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.

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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!

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I’ve had a very small week.

I’ve accomplished very small things, and for the most part stayed in a very small space to accomplish them — it’s been too cold to venture very far beyond the fireplace (I’ve not yet plugged in the space heater in my office).

Last weekend, I met people who ran prestigious small colleges and national museums, won Nobel Prizes, and discovered Hepatitis B viruses.

In their spare time, probably.

Meanwhile, I managed to replace the bathroom light bulb yesterday – yeah, me!

I was determined to get some work done yesterday, and set my list on the dining room table with happy face stickers *and* a clock next to it so I could keep track of the time and not waste it like I do so many days. I had guessed how much time each ask would take, and left lots of extra time at the end, too.

Plus also, did I mention I had Happy Face Stickers?

Things didn’t go exactly as I planned, however.

I couldn’t work in a cold house, and couldn’t just “get more firewood” either, because the wheelbarrow had to be emptied of other stuff first, plus there was a giant dead branch in the side yard which had to be dragged to the curb before I could get the wheelbarrow through anyway.

Plus also the dog wanted to play.

But I got the wood rack filled eventually, and kept the fire going all day too, which made the cat happy (see if you can find him in the Kitty Sauna).

I was supposed to finish some website stuff, but had forgotten to find some of the art I needed.  Then my email with art attached failed to “send,” so I had to start over. Plus also the warm- cozy- living- room- computer was dead, so I had to use the freezing- cold- office- computer instead, which meant I kept sneaking back to the living room to get warmed up again.

Then I messed up my daughter’s plans. I took a shower but forgot both my makeup and the stuff for my hair that keeps me from looking like a dandelion, even though I had to give a neighborhood presentation later that evening.

I didn’t even get to the laundry.

I was supposed to update the neighborhood’s database, too, using a spreadsheet one of the reps had LABORIOUSLY updated, BY HAND, and couldn’t find the damn thing. 

Anywhere. 

Naturally, there are no other copies either.

So I had to practically clean the whole house instead, looking for it.

This morning I am starting over again. I also decided to reward my yesterday-self a lot of posthumous Happy Face Stickers, for all the things I didn’t plan yesterday but got done anyway.

I still don’t have any idea where that spreadsheet is, but I do now have a clean(ish) house! 

Yeah me, again! 

I’m beginning to guess that this is probably about as good as it gets.