Monday, February 5, 2007

First Post

OK so I'm finally part of the whole blog phenomenon!

My goal for this blog is to try to have a place for people to come and save or make more money in a way that will also have a beneficial impact on the planet.


Recently I have been trying to save money and have realized that many times these days saving money can go hand and hand with saving the environment. Too many times I think people want to save the environment, and would like everyone to join them no matter the cost. There will always be a percentage of people that are willing to save the world no matter the cost. Realistically though, in order to get the rest of the world to join in there has to be some benefit. Until Global Warming threatens our lives in a imminent way (like within the current year, or maybe the current week) people will always wonder what's in it for me?


People think in an immediate way. Saving the planet in 200 years sadly is not good enough. Saving you money on this month's electric bill will get people to listen. Reducing the cost of building your new home will be interesting to people (and if we can do it in a "green" way then so be it). If companies find out that more people will buy their product because it was manufactered so there was less impact on the environment they will listen.

The bottom line is money talks and you know what walks. A few people doing something about the worlds problems really isn't enough to help that much. The way to get everyone on board to to affect their wallet.

This is a hobby for me not a job but I am thinking that if I can have a informative posting once a week at least that would be great. Each time I'll try to include a helpful tip on how to save you some money in a green way. "Saving Green"

I'm new to all of this really, and I'm by no means an expert. My wife and I recently had a son, and have #2 on the way. Being a new father got me thinking about what we are passing down our children. I don't have all the answers, and only recently totally accepted that there is a problem. But it is pretty interesting to me especially if I can save some money! So in future posts I'll try to come up with some answers no matter how small to help. I encourage you to reply with your thoughts and input.

I grew up never recycling, just throwing everything out. If you think of everytown in America having a landfill, at some point we are just going to run out of room. Literally it has to go somewhere! Kind of a gross world filled with trash for our kids. Now I know that there really isn't anything in it for me, but honestly how much effort does it take to recycle these days. Every trash service that I know of offers recycling with your weekly pickup. You just throw it in a different bin when you get rid of the can or bottle! Seriously if your not doing this then come on. All though I guess really there is a gain for us. If my recycleables go in a different bin then they don't go in the trash bin. If I'm not filling the trash bin then I could get a smaller bin and pay less for trash service. So there you go. Once again helping the environment helps your wallet!

Helpful Tip #1:

If you replace 5 of your most used incadencent light bulbs in your house with the new compact flourescent spiral bulbs, you should save about $60 each year!

3 comments:

dwd1 said...

interesting stuff - i am looking forward to reading your next tips. my only problem with the complact fourescent bulbs is that they are not dimmable and that they cause problems with my home automation network. but after doing soem rsearch i found these:
http://www.smarthome.com/903233.html. havent tried them yet but i should.

Anonymous said...

And what about the Mercury required to produce the bulb? And the emissions from the Chinese coal-fired energy plants required to power the CFL plants?

Mike Dee said...

The thing is burning coal actually produces Mercury. The only thing is this Mercury is worse because it is released in the air and gets into the atmosphere.

Additionally, the mercury that is produced by burning coal to run an incandencent bulb less the mercury produced to run a equivilent CFL is less then the amount of mercury needed to manufactuer one CFL. So either way it is a net reduction in the amount of mercury used, and with a CFL it isn't getting released into the atmosphere.