Green Living Can Be Frugal

It's true. Living a greener life can also mean living a more frugal one. Admittedly, I came at this the other way around at first; we were trying to save some money since our budget is so tight just now. A few months in, however, I realized that we were actually living a much greener life as well. Once that realization dawned, I began seeing if making some green changes in our lives would help us live in more frugally, and I found that it's entirely true; green living can be frugal.

In our efforts to save money and live a greener, simpler, cleaner lifestyle, we have:

Started line drying our clothes. This saves us approximately 35 dollars a month on our electric bill.

Cloth diapering (and now cloth training panting). We line dry our diapers and wash them with our son's other things (you CAN wash your diapers with your other laundry if you do it properly, this saves a lot of money and is a greener alternative). These paid for themselves in less than 5 months.

Given up paper towels. This was a big switch and one that I am so glad that we made. We use microfiber towels now and they are amazing. They are super absorbent, clean everything and take the place of our Swiffer refills, mopping pads, glass cleaning wipes, Magic Erasers and paper towels. After the initial investment, I have saved so much money by just rinsing or washing these, then using them again.

Made our own cleaners. My cleaner is so cheap to use and cleans and disinfects everything. It's also chemical free, so its good for the environment and uses less packaging. Paired up with a microfiber towel, it cleans the floors, the bathroom, the walls, the counters - everything. I save about 50 dollars a month on cleaning supplies between the two.

Recycling. Recycling can save you a little money each month. Think about all those big jugs of milk or cereal boxes that you need to crush down into your trash can. Rinse them, toss them in the recycling bin and save on the extra trash bags each month.

Upcylcing/Thrifting. We upcycle and thrift a lot. It started with our downstairs wall shelving. I found it in our storage room after we moved in. A broken down old shelf full of holes and rotting boards. I repaired it, painted it and it now hangs in our family room:

Other upcycling/thrifting projects have included merging two pairs of shorts that I hated and never wore into one skirt that I wear all the time:

Using things we found outdoors to decorate our house with.

And numerous pieces of furniture I found and refinished. We've haunt Craig's List, thrift stores, antique stores and I have even salvaged things from the side of the road. A little paint, elbow grease and cleaner later and we have some pretty awesome new additions to our previously empty home that we could never afford to decorate.

While there are plenty of other ways to cut costs that are not green and plenty of ways to be green that aren't frugal, I think we've started to find a nice balance at our place.