It's not expensive being green!

Often, I hear people use the excuse that they can't do environmentally friendly things because they can't afford to. A great article on the 7th Generation blog today brought this issue to light, and I thought that was great. People need to know that going green is not expensive at all, and is actually far cheaper than the planet-wrecking alternative.

The fact is, there are a million small changes that anybody can make that make a positive difference. Most of these cost little to nothing, and even save hundreds of dollars in the longterm.

Replacing paper products with cloth as much as you can will save thousands of pounds of waste from going into the landfills, AND save hundreds, maybe thousands, of dollars over the course of your lifetime. I always talk about cloth diapering, and yes, it is a big one! There are others, too, though. I recently replaced all our paper towel consumption with birdseye cotton flat diapers. This cost $10 up front (as much as about two months' worth of paper towels), and we'll be able to use them for years. A lot of families use cloth napkins, too. We just use the same birdseye cotton flats for napkins as we use for paper towels, because we're redneck like that. These are very easy changes to make. The cool thing is that the cloth works better than the paper anyhow. I keep a small laundry basket in the kitchen for the used flats, and then I wash them with either towels or diapers, a couple times a week. It adds absolutely no extra loads to the laundry we're already doing, since the flats are so compact and easily go in with what we already have.

Washing is another way people can save money and be green. If you use cold water to wash your clothes (yes, even cloth diapers can effectively be washed on cold! I learned that recently!) you have saved money on the electricity or gas you would have spent to heat the water, AND you have conserved that energy. If you use a clothesline instead of a dryer, you are saving the money it would take to run your dryer, and conserving that energy.

Cleaning products are another one that people often get confused about. Yes, green cleaning products are more expensive than their toxic counterparts, but a lot of times, you don't even have to buy anything. We recently went to a vinegar and water blend for surface spray cleaner, and it's really been great. Vinegar also works better than anything I've ever tried when it comes to cleaning the microwave (put a bowl of vinegar and water in there, microwave it on high for 10 minutes to evaporate some of it, then wipe clean. It's that easy!) Worst case scenario, your hands smell like pickles for a little while after you're done, but that's not a big deal when you consider that a gallon of white vinegar costs about $2 (that's less than a single spray bottle of 409 or Windex), and will probably last a year, AND you are avoiding putting harsh chemicals out into your home environment. It's green AND frugal.

A lot of people also forget that buying used is green. If you want something, try to find it on Craigslist first. When I lived in the Savannah area, that was a really great resource. I saved so much money buying on Craigslist, and conserved resources by not buying new goods that other new goods would be manufactured to replace on the store shelves. In this city, our Craigslist is horrible, but people in relatively well-off areas can have great success with this. Children's consignment stores are another thing a lot of people can do well with. I also did great with this when I lived in the Savannah area. Here, we have one children's consignment, it's the size of my bathroom, and sells mostly stuff I'd never put my kids in, so buying used here is very hard. That's not the case in most areas, so take advantage if you can, because it is green and very frugal.

The cool thing about it is that if you save money on all this other stuff, it frees up money to buy things like organic foods, whatever natural cleaners you may need (I love 7th Generation's bathroom cleaner.), and even luxury goods which are generally manufactured under better conditions (by well paid American workers, for example). People always question my luxury baby gear obsession, but then I explain to them that all our gear combined didn't cost as much as we would have spent on disposable diapers, AND all this stuff holds its resale value very nicely (Orren's Stokke high chair, for example, we paid $350 for. I've seen them go on ebay for $280 all the time, used.) which can't be said of disposable diapers. We freed up the money to buy better stuff which will continue on to other families rather than go to the landfill when we're done with it, by being green and frugal.

My grocery bill is lower than most of my friends' grocery bills. Yesterday, for dinner, we ate organic lamb, in a gravy based in locally grown onions and spices mostly grown just across the state line, over organic California rice, garnished with locally grown almonds and organic lemon slices. We can afford that because we're not blowing money on paper products, tons of cleaners, and other use-once-and-throw-away goods.

Green IS frugal. We can all do this.