Go Green, Save Green

When Mike Lauterborn left the 9 to 5

corporate world on Feb 23, 2010 --

yes, people, one month ago -- he really analyzed everything he was about, doing, thinking, feeling, desiring, etc. One immediate place he looked at though was his spending. He paid off those high-rate credit cards that were giving him little or no point returns for his purchases and got a card associated with his checking account that earns points and is a good rewards tool if he pays the balance every month. He also ditched some unnecessary home services that he deemed wasteful. As an example of the latter, he was paying a private carting service $79 every other month to come get his garbage and recylables once every week. Now with a home office and certainly more available during the day, Lauterborn figured he could take these items to the dump himself. He determined from dump officials that a trunkload of these types of items would cost $4.50 for disposal. So if he just made two treks a month (by buying one extra garbage can and a large storage bin double the size of the typical blue recycle bin), his outlay would be $9/month or $18 for the 2-month period, a savings of $61 compared with the carting service charge. That's no chicken feed. Over a year, that's a savings of $306! That could pay for about 30 cans of Trader Joe's Organic Sumatra java and keep Mike amply and intrevenously electrified and sharp for a good number of daylight hours. So take a look at those expenses people, and see where you can shave some potatoes.