We wanted to list out all of the lifestyle choices with the rationale that help both our wallets, and are environmentally friendly.
Current Changes We Have Made
- Cloth Napkins – signficantly reduces waste, did not change the number of laundry loads, huge savings on paper napkins
- LED Lightbulbs – signficant savings on our energy bills by saving 75% more energy and lasting on average 25% longer
- Compost Bins – reduces waste in the landfill, can also compost cardboard boxes, paper grocery bags, no costs to having compost bins
- Cast Iron and All-clad Pots and Pans – no concerns of teflon scratching, can buy budget friendly prices (lodge) to keep price down, the lack of repeated buying of teflon pans has long term savings
- Bars of Body Soap – bars of soap are far cheaper than liquid body soap, saves on water and plastic waste in the recycling
- Aluminum or Wool Dryer Balls – far cheaper than dryer sheets in the long term, wool balls cut down on dry time, environmentally friendly production. Really we’ve moved to using nothing at all because we don’t care for scents or picky on super soft clothing.
- Phosphate Free Dishwasher soap and laundry detergents – cuts down on the quantity of phosphates in water, large quantites of this micro nutrient in waters are responsible for toxic algae blooms
- Used 2015 Prius – we average 50 miles/gallon in the Prius which is 1.5 times higher than our 2016 Toyota Corolla, and the Prius is reported to last as far as 200,000 miles
- Used Kids Toys – cuts down on the price signficantly spent on toys and saves toys from going into landfills
Future Changes We are Thinking of Making
- Tablets for liquid hand soap – Blueland brand has a lot of soaps available that reduce plastic waste and the soap chemical composition is environmentally friendly
- Shampoo and Conditioner Bars – there are brands coming out that are bars, this cuts down on plastic waste and potentially water waste