Happy Earth Day 2010

It's been a while since I've posted. For those of you reading this, Thank you for your continued readership and support!

I chose Earth Day to get back from my absence for a reason. Without the little blue planet we live on, nothing we experience would be possible. I believe it is all of our responsibilities to do what we can to extend our stay on this fragile planet.

I'll make this post very brief. Frugality to me means we take as little from this planet as possible, and put back as much as we can. If we each put back more than we take, our world can drastically change for the better.

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Simple Ideas To Help Our Earth

1. Consume less food - you'll lose weight and save money.
2. Buy fewer electronics - you can get that iPad if you really want it. Just don't buy 10 other gadgets because others have them.
3. Use less fuel - Drive less. Use public transportation. Car pool.
4. Use less water - NYC is lucky to have one of, if not the best, water supply in the world. Don't waste it. Take shorter showers, use water saving devices to help save water.
5. Use less plastic - less bottled water, more tap. Use less disposable utensil, buy good quality utensils you can use over and over.
6. Reuse and recycle paper, aluminum and plastic.
7. Print less - save your information to pdf files instead of printing.
8. Use the library or rent instead of buying books or DVDs.
9. Plant a tree, learn to garden and grow your own fruits or veggies.

What ever you are consuming, you can use less. You'll save money and the planet in the process.

You don't have to do much to make a difference. The ideas I listed above are very small steps you can take today. Start today, continue everyday to make our Earth a better place for you, me and all our children.


What about you, what ideas do you have to help save our Earth?


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Six Everyday Items You Should Reuse

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We in NYC  throw out enough trash every single day to fill the space of The Empire State building.  If enough of us reuse some of those things one extra time, I think we can reduce that by a good amount.

Here are some everyday things that we can reuse, thus delaying it from filling up the landfills by a few days.

1. Paper - Reuse the back of single sided printed paper.  Use it for notes, doodling, etc...
2. Plastic cups - Reuse it to drink another cup of coffee, water, soda etc...  It can be a pencil/pen holder.  Use it to plant a seedling.
3. Plastic bottles - We are told not to reuse plastic bottles due to contamination.  How about reusing it to hold water to water your plants?  Throw a refilled botted in the freezer and use as and ice pack.  I'm sure you can think of other ideas to reuse a plastic bottle.
4. Toothbrushes - Who says you have to use it only for brushing your teeth?  After it no longer does the job for your teeth, use it to scrub blemishes from shoes, hard to reach corners or any other small surface.
5. Batteries - If you are still using regular alkaline AA batteries, you can put it to use after it no longer works in your camera or other high draining devices.  Put it in your hallway clock, it takes very little power to get that clock going.  You can also use the batteries in low draining remote controls for TVs, DVD players, etc....
6. Paper bags - Use it to make popcorn.  Brown bag your lunch.  Help bananas ripen faster.  There are numerous ways to use a paperbag.  When you are done, recycle it!

I have a challenge to all you readers.  Name something that you have and list ways how you can reuse it.  If you don't know, perhaps someone else does!  Share your ideas in the comments or just spread the message in your own way!

Whatever you do, spread the message to reuse and recycle.  Every little bit helps keep our little blue globe going one day longer, and you can start today.  What do you reuse to help keep the landfills from filling up?

Elsewhere:

• Check out our weekly post on The405Club.  This week, you can find some downloadable freebies!
• Enter to win a copy of How To Be An Everyday Philanthropist book - figure out more ways to help our world and communities.

For additional links to frugal tips and tricks follow me on Twitter. If you would like to contribute to FrugalNYC in any way feel free to contact me via email. Click here to add FrugalNYC to your RSS reader or Subscribe to FrugalNYC by Email.

Photo: country_boy_shane

Turning Off Lights Really Saves

Have you been curious to whether turning off lights really do save electricity? Common sense says it does, but if you consider the cost of replacing a burnt out bulb and other factors, it may not be such a simple decision.  What about the mercury contained in Compact Florescent light bulbs?  Is it really better for the environment when people just toss used light bulbs in the garbage?  By the way, you are not supposed to toss that CFL bulb in the garbage due to the mercury contained in these bulbs.  Some state and local governments allow disposal with trash, but make sure you put it in several bags to keep it from breaking and hurting anyone who handles it.  Find out how CFLs work and how to dispose of CFLs (PDF file).

Save Money - The Proof

Enter the mythbusters to help us determine the cost of turning off lights in a "scientific manner". I watched this video on Sustain Lane called Mythbusters take on lightbulb energy myths and it put my concerns to rest.  You see, I've heard about health concerns for florescent bulbs and still use regular incandescent bulbs in some places.  Incandescent bulbs cost the least, from the startup perspective.  It uses the least energy to start, but keeping them on tend to be more expensive than CFLs and the newer LED bulbs.

Florescent tubes on the other hand, use the most amount of electricity to "start up".  As you learn from the video, even with this "start up" cost taken into account, it is still more cost effective for you to turn off that light when leaving a room.  Just watch the video and you will see for yourself.

The Conclusion

It's cheaper to turn off the lights when you leave a room.  Even if it is for one single minute!  Knowing this will definitely change my habits.  I can now definitely tell and "show" those who tell me otherwise.  What about you?

Did this video put any concerns to rest for you?  Did you end up with more questions than answers than lighting?  Did you get a look at that LED bulb or that bulb that's been burning for over 100 years!?  Share your comments.

For additional links to frugal tips and tricks follow me on Twitter. If you would like to contribute to FrugalNYC in any way feel free to contact me via email. Click here to add FrugalNYC to your RSS reader or Subscribe to FrugalNYC by Email.

Cataclysmic Climate Effects

I recently read an article that says there's a new report warning of continued climate change could cause great floods, drought, disease and other unfortunate global events. I've had a dream similar to the scene depicted by the trailer of 2012, except in this dream I'm in a Manhattan hi-rise. Climate change and helping our environment is always somewhere in the back of my mind. What about you?

Instead of leaving all the work to politicians and scientists, perhaps we can all pitch in, a little bit at a time. We can all walk more, take public transit, share a car (I see too many cars with only a driver in it), recycle, reuse, turn off lights, unplug unused electronics and numerous other things. Only by taking things in our own hands can we really make a difference in our own lives. We may even end up helping millions of others in the process. Leo of Zen Habits mentions in his post, The Art of the Small: How to Make an Impact, that each one of us can make a huge difference if we concentrate on a small enough problem.

What do you do to help the environment and stave off climate change? What do you do in your daily life to help our environment?

For additional links to frugal tips and tricks follow me on Twitter. If you would like to contribute to FrugalNYC in any way, feel free to contact me via email. Click here to add FrugalNYC to your RSS reader or Subscribe to FrugalNYC by Email.

Photo by Simon Davison

Where Does Your Recycled Items Go?

I dropped off two expired cell phone batteries at CVS this morning, they had a collection box for old cell phone batteries. It makes me wonder where this e-waste actually goes after it's dropped off. I'm glad they are lending a helping hand and are doing the collections, but where does this actually end up?

I try to be environmentally conscious. I reuse plastic utencils, takeout containers, plastic cups and anything that can be reused with a quick clean and rinse. I try and use durable goods as much as possible, anything that does not go in a landfill can effectively reduce the junk that goes into our landfills.

I encourage you all to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle whatever you can. If each of you uses one less plastic fork a day and spread the message and ask others to do the same, together we can make a big impact. I'm not an environmentalist nor am I asking anyone to become an environmentalist, though I do respect environmentalists and their ideals. I'm just sharing my thought on one small step we can all take to improve our environment and the planet we live on. There are many other steps we can take to reduce waste and make this a better world for ourselves and our future generations, and I may go into that in a future post.

If you know where CVS, Best Buy, Target, Walmart or any other chain store sends their collected e-waste, let us know in the comments. I'm always interested in learning a little more. Thanks for reading. For additional links to frugal tips and tricks follow me on Twitter. If you would like to contribute to FrugalNYC in any way (guest posts, articles, ideas, interesting links, advice, financial assistance, or anything else), feel free to contact me via email. Click here to add FrugalNYC to your RSS reader.

Photo courtesy of Gaetan Lee