9 Eco-friendly suggestions that won't break your budget!

If you look around today, everywhere you go you are bound to run into an 'eco-freindly' store of some sort.  Like the 'Eco-furniture store' or the 'Green Kids outlet' and in your favorite stores window it might boast '"Eco-friendly handbags are here!"  But when you enter the store and check out the tag on these 'sustainable and chic' new items, you end up feeling a bit nauseous.  This is when you ask yourself, "shouldn't being kind to the environment and saving resources be cheaper than non-sustainable products, not twice as expensive?"  Well, in one hand yes, because some products use recycled materials or sustainable but flourishing materials like bamboo which helps keep the manufacturing costs down, but on the other hand un-sustainable products are cheap because they are made with toxic glues and chemicals and cheap to manufacture plastics (and most likely fabricated in another country by underpaid workers).  So it would make sense that the eco-products would be a bit more expensive because the manufacturing process is better for your health and made by an organic process which can be a bit more labor intensive.  Of course, there are a lot of companies that are cashing in on the green trend by charging astronomical amounts for their products because it is fashionable and in-style so people will pay top dollar for it.  Being an Eco-mama to me means respecting the earth rather than destructing it, purchasing products that honor this mantra and aren't harmful to the earth or my family, and not purchasing something because of how much it costs, but rather because it is an essential ingredient to raising my family.  That said, there are many things you can do that can help you and your family be greener, without causing you to go broke trying to keep up with the Joneses next door who have all the new and overpriced eco-products under the sun because it is cool and they can tell all their friends about it!  Here is a list of ideas and everyday things that you can do to go green without going broke!

1. Xeriscape your lawn and garden. 

   

   This is a great idea for going green, saving money and being kind and friendly to your outdoor surroundings.  Xeriscape was founded by a group of Associated Landscape Colorado Contractors (ALCC), in 1981, who wanted to promote attractive water-conserving landscapes.  This concept has now spread through most all of Colorado, the United States and even Globally.  You can save up to 40% on your water bill by using Xeriscape, check it out!  Another new option for reducing water usage by up to 80% for roof top gardens, planter boxes and indoor plants, is by using this new product,  The Sub-Irrigation Systems and Surface Flow^TM , by Jardinier, a patented low-flow irrigation system!  Check out their websites for more information!  (P.S.  When shopping for indigenous plants for your yards, click on Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, an onlince center that offers regional information for gardeners throughout the US).
2. Pay the extra few bucks for Organic Fair Trade Coffee.  You may look at the price of Organic coffee compared to your regular brand, and feel that it is way too expensive, but would you still feel the same if you knew you were helping third world children get healthy and educated?  Or that you were saving parrots, toucans, and other species from extinction?  By purchasing Fair Trade Organic coffee you will be helping farmers from Brazil, Indonesia, Columbia, Mexico, Africa...and the list goes on, to receive a fair payment for their coffee and better working conditions.  This is why.  Huge plantations have increased their coffee production so significantly that the price of conventional coffee has plummeted.  This has been awful for family coffee growers who traditionally grew the worlds coffee, but now, are being forced out of the market because they can no longer make an honest living.  Not only that but coffee grows in shaded areas where habitats for many species of plants and animals live.  Large plantations clear cut  these native habitats to make it easier for them to grow large amounts, then they apply tons of chemicals, both of which have destroyed and are destroying these precious animals.  My favorite Fair Trade Organic Coffee is Cafe Mam, where you can buy a 5 pound bag of OG french roast coffee for $33.50, which translates to just under $7 a pound, which is not a bad price and equally competitive with conventional non-Fairly Traded non-Organic coffee!
3. Get a nice bike, and if you have kids get a trail-a-bike or a trailer.  This is pretty much a no brainer now that gas is off the charts expensive.  Since we have purchased our bikes and bike trailer for the kids, we have saved a bundle in gas.  We take them to school on the bikes, we go grocery shopping by bike, and my husband commutes to work by bike.  It may seem like such a pain, but once you start doing it, it really isn't as hard as it seems.  And by investing in some bikes and gear, you can downsize to one car for road trips or when it is essential to travel by car, which saves you tons of money in insurance and loan payments and gas costs.  Look on craigslist or garage sales for great deals, we got our Burley bike trailer for a mere $15!
4. Energy Star your home.  Here is the save energy low down, that won't break the bank:  Switch to CFL bulbs, turn off your lights when you leave a room (always!), install motion-activated light switches, use low-flow shower heads, set your thermostat to 68 degrees in the winter, and 78 degrees in the summer, use a power-consumption meter to track down energy suckers, convert your fridge to run on propane, turn down your water heater to 120 degrees, wash your clothing in cold water, and dry them outside, use a solar oven, when you need to replace an appliance buy an ENERGYSTAR one, make or buy a worm composter, switch your power supplier to one that uses renewable energy, or pay a couple extra bucks to your power company to support renewable power (this is called "Green Pricing"), use a laptop, connect all appliances to one power strip and switch off whenever your not using, finance some solar options for your home, better insulate your home, in the wintertime cool your fridge by using a "freeair system" which pulls air from outside to cool your fridge, and lastly once you have greenified your home, apply for a "green mortgage" and get a lower interest rate for your hybrid home!
5. Invest in at least five re-usable bags.  By now I would hope that most people have purchased at least on eco tote for shopping, but it seems a lot of us just have one, and more often then not we go to the store and absent mindly forget our re-useable bag.  Make a pact with yourself to stop this madness!  Plastic bags take 1000 years to biodegradable, and are rarely recycled (see my article on Paper vs. Plastic ), and to produce paper bags takes a lot of energy and creates water and air pollutants; so go ahead and buy a few re-usable bags, keep them in the car, in your purse (my favorite are the chicobags that fold up into a fist size ball to fit in your purse or clip onto your key chain), in the diaper bag, everywhere so that you never forget them!  This is really important to cleaning our environment, as a large number of plastic bags end up in our ocean and waterways.  If you are a SF bay area resident, click here to see the interactive map showing the plastic pollution to our waterways.

6.  Support your Green Community.  When your looking for something imparticular, seek out your local eco-companies.  If you look on the Co-op America's National Green Pages website, you can use their search engine to find all the local green business members in your area, as well as an outpouring of green information.  If you like what you see, you can join their co-op and receive your own copy of the green pages, which, believe me, comes in handy!

7.  Get crafty with it!  Turn waste into reusable things of taste.  Take out your old sewing machine and get busy, think outside the toy box when your kids need something new to do, toss through you recycle bin for things you can turn into something new.  There are so many things you can use inside your own home, or down at the thrift store, rather than going to the store and spending a bunch of money and wasting our precious resources.  Just have a more crafty and resourceful approach to decorating your home, or giving gifts, keeping your kids busy.  Here are just some of my ideas:

• Turn old T-shirts in to pillows or a blanket.  Just cut identical size pieces of fabric, they can be the same or not, turn inside out and sew together leaving one side open, stuff with insides from an old pillow, or cut up an old wool sweater and sew shut.
• Make sock puppets out of old socks for the kids.  It is easy, sew on a mounth, sew on some buttons for eyes, and take some pipe cleaners and poke through for hair.  The kids will love them.
• Crochet with plastic bags to create a reusable tote.  Check out this how to by clicking here.
• Recycle bin musical instruments for your kids to rock out with.  Turn a coffee tin into a drum, make some morracas out of plastic pop bottles filled with beans, turn a small box and some rubber bands into a guitar (cut a hole in the side and stretch the rubber bands around).  Check out the website Bash the Trash for more ideas on turning trash to instruments.
• Join a toy library.  Are your kids tired of your toys, and so are you?  By joining a toy library you can give and receive new toys for free, just by exchanging the ones you have.  This is a great way to recycle toys and not have to spend a dime on new ones.  If you can't find one in your area, check out the Pittsburgh toy lending website as a resource tool to start your own.  To start your own you only need a handful of moms to get together and start swapping!  Click here for the USA Toy Lending Association website!
• Use old Linen packages to store your kids toys that have a bunch of easily looseable parts.  I have saved myself hours of toy part searching by consolidating my kids toys into zippered pouches

8.  Invest in a Sewing Machine.  I is amazing what you can create out of some old clothes, recycled fabric or even an Soy Milk Container.  Rather than purchasing 'eco products', why not make your own.  I actually found my sewing machine on the side of the street, when my neighbors had put a bunch of stuff out for the Garbage Man.  Turns out that my dumpster diving was well worth is as my Singer 500A sewing machine was named Singers Best Sewing Machine Ever, by Singer.  I took it down to my local Singer dealer, he tuned it up, and it is as good as new.  Now I am making messenger bags, dresses, kids clothes and bibs all on my own for little to no money.  I keep a pile of our un-wanted clothes in my new sewing room and figure out ways to turn them in to new wearable works of art.  My mom went to Costar Rica and came back with the cutest wallet made out of recycled Soy Milk containers.  I couldn't believe how cool it was that someone cut the tops off of these containers, stitched them together, added some velcro and viola, a wallet!  So ladies, take after your mom or grandma (or Costa Rican mamas) and get to sewing!

9.  Buy some Recycled or Organic T's.  If you thought that Organic T-shirts were too expensive or hard to come by, think again.  Large retailers like H & M, Walmart, Nike and JC penny's have come out with Organic Cotton clothing.  My mother-in-law called me just yesterday to tell me that she had found Organic Kids T-shirts at JC Penny's (now you can purchase organic, recycled and renewable merchandise at JC Penny stores that will be branded “Simply Green.”) for only $4.99 and Recycled Denim Jeans for only $30.  By supporting Organic cotton clothing companies you are showing manufacturers that Organic cotton is what people want, so more manufacturers will be supporting Organic Cotton Farmers.