IRGRL

I have always been one to be into the environment, and earth day, recycling and such but never so much as when this lovely economy of ours and unemployment hit my family.   I realized I had to cut costs somewhere, the electric bill. So we have decided to , very slowly, build our own solar panels, I estimate I can do one every 4 to 6 weeks. Saving the money up and being able to get the supplies. My goal is to be JCPL free. Tired of them coming to my door telling me I owe them money.  Eventually I would like to have my water as well on solar then I can get rid of the gas company!   Not only will this help our budget, this will help the environment.

Well my daughter, Ms. Green as I like to call her has prompted us to go to the next level, over the summer she created a plan to implement our own fertilizer for spring with a compost pile, with the onset of fall we now have enough leaves to start a decent  sized one.  This is another weekend project we will have underway this weekend. (pictures will follow) and the US EPA site has the best know how on this as well.

This week or next we will be covering our 1953 windows with plastic sheeting  to save heat.  I wont be using a kit though, I found clear plastic shower curtains (thicker plastic) on sale some time ago and they are also large enough for my big bay window.  Using double sided tape I hope to save money this way.

The Dept of Energy has some great tips and resources http://www.energy.gov/ you can check them out there for some great tips.

We cant go organic in the food area yet.  Why you ask, well its too damn expensive for us budgeting a budget already budgeted (I know, pretty fancy) but I do try to be the less processed for the price and the less packaged.

We have changed all our light bulbs to energy efficient ones and we unplug appliances we don’t use all the time.  I wash in cold water and line dry, even in winter.  Most of our clothes I wash now with an old antique wash basin and ringer I found at a garage sale, why?  Well the plumbing in my home is so old that it cant handle the pressure of a washer hook up.  My budget doesn’t go for 30 dollars a week for clothing.

We have already started plans for a garden next spring, but this time it will be one for our needs, more then wants. We will be planting a lot of  veges bought in the store and freezing and canning/jarring the rest.  This is a big one for my budget as my kids get older ( I breed amazon children for some reason) they eat tons more, and it seems the cost of living doesn’t want to keep up with their appetites.  So growing our own and canning and preserving and freezing will help my budget.

We also recycle more (glass jars I keep to paint on and resell as crafts, check link in Everything Under The Moon) plastics and cans, newspaper we now save for our compost pile.

There are other things we are doing to help ourselves by going green, so stay tuned and check back next week for pictures of projects!