What are your frugal and sustainable tips and tricks?

[Loving my girls]

I love this thread as I am as green as a very green thing,

I switch of the shower between studding and ringing,

Use clean tap run off water for the dog water and other used water for the compost.
left over -
meat > dogs
Fish > Cats
veg > chooks
Brussels sprouts and other in edibles into compost

Cardboard and paper is burnt for the girls to dust bath

we have two electric cars ( thank you mum & dad)

We have solar which pays for all our electric

We are always looking for new ideas

 

[Loving my girls]

Do any of you have a rain barrel or rainwater collection system?

I'm getting my house roof replaced and have requested they add a gutter and two downspouts to the rear. It will help divert heavy rain away from the foundation, but it will also offer me an opportunity to collect the rainwater for gardens and/or chickens. We get about 48" of rain annually, so I think it's a worthwhile project.

Here's a couple that look doable:
https://www.instructables.com/How-to-Build-a-Rain-Barrel/

https://www.instructables.com/How-to-make-a-rain-barrel-1/

But I might need to overflow into another barrel or so, we get a LOT of rain.

What do you think?

We use 1000 litre home oil tanks, they are a lot cheaper than special water buts, recycled plastic and we have two in a row so when one gets to overflowing the other one takes over. With a submersible pump I can use a hose which save masses of work for the veggie bed.

I recommend a maintainable filter though as you will get lots of weird and wonderful stuff off your roof to block pipes etc.

 

[Loving my girls]

I will dump grease on the logs in my fire pit. Burns well.



Yep. I recommend putting the grease on the wood before you light the fire.



I like to make lentil soup, especially if we have any leftover ham. I cube up the ham and add it to the soup. I also like to add some fresh kale from the garden and green onions.

I prefer to eat the lentils as soup, with lots of liquid, but if you want to make it thicker, it goes really good over rice.

Lentil soup freezes well. When I make a big batch, I put it into separate plastic containers and put them in the freezer. Take one out the night before you want to eat it and let it thaw out in the refrigerator. Makes for a quick meal with a sandwich. Sometimes I make some cheese bread to go with the lentil soup. It's all good to me.

I use my cooking fat to make fat balls for the wild birds over winter. Not in my garden though as it would be a slaughter with my cats

 

[Loving my girls]

Yeah, it’s something I usually hide in stuff with lots of flavor. I’ve bought the extra lean stuff and used bacon grease to cook it also.

I use green lentils in my bolognaise sauce to pad it out. Hubby hates lentils but I’ve been doing it for years and he hasn’t noticed.
saves the euros

 

[TooCheep]

Do any of you have a rain barrel or rainwater collection system?

I'm getting my house roof replaced and have requested they add a gutter and two downspouts to the rear. It will help divert heavy rain away from the foundation, but it will also offer me an opportunity to collect the rainwater for gardens and/or chickens. We get about 48" of rain annually, so I think it's a worthwhile project.

Here's a couple that look doable:
https://www.instructables.com/How-to-Build-a-Rain-Barrel/

https://www.instructables.com/How-to-make-a-rain-barrel-1/

But I might need to overflow into another barrel or so, we get a LOT of rain.

What do you think?

Rain barrels fill up quickly with significant rain. You can get an estimate of how much water you can collect for 1" of rain if you know the dimensions of that section of roof and convert it to gallons.

Design your rain barrel system with these factors in mind:

• Make sure you have a way to handle water overflow from the barrel(s)
• Try to setup a design where you can easily expand your system by overflowing one barrel to a second, third, etc.
• Dust, dirt, bird poo, leaves, etc. can collect on your roof and gutters. Check info on "first flush diverter" that will divert the initial flush of water away from the barrel so you collect a lot less debris in your barrel(s).

PS- There are a few ridiculous areas that make it illegal to collect your own rain water. Check your regs before investing in the system.

 

[igorsMistress]

I use green lentils in my bolognaise sauce to pad it out. Hubby hates lentils but I’ve been doing it for years and he hasn’t noticed.
saves the euros

Fortunately my DH will usually eat anything I put in front of him with the exception of broccoli and cauliflower.

 

[gtaus]

Do any of you have a rain barrel or rainwater collection system?

I currently live on a lake and have my own well water. I don't pay for city water. So, I don't have much need for a rain barrel collection system at this time. However, I have lived in many places where a rain barrel collection system would have been a great way to store water and save money. I don't know how much it would cost to use metered city water for my gardens, but it seems to me that any investment in a good rain barrel collection system would pay for itself in little time.

Speaking of rain barrels, I don't know how much you have to pay for a new rain barrel, but last time I looked around where I live, they wanted over $50 for a plastic barrel. There might be another option to consider...

I bought a few of these large totes when they went on sale earlier this year at Menards for under $20 each. I am thinking that these totes might also make excellent water storage units. You might be able to stack them on top of each other, or certainly on a rack, and take up less space than round barrels. Plus, if you want to clean out the tote, you just take off the top and have easy access.

If you want to add a spigot or something like that, it would certainly be easier on the tote compared to the round rain barrel. You can easily reach into the tote to add any number of connections.

I guess you would have to call it a rain bin system instead of a classic rain barrel system. But I am thinking there might be some advantages to using totes for water storage over barrels.

If you don't want those large totes, and they are very large, you could buy the standard sized 27-gallon totes...

They go on sale all the time at the big box stores. Even so, at current regular price, two 27-gallon totes would be a lot less expensive than one 55-gallon barrel where I live.

I have lots of these sized totes for storage. Good value for the money and I love how they stack when full, and they nest into each other when empty saving lots of room.

 

[gtaus]

PS- There are a few ridiculous areas that make it illegal to collect your own rain water. Check your regs before investing in the system.

Good point. I have heard that some towns will not let people collect rainwater. I don't know why. Probably because they can't charge you for it. Another good reason why I don't live in city limits.

 

[Grannys Backyard Chicks]

Do any of you have a rain barrel or rainwater collection system?

I'm getting my house roof replaced and have requested they add a gutter and two downspouts to the rear. It will help divert heavy rain away from the foundation, but it will also offer me an opportunity to collect the rainwater for gardens and/or chickens. We get about 48" of rain annually, so I think it's a worthwhile project.

Here's a couple that look doable:
https://www.instructables.com/How-to-Build-a-Rain-Barrel/

https://www.instructables.com/How-to-make-a-rain-barrel-1/

But I might need to overflow into another barrel or so, we get a LOT of rain.

What do you think?

I always open the bottom spigot during hurricanes. It's just so much water. My overflow on top works fine the rest of the time.

 

[gtaus]

We use 1000 litre home oil tanks

Wow! That would make a big water collection system. If my math is right, 1000 liters is around 260 gallons. But good for you.

Reminds me of when I was stationed in Naples, Italy. Water was not guaranteed. Many people had large 500- or 1000-litre water storage tanks in their garage or basement. It certainly was no fun when the city would turn off the water for a few days. And we could not drink city tap water. We had to buy bottled water. It was no fun having to fill the trunk of the car with water to take home for drinking and cooking. I am very glad I now live somewhere with clean water.