The Green Frugal

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If you are like me, you like to eat out…A LOT! More and more, I am seeing restaurants advertising local, sustainable food sources, and energy-saving practices on their menus. This got me thinking….how do you dine sustainably?

Below are just a few steps to pique your interest in eating environmentally.

1. An important first step in eating out responsibly is choosing a green restaurant.

The Green Restaurant Association is a great start! Through their website, you can locate local eateries that meet green certification standards. Over 300 restaurants in 30 states have met minimum standards in the following areas:

• Water Efficiency
• Waste Reduction and Recycling
• Sustainable Furnishings and Building Materials
• Sustainable Food
• Energy
• Disposables
• Chemical and Pollution Reduction

In addition to sustainable restaurants, several guides exist to help you navigate your way to vegetarian, organic, and local dinner sources.

Happy Cow Compassionate Eating Guide

Local Harvest

VegGuide

2. Remember to eat local.

Try to support restaurants that rely on local farmers, farmers’ markets, and food co-ops to stock their pantries.

3. Be sure to order with a conscience.

Consult the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch Guide before ordering seafood. The Monterey Bay Aquarium provides “best choices,” “good alternatives,” and those fish to “avoid” in order to help sustain wild, diverse, and healthy ocean ecosystems for the future.

EarthEasy also has a sustainable seafood list by type.

4. Make responsible water choices.

Only ask for a glass of water if you’ll actually drink it. If the meal is coming to an end, decline last minute fill-ups if you won’t be staying to finish them off.

5. When eating on the go…

Refuse extras like condiments or plastic utensils if taking your food home.  Or, if you know how much ketchup or napkins you’ll need, be specific and request just one or two. Be sure to reuse the bags and cups you get as many times as you can afterward.

6. Doggie Bag?

If you are really hard-core, bring your own reusable container for leftovers. Make doggie bags a thing of the past!

Just a side note – Throughout my childhood, when visiting the buffet, my grandma would hide plastic bags in her purse to bring home “leftovers.” Some may say she was ahead of her time sustainably. But the reality is that she was frugal.  I would politely remind her…although it doesn’t explicitly say, “All you can eat HERE,” it should be implied.

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As we trudge through the murky, watery depths of winter here in the Pacific Northwest, we are made all too painfully aware of the increased living costs associated with the season.  Here are a few ways to save a buck or two, some of which you may have heard but bear repeating:

Clothing

• Wear sweaters and warm socks indoors so  you can lower the thermostat temperature.
• Buy for next year – hit up the end of season sales to save upwards of 50% off winter clothes for next year.
• Did your child just have a growth spurt and grow out of their winter clothes? Take them into a consignment shop and get store credit for trading up. You get some money back on the old pair and obtain a new pair at already frugal prices.

Health- Eat healthy and be healthy!

• Getting sick costs you money in increased healthcare costs and possible lost wages.  Load up on that vitamin C, and here in the Northwest where we get so little precious sunlight, Vitamin D.  And don’t forget the greens!
• Use a humidifier – heated indoor air is constantly drying out leading to dried out sinuses, which can lead to illness.
• Keep your air filters cleaned or replace regularly.

She's smiling because she got her lift ticket for a 40% discount.

Activities

• Are you a frequent skier/snowboarder? Save dough by taking advantage of reduced prices on season passes, frequent skier programs, locals-only pricing, late season ticket deals, student pricing, active military discounts, or join a ski/snowboard club
• Check online:  liftopia.com, skicoupons.com, and thesnowjunkies.com specialize in deals on lift tickets. Also, check out craigslist.com for people reselling tickets they can’t use. You can always just search for: [your ski resort] + “coupon”.
• Look local: check out coupon books like the Entertainment Book.  There are usually promos going on through local businesses. For example, a local car dealership was giving away a free lift ticket if you test drove this year’s model. A local Shell gas station was also offering a free lift ticket when purchasing 10+ gallons of gasoline.  Local ski shops often have some sort of deals to offer as well. Keep your eyeballs peeled for other local businesses with lift ticket offers. There are deals to be had!
• Want winter sporting goods but not that serious? The used gear at second-hand sporting goods stores will do the job. Craigslist is also a great resource.
• Tip: go during non-peak times, you’ll get better deals.

Home Energy Bill- Pretend that your indoor air is a hazmat zone and you can’t let the air escape.

There are entire websites (and businesses) dedicated to making your home more energy efficient and thus way more information than can be repeated in a single blog post. Don’t be afraid to investigate more.

• Close up those heating vents and doors to any infrequently used rooms in your home. Likely candidates are studies, dens, basements, laundry rooms, and guest bedrooms.
• Make sure your home is energy-proofed. Here’s a good place to start: http://www.energysavers.gov/tips/
• Turn down your water heater by 10-20 degrees, you probably won’t notice the difference, but you will notice your bill drop.
• Keep lots of warm throws handy for when you’re lounging about the house.
• Take it to the next level. Hang sheer curtains over an open doorway to the hall keeps heat in the living room where you want it in the evening. Pressure rods are inexpensive and easy to remove and store until next winter.
• Put plastic film over your windows and use curtains to trap in the heat. Windows are huge heat sinks. Keep the curtains open during the day to allow solar heating of your house.
• Turn off vent fans – over your stove or in the bathroom – these just spew your heat outdoors.
• Have a fireplace or woodstove? Close the vent! But take advantage of it as a heating source during the winter. It may be more cost effective depending on the cost of wood, pellets, etc. in  your area.
• Want a DIY project? Make your own solar heater!
• Patch the holes – make sure your attic and/or basement/crawl space is properly insulated, cracks are sealed, and holes are patched.
• Make sure your heating units are operating at peak efficiency – get them checked, maintained, and cleaned. You can replace the air filter yourself (every 2-3 months).
• Keep the thermostat as low as you can possibly stand. Gradually lower it over the course of a few weeks as your body gradually adjusts to the colder weather.
• Leave the thermostat alone! Changing it up and down could cost you as much as 4% of your bill for every degree change. Try not to vary more than 5 degrees. Or better yet get a programmable thermostat to reduce your fiddling and maximize efficiency.
• Bake …a lot – it serves as a psychological trick to make you feel warmer from the inside out and it also actually heats up your house (a little.)
• Check and make sure all the heating ductwork and pipes in the basement are properly insulated to prevent heat loss. Leaky ductwork often accounts for 10-30% of your total heating and cooling costs.
• Always fill up your oil and gas tanks before the cold weather hits as the costs of oil and gas are typically higher during winter due to a surge in demand.
• Check the caulk and weather stripping around your doors, door sweeps, and windows. Install new caulk if they are not caulked or the caulk is old. Examine the door weather stripping and replace it if it is old or light can be seen seeping in-between the door and door jambs.

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Regular readers of this blog may remember this post from a few months back–the one where we unleashed our first Decorate-A-Box Contest. Some of you may be curious to find out who won the contest. Unfortunately, we didn’t have a winner. Actually, we…um…didn’t have any entries.

Boy, were we embarrassed.

At first, we thought that no one knew what we were looking for, so I was asked to decorate some boxes. I think they turned out well.

In this example, I used sharpies and white-out to create an idyllic wintery scene.

Joan (who also blogs here) asked for a Christmas zombie box. Well, I couldn’t turn away from that challenge.

But my favorite is this festive Cthulhu dressed as Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer. I think I’ve captured the Christmas Spirit very nicely.

It’s a shame that no one entered the contest. We were all very excited to see how creative people could be.

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The first year of blogging on the Green Frugal has come and gone. All of us here at Cash4Books would like to thank all of our readers. We hope you have learned as much and had as much fun as we have.

In case you might have missed them, included below are our top five posts in 2010.

Here’s to 2011!

DIY Bookshelves for under $20

We love books and we love saving money. This post was a perfect combination of these two things.

http://www.cash4books.net/blog/2010/07/08/diy-bookshelves-for-under-20/

How to create a romantic dinner date at home

Cash4Books president, Jim Smith, explains how he surprised his wife on their anniversary with a very special dinner date at home.

http://www.cash4books.net/blog/2010/08/14/how-to-create-a-romantic-dinner-date-at-home/

DIY How to frame autumn leaves

Beautiful and vibrant colors come to homes and neighborhoods every autumn. Finding a few leaves and preserving them, makes great gifts and adds a little spice to any room.

http://www.cash4books.net/blog/2010/10/07/diy-how-to-frame-autumn-leaves/

Fundraising with Cash4Books

No one doubts that Cash4Books can be a great way to raise money. A customer had asked us how that power can be harnessed to raise funds for great causes.

http://www.cash4books.net/blog/2010/08/20/fundraising-with-cash4books/

DIY Secret compartment in a book

Our very own Michael B explains how he created a super secret hiding place inside of an old textbook.

http://www.cash4books.net/blog/2010/11/08/diy-secret-compartment-in-a-book/

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Since it’s a new year, it’s time to create a new year’s resolution. This year, I plan on reading all the books I bought in 2010 before I start buying books in 2011. I’m a notoriously slow reader; before I’m even finished reading a book, I’ve bought a new one. And before I start reading that new book, I’ve bought two more. So, books tend to pile up in my house. Here’s just a few that I need to read:

• Boneshaker, Clementine and Dreadnought all by Cherie Priest. Cherie Priest writes faster than I can read. She wrote two sequels to Boneshaker before I finished it. And I bought it went it first came out. I imagine that she’ll have eight more books published by the time I finish Clementine.
• For the Win by Cory Doctorow. This is a book I purposely didn’t finish reading. Now that might make it seem like a bad book, but quite the contrary, it’s a fantastic book. The problem is it’s about a MMORPG similar to World of Warcraft, and reading about the game will make me want to play the game again. And I wouldn’t get anything else accomplished. Ever.
• Kill the Dead by Richard Kadrey. I read anything that Kadrey writes. I’d read cereal boxes if he wrote them. I’m actually reading this one now; I might finish it by the end of February.
• Lady of Mazes by Karl Schroeder. I don’t even know what this book is about; I just bought it because I love Schroeder’s Virga books.
• That doesn’t even include the piles of comics and manga.

I imagine I’ll finish at least two of these books before my resolution comes crashing down around me. I already know the next book I’ll buy: Zoo City by Lauren Beukes. It’s a South African book finally available in the US. I’m not completely sure what it’s about; I only know that whenever someone does a bad thing, an animal bonds with their soul and they get magical powers. I can’t wait to read it (slowly)!