Ideas on how to be greener and save money

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.

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 - 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.

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!

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