Home » Education

4 Easy Ways to Save Money by Going Green

Ranked #15,265 in Education, #308,097 overall

Easy Ways to Save Money and Go Green in your Home

Four easy changes you can make this week that will save you thousands of dollars and reduce the carbon imprint you leave on the earth. In today's economy, it just makes sense to look for ways to save money. But what is exciting is that we can make a difference in saving our planet too. Not to mention there are health benefits to living a green lifestyle.

Contents at a Glance

Save the Planet and Save Money Too!
Changing to a Low Flow Shower Head Can S...
Are you using low flow shower heads?
Read More About Saving Money by Changing...
Save Money Going Green on eBay
Paper or Plastic: Which is best?

4 Easy Changes You Can Make This Week to Save You Hundreds of Dollars

With the price of food and gas going up everyday, what are some simple things we can do to save money and protect our environment at the same time? It used to be that you were considered a "tree hugger" if you promoted doing things good for the environment. But today, it's a cool thing to be green. So here are 4 easy things you can do to save money by going green.

CHANGE YOUR SHOWER HEAD
SHOP WITH REUSABLE BAGS
STOP USING PAPER TOWELS
USE CONCENTRATED HOUSEHOLD CLEANERS

Changing to a Low Flow Shower Head Can Save You $70-$120 a Year

Most shower heads use twice the water we need to take a comfortable shower. Using more than we need costs money personally and as a community. We overload our sewer and septic systems as well demand more energy to heat the water. To get clean water for our showers, our communities have to tap rivers and lakes, build dams and reservoirs, and construct processing plants.

So take this easy step and convert your showers to low flow models.

It only takes a few minutes and costs about $10. The new aerating shower heads mix air with water creating a steady flow of water.

I switched from a 6 gallon a minute model (quite reluctantly) to one of these and didn't miss my old shower head as much as I expected.

In fact, when the electricity and water bills came in less, I really liked the low flow shower head even better.

Changing to a low flow shower head will save you between $50-75 on water bills and $20-50 on energy bills to heat the water (depending on your usage and local utility rate.)

Are you using low flow shower heads?

Loading poll. Please Wait...

Share this poll
- Stumbleupon
- Facebook
- MySpace
- Twitter
- Digg
- Delicious
- Email

Save Money Going Green on eBay

Paper or Plastic: Which is best?

Four facts that may suprise you from Reusable Bags.Com

Q: "So would you like paper or plastic?"

A: "Neither BECAUSE..."

1. Both use up valuable natural resources for a single-use, disposable product

2. Both have negative impacts on wildlife and pollute our environment

3. Both create significant toxic by-products during their lifecycles

4. Neither is effectively recycled

n 2001, Ireland consumed 1.2 billion plastic bags, or 316 per person. An extremely successful plastic bag consumption tax, or PlasTax, introduced in 2002 reduced consumption by 90%. Approximately 18,000,000 liters of oil have been saved due to this reduced production. Governments around the world are considering implementing similar measures.

I found these facts on http://www.reusablebags.com.

Take this easy step and reuse your bags.

Use Concentrated Household Cleaners to Save Money and the Planet

Do we really need to ship all that water around the country?

One of the easiest and most economically ways to go green is to switch to concentrated cleaners. Did you know that most of what you are paying for when you buy common cleaners is WATER?

By using concentrates, we reduce the amount of packaging that winds up in landfills, not to mention all those bottles getting shipped from manufacturing plants to the stores and to our homes. That's a lot of gas being used to ship water that we can get from our own tap.

This was the very first change I made over 15 years ago. I was reluctant at first because I figured if the cleaners were natural and good for the earth, they probably wouldn't clean very well. What suprised me is that they worked better. The concentrated cleaner I use takes only 2 drops of cleaner in a 16 oz. spray bottle to make a window cleaner that I was paying over $2.00 for at the time. To be honest, I wasn't really all that concerned about the environment at that time, but I was really concerned about my pocketbook. The savings were unbelievable. That bottle of concentrated cleaner lasted me over a year and it only cost me about $10.

Since then, I've switched all my cleaners to concentrates. The brand I use claims that the cleaners in the household cleaning kit keeps 108 pounds of packaging waste from landfills, eliminates 248 pounds of greenhouse gas, and does the environmental equivalent of planing 10 trees.

But most amazing to me is it replaces $3400 worth of cleaning products.

Important!

Best Concentrated Cleaners

Click here to save money with concentrated cleaners

Follow Me On Twitter

Learn more about being Green!

Stop Using Paper Towels...

or at Least Reduce the Number You Use

Imagine how much trash we generate from paper towels alone. I don't know about your family, but used to use them for everything. It's embarrassing to admit that we used them to dry our hands on.

Several years ago, my husband and I were house guests at a prominent surgeon's home in Atlanta. When were were served breakfast, I was shocked that were were given dish towels as napkins. I had always used paper napkins. So it struck me that I was a bit wasteful and my friend, the surgeon, who had really no reason to pinch pennies on napkins was really concerned about doing little things to help the environment.

So our first step was to do away with the paper towels. We just simply quite buying them. That broke us of the habit of drying our hands on them. Now we clean up our spills and dry our hands on dishtowels. (The old fashioned way.)

I have a business mentor and she says we spend the money because we have the money. Many times we aren't really thinking. So, I encourage you to take a small step and stop using paper towels.

Our next step is to stop using the paper napkins. I'm having a hard time with this one. I just really don't like to do laundry.

But, I don't think I'll go so far as to stop using toilet paper. That's too extreme for me.

Click here to read more about Greener Cleaning on Twitter ...my personal account of the struggles of going green in a community that doesn't support it.

Going Green on Amazon

Books to Help You Save Money by Going Green

NEW! Vote for your Favorite Green Links

Add your own favorites too!

Add your favorite Going Green Link to the list. Be sure to include your own squidoo lens on a green topic. Please remember to vote.

4 Easy Ways to Save Money by Going Green

Easy Ways to Save Money and Go Green in your Home

Contents at a Glance

Contents at a Glance

Save the Planet and Save Money Too!

4 Easy Changes You Can Make This Week to Save You Hundreds of Dollars

Changing to a Low Flow Shower Head Can Save You $70-$120 a Year

Are you using low flow shower heads?

Thanks for voting! Now invite your friends to vote.

Read More About Saving Money by Changing Shower Heads

Save Money Going Green on eBay

Paper or Plastic: Which is best?

Four facts that may suprise you from Reusable Bags.Com

Use Concentrated Household Cleaners to Save Money and the Planet

Do we really need to ship all that water around the country?

Best Concentrated Cleaners

Follow Me On Twitter

Learn more about being Green!

Stop Using Paper Towels...

or at Least Reduce the Number You Use

Going Green on Amazon

Books to Help You Save Money by Going Green

NEW! Vote for your Favorite Green Links

Add your own favorites too!

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

32

33

34

35

36

37

38

39

40

41

42

43

44

45

46

47

48

49

50

51

52

53

54

55

56