I always thought Earth Day was like Secretary Day or Administrative Day. Nothing too special for me. As I heard more about it my next thought process was I could not make a difference and there was no way I was going to give up money for a rainforest or something like that.
Today I think a bit different. No I don’t give money to save a rainforest, but I do try to be a good steward of our resources. It does not cost me any money to change a few things around the house. In fact, the great thing is I end up saving money by doing a few tricks. Interested? Okay here is what you can do. It won’t save a rainforest or whatever, but it will stretch your dollar and fatten your pocket-book a little.
- Soak pots and pans to get hard food items off instead of running the water and scrubbing. Rinse lightly and let the dishwasher do the rest.
- A small amount of water is needed to wet your toothpaste. No need to blast the water.
- Water your lawn in the morning hours during summer. The water will have longer to soak into the soil causing the roots to grow deeper which makes for a healthier lawn.
- Cut back on watering your lawn. Water every other day. Slowly reduce minutes each sprinkler is running. I start at 10 minutes per cycle (I have 6 total). Now I am down to 3 minutes a cycle and the lawn is nice a green.
- Cycle or walk to work. Besides the cost savings, if you can ride or walk, think of the health benefits!
- Replace dead bulbs with CFL or the new LED bulbs.
- During the warmer season open the windows early morning to get FREE cool air!
- Ask yourself “do I really need to turn the light?” Sometimes opening the blinds is all you need.
- Leave a room, turn of the light.
- Install motion detector lights on the outside of your home. No need to leave them on all night long that way.
- Use a clothes line to dry your clothes.
- Do full loads of laundry as much as possible.
These are a great start to saving some money while being “greener.” It may take a bit to adjust to some of these, but when you do watch those bills come down.
