Companies make their biggest profits off of consumers who pay more for convenience items.  Convenience marketing is especially targeted towards busy parents. Single serve yogurts, juices, snack packs, etc. all cost more than the bulk packaging on the same shelf. The reason these items sell, although they cost significantly more, is because people want, and will pay for, convenience. They want to be able to just grab a bag of chips on the way out of the door. Although innocuous enough at the store, these items eat away at budgets in a big way.

If you are trying to save money or would like to have extra room in your budget to pay down debts, I urge you to stop purchasing those convenience items. There’s an easy way to still have the convenience of single serve items, without the exorbitant cost. It just takes an ounce of extra effort. By making a one-time purchase on reusable items, you can save a lot of money down the road.

Reusable Squeeze Pouch

Parents love the squeeze pouches. They are wholesome snacks that can be thrown in the diaper bag and taken on the go. Because they are minimal mess and easy clean up, they are a parent’s dream come true. The squeeze pouches at the store are so expensive though. Don’t worry, you don’t have to give up on the convenience of food pouches altogether to save money. Pick up a package of the refillable ones instead. They’re freezer and dishwasher safe, and you’ll be able to fill them with your own home creations or store brand fruits and veggies. By preparing them yourself, your bank account will thank you.

Lunch Containers

Three years ago, on black Friday, I bought Pyrex containers for half price. Pyrex saves me so much money every month. They are freezer, dishwasher, and microwave safe. The small and medium size bowls also help with perfect portion size. Packed lunches are so easy to make with Pyrex containers. I simply put our dinner leftovers in them, and the next morning we have a packed lunch ready to throw in a lunch bag. Having food ready and waiting in the fridge means we are less likely to pick up fast food. There are all kinds of different reusable containers out there. Bento boxes are really popular among parents. You can find reusable lunch containers in glass, plastic, or stainless steel. It really all depends on how much money you want to pay up front. If you keep a keen eye out, you may be able to find these items at severely reduced prices. The long term investment is well worth the up-front cost.

Reusable “Zip Bags”

Plastic sandwich and snack bags are a waste of money. You use them once and throw them away. Store brand sandwich bags cost 2 cents each. The larger gallon size ones cost 10 cents each. As an alternative, you can find packs of 4 reusable bags on Amazon or Etsy for about $12. You will be saving your family money long term if you invest in the reusable option instead of padding the pockets of big corporations.

Water Bottles

I hate to beat a dead horse, but can we talk about plastic water bottles for a minute? Surely, people know how dreadful they are by now, right? Not only are they expensive, but they are a waste of energy and natural resources. People pay on overage one US Dollar per plastic bottle for glorified municipal tap water. Purchase a water filtration system and a reusable bottle instead. My family decided to invest in a Berkey water filter. Although expensive at first, it now costs us only 2 cents per gallon of water by purchasing the replacement filters every year. You could save yourself around $1200 a year by taking your own filtered water with you wherever you go. Visit Ban the Bottle to learn more about how saying no to plastic water bottles can save both money and the environment.

Make the Leap!

It may seem overwhelming to replace all one-use items in your life with reusable alternatives. Go slowly. Invest in one container at time as your budget allows it. You will see returns on your investments in the long term. Reusable containers save a lot of money. They also save the environment. Trust me, your wallet (and the planet) will thank you.

Do you use reusable alternatives to save money? Do you think they are worth the investment?

Meet Kristi Muse. She is a freelance writer, blogger, police officer’s wife, and mom to two beautiful children. She loves homeschooling, organic gardening, sustainable living, and cooking from scratch. To hire Kristi as a freelance writer or to read more about how she lives a balanced life visit her website at Moderate Muse. You can also follow her on twitter @moderatemuse.

Reusable Containers: Budget and Eco Friendly is a post from: When Life Gives You Lemons. Did you like the post? Follow me on Twitter, like me on Facebook, or hop on over to my blog and leave me your feedback.

I’ve heard many people claim that they’re just one person, and what they do won’t make a difference. I wholly disagree. Everyone is just one person – and everyone makes a difference, particularly when it comes to being environmentally friendly.

So I’ve tried to appeal to people’s environmentally friendly side for money saving purposes.

Now, I’m not talking about buying hemp sweaters or installing a rainwater collector on your roof for washing dishes, though those are great options. I’m not even too sure that those options would save you money. I’m talking about the little things.

Re-use Plastic Containers

Yogurt, cream cheese, cottage cheese, water and soda bottles, and even laundry detergent and cleaner bottles can all be reused. If you’re anything like me, my plastic containers for sandwiches and yogurt that I bring to work don’t last as long as I’d like. They crack or are given away with leftovers when we have people over. Having a couple of containers that are left over from groceries that are long gone is super helpful.

This saves the containers from ending up in the landfill as quickly as they would otherwise, which is environmentally friendly and will save you money.

Use Vinegar for in Place of Commercial Cleaners

In January, before I switched to WordPress, I wrote a post on my Blogger blog about how vinegar works for pretty much everything. This is still true. Cleaners have harsh chemicals in them which are really terrible for the environment. Vinegar is environmentally far more friendly than Clorox, and it’s safer for you, too. There have been studies which state that typical household cleaners – bleach, Clorox, even Mr. Clean – double the risk of breast cancer in women.

If that’s not scary, I don’t know what is.

Plus, vinegar is much cheaper than Mr. Clean! A large bottle of vinegar is just a couple of dollars, and can be mixed with water to replace Windex (as it cleans glass really well), and do many other things. Vinegar can act as a liquid fabric softener in your washer (and seriously works quite well), a spot remover in your dishwasher, a floor cleaner, an appliance and electronic cleaner, and so much more.

Vinegar kills lots of harmful bacteria and mold, but it doesn’t kill the environment like Clorox will. Doesn’t smell good? Grab some essential oils! They actually smell a lot better than the stuff in the cleaner. Orange is my personal favourite, followed by lavender.

Carpool and Walk

This is probably something you’ve all heard before, but this is a great money saving tip. If you live a 20 minute walk from your gym and you plan on driving there to work out, just walk or run! Then you can skip your cardio workout and go straight for the weights.

This is healthy, green, and cheap. Right now, gas is at about $1.39 per litre. That’s about $5.14 per gallon for my American friends. Transportation costs are a huge expense for most of us, so why not minimize them?

Driving pushes emissions and carbon dioxide into the environment. Carpool with a friend to save money, ride you’re bike, walk, whatever. Avoid your car when you can.

Save Water

Sometimes, when I’m at the gym, I see people leave the tap on while they dry their hands off, brush their hair, or stand there staring in the mirror. What’s the point? Turn off the tap. There’s no point in uselessly wasting water (this usually happens with seniors, so I’m not too sure what’s going on there). Guess what? Water costs money.

It doesn’t cost a ridiculous amount, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not savings in your pocket if you use less of it.

Too many people let the tap run while they’re brushing their teeth, allow the tap to run constantly while they’re washing dishes (that’s why there’s usually two sections to your kitchen sink). A 10 minute shower alone can cost Canadian households an average of $44.46 annually for one person. At an average of $0.50 per cubic metre, I’m sure that with a reduction in water useage, you could reduce your water costs greatly in a year.

Make sure you’re washing machine is full when you do a load, don’t run the water when brushing your teeth, fill up the sink to wash/rinse the dishes, and be more water conscious. It’s better for the environment and your wallet.

On that note..

Ditch the Bottled Water!

You’ve all heard it before. Plastic takes hundreds of years to decompose, and bottled water is bad for your body. The plastic leeches into the water and can cause cancer. On top of that, did you know (and you might have already known), that bottled water is 1000x on average more expensive than tap water? That’s a huge markup!

Bottled water is also TERRIBLE for your health and you are far better off drinking tap water.

Make sure you bring a reusable bottle of water with you every day when you leave the house. If you even buy one bottle of water every week, with 52 weeks in the year at $2 (I’m low balling it here) per bottle, you’re still paying $104 per year for something that would be only cents – if that. Why waste money on something that’s a very low cost to us, anyway? Doing so would reduce your carbon footprint by saving that plastic from going in landfills.

Not only can you do it, but the companies you work for can as well by ensuring they have received environmental compliance approval from the government. What this means is that the company you work for is creating emissions which don’t exceed what is considered acceptable by government regulations for things such as noise pollution, carbon pollution, land impact, and impact to water systems.

There are thousand other things that you can do to save money and reduce your carbon footprint. Stay tuned

Go Green to Save Money – Part 1 is a post from: When Life Gives You Lemons. Did you like the post? Follow me on Twitter, like me on Facebook, or hop on over to my blog and leave me your feedback.