Well I promised I’d try and share some of the things Laurie and I are currently doing to live simply.
I’m not sharing this list because I want to brag about what we do, or because we’ve got it all figured out and we do it right all the time. I’m just sharing this list because they’re some things that we’ve found that work for us (as in – “Hey! We can do this!”). Laurie may have some additions to this list (I hope she does).
Invest in others – Laurie and I are both involved in several groups where community and relationships are built. We are both part of a community group that meets each Tuesday night in the home of friends and we share life and God. Laurie also now meets weekly with several friends on Thursday night to just spend time building those relationships and I’m involved in a Bible study/discussion for men on Wednesday morning (the men’s What-a-Study) and typically meet with one or two other guys at different times during the week.
Recycle – we’re not doing near enough yet (in my opinion) but we’re doing a lot more than we used to. We recycle our aluminum cans, plastic and glass thanks to city recycling program. We should probably add cardboard and paper to the mix – but we haven’t taken the time to store and deliver paper products to a recycling site (mental note: add that to the goal list).
Utilizing public transportation – I’m a big fan of public transportation, especially good systems like DART. Granted, the old joke remains, “The thing I hate about public transportation is the public.” Sure there are days when folks can annoy you and get on your last nerve – but we save a great deal of money on gas and parking each month with my monthly DART pass. On top of that, it gives me an opportunity to actually be in fellowship with others rather than tuning the world out as I climb in my truck all by myself.
Using CFLs – We’ve switched all but just a few lights in our house to new CFL or LED bulbs. We need to find some good CFLs that look good above our bathroom mirrors, but otherwise I think all of our lights have been changed to money saving CFLs.
Utilize an automatic thermostat – This is one of those ways we’re easily putting technology to use to try and save money and automate our air conditioning/heating needs. We also utilize ceiling fans in our main rooms of use (including a brand new one I installed in our office today). While this may be too warm for some folks, we keep our thermostat at 78° F while we’re home and at 85° F during the day. We just discussed the possibility of lowering that day time temperature to 80 or 82 so our AC doesn’t run as long in the evening to cool the house off again. We haven’t found any substantial evidence as to which is best for efficiency, cost and wear and tear on our AC. While our winter bill was a bit higher, we’ve had 2 months of spring/summer electric bills of $70 or less!
We’ve discussed other areas we can improve on or start doing including:
- starting a garden
- starting a compost pile
- recycling paper
- eating more organic foods
- eating out much less
- having friends over for dinner on a more regular basis
Well there’s you a starting point. Any thoughts, ideas or suggestions?
Be sure and check out Shaun Groves’ latest post to see some of his goals as well.