It's Easy Being Green

So our huge winter storm is in the process of moving into the mountains of Arizona this morning.  We got about an inch of snow and now it has switched over to rain.  It’s all part of what’s expected to be a gloomy day here.  I’m already considering plans for dinner tonight and I think one of my favorite bloggers, The Pioneer Woman Cooks, triggered my desire for a nice warm roast enjoyed by the fire tonight.  If you’re not sure how to cook a really good pot roast, check out her recipe.  That’s the technique we use and always seems to generate the best results.  You could pair the roast with some of her Buttery Thyme Bread too.  Yum!  I’ll have to see if there’s any bison roast left at the natural food store when we run into town today.

Why not just buy beef you’re saying?  Well, bison meat is better for your heart because it’s low in cholesterol and fat but high in protein.  It’s also high in iron and other essential minerals or vitamins your body requires.  And, if it’s grass fed bison that’s even better because the meat wasn’t fattened on nasty fillers and feed lot grains.  If you Google search for natural buffalo meat or natural bison meat you’ll end up with several different web suppliers.  Your local natural food store should also carry a selection of bison meat in the butcher department.

Ok, time to get ready for the slow, slushy drive into town.

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It looks like we’ve got another massive round of winter weather heading our direction here in the mountains of Arizona.  The sun has been out the last two weeks but temperatures have been super cold and we still have a ton of snow left on the ground from the last storm!  It’s good though.  Our parched streams, rivers and lakes all need water and it will help to delay wildfire season a bit this year.  I knew it was going to be a good day…even a good week though when I opened the blinds in the bedroom to see the ice crystals forming feathery art on the window.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

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If you haven’t already read my post below on the Mortgage Meltdown and Credit Crisis you should.  This is an illustration of what amazes me about American’s current financial status and the desire for more.  We were watching TV this morning and an ad came on for “cashcall.com”.  They were advertising small consumer loans, presumably to pay your house payment or other items you’ve already fallen behind on like bills and stuff.  Then, the fine print pops up for less than one second at the end of the commercial.  I was able to freeze frame it thanks to my DVR and took a picture using the digital camera:

It’s a little hard to read but let me break it down for you.  The fine print says a typical loan of $2,600 has an APR of 99.25% with 42 months of payments at $216.55 per month with a $75 origination fee.  If you break that down, you’re paying $10,070.00 for the whole loan spread over three and a half years.  That means you paid $6,495.00 in interest alone on a $2,600 loan.  That also assumes you don’t make a late payment or get hit with other fees in the process.  What a bunch of crooks!  I hope consumers steer far away from companies like this!

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You’d have to be like an ostrich with its head stuck in the sand if you haven’t heard one bit about the current state of our economy. Houses are foreclosing at record rates, new homes aren’t selling and there’s already an 8 month glut of unsold homes sitting on the market. Add to that the staggering amount of debt a lot of Americans are carrying around and the situation begins to take on some epic proportions.

I just finished watching an interesting documentary called “Maxxed Out“. While I was unsure about it during the first ten minutes, it actually turned into a pretty interesting piece looking at the real impacts of our love for credit. The impacts are extremely sad and disheartening and your left feeling like everyone is just preying on people, waiting to make a quick buck off of them. How did we ever get to that point where people became so engrossed with greed that they will absolutely crush the people underneath them to better themselves? Some would say it’s simply survival of the fittest. Luckily, I’ve never been too wrapped up in the rat race. I was for a time but quickly had a thought about two years ago that it just really wasn’t worth it. I’ve now paid off debts and am in the process of cleaning up my credit. We want to be able to bite while the housing market is down over the next year and get us into a home, so we can finally stop throwing money down the drain in rent every month.

Our government now wants to toss several hundred dollars at each of us so we can go out and “spur the economy”. While I’m honestly not going to sneeze at an $800 check headed my way from the federal government, I’m also not going to go spend it willy nilly like our President and representatives would like me too. Do we really need that new plasma screen TV? No! What you need is to spend more time with your family, get out and enjoy the fresh air or do something good for yourself and our environment. I’m hoping that most Americans will use the money to pay off a debt or throw into their savings account. I know how difficult it is to achieve that financial goal of 3 months worth of pay sitting in your savings account in case of emergency. This just makes it even easier to get there. If you can save 10% of your paycheck, in just a year you will be close to having one month’s worth of pay saved up. That’s not too hard, especially when you add in the “economic incentive” check that will show up in your mailbox.

I know people who just aren’t being smart right now, who still think they’re going to make a mint off someone else. That’s just not going to happen and people really need to buckle down, analyze their spending and be smart about what their paying for. The feds just cut another key interest rate by 0.75% so now would be the time to look at refinancing major purchases like homes and cars. Haggle with your credit card companies to see if you can get a lower APR and save yourself some money on all those interest payments. There’s a lot of websites out there that can help you shop for better deals in the banking system like Finance Genius. If you shop around, you could potentially save yourself hundreds if not thousands of dollars in finance charges and interest. Do something good for yourself in 2008 and become financially fit.

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It’s warmed up to a balmy 17-degrees outside today but with the wind chill it feels more like 4-degrees.  It was bitter cold last night and the car wasn’t too excited about starting up for the drive home from work.  This morning the house felt more like a meat locker inside…making us realize just how truly un-efficient this rental house is.  If you’re faced with high heating costs or just the aggravation of trying to keep your house at a comfortable temperature, you should think about doing your own energy audit.

It’s pretty simple.  You just need to walk through your house and begin considering where you could be losing heating and cooling efficiency.  Unless you’re doing a remodel or buying a house, there’s not much you can do about existing insulation in your walls and ceilings.  However, if you can find out what the insulation value is inside your walls  you can determine the efficiency of that.  A lot of common home insulation is rated around “R-11″ or “R-19″.  The higher the number, better the insulation is.  Some homes will have r-values reaching into the 30’s or 40’s.  According to the Department of Energy, eco-friendly homes built with straw bale walls have an R-50 value!  You can read more about their test homes and the different insulation comparisons by clicking this link.

The biggest source of decreased heating and cooling efficiency is air leaking in and out of your house.  The home we rent is only outfitted with single-paned windows.  That’s extremely inefficient because there is such a rapid exchange of cold air through these windows into the house.  It’s the opposite for summer, with a rapid exchange of heat into the rooms.  The house is outfitted with honeycomb shades on most of the windows.  If lowered prior to dark and kept closed until the sun is well up, they seem to do a decent job of retaining heat and keeping the chill out.  But if the house was outfitted with double-paned, “Low E” windows it would feel much more comfy in here.

There’s also a set of French doors off the dining room and kitchen that are poorly sealed.  You can see the light coming through gaps in the frame and weatherstripping on the door.  About $10 worth of weatherstripping and caulking and a half hour of work could greatly improve the cold air that moves through these doors.  We also hang curtains over it to keep the cold draft out and place an old rolled up blanket at the base of the door to prevent that draft too.

If you’re faced with any of this dilemmas, you should check out the Energy Department’s Home Energy Audit.  It’s easy to click through and tells you all the potential trouble spots in your home.  Best of all, it’s something you can do in just an hour or two or even spread out over several days.  In the long run it could help you save money and keep your house a little more comfortable.

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