There are lots of little actions that you can take around your house that will make a big difference, both for your pocketbook and for the earth.

One area where you can make a big difference is the way you use your dishwasher.

Think you shouldn’t be using your dishwasher? A study by the University of Bonn showed that dishwashers were more economical and ecological than hand washing, even for single-person households.

According to the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACE3), you should only run full loads. The dishwasher will use the same amount of energy and water whether it’s washing 10 dishes or 30.

Pre-rinsing isn’t recommended either. Most newer dishwashers are powerful enough to do a thorough job without any help. If the dishes will be sitting for a while before you run the next cycle, then use cold water to do your rinsing.

ACE3 also suggests using the no-heat, air-dry feature if your dishwasher has that option.

I like to run our dishwasher in the evenings during the summer, so I’m not adding extra heat to our house.

Have any energy-saving tips when it comes to dishwashing?

There are several easy, money-saving ways to help the environment, some of them you might already be doing.

Do you have your paycheck deposited directly into your checking or savings account? That practice is good for the environment.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the amount of money and greenhouse gases saved with online bill pay. Direct Deposit also saves money and greenhouse gases.

The American Payroll Association reports that  by opting for Direct Deposit, you not only save the paper the check is printed on, you also save the gas used idling in your car at the bank drive-thru. And you are assured that your money is always in your account on payday, even if you are out of the office.

ElectronicPayments.org reports that each year paper checks use over 674 million gallons of fuel and add 3.6 million tons of carbon dioxide into the environment.  And 145 million Americans use Direct Deposit!

Many employers offer Direct Deposit, because it saves them money as well. The government stands to save a good bit of money if all of the people receiving Social Security and Veterans’ Affairs checks each year would switch to Direct Deposit.  According to GoDirect.org, the Treasury could save $130 million annually — the money saved would stay in the Social Security Trust Fund.

Solar hot water heaters can be a great way to heat water for your home and save some money while doing it.

These heaters can be used in any climate and their only fuel is sunshine.

But, as with some environmentally friendly purchases, you first have to spend a little more money upfront. Thanks to tax incentives, as well as the money you end up saving on fuel, you usually do end up saving money in the long run.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy  (EERE) reports that the amount of money you save depends on the amount of hot water you use, your location, incentives and the cost of fuel.

On average, the agency reports that a solar water heater can cut your water bills by 50 to 80 percent! An added bonus is that people with these panels are protected from fuel shortages and price hikes (when it comes to heating their water.)

Arlen Dau of Rhode Island installed solar tubes on his house last July. Already, the tubes combined with more insulation and other fixes have reduced his fuel usage by 40 to 50 percent. By next year, he hopes to not really need fuel oil for nine to 10 months.

“I can’t express how great it feels to check the system on a 30 degree day and find we are producing 130 degree water from the sun,“ says Dau.

Dau received state and federal tax incentives for installing the tubes, as well as a tax rebate. These covered about half the cost of the tubes.

The incentives for people installing solar panels or tubes will be even higher this year since incentive limit was lifted. To find out which incentives you qualify for, check out the Database for State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency’s chart.

Don’t worry if you don’t live in the warmest area. If your home has unshaded areas or faces south, it can be a good candidate for a solar water heating system.

“If you have a house with a clear shot of the sun, this is one of the best value/cost home improvements you can make,” adds Dau. “Beyond the cost recovery, this system’s savings will be with us for many years – long after we have forgotten the initial cost. And, should we ever sell this home, I feel it is easily worth another $10,000 in home value.”

If you want to estimate how much a solar water heating system can save you each year, the EERE has a system to help you determine the possible savings.

Sometimes being green can be easy. If you unplug your chargers when they aren’t in use, you not only save energy, but you also save money.

According the Environmental Protection Agency, electronics, adaptors and appliances cost Americans almost $10 billion a year and account for almost 11 percent of all U.S. energy use. These “energy vampires” suck power even when not in use or they are turned off.

Ten billion dollars sounds kind of abstract, doesn’t it? According to EnergyStar, U.S. households spend $100 a year to power devices in a standby power mode.

EnergyStar estimates that the are more than 1.5 billion power adapters in use across the country — about five per person. That makes sense. In our home, we have two cell phones, a digital camera, digital camcorder, two laptops, a cordless screwdriver, a baby monitor, etc. We easily cover the five adapters per person.

While $10 billion is a lot of money, it’s money that can be very easily saved. Just unplug your chargers whenever they aren’t in use.

It’s a great habit to get into, don’t you think?

Although I’m sure many retail stores will hate to see this, you do not have to buy decorations for your home this holiday season. There are plenty of natural decoration options that will look just as festive as those fake silver trees.

If your yard is filled with pine trees, then there are probably lots of pine cones lying around your yard. Pick up the pretty ones, as well as some pine fronds and use those to decorate a mantel or table. You could also wrap them around your mailbox or put them over your front door.

The pine cones would also look great by themselves on a dining room table.

Fresh cranberries look festive when you float them in a water-filled glass dish with sustainable candles.

If you like the green and red combination, why not decorate with green and red apples? You could create a pretty centerpiece that’s also edible!

Make an orange pomander ball out of an orange, whole cloves and a ribbon. Just poke some holes in a fresh orange and stick whole dried cloves in them. This site recommends rolling the ball in spices, which I’m sure would make it smell even better!

I’m a big fan of the whole edible decoration idea. We’ve never made a gingerbread house, but I’m thinking that might be a fun new tradition to add to our holidays.

Here’s a link for some other great green holiday suggestions.

Do you have any cool ideas for green holiday decor?

Two trends definitely seem to be catching on right now, going green and saving some green — and it’s not that hard to do both at the same time.

Over the next few weeks we’re going to do a series of posts detailing the different and inexpensive ways you can go green.

Did you know that a bottle of distilled white vinegar can practically erase your need for any other household cleaners? This humble bottle can be used to clean counters, microwaves, ovens, dishwashers, mirrors, windows, coffee pots, and carpets. It can be used to get rid of odors and even be used as a fabric softener!

Since there are so many ways to clean with distilled white vinegar, I’m going to highlight some of the super-easy ways I clean with white vinegar and supply links to dozens of other uses for this miracle cleaner.

I regularly use distilled white vinegar to:

1. Clean windows and mirrors. The key to leaving no streaks or trails of paper towel bits is to use newspaper or those brown paper towels supplied at some gas station bathrooms. It’s easiest to put the vinegar into a spray bottle and use as you would any glass cleaner.
2. Clean countertops, stoves, sinks — just about any household surface. Use white vinegar in place of your regular countertop cleaner with paper towel or dish towel. Again, it’s easiest if you put the white vinegar in a spray bottle.
3. Clean tile, linoleum or vinyl floor. Just use as you would your normal floor cleaner.
4. Clean a coffee pot. Pour white vinegar into the water reservoir and run it without coffee. You will need to run it once more with water before making a new pot of coffee.
5. Freshen the air. We left dirty water in our steam cleaner once, and managed to make a lot of mildew. After a deep cleaning of the steam cleaner (and a very thorough drying) we couldn’t get the smell to budge from our closet. I put a bowl of undiluted white vinegar on the floor of the closet and after a few days, the smell was gone!

Here are some links to other suggestions for white vinegar. Some of these are new to me, and I can’t wait to try them out!

· Vinegartips.com — This list is very thorough! I plan to use their suggestion to clean up messes made by our pets. They recommend using a vinegar/water solution instead of straight vinegar. Straight vinegar works fine for me, but if you want to stretch your vinegar or can’t stand the smell, then I suggest mixing it with water.
· 25 Ways to Clean with Vinegar – A lot of her tips have to do with laundry and stains. This is a great resource for those of us who are messy!

And just for fun, you can use a solution of white vinegar and salt to clean pennies. This was very entertaining to me when I was a child. I would put the yuckiest, green and white corroded pennies in the bowl, and they would come out shiny and new looking.