Four Simple Ways to Green Your Life and Save Some Money Too
- Ditch the paper towels. It’s always struck me as a bit bizarre and wasteful, both financially and environmentally, to purchase something that’s used once and thrown away. We eliminated paper towels in our home quite a while ago. Thrift stores and yard sales supplied us with numerous cloth napkins for lunch boxes and meals. Kitchen towels and rags serve well for spills and cleaning and take up almost no room in the laundry. Old towels are cut up into rags. The squeegee for washing the windows is one of the best cleaning purchases I’ve ever made. It will last for years and beats the streaky results from paper towel window cleaning any day. While the cost savings isn’t tremendous – neither is the investment. With kids and dogs and a very messy husband, I figure we save at least $85.00 a year.
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- Pack lunch and snacks. It seems obvious. It isn’t a new concept but I still don’t like doing it. However, this saves us a ton of money and eliminates to-go containers and other rubbish. To green this up even more, utilize re-usable containers. Avoid the plastic wrap by using cloth sandwich wraps available from several retailers. I got ours here… http://www.wrap-n-mat.com. Bring snacks for the kids or yourself from home instead of stopping at the mini-mart and buying another plastic-wrapped, high-calorie snack. Don’t forget to pack a cloth napkin. I save at least $25 a week by bringing my lunch to work. Over a year, that adds up to about $1100 of savings.
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- Bring your own drinks. Plastic bottles of water are everywhere. Again, I am amazed that people are willing to pay for bottles of water. If you think about it, buying water in those quantities puts the price per gallon well over the current gas price. You are paying more for water than gas people. Get a re-usable bottle – fill from home. Enjoy. I recommend staying away from the plastic bottles. Research indicates there is a potential leaching of harmful contaminants including Bisphenol A. Both Siggs and Kleen Kanteen are popular brands.
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- Surge protectors and power strips. Phantom electrical loads raise the utility bill and my blood pressure. It irks me to pay for something I’m not using. Microwave clocks, clock radios, various TV components, cell phone chargers, computers, and too many others to list, continuously draw electricity even when not in use. We’ve seen a noticeable reduction in our electricity bill since we’ve begun using power strips. Even with mommy being the only vigilant user, our electric bill is about 15% less.
Posted by john in Home Improvement
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