Frugally Green

Reminder: You can still enter to win one of my Garage Sale Giveaway prizes until the end of the day. Get to it!

I’m going to let you in on a little secret.  Actually, it’s not a secret at all. I just haven’t told you yet.

When I started Frugally Green in April, I made a few a goals for the site.  By the end of the year, I wanted 100 people to feel like they had gotten so much out of this site that they were willing to let me into their life by subscribing to my updates.

Whether through RSS or email, I wanted 100 of of you to feel like I was your friend – like you could knock on my door, asking for a cup of sugar and I’d smile and oblige.

Well, I want you to know that as of today, Frugally Green has 96 subscribers.  If you’re one of them, I want to say thank you.  You rock.

96 is a very respectable number.  I could end the year right here and be very happy to know that I’ve been able to provide value to that many people. It’s very humbling.

Yet, I would love nothing more than to reach my goal.  Doing so would provide a very concrete ending to a tremendous year.

That’s why I’m going to ask you for your help.

If you’ve been reading for awhile and thinking you’d like to subscribe but just haven’t clicked that little button yet, will you do it now?  If you need some more time, that’s cool.  I’m a patient guy.

I just don’t want you to miss out on any posts that could help you reach your goals.

If you feel like Frugally Green has contributed positively to your goals to lead a more sustainable life, will you take a second in the coming weeks to tell someone about it – your significant other, a friend, a family member?

I want to help even more people reach the sustainability goals they have without breaking the piggy bank.

Seeing my subscriber number grow is more than just an ego boost.  It means I’m actually touching peoples’ lives.  It lets me know I’m headed in the right direction.

If you think I’m headed in the right direction, I would really love your support.

Thanks for kicking ass.

~~~~~

Ok, enough of the mushy stuff.  Here’s what’s been swimming around my head from the green web this week. Bon apetit.

Prostitutes Offer Free Sex at Climate Summit in Copenhagen – As if you needed another reason to get yourself to Denmark.  Interestingly enough, this “freebie” deal has nothing to do with the climate summit and everything to do with a battle between sex workers (yes, it’s legal in Denmark) and the mayor of Copenhagen.

Perhaps, if only for a short time, we can re-coin the phrase, “Make love and war.”

Going Greener by Going Bigger: Does it Work? – We’ve certainly proved that big apartment complexes are far more sustainable than single family homes and it’s quite obvious that buses go a long way to reduce carbon emissions from cars, but the argument that “bigger is greener” just doesn’t hold up across the board.

This article at Ecogeek explains how huge airplanes, cruise ships, and freeways simply created a way for people to “overconsume efficiently” rather than solve an existing problem.

Should We Bring Back the Bidet for the Sake of the Environment? – This article from The Good Human is all about one of my favorite topics: poop!  Here in the States, we seem to have some sort of deep seeded fear of bidets.

When my girlfriend Jessie and I were in Europe last summer, we used them all the time and I can assure you that they’re:

• A lot of fun
• Very cleansing
• A lot of fun

Bidets always seem to get criticized as water wasters, but not so fast!  Do you know how much water it takes to manufacture a roll of toilet paper? Answer: a lot.

I Finally Sold My Car - My buddy Sean over at Location 180 finally, well, sold his car.  And guess what?  It’s actually made him happier.  He’s getting more exercise, he’s seeing more of the details of his city, and he’s saving a bunch of money.  Oh yeah, and he’s not spitting CO2 out of a tailpipe all over town.  I wish I could say the same.  Good job Sean.

Pretty soon, Sean is headed on a one way trip to Thailand where he’ll likely grow very fond of bidets.  Wish him luck.

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Take a second to check out some of the carnivals that Frugally Green was featured in recently:

• Me in Millions did a stellar job hosting the Best of Money Carnival
• The Festival of Frugality #206 is up at Out of Debt Again
• The Financial Blogger put together the Carnival of Money Stories
• Pragmatic Environmentalism was kind enough to curate the Carnival of the Green
• Check out the Carnival of Twenty Something Finances at The Amateur Financier

This will likely be the last of the carnivals I participate in for awhile as I shift my “outreach strategy” a bit to focus more on guest posting for other blogs that I connect with.  My guest post on Get Rich Slowly was extremely successful and I look forward to finding more opportunities like this.  I hope you do, too.  Frugally Green is growing and it’s all thanks to you.

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Connect with me on Twitter: @FrugallyGreen

Image of whispering by Saaam

This is a new series of posts where I will challenge our environmental ideals with opposing perspectives I come across in day to day life.  I think it’s important to understand both sides of any argument in order to strengthen your own resolve.

With all the talk these days about climate change and what we can do to prevent it, there’s been a lot of focus on the cars we drive.

It makes sense because cars are huge producers of carbon dioxide and, at least here in the United States, it seems that everybody has at least one of them that they use on a daily basis.

Recently, the US Government even decided that car emissions were such a big deal that they would offer huge cash incentives to people who would trade their old polluting ones in for new, more efficient models.

But why do we really care about cars and how efficient they are? I keep being told that they’re destroying our environment, but I don’t really buy it and here’s why.

Climate Change

I hear over and over again that the carbon dioxide produced by my big SUV is trapping tons of heat on the planet and warming it up. They say the polar ice caps are going to melt, polar bears are going to drown, and I’ll end up a sun bleached corpse in the middle of a desert.

Prove it!

The Earth has gone through numerous heating and cooling cycles over the course of its existence.  Why should I believe for one second that, if in fact the earth is heating up, my SUV has anything to do with it?

Sounds like just another day in history to me.

Remember the global cooling hysteria of the 70s?  Everyone was sure that the earth was cooling down and we were headed for the next ice age.

Too bad I wasn’t around back then to warm things up with my big global warming machine, huh?

The whole theory is just too wishy washy for me.  Besides, did you notice how cold it was yesterday?  How’s that for global warming?

Peak Oil

Don’t even get me started on peak oil.  That’s the other big phrase you environmental nut jobs keep shouting about.

We’ve been sucking the stuff out of the ground with very few problems for over 100 years.  You really expect me to believe that the wells are going to start drying up now?  On what evidence?

People keep telling me about the gas shortages of the 70s.  That was 30 years ago!  Where are the gas shortages now?

There are way more cars on the road today and there seems to be plenty of oil to go around.  In fact, gas prices now are lower than they have been in years.

Doesn’t that mean we actually have too much of it? Maybe we should start putting it back?

If you really do believe in this peak oil business and want to spur the development of alternative energy, shouldn’t you be thanking me for driving my big SUV?

The more I drive and the worse my fuel economy is, the faster we should run out of oil, according to you.  That ought to provide a market pretty quick for those electric car manufacturers.

Maybe I’ll go on a cross country trip with my back seat filled with bricks. You’re welcome.

I can’t take all the credit though.  I read a study the other day that found that all your eco buddies that bought Priuses drive them more than their old cars just to show off.

Humans are adaptable

Suppose I give in to all your arguments that the earth really is heating up and we actually are running out of oil.  Just to get you off my back, suppose I even agree that my clunker is contributing to the mess.

No, I didn’t say “significantly contributing.”  Don’t put words in my mouth.  You eco geeks are always putting words in my mouth.

Anyway, the world’s changing and I’m causing it.  I still say, “So what?”

Humans are the most adaptable creatures on the planet.  We didn’t crawl out of the tar pits and work our way to the top of the food chain just to let a little heat take it all away.

Why are you so afraid of change?  Won’t it ultimately be good for us?

If we run out of oil, we’ll find something else to use. If it gets too hot, we’ll just evolve to take on the new landscape.  You believe in evolution, don’t you?

We’re adaptable creatures and pretty resourceful with these highly evolved brains we’ve grown.  If things become unbearable, won’t we just put them to use and solve our own problems then?

All in all, I’d say I’m doing my part to help mankind quite well.  Why do you want to change me?

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Connect with me on Twitter: @FrugallyGreen

Image of hummer by Anatoli Axelrod

What does it take to succeed?

Many argue that it takes a sharp mind, a strong work ethic and the right opportunities.

These are just a few of the aspects commonly quoted as the fundamental ingredients of success.

To an extent, they’re all right. When you look back on the life of someone who’s demonstrated success over and over again, these are the things you see.

What often gets overlooked, though, are the many missteps that invariably occur on any path to greatness. These missteps are what most of us regular folks know as failures.

Every time I set a new goal for myself, every time I take on a new environmental challenge, I encounter numerous failures.

What kind of road blocks have you encountered when you’re trying to change something about yourself?

Failure, you see, is a funny thing because there are two ways to interpret it, and which way you choose will completely determine your future success.

Failure as an end

For many, as soon as something doesn’t go according to plan, it’s a clear sign that the plan won’t work and they ought to just give up.

Let’s say you decided that you wanted to use less water. To make a go of it, you’re going to take shorter showers, turn off the water when you’re brushing your teeth, and only run the dishwasher when it’s full.

After a couple weeks, you notice that you just can’t drag yourself out of the shower, you still always forget to turn off the water when you’re brushing your teeth, and you need to run the dishwasher half full because there’s a dirty cheese grater you need for dinner.

There must have been a fatal flaw in the plan that couldn’t be fixed. May as well give up and look for something else to do.

Sometimes that’s true, but most of the time, it isn’t. With this type of mindset, it’s virtually impossible to achieve anything even remotely difficult.

When you’re trying to do something new, you’re constantly fighting your mind to just do it the same old way. It’s an internal struggle that can be very difficult to win.

Failure as a means to an end

When you change how you look at failure and redefine it as a setback and opportunity for learning instead of an insurmountable roadblock, so much more becomes achievable.

You’re making a difficult change. You don’t have to beat your mind the first time and you don’t have to beat it every time afterword. You just have to beat it once, and then beat it again. And then keep beating it little by little until you’re winning most of the time.

There is no such thing as perfection.

There is no such thing as smooth ride.

There is no free lunch.

Each time you feel like you’ve failed, you get a very unique opportunity to figure out why you failed and adjust accordingly.

As Seth Godin says, fail and fail fast.

Every major change is the result of many tiny failures. If you do it right, each is unique, but they all serve the same purpose – to teach you how to not screw up again.

This means dreaming from a bird’s eye view: “I am going to use 50% less water than I do now by this time next year.”

It means planning at ground level: “I’m going to take shorter showers, turn off the faucet every chance I get, only run the dishwasher when it’s full, start collecting rain water, etc.”

And most importantly, it means analyzing through a microscope: “Why was my shower so long and how can I make it shorter next time? Why did I forget to turn off the faucet and what’s a new trick I can use to remember?”

You rally yourself around a big goal, but you fight in the trenches. You keep figuring out what doesn’t work until you figure out what does.

Final Thoughts

A war is won by failing to win 49% of its battles. An entrepreneur gets rich by failing 99% of her business deals before finding one that sticks.

If you want to change your habits, you have to be willing to fail over, and over, and over again. And then you have to be willing to fly to the moon when you find your one success.

I wrote this post three times before I got it “right.”

Never quit.

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Connect with me on Twitter: @FrugallyGreen

Fail Harder image by thedrun

Sorry, no Eco-Links this week.  Here’s something WAY BETTER.

Howdy folks.  Another week’s gone by and I can hardly wait to spend the weekend catching up on projects I’ve let slide a bit.

Last week I wrote out what I’ve decided to call my “Christmas List” -  a list of things I want to complete by Christmas.

One of the itemson this list to check off is “declutter.” It’s more of an ongoing process for me, but I wanted to really make a go of it before the holidays are in full swing.

Jessie and I have been on a minimalism kick lately, and it’s driven us to purge a lot of things from our lives.  It feels great to pare down my belongings to the things I truly value and use regularly.

However, a lot of things I’ve been getting rid of aren’t junk, they’re pretty useful.  I just don’t have a place for them anymore.

I’m happy to give the things I don’t use any more to charities like Goodwill that can do great things with them, but since it’s the season of giving, I thought I’d extend a little of the same to you.

I’ve chosen a few items that I feel like Frugally Green readers would really enjoy and decided to give them away. I call it the Frugally Green Garage Sale Giveaway. That’s the cheesiest name I could come up with.

What you’ll win

I scratched my head for a few minutes, shuffled some things around on the floor and then organized everything into 4 prize packages:

Grand Prize (1 Winner): A “green home” package consisting of 5 great home design books to help you plan for a new home, a remodel, or just a redecoration to create great living in small spaces:

• The Not So Big House Collection (2 books) by architect Sarah Susanka
• Not So Big Solutions for Your Home by Sarah Susanka
• Green by Design: Creating a Home for Sustainable Living by Angela M. Dean
• PreFabHome by Michael Buchanan

Second Prize (1 Winner): Two excellent books to help you make the green changes in your life that matter most to you:

• It’s Easy Being Green: A Handbook for Earth Friendly Living by Chrissy Trask
• Sleeping Naked is Green: How an Eco-cynic Unplugged Her Fridge, Sold Her Car, and Found Love in 366 Days by Vanessa Farquharson

Third Prize (1 Winner): A DVD copy of Wal*Mart: The High Cost of Low Prices (Caution: causes extreme beard stroking and furled brows)

Fourth Prize (4 Winners): A cute little (brand new) cotton tote bag for carting your groceries home from the store

How to win

Ok, now that you’re all excited and ready to wet your pants, here’s what you need to do to enter yourself in the great Frugally Green Garage Sale Giveaway:

Leave a comment on this post letting everyone know what you think is the best way to save (or make) money while improving the world.

That’s it.  That’s all you have to do, but I want your best stuff because you can only be entered once.

I’ll eventually compile your responses into a full post to highlight the mind blowing intelligence of all my readers.

Second chance entries

If you’re just dying for a second chance to win, I’ve come up with two more ways for you to get your name in the hat:

• Leave a thoughtful response to someone else’s comment.  I want to know what you liked (or didn’t like) about their comment and why. No “great point” or “you suck” type of responses.  Get that hamster wheel spinning for a second before posting.

• Retweet this post on Twitter. Now, that’s simple, isn’t it?  Make sure you include “Frugally Green” or “@FrugallyGreen” in the tweet so that I can make sure you’re counted.

The details

So really you have 3 chances to win and I hope you use all of them.  This little promotion will run until this time next week.  On Friday, December 11, I ‘ll assign each entry a number and use a random generator to select the winners.

If you’ve won, I’ll contact you over the weekend to let you know.  All you have to do is give me your address and I’ll take care of the rest.

Thanks for being part of Frugally Green.  Good luck!

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Want to get even more out of Frugally Green? Share this post with your friends, leave a comment, or get free updates.

Connect with me on Twitter: @FrugallyGreen

Garage sale image by sfllaw.

Don’t you remember what your mom always said growing up when you wanted to do something stupid that all your friends were doing?

“If Billy jumped off a bridge, would you jump too?”

Lots of times I would answer “yes” under my breath before I gave up arguing.  I knew once that line came out, all hope was lost.

Mom had good advice, though.  It’s usually a safe bet that if everyone’s doing it, there’s something to be suspicious about.

We know this, but we’re social creatures.  We want to do what our friends are doing.  We want to fit in.

Well, guess what all your friends do?  They buy air conditioners, fans, and drapes in the middle of the summer because it’s sunny and they’re hot.

In the winter, they switch course and pick up space heaters, sweatshirts, and extra insulation for their homes.  Makes sense. It’s cold out.

They repeat this buying pattern ad infinitum.  They run into a situation that causes them discomfort and immediately seek to fix it.

Perfectly natural reaction, but it’s draining their wallets and not doing any favors for the planet since they’re not likely to make wise, earth friendly decisions when the gun’s to their head.

You don’t want to be like that.  Every salesman knows the fastest way to make a ton of money is to sell stuff to people that are desperate.

Side note: If you’re behind on rent and desperate for cash, consider selling Viagra, hair loss formulas, or air conditioners (but only in the summer).

I want to help everyone make eco-friendly purchases and save money when they need to solve problems like being miserably hot or cold.  And I don’t want anyone to suffer through half-ass solutions because they can’t afford to do the right thing at the last moment.

That’s why I want you to start planning out your seasonal purchases so that you can save all kinds of money.

I’m not going to say “all it takes is a little planning.” That would be making light of it.  You’re busy.  I’m busy.  We’ve got a lot on our minds every day.

When it’s hot outside, it’s hard to think about what you’ll need when it gets cold.  When you’re sitting in your house freezing your buns off, the last thing on your mind is how miserable you’ll be when it’s 100° and you’ve got no drapes to keep the sun out.

But this is kind of thinking is exactly what’s necessary.

A new furnace is expensive no matter when you buy it, but it’s really expensive if you wait until the middle of winter when you can’t go a day without it.  Buy it in the summer and take your time choosing the most efficient one that fits inside your budget.  You’ll get more for your money because there’s no pressure to buy.

I have an old window air conditioner from back in my less than earth conscious days sitting in my basement.  Last summer when it was over 100° for a week straight, Portland, Oregon was completely sold out air conditioners.  People were paying hundreds of dollars for tiny old units like mine on Craigslist.

I honestly considered selling it before my conscience kicked back in.  Now, in December, I’d be lucky if I could give it away.

When you plan ahead for your future needs, you take away the power those salesmen wield in times of desperation and give it back to yourself.

Now, every situation is different and certain types of items require slightly different tactics to get the best deal, but here are a few questions to ask yourself when you decide that you no longer want to be at the mercy of the market:

When is everyone else buying it?

If all your friends buy it during the winter, could you save by buying it in the summer?  Maybe a better option is to buy it right at the end of the season its intended for?

Here’s a seasonal buying guide from Kiplinger for common consumer goods and services to get your thinking on the right track.

For the eco-aware, you’ll want to start taking that information and overlapping it with the greenest options of whatever you’re looking for.

What’s the most responsible option for me?

With all the time you now have to plan, what’s the best choice for you?

When you buy in the moment, you’re likely to overpay for features that you don’t really need and give little thought to the environmental impact of your purchases.  Figure out what you really need and don’t pay for more.

On the other hand, when you’re desperate, you’re also likely to pay for something inadequate that serves as little more than a temporary band aid.

Do I really need this at all?

When you’re lost in a sea of agony and just want something to fix your problem, you’re more willing to pay for something you don’t actually need at all.

By planning and giving yourself time to find the best option, you might realize that there are other, much better choices to solve your problem.

You might have thought you needed air conditioning to beat the agonizing heat, but, after running the numbers, you realize that more home insulation and a few carefully placed ceiling fans can keep you cool all summer.

Without the time to consider all your options, you’re less likely to think of alternatives.

If you’re a busy person, it can be tough to get your mind out of the present and plan for the future, but doing so can unlock a whole lot of new opportunities for you.

Try to find one day, maybe on a weekend, each season, where you can plan out your future needs and strategize how best to meet them.

Do you have any tips for making the most responsible purchases? Have any rules that you follow to make sure you buy at the right time for you?

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Connect with me on Twitter: @FrugallyGreen

Image of trees by 1Sock