I will confess straight out that I live in a place where walking is probably easier then most of suburban America, and I am a person who probably makes an effort to do more on foot than the average suburbanite. I mean, we made the effort to move into town so that we could use our car less, and I like to believe that we do use it less now that things are more accessible to us. But two things occurred today that reminded me how easy it is to use your fall-back mode of transportation–the car–when in reality, if you make the time and the effort, walking makes so much more sense.

For starters my youngest daughter had a soccer game today on the local middle school’s fields. This is about 3/4 of a mile from my home, and in our car-driven society, probably a perfectly acceptable distance to drive to and from. But today was a beautiful, sunny day (albeit crisp and cold), and my dog hadn’t yet been walked. Also, if my older daughter had her druthers, she would have stayed in pajamas all day and never left the couch. Knowing this we decided to walk to my daughter’s soccer game because, truthfully, we had the time and we could all use the exercise. Sure, driving would have been easier and faster–less than five minutes to the fields instead of 10 to 15 minutes walking. But we walked there, and we walked home, too. And nobody died from exhaustion.

Then later in the afternoon, we needed to get a bottle of wine to bring to a friend’s house, where we’d been invited for dinner this evening. Again, I could have jumped in the car and driven to the local wine and spirits shop by the grocery store. That’s about 1.5 miles away and not along any walking-friendly roadways. However, then I remembered that I could walk to another liquor shop–which just happens to be across the river. But the bridge has a pedestrian walkway, and it’s a pretty walk, too–about 1 mile away. So I grabbed my reusable tote bag, put my walking shoes back on, and off I went to get wine. It took me about 20 minutes to get there, five minutes to browse the aisles (did you know Yellow Tail is making a Pinot Grigio these days?) and pay for my purchase, and 20 minutes to walk back home.

Dinner this evening was at a home down the street, so of course we walked to and from that, too.

In the course of one day, I managed not to get in my car at all, yet I had a full, social day. Can you figure out a way some time in the next week or two where you could have a full day, too, and not get in your car? Maybe you can’t walk places as easily as I can, but can you ride your bike? Hop on public transportation? Strap on your roller skates? It’s really refreshing not driving, and I know that I’m doing Mother Earth and my pocketbook good when I make the effort to walk. Let me know if you can find a way to do the same.

As most Americans are well aware, April 15th (the date when the previous year’s income tax return is due) is right around the corner. As April 15th comes closer, you might not be thinking about how you can green your tax return filing, but I have. And that’s why I’ve come up with the following five ways that you can file your income tax return, and help the earth, too–oh and maybe your back account as well.

1. File Your Tax Return Online
Just like banking and paying bills online saves paper and other natural resources, the same can be said for filing your income tax return online. If you do file online, you won’t be alone. According to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), of the 138 million tax returns filed in 2007, 80 million of them were filed online. That’s more than half of the returns–imagine how much paper people saved.

2. Get Your Refund (If You’re Eligible for One) Electronically
Here’s what the IRS website has to say about how filing electronically–and receiving your refund electronically–can speed things up: “With IRS e-file, taxpayers get refunds in half the time it takes to file a paper tax return and receive a refund check. E-filers who choose Direct Deposit can receive their refund in as few as 10 days.”

3. List Any Hybrids You Bought or Leased
Americans who drove away in certain models of hybrid cars and trucks in 2007 could be eligible for up to a $3,400 tax credit for their decision to forgo a gas guzzler. Check out this IRS webpage for details on which vehicle makes and models qualify you for a tax credit.

4. Take Energy-Saving Tax Credits You’re Due
2007 was the last year that you could get a tax benefit for making any energy-efficient improvements to your house. Too bad we didn’t get around to installing that solar water heater or putting in better windows. If we had we could have taken a $200 tax credit for windows alone or $500 for both. According to the IRS website other energy-efficient improvements that qualify include “insulation, exterior windows, exterior doors, water heaters, heat pumps, central air conditioners, furnaces and hot water boilers.” The only way you couldn’t claim this tax credit for 2007 is if you already claimed some for 2006. This IRS webpage explains more about tax credits.

5. Work With Your Tax Preparer Virtually
Our tax preparer lives on the West Coast; we live on the East Coast. Because of the distance, we work with our guy virtually, which means sending him our tax documents in advance (we scan them in and send as PDFs), then making a phone appointment to discuss everything. Truth be told, when we drove to meet with our local tax preparer, we did the same–sent her everything in advance, then made an appointment to meet with her. The only difference? We met in person. By having a virtual tax appointment, you take your car out of the equation, reducing your carbon emissions and therefore reducing the carbon footprint of your annual tax return.

Imagine if every American made one of these steps to green his or her annual tax return filing? Perhaps we wouldn’t have to buy carbon offset credits to ease our guilty minds.

Learn how you can choose green laundry products that can clean your clothes and avoid hurting the environment.

Green Boot Camp: Week Twelve–Green in the Laundry Room

With New York city’s millions of residents and legendary street traffic, you might not think of the Big Apple as being the most eco-friendly place. But when I think about cities that have gone green–or at least are making a marginal attempt at it–I include Manhattan in my list.

Here’s one reason why: New Yorkers are the largest consumers of public transportation of any city in America, so says a recent Census Bureau survey. In fact, it found that 55 percent of New Yorkers, or roughly 1.9 million folks, took public transportation to and from work.

That doesn’t surprise me. As a former New Yorker, I rarely used individual transportation (read: drove a car), even when I owned a car in the city. Instead, I walked, biked or roller skated where ever I had to go. If I was traveling long distances within the city–or even to the suburbs–I hopped on a train.

Another reason I see New York as being a green city is because of New York State’s bottle bill. As I’ve written about before, New York is one of 11 states that offers a refund (5 cents) when people bring back their cans and bottles. And the reality is that states with bottle bills enjoy higher recycling rates among its citizens, so says Earth911–sometimes as high as 60 percent higher than states that don’t have bottle bills.

Now New York is trying to green its citizens in a different way. NYC & Company, New York City’s official marketing and tourism organization, has partnered with Whole Foods Market to launch limited-edition, 100% organic cotton shopping bags. For each bag sold, Whole Foods will donate $1 to MillionTreesNYC, a citywide collaboration between the Department of Parks & Recreation and the New York Restoration Project to plant and care for one million new trees in the next decade within the five boroughs (that’s Manhattan, the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island, for non-New Yorkers that might not now this). These environmentally friendly bags (see picture above) will be on sale starting April 1 at all 16 Whole Foods Market stores in northern New Jersey, New York and southern Connecticut. I’m told that the bags will be available throughout April and cost $11.99.

OK, so you know that I’m a big fan of reusable shopping bags and, with my frugal ways, I like it best when I can get these bags for free (such as giveaways at conferences). However, you’ve got to give kudos to Whole Foods for making this extra effort, which goes hand in hand with its promise to eliminate plastic grocery bags at checkout by Earth Day, something I’d blogged about previously. What I didn’t know is that this promotion with NYC&Company is also part of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s efforts to help New Yorkers live a greener existence.

I guess pretty soon we really will have to start calling the Big Apple the Big Green Apple.

Just as I should have planned ahead when joining a CSA, which I blogged about yesterday, the same holds true for planning a summer vacation–that is, if you don’t want to pay through the nose for your getaway, you should make your plans months in advance. A popular place to vacation on the East Coast is the Jersey Shore, which is the 127-mile-long coastline on the Atlantic Ocean. When you vacation at the Jersey Shore, you call it “going down the shore.” Where I grew up in New York, we just called it going to the beach. Whatever.

If you’re looking for a green vacation destination, the Shore could be it–since you can take public transit to many of the New Jersey Shore towns, and the towns themselves are quite walkable, thanks to miles of boardwalk along the beach. New Jersey Transit trains from New York city bring you to the northern Shore towns. New Jersey Transit’s Atlantic City Line can get you to the Shore from Philadelphia. New Jersey Transit buses are also a good option.

Writer Jen A. Miller, author of the new book The Jersey Shore, Atlantic City through Cape May: Great Destinations (a travel guide about the South Jersey shore that tells readers about the best places to stay, play and eat there), knows how to stretch a dollar when you’re down the Shore. That’s good to know since AAA says that the average family spends $261 per day on food and lodging while on vacation. As anyone who visits the Jersey Shore knows, the cost of hotels, beach tags (since there are few public and therefore free beaches here), souvenirs, boardwalk rides, pizza and all those ice cream cones can quickly add up.

“The Jersey shore offers so much to see, do and eat that it’s easy to blow your budget,” Jen says. “But if you know where to look, you can shave hundreds of dollars off the cost of your vacation through discounts and freebies.”

Here are her eight tips on how to save cash while down the Shore:

1. Coupon Clipper, which you can find in a town’s chamber of commerce or tourism office. In these coupon books, you can find discounts on everything from food to amusement park admission.

2. Go Off Peak. This doesn’t mean you have to walk the beach in December. Most hotels and B&Bs charge more in July and August. Try a June or September vacation instead. It’s a lot cheaper, and less crowded.

3. Book Last Minute. This may sound counter intuitive, given the advice above, but Jen says that booking last minute can work in your favor–especially late in the season, like late August, when many people are starting to think “back to school” not “back to the beach,” oops, I mean the Shore. “That late in the season, many places are trying to fill rooms any way they can,” she says, “so they’ll drop the price to get you in rather than leave a room empty.” She suggests asking for any “procrastinator’s specials.”

4. Special Events = Special Savings. If the town is running any special events, check with restaurants, retailers, hotels and B&Bs to see if they’re offering any promotional tie ins. For example, Dixie Picnic in Ocean City knocks 10 percent off the bill of anyone participating in the annual MS 150 bike ride.

5. Travel in Packs. Some B&Bs offer special discounts, or extras, if your group rents out the entire building (good for me to know since my daughter’s basketball team has a tournament at the Shore this summer). If you can’t get the gang together, ask for referrals from friends and family, then make sure you mention that when you book a room. For example, the Inn at the Park in Cape May offers a 5 percent discount if a past guest refers you.

6. Souvenir Savings. You don’t have to pay premium price for souvenirs along the boardwalk. Check local grocery stores, which usually carry town-branded items, like t-shirts and mugs, at lower prices.

7. BYOB. BYOBs (bring your own booze, er bottle) are hot at the Jersey shore, so look for restaurants where you can bring your own wine. You’ll save on the alcohol mark up, and the food is usually a few bucks less because the establishment doesn’t have to pay for a liquor license.

8. Free Beach. Most Jersey shore towns require beach tags in order for you to dip your toes in the sand and surf, but you can save on tags by visiting Atlantic City or Wildwood–in these towns, beach access is free.

For more about the Jersey Shore, visit her website or buy her book.

The summer I belonged to a CSA (community supported agriculture), our evening meals often featured purple potatoes, kale and just-picked watermelon–all organically grown. That’s because a CSA membership is a “subscription” to a local organic farm that allowed me to a weekly pick of fresh, organically grown produce.

According to Local Harvest, a website devoted to connecting people with organic and locally grown food, CSA farms are becoming increasingly available and popular to people who want to know where their food is being grown. Fifteen years ago or so, there were only 50 such farms in the United States. Today, there are more than 1,000. The map above, courtesy of Local Harvest, shows the concentration of CSA farms in places like the East Coast and the Upper Midwest. (Click here to visit Local Harvest’s search page for a CSA near you.)

If you’re unfamiliar with how a CSA works, here’s a brief primer.

For starters, though the growing season begins in the spring, many people sign up at the end of the previous growing season (late fall). In fact, because we moved last year, my CSA membership information from the farm we used to belong to never made it to my new address. Once it dawned on me that I needed to sign up, it was too late–the season was sold out. So now I’ll probably join another farm nearby, which only has 10 slots left for 2008. Previously, I would get a half share, which was cheaper (about $400) and provided just enough produce for my family. With this new farm there are only full shares left ($795), so I’ll probably try to split things up with a friend or two.

You see that’s how it works with CSAs. You sign up in advance, you pay in advance, and the farm limits how many folks can join–probably to ensure that everyone gets his or her fair share of fruits and vegetables, and to manage crowd control on pick-up days. While this fee covers the price of the fresh produce you’ll take home during the 20-week season, that money does much more for the farmer who owns and runs the CSA. It covers his production expenses, including seeds, water, equipment, labor and much more. Since most CSA subscriptions sell out long before a single seed is sown, this guarantees a farmer a living wage for the crops to come.

Some farms, though, expect that you’ll pay to join and volunteer as part of your membership. Many of my friends don’t find this additional requirement to be too much of a burden. One, a local real estate agent who joined the CSA I’m considering and did so with another realtor, would bring boxes of onions with back to the office, and divide them into individual share bags during slow times. Once done they would bring them back to the farm.

The farm I used to belong to gave you two subscription options. I could drive 25 minutes to the farm, where I was able to choose produce based on what had been harvested that week and what I thought my kids’ picky palate could handle. Or, for an additional fee, I could pick up my box of produce at a satellite location near my house. I chose the former option, because I thought a weekly visit to the farm would be a good learning experience for my children. It was–they enjoyed walking in the fields amongst the eggplants, peppers and lettuce and then creating their own “salad bar” when they got home. One week, they were able to pick their own raspberries and sunflowers. Some CSAs also offer fresh eggs, herbs and whatever else they “grow” on the farm.

As far as satellite locations go, they are popular with city residents I know who are able to belong to a CSA despite their living miles away from an actual farm. Other CSAs allow for pick-ups at a local farmer’s market.

You may be wondering how someone like myself, who proclaims her frugality nearly daily, can justify spending this kind of money on a CSA subscription. Well, I can tell you from personal experience that organically grown and freshly picked produce lasts a lot longer than the stuff you find in the supermarket–even the organic items. That means that we rarely have produce that ends up in the composter because it went rotten before we could eat it. (Just today, I tossed rotten celery and carrots–both organic from the supermarket–into the compost because they were all gushy. And don’t get me started on the strawberries that has turned white and fuzzy, and which ended up in the composter yesterday.)

Then there’s the issue of how much I spend on produce each week when grocery shopping. In looking back at old receipts, I would say I spend between $30 and $40. Multiply that by a 20-week season, and yes, it comes out to be more than I would have spent otherwise at ShopRite. But so much of my produce spending is replacing things that went bad before we finished them. That means that if I were to take that “rotting” part out of the financial equation, I’m confident I would come out ahead with my CSA subscription.

I can also think about things this way: if I have to volunteer to help work the fields as part of my subscription, I’ll be getting exercise for free–and communing with Mother Earth at the same time.

Chances are sometime this week you’re going to be picking up a carton of eggs–if you haven’t already. That’s because while Americans buy, on average, about 72 million eggs each week, around Easter, eggs sales jump to more than 93 million, so says the American Egg Board. Add Passover to the mix (boiled eggs play a part in the Passover Seder), and you’ve got a lot of eggs changing hands in spring.

Though Passover won’t be here until mid-April, Easter is this weekend, and I’ll bet some of you will be dying eggs. Afterwards, you’ll be left with egg cartons, which I hope you don’t just toss in the trash. The cardboard kind of egg carton is recyclable, but more importantly, it’s easily reusable, such as when you turn it into:

* An hors d’oeurves holder
Serving deviled eggs or another kind of finger food at your next party? An egg carton with its top removed can be reincarnated into a clever serving tool

* A jewelry holder
My daughter is forever leaving her earrings scattered around her room. A couple of egg cartons could easily get her earrings in order. Finish it off with a pretty ribbon tied around or a scrunchy slipped on to secure it, and, voila, insta-jewelry holder.

* A bead or button organizer
Imagine a free organizer with 12 or 16 ready-made sections for keeping your beads or buttons organized. Well, that’s what an egg carton can do for you. Like the jewelry holder, finding a way to secure the carton closed would be the key to its effectiveness.

* A desktop organizer
Similar to the idea above, you can use an egg carton to organize your desktop supplies, from paper clips to push pins to rubber bands.

* A paint palette
If you don’t want to waste paint when your child decides to create her next masterpiece, pour a small amount of her favorite paint colors into the various sections of an egg holder. (Note: a Styrofoam egg container, while not recycling friendly, would work better for this trick since it won’t absorb the paint’s liquid like a cardboard egg carton might.)

* A makeshift piggy bank
If you’re helping your child to learn the difference between pennies and dimes, or to count money, use an egg carton to hold his coins as he counts.

* A potting tool
One of the great things about cardboard-type egg cartons is that they are biodegradable. That means that if you need something to hold saplings or newly potted seedlings, you can place them (dirt and all) in a divided section from an egg carton, and then plant them in the ground. Or you can use an egg carton to plant a garden starter with your kids.

* A fire starter
If you’re running low on newspaper to use in your fireplace or a campfire, a cardboard egg carton is an excellent stand in for the traditional fire starter.

Do you have creative ways to recycle and reuse your egg cartons? I’d love to hear them.

You know that I’ve had the recent, eye-opening experience of coming face to face with price increases at the supermarket. I mean, it’s one thing to hear the talking heads on TV spouting off about how the American economy is going into a tailspin, but it’s an entirely different (and more humbling) thing when you experience those economic realities first-hand–whether it be with a lost job, the realization that there are certain luxuries you’ll have to forgo for the time being, or the heart-stopping and ever-increasing total on your weekly grocery bill.

Here’s what a recent MSNBC story had to say about that: “People are really feeling it when you consider food accounts for about 15% of the average household budget. Rising prices are in large part driven by wheat — up 44%. Consumers are paying as much as 36% more than last year for common kitchen staples, like eggs, bread, milk, and chicken.”

And never mind how much it costs to drive to the grocery store. Last year we were all getting used to the notion of gas costing $3+ a gallon. I’m convinced that by 2009, $4+ a gallon will become the norm. Boy oh boy do I wish we sucked it up with the carpooling conveniences and gone with a hybrid car after all.

Despite this dour news, all hope isn’t lost. If ever there was a time to get smarter about your coupon clipping and food-shopping planning, it would be now. Thankfully, I have some advice to offer you, courtesy of two savings experts–Stephanie Nelson, The Coupon Mom, and Amy Bergin, creator of The Couponizer.

Here are three smart-shopping tips from these very smart ladies:

1. Establish a weekly shopping routine that includes planning and shopping.
Often times shopping is done with little or no planning, and this is a sure way to overspend. Inventory your current supplies, check your calendar, scan your recipes, and make a shopping list. Then line up coupons and weekly deals. One way I put this advice to work is to keep a running shopping list stuck to my refrigerator. As we use something up or discover that we need something, onto the list it goes. At the same time I’ve established five or so rotating dinner meals that I can make cheaply and in a snap, and I plan these menus a week in advance. Whatever supplies I’m missing for that week’s menu, I add to the shopping list.

2. Set goals for spending.
When you decide as a family how much money you have to spend each week or month for necessities, you tend to be more diligent in how you spend that money. Revisit these goals quarterly to see what is working and what is not. For a long time I’ve tried to stick to $150 a week for groceries. In reality that number has crept up to $180–perhaps because of some laziness on my part or maybe because, in reality, things simply cost more this year than last. After my $300+ shopping bill two weeks ago, I was pretty pleased to spend only $191 at the supermarket this week.

3. Track your savings.
If you total your savings for a month or two, you will be amazed at how much this total is (especially if you have been utilizing coupons and other savings opportunities). Just like seeing weight loss motivates you to keep dieting, saving money will motivate you to keep up your new plan–and using coupons is the easiest way. We track our spending and savings using Quicken. You could create a spreadsheet in Excel just as easily.

One last piece of advice: remember what your mom always told you, and don’t go food shopping when you’re hungry. That really is a recipe for overspending. Also, I try to avoid taking my I-want-it-now kids with me when I go food shopping. They always seem to convince me to buy items I don’t have on my list.

Do you have any tried-and-true methods for saving money on groceries? If so, I’d love to hear them.

[NOTE] Thanks to everyone for their patience during my computer meltdown. I appreciate the emails I received from folks who wished me well and hoped I’d get back online again soon. Well, I’m baaaaaaaack!

Due to the near-death of my beloved iBook G4 this week (sniff sniff), I am having trouble accessing the Internet so I may not be able to post for the next few days. Trust me, I am stockpiling ideas that you’ll sure to want to read about once I’m online and fully functioning again. Please stay tuned. Thank you.

Leah Ingram
March 14, 2008

Tuesday is usually the day that I do my grocery shopping. That’s because at 4:00 I drop the carpool off at religious education, and then I have about 90 minutes until the carpool comes back to my home. That’s usually enough time to make my list, check it twice, and get the basics at the supermarket.

This week, though, I’m not going grocery shopping for a number of reasons.

First, we’re still pretty well stocked from last week’s shopping, including everything I need to make packed lunches and dinners for the rest of the week.

Second, because our elementary school participates in the Market Day program, which pick-up was last night, I was able to secure some supplemental groceries in the near term.

But it’s the third reason that really has me hesitating about venturing down the supermarket aisle again any time in the near future: last week I spent more than $300 on groceries, and I didn’t even buy any meat.

When I got to the check out line, I really did a double-take when I saw that number go over the $300 mark. I thought, there must be something wrong here. I thought maybe I’d been double-charged for an item or my “shoppers plus” card didn’t register so I paid a higher price or something.

Nope, it’s just the economy, stupid.

I was just listening to a report on NPR about how this is a perfect storm of price increases right about now–with energy prices up, which makes the price of milk and corn go up, which makes the price of my grocery shopping go up. Is it possible that my small sample of one person’s trip to the supermarket is a microcosm of the pinch the American population is feeling? Could be.

If I look back at some of my past shopping trips, I do see some prices that have gone up but also some that have come down. For example, six months ago a gallon of milk cost $3.29. Last week it was $3.19. Bananas are still $.35 each like they were six months ago, and the price hasn’t changed on my favorite brands of salsa and strawberry preserves. Where I did see a big price jump was in non-essentials like chocolate chips (was $1.99 a package and now cost $2.79), and out -of-season fruits and vegetables, which I know I should know better than to buy. But since I haven’t fully embraced that whole 100-mile diet thing, I’m going to make peace with the fact that I’m buying produce from California, dude.

But revisiting these receipts uncovered what I think is probably the likely culprit behind my $300+ shopping trip: in my one trip last week, I picked up four items that I a) don’t normally buy each week and b) each cost a pretty penny. These included Lactaid pills for my lactose-intolerant kids, vanilla (the baking ingredient), Neutrogena moisturizer, and a mega-container of laundry detergent. All together those four items padded my grocery bill by $50.

So while it would be a neat-and-tidy call-to-arms to equate my increased grocery shopping bill with the failure of our current economy, the reality is I need to do a better job of spreading out those “big” purchases over a few shopping trips, not lumping them into one. Hey, at least I had $10 in coupon savings I could use.

By the way, the one thing this story on NPR did say, that sort of makes the 100-mile diet thing relevant, is that organic farmers, who do not rely on corn to feed their cows, may end up being a shopper’s most economical option in the coming months. I mean, if organic farmers, by their very nature, use less energy and less expensive feed to “grow” their crops, then it would make sense that they would be less expensive overall. Something to think about as spring draws nearer.

When I was working on my green packaging story for Continental Magazine, I discovered a lot of cool information. For example, though lots of different kinds of companies are greening the containers that held their products (the Timberland boxes at right include a “carbon footprint” label designed to look like a nutrition facts label), they were also greening the products themselves.

Nike made big news in January when it announced it would be making its latest version of the Air Jordan shoe to be environmentally sound. (Never mind the shoes’ hefty price tag will probably preclude most shoppers from choosing these shoes.) Then earlier this month Nike announced that its Steve Nash, of the Phoenix Suns’ shoes, would be made from recycled materials found on the factory floor. OK, so that’s pretty cool. Upon digging a little deeper I discovered that this is part of Nike’s ongoing mission to reduce waste through its Nike Grind and Reuse-a-Shoe program.

Reuse-a-Shoe is all about taking worn-out shoes and either recycling them into new shoes or using the rubber to create the protective surface on outdoor playgrounds. If you’re interested in donating your kids or your own worn out shoes, which can be any brand by the way, to Reuse-a-Shoe, click on this link to find donation locations.

Then comes the news that actress Natalie Portman has launched a line of vegan-friendly shoes for Ta Casan to match her vegan-friendly life. She is following in the footsteps of vegan shoes from the likes of Stella McCartney. Only problem is that these kinds of non-leather shoes usually rely on really earth-unfriendly materials like petroleum. Portman has promised, in a recent “Intelligencer” bit in New York magazine, that “for our next collection, we’re looking at a lot of eco-friendly materials. We don’t want to save the animals and poison their environment.”Good girl, Natalie. Can’t wait to see that next collection.

In the meantime I’ll probably limit my sustainable shopping to the stuff I can afford, like the cool screen t-shirts my daughter loves from Kohl’s and which cost about $10. They include clever, eco-friendly messages like “Don’t Be Trashy, Recycle” and “Global Warming Isn’t Cool.” According to the shirt’s hang tag, these shirts from Ross Sportswear, Inc. include a 50-cent donation to the National Wildlife Federation and 50-cent donation to Trees for the Future.

How are you helping the earth with items currently in your closet?

When my husband, Bill, and I bought our first house, we couldn’t afford to hire a landscaper or a gardener. At the same time we weren’t going to live without some kind of garden. To make ends meet and to make ourselves happy, we decided to design and plant our garden ourselves.

That said, we weren’t going to be stupid about how we planted our garden. We really didn’t want to see our hard-earned dollars wither up and die in the front yard.

The first thing Bill and I did was consult with the Penn State Co-op Extension’s website to find out which plants fared the best in our Pennsylvania “climate.” Next, because we noticed that there were as many deer on our street as there were kids on bikes, we knew we wanted to plant greenery that wouldn’t become deer food. My mother, who is a master gardener, suggested we look on Cornell University’s Co-op Extension website to find which plants deer don’t like so we could choose those. Finally, once we were armed with this information, we visited our local gardening center and started asking questions about various flowers, bushes and trees. In addition to looking for greenery that fit our climate and anti-deer criteria, we wanted to see which colors looked good together. In about a day we had our garden planned out and we started digging.

Though we did our homework, we did make some wrong moves, such as the transplanted hosta from my mother’s yard–hey, it was free. It turned out that in planting the hosta, we’d set up a deer salad bar buffet. We pulled it all out and tossed it in the woods. I don’t care if the deer eat my hosta, just don’t do it near my front door. And even though Cornell listed phlox as being a deer-proof plant, it turns out that Upstate New York deer may not like it, but Southeastern Pennsylvania deer gobble it up as do deer in other parts of the state, as this DIY Network article shows. So into the woods the phlox went. However, the purple butterfly bush, yellow coreopsis and the blue-flowered myrtle ground cover all flourished.

Maybe it’s because Bill and I are do-it-yourself types that we enjoyed the process of creating our DIY garden–and look forward to doing it again in our new house. Our plan is to plant via xeriscaping, which is defined as choosing plants and landscaping greenery that does not require additional irrigation. Translated into English? A truly “green” garden that doesn’t need to be watered. Do I know anything about xeriscaping? Hell, no, but I’m looking forward to learning all I can about it and then putting my new-found knowledge to use come spring.

Maybe it’s because I enjoy learning new skills that when I read in the current issue of Newsweek about this new crop of gardening coaches, I almost spit my coffee across the kitchen table. (Full disclosure, not about coffee spitting but about Newsweek: I am currently working on a special section for the magazine.)

I know that the coaching industry (and I don’t mean Little League) for grown-ups has taken off in this new millennium, and you know what? I just don’t get it. Why do you need to pay someone to tell you something that you could find out for yourself? Is it because therapists are too expensive so people rely on life coaches instead?

I know plenty of people whom I like and respect who have chosen to become a life coach–one specializes in dating, another in writing–and more power to them for making a living at what they do. But I doubt you would ever catch me spending $25 an hour to bring in a gardening coach. Sure, I’m lucky that I can call my mom for advice, but what’s stopping someone else from just doing her homework to figure out how to get a handle on her garden? With a little big of digging (no pun intended since we’re talking about gardening), you might just find that you enjoy developing your own green thumb like Bill and I did.

You’ll recall that a few weeks ago I wrote rather enthusiastically about Catalog Choice and how it was going to help cut down on the amount of catalogs showing up in my mailbox–and therefore cut down on the amount of paper I had to recycle. For awhile there I thought it was working, but now the catalogs are back and showing up more than ever. In fact, in today’s mail alone, I received two catalogs from companies I’d never done mail-order business with.

So I checked in to my account on Catalog Choice and discovered something quite surprising: of the 18 catalogs I’d entered, in a month’s time only three had confirmed that they’d taken me off of their list. The other 15 were still “unconfirmed.” Never mind the fact that one of the catalogs that showed up in today’s mail was from one of these “confirmed” companies.

You see, Catalog Choice categorizes your “take me off your list” request in four ways:

• Processing: We’re currently communicating your opt-out to the merchant.
• Confirmed: The merchant has confirmed receipt of your opt-out.
• Unconfirmed: We’re waiting for confirmation from the merchant.
• Refused: The merchant has refused to honor your Catalog Choice opt-out.

Even though this one company sent me a catalog today, Catalog Choice says that I have to wait another whole month before I can attempt to opt-out again. Basically, it seems that it takes up to three months for your opting out to “stick,” if it sticks at all.

Obviously, this website is not the panacea that I’d hoped for. However, for the time being, visiting one website to enter my opt-out options is much more efficient than calling each of these companies individually. I’ll give Catalog Choice until the beginning of April, and then I’ll have to figure out what my Plan B is.

In the meantime, I’ve had people write to me to let me know about other one-stop, junk mail-stopping services. The one below is free, though I haven’t tried it, so can’t vouch for it. Despite all that you might want to check it out.

* ProQuo.com: Here’s the blurb they sent to me. “With a few clicks, consumers can select the marketing mail they do want to receive, while stopping the junk mail they don’t want to receive. ProQuo has done all the research for them and provides easy steps to putting an end to the overflowing mailbox…all for free.”

I know that there are other companies that help you to get off lists, and some of these charge a fee. If you’ve had good luck with something other than Catalog Choice or ProQuo, let me know by posting a comment below.

Discover how using rags for your spring cleaning is good for the earth in more ways than one. Click on Green Boot Camp: Week Eleven–Rag Time

Get ready for spring with four weeks’ worth of green spring cleaning tips, over at Green Boot Camp. Check out the link below.

Green Boot Camp: Weeks Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen and Fourteen–Green Spring Cleaning

When it comes to gift cards these days, I must admit that I’m thinking about the saying, “caveat emptor” or “buyer beware.” I mean, I’m a huge fan of gift cards, as you know if you’ve read my past posts about gift cards. But recent stories about retailers in financial distress–and how that financial situation has left gift card holders holding worthless pieces of plastic–has caused me to feel a bit more cautious about gift cards.

For starters there were stories right after Christmas about Don Pablos, a chain of Mexican restaurants that a was all “here today, gone tomorrow.” Literally. People who had eaten there on a Tuesday might have shown up on a Wednesday to find the restaurant shuttered and empty. Turns out that Don Pablos’ parent company, Avado, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September 2007, yet continued to operate Don Pablos (and its other restaurants). And, as far as I can tell, it continued to sell gift cards to unsuspecting customers who gave them as holiday gifts. By December 27th, the cards were worthless, because the restaurants in places like Pennsylvania, Florida and Ohio were already closed.

Now comes the news that the Sharper Image (the original high-tech gadget store that was long one of my favorites before Brookstone ever came along with its cool stuff) has filed for Chapter 11. While it will keep nearly half of its 184 stores open for the time being, forget about using any Sharper Image gift cards you might have received as a gift. The store isn’t accepting them until it gets out of Chapter 11–if it gets out off Chapter 11, the skeptic in me says.

Even if a store does emerge from bankrupcy, consumers still may not benefit. That’s because when a business reorganizes after bankruptcy, there is a pecking order to which “creditors” are paid back. Keep in mind that gift cards are considered to be “unsecured credit.” In bankruptcy, “secured credit” holders are the ones that get paid back first. Here’s how Maureen Riehl, a spokesperson for the National Retail Federation explains it:

“First, the mortgages get paid, then the tax liens and the government get paid, and the banks get paid, because they have secured lines of credit. Then the owners of the company, and the stockholders, if it’s public, get paid, and you just go down the line.”

The folks holding gift cards? You’d be lucky if you ever recouped your money. (That’s me talking, not the NRF.) In fact, according to research from The Tower Group, by the end of 2008 consumers could lose more than $75 million in money they could have spent, just because stores and restaurants, that had originally issued gift cards, closed down. Ouch.

There have been some reports that Don Pablos’ parent company will eventually refund that gift card money, and maybe in the near future we’ll hear similar good news about The Sharper Image. In the meantime, if you still have gift cards to spend, why don’t you make doing so a priority?

I’m not trying to cause a panicked run on the bank, a la “It’s a Wonderful Life,” and the truth is the Targets and the McDonalds of the world likely aren’t going to be filing for Chapter 11 anytime soon–leaving you with a gift cards of no value. But if you haven’t made using up your gift cards a priority for your shopping, do your finances a favor and use that free money before it isn’t worth anything at all.