Welcome to part 2 of Carbon tax got you down? 3 ways you can relieve those costs and also reduce your carbon footprint. If you’ve missed part one I highly suggest you read it first just follow the link HERE
Are you thirsty?
Did you know plastic bottles are terrible for the environment? Truthfully only 69% of bottles are recycled, and although 31% are recycled, it is not a form of redemption offering little salvation for environmental damage. Now that I made all of you including myself feel bad, let’s get to the next point. Plastic bottles are pricey, so if the environmental issue wasn’t enough, knowing that we pay outrageous amounts for it hits home. Let’s break it down. Let’s say you and your spouse purchase and drink only 2 bottles each day. That would be a total of 1460 bottles a year. Crazy when you think about it. Now let’s say each bottle costs about $0.25 plus a $0.10 recycling fee. That amounts to an annual cost of $511. Let’s look a other viable options. The cost of a water cooler is about $150. To fill the bottles the cost is around $7, however these bottles are reusable. Based on 2 liters of water per day you would require about 38 5 gallon jugs which is an annual cost of $266. Even if you added the costs of the water cooler it would be less that the cost of standard water bottles and of course you wouldn’t have to buy a cooler every year. Now let’s look at the Brita jug with filter. The jug that comes equipped with one filter has a cost of $30. Replacement filters cost about $5 each. The filter is recommended to be replaced every 40 gallons so about every two months and the cost of the tap water is less than $1.00 year. Which gives you a total annual cost of $61 which includes the Brita jug itself. So how can one save over $400 dollars each year? I would say the Brita water jug wins this one hands down based on cost and elimination of unnecessary waste. Comparing standard water bottles to the Brita filter over a 10 year period is a savings of just under $5000. Take that money and use it for something else, yes please!
Drive through Coffee anyone?
Now this one may make some people a little testy. Make your coffee at home and do not stop at convenient locations on your travel to and from home. i’m not saying all the time, however get out of the habit and here’s why. Depending on where you stop for a coffee you’re looking at around $3.00 per coffee. That’s if you don’t add a donut or some other item. If you are like many, stopping for a coffee is probably a daily routine. let’s break it down to a coffee every weekday, for the calendar year. If you only buy a coffee the annual total would be about $750/ year. This number does not include the idling time within a drive through, although it probably doesn’t accumulate too much cash out of your pocket, it may if you have to go out of your way to do so. Now let’s look at what the cost of making your coffee at home. Got a Tassimo or Keurig at home? If not I would suggest getting yourself one as it’s a great way to make a single cup of coffee. On average a pod or cup will cost you about .50 cents which equals about $125/ year. So by challenging this habit you could save at least $625. If you have a spouse this may be double ($1250/year).If you are looking for a few extra bucks to use elsewhere this may be it. Over a span of 10 years the cost savings is huge at about $12,500. Don’t forget you are also eliminating the use of 250-500 disposable cups per year.
Gas and power bills seem high?
Have you ever looked at your bills and said to yourself how on earth is my bill this high? In my first post I had talked about turning those lights off as much a possible and investing in a smart thermostat. However one other detail I left out is who provides these services to you. When it comes to gas and power there is plenty of competition and that’s a good thing. Why is it a good thing? Well I’m going to tell you why. You have plenty of options on who provides you this service and by looking into each one there is a good chance that you are paying more than you have to. By looking around you can save up to $50-$150 a month. Sounds to good to be true I know! I thought the same thing. Even if you only save $100/ month you are looking at a $1,200 annual savings and would save you $12,000 over a span of 10 years. By paying less for these services you have less money going to the provider so you’re reducing their carbon foot print ;).
By implementing just these three changes you are saving just under $30,000 over 10 years. I’m sure you can find a better way to spend this cash as I know I can. New car? A really nice hot tub? Or maybe you can add it to your dividend investing strategies and start compounding interest. More on dividend investing in my upcoming blogs.
Invest in yourself
