The Brita FilterForGood Climate Ride, a five-day, 300-mile bicycle ride from NYC to D.C. , rolled through my town on Sunday. (The picture, right, was from the New Hope Arts & Crafts Fair, which some of the cyclists stopped to check out.) The mission of this ride? To have pedal strokes raise money and awareness for climate change.

I met up with the Brita folks across the Delaware River in Lambertville, NJ, where I got to hang out with Josh “The Lazy Environmentalist” Dorfman. He’s got a way cool show on the Sundance Channel, and a new book called The Lazy Environmentalist on a Budget: Save Money. Save Time. Save The Planet. He’s also got super cool glasses frames–think Mo Rocca. (Actually, he complimented me on my frameless frames.) That’s him, at right, “racing” a train.

I was really impressed that this so-called lazy dude was so committed to helping Mother Earth that he was pedaling all the way from New York City to Washington, D.C. (He did admit to some fanny fatigue.)

Today happens to be the last day of the bike ride. Riders will converge on the Capitol to celebrate the conclusion of the 2nd Climate Ride and talk to members of Congress about the ride’s mission! In addition to the cyclists who started in New York–and Dorfman–there will be 12 Ambassadors riding, including the Danish and German Ambassadors.

I’ve been a big fan of Brita for quite some time, having given it my Suddenly Frugal Seal of Approval last September. I have to say that learning about this event has upped my fandom of the company quite a bit. (It doesn’t hurt that they gave me two free water bottles for my kids when I met up with them on Sunday–full disclosure, and all.)

So did you know it’s Clean Hands Week? (September 20-26) From all we’ve heard about how to prevent the spread of the H1N1 virus, good hand hygiene is key. Funny–my germophobe ways don’t seem so odd now. Hand sanitizer, anyone?

Seriously, though, Americans really do need to go back to school when it comes to washing their hands. Here’s what a recent Soap and Detergent Association survey found:

– 50% say they wash their hands more than 10 times per day (up from 36%).

– 70% wash up at least 7 times per day (up from 62%).

– Across the board, more Americans claim to always wash their hands before eating lunch, after coughing or sneezing and after using the bathroom.

However….

– While 62% of women are washing more than 10 times per day, only 37% of men are doing the same.

– 39% of respondents seldom or never wash their hands after coughing or sneezing (on par with 2008). (Hey, that’s a reason to retrain yourself to sneeze into the crook of your arm.)

– 46% of respondents wash their hands for 15 seconds or less (on par with 2008). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and SDA recommend washing with soap and water for at least 15-20 seconds. (I try to sing “Happy Birthday” twice when washing my hands.)

Sure, all this cold and flu frenzy will probably increase soap sales. But you know what? If it keeps more people healthy–and we therefore don’t lose pay by having to stay home sick–I’m all for reminding people about the importance of washing their hands.

I about fell off my chair today when, twice in one day, someone at a doctor’s office suggested ways I could save money. I’m not talking about slipping me a handful of drug samples to save me the prescription co-pay. I’m talking services that I was ready to whip out my checkbook to pay for, but the person I was dealing with convinced me that I would be wasting my money if I did.

Situation #1: I had decided to switch my daughters to the “grown up” dentist my husband and I use. Not only are they old enough not to need the pediatric dentist anymore, but said pediatric dentist is a 35-minute drive away. The grown-up dentist? Within walking distance of our house.

Like with most instances when you “switch” doctors, I called about getting files forwarded, and I knew I’d have to pay for the pediatric dentist to do that. Turns out, it was $10 per kid per chart. It also turns out that the person I spoke with at the pediatric dentist convinced me that I didn’t need to spend the money. She said that the money mostly covered the copying of x-rays, but because my kids were both in braces and due for x-rays anyway (once the braces came off), the x-rays I would be paying to copy would be out of date anyway. (I called the new dentist to ask about this and she concurred.) So even though it would have been easiest for the pediatric dentist to take my credit card number and charge me the $20, she helped me to save money instead.

Situation #2: My oldest daughter has been complaining, once again, that she can’t see the board in school. I knew she probably needed a new prescription in her glasses, and after today’s eye appointment, I found out I was right. In anticipation of this happening, I had Jane bring with her the “back up” pair of glasses she owns. My plan was to get new lenses in her everyday glasses, and have her wear the back-up pair until we got the other pair back, and then send the back-up pair in for new lenses. This is usually what I do with my own glasses, though with three pairs of back-up frames, that can get costly. (Truth is I haven’t updated the prescription in those glasses in a number of years.)

As we were filling out the paperwork for the new lenses for both pairs of glasses–and watching the price tag soar past the $200 mark–the optician asked, “Why are you going to pay hundreds of dollars for lenses for a pair of glasses that are just going to sit in a drawer? If I were you, I’d get the new lenses in her everyday glasses and just keep the back-up as is.” So simple yet so brilliant. Sure, we’ll be in a pickle if her everyday glasses break, but you know what? I’ll deal with that problem when it becomes a problem. In the meantime, the optician helped me not to spend $200 today. And for that I’m very grateful.

Are you finding that service providers, medical or otherwise, are sharing money-saving tips with you like these people did with me? Wondering if this is a new recessionary trend….

Remember that old saying that your mom probably taught you–the one that goes “You’ll catch more flies with sugar than vinegar” (or something like that)? Well, when it comes to customer service, mother knows best. I remembered this saying last week when I went out to walk my dog, and found that the trash service had picked up everyone else’s recycling on the street but mine. This after the company hadn’t come at all the previous week.

As I dialed the trash company, all of these angry sentences were going through my head. Things like “How dare you not come one week and then forget my house the next week” and “What kind of people do you employ who miss an entire house’s recycling?” But then I thought about a story I’d done a few months ago for Executive Travel on getting good customer service when bad things happen during a business trip.

I got some great advice from customer-service experts for that story, including these following points:

* Be polite and act professionally.

* Understand that you’re not the first problem this person has had to deal with that day.

* Empathize with that person

* Get that person on your side.

So when the operator finally got on the phone (after I’d been on hold for 10 minutes), instead of launching into a tirade of insults, I started my conversation this way:

“Hi, I’ve got a problem with my recycling service and I’m hoping you can help me.” I then explained everything that had transpired–with the missed picked up last week, the missed pick up at my house only that day–and here’s what happened. The operator put me on hold so she could call the driver and send him back to my house. Then, when she got back on the phone, she told me she was crediting me for the missed service. By the time I got back from walking the dog, the recycling was all gone.

Perhaps the operator would have fixed the situation, even if I hadn’t been so pleasant. But there was another benefit to taking the “honey” approach: I didn’t end that phone call to the trash service in a bad mood. Just because there had been a problem, by keeping my point of view positive, I didn’t end up ruining my own day. And I got the outcome I wanted.

Food shopping was different for me today. That’s because I approached it with a few new ideas in mind.

For starters I read in Sunday’s Parade Magazine about clever ways to save money. Most of the stuff in that article was old news to me. But one of the suggestions was, as magazine editors like to say, fresh and surprising.

The article’s author suggested bringing a calculator with you when you go shopping. However, rather than add up your purchases as you go along, start with the number you want to spend and subtract your purchases from there. When you hit zero, you’re done.

So I did that. I went to the store, knowing that I didn’t want to spend more than $150. I kept the calculator out, and an amazing thing happened as I wheeled my cart up and down the aisles: I didn’t reach for things automatically, because I didn’t want to have to “minus out” from that $150 spot. Clearly, I needed to buy something, otherwise why had I gone food shopping? And I did end up getting items. But by the time I was done shopping and was at the checkout line, the calculator read “97.39,” meaning I’d spent only $52.61 on my trip through the store. True, I didn’t buy any meats and very few processed foods, but those weren’t on my list to begin with.

Here was another difference with today’s supermarket jaunt: I decided not to bring all of my coupons with me. Quel horror! Sacrilege, you say! No, here’s what I was thinking.

I knew that if I had coupons with me, I might end up buying stuff that I didn’t really need but wanted to get because the price seemed OK and, hey, I had a coupon. (Isn’t that what the coupon folks are hoping we’d think?) The one coupon I did bring was for dishwasher detergent. We were out, so buying it was a must.

Speaking of dishwashing, I’ve become a huge fan of these gel-packs and dissolving blocks of dishwasher detergent that you can use instead of pouring powder or squirting liquid into the dishwasher detergent compartment. Sure, buying these pre-packaged “servings” of dishwasher soap tends to be more expensive upfront, but I think you’ll find savings down the road. Here’s why.

Whenever I used regular dishwasher detergent, I always end up overfilling the little cup anyway. By how much do I overfill it? I’m not exactly sure, but if it happens with each wash–which inevitably it does–then I’m wasting detergent. And by wasting detergent, I don’t get as many washings from a box or bottle, and I have to replace it sooner.

With a product like the Electrasol Finish Quantum blocks (which I love love love and have been buying regularly), I just plop the block in the soap cup, close it and press “start” on the dishwasher. There is no mess, no overflow and no wasting. In fact, there’s even less waste when you finish the package: with the Quantum product, it comes in a package that is easily recyclable–a plastic insert and a thin cardboard box.

Here’s another product I’ve become fond of, from a value and less-waste point of view: those prepackaged containers of deli meats in reusable storage containers. My daughters have been asking for the over-roasted turkey from Hillshire Farm Deli Select to make turkey sandwiches for lunch–and sometimes dinner–and I have no problem honoring that request. I find the price to be comparable to the deli–about $5 a pound–and I get a free Gladware storage container in the deal. Again, from a waste perspective, the only thing that ends up in the trash is the little plastic baggie the turkey came in.

Have you come up with other tricks lately to save at the supermarket? Let me know.

I read over on a British blog called My Zero Waste that September 7-13 is National Zero Waste Week. OK, well it’s really INTERnational Zero Waste Week if it started in the UK but I’m talking about it here on my U.S. blog.

Anyhoo, zero waste is one of the concepts where green meets frugal. If you can figure out ways to reuse what you have, you can get away with buying less and therefore spending less.

Here are three ways that our family creates zero waste (though that sounds oxymoronic) and saves money in the process:

• We compost our food scraps. The less trash I have to put out by the curb, the fewer garbage bags I need to buy. In addition, I can go with the cheaper, less frequent trash pickups with less garbage. I even get my daughters to bring home their food scraps with their lunch from school so we can compost them at home.
• Speaking of lunch we pack zero waste ones. My daughters have reusable lunch boxes, water bottles and sandwich boxes, and most snacks we pack in reusable containers. If they’re taking fresh fruit, it’s in one of those reusable containers or the core/peels/seeds come home at the end of the day to go in the aforementioned compost.
• We reuse old clothing as rags to clean up around the house. Who needs to buy mops and sponges when you’ve got old t-shirts galore to wash the floors, counters and the windows? When the rags are too threadbare to use anymore, I might give them away on Freecycle to a crafter looking for fabric scraps, or I toss them in the compost.

What about you? What are some of the things you do in the name of frugality that are actually all about zero waste, too?