5 easy green and frugal changes you can make in your life TODAY!

Let’s take a moment to rewind a few weeks…it was New Years Eve and you were sat with a pen and paper jotting down your resolutions for 2013. You were probably full of good intentions about how you were going to save money as well as making an effort to be much more environmentally friendly.

Fast-forward to today, and it’s highly likely that even the best of intentions will have waned. February is typically the time things start to slip, good intentions wane, and sticking to promises you made to yourself just feels like way too much effort!

However, living a frugal lifestyle and being ‘green’ go hand in hand so it is relatively easy to make a few small changes in your life, which will not only help to protect the environment, but your wallet too.

Here’s a guide to five small and easy positive green and frugal changes you can make in your life. Do at least one of them today and see how good it feels:

 
Shower Bucket

Water is a precious, and expensive commodity. Many Australians find themselves facing water restrictions or drought conditions during the year – the shower bucket will help you to save water in a very easy way.

Find yourself a nine litre bucket and store this in your shower room. Before turning the shower on, place the bucket under the shower and leave it there until the water is hot enough to stand under. Then remove the bucket and continue with your shower as usual.

The water you collect in this bucket can be used for any household task – from mopping the floor to cleaning the car. You could even use it to flush the toilet. It may not seem like much, but actually adds up to over 5,500 litres of water every single year.

Kitchen scrap compost

Good quality compost and garden food can be costly, and food waste that ends up in a landfill doesn’t biodegrade without consequences. The decontamination process produces methane, a powerful greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming. So why not kill two birds with one stone by making use of all your kitchen waste by using it to make your own compost, instead of allowing it to be trucked off to the landfill?

Known as ‘gardeners gold’ compost made with your veggie peelings, breads and grains, used coffee grounds and eggshells, enriches soil fertility and will give your plants a shot of high-powered, plant loving nutrients.

Speed up the composting process by adding a few earthworms – the kids will love it!

Invest in a water bottle

Buy an inexpensive water bottle and use what flows from your tap, instead of buying pricey water, bottled in plastic disposable bottles. The energy it takes to manufacture just one disposable drink bottle is enough to power a computer for 25 minutes.

Recycle, recycle, recycle

I know it has been said a million times before, but recycling is one of the easiest things you can do to help the environment whilst saving cents.

• Give up paper towels, and opt for re-usable cloths instead
• Get your kids to re-use any unwanted printer paper – get them to draw on the back
• Re-use plastic grocery bags – as re-using them when you next go to the shops, you could use them to line small waste bins or pick up your doggy mess with them
• Recycle old clothes by using them as polishing rags

DATS Environmental Services offer a wide range of recycling services that help reduce the environmental impact of landfill. Over 85% of the waste that DATS collects is recycled.

Conduct an energy audit
A home energy audit will help you to understand where you’re using energy at home, and where you might be able to make savings. There are several sites online that talk you through the process of conducting an energy audit, which includes looking into energy saving opportunities such as:

• The energy consumption and cost of running appliances
• Ways to identify passive solar heating opportunities