In honor of Earth Day today, I wanted to share a few more tips from Bach’s book, Go Green, Live Rich, that will save you money and are also great for your health and well-being! If you missed Part One of my book review you can read it here.

I have also added some additional resources that I thought were useful. Please comment if you have suggestions or favorite resources!

Tips 1-4 from Part One were –

1)   Drink Water from a Reusable Bottle

2)   Skip at Trip

3)   Unplug It

4)   Grow a Greener Lawn

5)   Eat Less Meat

I mentioned that eating less meat benefits to the environment in my Meatless Monday post and here’s one reason why –

“According to PETA and the Environmental Defense, if every American skipped one meal of chicken per week and substituted vegetarian foods instead, the carbon dioxide savings would be the same as taking more than half a million cars off U.S. roads.”

Bach claims that eating less meat will result in a savings for you comparing the cost of a pound of ground beef ($5-7 for grass-fed or hormone free) vs. a pound of organic lentils ($2-3). The lentils will yield around 13 servings and are packed with nearly as much protein as beef.

6)   Grow Your Own

Plant a vegetable garden or shop at the farmer’s market.

Gardening Resources

Monkey See (how-to videos on growing a vegetable garden)

The Old Farmer’s Almanac (how-to and planting dates)

Fruits & Veggies More Matters (includes tips on gardening with kids)

You can go to Local Harvest  to find farmers’ markets, family farms, and other sources of sustainably grown food in your area.

7)   Clean Green

The average US household spends $600 on 40 pounds of chemical cleaning supplies. For about $20 you can replace those with a safer, non-toxic, biodegradable homemade version using common ingredients like baking soda, club soda, vinegar and salt.

Solutions

•   Make your own non-toxic cleaning products.  I will be doing another post with more recipes and tips. 

 Simple Recipes

All-Purpose Cleaner

Mix 1-cup vinegar and 1 cup water in a spray bottle.

Grease Scrubber

Mix ½ cup each of vinegar, lemon juice, castile soap, and borax and add to a spray bottle

Surface Scrub

Mix 1½ cup baking soda and ½ cup water in a jar (or bowl) to create a paste. Spread paste over surface, and wipe with sponge. For stubborn stains, let paste stand for 15 minutes before sponging off.

•  Buy nontoxic alternatives.

Bach recommends Seventh Generation and Shaklee. I have also added a few others. I’ll add more on this later, too.

Seventh Generation (you can find at most groceries, Walmart, Target & Meijer)

Shaklee – You can only buy Shaklee on their website or through an independent distributor. One of my friend’s sisters is a Shaklee distributor and raved about the product before I read this book, so I can pass along her contact info if you are interested!

Other Brands –

Ecover

Method

Mrs. Meyers

Green Works

Nature’s Source

Simple Green

Does anyone have preferences on green cleaners or good DIY recipes?

8)   Bring Your Lunch to Work

You can go to www.finishrich.com and click on “Latte Factor Calculator” to see how much you could save by bringing your lunch to work.

Use reusable brown bag/lunch box, snack and sandwich bags and containers when bringing your lunch.

I bought Lunchskins reusable sandwich bags two years ago and they still look brand new. They can go in the dishwasher.

I know there are a lot of brands out there – does anyone have recommendations or favorites?

I only included 8 of Bach’s 50 tips, but hope these few helped if you are interested in making any green changes and saving a little money at the same time!

Please share comments and recommendations on this topic – I am fairly “green” when it comes to green living so would love tips, advice, favorite websites, etc.

Happy Earth Day!

Love,

Molly