Ideas on how to be greener and save money

Primrose · 21 February 2018 at 11:17AM

Even if you have a dishwasher, keep a bowl of soapy water in your sink for those instant wash ups you need, especially if utensils need cleaning more than once while cooking or preparing a recipe.

mickeymouse303 · 21 February 2018 at 11:23AM

I'd definitely recommend composting because you can use certain bits of food waste.

Here's some more info about composting at home: https://www.epa.gov/recycle/composting-home

Primrose · 21 February 2018 at 12:11PM

Anybody who has been reading about the drastic measures having to be adopted by the people of South Africa, and particularly in Cape Town, as a result of lack of rains, and an infrastructure which has not been built over the years to cope with the population's water needs, will understand the need to conserve water. It will be a very short time there before everybodys' taps are turned off and young and old will be having to queue at communal water taps for all their needs.

If we all had a dose of having to do this, even for a couple of days, lugging buckets and containers , we would quickly realise just how precious a commodity water is!!

jinkssick · 22 February 2018 at 12:33PM

-When its cold wear a jumper. When sitting down use a throw/blanket. At the moment its cold and my heater turns on 1 1/2hrs from 23:00 to 12:30 and again 03:00 to 04:30. Sons room has windows covered with thick curtain to trap heat/prevent heat leakage. Also bottom of door is covered with old towel at nights. This goes for my sons bedroom and our bedroom. All doors in the house are shut during winter to conserve heat in each. All heaters in living room, bathroom, foyer are all closed so we heat just two bedrooms.
-When driving, I accelerate from start slowly and never drive for other people no matter how much they want me to speed up 0-30 in 2.2secs. Keep wheels inflated one PSI higher than recommended Economy setting. When driving on motorway I will not go over 60mph (if its safe I would do 55 when no large trucks are around). The savings costs are staggering. Might take me 7-8 less but save me a lot more. Driving 60 instead of 70 saves 14%!
And the norms of reading the road ahead, If I am coming towards a red light I would stop accelerating way before so that when it turns green I have some momentum don't have to start car from scratch.
-I highly highly recommend a dash cam (mine was £30). I was hit by another driver who said they werent to blame. Video was perfect proof, last week got word they/insurers have taken full responsibility. £30 cost of dash cam cancelled out by hundreds £s of repairs.
-When we eat out we always bring our own drink for our son. Or have tap water. Its crazy to think how most profit for restaurants is on the drinks. We may treat ourselves to some McDonalds and only pay £1.99 for Big Mac/fries and get tap water. Been doing it for a few years now. It is shocking to think people walk up and order off the menu from any chain. Using coupons we eat in Toby Carvery 2x adults and child for £10.50 with tap water. I may eat at 11am fill up on the veg that I don't have to eat for the rest of the day.
-Cook meals at home and use for lunch at work.
-Shop at Lidl and forego the clubcard points con at Tesco. Even though their 4 times value deals for restaurants was great but now moving to 3

No Bueno
-Containers whatever they contain are cut in half and every little bit is used. With some you can place the cut part into the other cut part and make it pretty much 95% sealed.
-I grab a mug, fill it with water, then put the water in the kettle. That shows you what you need to boil.
-When cooking I turn off hob 10 mins, before food to be cooked that the residual heat can take care of.
-I don't have tv licence, no sky, no bt and watch most things on youtube/Netflix (perpetually get their free trial). Broadband was haggled to £14 a month.
-Most of our furniture is second hand in great condition bought from gumtree, ebay, community forum
-I rarely set foot in a shop, if I do its to see an item and then purchase online
-I shop at Lidl/Aldi if I want a specific brand item, I use mysupermarket to find where its cheapest in the big 5.
-80% of my sons clothing are brought second hand, then washed. If he wants a particular toy I would try to find it second hand, a replica of item or getting it as cheap as possible online
-PC/laptops can be turned to hibernate (don't use sleep) as that uses no electricity when you want it to boot up faster
-Use one block of toilet paper when I do a wee (I'm a man), 4 x2 for a poo. Of course let it mellow etc

As you can see many would call me a cheapskate but always ask how I can afford so many holidays etc.

Former_MSE_Andrea · 22 February 2018 at 1:11PM

I love this thread. Well done yellow218!

sazzlebgood? · 22 February 2018 at 8:33PM

after using the oven leave the door open and the left over heat will heat your kitchen

Pixie_Boodle · 28 February 2018 at 11:15AM

I bought a £5 white plastic kettle from Asda and boil water from my water butt to use for the "dirty" jobs around the house - cleaning the toilets/kitchen floor etc. I use this kettle too for my hot water bottle refills instead of using fresh water every time. My water bill has gone down by £5 a month since I started doing this.

Primrose · 28 February 2018 at 11:29AM

Pixie_Boodle wrote: »

I bought a £5 white plastic kettle from Asda and boil water from my water butt to use for the "dirty" jobs around the house - cleaning the toilets/kitchen floor etc. I use this kettle too for my hot water bottle refills instead of using fresh water every time. My water bill has gone down by £5 a month since I started doing this.

What a good idea - as long as you don't have to plough out through the current snow to crack the ice in your water butt !

Laura_Elsewhere · 2 March 2018 at 11:05PM

THIRZAH wrote: »

We can put bones in our food waste bin.

I am concerned about washing fleeces. We have several and they are warm. If I washed them in a pillowcase would that stop fibres escaping or would they just all end up in the pillowcase and then end up in the drains next time I wash the pillowcase?

So far as I can tell there is no eco-friendly way to wash fleece or microfibre

How about just reducing how often you need to wash them? So, spot-cleaning any spills or stains, like you would on a wool jacket you can't wash? And when you take them off, turn them inside-out and hang on a coat-hanger so they can air.

And a tip from someone I know who worked for decades in opera-costume - where the costumes are worn every night under hot stage-lighting so the singers are very sweaty, but the costumes can never be washed - fill a plant-mister spray-bottle with vodka and a few drops of essential oil of rosemary, and spray that onto the underarms to kill smells!

That way, at least you're only washing them if they REALLy need it - and maybe soak overnight in a bucket of water, or water-with-Biotex, and then the quickest, least-water wash cycle possible.
that's what I'm trying to do...

you can only do what you can do - but to my mind, the microfibre/fleece pollution is amongst the worst we've inflicted on the planet. These are many of the plastics found in remote places of the world, the deep seas, etc...

yellow218 · 4 March 2018 at 8:34AM

Three new things for us this week.
- loose leaf tea rather than tea bags. Apparently tea bags have plastic in then. Seems to have been an easy swap so far. Tea strainer at the ready!!!
- normal washing powder is starting to get low. Purchased an eco egg. Heard they don!!!8217;t have much fragrance so dug our some lavender essential oils I already had.
- realised there!!!8217;s an eco setting on the washing machine. (How did I not see it before). The cycle takes longer but i mainly put a load in before work or bed so it!!!8217;s not a problem but uses less water and less electricity. Question to anyone who uses an eco setting- mine defaults to 60degrees but can be changed. My instinct was to drop it to 30, but does it work well enough. I normally wash at 30 but on a normal cycle to it!!!8217;s more vigorous. I assume an eco setting works by soaking clothes more?

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