Have a Better Life

Like every household, businesses need to find ways of economizing on their day-to-day expenses. Whether it’s looking for cheap electricity suppliers or just getting the best deal on stationery, here is a quick guide on how to bring down your overheads.

Save on energy bills
You’ve done it for your home bills, so now do it for your business. There are a plethora of websites out there to help you compare prices to find the best energy supplier but you might also get the best price by going direct to the supplier.

Bring down your stationery bill
Stop wasting money with an expensive stationer that’s pouring your money down the drain. Stationary is usually a commodity so ask around and find the cheapest price.

Print more and photocopy less
Don’t photocopy when it’s cheaper to print. It’s easy to get in the habit of photocopying if it seems easier, but printing things like forms and invoice sheets will be a cost that builds up over time, affecting your bottom line.
Continue Reading about Six Ways to Save on Business Costs This Spring

Last week it was my daughter’s birthday and she received a lot of clothes as gifts. From Hanna Montana to Hello Kitty, from white brands to H & M she received different pieces. As a lot of people shop on the same mall, she ended up receiving two skirts, same color, same model so today we went shopping so that we could exchange the repeated skirt for a new one.

It’s quite funny how hip hop clothing is showing up in stores as regular clothing. I’m not quite fond of that type of clothes but I confess that they are quite interesting.

We ended up buying a jeans rose skirt with five pockets. Very fashion, very stylish.

Today I was removing some clutter from a few unused drawers, and I came to the conclusion that I have several useless headphones..

Over time I can say we bought more than eight cell phones, different brands, and styles. Each cell phone came with a pair of headphones, different plugs of course. Each time a cell phone stops working the headphones is thrown into a drawer, and now I have at least six headphones that can’t be used in any of my cell phones, computers, or home speakers.

I thought about giving them for recycling, but then I remembered that maybe there is an adapter and I might be able to use them when I’m attending webinars or watching movies on my laptop. This is something I have to look into

I’m gaining weight too fast. For a person that during the last 20 years has been trying to gain weight and now, only by leaving a stressful work behind is gaining weight at no cost. I’m not taking creatine supplements or other products to increase muscle mass, nor I am taking any kind of medication to opening my appetite. I’m just more relaxed and peaceful, and weight is coming naturally. I have to be careful though. I don’t want to go from underweight to overweighted.

It’s time again to reduce a few bill including the insurance ones. Electricity and gas are at the minimum consumption, it’s kind of difficult to reduce the petrol so it’s time to begin looking for new insurance quotes. Blue Cross short term insurance is one solution but I also want to look around and check several insurance companies to make sure that I really find a low price.

I was offered a health insurance covering dental medicine but right now, I’m not capable of paying for another insurance other than the ones I already have.

Image via Wikipedia

Earth day is quickly approaching, and what better way to celebrate it than to make yourself a tiny bit less of a nuisance to the planet. Instead of just thanking mother earth on April 22nd, get her something really special this year: less waste. Following are five easy ways to greatly reduce the detrimental impact that you have on the environment.

1. Use rechargeable batteries
If you live in California, you might not even be aware that throwing away batteries has been illegal since 2006. However, this virtually unenforceable law shouldn’t be your sole motivation to keep your batteries out of regular trash cans. Batteries contain a litany of acids and other toxic substances such as lead and cadmium, causing a wide range of ailments in your brain, kidney, and liver, as well as birth defects if ingested while pregnant. It’s always better to use rechargeable batteries versus regular ones, but when it comes time to throw them away, make sure you drop them off at a local household hazardous waste center.

2. Switch to fluorescent lights
Fluorescent lights use a quarter of the amount of energy that incandescent lights use, not only cutting you a break on your power bill but reducing the amount of fossil fuels that power plants must burn to generate the electricity in the first place. Although fluorescent lights contain mercury, it is only a few milligrams, and is compensated for by their much more efficient use of electricity. Just be sure to drop them off at a household hazardous waste center along with your batteries.

3. Stop using water bottles
We all love to get a giant pack of water bottles from Costco, but the truth is that even though the plastic is recyclable, most of us will throw them in regular trash cans, sending them away to take up more valuable space in already packed landfills. Instead, try using a tap water filter… not only does this save you money and eliminate plastic waste, but it also discourages the amount of water (albeit in a very small way) that the water bottle companies are taking out of the environment.

4. Get new internet
No, that wasn’t a typo. Although it’s not one of the first things you think of when someone tells you to “go green,” the type of internet that you use does have an impact on the environment. If you have cable or fiber optic internet, then chances are that someone has dug miles upon miles of holes in the ground to lay copper or fiber glass wire just so you can check your facebook. However, if you switch to internet like this, you almost completely eschew the use of landlines, saving miles of earth and future plant growth from being destroyed.

5. Use less paper
This is one that has been hammered into our head since most of us were in elementary school. However, people still are a lot less than efficient when it comes to being conservative with their paper use. If you carry a notepad, try using the one on your phone or tablet PC. An average person uses about 700 lbs of paper a year – this is not only as bad as it sounds, but is really quite ridiculous in a day and age where everything is digitized.

Image by AlicePopkorn via Flickr

While shopping in a health store the other day I heard someone talking about Earth Day 2011 and the fact that the theme this year is A Billion Acts of Green. Sounded interesting, so this is what I found out…

1. Recognizing that a billion small collective actions by individuals can significantly create change, the central theme of Earth Day 2011 is about encouraging pledges from individuals, organizations and corporate arenas to act – hence the name is A Billion Acts of Green. The first Earth Day ever was celebrated in 1970 and since then the Earth Day Network,

the driving force behind the whole concept, has been trying broaden the environmental movement and encourage participation by holding Earth Day on April 22 every year.

2. Interestingly, Earth Day is widely considered the largest civic observance in the world. Roughly one billion people participate in each year, with more than 190 countries and about 22 000 global partners helping to drive the initiative. The first Earth Day ever is credited as the launching pad from which the modern environmental movement sprang.  Some countries now celebrate entire Earth Weeks and the UN has officially declared April 22 as International Mother Earth Day.

3. The largest environmental campaign in the world, A Billion Acts of Green is hoping to have one billion actions registered before the 2012 global Earth Summit in Brazil. Earth Summit is an event that is attended by politicians, heads of state, officials and media from around the world and the core objective is to roll out plans in order to face global issues relating to food, the ecosystem and the climate, among others. The 2012 summit is the fourth one of its kind and in 2012 the key themes are said to surround the concepts of a green economy and global environmental governance. Progress from the last 20 years will also be reviewed.

Continue Reading About Earth Day 2011