Go green & save

By Gail Vaz-Oxlade on March 15, 2011
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

We are far more environmentally conscious than previous generations have been. But there are still a bazillion people who are straining the environment &#8212 and wasting money!

Think of all the people who still buy bottled water, consume food in styrofoam containers and pile up the plastic, all because they haven’t put much thought into what they’re doing. The thing is, they’re also blowing through scads of money &#8212 money they could be saving. Quite some time ago my producer came to the set with a refillable water bottle in hand declaring she had no intention of drinking bottled water again. It got me thinking: y’know, she’s right. Even though I wasn’t a massive buyer of bottled water &#8212 I see people leaving the grocery store with skids of water under their carts &#8212 it was time to make the commitment to carrying my own bottle around. Check. There are so many examples of ways to replace environmentally unfriendly habits with friendly ones and save money too. 1. Are you still paying 5¢ a bag when you’re out shopping?
Did you notice that if you’re also paying HST the price went up to 6¢ in some places? Keep a stash of bags in the car, or a couple rolled up really small in your purse so you don’t have to shell out good money. 2. Still getting your coffee or tea is paper or styrofoam cups?
Get with the program. Buying a reusable coffee mug means you not only cut down on waste, you’ll save money on your refills. 3. Getting gobs of junk mail that fill up your recycling bag?
Call and stop those catalogs from arriving. And if you’re still getting paper versions of your bills, switch to e-bills and save yourself the filing! 4. Buying lunch at work?
If you need another motivation to bring lunch from home, think about all the containers you end up throwing away at the end of your meal. And so many of them are styrofoam! Yuck! Pack your lunch in reusable containers and not only will you be doing good, you’ll find scads more money in your budget available for saving! Tomorrow: 4 more green saving tips