I have my own version of the should you buy it flowchart, but I use a basic list of questions to help me decide about purchases. Because I’m big time into green living, my flowchart actually covers some green issue too.My list is overall pretty simple. Before I buy anything – groceries, gear, toys, etc, I ask myself…

1. Do I need it?
2. How badly do I want it?
3. Can I afford it? Really?
4. Can I use something I already have?
5. Can I borrow one?
6. Will I use it? Really?
7. Is it recyclable? OR can it be used for something else?
8. Is it toxic?
9. How long is it’s life span?
10. Do I need it?

You may have noticed that I question 1 and 10 are the same. It’s the most important question IMO so I ask it twice. It looks silly, but it really helps if you say these out loud while at the store.

You can make your own flowchart or list of Q&A to carry around. What matters most is that you find one that works for you. At first I carried mine around on a slip of paper attached to my wallet. After about a year, it became second nature to ask myself the questions, and I was able to do this in my head.

Do you use a flowchart for purchases – and if not have you considered it?

[image via Get Rich Slowly]

Post from: Thrifty Mommy

• If computers are on your holiday shopping list go for a laptop not a desktop. Laptops use about half the energy of desktops and if you snag an Energy Star model, you’ll save even more – these use up to 70% less energy than a traditional desktop.
• Choose smart energy in the kitchen. For example for most jobs a microwave, pressure cooker, or toaster oven all use less energy than your stove and oven. Another smart kitchen move is to choose an electric kettle over a stove top model.
• Wash ALL laundry on cold. Yes you can, even very dirty stuff. It’ll all still get clean and you’ll save scads on heating that water. While you’re at it, try an alternative clothes dryer solution.
• Insulate your water heater tank.
• If you’ve got a waterbed, make sure you make your bed daily. A waterbed looses tons of energy when left uncovered. If you cover it up, you’ll use 1/3 less energy to heat your bed.
• Do a fridge check. Your refrigerator uses a scary amount of energy and not taking care of it makes it worse. Make sure to clean the coils every six months and maintain clean seals on the doors; free from grim and crumbs. For example, you should be able to stick a piece of paper in your fridge door and it should not slide out.

[image via stock.xchng]

Post from: Thrifty Mommy

Bank responsibly: Banks are not all the same shade of green. Some banks offer special green incentives and ways you can socially invest your money as well. The Socially Responsible Investing Basics for Individuals guide from the Social Investment Forum is a great way to find a green bank. To learn more about investing your money in green causes and businesses you can order Green America’s Green America’s Guide to Socially Responsible Investing.

Go green with rebates and credits: There are a number of tax credits you’re entitled to simply for greening your home. Learn to take advantage of these tax credits. Furthermore, you can easily locate killer rebates on green appliances and other energy saving products.

Stop and think: The best rule of thumb to save money if you’re green or not is to stop and think before you buy. This accomplishes two major things; one, you save money on stuff you wouldn’t buy if you really stop and think, and two, it’s super green to own less junk.  Never make a purchase without stopping and asking yourself if you really need the item, or just kind of want it. Flexing your green purchasing power helps the planet and your wallet.

Use a green budget guide: Big Green Purse is an excellent green and budget friendly book that can teach you to shop wise and green. My personal green budget bible is Your Money or Your Life, which isn’t exactly a green book, but it is about simple living, mindful living, and saving your time and money, which to me translates into more time and resources for green efforts.

Green your day to day budgeting routine: Use recycled content budgeting books, file folders, and envelopes for keeping track of bills or better yet go paperless. It’s easy to set up a budget on the computer. You can budget, bank, pay bills, and do almost everything you need to on a computer which save money on stamps and saves trees used for paper as well.

How are you saving money and going green?

[image via stock.xchng]

Post from: Thrifty Mommy

Energy Star Amana 3.5 Cu. Ft. Super Capacity Front Load Washer shown above

Low impact laundry is an excellent example of one green living choice that not only saves the planet but saves you loads of green as well. Here’s how.

• Cold water costs less: Washing on cold – yeah, even icky old cloth diapers is a great way to save energy and tons of cash. Hot water from the washing machine does NOT sanitize your clothes, no matter how much you wish it was true so turn that dial to cold.
• Energy costs money: Line drying is ultra cheap in many ways. One it saves you cash on your energy bill (no dryer) and two, your clothes will last much longer. I hang dry almost everything and my family survives. A clothes line is super cheap and during the winter you can hang clothes in the bathroom. Bonus tip save time by hanging clothes right on the hanger. Time is money for some of us, so there’s another saving.
• Green soap costs less: No joke. Biokleen detergent is free of phosphate and chlorine, has no negative effects on rivers, streams, plants, or wildlife, is rapidly biodegradable and Ozone safe AND it seriously costs less per load than other more toxic laundry detergents.
• Dryer sheets are useless and toxic: You don’t need them, they’re not safe, and not buying them saves money.
• Washing green saves over time: An Energy Star energy efficient washing machine or dryer can save you about $135 per year on energy costs but some note that choosing an energy efficient washer or dryer will save you much more money in the long run than that. PLUS you may be able to find a rebate.

Ah green and savings…sheer bliss.

How do you keep your laundry green and inexpensive?

Post from: Thrifty Mommy

Why make homemade beauty and body care products?

• To avoid toxins – Skin Deep reports that many companies who make beauty care and body care products use known human carcinogens or developmental toxins in the products (as many as one third). Homemade products allow you to avoid this completely.
• To save money. All that packaging and fancy advertising will cost you. It’s cheaper to make your own.
• To let your creativity flow. You cannot mess up homemade beauty products or body care in such a terrible way that there’s no going back. You get to be creative, and if you mess up, it’s no big loss because costs are seriously low for most homemade products.
• To be green. It’s greener to make non-toxic products and to reuse containers then it is to buy new stuff over and over again.

I LOVE posting homemade beauty and body care products and do so a lot, it’s just never here (sorry folks) so I thought I’d offer a nice round up of awesome products you can make, on the cheap, at home.

Before you start read: Homemade Beauty Products: Safety 101

HAIR:

• Homemade Milk & Honey Curly Hair Smoothie
• Homemade Organic Herbal Hair Conditioning Spray
• Homemade Healthy Hair Care – Hair Masques

FACE:

• Strawberry Face Mash
• Homemade Organic Facial Toner
• Homemade Organic Cleansing Creams
• Homemade Natural Cranberry Lip Gloss
• Fast Homemade Organic Fresh Kitchen Face Scrubs
• Homemade Organic Honey Beauty

BODY:

• Lemon Bath Cookies
• Homemade Sugar Body Scrub
• Homemade Organic Liquid Handsoap
• Homemade Organic Facial & Body Cream

That should be enough to get you going. Do you ever make homemade beauty and body products? Is it to save money?

[image owned by Jennifer Chait]

Post from: Thrifty Mommy

Some of the cool ideas offered include:

• Peach or raspberry Bellinis for guests, made with some fruit picked from the garden.
• For canapés with the early drinks, lots of different bruschettas made with garden tomatoes, garlic, and plenty of home-grown basil and a minty bean humus as well.
• Plates of just-picked baby vegetables – radish, mini carrots, peas, purple-podded mange touts, and the late, mini broad bean ‘Stereo’ – on plates covered in ice.
• Crisp courgette wedges with anchovy mayonnaise and stuffed courgette flowers with goat’s cheese and honey.
• Fresh salads and new potatoes served with dinner.
• Lebanese tahini salad, home-made mint jelly and platters of salad scattered with blue borage and orange marigold flowers included with the main wedding meal.
• Flowers such as, Cosmos ‘Purity’ and dill flowers for decor, table centres of potted acidanthera, and a bouquet of roses, alchemilla and sweet peas.

I LOVE this idea; they offer some great creative ideas, and I see how you could expand it to all sorts of cool events – grow your own… potluck, graduation, baby shower, birthday, the list goes on and on. Growing your own food and flowers for a major event is a super way to cut costs and makes for such a charming event too. Plus, it’s so versatile. You could grow all sorts of different items for various events.

Read the series:

• Grow your own wedding: part 1
• Grow your own wedding: part 2

See more ways to save money on your wedding.

[images via stock.xchng]

Post from: Thrifty Mommy

Rechargeable batteries.

Gaiam NiMH Batteries & Chargers – shown above

If you haven’t jumped on board with rechargeable batteries, you really should. The benefits are huge, both on a planet and money saving level. According to the Daily Green, “More than 15 billion batteries are thrown away each year.” WOW. Batteries not only NEVER biodegrade but they contain toxic gunk that can leak out of said batteries and contaminate soil and water. Now, if the planet is your only concern, you can recycle batteries – check Earth 911 for a recycling center near you.

However, if part of your game plan is also to save money (I know it is) get some rechargeable batteries.

Do they really save you that much money?:

Yes, they actually do. It may seem overwhelming because start up costs can be high, especially if you own many electronics that require batteries, but in the long run, you will save $. Grinning Planet offers a good rundown of just how rechargeable save you money and also note when they don’t. For example GP says that, “There are some uses where rechargeable batteries simply do not make economic sense… [such as for] low-draw devices like battery-powered wall clocks, smoke detectors, and remote controls, or devices that have long idle times (measured in months), like emergency flashlights.“

Which rechargeable to buy?:

Aim for quality at the get-go. If you’re paying for them, you may as well get decent ones. Check out Gaiam NiMH Batteries & Chargers which are good in my opinion or read, The Best Rechargeable Batteries and Chargers Of 2009.

Post from: Thrifty Mommy

That said, healthy cookbooks can cost a bundle, both for our budgets and the planet. Very few cookbooks are made with recycled content, so each new cookbook you buy wastes money and trees. However, you can make a cookbook of your very own with very little cash, and save some trees in the process.

MAKE YOUR HOMEMADE COOKBOOK:

First grab a basic three ring binder – I actually have a few; basic meals, baking, and desserts, holidays, & treats. Fill it with page protectors (this is your big cost factor here), and slip recipes into said page protectors. You can go cheaper and use no page protectors, but page protectors allow you to have your cookbook folder in the kitchen and protects the pages from splatters (did I mention I’m not kitchen friendly). Note: plastic page protectors are not so green, but one better choice are UniKeep page protectors made with 100% recyclable polypropylene.

ADDING RECIPES TO YOUR HOMEMADE COOKBOOK:

• Browse blogs and websites for good recipes and print them out using both sides of the paper.
• Head to the thrift store or a garage sale and buy up all the old magazines they offer related to food. These cost anywhere from 10 cent to $1.oo which is a huge saving over typical cookbooks. Tear out your fave recipes and recycled the rest of the magazine. You can also score free magazines sometimes if you get them from a friend or if you visit a doctor’s office or hair salon (ask nicely for their discards).
• Check out good cookbooks from the library and jot down your favorite recipes.
• Share. Most folks I know have at least one or two real cookbooks. If you hold a cookbook swap, you can snag your fave recipes from all of them.

BENEFITS:

1. Super cheap.
2. No nonsense – you only get the recipes you like.
3. Healthy – um, don’t look for unhealthy stuff (no brainer).
4. Green – less paper used.

How do you score cheaper and healthier recipes?

[image via stock.xchng]

Post from: Thrifty Mommy

One of my favorite green shops on the web, Night Owl Paper Goods, is having a massive Earth Day sale today. I LOVE this shop because not only are their products totally sweet and beautiful but they’re sustainable and useful as well. See ad below for details:

Origins, king of natural body care, is holding some good sales as well for today only such as, you can choose 4 FREE samples with any order + get Free Standard Shipping with $50 order.

It’s Easy Being Green offers all sorts of energy efficient green goods for the home. From weatherization products to greener lighting to energy saving kits, they’ve got it all, and today everything at the site is 25% off.

RFF Press is celebrating Earth Day for the entire month with a cool 40% discount on ALL published book orders placed April 20-May 20, 2009. RFF Press is a very cool shop carrying eco-reading material so you can get up to speed on the green you need. To claim your RFF Press Earth Day discount, enter Discount Code ‘EARTH‘ at checkout.

Amazon Green is having a major Earth Day sale with discounts on everything from greener cleaning products to beauty products to baby care and lots more.

So if you’ve been needing some green, now is your chance to save…

If you’re looking for general Earth Day tips today read, Plan for 365 days of green this Earth Day.

Post from: Thrifty Mommy

Only use reusable or recyclable  planting gear:  Old egg cartons can be used to start seeds or you can make your own growing pots with recycled materials you’ve got laying around the house. If you’ve already got plastic seed starter posts make sure to reuse them (just wash well).

Never buy new garden tools: Thrift stores and garage sales carry every garden tool you’ll ever need, you just have to look. It’s silly to buy shiny new garden tools anyhow, they’ll just get dirty!

Make homemade fertilizer: This is cheaper than store-bought, plus a very eco-friendly way to grow a garden. You can compost all your old coffee grounds, food scraps, grass clippings and more for a healthy soil additive.

Make your own non-toxic weed killer: Mix 1 ounce orange oil and 1 teaspoon liquid soap with 1 gallon of 10% white vinegar. Shake it altogether in a spray bottle and spot treat weeds. You should also learn about natural garden pest control ideas that save you money on store bought pest control.

Save your old seeds: Check to see if they still work – often they do.

Trade with friends: You can trade and share garden tools, plants (i.e. cut and share), seeds, gardening books, and more. You can even arrange to grow different crops. Say you grow corn and your pal grows tomatoes – then share.

Water the garden at night: This saves you water and money because overnight the water has a chance to absorb well, vs. drying up in the hot daytime sun.

Learn about gardening where you live: If you jump into gardening unprepared, you might get lucky. OR you may just waste time and money. Learn about gardening topics that are relevant to your local area. Plants made for your climate will thrive better than exotic plants.

BONUS: Don’t forget, gardening is a super cheap summer activity for the kiddos. You don’t have to pay for an outing if your garden is cool enough. Check out 10 Fun Organic Gardening Projects for Kids for ideas.

Post from: Thrifty Mommy