Switch banks

With many businesses, it can be difficult to know where your money goes after it leaves your sweaty palm. Banks are notorious in this regard; in the UK, Barclays' investments in South Africa in the '70s were believed to be aiding the apartheid regime, and Barclays currently is the largest investor in the weapons industry. Compare this to the Co-operative, which in addition to a strict ethical investment policy, actively campaigns on environmental and social justice issues. The Co-op is about as un-evil as a large chain business can get. And with every post office in the UK acting as a mini Co-op bank of sorts, managing money with the Co-op is incredibly easy.

To switch to the Co-op, visit www.co-operativebank.co.uk. If you're outside the UK, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethical_banking has useful information under "List of ethical banks."

Effort level involved: moderate. Filling out forms and canceling accounts can be a pain. But the form-filling and account-canceling won't take as long as whatever sitcom you were planning to watch tonight. Well worth it to know that your money is going toward microfinance projects rather than cluster bombs in poor countries.