Tuesday, July 10, 2012

How to Save Money by Going Green A-Z (Part Three)

I recently entered the "Circle of Moms" Top 25 Money Saving Moms blog competition.
Although this blog is all about going green, I do believe that being eco-friendly goes hand-in-hand with frugal living and saving the environment saves you cash.
In honor of the Top 25 List, I'm posting a blog-trilogy; a 3-part series on how to Save Money by Going Green A-Z.  Click to catch up on Part One and Part Two.

and now for Part Three...

R - Recycle!  I'm sure you know that recycling is an eco-friendly habit, but did you know there are many ways to make and save money by recycling.   Wise Bread lists 15 websites that will give you cash for your trash.  US & UK citizens can use Recyclebank to earn points by participating in recycling and other Green habits, points can then be used to redeem gift certificates.  South Africans can earn money with Collect a Can or search for other buy-back centres near you.  In Israel, you can return your small plastic bottles and your glass bottles to reclaim the 30cent deposit at the supermarket.

SSeal your oven dishes with lids rather than foil and use reusable covers to seal the freshness in your salads, rather than gladwrap. 
Save money with reusable bowl covers

T - Terracycle your traditionally unrecyclable waste.  You may not be able to take home the money you generate, but you can donate it to your school or charity.  Perhaps you could save money on afterschool clubs if you earn enough through terracycle.

U - Upcycle old fabrics into clothes for your kids.  You can start by reading how a friend and I upcycled old curtains and a tablecloth into a Cinderella dress.

V - grow your own Vegetables.  I'm a beginner at vegetable gardening and aside from being green, healthy and frugal I've found it to be fun and inspiring too.  (See more about my vegetable gardening).
vegetable gardening

W - use scraps of fabric to Wrap gifts.  If you don't have any scraps of fabric, Katie Redmon has another 8 Eco-friendly gift-wrapping ideas for us.

X - skip your traditional printed family Xmas (or other holiday) card and use recycled gift tags..  Here's a picture tutorial on how to use old cards to create new gift tags.  If you don't have any saved cards to cut up, what about buying a reusable chalk cloth tag.
Y - do what works for YOU, if your eco-friendly habits aren't fun and feel like a sacrifice, you're not going to maintain them. So find one step that seems enjoyable and start there.  (If you're thinking that I only wrote this because I couldn't find a way to make money by going green with a Y... you're wrong, there's also YouRenew.com )
upcycled pencil case with used food bag
Z  - add a Zipper to a used food bag and make a pencil case.
Here's a picture of a frozen chicken nuggets bag that I turned into a pencil case with a zipper. 
And here's how I did it.






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