Can I really not spend "ANY" money

So here is your first lesson. Let me define free. In this case it means not spending any more money than you normally would. NOT ONE PENNY MORE! Monthly, weekly even daily we give away money both intentionally and thoughtlessly. Well to prepare yourself for this ecoficient event you will need to make some decisions. Basically, the decisions will create savings for you and whatever you save you can choose to put in your savings account, treat yourself or loved ones to something special or perhaps use some of it for the ecoficient celebration fund. The idea is to minimize your consumption in order to increase your available free assets "money".

The first area is energy. Here are a few ways to reduce energy consumption and reduce your electricity bill.

• Wash as many loads as possible in cold water. (90% of energy cost for washing clothes is due to hot water consumption. Cold or Warm water is sufficient unless clothes are really dirty)
• Dry clothes consecutively to utilize heat already stored in the dryer
• Keep the thermostat at 68 degrees (in winter)
• Close the blinds on the north side of the house, open the blinds on the south side of the house (in winter)
• Unplug the cell phone charger when the phone is not plugged in to it.
• Turn off the computers at night
• Use pots and pans that fit the burners. Keep oven and burners clean.
• Cover pots and pans when cooking (water will come to a boil faster if you put the lid on the pot because less energy is lost thus faster results)
• Let food cool before putting it in the refrigerator(the fridge will not have to use extra energy to cool the food)
• On the refrigerator check the gasket (the soft plastic piece that seals the door to the body of the refrigerator) for gaps and improper fit. The door should close firmly against the gasket. If it doesn't, cold air will leak out of the refrigerator. You can check the tightness of the door by placing a dollar bill between the gasket and the door. Close the door and then pull out the dollar. You should feel a slight drag when you pull it out. If you don't (or the dollar just falls out when you let go of it), the gasket may be worn and should be replaced.
• Unplug appliances or use a power strip and switch off the power strip to cut all power to the appliances. ( In the average home, 75% of the electricity used to power home electronics is consumed while the products are turned off. ie. laptops, toasters, blenders, tv's etc.)

I got most of my info from the following link http://www.eere.energy.gov/

If you can save money on your electric bill in the next 2 months you could use some of that money for food or gifts for the celebration. Then you would not spend any more than you normally would have that month. Is this making sense? Let me know, post a comment.

Quick Recap

Well I've gotten a few responses so it looks like at least a few of you are up for the challenge. Let me reiterate the rules and explain a bit further.

First, it is Mateo's 30th birthday and he has requested that I not spend any money. I can't let this milestone pass by so I spent some time coming up with a clever way to create a big, free celebration.

Then, I looked for a word to encapsulate this idea and "ecoficient" is what I came up with. It turns out I was not the first kid on the block to think of that word. No hard feelings though. I shall proceed.

So, this is where you all enter the picture. To make it BIG I would like to have people who care about him participate. A few of you knew about the idea ahead of time because I shared it to see how people would react. So far so good.

Finally, this blog was created as a tool to learn and plan the celebration. Additionally, he does not know that I am planning this so please remember to keep it quiet.

Thus far I have received a few e-mails giving me ideas of what we could do. People have talked about parks, pot-lucks and Parcheesi and I'm loving the excitement I'm reading. Make sure you check out people's comments at the end of each blog. Just click on comments. You can add your own as well. If you have a G-Mail account all you have to do is login with that. If not then you will need to register. Either way stay tuned for your lessons on ecoficiency.

*Please note, I can only post when Mateo is not home or is asleep so most of my posts will come on the weekends. There may be two or three at a time just scroll down. The more comments people make on the blog the more communication we can keep so I'm really encouraging everyone to post comments. You can get dialog going with each other, on ideas, using the comments space.

Why have you come here?

Well you must have been invited and I'm glad you stopped by because I'm going to need your help. This year my husband will turn 30 years old and he has requested that I not spend any money on his birthday. To honor his request and honor this milestone in his life I will need your help in planning an ecoficient birthday. What is ecoficient?

These days we're moving from a modern technologically driven over indulgent western civilization to a more ecologically responsible money saving community. We have probably all seen the promotions of "ways to be green" and if we've tried some of the tips or not we can't help but to notice the new popular buzz word. As I was trying to figure out how to pull off this birthday, which by the way is a surprise, it occured to me that "green" is the theme but that doesn't really describe what I'm trying to do. Ecoficient is the word I came up with.

Now I've googled and wikipediaed the word and really came up with nothing. Google showed it as free and expired domain names, so I suppose I could purchase the .net, .com, and .org web addresses for ecoficient. It was also the name of a type of biodegradeable food grade hydraulic fluid. With that mouthful said, let it be known now, I am coining this new term. I don't mine my definition being the number 2 explanation in the dictionary behind the hydraulic fluid. So again you ask, what is ecoficient?

Ecoficient is the combination of two words, ecology and efficient. Ecology is the study of organisms in relationship to their environment. Human ecology looks at the detrimental effects of our modern civilization on the environment. Efficient means acting or producing effectively with a minimum of waste, expense, or unnecessary effort. You put the two together and what you get are "decisions or actions that produce the most environmentally considerate results".

This birthday will be all about being ecoficient. Everything that goes into it will take into account the least amount of waste and expense. This, I know, will be a BIG challenge. If you haven't utilized any of those "green" tips and you want to participate in Mateo's 30th birthday, get prepared for a crash course in ecoficiency. But like I said, I'm going to need your help. So this is how it will work.

The overall goal is to have a celebration Saturday March 8th, at a location that's free, where the guest can have food and fun at no extra cost and the option to bring gifts they don't spend any extra cash to obtain. If this sounds like something you're up for post a comment to this post and I'll count you in. As quickly as possible I'm going to start posting ways we can do this and any feedback is welcomed. I'll post ideas and I'll need you to fill in the blanks. Remember, this is a surprise so don't tell Mateo. sssshhh!