I’m so glad I don’t drive and live close to our main town centre. I pop into our cheaper supermarket (we only have two) most evenings to get marked down produce for our guinea pigs and hamster who love eating it all up and pooping out valuable composting materials which their old bedding and hay is also added to. I grow all the produce I can but I’m in the early days where I’m working out what does grow at the moment. I also reuse all pump bottles to use for shampoo, shower gel, conditioner, washing up liquid etc, I find we use so much less of everything because of this! Also, I top all the bottles up with some plain water and shake them up so that everything is diluted, you’d never know! I leave my house thermostat on 18°c and make sure the boiler is as low as possible, the water heater is always set at 57°c to kill off any nasty diseases. I use an urn for all our hot drinks and to cook with the hot water. At the end of the day, all our tea and coffee leaves and granules go into a 5 litre jug and I empty whatever is left in the urn to brew overnight (turning the urn off) with the waste tea and coffee and that is then used to water plants or our compost heap in the morning. Our bath water is reused to flush the toilet and in the summer we also use it over our patio furniture if it needs a wipe or clean down. We also hang our washing inside and have a dehumidifier running 24/7 in the same room, that water is also used to water plants and the compost heap. We compost everything we can, including nail clippings, hair from brushes etc and the normal things. I rip up any suitable cardboard and paper to become the majority of my daughter’s hamster’s bedding.
Tip from me: Relative living only five houses from me does not use a water softener. Hence his water is hard, ( scores 57 when 8 is considered "hard' water. ) I use an iron fighter water softener, frequently am iron short hence need for iron supplements Ta da!... Now, I take a clean water jug when I stop over, and enjoy his iron rich water for drinking.
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I’m so glad I don’t drive and live close to our main town centre. I pop into our cheaper supermarket (we only have two) most evenings to get marked down produce for our guinea pigs and hamster who love eating it all up and pooping out valuable composting materials which their old bedding and hay is also added to. I grow all the produce I can but I’m in the early days where I’m working out what does grow at the moment. I also reuse all pump bottles to use for shampoo, shower gel, conditioner, washing up liquid etc, I find we use so much less of everything because of this! Also, I top all the bottles up with some plain water and shake them up so that everything is diluted, you’d never know! I leave my house thermostat on 18°c and make sure the boiler is as low as possible, the water heater is always set at 57°c to kill off any nasty diseases. I use an urn for all our hot drinks and to cook with the hot water. At the end of the day, all our tea and coffee leaves and granules go into a 5 litre jug and I empty whatever is left in the urn to brew overnight (turning the urn off) with the waste tea and coffee and that is then used to water plants or our compost heap in the morning. Our bath water is reused to flush the toilet and in the summer we also use it over our patio furniture if it needs a wipe or clean down. We also hang our washing inside and have a dehumidifier running 24/7 in the same room, that water is also used to water plants and the compost heap. We compost everything we can, including nail clippings, hair from brushes etc and the normal things. I rip up any suitable cardboard and paper to become the majority of my daughter’s hamster’s bedding.
Are there additional aids regarding grocery prep you can offer? That particular tip fascinates me
Tip from me: Relative living only five houses from me does not use a water softener. Hence his water is hard, ( scores 57 when 8 is considered "hard' water. ) I use an iron fighter water softener, frequently am iron short hence need for iron supplements Ta da!... Now, I take a clean water jug when I stop over, and enjoy his iron rich water for drinking.