Almostgotit.com

Good news!  The utility company has given us a couple months off its billing cycle.  The poor thing still can’t decide how to bill the Almostgotits, as our low meter readings always make it suspicious (we heat with wood).   

The only thing is, we got our woodstove a couple years too early to qualify for Obama’s 30% tax credit for energy efficiency.    Ah well, we ALMOST got it!!

Saving money and saving the planet make wonderful bedfellows, so here’s six ways you can do both, just for today:

1. Hang your laundry out to dry.  If you don’t have a clothes line, buy one or just tie a rope between a couple of trees.  Clothes dryers are one of the biggest consumers of a home’s total energy use.  And yes, you can even hang your clothes up indoors!
2. Skip Starbucks for a day and find an Earth Day event to do instead  (or)
3. Do a fun Earth Day project with your kids at home.
4. Plant a vegetable garden!  Tomatoes and beans are the easiest of all, grow practically anywhere, and your own, home-grown vegetable plants are so gorgeous and satisfying.  Plus also, you’ll have great tasting food for much less than what you’d pay at the store!
5. Stock your freezer.  You’ll save money and energy by reducing your trips to the grocery store.  You’ll also reduce the temptation to eat out (more car trips, more money spent) because you’ll have things to eat at home.  And finally, freezers use less energy when they’re full, too. 
6. Plug your TV into a power bar.  Many appliances draw electricity even when they are turned off, so using a power bar can make a real difference in energy savings.

———————

Related posts:

5 Ways to work greener & cheaper 

11 Ways to be cheap in honor of Earth Day

Laundry and spring break and blogging: oh my!

———————

Many thanks to my readers for sending me the latest financial news.

Apparently busy, employed, successful people buy a lot of deodorant, while the stress of an economic downturn sends folks back to the drug store for their constipation.

Who knew? (thanks, Marsquat.)

While laxative sales are going up, thermostats are going down, which is why you should buy each of your friends and relatives a slanket this Christmas. They’re so cool they’re hot! (hat tip Shane.)

Don’t you worry, either, about buying more laxatives and slankets in this economy. This is still America, where buying stuff is good.

In fact, you should buy lots and lots of new clothes and shoes, and feel downright virtuous about it, because now all your castaways can be made into backbacks and basketball courts. Along with other really necessary stuff, like gym totes, that Target can sell to you all over again.