.

Pinch Pennies

Sandy has some handy tips to chip away at your costs over at Yes I Am Cheap.

Tastefully-named Joe at Christian PF dares to ask the unthinkable: what is the true cost of buying a car?

Mr. Taylor has a few suggestions on how to save money while eating out. Chiggity check it.

Matt comes right back and rebuffs Mr. Taylor with his post pleading for people not to be TOO cheap when eating out.

Jefferson (Thomas?) screeches to the skies his warnings of habit creep.

Trying to save money on groceries? Well ol’ Boomer has some sage advice on how to do just that.

I very much agree with Kennedi that being fit helps save you money. It also makes your life better, in oh so many ways.

This article by Steve captured my attention the moment it compared Nintendo games to heating your house with scraps of paper (or “scratch paper”, as some might say). He breaks it down to the nitty grit by thinking about when it’s worth saving money.

In honor of Dr. Seuss’s recent 102nd birthday (may his soul rest in peace), Everything Finance reflects on money-savin’ lessons learned from the doctor himself.

Romancing

Alex, AKA Mr. Totally Money, comes from all the way across the pond to share some cheap ways to propose to your life partner. Speaking of life partner, if you live in North Carolina, on May 8th por favor vote to defeat Amendment 1, which constitutionally bans gay marriage in NC. This is such a gay amendment, if you ask me.

Life, and, of course, Death

MMD asks, “Is it time to change my retirement portfolio?” He then answers said question in this here post.

Annabelle sombers down the mood with her funny and informative piece on how to plan a frugal death. I must say I approve of her first idea; wandering around in the woods until you fall down dead and turn into dirt. Not quite compost lasagna, but I don’t think think the plants will complain.

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I was fortunate enough to have the chance to try some of these puppies recently. They come in little travel packets. Chiggity-check out this picture from Nashveggie to see how they look:

The first thing that struck me, with the force of lil’ Eli‘s offensive line, was that having individual-sized foil packets of coffee creamer doesn’t seem real eco-friendly. I used 1-2 packets for a cup o’ coffee, so there went two foil packets.

As far as the taste of this, it’s the best soy creamer I’ve tried so far. It dissolved pretty well into the coffee, and although there was a slight hint o’ soy taste, it was great.

After almost finishing a terrific mug of café with SoyGo in it, I ran into some sludge at the bottom. Apparently this happens to a lot of soy creamers. So watch out on those last few gulps.

They really seemed to work hard to make this creamer using all-natural, vegan products. If you’re vegan, or have celiac disease, then this is the creamer for you. It would be better if it didn’t come in the small foil packets, though.

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Here at EcoJoes, we’ve looked at styrofoam and paper disposable cups, and came to the not-so-stunning conclusion that it’s best to use reusable cups. Not only are reusable cups good for the environment, they can save you money at coffee shops! Hot diggity.

But for most people, every once in a while they forget their reusable mug, so they buy coffee in a disposable cup. Hopefully, it’s a compostable, paper, insulated cup from Repurpose.

I got to test out one of these bad boys today, and it worked great. The paper wall is sort of puffy, so it stays insulated without needing extra layers of paper or a paper sleeve, meaning it uses less paper than most other disposable cups. How about that.

I’ve had about 3 cups o’ coffee today in my cup, and it did great keeping the coffee warm (at least 15 minutes staying the perfect temperature). The cup’s still holding together fine, too. Your hands won’t get burnt either, even if the drink is piping hot.

The neatest part to me is that Repurpose claims these cups (and the lids) are compostable within 90 days. That doesn’t mean I can watch it compost in my home composter, though.

As the Repurpose Compostables C.M.O. points out,

Our cups compost in an industrial composter, not your home composter. So you won’t be able to watch them compost at home. The product needs the heat and humidity that only an industrial composter provides and then it turns on the break down like switch and it takes 45-90 days to finally compost. They are ASTM 6400 and BPI certified to do so.

Researchers are still working on viable home composting possibilities for single use products. The problem is that in order to withstand the heat and moisture of your cup of coffee, the cup has to have an integrity that makes the home composter not an option if that makes sense. If it composted at home in any conditions it wouldn’t be a very sturdy product.

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Back already? Did you even read that? Never mind, no time to argue, for it’s time to announce the

EcoJoes Recycled Sandal Giveaway

“Well what the heck is that?” you’re probably thinking. I’ll tell you what, in this easy-to-read bulleted list (ordered list, mind you).

All entries must be in by the day after Thanksgiving (November 25).

The winner gets this pair of large, brown Okabashi Messina sandals. Guaranteed to be comfy as heck, and made from recycled plastic.

Hurry up and get those posts coming in! Time’s a ticking…

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Not only does it waste a lot less building materials to build (plus use a less resources to maintain) a tiny house, but it can save you a chunk o’ change. As Mr. Hay himself put it, “Living small means less bills, living big means more bills. I don’t want to pay big bills”.

Without further ado, I’ll let Austin take it away and give you a tour of his very own tiny house.

If you’re all pumped up now to go off and build a lil’ casa, take a looksie at this tiny house book, first, just to see what you’re getting into.

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After you take their survey, you’ll be given an opportunity most people only dream about – the chance to donate your hard-earned money (“skrilla”, as it were). Even ol’ EcoJoe broke a long miserly streak and donated to this worthy cause.

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Did you know that a bunch o’ people raise chickens in their backyards inside the beltline?

Do you wish there was a tour of all these backyard coops coming soon?

If so, then you, my friend, have got your wish, for the 2011 Raleigh Henside the Beltline Tour d’Coop is this Saturday from 10AM to 4PM!

I’ve been fortunate enough to go on the 2008 tour and the 2010 tour, and I can assure you you’ll see some jawsome backyards, houses, chicken coops, gardens, and chickens.

You’ll laugh at the antics of the hens, marvel at elaborate hen houses, and maybe even get to hold a chicken. Plus there are tons of helpful people around to answer your insightful chicken questions.

How Can I Go?

Bring a non-perishable food item or a wad of cash money to one of these convenient locations (money & food goes to Urban Ministries):

• Steven B. Andreaus, DDS , PA1637 Glenwood Avenue , across from the Rialto Theater
• Ornamentea: 509 N. West Street, one block south of Peace Street
• CupAJoe: 2109-142 Avent Ferry Road, in the lower level of Mission Valley Shopping Center
• Whole Foods Market: 3540 Wade Avenue, in the Ridgewood Shopping Center
• Seaboard ACE Hardware: 802 Semart Drive, across from Logan’s Nursery

To find out more, mosey on over to the official website, right about here.

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Although my hopes were high, someone else’s video won the Raleigh Nissan LEAF event. As full of sorrow as I am, I’ll blink back the tears just enough to put up a link to the winning video.

Winner’s Video
“And did I mention it’s fun? Ohmahgod.”

Dang. My hat is reluctantly off to him for winning. He must’ve done a good job getting out the vote for that video.

For old times’ sake, here’s my video entry, one last time:

Joe’s Video

Such poise. Such je nais sais quois. As for how that video didn’t win, I shall never know.

Although the final vote may say otherwise, I think we can all count this as an emotional win for my video. Better luck next time.

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