I’ve posted a funny video below that illustrates how much water we can save by peeing in the shower every day. The cartoon is put out by SOS Mata Atlantica showing cartoon images of Mahatma Ghandi, King Kong, our Statue of Liberty, aliens, Stephen Hawking and others peeing in the shower.
As I said in a previous post, saving water is a good thing. You can save up to 4,380 liters of water a year by just not flushing the toilet.
According to Mario Mantovani, the group’s mobilization director, “In these times of financial crisis when the answer to everything is ‘no’ we wanted to bring a ‘yes’ to people’s everyday lives, encouraging them to pee in the shower.”
I ran across an interesting article the other day on the internets. A trillion dollars could be saved by energy effiency alone, which begs the question. Are you conservingto save money? I’m not talking about saving the planet or being green, but saving money by conserving on energy. Here are a few things I have done in the last year which have been pretty painless.
- Shorter showers, which of course saves hot water.
- Not flushing everytime. If it’s yellow let it mellow, if it’s brown flush it down.
- Bought a more fuel efficient car, saving a few dollars on gas every week.
- Turned up the air conditioning and turned down the heat in the winter.
- Used lids when cooking. This cuts down on the time it takes heat food and also stops splatters.
- I’ve started using dish clothes more and paper towels less. This actually adds up to some major savings.
- Quit watering the lawn, instead letting the lawn fade and regrow with the weather.
I know that is a pretty short list, but doing this will add up to savings in the long run. What have you been doing to save money and be green.
I ran across a pretty good savings account deal this morning over at TechBargains.com. WT Direct, which is FDIC insured, is offering a cash bonus to new savings account clients. Go to WT Direct to figure out your cash bonus. Right now, their rate is 1.76% APY and they are consistently in the top 5% of U.S. Banks.
You have to deposit your money by August 15th and keep your funds on deposit with WTDirect through 10/31 to get your bonus, which unfortunately has to be a pretty hefty $50,000 to get $125. A more reasonable $10,000 is only going to get you $25. However, 1.76% isn’t a bad rate these days.
David over at MyTwoDollars has a good blog post on layaway plans and how the big box retailers are all jumping on board lately. In case you don’t know what a lay away plan is, it is when you pick out items, say a K-Mart(one of the stores pushing it), and pay a little on it at a time until you pay it off and and can take your items home.
This begs the question, why not just save up the money and go in and pay for the items when you have enough money. Well for some people it’s pretty impossible for them to save the money on their own. The money hanging around is just asking to spent on something else. And it’s better than using a credit card.
The layaway plan is a great deal for retailers as well. My wife works retail, and they have a lay away plan. You would be surprised at how many people put stuff on lay away and then forget about it and don’t pay anymore on it. That is a bonus for the retailer’s bottom line.
So, if you do plan on using layaway, number one don’t forget about it and number 2 pay it off as soon as possible. That money could be gaining interest in a savings account somewhere. And as David says,
Learning to create your own layaway plans for the things that you want helps you really understand the value of your dollar – something that is sorely missing in today’s consumer-driven world.
