September 30, 2008 at 1:30 am (money savings)
Tags: Capitol, CFL, economic, energy, frugal, green lifestyle, lights, money, news, re-purpose, recycle, reduce, resue, wasted
As a rule, living a green lifestyle takes a little thought each day. It means you have to change some habits that you’ve probably had for a long time and didn’t realize.
As I think about it we can apply this same way of looking at things to the present economic situations that the country is in. In general a green lifestyle is a frugal lifestyle. We reuse, recycle, re-purpose and reduce. We turn off the CFL when we leave the room.
For the last two weeks I’ve watched the news almost every night live from New York City or Washington DC. As the days have started to get shorter I’ve noticed one thing, all the buildings where business’ are going bankrupt along with the Capitol have all the lights on. Why?
If they are out of money or even need to save money or just want to be responsible why don’t they turn the lights out? All of those lights on all of those floors in all of those buildings has got to add up to a lot of money and a lot more wasted energy.
I don’t think this will solve the problem, but it’s a start. And I really don’t want to give my hard earned money to people that don’t even turn the lights out at night.
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September 29, 2008 at 12:37 am (general)
Tags: barrier, basket, bicycle, cardboard, garden, paper, recycle, vegetable, weed
I just received a new basket for my bicycle. It’s really neat. It hooks right on the handle bars and lifts off to become a shopping basket. It fits almost any old school bike. I loved the basket, but I found another surprise when I opened the box. The basket was wrapped in about 30 feet of 18 inch wide brown paper. Perfect for a weed barrier in the vegetable garden along with the cardboard box.
I know I must sound like the kid that was more interested in box on Christmas day than the present, but I couldn’t help it. And while I was excited about the extra bonus of the paper I am looking forward to running errands and having a nice basket to hold all the things I need.
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September 28, 2008 at 2:11 am (money savings)
Tags: energy, lights, outside, power, solar, sunshine
I am a big fan of solar power. Today I used it in one of my favorite forms, as a clothes dryer. I love to hang my clothes out to dry. I remember my grandmothers doing it, and my mother still does it. I live in Northern Colorado and it can be difficult to find days warm enough year round to dry clothes outside, but I sure try.
When I sit on the patio in the evening it and the yard are lighted with solar power. We have two lights with individual panels on the arbor and four individual panel garden lights. Both of these type of lights require no wires and can go anywhere there is sunshine.
Solar power doesn’t have to be expensive, it can be as simple as opening the curtains instead of turning on the light.
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September 15, 2008 at 11:55 pm (money savings)
Tags: container plants, free, greenhouse, rain, recycled, water
Recycled rain water is something that is great for your garden and free. I live in northern Colorado and we don’t get nearly enough rain. When it does rain, I’m ready. I have simple everyday items out in the yard and on the patio that will collect the rain. Later I can use that water on container plants which can dry out pretty fast or in my greenhouse which doesn’t get any direct rain.
What a great free green thing. With only a little pre planning you can collect free water next time it rains.
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September 11, 2008 at 10:42 pm (money savings)
Tags: ACE Hardware, CLF, CLF's, coop, electric, free, mercury, thermometer
We live in a rural community about 30 miles north of Denver, Colorado. Because it is a rural community we have an electric coop, United Power. Last week we got a coupon from our coop for free CLF’s. They will give you one free an another five for one dollar each. This is the second time in a year that they have done this and I love it. It’s kind of a double freebie. Free and/or inexpensive CLF’s that use less engery.
Before you get all upset about the amount of mercury in them, (less than an old school thermometer) the coop has a safe disposal system. We can take our used CLF’s to either the coop or ACE Hardware and they will safely dispose of them for free.
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September 11, 2008 at 1:14 am (green ($$) power)
Tags: cleaner, consumers, earth friendly, Holy Cow, retailer, Walmart
I hate it when something I really like is discontinued, a TV show, a type of jeans or an earth friendly cleaner. Several months ago I read about a really good and earth friendly cleaner called Holy Cow and to my surprise I found it at a big box retailer, Walmart. Until today. Holy Cow goes a long way so you don’t need to buy it often and when I went to get some today it was not there. I asked why and the lady said it had been deleted from their order forms. My response, that sucks. I asked why it had been deleted and she said she thinks because the product works to good?!?!
As a consumer I think this really sucks. A product is inexpensive, works well and is earth friendly so a major retailer (Walmart) discontinues it. We need to use or buying power as consumers to let Walmart and other large retailers know that we won’t stand for this.
Holy Cow has a web site www.holycowproducts.com which I plan on checking out tomorrow. If I can’t find another retailer I’ll see if I can buy a case dircet from them.
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September 9, 2008 at 12:33 am (money savings)
Tags: library, money, paper, savings, trees
I love to read. I always have a book or magazine close by. I’ll read the toothpaste tube if nothing else is around. We would be very poor if I bought everything I read. That is why I love the library. I can read all types of books and magazines, explore new subjects and authors and it never costs me a cent (I pay taxes regardless if I use the library or not.)
Using the library is also green. For every book I read from the libary instead of buying I am saving trees. I read about 20 to 25 books a year and each one averages 350 pages. Thats a lot of paper. I still get to read all I want, I don’t spend money and trees are saved. Sounds like a good deal to me.
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September 7, 2008 at 3:52 pm (general)
Tags: chemicals, flowers, gardens, vegetables
I have one of my other blogs now listed in my blogroll. The name of the blog is Playing n the dirt, its all about all types of gardening. Gardening is my true love, yes my husband is aware of this. For me, gardening is also linked to being green. My gardens have no added chemicals. Only great tasting vegetables and wonderful flowers.
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September 4, 2008 at 1:45 am (money savings)
Tags: baking soda, clothes, errands, gas, green, vinegar
I hear a lot of people say that being green is too expensive. I found that generally just the opposite is true.
Check out the price of just your cleaning supplies. You probably paid around $3 for each bottle. Now look at the price of your baking soda and vinegar. Did you know that you can clean almost anything with baking soda and vinegar.
Buying second hand clothes is being green and almost always less expensive especially if you have children. Some of my favorite pieces have come from second hand stores.
Planning your errands saves gas and time. I try to stop at stores that I drive by on the way home from work and not back track to them on the weekend.
These are just three examples of how being green can save you green. This list could go on for about forever but I am betting that you are smart enough to come up with at least ten more of your own ways to be green and save green.
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September 3, 2008 at 2:16 am (general)
Tags: green, silverware, simple
Being green, in any tint, is about making smart decisions. Doing simple things can add up to big things and they certainly count in the green world.
One thing I do is to take a spoon from my silverware drawer at home to work. I actually leave it at work. Each morning when I eat my breakfast I use my spoon instead of a plastic one. I work four days a week 50 weeks a year. That saves 200 plastic spoons a year, not counting any lunches I may use it for.
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