Tomorrow is Earth Day and it should be no secret that there are many ways that being frugal is also helping the world in which we live!
Here are some of the changes that we have made in the last year that were both frugal and good for the Earth
1. No bottled water: I will occasionally buy one if I am out running errands (and left the house without my reusable water bottle filled to the brim), but we do not keep bottled water in the house. I'll spare you the "in my day we drank water straight from the hose and laughed at how Evian was 'naive' spelled backwards" rant, but I see bottled water as a HUGE waste of money and resources in a country with potable water!
2. Recycle items in TO your household: I don't buy those Gladware/Ziploc containers because the lunchmeat that I can get for super-cheap with coupons already comes in one. If you do buy the Gladware/Ziploc containers, don't think of them as "disposable"...think of them as "reusable". We also wash and reuse Cool Whip, cottage cheese and sour cream containers. If it can survive the dishwasher, it can be used for leftovers, etc in the refrigerator!
3. Ditch the paper at meals: We don't use paper plates, cups or napkins in my house. It started as snobbery on my part (that's right - I admit it! I'm a second-generation snob!). The impact of the extra water used to wash glass/china/cloth napkins is far less than the environmental impact of cutting down trees, the pulping process to make paper, the water and resources to turn the paper in to plates/napkins, the plastic used both in the plates and to wrap the plates, and so on....
4. Grow some of your own food: While you won't see chickens running around my back yard, stop by in the summer and you will see tomato plants, a ton of herbs (to the point where I start pawning basil off on the neighbors), peppers and occasionally green beans. By doing this you are saving money by growing your own organic veggies!
5. Skip the dry cycle on your dishwasher: It can be a tremendous waste of energy and many newer dishwashers allow you to turn off the drying portion of the cycle. If spots on your glasses drive you crazy (like they do me), hand drying can be done quickly once you "get in a groove".
6. Switch to Compact Flourescent Light Bulbs: we now have CFLs in every room in our house. Before Brad switched us over the CFLs, it seemed like we were replacing a bulb every week somewhere in the house. Frankly, I can't remember the last time we replaced a light bulb! This is the best month to do it, as there are some huge deals to be found on CFLs in honor of Earth Day as well as recent coupons! (for my local readers, you can get them for $.25 each at Giant this week! If your store is out, get a raincheck!)
7. Use rags instead of paper towels: I admit that I am not as good as this as I should be, but I have switched to using old kitchen towels and torn up bath towels for much of my cleaning. Just like the cloth napkins, the cost/impact of the extra load of laundry is far less than the cost/impact of making and distributing paper towels.
8. Line dry your laundry: this is one thing that I wish we could do, but the HOA for our development prohibits it. However, I have asked Brad to make me a small portable clothesline that I can put on the patio so that it can't be seen by the neighbors (we back up to a field - no issue there). Not only will you save energy from the dryer, your clothes will smell wonderful!
What are some of your frugal and environmentally-friendly suggestions?
I have been using the cold wash setting on my washing machine to save energy, and unless I have a totally disgusting load, the clothes come out just as clean as the warm or hot settings.
Also, I used to vacuum every room, even the hard floors, just because it's so easy and fast, but I have been sweeping a lot more lately. It's peaceful and calming, and I get to pretend that I'm in Little House on the Prairie.
Am I the only freak who wishes that we could go back to a simpler time? 🙂
The only one of these that we have not embraced is the CFL bulbs - I fear the mercury in them if they get broken - we have no overhead lights except for the kitchen, in our main rooms - I'd just be scared that my kids could knock over a lamp and break one of those CFL bulbs - so regular bulbs remain.
Our HOA also prohibits line drying outdoors - however - I still do it because here in Florida, there is a law on thes statute books that over-rides HOA rules forbidding use of energy efficient or environmentally friendly practices such as line drying, solar panels and rain barrels - so I'm set. I love the savings on our electricity bill too.
Sorry to nitpick, but if you're concerned about BPA, then you should avoid reusing plastic food packaging (e.g. sour cream cups, Cool Whip containers, etc.). Those packages are not designed for prolonged use, and because of this, they leach BPA and other plastic chemicals into food much more easily than containers specifically engineered for longterm use, such as Tupperware or Rubbermaid food storage containers.
actually - from all the research that I have done, as long as you don't add hot foods or reheat the food in the containers, those coded with a 1 or a 5 (in the triangle on the bottom) are fine for storing leftovers!
I've got three links here urging people to not to reuse plastic packaging, including #1 plastics. All three of the links also warn against putting them in the dishwasher because the heat and detergents can leach chemicals out of the plastic.
http://www.medicinenet.com/plastic/article.htm
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102559178
http://www.uabhealth.org/61158/
The plastic packaging you reuse is eventually going to fall apart and end up in the recycling bin anyways. So why bother taking the risk when you can invest in some nice Pyrex food containers? They last forever and don't carry of the risk of getting chemicals in your food.
Better yet, go glass. Pyrex and Corningware storage containers are readily available at Target, Walmart, etc and will last virtually FOREVER. No heating issues, no BPA, no staining, most are freezer-refrigerator-microwave-dishwasher safe and contrary to popular belief, are virtually unbreakable. I'll never go back to plastic - even the "free" stuff you can claim from reusing the above-mentioned containers. You can see what you've stored in them, you can easily label things for freezer storage and remove the label after thawing. Glass is far and away the most economical, practical and earth-friendly way to store & reheat food.
I love using the clothesline. Each spring I can't wait until it gets warm enough to start hanging laundry.
We've also switched so cloth napkins and rags. I keep a few paper towels to clean up cat messes, but one roll lasts a long time.
We also have a collection of Tupperware/Rubbermaid/Ziploc containers that store absolutely everything.
Our household totally needs to make more green changes. Thanks for the inspiration!
Here's my GREEN contribution...I make my own dryer sheets. Purchase washcloths to use as the dryer sheet. Then get a spray bottle (large size) fill half with water and half with fabric softner. Then before drying your clothes, spray the washcloth (make sure it's really, really wet) with the spray bottle and voila...you have good smelling clothes with little cost. A bottle of fabric softner lasts a long time and I just wash and keep reusing the washcloths. I bought about 7-8 of them on clearance at Walmart not long ago for $.50 a piece. Dryer sheets are so expensive!
Here are a few things to add:
Make your own "Windex" by combining a 1:1 ratio of white vinegar and water. You could add in a bit of rubbing alcohol to help with streaking. Works on everything from countertops to mirrors to windows. Love it. I use it to clean my linoleum & tile floors, too.
Nix all the "air scenting" goodies like Glade, AirWicke, etc. They do nothing but send harmful chemicals into the air. You're paying to pollute your home! Switch to soy wax candles instead for a more eco-friendly air freshener. Or set out a bowl of straight white vinegar which will soak up yucky smells like fish.
I make my own "wet swiffers" by cutting up my husbands old cotton t-shirts (which work better as rags than dish towels - you should try it!) into a rectangle and then keeping them soaking in a mild vinegar solution. You can pop one right on the Swiffer mop and it will clean about 1/2 the kitchen floor. Better yet - my son loves to Swiffer the floors!
We use those CFL lightbulbs, we also shut our power off at the power strip and unplug things like the coffee maker. Which has the added benefit of saving us about forty bucks a month on our electric bill. We have ceiling fans, we don't use bottled water, I switched to recycled paper towels and napkins, we eat about 80% organic now. The meat is a huge sacrifice for me, since buying regular chicken for 1.99 a pound has been replaced by four dollar a pound organic chicken. But, I try very hard to save enough money elsewhere in my shopping so that we are spending the same money, just on different things.
We have also committed to buying only used furniture( except for mattresses and pillows) because new stuff can have a lot of scary gasses, and to be honest the old stuff is better made anyway.
We also committed last year to ONLY bringing things into the house that we needed to live. No doodads or vases or dust catchers. We don't want anymore stuff than we already have.
Someday when we have a little more disposable income I would love to switch to all organic clothes too.
Also, I bring my own re-usable shopping bags, and have done my best to not buy things that come from far away. I miss bananas. We also bought the environmentally friendly house paint. I use organic cleaners almost exclusively. I am waiting for a good Sun and Earth sale to stock up on laundry detergent.
We also moved closer to my husbands job so his commute would be shorter.
We pay a lot of our bills online as well.
My goal for the coming year is to begin composting and then have a garden. You have to be the change you want to see in the world. I forget who said that, someone smarter than me.
Oh yes, I store in glass or pyrex. It can be a pain to find glass containers with glass lids, but it is possible. I do at least one load of hang dry laundry a week too.
I used to grow a few things on our deck (tomatos, peppers, herbs), but then we moved to the land of DEER! If you don't have a 6 foot fence around everything, you're goodies are toast. We have a neighbor who actually has a huge fenced in garden and says we can take what we want. It's just tomatos and peppers, but OMG who doesn't love fresh tomato and mozzerella in the summer!
I'm not sure if you'll get this seeing that it's now Thursday, but just in case you do, try putting marigolds or onions around the edge of your garden, I know it sounds as though it wouldn't stop a thing, but I live in the land of deer as well and they won't go past these two, I don't know what it is about them but it's like an electric fence for them! I chose the onions since they can be harvested and marigolds cannot, jus pull them when the tops bend over and start to die and store them in a cool, dry, dark location (like a basement if it's dry).
I buy CFLs now to replace all my lightbulbs. And I compost veg/fruit scraps and egg shells in my vegetable garden instead of throwing them out. Our HOA doesn't allow outside lines either but I've been drying them outside anyway. I'll stop when someone complains.
At this point- with global warming and a failing economy I don't see how it can be ok to not let someone have a vegetable garden, compost or hang dry clothes. Our HOA rules are outdated.
I love your list! We do things very similar at our house. We have even switched to rechargable batteries! Most recently, we bought a rain barrel! I enjoyed your post!