A New Idea

I had an idea that I think is worth looking at!  As our water is so precious and limited, why don't we use seawater in our toilets?  We do not drink the water, there is no reason to have as good of quality water getting flushed with our waste as the water we drink.  Sea water is obviously more in abundance as well, so we wouldn't be wasting something that is limited as a resource.  I googled this idea and see the Chinese have already implemented such a system: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2009summerdavos/2009-09/10/content_8675129.htm  Apparently it cut down 1/3 of their total water consumption as well as saved the city money.  Although this may not be realistic to try and implement in the inner United States, those on the East and West coast should not have a problem putting this into action!  I think this idea is worth petitioning your local congressman about!

H20 Conservation

As my husband stated this morning, he often feels blessed to shower/bathe in water that is cleaner than most people in the world have to drink. We take the clean fresh water for granted and often times are wasteful of this precious resource. Today I was challenged to look at ways we could cut out our water consumption. The first thing I looked at was bathing.

I researched and found out some interesting facts. According to the U.S. Dept of the Interior (http://ga2.er.usgs.gov/edu/sq3action.cfm), a typical bath is 50 gallons of water, and a typical shower is 2.5 gallons per minute. If you switch to a low flow shower head a shower would consume 1.5 gallons per minute. Therefore, a bath would equal 33 minutes in the shower (20 minutes with a standard shower head). For most people, the low flow shower is a lot better. Low flow shower heads only cost around $10-15 per year, and save you an average of $50 per year (plus on a typical every-other-day 20 minute shower you would save 3,560 gallons of water!) This was quite convicting as my sister-in-law gave us a low flow shower head for Christmas and it's still sitting in the box in our closet. First on the agenda is to have my hubby install that tonight!

Secondly, have you ever heard of a Navy shower? This is the extreme in water conservation! Basically you run the water for a few seconds to get wet, shut off the water while you lather up, then turn the water back on to rinse off (typically only a few minutes). I can't even begin to think of the calculations on savings for that sort of shower, but it would be immense! The only practical way I think you could do this would be to install or have a shower knob with temperature and pressure controls separate. That way you wouldn't need to "test the water" each and every time you turned it on, and it would also minimize burns. These run around $110, an example of one would be Delta's T17478-H2O model, that also features a slow flow shower head and is labeled a WaterSense product by the EPA.

Finally, there is no need to shower every day. I once read a story of a 95 year old man with jet black hair, the "secret" to his lack of grey hair lay in the fact that apparently he only bathed once every 5 years! I personally think that is gross, but there is something to be said for allowing our natural oils to remain for a time (it is also easier to style your hair the day after a shower). I think a shower every other day is enough to keep you clean and healthy!

I was going to post more on ways to save water, but think I'll save that for another day! =)

Hello!

Hello!  My name is Jasmine and I'm a recovering shopaholic.  The sad thing is that most people do not realize that shopping is not only an addiction, but a harmful one.  The first realization came after our tax refund this year. Prior to being a stay-at-home mom I worked at a local Credit Union as a loan officer.  I helped people not only obtain loans and set up accounts, but I worked hard to teach people how to make a budget and live within their means.  At that point, I did live within my means, but after getting laid off and having two children things changed.  I wanted to maintain that "American Dream" mentality, and though I knew some cuts were needed, I figured I was doing well by shopping savvy.  I was subscribed to twenty "money saving" blogs and "deal-of-the-day" sites that helped consumers find good quality products for cheap.  I was loving it, I was able to purchase a designer $100 diaper bag for just $30 new - which is cheaper than most bags at Babies R US!  I felt I was being responsible, but things were rapidly spiraling out of control.  What started off as a few deals, lead to a $1000 per month habit that was hard to break.  For the first time in my life I was charging up a credit card bill that I could not pay off each month.  I justified this by saying I would be getting a nice tax return (as we have two children, one meager income, and both go to school full time), and I'd just pay it off when the time came.  The time did come and we received almost $8,000!  However, we had just that much in credit card debt racked up and I realized that something needed to change.  I realized that I was not being a good steward of my family's finances and ultimately God's money.  At that point I rewrote our budget to make sure that we'd start living within our means.  However, old habits die hard and though I was able to realize the smallest credit card bill since our marriage almost ten years ago, I was still under constant temptation to spend money.  The final "breakthrough" came upon my second week in my Geography class at Regent University.  The professor had us watch multiple movies, among them the youtube video called "The Story of Stuff": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GorqroigqM this along with many other things I have been thinking about recently pushed me forward to change my life and start becoming a "sustainable" Christian.