i'm doing the same thing.i started giving my son a1000 a month last august so i'm trying to see where i can cut down. i can't compensate for that much but i see where i can cut quite a bit.

my favorite fish is haddock but that has hit the roof these days so i buy perch instead. i'm forcing myself to get use to it. cottage cheese. i stopped that when it went to 7dollars. i make most everything from scratch so that helps. i do still buy paper towels but "stretch" them with newspaper.

i keep my furnace down a notch or 2 also. stuff like that. helps that i dont have to buy clothes. i like nice soap,body lotion,shampoo etc also but i stocked up on that when the pandemic started and still have plenty in my preps. i like a glass of wine with my evening meal but i still have plenty. remains to be seen if i buy when that is gone. i do cook with it but i can do without if need be ( i presume that went up in price also.everything else did

i buy chic large pks wmart where i can get good buys. i buy very little meat now. prices are atrocious on meat. couldn't believe it this morning. most meat i eat now is vension which my son has plenty of. ~Georgia

 

You don’t have to give up your wine… you can make it yourself!
I have made lots of wine at home that was just as nice as any I’ve ever purchased.
I have confidence in your ability to do the same.

 

I've been buying C fold paper towels by the case of 6 or 8 pkgs instead of rolls, they last me forever and otherwise I use washables for most cleaning jobs.
DH gave up his beloved Coffee K cups at the last jump in price, wasteful things those are, and he could never get the reusable pod to work right either.
I discovered shampoo bars instead of liquids, then the store stopped carrying them or can't get more in stock, they do last long time, and take up no room on a shower shelf.

 

I've been buying C fold paper towels by the case of 6 or 8 pkgs instead of rolls, they last me forever and otherwise I use washables for most cleaning jobs.
DH gave up his beloved Coffee K cups at the last jump in price, wasteful things those are, and he could never get the reusable pod to work right either.
I discovered shampoo bars instead of liquids, then the store stopped carrying them or can't get more in stock, they do last long time, and take up no room on a shower shelf.

What brand of C fold paper towels?
Thanks

 

what are cfold Doozie? does wmart carry them.i use washables for most cleanup also. (i buy bags of terry towels for that at thrift store)

 

C fold are like the kind you see in a washroom wall dispenser.

Someday I'll make a little custom box for them, I keep them wedged between my microwave and something else and just pull out individually from the top as needed.

I bet a Costco/sams club type store would carry them too.

 

I get rolls of brown paper towels and blue cotton towels from someone that works in a hospital for free.
They throw them away at certain times.

 

This is one of my favorite things to discuss and nearly nobody is interested in talking about it.
Frugality is very environmentally friendly.
When I buy a product at the store I look at the packaging along with price. A good example is a recent purchase of dog treats. I could have gotten some that were a bit cheaper(I have teenage schnauzers.... they'll eat anything that doesn't eat them first) but one type of treat came in a nice big sturdy plastic jug with a screw on lid. I can reuse this for dog treats for a long time to come.
I spend the money for quality products. I was going through at least 2 cheapish blenders a year. I finally bought a Vitamix and it's going strong after 12 years. When things last you don't have to buy more AND that's less volume in the landfill. Less materials to make goods.
I live very remotely so when I go to town it is an all day thing and of course I eat out as a treat. I save napkins and condiments to use at home. My McDonald's uses a plastic sleeve to put napkins and condiments in. The bag is perfect for putting over my hand while getting gas. Otherwise I use a glove. Speaking of.... I use gloves when doing plant tissue culture. None of the chemicals I use are dangerous so I always save my gloves to reuse them.
I am fiddling around with a system to shred cardboard. I'd like to soak paper and cardboard and maybe add wood chips to make logs for the wood stove.
I recycle all I can. I can recycle for free. I get charged per bag for trash.

 

This is one of my favorite things to discuss and nearly nobody is interested in talking about it.
Frugality is very environmentally friendly.
When I buy a product at the store I look at the packaging along with price. A good example is a recent purchase of dog treats. I could have gotten some that were a bit cheaper(I have teenage schnauzers.... they'll eat anything that doesn't eat them first) but one type of treat came in a nice big sturdy plastic jug with a screw on lid. I can reuse this for dog treats for a long time to come.
I spend the money for quality products. I was going through at least 2 cheapish blenders a year. I finally bought a Vitamix and it's going strong after 12 years. When things last you don't have to buy more AND that's less volume in the landfill. Less materials to make goods.
I live very remotely so when I go to town it is an all day thing and of course I eat out as a treat. I save napkins and condiments to use at home. My McDonald's uses a plastic sleeve to put napkins and condiments in. The bag is perfect for putting over my hand while getting gas. Otherwise I use a glove. Speaking of.... I use gloves when doing plant tissue culture. None of the chemicals I use are dangerous so I always save my gloves to reuse them.
I am fiddling around with a system to shred cardboard. I'd like to soak paper and cardboard and maybe add wood chips to make logs for the wood stove.
I recycle all I can. I can recycle for free. I get charged per bag for trash.

I have a 8 yr old coffee pot, the one with the re suable basket and this big boy can make up to 12 cups. I use it everyday even though I only drink one mug in the morning. I only make 1 cup in it. I won't trash it because it works. I also have a 16 yr old microwave which works perfectly. It's big and bulky but it works---why buy a new one?? I keep my vehicles a long time...had a new 86 Ford Bronco 2 that lasted 12 wonderful years,,,replaced it with a truck I hated and then bought a 2008 Ford Focus which I also had for 12 yrs and it is still running just not by me. Now I have a 2014 Kia Sorrento for 3 yrs ---will see who goes the longest! The Kia is loaded but a big gas hog.

 

How do you get laundry detergent and dish soap without plastic packaging?

I admit that I like paper towels for cleaning up broken glass or wiping out greasy pans. I don't want that greasy waste going down my drains and I don't want to clean glass slivers out of a wash cloth.

 

I absolutely use paper towels for this sort of thing. If I've gotten some pliable paper as packaging I use it to wipe grease.
To me that is reasonable usage. A good quality roll of paper towels will last me a year. I often cut the select a size sheets in half if I can.
My ex goes through a roll a week. To this day I still don't know how he does it!!
On laundry detergent and such....I can at least lessen the packaging substantially. I either buy in bulk or use an alternative like Zote soap. Zote is great for laundry, dishes and even as bath soap. I know a fella that swears by it for dry skin in the desert.
I'm doing laundry in a bucket while I'm currently in a rental in Mexico. I let todays clothes soak overnight in soapy water. Then the next day I rub a bit more Zote on areas like collars, underarms or underwear and give it a scrub then rinse twice. I really like doing an extra rinse. Before I head back to the US I'm going to buy one of the small manual washing machines that has a spinning basket on one side. I can let clothes soak then set the timer for agitation. Even with doing 2 rinses I use less water than a regular automatic washing machine.
That reminds me. They have awesome plastic clothes pins here. Need yo add that to my list. Going to get some packaged and canned products here that are difficult to locate north if the border for preps.

 

The plastic clothes pins I have bought seem to break down and get very fragile when exposed to sunlight. There are some good quality bamboo ones on the market. They last a long time, even if you forget and leave them outside occasionally. Both types are made in China.

 

I agree. The ones sold in the US are junk. Plastic clothes pins are the norm here. Very few people have or use a dryer so clothes pins have to be durable. They are just a much better quality here.
Actually I ought to go visit a plastic market. They have all kinds of buckets, tubs, baskets and such. Lots of different shapes and sizes.
A lot of out plastic manufacturing moved to Mexico because they don't have epa regulations like the US. When that happened the Mexican people started using the much cheaper plastic containers rather than more traditional fragile clay pots.

 

My earliest yrs were spent living in a three genration household. My grandparents were peasant farmers who immigrated here in 1913, raising their family during The Great Depression. He was a laborer and she was a housemaid.. They instilled in me a sense of practical frugality. I was 16 y/o before I ever ate in a restaurant. Ma sewed all our clothes. I first dreamed of buildiing an earth berm house in 1957- not "for the environment" but as a way to save on energy costs.

That being said-- there's a lot of mis-information & dis-information about skimping on certain things "for the environment."-- Plastics are made from small hydrocarbon wasteproducts in the petroleum cracking process. If they weren't turned into useabe plastic things, the material would be burned to dispose of it....Over the next 100 yrs, Americans will fill up a mere 1000 sq mi of land (out of a total area of 9million sq miles) as waste dumps, and almost all of it will be "recycled" as parks, recreational areas or returned to natural habitat.

Several posts above are concerned with paper towels-- a 100% recyclable product. One can save a good deal of money not buying them, but have you figured in your cost of running re-useable cloth rags thru the laundry?...I hadn't been to a laudromat in 50 yrs until we lived in a trailer for a yr while building....A little arithmetic showed me it would actually be cheaper to buy new socks & underwear each week than to wash the dirty ones.

Save money where it counts-- Restaurants are easily the biggest useless sink hole for hard earned money, with "processed food" from the grocery store next. Why pay someone else to prepare your food?

 

Several posts above are concerned with paper towels-- a 100% recyclable product. One can save a good deal of money not buying them, but have you figured in your cost of running re-useable cloth rags thru the laundry?...I hadn't been to a laudromat in 50 yrs until we lived in a trailer for a yr while building....A little arithmetic showed me it would actually be cheaper to buy new socks & underwear each week than to wash the dirty ones.

Save money where it counts-- Restaurants are easily the biggest useless sink hole for hard earned money, with "processed food" from the grocery store next. Why pay someone else to prepare your food?

When you say paper towels are recyclable are you referring to composting? The local recycling center doesn't take them.
Yes I can definitely see it being cheaper to buy underwear and socks rather than wash them at a laundromat. Whenever I couldn't avoid using the Laundromat I wash only. I take clothes home and hang them up to dry.
Due to traveling, sailing and boondocking adventures I am accustomed to washing my clothes by hand. If I had a family to wash for or a large ex husband that wears overalls, I'd go to a laundrymat but doing laundry for 1 person is pretty easy.
Let me be lazy occasionally! I don't buy excessive paper towels, I hand wash my clothes, I squeeze ketchup packets, I prop bottles on end so I can combine the products to the last drop....allow me a tiny bit of mad money to buy McDonald's french fries!

 

When you buy new clothes they still need to be washed. There are a lot of skin irritants left over from the manufacturing process that really should be washed out before you wear the clothing.

 

For laundry detergent, there is Earth Breeze laundry sheets. They have zero waste packaging. You can also buy dish detergent, shampoo, and conditioning bars packaged in paper that can be composted. Alternatively, at some co-ops you can refill your bottles and jugs. I did this when I lived in Toledo. They had laundry and dish soap; shampoo, conditioner, and body lotion; olive and canola oils; honey and maple syrup; flours, sugars, beans, rice, pasta, herbs, spices, etc.

i live a mile east of a ginormous landfill (put in years after we moved here). They bring in construction demolition and trash from out of state by rail. The problems are numerous. The value of our property fell drastically, and we‘ve had serious problems with them, smells, dust, water contamination, etc. I do not think it is possible to live exclusively zero waste, but even trying a little helps.

 

I tried ti cut back on toilet paper but the corn cobs kept clogging my toilet.Sold our place in Mt and bought 19 acres in Ga last year.Planning on building a house,but lumber prices are thru the roof.I bought a tractor and a Woodland Mills band saw.I'm logging and putting my sawmill together.I should be able to start sawing in a couple of weeks.Then a year or so drying and planing and I can build.Got to get a big garden in this year.

 

This is one reason I am very likely going to be buying a shipping container cabin already finished out on the inside. If I had a big family I'd do something different. It's just me so it's enough space. By the time I have them do some extra modifications it will likely be around $25,000 delivered.

I'd just like to point out that zero waste ≠ frugal. Both may arrive at close to the same place but the motivations for each are quite different. A 'zero waster' tends to be environmentally focused whereas frugality tends to be economically motivated. Philosophically someone with a frugal mindset tends to fall into a close to zero waste existence almost by accident by their nature of wanting to save money and therefore will use, reuse, repair, and reimagine uses for almost any item. On the other hand someone with the objective to leave zero waste can spend quite significant amounts of money in their quest.

And just a personal appeal if you don't mind, if you are of the frugal persuasion, Be Proud and don't fall into the materialistic traps that lay about everywhere, if you're coming at it from a 'zero waste' ideology you do your thing just please don't lecture the rest of us.

This isn't necessarily the case. I'm both. I'm not a radical in your face environmentalist but if I see you throw down trash I will likely ask if you were raised in a barn 😁
When I go hiking or ride a 4 wheeler on public trails or lands I pick up trash. I pick up trash along the road where I live. It looks terrible for one thing. Also people are more likely to throw out more trash in an area where there is already trash.
I'm also frugal and there are lots of parallels. I am frugal enough that I retired at age 35. I just worked regular jobs. Saving money is a mental exercise/challenge. It's a bit like a game where you keep score with money.
I was a kid when the crying Indian commercial was on TV(we got a whole 3 channels). If you haven't seen it, look it up. That influenced me a lot.

 

I'd just like to point out that zero waste ≠ frugal. Both may arrive at close to the same place but the motivations for each are quite different. A 'zero waster' tends to be environmentally focused whereas frugality tends to be economically motivated. Philosophically someone with a frugal mindset tends to fall into a close to zero waste existence almost by accident by their nature of wanting to save money and therefore will use, reuse, repair, and reimagine uses for almost any item. On the other hand someone with the objective to leave zero waste can spend quite significant amounts of money in their quest.

And just a personal appeal if you don't mind, if you are of the frugal persuasion, Be Proud and don't fall into the materialistic traps that lay about everywhere, if you're coming at it from a 'zero waste' ideology you do your thing just please don't lecture the rest of us.

 

First nowhere did I imply either side was absolutely one way or the other, you'll notice I used words such as "tends to" and "can spend". At this point in our lives we should all know there are shades of grey in everything and even radical followers or practitioners of any ideology are rarely able to do so 100% of the time.

Discarding your trash just anywhere is just plain RUDE and disgusting, in my view not doing so or even picking up after others does not make one an environmentalist, 'zero waster', a "better person", or anything other than a good steward of your surroundings. Just as the worn out phrase of "reduce, reuse, recycle" is just as much a characteristic of an environmentalist as it is a mantra of a "penny pincher", or even your average conscientious human being who has even a modicum of pride in their surroundings.

As to Iron Eyes Cody, yes I remember it. And I also knew this... The 'Crying Indian' ad that fooled the environmental movement

 

me too

 

Just had a memory pop up on Facebook that applies. I save all veggie peelings and scraps(no potatoes) along with cooking water and make veggie broth. I just accumulate it in the freezer. Once I have enough volume I pop it in the instant pot for 30 minutes. Strain and either freeze or can.

Store bought spinach always goes bad before I can use use it. Normally I am putting it in a smoothie. So now I liquify it in the blender and portion it into reusable cups about the amount needed for a smoothie and freeze it. Pop it out of the cups and store in a container or ziplock. No more wasted spinach and it's convenient.
I also tend to cook huge batches of stuff and freeze it. I do this more now that it's just me. One of my favorites are homemade pot pies and fruit pies. I usually make half moon pies. So easy to put in the oven to cook and so good!!!
I also make ahead and freeze toppings and sauces.

 

I thought about this thread when I was in the grocery store this morning buying milk. Here in Ontario you can buy milk in 1 liter/quart, 2 liter/quarts BUT I can not buy milk in a one gallon jug, it comes in a bag! Each bag holds three pouches of milk 1.3 liters each. You buy a container which holds one of those pouches, or pour the milk into a container of your choice.
I am 62 and remember gallon jugs,which you would return to the grocery store for a deposit, but don't remember why the switch happened.
The prices were as follows 1 liter - $3.49; 2 liters 4.39, 4 litre bag $4.98. The frugal side of me says buy the bag and freeze two of the pouches. The "reduce waste" part of me washes those thick plastic pouches and uses them as smaller plastic bags for storage. Still, there's a limit to how many of those bags I need so some get ditched.

Regarding the trash on roads. Ugh. Spring has just about arrived here and the first "crop" that shows up is the trash that appears as the snow melts away. I just do not understand people who want to enjoy nature trails, parks, lake shores etc and then proceed to dump their garbage along them. You brought it in, take it home.

 

I am 62 and remember gallon jugs,which you would return to the grocery store for a deposit, but don't remember why the switch happened.

As a kid, I supported my sweet tooth addiction by collecting discarded pop, beer & milk bottles, returning them for the deposit money...with the advent of plastic bottles, it became cheaper to just packge in new bottles than to collect and wash the old ones for re-use.

In regards the Crying Indian and the Keep America Beautiful campaign-- If you recall, First Lady Lady Bird Jorhnson made it her theme while LBJ was in office scewing us over...I used to think "Maybe she oughta start by having some plastic surgery."

 

i've never done the veggie peel thing. i've heard that it makes a really good base for stew or soup though. must try that.

 

Take a d rive thru Pine Ridge res and see how our red brothers live.It will be an eyeopener.

 

Pine Ridge is a bad place. It is dirty, loaded with old cabins and mobile homes and there is trash and crap all around. Who owns that way of life? The natives are there now and now is the moment; clean your homes up and later we can talk about how they were screwed over by the white man.

 

Little Big Man should be available on dvd. I saw it in a store not long ago. I read the book which was, as any book is, quite a bit more in depth. If you like westerns or historical fiction it is worth reading or watching.

Back in that time, there were no neat and hidden sanitary landfills. All refuse was just dumped in a gully or ravine. Even Indians had stuff that had to be discarded. Broken pottery, worn out hides, flint chips and bones were always tossed out around a camp. That's why the plains Indians moved around so much. They would wear out one spot, usually in one season, go to warmer areas for winter, then go back north and camp in a different spot. The whites were just as bad about having dumps they filled with trash. Although the whites had shovels and more often buried their refuse instead of just tossing it in an open pile. Those dump pits are a treasure to archeologists.

 

I love these discussions.
I love being frugal AND doing whatever I can to lighten my footprint on the environment.

As for laundry detergent, I started making my own using powdered ingredients along with some fels naptha soap which I grate before adding to the powdered ingredients. All of the powdered stuff comes in cardboard boxes and the soap is wrapped in paper, so no plastics involved.

We grow a huge garden, have a small orchard, and grow some veggies, herbs, and salad greens indoors all winter. We raise bees for honey and we tap maple trees to make maple syrup. We hunt deer and (usually) cut and wrap our own venison using freezer paper instead of plastic. We can, dehydrate, and freeze dry as much of our food as we possibly can so that we can eat home-grown rather than store-bought whenever possible.We try to be as self-sufficient as we possibly can- and so I am constantly amazed when we wind up with full bins of recycleables which we haul to the recycling center.

It is mind boggling to me how many plastic, glass, and metal containers we wind up disposing of, given how many reusable canning jars we go through, and reuse over and over and over again. We are even using Tattler lids for a lot of our canning and those are reusable as well.

Ours is a tiny family of two adults and one child- I shudder to think how much trash and empty containers are generated by a large family that buys everything at the store!

 

Borax now comes in a thinner paperboard box with a slick (plastic?) inner coating. I noticed that when I bought some last week.

 

well i got my powerbill and property tax last night. pb was 30dollars less . probably just from turning down the heat a notch or 2 . i use natural gas but of course it runs by power. although i have that 220 stove on baking just about every day. regardless i'm pretty happy with it. some people are having 800 dollar power bills. i haven't been cold or anything quite comfortable really. i do wear lots of clothes and always wear wool socks around the house. my son gave me a lined flannel shirt . too small for him but fits me perfectly with a hoodie underneath. warmest shirt ever.

gas bill not in yet. hopefully i saved on that also. my property tax i was afraid to open because of all the horror stories i'm hearing. only 80 dollars more for the interim bill so that's 160 for the year. nothing really. if i can pay 5 to 6k for my property tax i can manage to scrape up that much.

there's a gap on it until i sell and then the new owners will have to pay through the teeth for their taxes the next year cause of the value of the houses going up around here. saved 20 dollars on the water bill also. likely though because it's winter time and i'm not using it to water the garden and whatnot. got to put on my thinking cap and see what else i can save on. ~Georgia