dining & entertaining

Sam over at Best Cheap Weddings shares some ways to save cash and the planet with the post Best Cheap Green Weddings. Romance and Memories on a Green Budget. I am all for the “recycled” estate diamond ring! (Remember that, Mr. Green Your Apartment!)

MyMaria makes the case that “consistent menu planning means my family wastes less food, eats at home much more often and saves both money and gas in the process.” Sold! Check out the post weekly menu planning over at Menu Planning.

for the greenhorns

Some of us are on the computer so much that we forget how much energy it can consume. So Richard Adams reminds us, giving us 9 Ways To Make Your Computer Use More Eco Friendly posted at Eco Living Advice. Loved this so much, you’ve just been added to my RSS reader.

health & beauty

How I adore my certified tree-huggers, the do-it-yourselfers. Eugene Smith represents well with the How To Make Your Own Laundry Soap At Home posted at How to Make You Own Soap.

Girls, you know how much we love the jewelry. Well Heather Levin points us in the right direction by explaining What to Look For When Buying Fair Trade Jewelry posted at Earthdivas’s Blog.

New to our little carnival is paystolivegreen who gives us some eco-beauty Toothbrush Tips posted at Pays to Live Green. (I use Preserve, myself!)

June Tree is back with a Guide To Commuter Bikes: Bicycle Commuting Saves Money and The Environment over at (be still my heart!) The Digerati Life.

in the news

Oh Mrs. Obama, never has a garden been s controversial. Rich Maltzman, PMP asks Will ‘Bloom Boxes’ Bloom next to Michelle Obama’s Organic Garden? posted at Earth PM.

TSW talks eco-luxury with Tesla Electric Car For Fuel Efficiency: Would You Buy It? at The Smarter Wallet. To answer your question: out of my price range, hun! Still pretty though.

MrsMoney presents Is Climate Change a Hoax? posted at The Ultimate Money Blog. While this is a great post, I absolutely adore the comic that opens it. I’m laughing my butt off!

living spaces

Sandra Lopez has spoken to my soul – my bibliophiliac soul. Her post, 80 Awesome Ideas for All Your Old or Unwanted Books posted at Online Colleges.net, has inspired me to *gulp* minimize my library. I have a copy of The Film Encyclopedia that is just begging to be used as a block in my new AM yoga routine! But I could never imagine using a book as cat litter.

Case Ernsting discusses eco-friendly wood options in Go Green, Keep the Wood over at Home and Decor.

Julia Ritzenthaler presents Eco Friendly Furniture posted at Bathroom Vanity, Decorative Mirrors & Light Fixtures.

patio & garden

Renee Benzaim presents Guide to Compost Making – Compost Bins, Compost Tumblers, and Compost Crocks posted at Compost Tumblers & Compost Making. She comments, “Compost tumblers, compost bins, compost crocks, and open piles are all methods of compost making. Which is the best for you? If you are limited on space, a compact ‘backporch’ compost tumbler is your best bet.” Is it a good choice for your apartment?

Jamie McIntosh discusses how to Control Pests on Houseplants posted at Jamie’s Organic Garden Blog. It has been a hard winter, hasn’t it? But spring is almost here!

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Well, my dear Internet, that concludes this edition of Tips for Green Living. Thank you all for your excellent submissions and I hope you found some useful info in this carnival. You can find a new edition posted every second and fourth Monday here at Green Your Apartment. Submit your blog article to the next edition of Tips for Green Living using our carnival submission form.

Go green and live well!

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First let’s set up the order of importance in purchasing these items.

1. Local always surpasses organic -there’s less tax on the environment as a whole. Plus with local foods, most of them are from smaller farms that don’t douse their produce with ridiculous amounts of chemicals so a good washing in a plant-based produce wash will do fine.
2. Next comes organic. This means you are eliminating the pesticides and chemicals you are not only ingesting but voting for use with your dollar. And if you can get local and organic, then double-kudos to you!
3. Now comes fair-trade. For those of you new to the lingo, fair-trade items are part of “an organized social movement and market-based model of international trade which promotes the payment of a fair price as well as social and environmental standards in areas related to the production of a wide variety of goods” (thank you, Wikipedia). This comes third because you want to try and stay as local as possible to minimize the shipping, etc.

Knowing these priorities, how is one supposed to eat well and still be green? Here are a few tips to help you along your way.

Newbie
Cost: will generally save you money
Time: a longer trip to your local “health food” store versus the corner market
Energy to do this: minimal to moderate

Shop at your local health food store. I’m a big fan of Henry’s and Trader Joe’s (I hail from Southern California so these are my local stores) but you can definitely find your local stores by searching in your area. Not only are organic and local produce offered at these stores, but I found when I started shopping at Trader Joe’s that my grocery bill was easily cut by 40% though I was buying the same amount of stuff. At Henry’s, I search their weekly flyer (available by email!) for sales on bulk items and such so I can stock up and save.

Amateur Environmentalist
Cost: you’ll save money on produce and spend a bit extra on gas depending on location
Time: an extra half hour to hour a week
Energy to do this: minimal to moderate

Get to know your local farmer’s market! Most cities have them once a week where you can purchase locally grown, in-season foods. In-season is important because for one, it really means it’s local and for two, you are reducing the need to ship in out of season foods from tropical locations like Chile and Ecuador. We have a local grower that has stands all over the city by his crops and he has the best organic strawberries I’ve ever tasted!

Certified Tree-Hugger
Cost: $20-50 a week according to my quick research
Time: ranges from minutes to pick up the produce from your front door (for the delivery-based CSA’s) to 1-3 hours a week to go and harvest your produce
Energy to do this: minimal to significant

So you are dedicated, REALLY dedicated to locally-grown, organic produce. Good for you! Join a CSA or Community Supported Agriculture project. Basically, you pay a certain amount per month or growing season to have your share of the produce grown on that patch of land either boxed for pick-up, delivered to your door or for you really green-thumb types, to harvest yourselves! To find out where you can participate, check out sites like Local Harvest and the US Department of Agriculture’s site on CSAs.

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Like the tips but have an even better one? Leave it in a comment!

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