Monday, January 30, 2012

Saving Money- Using the 3 Rs

Reduce, re-use, recycle... We have all heard of these especially in relationship to saving the earth or reducing our carbon footprint, but they are true when trying to save money.

Reduce- the amount of pre-package foods you are buying and consuming.  This is a huge area where saving money is easy. Instead of buying pre-package dinners try freezer cooking. Another way to REDUCE your spending is by reduce the number of time that you eat out during the week or even simpler reduce the number of trips  you make to the store in a week. Menu planning for us is the only way that we can accomplish the goal to REDUCE. Each Sunday, we look through the freezer and decide what to place on the menu for the week. This is especially helpful when we are running low on meat. If we don't have the items we need then we can't cook.

Re-use- Before throwing away anything, think if you can use it for something else or can it be donated to someone who can. Currently, we are re-using the deck from our deck that was replaced 9 years ago to make a new square foot garden. This wood was taken to the very edge of our yard and has been covered with weeds for years. Matt is in the process of going through each peace to determine which ones can be used and which need to be burned. I also like cooking items like taco rice that can be re-used for green peppers or nachos. Plastic containers can be re-used for storage especially large coffee ones. Another great re-use of plastic containers is for planting. I am also re-using empty water bottles. I started this after reading and realizing that the filtered water from our refrigerator is better than most bottled water. Re-using clothes or hand me downs are a way of life for us.  We currently re-use plastic grocery bags for scooping cat litter as well as holding wet clothes and for small trash can liners.

Recycle: This principle is very similar to the Re-use. One major difference is that by using our own bags for groceries and stuff we are recycling fabric  as well as saving money at the same time. Another way to look at recycling is by using for a different purpose.

My hope is that you begin to look for ways to Reduce, Re-use and Recycle to save money along with me!

No comments:

Post a Comment