St. Patricks day is a day of celebrating Irish Heritage, eating, drinking and everything green.  But how can you implement green into your St. Pattys day without having to wear it from head to toe?  Here are a few ideas…

WEAR GREEN – but on a smaller scale

• Wear green socks, no one may see them… but at least you’ve got spirit!
• Wear fashionable green jewelry, just an accent piece can be subtle and classy.
• Wear a scarf with green accents and patterns – scarfs are a great way to dress up any outfit.
• Wear green nail polish – it’s soo in right now, especially the darker hunter green colors that aren’t so bright.

EAT GREEN – eating green is always a good idea, but you can get especially creative for this holiday

• Green Mac n’ Cheese – use spinach or pesto in your sauce to get the green effect.
• Green cookies, brownies, cupcakes or ice cream – food coloring can make just about anything green.
• Get healthy with a green veggie platter, or slightly less healthy with fried green tomatoes, fried pickles, fried asparagus or fried green beans.  Dip all that in a green avocado dip and you’re good to go!
• Green Broccoli “Pattys” – they taste better than they sound I swear, even your kids will love them!  Take some frozen broccoli from the freezer, 1.5 cups of cheddar cheese, 1 cup of bread crumbs and 3 eggs.  Mix all ingredients together and form into pattys (also a good activity to do with the kids) and lay on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 25 minutes.  They are cheesy, healthy and delicious!

LIVE GREEN – reduce, re-use, recycle, that’s what it’s all about

• Reduce your waste by using reusable coffee cups, water bottles and grocery bags whenever possible.
• Buy a house plant – they not only look good, but they provide clean air, increase humidity levels and help remove pollutants from the air.
• Save water with powder detergents – liquid laundry detergents are approximately 80% water and it costs energy and packaging to bring this water to the consumer.  Replace liquid detergents with powder detergents.
• Buy food in bulk and buy household products in bulk whenever you can to avoid excess packaging.

Stockngo.com not only offers the best prices on household goods but also offers BULK savings.  Buy in BULK, Live GREEN and SAVE more with Stockn’GO.com.

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The holidays are fast approaching, and you might be wondering how to make them a little greener. With just a few adjustments to your shopping (and your thinking), you can make your holiday environmentally friendly. It’s easy, and it’s fun.

Do It Yourself Holiday Cards: Make your own cards on recycled paper. Remember how much fun it used to be to make specialized cards for people when you were little? It’s still just as much fun, and they are so much more personal than a card bought from a store. Some ideas for your cards: Illustrations cut from an old Christmas story book, photos surrounded by glitter, or a poem written especially for the recipient.

Make your own decorations: It’s just as much fun making decorations as it is making cards. String together popcorn, paint or glitter (or both) nuts or pine cones, make wreaths from pine boughs or even old Christmas ornaments. The possibilities are endless. You can keep and use them again, year after year. That’s green, in and of itself.

Bake Your Gifts: Ditch the pre-packaged treats and make your own this year, and give them out as gifts. You might be surprised at the people who are happy at this kind of gift. It’s cheaper than purchasing gifts, there is less packaging waste, plus baking things especially for others is a thoughtful gift.

And don’t forget about buying in bulk! StocknGo offers discount hair products so buying in bulk makes sense. If you have a large family, lots of room-mates, or you have plenty of storage space, get a gift for yourself and use our ‘Buy the Case’ and enjoy the savings all year long.

Do you make your own gifts at the holidays? Let me know on twitter, Facebook, or leave me a comment here on the blog.

Our new ‘Buy the Case’ program at Stockn’Go is an easy way to go green. If you have a large family or room mates, stocking up can be a very easy way to help the earth. If you’re thinking of stocking up on health or beauty products, there are some great reasons to do so. The best one, of course, is that buying in bulk is green. Let me explain further.

When you buy in bulk you produce less waste because less packaging is used by the manufacturer. Less packaging equals less waste in our landfills because you’re not throwing away unneeded packaging materials. Plus, because you buy more products at the same time, you then will cut out some trips to the store in the future. This not only saves fuel, it saves time and money, as well. You also save on shipping costs when you buy online, because most places (including us!) give free shipping for larger purchases. At Stockngo.com, you always get free shipping on orders over $25.

So, why wouldn’t you buy in bulk? Buy the case is easy, economical, and green. Who doesn’t love that?

And with our Price Beat Guarantee, you’re assured you’ll get the best price, always. You’ll save money even if you’ve already spent it. If you’ve recently shopped with us and find the identical “PriceBeat Eligible” product for a lower price on another website, we’ll pay you back the price difference, plus an extra 5% of that difference.

Buy in bulk and go green the easy way. You’ll save money, and you’ll be helping the environment. The more small things you do to go green, the better off we’ll all be. It doesn’t always require big sacrifices to make a difference. Using Buy the Case is just one small way that can make a big difference.

Do you stock up or use Buy the Case? What other small things do you do to go green? Let me know on twitter, Facebook, or leave me a comment here on the blog.

The days are getting cooler and shorter. You’ve got brightly colored leaves everywhere, and soon they’re going to be littering your lawn. Autumn has its own special green concerns, and here are some tips to help keep your fall green.

Don’t burn your leaves – When leaves are burned, the smoke contains particulates that can lodge in your lungs and the lungs of other people. The pollution that’s emitted by burning leaves can add to the green house effect, making our atmosphere warmer. Instead, bag your leaves and have them hauled away or use them as mulch or in your compost pile. Either one of these is much better than burning, and gives back to the environment instead of taking away.

Watch your energy use – As the days get shorter, you’re going to use more energy. You’ll turn on the lights earlier, and you’ll leave them on longer every day. Lighting your home is about 25% of your yearly energy consumption. Make sure you have compact fluorescent bulbs – they cost more, but they last longer and use less energy. Wipe down your bulbs to make sure they’re not dusty. Clean bulbs emit more light than dirty bulbs, so you won’t have to use as many to light your home. Also, did you know that if your walls are clean or freshly repainted they reflect more light, cutting down on your light usage?

Cut down on the energy used to heat your house by insulating – You can lose up to 40% of your heat if your home isn’t insulated properly. Cover your air-conditioning unit,and you’ll keep cold air from entering your home through the space around it. Get draft blockers that go under the doors. Make sure your windows seal tightly – use weatherstripping – and are caulked correctly. There are lots of little things you can do to keep your energy from being wasted, keeping down not only your utility bills but your energy use as a whole.

Plant your trees now - Because there’s usually more rainfall and cooler temperatures during the fall, it’s a good time to plant trees. They have a better chance of surviving now, so plant them now and make sure to choose species that are native to your area. Try for drought resistant strains that require less water.

We take green living seriously at Stockngo. Do you have any green fall tips for me? Let me know on twitter, Facebook, or leave me a message here on the blog.

If you want to green your life, one of the first things you need to do is learn to think outside the box. There are green solutions in almost all areas of your life. All it takes is a little creative thinking.

And if all that feels overwhelming – just read about the 13 year old boy who figured out a way to make solar panels 50% more efficient. He studied the patterns of trees and built a solar panel that mimics the way trees collect sunlight.

You don’t have to come up with groundbreaking ideas as he did, but a few little tricks can save energy and save you money.

Do you have a patio or a garden? Use recycled or found objects to make planters or containers. Some of them can be quite beautiful and unique. A worn out old tire makes a great flower bed. I’ve seen a Dutch oven used as a hanging flower basket, and I’ve even seen an old work boot used as a plant holder. I regularly use 2 liter soda bottles as plant starters. I just cut off the tops and use the bottoms to grow small tomato plants or peppers. When they get bigger, I transplant them into a larger pot and re-use the pop bottles. Tin cans make great plant holders – just make a couple of holes in the bottom for drainage, and you’re good to go. You can paint them, if you’d like a prettier look.

These bird planters get a round of applause for the most creative way to use old tires. Giddy Up Swings and Things make them, and they’re awesome!

Save containers and use them to freeze or store leftovers – you now have a great use for that butter container that’s been hanging around in your cabinet. Or store things like buttons, nails, or art supplies in them. Use glass jars in the same way, or use them as drinking glasses. I have a friend who uses mason jars to serve iced tea in, and they’re super cute.

If you have the storage space, buy products in bulk and store them. Buy health and beauty products in bulk, and keep them under your sink or buy household goods in bulk and put them in a spare cabinet. Buy school supplies in bulk, and store them from year to year if you have the room. There will be less packaging, so less waste goes in landfills. You’ll also save energy – less trips out to buy means less fuel used. Re-use the bottles or recycle them when they’re empty to keep them out of landfills.

Do you have any ‘out of the box’ ideas for green living? Let me know on twitter, Facebook, or leave me a message here on the blog.

So, you’re going off to college. Exciting, isn’t it? Most colleges give out a list of ‘must-haves’ for incoming freshmen, but here are some green and money saving tips for that list, as well.

Get a bicycle. You might need a car for longer trips, but for getting around campus there’s nothing more convenient and energy saving than a bike. You won’t have to pay for a parking pass or hunt for parking. You’ll save money on fuel – and what college student doesn’t need to do that? You’ll get fit and bypass that ‘freshman twenty’ so many incoming students have problems with. There’s not really a downside to riding a bicycle around campus.

Need appliances? Buy used and/or look for the energy star rating on them. If you can have both – you’ve just saved energy and re-used. Double win for a green life.

Get a travel mug or reusable water bottle – and use them. You’ll keep tons of plastic out of our landfills and you’ll save money. Buy a water filtering pitcher or a filter that fits on your faucet instead of buying bottled water.

Turn off the lights, and put fluorescent light bulbs on your ‘must-have’ list. You’ll save energy automatically with the bulbs, and if you get in the habit of turning off the lights when you’re not in the room, you’ll save even more.

Plug all your electronics into a power strip, and unplug the power strip at night or when you’re not charging or using them.

Get a reusable bag to carry books or for shopping. Stop the plastic bag habit now, and you’ll be part of saving our environment. If you do get an occasional plastic bag, reuse it.

Buy your books used, or better yet, rent them. You’ll save lots of money, and you’re doing your part to reduce waste by re-using textbooks.

Buy health and beauty products in bulk. You’ll get a better price – always good for college students – and you’ll save energy. How? Shipped once = less fuel.

You can go to college and lead a green life. You’ll save money doing so, and you’ll be helping save the earth. Do you have any green tips for me? Let me know on twitter, Facebook, or leave me a message here on the blog.

I talk a lot about greening your life, but so far, I’ve left beauty routines out of it. I thought it was too hard … but I was wrong. I recently decided to find some ways to make my beauty routine as green as the rest of my life is. Surprisingly, there were some easy ways to do it.

Try more eco friendly products. L’oreal makes an Ever Pure brand of hair products that are sulfate –free yet still protect, condition and nourish your hair. They’re also 100% vegan – not tested on animals, with no animal byproducts. You can get great beauty products that don’t harm the environment.

Look for natural ingredients. More and more brands are using naturally-derived ingredients to give you the same great beauty results without harming our world. Aloe, tea tree oil, lavender and mint are just a few used in beauty products. Check labels – even if the label says organic – to see what is being used to make your beauty care products.

Cut your shower time. If you cut just three minutes off your shower time, you save about 50 gallons of water. Yes, you read that right. 50 gallons.

Double up your products. Use a moisturizing body wash and then shave your legs with it, too – don’t use a body wash and then a shave gel. You’ll save on the amount of products you use, saving money and causing less harm to the environment.

Don’t run the tap. If you turn the water off while brushing your teeth, you’ll save about 3 gallons of water each time. If you add that up over the course of a year, it’s a significant amount of water.

Buy beauty products in bulk. Buying once means your products are shipped only once. A bonus to this is your beauty products cost less.

What are you doing to green your beauty routine? Have any tips? Leave them for me on twitter, Facebook, or leave me a message here on the blog.

If you need a reason to go green, deforestation is a good one. Deforestation is one of the major causes of climate change because it releases huge amounts of carbon into the atmosphere. This contributes to the greenhouse effect. Trees absorb the atmosphere-damaging amounts of carbon dioxide and use it to grow, but when they burn, carbon dioxide is released again.

Deforestation is doubly damaging to the environment, because greenhouse gases are released when wood is used as fuel. At the same time, the number of trees is being reduced by cutting them down to use as paper or other products. To put it simply – fewer trees mean more climate change.

So, what can we do to stop this deforestation? Here are some ideas for you.

Plant Some Trees

Stop a little climate change by planting your own trees. As a side benefit, you can keep your house cooler if you plant them on the west side of your home. That’s important in the heat of the summer.
Make it meaningful for the whole family and plant a tree every year for each member.

Try Meatless Monday

One less meat-based meal a week won’t hurt you, and it helps with deforestation. Let me explain -For each piece of meat that came from animals raised on rainforest land, about 55 square feet of forest was destroyed.

Recycle Your Newspapers

44 million newspapers are thrown away each year in the US. Recycling just your Sunday paper would save more than half a million trees every week.

Do Your Errands All at Once and/or Buy in Bulk

Make a list and do your errands all in one trip. Alternatively, buy things like health and beauty products in bulk. Not only will you be saving fuel, you’ll be saving time, as well.

Give Stuff Away

Donate your old stuff to a charitable organization or post it on a web site made specifically for giving away things, such as Freecycle.org.

Share What You’ve Learned About Recycling and Saving Energy

Pass your green tips on to everyone you know. If you help even one person take a step toward being greener, it’s worth it.

Want a visual reason to go green? Watch this video and see what we’re losing:

We take green living seriously at StocknGo. Do you? Let me know on twitter, Facebook, or leave me a comment here on the blog.

Most of the country is in the midst of a heat wave. If you’re not – count your blessings. You’re lucky. The rest of us, however, want to cool off. We want to keep our houses cool, and we want to keep ourselves cool. How can you do that, and still lead a green life?

Face it – unless you’re as stoic as a Spartan, you’re going to have to run your air conditioning at least a little. It’s hard to face triple digit heat and keep that puppy turned off. You’ll be miserable. Remember, it’s not a crime to use energy. We all have to – let’s just do it the smart, green way.

Make sure your AC unit has been serviced recently. It can’t run efficiently if it’s not, and that wastes money. Spend the money on keeping it running the right way, and conserve energy use. Use energy efficient units when you can. They’re marked with an Energy Star.

Run ceiling fans and portable fans. They’ll cool off your home, and you’ll use your AC less.

Keep your lighting dim. Every light bulb you turn on emits heat. If you’re not using compact fluorescent bulbs, 90% of the energy is used to throw off heat. That might not be so bad in the winter, but it’s a killer in the hot summertime.

Make sure your windows and doors are blocking the air from outside. Remember in the winter when you blocked that cold air? Block the heat the same way. Use curtains and door draft blockers to keep the heat out and your house cooler.

Don’t cook in the heat of the day. Try to use the microwave or cook outdoor on a grill. If you must cook inside, wait until sundown. I sometimes cook several meals up ahead of time at night and just reheat them during the day in my microwave. Alternatively, use slow cookers. They’re ultra easy, and they don’t put out heat that can raise the temperature of your house.

What do you do to beat the heat? Let me know on twitter, Facebook, or leave me a message here on the blog.

Do you have your own business, or are you an office manager? If so, we have some green tips for you. You can save energy and money with these tips, making you the office hero.

Switch to LCD flat screen monitors. LCD flat screen monitors use less than a third of the energy that a CRT monitor uses. Turn off monitors when not in use.

Use power strips. Green power strips, when turned off, don’t suck power from the outlet. You won’t be using any energy at all when these are turned off.

Reduce the amount of paper you use, and recycle everything.

Consider a programmable thermostat. You can set it to the turn the temperature up or down at certain times of the day – in the winter, down when you leave. In the summer, up when you leave. It does it all for you, and you won’t have to remember to o a thing. Energy saving with no effort is always a good thing.

Typically, your lighting is about 40% of your electric bill. Compact fluorescent lights are 75% more efficient than incandescent lights, which use 90% of their energy to emit heat and only 10% for lighting.

Ban the Styrofoam. Keep reusable glassware, silverware, and coffee cups in your break room. It doesn’t take that long to wash them out, and you’ll keep lots of waste out of landfills.

Using green cleaning products keeps the air clean in your office – no toxic chemicals for employees to breathe in. It also keeps our water table from being polluted with products washed down the drain.

Even if you don’t have a business or work in an office, these are great green tips. Visit StocknGo and buy your health and beauty products in bulk. You’ll be ‘greener’, and you’ll save money. Isn’t that what we all want? Do you have more tips you’d like to share? Hit me up on twitter, Facebook, or leave a comment here on the blog.

Watch this video for some more great green office tips: