Use Free Shipping

Of course using free shipping can save you money, assuming you are only ordering what you need, and the total cost is lower than the cost of the item(s) plus shipping from another vendor.

But if you consider that one package delivery truck moving about through your neighborhood uses less gasoline than if everyone went to the store for an item, there's an environmental angle as well. Buy.com quotes a Carnegie Mellon study to back this claim, as well as several other points about green e-retailing. I assume other online retailers can make the same claim, and the bigger they are the more they can reduce pollution per item via economy of scale. So consider a free shipping option to get dry goods and sundry items to your household. Even with shipping in items from a distance, it still may be a better option for the planet as well as your pocketbook.

Spend less money, help the environment.

Use A Massaging Shower Head

The massage setting on the shower head pulses the jets; it turns them "off" intermittently. Mine uses about 40% less water this way. And I pay for water by the gallon. If you are on a well, you are paying for the electricity to pump the water instead.

Spend less money, help the environment.

A Car With Better Gas Mileage

It's a trite suggestion at this point, but it's still worth mentioning: a car that gets more miles per gallon of gasoline or diesel will save you money and pollute less.

It doesn't make money sense for most of us to replace a car just for this reason, because the break-even point is too long with purchase cost or car payments factored into the decision. But if it is time to buy a new car for other reasons, picking one that gets more miles per gallon will save you money.

There are environmental debates about differing car technologies and manufacturing processes. But whether you choose a conventional internal combustion engine, a hybrid, or other option, buy less and therefore use less refined petroleum products. The standard internal combustion engine used today is not very efficient and wastes our natural resources.

I say a "car" and not a "truck", because most people I know with a truck (pickup, van, or box truck for example) need the towing or cargo capacity to earn their living, and a decrease in earnings to save on gas most likely does not make money sense.

Spend less money, help the environment.

Introduction, or What Is Meant By Both Greens

Welcome! The goal here is to suggest ideas that save two kinds of "green" - money (green being a slang term for money, as in the United States of America where money in one form is in paper bills and is green), and the environment (green being a slang term for describing nature and the planet and the living things including the people who are in it). The theory here is that more people would save money if it also helped the environment, or that more people would help the environment if it also saved money, depending on which you think is the higher priority. In any case, the goal here is to suggest ideas that save both at the same time, as there are a number of places you can find ideas for saving either individually.