Spend Your Money in Your Own Neighborhood

    Support local agriculture and business by purchasing produce or baked goods from farmer’s markets. By doing so, you ensure that your fresh food is organically grown and isn’t imported from another state or country-the cost of shipping is a contribution to greenhouse gas and pollution. Every dollar you spend locally will go a long way toward supporting your local economy and your next-door neighbors.

Be a Compassionate Clipper

    Leave extra coupons on the shelf next to the item they are for. Easy peasy!

You Have the Power!

    Anonymously grant a wish on someone’s Amazon wish list. How simple is that? And how sweet is that?

I Love Big Bags and I Cannot Lie

    Bring reusable shopping bags when heading to the store. Whether you are grocery shopping or heading out with friends to splurge on clothes, take your own bags with you. Many stores have totes and reusable bags for a few dollars by the checkout lines that are more durable, hold more objects, and last much longer than those flimsy paper and non-biodegradable plastic bags. Reusable shopping bags help the environment by using less plastic and cutting down fewer trees.

Power Down

    Switch off lights when you leave a room, don’t leave the faucet running if you’re not actively using it, use energy-saving light bulbs, opt for blankets over turning on the heater and choose portable fans over air conditioning… All of these will lower your utility bills and help preserve the planet. It just makes cents (get it?). If every household in the United States replaced one regular light bulb with one of those new compact fluorescent bulbs, the pollution reduction would be equivalent to removing one million cars from the road.

Use Your Common Cents

    Lend a helping hand. Next time the person in front of you in line at the cash register is short a few cents, give them the amount they need.

Detox Your Diet

    Buy grass-fed, hormone-free, organic, and free-range meat, dairy and eggs. Many grocery stores now have organic sections with produce that doesn’t contain chemical fertilizers, pesticides, or herbicides. These choices are better for you and the earth because no chemicals go into the soil or water. These items cost a little more but for the sake of your health- and taste buds!- it’s worth the price. Human-made pesticides and fertilizers require energy and resources to be manufactured and distributed; they also pollute the air, soil, and water, and have been shown to be carcinogenic (cancer-causing) in many cases. Vegetables that are grown organically require less fossil-fuel energy to be grown, pollute less, and are far less likely to cause any health issues. Prevention Magazine (prevention.com) offers lots of good information about food safety and what to avoid. Healthier is also happier!

George Washington Liked Hemp, So Why Shouldn’t You?

    Some eco-smart Canadians created a completely cool substitute for plastic wrap called Abeego. This hemp and cotton fabric is infused with a blend of beeswax, resion, and jojoba oil. It’s flexible and able to stick to itself, and can seal bowls and wrap cheese, sandwiches, and snacks. It even looks good! Check it out for yourself at abeego.com.

Walking Your Talk (I Am a Bag Lady)

• Keep a compact, reusable bag in your purse for those spur-of-the-moment purchases.
• Refuse a plastic bag for five items or less.
• Fit purchases from different stores into the same bag wherever possible. There’s no reason to have eight shopping bags with only one item in each.
• Put your cloth bags back in your car as soon as you’re done unloading groceries. There’s less chance of forgetting them at home that way (and you’ll be one step closer to using them!). Keep them on the front seat, rather than in the trunk. If you see them, you’ll be far less likely to forget them.

Food and Shelter

Next time you do your grocery shopping, pick up a large bag of cat or dog food to donate to a local animal shelter. Your goodwill will be repaid to you with many loving licks.

Guilt-Free Beauty

    Be sure to buy beauty products that have not been tested on animals. Check with leapingbunny.org for a list of companies that do not test finished products, ingredients, or formulations on animals. You can also phone 1-888-546-CCIC (Coalition for Consumer Information on Cosmetics) and they’ll be happy to send you a pocket-sized shopping guide to companies that manufacture with compassion. You can also look for the leaping bunny logo on cruelty-free products. Pretty on the outside and the inside!

Puppy Love

    Show that you are well trained and buy a Kona Benellie blanket for your pup at konabenellie.com, and you’ll also keep shelter dogs warm and cozy. Dog is your co-pilot, right?

Cartloads of Kindness

This one is so simple that I really shouldn’t have to write it here, but you’d be surprised how many people don’t put their shopping carts away once they are done unloading their groceries! Walk the extra ten feet to the nearest shopping corral and roll the cart on in. Done! In addition, if you notice someone about to put their cart away and you need one, offer to take their shopping cart. These momentary connections that can happen in the frozen food aisle or parking lot are good for us. Keeps us human. Keeps us together.

Kicks for Kids

    Next time you are in the mall or wandering the web doing some retail therapy, buy a gift card from Nordstrom’s in support of the Shoes That Fit program. For as little as ten bucks, you can donate a pair of brand new tennies that fit perfectly for a young person who needs a leg up. Check out shoesthatfit.org. The right shoes can be the first step in the right direction.

I Love Big Bags and I Cannot Lie

Bring reusable shopping bags when heading to the store. Whether you are grocery shopping or heading out with friends, masked up, to splurge on clothes, take your own bags with you. Many stores have totes and reusable bags for a few dollars by the checkout lines that are more durable, hold more objects, and last much longer than those flimsy paper and non-biodegradable plastic bags. Reusable shopping bags help the environment by using less plastic and cutting down fewer trees.

Love and Lattes

    Leave a tip and a little thank-you note in the tip jar at your favorite coffee or ice cream shop. Many of us remember the days when we had to work retail or hospitality whole in high school or college. The staff is working hard, especially during a pandemic, so show your appreciation for your latte and their positive attitude with a dollar or two. I have put in little "good job" notes in the tip jar at my local Peet's Coffee and Tea. I think good work should be acknowledged and people should know they are appreciated (and so should their boss!). I have made lifelong friends at the two Peet's I have frequented and it is nice to see them across the counter every morning. Those relationships all began with four little words: "How are you today?"