Being green, frugal and a renter

[rachelMcK]

Anyone in this situation? I live in a basement apartment, I try to be as green as possible and re-learning how to be as frugal as possible. We turn off lights and use candles, wash clothes after 7, I buy all green products when I can't make my own, even toothpaste! But green products tend to be more expensive, though I'm willing to shell out a few extra bucks for it. I'm not sure what else to do though, we eat mostly vegetarian but due to health reasons I can't be fully vegetarian. Does anyone have any ideas or website references for the green, frugal renter?

[greekislandgirl]

We also rent and are really frugal and dedicated to the green lifestyle. We're actually moving soon and I have a list of "must haves" for our next apartment. One of them is a solar hot water heater, because it makes me so mad this year not having one and having to turn on the electric water heater when it's sunny outside. It can be so frustrating having so little control over the things that make the most difference. Our current apartment has no heat or AC so we had to use a space heater all winter. It was awful. There's also NO insulation or weatherstripping because the house was built as a summer vacation kind of place. So heating it was a nightmare. We had to take this apartment as there were only a few available and most were over our price range. Next apartment we're going to take our time looking for two months and find something that really meets our requirements. I feel your frustration!!

[gmarie]

My favorite green website is Learn to Live Healthier and Greener | Practically Green.
There are so many suggestions on here, something will apply to you!

[krbshappy71]

This quote made me think of you: Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without."

Basically just be mindful. I would like to suggest that first and foremost ensure you have an emergency fund, a small stockpile, then hop online and find a local Freecycle group so you can start acquiring things for free thus saving your money for the higher priced organic things you do want to buy.

Do you have a free-standing clothing rack you can dry clothes on? That saves money as well, I am down to 1 very small load a week of drying clothes and eventually will make myself give that up altogether.

[acidcookie]

We rent an apartment too, but short of some physical home improvements I haven't found this to be any more difficult for our green living than having a house (we owned our last place). There are even plenty of temporary improvements you can make to the apartment. In fact, being part of a larger building may even keep us a bit insulated, and helps keep our carbon footprint down.

Some things we did when we moved in:
-Turned down the water heater. It was set to 160° so we turned it down to 120°
-Replaced the shower head with a low-flow shower head we had from before (we kept the one that came with the apartment and will put it back before we move)
-Replaced all ceiling fixture lights with CFLs (again, we kept all the bulbs that were here and will put them back when we move out)
-Turned up the temperature on the fridge so that it's just cold enough for our food
-There's no recycling here in the complex meaning we have to drive all recyclables to the solid waste center, so we bought 4 stackable bins that sit at the front door for sorting recyclables, then I take them all out on my way to the grocery store

Since we're stuck with whatever heating/cooling options we have and we live in the south, we:
-Wear as little clothing as possible before turning to the A/C
-Run the A/C at the warmest comfortable setting
-Keep blinds closed during the day
-Open windows at night if it's cooler then (these days it's usually not) and close before the sun comes around in the morning
-Turn on ceiling fans before turning to A/C, and use ceiling fans to help supplement A/C when we really do need to turn it on

Also, we:
-Dry laundry on a drying rack in the office (second bedroom) to avoid using the dryer (this also helps keep it cooler in here!)
-Turn on the lowest amount of light possible (e.g., I don't need the 4-bulb ceiling light when sitting at my computer, so I turn on my 1-bulb desk lamp)

Our electricity is at a flat rate so it doesn't matter when we run stuff, but call your electric company and see if they have different costs for peak times and off-hours times so then you can run your washer, dishwasher, anything that needs to be charged or otherwise running, maybe even shower during off-hours.

That's all of the apartment-related stuff I can think of for now!

[acidcookie]

My favorite green website is Learn to Live Healthier and Greener | Practically Green.
There are so many suggestions on here, something will apply to you!

I just saw this site mentioned in my Whole Living magazine this morning!

[Daisygirl]

I rent too and find myself in a similar situation. I have some good fortune with my setup -

~ We have window units for AC and will be able to run them sparingly
~ Each bedroom has a ceiling fan
~ There is a small backyard where we are allowed to garden
~ We are allowed to have a rain collection barrel for the garden
~ There is little grass so we won't need to water the lawn
~ We are vegetarian
~ We use CFLs only
~ We have reusable cups for getting drinks when we are out
~ We take our lunches in reusable containers and bags.

[Hamada]

Try using rags instead of paper towels. Cloth napkins instead of paper napkins. Even cloth handkerchiefs are useful when you just have the sniffles or when it is cold outside. You can really save some money here and also be green.

This might sound odd but if you have enough underwear for two weeks you may be able to cut down the amount of loads of wash you do. Currently I wash my clothes every two weeks instead of every week. Saves money and is good for the environment.