White Roofs and Clean Coal Anyone?

Living green and helping the environment seems to be on everyone’s mind lately and President Obama is no different. Now, it seems that his Energy Secretary Steven Chu has a few ideas up his sleeve. Chu’s first idea is simple – paint roofs white to reflect sunlight. The idea was actually developed by Chu’s former colleagues at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Of the white roof idea, Chu said, “There’s a friend of mine, a colleague of mine, Art Rosenfeld, who’s pushing very hard for a geo-engineering we all believe will be completely benign, and that’s when you have a flat-top … Continue reading

Free Heat 2

Do you know all of the places to find free heat? From taking advantage of normal household tasks to building your own free heat machines, there are many ways to grab some free heat when you need it. If you missed the first post on this topic, click here: Free Heat Our home is zoned into two zones for heat. Because of this, I usually keep the upstairs heat turned on only enough to keep the pipes from freezing during the day. It gets very cold up there. However, when I iron I am soon pretty warm, The ambient heat … Continue reading

Free Heat

How many ways can you find free heat? Any free heat that you can find is heat that you save money with, and that is always a good thing. Here are some ideas of how you might be able to snatch some “free” heat. One of my favorite ways to stay warm when I am coldest is with some slightly strenuous activity. You can try exercise to warm up or decide to tackle some hard work around your home that you have been putting off. Some ideas on tasks that generate body heat include scrubbing the floors, chopping wood, dancing … Continue reading

Frugal Month in Review: November 2008

November to be is the beginning of two things. The holiday season starts with Thanksgiving, and then there is winter. Despite the fact that winter doesn’t officially start until next month, the fall seems to give way to the winter in November anyway. We had a day of snow already. Here is looking ahead to December and the end of the year! November 1st Frugal Month in Review: October 2008 “Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.” – George Eliot. November 2 … Continue reading

Frugal Living Week in Review: November 10th Through November 16th

Job losses seem to be increasing to the point where I am hearing about more and more people that I know being laid off. But I am hopeful that things will turn around. Look for some future posts on dealing with some of these issues. Meanwhile, put some frugal strategies into use with the week’s past articles. November 10th Frugal Living Week in Review: November 3rd Through November 9th I am so glad that we finally got through the elections this week. Now we can move forward and pull together behind our new leaders. One way that we are moving … Continue reading

Getting Serious About Heat Conservation Part 2

There are so many needs these days, and wants are definitely on the back burner. One way that the economy has affected us, even in our normally frugal living home is that some of our priorities are shifting. One of these priorities is to do some serious steps toward heat conservation. In the previous post, I spoke about insulation and our dilemma about our attic. You can click here to read that earlier post. We are still doing our research to figure out the best solution for that one. Meanwhile, there is one other change we have made this past … Continue reading

Frugal Month in Review: October 2008

“Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.” – George Eliot October has come and gone, but we can still enjoy fall and the celebration of Thanksgiving and all of the great joys of the season. Take a look back at all of the ways to save money that were featured last month. October 1st Frugal Halloween Costumes It is fall and Halloween is approaching fast, are you ready? What do the kids want to be? You can make some great homemade costumes … Continue reading