Have a Better Life

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Almost every day the media are reminding us about the need to take a greener outlook and how important it is to take positive action to slow down the effects of climate change. Many of the steps we can take can help the environment and save us money. Our grandchildren – and their children – will thank us for living more sustainably, and our wallets will thank us, too. Here are some useful tips to help make those changes.

Save energy and save money at the same time

• Set your thermostat a few degrees lower than you normally do in winter. Less energy will be needed to heat your home as a result. Turn off the heat while you are away, or set the thermostat even lower if you don’t want to turn it off. This will lower the heating bills and maintain a suitable temperature in the house.
• Install compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) when your older incandescent bulbs burn out.
• Use a smart power strip that senses when appliances are off and cuts hidden energy use.
• Make sure energy is not leaking through the windows. Check the windows and doors to ensure they are completely sealed and there is no space under the doors. The windows should be sealed with caulk so the cold air can’t come in.
• Replace regular windows with double-paned models which enhances warm temperatures in the house during the cool months of the year.

Save Water

• Replace your showerhead with a low-flow showerhead. They are inexpensive, and the water and energy savings can quickly pay back your investment.
• Ensure you have a faucet aerator on each faucet. These inexpensive devices conserve heat and water, while keeping water pressure high.
• Plant drought-tolerant plants in your garden. Lots of plants need minimal watering. Grow those which flower to add color and variety.

Less Gas, More Money

• Leave your vehicle at home and walk or bike to work. This will not only save on gas and parking costs, but improve your cardiovascular health and reduce your risk of obesity.
• Carpooling is a great way to cut the cost of gas and reduce carbon emissions.
• Buy a hybrid vehicle. Cars like the Toyota Prius have lower emissions and higher fuel mileage than regular vehicles.
• Lobby local government to increase spending on sidewalks and bike lanes. These improvements can pay huge dividends in bettering the health of your local community and reduce traffic.

Think about what you eat

• Add one meatless meal a week if you eat meat. Meat is expensive, particularly when you factor in the related environmental and health costs.
• Buy local produce whenever you can. Purchasing from local farmers not only keeps money in the local economy but reduces carbon emissions. The nearer the source, the lower its impact.
• Avoid bottled water
• Purify tap water with a filter instead of buying bottled water. You’ll save money and reduce container waste.
• Take a reusable water container to work or on family outings.
• Borrow, don’t buy
• Get to know your neighbors and share power tools with them.
•  Borrow books and movies from libraries to save on money and the printing costs needed to produce more books.

Buy Smart

• Buying in bulk saves money and reduces carbon emissions. Fewer trips to the store means less gas.
• Buy clothes that don’t need to be dry-cleaned. This will save money and reduce toxic chemical usage.
•  Invest in high quality clothes which last a long time. You will spend less as a result and cut down on waste.

Guest post by environmental writer Samantha Harvey on behalf of General Waste Collection.

Are you currently stressed about paying your bills?  Is your mortgage one of your largest bills, and you are concerned about not paying it and losing your house?  With interest rates being as low as they currently are, you may think about seeing if you can refinance your current mortgage.  Furthermore, you may want to even consolidate your debt into your mortgage, lock a low rate, and enjoy the reduced stress of being able to make ends meet.

There are many sites that offer mortgage comparison, but here are some key points to consider if you want to refinance to save money, consolidate debt, and be more stress free.

Reducing Your Mortgage Payment
One of the main reasons people refinance is to reduce their mortgage payment.  You can use a home loan calculator, and plug in today’s current low rates, to see what your new monthly payment will be.  Depending on your currently loan, you may see savings as high as 10-20% off your current monthly payment.

Having a lower monthly payment is a great way to reduce your current stress to make ends meet each month.

Debt Consolidation
If you have enough equity in your home, you may be able to refinance and take out some money to pay off your other debts.  This is essentially consolidating your debt into your mortgage.  However, this can make sense.  Owe $10,000 on a credit card at 18% interest?  You could add $10,000 to your 4.5% mortgage, save on interest, and even deduct the interest on your taxes each year.

Paying off the auxiliary debt, getting a lower interest rate, and having a lower total payment are all ways that can help lower your stress when it comes to paying your bills each month.

Final Considerations
Before you think about doing anything with your mortgage, you need to make sure that you meet these two criteria: you have equity in your home (you’re not underwater), and you have a good credit score.  If you don’t meet these criteria, it will be difficult to refinance and consolidate.   If you are in a good position, you should be able to lower your payments and lower your stress.

Recycling and reusing is becoming more natural nowadays. Although people’s awareness for the need to follow the go green movement is increasing, the need to save money and to be more frugal when it comes to buying also dictates what to buy and how.

Reusing furniture, clothes, objects, paper, and other materials is getting more popular among the population and it has a huge acceptation.

A lot of used items are also preferred when the moment to buy arrives. Used cars, used furniture and even used skid steer parts are selected when it comes to buy expensive or even cheap items.

Used car parts are items that are widely searched. They are acquired from vehicles that where in accidents or that no longer are used. Used car parts are usually in perfect conditions and they can be reused without problems.

The same happens with furniture. Items that are painted, and repaired can be used again by people that want to buy second hand furniture.

Clothes, specially baby and toddlers clothes that sometimes are used once or twice can perfectly be reused by other babies and children. There are families that exchange clothes when they have children of different age.

There are so many items that can be reused. By doing so we are having a go green perspective of life and at the same time saving money.

The best way to overcome family debt is budgeting and frugality. Budgeting helps you to get an idea on your income and your expenditures. Thus, you are able to determine your affordability and this helps you to stay within your limits so that you don’t end up incurring more debts. This also helps you to save money from your daily expenditures. In addition, if you go frugal, you will be able to save more than that you can usually do through a simple budgeting. You can then use this money for the purpose of debt reduction.

Saving money through budgeting and frugality
Budgeting involves writing down your total income (any kinds) and your expenditures – fixed and additional one. You will have to adjust your expenditures in such a way so that it stays within the limits of your income and so that you are also able to save some amount of money from your expenditures that you do for yourself and your family. If needed you will have to lower some expenditure that you think are not necessary for your family. If you are able to save some money you will be able to pay off the debts that your family has incurred.

While budgeting, you can prepare it on your own or else you can also use a budgeting tool or calculator from online websites that offer you such free tools. Other than budgeting, you will also have to practice frugality in order to save more money and work towards debt reduction.

Frugality does not mean that you will have to love a miserly life. Frugality is rather about giving up on your impulses and expending on a strategical way. There are various ways in which you can go frugal on your family expenditures. You will have to take advantage of discounts and coupons so that you are required to pay much less than what you would have had to pay in order to buy the items that you need the most for the family. You can practice stock piling in order to save more on the items that you are required to buy every two weeks. If you buy things in stocks, you get more discounts. In addition, you are also able to save money on gas as you are not required to go shopping in every two weeks. Other than this, you will also be able to save money on gas if you buy it during the night or in the morning as the weather is cool during these times of the day. You can also save money if you avoid eating out. Having home foods is healthy too.

The best part about budgeting and frugality is that you are required to give up on much unnecessary expenditure. This not only helps you to save money but also helps you to incur lesser debts. Thus, these two help in faster family debt reduction.

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One of my goals for 2011 when it comes to financial issues is to keep my bank account above 0 and my credit card on 0.

I’ve been trying to use the credit card to take advantage of the bonus I get (1% in each transaction), but I always end up with a huge account to pay because I wait 2 or 3 weeks to see how much I owe. I guess buying and paying on the spot really is the best option to keep the bank and credit card accounts tidy.

Using payday advances are also something I really want to avoid. Having the extra money available on the bank account really is a good thing but we end up losing track of the money and when we notice, he account is below 0 because we are already using the payday advance money.

I really want to make 2011 a less stressful year regarding money. I’m tired of spending in advance and paying later. Money end up disappearing and sometimes even missing. I would like to put some money aside but…I will be really happy if I’m able to get the accounts above 0 amount.

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With the go green movement in mind a lot of people are finding alternative solutions to take advantage of existing materials. A lot of stores are now selling unfinished furniture and other wood objects leaving the buyer the power of creating the final product.

Unfinished wood products are excellent when we want to make our own creations specially when speaking of colors and details. We can finish them to combine with other pieces we have in the house and, when it is kid’s related, they can help out with their personal touch.

Unfinished furniture is cheaper than finished one. Although some money has to be spent to give the final touch, the final object will always be cheaper that when buying a finished one.

We can find all kind of unfinished wood products: chairs, coffee boxes, tea boxes, tables, napkins holders, jewelry box, etc. etc. Some of them need some real work done so it would be advised to have an annular cutter or a metal hole saw nearby. Some furniture needs to be assembled, other have some small defects that need to be minimized. Painting and final finishing are usually needed.

There are some stores that only sell unfinished furniture and there are places like Amish communities or rehab centers that have amazing unfinished furniture waiting to be bought. Whether it is for the bedroom, living room or outdoors it is excellent to be able to get personalizes items that will match the rest of the decoration we already have.

Buying unfinished furniture is also a great way to reuse items that might end up in the garbage because they are not perfect or they are no longer needed. Perfect to save some money and redecorate the house.

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Christmas is the most wonderful season in the whole year. It is a season of love and giving. On Christmas most people are expecting Christmas gifts, especially children. It

At this time of the year people are busy buying gifts for their families and special ones. Supermarkets and shopping malls are crowded with buyers. Choosing Christmas gifts can be a real pain, especially when we don’t have a clue of what to give.

Well here are some ideas: Clothing, accessories, beauty products and perfumes. There are also personalized gifts that can be done at home or buy them in stores that personalize products. For men, there is The Pen Company that provides great pens fully personalized. For girls, personalized shirts, jewelry accessories and dolls. Boys will enjoy toys and video games depending on the age. For women jewelry is always a good option as well as home decoration items, candles and books.

Although Christmas is seen as a give and receive season, but the financial crisis that is going around the world is changing the mentality of people. Materialism has to be stopped and Christmas is a great occasion to do so. Buying toys to kids that already have a huge amount of toys is not a wise idea.

Christmas can also be turned into a Green Season. Toys, Clothes, blankets, etc. that are no longer in use can be offered to institutions or directly to people in need. Christmas can be changed into give without waiting to receiving. In our family we have an agreement: we only give gifts to kids. We save money and at the same time we make our children happy with good gifts.

Christmas is also a loving season and what matters is having the family together, have a good meal and enjoy each others company.