It seems almost ironic that by the time we settle down in life and understand what is important, and what is not, we have already done many of the most important things like selecting a partner, our profession, having children, etc. While I am of the school of thought, that it is never too late to learn a new skill, or try something new, I have recently noticed a very strong feeling that I need to improve certain areas of my life, and leave the planet a better place! Mid life crisis perhaps? Hmmm...I'm not sure what to call it but it is a very strong feeling what ever it is. Here are some of the small changes we have made since this journey began...
The changes began about a year and a half ago. We were looking for a
'new' place to live and ended up settling for some minor changes that in
the end have made us feel very good about our attempts to live a
greener lifestyle, as well as all the money we have been saving! It's
true that each little change is just that a LIFESTYLE CHANGE. First, we
moved from a 3 BR 2 bath apartment that had lots of storage+ an
attic+an off site storage unit! to a much smaller (and older), 2BR 1
bath apartment with very little storage at all! We had to let go of the
clutter and "stuff." While we did sell some stuff, a lot of things
were given to people who actually needed it. It felt good, but we still
had a long way to go!
Here is the yard at the new place....it is not much to look at BUT it is one of two yards that came with the unit, has plenty of trees to shade the building from the blazing hot Florida sun, trees to hang a clothes lines, and a place to let our dog run around without a leash! It's rare to have this much yard in the 'city.'
It's hard to tell, but we selected a unit that had large, new ceiling fans in EVERY room to help keep the air conditioning to a minimum! The old house would run us around $300/month in the summer for electric and now two summers at this place and our all time highest bill has been a modest $111.11 !!!!!!!!
Some of the other 'changes' we made may seem very minor to many people, but it isn't about any one thing we have done, but rather our desire to keep changing things to help reduce our overall footprint and to add up all the little things to equal a bigger change in the overall picture. This photo of our bathroom is one small example. This little covered tea light holder holds a candle that burns for about 3-4 hours. If it is just us hanging out at the house, we light this in the late evening and find that we don't have to turn on the light to go to the bathroom---plus it makes the bathroom smell nice! I'm sure the savings is mere pennies on a monthly basis, but this is only one of the changes that has resulted in our bringing our electric bill down from $300.00/month to usually between $45-$75/month!
Another change we made was cutting waaaaay back on the amount of paper towels we were using. I would love to say that we have eliminated them altogether but we do use about 4 rolls/year. Here is a small repurposed basket from a gift we received, holding an assortment of cloth napkins we use in place of the paper towels. It isn't much...but again it is a constant change that we hope cuts back on the waste we produce as a family.
Speaking of waste...meet our little compost bucket! It is another repurposed item in our home that is a real work horse of the kitchen! It is usually emptied once a day...or every couple of days, and has really helped reduce the amount of garbage we have.
Here is the very small tote our compost pile started off in. The tote was broken in our move and instead of throwing it out, it was moved to the back corner of the yard to serve as a compost bin. Once the compost caught on, and began to have yard waste added to it, this size was way to small and we upgraded to a much larger one. It's funny, we have gone from a family trying to reduce waste, to one that actually thinks about "the worms" when we are away on vacation! LOL
While we are in the back yard, here is a major reason our electric bill has dropped from $300/month down under $100.00/month! Our old apartment had an in house washer and dryer that we used most of the time, and a small clothesline in the backyard that was mostly just for looks. This is one of three clothes lines at the new apartment that we use almost exclusively for our laundry. We have been living here for 15 months and have only had to dry 3 loads of laundry in the dryer so far! While our climate here in Florida is nice pretty much year round, we are a sub tropical climate and have a long rainy season so getting the clothes out to dry early in the day, and back in before the afternoon storms takes commitment- but the payoff is well worth it.
On the subject of laundry...while we do still purchase commercially made laundry products, we have been dabbling in home made varieties as well. Shown here is the same 'recipe' in dry form (center) and in my preferred format which is as a laundry cream- doubles as a spot remover! Besides making me smile just looking at the bottles of buttery yellow goodness, we found these to work just fine on our laundry---oh and at $0.25/load I was not complaining about the price either! Next on my list though is to try the bar soap Zote because it is PINK! :)
This may seem like an odd photo on the topic of living frugal and trying to reduce our footprint, but another big decision we made when we moved was to opt NOT to have a dishwasher! Despite what the bottle says, I purchased this 'direct foam' bottle when I moved in, and when it runs out, I simply refill it with some more regular Dawn. Since I wash my dishes exclusively by hand, I go through this quickly enough that I don't worry about bacteria,etc. It is worth noting that I also have the foaming bottles at the sinks for hand soap as well. These help to stretch the bottles of soap a little further and I personally think that diluted they are not as harsh on my skin.
Why am I showing you tea? Well this is our tea "pot." Literally. My boyfriend is a true southern boy and fresh brewed tea is a necessity. Since tea is something that regularly goes on sale, I am able to whip up a batch of this every couple days for pennies a glass! Water is one of the cheapest beverages to consume, and this is just a tiny step above that in cost.
As mentioned earlier we enjoy candles, but as you may have noticed there is often a small amount of wax that goes unused at the bottom of the jar. To get around this, I use a coupon for my local craft store and buy a package of wicks, then after I have accumulated some left over wax, I melt them down using the warmer shown (top right) and pour them into a small glass jar. Some of the jars shown held candles in them originally, but I also love to use small mason jars! We never seem to have a shortage of candles around here. This also helps us with our storm preparation ....flashlights are nice during a storm, but when you are without electricity for a week after the storm has passed, a supply of candles comes in very handy! Waste not...want not!
Here is my Sunday morning ritual...well not the doughnut- that was a special treat, but the Sunday papers, and the coffee are! lol These papers are filled with money saving coupons and each Sunday I pull them out and get my weekly meal planning and shopping planned. Since I stay at home, I enjoy this skill and look at it as a major contribution that I am able to put towards the running of our household! I now have managed to get our grocery savings at about 50% and our drug store shopping between 60-90%! As for the papers, most Sundays I fold the papers back up nicely and take them (sans the coupons) to the laundry room for others to read.
Eating at home...
We actually know couples who eat out every single day of the week! and some days they eat out multiple times in a single day!? While we do enjoy going out to eat, we have so much more control of the foods we eat when we stay home. We both have some dietary restrictions, and eating out usually means we consume more calories, carbs, and larger servings than if we had stayed at home. Bread is a treat around here, but as you can see, playing around with some recipes resulted in a great multigrain bread and a (added) fresh sugar free jam!
and finally...recycling. When we moved to the new unit, there was no recycling bins for our buildings. It wasn't until we asked that they were distributed to our area and now so many people are using the larger ones out by the dumpster that they are usually close to overflowing on pick up day! It is great to see so many people also choosing to recycle.
So there you have some of the things we are doing as a small family. This is a journey though...and I have also been experimenting with many of the home made cleaners, and am currently examining all of my 'health and beauty' items to see if there are more natural ones I can be using. While I know we have to make changes, we have to find what works for our family and our budget...it is a journey that has so many benefits that I can't help but feel excited! I will save those for another day.
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