Category Archives: Budget Environmentalism

Will the Economy’s Trouble Make it Harder to Go Green?

If you’re in the United States and paying any attention at all, you know the economy’s in deep trouble. With a huge bailout coming and people losing their jobs, I can’t help but think of how this may impact people’s interest in the environment.

Some of the negatives for people’s income has encouraged being kinder to the environment, of course. People have cut back on driving because gas costs so much. I’m talking to more people who want to garden and preserve food.

It’s a pretty interesting shift.

But it’s also quite reasonable that if you’re facing the loss of your home, you aren’t going to be so worried about the impact of other things you do. Keeping a roof over your head is rather important.

I think of this as a good time to focus on the ways that going green can save money. Some tactics are long term, and may not go over so well right now, but anything that will save you money and be better for the environment is a pretty good deal right now.

So keep on making those homemade cleansers. Make the switch as each incandescent bulb burns out to compact fluorescent; check to see if the electric company in your area offers discounts or free ones. Garden, even if it’s just herbs in the kitchen window.

Tweaking My Clothesline Usage

I had to do a ton of laundry yesterday. Much of the time right now I’ve been having to do a load a day. Pretty standard routine when you have a child who isn’t quite perfect about not wetting the bed. It’s easy to make up a full load when you have bed sheets to start it off and young children who love to play with dirt.

clothesline

We had been just drying the sheets and mattress protector outside, but I’ve found that if I try I can fit a whole load on there, even with the sheets taking a lot of room, so that’s what we’re doing now.

It’s really not that hard to do, even if the weather out is 90+ degrees still. A little time consuming, but I’ve already warned my husband that I probably want a second line hung soon.

But eventually the time comes that you have to do ALL the laundry. The bed stays dry for several nights and things just pile up.

When you have just one clothesline and the day is warm and windy but not hot, you can’t count on clothes drying fast enough for each load. So what I did was to put on the clothesline what would fit of each load, let it dry in the sun and wind as the next load washed, then move it to the dryer.

This worked pretty well.

You really don’t want to fully dry denim or towels on a clothesline; they tend to end up really crunchy feeling. But a half hour on the line cut their time in the dryer about in half, and they came out quite nicely.

The challenge is that this is a full extra step in the laundry. I’ve been trying to cut our power bill, so I really don’t mind that much, but I could definitely see that it was adding to the time the task took.

On the plus side, it’s a bit of exercise for the arms.

Is the Cost of Going Green Worth It?

Many people have an image of going green as expensive. Hybrid cars cost more than regular cars. Solar panels are expensive.

Thank goodness there are more ways than that to go green!

One of the most important steps you can take to go green is to simply consume less. Go shopping less. Reuse and repurpose things as they get older. It can’t be expensive if you aren’t spending money on it, except maybe in time.

Some steps may cost a little more at first, such as making the switch from paper napkins and paper towels to cloth varieties of the same things. On the other hand, these can last for years, so you can save quite a bit in the long run. And that’s what you should ideally be thinking about.

Going green in the things you need to buy can save money too, or at least not cost extra. When it comes to cleaning products, for example, there are more and more green products coming out all the time, and many have similar prices to conventional products.

And for those who don’t mind a very small bit of extra time, products such as vinegar, baking soda and lemon juice can work wonders around the house. They’re also quite affordable and often do as well as conventional products. Sometimes you’ll need to put a little extra elbow grease into your scrubbing, but you can still get the job done.

Either of these solutions can keep toxins out of your home. That means that you may feel better, especially if you or anyone in your family has allergies.

Buying organic food is probably one of the most expensive things that you would do on a regular basis. I won’t argue that organic food is more expensive than conventionally grown, but you can offset this somewhat by growing your own. There’s a cost to getting started with a garden, but there are benefits beyond the fresh produce. You get exercise. You get to teach your children about where food comes from. It can be a lot of fun combined with frustration. There are few things as wonderful as fresh picked produce. The stuff in the grocery stores just cannot compete.

Reusable shopping bags are quite popular now. These don’t have to cost a fortune if you don’t mind having a store logo on them. Many grocery stores sell them for just a dollar each. Sure it’s something you wouldn’t have had to buy otherwise, paper and plastic grocery bags being free, but you’re not spending much and cutting waste way down.

Energy efficient light bulbs may also seem expensive, but you need to keep some things in mind. First, that they will save you money over time. They use less energy and last longer. Second, that in many areas you can find them free or discounted by your local power company. I’ve often found them at about $1 per bulb. It’s not a bad deal at all.

Whenever you try something new and green, just be sure that you are indeed going green. Many companies merely claim to be more environmentally friendly, greenwashing their products to appeal to that market. But when you check things out, they’re as bad as the usual stuff.

Cleaned Your Lint Trap Lately?

While it’s summer around here and the clothesline is getting some good use, I do still use the dryer some. Being pregnant has left me a little low on energy sometimes for hanging a full load out to dry, especially on really hot days.

I’m good about cleaning the lint trap out each and every load. My husband not so much. How well do you do?

Cleaning out your lint trap saves a lot of energy that your dryer would otherwise use. The dryer vent should be checked regularly too. Excessive lint build up can cause a fire.

Especially if you use dryer sheets (I don’t and my clothes feel and smell fine, thanks), you will want to scrub your lint trap’s screen periodically. Dryer sheets cause buildup on the screen, which make your dryer less efficient.

Aloe Vera – A Great Plant for the Summer

Like a lot of people growing up, I got sunburns pretty regularly as a kid. That’s what happens when you’re pale and you burn much more easily than you tan. But I learned early on to appreciate it the year my mother bought an aloe vera plant.

Aloe vera is a succulent. It’s pretty easy to grow and very useful. You can grow it indoors on the windowsill or outside in a pot or on the ground. It likes sandy soil, like many succulents. If you get frost, keep it indoors.

Any time you scrape or burn yourself it can help. And of course it helps delightfully with sunburn.

All you have to do is snip off one of the leaves and break it open. The gel on the inside is truly marvelous. It cools the burn or scrape quickly.

It can be a bit challenging getting the gel out. You can cut the leaves open and just rub directly on your skin, but the plant has some small spikes along the edges that may scratch you. Not badly if you’re using it gently, though. If using fresh leaves, avoid the yellow part inside the leaves. This can be irritating to the skin.

I like to recommend the plant over the commercially prepared aloe vera gels for a few reasons. The first is that I’ve always had the best luck with the gel straight from the plant. The effect just seems to be stronger to me. That could, of course, just be an illusion, but it is what I believe.

I also like that if you treat it right, you can just keep the plant growing, rather than having to buy new bottles all the time. It saves some waste.

And of course, if you use it straight from the plant you know exactly what you are getting. No worries about the other ingredients added to the stuff in the bottle labeled “aloe vera”.

Some people also take aloe vera internally from prepared capsules. There are a variety of claimed benefits to this. I’ve never tried it myself and so cannot speak from experience.

For me, the cooling effect this has on sunburn is the big reason I like to make sure to have a plant on hand during the summer. I always hope to not need it, but when a burn happens to myself or someone in my family, it’s nice to have a way to relieve the discomfort.