How to Go Green On a Small Budget

Everyday I hear about how everyone should go green! And I think it's a great idea. If each person one or two things to go green it will add up to a lot! And to tell you the truth it really makes me feel good to my part and some ideas take very little investment.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• canvas totes instead of plastic bags.
• energy saving light bulbs.
• light detection bulb outlets.
• recycle bins
• ceiling fans
• rain water recovery system.

1. 
    

   Going green in some ways can be very simple and they won't change your life much at all. After a while it will become second nature. Recycle- Most cities supply their customers with recycle bins and offer to pick them up once a week. This is a very important way to keep our land fills from filling up.

2. 
    
   TM of freecycle

   I have also found a wonderful way to keep things from the landfill and this is actually kind of fun. Most communities have groups called "Freecycle". You can go to www.freecycle.org and look for your community and sign up to participate. I'm a member in my community and receive emails as they are posted in our group. What happens is you and other group members post things to each other that you'd like to give away (not sell) there are no selling of merchandise, it is all free. There are rules that you have to follow and this is one of them. People give a way some really nice things like, furniture, appliances, clothing, toys, etc...
   You can post that you want something or that your offering something. If you post that you want something specific and someone has it, they will send you and email letting you know that they have it for "porch pickup" meaning they don't want you knocking on their door, just take it from their porch. Sometimes people will post something they want to give away and the will get 10 or 15 people emailing them wanting it. They have to go through the emails and pick the one they want to give it too. So it doesn't mean you'll always get what you as for. But its so much fun when you do. Check it out, it's a lot of fun to participate!

3. 
    

   Canvas shopping bags! Instead of using plastic shopping bags which stay in our land fills forever, keep and carry canvas shopping bags with you in your car and use them when you grocery shop. But if you prefer the plastic bags be sure to recycle your old plastic bags by taking them to the store and put in the recycle bins that most stores offer at the front entrance.

4. 
    
   Fluorescent light bulb

   Light bulbs! You wouldn't think that changing a light bulb would a make big difference but apparently it does. There's a big buzz around about fluorescent light bulbs vs.. the incandescent or "regular light bulb". The incandescent come in sizes like "40-60 watt," "75 watt and 100 watt" and so on. These bulbs cause heat and wastes a lot of electricity. Heat is not light, and the purpose of the light bulb is light, so all of the energy spent creating heat is a waste. Incandescent bulbs are therefore very inefficient.
   A fluorescent bulb produces less heat, so it is much more efficient. A 15-watt fluorescent bulb that produce the same amount of light as a 60-watt incandescent bulb. Therefore are much more energy efficient. And a fluorescent bulb lasts for years compared to just months for the regular light bulb. So they pay for themselves time and time again.

5. 
    

   Ceiling fans! Ceiling fans can save you from running your air conditioner in the summer months. They cost just pennies to run compared to the dollars that it costs to run an A/C unit. Well worth the purchase and fairly easy to install.

6. 
    

   Rainwater! Harvesting rainwater is a very cost efficient way to water your lawn through out the year or even use as potable water in your home with a rainwater harvesting system. You can use small ways to harvest the rainwater and add tablets to keep mosquitoes from breeding in it or you can install a rainwater system to use in your home. Either way doing something to save water is much better than doing nothing at all.

Tips & Warnings

• Check for recycle programs in your area.
• The government offers tax incentives to people who go green with their home and vehicles.
• do your home work, there are lots of ways to go green.

[Delaplane]

on 8/4/2009 Great article/ideas!

[HouseWifeMafia]

on 5/26/2009 Outstanding article!