Recycle your old cellphone

Getting a new cellphone this holiday? You can recycle your old one, and get money to spend at terrapass.com at the same time.

You may not be so excited about your old cellphone anymore, but chances are that somebody else will be. Better still, you might even get paid for it. For example, a Motorola Razr V3 is worth $21. How this helps Recycling your old phone keeps it and its (likely toxic) battery out of the landfill. Your phone also contains precious metals including copper and silver. If these are recycled it lessens the demand for mining...

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Choose a real Christmas tree

How to make your Christmas tree a positive thing for the environment.

This is one of those rare times when the disposable option is actually better than the long-term one. If you want a tree then the best option is to go for a real living one, and keep it alive. If you live in Oregon or San Francisco you can rent one. Or maybe you should consider growing your own (for another year, obviously). Otherwise, a potted, plantable tree is a better option than a plastic...

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Stop peeking

That turkey is cooking just fine.

Don’t open the oven door to peek at what’s cooking inside unless you actually need to check something. Instead, turn on the oven light and check the cooking status through the oven window. How this helps Heard the one about the watched pot? Well there’s a reason for it… opening the oven door lowers the temperature inside, by as much as 25 degrees. This wastes energy and increases cooking time as the oven must heat...

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Use LED holiday lights

Save energy and money with long-lasting LED holiday lights

LED lighting is improving all the time, but it’s not yet advanced enough to be able to replace CFLs as a standard for low-energy lighting around the home. One place you can definitely use LED lights is for decorating your house and/or Christmas tree this holiday. This year we’re selling LED holiday lights in our green store. How this helps The bulbs can last up to 50,000 hours (that’s over five years of continuous lighting...

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Being green while saving green

Five tips to benefit your wallet and the planet in these troubled times.

In the current economic situation, it’s easy to think of being green as a luxury. You might need to postpone that solar panel installation that won’t pay off for years to come. And the non-organic, imported tomatoes at Safeway start looking better and better compared to the more expensive ones at Whole Foods. Fortunately, saving the environment and saving money often go hand and hand. In addition to obvious tips like driving less, turning down...

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Make your own Halloween costume

Halloween needn’t be about scary consumerism.

There are many ways to create your own costume using items found around the house. While you can certainly sew your own (with or without a pattern) from eco-fabrics like bamboo, organic cotton, silk, or hemp, making one from closet-bound items is a great way to recycle, and low-cost, too! Look for supplies in the attic, your junk drawer, seasonal closets, the toolbox, or even kitchen cupboards. How this helps Americans spend a spine-tingling...

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The inside scoop on stopping junk mail

For best results, use multiple services.

In response to our post on junk mail, catalog merchant Colleen Connell (proprietor of GaelSong.com) wrote in with some advice on the best way to reduce unwanted mail. The answer, in a nutshell, is “all of the above.” I own a mail-order catalog company and have direct experience with both the DMA and Catalog Choice (as well as experience talking to people who want to be removed from our mailing list). If you just get...

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Stop the junk mail

Are the holiday catalogs filling your mailbox? Save some trees, water and energy.

Visit the Direct Marketing Association’s DMAchoice.org website. You’ll need to register your name and address. The DMA will then remove your name from catalog lists of its members. It also has a link to help you remove your name and address from credit card and insurance offers. How this helps The amount of unsolicited mail and catalogs Americans receive each year consumes trees (an estimated 100 million!), water, energy, and money. More information Visit dmachoice.org....

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Air-dry your laundry

If it’s too cold outside, you can still hang the clothes inside. It’s cheaper than the dryer.

Drying clothes on a line can take a little longer than throwing clothes into a dryer, but it doesn’t have to be an unpleasant task. In addition to cutting down on energy use, other benefits can include enjoying the outdoors or humidifying the air in your house (when clothes line-dry indoors). How this helps Air-drying some or all of your wet laundry could save you $135 in energy costs every year, prevent tons of carbon...

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Adjust your computer’s power settings to save energy

That screensaver doesn’t save you energy.

If you’re not going to use your computer for more than 20 minutes, turn off just the monitor. If your computer will stand idle for more than 2 hours, turn both it and the monitor off. Ensuring your computer is powered down, either manually with a power strip or by setting your computer’s power management features, saves money and cuts your greenhouse gas emissions. How this helps Powering computers requires a substantial amount of energy....

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Don’t preheat your oven

The ubiquitous recipe advice hails from an earlier age.

When temperatures drop, home cooks break out the roasting pan. But recipes contain a lot of outdated lore, particularly admonishments to preheat your oven. Although pre-heating may be helpful for certain sensitive tasks like baking, your meat and vegetables probably aren’t going to notice the difference. How this helps When you preheat an oven, you’re spending a lot of energy to heat up a small amount of air — which then goes whooshing out when...

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Flush with less water

How to reduce the amount of water used when you flush.

Making a few simple modifications to your toilet is an easy, low-cost way to start reducing water waste and your water bill, too! Here are some simple steps to creating a lower-flow toilet. Put a few inches of gravel or pebbles in the bottom of an empty gallon jug. Fill the rest up with water and cap it. If you prefer slightly more water for flushing, use a smaller jug. Remove the lid of the...

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Instead of air conditioning, use fans

As summer fades, you can ease up on the A/C.

Ceiling fans can be a useful helper or substitute for air conditioning even at the peak of summer. But as the temperatures of August become a memory, now might be a good time to turn off the A/C altogether and instead rely on an open window or ceiling fan. How this helps Your air conditioner is one of the biggest energy guzzlers in the house, and it consumes electricity at the worst time of day....

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Use night lights

LEDs provide all the night-time illumination you need.

This is an easy one. Do you leave any room lights on in your house to help you (or your little ones) navigate at night? Switch them off and use low-energy night lights instead. How this helps Super-efficient night lights, particularly ones that use LEDs, need so little energy that they cost less than a dollar per year to operate. And LEDs virtually never burn out. Related tips Replace your incandescent light bulbs with CFLs....

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Plan for a new water heater before your old one fails

Emergency replacements for your water heater result in missed savings.

Most people don’t think about their water heater until it suddenly dies. Then the priority becomes replacing it as quickly as possible. In the long term, this can be an expensive proposition. Water heaters vary greatly in efficiency, so know in advance which one is right for your home. How this helps Water heaters come in a wide variety of sizes and types. When you buy in a rush, you risk getting the wrong one...

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Fill up your fridge

Having a full fridge can be good for your energy bill.

The fog has cleared around TerraPass towers and we’re feeling the heat. Here’s a way to save energy used by your fridge or freezer during the summer months: keeping your fridge and freezer at least three-quarters full to reduce the amount of energy they use. How this helps Items in your fridge have been already been cooled, so they help to keep the overall temperature down when you open the door. The more of them,...

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Run your big appliances at night

Don’t make your air conditioner battle your washing machine.

Another tip for keeping your house cool in the summer: run your washing machine, dishwasher, and drier at night. These big appliances throw off a lot of heat, and during the day you’re just going to make your air conditioner work overtime to keep the house cool. Another benefit of using your big appliances at night is that you reduce strain on the electrical grid during peak hours. How this helps Using appliances when the...

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Keep your air conditioner free of gunk

A clean machine runs better.

Last week we suggested easing up on the A/C during summer months to conserve energy. But whatever temp you choose, it makes sense to keep your cooling system running as efficiently as possible. Take a few minutes to give it a proper cleaning. You’ll save energy and extend its life. How this helps Air conditioners suck up a lot of dust and gunk, cutting down their cooling ability. Whether you have a window-mounted unit our...

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Set your thermostat to 78 degrees

Keep comfortable, but you don’t need to see your breath indoors.

It’s been too long since we posted some nuts-and-bolts conservation tips. So without further ado… It’s hot out there. But it doesn’t need to be quite so cool inside. Set your thermostat to turn on the air conditioning at a temperature no lower than 78° F (25° C). How this helps It simply doesn’t need to be that cold inside. This is an easy way to save energy and money. Pro: You’ll save up to...

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Cut your carbon and save on auto insurance

Pay-as-you-drive programs reward those who drive gently.

Here’s another example of how the tortoise beats the hare. The insurance industry is starting to offer lower rates for drivers who drive less, apply a light foot on the pedal, and avoid sudden stops. These driving habits save fuel and reduce carbon emissions. They also cut down on accident risks and the resulting insurance claims. Now technology is helping insurance companies identify such conservation-minded drivers and reward them with lower premiums. To get the...

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Cut your travel footprint this summer

And don’t leave your good green habits at home.

The kids are out of school, and that summer vacation that seemed so far away when you booked it back in February suddenly looms. Whether you’re flying, driving, biking, or sailing, we’ve got some advice on how to keep your carbon footprint down while you do it. Regardless of how you travel, the best way to get your carbon footprint down is simply by thinking about it. I’m always surprised by how I have to...

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Cutting carbon from your diet: a practical guide

Mark Bittman dishes up some advice for planet-friendly eating.

Cookbook author and food writer Mark Bittman offers up some practical advice on reducing your meat consumption, which, you may recall, is probably the most effective way to cut the carbon footprint of your diet. Fans of Bittman (I am among them) may have noticed a tidy compatibility between Bittman’s food writing and Michael Pollan’s more polemical work on food and eating. Pollan in some sense is laying the intellectual groundwork and penning the manifesto....

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Cutting the carbon from your diet

Forget food miles and take a look at what’s on your plate.

I’ve been digging more deeply into the question of what you should eat if you’re looking to lower your carbon footprint. I’ll have a few posts on this topic coming up, because it’s one of those vexed issues with lots of tradeoffs and corner cases and tricky considerations. But let’s start off by keeping it simple: eat less red meat and dairy. A lot of people, myself included, happen to enjoy eating meat and dairy....

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Low carbon barbecue

Some tips for low-carbon entertaining during Memorial Day weekend.

Memorial Day weekend and the smell of barbecue is in the air. As you pick up the propane tank to check if there’s any juice left from last summer, you may be wondering about the carbon impact of the outdoor grill. A few thoughts: The actual grilling process isn’t really the big carbon part of this. If you’re using a propane grill, you’d have to make your way through a whole tank of propane (roughly...

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Words of wisdom for bike commuters old and new

A few tips for overcoming mental obstacles.

Today is National Bike to Work Day.* So bike to work. Or if it’s raining, like it is in New York, consider postponing your ride. The Commute by Bike blog recently ran a very sensible slacker’s guide to bike commuting for people who aren’t trying to win the Tour de France. Among the tips: Skip the bike when the weather is nasty. Wear normal clothes. The only bits of cycling gear I wear are a...

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Reduce your footyprint

The English Football Association is helping soccer fans to reduce their carbon footprint with simple ideas — like going to the pub.

When a newspaper front page ad carries the tag line “Help the planet. Go down the pub,” I’m reassured that climate change has finally arrived in the national psyche. The British psyche, that is. The English Football Association (that’s soccer, of course) is running a series of adverts on TV and in newspapers explaining ways in which fans of the country’s number one sport can reduce their impact on the environment while indulging their...

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Turn the faucet off, save water and save energy

There’s a new water supply issue stirring in California. There may have to be a serious cut in supplies next year after a ruling in August designed to protect an endangered fish. Until an official resolution can be reached, the water agencies are doing the only thing they can: asking people to cut back in their water use. Last week members of the TerraPass team were trying to impress each other with conservation stats....

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A dubious conservation tip: buy your car in Europe

Let me begin by saying I don’t really believe what follows. But I can’t find any explanation. So please if you know, get in touch so I can sleep better. Thanks. A few weeks ago, while I was still in London, I helped a friend buy a new car. I was a little wary. She’d just got a new job and a handsome pay rise with it. I knew she was interested in buying...

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Caution: Back to school carbon bump!

Ah, labor day. The end of the summer, and the end of many parents’ blissful summer commutes. Mom walked. Dad took the bus. Now they’re both back in their (family-size) cars shuttling the kids around. EPA reports (pdf) show that morning drive time traffic jumps up 30% at the beginning of the school year. The report put this in historical perspective: In 2001, less than 15 percent of students between the ages of five...

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Bottled water - good for whom exactly?

Tap water, well-traveled water and the TerraPass water bottle, free with every Dorm TerraPass A Heineken TV commercial shown here in the UK 20 years ago featured an elocution teacher instructing his young pupil to pronounce the phrase, “The water in Majorca don’t taste like what it oughta” (video here). I was reminded of this recently when I read about the furore surrounding the revelations that Aquafina water comes straight from the tap. PepsiCo...

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Save water to save energy

Water systems use a whopping 19% of the electricity in California. Dry landscaping could save you 357 lbs a year, or about the same as 8 CFL’s Looking for a new idea to fight climate change? Maybe you’re just starting to act on climate change, and have plenty of previous TerraPass conservation tips on your to-do list. Maybe you’ve gone way overboard and are starting to stealthily replace your neighbors light bulbs with CFLs....

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Conservation tip: carry a book with you

In the midst of this interesting back and forth about public transportation, Michael O’Hare offers an easily overlooked tip for ensuring that you never have to wait a single moment for a train or a bus: carry a book with you at all times. The essence of waiting is doing nothing while you sit in anticipation of some event. Waiting sucks. No one likes waiting, which is one reason why many people prefer cars to...

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Conservation tip: Measure your energy use

Real time feedback in a car can change your driving patterns. What about your house? Many users of Prius’ and other hybrids report that simply having the fuel efficiency counter on the dash has changed their driving behavior. What used to be a “get there as soon as possible” task is now turned into a “get there with the highest MPG” task. Pretty cool. The same promise has been around for decades in energy,...

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Let the sunshine in!

Who knew that the song from Hair is also a great energy tip for the winter months? If you are like much of the country and hunkering down in the midst of a wee nip in the air, then be sure that you are making the most of what little sun there might be to warm your home. Try opening blinds and shades, particularly on the south and west sides of your home before...

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Energy tip #27: The best frequent flier miles are those unspent

Among a raft of holiday cards this season, I received one ugly letter from the otherwise nice folks at Continental airlines — my notice of achieving elite status. We try to minimize trips as much as possible at TerraPass, but with partners and board members scattered across Seattle, Michigan, and the east coast, I log a lot of miles on the red-eye. And every year I make status, it’s a sign I’m not doing too...

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Energy Tip #22: Deck the halls with solar-powered LED Christmas lights

Last week I was justly called out for passing along some dubious holiday energy statistics, so this week I’m going to play it safe with some figures I’m sure are correct: did you know that every year, Americans buy six hundred trillion trillion miles of Christmas lights, enough to stretch to the outer limits of the known universe and back eighteen times? All those lights suck a lot of power — in fact, total power...

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Energy Tip #21: veggie for a week

“Eat your veggies.” Who knew that mothers everywhere were really advocating a low-carbon lifestyle? Many environmentalists and health conscious citizens have committed themselves to structuring their diet on vegetarian foods. Others, such as myself, have forayed from time to time into the no meat zone without lasting particularly long. Regardless of individuals’ reasons for going veggie or how long they continue their eating habits, however, one fact remains true: eating lower down on the food...

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Energy Tip #20: Lint be gone

Sometimes in life, if you try to dress up something that just isn’t “all that,” you end up fooling nobody. So this week’s tip — straighten and clean the air ducts on your dryer — isn’t going to get sexified. Maybe straightening and cleaning your air ducts seems like a hassle, but sometimes small, inconvenient steps can have a measurable impact. This is one of those times. You should clean your clothes dryer ducts twice...

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Energy Tip #19: Regulate home temperature

Simple solutions are always attractive. And it doesn’t get much simpler than turning down the thermostat to save some money and CO2, right? Well, say hello to the programmable thermostat, which combines the drama of temperature control with the thrill of programming a VCR (if this is even done anymore in an age of TiVos, DVDs, and YouTube). Given the added complexity of what used to essentially be an on-off switch, why bother with a...

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Energy Tip #18: Follow the speed limit

From James Dean to The Fast and the Furious to Herbie Goes Bananas, racing has long been an iconic Hollywood staple in which the ‘pedal to the metal’ mentality is consistently glorified. However, if you like to leave fellow drivers in you wake, you might be interested in knowing that you can save $17-67 (plus a few hundred bucks in speeding tickets) by simply obeying the rules of the road. Going above the speed limit,...

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Energy Tip# 17: wash and rinse in cold water

Congratulations to TerraPass tip readers who earned some coverage this week in Time magazine. How do you easily save 1% on national CO2 emissions as well as over $3 billion in energy costs? According to some studies, this could happen if we all simply wash our clothes in cold water. Most of us are unaware of the full extent of energy required to wash our clothes. A staggering 85-90% of this energy is used by...

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Energy tip #16: solar thermal energy for your home

There has been much in the news lately (and on this blog) about the potential of solar power. From Google’s solar panels to Gov. Schwarzenegger’s speech at the 2006 Solar conference, it seems solar has arrived onto the scene in a big way. While much of the focus has been on the photovoltaic variety, there is a low tech solar option that is still a relatively hidden gem: solar thermal. This relatively basic technology can...

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Energy tip #15: Insulate your home

Wool you or won’t you? All puns aside, don’t be sheepish about insulation. With fall here and winter quickly approaching, some seasonal preparations could help turn your heat-hemorrhaging home into a model of efficiency and conservation. How? By giving your attic and walls a winter coat of fiberglass, mineral wool, recycled cotton, or even vegetable-based foam. Insulation can come in many different forms and is in many cases regionally specific. Depending on where you live,...

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Energy tip #14: use your dishwasher for good, not for evil

Got a dishwasher? If you happen to have an dishwasher and are running it on a daily basis, there are a few small things you can do to cut down on energy use. Don’t run the dishwasher’s dry cycle. Simply stop the dishwasher and let your fine china air dry, or just put a towel to them. Turn down the water temperature on the dishwasher to 120° F (also see Tip #13). Use the energy...

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Energy tip #13: lower your water heater from “scalding” to merely “burning”

Turn a knob and put $100 in your pocket. We often aren’t aware of how we’re using energy, and therefore not aware of what we can do to limit our consumption. This week a simple turn of the knob could help save 9-15% on your heating and cooling bill. Next time you open up that extra hall closet or are in the basement, be sure to pay a visit to your water heater. If you...

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Energy tip #12: ease up on the acceleration, leadfoot

Looking to save on gas money? You can save up to 37% simply by adjusting your style of your driving. If you have a tendency to accelerate quickly and brake aggressively, smoothing out the ride will give your tank some extra legs. Not to mention make your neighborhood a little safer. You’d be amazed how much your of your car’s fuel economy is under your control. Edmunds.com ran some tests to determine the best way...

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Energy tip #11: fixing a hole where the draft gets in

Saturday Night Live’s Jack Handy once offered the following Deep Thought: “Blow ye winds like the trumpet blows…but without that noise.” In the home, there are plenty of silent winds that blow. Unfortunately, they are the type that inflate your energy bill by sneaking in through small gaps between window and door seals. As we head into the colder seasons, a do-it-yourself audit of all the seals in your home could pay big dividends. One...

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Energy tip #10: remove wall warts and slay electricity vampires

Are you plugged in? If you have ever left rechargers or unused appliances plugged into the electrical outlet, you may be in for a bit of a shock. The U.S. Department of Energy tells us that not only do appliances continue to draw electricity while the products are turned off, but in the average home nearly 75% of all electricty used to power electronics is consumed by products that are switched off. VCRs, televisions, stereos,...

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Energy tip #9: get your ducts in a row

Duct tape. Everyone’s favorite utilitarian product has been used for many, many things: hanging posters on walls, taping packages, wrapping up a wiffleball to get extra distance on your home-run swing. It’s one of the most useful products on the market, except when it serves it’s namesake purpose of wrapping the ducts in your home to prevent leakage.* Air ducts are tubes, pipes, or channels through which hot and cold air flow when summoned by...

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Energy tip #8: slow and low, that is the shower flow

If you like singing in the shower but are concerned about conserving water, you’re faced with a interesting challenge: you can either find a shorter song to sing or put up $10 for a low-flow shower head and continue pleasing the neighbors with quite possibly the best versions of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” they’ve ever heard. The nice thing about some of the newer low-flow shower heads is that they maintain high water pressure. Older versions...

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Energy tip #7: get the junk out of your trunk

Fore! Heads-up for incoming savings! If you’ve been carrying around a set of golf clubs in your car, or, maybe slightly less likely, have managed to strap them to your roof rack, you may be losing out on some precious green fee money. Worse yet, you may be missing out on funds to buy your buddies a round of coffee or other beverages to tell them about the Tiger-esque eagle you managed to pull out...

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Energy tip #6: tame your fridge

The scene: ‘Twas a typical night in the Johnson house. The 1.8 cars resting in the driveway and 2.2 children scarfing down chicken soup and fresh greens at the dinner table. But, just when dinner was coming to a close and with sleep time beckoning, Lynda perpetrated the pecuniary mistake of putting warm soup directly in the fridge. $.03 — gone. Never to be seen again. The crime: Eating up your discretionary spending. The suspect:...

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Energy tip #5: use the right motor oil

Feed your engine the right fluids and you will improve performance. That’s why a healthy portion of us opt to fill up with a cup of leaded coffee in the morning. If you want to give your car a boost and are in the mood to save money, checking to make sure you’re using the right motor oil could help to pad the pocket and please your auto’s underbelly at the same time. Next time...

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Energy tip #4: get yourself a clothesline

Mark Twain obviously lived in a different era. Summer in San Francisco has been hot — so hot that I’ve thought about switching to iced coffee in an attempt to beat the heat. So given the current weather, I think it’s an appropriate time to put forth possibly the least sexy tip in the bunch: Air dry your clothes. But, but…no excuses. When it’s 108 degrees in inland California you could dry out a t-shirt...

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Energy tip #3: replace your car’s air filter

Replacing your air filter could help you save up to $150 a year…and allow you to afford your favorite coffee maker, a thermos, and finally drop those pesky disposable cups. It will also eliminate over 1,000 lbs of CO2 emissions. The air filter (a slightly meatier version of the coffee variety) is a necessary part of your car that cleans particulates from the air before it hits your engine. The result is dramatically improved horsepower...

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Energy tip #2: inflate your tires

Fresh off the heels of Tip #1, I bring you Tip #2: inflate your tires. It’s often said that the best things in life are free. And while I’m still waiting for someone to send a free bag of coffee beans to headquarters, inflating your tires doesn’t cost a penny. In fact, it pays you about $57 a year. According to the the U.S. Department of Energy, you can improve your gas mileage by about...

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Energy tip #1: don’t be a dim bulb

Introducing a new series of conservation tips: How To Finance Your Monthly Coffee Or Yearly TerraPass (HTFYMCOYT). I’ve been spending a good portion of the budget lately on coffee. Every morning at 8:30, $1.65 goes into the barista’s outstretched palm. Now, I happen to think the coffee is worth it, but I thought I’d do some quick math on what I spend each month. Dang. Twenty days of a small house blend — plus the...

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