Save Money and Go Green

Home

Consume less! This is the message the powers that be want to keep secret. The number one rule for saving money and being green is simple: consume less! You will find you are happier and better off. Your life will be less cluttered, and you will be freed from the obsession with trying to “keep up” with the neighbours. As Sustrans promotes: be admired for the car you don’t drive! The same applies to every area of life.

Get it free!  There is so much available for free, you rarely need to buy new. Use your library rather than buying books. Libraries are also great for reading the days’ newspapers for free, and free internet access. Charity shops are great for saving money (especially ones in well-off areas!)  Freecycle is a good way to pick up bargains that someone else has finished with. Another great site for ideas on how to live on less is Self sufficientish.com.

Barter - LETS schemes, bartering, and local currencies are a way of saving money while promoting the local economy.

Get online – If you have a computer, rather than buy a paper, read it for free online. With so much music available online you don’t need to buy CDs.

Avoid “green” gadgets - you don’t need green gadgets to be green. Much better to just consume less.

Turn it down, leave it out, turn it off! Using less energy is the golden rule. Saving energy saves you money and means less greenhouse gas emissions.

Heating - Keep heating to a minimum and wear warmer clothes. You will save money as well as energy.

Insulation – Double-glazing, cavity wall insulation, draught-proofing, loft insulation, and lagging hot water tanks and pipes all save energy in the long term. Improving insulation has a much better payback time than solar panels, wind turbines or heat pumps. Many of the power companies offer special deals on insulation, especially if you receive benefits or are elderly, and there is information on grants available independently from the Energy Saving Trust.

Lighting – Turn off lights when you leave a room. Use side lamps and low energy bulbs.

Appliances – Avoid buying unnecessary electrical goods and if you do buy them choose energy-efficient ones. When not use, switch them right off rather than leave them on standby.

Washing – Showers use less water than baths. Soak stained clothes before you wash them, and avoid using a tumble drier – hang clothes out like your parents used to– it’s free! Only iron when absolutely necessary. Wash up rather than use a dishwasher, and rinse with cold water.

Work

Be a waste watcher – As at home, turn off unwanted lights, and turn down the heat. Just a few waste watchers in a large building can save a lot of energy. Some firms even have “Environmental Champions” for this purpose.

Save waste and recycle. Encourage the use of recycled paper, preferably made from post-consumer waste. Try and get your employer to recycle as much as possible.

Transport – Encourage car-sharing and the use of a car pool. Better still, company bikes are the new fashion, and public transport is far less polluting than a car.

Purchasing – A lot of furniture is available second-hand when other offices upgrade. If you are buying new, don’t buy furniture or other goods made from tropical hardwoods from the rainforests.

Trade unions – get your representative to encourage sound practices in your workplace and nationally.

Eco-groups – Try setting up your own environmental group at work to spread the message, get new ideas, and make friends.

Audits – See if you can persuade your employer to carry out an environmental audit. This highlights areas for improvement, and encourages awareness.  

Garden 

Grow your own – This saves energy used in transport, and also saves money, particularly if you prefer organic food. The return for the amount of effort required for a vegetable garden is not great, but investing in some fruit trees, fruit bushes, and raspberry canes pays off, and with a minimal amount of work you will have decades of crops for free, while reducing the amount of food transported around the world.

Start your own compost heap. This helps with recycling, and can replace peat. The transport of peat uses energy, as does its extraction, which destroys wildlife habitats.

Finances

Money matters – First of all, pay off your debts, starting with the ones that charge the highest rates of interest, like store cards and credit cards. Once you have paid it off, get your revenge on the system, and cut the card up – it’s a great feeling! If you want to be green as well, find out more about ethical investments, to make sure that your savings, loans, pension and insurance policies are with companies like Tridios or the Co-op bank,  that use your money responsibly.

Travel

Go slow! The first rule of environmentally sound travel is to slow down, not just when driving but in our whole lifestyles.

Travel less – Half the problem is that we travel too much. It may broaden the mind but it uses a lot of energy, pollutes, and can destroy wildlife, cultures and communities.

Shanks’ pony – walking is the most environment-friendly form of travel and its healthy exercise too.

Beasts of burden - Still used in many parts of the world, vehicles drawn by animals are also “green” providing the animals are cared for.

Bike-it – Cycling is healthy, fun and pollution-free, and with the price of petrol, saves a fortune as well.

Go green, go public – If you have a long way to go or the weather is bad, trains and buses keep many potential car drivers off the roads, and cut pollution and congestion. Train fares are expensive, but when you consider the true cost of motoring like depreciation, public transport is good value.

Mad Car Disease – highly contagious. Cars are a major source of greenhouse gases. Even with unleaded petrol and a catalytic converter, they give off vast amounts of carbon dioxide. Electric vehicles simply shift the point of pollution from the exhaust to the power station chimney. Cars are a luxury the planet cannot afford and are not essential to life

Slow down- if you do use a car, choose an economic small one, fit radial tyres at the correct pressure, and drive slowly.

Car-sharing – Join a car-sharing club, or start your own.

Lorries – No-one wants juggernauts roaring through their town. Buying local produce is the best way to reduce their number.

Aeroplanes – These are the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas pollution. Avoid flying altogether.

Food

Salads and raw food save energy and are healthy.

Hot Air – Reduce meat consumption. Livestock produce massive amounts of methane, and use up valuable protein and land. Cut down on rice too. Paddy fields also produce a lot of methane.

Eat in season – Buy local food that is in season. “Food miles” from transporting exotic foods around the planet are wasteful.

Cooking – Sharing meals saves energy and makes friends! Don’t boil more water than you need, and use the minimum number of rings possible. Most vegetables can be cooked in together.

Breakfast – Have cereal or bread rather than toast.

Drinks – cut down on hot drinks and drink tap water. It’s much healthier.

Leisure

Sport – most sports are healthy, fun and fine. A few, like motor sports and jet skis, are harmful to the environment.

Expose yourself to nature! Try bird-watching, or tree planting with your local environmental group.

Walking – enjoy the countryside and wildlife you are helping to save.

Dig for Victory! Vegetation absorbs carbon dioxide. Start a wildlife garden by planting native shrubs and trees. Vegetable gardening can provide cheap organic produce on your doorstep.

When giving cards, make them yourself. It means a lot more and saves a fortune. Same with presents. The small outlay for some bulbs and plant pots means that you can give a present of lasting value.

Recycling

The recycling challenge – see how little rubbish you can throw out each week. Also, the aim is to not just throw out less but recycle less. It sounds bizarre, but if you are putting out a lot to recycle, you don't have a green lifestyle as you are consuming so much.

Refuse – The key to winning the challenge is to buy less in the first place. This also saves money! Cut out unnecessary luxuries like bottled water.

Paper – only buy recycled paper, preferably made from post-consumer waste, and recycle the paper you throw out.

Glass – use a bottle bank.

Travel – Remember that driving to the recycling point defeats the point of recycling, which is mainly to save energy. Campaign for local facilities or doorstep collection if you do not already have it.

Fridges and other white goods – Keep your old appliance as long as possible to avoid buying new. If you really have to buy, always choose the most energy-efficient appliance and dispose of the old one responsibly at the end of its life. Councils extract the CFC gases from old fridges.

Cans – where these need to be separated into steel and aluminium, this can be one with a magnet, and the aluminium ones are particularly good to  recycle as it takes huge amount of energy to produce aluminium.

Batteries- Most batteries contain highly toxic chemicals and use far more energy than using mains electricity. Avoid buying them.

Plastic - the manufacture of plastic goods uses a lot of energy, and they are not usually biodegradable. Look for alternatives.

Bags- save old plastic bags and re-use or recycle them.

Compost – if you have a garden, start a compost heap to recycle biodegradable material.

Junk mail – Cancel much of your junk mail by writing to the Mailing Preference Service (MPS) DMA House, 70 Margaret Street, London W1W 8SS. Put a sticker on your door saying:

               “No free newspapers or junk mail please.”

Free stickers are available from Eco, 98 Crane Street, Salisbury, Wiltshire SP1 2QD.

 Packaging – refuse to buy over-packaged goods.

 Refills – support shops that offer a refill service.

Politics - these last ideas won't save you money in the short-term, but will help us all live more sustainable lives.

Roots – tackle the root causes of global warming. The big decisions on structural change are taken by Governments and Multi-nationals.

Population – a controversial area, but population growth is a major factor in global warming. The answer is education and voluntary family planning.

Energy – vote for whichever party favours most renewable energy (solar, tidal, wind, and biomass). These sources do not contribute to global warming.

Research – support more research into environmental protection.

Education – If we are to save the world, everyone needs to be better informed about the tough choices to be made, and why they are needed.

Transport – Vote for the party offering most support for public transport rather than roads.

Carbon Tax – Any government serious about reducing global warming will introduce a tax on fossil fuels, and possibly a carbon rationing scheme.

MPs – Every letter counts. Let your MP know your concerns.

Councillors – On local issues turn the heat up on your councillor!

The World Bank – The source of many loans for projects that have destroyed the rainforests. Write and complain.

British banks – many banks have made loans to developing countries which are paid back by the logging and destruction of the rainforests. Write and ask them to write off the debt. If you don’t like the answer, move your account and let them know why. The Co-operative Bank is the most ethical of our banks.

Vote – Make politicians realise that the environment is the number one issue.

Investment – find out more about where your pension, saving and insurance money are invested, and move your money if you are not satisfied, letting them know why.

Protest – Join protests and peaceful demonstrations. Picket and boycott businesses that are slow to change.

Spread the word. Spread the message to schools, clubs, work, friends, relatives, neighbours, visitors, churches, offices and factories.

Useful websites:

Moneysavingexpert.com

Freecycle.org

Whatsmineisyours.com

Fruwiki.com

Allotment.org.uknsalg.org.uk

Downthelane.net

Morsbags.com