The cost of living is constantly going up. As well as being greener, a more self-sufficient lifestyle could help to drastically reduce day-to-day costs. Here are just a handful of ways in which going home-made and home-grown could save you money.
Repair furniture don’t replace
Whilst electronic appliances can often work out costlier to repair than to replace, this rule doesn’t apply to most furniture. Most spare parts can be easily found on the web. You could save £300 buying a new chest of drawers by getting some drawer slides online. For more hard-to-find complex parts, a 3D printing company could be the answer.
Sometimes a breakage can be turned into a creative and eye-catching design feature. Has the cat ravaged your upholstery and left horrible rips and tears? Why not try this doily trick? Got a chair with a broken or ripped seat? Why not repair it using some old belts?
Grow your own fruit and vegetables
If you have a garden now could be the time to start living organically and self-sufficiently. With fertilizer becoming harder to produce and a growing population, it’s thought that fruit and veg will become harder to come by in the future. Converting a piece of land into a vegetable patch and buying some seeds works out much cheaper than buying your own produce and could help prepare you for the years ahead. Even if you don’t have a garden, there are many types of fruit and veg from carrots to avocados to tomatoes that you can grow in a pot on your window sill. And if you don’t have enough windows, you can buy incandescent lights to grow your greens underneath.
Make your own cleaning products
Whilst you’ll probably need an off-the-shelf product to shift and sterilize the hard dirt, there are many household products that work just as well for general cleaning. Baking soda is widely regarded for its deodorizing ability, its ability to kill viruses and its ability to cut through grease. Vinegar and lemon juice are also nifty DIY cleaning fluids that together can do anything from eliminating soap scum to cutting through mildew and mold. Mixing various basic household items can also be just as effective as many commercial chemicals. This site offers a multitude of ways to make your own cleaning solutions.
Generate your own electricity
When solar panels first came on the market, many scoffed at the prices. But now solar panels can be bought at a fraction of the price, making them a lucrative investment. Buy a few to put on your roof and you won’t have to pay an electricity bill every again – you’ll make up the cost in a few years. Contrary to what many think, you don’t need constant blue skies to generate solar power and even on the cloudiest of days, you’ll generate electricity. Solar power can also be used to power portable chargers and can even be used to power a motor home battery.
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