10 ways to save more and waste less

10 ways to save more and waste less: I’ve met a lot of people in my day and everyone’s a little bit different they got their own thing going on but I can tell you one universal truth about everyone I’ve met and that is they all like to save money and one way that you can save money is by wasting less now to mention it’s great for the environment and we need to be really good stewards of the environment right now so this week I am going to share with you ten easy ways that you can waste less and save more.

While you might think that you have to get rid of your sponge the second it starts smelling or if you wiped up something kind of gross think again rather than talking it consider cleaning and disinfecting your sponge there’s a really easy way to do this and it’s so much more responsible not only for your wallet but for the environment to use your sponge more so here’s what you do syllable with equal parts water and white vinegar make sure the whole sponge is immersed in the liquid microwave it for five minutes when it comes out let it cool you can remove it with tongs and what that will do is get rid of bacteria and odors and give some new life to that sponge we use paper towels you may or may not know this but paper towel can actually be reused now not if you’re using it for some gross cleanup job but if you’re using it for something you know pretty average like wiping up a juice spill on the counter walk the paper towel over to the sink bring it out rinse it wring it out again and wipe another surface paper towels are durable so long as you get the good quality.

One another way to stretch the life of your paper towel is to use it to wipe out one thing for example I will use it to wipe out a cast iron pan and I’ll just leave the paper towel beside the stove and I’ll put all of my other food garbage on that paper towel and I’ll wipe up a little schmutz and then I throw it out so there I’ve used one paper towels for three functions two degrees cooler two degrees hotter I always loved aha but even I can admit it is pretty irresponsible so what we’ve been doing at home now in the winter is we’ve been kicking the thermostat down by two degrees and I’m surviving and I have to say it’s actually easier to sleep in a cooler bedrooms you can layer on the blanket it’s kind of cozy but you know what I do instead is I put on blankets or sweaters and I’m wearing slippers so I’m doing what I can to keep myself warm and frankly it is making a big dent in a positive sense on our bill and then in the summer we’re going to kick the thermostat up to degrees so we’re not going to pull the air-conditioning right down and we’re just going to find ways to make sure that we’re not dealing with that whole greenhouse effect so we’re going to be closing our window covering and that way we’ll keep sunlight out and we’ll keep our home a little bit cooler.

Start a bag system I’d love to know in the comments down below if you guys have your usable bags that you take shopping with you or if you’re still using plastic bags and not to mention plastic bags clogged up landfills go research how long it takes for a classic bag to break down it’s depressing so my husband and I recently went to the Container Store some of you guys might have seen that haul and we picked up this fantastic bag system that we now bring with us whenever we go grocery shopping so we don’t have to use plastic bags we also found a really great mesh bag replacement for produce.

Pickle juice power if you like anything that’s pickled before you toss that liquid down the sink think again pickle juice well it doesn’t really have a negative environmental impact you can have a really positive impact on your food so you can brine chicken in pickle juice apparently this is what one very successful chicken franchise does to make their chicken peace extra amazing you can add it to hummus and salad dressings you can throw them in a cocktail you can steam veggies in it there are a lot of cool things you can do with pickle juice so use it before you toss it reuse jars on the of pickle juice I’m sure you indulge in pickles and jams and olives and all kinds of other good stuff that comes in jars don’t throw those valuable little things out rather than buying containers reuse your jars i right now in my fridge have tumeric tea in an old soup jar and I have soup in an old pickle jar I also have spices which I’ve contained in old spice jars that I’ve cleaned out deodorized.

Switch to digital subscriptions if you currently get your paper or magazines delivered to your home you gotta get with the times it is or maybe when you’re watching this I don’t know but I’m sure this will still be relevant a lot of companies are now offering you the ability to subscribe to their content online not only is this easier for you to manage at home because there’s less paper for you to have to deal with but you can also save content a lot easier and usually if you subscribe online you get offers and access to a lot of other things you wouldn’t necessarily get access to it just got the stuff delivered to your home example an app like texture I think gives you access to hundreds of magazines every month instead of just one subscription.

Think about making that switch turn your water off obviously you’re going to need to use water for things like brushing your teeth and washing your dishes water is a scarce resource and you’ve got to treat it with respect not to mention we are paying for it so make sure that when you’re washing dishes you’re turning water off when you’re actually not using it to rinse or fill your sink and the thing goes for when you’re brushing your teeth or washing your face only when you actually need the water is when you should turn it on but when the brush is physically in your mouth or the washcloth is physically on your face your tap should be off.

Use reusable napkin reusable napkins are not just for fancy people they are for everyday people like moi now I used to think that regional napkins were going to be a total pain and extra laundry that I’d have to do but let me tell you what happened first of all we don’t have a bunch of paper going around the house because paper napkins that like long rectangular thing you have to find somewhere to store it number one and number two you can’t recycle paper towel or napkin so it’s kind of an irresponsible choice now when it comes to actual cloth napkins so we’ll reuse them a couple of times I mean of course if you get a spill on a napkin you’re not going to use it but if it’s just me out for a sandwich and you dab your face for a second you can easily reuse that I put the napkins in with my cleaning cloth it’s literally no extra work and it’s a little bit fancy so go for it wash and cold hang to dry.

If you want a great way to save money think about the way that you do laundry and perhaps restructure things a little bit unless you absolutely need to do your laundry in hot water in there are some times where that will be the case try using a cold wash cycle instead obviously it’s going to save money because you don’t have to heat up that water and then when it comes to the dryer unless you need to use the dryer think about hanging your garments to dry instead the dryer is a total electricity hog even the efficient ones are still going to cost you money to run every single time.

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