Saving Money & Wasting Less

Lesson 4: Around the house

More money-saving tips

The rule of halves will save you money in many areas of your home. For shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, laundry powder, or any other cleaning or household products you can think of, try using half your usual amount. If that amount does the job for you, then try half of that. Keep halving until you find the least amount that does the job. This is the amount to use.

Don't worry if the manufacturer says to use a tablespoon and you find a teaspoon will do the job. Manufacturers almost always recommend a greater amount than you really need, because they want you to buy more of their product.

Flowers, especially those you grow in your garden, should never be overlooked. Place a bunch of flowers in your bathroom, kitchen and living room as natural deodorisers and air fresheners instead of buying sprays or perfumes. A bunch of flowers does more than freshen the air, it gives you an emotional/spritual lift as well, which no chemicals can do.

Pills and potions, in the 21st century, seem to be the first response when there are any health problems, but they are unnatural, expensive, and often damaging to the body in unexpected ways. Modern medicine has a lot to offer for the seriously ill, but for minor, everyday complaints, it is much better (and cheaper) to look for non-medical solutions. For example, next time you have a headache, instead of reaching for the pills, try lying down in a darkened, quiet room for a while. (Headaches are caused by swollen blood vessels in the brain, and lying down reduces the pressure.) A cold compress to the head coupled with soaking your feet in hot water will also reduce the pressure. If you're away from home and can do neither of those, try pressing the acupressure point in the 'web' between your thumb and index finger, or pressing the acupressure points in the mid points of your eyebrows to remove the pressure that way.

The Western world seems addicted to vitamin and mineral supplements, and almost everyone is popping pills almost all of the time. Westerners have the most expensive urine in the world from excreting the excess. If you have a good diet with plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables (especially organic), and with enough exercise and rest, you don't need any supplements at all. It's easier of course, to pop a pill than it is to see to it that we have adequate diet, but popping a pill saves neither money nor the Earth.

Labour saving devices. Many homes are cluttered with labour saving devices such as dishwashers, clothes driers, electric choppers, mincers, even toothbrushes. People spend a fortune on labour saving devices and then a fortune more on gym memberships to get the exercise they no longer get because of all the labour saving devices. It's madness. If it's a sunny day, why dry clothes in a drier? If you hang them on a clothes line, the clothes will be dried naturally, at zero cost, and they'll have the freshly dried-in-the-sun smell that no machine can give you. If you're careful when you take them down and fold them, very few items will need ironing.

Turn off appliances that are not in use. Many appliances have a stand by mode now, in which they are on but inactive. These appliances generally have a remote control to activate them and they have a light on, or a time indication. These appliances are costing you money even when they're not turned on, and you can save about 10% of your electricity bill by turning them off at the power point. It takes effort to turn them on again at the power point, rather than just pressing a button on the remote, but is it really so difficult to walk six steps, bend down and flick a switch? Only leave them on stand by if you would need to a lot of re-programming or re-setting if you turned them off.

Use a fly swat to kill buzzing insects and flies instead of spraying expensive, toxic chemicals at them.

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