#40 Pay Bills/Bank Online

There are several advantages to paying your bills online. First you eliminate the excess paper waste, which helps preserve forests and limits the resources needed to recycle the paper. Second the production to produce stamps & the adhesive used on the stamps is limited and thirdly, the transportation of your bill to you and your payment to them is eliminated which will help reduce carbon emissions. And to make it easier you can even set it up to automatically pay.

So, what do you save? Cost of stamps, cost of envelopes, cost of checks. time spent paying bills, transportation to go buy more stamps.

Many big companies offer online bill pay, so check with your company. And some even offer incentives if you sign up. Some will offer those incentives to you, others you may have to ask for them. We got some cable channels for free for a year for online bill pay. Also, check with your bank about their online bill pay. Some banks it may be free and some may charge. Our bank charges, unless you have a specific type of account. I asked how we got a “membership banking” account and it turns out we just had to work for one of the companies that was a “member” and at one point the parent-company of the company my husband worked for was a “member” and we got membership banking on all our accounts and now have free bill pay. It saves us about $6 a month and I rarely have to buy stamps, envelopes or checks anymore.

#39 Preserve Your Own Food

I like to preserve our own food. This helps tremendously on the pocketbook, especially if you grow your own food as well. But even if you can't grow your own food, if you purchase it locally you will still be benefiting from eating locally.

We recently made strawberry freezer jam, and where as I don't have strawberries to use, we went to a local farm and picked strawberries (we did this en route from an OB appt as to now double up on transportation costs, time & impact.) It did cost the same as strawberries in the store, but the resulting strawberry & it's jam is much sweeter naturally than strawberries you would purchase in the grocery store. And since I was making the jam I knew exactly what went into each jar and how much of everything. I was able to use a low-sugar recipe which will help on the waistlines and I know the only things in my jam are strawberries, sugar, & pectin.

Plus, when you preserve your own food you reuse your canning jars year after year. The only new thing you need to purchase is lids in order to ensure that the seal will work properly and wasn't damaged after use, but you can certainly attempt to reuse the lids as well, because they may seal again. If they don't you'll have to go through the process again of sealing that jar or just decide to use that jar first & put it in the fridge.

I do both canning & freezing. You don't need to buy expensive freezer plastic containers. Jars can be used in the freezer as long as you leave enough headroom for the freezing of liquids to expand. Or reuse plastic containers that you got other things in during the year (lunch meats, whipped topping, sour cream, etc.) or use freezer bags (which is you remember a previous post you can rinse & reuse.)

Another benefit of preserving your own food is knowing exactly how & where the food was grown. If you want to eat foods without pesticides or chemical fertilizers used, then it's important to know just where that food came from and if you grow your own food you can control if chemicals were used.

If you shop organically, even part of the time, you know that the costs associated with choosing to eat this way are higher than conventional food which is made in higher quantities at a cheaper price tag (but at what price tag to our health & the environment.) And by growing your own organic food & preserving it, you can keep some green in your wallet.

Another benefit of preserving your own food is that you are eliminating the need to make trips to the grocery store to buy these items and you are also eliminating the demand to have these items produced and shipped.

Which reminds me, I think I should get out into the garden and pick some rhubarb before it gets too old. Rhubarb will freeze and can be used in baked good as when it thaws it gets soft, so it isn't as good for some things as well as others. And since rhubarb is only really available during late spring, early summer, it's best to freeze a little if you would like to enjoy it at other times of the year.

#38 Eat Meatless Once a Week

Or more times a week if you can, but once a week should be easy.
Check out this article on the benefits of eating once a week.

To highlight the benefits:
* Reduces your comsumption of saturated fats by 15%, which can help lower your risk for heart disease and potentially lower your healthcare costs.
* Vegetarian cooking usually is cheaper than cooking with animal meats.
* Reduce the amount of greenhouse gases put into the air as a result of animal farming because the demand for animals meats has decreased.

#37 Wash Clothes in Cold Water

You will save two ways by washing with cold water:
* Lower Gas/Electric Bill because you are not requiring the water to be heated before using
* Clothes last longer when washed in cold rather than hot, so you need to buy less clothes over your lifetime

90% of the energy used in a top-loader goes into heating water for washing, so you cut your costs considerably by using cold water. And if you use a front loader, which is more energy efficient, you will cut your energy costs & water bill even more.

#36 Use Dryer Lint to Make Firestarters

So, when you empty those lint traps, save some of that lint to make some easy firestarters. You also need an empty egg carton and some candle wax. If you are really smart of reusing items you will save the leftover wax from candles that had the wick burned away. This way you are using three different items that would have gone into landfills. Here are super simple directions on how to make these.


These would be great to take along when you go camping or to make as gifts to give to that camper-fan in the family. In fact, I think the daughter & I may make some this coming week.

#35 Empty Your Lint Traps

There is a reason why most lint traps have printed on them “Empty After Every Use”. Your dryer (which is an electricity/gas hog) works more efficiently with am empty lint trap. If you have a full or plugged lint trap your clothes will take longer to dry which means you have to run your dryer longer which costs more money and has a greater impact on the environment.

Also, be sure to check your external lint trap as well as your internal trap. Or dryer exhausts outside and has a trap/filter there to collect other lint. This too can fill up and make your dryer more inefficient.

#34 Open Those Shades (winter)

So, this is just the opposite post as the previous one. In the winter, you want to open those shades to the south & west so that the sunlight can help heat up your home. And with limited sunlight during the winter in this part of the country, you want to do all you can to help warm up your house.

Now, if your windows are drafty or very cold to the touch, you may want to keep those insulated curtains closed. We replaced most of the windows in our house, but a couple double-pane picture windows remain and one is right behind out couch and the coldness coming from the window and the little bit of drafty from our old house was too much, so we spent about $50 and bought some insulated curtains. I am not sure how much it saved on our heating bill, but it kept the room much warmer and isolated the draft. All of the rest of our south & west facing windows we open the blinds & shades. I still have sheers up, but that is because it gives me a sense of privacy.