Doing These 6 Eco-Friendly Things Will Also Save You Money!

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One of the reasons why eco-friendliness is being neglected for convenience is because people think there are no rewards for doing extra efforts of being eco-friendly. But in reality, there are lots of rewards with the most common being saving you money here and there, and you don’t have to do a lot as well. But for today we’re taking a look at 6 big eco-friendly things that’ll also save you money! Let’s get started!

Most of Us Don’t Know That Eco-Friendly Things Usually Save You Money

The fact that eco-friendliness saves you money is something we don’t always realize. It’s easy to think that being environmentally friendly will always require a lot of extra money, especially when companies greenwash as a marketing tactic to raise their prices up. Well, surprise! The most eco-friendly things that you can do will most often save you money! 

The bigger the move you do towards eco-friendliness the bigger the savings you’ll potentially get in return. The best part? Eventually, you’ll become a huge player in saving the planet, now that’s something that’s much more worth saving than money!

Growing Your Own Food

This is a pretty obvious one! Growing your own food is a great way to save money, and it’s also eco-friendly. If you have a backyard or balcony, consider planting some vegetables, fruits, and herbs, all of which are getting expensive nowadays!

Not only that, but you can also grow mushrooms and other things!

The best part is you don’t need to spend a lot on things to get started:

You don’t need to buy seeds and sprouts, most of the vegetables, fruits, and herbs we buy have parts that can be replanted with a bunch of tricks. One content creator that comes to mind is SpicyMoustache whose real name is Alessandro Vitale, he’s an Italian tattoo artist who turned his backyard into a sustainable urban garden.

He regularly posts tips and tricks to regrow fruits and vegetables and even how to use every last bit! He even shared how you can turn onion and garlic skins into a seasoning!

Succeeding in growing your own thriving garden will definitely save you a ton of money by cutting your trips to the grocery store and restaurants! And remember, by not going to supermarkets, you also save gas and fare money!

Another way people can save money by growing their own food is through composting, this reduces food waste by turning food scraps into a nutrient-rich fertilizer that you can use in the future to grow your plants! Composting can also improve soil’s water retention which will also save you more money from water usage. 

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Speaking of water usage, you should consider our next item!

Start a Rainwater Harvesting System

Rainwater harvesting is a great way to save money and help the environment, and if you already have your own backyard garden, you can use the rainwater you harvested for irrigation! It’s also useful for cleaning, washing clothes, and even making drinking water!

Starting a rainwater harvesting system does cost some money, you need to buy pipes, gutters, and a container to store all those water. But before that, there are some things you have to consider!

First, the most obvious thing to consider is where you live, do you receive a ton of rain? 

If you do, do you live in your own house? Rainwater harvesting systems are best done if you have your own house since you need to modify your gutters and set up a giant tank in most cases.

Once that’s all sorted out, you can now set your rainwater collection system! Doing so will have a huge cut on your water bill and if you take things a bit further by adding filtration and distillation systems, you can also cut down on your drinking water costs over time!

With a rainwater harvesting system, you can also potentially automate your whole garden irrigation system. Another great example of this is JerryRigEverything’s automated garden, click here to watch him build a rainwater harvesting system with an automatic irrigation system!

Use Solar Power and Other Clean and Renewable Energy

You have your garden to rely on for food, you have your rainwater harvester to rely on water, what about energy? Let’s try solar power!

Solar power is one of the cleanest and most renewable forms of energy. And it’s one of the most obvious choices if you want to save money and the environment! In extreme cases, you can even earn money by distributing your excess electricity to your local power grid.

I know a lot of people will think that solar panels are expensive but the cost of solar panels has dropped dramatically over the years as technology has improved and more people have invested in them! Not only that, it basically pays itself within a few years! It also takes little to no effort to maintain (cleaning the panels is all it takes.

It’s also worth noting that other forms of clean and renewable energy sources can be used in addition to solar power: wind turbines and water wheels are two examples that come to mind immediately. However, those are only viable if you live in a windy place or near a river, and everyone lives somewhere with sunlight (anyone but people who are too close in the Northern or Southern hemisphere), which is why solar power is usually the best move to do when it comes to harnessing clean and renewable energy!

Use Public Transportation or Electric Vehicles

Another great way to save your wallet and the environment is by utilizing public transportation! Public transportation is often cheaper than owning a car and it’s safer too! Plus, it helps reduce pollution in your local area! 

If you can’t use public transport for whatever reason, Electric Vehicles cost less to operate than gas-powered cars and they’re better for the environment because they don’t require expensive gasoline or diesel fuel; instead, they run on electricity from outlets at home or at charging stations around town. And if you already use a fairly capable solar power system by the time you use electric vehicles, then you can charge it with that, and viola! The car is basically paying itself as you drive it!

If you live in urban areas, you should also consider PEVs or Personal Electric Vehicles, these include electric skateboards, scooters, e-bikes, and even electric motorcycles. They are usually much cheaper to charge since they have a smaller battery and they can travel a decent amount on such a small battery since they’re light and small. This is a great alternative if public transport just doesn’t work out for you.

Make a Smart Home!

Smart homes are cool! You can tell Alexa, Siri, or Google to turn on the lights or set timers for your various smart appliances, and these days you can even control your HVAC system and even things like curtains and windows!

Well, do you know you can also automate your smart home systems? 

That’s right, you can set automatic timers for lights to only turn on at a certain time of day, or you can even let the system take care of it all. Most systems can be had with motion sensors so it’ll detect if anyone’s in the room and shut off everything when there’s no one. 

Of course, while I can talk for days about how cool smart homes are, they can also save a ton of moolah by regulating your power consumption! And you don’t need to go crazy with all the gadgets you can install, simple light switches will do!

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

It’s a pretty old and classic saying that has made its way into the mainstream consciousness. But as I said in the beginning, most of the time we fail to realize that all these environmentally friendly actions can and probably will end up saving us money!

Reduce what you use! Do you really need all those takeout or delivered meals every week? Do you really need those expensive single-use coffee pods? Why not learn how to brew coffee by using a reusable filter? Why not hang dry your laundry and reduce your dryer and electric use? 

Little things you reduce can bring out a great impact, and while a lot of it can be a bit inconvenient sure enough, but those inconveniences can often translate into dollars saved. 

Reuse what you have! You don’t need to buy anything to start, a lot of people start by buying reusable bottles or cloth bags for groceries, but you can start by reusing and refilling your water bottles, or reusing your plastic or paper bags. And as those things start to break, only then can I recommend buying things that are specifically made to be reusable!

Recycling is the hardest one to execute, it requires a ton of creativity and effort to execute, but there are a ton of ways to do this! For instance, use a water bottle as a mini pot for your garden, or use those little coffee pods to sprout your seeds. 

You can even upcycle and turn a discarded thing and make it into something better! A great example is Rainforest Connection as they used discarded phones and used to monitor rainforests!

Everything we do to save the environment usually falls into these three Rs, but lastly, for us to save money as we do all these environmentally friendly acts, we need to…

Commit!

It’s pretty hard to commit and change to an eco-friendly lifestyle. But, once you commit, your life will be healthier and happier!

Of course, there are tricks for you to commit, and one of those tricks is by gaining a reward in return for your acts! Take this whole article for example, we’ve been talking about a huge reward for doing eco-friendly acts which are saving or earning money!

Some people also reward themselves by making all these processes fun! 

And if you like tinkering around like me, setting up your own rainwater collection system or wiring your solar power system, or even trying to automate and build a smart home is very fun and rewarding!

And as I mentioned above, being able to commit to an eco-friendly lifestyle can be hard, but at the end of the day, if you succeed, you’ll save some money, you’ll be healthier, and you’ll be happier!

Conclusion

We hope you’ll take these tips to heart and bring some eco-friendly practices into your life. They may not seem like much, but the cumulative impact of many people doing small things can make a huge difference for our planet. You don’t need to be an expert on sustainability or environmental issues; just start by doing small things and keeping in mind how you can save money by being eco-friendly!

Do you have some eco-friendly ideas that can save the world and your wallet? Let us know in the comments below! Thanks for reading!