In yesterday’s post I listed Sustainability Changes That Save Money which we have managed to successfully include in our life. Today I need to admit that there are many, mnay things that we need to improve upon.
- Barter and trade with neighbors and friends.
[D] I’ve thought about it…does that count? Yesterday, Hubby and I were actually brainstorming some ways we could do some of this inthe near future.
- Utilize Freecycle, Craigs List, and other local free exchanges.
[C] We use these where possible. It’s only been a recent pledge to buy pre-loved instead of new, so the habits are not yet ingrained.
- Shop at thrift stores and garage sales, and arrange clothing swaps with friends and family.
[C] I swap clothes with family and have shopped at thrifts stores in the past, but it isn’t a big part of my life now. I think I’m 90% ready to say no to new clothes for the remainder of this year. I’ll get there soon, I’m sure.
- Buy in bulk: buy from bulk bins at your local market, buy large quantities of staples via special order from your local market or online, buy a whole case which generally comes with a case discount, and buy large packages of food you use regularly. If buying in bulk leaves you with too much food, go in on the purchase with a friend or set up a community buying club.
[C] We buy bulk sugar, flour, beans and oats from Costco as well as canned goods. Honesly I think there is more that we could be doing in this area, and we plan to explore it further this year.
- Buy fruit and vegetable seconds and day old bakery items.
[D] We don’t go out of our way to do this.
- Pick your own produce at a local farm.
[C] Where possible we buy at the local Farmer’s Market, however we need to embrace this more
- Grow your own food.
[D] We have straw bales to start our own Straw Bale vegetable garden, but at the moment they are just growing grass.
- Learn to preserve food by canning, drying, root cellaring, freezing, and pickling.
[C] So far I’ve tried tomato relish and orange marmalade. I intend to experiment more when we have extra food in our own garden.
- Make your own cleaning and body products from simple and cheap ingredients like vinegar, baking soda/bicarb, hydrogen peroxide, corn starch, cooking oil, lemon juice, and water.
[D] We’ve used vinegar for cleaning, but haven’t tried any of these other remedies yet.
- Unplug or turn off power switches to appliances when not in use, to save electricity.
[C]We turn off lights and appliances if they aren’t in use, but we really need to get power boards so that our appliances aren’t inadvertently sucking electricity.
- Reduce shower times, bathe less often, and use bath water to water outdoor plants and flush toilets.
[C] We are concious of reducing the water we use, but haven’t yet started to monitor our actual usage.
- Use coupons. I recently bought a book of coupons for local shopping.
[D] Not something we’ve even looked at yet.
I guess this is now a good opportunity to start working on bringing more of these elements into our lives.
Photo by: bitzcelt
