thrifty Archives - Eco Thrifty Living

How to defrost your car windscreen without idling your engine! Ad

Zoe — Thu, 23 Jan 2020 13:46:32 +0000

It’s cold and frosty outside and windscreens need defrosting up and down the country! It is tempting to turn the engine on and let it run while heating up the car and to defrost the windscreen. But idling is bad for the environment and costs you money. Every 2 minutes you idle your engine, it is the equivalent of driving a mile.

Of course if you have an electric vehicle which you charge at a charging point like NewMotion Charging Points then the stats will be different. Regardless of whether your car is electric, petrol or diesel it is still better for the environment and your wallet not to idle.

You can calculate and track your cost per mile by logging your mileage and fuel ups in sites like fuelly.com. My car costs around 14p a mile to run. If I leave my car idling for 5 minutes in the morning it will cost me around 35p to defrost the windows and warm up my car.

You can also calculate the amount of CO2 emissions your car produces per mile using online calculators. Using a calculator I worked out my car produces roughly 347g of CO2 a mile. After 5 minutes of idling, I will have produced 867.5g of CO2 – nearly 1kg. That’s the equivalent of around 9 apples or a small, slightly used, bag of sugar.

Alternative ways to defrost your car windscreen and windows:

So what can we do instead? There are alternatives to idling.

1. Scrapers

While running the engine, often people will scrape the windows too, as it speeds things up. It is possible to clear the windscreens with scraping power alone though! It just might take a little longer and is a bit more effort.

2. De-icers

To speed up the scraping, it helps to use a de-icer. Don’t go out and buy a de-icing spray though. It will come in a disposable plastic bottle and may contain nasties.

Instead a very low tech option is to melt the ice with a hot water bottle full of hot water. I have been experimenting with this and to start with I was a bit nervous about it being too hot. So I diluted the boiling water with cold water and gradually progressed to the water bottle being full of boiling water and it worked out fine.

The added advantage of using a hot water bottle is that you can take it in the car with you afterwards and use it to keep warm, while your car is heating up. I took mine with me on the school run and left it on my seat while dropping off the kids. Was nice to come back to a warm seat in the freezing weather!

To compare to idling, it costs around 2.5p to boil a full kettle and emits around 10g of CO2.* We have solar panels and are on a green energy plan, so the CO2 emission figure should be lower if you have green sources of energy at home too.

3. Covers

A winter cover on your car windscreen that you can take off in the morning, makes de-icing easy! When I started writing this post I suddenly remembered that I have one of these covers. It is hidden somewhere in my boot though (I’m hoping – otherwise I don’t have it any more). Next time I get an opportunity I will go and have a look for it.

Based on my experience, I think covers are a good idea, but if you are a bit disorganised like me you have to remember you have one and to use it! Also they are usually just for the front windscreen, so there is still the rest of the windows to clear.

The amounts of money/ CO2 emmissions you stand to save by avoiding idling your engine to de-ice and warm up your car may seem fairly small, but scale them up over years and households and they become far more significant. So it’s definitely time to stop the morning idling habit and swap it for a scraper, a hot water bottle and / or a windscreen cover!

* Based on a kettle using an average of 0.11kwh per litre boiled and 1 kwh generating 0.94kg of CO2 emmissions if produced from coal.

Thanks to Newmotion for sponsoring this post.

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How to reuse old toiletry bags 10 ways

Zoe — Mon, 23 Jan 2017 08:00:00 +0000

Even if you’ve never bought a make up or toiletry bag in your life it’s very difficult to avoid them. As so many gifts sets are given in bags they seem to pile up. I have a drawer full of toiletry bags, many of which have sat there for years doing nothing. They are either too big or too small, or just not as attractive as some of the other ones. However, you don’t need to leave them in your cupboard feeling sad and lonely! If you are wondering how to reuse them, there are loads of ways

10 options for how to reuse toiletry bags

How to reuse toiletry bags as an organiser: Some toiletry bags have different compartments and these ones make great organisers. Especially if they have clear ‘windows’ – I used the one pictured above to organise ribbons. Other sewing or craft supplies would work well in here too. You could also store puzzles in it!
In a handbag or backpack. Small items float around my handbag getting lost at the bottom. Pop them in a toiletry bag keep them together. It also makes it easier to transfer from one handbag to another
Some plastic lined toiletry bags could be useful as lunch bags or snack containers
Re-gift the bag to kids. They love little bags and boxes as they are perfect for keeping their small toys and treasures in
As a pencil case. Even the large ones could work well if you have a lot of stationery to put in them!
Bike maintenance kit. Add in a puncture repair / spanner / torch.
As a jewellery bag. A pretty patterned makeup bag could work well for this or even an oddly shaped shaver bag!
Fill it with plasters and make it into a first aid kit!
Flannel bag. Use for kids instead of wet wipes/ bag for wet clothes (kids potty training)
To store hair bands and clips

If you still have more bags than you know what to do with they could make a great alternative to wrapping paper when giving a gift to someone else.

After years of learning how to declutter, tidy and organise my home, I am now offering my services as a professional declutter. If you feel you could benefit from help in this area, check out my website: Tidy with Zoe for more info.

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Intelligent or remote heating controls – what’s the point?

Zoe — Thu, 15 Dec 2016 08:00:00 +0000

Remote heating controls are all the rage at the minute, with Nest* now available in the UK, Tado* having been around for a little while and British Gas’s Hive* being pushed really hard on the radio and TV as well as a growing number of lesser known alternatives.

So what’s the point of an internet connected heating thermostat? How will they save me money and will I actually use it?

This is a guest post from Mr ETL and it contains affiliate links which are marked with a *. The content of this post was not affected by the links, it won’t cost you anything extra if you buy through them and if you do it will help to support the blog – thanks!

Every house it’s different and each family will want to heat their houses at different times and to different temperatures. The traditional thermostats allowed you to set schedules for your heating, normally by day or weekday and weekend and allowed you to set lots of different times and temperatures during each period. Those of us who did make good use of these were probably saving more than those who just set a morning and evening temperature and a lot more than those who just had the heating on the whole time. They normally allowed you to override the settings as well so giving you quite a lot of flexibility. So again, what’s the point?

Well the main point is every time you are not at home when the heating has been set to come on, you are wasting energy, which directly impacts your heating bills and the environment. Although you probably are able to predict when you will be at home and when you won’t during the working day, it isn’t always easy to predict which evenings you will be in or out and what you will be up to over the weekend. With a heating system that you can control on your mobile phone, you can delay it or turn it off for the evening if you decide not to come straight home from work and you can also tell it to start heating your home when your plans change and you come home earlier than expected. Although there is an initial outlay, over time these products should be able to save you moneyThe three main products on the market are all slightly different and here are some of those differences

Tado*

We have had Tado installed for over 2 years now, It is really simple and easy to use and controllable via your mobile phone. You set the temperature you want the house to be when you are at home, and the temperature when you are asleep along with what time you wake up and go to bed. Tado knows if you are at home or not by seeing how far your mobile phones are from the house and so as long as each member of the family has a mobile it knows if someone is home or not. The further away from home you are the cooler it will let the house get when you are out and it starts to warm it up as you get closer. They have recently also released some intelligent radiator valves which have the potential to save you even more money, we have had some for a year now (not Tado) and I’ll be giving you my thoughts on them soon. Tado has gone for a simple and neutral looking thermostat unit, which shows current temperature and you can manually adjust it (although ours is a first generation which has no manual controls).

Nest*

Nest has gone for the pretty thermostat prize and it looks good. This thermostat needs to be taught what to do. To start with you need to change the temperature on the unit manually for a week or so – when you get up, you turn it up to a comfortable setting, when you leave for work, turn it down and so on. Within a few days it starts working out what time you get up, go to bed and everything in between. If your schedule changes you need to manually adjust the settings and after you have done it for a few days, Nest learns. It also has a movement sensor on the thermostat in your house, which will turn the heating down if it hasn’t seen movement for a while (you need to walk past for it to know you are there, so it needs to located in a place you would frequently walk past) and they have recently started integrating with their other smart technology to improve this. If you have their smoke detectors for example (which should be spread around your home) they also have movement sensors which can feed information into the heating system. You don’t need to have a mobile phone for Nest to work (you can control it via your laptop or tablet) but they have recently introduced a function for Nest to know if are at home or not via your mobile if you want it to.

Hive*

Hive is going for a much simpler approach, a traditional schedule thermostat with the ability to remotely adjust the temperature. So if you go out for the day and forget to turn the heating off, you can use the phone app to turn it down, or if you’re coming home at an unusual time you can turn the heating up a bit earlier.

All of the products say they will save you money by giving you more control of your heating. How much you save and which is right for you will depend on your individual circumstances. So for instance, if you have a quite fixed schedule and just want to be able to control the temperature manually then maybe Hive is good enough for you. If you like your gadgets to be good looking and functional then Nest may work for you. If all the people in your house have mobile phones and you are at home at different times then maybe Tado is the thermostat of choice.

I might be biased towards Tado as I have one of their thermostats, but I did my research beforehand. Do yours and think about how often you are out and the heating is on or how often you are sitting on your sofa thinking it would be great to keep the heating on another hour.

Which intelligent thermostat would you choose and why? Let me know in the comments below.For more tips on how to save energy check out my post on 6 easy ways to reduce your heating bill!

Coming up next: Look out for my blog post next Monday which asks the question – does going zero waste mean you can’t have fun (especially with events like Christmas and New Years Eve coming up)?

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DIY batgirl costume

Zoe — Wed, 26 Oct 2016 17:32:00 +0000

It’s nearly Halloween. Time to carve spooky faces into pumpkins and make pumpkin soup. It’s also time to get dressed up! Costumes can be costly so making one yourself from stuff you already have is an easy and inexpensive option. When I got invited to a superhero themed birthday party I raided my wardrobe. I was able to quickly make a DIY Batgirl costume that didn’t cost me anything.

How to make your own Batgirl costume

I already had a black dress, a black evening scarf, which I wore instead of a cape, and black boots.

I had a rummage through my kids fancy dress box and found a yellow batman belt and a black eye mask. The only thing I needed to make for this outfit was the yellow bat on the front of my dress.

I found some yellow fabric in my fabric stash (TIP – build up a fabric stash by viewing old clothes as fabric) looked up the batman logo picture and drew out a similar looking bat on a piece of paper.

To make the bat symmetrical I folded it in half and cut it so that each side matched. Then I drew around the bat on the fabric, cut it out and hand stitched it onto my dress. When I had finished being batgirl, I unpicked the stitches and voila – I had my dress back!

This costume was simple to make, didn’t cost me anything, isn’t clogging up my wardrobe, didn’t harm the environment, wasn’t scarily flammable and was fun!

If you’re interested to learn more about zero waste celebrations I have more tips and tricks here.

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How not to upcycle a necklace!

Zoe — Fri, 08 Apr 2016 19:00:00 +0000

The necklace in the picture was left at my house during a clothes swap party (read more here). The beads are made out of old magazines and I really like it. I don’t think it really suits me though as it is too long for me and I have only worn it once or twice since I got it.

I decided that it would be a great idea to turn it into a necklace and a bracelet and thought it would be as simple as chopping it up in the right places and then tying the ends.

The chopping part went really smoothly although a few beads fell of the ends as you can see pictured below.

The tying it back together part went far less smoothly. The plastic twine the necklace was on did not want to be tied and the beads kept falling off and it was very frustrating to say the least.

I decided to give up and use thread instead, which would tie better. I put some thread on a needle and threaded it through the beads. After doing that I realised that was no good either. The problem was the size necklace I wanted was too small to get over my head. What I actually need is some stretchy string or a clasp and I have neither of those to hand so for the moment the beads are all sitting in a glass jar awaiting the right materials!

Sometimes I find I ruin things in an attempt to upcycle them and think I should have just given whatever it was to a charity shop in the first place! On the other hand it is a learning experience and I now know how not to upcycle a necklace!

Have you ever tried to upcycle something that didn’t quite go to plan?

If you liked this post please click like on Facebook and follow on Twitter – thanks so much!

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Introducing a new concept – upusing!

Zoe — Mon, 22 Feb 2016 19:52:00 +0000

Have you ever felt really frustrated because you couldn’t quite place a word you wanted and then felt so relieved when it eventually comes to you? I had a concept floating around in my head and I decided there wasn’t a word out there that was working for me. I had a burning need to put a word to it though, so I made one up and here it is: upuse – ta-da!

I might not be quite the Oxford dictionary, but here is my definition of upuse:

To use something for more functions than it was originally intended for without altering or damaging the original object in any way.

The reason this was bugging me so much was because it is something I have started doing semi-regularly. The closest descriptions to it I could think of were making do, but I didn’t feel that was specific enough and upcycling but I think that implies that the item is altered in some way.

Some examples of upusing I have done around the house include:

I used to have large mixing bowls and similar sized serving bowls. It honestly had never occurred to me that I could use my serving bowls for mixing (or vice-versa), but the mixing bowls disappeared during my Year of Eco Challenges (read more here) when I was buying nothing new for myself and it didn’t take long to realise that my serving bowls, which were rarely used previously, would work just fine as mixing bowls. Now I make bread dough in them regularly. Incidentally it turns out after getting Mr ETL to read this post before I published it, he has been been doing some upusing of his own and we do still have them!
I used to put the plastic bags I brought home from the supermarket in a plastic bag dispenser. Now I use the dispenser to store and dispense reusable cloth wipes for use around the kitchen (read more here)!
I have written about this quite a few times on the blog, but I now use a freezer bag to keep food cool and hot and as a kind of thermal cooker – perfect for making yogurt in or to keep bread dough warm .
My kids decorated some mugs at a club last summer, which I haven’t used because we didn’t really have room for them on our shelf of mugs. I didn’t want to get rid of them, so now they are being used as attractive and personalised pen and pencil holders!

The benefits of upusing things:

Looking at things with upusing goggles on might mean that you don’t need to buy something new (or replace something which is broken and can’t be repaired) if you find you could do the job with something you already have.
Upusing can also help guide decluttering – looking for the multiple uses in your stuff could help you identify duplicate equipment you might not have noticed before that you don’t really need.
Upusing doesn’t alter or damage the object in anyway, so it means you can still use it for what it was originally intended for as well.

I’m sure this kind of thing happens all the time and I’d love to hear your examples of upusing!

If you liked this post please click like on Facebook and follow on Twitter – thanks so much!

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Epson EcoTank ET-4500 Printer Review

Zoe — Sat, 13 Feb 2016 19:55:00 +0000

I was recently sent an Epson EcoTank ET-4500 printer to review. It is an all singing, all dancing faxing, photocopying, scanning and printing machine, which can connected to your home network with a cable or wirelessly! I was offered it for review as it has a tank for the ink instead of cartridges and the ink is meant to be sufficient to last 2 years.

As far as printers go it seems like a really good one so far. I have been doing a lot of decluttering recently and managed to free up a cupboard which has power in it and love the fact I can keep it in the cupboard and print to it through wifi! This printer is not zero waste as it came packaged in plastic and the ink to fill up the tank was provided in disposable plastic containers which were again wrapped in plastic. The benefit of these over other cartridges though are that less of them are needed and there is less ongoing waste with this printer. Also as the ink can be refilled, although it is an expensive initial outlay, it is likely to work out cheaper in the long run than using a printer which won’t allow cartridges to be refilled.

Putting the ink into the machine was quite simple. Working out how to get it to work with my computer was a little complicated but once we got it all set up it has been easy to use. I particularly like being able to scan things in like my kids artwork, so that I can then put the originals in the recycling or use it to wrap gifts without feeling too guilty :). As much I would like to reduce my printing there are times when I need to print and it came in really useful for printing out pictures for one of my kids homework recently.

You can adjust how quickly the printer goes onto standby with the eco setting and it is worth changing it so that it isn’t on fully for too long (or even better turn it off when you aren’t using it). It isn’t going to cost big bucks either way though. We plugged it into a plug-in energy monitor and worked out that if it was left on all year (without printing) it would cost us around £6 a year in electricity costs and if it was on standby (again without printing) it would cost us only about £2 for the year!

There is a range of these printers to suit different needs, which you can find out more about on the Epson site.

UPDATE: I have found that I have struggled to keep the printer connected to my laptop via WIFI, I don’t know if this is something to do with my home network, laptop or the printer though.

Disclaimer: a printer was received for review and affiliate links have been used in this article, but the opinions were my own!

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A points scheme for ethical shoppers!

Zoe — Wed, 25 Nov 2015 12:41:00 +0000

Photo credit: Bonsum

Do you like to buy organic food, fair trade clothes or you really want to get a water butt for your garden? Well there is a new website which will give you points called Bonets every time you shop with their listed ethical retailers. The Bonets can be redeemed against your next shop, can be donated to good causes or can be saved up to get a specific reward like a jar of coconut oil.

I currently do my food shopping every week with Abel and Cole (an online organic fruit and veg box site), one of their listed retailers. So now when I do my shopping if I take a quick visit to Bonsum first I can gain a few bonets each time. Other retailers include, Green and Blacks, Planet Organic, Etsy, Toms, Traidcraft, Green People and more!

Bonsum has a set of five criteria that they judge each of their retailers on and they make sure that at least two of them are met by each retailer. These criteria include whether or not the item is fair trade, animal friendly, is made from sustainable, recycled or recyclable materials, contains safe ingredients and is CO2 neutral. I like the page they have written about each shop and exactly how they feel they have met these criteria. They detail the good stuff the retailers are doing as well as acknowledging where the retailers aren’t perfect.

I think it would take quite a while before the Bonets added up to much, but after the initial registration it only takes seconds to click through to your chosen site. It is quite nice to collect a few points either for charity each time I shop or if I manage to save up enough I might even splurge on a jar of coconut oil!

If you decide to sign up, use the code helloecothriftyliving and you will find yourself with 200 Bonets to get you started!

Disclaimer – This is a sponsored post.

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20 ways to help halt climate change!

Zoe — Thu, 24 Sep 2015 11:57:00 +0000

I recently read Naomi Klein’s, This Changes Everything as part of the Sustainable Book Club (read more about that here). It is a scary book and it is trying to shake us and tell us to wake up – climate change is on our doorstep. It would easy to read the book, pretend I hadn’t and move on because what difference can one person make to this vast issue? Well I think doing even just one thing is a whole lot better than not doing anything. To quote Lao Tzu – ‘a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step’.

There are 20 ideas below for things each of us could do to help halt climate change! They may not all be for you (they aren’t all for me) – but let’s do what we can

How can we help climate change?

1.Switch to a renewable energy provider

2. Compost garden, food and other biodegradable waste

3. Avoid using paper wherever possible. Take a look here into how to stop unsolicited mail.

4. Conserve energy around the home

5. Walk, cycle and take public transport where possible

6. Don’t buy anything new for a year (read about Jen’s experience of that here)

7. Grow your own fruit, herbs, vegetables

8. Boycott palm oil and anything containing it (read more here and here).

9. Boycott fossil fuels and fossil fuel products (you could switch to a renewable energy supplier).

10. Avoid meat and dairy products or at least reduce your intake of them. Ease yourself into it by having meat free Mondays.

11. Move your money away from banks which fund the fossil fuel industries read more here

More ways you can help climate change

12. Write to your MP – e.g. to ask for a fracking ban.

13. Start up a government petition (or several) here

14. Susie suggests joining your local councils community panel – read more here

15. Take good care of the stuff you do have and make it last

16. Join in with protests and marches over environmental issues

17. Spread the word about climate change and what we can do about it even if it is just sharing stuff on social media sites.

18. Host events in your home – a sustainable book club, clothes swap, a food swap…

19. Give unwanted food to friends, family and neighbours before it goes off. If you don’t know anyone locally to do that with, set up a food sharing group (read more here).

20. Give talks about climate change and what we can do about it – if you have kids do a talk at their school, if not volunteer to do one at a local community centre or library. Talking about climate change in person and what can be done about it brings the subject to life and connects with people who may not want to read about it.

Disclaimer – this blog post contains an affiliate link. All words and views are my own.

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How to make a lavender wand the zero waste way!

Zoe — Wed, 29 Jul 2015 21:21:00 +0000

Want to know how to make a lavender wand the zero waste way? Look no further!

Lavender is in season and I have loads of lovely fragrant lavender growing in my garden right now. There are many uses for lavender, but my current favourite is to make lavender wands. I don’t use them for casting spells – I use them to keep my clothes smelling nice (but if you or your kids want to make one for casting spells, don’t let me stop you :)).

These wands make great gifts and one year, I made a load as going home gifts from my kids birthday party and they went down a storm!

I’ve shared my instructions for how to make a lavender wand below:

How it is zero waste?

I made use of lavender growing in my garden, so it was unpackaged, home grown and used up. I also made sure to leave plenty for the bees, as that was the main reason I decided to grow lavender in the first place!

The ribbon had been sitting in my cupboard for years and needed using up. I also save ribbons from clothing, gifts and more to reuse for this kind of project. I store my ribbons in an old toiletry bag!

It is really simple, doesn’t take long and they make great gifts!

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