Green Living On a Budget

As we increasingly try to become eco-warriors and try to establish green practices within our homes and lifestyles we’re constantly met with the barriers of time and cost. Installing solar panels and insulating your home might be flouted as the greenest thing since the dawn of time, but for many these sort of options are just financially unviable right now. Equally growing your own crops and setting up a compost station might all sound rather nice but actually having the time to invest in your kitchen garden is probably just a distant dream.

But greener living can’t be that hard can it?

Green living doesn’t necessarily need lots of investment in order to slash your carbon footprint and your household bills and there’s so many simple ways to cut down without altering your lifestyle all that much. Try these top tips and see how it works for you. You’ll probably feel better about good ol’ mother earth and your bank balance will benefit too!

Stand-by and Un-plug

We all should know by now that leaving our phone chargers plugged in and our TV’s on stand-by saps energy but we still do it without a backwards glance. Items with built in LED clocks and any items designed to turn on quickly (such as microwaves and kettles) are thought to drain energy too even though few of us would ever think about turning them off at the mains. While some people argue the wastage is so minimal it’s hardly worth worrying about, others claim that they’ve made noticeable savings on their utility bills through unplugging unused items.

Reusable Rubbish

Victoria is writing on behalf of REC Ltd Resource & Environmental Consultants; a multi-disciplinary environmental consultancy focusing on the built and natural environment.

It’s amazing what can be recycled and if there’s any ornithology aficionados in your house then they’ll be pleased to know that your clumps of grey dryer lint does actually have a use – birds can use it to fluff out their nests! Just leave it outside and in theory the birds will flock.

Cut Down on Print

The internet’s killing print so they say but in terms of green living, opting to have bank and bill statements sent electronically is much more environmentally conscious and is a feature certainly offered by a wide range of providers. For a lot of us, reading from a lovely big paper or flicking through a glossy magazine is much more reader-friendly, but if you’re a student then reading journals online can save paper and printing costs.

Take Your Own Travel Mug

It’s quite sobering to think just how much money we spend on take-out coffee and if the sheer volume of the throwaway cups doesn’t make you think then the monthly total probably will. Think £2.50 per day for 20 days. That’s £50! But if you can’t bring yourself to cut down on your coffee run then think about investing in a travel mug and taking that to your favourite haunt. No throwaway cups and a 25p reduction (it’ll add up…!)

Swap and Save

DEFRA estimates that in the UK there’s up to 1 million tons of unwanted clothing in the ‘national’ wardrobe and if you’re the buy and never wear type then this probably doesn’t come as that much of a shock! But they say one man’s trash is anothers treasure and if you really have to throw away then do it right! Clothing banks are frequently included at recycling points and there’s some great ways to swap your unwanted items with other peoples if you need a fashion overhaul. Setting up a fashion swapping evening with your friends or workmates is a great way to get your hands some new clobber and if you don’t fancy swapping with your nearest and dearest, then websites such as swishing.co.uk allow you to swap your clothes and gain ‘shopping’ tokens for other unwanted clothing posted on the site.

Don’t Recycle, Reuse

Recycling is all well and good but if you find yourself clocking up the same plastic and glass containers each week then re-using your popular throw-away packaging can reduce your wastage and work out cheaper. Many household brands are now jumping on the bandwagon with everyday items such as coffee, fruit squash and deodorant minimising their packaging and in some cases offering paper packaged refills.

One For The Ladies

If you’ve ever been to a festival then the concept of the menstrual cup may be familiar to you as they can be a popular choice when women don’t want to worry about disposable sanitary products. The menstrual cup is basically a reusable silicon cup that collects fluids instead of absorbing, allowing women to save on disposable products. Of course it isn’t for everyone but it’s certainly eco-friendly on a budget.

Popular Products

Save cash and packaging with homemade beauty products is surprisingly easy and can end up working just as well as the market leaders at a fraction of the cost! If you frequently spend on body exfoliators then a great alternative is to mix sea salt with a little olive oil and slather on as usual. Equally some women find treating their hair with coconut oil works wonders and his can be purchased relatively cheaply (especially compared to branded hair masks!) from world food shops. If you simply can’t bear to part from your expensive moisturisers then there’s still ways you can make your favourite product spread further too. Using Vaseline on your feet (the large pots can be purchased for a few pounds) and covering with cling film or socks while you sleep is really effective for dry skin and tends to do the job just as well as pricey foot creams.

Victoria is writing on behalf of REC Ltd Resource & Environmental Consultants; a multi-disciplinary environmental consultancy focusing on the built and natural environment.