Earth Day is Every Day!

I love Earth Day as a reminder to be kind to our planet.  Regardless of where you might stand on global warming, it's still wise to be kind to the space we inhabit, for ourselves and future generations. 

I'm excited to share a few ways that we combine living frugally with being environmentally responsible:

1.  We take our trash to the dump twice a month and pay an annual fee of $166 VS our prior cost of $384 to Apple Valley Waste.

• We recycle all cardboard, paper products, plastics and glass.
• We compost all food (except meat) which includes scraps, forgotten leftovers (really trying hard to minimize these) and egg shells.
• We shred all bank documents along with any paper that is not saturated in color ink and it all goes into the compost bin.

2.  I make a weekly menu which includes home cooked meals for 95% of what we eat.  We save money and reduce packaging.  Examples:

• Refried Beans - with just 2lbs of dry beans, we make 6lbs of Pinto Beans that are frozen in 1lb containers and thawed for making quick refried beans. 
• Homemade Yogurt - with 1/2 cup whole milk, I can make 1.5 quarts of yogurt.  It's not as thick as store bought yogurt, but it taste wonderful with homemade smoothies which we make almost every day.

3.  We garden a small 10x10 plot in the summer and can/freeze the following to be used throughout the year:

• Tomatoes
• Squash
• Pinto Beans
• Sweet Potatoes
• Sweet Red Peppers - we go through these too fast to save
• Onions
• Garlic

4.  Mowing with a push mower rather than gas.  We have both, but my husband prefers to use the push mower as much as possible.

My goal for the next year is to eliminate (as much as possible) zip lock bags.  They've been a weakness of mine for years and while I don't think the savings is significant, it's more of a desire to reduce our trash/landfill contribution.