How to Go Green and Save Money and the Planet

You may want to rethink old habits in your quest to go green.

Perhaps, you have always wanted to make a difference in helping conserve natural resources.  At the same time, you might not know the best ways to get started helping the environment so it can suit your lifestyle.  However, when each of us makes a few small changes to reduce our impact on the planet, then those efforts are multiplied to bring real change.  Let me share small ways that can help inspire you.

Start to Examine What Is Important to You

The easiest introduction to going green is by asking what you really need before buying another item or returning things to your closet.

Ask yourself how much you value those unnecessary items and their holds over you?  Is the item something that you love so much that you must buy or keep it or suffer if you don't?  On the other hand, if the item is just something that you want to buy because it’s on sale and not necessarily one to steal your heart, then you might want to skip that purchase or recycle it.  

For example, maybe you bought an expensive top for a ridiculously low fraction of its original price that also happens to be a sickly shade of pale yellow with polka dots.  This color washes your face out while the cut and quality of this top are wonderful, but you don’t have many other pieces to coordinate this top with.  Instead, it keeps hanging in the back of your closet time after time, unworn.  The truth is you couldn’t help yourself from snagging such a tremendous bargain.   Judging by the marked down price tag of how much money you saved does not mean you are ahead if that top is too mismatched for the other pieces in your wardrobe.  In all honesty, the top that you don’t seem to wear is more a trophy for your bargain shopping expertise than a helpful addition to your closet.

Before Buying Try to Recall How Many of the Same Do You Have Already

I don’t know about you, but I do have a tendency to be drawn to similar styles and colors of clothes or makeup.  The cut of a pair of pants could be slightly fuller or slimmer, but I tell myself that one makes my waist smaller or gives me a better behind from the fit.  In reality though, I don’t need five or six pairs of black pants at the same time.  I am not even counting your fat pants, skinny pants or the ones in your current size. 

Does the Item Save You Work or Is It Overcrowding Your Closet?

Too many of the same items like my excess number of black pants is far from ideal.  Having more of the same pieces restricts closet space and can overcrowd your other outfits, contributing to wrinkling and more work for you to later steam or iron them.  However, trying those pants on again and forcing myself to study my reflection in a full-length mirror to compare the best fit simplifies hunting through a stuffed closet and settling on the right black pair.

Another Way to Start Going Green Is Considering Condition

How many of us keep things around the house that may need a repair?  I have a sewing pile for rips, lost buttons and broken zippers.  A tiny rip to stitch up or hem something or replace buttons are one thing, but repairing a broken zipper that ran out off its track is more complicated.  The truth is my broken zipper pile usually never goes down because I avoid fixing them because of how much work.  I could have saved myself the trouble and just ditched the broken zippered items in the first place and never have missed them.

Have You Researched the Item and Compared Prices?

It is easy to walk into any store or to browse online and find something that seems perfect and made to your exact specifications.  Yet, you didn’t read the care instructions and how needy this piece like a leather coat would be to upkeep.  It didn’t make you feel any better when you forgot to do comparison shopping and assumed this was the average going price.

In summary, these are only a few examples of how you can save money, organize, recycle and do a small part to go green by thinking before purchasing.  

What do you do to go green?  

Try My Zesty Homemade Italian Salad Dressing Recipe!

Save yourself some money and still enjoy the same great taste of bottled Italian Dressing with my recipe that I have for you today.  The herbs in this liven up the flavor perfectly without being overly sweet or sour.

This recipe is easy to prepare ahead of time and store in your refrigerator for later.  I like to whip up a small batch at a time because it's simple enough instead of lingering too long in the refrigerator.

Instead of discarding an empty 48-oz. plastic peanut butter jar, I like to wash them to reuse for assembling the ingredients and later storing the dressing in the refrigerator.  Do let the herbs in this dressing blend together for at least an hour in your refrigerator before serving to really heighten the flavor. When you're ready to serve the salad, all you need to do is to shake that closed filled jar and pour.

Toss your empty clean jar into the recycle bin or put it aside for next time.   Whatever you decide, I do hope you will make this recipe because it is the best Italian salad dressing recipe that I have ever run across.

My Zesty Italian Salad Dressing

1 cup of olive oil or canola oil
1 cup of wine vinegar or white vinegar (both taste delicious)
4 large cloves of garlic, minced fine
1 tablespoon of salt
1/2  tablespoon of sugar
1/2  tablespoon of finely ground black pepper
1/2  tablespoon of oregano leaves
1/2  tablespoon of basil
1/2  tablespoon of dry mustard

Clean and mince your garlic.  Mix everything together and store in the refrigerator covered at least one hour to blend the flavors together.