My hubby and I are a dual income family living in a suburban home, but we are not your typical family. We are on a mission to live a more sustainable, frugal, and financially savvy life. Today I wanted to share with you the steps we have taken:
Energy saving changes we’ve made:
- Turn off our computer every night
- Replaced incandescent bulbs with [amazon asin=B000NISDNU&text=LED's]
- Replaced our old wooden front door
- Replaced some of our appliances with energy efficient models
Heating and cooling changes we’ve made:
- Turned our thermostat down by 2 degrees in the winter
- Turned our thermostat up by 2 degrees in the summer
- Replaced all our thermostats with [amazon asin=B001FWZ7IW&text=programmable] models
- Leave our blinds open so the sun can heat our house
- Keep our bedroom temperature at 17 degrees Celsius in the winter and use an extra blanket on the bed
- Limited the use of our oven in the summer
- Use a [amazon asin=B000MXJ6V4&text=heat bag] instead of turning up the heat when we are cold
Household changes we’ve made:
- Switched from chemical cleaners to homemade phosphate and eco friendly ones
- Compost kitchen scraps
- Buy as many organic and local foods as we can
- Switched from chemical personal care products to homemade chemical free ones
- Use reusable fabric bags for shopping
- Wash laundry in cold water and hang clothes to dry
- Grow our own garden of veggies
- Participate in a CSA for extra produce that we don’t grow
- Compost our leaves and grass
- Converting our lawn to an eco lawn with a 3 year seeding process
- Use compostable garbage bags
Lifestyle changes we’ve made:
- Eat a vegetarian and primarily vegan diet
- Cook from scratch every meal and freeze leftovers
- I walk to and from work
- I take the bus when I have meetings to attend
- I walk to my Pilates classes as well as to my esthetician
- Eliminated magazine subscriptions and junk mail
- Exercise at home instead of driving to and from the gym
Money changes we’ve made:
- Do our own taxes online
- Eliminated paper statements
- Use internet and telephone banking
- Invested in sustainable companies
- Donated to sustainable charities
All of these actions have enabled us to live a more sustainable and financially savvy life. I would love to hear about the steps that you have taken or are taking to live more simply and sustainably. Please share.
Miss T has written 579 articles on this blog. Hi, I am Miss T and I am the owner and head writer of PrairieEcoThrifter. Each and every day I am working to live a money savvy, healthy, and green life.While you're here, consider signing up for the RSS feed or email subscription . Both deliver the latest articles directly to you everyday. Have a Twitter , Facebook, Reddit, Stumble Upon, or Digg account? Then follow me for all of the latest posts or to send any comments or questions.
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Those are some impressive changes. I just started turning off my computers at night and I’m hoping to see a reduction on my next electric bill. When we were living in our rental house, we were composting our kitchen scraps. Since moving back into an apartment, I’m hesitant to compost since it would involve worms. I’m not quite sure I’m ready for that. I’d love to see photos of your lawn in progress. Someday, when I own my own house, I’d love to try a no-lawn approach or an eco-friendly low-water alternative.
@ Little House Glad to hear you have tried some different green activities. Don’t worry- not everyone can do every option. The important thing is that you do what you can in your individual circumstances. Once our lawn gets going I will be sure to post some pics. There are composters that don’t involve worms but they cost a bit of money; might be worth the investment though.
Great list. I have to say programmable thermostats really made a difference on our electric bill which is normal since we go through subzero temps often up here. I am still working on a veggie garden though, can’t seem to get much tomatoes out of my plants!
@ Beating the Index Glad to hear. It is a nice feeling when you make a change and see positive results. Keep it up. Regarding your tomato plants, try adding crushed up egg shells into the soil. Tomatoes really like calcium. Any type of compost you can generate would also help.
What great accomplishments! We are in the process of purchasing our first home and I can’t wait to utilize some of your tips, especially regarding lowering our electric bill. We’ve already started by getting in the habbit of unplugging those items that drain electricity even when not in use such as our cell phone chargers that have tiny lights on them, computers, blu-ray player with time display, etc. Also, we’ve never had a compost…that is definitely something we will look at doing.
@ Broke Professionals Glad you found the tips useful. As far as composting, you can get affordable bins at your local hardware store. Or you can build them for cheap using recycled materials. There are also indoor compost bins you can use which don’t smell at all. The cost a bit but you have compost really quick too that you can use on your plants. We are saving up for one right now.
Great list Miss T.
We’ve never thought to document what we’ve done over the years but we probably should!
@SPF It’s just nice to see what kind of progress you have made. It’s nice reassurance you are actually getting somewhere.
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[...] consumption? As you already know, energy cost can get quiet expansive. Anything you can do to conserve energy helps you save money. For example, use programmable thermostats to heat or cool your home [...]