1. Don’t buy bottled water – Instead of buying water, get a reusable container and fill it up at home. If you don’t like the tap water, consider buying a filter for it. By not buying bottled water, you will both save lots of money, and save lots of wasted plastic.
2. Buy your fruits and vegetables from local producers – as much as possible, try to buy all your fruits and vegetables from local farmers and markets. You will be supporting your community and eliminating emissions that come from the transportation of imported fruits and vegetables. Plus, you will probably be getting much better produce that is fresher and has less unnatural substances on it.
3. Use Tupperware – instead of buying and using and throwing away disposable bags and containers, use a Tupperware container to store food. You can save a good deal of money after your initial investment and, of course, you will be helping to keep our planet green by not using plastic disposable products.
4. Bring grocery bags with you when you shop – this is a simple, yet very effective way to keep our earth a bit greener. You don’t really benefit, unless they charge for bags, but still you save countless plastic bags by using your own reusable one.
5. Adjust the temperature in your house – I know that this might mean a little discomfort, but try turning up (or down) your air conditioning so that it does not turn on as much. You can use fans to help move air around your house. Also, turn your fridge temperature up a bit so it does not have to turn on so much. The benefits pretty obvious on this one; you save money on your utility bill and consume less energy.
6. Let food cool down to room temperature before putting it in the fridge/freezer – it’s a pretty simple idea. If you cook hot food, wait until it cools before putting it in your fridge or freezer so you don’t waste energy cooling it down.
7. Recycle – recycle as much stuff as you can. This means cans, bottles, paper, cardboard, and even clothes, furniture and anything else you can think of. Consider selling or giving your old stuff to a thrift store or goodwill. Also, in some states you can get money back for cans and bottles so look into places that offer that. There are a number of ways to recycle and even to earn some money back.
8. Start a compost pile – use your food scrapes to make rich fertilizer for you flowers and gardens. Now you can both eliminate some trash from going into landfills and use your own homegrown fertilizer. This is a great way to keep the earth green and save a little money.
9. Buy from green companies – whenever possible, try to buy the things you need from companies that are trying to go green. Show your support by buying their products. If consumers were all to start buying from environmentally minded companies, every company would have to star going green or go out of business.
10. Buy a no-tank water heater – this is a very small and compact water heater that only heats water when you need it. It eliminates waste buy heating water only when you turn on the hot water. You might think that you will then have to wait for a while to get hot water but that’s not the case. Because of its small size, it can heat water very quickly. I have one and it works incredible well, so consider buying it to help you save money and conserve energy.

photo’s by woodleywonderworks and kino-eye