Green up the purchases you already make tip #4 - Green your drinks May 16, 2008

Okay, this is more of a networking source, and its not really a purchase, but I filed it here anyhow because you will purchase something while participating.   This really makes no sense, but it would if I weren’t backing into it.

Green Drinks

Its a group of people interested in green living who get together for happy hour one day a month all around the world.  You don’t pay for membership or anything, just go to the site and figure out when and where your local chapter is meeting, then show up.  Then you buy drinks.  So see, what I’m writing about isn’t a purchase, but you purchase things when you get there.  See?  Ah, its a stupid point.

Anyhow, here in Denver they meet on the last Thursday of the month at Double Daughters.  I am going to try to be there, but my sister is due to have a baby the day before, and the minute she goes into labor my mom and I are dropping everything we are doing and driving out to Missouri to be with her.  Hopefully we will be there in time for the birth and for a week afterwards.  As you all know, there’s really no way to tell when a baby is going to decide to come, so we could be gone on the last Thursday of this month.  Who knows?

Also, if there are no posts for a week suddenly, now you’ll all know why.

Make that 100% positive May 15, 2008

I’m not re enlisting.  I have no health insurance, get no bonuses, I’m not even entitled to full education benefits while I work for the guard full time.  I can get a job that offers this anywhere, and with any one of those jobs I won’t be expected to periodically spend a year away from my family in a war zone.

They just don’t give you much incentive to stay in, do they?

We’re doing push ups at work May 14, 2008

I hate pushups.  But I need to do them.

I have decided (about 85%) that I am not going to re enlist in the military unless they offer me a fat bonus.  I’m talking 15k +.  I have also decided that I am going to do everything in my power to go to Naropa.  More on all of this later, I have to go to a doctors appointment.

Real quick, while Elijah is distracted by the kitty May 12, 2008

Elijah doesn’t let me get on the computer very long, which is why I don’t normally post on Mondays (I have Mondays off, in case you didn’t know), but I thought I’d check in real quick.  Today, Elijah and I are going to go hiking.  Its his first hiking trip, so we’ll take lots of pictures.

Have a super day!

Makes me miss that prince from the obscure African nation who has money to transfer into my account … May 10, 2008

CONFIDENTIAL/URGENT POLITICAL PROPOSAL

Dear Sir
First we must solicit your confidence in this issue. This is by virtue as being utterly confidential and “top secret”.
We are SENATOR HILLARY CLINTON, the wife of the former United States head of state, PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON, and also SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN, friend and associate of current head of state PRESIDENT GEORGE W BUSH. We got your contact through business inquiries as we were searching for contacts of a citizen who can help save our and our family’s political careers since our country has been frustrating us.
We are top officials of the United States Senate Government who are interested in importation of oil into our country with funds that are presently trapped in the FEDERAL TRANSPORTATION TRUST FUND dedicated to improving transportation. We wish to send this money to overseas accounts in the MIDDLE EAST but cannot due to restrictions in Congress Transportation Equity Act requiring that this money must be spent to build roads, bridges and high speed trains.
If you accept we will deliver to your a sum of 30 DOLLARS in the summer 2008 in form of a “GAS TAX HOLIDAY”. You will then deliver this money to accounts of our friends in Middle East by taking it to your nearby gasoline station where they have information to forward the money. Please supply your bank account, social security number, address and your vote in DEMOCRATIC PRIMARIES AND NOVEMBER GENERAL ELECTION.
But bear in mind that this transaction requires absolute confidentiality. Do not visit WWW.GASTAXSCAM.COM where there is information about dangers of our proposal and a petition to stop us from this diversion of funds.
PLEASE NOTIFY US URGENTLY OF YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF THIS PROPOSAL
Awaiting your rapid response
Yours truly
SENATORS HILLARY CLINTON AND JOHN MCCAIN

Buy less May 10, 2008

Let me tell you all about the buying goals I have been working on since Lent. I was going through some spiritual havoc over the season of Lent, and did a lot of soul searching (Lutherans, unlike Catholics, do not really give something up during Lent - although sometimes I do - its more a time of deep spiritual reflection and devotion) and this is what I came up with. Actually, come Easter time (the end of Lent, for those of you who don’t know) I had more of a skeleton of a plan. I’ve been fleshing it out through trial and error since then, and there’s probably still a lot more fleshing to do.

Anyway, the goal is to buy less. How much less? As much less as I can. My life is crammed with stuff (I’ve mentioned before here that I have a compulsive hoarding problem I’m trying to work on) and its not really doing anything for me except making my life more cluttered and stressed. So in addition to getting rid of the useless stuff responsibly, I’m really focusing on halting the in flow.

This has greater implications than just helping me get a handle on my hoarding problem. Our culture of consumerism is terrible for the environment and the main cause of global warming. All of this stuff we buy and use takes energy to produce, ship, use, and ship to the dump once its thrown away. Not to mention all the other chemicals, toxins, waste, byproducts and other unpleasantries associated with the production, use and disposal of consumer goods. Its in the best interest of our planet and our own health to buy and consume only what we need.

Also, the best way to save money is to not spend it in the first place. Duh, right?

So here are my rules, as they stand. Or should I say my goals.

#1 Buy only things that are consumable - food, personal hygiene products, diapers for Elijah (although I try to use cloth as much as I can), etc, and buy only consumables that you need (healthy, balanced food, only the basics for hygiene). Buy them as cheap and responsibly as you can.

#2 If I need something I don’t have and isn’t a consumable, make it or obtain it for free off of Freecycle or from a friend or family member

#3 When I must buy a non consumable item (for example, new clothes for Elijah, who is growing so fast I can hardly keep him clothed), buy used.

#4 If I must buy new, get it organic and local if possible (or as sustainable as possible). Avoid packaging and excess shipping.

So far I haven’t physically saved a lot of money, instead I’ve paid bills, but that’s equally as important. I can see the savings coming though. Other things I’m doing with money that isn’t being spent include

I started a retirement account. I can get one through my work, if you can, you truly should do the same. If your work doesn’t offer something like that for you, then see about getting involved in a financial institute or something. Hey, I don’t claim to be an expert. Maybe there’s something on Get Rich Slowly. This is why I read that blog.

I started a College Invest account for Elijah. I’d like for him to not have to join the military to go to college, like I did. I’m going to do the best I can to teach him discipline (which was really my biggest problem that prevented me from going to college, and the military fixed it for me), and I will put aside as much money for him as I can afford. Right now its only 25 bucks a month, but as I get more bills paid down, that amount will grow.

I also plan to start giving a set monthly amount to my church, probably something very small, like 20 bucks a month or something. I also let myself join the Sierra Club again. I hope that eventually I will be able to afford to tithe to other charitable organizations as well. I’d love to give some money for the crisis in Myanmar, but they aren’t letting aid through, so I will send them all my prayers instead.

Finally, I want to invest in some green companies. The Sierra Club offers ways to do that, and I’m going to look into it further and let you know what I find.

Now, these rules aren’t set in stone. I take vacations from them sometimes (this weekend, for example, I’m going to Chocolate Fest, and I might spend a bit there on some very un necessary consumables), but having them solid in my memory makes the vacations fewer and smaller. I also have a list of things I want to buy in the future, and I think about them before I buy anything else. For example, I want to put bamboo floors in my new house when I get it, and I want to paint Elijah’s room blue with low or no VOC paint, and then I want a new bed set made of organic cotton and some wool pillows. Next year, I would like to go on my church’s annual trip to India. Those are medium term goals and they help me to keep my eyes on the prize.

The other Lenten plan I made had to do with responsible eating, but I’ll blog on that later.

Oh my May 9, 2008

I just realized that in one of my earlier posts I actually said “more cheaper”.

Actually, I noticed a lot of errors in grammar in that post.  And plain old typos.  Yikes.

Please forgive me when these slip ups arise.  I should know better than this, but I suppose I get all passionate when I’m writing some of these, and all my knowledge of grammar and spelling goes right out the window.

Green moves that are good for your wallet and/or waist line #1 - Driving the speedlimit May 8, 2008

This is a new series I’m going to start in the spirit of Green Up the Purchases You Already Make.  In the future, however, I’m going to label it GMGWW (Green Moves Good Wallet Waist, I’m cutting out the little words in the acronym, you don’t need them) because the whole title is too long.  And because I am in the military, and the military LOVES acronyms.  They’re like their own words in a secret, military language.

Anyway, today’s entry is driving the speed limit.

For every 5 miles per hour you go over 60mph, its like spending 20 cents more a gallon for gas.

I always knew that speeding reduced your fuel efficiency, but it wasn’t until I read that fact that I decided to do something about it.  I guess I just didn’t realize how bad the reduction in efficiency was before.  The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I couldn’t afford to spend 60 cents more a gallon just to go 75.  It wasn’t worth it.

So I started driving the speed limit.  Here in Denver, that means driving a good 10-15 miles slower than just about everyone else on the road, so that limits me to driving only in the right hand lane.  If I’m on a three or more lane highway I might venture out into one of the middle lanes, but I always stay close to the right.  Occasionally I do get stuck behind someone going slower than the speed limit and I go ahead and pass them on the left, then proceed to go right back into the slow lane, but to be honest, most of the time it doesn’t bother me.  I just stay behind them.  After all, 55 gives me even better fuel efficiency than 65 does.

I’m going to tell you now what I’ve learned.  Driving 75 does not get you there any faster than drivng 65 does.  Don’t ask me why this is, I think you might need a physicist to figure it out, but since I started driving the speed limit everywhere, my commute times for places I go on a regular basis (work, school, church, downtown, Buckley AFB, etc) has not changed.  Furthermore, I often pay close attention to who passes me up in the beginning of a trip, and within a few miles, without changing my speed, I usually catch back up to them eventually, or pass them.

We all know, of course, that driving faster increases your likelihood of getting into an accident and increases the liklihood of any accident you do get into being a fatal one, but I have also found that speeding increases my stress level.  Or, more accurately, I’ve found that going 65 reduces my stress levels (but I assume that my stress level before - when I regularly sped - was actually elevated, so in reality, driving speeding increased my stress level, and going back down to the speed limit brought it back down to more normal levels).  Where I used to get a little road ragey at times, I’m pretty chill for most of my driving now, and I have to be when there’s a crying baby in my back seat.  And when people pass me now, it seems like the natural thing to do.  Almost no one tail gates in the right lanes, and the rare person who does seems so idiotic that its easy to brush it off.

Stress is bad for your health all over, so where ever you can eliminate it, you should.  Stress has been shown to make it harder to lose weight, and it also makes it harder for you to sleep, wreaks havoc on your eating habits, and exhausts you so you aren’t as active, all things that are shown to make you gain weight.  It also causes acne and wrinkles, not to mention gives you all sorts of health disorders like high blood pressure and ulcers and can ultimately shorten your life.

Of course, you could have a much bigger impact on your wallet and waist line if you chose to bike or walk instead of driving entirely, but when that’s not possible (and it may never be possible for some of you, I understand) the next best thing you can do is drive the speed limit.

Happy Composting Awareness Week May 7, 2008

Check it out!

http://compost.org.uk/

Finger crossing good May 7, 2008

First of all, I want to thank all of you who apparently crossed your fingers for me.  Elijah slept for a little more than an hour yesterday, all by himself.  I was able to hang up clothes!

Second, they did not accept our offer on the house.  They gave us a number they would go no lower than, and it turned out to be too much for us.  I’m so sad.  It was such a nice house.  But we’ll keep looking.  Something is out there for us.

I’m hoping to find a place that is more in the center of suburbia, rather than on the edge of it.  I would like to minimize my driving as much as possible, so the closer I am to things like grocery stores and the light rail, the more I can get done on foot or on bike.  I am also hoping to find a place with a descent sized yard, that way I can have a descent sized vegetable garden.  Since you all crossed your fingers for me yesterday and it worked, would you all mind crossing your fingers for me again?

Let me know if you need any finger crossing back from me.