Great Green Idea: Green Living: Greening the Bank Account: Saving Money to Save the Planet

Greening the Bank Account: Saving Money to Save the Planet

Green is a color that has many associations, but only one pops into your head automatically when you think of the color.

Money! If your answer was trees and or grass, then you're a better person that most. For those who don't have visions of flora dancing through their consciousness, it's understood and expected that money is the ultimate green mascot, and therefore should be protected at all costs.

For those who have no vested interest in the lifespan of the planet, movements with phrases like 'Green living' or 'going green', produce nothing more than a vague sense of confusion. What, these money conscious may wonder, is the point? The point is this. Green living may, for the most part, focus on saving the environment, but what people don't realize is that Green living also has the added bonus on saving a person's hard earned cash. The best part about going green is that you don't even have to pretend that you're doing it for the greater good. Sure you can come up with some altruistic reason to protect your cash flow, but why bother when it's a perfectly legitimate opportunity for doing yourself a favor? There are so many things pulling at our monetary resources that the desire to protect what little you have remaining is important.

The point is that each of us who do go green have our own reasons for doing so, and no one reason is any better than another since they all lead to the same outcome. Namely saving items related to the color green (i.e. money and Mother Nature). People who decide to get on the bandwagon for environmental reasons have a pretty good idea of what they want to accomplish and how. Saving the planet isn't the issue after all, since it simply requires that a person stop destroying it in the first place. Saving money is a bit trickier however, though it can be done once people know in which direction to turn their efforts.

For those hoping to decrease the amount of money they spend per month on things like electricity, gas, heating, and air conditioning, here's a few things to keep in mind. First off, when it comes to Electricity consumption it is dangerously easy to go overboard. Electricity is as involved in our lives as oxygen, and like oxygen, the use of it is easy to overlook until it gets taken away. To reduce Electricity consumption (and as a result your bills) try turning off your lights at night or when you don't absolutely need them to be on.

Electricity consumption can also be affected by things like plugged in appliances, dishwashers, washers and dryers, and etc. If you aren't using something right then, then it shouldn't be running. As for gas, the main thing you should be looking at when choosing a gas station isn't at how cheap the gas price is, but rather the quality of the gas itself. Fuel mileage is more important than how much you paid per gallon since fuel mileage will directly influence how often you'll need to find a gas station later on. Having a car that gets good miles to the gallon helps, but even cars like that are limited if you get gas that has a less than stellar track record for fuel mileage. Heating and air conditioning can be controlled the same way that electricity is.

If your house isn't in dire need of heating or air conditioning then keep the units off. Depending on where you live there's a set temperature that you can keep both systems on at all times that will not only keep your home cool or heated accordingly, but won't run up your bill. All of these things are very simple but effective ways to save a dime as well as the planet, and those who work towards one will invariably help bring about the other as well.