What to buy organic ...

The Environmental Working Group has composed 2 lists to help you decide which produce is worth the extra money to purchase organic - The Dirty Dozen - the 12 foods with the most pesticide residue & The Clean Fifteen - the 15 foods with the lowest levels of pesticide residue. If you can't afford to buy everything organic, be sure at least to purchase organics for the foods that appear on the Dirty Dozen List.

The Dirty Dozen:

1. peaches
2. apples
3. bell peppers
4. celery
5. nectarines
6. strawberries
7. cherries
8. kale
9. lettuce
10. imported grapes
11. carrots
12. pears

The Clean Fifteen:

1. onions
2. avocados
3. corn
4. pineapples
5. mangoes
6. asparagus
7. sweet peas
8. kiwi
9. cabbages
10. eggplants
11. papayas
12. watermelons
13. broccoli
14. tomatoes
15. sweet potatoes

Weekend Project - Refrigerator

Refrigerators are one of the biggest energy users in the home, save energy and money by making sure your refrigerator is working efficiently.

1. Start by vacuuming the cooling coils on the back of the fridge. (Be sure to unplug the refrigerator first.)

2. Check the temperature settings. Recommended temperatures are 35 to 38 degrees Fahrenheit for the fridge, and 0 degrees for the freezer.

3. Check your door seals. Put a piece of paper in the fridge door and see how easy it is to remove. If it slips right out, it is time to replace the seals.

Performing simple maintenance a few times a year will save you a lot of money on your energy bill.

Pretty Clean Thirteen

As food budgets continue to feel the pinch of the tough economy it is getting harder for some to purchase organic produce. There are many fruits and veggies with a low pesticide use due to their natural defenses against pests or they are grown in climates where pests are not as much of a problem. Here is a list of the pretty clean thirteen - foods you can save on by buying conventional:

1. Onions

2. Avocados

3. Sweet Corn

4. Pineapples

5. Mangoes

6. Asparagus

7. Sweet peas

8. Kiwi fruit

9. Bananas

10. Cabbage

11. Broccoli

12. Eggplant

13. Papayas

Repair, Don't Replace

We all know the 3 Rs - reduce, reuse, & recycle. Of the three the first - reduce is the most important. Every new item you purchase has a large impact on the planet, production uses raw materials, energy & water and creates waste. In light of this the most earth friendly thing you can do is to keep an existing item rather than buying new. Renew old items by visiting a jewelry repair, shoe repair, or local seamstress. A few months ago I broke a heel on a pair of my favorite shoes - a quick trip to the shoe repair store and $10 later my shoes were as good as new.

What to eat organic

Eating organic will reduce your exposure to pesticides, but can be expensive. In these tough economic times, buying organic foods can strain some families' budgets. What can you do? By purchasing organics for the 12 foods with the highest levels of pesticides, you can reduce your exposure to over 90% of the most commonly used pesticides. What to buy organic -

1. Apples
2. Bell peppers
3. Celery
4. Cherries
5. Grapes
6. Nectarines
7. Peaches
8. Pears
9. Potatoes
10. Red raspberries
11. Spinach
12. Strawberries

Recycle Easter

Even if you decided to celebrate an earth-friendly Easter, you will still have some recycling to do.

1. Gather up any plastic eggs and pack them up for next year, this will save you money and reduce the amount plastic you buy.

2. I know you were eco-conscious and avoided buying plastic Easter grass, but basket giving grandparents & friends may not have been - what to do with the grass? Use it to cushion items you ship or as filler in gift baskets throughout the year.

3. Reuse your child's Easter basket. We have a large natural basket we use throughout the year - it holds Christmas presents, Easter goodies, birthday gifts, etc.

4. Recycle any cardboard packaging.

5. Compost your Easter egg shells.

6. Don't be lured by after Easter sales unless it is to purchase decorations that can be used year after year or natural baskets that can be used for gift giving or storage around the house.

5 great reasons to give up bottled water

There are a million reasons why we need to break our country's addiction to bottled water - it's ridicously expensive, bad for the environment, totally unnessary, - the list goes on and on. Here's 5 reasons why you need to kick the bottled water habit:

1. Save $500 a year by breaking a bottle a day water habit.

2. According to earthpolicy.org, you could run 100,000 cars for a year on the amount of oil used to make plastic water bottles.

3. Nine out of 10 single use water bottles are thrown away insead of recycled.

4. If you drank the recommended 8 cups of water per day by drinking single serving Aquafina bottles, you would spend $2,500 a year! Kinda crazy in this current economic crisis to spend money on something you can get for free.

5. In most taste tests, people can't taste the difference between bottled or tap water. In fact the top selling bottled waters - Aquafina and Dasani - come from municipal water supplies.

Make the switch to reusable stainless steel water bottles, your pocketbook and the planet will thank you. Check out the great bottles available at www.earthlust.com

Get Cozi...

Why not save a few trees by switching to a paperless calendar this year? Consider one of the free online planners, such as Cozi. The Cozi calendar allows you to personalize your calendar display with different colors for each family member. Cozi also has a family journal, shopping lists, Christmas Card list,a screen saver option from your personal photos, you can send emails to your family members, jot notes, store recipes, and it can even be synced with Microsoft Outlook. When entering activities you choose their frequency - daily, weekly, every Tuesday, etc. - eliminating the need to enter the same information multiple times. Depending on your child's school district you can even download school calendars onto your family calendar. I love the fact that when I have access to the internet, I have my calendar no need to remember to carry my planner with me and best of all nothing to recycle at the end of the year. Check out Cozi at www.cozi.com

Finding green...

Have you been finding more green in your wallet lately in the form of extra dollars? With gas prices plummeting to the $1.90 range, you have a great opportunity to save some green while living green. Almost everyone I know limited their driving when gas prices were hovering near the $4 mark, stick with your lifestyle changes and you can save money and the planet. For example, I limited my driving so I only filled up my gas tank once a week. My tank is around 12.5 gallons, so with gas prices dropping over $2 a gallon I can pocket at least an extra $25.00 a week if I stick with my reduced driving plan!! With the holidays approaching that will make buying all the great sustainable gifts on my shopping list that much easier. Do the math - how much could you be earning without changing a thing?

Go Green & Save Some Green

While the economy is in such a slump, there are many earth friendly choices that can save you money while saving the planet.

1. Hang your laundry out to dry as your dryer is the second largest energy user in your house.

2. Go vegetarian. Fruits and veggies are good for your health and bank account. Fruits and veggies average out to about 70 cents a pound whereas beef averages $4 a pound.

3. Bike to do one errand a week.

4. Make your own cleaners.

5. Think before you print - do you really need to print everything you receive on your computer? Save it electronically and save money on paper and ink.

6. Use cloth napkins and replace paper towels with cloths you can wash and reuse.

7. Carpool.

8. Support your community and shop the local farmers market, the prices are better than the local grocery store and the freshness can't be beat.

Be a mooch...

A Book Mooch that is - I found this great website recently and needed to share it. Bookmooch.com is a great site that allows you trade books with others. I listed books that I am willing to trade just 3 days ago and I already received my first book! The site is super easy to use - list the books you want to trade, receive requests for your books, mail the books and earn points so you can mooch books you want. What a great way to keep books out of landfills while keeping your bookshelves fresh.

Should you preheat your oven?

As the holiday season rolls around, many people increase the use of their home's oven. Most recipes will call for you to preheat the oven, but is this step really necessary? Preheating the oven uses a lot of energy to heat up a small amount of air which then escapes when you open the door to put your food in. When older recipes were developed, wood & coal ovens were slow to heat, therefore preheating made sense to our ancestors and early cookbook authors. With modern electrical or natural gas ovens, preheating may save some cook time but wastes a lot of energy in the process. When cooking remember these energy saving tips:

1. Don't preheat your oven.
2. While your food is cooking avoid opening the oven door to peek at your food.
3. Cover your pots when boiling water.
4. Consider turning off your oven a short time before the food is done. With the door closed, it will retain the heat.

5 Minute Earth-Friendly Changes

There is so much info out there about going green, at times it can be a little overwhelming. Start small with some simple changes that will make a difference for the environment and your bank account.

1. Lower your thermostat in the winter and raise it in the summer.

2.Turn off lights when you leave the room.

3.Unplug appliances, cell phone chargers, DVD players and other "phantom loads" when you are not using them. Phantom loads are items that use energy while in the instant-on mode - if it has a clock or a glowing light it is using energy. It is estimated that, 75% of the electricity used to run home electronics is consumed while the products are off.

4. Switch your old incandescent bulbs to compact flourescent lamps (CFLs). CFLs last 10 times longer, use a quarter less energy, and give off 90% less heat.

5. Improve your indoor air quality - the EPA states that indoor air quality can be more polluted than outdoor air. Furniture, flooring, paints, and adhesives offgas VOCs (volatile organic compounds). Look for low or no VOC choices which are now widely available.

6. Weatherproof your home - attach rubber sweeps to the bottom of doors, apply low-VOC caulk to cracks in window and doorframes, insulate outlets and light switches with inexpensive foam gaskets.

7. Conserve water. Install a low-flow showerhead and shorten your shower time. Check toilets for leaks, only run the dishwasher and washing machine when they are full, install aerators on your faucets.

8. Replace your air conditioner or furnace filter monthly. Also look for reusable filters that can be cleaned which reduces waste.

9. Lower the temperature on your water heater to 120 degrees and insulate your hot-water storage tank.

10. Switch from using hot water in your washing machine to cold water and use half the energy.

Green & Frugal

Going green can also save you some green - as in money! While some green products may cost more, some green choices are definite money-saving ideas as well. One star of the frugal lifestyle, Amy Dacyczyn, author of the Tightwad Gazette says, "I realized that economy and ecology are like two circles that overlap about 90%. The remaining 10% is the area where doing the right thing for the environment costs more...but having successfully blended the areas of economy and ecology in the 90% area, we have found that we now have some surplus money, and this surplus gives us economic room to reexamine some of the areas within the 10%."

For some of Amy's great money saving ideas, check your local library for her book - Tightwad Gazette. Now when I do the following things I can just say I'm eco-friendly, which sounds better than cheap:

1. Reuse all paper that enters your house & then recycle it. I don't need to purchase any paper for notes, I reuse all the paper that comes in the house by cutting it in forths and using the backs for notes and grocery lists which I then recycle in our paper bin. We also use the backs of envelopes that bills and stuff come in.

2. Make items from scratch - the basics like flour, sugar, eggs, baking soda, etc. are cheaper to purchase and are healthy than most prepared foods.

3. Eat seasonally. When fruits & veggies are on sale it's because they are in season and aren't grown in far off tropical locations. You will save money and will reduce the carbon footprint of your diet.

4. Use your local library. Today's libraries are a great source for best sellers, movies, books on tape, afterschool programs, etc.

5. Make sun tea. Put 6 tea bags in a gallon jug of water and set it in the sun for several hours. You get great tasting tea using the energy from the sun.

6. Make your own cleaners from items in your pantry. You can make antibacterial cleaners, toilet cleaners, glass cleaner, and laundry detergent that is safer and cheaper than what you can buy in the store.

7. Eliminate all disposables. Purchasing paper towels, paper napkins, paper plates, plastic cutlery, plastic cups, and other one time use items can add a lot to your grocery bill and to our landfills.