CHEAP is the Best GREEN

I like to watch HGTV programs, especially the "make-over" shows that totally revamp or restore rooms, homes and yards. It's amazing, and inspiring, to see what they can do in just a half hour show! (I know it takes longer than that, but I get to see the results in just 30 minutes. :)

My favorites are "Designed to Sell," "Design on a Dime," "Curb Appeal," and "Red-Hot-and-Green." The first two shows do makeovers on a shoestring budget. "Curb Appeal" uses more money, but it's a landscaping show and I love gardening. "Red-Hot-and-Green" is a makeover show where they try to use "sustainable" materials. They'll use things like bamboo floors instead of hardwood. They install concrete counter-tops, use low-VOC paint, and sew with cotton fabrics and such as that.

But . . . wouldn't the "greenest" thing be to NOT make-over at all? Most times when you tear out and replace . . . you use NEW materials. You consume the fuel it takes for the manufacture and transportation of those products.

When the government made the "Cash-for-Clunkers" program, it caused the destruction of THOUSANDS of useable vehicles. Maybe the new cars save a couple more miles per gallon . . . but how much energy did it take to MAKE those new cars? Not only did the program destroy useable cars, it destroyed much of the used car market. This is the market from which low-income folks usually buy their cars. They can't afford NEW cars . . . even with a "credit" of a few thousand dollars. Used cars cost less to purchase AND to insure. This government-designed program benefited the rich (and the auto unions) at the expense of the poor.

The last used car we bought cost $2,500 and it gets 40 miles per gallon (a '95 Geo Metro). The government wanted people to buy NEW cars for TEN times that. I betcha there are not many new cars that get better gas mileage than we get with our old used car! We were green AND cheap (and smart.)

Other cheap/green ideas . . . shop at the Salvation Army, the ARC, or Goodwill. I buy most of my clothes at those places. You can get good jacket for about $6 and jeans for one tenth what they cost new. It's cheap AND green! In addition, those organizations give jobs to low-skilled folks or those struggling with other problems.

Don't buy bottled water. Studies show that bottled is no better than tap. Tap water is cheap! Bottled water has to be shipped, using fuel unnecessarily . . . and the plastic bottles end up in landfills. Tap water is much cheaper AND "greener."

Make your coffee at home. It's cheaper AND greener because you're not driving to Farbucks (as it's called in the Shrek movies.)

Bike to work, school or the store. If you live close enough . . . walk. Not only are those options cheaper AND greener, but you'll benefit from the exercise.

Plant vegetables in your back yard, or in pots on your patio or deck. If you have neither a yard or a porch, you can grow lettuce in boxes by the window, or under special grow lights. People grow more lucrative cash crops indoors all the time. I'm not recommending you do that, but you can supplement your diet by being cheap AND green. Money doesn't grow on trees, but food does!

I don't believe that CO2 is destroying the planet. In fact, CO2 makes plants even greener. That's why it's called a GREENhouse gas . . . plants eat it up, literally. Horticulturists pump CO2 into their greenhouses to make plants grow faster, better, bigger. Higher CO2 levels decrease water loss in plants, giving them an advantage in arid climates and during droughts. Forest growth rates have increased in some places up to 40% since 1950. Scientists have discovered no environmental factor other than the CO2 increase that could explain the higher growth rates found in forests around the world. But wasting God-given resources is stupid.

Why would anyone waste energy or money unnecessarily? Our country is deep in debt . . . BP-oil-spill-deep. Millions of families are submerged in debt. To help ourselves, we need to be more productive . . . or less wasteful. Let's wise up, or as Dave Ramsey says . . . . stop paying the Stupid Tax. His "stupid tax" concept usually means compounded credit card interest and late fees. But if you waste money, isn't that a stupid tax, too?
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The picture is my little garden last July. My husband and eldest son helped build it. The veggies in the raised beds (right-to-left) are: yellow squash, onions & garlic, zucchini, carrots & bell peppers & tomatoes, turnip greens, more zucchini, and Swiss chard. Growing on the trellises along the fence are snow peas and green beans. There's one more bed to the right of the picture that had spinach and lettuce in it. In another garden on the opposite side of the yard we have cherry trees, raspberry and strawberry plants.