Comments on: The Green Dollar: Being Environmentally Conscious Can Save You Money

By: Aggie

Aggie — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 16:50:37 +0000

Recently I’ve been hooked on “ecodriving” (ecodrive.org). The biggest rules are to hurry up and get into a higher gear, then drive smoothly at 2000 RPMs or less. Using your cruise control helps with this.

The personal and fun challenge is to get below 2000 RPMs. When I look at it that way, being at 55 MPH doesn’t seem slow anymore… it seems thrifty.

Aggie

By: Shirley

Shirley — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 12:40:13 +0000

We found a person who drives to our house and buys, yes BUYS all of our collected newspapers, junk mail, old magazines pretty much any printed material from us. He pays us 2 cents a lb. but hey, it’s getting recycled and we get paid. We neatly stack up the papers in paper grocery bags in our garage and he hauls them away every few months or so.

By: Sandy

Sandy — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 16:38:12 +0000

Hang your clothes out to dry!
If you have an electic dryer, you’ll save WAY more electricity than all the light bulbs you’ll be changing…although , I do that too!

By: SavingDiva

SavingDiva — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 15:55:23 +0000

Clean and change your car’s air filter regularly. I just switched to a K&N air filter. It costs about 5 times more than a regular air filter. However, it never has to be thrown away (less waste), and it can be cleaned (every 50,000 miles). It also helps to increase your gas mileage (I haven’t calculated how much it has helped yet), and your horsepower (they have a chart about this, but I don’t actually care).

By: st

st — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 00:00:33 +0000

If you don’t know where to go to redeem your containers, just enter your zip code here:

http://www.bottlesandcans.com/where.php

By: sid barcelona

sid barcelona — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 21:48:37 +0000

Here’s the url for the 18 eco tips again:
http://www.vegetariantimes.com/document_display.cfm?document_id=552

and also a link to a grassroots effort called 18seconds.org to switch to cfl lightbulbs by one of the producer’s of ‘an inconvenient truth’
http://green.yahoo.com/

By: Aaron

Aaron — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 20:41:19 +0000

Another energy-saving tip for your home: turn down the temperature on your water heater. There’s no need to have scalding hot water, especially when the energy savings could be going in your pocket..

By: sid barcelona

sid barcelona — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 12:50:58 +0000

i just came across this list of 18 eco-friendly tips that save water, energy and money.

By: ST

ST — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 21:42:50 +0000

One good tip that I do–

Do you often get several big thick phone books plunked on your doorstep, but you never really use them? (Who uses them these days, when you can use the net? Especially the white pages.)

Save them and use them for packing stuff up for mailing. Rip out the sheets and crinkle them up for cushion. It’s tidier, more compact, and easier than saving newspapers or other material for the same purpose.

By: KAV

KAV — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 11:35:12 +0000

Recycling does not have to take up a lot of space. I live in a 2BR upstairs condo and I recycle plastic, aluminum, glass, newspapers, cardboard and junk mail. I use my coat closet as a recycling center. It has a small container for the glass & plastic, etc. stuff and then a bag on a hook for the cardboard and junk mail. It gets a little crowded in there right before it is time to take things to the recycling center on Saturday but it works!

By: Su Yin

Su Yin — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 08:05:20 +0000

A new eco show of the reality self-help genre premiered on telly last night and it had a few interesting ideas too!

Some of the environment/bank account friendly tips from the show that could be added to your list are:

1. Use cloth nappies instead of disposable nappies which are made of plastic, and plastic comes from crude oil – a natural resource that is running out. Every disposable nappy uses a tablespoon of crude oil.

2. Compost or start a worm farm. Almost half of your rubbish bag can be made into a resource for the garden rather than going to landfill and creating greenhouse gases.

3. New Zealanders can’t resist a bargain – they buy too much and throw it away quickly. That goes for everything from food to toys. Our landfills are full of junk from cheap shops.

4. Install a low flow showerhead or flow restrictor. You will not only save water but power because hot water heating accounts for about a third of your power bill.

5. Fill a ziplock bag with water and leave it inside the toilet’s cistern. You can save up to a third of water everytime you flush.

The show’s website can be found at http://www.tv3.co.nz/wasted

By: EMF

EMF — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 05:26:28 +0000

Yet again, surge protectors do _nothing_ to compensate for the “zombie drain”. Unless it has an OFF switch and you actually turn off the surge protector when you’re not using the equipment plugged into it.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 19:53:36 +0000

Or you could try walking or biking more places–or taking public transit. If you live somewhere where anything besides driving is totally infeasible, then maybe you should consider how much of your money is going to pay for your spot in suburban sprawl and if it’s worth it to you (especially considering the long-term cost to our country and our planet).

Walking or biking lets you get to know your neighborhood on a much more intimate scale *and* it’s good for you. It’s not always the right solution, but very often it’s a great idea.