Living Green, Saving Green
Posted by Calum and Kathleen MacKenzie on Monday, December 21st, 2009 at 2:52pm.
Everyone's talking about living green these days, and it's a very good idea. It protects our environment for our children's future, and makes the planet healthier all around for everyone. Unfortunately, many things you can do to go green cost a fortune, which just isn't practical for many families in the current economic climate. The good news is that you can go green and save green at the same time, without breaking your budget. You may not be installing a windmill farm or solar panels on your property just yet, but there are still plenty of things you can do to help the planet that cost very little to nothing out of your pocket. Here are our top 6 selections for going green on the cheap.
1. Reduce your use of electricity. It's easier than you think, and not a hardship at all. The average person uses 27% more electricity than they really need on any given day. This overuse is caused from several different places, such as leaving lights on in an empty room, using a high watt light bulb when a lower one will do, and having your thermostat set too high or too low, depending on the season. If you just take the time to turn out lights in rooms no one is using, shut off a fan when no one is in the room, get the right wattage of light bulbs (or better yet, get compact fluorescent bulbs) and adjust your thermostat a few degrees up or down in the summer and winter, you'll be saving a ton of energy and greatly reducing the amount of greenhouse gasses being produced.
2. Adjust the settings on your hot water heater. Tons of money and energy go down the drain every year on controlling the temperature of the water in your house. Most manufacturers of water heaters set the thermostats on the machines at 140F, but that's really hotter than most households need. You can easily lower the temperature to 120F and still get the luxurious hot water feel for your showers, dishwasher, and laundry that you desire. Reducing the temperature also helps the water heater and water pipes last longer.
3. Stop buying bottled water. Not only do those plastic bottles leach chemicals into your water that you really don't want to be ingesting, it costs money to produce and transport the bottles, transportation produces greenhouse gasses, and the bottles are usually not biodegradable, which means they'll stay in the landfills for hundreds, if not thousands of years. It's far better and far cheaper to buy an inexpensive home filter and use it to filter ordinary tap water. In may cases, you'll end up with cleaner water with a filter than buy buying bottled water anyway.
4. Use non-toxic cleaning materials. You don't have to spend a fortune to buy all the latest cleaning chemicals and gear to have a perfectly clean home. Using simple, cheap ingredients such as baking soda, vinegar, and lemon oil are usually all you need to get everything spotless and germ-free. You'll save hundreds a year on cleaning supplies, and your house will be a shining example of a well-kept, non-toxic environment.
5. Buy houseplants to naturally clean your indoor air. Indoor air is notoriously some of the most polluted air around. But you can change all that without expensive filters that run on electricity by simply buying some houseplants and putting them in every room. Make sure they're situated where they'll get some good, direct sunlight and where small children and pets can't get to them, and water them several times a week. They'll naturally absorb toxins from your air and leave your home smelling and feeling fresh and clean throughout.
6. Packing kids lunches? We do and we stopped and thought about how many sandwich bags I use... are you ready? 2 children x 2 snacks + 1 sandwich = 6 bags a day x 5 days a week = 30 bags a week x 52 weeks = 1560 plastic bags. That's 1560 bags we throw in landfills per year. That's just our lunch usage. Consider reusable containers.
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