Frugal living with zero waste is all about simplifying your lifestyle by making smart choices. Nowadays more people are adapting to this lifestyle to save more money, now it’s your turn.
Frugal living with zero waste helps you to lead a meaningful life by being more resourceful that ultimately saves your money. Kickstart your journey to build wealth by being frugal.
In my current blog, I’m going to help you understand the concept of zero waste and share easy tips.
Frugal Living with Zero Waste
Frugal living is helping me to chase my dream career without spending big bucks. I’ve been implementing easy frugal tips to avoid wastage of money and resources.
27 EASY TIPS for Frugal Living with ZERO WASTE
Start to implement these effective frugal ways in your life from today. The essence of frugality is making the best of everything without wasting anything.
1. Use the LEFTOVERS to cook something delicious
It’s not a good idea to throw the leftover food. As we are talking about zero wastage, you have to think creatively to use leftovers and cook something delicious.
There are so many amazing recipes that you can try today by using leftovers. This helps to avoid wasting food.
2. Prepare grocery bags with the OLD JEANS
DIY hacks always help you to save money and resources. You may have a pair of jeans in the corner of your cupboard that is old and you don’t wear them now.
You can make storage bags or grocery bags by using old pair of jeans. Always think about using old things and making something really useful.
3. Tear make-up wipes or any other wipes in HALF
This may look so wired frugal idea! But yes, you can implement this idea to save exactly half of your money investment on wipes or issue papers.
If you need 30 wipes for 30 days then you can use only 15 wipes per month if you tear in half. Well, this is not a bad idea to save extra bucks.
4. COLLECT all the envelops when you get mails or bills, don’t throw them
Most of you may throw the envelopes in the dustbin whenever you receive mails or bills. Instead, you can reuse them. So next time, whenever you get envelopes, collects them for reuse.
If those are in good condition then you can actually use them for mails or post. Else, you can use them for budgeting to put cash in it or keep any other things.
5. RE-GIFT the gifts that you have received
On some special occasions, you get a lot of gifts but you don’t use them all. So you can re-gift them. This will save a ton of money on gifts.
Just make sure you don’t re-gift the same gift to the same person who has gifted that to you 😀 And whenever you receive gift cards then it does not mean that you should buy and redeem that. You can re-gift that to others.
6. Use the OLD NEWSPAPERS to make paper bags
If you have subscribed to a monthly newspaper then make use of old newspapers to make bags at home within 5 minutes. Such bags are eco-friendly and help you to keep light weighted things in them.
You don’t need to buy a lot of bags from the market by paying money. This way by using eco-friendly bags you are saving money as well as the environment.
7. Make vinegar of OLD wine or LEFTOVER wine
After a party at your home do you find leftover wine? Now you don’t need to worry about your old wine bottles or leftover wine. You don’t need to waste them, you can make a vinegar of it.
It’s not that difficult to make vinegar of wine at home. So now you don’t need to spend a few more bucks to buy vinegar. Use old or leftover wine to make a dash good vinegar.
8. Make a leather pillow from all the old leather shoes, don’t throw them
You can re-use your old shoes for different things. You can make use of old shoes in gardening. They actually look very unique. You can use them like small pots for the plants. There are various things that you can do with old shoes.
Also, old leather shoes can be used to make a leather pillow. So from now onwards implement these rare frugal ideas. Don’t throw your old shoes.
9. Use EXPIRED or OUTDATED shampoo or expired vinegar in cleaning
Sometimes you may have expired shampoo or outdated vinegar in the kitchen. So pick them up to clean the sink or windows of your house. When you utilize expired shampoo or vinegar that means you are adapting to thrifty living.
Well, there was an expired vinegar bottle at my home and even we used it for cleaning purposes. And that actually worked well.
10. Make the BEST USE of water that you use in the kitchen
Well, some people create a system in the kitchen where used water in the sink will get filtered and directly reaches the garden. This is the best way to save water.
But I can understand that not everyone can use such a system. But everyone can apply simple ideas to make the best use of the water in every possible way. Remember, every drop matters.
11. Share your SPARE ROOM for travellers and earn money
If you are having a spare room or extra room at your house then you can share that with travellers and earn money. In this way, you can make some bucks.
You can sign up for Couchsurfing. There you can tell about your spare room and on that platform, there are also many travellers. Just list your spare room there. So if anyone visits your city then you can rent out your room and earn money.
12. Use old invitation cards to make art and craft
If kids are there at your home then teach them to make crafts from old invitation cards. Instead of buying new craft papers and tools, teach them about frugal crafts.
I’ve recently created the cute Panda mask by using an old invitation card. Even adults can make use of such old cards to prepare some art and crafts like a pen stand and much more.
13. When the light is Red TURN OFF your vehicle engine
Everyone should follow this to save money on fuel. Well, fuel is a natural resource so it is our responsibility to save and not to waste such natural resources.
So always turn off the engine of your car or any other vehicle when the traffic signal is red. Many of you may feel this is a very small thing, but this is a very effective way to save money and fuel.
14. Use every LAST DROP and LAST PINCH
It may be the last drop from a lotion bottle or the last drop of shampoo, make use of every last drop. Imagine if you do not use the last drop then how many resources you will be wasting.
Also, use the last pinch of salt or the last pinch of wheat flour from the packet. Make it a habit to use everything resourcefully.
15. DON’T SPEND extra on any groceries in the last week of the month
When it’s the last week of the month almost all people wait for the salary day. And it’s always good to save some part of your income every month. So do not spend unless it’s very necessary.
Look at the shelf in your kitchen and use the groceries that are already there. Try to avoid grocery shopping in the last week. This way you can utilise all the groceries well without wasting what you have in the kitchen.
16. Ridesharing is an effective way to SAVE MONEY on fuel and transportation
No matter if you ride a bike or car alone or you have 2-4 people in a vehicle it consumes the same quantity of fuel. So it’s always better to share the ride.
You may be going to the office daily with your own vehicle or maybe for shopping on weekends. Find you,r ridesharing buddy. You guys can go to the office by ridesharing and pool money. This saves money and also fuel.
17. SELL OUT old books that you are not going to read
There are many people around the globe who love reading books. They look for even secondhand books. So if you are having books that you don’t read or don’t need then you can sell them out.
You can make some money by doing this and you get more space at your house. Keep the things that you use and need.
18. REPAIR instead of replacing with a new one
Most of the times repairing cost is much lower than replacing with new items. So it may be any gadgets or home appliances first think about repairing instead of buying new ones.
This helps to save you a lot of money.
19. Use more ECO-FRIENDLY things to avoid wastage
Eco-friendly things do now create so much waste. You can repurpose eco-friendly things easily and there will not be any wastage.
For example, if you invite your friends and relatives for a party at home you can use eco-friendly disposable plates and bowls. You can dispose of them in the garden.
20. AVOID paperwork as much as possible and save money on paper
Try to work more on soft copies instead of printing on paper. If you pay bills online then you can just store the soft copy of the receipt instead of printing it. This saves paper and ink.
Do not create a heap of prints by wasting papers.
21. REPURPOSE your old sweater in the winter instead of keeping them aside
If you have old sweaters in your wardrobe that you don’t use, now it’s time to repurpose them. Frugality means using all resources without wasting. So you can make a pair of mittens by using an old sweater.
You can also turn your old sweater into a fuzzy pillowcase, which really looks very nice. Also, try out making a hat from it. There are a lot more frugal ways to re-purpose your old sweater without wasting it.
22. Know what you can do with old water bottle and cans
Reusing plastic bottles or cans will help to save the environment as well as some money. I’ve come across some productive ways to re-use old plastic bottles.
For example, you can create a rack from old bottles to keep all the magazines or newspaper. You can use them as a small pot after cutting the top of the bottle and grow some plants. So try all these simple thrifty ideas.
23. Make the best use of an old or used toothbrush instead of buying new cleaning tools
Buying a new toothbrush ofter is really good for oral hygiene. But have you ever thought about how you can repurpose your old toothbrush? Well, you can save extra bucks by using an old toothbrush as a cleaning tool.
So use those old brushes to clean your shoes. And you can easily remove stains from the clothing by using this old toothbrush. You can even brush your eyebrows with an old toothbrush instead of buying any new brush.
24. Don’t waste old newspapers, make use of them well
You can sell out the old newspapers as scrap and make some bucks. There are other ways also to use newspapers in a frugal way.
You can use them for cleaning the windows instead of using a cloth. You can also use them to cover the floor of your car.
25. Buy durable products instead of ‘use and throw’ products
Durable products may cost you higher than the ‘use and throw’ products. But in the long run you more money. Also, there will be almost zero waste if you use durable products.
You can use stainless steel containers rather than less durable containers.
26. Sell out the things that you don’t use anymore
If you have stored the things that you don’t use anymore then that equals wasting things. If you have any gadgets or electronic items and you are not using them then they get damaged.
So sell out such things that you don’t need anymore. And selling out such things make you earn some money. There are online websites to sell out secondhand or used items.
27. Look for exchange offers to buy new things
If you want to buy anything then you can look for exchange offers. Like TV set exchange offers during festival seasons etc.
Many times exchange offers to save a lot of money. And you won’t be wasting the old items as you are going to opt for exchange offers.
Frugality Gets You Closer to Zero Waste
A zero-waste lifestyle is beautiful and meaningful living. And I can say that zero-waste lifestyle and fugal living go hand in hand.
I’ve experienced that frugal living reduces the wastage of money and all the resources. So try these tips for frugal living with zero waste from today.
