Why "Frugal August"?
Frugal August was a website I built a while ago to document a month I spent trying to reduce my use of resources to as little as possible. It went well; I learned a lot; when it was over we went back to eating out and buying three-ply toilet paper. It did teach me that you can do a lot with a little, and that a lot of what we think of as "necessary" is not. Hiking the AT is a distillation of these principles to a high degree - so I figured re-using the website made sense.
If you haven't tried a "frugal" experiment, I recommend it. Just do everything you can to use as little as possible for a set amount of time. Turn your lights off, take short showers, cook at home, use a clothesline, bike to work, and see what happens. It's a fun way to discover neat alternatives to traditional ways of doing things.
On a final note, I just think "Frugal August" has a nice ring to it. Reminds me of "In Xanadu did Kubla Kahn" and such. I think Mrs. Steimer knows what I mean.
If you haven't tried a "frugal" experiment, I recommend it. Just do everything you can to use as little as possible for a set amount of time. Turn your lights off, take short showers, cook at home, use a clothesline, bike to work, and see what happens. It's a fun way to discover neat alternatives to traditional ways of doing things.
On a final note, I just think "Frugal August" has a nice ring to it. Reminds me of "In Xanadu did Kubla Kahn" and such. I think Mrs. Steimer knows what I mean.