5 totally free ways to save money while saving the planet

The price of food and petrol isn’t showing any signs of going down anytime soon, and the politicians are starting the recession-talk. But you don’t have to start dumpster diving just to save a few bucks! Here’s some cheap tips that will help the environment and save you some money at the same time.

1. Learn to love your library
Instead of spending money and wasting resources on something you might only use once, share a copy with your community. They’ve got books, CDs, DVDs, magazines and newspapers lined up for you to borrow for free. If there’s something you want that they haven’t got, ask a librarian – they can get it in for you from other libraries, or put it on a purchases list. Look up your closest library to see where you can go. Most local councils have a library, but you can also see if there’s one close to where you work or shop, if that’s more convenient.

2. Turn out the lights
And your tv, and your computer, and your appliances… You’ve heard it before, because it’s true: anything that uses standby power is costing you money when you’re not using it. Remember to flip the switch, and you’ll be saving electricity (and therefore reducing pollution) and lowering your bills at the same time. Savings Guide has more tips on how to do this.

3. Sign up at Freecycle or Scoodi to get new (to you) things
Freecycle and Scoodi are groups where people give away their unwanted gear for free. Previously, I’ve given away a sofa bed, a gas heater and a pile of videos that I didn’t need anymore – instead of adding to landfill, I was able to help someone else out. By moving to a trading and bartering culture instead of a disposable, throwaway culture, we help the planet as well as our wallets.

4. Wash your clothes in cold water, then line dry
Cold water doesn’t take any electricity to heat, so it cuts back on your bills and CO2 emissions. Now that the weather is getting warmer, you can also hang out your washing on the line instead of using a dryer. Cheaper for you by cutting back on electricity, and reduces the amount of pollution too. (You could try taking cold showers as well, but that’s more hardship than I’m willing to put up with!)

5. Learn how to drive efficiently
Read these tips from the Green Vehicle Guide to learn how to minimise your fuel use and therefore your emissions. Drive smarter, not faster! Changing the way you drive will cut your petrol spending and your pollution.

Next week I’ll post some ideas that will cost you a little bit of money, but should save your spending in the long run.

That pile of money sure does look nice…

There’s been suggestions in the media lately that the international economic crisis means that we’ll have to put climate change action on hold. I honestly don’t see why: the kinds of things that will help the environment will be creating jobs, making our businesses more efficient, and reducing the costs of dealing with pollution. Apparently we can spend money to save money in one arena, but not the other.

But let’s look at the similarities between these two situations:

Credit crisis:

• caused by big corporations who are trying to avoid paying for any risks they took
• a few experts understand it fully; the rest of us try to keep up
• has international repercussions: what happens in the US affects everyone else too
• has personal repercussions: the general public will end up paying for it

Climate change:

• enabled by big corporations who are trying to avoid paying for the pollution they cause
• a few scientists understand it fully; the rest of us try to keep up
• has international repercussions: actions in one nation affect the rest of the planet
• has personal repercussions: the general public will end up paying for it

We’re told that it’s imperative to throw lots of money towards solving the economic crisis, because if we don’t we’ll all be ruined. It’s an emergency! Yet, if we suggest spending money on the environmental crisis, we’re told that we couldn’t possibly do that, because we don’t know what the risks are, and it’s too hard to understand, and maybe we should just wait until all the skeptics are appeased, and what’s the rush anyway…

What a crock. It reminds me of the bit in An Inconvenient Truth, where Gore shows a cartoon of an investor looking at a scale with the Earth on one side, and a pile of gold on the other. Hmmm – this is the only planet we’ve got, but my, doesn’t that pile of gold look nice and shiny! I wonder which one we’ll choose.

Fresh green links

I’m starting a new feature – each Friday I’m going to post the links to green info that I liked the most this week.

• Funny (but not quite safe for work or little ones, some coarse language and hand gestures) video from Greenpeace Australia at Your Call on Coal. Featuring the Coaly Moleys and Lumpy the Coal. I wish I’d thought of this! After watching the video, you can sign up to call PM Kevin Rudd’s office, to tell him you don’t want the ETS to include payments to polluters.
• Nothing to fear but fear itself at Cosmos Magazine. Cosmos’ editor-in-chief says “The danger is not that we can’t do anything, but that we’ll believe we can’t; that we might lose confidence and fail to sidestep the “climate change train” before it’s too late.”
• 4 good reasons to offset, and 2 reasons not to at Offset Consumer. Offsets are a tricky area, with a lot of shady dealings going on. This site rates offset suppliers and calculators, but does not sell any itself.

Did you see anything eco-friendly on the net that you’d like to share? Leave us a link in the comments!

How to make a no-dig garden bed

As I’ve mentioned before here, growing your own food organically helps the environment. If you can avoid using petrochemical-based fertilisers and pesticides, you’re doing your soil and our waterways a favour. But it can also save you money!

In Dirt Cheap, an article at Salon, Steve Almond tells how he was inspired by the Victory Gardens people planted in WWII to provide themselves with food during the war. He reckons that as the cost of living increases and we move into a recession, more people will start growing their own food. In his own words “My intention was a bit more humble than the defeat of fascism. I pretty much just wanted to stop getting looted by upscale supermarkets.”

We’ve been noticing our grocery bills getting larger too. It makes us more enthusiastic about getting out into our vegie patch these days. So much so, that Dave decided we need more room! He made us a no-dig garden bed based on Josh Byrne’s description in The Green Gardener. I took some photos so I could show you how it’s done (click on the photo to see it at Flickr):

For more detailed instructions, check out Josh Byrne’s no-dig garden bed at Gardening Australia, or a fact-sheet from Melissa King. They’re great for when you’ve got poor soil, don’t like bending over too far, or want to put your garden bed over the top of lawn or concrete.

Blog Action Day 08 roundup

Thanks to everyone who commented on my Blog Action Day post – thanks to you I’ll be making an increased donation to Oxfam! There were quite a few good Blog Action Day posts that also deal with the environment in relation to poverty. Two that I quite liked were: Four Big Thinkers’ Ideas on Going Green, Ending Poverty at Treehugger – lots of links to more articles; and The Nature Conservancy’s report on how Protected Marine Areas Help Alleviate Poverty (with video).

You might also like to watch this Flash animation called “The Miniature Earth”. It puts our world in perspective by imagining – if our world was a village populated by 100 people, how many of us would have computers? bank accounts? fridges? How many of us would be trying to live on less than US$2 a day?

In other news, today I start a new G Magazine challenge: eating less meat for a month! I’ll be starting off with a few meatless days, then going to meatless lunches, then cutting out red meat, then going vegetarian for the last week. If you’re interested in doing something similar for the next month to help the environment, come on over to my G Magazine Challenge blog and let me know how you’ll be tackling it.