Photo courtesy Shutterstock Images

Living on a budget can make you wonder how you'd ever afford getting a new green washing machine, organic cotton shirt or even at times a compact fluorescent bulb. Everything costs money and many an eco-friendly product comes at a premium. Rumored savings from living green, however, can seem just that as you wander down the aisles of Whole Foods, enviously eyeing imported cheese and organic beef. In my own case, for some time I've wanted a ceiling fan to deal with global warming at the scale of my apartment. And when I looked at my own buying habits, adding up where I might save a little cash, I found some good choices that didn't compromise my green values.

Food

Starting with cereal, I can devour a box a week pretty easily, with all the waste packaging that entails (and my Wheaties aren't even organic). Time to buy in bulk and bring my own bag for a weekly savings of $2.13 or $110.76 over the course of a year. Pretty good. I like blueberries on my cereal, but if I buy them out of season I end up paying $3 more per tub—so I'll be buying seasonal fruits from here on out to avoid the premium.

I eat a lot of peanut butter as well and here I always go organic—but if I use the store grinder rather than buy it in cans, I save $1.50 every other week for annual savings of $39. I took the reverse path with my staple onions. Although I believe in supporting organic farmers, knowing that conventional onions have low pesticide residues and cost $1.30 less per pound, I figured I'd take those savings for an extra $67.60 each year.

By contrast, buying organic, fair trade, bird-friendly coffee in preference to conventional helps small farmers, maintains forest canopy for tropical birds and protects workers from pesticide exposures. I wind up paying $1.75 daily for a medium-sized conventional coffee. If I brew my own triple-certified cup, like Tradewinds Eco-Friendly Blend ($9.75/lb.; www.tradewindscoffee.com) on weekdays, I'll save a whopping $405.60 every year.

Paper Products

With spilled coffee, bathroom visits and the demands of journalism, I waste more paper than I should. Doubtless there's a forest quaking with fear every time I reach for a paper towel. So looking to save a buck and a tree or two, I switched from Charmin toilet paper and Scott paper towels to Seventh Generation's non-chlorine bleached, 80 percent post-consumer waste (PCW) alternatives, which have the highest PCW percentage of any recycled-paper product on the market. While the Seventh Gen toilet paper ($3.99/4 rolls; www.drugstore.com) ended up costing me $.40 more than Charmin's, their paper towels ($1.99/roll; www.drugstore.com) saved me $1 over Scotts, and I got 28 more towels with the natural brand. My total savings? $31.20 per year, and a few more trees in the forest.

When it comes to office paper, I already buy Domtar EarthChoice Forest Stewardship Council-certified paper, but by printing on both sides I can halve my consumption. A 10-ream case sells for $34.99 (www.officedepot.com/buygreen). At $3.49 per ream, I save $20.94 a year.