Save Money by Going Green
    I like win-win propositions. Who doesn’t? Well, you can live more gently on Mother Earth and save money at the same time. The following are a few suggestions from Jeff Yeager, who calls himself THE ULTIMATE CHEAPSKATE. The following suggestions are from his book The Ultimate Cheapskate’s Road Map to True Riches:
- Stay close to home. Each U.S. household now generates an average of 10 vehicle trips per day. With the price of gas at close to $4 a gallon, if you consolidate or skip just two or three of those daily trips, you’ll save big money–and reduce pollution. According to the American Automobile Association, it costs $9,369 a year (excluding loan payments) to keep the average car on the road. So after excluding fixed costs, such as insurance, finance charges, license and registration, a 25% reduction in use could mean a savings of $1,782 per year.
- Use your library. You already own almost every book worth reading–your tax dollars were used to stock your public library. So instead of buying books, borrow them. You’ll save trees and help reduce the publishing industry’s War and Peace –size carbon footprint. Also borrow music CDs and movie DVDs. If you borrow one book a month instead of buying a hardcover for $25 and borrow two movies a month instead of spending $5 per movie at a video store, that’s a total savings of $420 per year.
- Drink tap water. It takes 1.5 million barrels of oil every year to manufacture disposable plastic water bottles for the U.S. market. That’s enough to fuel 100,000 cars for a year. Also, if you drink only bottled water, you’ll spend about $1,400 annually to get your recommended daily amount of water, as opposed to 49 cents for one year’s supply of just-as-healthful tap water. Use the calculator at www.newdream.org to calculate your savings based on your actual consumption, but it’s likely to be more than $1,000 per year.
For more of THE ULTIMATE CHEAPSKATE’S earth-saving and money-saving ideas, visit his website www.ultimatecheapskate.com.Â
October 14th, 2008 at 8:39 am
Amen to the fewer car trips, to the library use, and to the water use! You can also use a bottle frozen half, with filled tap for the car trip. Another saving device is the use of current fluorescent bulbs over incandescent or even halogen. The gov. wants households to change out at least one or two incandescent for fluorescent, but I say, go for ALL! Did you know that on 75 wt incandescent bulb is the equivalent to only 20 wt usage in a fluorescent bulb? Or that a 60 wt = 13 wt fluorescent? Why not change out ALL bulbs? WOW! What a savings for your pocket AND for our planet! Go GREEN in every area possible!