September 18, 2007

Running on empty?
In the excellent Penny Pincher's Book seasoned savers John and Irma Mustoe share their innovative (and sometimes eccentric) tips:
1 Steam iron (or freeze) woollen clothes during winter to kill moth eggs. It's the larvae, not the flying moths, that do the damage. And conkers make very good 'mothballs'.
2 Extend the useful life of empty scent bottles or talcum boxes by putting them into drawers to perfume the contents.
3 Refrigerate candles for a few hours before using and they will burn more slowly, drip less, and give you better value for money.
4 Plant lettuce seeds. A 15g packet of seeds produces about 2,000 lettuces and costs about the same as a single lettuce in shops.
»Keep reading '50 ways to save money'
September 15, 2007

Retire early instead
For only $15, a busy shopper can pluck a wind-power card off the rack by the checkout counter at Whole Foods, good for 750 kilowatt-hours - the average amount of electricity sucked off the grid by an American family each month.
So, for about the cost of two tickets to a Friday-night flick, this environmentally savvy consumer has just become 100 percent wind-powered for the month, having the same effect as planting 13 trees or not driving 1,286 miles.
At least that's what Boulder-based Renewable Choice Energy, which markets the cards, claims.
Sound too good to be true? A growing number of skeptics think so. Critics argue that renewable-energy credits - the commodity that the cards actually represent - are just a way for people to absolve their environmental guilt by throwing money at it instead of making any meaningful changes to their lifestyles.
»Keep reading 'Eco con trick'