The 3-R’s can help the earth and your bottom line. Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. By doing some or all of these things, you can make the Earth a more environmentally friendly place to live for us and future generations. These are the things that start in your own home and that are modeled for your children to see. Lead by example. Not only is it good for the environment, but also helpful with family savings. Even though reuse and recycle is just as important, today we’re going to address the first R, reduce. To reduce means to simply use less of what you’re already using. Let’s review some items that you can do to accomplish this and cut costs.
The most obvious and simple thing you can do is to stop buying so much stuff. Yep, don’t buy so much and spend less. Easy, right? You’re creating demand for items. This is the time to differentiate between needs and wants. Before purchasing anything, ask yourself this question… “Do I need this or do I just want it?” This could be a game changer to purchasing less if you answer it truthfully.
Switch
Use cloth napkins instead of paper towels or napkins. This decreases the amount of trash that goes into our country’s landfills and reduces your bottom line for paper products. This also pertains to kitchen and bathroom spills. Use a dish towel instead of paper towels. It is true that the cloth napkins and dish towels will need to be washed, but since they’re small, there’s not a need to do a load just for them. Throw them in with your towels or even your normal clothes.
Repair
Repair items instead of buying new ones. Sew up that hole in that shirt, fill in the hole on the table leg and drill a new hole, repair the lawn mower, get the ice maker fixed. Stay away from getting sucked into the throw away culture. Unfortunately, not all items can be repaired and many items are now made to last only a few years, it seems. Gone are the days that your grandparents had the same refrigerator their entire adult life.
Update
What do you do with items that are not broken, but just out of style? If you don’t like the brass light fixture, spray paint it brushed nickel and voila, you have a new fixture. This applies to so many things. I painted our old looking wood stair rails black to make them look brand new. A coat of paint makes all the difference in the world. I also purchased a small pink table for our front porch at goodwill and painted it white and rejuvenated it. Outdated fan blades on your ceiling fan and kitchen and bathroom cabinets can all be made to look fresh and new.
Deep Discounts
At the grocery store, look for and buy reduced priced items. They may be discontinued items, things getting close to expiration dates, or just products that upgraded their packaging. For baked goods and meat, always look at the reduced priced items first. They both can be frozen to eat later, so you avoid waste. Not only can you prevent the waste from the grocery store, but you also get an amazing deal for yourself. Double win!
Plastic Alternatives
When going grocery shopping, the best thing is to not use the plastic bags that you get at checkout. Choose to bring your own reusable bags that don’t need to be recycled. The only problem is remembering them when you are going grocery shopping. More than once, I’ve had to leave my cart and run out to my car to get my bags before checking out. Tedious, but worth it for everyone in the long run. Since you are using bags over and over that may come into contact with raw vegetables and/or meat, don’t forget to clean your cloth bags and don’t just leave them in the car for continued use.
At the grocery store, you may notice that in the produce section, there are plastic bags for everything if it’s not already packaged. Instead of using the plastic bags on hand, purchase reusable cloth/net bags. Here are similar ones to the ones I have. After use, just toss them in the wash for the next use. https://www.amazon.com/YIHONG-Produce-Reusable-Drawstring-Colorful/dp/B07G9T9JLK/ref=sr_1_1?crid=26T0HLYEC7DVZ&dchild=1&keywords=produce+bags+grocery+reusable&qid=1621124794&sprefix=produce+ba%2Caps%2C187&sr=8-1
When you go out to restaurants and get left overs, you come home with Styrofoam containers. Most cannot be recycled. It’s not uncommon to come home with a whole bag of them, depending on the number of people dining. To reduce waste, bring plastic containers to restaurants. Not only will you have less waste for the environment, but you’ll also have less waste at home and that means less trash bags, less recycling for you, and more reduced costs.
Buy Big, Make Small
In purchasing items from the grocery store, avoid single serve items. I will admit that they are convenient, but not only do you pay a premium for these items, but you also are contributing to more waste and packaging. Focus on buying big and using small. Buying in bulk (larger potions) helps reduce waste since there is less packaging.
Some great options include:
· Buy a jar of applesauce and segment out to individual containers instead of purchasing mini cups to send to school.
· Buy a large bag of chips/crackers and break them down into reusable bags/containers instead of purchasing individual snack bags.
· Buy a large bottle of juice and fill a reusable container instead of juice boxes.
· Buy fruits or veggies and cut them up yourself instead of using pre-cut and packaged items. Say goodbye to the fruit cups. Doing this is cheaper and more natural.
· Give up the mini hummus, guacamole, salsa options. Always remember to buy big and make small.
· Purchase ground coffee and use your Keurig to run the coffee instead of purchasing expensive K-cups which also create a lot of waste.
Paper Products
Adjust your bills to go paperless. Even if you recycle (which at a bare minimum you should be doing), you waste your time and energy doing it. Electronic bills not only reduce paper, but also help you receive notice about due dates. We know that the post office is not infallible. Things can and do get lost in the mail.
We all know the infamous CVS receipts and how much printing and paper they use. With most places now, it’s common to get a choice of email or text receipt or even none at all. If you’re dealing with items that are not able to be returned (food, sale items, etc.), skip the receipt all together if you’re not using them for budgeting.
Home printing can use a lot of paper and create waste. When printing items at home, choose to print on the backside of something else. I keep papers from the mail or school that are printed on one side for any home items. This reduces a lot of paper.
The average person receives about thirty pounds of junk mail per year. That is a lot of wasted paper. Super important to recycle these. If your neighborhood does not have curbside pickup, search to find your nearest recycle center. We are lucky that ours is less than one mile from our house. We have bins in the garage and office and take them when they get full. It does take more effort than throwing it in the trash, but it’s environmentally friendly and you save money on trash bags in the short and long run. With our family of five, on average, we only use one trash bag (or two max) per week.
Disposable Items
Have a goal of avoiding disposable goods whenever possible. This would include items such as paper cups, plastic bottles, and single use containers. When out and about, sometimes this is not possible. Especially during the pandemic, places are not letting you refill their disposable cups let alone bring one from home. However, you might be able to do this with a local restaurant that you go to frequently.
Replace Less
Focus on buying products that have a longer shelf life and don’t need to be replaced as often. You might pay a little more on the front end but save money in the long run as you’ll be able to keep it longer. This could be a car, clothes, shoes, backpack, etc. Instead of buying a cheap backpack or lunch box that can barely make it through one school year, spend a few more dollars and have it last for their high school career. What you need to pay attention to here is how long it will last. If you can buy 3 backpacks for the price of a quality one, it might be financially worth it to buy the cheaper one depending on how long it lasts.
Reduce Gas Consumption
Try to live near where you work to reduce as much gas usage as possible. Great for the environment and a reduction can make a big difference for you. Carpooling can decrease the amount that you spend on gas which will make your bank account and your car very happy. If you work for a large company where people work standard hours, you may be able to do a ride share. Some large cities (Atlanta) have specific parking lots near the highway created for that purpose. With the invention of the Internet, a lot has changed in the work environment and one of those things is that for some jobs, you can work from anywhere. This has expanded even more since the pandemic. Companies have found ways to make almost all office jobs able to be done from home. Working from your own home can obviously cut your gas expenses, but has other financial perks as well. Less wear and tear on your vehicle. Removing commuting time can save you hours per week for other ventures. No eating out for lunch. No need for wardrobe upgrades. Well, at least from the waist down if you have meetings on Zoom.
In your daily life, you have opportunities to reduce your usage of items and things. For every one of these things that you do, you’ll notice small changes in your finances and it will continue to get larger over time. In the next blog, we will continue looking at the remaining two R’s, reuse and recycle. **See Finance Hacks Around the House, 5/9/21 for more tips on reducing usage around your home.
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