Tag Archive for free

Saving Can Be Cool in the Summer

June 22, 2019 Comments Off on Saving Can Be Cool in the Summer

Here are a few hints to keep your house–and so yourself–cool this summer: 1) Open up the window coverings when sunlight isn’t streaming through, then close when the sun hits the windows. 2) Use light-colored, loose-weave mesh shades to let in light and keep out heat. 3) Apply reflective (also called low-emissivity, or “low-e”) coatings to the outside of windows. Then, sit back, relax, and enjoy the comfort, knowing that, by not using your AC, you’re saving energy and money.

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[For more easy, money-saving, Earth-friendly tips, download a FREE copy of Green Riches: Help the Earth & Your Budget. Go to www.Smashwords.com/books/view/7000 or your favorite e-book seller and download to your computer or e-book device. Totally free, with no strings attached.]

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Free Trees for Your Community

June 15, 2019 Comments Off on Free Trees for Your Community

Trees, nature’s air purifiers, are inexpensive and easy to plant.  In my area (San Jose), there’s an organization called Our City Forest. It helps people choose the right tree for their location, demonstrates how to plant it, and gives it to to the person for free (donation requested).  If the person is older or disabled, they’ll even send out someone to plant it for them.

Does your community have such an organization? If not, propose it. See Our City Forest details at www.ourcityforest.org so you can offer your city some information about how a successful program can operate.

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[For more easy, money-saving, Earth-friendly tips, download a FREE copy of Green Riches: Help the Earth & Your Budget. Go to www.Smashwords.com/books/view/7000 or your favorite e-book seller and download to your computer or e-book device. Totally free, with no strings attached.]

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It’s All About YOU

March 22, 2019 Comments Off on It’s All About YOU

Did you miss it yesterday? World Poetry Day. Yes, it’s an actual declared day, celebrated on March 21 each year. Back in 1999, UNESCO
(the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) started it, with the intent of encouraging people to read, write, publish, and teach poetry throughout the world.

Why?! Poetry is hard to understand and doesn’t relate to me!


Wrong. Poetry tells the stories of our lives–the good time, bad times, inspired moments, deep-in-despair moments–all that makes us human. We see ourselves, whether in a phrase or in the whole poem. In other words, it isn’t a bunch of sing-songy, forced-to-rhyme lines (not true poetry) but statements (rhyming or not) that remind us of our shared human experience.

It’s not too late to celebrate it. In fact, I invite you to download, at no cost (yes, free) my book of poetry, God Sneezed. You can find it at your favorite e-book seller, or just click this link:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/search?query=god+sneezed . I’m sure you’ll find something there that reminds you of you.

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Free Book Download

March 9, 2019 Comments Off on Free Book Download

Saturdays I call “Sensible Saturday” on my blog. It’s a day when I tell about new inventions or ideas aimed at saving our planet, or I give suggestions for little things anyone can do. Those suggestions are simple, easy, and often save money. If you’d like to try some of them, you can find an abundance of them in my FREE e-book, Green Riches: Help the Earth & Your Budget. More than 2200 people have already downloaded it. You can find it at your favorite e-book seller or go to Smashwords.com and search Jackie O’Donnell. Again, it’s totally free for you to download and use.

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Cards that Keep on Giving

December 29, 2018 Comments Off on Cards that Keep on Giving

Thinking about putting Christmas decorations away for the year? Be sure to recycle those Christmas cards that gave you warmth and beauty over the season: make postcards out of the fronts; use them in arts and crafts projects; make a collage to form a photo-album cover; use clear sides for notes; donate them to St. Jude’s Ranch for Children or another charity; or (as a last resort) put them into the recycle bin.

[For more easy, money-saving, Earth-friendly tips, download a FREE copy of Green Riches: Help the Earth & Your Budget. Go to www.Smashwords.com/books/view/7000 or your favorite e-book seller and download to your computer or e-book device. Totally free, with no strings attached.]

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“Giving” in to Tomorrow

November 26, 2018 Comments Off on “Giving” in to Tomorrow

Tomorrow is “Giving Tuesday,” a holiday designed to balance out the self-absorbed madness of Black Friday and Cyber Monday.  On this day, business, charities, communities, and families enter into the spirit of giving.  EVERYONE can participate.  If not with our wallets, then with our excess food in our pantries or the second Buy-one/Get-One-Free item.  With that like-new clothing we loved when we bought it but know we’ll never wear.  With those toys our kids opened Christmases ago but sit in their boxes, un-played with.  With blankets and rain ponchos for the homeless who are about to be caught in what promises to be a harsh winter.  Or simply with the gift of our time: to help at a shelter or soup kitchen; to visit a lonely elder in a nursing home; to comfort a grieving family; to be with a troubled child.  I hope Giving Tuesday expands to Giving Everyday.  Besides, the spirit of this day turns the madness into a loving anticipation of a Christmas season packed with all the meaning it’s supposed to have.

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Toxic Flame Retardants in Your Bed

September 29, 2018 Comments Off on Toxic Flame Retardants in Your Bed

Looking for furniture, mattress, or children’s items that do not contain toxic flame-retardant chemicals but are fire-resistant?  Go to http://greensciencepolicy.org/topics/consumer–   Chemical flame retardants do a good job but are harmful to your health and the health of the Earth. So why not give these others a try?

[For more easy, money-saving, Earth-friendly tips, download a FREE copy of Green Riches: Help the Earth & Your Budget. Go to www.Smashwords.com/books/view/7000 or your favorite e-book seller and download to your computer or e-book device. Totally free, with no strings attached.]

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Grow a Healthy Adult

September 22, 2018 Comments Off on Grow a Healthy Adult

Help your kids avoid respiratory problems as adults by having greenery around your home now. So says new research. They’ve discovered that children who grow up playing in and around green space are less prone to asthma and wheezing during adulthood. Read more about this at https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/09/180918180504.htm

[For more easy, money-saving, Earth-friendly tips, download a FREE copy of Green Riches: Help the Earth & Your Budget. Go to www.Smashwords.com/books/view/7000 or your favorite e-book seller and download to your computer or e-book device. Totally free, with no strings attached.]

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Wrap it Up!

September 7, 2018 Comments Off on Wrap it Up!

I don’t mean this as an ad. I don’t do ads here. But I just discovered something that is practical, reusable (just wash them), biodegradable, and organic–the total package!

We all know about the growing plastic garbage patch in our oceans and about wildlife dying after eating or getting tangled in plastic. What’s probably one of your biggest uses of plastic, especially if you have kids? Plastic wrap and containers.

Check out the Etee Food Wraps. Perfect for lunch box items, preserving cut vegetables, storing things like banana bread, covering bowls in the fridge…all sorts of things. The odd (and nice) part is that the more you buy the less expensive they are–a Family pack (16) is $4 cheaper than a Starter Pack (3), and shipping is free.

Again, I’m sorry if this comes across as an ad. I get excited about products that are good for me and for the environment.

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A Lyft for Voters

September 5, 2018 Comments Off on A Lyft for Voters

Some elderly people don’t trust vote-by-mail but can’t drive themselves to the polls. In some families, the breadwinner has the only car, and they’re at work. In some places, there are few polling places, often not near where people live. Whatever the reason, in 2016, 15+ million people registered but didn’t vote because of transportation problems.

Lyft plans to enable more people to exercise their American right to vote. They’ll offer half-price rides to the polls–even free rides in some instances. They’ll encourage voting, too, by having drivers remind passengers of registration deadlines and hand out registration information and materials. Plus, they’ll offer voter registration for their employees at the Lyft offices.

I applaud what Lyft is doing. Voting is not only our right, it’s our responsibility. And, as close elections prove, every single ballot elderly,cast (or not cast) really does matter.

Get details at https://blog.lyft.com/posts/2018/8/22/get-out-the-vote

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