No spend frugality

I think no spend and zero waste go hand in hand. If you take note of how much leaves your house via the bins each week i guarantee you will be horrified. Its something many of us don't take a lot of notice of. Its a daily task that just gets done. Its what our parents did, right? Now consider a bottle of shampoo is $8 (I use tresseme 950ml). Consider how much of that cost is shampoo and how much is the container. So the bottle might be $1? Now instead of buying that shampoo go to a whole foods store and refill a glass jar (i prefer bar soap but this is assuming you want liquid), then throw $1 in the bin. Go ahead, just throw it on in there. How did that feel? Because that's exactly what we are doing, we dont need the single use container. For alot of products we have come to rely on the shops to provide them for us and that comes with flashy expensive packaging which costs money to produce and get rid of. Even worse that container doesn't actually go anywhere. Sure you can't see it once the garbo has taken it to the pit but its still there, covered under a mound of dirt. We cant use that land for anything else so we just keep making new dumps and losing more land.

So what can we do to avoid it?

 Well firstly actually look at the things you use daily or weekly. Think if you actually need it in the first place. I only recently found out about dryer sheets. I mean what on earth do we need to throw a sheet of waste into our dryer to make the clothes smell nice for?? This just baffles me. Dryers actually baffle me. Its a very privileged thing to use. Oh it takes a day for my clothes to dry outside, ah yes it does. Do you only own two sets of clothes? Its not like we are wearing big poofy dresses like 100years ago that take days to dry and we only own 3 of them. So stop with the dryer and take the extra 5mins to peg your clothes outside and let the sun do its job. It drys them, steralises them and bleaches your whites back to white. Not to mention sun dried clothes smell amazing. I just saved you about $800 annually in electricity and $200 in dryer sheets not to mention $500 for the dryer itself.

Then move to laundry powder/ liquid. Its easy to go to the store and get some. Your clothes can smell like midnight sun (huh?) and if you pay double you get one thats got a celebrity face on it and softens your clothes, wow! You can make your own which costs about $1. I get homebrand because i find it just as cost effective but home made will use less packaging so up to you. Also remember that its in the companies best interest to get you too use alot of powder so you have to buy more. The 'recommended' amount they print on the box is about double what you need. The best fabric softener? Vinegar, about $1.20 a 2L bottle. The two below give a good example of what consumerism is doing. They both do the exact same thing except one smells like frangipani so costs three times more...It might say great in cold water or brighter whites, but really its the exact same thing in the box, it cleans your clothes. Say 1kg lasts you about 1month. That's $11 for the home brand or $39 for the Fab (prices correct Jan 2019) annually. It might not seem like alot but what are we actually paying for?

.92c 1kg

$3.25 1kg










We have cleaning products for every single area of the home. Shower power, toilet cleaner, floor cleaner, bench cleaner, stainless steel cleaner. But you know what. You dont need hospital grade disinfectant in your home! Firstly as soon as you touch anything those germs are back, secondly killing off the good germs allows the bad ones to grow too. You aren't doing surgery and you dont have a compromised immune system so please stop disinfecting your homes. Plus the active ingredient in most of these is the same, soap.

Not only this but the most effective cleaner i have found which many millions of people used to use is bicarb soda, vinegar and water. That's it! The bicarb helps lift dirt, the vinegar is an antibacterial without the fumes and harmful chemicals. Since i started using this all around my home we haven't been sick, not even once! Compared to the previous year where my son was sick nearly once a month. For the toilet just make a 'bomb' out of the bicarb, some citric acid (in the baking isle) and some water. Press it together and store in a jar. Pop one in the bowl and watch it fizz and lift the stains, then flush to circulate and done.

Toilet bombs

• 1/2 cup bi carb soda (baking soda)
• 1/2 cup citric acid
• 1/2 cup cornstarch/cornflour
• 24 drops of essential oils, I like teatree, levendar or citris. (optional)

Mix it all up and spray with a little water and mix. Dont over do the water, just enough to make it hold together when pressed. Then press into a mould or in your hand and let dry. Store in a jar.