3. Create a co-op. Get together with friends and neighbors to buy green products in bulk, perhaps online. Cleaning products, compact fluorescent lightbulbs, and many other items can be had by the case for a lot less, and you can buy grass-fed beef by the side directly from the farmer.
4. Shop around. Try discount or low-end retailers for good-quality green products at lower prices.
5. Read labels. Sometimes green doesn't cost more. Method detergent, for instance, comes in a smaller bottle, but it's highly concentrated, so it costs less per load - and thus requires less packaging and less energy to ship.


What's the Payoff?
Refrigerators are the energy hogs of home appliances: The average refrigerator uses 1,383 kilowatt-hours of electricity per year. That's $125 annually, based on the national average cost of residential electricity. Buy a brand-new GE Energy Star fridge, which will save you about $100 annually, and the appliance will pay for itself in savings in less than eight years.

A Toyota Prius pays for itself even faster. When comparing it with a similarly equipped Honda Civic Sedan EX, the Prius has an up-front cost of about $2,700 more. But with a gas mileage of 60 mpg in the city versus the Honda's 30 mpg, the Prius costs $775 less per year for every 15,000 miles driven - which means the price difference is made up in about three and a half years.

The biggest no-brainers for a going-green payoff are compact fluorescent lightbulbs, which cost about $4 for a 100-watt equivalent. You can get a standard 100-watter for about 50 cents, but the compact fluorescents will save $4 in energy in one year and about $30 during their life span.