Friday, April 3, 2009

A Couple Simple Ways To Go Green – and budget friendly too!


1.
Instead of buying cases of water bottles, Try getting a filter for your faucet! It cuts the cost of buying cases of water bottles, and the annoying heavy lifting, It lasts for 2-3 months, for me it lasts up to 6 months because there is only 2 of us. That’s $30 bucks for the filter for 6 months costs $1.25 per week for your water! Instead of buying a case for $5-10 bucks a week. 

Also Try buying a re-usable water bottle. I bought one at Walgreens for $1.99. It helps reduce landfill waste by not throwing away water bottles. You can drink your daily amount of water by filing it up twice (or read label on bottle depending on size). It also is made from a high-grade material that does not retain odor and does not leach, This is when the plastic from cheap water bottles breaks down over time and you start tasting plastic . yuck.

Tips from: www.wateruonline.com, www.purwater.com



2. Sign up for online banking. It saves you time, and it saves trees. If every American did this, 2.3 million tons of wood could be spared annually, and 3.9 billion pounds of greenhouse gases (directly to blame for heating up the planet) would be eliminated. When you visit an ATM, skip the receipt--those scraps of paper are a top source of litter.

3. Buy Local Produce and products. This saves the cost of transportation from far off places and drastically reduces pollution and fuel use. And also supports your local farmers too!

4. While your at it, Pick up some Vintage wears and household items! Cute, Trendy, ONE of a kinds. Clothes, dishes, glasses and more!

Not only will you look fabulous, your house or apt. will have unique vintage touches, and you and your pocket book can feel good about it too!



Dress from: Lolita Vintage

House ware Items from: Finding Fabulous

5. Adjust your Thermostat. The average American home emits about 13 tons of air-clogging carbon dioxide annually via boilers, furnaces and water heaters. Put a dent in that by lowering your thermostat 2°F in winter (to 68°F, ideally) and raising the AC temp by the same amount in summer (to 76°F). Plus it saves Tons of $Cash! I have tried it!

6. Also, Use your Window Curtains and Shades to your advantage. Reducing the amount of fuel used for heating and electricity used for air-conditioning are two key things you can do. Raise shades in winter to let in sunlight and lower them in summer to block out rays.



7. By the way, how about getting a power strip. Saves your electric bill, and even if you turn “off” your appliances you are still wasting stand by power. Plug stuff into a power strip with a circuit breaker so that when you turn it off, It shuts down Everything.

8. Use your dishwasher if you have one. Or if you don’t, Fill up the sink with water and wash the dishes, don’t leave it running.

9. Buy Dvds and cds, through online stores, and downloading from netflix, and itunes, to save plastic, paper, and transportation costs.

10. Try some Compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) they use about 65 percent less energy than regular ones.

Hope this helps a little, of course we can’t always do everything perfect and green, but doing a couple simple things can really help keep the world a great place to live for our generation and generations to come. And wow. Really cuts down on your expenses too!

By the way, keep your favorite magazine subscriptions, but opt out for catalogs, like victoria secrets past down from the last 5 residents of your apartment :) try www.catalogchoice.org

4 comments:

  1. i love it! these are super practical for the rest of us who are too green savvy!

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  2. I am so happy to see such a great guide to living green with class, style and easy to understand tips! I think a lot of people don't realize that buying vintage or pre-owned items is a great way to keep stuff out of landfills and keeps mass production at a lower rate! I also agree completely with buying at local markets or farmer's markets, not only is it green, much cheaper and so healthy for you, but the produce tastes SOOO much better! Thank you for posting such a great guide! Thanks for also posting the pic of our Vintage Purple Dress! =)

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  3. Thank you so much for the great support and comments! keep in touch!

    ReplyDelete