I’m going to sound like a broken record here, but frugality has a lot in common with going green; perhaps not in principles, but in practice. Frugality’s main objective is for its practitioner to live with minimal income through minimal expenses, but a good practitioner of frugality does so not at the expense of health. For instance, extreme frugality may encourage dumpster diving, but it doesn’t say – nor recommend – that you should finish off a half eaten burger that you find in the bin. Frugality naturally “forces” you to live a healthier life as an added benefit to saving money.
The old adage “health is wealth” can be interpreted a lot of ways. For one, your greatest wealth is being healthy and living a good, long life. Another interpretation would be the fact that if you are sickly, you tend to spend a lot of money on medications. In terms of frugality, you get your wealth in the process of staying healthy.
Frugality also encourages doing things on your own, and in light of being healthy and “green” in the bedroom, one of the few things you can do is an orthopedic pillow.
Orthopedic pillows are good for eliminating body pains when you sleep. You’ll see a lot of them for sale, ranging from those made out of memory foams and those made out of organic materials. Since we’re talking about frugality, which often involves going green thereby going cheap, we’re going with organic materials. One such pillow is one made of buckwheat.
Buckwheat pillows are pillows made out of roasted buckwheat hulls. These pillows are as good as any orthopedic pillow in terms of contouring to whatever you rest against it. Also, the buckwheat hulls allow for more air circulation, so you are kept cool as you slumber. You can also put scents in the pillowslips for a little bit of aromatherapy. For more health benefits, buckwheat pillows are good for those who are allergic to feather pillows and the like.
Now, let’s go to how you can make your buckwheat pillows. For it, you’ll only need the following:
2 pillowcase liners
7-10 lbs buckwheat hulls
One thing that you have to make sure of is to buy roasted buckwheat hulls. This ensures little to no dust clinging on the hulls and making the pillow you’re about to make favorable for someone with an allergy. Also, the ten pounds of buckwheat hulls are for good measure only. You can use less than that depending on your preference.
Put a preferred amount of buckwheat hulls in one pillowcase liner, zip it, and put it in the other pillowcase liner with the zipper side in. Wrap it in a pillowcase and you are ready to use it. If you’re going for a little aromatherapy, you can slip in a couple bags of lavender or chamomile in the pillowcases.
Not much to it, is there? The tricky part is actually the maintenance. One thing you should never do is wash the hulls. Should you need to wash the pillows, remove the hulls and wash the pillowcases. As for the hulls, you can either let them soak up some sun or you can just put them in a dust and moisture free area. Alternatively, you can wash the inner pillowcase liner first, dry it, put the hulls back in, and put the whole bag in the freezer while you wash the outer pillowcase liner.
Frugal living is all about finding cheaper alternatives that also happen to be better for your health. When it comes to pillows, go orthopedic and organic; and one of the best ways to do that is to make your own buckwheat pillow.
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