This is part of a blog swap among personal finance bloggers in the Yakezie community.  This month’s topic involves ways to Go Green and saving money while helping the environment.  Be sure to check out my site to learn about other methods to save money. You can see my post at Debt Eye here.

Over the past 40 years, paper consumption has increased over 400%.  Thirty five percent of the total trees that are cut down are used in paper consumption around the world.  -Source. To put this into perspective, a 15 year old tree made into 700 paper grocery bags will be consumed in less than an hour!

Ever heard of e-Fax?

Thanks to innovating technologies, everyone can help put in their fair share to eliminate the use of paper in their household.  There’s no need to print documents and go to Kinkos to fax your document.  Everything can be done in front of your computer.  There are several electronic fax providers online that provides a low cost solution or even allows you to send several faxes per month for free!  All you have to do is convert the file into a PDF file and upload the document and electronically fax it.  There’s no need to print your document, walk it over to the fax machine, feed the paper into the machine, and waste another page of paper as it prints out a confirmation page.

Magazine Subscriptions/Books

Unless you like to collect magazines and books, subscribing to online e-magazines can help reduce paper consumption.  Every year, the United States publishes 359 million magazines and over 2 BILLION books!  You can virtually buy any book you want electronically and read it through your kindle.  Think about how much paper this would save!

Wait, who reads newspapers these days?

If everyone recycled their newspaper, this wouldn’t be an issue.  However, studies show that only 1/10^th of Americans recycle their newspaper.  If everyone recycled, we could save 250,000,000 trees each year. To produce each week’s Sunday paper, 500,000 trees must be cut down.  News is delivered instantaneously through the web.  Chances are that you can find out what’s going on in your local community faster by subscribing to your local online newspaper’s website.

What other ways have you reduced consuming paper around the household or in the office?

Guest Post Author Bio: Miss T blogs at Prairie EcoThrifter. She grew up in the Canadian prairies and still lives there today. She is passionate about saving money, being healthy, looking out for our environment, and most of all having fun. Her blog shares tips on how you too can live a green, debt free, and fun life.

This week I am participating in a sub-Yakezie blog swap where I am to answer the question ” 5 Ways To Live Greener.” I had to seriously think about this for a minute because my hubby and I have been living green for quite some time now, or at least I thought…

Last year I decided along with my husband to live a more eco-friendly lifestyle. When we first started we focused on controlling our house temperature with a programmable thermostat and composting our kitchen scraps. Then we branched off into reusable shopping bags, making our own cleaning products, and making our own personal care products. I even stopped driving my car to work and started walking to limit my carbon footprint.

Despite this, when I thought long and hard about this question I was able to come up with five more ways that we can live greener.

1. Buy more local and organic produce. We usually try to buy local when we can but we often end up buying produce that has been imported. The reason for this is that there is very limited produce options where we live, especially in the winter months. Not much grows in the prairies during the winter when temperatures can reach -30 degrees Celsius. Plus not all of the food that is grown here is organic. We do try to buy the items listed on the dirty dozen organic but even this is a challenge sometimes due to the supply that we get where we live. This year I am going to make a concerted effort to find more local and organic suppliers of produce, especially for the winter months.
2. Wash linens in cold water. I have been doing our laundry in cold water for years now with the exception of linens. The reason for this is I have dust allergies and I have read that the only way to kill dust mites is to use hot or steaming water. Since I have always washed our sheets in hot water I have never had a problem so as far as I know this is working. However, in an effort to be more green, I am going to try washing our linens in cold water to see what happens. Will I start getting itchy and really stuffed up? We will have to see.
3. Drink tap water. I grew up on bottled spring water that my parents had delivered to the house on a biweekly basis. When I first moved out I also bought spring water bottles for my cooler at home. When I met my husband he too had a cooler and home that he bought bottled water for. In our house now, we have a cooler where we buy filtered city water from a distributor. The fact that we are still drinking city water is an improvement from the imported spring water I grew up on as a kid but there is still room for improvement. We have been talking about getting a Brita filter for our fridge but we drink so much water that I am afraid we will not get cold water to drink very often since the jug doesn’t hold much. I am not quite sure what we will decide on but it something we are looking at to improve.
4. Use green lodging when we travel. We love to travel and usually go on one large trip a year; a month away or so. We try to walk places when we travel and use eco-friendly personal care products but we haven’t been staying in green lodging. In some of the places we go there aren’t any and we are stuck but in other larger centres, green options do exist but are more highly priced. Despite this, I would like to make more of an effort to stay in eco-friendly accommodations on our future trips.
5. Use energy star appliances. In the last year we bought a new freezer for our summer produce that is rated energy star. However, our stove, microwave, second freezer, fridge, and laundry equipment are not energy star. I would love to replace these however it comes at a cost. You would think consumers would get a deal on equipment that is better for the environment but they don’t. I would like to look at our budget and come up with some money where we could replace some of our existing appliances.

I am sure if I continue to look around I can find more ways live green but this is start for 2011 anyway.

So, what are some ways you can live greener? Please share.

I was so excited when I first received my water and trash bill for my new apartment because it was such a small bill, $11.99 to be exact. This was a huge difference from what I was paying at our rental house each month. Of course,  a few months have now gone by and our water bill has gone up a little, so the elation has faded a bit. However, I received our first electric bill a couple of weeks ago hoping to be just as pleasantly surprised since apartment utilities are usually less than house utilities. Yet that was not the case. Our electric bill actually seemed a bit higher. To remedy and reduce this cost, I’ve become much more diligent in turning off fans at night, shutting down unnecessary appliances, and trying out the different power saver options on our computers.

What I’ve found through trial and error is that one of the largest energy hogs in our apartment is our laser printer. Apparently it “spools” itself every few minutes causing huge power surges. Since we don’t use the printer every minute of the day, we’ve decided to keep that energy sucker off until we need it. Hopefully we’ll see a significant reduction in our next electric bill, especially since I’ve been much better at completely turning off my computer at night as well. I really want my utility bills to be as low as possible!

Now for a little round-up around the web:

• The 2nd Yakezie Writing Contest is in full swing. This time around we had over 1,000 applicants and we whittled it down to 60. Be sure to check out the essays that are sure to inspire.
• Well Heeled Blog wrote a post about finances in marriage in Yours, Mine, Ours: Money in Marriage. I have to say that in my case it’s always been an “ours” scenario, but that’s probably because we started off by owning a business together.
• With tax season in full swing, Smart on Money posts about What Are My Options If I Can’t Pay My Taxes? The post offers alternatives and options on how to file tax extensions to paying in installments. However, being prepared is always the best plan.
• Over at Moms Plans Melissa is posting her Saved Quarter Challenge Updates. I signed up for this challenge a month ago, but I haven’t been very good at updating my progress. I think I’m more of a once a month or quarterly updater. I just can’t get organized enough to update every Monday. Way to go Melissa!
• Barbara Friedberg Personal Finance has some great investing advice with IS IT TIME TO SELL? I also like that she was able to throw in the word “deleterious.” I used that word once in a paper describing alleles. But that was eons ago.
• Invest it Wisely with How Important is Financial Balance to You? Kevin makes some good points about finding balance in finances just as in relationships.
• Early Retirement Extreme with Children and Early Retirement. I don’t have kids yet either, but Jacob makes some good points that children can be fully satisfied and happy without the designer clothes and iPhones, at least until they begin comparing what they have to what their friends’ have.

Tuesday Tips, Just Another Great Post from Little House. I'm so humble.

This week’s Tuesday Tip, pick up trash at your local park or favorite camp site. It often blows my mind how an entire bag of fast food can end up on the ground at my favorite campground. People should feel privileged to experience the great outdoors instead of trashing it. This weekend while camping, my husband and I walked around the camp site and picked up a small bag of trash. I felt like the little bit we did was good for the park.

Tip #25: Make it a challenge; pick up 20 pieces of garbage at your favorite outdoor hang-out.

• Keep our parks clean. The cleaner our parks are kept, the longer they’ll be accessible to the future generations. I don’t have kids (yet), but I do see the value in preserving our parks and forests for future generations to enjoy. Picking up trash and placing it in the dumpster is a simple step towards cleaner parks.
• Keep our park fees low. Just think, if we all dropped our trash on the ground and didn’t pick up after ourselves, more park rangers and maintenance people would need to be hired. While this may be good for the economy, park budgets are usually the first to be “cut” out of the budget (so no new jobs are formed.) Making up for this expense would either mean closing the park or raising the entrance or camp site fees. I don’t know about you, but I’m already paying $20 a night to camp at my favorite site!
• Use this as an inexpensive exercise activity or game. Keep the kids moving and make trash pick-up a game. Of course, you might want to set some safety rules before you begin; like don’t pick up sharp objects, glass, or toilet paper – that still leaves plenty of things they can pick up, like bottle caps and candy wrappers! The first one to collect 20 trash items gets to choose dessert (or something to that effect!)

A clean environment is a healthier environment.

• One less plastic bag or chip bag is better for the environment. Instead of watching the refuse flow down the stream only to get caught up in a tree branch, make it one less item that will become a catch-all for garbage.

This is a guest post from Ryan at Planting Dollars.com, a personal finance blog. Ryan is a recent college graduate living in Hawaii and pursuing his dream to become financially free.

1. There is an image of a shark on your “8 Random Things About Me” post. Since you are really into underwater diving and photography, did you take all the photos of sharks on your blog? Have you thought about getting involved with Discovery Channel’s Shark Week?

That is an image of a Tiger shark, which I have yet to dive with . Unfortunately I haven’t taken all the pictures on my site. As a recent college grad I’m still too poor to afford the right equipment to take it to a professional level. This is another reason why I live frugal and is something I’m saving up for. I would absolutely love to rub shoulders with professional shark photographers and make it on shark week, but that is several years out and requires considerable amount of funding.

2. How are you supporting yourself in Hawaii?

Before I moved to Hawaii I saved up about 10k from bartending and living below my means back in Wisconsin. This allowed me, and still does to live in Hawaii until I get on my feet here. After about 3 weeks of being here I picked up a job as a project manager with an underwater camera company, but recently quit because there wasn’t much cohesion or purpose to the organization. I value working with a purpose and feeling like you’ve made a change in the world more than gaining a hefty paycheck to buy a sports car. At the moment I’m developing my blog, a travel niche website, working on a book project, and am hunting for a bartending job. It helps that I live on only 1000 a month and ride my bike everywhere. Honestly, it’s kind of fun to live below your means because I see it as a challenge and life experiment. Anything can be fun, it’s all about perspective.

3. Where would you like to travel to next?

I would love to go to Baja Mexico to see the gathering of hammerhead sharks or Thailand to dive with whale sharks.

4. You mention that you have student loans to pay off. How are you tackling those payments, or do you have a plan to pay them off?

I lucked out and have parents that are fairly well off, but at the same point that meant I didn’t get any FAFSA help at all. My parents agreed to pay half my college expenses and I pay the other half. Before I took a semester in Australia my junior year of college I was able to pay down $15,000 a year in expenses by working up to 3 jobs in the summer. However, after Australia and my senior year I racked up about $37k in debt. I paid down about $7500 since I graduated in May of 2008 and any extra money I have goes to paying them. I would like to be debt free within the next two years and don’t like owing them money at all. For a while I was paying down $500 a month, but have stopped until I get a steady stream of income established here in Hawaii.

5. Where do you see yourself when you’re 30? Do you still want to open that piano bar?

I think if you’re willing to try new things you’ll change so much that it’s hard to tell where exactly you’ll be. I like new challenges but at the rate of change I’ve been experiencing in my life I’m not sure who I’ll be at 30. That’s 7 years from now and 7 years ago I was 16 just getting my drivers license. All I hope is that by the time I’m 30 I have a successful online presence with a full time income stream, am working towards things I’m passionate about such as ocean conservation, and am able to help change the lives of others for the better. But yes, I would still at some point in my life like to perform piano consistently and open a piano bar, if you come drinks are on me!

6. What or who encouraged you to begin blogging?

After college I realized the only way I could see the world and work at the same time would be by doing web development. So in winter of 2008 I purchased a subscription to Site Build It and began teaching myself web development from the ground up. It’s been a great experience and I eventually learned that you could write about anything you wanted while making money, just so long as you help people. I love talking about personal finance, personal development, and real estate so I just started writing. Now that I’ve started blogging I absolutely love meeting new bloggers, helping others, and the process of building a business with “online equity.”

7. You mention wanting to prepare kids to be financially savvy. What kinds of programs do you think school children need to manage their finances later in life?

I think kids need to be inspired more than anything. They can fulfill their dreams and they can make change in the world. A lot of people (and kids) see money as boring, but money is simply the tool you can use to fulfill your purpose and dreams. When parents teach kids that money is something you use to go shopping and buy a big house with, then that’s what the kid will associate with money. However, if you teach a kid that money can help them change the world and reach their goals, it’s a whole paradigm shift. Get a kid excited about his dreams and show him it is possible using the principles of personal finance.

8. As a financially savvy 23-year-old, do you think you are an exception to young people today in the way you approach finances and life in general?

Yes, most of my friends call me crazy and most adults I talk to think I’m not normal for my age. Who likes being normal anyways? Like I mentioned in my previous answer I’m only motivated to achieve my dreams in life so in order to do that I have to learn about money management. From that angle I think most 20 somethings don’t know what their dreams are or don’t have the confidence to pursue them. It’s hard and being different than most everyone your own age can get lonely. Most 20 somethings are either in grad school or hanging out at the bars. Having the ability to say no to those things when you’re at an age where you still desire acceptance the most, requires a deep rooted purpose.

9. Your parent’s have built a successful real estate business. Has there been any talk of you taking over their business or following their footsteps?

There used to be more so and more than likely one day we’ll have that discussion, but probably not for another 10-20 years. The most valuable things they gave me were the education that comes with seeing how the business is run, how to evaluate real estate, and making me work for a buck. I’m grateful that they started making me work at an early age to pay my own way because otherwise I would’ve probably turned into a spoiled brat. I don’t really expect to be handed a business and would much rather prefer the satisfaction of making my own way.

10. How can people help with shark conservation?

They can start by changing their perceptions about how they view sharks. Sharks have a horrible reputation thanks to the media and the ever popular movie Jaws. In an average year only 5 people die of shark attacks. To put that in perspective 100 people die of elephant caused deaths. More people die because of soda pop vending machines than shark attacks!

If you’re visiting China, please do not each Shark Fin Soup. Each year over 90,000,000 sharks are killed by finning which is where sharks are caught, their fins are cut off and they’re thrown back in the water while still alive. By eating shark fin soup you’re creating more demand for these types of unsustainable operations.

If you’re honestly interested in making the world a better place realize that killing sharks is killing the whole ocean ecosystem. Yes, that includes Nemo and the ever popular sea turtles. Awareness is the greatest tool so next time you hear someone talk about how bad sharks are, take the time to correct them.

Be sure to check out Planting Dollars for my reciprocal Q & A as well on February 23rd. Thanks again Ryan!