Save Money with these new tips and you can also help save the earth. Living green is easy to do if you take it in small steps . We can all save money by incorporating a few simple steps into our lives and by doing them gradually we might not even miss the little things we had to give up.
I have followed some of these tips in my life in the past and I currently use some of them today still.
Collect Water
You can collect rain water if you live in your own house and use the collected water for things like watering plants and washing the car. When I lived in my mother’s house we had barrels at the back of the house that collected the rain water and we used that to bathe the dogs and water the garden.
Every so often my mother would use the water to flush the toilets by manually filling up the tank, instead of allowing the water tank to fill up from the main pipe. This saved a good deal on the water bill because we all know how much water it takes to fill up the toilet tank.
I live in an apartment complex now and no longer collect water but I do think this is a handy tip for those of you who have a house.
Freeze Food
Another thing that we used to do when I was growing up was to freeze food. We would cook a huge batch of food on Sundays and freeze the rest of it to be used for the next few days.
I remember that I hated this because it meant that we would be eating the same thing for at least three days.
I remember now that I also loved it because when it was my turn to ‘get dinner ready’ all I had to do was take a few plastic containers out of the freezer and pop plates in the microwave. Even today I will cook a large amount of food on Sunday and then put stuff in the freezer to use on Tuesday. It saves me from having to cook every day and I just pop a plate in the microwave and I am ready to eat in a few minutes.
If you have large amounts of uncooked food then a freezer is your best friend. We had a deep, chest freezer that my mother used for large meat and fish purchases, which brings me to the next point.
Bulk Purchases
I know I have spoken about buying in bulk before (see 25 Ways I Save Money: part1 ) but it really does help if you use bulk purchases of things you use a lot. We drink TONS of milk (well at least I do) and instead of buying individual cans of milk we would go to the store and get a case of canned milk. The unit cost for the case of cans was much less and we used up all the milk before it could ever go bad.
What tips do you remember from your childhood that you used to save money? Share them here with us so we can all reminisce.
My dad was a big coupon clipper. Plus, we always packed our lunch (no buying lunches for us).
My wife and I freeze huge batches of food on a regular basis, mainly because we don’t like to throw anything out. It’s a great idea for saving money.
Good reminder to freeze batches of food!
@ Saving Diva:
I just started clipping coupons again recently. I stopped for a while because I was not finding coupons for the things I buy on a regular basis and I did not want to switch to a new brand just so I could use a coupon.
@ Flimjo and Moneytummy:
Freezing really helps to save money because then you just heat a small amount in the microwave instead of waiting for the stove or oven to heat up again.
For those that want to create rain barrels from kits – take a look at this site: http://www.aquabarrel.com – they also have downspout diverters, downspout filters, first flush devise and a lot of other really interesting items
Ha… I just learned about freezing food.
I’m on a weight loss program and wanted to freeze my morning meals for the week..
7 meals cost about $6.00 to make and freeze… It’s not exciting eating the same food over and over, however it was cheap time wise and cash wise.
There’s tons of stuff that tastes better the 2nd time around.
Bulk purchasing doesn’t work too well for me since I’m single. Most of that stuff just spoils. So the few things that I can buy in bulk, don’t make up a big enough savings to cover the membership costs.
Back home in the Caribbean, I know folks who have huge water collection tanks on their roofs our a small tower near the house. This collects rain water and runs through the house’s own pipe system. I’m not sure if any filtration is done though. But I know my dad had one of these and it ran to the water lines for the toilet and shower.
I think that collecting water from the rain is very dangerous because nowadays the planet is very polluted.
@Online TV: As I said, that was back home. We’re a clean, tropical island and don’t have issues that plague the US such as acid rain, etc.
And as I said…shower and toilet.
My wife is the master of the bulk purchase. whether we use it or not is another question. 🙂
Best Wishes,
D4L
My family is saving over $200 bucks a year by using this water conditioner system that doesn’t need or use any salt! Even though it’s also better for the environment, my husband says more importantly, it’s better for his back since he’s not carrying those 40 pound bags of salt into our house.
Make your own sports drink: Kool-Aid with salt. Mom used to make this for Dad on hot summer days when he was mowing the grass of our large yard.
Collecting rain water is an excellent idea. It helps the environment while saving money. I collect some rain water now to water outdoor plants and save some of the water we use in the house to water our outdoor plants. I never thought of using it for our toilets but am going to try it for sure!
@ PassiveFamilyIncome:
It will take a lot of water to fill up a bucket to get enough to flush the toilet so unless you are committed to it this may seem like a lot of work at first.
But hey, just think that you are getting in some weight lifting at the same time. 🙂
LuLuGal – I am probably a little strange, but I look at things like this as an opportunity to exercise. I am the kind of person who prefers to shovel my snow instead of using a snow blower!!!
@ Sharon:
How do you know when you put in enough salt but still not too much to make it taste bad?
@ Passive:
You are not strange. It is good that you can take on the mindset of looking at an opportunity when something happens. A lot of people would only see the negative.
My granpa always brought (and still does) us a montly batch of firefood in the cooler seasons. Warming with energy isn’t cheap these days so why not use the fireplace with free wood! I just wish our sauna used wood too. The electric version sucks after trying out the wood-operating sauna oven. 🙂
This one’s not that healthy, but my parents used to smoke home-rolled tobacco. It’s quite much cheaper than factory-made. Lots of money saved with that.
I hate the smell of the hot air coming out of the vents during winter but I can imagine the firewood would smell pleasant.
These are very easy to do ways on how to save money yet it takes getting used to when starting them out. But once you’re used to doing them everyday, it would be easy to follow. Thanks for the saving advice!