Here’s an easy way to go a little green and save a little money at the same time — adjust your ink and paper usage while printing.

A few months ago, The University of Wisconsin, Green Bay, found that it could save thousands of dollars switching from Arial font to Century Gothic, which uses 30 percent less ink.

But, when switching fonts, you may also want to adjust your font size. Century Gothic is wider than Arial. This means that it can use more paper.

If you really want to cut down on the ink used while printing, download Ecofont. This free program shoots tiny holes into letters during printing, and reduces ink use by 25 percent.

While switching your font and font size, you might also look into changing the printer settings on your computer. Switch to gray-scale as the default and check the lower quality resolution.

Another easy way to cut down on ink and paper usage when printing is to hit the print friendly option when printing from the internet or your inbox.

If that’s not an option, copy the text that you want to print into Notepad, then print from there. This way you don’t end up printing pictures, ads and internet addresses. It’s not pretty, but it uses a lot less paper.

If you are printing coupons and have to print in color and can’t copy the text, save the extra pages that come out with only a web address along the top. Put those pages back in your printer so you can use them again.

Do you have any other suggestions for cutting down on ink and paper usage while printing?

A while back I did a piece on green dry cleaning, trying to find as green an option as possible.

I received an email after the piece went up about Solvair. This cleaning process uses a biodegradable cleaning fluid and recycled carbon dioxide (CO2) to rinse and dry your clothes.

The cleaning fluid contains dipropylene glycol n-butyl ether (DPnB), which is environmentally friendly and found in many green cleaning products. This fluid is purified and re-used several times by the system, which means it creates half as much waste as traditional dry cleaning systems. And the CO2 is reclaimed from other sources.

Since the process doesn’t involve heat, it’s gentler on your clothes.

Not only does is it more gentle on your clothes, the system also cuts down on the hazardous waste and waste water created by traditional dry cleaners.

Sounds like a win/win solution, doesn’t it? In 2010, the Sierra Club recommended that if you must dry clean, find a cleaner that uses Solvair technology.

This process is offered at several dry cleaners nationwide. The price varies by cleaners.

We’ve been talking about ways to help out the Gulf Coast, and one big way to help is to cut down on our dependence on oil.

Every president since Richard Nixon has pledged to cut the nation’s dependence on oil, but it hasn’t yet happened.

Now you can help encourage President Obama to cut our nation’s dependence on oil by signing this letter from the Environmental Defense Action Fund.

It only takes a minute, and could help encourage our leaders to really make an effort to switch to cleaner energies.

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill continues to gush into the Gulf Coast, killing sea creatures and wildlife and damaging the area.

Last week we wrote about how you should keep up with what lawmakers are doing to remedy the situation. You should also write your representatives and senators, and local lawmakers as well.

Last week, the Gulf Coast Relief Telethon raised more than $1.8 million to repair the coast.

You can call the Deepwater Horizon Response Volunteer Request Line at 1-866-448-5816.

There are two websites for people who want to volunteer in Louisiana —  Louisiana Gulf Response Volunteer Program and Volunteer Louisiana. In Mississippi try Volunteer Mississippi. There’s also a Volunteer Florida and a Serve Alabama.

There are lots of environmental groups and organizations that welcome donations for their efforts on the coast. Please be careful when making donations. Make sure that the organization you pick is legitimate.

I’ve been frugal (ahem, cheap) most of my life. When we started to put an effort into going green several years ago, I realized that some of my cheap practices were also good for the environment.

The discovery came at a good time for us. We had recently moved to a big city where most of our neighbors and co-workers were decidedly not thrifty. Having money, or more realistically, acting like you have lots of money was de riguer.

Times have certainly changed, haven’t they? I read the most interesting article in the July/August edition of AARP The Magazine this weekend titled “The Leap to Cheap.”

Author Jeff Yeager interviewed several cheapskates that would put my thriftiness to shame. The gist of the article was that the more money we try to make, and more things we buy, the less time we spend enjoying life.

One of the most interesting things I learned from the article is that the U.S. used to have a national “Thrift Week.” It began in 1916 and ran through 1966.

Thanks to our current economic crisis, frugality and thrift have come back in a big, big way. 

What’s green about being frugal? People are buying less stuff, which means less waste is generated. People aren’t buying gas-guzzlers and driving them all over the place. People are eating out less. More of us are growing our own gardens and spending more time with each other.

This newfound thrift has even spurred a movement to bring back Thrift Week. They even have a facebook page.

I think this is all great, but Yeager warns in his article, once the economy improves, many of us will drop our newfound thriftiness and go back to our regular way of consuming. What do you think? Do you think thriftiness will go back out of style?

Begreenminded now has an easier, and shorter facebook address! It’s www.facebook.com/BeGreenMinded.

I’m all for water-conservation, but I’m wondering about some methods — specifically the whole, “If it’s yellow, let it mellow.  If it’s brown, flush it down” rule.

According to Appropedia.org, this means that you don’t flush for number ones, but you do flush for number twos. 

I read about this in an eco-magazine a few years ago. While I guess it’s good in theory, I don’t think it would be good in practice.

The Appropedia article doesn’t suggest this practice if you have a low-flush toilet, because it could make the bathroom smelly.

This is also my reason for not liking the practice. We’ve all smelled school or locker room bathrooms. Do we really want our homes or work places smelling like that?

If so, how many pees before you flush? Two? Twenty? What about toilet paper?

We have pretty much successfully potty-trained our toddler. I think the whole only flushing for certain times would confuse him.

And what about company?

We’ve opted to install low-flow toilets. I think selective flushing is an extreme way to save water. The people doing that should either invest in a low-flow toilet or just go outside.

What are your opinions?