Green Living on a Budget

There’s continuing pressure for us to save the environment. There’s all this talk of solar panels, green energy, recycling cooking oil to power a car and other big life changes that would certainly reduce your carbon foot print. However, this isn’t exactly practical. Here are a few tips on how to live a more eco-friendly lifestyle without spending all that money.

Recycle

You can start small here, just put your recyclables in a different bin to your general waste. All councils will give you two bins so make use of them!

You could also start recycling your food waste into a little food bin that is lined with a biodegradable bag. You can then donate this to community gardening projects as compost or use it on your own garden. A lot of councils now recycle food waste separately now too.

Say no to Packaging

If you want to eat really well then you’ll be buying all your food fresh. This doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be spending a lot more money. Fresh fruit and veg aren’t as expensive as people might think.

If you do buy ready meals then be mindful of the packaging it comes in. This is just what you’ll be throwing away. Perhaps look for foods that have recyclable packaging.

Avoid Chemical Ingredients

Products made with natural ingredients aren’t always the most expensive. In fact, because they don’t contain over-engineered chemicals, they are generally quite reasonable.

It’s not always easy to find 100% natural products so maybe start small and slowly start replacing beauty, health and cleaning products with ones that are a little more eco-friendly and better for your health!

Ingredients to avoid in beauty products are:

• Parabens
• Petroleum
• Sodium Lauryl Sulphate (SLS)

And ones to avoid in cleaning products:

• Phenols
• Nonylphenol ethoxylate
• Formaldehyde

Smart Lighting

Replace all normal light bulbs with energy saving or LED light bulbs. These might cost a little more than a regular bulb but you’ll save money in the long run. It used to be that the energy saving bulbs were less bright than others but the technology has come on so far that you now wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.

Love Walking

If you learn to love walking then you’ll never consider the car for those short journeys. Not only is this great for your health and the environment but you’ll even save money as you won’t have to pay for fuel for your car.

It’s these small differences that can add up to something much bigger, especially if more and more people start to make the little changes needed.