Saving money through a green approach

You don’t have to buy new! Before you hit the shops to buy your new item of furniture, have a look at web sites such as Freecycle  - it’s a great way to find stuff you’re looking for as well as to give away the things you don’t want any more without sending them to landfill. The Freecycle Network™ is made up of 5,108 groups with 9,429,177 members around the world. It's a grassroots non-profit movement of people who are giving (and getting) stuff for free in their own towns. It's all about re-use and keeping good stuff out of landfills. Membership is free. To find out more visit http://www.freecycle.org

Install a water butt for watering gardens and flowers, they can be used to capture the run off from conservatories, sheds, garages and outhouses as well as being fitted to the downpipes on your house.  Especially good if you are on a water meter, but it also helps during hosepipe bans. You can now get jet washers that run from water butts as well!

Defrost your freezer as often as possible to ensure it remains as efficient as possible. Try to keep it full, otherwise you are just keeping cold air and as soon you open the door this will escape and your freezer will use more power to cool the air down again, whereas the frozen food in a full freezer will help to maintain a cold temperature as it will not instantly defrost.

When you go food shopping, take your own bags with you. In Wales, a new bag at the supermarket will cost you 5p, it all adds up and other countries are doing the same or looking to introduce the‘carrier bag tax’. There are a great range of re-useable bags available from net to recycled juice cartons. Or you can use biodegradable bags.

Unwanted clothes? Donate them to a charity shop rather than throwing them away. Better still you can now sell them – there are plenty of businesses that will give you 45 – 50p per kg and they take belts and bags too. You’ll be surprised how the weight adds up!

Make sure you are not paying over the odds for your utilities, with so many different tariffs out there, it’s hard to know who has the best deal for you.  There are plenty of comparison sites online, but these do not always list all the small independent companies, so make sure you do your homework to find the best deal – visit my website for more information.