She's making sure that the A/C won't run while she's gone. In her apartment that means setting the thermostat to a temperature that won't allow it to kick on – even if it gets pretty hot out.

As for the fridge, she's already emptied out the foods that will spoil while she's away, but that's left some empty shelves. In her book How to Reduce your Carbon Footprint, Joanna Yarrow suggests filling those spaces with bottles of water. They'll retain the cold and keep Girlawhirl's fridge from working too hard while she's gone. The same idea works in the freezer as well, but even crumpled up newspapers can do the trick there.

Girlawhirl's also making an apartment wide sweep, and unplugging anything that won't need to run while she's gone. That way, her TV, DVR and other devices won't use power when she's not there. And she's going to be especially careful to make sure that any and all chargers are unplugged as well.

If she follows these steps, Girlawhirl's sure to save energy while she's away and she won't be faced with a big bill when she gets home. And as for her vacation? She's already used carbon offsets to cancel out the CO2 emissions from her flight.