Eco-Friendly and Saving Money

I've recently started trying to watch what I waste more carefully. I have a garbage can with a paper bag in it from the grocery store just for paper trash. My city recycles junk mail and any paper as long as there is no food residue. It is just amazing how much of our trash was paper. In the past, we took out 2 bags every week for two people. Now we take out a bag of trash once a month, plus a small grocery bag size bag of food trash at least weekly. We put out the paper garbage bag of paper to recycle once a month too.

We help the environment by recycling and save just a little bit of money by not using so many trash bags.

We also put a 5 gallon bucket in shower while the water warms up and each almost fill up one during the course of the shower. We reuse this water to water our plants. We've only been doing this for about a month. Our plants look so much better with this extra 10 gallons of water. We are in the middle of a very severe drought in southwest Florida right now and haven't seen rain in a few months.

This doesn't really save us money other than saving the plants from dying. However, if we water with the irrigation system outside of specified days and times, we will receive a fine starting at $50 and going up to $400 depending on the number of offenses. If you think of it that way, we avoid fines and save a bundle of money by using water that was going down the drain anyway.

I hope this will be helpful to someone! Thanks for reading!! :)

Free 411

I have been skeptical of Free 411. I refuse to pay more than I have to for anything, and I'll look hard for the lowest price. The other day, I was away from home and looking for a specific business. I remembered recently hearing about 800-GOOG-411, Google's free 411 service. I tried it and it is wonderful! If it doesn't understand the city you are saying, it is a little difficult, and you have to hang up to retry as far as I know. However, it understood most cities I asked for as well as the business name and category. It appears to read the listings that come up if you were to do the same search on the website. It even connects you to the business for free. At this time it is only for businesses, but if I go to a person's house I usually look it up before I leave, so that's not a problem for me.

I will be using 800-GOOG-411 again. Give it a try and see how it works in your town. You will probably be very happy with it! :)

Ebates

One of my favorite sites for saving money online is Ebates. It doesn't cost anything to join and you get cash back and coupons for purchases you are making online anyway. Ebates is a shopping site that gives you up to 25% Cash Back every time you shop online. You can shop at over 900 stores including Barnes & Noble.com, Gap, Target, Buy.com and Expedia. Plus you get additional savings with exclusive coupons, free shipping offers, and limited-time sales!

Sign up with Ebates today and we'll each get a $5 bonus when you make your first purchase! Click here to sign up, you might have to copy and paste to get the entire link:
http://www.ebates.com/rf.do?referrerid=UNtkwmC6Y3eMIqMqr%2ByaDA%3D%3D

Happy shopping!

My First Blog

Hi Everyone!
I've been lurking and reading blogs for awhile and have finally decided to create my own. I live in Southwest Florida, and will write about how I save money and get things for free, among other topics. My friends are always asking how I do it, and I wanted to share with everyone in case I can help someone get something they want cheap or free that they haven't thought of before. I'll post links to sites I really enjoy that have not spammed me. Here's to many great posts in the future!
Thanks for reading!