5 Tips To Drive Smart And Save Money

Driving smart is a good way to save yourself some money, and help the environment, the whole world would benefit as well. How can you make a difference to the environment with your driving?

Here are seven nifty tips that you can do right to save you money and help the environment as well.

1. The very best thing you can do to help the environment with your car is cut down on your driving! All the same, you may not have that option, so drive slower instead. Most cars perform best at speeds of between 80 km/h to 100 km/h. Not too slow and not too fast is how to driving smart.

2. An astonishing 20% of your vehicle’s fuel consumption is used just to overcoming tire rolling resistance! How can you drive smart and save fuel in these conditions? Buy quality tires and make sure they are properly inflated will save on your gas bills!

3. Lighten up the load in your vehicle. I am sure there are many things in the trunk that do not need to be there. Go through each item and see if you really need it, remove it if is not needed. You can drive smart, save money with a lighter load. That will help your car be more fuel efficient too.

4. Turn off your engine while you wait if you are expected to be waiting more than a few minutes. Restarting your engine use up more or less about the same amount of fuel as one minute of idling time, so whenever you think you will be idling for more than a minute, turn off the engine. You will save fuel and money – saving wear and tear on the engine as well.

5. Drive smoothly. Erratic driving with sudden accelerating and hard braking uses up extra fuel. It puts excess wear and tear on your vehicle, which means additional costs to you and the environment.

Learning to driving smart, save money is mostly common sense. If you really need to drive, then be sure to drive with responsibly and sensibly. Notwithstanding, if you can walk easily to where you need to be, then do so! Use these 7 nifty tips to save you money when you have to use your vehicle to get to where you are going.

Maintain Your Car The Eco-friendly Way

Nowadays, owning a car is very expensive. Getting the most out of your car means keeping it at maximum working efficiency will enable you to extend the life of your car while saving money and the environment by simply maintaining your car the eco-friendly way:

1. Regular care and maintenance of your car is important, for instance, by keeping the tire pressure is at the optimum level you actually use 15% less gas and you also increase the life of your tires by 15%.

2. Change your oil every 3,000 to 4,500 miles if you make short runs under 6 miles at a time, if you frequent city traffic with many stops and starts, if your car tows heavy load regularly, or if you drive in salty, sandy or dusty conditions.

If your oil isn’t changed often enough this can result in advanced engine wear and tear with the loss of fuel economy and overall performance. Doing this on a regular basis will not only extend the life of your engine but keep your car in optimum working condition while helping it burn less fuel.

3. Replace windscreen wipers when the rubber in them has worn out, if you don’t, not only will they be ineffective, but they may also scratch the windscreen causing you to replace them earlier and pay more money in the long term.

4. Use biodegradable vegetable oil based soaps to wash your car is a good option as they readily breakdown if any runoff escapes down storm water drains. Whenever you choose to use car shampoos always wash your car on your lawn as these types of shampoos usually contain phosphates similar to those found in fertilizers and will be good for your lawn.

Many individuals are not aware that how they clean their car can be almost as important to the environment as how you maintain it. It takes only 1 quart of oil in our waterways to contaminate 1 million quarts of water so it pays to know what we are putting into our storm water drains.

Hosing down your car on your driveway is a bad idea and should be avoided as it waste water but it also introduces dirt, grease, detergents, oil and gas residue into the storm water drains, eventually ending up in our river systems which gradually make their way into our oceans, the very oceans that we depend upon for our survival.

As an alternative, wash your car on a grassy area, like your lawn as mentioned above to minimize the amount of water run-off.

Re-Usable Household Items

Re-Usable Items That You Might Not Have Thought About

Recycling is an excellent way to help keep our environment clean. However, you can take it a step further by reusing a number of household items in fun, interesting, and useful ways. Let’s take a look at a number of creative uses for reusable items that you may not have thought about.

Old Curtains

These make great rags for cleaning your car or other large areas.

Coffee Grounds

Coffee grounds have a number of different uses. Many plants prefer acidic soils and adding coffee grounds to your compost is a great way to increase its nutrients. Coffee grounds are also a powerful insect repellent. Sprinkle the grounds over an ant pile and watch them scurry away. Finally, use the grounds as a deodorizer for your refrigerator. Place them into a small cup and they’ll help keep your refrigerator smelling fresh.

Margarine Tubs

Margarine tubs are excellent food storage containers. Chances are you go through a large handful of containers each year, all in varying sizes. By the end of year you’ll have your own set.

Milk Jugs

Like most, you’ve probably lost your share of clothespins. You can cut the top off of a milk jug and hang it from your clothesline, creating a handy clothespin holder.

Old Toothbrushes

Old toothbrushes are fantastic for cleaning hard-to-reach and small areas. Use your toothbrush to clean grout, areas around the sink, drains, and faucets.

Altoid Tins

Altoid tins are excellent storage containers for small items. You can use them to create a mini emergency kit for your car, as a place to hold your sewing materials, etcetera.

Butter Wraps

Once you’ve finished a block of butter you can use the wrapping to grease baking pans.

Envelopes

Envelopes can be used to store garden seeds, as a to-do list, or even as a bookmark that will never slide out. You can create a bookmark by cutting the corners off of the envelope, forming a triangle, and sliding it over the page you’re on. Your bookmark won’t slide or stick out like a normal bookmark would.

Plastic Bread Clips

Plastic bread clips are the ultimate scraping tool. They’re great for scraping off price tags, labels, and even lottery tickets.

Old Cookie Trays

An old cookie tray placed at the bottom of an oven or grill will catch anything that falls, helping keep it clean. These are just a handful of creative ways to reuse normal household items. So before you recycle something, ask yourself if it can be reused. You may be surprised at what interesting uses you can come up with.

About the Author

This article comes from Phill representing www.freestuff.co.uk – with all the latest freebies, competitions, deals and games.

Affordable Ways To Increase Eco Friendliness Of A Home

Making green improvements to your home can have a positive impact not only on the future of our environment, but also on your family’s health and well-being. If one is willing to spend a little time thinking ahead, planning, prioritizing and budgeting for the environmentally friendly changes one chooses to make, both your home and your family will benefit in the long run. Some of these changes can be quiet affordable, while others require an initial investment which is recouped through energy savings over time. Being a good global citizen can be both affordable and fun.

Lighting

Changing to compact fluorescent light bulbs will quickly add up to significant savings for any homeowner. Replacing a single 75-watt incandescent bulb in your home today with a 25-watt CFL will add up to a savings of about $80 over the life of the bulb. The difference between the two bulbs is that CFLs convert most of their energy into light rather than heat.

Cost: CFLs generally cost less than $5.

Security

Many homeowners use security systems throughout their homes. Green security systems are quickly becoming available. For example, Vivint is a home security solutions company offering a green home security system. For homeowners with solar panels, they offer an energy efficient smart home security system. It allows homeowners to program appliances and monitor electricity usage from their smart phone.

Cost: After the initial cost for solar panels, Vivint charges a one-time $99 set up fee and monthly maintenance is under $50.

Recycle Electronics

Electronics disposal in the United States is a looming problem. Using local recycling facilities for electronics is one option. Another is reselling your electronic devices. It is estimated each American household has three cell phones languishing somewhere in the home. Each of these can be sold to organizations like green phone.com, where they are be refurbished and resold.

Cost: Selling your used electronics can net you anywhere from five dollars to hundreds.

Leaky Plumbing

A leaky faucet can waste over 70 gallons of water per day, while a leaking toilet can waste up to 200 gallons. Repairing a leaking toilet will save a homeowner about $30 per year and will save about 70,000 gallons of fresh water.

Cost: Replacing washers on faucets can cost less than a dollar. Simple toilet repair usually runs under $10, while a plumber’s visit could be closer to $100.

Green Appliances

At first, upgrading appliances sounds overwhelming. Prioritizing which appliances are real energy hogs can help make the decision easier. Usually, the first appliance to consider is the refrigerator. Appliances utilize approximately 18% of the homes annual energy bill but the fridge uses more energy than other appliances. Refrigerators older than 10 years should be replaced with energy-efficient models for a 10% to 50% savings on energy consumption. Changing to greener appliances can be done one appliance at a time.

Cost: New appliances will vary. Watch for sales and compare prices online.

Every homeowner can take simple cost-effective steps towards green home ownership. Every step has an impact on the environment and the health of others, including those we love. It helps to bear in mind that going green doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing proposition. Small steps add up quickly and results become evident after just a short time.

Peter Brady is a security analyst who also contributes content for Security Systems, a great site to research your home monitoring costs and find reviews of various systems.

Green Gifts That Are Good On The Planet

Shopping for gifts can be a frustrating, hair pulling affair most of the times, but there are some little known gems that go way beyond the ordinary and will leave your gift recipients took aback. These are gifts with an eye toward the environment and I am not talking about the usual gift suspects of recycled decorated boxes wrapped in the eco-friendly biodegradable wrapping paper either.

How would your loved one feel to know that they are the proud foster parent of a dolphin? The team at Red Balloon have cleverly devised the opportunity of a lifetime for your lucky gift recipient to adopt a dolphin for a year and is available to anyone worldwide.

You have the choice of adopting one of many dolphins where you get to follow its activities throughout the 12 months. Once you adopt your dolphin you will be sent a picture postcard of him or her, your very own personalized adoption certificate, regular dolphin updates and newsletters regarding the conservation of dolphins and whales.

Not only are you giving a great gift but you are also supporting dolphin perseveration, this beautiful, regal creature is never far from the endangered species list. Their numbers are dwindling as the result of our presence and the pressures we place on our environment affecting the balance of their natural habitat.

If you would like to be even more exotic, how about adopting an orca whale instead? The same concept applies with dolphin adoption where you get to monitor your orca through a series of updates while giving the benefit of preservation of this magnificent creature.

Another great gift idea is donating to the WWF Wild life fund for the preservation of endangered species: you can either make a donation or adopt one of their 90 species of animals from the Snow Leopard to the Panda, Polar Bear, Penguin, Tiger, Pygmy Elephant and more. You adopt the cuddly toy version of the animal of your choice and along with it, you receive an adoption certificate.

A breathtaking film called “Earth” created by the BBC  made its way onto Disney’s screens to mark the opening of Earth Day.

It was edited from over 100,000 hours worth of stunning footage and details the lives and direct impact on animals from global warming as a result of human influence. The films conclusion leaves the choice in our hands with a simple website address to visit and learn more about what we can do.

We can preserve some of the endangered species from the film such as the Amur Leopard of Russia the most endangered species in the world. Poaching and the lack of natural prey has driven them to the brink of extinction and there are thought to be less than 30 in existence today.

There are several other animals on the endangered species list that you can choose to protect with your donation. You can either opt to protect a particular species or let the fund decide where the money would bring the most benefit. The Wildlife Fund works in association with local communities, recognizing that working for the protection of these animals with local support is essential to their survival.

The legacy the late, great Steve Irwin left behind was that if we taught people to love nature and our environment then they would want to protect it.

So there you have it, some great out of the box gift ideas that not only preserve nature but make you look like a rock star in the process.

Happy green gift giving.