GREEN MAINTENANCE
Is your Green growing, or are you just cruising? How are some of the bigger Green changes that you made earlier in the year panning out? I have to take inventory every now and again and pull myself up in areas where I’ve let bad habits creep in again - but every time I take a short cut – like using a paper towel instead of a rag, or driving instead of cycling a short distance, it feels so bad. I have to periodically remind myself that choosing the most responsible/accountable action, whether it is buying an organic head of muddy lettuce rather than bagged “Spring Mix”, or turning down my A/C, connects me to the greater purpose of my life: to attempt to lighten my footprint in every way possible.
I’m also finding that in the current economic climate, so many of my Green actions, involve saving money. What are you doing this month that has a double green meaning? Have you found ways to reduce your monthly spending – if so, we’d love to hear.
August 15th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
Since its summertime in upstate NY and everything is growing, 3 times a week I have decided to make 50 mile meals. I only cook dinner with things that have been locally farmed. And its become quite fun. My husband and I are finding out about a lot of new locally made items. local meat, local bread, honey, beer, wine, and of course the closest our huge veggie garden!! We started out doing it once a week and we like it so much its now 3 nights a week. And oh so yummy and fresh!!
August 22nd, 2008 at 1:32 am
i have made so many changes over the last few months with the intention of lowering our carbon footprint. I did not realize that I would also be reducing the footprint in my checkbook! The biggest money savers for our family are:
1) I walk everywhere possible (didn’t have to fill the gas tank for 2months!)
2) Buy and Sell Clothes at Plato’s closet and Children’s Orchard
3) Joined a CSA 25 miles from our home.
4) Bought a bread maker at a yard sale for 20$ (it has allready paid for itself)
5) Started making yogurt. It is so easy and my son LOVES it!
6) Don’t buy anything pre-packaged at the grocery store.
7) Before I buy anything I think about the energy it took for it to get to me and then where will it end up when I am finished with it? Usually by the end I don’t feel good about buying whatever it is.
So the bottom line is that I am feeding my family for ~80$ a week on local, organic produce and we have food left over to be frozen!! We are dressed well for less that 1/10 of retail!
Tonight we had local grass-fed Delmonico steaks with oven roasted rosemary potatoes, green salad, and corn on the cob. Total cost 8$!!!!
I do struggle with finding local organic fruit in michigan…
Thank you Sophie! your book has changed my life!
August 23rd, 2008 at 6:25 pm
Sarah
Thank you for your wonderful, inspiring blog comment. You’re my girl! I make my own yogurt and bread too (save a ton of money), buy from the thrift store and then pay a bit extra for grass-fed meat and organic everything else. Way to go!
October 22nd, 2008 at 4:35 pm
I’m living in Switzerland and decided to use the amazing public transport system over here, so we gave up our car and now both of us got a yearly all access ticket for the national PT net. saves us quite a bit of money in the long run.
many of your tips we made normal habit, some we already knew and did (gave us a great feeling 
and some we got to ad. being online too much isn’t really a good thing for the environment either. all the servers that produce energy need to be cooled down, and those processes aren’t always very green. neither is heating up servers for nonsense surfing.
I really liked your book Sophie. it’s a pitty that the promotion isn’t that big over here
one last tip, I love that you consider pets in your book, thank you so much for this! dogs love aromatherapy and respond well to essential oils of all kinds. however, cats are a different story. the only ’safe’ cleaning aid in terms of essential oils that I found for cats is rosewood. If you’d like me to I’ll keep looking for more options, let me know.
thank you for your great work and don’t stop inspiring people, we all need a little nudge out the door