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Eco-Friendly Family
Lvneveryminuteofit
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Poll: Being EF on a budget
Lvneveryminuteofit
member
If you are/were to be on a budget, what would be your #1 EF priority? And what might be the first to go for money's sake?
We've had to scale back our budget some in the last few months and while being EF is still a huge priority some things are more important than others. Our #1 is cleaning products and food for LO. The biggest thing we sacrificed is high quality shampoos and soaps. I use good ol' Pantene right now.
PS- I hope you don't mind I jump back in, it's been a long time since I posted regularly here (or any other board) since I quit my job computer time is hard to come by! I missed this board :-)
Momma to four, and we're expecting one more!
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Poll: Being EF on a budget
When we first moved to the city, we were very broke. So, we sold H's car and that was that. Walking, public transit and now cycling are what we opt for. I know that's not an option for everyone, but because it was for us, we did it. Biggest money saver yet for us. We don't have to pay for gas, upkeep, parking..
We live in a small apartment. I would love to live in something a bit bigger, and now that I am back at work full time, that will be possible soon. But we will still keep it fairly small to save money and keep a smaller footprint.
So, those are our biggest priorities right now.
I don't use shampoo and neither does DH, so that saves us a lot of money. I only use conditioner and use either Trader Joe's tea tree tingle ($3 for a large bottle) or L'Oreal's sulfite free conditioner, which is a bit pricier ($7). We both use bar soap, which can be bought in bulk.
You could save money on cleaning products by switching to vinegar, baking soda and Dr. Bronner's. That's what we do, and those things last a long time when you can buy them in large containers.
I save money on food by making a lot of things from scratch like crackers, granola bars, fruit leather, etc. which also cuts back on a ton of waste. I also make my own bread, buns and pizza dough, which is a big money saver and again, cuts back on waste.
Actually I've found that being EF and frugal go hand in hand. Baking soda and vinegar can be used for a lot: "shampoo", deodorant, household cleansers, etc. Line drying clothes, making food fro scratch, gardening, watering plants w/ collected rain water, turning off lights and unplugging appliances, making own baby food, using the car less, homemade laundry detergent, using reusable products like diapers, diva cup, unpaper towels, etc are all both EF and will save you $. I haven't had to sacrfice anything to stay in budget. Oh and for soap, I use Dr. Bronners. A little goes a long way and it lasts forever so it offsets the cost.
I'd definitely focus on good food for my family. Healthy, fresh food is most important here. As far as the cleaning products, they were the easiest thing for us to cut- just use 50% vinegar in 50% water for just about everything. Works great and so cheap!
And welcome back!
#1 is food. Although I've gotten to the point where buying organic, pastured, local food is cheaper than buying groceries in the store. I only shop in the store once a month for things like ketchup and olive oil. Everything else we get directly from the farmer and buy in bulk. It's super cheap that way.
Cleaning is cheap because I only use baking soda and vinegar.
Cosmetics are cheap because I'm no-poo, don't wear make-up, and don't even use deodorant. My only costs there are toothpaste and soap (which I also get locally for cheap).
To be honest, every single EF decision I have made for our family has saved us money. I've never had to make room in my budget.
The only thing I can see becoming more costly in the future is clothing. I've made a decision to try to buy more organic clothing/fabrics. But honestly, I only shop for clothes a few times a year and when I do it is secondhand, which I guess is better than buying new organic anyways.
This is us, exactly.
& Hello again!
In addition to what the others said...I buy almost all of LOs clothes, books and toys used (except shoes/socks)...and most of mine as well. Saves a ton...less consumption.
Milk, meat and produce are my organic/local must-haves.
I totally agree with all this!
I will say, though, that my biggest splurge is Organic Milk and Organic Meat. I also try to buy organic for the dirty dozen as well, depending on the budget that week.
A lot of the things we do that are EF work well with our budget - making cleaning products, vinegar for fabric softner, etc. I no pooed for awhile, but then got a great deal on soap.com which allowed me to buy alba shampoo and get free shipping, so basically I got the shampoo for what I would have had to pay shipping on - I'll see if I can do that again when this one runs out...
We don't do as much organic food for ourselves (and our 3 yr old) as I would like, but we still manage to do a decent amount. I feel like even though we don't do everything, we still spend way too much on food.. *sigh*
Everything I have done to be EF has saved me money.
Cleaning: I use a vinegar, water, method cleaning solution or i make my own vinegar citrus concentrate with lemons and oranges.
I also use old tshirts cut into rags for my unpaper towels and use prefold diapers for kitchen rags
I also use old tshirts to make reusable shopping/all purpose bags (it only requires one basic stitch for the hem and they work wonders) the remnants get used as the cleaning rags. no waste here.
I reuse pasta/food jars as planters, cleaning solution containers and so much more.
I cloth diaper and made my own cloth wipes
I upcycle as much as I can
We buy used clothing.
Make more food from scratch and buy as many of the ingredients as I can in bulk.
I make my own almond milk now.
I wish I could bike around but living in the desert it just is not possible unless we want heat stroke.
I do however take my savings and buy an organic vegan soap on etsy as well as the matching body butter and I still use Treseme shampoo. I tried using the Dr. Bronners but I didn't like it at all. I am trying not to use much make up anymore but it is a weakness of mine.
Last week, I posted about a question about eating organic on a budget. https://community.thebump.com/cs/ks/forums/thread/56912466.aspx
Like others have said, eating is the only thing about EFF that's more expensive. (Milk, eggs, and cheese are almost double sometimes!) However, I know for certain that as a whole our grocery bill is lower because of being so conscious and meal planning. And we just joined a CSA so I'm hoping to cut it even more. Food is a priority for us because it goes IN. Clothes are something I'd like to get to, but they can wait. We do use organic shampoo. The one I like is expensive, but they were cheaper options (other brands and no-pooing) that I tried and personally didn't love and feeling clean is kind of important to me. Cleaning products is super important. And we do recycled TP. The one we buy is really cheap and people use less.
Here are other ways we've cut cost and gone EFF. At this point its kind of a game to me:
-we've never had paper plates for dinner. ILs brought some one time and we have them put away so that the only thing accessible is to grab a real one.
-reusable nalgene bottles get brought out. This replaced my starbucks trips while out at appts with the girls and stops for a water/soda while DH was at work
-I pack DH's lunch everyday
-cleaning products are lemon, vinegar, and baking soda. Funny someone's hooked on windex. Using vinegar for the windows is actually what got me hooked on ditching cleaning products. I love the look of vinegar windows.
-we use kitchen cloths instead of paper towels or napkins at dinner.
-cloth diaper and clothes line
-no packaged foods saves us A LOT of $ and makes for some good kitchen fun. Ie. DIY bisquick, making baby food, etc.
-instead of zippies, we have re-usable bags. I think total I've spent $15 on my stash and its replaced a ton of boxes of plastics.
-Whole Foods has a buy in bulk program where you save 10% off of anything you buy as a case
-Amazon does a subscribe and save discount and has organic/natural options.
-We've only bought beef from farmers in the past year. Grassfed and raised the right ways, but not "organic".
-Just joined a CSA. For the next 8 weeks, our organic veggies will be $300. Thats a major savings if I think about what I would've bought when I went into the store each time I needed a veggie.
Ah! I am so glad you posted this! There have been some great responses and it is helping me choose some more EF things! Yay
) ::trots off to buy baking soda and more vinegar::
Now that I have more time to answer this...
I reuse glass jars. Peanut butter jars get used as drinking glasses (I did try making my own PB and it was a horrible fail, so I still buy it). Other glasses get used for storing dried beans and lentils, coffee beans, rice, lentils, pasta, nuts, etc.
Shutting off lights and unplugging appliances that aren't in use saves money and is EF. Surge protectors work well for electronic areas. It's easy to do once you get the hang of it. We hardly ever use our A/C unit and keep our heat around 66/67 in the winter and just wear layers. I cold wash our clothes (interesting read here)and air dry most of the laundry (minus sheets, towels, rugs and socks in the winter), which also saves money.
We don't buy bottled water and use a Brita cooler instead. The filters get sent into Preserve, which recycles them (I also use their razors and toothbrushes, and you can send all of that in to be recycled as well when you are done with them). DH and I both have Thermos vacuum sealed water bottles, which keeps our water super cold. DD has a Camelback water bottle for school and a Safe Sipper water bottle for at home.
After each season, we clean our furnace filter and vacuum the fridge coils. This keeps the furnace and fridge working efficiently.
We compost and recycle. This drastically cut down our garbage output. If you have to pay for garbage, you'll save there, and it definitely saves us money on garbage bags.
Cloth diapering saved us a ton of money before our daughter potty trained a year ago. Highly recommend. You can buy second hand form places like Spots' Corner on Hyena Cart to make it even more EF. This is what I did.
We don't buy organic clothing right now, but we try our hardest to buy second-hand.
We don't buy books or movies unless we absolutely love them. Utilize your local library, RedBox option and/or Netflix.
Food really is the part of the budget that costs the most. I refuse to buy conventional coffee, sugar, chocolate and bananas. I buy those fair trade organic. I buy milk/half&half/cream, butter, meat, and eggs from our co op, which means that they are local (well, except for the butter during some parts of the year - sometimes it's from Wisconsin, other times it's Organic Valley). The milk and eggs are not certified organic but are from pretty small farms. I trust the practices, as I've talked to the farmers and have the option of visiting the farms if I wish. I buy lentils, beans, coffee, oats, etc. from the bulk organic section at the co op.
My next step is to buy all local and/or organic cheeses. We're half way there. Right now, we are growing most of our veggies, but that will soon change. I'm sad about that. We switch to frozen organic veggies (some local) and frozen fruit (mostly local) when the growing seasons are over for the most part, excluding things that don't grow here at all, like grapes (rainforest alliance certified) and citrus (organic). I make our bread, buns, muffins, pizza dough, etc. with flour from a local mill.
If I want something like almond milk or horchata, I make it myself.