This year, my husband and I resolved to spend way less money than we've been spending. But to be fair we've done this before. We've tried to budget, but for the longest time we weren't sure where all our money was going. We thought we lived quite frugally, staying away from too much consumerism and unnecessary junk.

But it seemed we were coming up short. So for a month straight, we wrote down every cent we spent from morning coffee to shampoo and meals out. We wrote it all down and kept receipts. At the end of each week we divided what we had spent up into categories including food, toiletries, gifts, gas, and utilities.

Neither my husband nor I buy a lot of clothing or gadgets, and we never have. But what we found is that we were spending an astronomical amount on food and dining. We were left wondering what to do because we're both self-proclaimed foodies and refuse to give up high quality, local, organic eats. And in the end, I found out that you don't have to.

Try this experiment for a month and I assure you that you'll be able to save the leftover dough for a rainy day, here's how:

1. Stock your pantry efficiently

If you don't have a few meals that you can cook in a flash, you're much more likely to eat out more than you'd like.

If I'm zonked, I'll go with a crowd-pleaser like my Tempeh Reuben, Tan Tan Noodles, or Homemade Veggie Burgers. We eat out very rarely, but by no means do I prep a four-course meal each night.

Have your go-to meals, whatever they are, and always stock the pantry with ingredients to make them. If you're hitting the grocery store each night, you're bound to pick up stuff that you don't need.

2. Try ethnic cuisines because they're veg-friendly and less expensive

You're likely spending way too much money going out to eat, that's generally where we spend cash on entertainment. While you don't have to sacrifice eating out, choose wisely.

Ethnic cuisine such as Middle Eastern, Indian, Mexican, and Thai often gives you more bang for your buck. I love this Asian fusion café here in Columbia because its appetizers are well-executed, and I wouldn't have the faintest idea how to make them at home. What's more, I never need a main course because I'm way too full.

Indian cuisine is also great because you never need meat, which is what costs the most. Think outside the box, and you'll come out on top. 

3. Be flexible with your recipes

When it comes to dinners at home, it doesn't have to be perfect, and if you're not flexible with preparations, you'll waste a host of ingredients. You don’t need every correct spice the recipe calls for all the time. Always keep garlic, fresh herbs, onions, olive oil, and local butter on hand.

If your recipe calls for cilantro and you only have flat leaf parsley, it's not the end of the world. If you have a sweet potato just waiting to be used, add some color to that stir fry or maybe some fiber to a traditional potato salad. Use up your produce in creative ways and don't buy more until you have.

4. Buy groceries by category

To avoid constant return trips to the store, make sure you buy by category. Sounds strange, I know, but if you want to stay healthy and have tasty meals, it's the best way to buy. You'll notice that most of my foods come from the bulk aisle, which is always the least expensive way to buy.

When I'm buying for the week I make sure that my list fulfills the following categories but obviously adapt to your favorite healthful foods:

• Grains: Rolled oats (breakfast), spelt pasta, basmati rice, barley, local loaf bread.
• Protein: Dried beans, tempeh, raw nuts, nut butters.
• Vegetables and Fruit: This is a separate trip to the farmers' market and depends on the season, but I always buy some sort of greens, along with seasonal local veggies and fruit choices. We usually go through about 12 pounds of produce per week for the two of us.
• Dairy and Dairy Substitutes: Coconut or soy milk, local cheese, local eggs.
• Condiments: Any that I'm out of at the time.
• Desserts: Organic, fair-trade certified dark chocolate is always on hand.

5. Buy spices in the bulk aisle

Sometimes you have to have certain spices for the recipe to come out correctly, but spices are pricey and some recipes call for tons of different ones. I love to prepare ethnic cuisine, but it's an expensive venture if you buy four different kinds of spices for one meal.

Here's the deal: Buy spices as you need them in the bulk section of the store. If I need garam masala and I'm out of it, I buy what I need. It's much cheaper this way, and if you're concerned with quality, dried spices go bad in a really short period of time anyway.

6. Grow your own herbs, even if you don't have a green thumb

Fresh herbs are the biggest rip off at the store. Actually, no matter where you buy them, it's the same deal, you buy too much, they're pricey to start off, and they go bad without you getting to use them all.

Even if your thumb is far from green, grow your own herbs. It’s a two-fold saver: You save cash because you have herbs on hand, and more importantly, you can pick what you need when you need it, so nothing is wasted.

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More from Planet Green:

• 28 Recipes to Get You Through February
• 25 Take-Out Foods You Can Make at Home for Cheaper
• 66 Things You Can Grow at Home: In Containers, Without a Garden
• 45 Foods You Can Make Yourself (but Never Thought You Could)

Check out Yahoo! Green on Twitter and Facebook.

By Jordan Laio, Networx

Most people don’t give a second thought to tossing junk mail in the recycling bin. But with over 100 billion pieces delivered annually, some savvy recipients are seeing it differently. Instead of seeing junk mail as junk, they see it as a gold mine. As the saying goes, one man’s junk is another man’s treasure.

For this reason, some people order as much junk mail as they can. I once read about a man who burned his junk mail. He received enough of it to keep his house warm all winter. In another vein, JunkMailGems.com strictly sells products made from re-purposed junk mail.

Here is a list of creative and useful things you can do with your junk mail. Of course, take into consideration the different types of paper used in junk mailings and chemicals that may be in adhesives or inks:

UTILITY

1. Burn in Place of Wood

Yep, you can do it too. Stay warm in the winter by a fire made of all that junk mail. Just throwing it in the fireplace won’t be too effective, but by using a product like the Newspaper Brick Maker (about $30) you can make paper bricks that will burn like real wood.

2. Use as Packing Material

Sure, dehydrated mushroom mycelia and plastic pillows filled with air are both good green packing material options, but why not use your bounty of junk mail? Just run it through the shredder and use to ship or store fragile objects.

3. Use as Animal Bedding

Avoid the cost of buying bedding for your small rodent friends by shredding your junk mail. It might also come in handy as bedding for your urban chickens.

4. Use as a Funnel

This works best with those return envelopes you get in the mail. Simply cut a small section of one corner of an envelope (for the bottom of the funnel) and a larger portion from its opposite corner (the mouth of the funnel). Use this to conveniently refill salt and pepper shakers. This idea is one of the useful ideas from JunkMailGems.com.

GARDENING
For these gardening projects, make sure there are no toxic adhesives or inks on the paper goods you use.

4. Make Seedling Pots

Another clever product is The PotMaker (about $15). You can use paper to make seedling pots, which can then be planted directly into the soil and will decompose on their own. This way, you don’t have to buy plastic pots (which saves money and resources).

5. Mulch in the Garden

You can literally lay out junk mail or old newspapers on your garden as a mulch. This makes an excellent weed barrier and will have all the benefits of traditional mulch. But since this is a little aesthetically displeasing, you might also want to cover with a layer of leaves or other traditional mulch.

Alternatively, you can also shred junk mail or old newspapers first and then lay them as mulch. This will break down easier.

]]> http://www.getwithgreen.com/2011/03/03/nine-awesome-uses-for-junk-mail/feed/ 0 http://www.getwithgreen.com/2011/02/25/the-hidden-costs-of-coal/ http://www.getwithgreen.com/2011/02/25/the-hidden-costs-of-coal/#comments Fri, 25 Feb 2011 19:28:58 +0000 Becky Striepe http://green.yahoo.com/blog/care2/273/the-hidden-costs-of-coal.html
(Image Credit: Creative Commons photo by eutrophication&hypoxia)

Energy from coal might seem cheap on the surface, but when you add in the costs of coal-related pollution and health issues, the true cost of coal starts looking pretty steep.

Coal-fired power plants spew toxins into our air while mountaintop removal mining practices destroy our mountains and pollute surrounding waterways. Here are just a few of the hidden annual costs of coal from the Appalachian region alone, according to a recent Harvard Medical School study:

• Public health: $75 billion
• Health costs due to air pollution from coal power plants: $187 billion
• Mercury emissions: $29 billion
• Climate change and greenhouse gas emissions: $206 billion

According to the study, adding up all of these hidden costs would increase the per kWh price for coal by almost 18 cents. To put that in perspective, coal power now costs around 12 cents per kWh. Solar power costs between 10 and 15 cents per kWh.

Almost 40 percent of our energy supply here in the U.S. comes from coal, so just using less power is one way to reduce the coal you consume. If you can, switching some or all of your home’s power supply to alternative energy is amazing. For folks who can’t afford the investment to get that going, there are other ways you can reduce your coal dependence.

Cutting back on vampire power by using a smart power strip and remembering to unplug unused chargers can go a long way toward saving energy and reducing your coal use. In the warmer months air conditioning is the largest power suck in many homes, so try to take some simple measures to cool your home without the air conditioner.

It also might be time to take a look at your electronics and appliances. From your washer and dryer to your TV and gaming consoles, opting for efficiency can make a big difference in energy savings.

Get heard! Sierra Club has a petition to protect communities from toxic coal ash. You can also let your legislators know how you feel about coal and its effects on our health.

Related:

• Top 10 Coal-Burning Countries
• Clean Coal’s Dirty Secret
• Are You Wasting Electricity? Probably More Than You Think

Cement is one of the most significant single sources for carbon emissions, due to the intense energy required for its production and the volumes of it that are produced annually, as well as from material itself, but an alternative is now available. It doesn't just reduce the amount of carbon dioxide emitted, it actually binds more CO2 than is emitted from its production, which makes its production carbon negative.

Novacem has developed a new cement that uses magnesium silicate instead of calcium compounds. The new material is supposed to have performance and cost comparable to ordinary Portland cement. Furthermore, because the production of magnesium silicate is a lower energy process, it can be manufactured using biofuel, instead of requiring more intensive and polluting energy sources.

The company also notes that "production of our cement is carbon negative; more carbon dioxide (CO2) is absorbed during the process than is emitted." Manufacturing a tonne of this cement results in the absorption of up to 100 kg (220 lbs) of carbon dioxide more than is emitted in the process.

Magnesium oxide is widely available as well, so there should not be an issue of material scarcity with the use of this as a Portland cement replacement. The company is not producing the material itself, but is instead seeking to license its technology to producers.

via: Jetson Green

Home improvement warehouse stores are full of gadgets and devices aimed at easing your gardening work. However, many successful home gardens are cultivated with a handful of good hand tools — and the high-tech alternatives often won’t help you grow a tastier tomato or brighter begonias.

A gardener’s toolkit requires little more than a trowel, fork, manual weeder, rake, and shears. Each time-tested tool beats several high-tech alternatives.

1. Shears: A good pair of bypass pruning shears can keep many trees and shrubs neat and tidy, while also helping harvest vegetables and flowers, clear away dead leaves and cut weeds away from the plants you want to keep.

Power pruners such as the Alligator Lopper add chainsaw teeth and electric scissor action. They may seem like a great idea, but sharp hand pruners are plenty powerful for most home gardeners. The Alligator Lopper may be more hazard than help in many homes.

Another overrated alternative is the Garden Groom collecting electric hedge trimmer. It looks like an oversized high-tech iron, and it trims away hedges, then shreds and collects the leaves all in one device. However, users complain it is too heavy and may not do the job. It only cuts a small amount at a time, so it requires several passes on many hedges. It also doesn’t pick up all the debris.

2. Rake: Garden vacuums — either gas- or electric-powered — are popular among people anxious to keep a perfect yard. They suck up leaves and dirt, but that is the problem — dirt belongs in the yard. Instead consider raking the leaves and other debris, or simply leaving many of them where they fall.

This can create healthy mulch or compost and you don’t have to send all those bags of vacuumed leaves to the landfill.

]]> http://www.getwithgreen.com/2011/02/23/five-best-low-tech-garden-tools/feed/ 0 http://www.getwithgreen.com/2011/02/14/japanese-inventor-creates-machine-that-converts-plastic-bags-into-fuel/ http://www.getwithgreen.com/2011/02/14/japanese-inventor-creates-machine-that-converts-plastic-bags-into-fuel/#comments Mon, 14 Feb 2011 21:57:33 +0000 Megan Treacy http://green.yahoo.com/blog/ecogeek/1404/japanese-inventor-creates-machine-that-converts-plastic-bags-into-fuel.html

Plastic bags have been the enemy of environmentalists for pretty much as long as they have existed.  Not only are they made from oil, but they clog our landfills for hundreds of years.  Many cities, states and countries have banned plastic bags altogether, but for most of the world, they'll be hanging around for a while longer.

In an attempt to deal with the millions and millions of plastic bags used every year, Japanese inventor Akinori Ito has created a machine that can turn plastic bags into fuel in a carbon negative process.  The machine, which is now being sold by the inventor's Blest Corporation, heats the plastic and traps the vapors in a system of pipes, where the vapors are cooled and condensed into crude oil. The crude oil can be used in generators and even some stoves, but with one more refining step, it can be used in gasoline.

The very efficient machine can process two pounds of plastic (including polyethylene, polystyrene and polypropylene) into a quart of oil using only one kilowatt of electricity.

Obviously, once the fuel is burned, it will release CO2 into the atmosphere, but it's allowing the oil that created the plastic to be used twice instead of just once and then sent to a landfill.  That cuts down on the amount of oil we need to extract and keeps plastic out of landfills.

The machine is meant for households, but it currently costs $10,000, which is pretty steep.  Ito hopes that the cost of the machine will drop as production increases.

via CleanTechnica

Image via Blest Corporation

Two of the most important ways the sun affects our surroundings are light and heat. In the winter months, when the earth is tilting further away from the sun, both are naturally felt at a diminished rate. That's when energy usage and costs rise, as people tend to use more electricity for indoor activities and burn more fuel because of chilly weather.

In many ways the only other alternative besides wearing more sweaters seems to be moving to a warmer climate, and don't we all wish we could just pick up and leave...

However, winter energy efficiency can be improved during the cooler months by utilizing the sun's rays, and one way to do this is through passive solar heating: the relationship between architectural design and how a structure receives energy from the Sun. That means a home or building constructed in this method maximizes the sun's potential vis-à-vis trapping energy and redistributing it indoors.

Now, not every structure passes the passive solar heating test because not every structure was built with the concept in mind. Nevertheless, there are things we can do and take into consideration that can change our level of warmth indoors during the winter:

1. Work from home? If possible make your office space or the room you spend the most time in the area that receives the most sunlight. Even if you work at the office all day this is a good suggestion that could change how much the heat gets turned up.

2. Don't fear the cold outside. When the sun has risen and is shining its rays, open the shades and let the light in. Make sure interiors of windows are not blocked by books, clutter or even hanging laundry.

3. Close doors. If only one room receives the majority of sunlight, close doors to adjacent rooms so the collected heat doesn't distribute itself elsewhere.

4. Seal windows. Close drafts, which are one of the leading causes of high heating bills. If the room in question receives a lot of natural light drafts can easily create the adverse effect when trying to trap heat.

5. Clean windows. Windows should also be clean both inside and outside. When dust settles on panes of glass even the smallest particles will block light and in return prevent heat from entering. The result will be turning up the thermostat while not getting the most out of the Sun.

6. Clear away. Remove branches of trees or anything else blocking the full exposure of your windows from the outside and halting sunlight from passing through.

7. Moving? If you're in the planning stages of moving to a new home or office, weigh heavily on the amount of natural light the potential space receives.

8. Building a home in a colder climate? You may consider using thermal mass materials such as concrete and natural stone, which instead of reflecting sunlight are dense and absorb heat, distributing it to cool areas. Because thermal mass absorbs heat it will also have a positive effect on your home's temperature during warmer seasons as it absorbs indoor warmth, making it cooler.

Jakob Barry writes for Networx.com, where he covers home improvement, electrical accidents, home safety awareness, and galley kitchen ideas.

More from The Daily Green:

• 19 Simple Ways to Weatherize Your Home
• Draft Snakes: The Easy Way to Save
• 12 Natural Remedies for Winter Aches and Ills
• Top 10 Sources of Vitamin C
• 11 Incredible Treehouses From Around the World

Reprinted with permission of Hearst Communications, Inc

Ziploc is one of the world’s most popular brands of plastic bags and other food storage supplies on the market. Even though reusable bags and containers are the best way to keep your lunch from generating excessive waste, millions of people still opt for the disposable versions instead.

Most of these plastics can’t be recycled as conveniently as glass or aluminum, so they often end up in the landfill instead. To help reverse this trend and offset its potential product waste, the Ziploc brand has partnered with Recyclebank to inspire families to increase recycling behavior and divert more than 100 million pounds of waste from landfills within 24 months.

One of the most important aspect of the program could soon show up in grocery stores and retail locations in your neighborhood: 18,000 in-store recycle bins that will accept clean and dry Ziploc brand sandwich, storage, and freezer bags.

Even if your community isn’t yet serviced by Recyclebank, you can still be rewarded for taking positive action. Within the next two months, you’ll be able to receive reward points when you pledge to recycle Ziploc bags and packaging by entering the code from inside specially marked packages of Ziploc brand sandwich and snack bags on Recyclebank.com.

The company hopes that sponsoring the expansion of this rewards-for-recycling platform into new U.S. communities will help keep the same amount of other waste – including glass, metals, paper and plastic – out of landfills as the amount of potential waste generated by Ziploc.

SC Johnson, the parent company of the Ziploc brand, has publicly announced its larger goal to, one day, achieve zero waste.

Related Reading:

• Pack School Lunches With DIY Eco-Love
• 12 Tips to Reduce Food Contamination From Packaging
• Plastic Bags: Stop Being Part of the Problem

Ziploc is one of the world’s most popular brands of plastic bags and other food storage supplies on the market. Even though reusable bags and containers are the best way to keep your lunch from generating excessive waste, millions of people still opt for the disposable versions instead.

Most of these plastics can’t be recycled as conveniently as glass or aluminum, so they often end up in the landfill instead. To help reverse this trend and offset its potential product waste, the Ziploc brand has partnered with Recyclebank to inspire families to increase recycling behavior and divert more than 100 million pounds of waste from landfills within 24 months.

One of the most important aspect of the program could soon show up in grocery stores and retail locations in your neighborhood: 18,000 in-store recycle bins that will accept clean and dry Ziploc brand sandwich, storage, and freezer bags.

Even if your community isn’t yet serviced by Recyclebank, you can still be rewarded for taking positive action. Within the next two months, you’ll be able to receive reward points when you pledge to recycle Ziploc bags and packaging by entering the code from inside specially marked packages of Ziploc brand sandwich and snack bags on Recyclebank.com.

The company hopes that sponsoring the expansion of this rewards-for-recycling platform into new U.S. communities will help keep the same amount of other waste – including glass, metals, paper and plastic – out of landfills as the amount of potential waste generated by Ziploc.

SC Johnson, the parent company of the Ziploc brand, has publicly announced its larger goal to, one day, achieve zero waste.

Related Reading:

• Pack School Lunches With DIY Eco-Love
• 12 Tips to Reduce Food Contamination From Packaging
• Plastic Bags: Stop Being Part of the Problem

Wind power is now cost-competitive with coal power in many parts of the world, according to a new report by Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

Over the past few years, as demand for wind turbines has grown, manufacturers have lowered their prices, meaning the cost of wind power has fallen and will likely continue to remain competitive with fossil fuel power.  The Bloomberg study says that last year the cost per megawatt for turbines hit $1.33 million, which is 17 percent less than in 2007.

In regions of Brazil, Mexico, Sweden, and the U.S., wind power now costs $68/MWh and coal power costs $67/MWh.  Natural gas remains cheapest at $56/MWh.

This is great news for the future of wind power generation.  If it costs the same as or less than fossil fuels, more people will realize that the choice is obvious.

via Grist