Ideas on how to be greener and save money

yellow218

2018 resolution to try to be greener.
- check supermarket prices for loose and packaged veg to avoid non-recyclable plastic use
- only filling the kettle with the amount of water needed. We use a job too kettle and we are really noticing the difference in the time it takes to boil. Will no doubt save money on gas.
- bag of water in the toilet cistern
- nagging hubby to turn off the lights !!!129325;

Other ideas??

[purplesignup][/purplesignup]

Gem-gem

Hi Yellow,
I!!!8217;ll be interested to see what people come up with.

I know that some people do not like doing this, but we did as children. Share bath water.
Save water from a !!!8216;quick bath!!!8217; and water the grass in the summer with it.
Water butt in the garden.
Use the water when washing salad items to water the plants.
Left over water in a glass - used to water house plants.
Bucket to wash car ( not hose pipe - or only for the final rinse).
I have a water container so no more bottled water. Get filtered water from work or good old tap water.

When the oven is on for a meal cook a casserole at the same time for the next day. Or bake at the same time. When I was baking the other day I made and baked four pies for hubby all at the same time - saves on gas and making all the mess at once.

JennyP

yellow218 wrote: »

- only filling the kettle with the amount of water needed. We use a job too kettle and we are really noticing the difference in the time it takes to boil.

We live on a boat so have to be a bit more careful with gas, electricity and water. If there's any water left in the kettle when it's boiled, we pour it Intl a thermos. We picked this up from anotber boater. It's OK for making coffee (though I like tea only if it's made with freshly boiled water) or we'll use it for washing up, filling hot water bottles etc. Even if it's just the dregs from the kettle, it collects over the course of the day.

buildersdaughter

Just a warning - for many years I siphoned water from the bath out to the garden. During a hosepipe ban i got a knock on the door, and what I was doing was illegal! I showed the inspector (he happened to knock just as I was draining the kids' morning bath) and a neighbour backed me up - so he didn't issue me with a fine. But he did tell me to stop doing it as there was no way to tell. So it was either cart buckets downstairs, throw out of the window like a medieval maid, or waste the water. Once the ban had lifted, I could go back to siphoning the bath and saving water!

My main tip is compost. I am very proud of my little deep bed that keeps us in greens and salad, and is fed only with household compost - 2 bins - one 'receiving' and one fermenting.

I take cloth bags shopping. I rarely buy fruit /veg in supermarkets, but when i do, I use bags made from old net curtains - light to put on the scales, and the produce can be seen at the till. Printout stickers usually adhere to the bag - if not I put them on the back of my shopping list.

Shopping lists and general notes are made on recycled Xmas / birthday cards - and bring a smile to my face!

PipneyJane

Use microfiber cleaning cloths instead of harsh chemical cleaners to clean surfaces. Ensure the cloth is wet and rung out first. They will clean off most things, including the baked on crud on the top of the stove, with just a little elbow grease. I find they work for everything except lime-scale.


Lakeland sell one brand which are quite pricy but last forever. If you have a Costco membership, in the motoring section, they sell a packet of 36 for £10; they're 30cm x 30cm in size.


- Pip

Slinky

My understanding (recent) is that microfibre cloths break down as you use them and add to plastic waste in the oceans. We have those yellow ones from Costco, I don't think we'll buy more once they're gone.

buildersdaughter

Slinky - do you have a link? I have just looked on Ethical Consumer, who recommend them. Ecozone, who make them, score 14.5 / 20. They try to be up to date, but obviously this is a complex area.
I ask, because I use these cloths for most of my cleaning.

CapricornLass

Slinky, that's my understanding too.

villagelife

I find having a throw in the sofa to use when sitting down means the heating doesn't always need to go on. I have finally convinced DH that it works!
In the summer sitting out in the garden for the evening saved in electricity as don't put lights on and tv and laptops etc aren't used. If it gets chilly then the throw from the sofa can be used!

Ilona

I never understand the passion for buying microfibre cleaning cloths. Surely it's more ethical to use the fabric you already have in the house, cut up into squares. Old sheets, towels, tea towels, clothes, anything. What did we do before these posh cloths were invented?

Ilona

[Deleted User]

Reading through some of the posts I realise that what I do as normal is 'green'

I have always used the surplus water from my shower for the garden I have a ground floor bathroom but the water comes down from upstairs so at first it runs cold and this I use to fill in a large plastic ex-paint tub that once held emulsion it has a handy carrying handle so once filled is left by the back door to use on my garden and lawn.I haven't used a hosepipe for several years.I am on a water meter indoors so I am paying for water that would normally go down the drain not on my watch it doesn't.

I am pretty good about water because my late OH lived and worked in the Sudan in the 1980s and told me how precious water is and we both taught our children never to waste any of it.

I have always used my own bags for shopping, long before there was an obligation to pay for them I am far to canny to pay for a bag when I have several in my car or in my house.

I was brought up with rationing and recycling, but back then it was a normal way of life and recycling as a concept hadn't been thought about
It was a case of making do with what you had, or mending stuff when it broke as you literally couldn't buy things in the shops .

Practical things seem to have been forgotten about in today's throw away society, which is a shame, as if on the very few occasions that I have to take stuff to the tip, to see what is discarded there is almost criminal . I know my late Mum would be shocked to see what's binned today.

I have a couple of bottles which I use filled every day from the tap for taking with me in the car for a drink.tap water is perfectly fine to drink and the thought of buying basically tap water when out is to me just absurd.I don't care if the water is strained through french mountains My local tap water is fine for me. I too only biol enough for a couple of cups in the kettle as its pointless to boil up more than you need If cooking in my big oven then it gets filled with extra stuff to cook at the same time ,even a cooling down oven will cook meringues OK. Nothing goes to waste in my house and I am happy to watch TV without a light on and my bills reflect what utilities I use. A knitted blanket over my knees is more than enough to keep me warm if it gets a little chilly and I have two hot water bottles which can be used to keep my feet warm.My monthly water bill is £14.00 odd and my combined gas and electric bills are around £35 .00 per month worked out over 12 months which for a three bedroomed house with only myself living there is to me quite reasonable I am never cold and if there is a cold snap then the heating goes on .But several years ago I had the walls insulated and extra stuff put into the loft

My food is mainly all cooked from scratch as I dislike processed food, and to me HM soup made from past-its-best veg etc is far nicer than a tin of chemicals that taste of god knows what. 60p worth of fresh veg can make a good couple of litres of soup whereas a tin of soup will barely feed two portions.

I am I suppose a product of my generation where money was in short supply so you did actually make do and mend and never thought it odd or weird at all. Perhaps its just I hate to see waste of any kind .

JackieO xx