Going green and frugal at the same time

A lot of the green movement – the part that’s aimed at selling stuff for advertising sponsors – makes it look like it’s expensive to do the right thing by the environment, but that’s not true. Long before fancy toilets and spiffy solar panels, people were doing green things without even meaning to, just to save money.

Simple Green Frugal Co-op has a list of 25 ways to be green and actually save yourself money. My personal favorites:

Learn to preserve food by canning, drying, root cellaring, freezing, and pickling.  You can find books about how to do these things at your local library.

These used to be essential tools for surviving the winter. Whether you grow your own food, buy from farmers or giant supermarkets, preserving food you don’t want to eat just now is a great way to cut down on how much food goes to waste. This saves on your grocery bills. (And check yesterday’s post, if you missed it, on making frozen meals out of leftovers and stuff that’s getting ready to spoil).

Reduce shower times, bathe less often, and use bath water to water outdoor plants and flush toilets.

I have some more tips for saving water here. I can’t seem to break the daily bath/shower habit, but I have discovered I don’t need to wash my hair every day (depends on your hair type, really) and I can get nice and clean with a very shallow bath (just a few gallons). I pay a fixed rate for water, as a renter, so this doesn’t help me save money. But these are great habits to have in place when I’m able to buy a home.

There are plenty of other great tips st SGFC, so check it out!

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Posted in Frugal, Going Green on January 29, 2009