Going Green, When to Go, When Not to

Hi, everyone! Another day, another post. This time I’m going to talk about going green, organic, environment friendly, eco-friendly, or anything else you’d like to call it. I want to discuss about feasibility of going green today.

To me, going green means working towards saving environment, as well as going paperless among various other things. I got a different perspective a few days ago, I had lunch with a friend who appeared to be quite forlorn.

It turned out his wife bought a lot of shampoos, soaps, and other health care products off a website. Let’s just say she spent a considerable amount of money for those stuffs. I asked him, “What’s with all these products that your wife had to spend that much money?” He replied that she was just trying to be healthy by going green. The he asked, “Why should going green be this expensive?”.

Now, if I think through what he said, it all made sense. Going green can rob us money!

When going green leaks money

The truth is going green can be, sometimes, quite pricey because of the following reasons:

Conventional products are cheap

Let’s state the obvious: we wouldn’t be calling it cheap if we can’t compare it with something else, right? But we do have some basis. If you’re going to check out stores and groceries these days, you can find conventional products that cost less than $50 to buy. The most interesting is they work. They give you shiny hair, full stomach, and glowing skin.

There’s not much competition available

Think of solar panels and hybrid cars. Tell me how many are selling them in the market today? Only a few, right? Because there’s not a lot of competition around, they sort of have the monopoly in the industry and can dictate any price they want.

It’s all marketing hype

Yes, a lot of them are. One day, my wife bought a couple of eco-friendly bags in an “eco friendly” store near our home. She spent close to $150 for all of them. Then she went online and found a great tutorial on how to create almost the same styles of bags using the materials she already has at home.

But before you go on hating going green, I’ll tell you that it’s still the best way to go if you want to be very sustainable and live longer. It’s just a matter of knowing what to do and whom to listen. Besides, going green still entitles you with tax breaks and other types of incentives from both the local, state, and federal government.

Moreover, if you’re going to think of the long-term implications, you’re actually going to save some money. For example, alternate energy can cost you thousands of dollars today, but since they use renewable energy, you don’t have to pay more for any kind of power source or fuel. They also last for a very long time; and what’s more, if you have additional power, you can sell it to your community, allowing you to earn more money.

When going green doesn’t require too much money

There are also so many ways on how to live green without spending too much money

Keep baking soda handy

Baking soda, for me, is the most important component you can ever have in your home. It’s useful in so many ways. You can use it for cleaning, cooking, and even keeping yourself healthy. Do you know that there’s a study that reveals how baking soda can delay the decline of your kidney function to as much as 2/3? You can even use it to treat acid indigestion or upset stomach, as well as keep your body more alkaline so you don’t suffer from metabolic acidosis.

Concentrate more on fruits and vegetables

They are a part of keeping yourself healthy, so you don’t end up spending a lot of your money on medications and drugs, which can damage your vital organs after a while. You can also forget about getting bottled juices and prepared smoothies. A lot of them still contain a bit of refined or processed sugar anyway. Learn to make your own. Just buy a food processor, blender, or juicer, then look for wonderful recipes online.

Plant your own

A lot of people think they need to have large spaces or even farms before they can plant those fruits, vegetables, and herbs. No, you don’t have to. Present technologies already allow you to make the most of whatever space you have in your home. We already have hydroponics, for example. You can also find some buildings and homes that have rooftop green houses. The simplest greenhouse you can create is a transparent box or crate covered with tiny-holed screens.

Make your own products

My wife and I are learning to make our own beauty care and cleaning products. By doing so, we realize we’re able to save tons of money. For instance, if you want to make a scrub, just combine a few amounts of olive oil, granulated brown sugar, honey, and your preferred essential oil.

Bonus!!

As a special tribute to our readers, Gridpar has provided OCAAT readers with a custom solar calculator to estimate approximate energy saving you can achieve by adopting Solar. Estimate how much money you can save and contribute to environment by using the calculator below!