Practical tips for environmentally responsible and cheaper living

[ganstey]

Inspired (?) by this thread Living basic to save on bills I thought it would be interesting and useful to gather together some useful and practical tips. Most of the books and TV programmes on the subject seem to require you to become Tom Good with a couple of acres of land or to have a huge amount of capital to get you started, by suggesting things like "replace your mains electricity with a generator connected to a water wheel", or "devote an acre of your garden to growing vegetables". Whilst these might make good TV or sell loads of books, they aren't practical to most of us. Tips should also be ethical, so recommending you use the local swimming pool/gym for showers is just 'stealing' from others. Tips for doing everyday things in a more environmentally friendly way are also much appreciated.

So I'm looking for things that most people could do, given that they probably live in a modern-ish house on some kind of housing estate, have a job to go to and so can't 'go feral', and they don't have much money to plough into replacing large bits of infrastructure. In my case my garden is only 10[SUP]2[/SUP] so converting it into an allotment isn't practical, although I concede that I could plant up one or more square-foot gardening beds.

I don't have much to contribute as I'm looking for suggestions, but I'll start with...

1) Disconnect the waste pipe from the washbasin in the toilet/bathroom/both and redirect it into a large plastic container. Use this grey water for flushing the toilet. This tip comes from my late father who did exactly this during the drought of 1976.

2) Turn the thermostat down a degree or two and put on an extra layer of clothing (but be wary of the risk of hypothermia).

Over to you guys...

 

[Shewie]

3) Place a bottle inside your toilet cistern, this displaces the water and fools the float ball into thinking it's fuller than it is.

I've used 1L Robinsons squash bottle so we save a litre every time we flush, it's not a lot but it all counts.

 

[presterjohn]

Don't regulate the temperature of your bedroom via the window. If I could get all the students to do this at the University I work at we could save thousands. If you spread that across the country we could probably save millions.

On another lower level if you are a lecturer and use a projector of any kind during your lesson, work out how to turn it off rather than walk away with the light shining bright blue at a screen for the weekend using 1kw of energy every hour for the entire weekend. We have an average of 6 of those left on at the end of each days teaching.

 

[British Red]

Ahhh my kind of thread . I accept that I am probably an extreme example for many people and spend more time and effort on self sufficiency than many / most are prepared to, so tell me to shut up when you wish.

Tip one:

Buy ingredients in bulk from the grower / farm. Potatoes are running between six and eight pounds for 25kg around here. This makes them cheaper for you, reduces food mile, cuts out the middle man. Anyone here "gets out" to the country now and again - so they must be passing a farm or two! Things like sacks of carrots are absurdly cheap at the farm gate.

(Stop me when you get bored with these)

 

[shaggystu]

Cook meals in bulk and freeze them in single portions, it's cheaper to buy the ingredients in the first place, your freezer works more efficiently because it's fuller, and when there's nothing in the fridge you won't be quite so tempted to go for the easy, lazy, and expensive options (take away/eating out/nipping to the shop for "convenience foods"). It can take a while to build your freezer stock up and get into the routine but once you do you don't need to go to the shops as often, and less trips to the shops means less spotting things you fancy/falling for "offers"/grabbing a bottle of wine, so you save even more money.
Winner winner, (home-frozen, single-portioned, 3-minute-microveable, tasty, healthy, and cheap) chicken dinner

Cheers,

Stuart.

 

[British Red]

That was indeed tip number two from me Stuart

So tip Number 2

Prepare meals in bulk. Its more efficient in terms of cooking energy, cooking time and cost. They can then be lobbed in the oven for a simple evening meal


Cottage Pie by British Red, on Flickr

 

[Harvestman]

Walk rather than drive if the distance is reasonable.

 

[British Red]

Tip number 3 - combine heating and cooking and carbon neutral fuel


esse cooking by British Red, on Flickr

When the oven is always hot, there is always a "brew on" without boiling the kettle, the oven is always "preheated" and it costs nothing to cook a meal as you are simply using the heat that heats your home to heat your meals first.

 

[Monikieman]

It's cheaper to freeze cheap reduced bread (if you have loads of room) than freezing air.

Always have a keek at the large supermarkets about 7pm/8pm for all the reductions/whoopsies.

 

[shaggystu]

That was indeed tip number two from me Stuart....

I think that if I'd spotted your "Tip number 1" before I'd posted I would probably have guessed as much

Tip number 3 - combine heating and cooking and carbon neutral fuel. When the oven is always hot, there is always a "brew on" without boiling the kettle...

I miss my woodburner mainly for that very reason, I have to stop what I'm doing and wait for the kettle to boil these days, and pay for the pleasure of doing it :aargh4:

 

[Shewie]

Go to Morrisons half an hour before they shut and lookout for the ladies with the reduced trolleys, cakes and chicken a plenty

 

[British Red]

Tip Number 4 - use "no power" methods of food preservation

Sand clamping


Carrots in late March by British Red, on Flickr

Dehydrator


kiwi pineapple dehydrator by British Red, on Flickr

Pressure canning


Pressure Canner by British Red, on Flickr

Water bath canning


16 Put in water bath) by British Red, on Flickr


Pickling & Chutneying


Chutneys and Relish by British Red, on Flickr

Jams and Jellies


Finished crab apple jelly by British Red, on Flickr

Ambient preserving


8) Onion Strings by British Red, on Flickr


Garlic Plait by British Red, on Flickr

 

[Stringmaker]

If you have to rely on an electric oven/hob then turn it off a couple of minutes before you normally would and use the residual heat to finish the cooking.

 

[Qwerty]

Rather than disconnecting the sink drain to recycle the water, get one of these

 

[RonW]

Buy local foods!
It'll not only help your local farmers and/or economy, but you'll be saving on a lot of transportation, refridgeration and use of chemicals.

 

[Turnstone]

Ask yourself if you really need to buy another new thing. Stop collecting stuff you want but don't need.

 

[Stringmaker]

Ask yourself if you really need to buy another new thing. Stop collecting stuff you want but don't need.

Heretic!

Seriously though you are of course right but if we all bought on the basis of need only then the economies of the West would collapse.

It also raises an interesting question about the definitions of the two terms; before I was interested in bushy activities and craft skills I didn't "need" an axe, knife etc. Once I did take an interest then I "wanted" to learn how to carve spoons and therefore I "needed" to buy some tools.

What I try to do is not to waste what I do buy; whether it is food, energy, clothes or any material object.

 

[Turnstone]

Heretic!
It also raises an interesting question about the definitions of the two terms; before I was interested in bushy activities and craft skills I didn't "need" an axe, knife etc. Once I did take an interest then I "wanted" to learn how to carve spoons and therefore I "needed" to buy some tools.

I think it's absolutely fine to buy an axe or a knife if you really use it and get joy out of it. You "need" it. But if you buy another knife and another just because you like the look of it and put it on display instead of using it, then you just "want" and don't "need" it. You don't need to stop buying things, just think about it if you just want it or if you need it.

And it's true that our current economy requires growth. But growth can't go on forever, the ressources are limited. It's only a matter of time until the economics collapse.

 

[Stew]

My quickest money saving tip was learning to joint a chicken.

We eat a lot of chicken and used to buy packs of breast meat.

Buying a whole chicken works out much more economical. An 'average' sized chicken gives enough breast meat for three people. The pair of thighs and drumsticks i generally find is easiest for 2 adult portions (though perhaps a bit more than needed). the wings are taken off and bagged in the freezer. When the quantity of stored wings is sufficient they're cooked off as a big batch for a finger licking lunch. The carcass is frozen and saved until there are three or four (or no space!) then all roasted in the oven before making into chicken stock.

 

[British Red]

My quickest money saving tip was learning to joint a chicken.

.

You must get through an awful lot of Rizlas

(and yes we buy whole chickens for less than Tesco charge for two chicken breasts!)