Green Minded Wallet

I walked into the ladies restroom in my building this afternoon and noticed that the air conditioner was on, and it was blowing out rather cold air. Now, it was a fairly hot day, but it just seemed to me that it wasn’t really necessary to cool the bathroom down to 68 degrees. I turned down the air conditioner as I left, but I started thinking about how much energy we waste at our schools, workplaces, etc. To be fair, the topic actually first came up on Friday at a departmental social, where I was discussing the lack of conservation at universities etc, but what struck me today is how much money that costs all of us. How much of my fees go into keeping every single computer, in every single computer lab on, all day long. Do rising energy costs play a role in tuition rates? This is a university that easily houses thousands of computers for ten of thousands of students. In my building alone there are two computer labs (with about 50 computers total), and while machines are often hibernating which saves more power, I have to believe that given the volume of machines we have on campus, it must add up. It’s great for me to do my part at home and in the office by shutting down my machines, turning off monitors, and the like but then I look around the university and see so much more energy being “used” that my conservation almost seems negligible.

What about in the workplace? Have you ever walked down the hall and counted how many lights are on, all day in hallways and over sink counters, when it’s completely sunny outside? If natural lighting had been installed instead, could that extra money have gone to fund employee health benefits, pension plans, or performance awards? Or perhaps washing facilities for their biking employees?

Well, I did a wee bit of digging this evening (more to follow) and found that according to the Higher Education Price Index (HEPI) which is kind of like the CPI for universities, utility cost increases are a major factor in the increase in university costs. There are some universities, for example Iowa’s public universities, that use HEPI as a guide to tuition increases. I’m sure HEPI (or something similar) is used by other universities as well. I know that there are other costs also contributing to the increase in college tuition, but would it be possible to offset some of these increases through conservation?

I’m not sure how readily available information for the private job sector is, but I have to imagine that increasing energy costs are affecting that sector as well. I’d do more digging now but some people apparently think that HEPI comes before birthday, and I’m just a little scared.

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I tend to do most of my grocery shopping at two stores: a “discount” food store and my local co-op. My goal is to buy as many natural products as possible (no high fructose corn syrup, no preservatives, etc.) while still getting the best bang for my buck. Well I tend to eat a lot of snacks during the day, and one thing that I like to nibble on is crackers and cheese. Over the past few months I’ve been perusing the isles of both stores and I made an amazing discovery: where I live, natural crackers at the co-op are no more expensive than popular, name-brand (sugary) crackers at the discount store, and if they are on sale, they are actually much cheaper. One of the brands that I like is Blue Diamond, which makes a number of nut-based crackers . You can actually purchase their crackers in bulk from their online store at $29.95 for a dozen boxes (which is only $2.50/box). I also like Back to Nature’s Stoneground Organic Crackers. They can be purchased at the company’s website at $9.99 for 3 boxes, or on Amazon for $24.90 for a dozen boxes. Both of these are cheaper alternatives to Triscuits purchased at Amazon. If you have any natural crackers you love, please share.

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I received a text message from a friend a few days ago, about how we should not buy gas in two days, as part of an attempt to decrease prices. Now I had been reading about a gas boycott on a site the other day, so I figured that was what this was about. Here’s the funny part: when I googled “gas boycott 2007″, I actually found that the boycott day was the 15th, which was the day I originally received the message, so my friend’s boycott will be two days too late. The sad part: people think this is actually going to work. Everything I’ve read about previous boycotts, and this one as well indicates that one-day gas boycotts do not work. Think about this, what if for one day everyone in America boycotted Walmart, then went on shopping there as usual for the rest of the year. Do you think they would notice? Probably. Would it impact their profits? Probably not. Why? Because people have just delayed their purchases versus altering them in any significant way.

But I do think that a gas boycott could work, if it went something like this: drive less. Seriously walk, ride a bike. After all May is Bike-To-Work Month. Carpool. Take the bus. Take vacations closer to home. I think if everyone did this, it could make a difference. What if people reduced their automobile usage so that they were only filling up once a month? Think anyone would notice? I go through about a quarter of a tank (2.5 gallons) every six weeks or so. It is possible. Do you think this would work?

If you’re interested in learning more about gas boycotts, here is a Snopes article (Urban Legend Reference) that outlines the history of the gas boycott and some sample gas boycott emails (warning: bad grammar and all caps).

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People often talk about how having a roommate can save you money because you split rent and utilities and things of that nature. But today having a roommate saved me money if a different way. We currently have street parking for our apartment and we have alternate side of the street rules. Well, for the first time ever I had forgotten to move my car. So my roommate, who happened to be working from home, called me up to remind me. While I have a spare set of keys at home she can’t drive stick so she picked me up (I ride the bus in) and brought me back home. I moved my car and fifteen minutes later I was back on the bus. If I hadn’t of had a roommate (which I didn’t until this month), I would probably be out 30 bucks or so, or however much parking tickets cost. So there’s another great way roommates can save you money.

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The organizers of National Novel Writing Month are hosting a ScriptFrenzy in June. All you have to do is (attempt to) write a 20,000 word screenplay. Simple, no? It’s free to sign-up (though donations are accepted) and you’ll have access to an amazing online community who will be happy to help you through it. You don’t even need to have internet access to write your novel, just to verify your word count from time to time. So if you’re looking for something to do, hop on over there. It’ll keep you busy, won’t cost you money, and you’ll have lifelong bragging rights. What more could you ask for? And if you’re hesitant to go it alone, you can pester some of your broke friends to sign-up, or badger someone you know into writing a screenplay with you.

Here are the basic rules (from ScriptFrenzy.org):

1) To be crowned an official Script Frenzy winner, you must write a script of at least 20,000 words and verify this word count on ScriptFrenzy.org.

2) You may write individually or in teams of two. Writer teams will have a 20,000 total word goal for their single co-written script.

3) Script writing may begin no earlier than 12:00:01 AM on June 1 and must cease no later than 11:59:59 PM on June 30, local time.

4) You may write either a screenplay or a stage play.

5) You must, at some point, have ridiculous amounts of fun.

Some of the highlights (from my experience):

• You can add other writers as your friends and praise (or taunt them) as their word counts progress.

• Word Wars: these are short writing sprints that you do with others, they’re great for writing really poorly really quickly, which is half the fun.

• Dares: add a random suggestion to your play if your looking for inspiration (you would be surprised how 15 chickens can come in handy. Seriously.)

And yes, it’s completely free. I did National Novel Writing Month last year and it was a blast. While this is the first year of ScriptFrenzy, I have no doubt that it will be just as much fun. Now’s a great time to get your ideas together and connect with others.

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According to the National Association of Home Builders, in 1975 the average square footage of a new home was 1,645. In 2005 it was 2434. And the average American family size has gotten smaller, not larger (from 2.94 persons per household to 2.57 during the same time period - US Census Bureau). While the homes may keep getting bigger on bigger, here are some reasons to live in small digs. Besides the fact that housing costs often increase with size, there are other reasons, quality of construction being equal, to consider a smaller dwelling.

• Lower utilities. If you live in a small place you will have less space to heat, cool, and light.
• Lower furnishing costs. Unless you plan on setting up mediation rooms you’re probably going to want to furnish all the different areas of your house. Oh, and decorate. Seeing as kids’ rugs at Target can cost a c-note, little decorative touches can add up fast.
• Less stuff. The more space you have the more space you have to put stuff. Have you ever driven by a three car garage and seen it completely filled with things that weren’t vehicles?
• Less space to clean. Less money spent on cleaning products, and less time spent cleaning that could be spent doing other things.

If you can think of others, let me know. I moved at the beginning of the year to a larger apartment in a new town. Even though my rent is lower, I definitely notice higher heating bills (despite having better windows). I spend a lot more time cleaning. And it gets to be really hard to fight the urge to fill-up some of the empty space with furnishings. Just think, if you go for smaller digs, the money you save could go to other things in life that you value.

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