Tag Archives: fads

International Day of Forests at the Animal Kingdom

When I was in third grade I had my future career decided: zoology. I loved animals but didn’t think I could handle many of the messier aspects of veterinary medicine, so I decided I would study animals from a strict scientific viewpoint instead. Although my skill set ended up steering me away from any future career in the sciences, I’ve never lost that inherent love of learning about animals. That explains why Disney’s Animal Kingdom is my favorite part of Disney World, and why I’m always so excited to share what’s new with the park. On Wednesday July 27 the … Continue reading →

Earth Hour 2010

I mentioned Earth Day yesterday, but last week, I missed another important environmental event that took place – Earth Hour. Earth Hour began in 2007, so it is a relatively new green event. It started as a partnership between the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and The Sydney Morning Herald. The premise was simple – turn off all non-essential lights for one hour. The WWF and Herald hoped that this conscious effort would raise awareness about the changing climate and that by making small changes, we could do our part to help prevent it. On March 31, 2007, Earth … Continue reading →

Clever Reuse Ideas

Reusing what you already have around the house can go a long way to saving your money and your resources. if you can reuse just five thing a month into something wanted or needed, well then you can save quite a bit of money. Reusing items can come in all shapes and forms. The practice just requires a little bit of creativity or the sharing of an interesting idea. Here are some clever ideas that I have come across for reusing common items. Parents Magazine featured a reader tip with a very interesting idea. Kim Neu of Philadelphia, Pa, not … Continue reading →

Make Everything Last Longer

One sure way to make sure that you spend less money is to avoid replacing items in your home, especially expensive items. Just a little extra care can go a long way to making your stuff last longer. Just yesterday, I reminded a sweet little girl from the neighborhood that she left her bicycle helmet in our garage. Her response was to leave it there, that she would just buy another one. My own kids were a little shocked by this and stopped her a few times as she was leaving to go home for the night. They couldn’t believe … Continue reading →

How to Save Water

Although we may not always realize it, water is a finite resource. Although this may be hard to believe when we turn on the tap and find a rushing flow of water coming out at our demand, but it is true. Experts fear that with a population growth and climate changes, water may become more scarce than we can dream. Even if you are not worried about water shortages, consider this. Water takes energy. When it is through electric pumps that pump the water to you or through water treatment systems, there is energy expended every time you do turn … Continue reading →

How to Reduce Your Air Conditioning Cost

The cost of air conditioning can take lots of money out of your account. Each time you turn it on, you are draining money from your household. While few people can live without air conditioning these days, there are plenty of practical ways to reduce the cost of having air conditioning without suffering in the heat. If you have a central air system, consider shutting off vents for rooms that you don’t frequent often or can live without cool air. The basement might be a good example or perhaps bathrooms. Maybe you can close the vents in bedrooms during the … Continue reading →

Smaller Garbage Equals More Money

We have been smug. I admit it. When we look at all of the garbage that our neighbors have out, we tend to feel that we are on the right track. This is because we know that the smaller our garbage is then the less money we are spending. While the neighbors can have three or more extra large trash cans a week, we have trouble just filling up half of our can per week. Once we are past disposable diapers (we just don’t want to do cloth), we may even cut that little bit in half. There are so … Continue reading →

How to Save on Soap

I like to examine different items on our grocery list to see if there are ways that we can reduce the cost of them. With enough things on the list costing less, the overall bill can really go down. One of the things that we seem to go through a lot of is soap. That makes sense. With three children who get into everything, cooking from scratch at home, and trying to keep the illness away during winter, it isn’t surprising that we use a lot of soap. So, with a little thinking, I’ve come up with some ways that … Continue reading →

Frugal Living: Have a Half Day

Challenge yourself to only use half of everything in your regular routine today. Not only will you save, but it may teach you exactly what you need and don’t need. What is a half day? A half day is when you go around your home or day and consciously choose to only use half of the amount of the stuff that you usually use. To keep it simple, approach each product or service and then half it to the best of your ability. By doing this for one day, you can have fun in the challenge, while learning what products … Continue reading →

Free Heat 2

Do you know all of the places to find free heat? From taking advantage of normal household tasks to building your own free heat machines, there are many ways to grab some free heat when you need it. If you missed the first post on this topic, click here: Free Heat Our home is zoned into two zones for heat. Because of this, I usually keep the upstairs heat turned on only enough to keep the pipes from freezing during the day. It gets very cold up there. However, when I iron I am soon pretty warm, The ambient heat … Continue reading →