There are some pretty neat, seemingly small, things you can do around your home and in your life to save cash, that also benefit the environment. Every penny counts right? And we only have one planet so let’s do what we can to like, you know, keep it lol. Glen had a chat with Azaria, host of the gen z money podcast, to brainstorm their tips and tricks to save money and help the environment. Have a listen to their episode below:

Water

1. Place a brick in the cistern of your toilet

This lowers the volume of water needed to refill the cistern — saving on precious H2O! Obviously not all cisterns can fit a brick inside but if yours is large enough, give this a go. Also check your toilet isn’t leaking — a continuously running toilet can leak up to 60,000 litres of water per year as the water trickles down the back of the bowl. That’s HEAPS.

2. Install a water tank

With so many hard surfaces in our suburbs there’s so much rainfall that just gets flushed down drains — why not install a water tank to at least catch the rainfall from your roof and run back into your home?

3. Turn off the tap while brushing teeth and soaping in the shower

Forty percent of household water goes to our bathrooms — 40%!! Old-style shower heads can use up to 15-20 litres per minute, so imagine how much water you can save (and how much less you’d pay on your next water bill), if you turn it off while you brush your teeth and while you soap up in the shower?! This is an easy tip to start doing today.

4. Place a bucket of water in the shower next to you catch grey water

Catch some of your excess water and throw it on your garden! Saves you having to water it later.

5. Washing machine — grey water to garden

If you can set up a grey water system from your washing machine you’re potentially giving water running through your house 2 jobs — wash your clothes and water the garden or lawn. Make those precious litres multi-task!

6. Shower heads — are they water saving?

Upgrading to a three-star WELS rated shower head would reduce this to no more than 9 litres a minute.

In your home

7. LED lights at home

LED has been one of the coolest creations — LED light bulbs use so much less electricity. Old school light bulbs use heaps of energy, and create a bunch of excess heat. LED’s do the opposite. The light bulbs are also really affordable and easily available. Take a look at the options available in hardware shops near you.

8. Insulation

Insulation provides a layer within your walls that helps reduce the transfer of heat and cold. It helps keep your home cooler in summer, and keep the warmth inside in winter. Assess what insulation you have and where it’s placed in your house (can be ceiling or walls) and see if there’s an option to upgrade it.

9. Solar

Solar setups in homes are becoming really popular, and yep might cost a bit upfront, but they set up your home for better ongoing energy bills. It’s also generally a more enviro friendly way to generate power. So if you have the cash to do it (plan for $5k-$7k per home) consider this option.

10. Not owning a dryer or microwave

Some appliances drain so much power to operate — microwaves and dryers are examples of 2 appliances that if you can go without, you could save heaps on your bills.

11. Blinds over big glass areas

Glass transfers heat and cold really easily, so if you can install blinds or curtains it can help insulate, reducing loss of cold or hot air. What’s the point in heating or cooling your living room if your big glass sliding door just takes it all away? Ain’t no point in that.

12. Find the optimum temp / operating vibe for your A/C

When you constantly change the temp on your A/C, or suddenly blast cost air at 16°C it uses heaps of power. You’re actually better off finding your optimum temperature and keeping it consistent. By changing temps you make your A/C unit work really hard, sucking heaps of power to keep up with your changes. Keep it consistent!

13. Gas heater

If you have gas set up at home you might be able to buy a gas heater for winter and use that instead of traditional A/C — it generally ends up cheaper when your next bill comes around.

14. Upcycling free/cheap/damaged furniture

Places like Tik Tok and YouTube are packed with ideas on how to make old furniture look and feel new again. Can you sand it back and paint it, do a home-upholstery job or give it a little TLC? There’s so much second hand furniture out there just waiting to be loved anew!

15. Propagate plants and sell for a profit

Did you know you can propagate plants with ones you already have at home? It’s great to have plants filtering your air at home, but everyone else wants to buy plants too so why not create some plant babies, sell them and make some extra coin?

16. Magical white vinegar and bi-carb soda

A cheap and enviro friendly way to clean things in your home! Buy a 2L bottle of white vinegar and a spray bottle to spritz your benches, bathrooms, and add bi-card to clean your oven — it’s amazing how well it works.

Kitchen and living

17. Cook more at home

Get really good at cooking at home. Find your favourite dishes and satisfy your own cravings without getting whacked with $50 a meal like a normal takeaway delivery would! By cooking at home you’ll use less ingredients, eat more whole foods and once you’ve bought up on expensive things like sauces and herbs, you’ll be spending less on food each week. You can also prep leftovers for your lunch tomorrow.

18. Grow your own herbs or use your local community garden

It’s a bit cray how expensive herbs can be — but also how easy they are to grow at home! Some can just be grown in pots on your balcony. Don’t pay $4 every time you want rosemary, grow a plant of it at home. Also see if there’s a community garden in your area you can contribute to and benefit from — especially good if you live in an apartment.

19. No plastic

So many people are on this bandwagon and it’s great. To line up with all the tasty leftovers you’ll be cooking at home and taking to work, invest in some great storage containers (start by seeing what you already have at home first). Use more glass containers to cut down on plastic, beeswax wraps to stop using clingwrap, buy your own reusable coffee mugs (ceramic ones are cool) and say no to the dreaded drinking straw. Plastic is honestly such a menace to the environment. Ever Googled the Great Pacific Garbage Patch? Once you’ve seen pics of that you’ll never want to use plastic ever again.

20. Sell old stuff online

Invest some items back into the second hand market before just chucking them into landfill. If you can’t sell it for cash, give it away! There are heaps of upcyclers out there just waiting for you to post your item so put a smile on someone’s dial.

21. Hoody, jumper or blanket on before a heater

When it’s chilly, don’t jump for the A/C control, jump for a hoody, jumper or blanket first. Rather than heating the whole room, heat yourself first and see if you can pass on using electricity.

22. All leftovers can be reinvented

Don’t throw out old food — reinvent it to give it some new flavour and life! Use leftover spaghetti bolognese meat in a delicious toasty, or flip another dish around and make it a pie! Again the internet is your friend for ideas on how to get creative on this.

23. Reduce waste by meal prepping

Be intentional with your grocery shopping. If you have a plan for your food each week you are much less likely to buy groceries at random and subsequently just accrue food wastage coz you didn’t have a plan. Write a food prep plan each week and stick to exactly what you need to buy.

24. Save veggie scraps to make vegetable stock

Prep a container in your freezer for leftover veggies scraps to make tasty veggie stock for future meals! When you have a good pile of scraps, boil them up for a while on your stove top, strain it out, and freeze the liquid into ice cube trays. Add it to future dishes for some delicious flavour, and you’ve used every inch of the food you’ve bought previously. Good feels and tasty vibes.

25. Eat less meat

Meat is generally a pretty expensive item to buy, and uses a lot of energy to produce. An option to look into is to cut back on meat based dishes, even 1 or 2 meals a week, and exchange for more veggie based dishes. This can end up being cheaper, better for the environment, and still maintains a healthy diet.

26. Buy staples in bulk

There are more and more businesses opening up now where you can take empty containers from home to refill on things like flours, pastas, nuts, dried fruits, honey, shampoos and conditioners, dishwashing liquid etc — do a Google search for places like this near where you live.

Personal care, fashion & beauty

27. Revamp clothes

Grow your sewing skills and rework old clothing items, rather than chucking them and buying new! Tik Tok and YouTube are great resources and sources of inspiration!

28. Buy second hand

Before buying new always look to see if theres a good quaity secondhand option out there — op shops or Facebook Marketplace and Gumtree.

29. Don’t buy — borrow!

Check out clothing places that hire out outfits, borrow books from online communities or friends, borrow kids toys from toy libraries — there’s so many services available out there to borrow stuff!

30. Ditch makeup wipes

Transition to a reusable wipe like the Face Halo or something similar.

31. Stop taking makeup off and brushing teeth in the shower

Take your makeup off without the tap or shower running — you’ll use so much less water!

32. For the ladies — consider period underwear

There are a bunch more options out there for managing your period — all your fav brands are making things like period underwear (Modbodi, Thinx, Bonds). So good!

Final note on all these brill ideas: don’t buy sustainable alternatives if you already have working things. That’s actually creating more waste. It doesn’t make sense to go out and buy a metal straw to use around the house if you have a 50 pack of plastic straws in the cupboard. When you throw it away, it goes to waste, regardless of whether or not you use it. So use what you’ve got and then start buying reusable!

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