How do you go green?

I hate that term.  "going green".  Kermit always said it's not easy being green- and that's what I associate with the whole movement.  I guess I should have called this "how are you both frugal and responsible?".

There are those squiggly little lightbulbs (that DO save a ton of energy but are a pain in the butt when it comes to clean up if they break and they need to "heat up" and they are MEGA expensive in the store, not to mention they suck for photoshoots.)

Then there are a squajillion ways to recycle, reuse, etc- but what about TRULY being frugal and responsible?

It's no secret that I make my own soap.  I not only make my own laundry soap  but I actually make the soap for the bars I grate.  I make my own dish soap- though this is out of necessity.  I'm allergic to all commercial products that I've tried- they're too harsh on my hands or they don't get my dishes clean, BUT either way, I make my liquid soap in a concentrate almost a full pickle jar at a time so it lasts about 9 months to a year.

I do SO many frugal things, but one thing I"m trying this year is aquaponics!  Our grocery bill is between $500 and $800 a month.  Not bad considering that we have 7 people in our family that we're feeding outright (8th will be here in April and will be nursing).  My goal is to take down our food bill with this to about $150 a month.  How awesome would that be?!  eating mainly fruits and veggies that I not only grow myself, but it costs WAY less than the average shopping trip- I'm actually REALLY excited about it.

What other ways can we be responsible to the environment and also be frugal?  well, there's compost piles (organic material- organic matter, not necessarily chemical free) and doing laundry outside every now and then- hanging things to dry instead of running your dryer.  There's so many ways we can actually do it, but there are some ways in our comfy society that a lot will look on as nasty.  For example, I cloth diaper.  some moms would rather die than have to rinse out poo.  Well, to that I say- why not?  you wash your toddler's clothes if they poop themselves, right?  why not your babies' diapers?  There's mama cloths (instead of buying feminine products every month which can irritate you and cause severe diseases in some instances) but a lot of women would freak at having to clean out things specifically designed to collect blood.

Like I said, a lot of people would be grossed out by it.  me?  not so much.

Anyway- what ways do you do that can stretch a budget and be responsible?  For example, I get a whole turkey.  I'll roast it and use that for dinner.  After that, I'll break down the tturkey for other dishes.  I'll then boil the bones for a stock which I'll use to either make soup, or use the liquid for rice, or mashed potatoes.

I'll save the scraps of onions, carrots, celery, peppers, corn cobs and egg shells in the freezer for stock.    I'll recycle coffee grounds to put into my compost or outside garden for the worms to eat.  I'll also use egg shells crushed (not ground!) around my strawberries to prevent slugs from eating them.

there are just so many ways to frugally live- how do you do it?