Today is Earth Day, and is designed to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth’s environment.

Over the past few days, during the course of my visits to a few retail stores, I wanted to tell you about my experiences there.

They will remain nameless, but at the first one, they had their cash registers fully stocked with green Earth Day bags and were packaging all their customers’ purchases in them.  This was a major retailer by the way.  When it came to me, of course I asked, “Is this bag free?”  The lady replied “Yes, how can we expect people to go “green” if it’s too expensive to do so?“  Or something to that effect.

I almost fell over when I heard this statement.  I could not imagine what the cost of all those green bags would be to the company by the time Earth Day had concluded.  At the second store, I brought my purchases to the counter, and was promptly asked by the cashier if I would like to buy a green Earth Day bag for $1.75.  I would have said “no” anyways, but I  responded that I already got one for free at my last stop.  She didn’t really respond to that, and I didn’t really expect her to.

Then I got to thinking about two pretty important points.  First, I don’t think it is right to place your finances over protecting the environment, unless the expense is simply too large.  What I mean by this is that if you can afford some “green” household cleaner by spending a few more pennies, I feel it should be done for the sake of the environment.  However, I am not advocating that everyone go out and spend $10K to install solar panels on their roof to conserve energy.

I never used to think this way, but I began to recently.  Although I will do almost anything to save money in my everyday life, I don’t think it is right to sacrifice the environment to do so.  For the household cleaners that we still buy(rather than making at home) I do spend the extra money to get ones that are environmentally safe, and our household does recycle everything we can, although it does involve spending money on storage supplies and involves extra trips to the recycling center and so on.  Simply put, I do spend extra money to be mindful of the environment.

Which brings me to my second point.  Why should it cost us more money as consumers to become “green” to begin with?  Shouldn’t it be less expensive?  Do we really believe that it is more expensive to produce some sort of household cleaner (or any other product for that matter) from natural, organic ingredients rather than the other chemicals they are made with?

I think it is the environmental and moral responsibility of so-called “big business” to bring down the prices of all things “green” if we as a society want to seriously commit to caring for our environment.

Can you imagine how many more people would go “green” or become more environmentally responsible if they could also save money by doing so?

I am not here to make political statements or to get on my “soapbox” to call out big business. It is just that this simple little exchange about these two Earth Day bags made me realize that if it were more financially attractive to most people, I think the “green” movement would be less of a Hollywood anomaly, and more of a mainstream movement.

Agree?  Disagree? Your thoughts are always appreciated below.

Our household recently went almost completely vegan, and in addition to that, we went almost completely organic too.

While I am not here to debate the pros and/or cons of either, or the potential health benefits/risks, I did want to speak to the financial effects of each of these.

Our “household” consists of me, my wife, and our three year old son. And while we certainly did weigh all of the health benefits/risks and pros/cons for our son before making this change, I can tell you that I was at first skeptical. I say this because going organic would certainly mean higher costs in our grocery budget, right? Well, here is what I have found out so far.

I have no cold hard facts or numbers to give you, because I did not track it in that much detail. What I can tell you is that it seems that there is very much a cost benefit to going “just” vegan. You are no longer buying meat, chicken, or fish (we still cheat a little on the fish) and these items are replaced basically by just vegetables.

Vegetables and more vegetables. The effects on your budget will obviously depend on the expense of which vegetables you decide to buy, but with us, going vegan has had a positive effect on our finances.

Besides changing out all meat for veggies, I also noticed that there are a number of other products that we simply no longer have to buy. Among these are: condiments (you certainly don’t need ketchup, mustard, and mayo anymore if you’re not eating burgers), milk, cheese, eggs, and cooking oil. We steam most of our veggies now, so regular cooking oil is no longer needed. You can add butter to the list, along with most all sweets.

In short, going vegan it seems has saved us money. I wouldn’t do it only for this reason, and I would do some research. So far, we all seem to be healthier with stronger immune systems, and personally, I have lost almost 10 pounds in 8 weeks. So there you go.

Organic is a different story. I was concerned at first because I didn’t think we could even afford to make this change. I had always thought that organic versions of just about anything would be astronomically more expensive. Well, here is what we did and here is the effect.

Obviously, changing your diet to organic will be more expensive. The question that remains is, is it worth the extra expense to you for the added health benefit? What I have found is that depending on how you do it, the increased expense is not nearly as much as you think it might be.

Let me elaborate. First, we are not 100% organic. What most experts will tell you is that you should switch to organic for the items that you buy the most. For the others, it is not so important. And for some, there is no reason at all. For example, bananas. Think about it-there I no point in buying organic bananas. What I also found is that the apples are not THAT much more expensive, and neither are pears and a few other fruits. Spinach seems to be a little higher, and again, some things are so much more expensive that we have not made the switch yet (avocadoes, mushrooms, and a few others).

With non-produce items, the situation gets a little dicier. There is an added expense so again, you have to decide if it is worth it to you. What I can tell you is that going vegan along with going organic can eliminate a lot of these added expenses. If you do the vegan thing as well, the added expense of pastas and rice and milks and everything else become irrelevant.

My conclusion after our first month of vegan/organic? I believe that the increased expenses are probably a lot less than most might think. Also, if you decide to do a combined form of both while not doing both in any sort of strict fashion (like we did), you will probably see that the costs almost balance themselves out to where you are not spending that much more money at all.

I would like to let you all know of my gratitude and appreciation for your support and readership over the last several months. I know that we are all very busy with our lives and I appreciate you taking the time out of yours to read my words.

I am finally took a major step towards reaching some of my longer term goals. My first book was recently published and is now available for sale at Amazon.com

It is called “Don’t Be A Mule: A Common-sense Guide to Saving More, Spending Less, and Generating Extra Income in Your Everyday Life.” It s based purely on my personal experiences. Namely, the journey that I took from the depths of financial debt to the modest successes that I am experiencing now.

This journey was not a very long one and it was not as hard as I thought it would be. Once I got my mind straight on how I needed to deal with the money that was coming in and going out of my life, it all became pretty basic. Sure, there was some hard work and some sacrifice along the way, but for anyone who thinks that getting out of debt involves years of suffering and foregoing the basic pleasures of life is simply wrong.

The basics that I learned are that it is mostly in your mind. You don’t need huge raises at work to get out of debt; you don’t need to hit the lottery. Honestly, you don’t even need an organized long-term plan. I certainly didn’t have one. If you are deep in debt now, there is a very good reason for it. For most, I would imagine that it is nothing more than living beyond your means. Well, guess what you need to do to solve this? Stop living beyond your means until you are out of debt. Then, you need to live AT your means. Then, you need to work on increasing your means.

If you are in the UK  www.ThinkMoney.com is a useful resource for help and advice on debt.

All of this and more is outlined in my book, and I hope you decide to at least check it out. I think it can provide value to the life of anyone who decides to read it. This journey was the best learning experience I’ve ever had in life, and I think that you can benefit from it too.

Thanks again for your support.

Don’t Be A Mule

I have been focused on lowering our household expenses for several years now. One would think that I have already come up with most of the ways that you can save a buck.

Over the years, I have made significant progress in our monthly grocery bill-a place I think most of us have yet to discover, and one that can yield some healthy savings. I have done things like doing my shopping at 3-4 different stores, couponing to a limited extent, actually paying attention when I’m going down the aisles, and so on.

Recently, my wife and I decided to actually shift our diet as well. Originally, the motives were not financial but we have seen the financial benefits. We never really ate too much red meat to begin with-it was mostly fish, chicken and fresh veggies. But, we took the plunge recently and went vegetarian. Not strict vegetarian as we didn’t eliminate dairy or eggs, but no more chicken, fish or red meat.

Let me tell you-the savings were almost immediately evident. I didn’t track it closely, but I would venture to say it was easily a 15% drop in our monthly bill.
Now, I ‘m sure the first thing most of you are saying is that it can’t be done, we don’t like that many veggies, we’d run out of things to eat and so on.

Let me address some of these concerns:

First-if you start off most of your meals (besides breakfast, of course) with a large mixed salad, you are well on your way to filling your tummy. Mix it with your favorite veggies, and add some other fillers if you must to make it tasty. Bleu cheese crumbles go good with just about any veggie, raisins are a nice complement, and you can always throw some nuts in there. Topped with your favorite dressing, it is a tasty starter.

Second– there are a variety of vegetables out there that you may like that you don’t even know about. Eggplant, for one. I never thought in a million years that I’d like eggplant until I tried it. It’s a very sweet vegetable and one of our favorites now. Asparagus, although usually a little pricey, is another one. I buy it every time I see it on special. Step out of your comfort zone and you might be surprised at what you’ll find.

Third-there really are a TON of things that you can do with veggies. Get yourself a vegetarian cookbook if you need to, but consider just subbing veggies where you’d normally have chicken or fish or meat. Vegetarian lasagna is awesome, and you can make a nice veggie burger if you tie it in with some Tofu (don’t freak out-it tastes good, too). And, you can still have the fries with your burgers if you want!

So, if you’re out there trying to save a buck, consider going vegetarian or at least adopting more vegetables into your family’s diet. It is obviously healthier for your body and surprisingly healthy for your family’s budget as well.

To learn more about these and other personal finance topics, stay tuned for my soon-to-be-published book, “Don’t Be A Mule: A Common-sense Approach to Saving More, Spending Less, and Generating Extra Income in Your Everyday Life.”

It seems to me that two of the hardest things for me to do regarding my escape from financial hell were first, getting started, and second, staying motivated throughout the process.

So I was thinking the other evening that if I had anything, anything at all that would have motivated me further, then it probably would have made the whole process a bit easier.

Therefore, I tried to come up with some of the savings tips that I have been using lately that actually have additional benefits to them besides the fact of just saving money.

The list I give to you now is by no means all inclusive, just some of the first things that popped into my head.  Here ya go:

Donate:  So you have a closet full of old clothes and a garage full of things you never use anymore.  I guess the logical thing would be to have a garage sale, right?  Well, have you ever thought about donating these items instead?  There are a number of places you can find that will come right to your door for them.  Think about it-you won’t have to drag all of that stuff out into the driveway 2-3 times over the course of a weekend and you won’t have to listen to anyone offer you50 cents for a shirt that you know is brand new.  Plus, you’d be helping out the needy and of course, make a list of it all so you can write it off at tax time.  Got big items?  There are still a few places that will come to pick up your bigger items.   I would start with the National Kidney Foundation.

Recycle:  Ya know those plastic bags that you get a million of every timer you go grocery shopping??  Well, instead of throwing them away, why not start to use them in your smaller-sized garbage cans in the house-they are perfect for the bathroom.  You can even do what I did and put these smaller sized trash cans throughout your house, use these bags from the grocery store, and eliminate your garbage service!  Really!  If you recycle your paper and plastic, you’d be amazed at how much your actual amount of garbage decreases.  Collect those little bags and throw them out at work.  I live in a household of four, and really only have one of these bags per day.  And you’re improving the environment.

Paperless Billing:  I was always a little leery of this because I always thought I would miss a bill payment if I did not get a paper copy of it in the mail.  Guess what?  It never happened-and if you’re organized enough with your bill paying, it won’t either.  Switch to paperless billing wherever possible, and better yet, switch to online bill paying as well.  It will save you a ton of time, it will virtually eliminate the need for stamps in your life, and you’ll be saving a tree or tow.  My cell phone company actually planted a tree in my name when I switched to paperless billing-no joke.

I am sure there are quite a few other examples of “dual use” savings tips.  Feel free to add your own and share with the community.

If you would like to learn other ways to save more in your life click here to download your free report, “10 Fast and Easy Ways to Save Money in Your Everyday Life.”