SAVE MONEY... AND THE PLANET!

Reduce your plastic usage

Get a keep-cup and a re-usable water bottle
Coffee is big business with around 95 million cups of coffee consumed each day in the UK, according to the British Coffee Association! If you’re partial to a shop-bought caffeine fix, invest in a re-usable coffee (or tea) cup and get your barista to fill that instead of the takeaway type. Most coffee shops will charge less if you use a reusable coffee cup – between 20p and 50p off. You could save even more if you make your coffee at home and take it with you instead of buying shop-bought.

If you buy bottled water on the go (for the gym or as part of your lunch), invest in a refillable version and fill it up from the tap before you leave home. If you usually buy 1 bottle of water a day, you could save around £180 a year just by switching to a refillable bottle!

Keep a shopping bag handy
It’s been years since the carrier bag charge came into effect in Scotland. Adding a few pence to your shop here and there might not seem like much, but if you’ve been paying for carrier bags an average of 4 times a week since the charge came into effect you’ve essentially thrown £10 in the bin each year! Try keeping reusable shopping bags at the front door of your house, or in the driver’s side door of the car so you’re more likely to see them and remember to take them with you when you go shopping.

Make your own chemical-free cleaners
Homemade cleaning products are mostly made up of cheap ingredients people already have in their homes like vinegar, baking soda, and lemon juice. If you want to save money while also avoiding harmful chemicals, consider making your own cheap and easy cleaners. For an easy to make multi-purpose cleaner, mix a ¼ cup of white vinegar, 1 tbsp baking soda, 1 litre of hot water and ½ a lemon. Making your own cleaner in a reusable container will also cut your household plastic usage.

Learn to freeze
Batch cooking and then freezing portions for later use can save a load of time and money. The trick here is to freeze in realistically sized portions, so you only defrost what you need. Also, make sure you label everything, so you know what’s in each container and when it was frozen.

Here are 4 foods you might not have realised you can freeze:

1. Cooked, plain pasta. Boiled too much pasta? Simply let the extra cool and freeze it in individual sized portions. To use from frozen, sprinkle a little water over it and heat it up in the microwave.
2. Butter can be frozen for up to 3 months
3. Milk can be frozen for around 1 month (leave a gap of around an inch at the top of your container as it will expand when it freezes). Defrost in the fridge and give a shake before drinking.
4. If bananas are going brown – fire them in the freezer with the skin on! Once they’re defrosted you can use them to make banana bread or smoothies.

Save on gas and electricity

Turn down the heating
Let’s face it – Scotland isn’t renowned for its long hot summers – which means our central heating systems tend to be on for a large part of the year. There’s nothing you can do about the weather, but by turning down the thermostat by just one degree you could save up to £60 a year* – which you could put towards a holiday somewhere sunny!

*Source: Energy Saving Trust

Switch off – not just on standby
UK households spend an average of £30 per year powering appliances left in standby mode (i.e. TVs, computers and dishwashers). If switching off appliances at the end of the day sounds like too much hassle then you could invest in standby saver device, which allows you to turn off all your appliances in one go – thereby reducing your standby electricity consumption.