This can include bills. Actually, I have opted out of getting many of my paper bills in the mail. Also, I have my payments for utilities and Internet set up as bank drafts so I don’t have to use envelopes and stamps for them. My house payment is set up with my bank’s online service so it’s paid every month without fail. The only credit card I use gets paid with a bank draft, too. Most of my tithe and offerings are set up to be sent automatically. I have to make sure the money is there but my wages from work are a direct deposit. That’s required, not an option. Checks are written for any additional tithe/offerings and that’s the way I pay to top off my car’s tank.

With junk mail, the first thing I started doing was writing “Refused/Return to sender” on the envelopes and sticking them back in the box. It didn’t work. My sister told me metered mail won’t be returned so that could have been part of it. I found out later that metered mail WILL be returned if it has full postage but bulk mail isn’t.

My second attempt was to open the mail. If there was a postage paid envelope in the mailing, I would write in big letters on the application/whatever, “Please remove my name from your list” and put it in the envelope. That works like a charm. All of a sudden, a lot of the offers I used to get quit showing up.

In my opening mail adventure, I found that there are phone numbers to call if you don’t want credit card offers. I called the number and opted out. No more credit card offers.

Catalogs! What a pain they can be! If I sit down with a catalog, I can see all sorts of things I want and can get into real trouble financially but if I really need something, I can go to the World Wide Web and find that specific thing and at the best price. Now to get rid of the catalogs! At first, I called the companies and asked to be taken off their mailing list. That took a lot of time. Only one asked why and I explained I wanted to save trees and, if I needed anything, I would order it online.

Time is of the essence so I wanted a central place where I could opt out of whatever catalogs I didn’t want any more. There is a site that is set up to do that very thing. It’s Catalog Choice. Joining is free. Donations are appreciated but not required. Once you join, you can list the catalogs you don’t want any more and voilà! they’re gone! My mother would have been horrified. Catalogs were her friends. Google is mine.

If you ever order anything from Bed Bath and Beyond, you will get, without fail, coupons in the mail for redemption at the store. Not online. You have to show up in person to get the discount. Since two of my co-workers shop there religiously, I pass them along. Otherwise, I would attempt to stop them.

Once a week, I get box holders. One is The Shopper. It’s good for soaking in water and making a weed barrier.

The far box in this photo is the one that got the treatment. There were tiny weeds sprouting so I took a page–literally–from Costa to solve the problem.

The inserts are pretty much garbage since a lot of them are printed on glossy paper and with colored ink. One I recycle by taking it to work and giving it to one of the girls who shops that store. There’s no way I know of to stop them unless I took my mailbox down and I can’t do that. I get a few other things but nothing like the avalanche of trash that I used to pull out every afternoon.

If you have any other suggestions for eliminating/using junk mail or bills, leave me a comment. I’m always on the lookout for other ideas.

I took the plunge and called Dish Network after consulting How to Cancel My Dish Network Satellite Service. After reading that, I was primed and ready to go. The fellow asked why I was canceling. I told him I was having a metal roof put on my house and, besides, much of what I watched was on Food Network and I can’t see spending more than $400 a year on that. Actually, it’s closer to $500. Anyway, he offered to send out a tech to put the dish where it wouldn’t have to be on the roof and said he’d find me a cheaper package. I was curious about the cheaper package because I had the lowest priced one out there. He said there was one for $15.99 that would end up being around $24.99 with the local channels. I told him that’s what I had and with all the taxes and fees, it’s over $40 a month. He sounded kind of deflated and wanted to know if there was any way I would decide to keep the service. I said, “Yes—if it’s free.” He mumbled, “We can’t do that.”

He proceeded to tell me about how I would go about returning the equipment. They want the receiver back with the remote and something off the dish, itself. It will cost me around $30 to send everything but I’ll be shed of that bill then so that’s okay with me.

As I also said last night, the cable came to hook my computer up to my TV. At merm’s direction, I had ordered it from overstock.com. It was $16.49 with 15% off and $1 shipping. The total came to $15.84. Not a bad swap, I’d say. My monthly bill from Dish for the cheapest package was $40.37. (I just found I could have gotten a 25′ cable from Amazon for ‘way less but maybe this one is better.)

When I got it home, I discovered that the cable is very beefy. It’s covered with a metal mesh so no animal would want to chew through it. It’s resting at the moment against my laptop’s “lid” so I have it cushioned to prevent its being scratched.

Hooking up the cable was the easiest part, though nothing turned out to be as complicated as I thought it would be. I pulled the TV around, got my flashlight and plugged it into HDMI 1. Then I strung it across to the computer and plugged the other end into the HDMI port on the back. That much was done.

Finding the remote (as I said last night) was the hardest part of the whole thing. I hadn’t needed it for months—maybe even years. I can’t remember when I had used it last. I did manage to unearth it, though, and the setup for it was as easy as turning on the TV, pushing the Menu button, scrolling down to Input and selecting HDMI 1. It prompted me to name the source so I selected PC.

Immediately, I had a picture! To prove it to merm, I emailed a couple of shots to him.

I was almost in business! I could have listened to it by turning up my computer speakers but I wanted the sound to come from the TV and/or the boom box I plugged into the TV long ago.

I’d emailed merm (once again I’m repeating myself) about the sound but before he could reply, I had that done, too. I went to my computer’s control panel and selected Hardware and Sound and then Manage audio devices. When I made Digital Audio (HDMI) the default, the sound would come through either the TV or the boom box speakers. Woohoo!

Today I got my weekly fix of This Week on abc.go.com and Face the Nation on cbs.com. The only aggravation is that This Week is chopped up into small segments that don’t play sequentially. Face the Nation goes really well. This Week may have lost me as a viewer but it isn’t the same without George Stephanopoulos, anyway.

This evening, I watched another 30 Days program while I ate my salad. The commercials aren’t quite long enough for me to go to the bathroom. Each program has a grand total of two and a half minutes given to sponsors and they come in 30 second messages. Beats whats on regular television.

I took another picture so you can see how sharp the display is. If you ever watch Morgan Spurlock, you know he is always very animated so he’s a little fuzzy but look at the columns behind him. They aren’t moving and they look good.

My next project is getting the cable fixed so it won’t be across the walkway into the kitchen. If I were drunk (which I won’t be but you never know when I might be unsteady due to other reasons) I might trip on it and break a bone. I’d really like to have it run under the floor some way but that would be a project for my neighbor. With as much as I’m saving, I’d be able to pay her to do it.

The only frustrating thing about this whole experience is not being able to get my Bluetooth mouse to work with Windows 7. I haven’t given up, though. When I get that licked, I’ll be able to sit in the living room and control the computer in the kitchen (unless I have to type something). There may be a wireless keyboard in my future, too. Hmmmmmm.

Getting rid of the Dish took a long time (merm and DD can tell you that) but the break isn’t upsetting at all. I thought I would have major withdrawal but, so far, so good. I may have it later. If I do, I’ll let you know.

In the meantime, I’m saving $484.44 a year. And that, my friend, ain’t chicken feed.

It’s oh so easy being green;
Getting to spend each day the color of the leaves.
I don’t think it could be nicer being red, or yellow or gold…
or something much more colorful like that.

It’s oh so easy being green.
You blend in with so many extraord’nary things.
And people think you’re cool ’cause you’re
not standing out like flashy sparkles in the water
or stars in the sky.

WOW! green’s the color of growth.
And green can be safe and eco-friendly.
And green can be the color of money, a square foot garden,
or a juicy fresh-cut lime.

Yes, green is all there is to be
It could make you wonder why, but why wonder why?
Thank God, I am green and it’ll do fine, it’s beautiful!
And I know it’s what I want to be.

I’m finding more and more, I am green. I’d like to say it’s all because I’m environmentally conscious but that isn’t the only reason. It also saves money and aren’t we all interested in getting more bang for our buck? There are several things I’ve done (and continued doing) this summer that have cut down on the bills.

My dryer has been on the fritz for just about forever. I’ve been utilizing the clothesline to dry my clothes. I heard about neighborhoods that have a “no hang” regulation but that isn’t true in mine, thank goodness. And the clothes smell so good and crawling between those fresh sheets is great!

Fewer lights are used in the house and when my incandescents burn out, I replace them with fluorescents. THEN I read that fluorescents don’t contribute to health. And they don’t last nearly as long as the package says they’re supposed to. My next step will be LEDs. I got some but they are so weak, the only thing they might be good for is nightlights. I need to get some good ones. They’re pretty pricey. The ones I’m looking at now are on Amazon. If you type LED bulbs in the search box in the right column you can see the wide assortment offered.

I turn off my TV and DVR whenever I’m not actively watching something. During “Tech Bytes” this morning, I learned about a Microsoft site dedicated to the environment and a program called “Edison” that can control the power usage of your PC. I’ve downloaded and installed Ed. We’ll see how that helps. I already put my computer on standby during the day. It updates at night when I’m asleep.

(Note about Edison: It’s a cute little program but it doesn’t do much more than the power saving settings on Windows will to begin with. It adds another icon to the taskbar that goes along with the concept of going green so I think I’ll leave it just for that.)

I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again, since I’ve been eating raw food I have a greater tolerance for temperature extremes. It’s been up in the 90′s but I’ve run my air conditioner so little my electric bill was the lowest last month it’s been for years—and the rates have increased! The last three days, I’ve had it on probably a total of three hours. My waterbed helps at night. I have it unplugged and the coolness of the mattress comes through the insulating layers enough to make me comfortable. That doesn’t cost a red cent and it is non-polluting.

Have you heard about all the billions of miles Americans have traveled less since May of this year? I’m one of the people who helped with that number. I have to go to work. That’s 20 miles a day. I have to go to the bank and get the mail. That’s another 2.3 miles a day. When I take the outgoing mail, it’s on my way out of town so that’s no additional mileage. I’ve cut out my weekly trips to the organic and Asian markets for a saving of, say, 85 miles. I go to my hometown on Sundays (usually) to buy the food I can’t get during the week. That’s 20 miles. I go to church every Sabbath, add 18 miles. That totals (if I added right) close to 150 miles a week. I can easily go two weeks on a tank of gas. What used to cost me $15 now costs $35 but it’s still a lot less than the gas guzzlers take that are parked all around me.

When I bought my little Honda Civic back in June, 2000, I wanted it because the brand has a reputation for being reliable. I insisted on a manual five speed transmission simply because I prefer to shift gears myself. I’ve had both automatics and otherwise and I like otherwise. That’s just the way I am. It has worked in my favor because it isn’t only more fun to drive, it gets better mileage. The dealer had to go over 100 miles away to find it in the right color and five speeds ahead and one reverse but I got what is still sitting in my driveway.

My car brings up another thing—pollution. One way I’m contributing to cutting down on dirty air is by planting my Square Foot Garden. Granted, it’s small but every little bit helps. It’s a plus, too, that it doesn’t take any gas-powered equipment to maintain it.

The last thing I’ll list tonight is eating raw food. Do you know cooking accounts for about 90 percent of all household energy consumption in developing countries? I found that in this article. All that money being spent to kill vitamins could be saved and the greenhouse effect would be reduced, too. Health would improve. There could be all sorts of positive side effects if more people did less cooking. You’d think with all the good fresh food around in the summer there would be less kitchen activity but it’s a regular beehive in lots of homes with canning and freezing of the bounty.

If I concentrated, I could find more ways I’m saving the world and my bank account but it’s your turn to tell me what you’re doing to help.