"A plastic free lifestyle is out of reach for many people," is what I hear being said all the time and it is true to some extent. Many plastic free alternatives are more expensive than the standard packaged solution. Some will pay themselves back by lasting longer, some are just a higher expense on your monthly budget. On the other hand, here are 10 ways you can pass on the plastic packaging while saving money. It is not all about getting lots of fancy gadgets and cute natural items, the zero waste mindset is all about using, reusing and re-purposing what you already have.
Let's start in the most obvious place, the kitchen.
1. Eat more vegetables in place of meat and fish
Vegetables are much more easily found lose, even in standard supermarkets, whilst meat and fish require you to go to a bit more effort to obtain package-free. This will save you lots of money and has the added benefit that it has a hugely positive environmental impact. The meat industry is responsible for a large chunk of green house gases and deforestation.
2. Grow your own food
The next stage from eating more veg is to grow your own. You don't need to have a large scale food production (which sounds quite daunting). If you have any space in your garden, balcony or window sill, you can start small by trying to grow a few selected crops that you know you will eat. If it goes well, you can try to expand the following year. A very good starting point is growing your own herbs from seeds. They are very rarely available package-free from supermarkets (even if you buy the plants) and are incredibly expensive. By growing them, you will have your own supply of fresh herbs for a fraction of the cost. You can even re-grow some vegetables (such as spring onions, celery and leeks) from scraps. See an update on my kitchen garden here.
3. Use up all your food
We are all guilty of this: cooking something new and ignoring the leftovers that have been in the fridge for days, or going out to buy ingredients for a particular recipe when there are wilting vegetables back at home. Since getting a vegetable box, my cooking habits and attitude have changed radically. The first thing I think about is, "What is the oldest vegetable that I can cook today?" By basing my meals around what needs to be used up, I make sure there is minimal food waste in our home. Taking leftovers for lunch is also a very good way to avoid waste. Be brave, be creative and save yourself some money.
4. Save your vegetable scraps
There are two things your could be doing with these:
- Place in a jar in the freezer for making vegetable stock or soup one day (you can use: broccoli stalks and leaves, carrot peels, potato peels, onion skins, celery leaves, fennel leaves, herb stalks, leek leaves, spring onion leaves, cabbage or cauliflower leaves etc. - make sure these are washed before they are peeled)
- Compost them: this will save you money when you need compost for your garden and will save you buying it in plastic bags.
Extra tip: I also save my Parmesan rinds for stock making, they add lots of flavour.
5. Make your own
This can apply to many things and can often be a big money saver. Here is a list of things I try to make myself to save money and the unwanted packaging that comes from buying these items from the supermarket:
- oat milk (oats are a lot cheaper that oat milk and come in a cardboard box);
- hummus (all you need is some tins of chickpeas, tahini, olive oil, lemon and some garlic - certainly cheaper that buying small plastic tubs of hummus at the shop). See my hummus recipe in Packed Lunches;
- bread (if you have a bread machine this is super easy - flour, yeast and oil are cheap and tap water is free. Plus, you will always have fresh bread in the house). See my bread recipe in Packed Lunches;
- cream cheese (not a huge saving here as I reckon it costs about the same as buying it but it's fresh and fun to make). See recipe here;
- coleslaw (just shredded cabbage, carrot and mayo, much cheaper to make it than buying it pre-packaged);
- beeswax wraps (these can be incredibly expensive to buy but are really cheap to make - all you need is some cotton and pure beeswax). Tutorial coming soon...
Let me know in the comments if I've missed anything out or you have other ideas of what could be made to save money and plastic.
6. Cook from scratch - Ban the take outs
Cooking from scratch can save you a ton of money compared to getting take away or ready meals. Making a take away a very rare treat will save you cash and a lot of unwanted packaging. Having said that, there are some plastic free take out options. Pizza, fish and chips and kebabs are often in biodegradable packaging. Alternatively, try to take your own containers to the restaurant. I do this with our local Chinese take out and they are usually happy to use my containers in place of new ones. Also, having to go through the effort of walking there means we first look at what can be cooked at home before we decide on a take away.
Batch cooking and freezing is a very good way to avoid last minute ready meals or take outs. Set some time aside to make something you know you will like, freeze it in batches and you will have your favourite meal ready without any unwanted packaging or extra expense.
7. Use up what you have
Chances are, you already have quite a few spare soaps, shampoos, deodorants and whatnot lying around in your house. I have been guilty of rushing to buy plastic free alternatives when I still had perfectly functioning products at home that I hadn't finished yet. Try to look around in all the cupboards and finish up what you have before buying new.
8. Re-purpose what you have
There are loads of very fancy and very pricey plastic free products out there (namely unpaper towels, make up cotton rounds, beeswax wraps, cutlery sets, storage containers, plant pots, etc...) but chances are you have something in your home you can re-purpose for exactly the same function.
- reuse old towels instead of paper towels for wiping spills (you can cut and saw these with pretty fabric but you don't have to);
- cut up some old cotton t-shirts to remove your make up (you can sew these around the edges if you want to stop them from fraying);
- use some spare fabric to make your own beeswax wraps (Tutorial coming soon...);
- take some cutlery from your house, wrap it in a napkin and you have a cutlery set;
- reuse any old packaging for storage (glass jars are super versatile);
- use egg cartons or pots made out of newspapers to plant seeds indoors before planting them outside.
Ultimately, it is about the mindset of: what can I reuse for this instead of buying new?/How can I re-purpose this instead of throwing it away?
9. Go solid
Solid products, rather than liquid ones, not only come completely unpackaged most of the time, but will also last a lot longer, making it cheaper in the long run. For example, solid soap, deodorant, shampoo and conditioner bars are tried and tested options. Solid toothsoap is also an option, lasts much longer than tubes but the flavour takes some getting used to (we prefer toothpaste tablets). I have also seen solid washing up soap and stain remover but I haven't tried them so I can't vouch for their efficacy.
10. Buy second hand
Buying second hand whenever possible is a great way to save on resources from our planet while saving money as it is usually much cheaper than buying new. Charity shops, boot sales and markets are a great place for this, as well as some websites which are starting to sell pre-loved items.
In short, try to apply this mantra when thinking about buying a new item:
Can I do without it?
Can I reuse, fix or repurpose something instead?
Can I borrow it?
Can I get it second hand?
If the answer to all the questions above is 'no' then go a head and buy it. I feel this is a very good way to stop myself from wasting money by mindlessly purchasing new items without a second thought.
Thank you for reading and let me know if you liked this post and whether it was useful. If you have any ideas of what else you can repurpose to save money leave a comment below.