Frugal is the New Green: Why Frugality is Environmentally Friendly

Frugality pairs nicely with many things, including environmental friendliness! Practicing good stewardship of resources is something us frugal folks have been doing for ages. Whether going 'green' is something you strive for or not, today we dive into how being frugal has some great environmental perks and why us frugal people can feel even more assured in our lifestyle.

Sponsors:

ModernFrugality: The Modern Frugality blog and shop has free and low-cost printables, resources, and ebooks to help you reduce your spending, minimize your stuff and organize your life. Visit Shop.modernfrugality.com to see all the freebies and get 50% off any purchase with code FRUGALFRIENDS19.

The Color Green: Anyone can get on board with the color green! It sits right between blue and yellow on the color wheel and its pleasing, it’s earthy, it has the capacity to be bold - and it’s a great color choice in most situations. It represents freshness, sustainability, nature, and MONEY! It also has a lot of other connotations like green thumbs being great at gardening, or a way to describe someone being new to an experience. There’s just so much green has to offer - so don’t be green with envy - instead hit the greens with your pals, even if you’re green at golf - and while you’re at it...make some green! Green - the environmentally friendly and versatile color.

Notable Notes:

What the Internet has to say:

This article from the frugalwoods gives a comprehensive list (17!) of all the ways frugality and environmentalism go hand in hand.

What Jen and Jill have to say:

• Being frugal leads to a greater level of being environmentally conscious - we are more aware of our consumption and the things we use because of our lifestyle

• How this looks for the Frugalwoods:

-Use less electricity and water

-Hang dry clothing (aka less electricity) - AND clothes last longer

-Purchase efficient appliances

-Drive less

-Conserve heat (sealed house, etc)

-No AC - granted she lives in VT - acknowledge true need (aka conscientious - being AWARE of decisions)

-No food waste

-Buy less, need less, want less, spend less, waste less

-Buy used

-Buy durable

-Clean green

-Recycle (not throw away if broken)

-Cook from scratch

-No water bottles

-Enjoy beauty

-Less chemicals in products (cosmetics etc.)

-Grow food, eat local

More from the Internet:

This article from the The Art of Simple offers tips on ways we can embrace frugality and environmental friendliness with some practices to consider implementing into everyday life.

More from Jen and Jill

• Some practices to consider adding to your frugal lifestyle to create a cleaner, greener environment

-Cloth napkins - even reuse at meal times and designate with rings to make sure the same person gets the same napkin

-Cloth rags - old t-shirt, towel, etc.

-Use back sides of paper

-No pre-rinsing dishes

-Turn of water

-Turn off lights (AND get LED)

-Real dishes

-Swap clothes

-Buy secondhand

-Cook from scratch - less trash from prepackaged things

-Open windows - no AC

-Reuse plastic bags

BILL OF THE WEEK - Thank you Kate from Chicago for talking up your husband Bill! - excellent job working AND going to school!

If you want to submit your bill of the week visit frugalfriendspodcast.com/bill to leave us a bill

Lightning Round - How The Frugal Friends Community Lives Green:

-Leah grows a lot of her food

-Brittany says Buying used, fixing, or reusing doesn't just save me money, it also keeps stuff out of the landfill.

-Erin started buying a lot of her clothes from FB swap, ThredUp, and a local consignment store. She also uses a tiny local health food store with a HUGE inventory of bulk foods, herbs, teas, oils, laundry/cleaning products. You can get better quality when you’re saving money through bulk/ zero-waste options

-Brook is getting married this summer and not personalizing any of her signs, etc so they can resell them instead of trashing them! She also uses bamboo towels instead of cotton balls and makeup remover pads.

-Allison cloth diapers and they’re getting their second child out of the stash we spent less than $500 on

-Katia says buying good quality means it wont break and be thrown in a landfill next year only to be replaced with another cheap version

Frugal Friends Book Club

It’s March and we’re reading Soulful Simplicity by Courtney Carver

If you want a free copy, leave us a review on iTunes or Stitcher, screenshot the review and send it to frugalfriendspodcast@gmail.com.

We’ll select the winners at the end of the month.

Thanks for hanging out with us! See ya next week!