Saving the earth, one bottle at a time

I drink a lot of water. I average about 84 ounces a day or more. And I like Smart Water. It tastes clean. I generally buy my Smart Water at Costco or Sams Club. A package of 12 one liter bottles costs $11.68 including $1.20 CRV so about $0.97 per day. I drink at least one of these bottles per day. I go through about 3 cases of water per month so $35.04 per month or $420.48 per year on bottled water. And even though I do recycle these bottles those are a lot of bottles every year.

In an effort to save the earth and some money, I invested in a reusable bottle. It is BPA free and comes with a filter.



This product is called a Bobble and cost $12.99. A replacement filter is $6.99. Each filter is worth about the same as 300 bottles of water. So total investment for the year is $19.98.

This is a $400.50 per year savings. And it makes me feel like I am doing a good thing for the earth at the same time. Suck that Al Gore!

Total savings to date: $581.52

How to make your own dishwasher soap will be the next topic. I am excited about that one!

A Penny Saved

So my friend Tamara posted something about making laundry detergent. This is the recipie she used:

http://frugallygreen.blogspot.com/2008/05/how-to-make-your-own-laundry-soap.html

I did the math. It will cost me $0.02 cents per load to make my own detergent rather than spending $0.09 cents per load for the stufff I buy at Sams Club / Costco. I have 6 people I do laundry for in addition to the household stuff (towels, blankets etc.) so we do a lot of laundry. By making my own detergent it will result in total savings for the year of $120.02. And it works just as well as the detergent I have been buying for years. As I have very sensitive skin I used an Ivory Soap bar that worked like a charm. My skin is not rashing out and the clothes are clean. Works for me!

Also I read that I can use vinegar instead of liquid fabric softener. I spend about $65.00 per year on fabric softener. I got 4 gallons of vinegar for about $4.00. This will last the year. So this is a $61.00 savings. It works. My clothes were soft and didn't smell like vinegar. Score!

I am going to try making dishwasher soap next. It looks easy and will also save me money. So total savings with just a few small changes has added up to $181.02. Not bad for something that will not change our lifestyle at all. So let's put $181.02 in the savings account.

And the journey begins

I have determined that we spend too much money. None of us think twice about going to lunch or dinner many times a month. If I want something, I buy it. Same goes for the hubby. Kids ask for something? Nine times out of ten I say yes. We have tons of clothes, shoes, toys, grown up toys and random other junk that we didn't really need but wanted and so we got it. Who knows how much we could have in our savings account if we actually were making good choices about what we spend money on. So I have a new proposition for the family: 365 days of no spending money. Obviously we will need to pay the bills, buy groceries and gas for the car. But what would happen to our net worth if that's ALL we spent money on? We are about to find out.

I don't consider this a New Year's Resolution but a challenge for my family. Hubby and I will get $20 per month to spend on incidentals. The kids will get $10 each per month. That's a total of $70 per month for gum, candy, new clothes, going to dinner/lunch and the movies. After the bills are paid and the groceries are purchased the rest will go into savings.

In addition to this challenge I am going to see how much money I can save by making different decisions. For example we bought little plastic sandwich containers rather than sending the kids lunch in a ziploc bag everyday. It's good for the pocketbook and for the environment. We are also going to try to make our own laundry detergent and dishwasher soap. Good for my allergies, the environment and the pocketbook. I think we can do so many more things to save money and grow our net worth that I am going to blog about it and share what we are doing and how much we have saved.

It's going to be a huge shock to our lifestyle at first but I think it will be worth it when we see the balance in the savings account at the end of the year.