This week, I’m going to give you   7 tips that you can do to help you save money, and make a lasting impact on the environment.  

1  First and foremost, recycle.  If everyone in America simply separated the paper, plastic, glass and aluminum products from the trash, and tossed them in to a recylcing bin, we could decrease the amount of waste sent to landfills by 75%.  You can make money on aluminum cans if you want to bring them to the recycling center!

2  Run full loads in your dishwasher and allow them to air dry.

3  Clean air filters regularly.  Air conditioners have to work harder to circulate air through dirty filters, which is a big electricity drain.

4  Turn your computer on sleep mode so it’s not using as much power when you’re not using it, or better yet, turn it off when not in use.  For Windows users, this can be done via the control panel and Mac users can find the setting under System Preferences. 

5  Lower the temperature of your water heater to 120 degrees.   This will save energy and is a much safer temperature if there are children in the house. 

6  Shut the water off, when you’re brushing your teeth.  And in the same breath, shut the water off when you’re scrubbing dishes.  This is something that I’ve just become aware of myself.  I’ll have the water running as I’m scrubbing a pan and even though I have enough water in the pan, to effectively scrub the pan, the water continues to run.  This is an easy habit to break once you become aware of it!

7  Turn off the lights when you leave a room.  Don’t be one of those houses that has every light on in the house, while everyone is sitting around the television. 

Many of these are changes that can be made so easily that once you’ve started following them, you’ll wonder why you weren’t doing them all along!  Go ahead, give them a try!

Until next time, live GREEN!