With the help of Elizabeth Rogers, co-author of New York Times bestseller THE GREEN BOOK and author of the upcoming SHIFT YOUR HABIT: EASY WAYS TO SAVE MONEY, SIMPLIFY YOUR LIFE, AND SAVE THE PLANET (March 2010), here’s how you can save more than $1000 by going green!
- Skip the invites and e-vite! Savings: $20 per year on invitation and stamp costs, not to mention conserving trees, energy, water and waste. Take it one step further and replace your holiday cards with an animated e-greeting, saving you another $50 if you typically buy 15 cards per year.
- Forget the flame. Use LED tea lights and candles. Paired with LED holiday lights, you’ll save $50 over their 20-year lifetime, and eliminate a carbon-emitting fire hazard.
- Get real! Ditch the plastic tree and buy a live one. Savings: $100 or more over six years. You’ll rid your house of PVC plastic, and plastic trees contain nearly 70 grams of lead. Yuck!
- Use your own washable dishes, glasses and silverware instead of disposable plastic plates, cups and cutlery. Save more than $25 and reduce plastic waste.
- Use cloth instead of paper napkins and save $50 a year. If every person used just one fewer napkin per day, we’d keep 150 million of them from the trash each year.
- Hit iTunes or check out Pandora.com to create your holiday party playlists. You’ll save up to $300 per year if you buy an average of three albums per month.
- Buy high-quality, reusable holiday and party decorations instead of disposable ones, and save $100 per year! For example, buy a reusable advent calendar. Or if you’re feeling crafty, buy an inexpensive canvas over-the-door shoe organizer and create a homemade advent calendar with your kids.
- Go vintage! Give a fashionable antique or collectible. Locate a hard-to-find toy, album, movie, book or piece of art. Reusing things that other people discard keeps them out of the waste stream and can save you $100 or more.
- Don’t shred the gift wrap! If you re-use just half of it next year, you’ll save more than $15. Even better, get creative when wrapping. Use a scarf, comic book, newspaper, scrap fabric or personally decorated brown paper bag.
- Finally, leave the car at home. When headed out for that much needed holiday vacation, take a shuttle service to and from the airport, and save up to $100 per trip. To be even greener, pack your presents in vintage or used luggage as opposed to new suitcases and save another $500.
TOTAL SAVINGS: More than $1000
And this is only the beginning! For an additional $50,000 worth of tips, check out www.shiftyourhabit.com. Check out more “go green” articles on Busy Mom:
First off, a major disclaimer: I searched the internet for this topic and couldn’t find any posts or articles. So, while I really doubt I am the first to think of this, I can’t give any credit to someone if they had the idea before me. 
