Packaging Versus Price: How Do You Decide?

I'm over at the Green Phone Booth today debating about packaging versus price:

Admittedly, there are times when avoiding plastic costs more. For example, I could run down to my local Walmart and pick up an insulated PVC lunchbag for my kindergartner for about $10. Or I could buy a stainless steel PlanetBox for $60. That's a big price difference, but when I feel like I'm investing in something that's going to last a long time, I'm generally willing to pay more.

But what about when the plastic-free item costs more but isn't necessarily better?

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Challengicious Monday: Save Energy Through Heating and Cooling

Mondays are challengicious at The Conscious Shopper. Here's your next energy-related challenge:

Save Energy Through Heating and Cooling

To complete this challenge, you can...

BABY STEPS

• Change your air filter regularly. Most of the time, that means monthly, but you can get filters that last longer. Just remember to change them when they are supposed to be changed. You can even get reusable furnace filters.
  

• Don't make your A/C or furnace work too hard.
• Keep doors and windows closed tightly.
• Run exhaust fans in the bathroom and kitchen only when you need them.
• Close the flue in your fireplace when you're not using it.
• Uncover all your vents.

• Keep your air conditioning unit properly maintained. Think of it like a car - sometimes it's going to need a tune-up.

• Cover bare floors in the winter and uncover them in the summer. Adding rugs can improve your comfort level when you're cold, while a bare floor can be cool and soothing on those hot summer days.

• Avoid using your oven on hot days.

• Block the sun.
• In the summer, keep the curtains drawn when the sun is on that side of your house, or install outside awnings over your windows.
  
• In the winter, use heavy drapes as extra insulation over leaky windows, but keep south facing windows uncovered to allow the sun to warm your home naturally.

JOGGING STRIDE

• Raise your thermostat a few degrees in the summer and lower it a few degrees in the winter.
  
• Shoot for a daytime temperature of 78 degrees in the summer and 68 degrees in the winter. For each degree that you raise or lower your thermostat, you will save 3-5% off your heating/cooling costs.
• Use a programmable thermostat to automatically raise or lower the temperature settings when you leave home or at night. (If you have a heat pump, it's probably best to ignore this advice unless you have a special programmable thermostat that can raise and lower the temperature gradually.)
  

• Install and use ceiling fans. But remember that fans cool people, not rooms, so they will only save energy (and money) if you use them correctly. That means:
• Turn the fan off when you leave a room. Think of a fan like a light - it does no good when no one is in the room to use it.
• In the spring and fall, use ceiling fans instead of turning on the A/C.
• In the summer, keep your thermostat set a few degrees higher than your comfort level, and turn your ceiling fans on high. Ceiling fans work along the same lines as a breeze on a hot day.
• In the winter, reverse the direction the fan turns (usually just by flipping a switch), turn the fan on low, and keep your thermostat set lower. The fans will push air toward the ceiling, forcing the warm air down into the room.
• Make sure you get the appropriate size fan for your room. A small fan in a large room is not going to do a good job.

• Landscape smart.
  
• Plant medium-height trees on the east and west sides of your home to block the sun when it's low in the sky.
• Plant tall deciduous trees on the south side of your home. They'll block out the sun when it's high in the sky in the summer but allow the sun through when it's at a lower angle in the winter .
  
• Plant dense evergreens on the north side of your home where they'll block cold winter winds.

MARATHON RUNNER

• Seal leaks and add insulation. Use this DIY Guide to Sealing and Insulating from Energy Star.
• Seal and repair leaky air ducts to cut your heating/cooling costs by up to 30 percent.
• Add insulation, and make sure it's installed properly. The best place to add insulation? The attic.
  
• Check for air leaks around windows, doors, outlets, entrances to attics and crawlspaces, and in attics and basements. Conscious Shopper reader Frank directed me to this smoke test that you can use to find leaks around your windows and doors (although he says you could easily do it with a cigarette or smokey incense).

• Install energy efficient windows and doors.

• Upgrade to a more efficient A/C unit. If you live in a moderate climate, consider getting a heat pump - they are 30% more efficient than a typical air conditioner. Or take a look at geothermal heat pumps, which cost more but are even more efficient and last much longer.

Most of these steps are completely free, and those that do cost money should save you money over the long run. As we go through these Saving Energy challenges, keep reminding yourself that saving energy = saving money.

I'm planning on switching to a reusable filter this month. We do the rest of the Baby Steps and Jogging Stride steps except for the landscaping tips because we're renting. I need to check for and seal air leaks, but I can't do the other Marathon Runner tips because of the renting thing.

Sealing leaks and adding insulation is actually a huge thing and may take you more than a week to complete. Don't worry - most of the steps in the next few weeks are super easy, so you should have plenty of time to focus on caulking and insulating.

Will You Take the Challenge?

____________________

You have hereby been challenged to go green in a year without going broke! Check out the last challenge, or view the whole list of Challengicious Mondays. Sign up for my RSS feed, follow me on Twitter, and join my "Go Green without Going Broke" group on Facebook!

• image by FxyLxy
  

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April Extreme Challenge

Here's your extreme challenge for April:

Go No 'Poo

"No 'poo" is slang in the green world for "no shampoo." What it really means is that you wash your hair with baking soda and rinse with apple cider vinegar, and you wash your hair less often.

Why go no poo?

• To save money. Compare a $5 bottle of shampoo to a $1 box of baking soda.
• To save packaging. Shampoo and conditioner usually come in plastic bottles, and even if you recycle those, their next life is probably a park bench. Baking soda comes in a cardboard box and vinegar in a glass jar, and because you only use a small amount each time you wash your hair, you end up using a lot less packaging.
• To avoid potentially harmful chemicals. Although there are plenty of eco-friendly, less toxic shampoos and conditioners on the market, what could be less harmful than baking soda and vinegar?
• To live naturally. Hey parents, have you ever noticed how long you can go without washing your kids hair? Supposedly, that's how hair is supposed to be, and if you wash it less and put fewer chemicals on it, your hair can look that natural, luscious, and shiny too.

Those are the main reasons I've thought of. If you've gone no poo, why did you do it?

There are several methods for going no poo. Here's one:

1. Obtain a couple old squirt bottles such as old shampoo bottles, salad dressing bottles, or sports bottles.
2. Fill one bottle with a ratio of 1 Tbsp. baking soda to 1 c. water. Fill the other bottle with a ratio of 1 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar to 1 c. water. If desired, you can add a few drops of essential oil to the apple cider vinegar solution to cover the smell.
3. Squeeze some of the baking soda solution on to your scalp and massage for a few seconds. You're aiming to clean your scalp, not your hair. Leave on while you wash your body and then rinse out.
4. Squeeze some of the vinegar solution on to your hair. Leave on for a few seconds and then rinse.

I've read that there's an "adjustment period" while your hair returns to it's natural state and starts producing less grease. Then you'll be able to wash your hair less and less - some people go as long as a week!

Want to see no poo in action? Here are a few bloggy friends that have gone no poo:

• Fake Plastic Fish
• Amber Strocel
• Melinda at One Green Generation
  

Here's what my family will be doing:

Last month's challenge was easy peasy. This one, I'm not excited about. At all.

I'm starting this challenge late this month because of spring break, but I'm committing to try no poo for at least a month. I'm really nervous about it because of the supposed adjustment period. I'm also skeptical.

My sister the cosmetologist only washes her hair every other day, or even every third day, and she has gorgeous hair. She told me that if you stop washing your hair so often, your body will adjust and produce less grease, and that hair is healthier when it's not washed so much. So I gave it a go...For a whole year, I gave it a go! I kept thinking, "Soon my head will catch on that it doesn't need to make so much grease." But it never did! Finally after a year, I was tired of looking awful every other day, and I went back to daily washings. And that is why I don't believe no poo will work for me. But we'll see!

Will you accept the April Extreme Challenge to go no poo for a month? Let me know in the comments what your family will be doing.

____________________

You have hereby been challenged to go green in a year without going broke! Check out the last challenge, or view the whole list of Challengicious Mondays. Sign up for my RSS feed, follow me on Twitter, and join my "Go Green without Going Broke" group on Facebook!

• image by hansvandenberg30

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Save Money with Cloth Diapers

I'm over at The Green Phone Booth today, calculating the cost of cloth vs. disposable:

When my youngest was about six month's old, my husband and I decided we were probably maybe most likely not having any more kids so there was no reason to hang on to all of our baby stuff. So as my little guy grew out of each phase of babyhood, I thrifted, Craigslisted, and Freecycled the clothes, shoes, bottles, toys, mobile, bedding, bouncy seat, and exersaucer that had gotten me through three babies, and then I stored the rest in a box in my attic.

You know what's in that box? The treasured baby possessions that I just couldn't bear to part with?

• the outfit all three of my boys were christened in
• the Moby wrap I got for my last baby that sparked a Moby wrap fad among my friends
• two sizes of Fuzzibunz diapers and Thirsties wraps

As strange as it may sound, I couldn't let go of my cloth diapers.

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Challengicious Monday: Green Your Household Cleaners

Mondays are challengicious at The Conscious Shopper. Here's your next trash-related challenge:

Green Your Household Cleaners

My household cleaners (the oatmeal container is really borax)

To complete this challenge, you can...

BABY STEPS

• Buy less toxic commercial cleaners. Look for products that disclose their ingredients, and avoid chlorine, ammonia, glycol ethers, monoethanolamine (MEA), diethanolamine (DEA), triclosan, alkylphenol ethoxylates (APEs), pthalates, and petroleum-based ingredients. Also note that the labels "natural," "organic," and "biodegradable" are not regulated for use on cleaning products and can be misleading or inaccurate.

JOGGING STRIDE

• Buy less toxic commercial cleaners in concentrated or bulk sizes. Provide your own water and save unnecessary packaging.
  

MARATHON RUNNER

• Make your own household cleaners. Making your own cleaners is so easy. Here are a couple household cleaner recipes to get you started, and I'll have a few more for you later this week.

I lumped this challenge with the other trash challenges because it didn't seem to fit anywhere else. But if you just take the Baby Step, greening your household cleaners probably isn't going to make much of a difference on your trash production. On the other hand, choosing greener cleaners will reduce your exposure to potentially toxic chemicals and prevent those chemicals from contaminating your water source

If you choose the Jogging Stride or Marathon Runner steps, you'll produce less waste and save your family money!

Will you take the challenge?

____________________

You have hereby been challenged to go green in a year without going broke! Check out the last challenge, or view the whole list of Challengicious Mondays.

Like what you see? Sign up for my RSS feed, follow me on Twitter, and join my "Go Green without Going Broke" group on Facebook! You can also find me over at The Green Phone Booth.

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End of the Week Round-up

We have two challenges rounding up this week:

• the weekly challenge: Start Using a Reusable Water Bottle/Thermos
• and the January Extreme Challenge: Stop Eating Out for a Month

How'd you do on this week's challenge?

I'm a Marathon Runner on this challenge. Except for remembering to take a thermos with me for Starbucks hot chocolate runs (which I didn't have to worry about this month because of the extreme challenge). But my solution is that I'm going to stick a couple clean thermoses in the car, so they'll always be there when I need them. Works for cloth bags, should work for hot chocolate.

a family of water bottles

Thoughts on the extreme challenge:

So if you remember, the point of the extreme challenges is to push yourself a little bit farther than you would normally go so you can find your sweet spot. If you struggled with your challenge throughout the month, you probably need to wind it back a little bit to get to your sweet spot. If you had no trouble at all, see if you can stick with it going forward.

My family had decided to...

1. Me and the kids - go the full extreme and try not to eat out all month.
2. My husband - keep up the habit of eating out with his co-workers, but they committed to only patronizing local restaurants for the month.

My big issue with eating out is the quick runs to Starbucks for hot apple cider and Krispy Kreme for hot chocolate (or to Cookout for shakes in the summer). And I admit it was tough sometimes. But I focused on making more hot chocolate at home, and for times that I really want a hot apple cider, I just need to take my own thermos in the future.

I think avoiding fast food restaurants helped us stay in the budget this month - even though we've always paid lip service to avoiding fast food restaurants, a fast food run always sneaks in somehow. I'm really going to try not to go to fast food restaurants in the future (with possible exceptions while on vacation).

I did miss eating out in general and am really looking forward to getting to go out to eat with my husband at some of our fave local restaurants. But we're going to work on bringing our own take-out containers to lessen the impact of eating out.

My husband says he had no trouble at all...except when he was traveling. That's definitely a nice thing about living downtown.

What about you?

And don't forget about this week's giveaway: ECOBAGS produce bags!

____________________

You have hereby been challenged to go green in a year without going broke! Check out the last challenge, or view the whole list of Challengicious Mondays.

Like what you see? Sign up for my RSS feed, follow me on Twitter, and join my "Go Green without Going Broke" group on Facebook! You can also find me over at The Green Phone Booth.

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How to Afford Switching to Cloth Bags

I knew that I should be using cloth bags a long time before I finally switched. Regular readers of my blog know that this was the story of my life for years: I knew that what I was doing was hurting the planet, but the alternative cost too much. So I stuck with what I'd always done.

Back then, the only cloth bags I'd ever seen cost a fortune. $5 per canvas bag meant $40 to $50 for enough bags to go grocery shopping. Or double that for a collection of those cool European style string bags. It didn't matter how much I wanted to go green...I couldn't afford it. Or could I?

Then and now, there are plenty of low-cost options for people who want to switch to cloth:

• The ubiquitous recycled plastic cloth bag. You can find these at any grocery store, in every color imaginable, with every logo you could desire, and they only cost $1. If you shop at a grocery store that rewards you for bringing your own bag, you'll make up the investment pretty quickly. These are the bags I went with when I finally made the switch several years ago, and I've been happy with them. But they aren't the perfect bag - they're not as strong as other fabrics, and they're still made of plastic that will end up in the landfill eventually.

• Free canvas tote bags. Long before those recycled plastic bags were the big thing, every event passed out free company-logoed canvas bags. I'm sure you've still got a few stuffed in the back of some closet somewhere. Condo Blues has a great post explaining why she likes the swag canvas bags.

• Make your own bags out of thrifted sheets or pillowcases. Depending on the fabric you use, these could be very cheap.

• Crochet a string bag. I love the look of string bags, and it's nice to be able to see what's in the bag. If you're a knitter, here's a knitted string bag pattern for ya.

• Turn your old t-shirts into tote bags.

• Make your own produce bags. I have a tutorial over at The Green Phone Booth about how to make cloth produce bags out of an old shower curtain.

What kind of cloth bags do you use?

____________________

You have hereby been challenged to go green in a year without going broke! Check out the latest challenge, or view the whole list of Challengicious Mondays.

Like what you see? Sign up for my RSS feed, follow me on Twitter, and join my "Go Green without Going Broke" group on Facebook! You can also find me over at The Green Phone Booth.

• This post was shared at Works for Me Wednesday at We Are THAT Family, Festival of Frugality #215 at Pragmatic Environmentalism, and Frugal Fridays at Life as Mom
  

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January Extreme Challenge

Here's your extreme challenge for January:

Stop Eating Out for a Month

To complete this challenge, you can...

BABY STEPS

• Give up fast food for a month. Fast food restaurants are the biggest culprits in eating out - from the napkins, straws, and wrappers to the over-sized food choices, sodas, and factory-farmed meat. Try opting out of fast food just for one month.
  

JOGGING STRIDE

• Only eat at locally-owned restaurants for a month. Even if you're dining habits still result in lots of trash and food waste, at least you'll be supporting the businesses in your community and maintaining your city's individuality. You could also take this challenge a step further and support only restaurants that serve local, sustainable, and organic dishes by searching the Eat Well Guide.
  

MARATHON RUNNER

• Only eat home-cooked foods for a month. You can do it! Go a whole month without eating out.

As always, you can modify these suggestions to meet your family's needs. Just make sure you:

Make a plan.
Write it down.
Post it somewhere you'll see it.

My husband and I have completely different weaknesses when it comes to eating out. Of the two of us, I'm a billion times more likely to be in the car with three grumpy little people and suddenly realize, "Oh, crap, it's lunchtime." My husband, on the other hand, goes out to a sit-down restaurant once a week with his co-workers and orders something meaty. That ritual is one of the few times my non-vegetarian husband gets to eat meat, and it's important to him. I like to see my man happy.

So our plan is...

1. I'll be going the full extreme and trying not to eat out all month.
2. My husband will keep up the habit of eating out with his co-workers, but they've committed to only patronizing local restaurants for the month.
   

Will you accept the January Extreme Challenge to stop eating out for a month? Let me know in the comments what your family will be doing.

____________________

You have hereby been challenged to go green in a year without going broke! Check out the latest challenge, or view the whole list of Challengicious Mondays.

Like what you see? Sign up for my RSS feed, follow me on Twitter, and join my "Go Green without Going Broke" group on Facebook! You can also find me over at The Green Phone Booth.

• Photo by ebruli
• This post was included in the Festival of Frugality #212
  

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Spotlight on Raleigh: The R-Line

Those of you who hang on my every word and read all my posts both here and at The Green Phone Booth (Hi, Mom!) know that I've been obsessing about my car problem - my gas guzzling minivan. It would be a really stupid financial move for us to trade in our car right now, so I've been trying to find ways to drive less or to avoid driving at all. The R-Line is one solution that I've come up with.

The R-Line is Raleigh's downtown circulator bus service. It runs from Wilmington, up to Peace Street, over to Glenwood South, down to South St (in front of the Performing Arts Center), and back to Wilmington - basically a great big loop around the downtown area. (See map.)

We live just a few blocks from Wilmington, so its incredibly accessible to our house. And best of all, the R-Line is always 100% completely FREE!

I know most residents of Wake County, being the sprawling suburban paradise that it is, don't live within walking distance of the R-Line, but if you ever head downtown, consider parking your car and taking advantage of this great service rather than driving from point to point.

Here are some of the attractions you can get to using the R-Line:

:: Seaboard Station (including ACE Hardware, Logan Garden Center, and several restaurants)
:: Moore Square (including Marbles Kids Museum and numerous restaurants and art galleries)
:: Glenwood South (including numerous restaurants and shops)
:: Warehouse District (including The Pit and Goodwill)
:: Snoopy's on Hillsborough Street
:: North Carolina Museum of History
:: North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences
:: Raleigh City Museum
:: State Capital Building
:: Performing Arts Center
:: Conference Center
:: Wake County Courthouse
:: a couple of post offices

From Glenwood South, it's an easy less-than-a-mile walk to Cameron Village, where you can find:

:: clothing and shoe stores
:: restaurants
:: grocery stores (Fresh Market and Harris Teeter)
:: salons and a barber shop
:: Rite Aid
:: jewelry and gift shops
:: Blockbuster
:: UPS Store
:: a drycleaner
:: a library
:: an eye care store
:: a cell phone store
:: a toy store
:: a sporting goods store
:: home decor shops (including Ten Thousand Villages)

It's also about a mile from R-Line stops on Glenwood Ave to both Pullen Park and Fred Fletcher Park.

My son's school is also 3/4 of a mile south of one of the R-Line stops, and I'm also looking into finding doctors and dentists closer to my house so we can walk there for well check-ups and regular cleanings. (Obviously if we're sick or drugged up, we wouldn't walk.) Now if only I could convince more of my friends to move downtown....

Have you tried the R-Line? What did you think?


Related Posts

• Spotlight on Raleigh: Smart Commute Challenge
• Spotlight on Raleigh: Cool Cities
• Spotlight on Raleigh: Recycling Facilities
  

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Weekend Ramblings: Time Magazine Got It Right...Almost

Sometimes on the weekends, I ramble about thoughts I've been having that week. Feel free to comment, add to my thoughts, or disagree with anything I say. But please remember that I don't like being called an idiot, even if I'm being one. So keep your comments respectful.

I have a bone to pick with Time Magazine. In their August 31st issue, they had an article called "The Real Cost of Cheap Food." Overall, it was a great article - kind of a watered down version of the documentary Food, Inc, and it shows how mainstream the food debate is getting.

But on the third page of the article, there was an illustration that drove me batty! The left column of the illustration was titled "Organic" with a picture of common items purchased at a grocery store and a sample receipt totaling $33.32. The same products, though conventionally grown, were listed in the right hand column with a receipt totaling $15.88. With these sample numbers, the article goes on to explain, the annual cost of buying the organic products would be $1,732 while the annual cost of the conventional products would be $825. "Is sustainability worth an extra $900 a year?" the caption queries.

Picture me reading this article a year ago before I greened my grocery bill: "What??!! The cost of organics is twice as much as conventional products???!!! Who can afford that? Not me!"

Except, wait a second. I have greened my grocery bill, and I now know that going organic isn't that big of a cost differential. So when I read this article earlier this week, my reaction was, "What grocery store are they shopping at?!"

It's no wonder that people assume they can't afford to go green when even an article that supports organic agriculture and ag reform claims that organic foods are so expensive.

If they had included my grocery receipt with the same items in this article, it would have looked like this:

• homemade bread containing all organic ingredients: $1.80
• 1 pound of locally produced, grass fed ground beef: $5.99*
• 3 organic apples: $1.80
  
• organic grape tomatoes: $3.99
  
• a dozen locally produced, free range eggs: $3
• 1 gallon of organic whole milk: $4.99

TOTAL: $21.57
Annual cost: $1,121

*The article includes chicken breasts instead of ground beef. I've never bought chicken, so I'm not sure how much it costs.

And that doesn't even include the fact that since I'm a vegetarian, we barely ever buy beef - beans are soooo much cheaper. Or that I wouldn't buy those expensive grape tomatoes that come in a plastic pint case because the regular or roma tomatoes are much cheaper and float around in the nude.

The article proposes that if we "factor in crop subsidies, ecological damage and what we pay in health-care bills after our fatty, sugary diet makes us sick, conventionally produced food looks a lot pricier." Great point. The cheap cost of conventional food leaves out a lot of factors.

But please, Time Magazine, don't scare people away from organics with such ridiculously high prices.

(And since I'm on a rant, I was also annoyed by the sentence "no one goes to farmers' markets for bargains" and the fact that the author didn't even touch on the issues with farm labor.)

Did you read the article? What did you think?

Photo by Kables

Related Posts:

• Weekend Ramblings: Big Business
• Weekend Ramblings: Waste Disposal
• Weekend Ramblings: Housing
  

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The Envelope System for Managing Money

When my husband and I got married, we were both still in college. He had a job in the computer lab on campus, and I arranged my schedule so I could go to school two days a week and substitute teach on the other three. We were struggling newlyweds, and I spent many stressful evenings trying to figure out how to make the numbers work. When I think back on those days, I'm amazed that we always (if barely) managed to get by.

Back then, the envelope system was one of the methods we used to keep our meager earnings in check. We estimated how much we would need for groceries, gas, and miscellaneous expenses, and we withdrew that amount in cash from the bank every month. The cash was divided up into envelopes - one for each category. When we needed to make a purchase, we would grab the appropriate envelope before heading to the store.

The point of the envelope system was to keep us from going over budget. We always paid in cash, and when we ran out of money, well, that was it. No more money.

Sounds like a smart idea, right? So why did we give it up?

After awhile, when money was a little less tight, it started to seem like we were actually losing money by paying in cash. Back then (though that seems like such a silly phrase since it was only seven years ago), using a debit card was less common. A lot of places - especially fast food restaurants - didn't take them. And many places would only take cash or checks.

So if I only had my debit card, I couldn't spontaneously decide to swing through the drive-thru on the way home from work. But if I happened to be carrying an envelope full of cash...pretty soon the envelope would be a little lighter and I'd have a tummy full of french fries. (This behavior was especially common when I was pregnant with First Son.)

There was also the change issue. I've never been good about holding on to small bills or coins. Every quarter I would get in change was like an excuse to buy a Coke. And if I had a twenty and the total came to $19.25, you can bet I'd be tossing a candy bar onto that conveyor belt, just to round out the bill.

So the envelope system seemed to have some downsides, but lately, paying with a debit card doesn't look any better. I can't think of a single place that doesn't take debit/credit, so walking around with a debit card in my purse is like an invitation to start spending money.

I don't think there's really a point to this post except to say that I'm still trying to figure it out. We've been experimenting the past couple months with moving back to the envelope system, and I'm not sure yet how well I like it. It's kind of scary - I'm constantly paranoid that I won't have enough cash to pay the grocery bill. And now that I have kids, it's not like I can say, "We're running low on cash so we'll just eat ramen the rest of the month." Cash also makes it difficult to stock up on sales.

On the other hand, I'm much more aware of how much I'm spending. When I was paying with my debit card, it was always a bit of a guessing game.

Do any of you use the envelope system? Or pay for most things in cash? What do you think?

Photo by Photos8.com

This post was included in the Festival of Frugality at The Centsible Life.


Related Posts:

• The Poor Man's Dilemma: How to Save Money When Living Paycheck to Paycheck
• Create a Price Book to Save Money
• Budget Input and Advice
  

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12 Strategies to Save Money on Organics

Earlier this week, I offered some suggestions for adding more organics to your grocery cart. But if you're a budget conscious shopper, you might still be having trouble looking beyond the price. Organics are definitely more expensive than conventional products, so first I want to offer some strategies for saving money on organics, and then I'll touch briefly on why organics are more expensive.


12 Strategies to Save Money on Organics

Strategy #1: Be a smart shopper. I've already listed some ways you can save money on your grocery bill by not following my example. Other smart shopping strategies include keeping a price book, making a list, stocking up when items are on sale, using coupons, and buying store brands.

Strategy #2: Waste not, want not. Avoid letting food go to waste before you use it, and eat up leftovers.

Strategy #3: Find amazing deals with bulk bins, the bins of grains, nuts, and dried fruit at Whole Foods and other natural food stores. I wish I could buy everything from a bulk bin!

Strategy #4: Buy in bulk. If you can't find it in a bulk bin, buy the largest size you can find. But remember to keep your eye on the unit price! Sometimes, the bigger package has an inflated price.

Strategy #5: Choose less expensive fruits and vegetables. Around here, greens and sweet potatoes have the biggest nutritional bang for your buck.

Strategy #6: Eat less meat (especially cow). A serving of organic beans from a can is about $0.30. An organic egg costs about a quarter. A serving of the cheapest organic ground beef I've seen is $0.75.

Strategy #7: Buy a share of a cow. If you're not keen on going completely vegetarian, you can save money on your meat products by buying a share of a cow directly from a farmer. Search for local farms at www.eatwild.com. I've also heard of cow-shares for dairy products.

Strategy #8: Join a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). Pay a fee at the beginning of the year and get a share of the farm's produce. Two years ago, my family paid $400 to participate in a CSA for roughly 20 weeks. So for $20 a week we got a cooler full of fresh, organic fruits and vegetables and a dozen farm-fresh eggs. You cannot match those prices at the grocery store!

Strategy #9: Join a buying club, a group of people who place huge orders directly with food distributers, saving costs by buying in bulk and cutting out the middlemen. The biggest supplier of natural and organic foods to buying clubs is United National Foods. I don't have any experience with them, but I have successfully found some savings on organic grains and legumes through a buying club with members of my church. They order from Walton Feed.

Strategy #10: Pick your own fruits and vegetables. If you do the harvesting work yourself, you can typically save a lot of money. Find an organic pick-your-own-farm near you by visiting www.pickyourown.org.

Strategy #11: Plant a garden. Go beyond harvesting and do all the work yourself. If you have limited space, use the square foot gardening method, and focus on those varieties that will give you the greatest yield with the least work. Save even more money by growing from seed. And make sure you use sustainable gardening techniques!

Strategy #12: Raise your own chickens or bees. With a little work, you can have your own fresh eggs and honey. And if you're really committed, you could also save money by raising your own goats, pigs, or even a cow.


3 Reasons Organics Cost More

1. Scale. Growing crops without pesticides and chemical fertilizer is more time-consuming and labor intensive and generally has to be done on a smaller scale. All of these factors increase costs.
2. Niche Market. So far, the organics industry has been catering to a niche market made up of people who are willing to pay more. In some cases, organic foods are priced higher to match the expectation of it as a "luxury" item.
   
3. Subsidies. Conventional industrial ag receives massive subsidies from the government. Organic farmers do not. Marion Nestle, author of What to Eat, explains:

Until the latest farm bill, which has a small provision for promotion of organic agriculture, organic farmers received not one break from the federal government. In contrast, the producers of corn, soybeans, wheat and cotton continue to get $20 billion or so a year in farm subsidies.

Industrial agriculture also benefits from federally administered marketing programs and from cozy relationships with congressional committees and the USDA. In contrast, the USDA considers fruits and vegetables "specialty crops." This kind of food politics shows up as higher prices in the grocery store.

The first reason is an integral part of organic farming, but the other two reasons can be changed. And this is the point I want to emphasize most:

If more people buy organics, the prices will drop.

I truly believe that. Every time you go to the grocery store and every time you eat, you are casting your vote about the nature of our agricultural system. If you want to see changes in the price of organics, find a way to afford at least some of them now. Save money by using energy wisely, choosing better transportation, and buying less, and shift your savings to your grocery budget.

Photo by Mjorge


Related Posts:

• Seven Reasons to Eat Organic
  
• The Poor Man's Dilemma: How to Save Money When Living Paycheck to Paycheck
• How to Afford Making Your Home Energy Efficient

Read more...

Quick Tip: Fan in the Window

Marvin Woll, a man I met through the Sierra Club, gave me this tip for saving money on your electricity bill while using less energy. He sent this suggestion into the News & Observer last year.

Your first step is to purchase a 20-inch box fan. Then either late at night or early in the morning, turn on the Weather Channel or your computer and check the outside temperature. If the temperature is 70 degrees or lower, put the fan in the window, turn it to the high setting and either push or pull air through the house. If possible, let the fan run for an hour. You will notice your thermostat fall by four or five degrees. It only takes a minute to glance at the outside temperature and put the fan in the window.

When we do this, our main air conditioning unit does not come on until three or four in the afternoon instead of 10 or 11 in the morning. Our house is 1,900 square feet. This technique reduces our electric bill by $60 per month, and we do this six months during the year.

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The Poor Man's Dilemma: How to Save Money When Living Paycheck to Paycheck

This post was included in the 179th Festival of Frugality at Suburban Dollar.

I've been thinking about getting a pressure cooker. I'd like to be able to buy large amounts of fruits and vegetables at the peak of their season (when the cost is lowest) and can them in jars for use during the rest of the year. A pressure cooker would also make using dried beans more convenient, and would be a great tool when I have a garden someday.

I know a cheap pressure cooker only costs $100 and would save me much more than that over time, but there's a problem...I don't have $100.

This is the poor man's dilemma. To acquire money-saving tools takes money. To acquire money-saving skills takes money. To increase income through investments takes money. And for someone living paycheck to paycheck, extra money is hard to come by.

So what can you do when you really want something but don't have the money? In particular, what can you do when you know that object or skill will ultimately save you money, if only you had the money to acquire it?


Check under the couch cushions, break open the piggy bank, or try this...

1. Make a list of the items you want in order of greatest need or greatest return on investment. Focus on saving for the things you need most, and don't get sidetracked by the lesser or cheaper items. For example, if buying a car would enable you to obtain a better paying job farther away from your home, don't waste your savings on the $100 pair of designer jeans that won't increase your salary no matter how good you look in them.

2. Get creative with ways to increase your savings.

• Keep a change jar. Anytime you pay in cash, put your change in a jar. Eventually, the change will add up.
  
• Use your weekends and evenings to do odd jobs. Mow your neighbors' lawns. Babysit. Teach a class.
  
• Sell something. Hold a garage sale. Put little used items on Craigslist or Ebay. Take your scrap metal to a recycling center.
  
• After you've paid off a debt, keep making the payment for that debt...to yourself. When you've paid off your car, pay a monthly car payment to your savings account. Hopefully, by the time you need a new car, you'll have a significant down payment saved up.
• Temporarily increase frugality. You can ramp up your ability to save for a short time by going without luxuries or vices until you've saved up enough. Cut back on unnecessary expenditures like dining out, movies, alcoholic beverages, soft drinks, and dessert.

3. Find a deal. Consider buying the item used, or at least on sale. The cheaper you can find the item, the less you need to save up.

4. In the meantime, borrow. Do you have a friend with the same item who would loan it to you until you can buy your own?

5. Use your tax return. My father has his tax deductions perfected so that my parents rarely get a tax return. If you need more money upfront (and hate lending money to the government like my dad does), that's a good strategy. But I prefer to think of my tax return like a savings program. It's automatically deducted from my paycheck so I don't spend it, but eventually I'll get it back. The key, though, is to make sure you invest your tax return in something useful rather than looking at it as a windfall that you can blow. Spend your tax return on an item that will save you money or a skill that will increase your income, or invest it in a long term savings program.

6. As a last resort, consider a loan. In general, if you can avoid going into debt, you should. But if your investment will earn you far more money over time than you would spend on interest, a loan is a reasonable option. For example, going into debt to increase your level of education is a smart investment in the long run.


Good tips for everyone...including me

My family is far from poor. My husband has a very good job - good enough that I can stay home with my kids with little financial sacrifice. During normal times (when we haven't been making two house payments for almost a year), I would plop down $100 for a pressure cooker in a heartbeat. (Okay, maybe not in a heartbeat - I've always had a thrifty streak - but after careful consideration and months of desiring something, I'd definitely buy it.)

But right now, money is still very tight, my husband has another computer conference next month, and then we're heading home to Kentucky/Tennessee to see our parents. $100 feels like a lot of money to part with right now.

I know I'll buy that pressure cooker eventually, but for now, I'm content to wait and save - keeping my change, selling off things we no longer need, and cutting back unnecessary expenses - until I can really afford what I want.

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How to Afford Making Your Home Energy Efficient

This post was included in Carnival of the Green #180 at the Ethical Superstore.

Have you ever heard the saying, "The easiest way to make a million dollars is with a million dollars." In other words, if you already have a million dollars, it's easy to make the next million. The hard part is coming up with that first million.

Sometimes, home improvements in energy efficiency can seem similar. Although energy efficiency is an investment that will pay back over time, you can't earn the savings without first spending some money upfront. And especially now with the economy tanking, it can be scary to part with that initial investment.

But there are some methods available to help you finance your energy efficiency improvements.


How to find the money...

Federal Tax Credits

As part of the new Stimulus bill, you can get lots of money back through tax credits by improving your home's energy efficiency.

According to Energy Star:

• Tax credits are available at 30% of the cost, up to $1,500, in 2009 & 2010 (for existing homes only) for:
  • Windows and Doors
  • Insulation
  • Roofs (Metal and Asphalt)
  • HVAC
  • Water Heaters (non-solar)
  • Biomass Stoves
• Tax credits are available at 30% of the cost, with no upper limit through 2016 (for existing homes & new construction) for:
  • Geothermal Heat Pumps
  • Solar Panels
  • Solar Water Heaters
  • Small Wind Energy Systems
  • Fuel Cells

Weatherization Loans

Many utility companies provide low-interest loans for energy-efficient improvements to your home, such as this one, and this one, and this one. Check out your own utility or energy company for more information. If you live in Raleigh, here's the scoop from Progress Energy's page.


Weatherization Assistance Program

20 to 30 million Americans may be eligible for this program, which provides services to weatherize homes for low-income families. The program includes a home energy audit, an assessment of a home's energy use, and recommendations for weatherization improvements for the home. The average value of improvements is $2,500.

The Department of Energy states,"Some measures, such as insulating your walls or roof, for example, will continue to provide you savings for the lifetime of your house—30 years or more. Others, such as making your heating or cooling equipment more efficient, will provide savings for 10 to 15 years. On average, the value of the weatherization improvement to your house is 2.2 times greater than the cost of the improvement itself."


How to spend the money...

If you have limited funds to work with, you may be unsure where you'd get the most bang for your buck. A professional energy audit would tell you where to start. Or you can check out this chart I found from the Rocky Mountain Institute. It's from 2002, but the information is still useful.


Related Posts

• Energy Efficiency: Renewable Energy's Less Cool Cousin
• Vampires Suck
  
• I Need...Warm Winters and Cool Summers
  

Read more...

How to Lower Your Grocery Bill By Not Following My Example

This post was included in the 177th Festival of Frugality at Savings Not Shoes.

Last week, I revealed that I think I can keep my grocery bill at around $600 a month while still purchasing almost all organic and natural foods, non-toxic personal care products, and non-toxic cleaners. That's about $30 per person a week, or $120 per person a month (relatively speaking since three of the people in my family are under 5 years old).

Some people might read those numbers and gasp. Especially if you've searched some of the websites and blogs about lowering your grocery bill and using coupons. For example, a friend of mine, an avid couponer, only spends about $300-$350 a month on her family of four. But she also doesn't buy any organic foods or non-toxic cleaners and is not opposed to processed foods.

I could be wrong, but I think it would be impossible to get your grocery bill down to $300 buying as many organics and natural products as my family does (which is why I think it's essential to save money on energy efficiency and transportation and shift your savings to your grocery budget)."

Nevertheless, I think it is possible to eat organically for less than I'm doing.

So here are some shopping strategies that I use that I believe are keeping my spending high. Do the opposite, and you may save some money.


Shoot for as green of a grocery bill as possible.
Except for a very small number of items, my grocery list is almost completely organic, natural, and non-toxic. If I were willing to compromise on some items, my grocery bill could be significantly less.

Shop at the farmers market.
I like to support my local farmers, but at our farmers market, there are no sales, and all the farmers sell their produce at the same price. That means, I'm buying most of our fruits and vegetables in season, which is a cost-effective strategy, but it also means I'm not comparing costs or buying produce on sale.

Also, I know for a fact I can get cheaper organic milk and eggs at Kroger, and even though honey is much more expensive than sugar, I've been using honey in a lot of recipes because I can buy it locally.

Buy a lot of fruits and vegetables.
I try to stick pretty strictly to the 5-a-day fruit and vegetable rule. When I was growing up, we didn't eat nearly as many fruits and vegetables as my family does now, but because we're mostly vegetarians, I think it's important for us to eat a diverse diet with lots of yummy veggies.

Buy expensive fruits and vegetables.
Our tastes tend to lean toward the more expensive fruits and vegetables: avocadoes, mangoes, pineapples. If we looked at those foods more as treats, we could save a lot of money, but I like to indulge our appetites.

Have kids.
My kids are super wasteful when it comes to food. I try to use strategies to prevent wasting too much food, but when it comes to vegetables, I believe the best way to broaden their palate is to offer them a variety of vegetables every day. Right now, that means a lot of vegetables end up going to waste, but I'm hoping it will lead to healthier kids in the future.

Be concerned about packaging.
I often choose better packaging over price. I never buy individually packaged anything, and if I can get it from the bulk bins, I will.

Eat dessert and drink Coke.
I make cookies far more often than I should, and my husband and I are both admitted Diet Coke lovers. I could save quite a bit of money on our grocery bill if I cut out non-nutritive foods and drinks.

Don't Use Coupons
I've never had any success with couponing, mainly because the majority of coupons seem to be for processed junk (even processed organic junk) that I refuse to feed my family. Even when I come across coupons for organic products, I rarely take the time to figure out if I could save money by using them, unless they're for a specific product that I already buy. I'm just lazy that way.


I'd be the first to admit that I'm not the savviest shopper in the world. So don't follow my example, and you might save money on your grocery bill!

Read more...

Create a Price Book to Save Money

I was supposed to be making a quick trip to Kroger for supplies for Second Son's birthday party, but something had caught my eye. “Closeout on organic spaghetti. $1.32. Awesome!”

Then I noticed the price of the organic rotini next to the spaghetti. “$1.89. That seems lower than I usually pay, but I can't remember for sure.”

I hadn't brought my price book with me, so I had to call my husband. “I need you to look something up for me. In my price book...How much does it say for organic pasta? $1.99? Great! I need to change that price, and we're stocking up on pasta!”

In a nutshell, that is the point of having a price book. So you always know how much to pay for an item. So you know if a sale is really a sale. So you can compare the price of a name brand item with a coupon to the price of a store brand item at a different store. A price book simplifies your frugal shopping experience.

On Tuesday, I posted my own price book as an example. If you live in the Raleigh area, you are welcome to use my price book to your own advantage. (And if you find prices lower than the one's I've recorded, please let me know!)

But if you don't live around here, chances are that the prices in your area are different, and you'd be better off making your own price book. So here's how to do it:

1. Choose a place to record your prices.

Many people use a notebook or folder. If you use a three ring binder to store coupons, you could put your price book at the front of the folder. You could also use an iTouch, iPod, PDA, or other handheld digital device. Just make sure it's something handy to take grocery shopping.

2. Make a list of all of the foods you buy on a regular basis.

3. Record the price of each item and the name of the store where you saw that price.

If you're not using a digital medium, you should write the prices in pencil so you can erase the entry if you find a lower price.

Remember that your completed price book should only include the lowest price you can find for an item. There's no reason to know that you can get organic flour for $4.69 from Whole Foods and $4.89 from Kroger. You only need to know that you can get it for $4.20 through your buying club.

There are two methods for completing this step.

• Head to the grocery store and walk up and down the aisles, recording prices as you go. Then, go to another store and check out the prices there, changing your entries if you find lower prices. Repeat at every store you might shop at.

• Advantage: You can knock out your price book in a weekend and start saving money quickly.
  

• Disadvantage: This method requires sacrificing a few days and is best done without kids (unless you have really good kids who love to grocery shop).

• Do your regular grocery shopping. After each trip, analyze your receipts, recording prices as you go. Also, record prices from sales flyers.

• Advantage: You'll create a price book without taking much more time than your usual shopping trip, and you can do it with the kids in tow.

• Disadvantage: This method takes much longer, especially for items you don't buy on a regular basis. Also, you might miss lower prices at stores you don't visit often.

4. When you find an item priced lower than the amount recorded in your price book, make a note of it and stock up.

However, I don't change the official entry in my price book unless I've seen that price more than once. Sometimes stores put an item on sale to quickly get rid of overstock or because they're not going to sell that item anymore, and I may never see that item at that price again. For instance, the $1.32 organic pasta I bought from Kroger was a closeout price, and I probably won't see it priced so low again. If I do, I'll know it's a regular thing and I'll change my entry.

5. Never buy food for more than the price you've recorded in your price book. You know you can get it for that price, so why would you pay more?


Advanced Method for the Obsessively Organized

In my price book, I also included the approximate amount of each item I use in a year. This information is valuable so I know how much to stock up when I find a good sale.

You could also calculate the unit price for each item, which would make it easier to quickly compare prices of items in different size packages.

(Note that in my price book, there's a column listing prices in cooking units – tsp., Tbsp., cup, etc. This information is so I can calculate costs of recipes, not so I can compare prices. If you're going to calculate unit prices to compare costs, you need to calculate the cost by weight – ounces, pounds, etc.)


And that's it! Creating a price book might be time-consuming at the start, but it will end up saving both time and money overall, so it's definitely worth it.


Do you have any tips for creating a price book?


Related Posts:

• Experiments with Tomato Soup
• Greening my Grocery Bill
• Save Money and Plastic with Bulk Bins
  

Read more...

Save Money and Plastic with Bulk Bins

This post was included in the Festival of Frugality. Check out all of this week's frugal posts at The Paycheck Chronicles!

One of my goals for this month was to take the plunge into buying organics, and according to my careful calculations, one of the most affordable ways to get organics is by buying from bulk bins.

By bulk bin, I mean the bins of grains, nuts, and dried fruit at Whole Foods and other natural food stores. The bins are priced by unit (for example, $1.49/lb for organic oats), so you can buy as much or as little as you need. Less Is Enough used the bins to purchase very tiny amounts of food for her $1/day food experiment, but you can also buy very large amounts from the bulk bins to keep your pantry stocked.

I've bought a little here, a little there from the bulk bins for awhile now, but since I'm committing to organics, I thought it was time to commit to the bulk bins.

How Much Can You Save with Bulk Bins?

Check out these price comparisons:

• organic pinto beans - $1.15/can (2 cups) vs. $1.99/lb (5-6 cups cooked)
• organic raisins - $3.99/one pound bag vs. $3.29/lb
• Quaker Oats @ $0.11/oz vs. organic oats from the bulk bins @ $0.09/oz

The potential savings are clear, but there's one little problem...the packaging.

I know, technically bulk bins don't have any packaging, but you have to have a way to get the food from the bins to your house, and the method provided by the store is not one I'm very fond of: plastic bags.

As I've written before, plastic is filling up our oceans, killing fish and birds, and all around making the earth an ugly place, so I'm trying to avoid it whenever possible. I've read about other people who bring their own containers for the bulk bins, especially reusing glass jars, so I took a trip to Whole Foods this morning to investigate.

Can You Bring Your Own Container?

I started by approaching the unsuspecting employee nearest to the bulk bins. "I was wondering, if I wanted to use my own containers for the bulk bins, how would I go about doing that?"

She replied, "I don't think you can, but let me go find someone else who might know."

She sent over another helpful employee, who said basically the same thing: "You can't use your own containers because you would have to pay for the weight of the container. The plastic bags weigh practically nothing, and that's why they work."

I was feeling pretty bummed and wishing I lived in California or New York when the guy came back and said, "I just asked someone else to clarify, and it turns out that you can bring your own containers. You have to take them to Customer Service to weigh them first, but then you can fill them, and they'll subtract the weight when you check out. I didn't know that because I've never seen anyone bring their own container before."

Besides this hassle, I've also read that the cashiers more often than not forget to subtract the weight of the container.

I concluded from this little excursion that you can bring your own containers if a) you live in California, Seattle, Portland, New York City or any other city that's taken great strides in environmentalism (betcha could in Carrboro) or b) you're the type of person that doesn't mind to stand out or stir the pot.

I don't fit either one of those criteria, so until bringing your own container becomes more popular around here, I'm moving to Plan B: bring your own bag.

What Kind of Bag Should I Bring?

There are several different options to chose from:

1. Reuse the plastic bags provided by the store.
2. Reuse plastic bags you already have such as bread bags.
3. Buy lightweight cloth bags.
4. Make your own bags.
   

I'm leaning toward these drawstring produce bags. With a tare weight of only .07 lbs per bag, they would only add $0.10 to $0.15 to the cost even if the cashier doesn't subtract the weight of the bag.

Because I'd be using at least 5 plastic bags per trip to Whole Foods and I shop there once a month, cloth bags would keep me from using 60 plastic bags a year or more.

The math is simple: Cloth bags + bulk bins = Super Savings! Save money and save plastic. It's a Conscious Shopper no-brainer.

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Experiments with Tomato Soup

Check out the Green Baby Guide for more info about Thrifty Green Thursday.

Some recipes that I use call for a small amount of tomato paste - one or two tablespoons. A can of tomato paste contains about 10 tablespoons, which means that I'm left with a bunch of leftover tomato paste that inevitably goes to waste in my fridge.

In the interest of not wasting food, I've been brainstorming ways to use up the leftover tomato paste, and I've come up with these ideas:

1. Freeze the leftover tomato paste in ice cube trays for later use...But I have limited space in my freezer, and I'm not sure I want to give up space to tomato paste.
2. Buy tomato paste in a tube instead of a can...But tubes of tomato paste are harder to find and not as easily recyclable as cans.
3. Make sure I use all my recipes that call for small amounts of tomato paste in the same week...But that doesn't sound very appetizing, and the lack of variety is probably not very nutritious.

Number one is a pretty good option, but my ice cube trays are in Maryland. So I've been experimenting with a fourth option: Making tomato soup.

I got the following recipe from The Tightwad Gazette:

Tomato Soup

1 6-oz can tomato paste
24 oz. milk (refill tomato paste can 4 times)
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. celery salt

• Mix all ingredients in a pot.
• Heat.

This recipe is perfect for using leftover tomato paste - I just adjust the recipe to fit the amount of tomato paste I have left, and it's just as easy as opening a can of Campbell's Tomato Soup without some of the questionable ingredients. It's a little strong on the tomato in my opinion but maybe I'm just too used to the HFCS deliciousness of Campbell's. Also, I don't buy celery salt, so instead I tried replacing one of the cups of milk with a cup of veggie broth. My boys all enjoyed it, and I think I could get used to it.

If you give this recipe a try, let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions for improvements.

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Vampires Suck!

Whoever came up with the name energy vampires deserves props for creativity. Also known as phantom loads, vampires are the appliances and electronics that still "suck" electricity, even when they're turned off.

According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, the extra energy use from vampires "represents a relatively small but growing percentage of an individual home’s electricity use (about five percent), but taken across all U.S. households, adds up to an estimated 65 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity each year. This extra electricity costs consumers more than $5.8 billion annually and sends more than 87 billion pounds of heat-trapping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year.

Slay These Vampires

Although the concept of vampires is fairly well-known, I still see some confusion about which appliances and electronics "suck." So here's a short guide to clarify:

• Anything that needs to be charged, such as cordless phones, cell phones, laptops, MP3 players, Roombas, handheld vacuums
• Anything with a digital display, such as microwaves, DVD players, VCRs, DVRs, stereos, printers
  
• Anything with standby capability, such as computers
  
• Anything with a remote, such as TVs
  

Since we're talking about vampires, I modified my usual Baby Steps, Jogging Stride, and Marathon Runner titles for more appropriate categories. Here's how you get rid of vampires:

GARLIC

• Unplug, unplug, unplug.
• Unplug the adapters when your cell phones, laptops, and iPods are finished charging.
• Unplug your microwaves, coffee makers, and toaster ovens when you're done with them.
• Unplug your TVs, DVD players, and stereos when you're not using them, or at least at the end of the day.

HOLY WATER

• Use a power strip. Since power strips don't draw energy when they're switched off, you can cluster like-groups of appliances and electronics around power strips so you only have to flip one switch to turn them all off. If that's still too hard, you can get power strips with timers or even special sensors that detect when your electronics are not in use.
• Obtain a Kill-A-Watt to determine which of your appliances and electronics are the worst vampires.

STAKE IN THE HEART

• Keep it simple by avoiding products with bells and whistles. For example, do you really need a toaster or coffee maker with a digital display? Could you get buy with a traditional phone that plugs into the wall rather than a cordless phone?
• Choose Energy Star-certified products. They use less energy in general, even when they are in standby mode.
  

Since energy vampires may represent 5% of your electricity usage, you can save up to 5% off your electricity bill by getting your vampires under control. So collect your garlic, holy water, and stakes, and become a vampire slayer!

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