Last year, when I was still in college, I used my bike pretty much every day. Why, you may ask? Welp, here are my top three reasons to bike instead of drive.

Save Money By Biking

The initial investment to get a bike can be as expensive as you want, but it’s pretty easy to get a cheap (or even free) bike. I got my bike as a birthday present back in 8th grade, but it’s still going strong. I had to get it fixed up at one point, though, so I took it to 1304 Bikes here in Raleigh. They fix up old bikes and give them away, and they were able to help tell me how to fix my bike. If you are buying a bike, look on OhSoHandy or other websites to find some great deals on used bikes.

The biggest way that biking saves you money, though, is because of all the money you’ll be saving by not driving your car. If you cut out all the gas that you normally buy, plus all the repair costs of your car, you’ll be surprised at how much money you’ll save. It’s a big reason why I was financially able to get through college without having loans out the ying yang.

Lower Your Pollution and Your Eco-Footprint

If you’re using your bicycle, you’ll be creating a lot less pollution (zero, believe it or not) than by driving your car to get to places. Cars use up a lot of resources (gasoline and oil especially) and also are a huge source of pollution in today’s modern dog-eat-dog world. In fact, driving a car is the most polluting thing that an average person does. So riding a bike (and not driving your car as much) is a great way to cut down on that hefty ol’ eco-footprint of yours.  Plus, by riding your bike, you can enjoy all the natural scenery that you’ll be biking past, instead of concentrating on the back of the car in front of you while you’re in a traffic jam.

Get Yo’self Some Exercise And Wake Up

In college, I had a job that required me to be on campus pretty early (2:00 AM on Wednesdays!). The only thing that woke me up for that shift (besides good ol’ coffee) was biking about 2 miles to get there. Biking helped wake me up and keep me all energized for the whole day, whether I was going to class or work. Plus, it kept me in pretty good shape, even though me and my friends would eat a bunch at the dining hall. Without biking, I probably would have been morbidly obese and sleeping through all of my classes.

Get To Class On Time

Now I know most of you have probably never been late for class ever, but back in the day, I was usually about 5 to 10 minutes late (especially for those huge auditorium classes).  The embarassment and shame this caused me was almost too much to handle, but then I got me a bike and have never looked back since.  It’s amazing how much faster you can get around on campus by using a bicycle.  You can fly by people, and make it across campus in about a quarter of the time that it takes to walk.  So do yourself a favor if you’re in college (or even if you’re not), and go get a bike.  After a week of using it, you’ll wonder why you didn’t start biking sooner.

Welp, winter is coming up soon, and that means having to turn on the ol’ heat. You cheap MLB jerseys probably already know that heating a house accounts for a large part of your energy bill each winter (unless you live somewhere really warm, lucky), but you might not have known that there are a few simple steps you can take so that your house is warmer and your wallet is fuller.

Wear a sweater

It’s surprising how many times this simple cheap jerseys solution isn’t followed. It’s even more surprising when I remember me mum telling us to put on a sweatshirt so my parents wouldn’t have to turn up the heat. You can set your thermostat to 65 (or lower!) if you follow this easy, energy-saving plan. That’s the temperature me and my girlfriend had our apartment at last year, and we survived thanks to multiple layers of clothes.

Lower your water heater temperature

This green one makes a lot of sense, as long as you don’t lower your water heater temperature TOO far. If you have your water temperature set waaay high up, then you’re never even going to use the hottest setting for the water. You may as well set it so that the highest, hottest water that comes out of the tap is the exact hotness that you’d want. For most people, this means turning down the temperature on their 本日よりチケット発売開始しました。ご予約はこちらから。 water heater. This can save a lot on your power bill, especially during the winter.

Also, if you own your house, you might Proin want to look into insulating your water heater. The initial expense will more than pay for itself as the years go by.

Keep out cold, winter drafts – insulate!

Old Man Winter is your heating bill’s main enemy. He cannot be killed; he can only be contained. Make sure he stays outside where he belongs by inspecting your house for cracks or holes to the outside. Common places for drafts include chimneys, around the edges of doors and windows, and your dryer duct. Caulking and weather stripping (both cheap and easy Patricia’s to use) will solve these dilemmas. One more thing to look out for is to make sure that your home is properly insulated. A big problem area for many people is uninsulated attics. If your attic is not insulated, make sure that the entrance to your attic is. This will keep the cold air in the attic and away from your living space.

If you follow these three simple steps to lower your heating bill, you will be sitting back smiling when winter comes along. wholesale NFL jerseys You will even have saved up enough money to make some hot chocolate to celebrate.

Way up on the ninth floor in a Manhattan apartment, there is a family living off of the power grid. With only a single solar panel providing all their power (for a laptop and a light), the Beavans’ apartment is quiet and calm. A wooden compost bin sits in the kitchen, full of vegetable peels, fruit cores, and worms. When you look around their house, you might be surprised to find no toilet paper, shampoo, or bottles of toiletries. You might think they’re weird if you haven’t met them, but Colin Beavan, his wife Michelle, and their young daughter Isabella are, in many ways, the typical American family.

“The concept is that we should have no net environmental impact, which is, of course, technically not feasible”, says Colin. “So the idea is that we would reduce our negative impact and increase our positive impact.”

And reduce it they have. Ecozoic Not only by cutting off their electricity (not even the fridge is turned on!), but other ways as well. Instead of using disposable coffee cups every day, Colin takes along his faithful glass jar to the nearest coffee shop. They buy food at the nearby farmers’ market almost daily (due to not using the refrigerator). They’ve got rid of lots of harmful, caustic cleaners, and now rely on baking soda, borax, and vinegar to keep things spiffy and clean. They have even sworn off of all carbon-producing transport, now walking or biking to school and work.

Although Michelle says there are times she regrets her family’s decision to turn so green, she did say there have been cheap nba jerseys some unexpected benefits. “In essence, the project has really slowed down time, which is pretty amazing considering how fast time has become, and especially with us living in New York – you come home to a quiet, soothing cocoon.”

One thing I still don’t understand is how they don’t use toilet paper. When asked what they used instead, Colin answered, “What I’ll tell you, is this: There are many places all over the world that wholesale jerseys China don’t use toilet paper.” So it’s still a mystery to me. Maybe a bidet? I don’t know.

A sort of counter-intuitive thing is that most people in New York City Quote (and other big cities) already have a smaller impact than the rest of the population. New Yorkers, on average, use services that emit about a third of the carbon per person as most of the rest of the country. This is mainly due to the economies of scale.

Anyhoo, Colin Beavan is behind the upcoming film “No Impact Man”, which should be out in early 2009. It’s about his and his family’s life during Hello their one year as super low impact city dwellers. There will also be a cheap jerseys book by the same name (published in an eco-friendly way). I plan on checking it out once it hits the stores.