Save on Energy Costs with Best Buy and ENERGY STAR

October 1, 2013 By Anne

The reviewer has been compensated in the form of a Best Buy Gift Card and/or received the product/service at a reduced price or for free.

For the past five years my family has been all about living and promoting a green and eco-friendly lifestyle. I’m not sure what in me changed, maybe my daughter turning one or reading more blogs and seeing what others were doing. Whatever the case it has changed the way we do things. We use less paper, recycle everything and encourage others to do the same.

Those are all great ways to go “green” but there is more to it than that.

October is Energy Awareness Month. It has been since 1991 when the federal government designated it as such. What a great time to go out and replace or upgrade those old appliances to new ENERGY STAR® certified products. Best Buy can help you online and in their stores. I love Best Buy! In fact my husband is on his way there now to buy a HD TV for my son’s birthday. It will have the ENERGY STAR logo on it to make sure we are doing our part. Best Buy can also help you with local utility rebates on the energy-efficient products. That’s right – you can get a rebate for buying smarter. Beyond savings from simply having energy efficient products, local utility companies provide additional rebates that can save you up to $300. To find rebates available in your area, check out the Best Buy online rebate find here:http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Appliances-Promotions/Appliances-Eco-Rebate-Finder-Tool/pcmcat239700050034.c?id=pcmcat239700050034&ref=184&loc=01

Best Buy has more than 2,300 unique ENERGY STAR certified products available in Best Buy stores and online at http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Global-Promotions/ENERGY-STAR/pcmcat149900050024.c?id=pcmcat149900050024&ref=184&loc=0

I love watching shows on Green homes. We have a new home and the appliances are ENERGY STAR and is was built to be energy efficient. But I wish we could get solar panels. That is something I would like to look into in a few years.

What is ENERGY STAR? ENERGY STAR is a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) voluntary program that helps businesses and individuals save money and protect our climate through superior energy efficiency. See http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=about.ab_index for more information. I was just there and found so many useful sites and information.

My husband just came home with this!

Anne

I'm a mother of 2 who likes to get involved in too much! Besides writing here I started a non-profit, I'm on the PTO board, very active in my community and volunteer in the school. I enjoy music, reading, cooking, traveling and spending time with my family. We just adopted our 3rd cat and love them all!

Green Works Fun Pinterest Game! #sponsored

September 23, 2013 By Anne

I participated in a campaign on behalf of Mom Central Consulting for Green Works. I received a product sample to facilitate my review and promotional item as a thank you for participating.

I guess it started when I had my second child. I started to really think about how we recycled and what we could to do to better at it. I started thinking about how we cleaned and how we could clean more natural. One of my earliest giveaways was a green cleaner. I loved how it worked and I vowed to start cleaning more green. And living more green. I stopped buying paper napkins and made my own. I stopped using as many paper towels and use washcloths instead.

We recycle everything we are allowed to recycle. Our recycle container outweighs our trash can. We started teaching our children young what they can and can not recycle. Here is a picture of my daughter at 2 dinog her part and taking out the recycling bins.

I love that my children know how to recycle and reuse items. My daughter has never known to grab a paper towel to wipe up a mess, she grabs a towel that we will wash and re-use. For the holidays and birthdays I use recycled boxes from the mail. I’d rather use them to wrap gifts in then buy boxes. I also save the brown paper that comes in shipping boxes and I press it out, sometimes iron it and then stamp it to make a lovely gift.

One thing that we use to do and don’t is composting. I had made my own bin out of a Rubbermaid bin but that didn’t work as well as I would have liked. I do want to get a bin that I can turn. I know I can get one for around $100.

I love knowing that the cleaners I use are not harmful to my children and family. Green Works is one of my favorites! I feel comfortable with my daughter cleaning the shower or the glass windows. I know that she is not breathing in harmful chemicals. And she has fun cleaning!

Check out the Green Works Pinterest Page

So how can you play?

* Make sure to follow @greenworksclean on Pinterest and create one board titled GreenWorks Games.

* Then look for one of the GreenWorks Games. They have a word search, word unscramble or complete a word. Once you find a word, search Pinterest for that word and choose a photo that fits and makes sense to you! Natural will have a different meaning to many people. Pin the photo to your board with the “word” and #greenworksgames

See an example here: http://bit.ly/1f82jss

* Additional information on how to play can be found here: http://bit.ly/19f0N1u
Please pin a minimum of five images to your board.

Also see my board…..http://www.pinterest.com/mommyhastowork/greenworks-games/

How green are you?

Anne

How Green Are You?

June 18, 2013 By Anne

This Is a partnered post.

I do my best to be eco-friendly. It can be hard sometimes. Like this weekend I had some kids over and I wanted to supply water bottles. We never buy bottled water. Now I could have bought some pitchers and cups but the case of bottled water was only $3.99. So now I have about 2 dozen bottles of water left over, but we do recycle them. We normally just use our own reusable water bottle on a daily basis. You can read all about jars and bottles at eBottles.com. I always look for a bottle that is BPA free.

Bisphenol A (BPA) is a controversial chemical that can be found in the lining of food cans, certain water bottles and more. Some researchers have linked the hormone-mimicking chemical to a host of issues including behavioral and developmental effects in kids. Thermos plays it safe, and has made a commitment to only manufacture products that are BPA-free.

We recycle everything! We are the only house on the street with 4 recycling bins out front. But does that mean we are doing good? A woman at my daughter’s school said she hardly ever has stuff to recycle because she buys smarter. She doesn’t buy items that have excessive materials. This is what I want to do better at. But again, it’s hard for my family. We buy boxed cereal and foods, laundry detergent in bottles, soda in cans and jars of spaghetti sauce.

Composting. We use to compost at our old house. I would love to get a real compost bin that we can just turn. I had one made out of a Rubbermaid tote and my husband had to use a shovel and turn it every week. I noticed when we composted that we had so much less garbage. It was great!

Buying smarter. I also try and buy eco-friendly products such as cleaning products, paper products even skin care. Looking For An Eco-Conscious Skincare? Citrus Clear Is It. I love trying new all natural skin care products. I’ve even made my own cleaning supplies but really, I’m a little lazy and just buy them. As for paper products if I do buy them I look for eco-friendly versions. We never buy napkins anymore. I’ve made my own and we just use and wash. I also bought extra wash cloths for the kitchen to reduce our paper towel usage.

What can you do to improve your greenness?

Anne

Beach Clean Up for Earth Day

April 23, 2013 By Anne

My daughter’s school put on a Beach Clean Up on Sunday to celebrate Earth Day. It was a little cold.

We saw this poor turtle…(I don’t believe he’s alive and my husband thinks someone from the county marked him so no one would steal his shell.)

Anne

Tips for Conserving Water (giveaway)

April 20, 2013 By Anne

I am working with the International Carwash Association to share these tips for conserving water. However, my opinions are entirely my own and I have not been paid to publish positive comments.

April is Earth Month and April 22 is Earth Day. Over the last several years, my family has been making simple changes so we can live a more eco-friendly life. I feel good about teaching my children and love when they turn off the water while brushing their teeth. But that’s not the only way you can conserve water. Here are some more tips! 1. Washing Your Car– I’m not a big car washer, well I was when the car was new. But it is important to keep maintain your vehicles. However, did you know that washing your car at home with a garden hose can use more than 60 gallons of water in as little as five minutes. Not to mention all those chemicals and detergents are going down storm sewers and that ends up polluting our rivers and streams. You can go get a professional car wash and be green all at the same time! Car washes actually use less water than you would at home. WaterSavers professional car washes, for example, use an average of no more than 40 gallons of fresh water per vehicle – less than the average home washing machine, which uses 41 gallons per load, according to the EPA. Professional car washes also responsibly dispose of — and in many cases recycle and re-use — the water runoff. 2. Washing Your Clothes – This seems to be a no brainer for me, I guess my mom just taught me well on this subject. Only wash your clothes when you have a full load. Unfortunately once a week I do not do this. I never seem to have enough whites to make a full load. Make this habit for both your clothes washer and dishwasher, and you can save up to 1,000 gallons of water a month, according to Wateruseitwisely.com. Wash your clothes in cold water. My mom always did this and passed this onto me. Approximately 86 percent of the energy used by washing machines is for heating the water. Washing with cold water eliminates 1,600 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions each year from just one household, according to the Sierra Club. 3. Water in the Bathroom – While brushing your teeth, turn off the water. My children have this one down pack.Bathrooms are water hogs, accounting for about 75 percent of a home’s water usage. In the shower, switch to a low-flow showerhead, which National Geographic says saves 15 gallons of water during a 10-minute shower. I rarely take a bath. Did you know that the average tub takes about 70 gallons to fill, so showers are much more efficient. WaterSavers is a consumer awareness campaign from the International Carwash Association (ICA). WaterSavers is committed to promoting the importance of using eco-friendly car washes that use less fresh water and return clean water back into the environment. WaterSavers gave me this cool gift pack and they have one to give to one Mommy Has to Work reader as well!

Prize Pack Details · Tote Bag · Folding Umbrella · 22 oz. Guzzy Water Bottle (filtering water bottle) · Jelly Stick Non-Slip Grip for Car Dash · 16 oz. ThermalView Insulated Travel Tumbler Check out WaterSavers on Facebook and Twitter for more tips! a Rafflecopter giveaway

I am working with the International Carwash Association to share these tips for conserving water. However, my opinions are entirely my own and I have not been paid to publish positive comments.