Earth Day: Make Every Day a Frugal Day
As we can see from Google’s page, it is officially Earth Day 2008! This is a good time to address the environment and within that vein to address the savings that go along with that. More and more products are becoming increasingly available for consumers to both save the environment whether its by reducing carbon production or by using less energy. These range from compact fluorescent light bulbs to installing solar panels on the roof of your house.
Compact Fluorescent Bulbs
These are great for saving some extra money as well as reducing energy usage as well. On average, these bulbs save about $50 over the course of the bulbs life time, which in many cases is several years, not to mention LEDS. Most conventional bulbs need to be replaced about every year or so and that doesn’t even account for the amount you save on your electric bill. It pays to crunch some numbers and see the savings…lucky for you, I just happen to have a spreadsheet that does a nice job of letting you enter in your own information and see the savings.
Altering Your Water Bottle Experience
Provided you are up to speed on the water bottle situation, you might want to consider using some sort of filtration device, like a Brita filter, or at least reusing a safe plastic bottle and just keeping it clean between uses and out of the trash. Even plastic that gets recycled is not as safe as simply reusing it as much as possible.
Keep Your Flow Low
Ever thought of using a “low-flow” shower head? These are great to reduce all that water that just gets sent down the drain when in the shower.
Solar Up
Some states will actually give you money back to take the edge off the installation prices of putting in your own solar panel on your roof. These incentives are a good idea as the costs can be deep, but well worth it when you consider the long term savings. Right off the bat you can expect to knock off about 3-4 months out of the year in your electric bill, not to mention those times where you are actually feeding electricity back in to the grid. Your meter spins backward and you get money from the electric company. This idea is intriguing to me and am wondering if anyone has tried it.
Little Steps to Big Savings
Of course there are the little things that can always help out. Turning off the water while you shave and/or brush your teeth. Turn out the lights when you are not in the room, or are going to be out of the house. There is also such a thing called “vampiric power usage” and an example is when your TV is plugged in but not on, it still draws power even though it is in standby mode. Consider putting these sorts of appliances on a power strip to cut the power off completely when not in use for extended periods. Those Energy Star appliances are supposed to make a huge difference as well.
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I made several Earth Day resolutions. One of them is to stop, or at least reduce, the amount of bottles water I drink.
I am also trying to take shorter showers.. but a “low-flow” shower head sounds depressing.