Anyone ever go green?
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Anyone ever go green?
| Sat, 08-23-2008 - 12:31am |
I'm not sure if this is the right place to put this because its not really debt related as much as it is ways to save money related.

Michele,
Thanks for sharing all of that! I am definitely more and more interested in "going green" but I have not yet tried to make my own cleaners. I should, as I'm sure it would save money. You didn't mention food, though, and that is one area I find it is more expensive to go green. I like to buy organic fruits and veggies but they are pricey, so I at least try to buy "the dirty dozen" organic.
Great ideas, thanks for sharing!
Anne
Great post, Michele!!
I, too, have discovered a love for baking and try to make the majority of our meals from scratch.
Great topic! I am married to a certified tree-hugger from the hippie days but as it is for many it is often more words and philosophy than action (smile). He does use the same bags from the grocery store every week (he does the shopping) until they have huge holes in them. I bought a couple canvas bags and have started using those. In both cases we save 5 cents a bag. Probably the biggest thing I have done is cut down on driving. Both of our cars are 4-cylinders so they get good gas mileage but I have begun to make a very conscious effort to plan my trips better and do all of my errands in one geographic area at once instead of all of the back and forth. We have also slowly replaced all of our appliances with ultra energy efficient ones.
There is a such strong connection between "green" and saving money -- it's just how you look at it. For example, we have to buy lots of school supplies each year. It drives me crazy that the PTA sort of bullies everyone to spend $60 - $70 per child for pre-packaged supplies when most of those supplies (dictionaries, protractors, calculators, etc) come home at the end of the year and are perfectly fine to use again. Not only is it a waste of money to buy them again but think of all the waste in throwing away "used" supplies plus all of the packaging on the new stuff. Office supplies are the worst for over packaging. I'm not sure if we're being more green these days or just more careful about what we buy and discard because we're so broke but I do notice that our trash barrels each week are much less full.
jenny
Just to add a little tip to the great advise.
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Hi Anne:
I have no idea what the dirty dozen is.
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If you can't get DH to give up the papertowel, then I don't thnk you would get him to use the family cloth (reusing cloth for TP if I understand it correctly, but there is more too it than that and you don't all share one piece of cloth lol) but that is taking it too far for me.
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There is definitely a strong connection between going green and saving money.
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I was doing really well with unplugging things until my stepkids were here for a month and then I got lazy again.
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Michele,
There is a list out there I've seen in a few different places listing the "dirty dozen" fruits and veggies that have the highest level of pesticides when conventionally grown, therefore are best if you can buy organic. For example, strawberries are "dirty" but bananas not so much. The thought of growing my own garden is very intimidating to me. We can't even keep our yard looking very nice! You have some great ideas, and I'd like to do more to become "green." I suppose I could start by googling homemade cleaners and see what I come up with! We are very aware of over-consumerism in our family and try to REDUCE as much as we reuse and recycle. Our families think we're nuts already, and we aren't even that "Green!"
Thanks for your thoughts!
Anne