Green Means Go

Driving & Texting

Why do people do this? I have a phone, I text, but never while driving. What is so important that you cannot wait till arriving at your destination to send a message? I live in Florida and there are enough idiot drivers in this state to worry about that I am not about to start taking my eyes off the road for 3 or more seconds. Phones make people go brain-dead while driving. They run red lights, sit at green lights, or even drive way under the speed limit. Very annoying and dangerous. My boss' nephew died last week on his motorcycle because a lady switched lanes without even looking while on her phone. It will probably be illegal soon anyway. 

 This---->Can lead to this---> 

Lighting

Light bulbs as I'm sure you know use a good bit of energy, 25% of the average household to be exact.

 

Next time one goes out why not replace it with something more efficient? There are many options and they have all came down in price recently. Some are better than others however, for instance some have a warm-up time and some you might not be able to use with adjustable lighting fixtures. I won't go into detail because their is a lot of info and I'm sure you have more important things to do. Maybe just consider looking next time you are at the store. Here's a site to help if you want to look more into it.Lighting  

 

Smaller Houses

I saw on the news today that the national average size of a house has went from 2600 Sq feet to 2400 sq ft in the past year. Pretty cool, I always thought American houses were a little large unless you have a huge family. They also showed some crazy dude who had a 100 sq ft home that he lived in full time, he was driving around the world pulling his house behind a U-hall. Thats alot of gas, idiot....

Road Trip

Well I just got back from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. It was a fun family vacation, did alot of drinking and hangin on the beach. I averaged 36.5 miles per gallon there and back in my mom's car. It is a 2002 Pontiac Sunfire. 3 people in the car with 200 pounds of luggage and the air conditioner on the whole way. Not bad considering the elements, I could have gotten well over 40 MPG if I was by myself. A little bit of light drafting and keeping it under 80 were the main contributers. It also helps having a tool called Scangauge. It tells you current MPG, average, and many other things, they cost around 150 but you can find them used. They save you money in the long run and make driving a little more entertaining. Here is the sight. Scangauge.com

Plastic: Worst enemy

Plastic takes a very long time to fully deteriorate while sitting in a landfill. Buy a re-usable bottle for drinking water instead of buying bottled water. DID YOU KNOW? Bottled water companies are not strictly regulated by the government and they can get water from wherever they like. They also use whatever type of filtering process is the cheapest. Tap water is regulated and held to higher standards. Try drinking tap with ice and see how it tastes. Most people drink tap at room temperature, bottled water doesn't taste very good either at room temp. Besides, think how much money you will save every month not buying 100's of bottles.

Grocery bags are another overly used plastic product. Take your own bags or get the reusable ones from the store. They are usually free or less than a dollar. Now you wont have all of those bags filling up the trash can so you can empty it less. This also saves the grocery store LOTS of money which in turn can control costs passed on to the consumer. It's win win for everyone. Both of these things are easy to do and will save you time and money.

Another great site to help you along Think Green

1st

Hello my name is Sean and this is my first blog. Here I will keep a tab of my daily activities and how they effect the area around me. This includes fuel consumption, electricity and water use, and even other peoples footprint. I am not an environmental extremist by any means but I do care about the Earth and I am always trying to find new ways to save money in this uncertain economy. Please check back often as I will be updating and doing reviews on "green" products daily. Thanks, Sean.

Here is a good site to check out on "Hypermileing" which can save you money every month by spending less on fuel. Gas prices are on the rise. cleanMPG