By Shannon Christman
The boxes were gone. My three-year-old was crestfallen. He had looked forward to his regular job of returning the plastic bags from last week’s grocery shopping trip to the recycling boxes just inside the store. But the boxes are no longer there; an employee told us that the store had discontinued its recycling. […]

By Jennifer Derrick
I don’t need the media or the government to tell me that the economy is heading south. I have a foolproof barometer of economic health in my own town. It’s called the scrap heap, aka, the metal recycler.
For about ten years, I’ve been collecting my aluminum cans and taking them to the […]

By Jennifer Derrick
I try to live an environmentally friendly life. Among other things, I drive a smaller car, I recycle, and I use compact fluorescent light bulbs. I’m interested in doing more to help the environment, but sometimes I find myself stymied by the cost of becoming truly green. Environmentally friendly detergents, cleaning products, light […]

By Shannon Christman
In England, letterboxing is old news - more than 150 years old, in fact - but I only heard about it for the first time (from two different sources) in 2007. It may be gaining more popularity because of its close relation to geocaching and the many recent books and movies about puzzle-themed […]

By Ann Hartter
It falls, taunting you, flake after flake, coating everything you see with white wet and cold crystals. It piles up in the corners, and in its complete blinding whiteness, all you can do is fork over your wallet. It’s a beautiful thief.
You must turn on your heat. The blanket of whiteness […]

By Ann Hartter
Do you want to know what I dislike more than grocery shopping? Coming home with more grocery bags. Plastic or paper, it doesn’t matter. I just don’t reuse all those bags, and the piles keep stacking up. So I started searching for some clever reusable and recycling grocery bag ideas, and I’m passing […]

By Jennifer Derrick
It’s no coincidence that most frugal people are environmentally conscious, and vice versa. Frugal lifestyle choices tend to be environmentally friendly choices. It’s almost impossible to be concerned about the environment without taking actions that lessen your own environmental impact. Similarly, it’s difficult to be frugal and still have a large negative effect […]

By Shannon Christman
The growing problem of landfills is a bit too abstract and remote in my mind for it to keep me from throwing things away. And I’ve even climbed one, Mount Trashmore in Virginia Beach, now a city park. Far more effective at helping me keep down my personal waste is possibility of […]

By Shannon Christman
The old adage says that a toddler (or baby) would rather play with the box a toy comes in than with the toy itself. If the adage is true (which it usually is), why not save some money and give your young children what they really want? Make toys from the […]

By Valerie S. Johnson
We all know that walking has health rewards, but it can have financial rewards as well. Here are ten financial reasons you should consider walking:
It’s free. This is the most obvious reason. You have to pay to own or rent a car, hop a bus, or ride the subway. […]