Week 12 ; Going Green

 We seem to be concerned with the effects on the environment and ourselves at the moment. Most of us participate in recycling newspapers, bottles, cardboard, green waste, clothing and shoes etc. 

I sometimes wonder which planet we are trying to save when it comes to the issue of plastic though. I can only speak for my area, but there is no collection of plastic whatsoever. It is my guess that this is the ONLY way bi-weekly collections can be just about managed because plastic bottles, cartons and packaging FILLS one bin up on it’s own every week. Now here’s the puzzle, what planet am I saving when I take the SAME amount of plastic as would have gone in the bin – DIRECTLY to the local tip myself every week?

 

Hmmm .. is not the real problem the packaging? The problem is caused at the source, not with the end user?  Without a hint of subtlety intended, the same is of course true with most things, including money problems.

 

So looking on the greener side of life, there are a few savings for your Freedom Payment Table that can be made by going green:-

 

Turning your heating thermostat down by just one degree can reduce your heating bills by 10% per year. With the average house spending around £ 1000 per year on energy, that is a saving of £ 100 per year.

 

Switching to energy saving light bulbs in your home can save you another £100 per year, based on 10 light bulbs with average use.

 

If you are not a high water user, then switching to a water meter can save you up to £170 per year.

 

Try out local farm shops and market stalls fro fresh fruit, vegetables and meat, ( apart from the fact Gordon Ramsay advocates this at every opportunity on his TV shows ) you not only save money, around £ 300 per year, but you will only have minimal packaging so you really WILL be saving the planet.

 

All of these small changes will add up to £ 670 in terms of potential money saving and a whole sequence of savings made to help the environment.

 

Keep Britain Beautiful! ( What ever happened to that advert?)

 

Finally I’d like to share something that I found hilarious this week. A visitor to this site proceeded to go to Amazon through one of my “widgets” as they are called, my carousels of books you can see on various pages and ordered a book. Nothing strange there you would say, but what tickled me is which book they ordered. Now as you can see, I am sharing this information week by week in the hope that people can see for themselves that there is no “magic” to the process, and that it simply requires exactly the same discipline and focus as I hopefully demonstrate week after week through updating these tips and keeping those who are still awake interested enough to attempt the same themselves.

 

So I set myself a pretty high target, of 3 years or less, and as you can see the totaliser after week 12 for the 3 year target is just under £ 50,000.

 

So guess what they bought? ” How to Pay Off Your Mortgage in 2 Years!” You know the book from the rather ill fated, although “doable” in principle TV series. Someday you wake up and realise that the answer isn’t in the book, it’s in the activity of what you do with the information that creates the change.

 

Any savings that you make should be added to your Freedom Payment each month and used to Pay Off Your Mortgage in 3 Years or Less. Anything else & it simply will not work.