Reserve a Table for Two—at Home
All those commercially prepared meals add up to big bucks. The damage for a reasonably priced dinner for two can be $40 or more, while the same meal prepared at home can cost less than half that. This month, try switching just one restaurant dinner a week for a home-cooked meal, and you'll likely have an extra $100 to go towards other expenses, like credit-card bills or those winter boots you've been eyeing.
Dim and Dimmer
The average household spends ten to fifteen percent of its annual electricity bill on lighting.
Install dimmer switches where dimmed lighting makes sense, like the dining room and hallways. Any lightbulb dimmed by 25 percent (including incandescents) will use roughly 20 percent less energy. Dimming one 75-watt incandescent by 25 percent for only 4 hours a day will save you 30 pounds of carbon over the course of the year. Start dimming around the house and watch the savings add up! Save even more money with dimmable CFLs, which last up to ten times longer and use 75 percent less energy than incandescent bulbs.
Sweeter Treats
43 percent of the world's cocoa beans are grown in West Africa, where 284,000 children work on cocoa farms under abusive labor conditions.
This Halloween, choose chocolate that is sweet for the kids in your neighborhood AND the kids in cocoa bean producing countries. Look for the Fair Trade label on chocolate products, which guarantees that no children labored to produce the cocoa beans, and that the farmers earned a living wage for their crop.
Insulate Your Water Heater
In most homes, heating water stands among the highest energy expenses, accounting for 13 percent of the utility bill. Because water is constantly being heated regardless of whether or not hot water is actually running, a good portion of energy is wasted when heat is lost to the surrounding air, which is known as standby heat losses. Insulating the water heater and accessible hot water pipes reduces energy losses by between 4 and 9 percent and keeps more than 300 pounds of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere each year. Most hardware stores carry water heater insulation kits for about $20, a price that repays itself in energy savings after just a few months.
Get Energy Audited
The single most polluting industry in the United States is electricity production. Chances are, your home is using up more energy than it needs to keep your residence running. To find out just where that extra energy is going, conduct a home energy audit.
Kick the BPA Can
Bisphenol A (BPA), which has been associated with health risks including, diabetes, heart disease and obesity, is found in the blood of 92 percent of all Americans over the age of five. Even after abandoning BPA-leaching polycarbonate water bottles, the hormone-disrupting chemical can still make it's way into the bloodstream via seemingly safe foods like canned soup. The majority of canned foods on the market come in containers whose linings are laced with traces of BPA that can migrate into food. Cut back on BPA by purchasing foods packaged in Tetra Paks, aseptic cartons made from layers of paper, aluminum and polyethylene. Even better, avoid packaged foods altogether and stick to fresh fruits and vegetables and homemade dishes.
Eat Well Cheap
Food prices are in the news these days—and on everybody's mind. But rising food costs don't have to stop you from eating fresh, natural, lovingly raised food. In fact, by making a few changes in the way you shop and cook, you can soften the blow of rising food prices and make your meals even more delicious at the same time. What's the secret? Making the best use of both the food's time and your time
