About The Author:
Mrs Green runs Little Green Blog, which covers green technology, gentle parenting and eco friendly living.
One of my passions is living as lightly as I can on the earth. This doesn’t mean a life of deprivation or ‘going without’ some of the modern comforts and conveniences of 21st century life; neither does it mean having an unlimited budget for hybrid cars or big solar panels.
Living a green lifestyle can be very creative and *very* frugal as these tips will show you. Every one of these tips will cost you precisely nothing!
1- Love your leftovers
Instead of calling food leftovers, view it as ingredients. Left over cooked vegetables can be made into soup, while fruit that is past its best can be whizzed into smoothies. Putting old food into landfill produces methane; a potent greenhouse gas and you’ll get better value for money if you use up every last scrap.
2- Cooking from scratch
If you cook from scratch you know exactly what you are eating and can eat for a fraction of the cost. You’ll save heaps of money and be healthier too. Why not batch cook to save energy and freeze ‘convenience food’ for a later date?
3- Turn it off!
If you can see the red dot on your appliances, you’ve left them on standby. Ok, so it might be a few cents of electricity you are saving, but how many gadgets do you leave on standby and for how long? Do the math and you’ll see you can make quite a saving by turning things off at the socket.
4- Close the curtains
Once dusk comes it’s time to close the curtains; by doing this tiny step you’ll be keeping heat inside your home for free. If you line your curtains with old blankets you’ll conserve even more heat.
5- Reuse instead of dispose
Is there one disposable product you buy which you could swap for a reusable option? Kitchen towel is a great example – grab a pile of unworn t-shirts, cut them up into rags and you’ll save yourself money and trees throughout the year!
6- Green clean
Do you really need a separate product to clean the floor, another one to wipe the kitchen surfaces and yet another to shine the sink? By using white vinegar and baking soda you can successfully do most cleaning jobs in your home – it’s safer for you, better for the environment and cheaper too.
Great tips! I know that for me, when trying to convince people to “go green” I have way more luck with the money side of things rather than the environmental side. Truly, even if you don’t “believe in” global warming, there are still lots of good reasons to conserve!