Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Small Changes In Your Home Can Protect Your Earth and Your Balance Sheet.

We are not the perfect "green" family, but these are some things that we do to reduce our impact on the environment and bonus - some of these things help our balance sheet too!

1. Backyard Composting - Currently, I have 2 composting bins. I just finished adding components to the square bin and I'm going to let that cook and hopefully by the end of the summer or fall I'll have finished compost...if I remember to turn it regularly. I just emptied the round bin of finished compost and started it up again. I will add to that until it is either too full or when the square bin is empty. I have been composting kitchen scraps, leaves and garden waste for years. I took a seminar through our county's recycling department and received the round bin for free. The square one cost me $12 through the same organization. They are fairly easy to maintain and my garden loves the finished product.

One lesson I have learned: DO NO COMPOST WEEDS! (Take it from someone who is constantly weeding her garden.) Organic Gardening magazine's site has a lot of useful information about composting.

I throw the kitchen scraps in the freezer in a plastic container and when it is full I take it out to the compost. This way I am not running to the bins everyday and the scraps don't smell or get too ripe in the freezer.





2. Rain Barrel - We have city water, so we pay for usage and I am always looking for ways to cut down on our consumption. I bought this barrel for $25 through a promotion our county's conservation district was sponsoring. Local high school students made the barrels for the program and they did a great job. You can buy "pretty" ones at big box stores, but you'll pay dearly for them. You can also do some research online and find information on making your own barrel.

My plants love the rain and I love that I can water my garden for free.



3. I have been taking reusable bags to the grocery store for years, long before it became fashionable. I switched from my small canvas bags to the store bags because they are roomier and lighter in weight. I love my pink bag that my grocery store sold as a promotion during October's breast cancer awareness month. I keep them on a hook where I keep my handbag and keys so I don't forget them when I go shopping.




4. Speaking of grocery bags, I try to avoid plastic bags. But, unfortunately we do acquire plastic bags from our newspaper, toilet paper packaging or maybe I forgot to take my own bags to Target or Kohl's. We recycle plastic bags through the grocery store's recycling program. I also use plastic bags as trash bags in our home instead of buying them. The stuffed plastic bag on the left in the picture is for recycling and the bag holder on the wall on the right in the picture is for bags that we will reuse around the house. This is definitely an area where we could improve upon. There are too many plastic bags in this picture.



5. Tap water - We do not buy bottled water. We don't need to because we have a reverse osmosis system that makes our tap water very tasty or should I say "tasteless". Honestly, our city water doesn't taste very good, so I might be tempted to buy bottled, but we don't need to because we all have personal water bottles that we take with us everywhere. This also prevents us from wasting money by buying drinks when we are away from the house. I often hear from the back seat of the car, "I'm thirsty, mommy". The reverse osmosis faucet is in the middle of the picture. We do have to buy filters yearly for the system, but we still save money by not buying bottled water...we drink alot of water.



6. I started switching to compact fluorescent light bulbs several years ago.

Energystar.gov states, "CFL bulbs use 75 percent less energy and lasts about 10 times longer than an incandescent bulbs." My husband doesn't like the mercury issue that the bulbs have, but I think I have come up with a way around that. I keep a sturdy cardboard box in the garage for old batteries and CFLs to be recycled. This reminds us not to throw the burned out CFLs in the regular garbage. Contact your local recycling authority for recycling locations for your cfls and your old batteries.


7. Junk mail - Long before the credit crisis, I stopped getting credit card applications. All applications have a phone number somewhere near the bottom of the letters to call to remove your name from their mailing list. I called and I'm amazed at how much less junk mail I receive now.

8. We avoid paper products whenever possible. This has cut down on our grocery bill and our trash. We have been using cloth napkins in place of paper towels and napkins for almost 10 years. We received some as wedding gifts and we have been using them ever since. I keep a big pile handy to clean up spills and messy little fingers and faces. I have had one roll of paper towels under my sink for about a year.



I also try to avoid paper plates. I bought this stack of plastic compartment plates at a yard sale several years ago and we use them when eating outside on our patio and to take on picnics. My kids love to eat off of these plates.


9. From April - October, I hang my laundry outside and avoid using my electric dryer. This habit has by far been the biggest money-saver. I definitely notice a difference in my electric bill when I don't use my dryer. You can read more about my adventures in outside-drying here.



What are some things that you do around your home that protect the earth and your balance sheet? Let us know in the comments.

For more green ideas, check out Your Green Resource at The Greenbacks Gal.

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21 comments:

  1. Great ideas! I have been using towels instead of paper towels, but I never thought of replacing paper napkins with real napkins. DUH! Thanks for the tip!

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  2. I'm constantly running out to the compost pile to throw stuff out but now I'll just do your freezer idea. Thanks!

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  3. Love this post! I've been thinking alot about composting lately so thank you for sharing about your exprience!

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  4. I do LOTS of things to stretch my dollars just like you! It's so nice to see what other people do to save money and such.

    Check me out at www.myfrugallifestyle.blogspot.com

    Great blog you have by the way!

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  5. Jennifer, Jamie and Stephanie - thanks for the kinds words and comments.

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  6. These are great thrifty ideas that help the earth too!

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  7. Hi there! I am dropping in from Frugal Friday.

    I enjoyed your post. I just wanna say that freezing your scrap is ingenius! My kitchen is stinkin right now due to a ripe jar of stuff waiting to hit the compost bin.

    Stop by and see me when you get a chance over at Free 2 Be Frugal.

    :)

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  8. Great ideas! I agree on not composting weeds, they say you can if they haven't gone to seed, but I disagree. Learned that one the hard way too.

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  9. I've always wanted to try composting and bought some cloth napkins the other day. Thanks for the tips!
    :)

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  10. I actually pay my bills on-line instead of receiving the paper in the mail and then sending out a check. This is great for keeping my check book balanced. I also make sure that none of the payments are automatic. The automatic payments tend to keep going even after you have paid off the bill or stopped using the service.

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  11. Sara Cart - online bill paying is a good change. You can reduce the amount of paper that you get in the mail and not pay for postage.

    Thanks for the comment.

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  12. I'm definitely going to be line drying more. I love how all these things are green and $ savers!

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  13. I do all those things except the rain barrel...and our neighbors are planning to get one for our row of houses! (All our roofs drain into one downspout.)

    One of my big environmental and money savers is reusable feminine hygiene products. They are more comfortable and better for your health, too!

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  14. All wonderful ways to lessen your impact. I can't wait until we sell our condo and buy a house, so we can start collecting rain water!

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  15. Thanks for the tip about junk mail! I never knew you could actually unsubscribe to those things! :)

    And I've totally been using cloth napkins for everything. I started doing it mainly because I've been too lazy to go to the store to get paper napkins, but you've totally encouraged me to just keep at it. I'd really like to phase out the paper towels too.

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  16. Love these ideas! As a dog owner in an apartment, I've started asking family members and coworkers for their plastic bags (since we use reusables for groceries) and I use them to scoop up poop. It is such a waste to buy bags to scoop poop up.

    Consider giving your bags to a friend with a dog in an apartment, or see if a local dog park could use them.

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  17. Love these ideas! As a dog owner in an apartment, I've started asking family members and coworkers for their plastic bags (since we use reusables for groceries) and I use them to scoop up poop. It is such a waste to buy bags to scoop poop up.

    Consider giving your bags to a friend with a dog in an apartment, or see if a local dog park could use them.

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  18. Great post. Love what you are doing. Seems like we are doing lots of the same things. We use cloth everything; I've done a post http://www.nzecochick.com/2011/06/oh-cloth-how-i-love-thee.html
    Some thigns which you are doing too. So great that there are other people out there doing their bit! Keep up the greta work.

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  19. I love the compost-in-the-freezer idea! We don't compost, but I want to. I haven't figured out how to do it in an apartment though...

    Also, I want to use cloth instead of napkins, but all of my kitchen washcloths get stained! I don't have a washer, so they only get washed once a week. Do you have any tips for keeping them clean?

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  20. Love this post! I've been thinking alot about composting lately so thank you for sharing about your exprience!

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  21. These are great ideas to maintain cleanliness to our home and to protect mother earth as well. Using biodegradable plastic bags could also helpful to avoid any disasters like flood and many more.

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