So Easy Being Green: Home Entertainment Edition

One of the goals of the 7x7 challenge was to dig out drafts or half-baked blogging ideas...so for my third of seven posts, here's one I never got around to publishing!


So, y'all, I had so much fun discussing cloth napkins and gardening with you after this post so I decided to do follow ups occasionally.

It's often that "being green" and "being cheap" go hand in hand. Eric and I discovered most of these when we were gazelle intense in dumping debt.  Turns out they're also environmentally friend, and great for recovering pack rats like myself.

Digital Media
Level: Beginner
Cost: Some start up fee, $-$$

The iTunes era really pioneered this. Ditch the CDs buy an iPod and digital music. I was hooked. Same with a Kindle. Same with our Roku.  Instead of hoarding books, movies, magazines, etc.  Small start up fees for these gadgets grant you an unlimited world of digital media for less than the hard copy.  No more transportation waste in obtaining, production waste in making it, and less for you to store (and clean) around your home.

This could really be it's own post with all the fun details we've learned, but I did want to mention that an Amazon Prime account goes a long way: free two day shipping on all purchases, plus free instant streaming videos and tv shows (think Hulu but sans commercials), and a monthly loaning library for Kindle books. It's $80 a year well spent.

The Library!
Level: Beginner
Cost: Totally free

Sure you'll probably be on a list for the latest best seller, but otherwise free access to thousands of books! And did you know they have movies and TV series you can borrow too? And some have rentable ebooks!   Some libraries even offer yoga classes, puppet shows, or other family fun activities for cheap or free.  We taught ourselves how to garden and decorate cakes with the books we found at the library! With a short trip to the library you're cutting down on production waste by reusing and sharing resources.

Unplug!
Level: Beginner
Cost: Money Saving!

Seems a contrary to what I just said, but sometimes you just need to unplug.  Play some board games or go for a walk.  Not using electronics saves on your electric bill and saves electricity.  But did you know that even leaving them plugged in uses a tiny bit of electricity?  So if you're gone for a weekend, unplug your TV, computer, etc and save a few extra bucks and electricity!