Green living is not only good for our planet, it can be good for our wallets as well! By following a few eco-friendly green living tips, you can keep a little green for yourself.

Here are a five eco-friendly green living tips that will also save you some green...

1. Switch to compact fluorescent light bulbs (cfls). If you change just five of the most used light bulbs in your home, you can save about $80 in energy costs in a year. Although the cfls are more expensive to purchase up front, the added cost is more than offset by the energy savings and they also last much longer than standard bulbs. And if everyone changed just one bulb to a cfl, it would be like taking 1.2 mil cars off road for a year!

2. Bring your own bag to the grocery store. Some stores will give you between 5 and 25 cents off per bag. Most plastic bags are not recycled.

3. Bring your own cup. Some coffee houses will give you credit if you bring your own cup (like Starbucks).

4. Switch from bottled water to water out of the faucet. It will save you a load of money over the long term and will save tons of plastic bottles from winding up in landfills. Even if the bottles are recycled, a great deal of energy is used in transporting and recycling, so better not to use them in the first place. And nothing tastes better than icy cold water out of a real glass!

5. Consider organizing a book swap with friends or others in the community. Rather than purchasing new books, you can give old books new life by exchanging them with others. And you can save a bundle by not having to run out to purchase new books! Another option, of course, is to use the public library. But, for those who dislike reading books that have been handled by so many people, a book swap is a great alternative, because you can set the rules about the condition that books must be in before they can be considered for exchange.

By adopting even just a few eco-friendly green living tips into your everyday life, you will begin to notice that you can keep some extra money in your pocket, while feeling good that you are doing your small part to help the planet.

Andrea Spenser is a regular contributor to http://www.shortcutsleuth.com, where she writes about ways to save time, save money, and save energy. Shortcutsleuth.com provides valuable information, resources and tips on saving time and saving money so that people can learn to work smarter, rather than harder. Categories of advice include: household (cleaning, cooking, decorating), personal (health & wellness, beauty & style, sanity savers), environment (eco-friendly, community service), family (communication, fundraising, school & activities, travel & entertainment), financial (saving & budgeting, college costs), organization (home organization tips, time management), professional (work at home), and shopping (ways to save), and more. By learning to be more efficient with how we use our time, money and energy we can get the most out of life!