9 Ways to Go Green & Save Money
October 16, 2008 by Jennifer Chait
Filed under Contests and Giveaways, Eco Simplicity
Hey everyone. Sorry to be MIA but my entire laptop motherboard died, leaving me sans computer over the last few days. By the way, there will be no post about said computer issue, because it was in no way thrifty (sadly). But, now back to business as usual…
Thrifty folks and green folks are usually divided into two neat categories, when in reality, thrifty and green go hand in hand. There’s a huge misconception that green is costly, because plenty of organic companies, sustainable wood companies, and other green-minded venues charge more than conventional products of the same type. However, if you ignore the specialty shops, and live on the basic green premise that less is more, you’ll not only be able to go green, but save money while you’re doing it.
Here are some family-minded tips about how to go green and save money…
1) Live in a smaller house. Small homes cost less to heat and cool, are less expensive to build and decorate, and have less space available to fill with junk you don’t need. For tips, read:
2) Reuse and recycle. Reusing items, or using them up is not only green, but save money. Plenty of people buy new items on a whim, when something they already have will do just fine. In other cases you can fix an item you have, which is usually cheaper than buying new (with the exception of home appliances - the new energy saving models of say, dryers, can save you more money and energy in the long run than fixing your old one.)
3) Brave your tap water. Not all tap water is safe, and in this case a water filter, or water service is greener and less costly than buying bottled. That said, plenty of tap water in many communities is perfectly safe to drink and cook with. Why pay for water if you don’t have to. Filters and water services, although greener than bottled, still waste resources, transport gas, and money. To see if your tap water is safe to drink sans filter visit this link.
4) Remake items or buy used: Thrift stores, garage sales, and consignment shops are inexpensive and green. It costs very little to transport a used shirt to the thrift store; much less than the cost of manufacturing new clothes. You can easily re-purpose plenty of home items; from clothing, to furniture, to arts and craft supplies.
- 10 Easy Reuse Ideas for Organizing Your Home
- Re-purpose the Furniture You Own
- Recycled Sweater Kid Pants
- Homemade Recycled Holiday Luminaries
- Recycled Autumn Kid Crafts
5) Save energy. We all try to save energy to cut costs, but in doing so we also allow the planet to breathe a little easier.
- Unplugging Your Home & Other Ways To Save Energy
- Arrange Your Furniture to Save Energy
- Build A Solar Cooker
6) Watch your diet. There are plenty of reasons to eat healthy, but even if we ignore health issues altogether, smart eating tactics also are earth-friendly and save you money. If you buy organic, you might be thinking how expensive it can be, but what you need to do is scale back other non-necessity items. Also cutting out meat is green and less costly. You don’t have to go vegan or anything, but cutting out one meat meal a week can help.
7) Cut out disposables: Disposable paper towels, grocery bags, napkins, soap containers, and so fourth waste entirely too much money and resources. If you can cut out all of the above, (or more!) you’ll not only save loads of cash, but the earth as well.
- Get Rid of Disposable Bathroom Cups
- How Green Living Saves You Money: Napkin Example
- Reusable Bags for Bulk Food Items
- 23 Refillable Liquid Hand Soap Pumps
Clean green. Not a lot to say here. It’s pretty basic. Don’t use toxic gross cleaners. Homemade cleaners are eco-friendly and costs so much less.
- Homemade Organic Liquid Handsoap
- Pennyroyal, Cinnamon, & Lavender Air Freshener
- Household Cleaning Products Linked To Childhood Asthma
- 25 Safe, Non-toxic, Homemade Cleaning Supplies
9) Parent your baby green style. Being a green baby parent is a super thrifty action. Most of the green baby decisions you can make, naturally save you loads of cash.
What sort of green & thrifty steps do you take at home?
It’s the Blogtoberfest icon! Which means a super keen (and secret) prize is hidden behind this special blog post. If you want to win the great prize that I’m hiding, simply leave a comment on this post. A totally easy way to win a prize. Within a week, the winner of the hidden prize will be announced here at Simply Thrifty, so check back often.
Other ways to win a prize! You have lots of chances to win great Blogtoberfest prizes? Today, October 16th, there are secret special prizes hiding at the following Lifestyles Channel blogs: Offbeat Homes, All Holiday Cafe, Babylune, Blog Fabulous, Mother Earth’s Garden, Layers Upon Layers, Robust Cooking, Simply Home Remedies, The Food Bowl, Dating Dames and Thrifty Mommy. Visit all of these blogs, look for the blogtoberfest icon on a post, and leave a comment for your chance at another great prize.
Good luck and happy blogtoberfest!
[images via stock.xchng]
LRN
First sorry about the computer. When I first started going green after my son was born I couldn’t believe how expensive it was. Over time I’ve realized that it is cheaper. And when you do decide to buy something like an organic cotton tshirt you have the money for it because you don’t spend much on anything else.
You know, I never thought of some of my habits as thrifty and green, but I already do some of these! I buy most of my kids’ clothes from Once Upon A Child or thrift stores (or I get free hand-me-downs, my favorite!) and I repaint old furniture instead of replacing it. The only new furniture I’ve ever purchased was an entertainment center kit, which we built and stained ourselves to save money. My next thrifty/green goal is to buy enough cloth napkins so we don’t need paper ones anymore–I’ve wanted to do this for awhile and just need to get it done. I love reading all these tips for ways to save AND be greener! Thanks!
All of these things have become such an integral part of our lives. Luckily, we also live in an area where we can elect to get all of our electricity from wind power and have multiple farmer’s markets available to easily buy local food. Unfortunately, our public transportation options aren’t so good yet but my husband and I car pool when we can. We’re quite proud of our lifestyle and glad we live in a place that makes it easier to live it (northern Colorado).
Lots of great ideas. We do live in a smaller house and use a lot of hand-me-down or consignment clothing. We are teaching our son about conserving water and energy and we try to limit or heting/AC by dressing appropriately and using our programmable thermostat. Thanks!
Thank you so much for the great ideas! I have always tried to be kind to the planet but everything costs so much. I love your ideas as I can implement them and save money!
Tips to Save Cash
If you’ve lost a job recently or you’ve watched your investments take a nosedive, you’re wondering how to save money. You won’t be taking that much needed vacation or enjoying a family meal at a restaurant, and instead of going to films, you’ll rent or download. But when saving money can you still enjoy yourself?
Turn the lights off. This is especially true in areas of the house you’re not using for a while. But you can also save some dimes by substituting candles and natural light when reading those books you’ll be borrowing from the library.
Abbreviate long showers and run the dishwasher only when it’s completely full to save money on water and electricity.
Computers are one of the most energy-hogging devices in a home. Alternate between battery and electricity if you’re on it all day. Turn all computers off when you’re finishing working on them.
Plasma screen televisions are also a tremendous energy sucker. Try board games or hobbies for some quality family time or read a book you’ve haven’t yet found the time for.
Should a major appliance stop working, buy used– look for the Energy Star logo or buy Bosch, one of the world’s most energy efficient brands.
Suspend or drop your gym membership and use the outdoors, the stairs or buy used equipment through Craigslist.com or Freecycle.com. You’ll spend up to 10 times less on various apparati there and recycle the products’ energy. You may subsequently save gas by not driving to the gym or taking public transportation to work.
Since hiring an interior designer or completely refurbishing your decor won’t likely be on the budget horizon, consider architectural salvage: repair, refurnish, restore and repurpose. Have an old, squeaky door that just doesn’t cut it anymore? Take it off its hinges, sand it down and restain it. Otherwise convert it into something else like a bench.
For more tips, visit SpaceDesignJournal.com by
Nichole L. Reber. Reber is a freelance journalist who covers the green building and design industry. As a freelance journalist she has accumulated skills such as buying gas, food and wine with $4.
I’d like to exchange links. Also would you be interested in exchanging guest blogger roles periodically? Would spread your name around a bit.
Great ideas. I have to check out the water link. That would be a great way to cut back. Plus tap water has floride in it and kids do need that for their teeth.
We don’t use bottled water and almost all of our clothes are hand-me-downs or consignment. Newspapers and magazines are read online.
Lots of great tips, I already do some of these but could work on doing some more.
The recycled sweater pants was creative.
Our family made a commitment earlier this year and we are working very hard on becoming green. Thanks for some tips. Cindi
we are doing all of these now - the smaller house gets kind of old but when i think of the money we are saving i feel better. thank you for the tips!
I’m doing all the usual small steps - driving only to work, drinking only tap-water (it’s perfectly safe AND tasty in Austria), recycling trash, growing my own vegetables…
One great tip for parenting “green” is to make your own baby food. I think it’s less wasteful than buying premade baby food.
AND it’s a whole lot less expensive. Baby food is highway robbery!!
Keeping with the whole “less is more” theme, I wrote a blog today about recycling electronics, thanks for the inspiration, I enjoy your blog!
We dont buy bottled water, we have a filtering system. We do shop at the thrift stores and we belong to our local freecycle group. Our home is smaller and we keep it cooler in the winter and just put on more clothes if we are cold.
Thanks for the giveaway
We do the things you listed, and we’re also lucky enough to live where we can grow a lot of our own food.