With the June 4th launch of Planet Green–the all green, all the time channel–I can’t help but feel a little depressed. As you’ll recall last fall I auditioned to host the forthcoming Planet Green reality show called “Wa$ted.” The hosting gig ended up going to actress and fellow journalist Annabelle Gurwitch, who used to host “Dinner and a Movie” on TBS. Considering that the casting agent that had cast Annabelle in that spot also cast her in “Wa$ted,” I’m guessing that Annabelle had an inside line on the gig the whole time.

In my recent issue of People magazine, there was an advertising spread with all of the folks that are bringing green shows to Planet Green. Of course, I wish I were one of them but without any celebrity to my name, I’m just another eco-friendly wannabe TV stars and that’s it. But seriously: don’t you think that I’ve got more to share on going green than someone like Tommy Lee or Ludacris, who have their own show called Battleground Earth?

I just read on Ecorazzi that Daryl Hannah is trying to get a green show on Planet Green. So while my agent will continue to try to sell my Lean Green Family book (and a companion TV show), I guess I’ll just get in line with all of the other eco-friendly wannabe TV stars.

In the meantime, though, I’m thinking that maybe it’s time to start shooting my own green video spots and uploading them to YouTube. You never know who watches YouTube, and maybe that is my best way to break into the green big time, rather than the traditional audition method. Stay tuned.

Thursday was my first day for picking up at the CSA farm I joined this year. Like the good green girl that I am, I carpooled with my friend to the farm (I drive next week), and I brought reusable bags to carry my produce.

I was a bit disappointed how unbountiful this first week’s bounty was, but I understand that this is par for the course with CSAs in the first few weeks. The growing season–or rather the harvesting season–hasn’t gone full-steam ahead yet so there really are slim pickings. However, I was able to benefit from a farm membership in the way I’d envisioned–being able to bring home some produce that I normally wouldn’t have picked up at the market.

Part of the fun was the challenge of figuring out how to work these items into dinner. Thankfully, my CSA lists recipes and suggested ways of using various vegetables in your meal planning. I’m glad it does because at first I had no idea what to do with Asian turnips, but I soon discovered that they taste just like radishes and can be used just like radishes in a salad. So that’s what I did–added them to the endive and Romaine salad I made. (The endive and Romaine were from the farm as well.)

Part of this week’s pickings included pick-your-own herbs. I found a recipe for a balsamic vinaigrette on the CSA website that involved one of the herbs I picked–thyme–but since I didn’t have any balsamic vinegar, I decided to wing it and made my own dressing. Perhaps you might want to try it too:

1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
1 clove garlic
salt to taste
freshly chopped thyme
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

I started by chopping the clove of garlic in my Pampered Chef chopper, picked up years ago at a Pampered Chef party. Then I sprinkled on the salt and mashed it together. Next, I poured in the vinegar, the oil, the thyme and mustard. Then mixed them all together. It went wonderfully with the salad.

Besides the great food I was able to bring home, I think what was so amazing to me is that in going just eight miles from my home, it was like I was in an entirely different world. From suburbia to rural America in only eight miles. It was a fantastic way to spend the afternoon.

In a case of “I told you so” (sort of), I just read that US Airways has decided to stop its free in-flight snack service as of Sunday, June 1st. This is part of the airlines’ cost-cutting measures, which goes along with its raising fares this week to keep pace with American Airlines and Delta, all of which have raised fares, too–and, as we know with American Airlines, have started charging for all checked bags. (US Airways isn’t there yet, though it has joined the ranks of charging $25 for a second checked bag.)

As I’d written about earlier, airlines are like lemmings, and once one of them starts a new behavior or institutes a new policy, the rest of them follow along. So how long until the other airlines decide to stop giving out free snacks and drinks during flights?

Truthfully, no one really needs that one-ounce pouch of peanuts or pretzels, but that can of free soda is nice since you would pay an arm and a leg for it in the terminal. Remember the days when you could bring your own drinks onto an airline, ones that you brought from home and could take with you through security? Oh, those good old days.

(Non sequitir tangent: did you see the 30 Rock episode “Sandwich Day” where Liz Lemon had to choose between a Teamster sandwich and her boyfriend? She’s stopped at TSA security trying to bring a sandwich through. I’ve never seen someone shove a sandwich in her face that fast, and I doubt Tina Fey was using a stunt double!)

You know what, all reminiscing aside, I’m actually OK with the airlines doing away with the free snacks, especially the drinks. Why? Because the airlines have done an abysmal job of recycling those cans after each flight. Did you ever notice how the flight attendants usually dump the cans in with the regular trash? I’m pretty confident that they weren’t going back to the galley, and fishing out the cans to put them in recycling.

How bad is this non-recycling problem? A recent Natural Resources Defense Council report, as quoted in an USA Today article, said the following: “Airlines in the U.S. throw away enough aluminum cans every year to build 58 new 747′s. In 2004, the industry also jettisoned 9,000 tons of plastic and enough newspapers and magazines to bury a football field more than 230 feet deep.”

That’s pretty pathetic. So if stopping snacks means that fewer recyclables end up in the trash, I’m OK with that. Now the only thing I’m wondering: without a beverage or food cart to man, what exactly will the flight attendants do during flights? (I expect to receive the wrath of flight attendants everywhere for even asking that question. Bring it on.)

I posted last week about this notion of “locavacation,” vacationing locally as a way of saving money on gas. Building off of that idea, another way for you to be able to enjoy a vacation this summer without burning your budget with fuel costs is to figure out an all-inclusive-like trip. This way, once you arrive at your destination, you never (or rarely will) need your car again.

For people who live near big cities with extensive public transit systems, maybe this summer you could choose to vacation like a city mouse instead of a country mouse. For example, if you were to travel to Chicago or New York City, you could park your car at regional train station, take the train into the city, and then rely on walking and public transit to get around.

Should your plans take you to somewhere like Walt Disney World, you could have a similar experience. With a little bit of patience and some extra time budgeted into your day, you never have to get in your car if you’re staying within the park. Disney has a number of ways of getting its passengers from resort lodge to theme park to Downtown Disney. They last time we were there and stayed at the Wilderness Lodge, we took a boat to the monorail, and sometimes took a bus back. We only used our rental car to get to and from the airport.

Two summers ago we vacationed at Smugglers’ Notch in northern Vermont, best known as a ski resort but also an awesome place to spend a week in summer. Though our condo was up the mountain a bit, we walked down to the center of Smugglers’ Notch so my daughter’s could attend camp, we could go swimming or if we wanted to eat in one of the restaurants. Smuggler’s also has a free shuttle that guests can take around the grounds, and, for a fee, you can catch a ride via Segway. How cool is that? Many guests choose to get around by bicycle, too. Not only can you have a “green” vacation in a place like Smuggs (that’s its nickname) but you’ll also get mighty fit as well.

What are some ways that you can create an all-inclusive vacation for yourself, whether it be at a bona fide all inclusive or a locavacation that you plan on your own? I look forward to hearing your ideas and suggestions.

With gas as expensive as it is these days, shopping online has never looked better. I can stay in the comfort of my own home, select items I’m interested in, and pay a little bit extra (less than a gallon of gas, oftentimes) to have that item shipped to my home. This is especially attractive with websites that offer an affordable flat shipping rate, like Overstock.com and its $2.95 shipping.

So why on earth would some retailers look to “enhance” their online shopping experience by letting customers make selections via the website but then giving them the option of picking the item up at the store?

I noticed this option recently when perusing Wal-Mart’s website for some exercise equipment. I didn’t want to schlep to the mall or a sporting goods store to get what I was interested in. I figured I could find what I was looking for on the web, and not waste any gas in the process. Sure enough, I found the goods on Walmart.com but they were only available through Wal-Mart’s Site to Store program, which is exactly what I’d described above: you make your purchase online and then have to go to the store to get it. Granted, you get free shipping if you choose this, but, again, why would I want to drive when I could stay home? Nordstrom is also debuting a similar program this fall, as this Internet Retailer publication explains.

I don’t know. Maybe the retailers should get a clue when it comes to people and their cars. Haven’t they seen the recent data that shows, for the first time since 1979, Americans are driving less? And this was behavior observed in March, when the average price for a gallon of gas was $3.29. How do retailers think Americans are going to adapt when gas costs more than $4 a gallon nationwide? If they are anything like me, they will be driving a lot less, including to the stores. Instead, I’ll be doing most of my shopping online and letting UPS bring me my goods instead.

With all of the news lately about how everything is getting so expensive, I wanted to take this chance, as we go into the long holiday weekend, to post some ideas, thoughts and tips on getting the most bang for our buck. Hope you find this helpful.

* Charging for Checked Baggage
By now you’ve heard that American Airlines will start charging $15 for the first checked bag on its flights, which of course comes on the heels of airlines starting to charge for a second piece of checked luggage. Because airlines are like lemmings–one raises fares, they all raise fares; one stops food service, they all stop food service–I predict that by the end of the summer, all or at least many of the airlines will be charging for all checked bags. What this will mean is that if you thought jockeying for overhead space was difficult before, now it’s going to be a veritable smackdown in the aisle for room in an overhead bin.

Of course, I think that packing to carry on is the smartest way to avoid these fees, but if you must travel with a ton of stuff, why not ship your luggage in advance? I know plenty of business travelers who use courier services to get their luggage from Point A to Point B so that they never have to deal with an airline losing their bag. Regular folks I’ve talked to have said that they’re considering using the Parcel Post service from the USPS to get their luggage to their destination instead of lugging it to the airport and paying extra for it. I once shipped a decent-sized box of clothes to my mother for the church-based thrift store she manages, and that box cost about $40 to send via Parcel Post.

* Fill up on gas in the morning
Conventional wisdom used to be that the best time to fill up on gas was midweek, before prices jumped to take advantage of weekend travelers. Now that the oil companies have us over a $133 barrel of oil, there’s no more price logic that you can use for filling up and saving money. Case in point: where I live gas has gone up 16 cents in the past four days. It was $3.93 on Monday, $3.95 on Tuesday, $3.99 on Wednesday and then $4.09 on Thursday. However, I understand that there is still a way to save a little bit on gas: you should fill up first-thing in the morning.

This idea has nothing to do with prices and everything to do with temperatures. As the day gets warmer, gas “expands” (as do most things when they heat up), which means that a gas pump could think it’s giving you 10 gallons of gas but you might only be getting 9 7/8. (I’ve based these numbers on speculation, not any hard data that says you get ripped off 1/8 of a gallon for every 10 gallons.) That means that if you fill up when the day is still cool, you will be getting a more accurate tank filling than if you went later in the day. Of course, Snopes.com (the arbiter of all urban legends) doesn’t believe this to be true, so it’s up to you whether or not you think this might be a worthwhile tip.

* Watch out for IRS Stimulus Check scams
Earlier this month Americans started receiving their Economic Stimulus checks. Some had them direct-deposited, as they did their tax refund; others got hard checks. The IRS is mailing these checks out based on the last two digits of your Social Security number (or the primary tax payer in a family that files jointly) and the fact that you’d gone ahead and filed a 2007 tax return. We recently received a letter in the mail letting us know that our check was on the way and the amount we were going to receive. I’ve heard of others receiving similar letters in advance of their check. What I’ve also heard is a lot of people receiving so-called “notification” emails from the IRS. These are not legit; these are phishing scams to steal your personal information. Do not respond to them or click on any links to “log into” your IRS account. Report these as spam to your Internet service provider or email company, then hit delete.

Enjoy a tasty crash course in the best ways to shop at a farmers’ market over at Green Boot Camp. This information should come in handy if you’re hoping to pick up your Memorial Day BBQ fare from one of the thousands of farmers’ markets and farm stands across the country. Bon appetit!

Recently, a writer for a national magazine interviewed me about this blog (I’ll post the link once the story goes live), and asked me how writing this blog has changed how I shop. I think the biggest change I’ve made is in my awareness. That is, I don’t just toss a product into my shopping cart without even thinking about it. I take a moment or two to consider the product’s origins or how the product is packaged before deciding whether or not to buy it.

It’s kind of like when I joined Weight Watchers, and suddenly I became an avid nutrition-label reader at the supermarket. With my Weight Watchers Points Finder slide rule in hand, grocery shopping suddenly took twice as long as I determined the Points values of everything on my list–and then decided whether or not it was worth buying.

Now that my green radar is up, shopping has become a similarly tedious experience. For example, I behave differently now when I pick up something like a piece of produce. Where before I would look the produce over for bruises or rot only, these days I look for the sticker that tells me where this piece of produce originated. If a tomato had to travel thousands of miles to get to my supermarket, I’m probably not going to be buying tomatoes that week.

When I’m buying packaged food, yes, I’m still looking at the nutrition information but I’m also looking to see if the package itself is made of recycled materials. And speaking of packaging, these days I try to avoid anything that comes in a plastic clamshell, because I know that all sorts of evil toxins were used to create that clear-plastic packaging.

Even though my husband might argue otherwise, turns out my sensitivity to products and their packaging isn’t so odd after all. According to a recent survey, written up in Progressive Grocer, half of all American consumers consider “at least one sustainability factor when selecting brands to buy or stores to shop.”

I’m sure Wal-Mart’s big green push has helped raise its profile in sustainable shoppers’ minds. (Check out this Lazy Environmentalist’s report on Wal-Mart’s green efforts.) And while it’s the right thing for Wal-Mart to try to become more eco-friendly, I’m not going to be greenwashed into believing that it’s the only reason the company has made this change. Face it–it’s amazing marketing.

When you can tap into what’s important in consumers’ minds, there’s no doubt you’re going to reap the benefits. No wonder Chrysler is counting on its $2.99 a gallon gas promotion that it launched two weeks ago to drive people into their showrooms. People are freaked about paying $4 a gallon for gas, so the idea that they can get a deal on gas–even if it means buying a new car–has hit a nerve.

But enough about Wal-Mart and Chrysler. Here are some more highlights from that survey:

* Eco-friendly products and packaging are important.
This is exactly what I’d just mentioned above with my own shopping habits. This survey shows that these two notions affect how 30 percent of those surveyed shop.

* Fair-trade practices are fair game for shopping decisions.
For one out of four folks, fair trade ranks right up there with a product or company being labeled “organic” and “eco-friendly.”

* Organic is worth looking for.
Forty percent of shoppers said that they make the effort to seek out organic products. I know that when faced with similarly priced produce–one being “regular” and the other organic–I’ll go with the organic one every time now. A year ago? I might not have made the same decision.

How has your awareness of products and companies–and their connections with organic, sustainability, fair trade and eco-friendliness–changed how you shop? Are you frequenting stores or choosing certain products that you hadn’t in the past? I’d love to hear about it.

Last month I addressed a reader question about whether it was more eco-friendly to use paper plates rather than run the dishwasher–the answer was to go with the dishwasher, which surprised many people. In response to that another reader wrote with a related question. I’m sure it’s a quandary all of us green and frugal folks have considered at one time or another:

Is it more green to use a dishwasher or to wash by hand? I don’t own a dishwasher, and I wash “Asian” style with a small bowl of hot soapy water to dip the washcloth in, scrub the item, then a quick hot rinse from the tap, then onto the drying rack. My husband has always argued that a dishwasher would be more efficient with the water, but I don’t see how it could be. What do you think?

The next time that you wash dishes by hand, here’s an experiment I’d like you to try. Stop up the sink over which you hot rinse the dishes, and then at the end of the wash cycle, measure how much water is in there. I’ll bet it’s more than you thought you were using, because when it runs down the drain, you don’t see it. How many gallons did you end up with?

I’m suggesting this experiment because, unbelievably, newer, efficient dishwashers use as little as five gallons of water for the entire dishwasher load. On the other hand, says the American Water Works Association, when you wash dishes by hand, the average person uses 20 gallons of water. Now maybe this figure comes from those that leave the tap on as they’re washing and aren’t conservative with water the way you are. But I’ll bet that it would be a challenge for you to hand wash an entire day’s worth of dishes using five gallons only–for the dipping, washing and rinsing.

Considering that you don’t own a dishwasher, you don’t have one as your back-up option, and I would suggest you continue to wash your dishes in the water-saving manner you’ve been using. But in the future, you may have to question whether getting a dishwasher does make sense as a water- and time-saver.

I grew up on Publisher’s Clearinghouse contests along with calling in to my favorite radio station to win things. Hey, back in the day, I won 10,000 Maniac tickets twice. The first concert was at the Greenwich Village institution The Bottom Line (RIP). (You know how they say video killed the radio star? Well, it seems my alma mater NYU killed The Bottom Line.) A few weeks later I went to see them again at the Beacon Theater on the Upper West Side. Guess I was ahead of the music curve then, in that I was likely the only New Yorker calling in to see Natalie Merchant and her then-band.

Anyway, these days I can’t help but notice how green has moved into the contest realm. Take the recent 2008 HGTV Dream House contest. Built with green in mind, it also included other green prizes (besides the house in South Carolina) like a hybrid GMC car. (Can’t help but be snarky about a hybrid Yukon. So, what, instead of getting 10 mpg, it gets 15 mpg?)

As you know I recently wrote about the Kroger “design a green bag” contest, and here are two other green-related contests that I thought readers of The Lean Green Family might find interesting and maybe would like to enter. Here are the details:

* Purex Natural Elements “Win a Smart” Car Contest
I discovered this contest when looking through the coupon insert in my Sunday paper. Right above two coupons for Purex laundry detergent was the picture of a Smart car, one of those nifty-looking European cars that are just making their way to this side of the pond. This contest asks you to create a green t-shirt idea and then you’ll be entered to win a Smart car. Find out details at PurexSavesGreen.com. Deadline: 6/1/08

* Whirlpool Mother of Invention Grant Contest
This annual contest is more about giving mom-preneurs seed money for their business or new product, but for the first year, it includes a “green” category for new inventions. Here’s some information from a press release I’d received on the contest: “To recognize moms who develop an environmentally friendly product/service or use natural/recycled materials to create their invention, the company has added a green category for the first time. Five winners will be announced in September and will receive grant money (up to $20,000), home appliance prizes and an invitation to a business boot camp at Whirlpool headquarters.” You can get more details on the Whirlpool website. Deadline: 7/31/08

Recently, my daughter did a science report on mercury (lower case, not the planet), the element whose periodic table abbreviation is Hg. As far as I knew mercury was just that silver liquid that appears in old-fashioned thermometers, but thanks to her report I learned that mercury also shows up in certain kinds of light bulbs, including the green darling compact fluorescent lights or CFLs.

While this made for an interesting tidbit in a science project, it was a cause for concern on another level. After reading a recent Associated Press story on CFLs, specifically how dangerous it can be to simply throw them away, I realized that we still hadn’t come up with a plan for what to do when these bulbs need to be replaced. That is, not every place around recycles them, and, because of the mercury content, you shouldn’t throw them in the trash.

Normally, my first stop when figuring out where I can recycle anything is Earth 911. And so I plugged “CFL” and my zip code into Earth 911′s search box, and I came up with a couple of places that can recycle them. One offered a drop-off program; another requires you to purchase prepaid shipping labels to send the CFLs in via FedEx for recycling.

Thanks to this aforementioned AP story, I then headed over to the Association of Lighting and Mercury Recyclers’ website to see if it could help. On the home page I saw the phrase “member recyclers” and I clicked on it, which brought up a national map. When I clicked again, the map reappeared with “bubbles” I could click on to find a recycler that was local to me. One of them was the same company I found on Earth 911.

You can also check out the Environmental Protection Agency’s website for more information on how to recycle CFLs.

Here’s another option to consider: the next time you go shopping at IKEA, bring your used CFLs with you. IKEA has CFL recycling bins available in all of its stores and will take back your bulbs for free. (I’m assuming that since you don’t need to show a receipt or anything before dropping off the CFLs that they’ll take back bulbs that you bought at any store.)

If you’re a business owner and would like to offer a similar CFL recycling program, you can purchase recycling kits from CFL manufacturer Osram Sylvania. I suppose if you’re desperate and have no other option for recycling CFLs, such as you don’t live close enough to an IKEA to recycle bulbs for free, you could purchase these kits for your own use as Joe consumer. (The cheapest recycling kit, which holds 15 bulbs, costs $39.) I don’t know but paying to recycle stuff like this just feels wrong. Wouldn’t it be smarter for a company like Sylvania to offer some kind of coupon with their bulbs for free recycling? Wouldn’t that make people buy more of their bulbs in the long run?

Finally, if I lived in a place like Madison, Wisconsin, or in Vermont or Maine, I wouldn’t have to worry about this at all. These locations require retailers that sell CFLs to take them back for recycling. If only all 50 states were so progressive.

Last week we received our last oil bill for the winter season. Despite our having locked in at a respectable per-gallon rate for oil a year ago, we ended up spending more on oil than I’d anticipated–this despite our heat-cutting measures with keeping the thermostat lower and what not. After doing some snooping around in our oil-burner room, I think I figured out how we ended up spending more on oil–our water heater.

We have an old-fashioned, oil-heated water heater. Why is this a problem? With traditional water heaters, you are paying to keep the water heated at all times, just in case someone wants to take a hot shower or run a load of laundry washed in hot (though I’m washing everything in cold these days. Ninety percent of a home’s energy costs go towards heating water, so says the Energy Star website. Granted our water heater isn’t that big–26 gallons–and it’s well insulated, in that I couldn’t feel any warmth when I ran my hands over the outside. These are all good things. But because of the very nature of water heater, that means that my oil burner will be kicking on and off 365 days a year, not just when we turn on the heat.

Naturally, being lean and green my husband and I wondered if it was time to investigate other options. For starters, if we paid over $2,000 for oil in 2007-2008, what were we going to pay in 2008-2009? Our oil company told us that it won’t be offering locked-in rates next winter, which is no surprise given the rising oil costs. So was it time to get rid of oil as a way of heating our water? Maybe, maybe not.

Turns out if we wanted to go with a solar water heater, it would cost $8,000 to install. OK, so we would make back that money in as little as four years at our current oil costs, but we kind of don’t have $8,000 to spend right now. Also, solar water heaters by their very nature require a house that gets a lot of sun (ours does) with a roof mount, which means permits. Well, permits cost a couple hundred dollars, so I need to add that cost (and the hassle factor) to the equation. One bright spot on the solar water heater horizon: the Federal government is offering tax credits for energy-efficient changes you make to your home before 12/31/08, and solar water heaters qualify.

After we’d determined that a solar water heater wasn’t going to work for our budget right now, we looked into tankless water systems. These are “on-demand” water systems that create hot water on the spot when someone turns on the hot spigot. The idea is that a pilot light comes on and heats the water as it passes over the “flame” on its way to the faucet. These are incredibly efficient ways of creating hot water and not having to pay to keep your water in waiting hot.

The downside of tankless systems? You need to have a certain kind of area in your home to put them (our crawl-space basement would work) and/or you need to install multiple tankless water heaters throughout the house to meet various demands. So even though a tankless system costs $1,500, that’s per tankless water heater. By our estimates, if our basement were right for at least one of these systems, we would need another one in the upstairs, meaning we were looking at at least $3,000 spent without hiring a plumber or maybe doing minor construction changes to make room for a tankless water heater under a sink or in the laundry room.

But the clincher for us on why this kind of water heater wouldn’t work for us was that tankless water heaters work best when heated with gas. We do not have gas. And oil isn’t compatible. So we would need to go with an electric tankless water heater, which would cost more in power and wouldn’t be as efficient.

We’re still undecided about what we’re going to do with next winter, but this back and forth about how we heat water got me thinking about when it makes sense to pay a little bit more to save a little bit more. This notion keeps coming to mind as I read about our rising grocery costs and, as we all know, the rising cost of gas. (Regular gas is just a few cents shy of $4 at our local gas station.) Here are some instances where I find myself considering the spending/saving quandary:

* Does it makes sense to buy a hybrid?
Last summer we bought a new car that fulfilled our four-wheel-drive and carpool needs, but which isn’t the most efficient with gas–it gets about 21 mph on the highway and maybe 18 in the “city.” Currently, it costs about $60 to fill up the tank, and if I’m lucky I can make it for 10-14 days on a tank of gas, thanks to all of the walking I do. My husband has a small SUV that gets similar gas mileage. We are still paying for our new car and still owe about $18,000 on it; we own my husband’s car outright. With the price of gas going up and up, we keep wondering if it makes sense to get rid of the newer car for a hybrid, which would save us about $1,800 a year in gas. Is that really worth it? (Check out the comparison charts on this Dyers.org blog on hybrids versus regular cars.) Also, just because we owe $18,000 on our car doesn’t mean that we’ll get $18,000 to trade it in. So then we wonder if we should trade in my husband’s car, but why would we want to take on another car payment (about $400 a month) to save $1,800 a year in gas?

* Should I stop driving 20 miles to ShopRite for grocery shopping?
As I written about before I’ve been using ShopRite at Home for a couple of years now, which lets me order my groceries online. I find that shopping this way, even with the $10 Internet shopping charge from ShopRite, is cheaper than shopping at my local grocery store. Case in point: milk is about $3.79 at my nearby store; last week it was $3.19 at ShopRite. However, ShopRite is about 20 minutes away, which means that I burn through three or four gallons of gas in a trip. At about $4 a gallon, that’s $16 I’m spending just to pick up my groceries. So is it still worth it to save $.60 on milk and make the trip, or do I spend a little bit more overall to shop locally and save the gas money? Also, I have to remember that my CSA begins next week, which means once a week I will be driving 16 miles roundtrip to pick up my organically grown produce.

Do you have similar “pay more to save more” quandaries that you’re currently grappling with? If so, I’d love to hear from you. Maybe together we can help each other figure out what’s best for all of us.

OK, so this topic is neither lean nor green, but I thought that folks here might be faced with a graduation gift quandary or two this month or next. If so, I wanted to point you to my gifts and etiquette website called, what else, Gifts and Etiquette, where I address this very topic. (You’ll find this information on the homepage’s Q&A.) Not only do I suggest how much to spend but also ideas for tangibles gifts. I hope you find this helpful.

Click here for green ways to store leftovers. Mmm, leftovers. Who doesn’t love leftovers!

Green Boot Camp: Week Eighteen–Leftovers and Storage

I was a bit surprised earlier this month when the Automobile Association of American (AAA or Triple A) released findings that more than 25 million Americans will be taking foreign trips this summer–and that’s up slightly (2.6%) from 2006. Granted, we took a short jaunt to London last summer and managed to stay on budget, but with gas prices what they are these days, airlines charging more for a second checked bag, and the dollar not holding its own against other currencies (check out this CNN currency converter for the latest), I just can’t imagine this overseas-travel statistic coming true.

Interestingly, if you read that AAA release, you realize that they’re talking about any travel outside the United States, which could include Mexico or Canada–not just flights overseas. Now, given that AAA is an automobile association, this makes a bit more sense.

Now, not being from the South, I don’t know if people drive to vacations in Mexico, but I’m guessing that anyone living near a northern border state to our neighbor to the north might consider taking a car instead of flying to Canada. Even with gas nearing $4 a gallon, I’ll bet that driving to Quebec or Ontario would be cheaper than flying. No wonder that in my last few issues of New York Magazine I’ve seen glossy advertisements promoting Ottawa as a terrific summer destination.

Nonetheless, I’m guessing that many folks will be scaling back their vacation plans this summer in an attempt to save money. And you know what? If you try to save green with your summer plans, those plans just might end up being green, too.

For example, can you figure out a way to act like a tourist in your own town? Or a town near to you that you can park and then walk around, or to which you can take public transportation? I think a great way to modify your summer travel plans is to find ways locally to create a vacation-like experience. So instead of locavore, we should call it locavacation (hey, did I just coin a new word?) Here are some locavacation ideas to consider:

* Find a nearby amusement park or water park. Chance are that if you’re like me, there are plenty of nearby amusement and water parks that you just haven’t had the time to get to or just never bothered checking out because they’re right in your backyard. Obviously those who live in the Orlando area are well aware of their Disney, Universal Studios and SeaWorld neighbors. But what about the rest of us? I just learned that Six Flags (which I always equate with Great Adventure, the amusement park we visited when I was a kid) has 21 parks in the United States, Canada and Mexico. That’s nearly one in every other state. Here’s something else to consider: Many amusement parks will offer discounted season passes to people who live nearby.

* Take yourself (and your family) out to a minor league baseball game.
Sure, I’ve got a major league baseball team whose games I could go to whenever I wanted (though it’s a bit of a haul and a lot of cha-ching for tickets), but within a 45-minute radius of my home, I’ve got a better, closer and more affordable option: three minor league baseball teams and a professional softball team. In fact, this week my daughter’s elementary school is having a school night at one of the local minor league team’s stadium, and our family of four will have a wonderful night out for under $50!

* Explore local museums.
I know that I make it a point to visit major museums when I visit big cities (Philadelphia Museum of Art when I’m in Philly; Metropolitan Museum of Art when I’m in the Big Apple), but I often forget that there are a number of terrific (albeit smaller) museums that are a short drive away. On a hot summer day, what could be more wonderful than spending a day inside with air conditioning and appreciating local art? Also, it’s often cheaper to join a museum as a member than to pay admission a la carte. If you do, then you’re supporting a local institution, you’ve got an economical destination for other day trips in the future, and then when you’re invited to openings (which members inevitably are), you’ll have something to do at night (granted, without the kids) that’s free.

* Rediscover the joy of picnicking.
OK, so I can’t help but recall that recent Verizon commercial where a family seems to be having an idyllic camping experience until the mosquitoes attack. But seriously, when was the last time your family and you had a picnic? When I was a kid my mother would fry up chicken, pack that and some salads in a cooler, and we would go to the beach to enjoy a sunset picnic dinner on the sand. We would always go with some friends so that the grown-ups could enjoy, well, grown-up time together, and the kids could run around doing kid things. Even if you just pack up dinner and eat on a blanket spread on your back lawn, that small change of scenery–switching out your dining room for the backyard–can create a feeling of being away without your having to travel far or spend a lot of money.

What are some other ways to create a locavacation this summer?

It’s been almost a year since I went change-diving around my house–you know, that activity where you reach down into the bowels of your furniture to find loose change. I realize that searching your home for change makes you sound like a real cheapskate, but why let perfectly good money sit around when you could be doing something with it?

In our house, we have two jars where we dump our change at the end of the day. These are old-fashioned mason jars that I think we picked up at an antique store along the way. Anyway, one jar is for silver change and the other is for pennies.

I noticed this morning that those jars were looking kind of full, so I figured it was time to count my loose change. Also, I have a reason for wanting a little extra spending cash in my pocket: tonight is my friend Jen Miller’s book launch party for her book about the Jersey Shore. (The actual title is “The Jersey Shore, Atlantic City to Cape May: Great Destinations: A Complete Guide.”) The party, which Jen has deemed “lean and green,” is in Center City, Philadelphia.

Unfortunately, public transportation to Philly isn’t a viable option from where I live, which means I have to drive. So not only do I have to pay for gas (there goes my hope of making a tank of gas last for two weeks) but I’ll also have to pay for parking.

Luckily, a few years ago, when I was a contributing beauty editor for Philadelphia Style magazine and had to go into Center City on a regular basis (and the magazine wasn’t reimbursing me for my travel expenses), I discovered a cheap parking garage. I could park there all day for $6 (hope it’s still true). The only downside was the garage was a bit out of the way, meaning that if I wanted to get to University City or Rittenhouse Square, I had to hoof it. But knowing how much I love to walk, you should know that I didn’t mind the hoofing-it part.

I plan to park in that garage again tonight where I hope I’ll find parking still to be dirt cheap. Even so, that cost along with filling up with gas earlier than I’d hoped in the week, are the two reasons that I figured it was high time to count my change.

Boy am I glad I took the time to do it–in about 30 minutes time, I rolled $62 worth of coins. If you translated that into my hourly rate, it was worth $124.

I’m getting ready to go walk to the bank during my daily dog walk, where I’ll exchange my rolled coins for some greenbacks. Then, I’ll probably drop off some extra plastic bags at the nearby grocery store that collects them for recycling. But the best part is that I’ll be heading home with 62 bucks in my pocket that I woke up this morning not realizing I had.

What about you? When was the last time you counted change around the house? Why not take some time today to round up your change. How much did you come up with? I’d love to hear about it.

One of the pieces of advice you’ll often hear for lowering your electric bills is to use more electricity when rates are lower. Some people use “smart meters” to help gauge when power prices are down. Unfortunately, this advice has never applied to me. You see my electric company is PECO (also known as Exelon), which currently “caps” electric rates so that customers pay one rate across the board.

Despite this inability to use more power when power costs less–because power always costs the same–we’ve managed to lower our power bills nonetheless: we’re down to about $150 a month. Not bad with two preteens, two Tivos and three computers.

Yesterday, I found out that PECO’s cap on electric rates will expire in 2011. That’s sort of like how my oil company’s cap on oil prices expires next month–we’ll no longer be able to lock in a per-gallon rate next year. No surprise given how the price of oil has gone up in the last year.

Long before those caps expire, though, PECO will be giving its power customers a chance to “gamble” with electric rates. Call it day-trading, if you will, on power costs, but PECO will allow 2,000 families in the Philadelphia region to do a test run of being able to gauge when PECOs prices have gone down that day–and then they can up the juice on all of their electronics and, hopefully, pay less.

Considering that my husband and I used to day trade, and loved that rush of daily buying and selling, we’re thinking this might be an interesting experiment to try. Customers will be able to view PECOs ever-changing rates via the computer or a recorded phone message for the following day, and then make their power-usage decisions accordingly. Since we’re online all the time, this may not be such a huge hardship for us to endure.

The only downside? By enrolling in this program, which begins in October 2008, we take ourselves out of the capped rates almost three years earlier than everyone else. Then, if the variable rates don’t work out to our liking, we may end up paying more for power in the end.

Anyone here have had their power company offer a similar deal? Did it work out for you? Inquiring (and power-conscious) minds want to know.

One of my ongoing quests is to get my family and myself organized. It’s something I’ve been attempting to do for at least a decade now. I’m wondering if I’m ever going to succeed.

You see I came of age in a household where stacking things in piles was the norm, and when you had time, you attacked those growing piles. When you could see a blank tabletop or countertop again, you knew you were in a good place. Problem was if you were used to making piles, you never stayed in that clean countertop “good place” for very long.

It’s no wonder that as I sit here typing, I am surround by piles–pile of newspaper to be recycled, piles of coupons to be filed, piles of kids’ schoolwork and artwork to be filed, framed or tossed. My husband isn’t much better either, and neither are my kids. I guess years from now when they were undoubtedly complaining about our bad parenting to someone (therapist, college roommate, future spouse), our lack of organizational skills will probably be top of their list.

A couple of years ago we hired a professional organizer to come in and get us into shape. And in the two sessions we worked with her, she did help us a bit. It’s thanks to her that all (OK, most) of the crayons, pencils, pens and markers in the house are in labeled Rubbermaid-like boxes in our mudroom. I can also give this organizational expert props for showing me how to turn a plain binder into a makeshift cookbook and to purge my magazine collection at the same time.

She had me purchase a new binder and a box of clear, three-ring-punched sheet holders. Then she taught me that as I found recipes I liked in magazine, I was to tear them out, put them in one of these sheet holders, and then toss the rest of the magazine. This was clearly a better option than holding on to the hundreds and hundreds of magazines I’d had, you know, just in case I wanted to make a recipe one day (which you know I never would have been able to find anyway).

While a few of these changes have been wonderful, the bottom line was that this organizational expert wasn’t cheap, and she wasn’t very flexible at all. She had her ways of organizing a house, and because her ways didn’t jive with my ways, we quickly clashed, and I never brought her back.

Also, having a professional organizer coming to your house can be a real time-suck. Sometimes, it would be like those of us who once had cleaning ladies and felt that we had to “clean” for the cleaning lady. I always felt like I had to straighten up before the organizational expert got here.

Because I am organizationally challenge and frugal and don’t have a lot of time in my day, I keep on subscribing to FlyLady, a free online service I’ve mentioned before. However, I was really thrilled to learn about a virtual organizational expert named Debbie Jordan Kravitz who has a bona fide organizing company called D&R Custom Organizers in York, Pennsylvania, as well as a blog called Virtually Organized for those of us who don’t live near York. Thanks to her online presence, Debbie can help anyone living anywhere get organized. And she swears she won’t charge you an arm and a leg to do so.

Recently, Debbie wrote to introduce herself to me and to share some green-oriented organizing tips she thought The Lean Green Family’s readers might enjoy. “I really enjoy the challenge of organizing clients by reusing, or repurposing items they already have, rather than running out and purchasing the latest and greatest organizing gadgets,” Debbie wrote. Hey, I like that idea, too. Here are some of the examples Debbie shared with me.

She turned her grandmother’s Hope Chest into a lateral filing cabinet/bench. “Now it’s an eclectic piece in my office,” she says, “that is functional, discreet, beautiful, and sentimental.”

When organizing “junk drawers” (hey, Debbie, I’ve got a couple of those in my house), “I like to repurpose rarely used items, rather than waste money on drawer dividers, that are both not very pretty and often are not exactly the size you need for your items anyway,” she says, offering the following examples:

* the glass top of an antique butter dish to hold pens in a draw
* a floral frog for holding pens on a desktop
* clear baby jars as a container for paperclips and other small items
* empty stationary boxes and box tops as drawer organizers, too, along with a shallow kitty litter box (brand new and unused, of course!).

Debbie also added this: “Virtual Organizing Consultant services, by their very nature, are ‘green’ given that I do not need to pollute the earth driving to and from a client’s home.”

Let me know if any of Debbie’s ideas work for you and/or if you have other green organizing tips to share.

With Memorial Day, the unofficial start of BBQ season, right around the corner, check out this Green Boot Camp post on how grilling can be one of the ways you green your cooking methods.

Green Boot Camp: Week Seventeen–Greening Your Cooking

The first book I ever wrote was called “The Bridal Registry Book.” It was about (not surprisingly) everything you need to know before you registered for a wedding. When the book came out a decade ago, retailers that sold more than just china were just getting into the registry game. Boy, how times have changed.

These days you don’t have to be a bride to register for gifts. I’ve seen kids registering for their birthday–and their guests shopping at–toy stores and other national retailers. I’ve seen new homeowners register for housewarming gifts. And I’ve seen plenty of parents-to-be registering for baby products.

With that in mind I guess it should come as no surprise that baby retailer Babies R Us has found that the biggest trend in baby registries these days is green baby gifts.

“Setting up a baby registry is the first step new and expectant parents take when establishing their baby’s environment. In the past, color and pattern were key determining factors, but now, parents are increasingly interested in ensuring that their baby’s world is healthy and clean,” said Tori Binau, Senior Vice President, Marketing, Babies”R”Us in a press release. “This has translated into a trend of creating ‘green’ registries featuring natural and organic items that are good for both baby and the planet.”

Some of the green products that moms and dads can choose from these days include:

* Organic-certified baby/toddler food
Brands to choose from include Gerber, Earth’s Best, Horizon Organic and Healthy Handfuls. (Or you could make your own baby food like I did.)

* Organic cotton apparel
You can find everything you’ll need to dress baby, including one-piece underwear (aka onesies, which my kids lived in), bodysuits, shirt and pant sets, caps, socks and sleep sacks made with cottons that are naturally grown and certified organic.

* Green bedding
This includes eco-friendly mattresses from Serta Perfect Balance, which includes organic cotton fill; you can also select bedding made from organic cotton.

* Environmentally friendly cleaners for the nursery and home
You can find green cleaners for your dishes, laundry, surfaces and bathrooms from Seventh Generation, Method Home, Clorox GreenWorks, BabyGanics and Mrs. Meyers Clean Day.

With July still the most popular month for babies to be born (hey, both of my girls have summer birthdays), if you’ve got a friend who’s pregnant and due this summer, chances are you’ve just attended her baby shower–or will be receiving an invitation shortly. Or, if you’re expecting and planning a baby shower, I thought it might be helpful to offer some quick registry etiquette dos and don’ts, which is applicable whether or not you’re registering for green baby products.

1. Do include registry information in an invitation
It is OK to include in a baby shower invitation a small card about where the mother-to-be has registered. You don’t have to write a long narrative or anything–just the store’s name, web address (if it has one) and phone number (toll free preferred).

2. Don’t get specific about registry requests
One of the most common questions I get over at my Gifts and Etiquette website is how people can go about requesting that folks give them cash since they don’t need any stuff. Well, the bottom line is that you can’t.

3. Don’t expect that people will buy from your registry exclusively
If you’ve decided to create a green registry, you can’t command that every one of your guests buy from it. There are plenty of people who like to shop based on their own guidelines and tastes. That means that you should prepare yourself now for the likely packs of disposable diapers you can expect to get, even if you didn’t register for them or if you’re going with cloth only. (You can donate the disposable diapers to a local women’s shelter or other good cause that helps women and children.)

4. Do send thank-you notes
Yet another popular question I get is why people don’t send thank you notes anymore. I don’t know–their parents didn’t raise them with any manners? As the person of honor, it is your job to send each person who attended your shower and/or gave you a gift a note of thanks. It is your job to write the note, proofread it, put it in an envelope, address and stamp it, and mail it out. I’ve heard of many moms-to-be (and brides to be as well) who ask their guests to pre-address the thank-you note envelopes or even fill in the blanks to save the mom (or the bride) time later on. That is as tacky as tacky can be. Bottom line: you must hand write your thank-you notes and mail them soon after your celebration. Emails, calls or text messages of thanks don’t get your off the hook.

OK, so mailing thank you notes might not be as green as emailing a note of thanks, but trust me–a handwritten note in this day and age or electronic communication is the way to go. Maybe you can ease your guilty green conscience by buying cards made from recycled paper or that are printed on FSC-certified paper.

Have I missed anything about registries, baby showers or thank-you notes? If so, let me know.