But, all these products cost money and in these uncertain economic times it makes sense to cut back on superfluous items in the weekly shop. To my mind, a lot of the cleaning products on the supermarket shelves aren’t the necessities the manufacturers would like us to think they are. Go back a couple of generations and you’ll find our grandparents managed to keep their homes sparkling clean using cheap, basic ingredients such as baking soda and white vinegar. As well as being effective for a wide range of jobs, these simple ingredients are safe and non-toxic, so they won’t pollute the environment like many modern products do.

Here are my top tips for going green and saving money by making your own cleaning products:

1. Multipurpose Cleaner – This simple cleaner can be used on various surfaces around the home, from kitchen counters and bathroom vanities to stovetops. All you need to do is mix equal parts white vinegar and water in a spray bottle.

2. Windows – The above multipurpose cleaner is effective at cleaning windows too. Spray it on and wipe over the glass, then use a dry cloth or even scrunched up newspaper to buff to a shine.

3. Bathtubs and sinks – Spray undiluted vinegar onto tubs and sinks. Then sprinkle baking soda onto a damp cloth and wipe over the surfaces before rinsing with water. The baking soda acts as a scourer to remove soap scum and limescale deposits, the vinegar gives shine.

4. Drains – To unblock a slow-moving drain, pour down half a cup of baking soda followed by half a cup of vinegar. Leave it for about 10 minutes (it’ll fizz and foam!) before flushing through with a kettle of boiling water. To prevent future blockages, regularly pour about half a cup of washing soda down the drain and rinse it through with hot water.

5. Stainless Steel & Chrome – Bring back shine to stainless steel sinks and chrome bar stools by wiping with a damp cloth sprinkled with baking soda and then buffing with a dry cloth.

6. Furniture Polish – As a natural and effective alternative to synthetic spray polish, mix up a small amount of olive oil and a couple of drops of lemon juice. Rub this onto wooden furniture, wait a couple of minutes and then polish with a soft, dry cloth.

7. Upholstery – Prevent greasy food spills from staining sofas or upholstered dining chairs by immediately rubbing gently with a 50-50 mix of baking soda and salt. Leave overnight and then vacuum up.

8. Oven Cleaner – Instead of using a harsh chemical oven cleaner, mix up a thick paste of baking soda and water. Spread it all over the inside of the oven and leave it overnight to loosen grease and grime before scouring the next morning.

This is a guest post contributed by Caroline Smith of Get Bar Stools. Caroline enjoys finding ways to save money and being green at the same time. She has written money-saving and home decorating articles for a number of websites.”

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1. Replace the light bulbs in your house with compact fluorescent light bulbs. Yes, they cost more than regular bulbs, but they use way less electricity (saving you money on your utility bill) and they last around 10 years. Good for the environment and good on the wallet in the long term.

2. Bring reusable bags to the grocery store when you go shopping. This should be a no-brainer, but I still see people walking out of the store with 3, 4, 5 or more plastic and paper bags full of groceries. Do you really need that many extra bags at home? I know growing up my mom seemed to think that some day there would be a run on paper bags, so we had about 11,000 of them in the closet. You dont need that many of them! We use 4 canvas bags every time we go to the grocery store, and very rarely do we need an extra paper one. But if we do, it gets filled with paper recycling when we get home and goes out the door. Do you know how many plastic bags the world goes through? A good place to learn more and pick up some bags (and other cool stuff) is reusablebags.com. Check them out!

3. Get the stuff you want used from other people that want to get rid of their stuff! Craigslist.org and freecycle.org are great places to start looking for stuff you want..for FREE!

4. Use your local library. Seriously, use it. Your local library has music, movies, magazines, books and more that normally you would A. have to pay for and B. eventually throw into a landfill. Plus, you are already paying for it with your tax dollars, so you might as well actually get something for all the money you get taken out every week!

5. Buy it used! Both Amazon and half.com have used CD’s, books, clothing, video games and much more that people are selling. Saving money while reducing packaging trash…a great idea.

6. I know you have heard it before…in the summer set the temperature in the your house a few degrees higher and in the winter set it a few degrees cooler. You wont notice the difference, but your wallet AND the environment will!

7. Get your car in for a checkup. An oil change and an air filter change will run you about $30. Well worth it if you consider that running your car with dirty oil and a dirty air filter is the equivalent of spending an extra $0.15 per mile. Over time, that can add up. Plus, your car runs cleaner, emitting less pollution. Go ahead, make an appointment!

8. Turn that faucet off! Yes, that one! The one you leave running while you brush your teeth, shave, talk on the phone, knit a sweater. So much water is wasted in this country you would think there was an endless supply. Well guess what, there isn’t, and its going away faster than the acid rain can replace it. Just be aware of the amount of water you use, and please…there is no need to water your driveway, the neighbors car, your kids’ dog or the side of the house. Make sure your sprinklers are watering the actual plants and grass. Seriously, nothing will grow in the middle of the street, you don’t need to water it.

9. Participate in a town “clean-up” event. Near my old house they had several “Clean the Beach” days where people can help to get rid of all the trash that the tourists leave on the beaches. Every little bit helps!

10. You know that $4.00 you spend every morning on a cup of black water at Starbucks? How about putting that water in a re-usable thermos or mug? So many paper and plastic cups get thrown away every day in the country it makes me ill. You already spend a fortune on coffee, pick up a mug for $5.00 and use it everyday. Just think how superior you will feel when you pass a trash can full of cups!

11. If you can…and I know it costs money…try to get a smaller car next time you go car shopping. Just a little smaller, please?

12. Seems everything in our houses is on standby about 75% of the time, just waiting for you to walk in from work and turn them all back on again. If you can put your electronics on power strips that you can turn off, you will save money on your utility bill AND require less electricity for your footprint..which helps the environment!

13. Think about your purchases before you splurge. Think about where your groceries come from…are they local foods or were they imported from New Zealand? The closer your food source is to home, the less gasoline and preservatives it needs to get to your store.

Anyone with more ideas, please leave them in the comments – I look forward to hearing your ideas!

Photo by Flipped Out. The original version of this article appeared on this site 2 years ago

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They not only pay for shipping with prepaid shipping labels, but they also guarantee the removal of personal information from your electronics. I put in my old Treo and they were offering $30 for it, and the list of phones they have to choose from is very long. Recycling this stuff and getting paid to do so is way better than letting it sit in a landfill somewhere contaminating the groundwater, don’t you think?

Anyway, if you have some e-waste sitting around the house, you might want to check them out and see if you can get anything for it. And even if you can’t, you can at least have a place to safely recycle it, postage paid.

My Boneyard

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A new toothbrush made out of recycled yogurt cups. The Preserve toothbrush is both made out of recycled plastic and can be recycled at the end of it’s life, which is something that regular toothbrushes cannot claim. The plastic is from recycled Stonyfield Farm yogurt cups, and when you are done with the toothbrush, you send it back to Recycline (free postage included) so they can turn it into recycled plastic lumber. Available at Target, Wild Oats, Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s and now Wal-Mart.

Recycled toilet paper. I know it took my mom a long time to get over the idea that the paper was recycled, but now that is what she buys as well. I am afraid many people have the same preconception that she did – it was not as soft, it had been “used before”…but there is absolutely no difference between toilet paper made from recycled paper and that made from fresh pulp. It feels and acts exactly the same! Just the fact that we cut down trees to make paper to use for this purpose is amazing, and no one should be buying new paper toilet paper. Just get yourself some decent stuff from Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods and even some regular grocers, and be proud of the fact that you are no longer contributing to the cutting down of trees to make toilet paper.

Get yourself a power strip for all your electronics. These can be had for as little as $10 and they make a huge difference in your electricity use. Using power strips for your computer, television and other stuff you don’t need powered up when you are not using them can cut your electric bill by a substantial amount because these products normally draw “phantom power” even when they are off. No sense in doing that, right? We have them on our computers and our television/DVD player so that at night or when we go away we can just flip the switch and cut off the power completely. Without making a change to the electronics you use, you can cut your consumption by at least 50% and your bill as well. I like this one, as it does everything automatically for me.

Biodegradable laundry soap. If you are not adventurous enough to make your own, the least you can do is to buy biodegradable soap! It cleans just as well as the big name stuff but does not have any of the nasty chemicals normally found in them. It is better for the environment (you know that water goes somewhere, right?) and it is better for you because the clothes you wear are no longer leeching the chemicals into your skin. It costs no more than the regular stuff, so why not make the change and make a difference? Method and Seventh Generation make some good stuff.

If you use disposables or cannot go to a straight razor (which I have not done myself because of my fear of cutting my face off), you might want to try a Preserve Razor Triple, which is kind of like the Gillette Mach 3 or other razors, except the handle is made from 100% recycled plastic, they aren’t tested on animals, and they are way cheaper than the refills for other razors. Again, you can mail it back to the company free of charge if you ever need to buy a new handle.

These are 5 very simple and cost effective things you can buy today that A. cost no more than your normal goods and B. help the environment. If you want to make a difference but you feel like you have to live in a cave to do so, these are just a few of the things you can do immediately that will have an impact without affecting the way you live!

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* Blog Action Day – Being Frugal and the Environment @ Being Frugal
* 10 Mutual Funds For A Greener Future @ Gather Little By Little
* 10 Ways to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint (and 9 of them will save you money!) @ I’ve Paid For This Twice Already…
* Save money. Save your health. Save the planet. Walk @ Plonkee Money
* Blog Action Day @ Single Guy Money
* Little things you can do to save money and our planet @ Moolanomy

Also, on a separate issue, if you wish to donate to a charity in honor of this day, my friend Nickel over at Five Cent Nickel is matching any donations up to $1,000 for the rest of this week, with all proceeds going to The Conservation Fund. If you can, go donate a few bucks and Nickel will match it with his own funds. As for me, I am sending both my blogs earnings from yesterday to the NRDC this morning!

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Why Are They Afraid To Admit Climate Change Is Happening?

Whether it is the fault of SUV drivers, hippies, cats and dogs, space travel or air conditioning, there is a consensus that global warming IS happening…so why are they so adamant that it isn’t?

Every day in the newspaper or on the television, there is someone somewhere speaking out against all the “loonies” who think that humans are causing climate change. Fox News does it every day, and now CNN has Glenn Beck on their air talking about how global warming is not happening and is a myth. But WHY are they saying it is not happening? Taking care of the earth is not a partisan or social issue; it is a human issue and the fact is that the earth is getting warmer, storms are becoming more fierce, our water and air are getting dirtier, our foods are more laden with pesticides…why should we not care? What is it about these people that make them want to get on the air or in print and say it’s not happening, you are all crazy, humans can’t possibly be doing anything wrong?

I do what I can, I hope I inspire my readers to do the small things that they are capable of doing, and I hope I help to spread the word a little bit. That is all I am trying to do. Not many of us can go live off the grid in a cave and hope for the best; we must do what we can. If it is only a natural cycle as these people are saying, then what is the harm in trying to slow down or reverse the cycle? In case they skipped out on history or geography class, species were wiped out the last bunch of times this happened. Sure, it was not the fault of humans then, but scientists are saying that this time it is. At least the acceleration of it is…so I do not see the harm in working to try to prevent it from happening again. What are they so afraid of? Why is Al Gore so evil for trying to encourage us to be more thoughtful of the world around us?

So the next time someone accuses you of being a crazy environmentalist for wanting to put CFL light bulbs in your house, ask them what the harm is. When they question your choice of organic foods, fair trade clothing or sustainable building, ask them why they are so against taking care of the earth. For me, I would love to know the reasons, as I have not been able to figure it out yet. The obvious reason for some of these people is that they have ties and/or are getting paid by oil and chemical companies to spout their garbage. That’s nice…make a paycheck at the expense of the 6.5 billion people living together on this planet. I want a clean planet. I want to eat food free of pesticides and chemicals. I want the sky to be blue. I do not want my grandchildren to live a miserable life because we did not do anything to try to reverse this trend. I just do not see the benefit of NOT doing anything and in fact fighting against any kind of change that will help the rest of us out. So I buy clothing made with organic fabrics, does that make me crazy? No, it makes me thoughtful of what I put on my back, the money that I spend, and the people that make the goods I buy. Global warming is a real and possibly deadly threat. Instead of downplaying people’s concerns and urging us to buy gas guzzling trucks and fast food for dinner, how about a little common sense. Even if there was absolutely nothing wrong with the planet, don’t you think making the changes that are being encouraged by “green” people everywhere is a good idea?

I sure do.

So next time someone asks you why you care, be sure to tell them. Don’t hide from them, stand up tall and let them know. It does not even have to be an argument about global warming, politics or money. Just tell them it’s because you care about the world around you and you want to see the world clean up it’s act; we have been neglecting it for far too long.

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Each day in the U.S. alone, approximately 400,000 cell phones are discarded…thats about 146 million per year. Each one of these cell phones contain trace amounts of lead, mercury, and beryllium, to name a few toxic chemicals. Add to those numbers the amount of televisions, radios, home phones, computers, etc. that also get thrown out, and you have quite a toxic mess on your hands. Sure, some of them get recycled, but the majority of them don’t.

Unfortunately, manufacturers deem it necessary to come out with the latest and greatest every few months or so. This causes the general public to feel like they need to buy the “new” version of something or they won’t be cool. I have fallen for this as well, as I have always been a gadget guy who loves to have all the “necessities” of life. But as I have gotten older, I have started thinking more and more about not only the financial costs of getting something new every six months, but also the environmental impact that my decisions could have. I used to spend money like it was not even mine (cause it wasn’t…it was the credit card’s) on anything new and shiny, but I have changed. Want to know what I learned?

For starters, my cell phone does exactly what the new iPhone does best…make phone calls. Really, isn’t that all we need in a cell phone? I have not had a data plan on my cell for years and I don’t miss it; I don’t need to access the internet if I am out walking around. I managed before and I will continue to manage. So for me, my phone does what I expect of it and what I need it for. When I got my Treo a while back, it was not because the Treo was cooler than my phone but rather that my old phone had died. And since I wanted to get something that would last a while and not be out of date the minute I bought it, I went ahead and splurged. Because of this, I do not need to get the latest cell phone because mine already does what the new ones do…sure, they might be shinier and a little faster, but mine works just fine, thank you.

As for the iPod, I bought one years and years ago and it is still going strong. Does it hold my entire music collection? Nope. Do I need to carry around my entire music collection? Nope. I can only listen to one song at a time, and I can pick and choose in iTunes what I want on the thing. Sure, I could go buy a new one and fill it up with all my songs, but what happens when I put another album in? Do I have to buy yet a newer one with more storage? The cycle is never ending, and I wanted to put a stop to it. So I am going to keep my iPod until it crashes and burns.

I could go on and on talking about different electronics that people buy every six months only to throw away the one that was working perfectly fine. It’s called “planned obsolescence”, and its a ploy by manufacturers to get you to buy the newest thing TODAY while tossing your old one. So for me, I buy the best one I can afford at the time when I need something so that it will last a long time. That way I still get my gadget fix! I would rather buy a $250 phone and have it last a few years than buy $100 ones every 6 months in order to get the coolest one. I would rather save my money for something worthwhile down the road and give up the instant gratification of buying the same product I already owned…just because it does 1 or 2 things better than my old one did. The same can be said of cars, clothes, televisions, etc…these things should be kept as long as possible to reduce both the effect on your finances and the effect on the environment. Because as soon as you buy the latest thing today, tomorrow the next version will be announced. Stop chasing your own tail as it will never end until you put a stop to it. In my mind, it’s better to invest in the best you can buy and let it ride until it no longer works…your bank account and your world will thank you. And that way, you still get to have the gadgets you want on your schedule!

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Ahhh decisions, decisions. Here we are, 2 weeks after getting back from our vacation, pondering quite deeply a move to Taos, New Mexico. We cannot seem to get it out of our heads! The scenery is beautiful, the air is clean, the people are great, and the real estate is reasonable. Oh, and there is no traffic. Although we cannot do anything until at least this summer, my wife and I are discussing how we could make this work for us financially, whether we should buy the tract of land that we really want right now and build eventually or if we should wait till we are ready to move and then buy a house that is already built. It’s a tough call.

Here in Los Angeles, a 3 bedroom/2 bathroom house in a good neighborhood would run about $750-$800K. That is a big reason why we want to move…unless one of us triples our salary in the coming months, this is totally out of our reach. And besides that, who wants to pay that kind of cash for a smallish house on .10 acres? Not us. So back to Taos…the piece of land we want to buy is in an incredible place with restrictions about what you can and can’t build there, 1/4 of a mile from protected land with hiking trails down the the Rio Grande Gorge, and is on a “no through access” county road, meaning there will never be through traffic on that street. People are starting to build houses there, and everyone is far enough apart that you really feel like you are out in the open with plenty of space to breathe in. The lot is almost 4 acres and is totally reasonably priced for the area. It is about 15 minutes into town, and there is electric and phone out there, along with private wells. The problem? We would have to build our own house, and that takes up to a year to complete. We could buy the land now, but that would strain our budget here in Los Angeles, as we pay a fortune to live here at the beach. Building costs are about $150-$175 a square, and the minimum house size is 1200 sq feet for this area. So the house alone would be a minimum of $180,000…minimum being the key word. I am sure that would not include a roof or doors, but whatever. Here is an idea of the house we want to build there:

(click for a bigger image)

The other option is to buy a pre-existing house that is near the land we like…no headaches, no construction delays, no site problems. Someone else suffered that fate for us and we can move right in. Of course, we would have to be ready to go asap as soon as the house closed, as paying rent and a mortgage is not my idea of fun. But we could do that…and the houses run from $285,000 – $350,000 for a 3 bed, 2.5 bath on 1-5 acres of land. Views galore, everyone’s house is one story, and they are arranged to take advantage of solar gain from the south. Decisions, decisions.

Thoughts? Anyone go through a land purchase and/or building a house? What was your experience? Any thoughts on what is the better route? Our jobs are such that we can go anywhere, so that is not an issue. I work at home and the wife is a teacher, so we are ok there. Anyways, just wanted to see what people thought!

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This actually is about something you can buy that will save you money the first day you start using it and you never have to worry about it again. It could possibly cut your electric bill by quite a bit of money while at the same time help curb global warming. What could it possibly be?

It’s the Smart Strip power strip that I recently bought and installed in my office here at home. I used to have to a. remember to turn the power strip off and b. dig through 75 miles of cable under the desk to do so. But I saw this online and thought it was a great idea, and then my wife said they featured it on Oprah, so what the heck, we bought one.

You plug stuff in like any other power strip, but the difference is that some of the outlets are controlled by one main outlet. So here in my office, I plugged my computer into the main outlet, and plugged the monitor, printer and speakers into the controlled outlet. When I turn my computer off, the power strip automatically shuts off all power to the computer and the controlled devices, so there isn’t any phantom power going to them. Up to 40% of your monthly electric bill is due to phantom power, devices using electricity while they are “off”. This is a good way to stop this.

No, this is not a paid review or anything else like that. I just like the idea of spending a few bucks to save a lot of bucks, without any effort. I think we are going to get one of these for our television set up now. I figured I would let anyone know that doesn’t know about these things along with letting them know about how much energy and money phantom power uses in your house when you aren’t looking. See? Told you you could save money without doing anything…well, after you buy one that is…you can find them at Amazon or a bunch of other places. They are called the “SMART STRIP Smart Power Strip” if you start looking for one. Of course, you can use a regular old power strip, which we don everywhere else in the house right now. But it has made things easier here in my office as I no longer have to crawl around under there trying to find the power button!

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