Poll: Favorite green purchase this year

SuperGreen

What was your favorite green purchase this year?  It doesn't have to be a product that came out this year, just something that's new to you.  Mine is hands down my Diva Cup.  As I've said many times on this board: Best.Invention.EVER.

I also really like my very upscale new dehydrator, an Excalibur.  It's *huge*, so I'll never have to upsize again.  Plus it has a timer, which I love.

mrsbooboo

Rain barrel (DH made)

Compost bin

And I'm not sure if this is considered "green", but the best thing I bought this year was my pressure canner. We're saving a TON on groceries, because I canned chicken noodle soup, chicken and beef broth, tomato soup, salsas, peaches, jams, pickles, apple sauce, pasta sauce, meat sauce... I was worried we wouldn't use everything, but I find myself going down to the basement for jars almost every day. LOVES it!

Plus everything was free! I got banged up heirloom tomatoes from the market (it's ok, since I used those for sauces) and the other fruits and veggies were from my garden or were given to me. Neighbor gave me 30 lbs of cherries, 75 lbs of apples and about 15 lbs of raspberries. They also gave me about 10 cases of brand new mason jars. I'm addicted.

Next step: Smoker and dehydrator.

elviebird

SodaStream (DH was skeptical at first but now loves it) and Diva Cup (Love it!!)

jennyk213

Our rain barrel. 

I'm not sure if this is what you had in mind, but I also love our native flower gardens that we put in.  It was so fun watching the butterflies, bees and birds that we never had before.  I also love that we only had to water a few times when we hit some super dry stretches. 

blue_elle

Compost bin - best $10 we ever spent!

 

sunshine_day_dreams

Most definitely my diva cup.  We also got a soda stream for our wedding that I love.

daisyterp

Sodastream- and my $8 estate sale breadmaker. 

 

mah482

I won a dehydrator in a blog giveaway a few weeks ago and can't wait to use it! DH and I went to a farm supply store tonight and found a jerky gun so we can make turkey jerky this weekend. I can't wait to dry fruit for oatmeal and cereal.

Jeff & Em

It's a tie between a SodaStream and my dehydrator.

Except that I won the SodaStream, so if I'm playing by the technical rules it would have to be the dehydrator.

LemonLover33

My husband bought me a SodaStream for Christmas and my sister bought me a Lady cup (diva cup like). I technically didn't buy them but they are by far my favorite.

nsees

Compost bin and pressure canner :-)

kayash

My reusable bags for sure. I really just started trying to live a green lifestyle this year and those were the gateway purchase for me. I love them and now I love buying them for others too.

tbearsangel

I gotta go with my reusable shopping bags too... I can't beleive I shopped w/o them! We also put up a compost bin with old skids from DHs work, so we didn't buy it, but it was a good thing for us overall thoigh.

Meagan1302

kayash:

My reusable bags for sure. I really just started trying to live a green lifestyle this year and those were the gateway purchase for me. I love them and now I love buying them for others too.

 When I started trying to live a more "green" lifestyle this was my first purchase as well! Now I have so many I just give them away to people when they don't have one (I work at a small grocery market and NONE of the employees except for me was a reusable bag user. So I just started giving them one when they'd buy things, now they all use them!) =] I have a ridiculous collection that is quite excessive.

I found that the next easiest step is to switch things when you run out of the non-green version. Laundry detergent, cleaning products, lightbulbs, etc.

Good luck!

belovedbride07

Hmm...I can't think of many green purchases this year.  Aside from canning supplies, I'm loving my compost crock.  It is much more attractive than an old butter tub sitting on the counter, and is bigger so I don't make a mess of the coffee grounds every day.  (It's also dishwasher-safe, so when it gets really gross, we can wash it easily.)

CutesBoots

Can I count the dirt and plants we bought to put in our garden?  Starting a garden was probably our best green decision of the year.

jak&imk

DH installed timers on all of our bathroom fans, so they run for ten minutes instead of an hour or two after someone turns it on and walks away.

Akikaze

I'd have to say that switching to super-local organic farm milk was a top one for us (in New England it seems like most top-brand grocery store milk is somewhat local).  It's a little pricer than the regular stuff, but it even comes in glass bottles that you can return for refunds.  one of the many things we love about our local farm stand.

Tina Achtyl

The items that were new to me this year that I loved are:

The Twist Sponge. I find it really gets the tough stuff off my dishes:

http://www.twistclean.com/loofahsponge/

And Corn or wheat litter for the cat box. I can't rave about this enough. It doesn't track, it keeps their paws cleaner (which keeps my furniture cleaner) and it doesn't get all sticky and messy when I forget (ooopss) to clean the litter box for a few days! Plus NO DUST!

http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2751594