What are your frugal and sustainable tips and tricks?

[Sally PB]

Reduce - the amount of consumables we use.
Reuse/Refill - containers as appropriate.
Repurpose - an item and give it a second life as something else.
Recycle - products when no longer needed.
Refuse - as a last resort. Minimize the amount of refuse we send to the landfills.

I read the first word in the last line as a verb. Yeah, if I can't reuse, refill, or recycle, I should refuse it.

 

[gtaus]

I read the first word in the last line as a verb. Yeah, if I can't reuse, refill, or recycle, I should refuse it.

Yeah, refuse, as in garbage. But I suppose it would be OK to refuse to buy items that are over packaged and create more pollution than they are worth. There might be alternatives that are more environmentally friendly.

 

[igorsMistress]

I read the first word in the last line as a verb. Yeah, if I can't reuse, refill, or recycle, I should refuse it.

Yeah, refuse, as in garbage. But I suppose it would be OK to refuse to buy items that are over packaged and create more pollution than they are worth. There might be alternatives that are more environmentally friendly.

I recently heard a story on the news about plastics. Most are not recyclable and now packaging is supposed to be reduced at some point, regulations or something. That took long enough! I quit buying my favorite seaweed snacks because of the packaging, but recently saw they’ve done away with the extra plastic. Yay! I just wish I could get them in a single, bigger pack to reduce it even more. I looked for an article to link here but can’t find it quick, I will if I can.

 

[Prairie Hills Homestead]

I got lucky at my local hardware store. They sell black sunflower seeds and a backyard bird mix. They got moth larva in them so the bags were discounted. I was able to buy 20lb bags of sunflower seeds for $5 a bag (typically $25-30 a bag). They said they get these often enough but never sell them. My chickens don't care about a little extra protien!

 

[igorsMistress]

I recently heard a story on the news about plastics. Most are not recyclable and now packaging is supposed to be reduced at some point, regulations or something. That took long enough! I quit buying my favorite seaweed snacks because of the packaging, but recently saw they’ve done away with the extra plastic. Yay! I just wish I could get them in a single, bigger pack to reduce it even more. I looked for an article to link here but can’t find it quick, I will if I can.

It was related to AZ only, because the landfills are full.

 

[Jenni Hen]

I love eating yoghurt... I keep telling myself to make it rather than buying it but it's too tempting and easy just to pick up a tub. I try to get the 1kg tubs - and I try not to let the portion size grow proportion with the container! The 1 kg tubs were great for the young sweetcorn plants last year, when they were waiting to be planted out.

 

[Sally PB]

I'm making my own yogurt today. I make it with my own culture, which I've kept going from some culture I ordered online. So my only cost is the gallon of fat free milk (abbreviated FF milk, so I call it "loud milk."), and the honey I use to sweeten it.

I also drain a lot of whey out of it, so I end up with about a little less than half a gallon of yogurt, and a little more than half a gallon of whey. Which sounds wasteful, but I have a LOT of uses for whey, so I think of it as getting two products, not just one. I recycle the empty milk jug, and I don't have any other containers I need to recycle, as I use canning jars.

You do not need a yogurt maker. Don't let that be a reason not to make your own. If someone wants, I'll post my (somewhat lengthy) directions.

I used to take a jar of yogurt to work and stand my spoon up in it. I show it to coworkers and say, "Can your yogurt do this?" Then I'd turn the jar upside down and say, "Well, how about this?"

Yeah, I'm a bit of a smart aleck.

Uses for whey:
Mix with the chickens' feed to make their mash snack
Water blueberries or other acid loving plants
Cook rice
Make bread
Some people even drink it.

 

[gtaus]

I recently heard a story on the news about plastics. Most are not recyclable and now packaging is supposed to be reduced at some point, regulations or something. That took long enough!

I was a young student studying in southern France back in the early 1980's. There was a political "Green" party that was talking about reducing packaging and plastics. At that time, I never heard of anything like that. Took a long time for us in the USA to even start thinking about all those plastics we dump in our landfills.

I think we have made some progress here in the USA. But still, most of what I do to reduce my waste is because I take the time and effort to do it. Not because of rules, laws, or regulations. Having said that, I am not opposed to making food packing biodegradable. Won't it be nice to compost our food packaging instead of hauling and dumping all that plastic in a landfill? I think it would. But I live out in the country and it's easy for me to compost anything I can.

I really don't have much confidence in the recycling in practice. I think most of that stuff just gets dumped into a landfill. Better to make the packaging compostable and if it ends up in a landfill, at least it would compost down to something safe.

 

[Sally PB]

I really don't have much confidence in the recycling in practice. I think most of that stuff just gets dumped into a landfill. Better to make the packaging compostable and if it ends up in a landfill, at least it would compost down to something safe.

Yeah, I don't know how much of the stuff I take to recycle actually gets recycled. I'm doing what I can... But compostable packaging would be great.

 

[saysfaa]

...
You do not need a yogurt maker. Don't let that be a reason not to make your own. If someone wants, I'll post my (somewhat lengthy) directions.

...

I would please.