Reading Time: 4 minutes How to Be More Sustainable and Save Money
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This is a collaborative post by Mary Davis about how to save money on sustainable living.
By spending less on utilities, life improves, helps to end poverty, and protects our planet. This is called green living or sustainability. Today, we live in a world that is facing major environmental problems that unfortunately, is risking global economies and our society as a whole.
In many parts of the world, we are facing a shortage of water that is causing issues between people, communities, and countries as well as crop growth. Conserving our planet and water is a must in our society and everyday lives to help save us and our planet.
In fact many countries around the world are already creating some water scarcity solutions. Meeting these sustainable goals should be the agenda for everyone everywhere.
Below includes some of the ways to make your home sustainable.
Table of Contents
How to Save Money Creating a Sustainable Home
Choose energy-efficient appliances
Home appliances come with two prices; product cost and cost of operation. Look for energy star certified products to help you save and reduce energy consumption without sacrificing performance.
Install a low-flush toilet
It is a smart way to save on water bills. Low-flush toilets use 4.5 liters or less per flush compared to the traditional ones, which uses 6l on one flush. Another way to reduce water wastage is by building a rainwater tank for your garden and bathroom. Also consider cleaning your toilet using green methods.
Install solar panels and temperature-regulating walls
Solar panels ensure maximum use of daytime lighting and a better way of using renewable sources of energy. Temperature regulating walls ensures that heat balances inside the house regardless of the season or the outside temperature.
Also, consider using energy-efficient windows; they will cool the home in summer and warm it during winter.
Put energy-saving light bulbs in your home
Compact fluorescent light bulbs use 75% less energy over standard incandescent bulbs. One CFL may save you about 30-50 Euros in its lifetime. How about if you replaced 20 incandescent bulbs?
As parents of 3 little kids, Force of Nature is our go-to all purpose cleaner. It's nontoxic but is EPA approved for use against Covid-19.
We love vinegar, but we use Force of Nature every day.
You will perhaps save 600-1000 dollars. Also, CFL produces less heat, thus very economical during the summer.
We use LED in our house. Here are our favorite LED Bulbs. When buying LED pay attention to Day Light vs White, the equivalent wattage, and whether they are dimmable LED bulbs or not.
Wash your clothes in cold water
Washing clothes with cold water could save 85% of the heating energy. Since you will need the clothes to dry, it is best to hang them in a clothesline or rack and reduce the power you could use on the dryer.
You can also save on energy and water consumption by waiting to have a full load of laundry to wash.
Use rags instead of paper towels
Paper towels are tree products; therefore, by using washable rags to clean up messes, you save yourself some money and helps to save trees. You also agree that paper towels create more trash, thus pollutes our environment.
Put all major electronics on a power switch so you can switch everything off at once.
Most appliances will still draw power even when turned off. To completely shut them off from the Phantom power, plug them to power strips that switch on and off. However, putting the systems on and off would probably not lower your electricity bill, for better results use appliances efficiently. For example, use full loads only when using the dishwasher.
Switch to Eco-Friendly Alternatives
Eliminating the usage of plastic bags from your daily routine would be a great addition on your journey of making your home more sustainable. You can replace regular plastic bags and switch to eco-friendly alternatives from brands like Polythene UK.
These minimize the environmental damage and reduces consumption by 20%, leading to much less plastic waste. Besides they also give you substantial cost savings compared to alternative polythene packaging materials.
Another great way to switch to a sustainable option in your everyday life, is abandoning the usage of single use items. There are plenty of options like reusable straws, shopping bags and water bottles.
There are even reusable alternatives for a single use cotton swab. For example, LastObject’s reusable Q-tip is an awesome replacement for single-use swabs and an amazing choice for eco-conscious people.
It’s 100% sustainable and sanitary swab with a biodegradable carrying case. LastSwab can be used about 1000 times and it’s pretty easy to wash it with soap and water.
In Conclusion
The above steps are a simple and practical lifestyle of living green. In one way or the other, they require the investment of time and money, but you’ll be amazed at the amount of money you have saved.
Reducing our impact on the environment helps to tackle issues regarding climate emergencies. Begin now, and the world will thank you.