6 Frugal Ways To Live Sustainably Without Sacrificing Your Comfort

Being more sustainable might mean different things to different people. To simplify, it is about using the fewest amount of resources possible to help protect the earth and climate. It is about reducing your carbon footprint by limiting the resources you use. And you can do this in a variety of different ways.

1. First Step To Sustainable Living: Stop Buying Unnecessary Things

A super-easy way to dip your feet in sustainable living is not to buy products that you can easily do without. Anything redundant and wasteful shouldn’t make it into your shopping basket.

This might include plastic water bottles. Especially when you know you can get clean water by just using a water filter at home.

If you are buying paper plates and using them at home, is that really necessary?

You can use your glass plates and wash them when you are done. Any foam paper products are terrible for the environment. So switch to something that you can reuse or at the very least, recycle.

2. Eat Naturally and Locally

Another great way to lead a more sustainable life is to buy local and natural foods. This is easy to do with local farmer’s markets.

Many locations also offer delivery or pickup of produce, meat, eggs, and honey from multiple farms in your area. So that is another great resource to look into.

When you eat naturally and locally, you are helping your local farming community. In addition, not only you’re getting fresh ingredients but you’re saving your environment with less transportation of goods.

3. Build a Capsule Wardrobe and Sustainable Style

A capsule wardrobe is when you minimize your wardrobe to a select group of pieces. It doesn’t mean only having a minimal number of outfits.

Rather, it’s about buying only important pieces that you absolutely love. Pieces that will go with multiple styles that you enjoy wearing.

This means you no longer buy fast fashion or new clothes just because they are a trend of the moment.

Put more thought into the clothes you buy. Make sure each piece of clothing in your closet brings you joy.

You can start by removing items you never wear or no longer enjoy. Why not donate them to people in need?

4. Repair, Reuse, Recycle

This is the mantra of a sustainable lifestyle. It helps to know what you can recycle, and what you can reuse to live more sustainably.

For example, you know it is hard to recycle plastic food storage bags. But there are reusable bags that can be used in their place.

When you empty a glass jar from mayonnaise or pickles, rinse it out and put it in your glass recycling. Or you can even reuse it as a food storage container.

5. Reduce Waste in Your Home

Reducing waste in your home, including reusing and recycling, is a core principle of sustainable living and a great way to live more naturally.

You’ll be kinder to the environment, reduce your carbon footprint, and make use of as many materials as possible.

Start Meal Planning and Cooking at Home

A simple way to start reducing waste in your home is to plan meals and cook more at home. This helps you to reduce waste from processed foods and frozen food containers.

Think about how many food containers you end up throwing away and not recycling just from eating out. Fast food restaurants wrap every single food item, plus most leftover containers are not recyclable.

When you use a lot of processed ingredients, all that plastic and glass is just using precious resources that end up getting thrown away. The more you cook from home with fresh, whole ingredients, the less waste you are going to use.

Reuse Your Containers

There are likely many containers you purchase that hold different foods and ingredients, that you currently just throw out. But before you put anything in the trash, consider if you can reuse it for something else.

For example, those plastic butter or margarine containers are a good size for smaller amounts of leftovers.

You can reuse glass jars as jars to hold salads or other meal prepping ingredients. Often, deli meats come in a plastic container that works great for bringing your lunch to work.

Learn How to Compost

Compost is the practice of taking what you would have thrown away, and instead of returning it to the earth.

All you really need is a good-sized compost bin where you will throw items like eggshells, banana peels, potato peels, coffee grounds, avocado skin, and vegetable scraps.

You can also compost other items like grass clippings, printer paper, newspaper, and yard waste. Compost is great to add to your garden as a natural fertilizer.

Reduce Waste in the Kitchen

A lot of the waste you go through in your home happens in the kitchen. Think of some more ways you can reduce waste in this area of your home.

Use microfiber cloths instead of paper towels. Stop buying single-use paper towels! These are such a waste and can’t be recycled. Microfiber cloths work just as well if not better, to soak up liquids, clean or dry your hands.

Get reusable baggies for lunches and snacks. Those plastic storage bags are not necessary. You can get reusable ones that are easy to rinse and keep using over and over again.

6. Sustainable Eating: Grow Your Own Food

Living naturally encompasses many different areas, all of which are great for your physical, mental, and emotional health.

To boost your physical health even more, consider growing your own food. This is a great way to save money, have organic produce available to you, and reduce your supermarket shopping.

Why You Should Consider Growing Your Own Food

Why grow your own good? Well, not only it supports sustainable agenda, but it’s also good for your purse! Here are some benefits to keep in mind.

You will save money – The first benefit you get from growing your own food is saving some money. The more you can grow on your own, the less you are spending at farmer’s markets or grocery stores.

It saves you extra trips to the store – With instant access to homegrown produce, you might not need as many trips to the grocery store. Devise a meal plan that uses more of what you are growing at home. That way you keep your grocery trips minimal and just need to top up on certain ingredients.

You get organic food – Don’t forget that when you grow your own food, you have full control over how organic it is. You can grow it without any pesticides or herbicides, allowing you to have the cleanest, freshest food possible.

What You Need to Know Beforehand

Before you begin growing your own food, there are some important things to be aware of.

It takes time – You do have to be a little patient when you begin your journey of growing your own food and herbs. If you want to use your lavender for medicines at home, prepare to wait a few weeks, but longer for many other herbs and produce.

You need space – You are probably already aware that you need space to grow. Whether you decide to grow either indoors or outdoors, really think about what this means. Not only do you need space for the plants, but many seeds and plants can’t grow near others. This is why the research is so important.

Better to start small – Lastly, we want to encourage you to start small and minimal when growing food and herbs. Choose just a few different varieties, instead of attempting to plant an entire garden full of fruits and veggies right from the start. This is a big transition and might change your lifestyle a bit with all the added care and watering.

Tips for Getting Started In Growing Your Own Food

Now that you have some background information about growing your own food, here are a few tips to help get you started:

Plants that are easy to grow – If this is your first time ever growing anything, start with the herbs and plants that are easiest to grow. This includes strawberries, tomatoes, potatoes, garlic, onion, and most herbs.

Many plants grow indoors – If you don’t have a lot of space in your backyard, you can grow tomatoes, lemons, strawberries, and even avocadoes right in your home in containers.

The most important thing to remember is to do research and planning, start with easy plants, and go from there.

Tips for Growing Your Own Herbs

Living a more natural and holistic life has many facets, including what you eat and where you get your food. To be as holistic as possible, consider growing herbs from home.

Not only can you use herbs to cook. You can also use some of them for healing and natural medicine. You will save money and ensure you have the most organic herbs possible.

Have a Plan Beforehand

The first step to growing your own herbs is the prep stage.

You want to take some time figuring out where you will place your garden, what you intend to grow and ways you are going to use them, and how much room you are going to need.

This is when the research comes in handy. The worst thing you can do is just go buy some seeds and fertilizer and start planting without having planned exactly what you intend to do.

Decide Between Seeds or Plants

There are two main ways to grow herbs; you can start them from seeds, or you can purchase seedlings or young plants.

Naturally, if you are a beginner at growing, the plants are going to be much easier for you.

Dealing with seedlings or young plants works better if you’re starting your very first herb garden.

Become Familiar with Each Herb

Before you start planting your herbs, understand what each herb needs you to do.

Every herb will have different guidelines. Such as how much water it needs, when to give it direct sunlight, and whether it needs to be in a container or in the ground.

For example:

Mint grows very fast and works best in a container with only mint in it. It grows well in sunlight, but it can also use a bit of shade and still grow well. Whereas rosemary grows better in cool climates that have sun and needs to be brought indoors during the winter.

Caring for Your Herbs

While many herbs can grow indoors in planters, they still need to be close to a window.

Some plants may need to be moved outdoors for at least a few hours. This is because most herbs should get 3-4 hours of direct sunlight each day. Again, this will depend on your herbs.

Remember that care includes sunlight and temperature control, watering, and using the right soil.

Harvest When Ready

Something to keep in mind when harvesting your herbs is that the more often you harvest (when they are ready), the healthier the herb plant will continue to grow. Again, look at each variety’s instructions to understand harvesting guidelines.

Grow Food For Free

Many factors cause people to feel more and more uncertain about the future.

The one thing that many people do know is that the continuous, unbroken reliance on modern conveniences, systems, governments, and commerce to provide sustenance might one day be a thing of the past.

Author Huw Richards challenged himself to learn how to cultivate fruits and vegetables for a year – for free. The knowledge he shares might be what you’ll need if you want to live in a sustainable world.

What You Get with the Grow Food for Free Book

If you’ve never grown any food before, this book is a great guide.

It’s going to take you on an informational journey that will teach you how to cut food costs.

Gardening requires tools, what tools might you need? Which tools can be made from other things or repurposed objects? What do you have in your home?

As you change your mindset, you might find that you’re being exposed to concepts and being made aware of things you have missed. If so, then feeling that way is a good thing. It leads to new information and a more successful future. He even includes a year-long journal of how each food was cared for.

How You Can Use It

Do you like fresh herbs, fruits, and vegetables? Of course you do!

Fresh foods carry more nutritional value. So being able to eat food that comes from the work of your own hands can be rewarding on multiple levels.

Set up a sustainable garden, for the homeless, your family, get children or relatives involved. The possibilities are open.

Why We Love it

Sustainability is a HOT topic these days, and everyone loves to save money. If every person knew how we all could eat the healthiest food for FREE.

Not all things are static, and there are elements of society that could change in an instant.

Learning how to produce your own food is useful for anyone who wants to prepare what could easily be the biggest change facing humanity in a thousand years.

Let Huw Richards show you the methods he shared with his 140,000+ media subscribers.

Garden Republic Seed Starter Kits

When you are on a mission to live a more natural, sustainable lifestyle, the topic of growing your own food and herbs often comes up. 

Cultivating your own plants gives you full control over your produce and the ingredients used, without any added chemicals or pesticides.

That is what makes seed starter kits so useful and enjoyable. Even someone who has never grown anything before can learn how to start their very own herb garden or a bonsai tree.

Features of the Garden Republic Seed Starter Kits

Food is one of the most important things that humans need next to air and water. So it should be easy to see how much value a concise education about gardening can be.

These simple, yet comprehensible starter kits include everything that you’ll need to become a truly self-sufficient person. 

The GARDEN REPUBLIC made sure to include classic garden herbs, organic herbal tea herbs, vegetable kits, as well as indoor medicinal herb and edible flowers kits.  

That can give you the ability to grow fresh herbs anywhere from the urban city areas to swampland. It will even save you space. But they also offer cactus and bonsai tree kits.

Items include a planter box, planting pots for growing seedlings, markers to keep track of what you are growing, a specially formulated bag of soil, and some well-kept seeds that you can use for your first crops.

Ways to Use it

These kits will bring you untold hours of joy. Plus, a little bit of satisfaction we get from doing something good for our health. You’ll be utilizing the freshest ingredients you can find once your first crop sprouts and matures.

The excellent design details make this a respectable piece, as well as something that you can feel proud to have in your home.

On a side note, why be a spendthrift? Items like this box can be bought as a gift to families and individuals who will appreciate them.

Why We Love it

These kits will make a lovely gift, whether for budding gardeners or foodies.

For men or women, these kits are educational, inspirational and practical.

The Garden Republic has made a point to support sustainable practices for not only creating products but also extending to life.

Disclaimer:

This article was written by Zuzana Halliwell. I am not a doctor or health professional and cannot be held liable for the information written here. This article is meant to provide information about the benefits of a healthy lifestyle and diet. The content is based on my own personal experience and on information provided by medical professionals that is available to the public. It is not intended to provide medical advice. Do not use it as an alternative to seeking help from a medical professional.