Category: Cheap

How to save energy – insulate your pipes and hot water tank

copper pipes with foam insulation

Why should I insulate my tank or pipes?

Insulating your hot water tank (cylinder) and pipes is probably the cheapest and easiest way to improve the insulation in your home.

Why should you bother? Well, an uninsulated cylinder or pipe constantly radiates heat, so it’s like having a big, unnecessary radiator in your cupboard, loft or basement. The more heat you lose, the more energy your boiler uses trying to keep the water up to temperature, so it costs you money for no good reason.

How do I insulate my pipes?

Insulating your hot water pipes is a genuinely simple DIY job:

  • Pipe insulation is a foam tube with a slit all the way along it. You can buy pipe insulation in any DIY store, or try this economy pipe insulation from Screwfix.
  • You’ll need a Stanley knife or a strong pair of scissors to cut it to length.
  • Then just pop it around the pipe, like in the picture above.
  • Corners are a bit more difficult, but you just need to cut a chunk out of the foam tube so it bends to match the pipe.
  • Then fix it in place with duct tape.
  • Even if you don’t do the tricky bits like the corners, you’ve still made a difference.

How do I insulate my hot water tank?

Insulating your hot water tank is pretty easy too:

  • A tank jacket is a very thick glass fibre “blanket” with a flame-retardant cover. You can buy tank jackets in any DIY store, or try this cheap, 80mm thick hot water cylinder jacket from Screwfix.
  • It’s easiest if you buy one that comes in several pieces, so there are gaps for all the pipes that come out of your hot water tank.
  • Look for one that’s 80mm thick so it’s really efficient.
  • Wrap the tank jacket around the tank.
  • Secure it with cable ties.
  • Tape up the gaps with duct tape.

Job done!

Image credit: Kate Spencer

Categories: Building, Cheap, Energy Use, Quick & easy, Saves money, Water

How to clean with natural products

lemons, a natural cleaning product, on a grey wooden board

Why clean with natural products?

There are several good reasons to use natural cleaning products instead of man-made cleaning chemicals, including:

  • Keeping hazardous chemicals out of waterways and landfill
  • Avoiding contact with hazardous chemicals in the home
  • Avoiding plastic waste
  • Saving money

Bicarbonate of soda, white vinegar, and lemon juice are effective, cheap and widely used for cleaning metal, hobs, ceramic tiles/sinks and laminate surfaces (but should not be used on marble, slate, wood and other natural surfaces).

How to clean with bicarbonate of soda

Bicarbonate of soda is commonly used in cooking. It’s usually combined with a small amount of vinegar or lemon juice, which produces carbon dioxide bubbles, and makes whatever you’re cooking really light and fluffy.

However, bicarbonate of soda is also really good for getting burnt food off pans. If you’ve ever burnt food onto a pan you’ll know how hard it is to get it off without a huge amount of scrubbing – you may even give up and accept that this is just how your pan is from now on.

The easiest way to remove burnt-on food is to put about a centimetre (half an inch) of water in your pan, add a couple of teaspoons of bicarbonate of soda, and mix. It will fizz a bit. Now heat the pan gently, while you gently rub the burnt-on bits with the end of a wooden spatula. After a couple of minutes, the burnt bits will dissolve and rub off. If it’s really badly burnt on, you might need to refresh the mixture and have another go.

The best way to avoid getting burnt-on bits in the first place is to use a lower temperature and stir regularly. This is particularly true with cast iron or ceramic pots, which only need a very low temperature because they hold the heat so well.

Warning: test on an inconspicuous area first, and definitely avoid using bicarbonate of soda on marble, slate, wood and other natural surfaces.

How to clean with white vinegar

White vinegar is great at removing grease and burnt-on food in your kitchen.

Thoroughly clean an old spray bottle so no traces of the previous chemicals remain. Half-fill the spray bottle with white vinegar, then fill the rest up with cold tap water. Shake gently to mix. Spray onto kitchen grease or dirt, as you would use a commercial cleaning product. Leave for a few minutes, then scrub/wipe it away with a damp cloth, and dry it.

I have tested this mix on my metal hob, stainless steel pans, ceramic-coated pans, glass oven door and glass hotplate. It works just as well as my old favourite commercial product (Fairy Power Spray).

Warning: test on an inconspicuous area first, and definitely avoid using vinegar on marble, slate, wood and other natural surfaces.

If you use non-stick pans and trays, CookingLight says you can use the 50:50 vinegar/water mix on non-stick surfaces (we haven’t tested this).

How to clean your washing machine with white vinegar

You can also use white vinegar to clean the inaccessible inside parts of your washing machine. The inside of your washing machine will get gunked up over time, which can leave your clothes smelling musty even after they’ve been washed.

Every couple of months, put about one cup (roughly 250 ml) white vinegar into the dispensing drawer, then run the hottest wash you can, straight away.

Wash a normal load afterwards to get rid of any vinegar that might be lingering in the seals (vinegar might damage the seal if it’s left to sit for a while).

Job done.

How to clean with lemon juice

I use lemon juice to clean my ceramic sinks and chrome-plated taps in the bathroom. All you need is a splash of lemon juice straight from the lemon or the bottle.

Neat (undiluted) lemon juice cleans the dirt and limescale from my ceramic sink and chrome-plated tap better than Cif used to. Just drip it on and leave it for 15 minutes, wipe it down with a rag or scrubber, and finally rinse off with water to prevent stickiness.

How to clean your showerhead or tap with lemon juice

You can also use lemon juice to clean limescale from showerheads and tap outlets.

  • Put enough lemon juice in a plastic bag, so that when you put the showerhead or tap outlet in the bag, the head is completely submerged in the lemon juice. Start with about 100ml (less than half a cup) and add more if you need to. The tighter you fasten the bag to the tap, the less lemon juice you will need
  • Fasten the bag in place with a couple of elastic bands, making sure the lemon juice covers all the limescale
  • Leave it for about half an hour, then carefully remove the bag and see if the limescale has reduced or can be picked off
  • Put the bag of lemon juice back on if necessary; this will depend on how much limescale has built up. You might need to replace the lemon juice if there is a lot of limescale and it seems to stop working
  • You may need to scrub or chip the limescale off if it is very hard, being very careful not to scratch the tap or showerhead itself. However hard this is, it will still be easier than it would have been without the lemon juice

Warning: test on an inconspicuous area first, and avoid using lemon juice on marble, slate, wood and other natural surfaces.

Does lemon juice or white vinegar kill bacteria?

Both vinegar and lemon juice are traditionally used to preserve food because the acidity slows down or prevents the growth of bacteria. But do they actually kill bacteria, like most commercial cleaning products do?

It’s fair to say that acidic substances like lemon juice and vinegar kill some bacteria. One study into the effectiveness of household natural sanitisers found that using a lemon juice-vinegar mixture (in a 1:1 ratio) for 15 minutes reduced the number of bacteria to an undetectable level [1] while another study stated, “The combined use of vinegar and sodium chloride (table salt), with use of an appropriate treatment temperature, was found to be markedly effective for the prevention of bacterial food poisoning.”[2]

So using lemon juice or white vinegar as a cleaning product should certainly kill more bacteria than using just soap or water would – but it is unlikely to result in a completely bacteria-free environment.

If killing bacteria is very important to your situation, you’ll need to find products that meet your own specific requirements.

Does lemon juice or white vinegar kill viruses?

Vinegar and lemon juice certainly can’t “kill” viruses – because viruses are not alive so cannot be killed. Viruses can only be disabled by vaccinations, anti-retroviral drugs or lack of access to a host cell, which is why vaccinations, masks, wiping things down and handwashing are vital tools in the fight against COVID-19 and other coronaviruses.

If disabling viruses is very important to your situation, you’ll need to find products that meet your own specific requirements.

So why use natural cleaning products?

My reasons for preferring natural products are:

  • I’m not looking for a product that removes every single bacteria. Washing hands, cleaning surfaces and good food hygiene is enough for the majority of people
  • I don’t want to create plastic waste with every purchase.
    Using natural products means I can refill my glass containers cheaply at the zero-waste store
  • I don’t want to put toxic chemicals into the water system
  • I don’t have the time, or the knowledge of chemicals, to read every label and research whether a certain chemical is bad for the environment or my family. Even if the current establishment claims something is safe, remember DDT and glyphosate? These chemicals used to be permitted, but are now proven to be carcinogens (cancer-causing substances). I’d rather stick to simple products that I know are safe, and which (so far as I can see) work just as well as commercial products

And finally – did I mention?
Don’t use lemon juice, vinegar or bicarbonate of soda on marble, slate, wood or other natural surfaces, and test on an inconspicuous area if you’re not sure!

[1] Yucel, S. and Karapinar, M., 2005. Effectiveness Of Household Natural Sanitizers In The Elimination Of Salmonella Typhimurium On Rocket (Eruca Sativa Miller) And Spring Onion (Allium… – Pubmed – NCBI. [online] Ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15698693 [Accessed 12 April 2020].

[2] Entani, E., 1998. Antibacterial Action Of Vinegar Against Food-Borne Pathogenic Bacteria Including Escherichia Coli O157:H7. – Pubmed – NCBI. [online] Ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9713753 [Accessed 12 April 2020].

Photo credit: Caroline Attwood on Unsplash

Categories: Cheap, Chemicals, In Lockdown

Better gardening with bee-and-insect-friendly plants

bee on white and pink flower with blurred background

Why do we need to support bees and other insects?

Bees and other insects pollinate around one-third of the food crops we rely on and 80% of flowering plants – but bee populations are in decline due to pesticide use, habitat loss and disease.

You can help create safe, pesticide-free habitats for bees and beneficial insects by planting bee-friendly and insect-friendly plants in your garden.

Which are the best plants to attract bees?

Plants will vary by area, but colourful flowering native species are likely to be best for your local bee and insect population.

Friends of the Earth has a list of trees, shrubs, flowers, herbs, wildflowers, fruit and vegetables to help you choose plants that will attract bees and other pollinators all year round. It includes favourites like lavender, and surprises like ivy, which flowers late in the year when there isn’t much else around. (Viburnum is another pretty, scented winter plant that provides early food for insects.) They also have advice on how to provide shelter and water that’s safe for bees to get to.

Re-wilding large areas of the countryside needs political will, but if enough of us start now, we can make a difference while the politicians catch up. You can make a difference at the local level by persuading your local council to mow roadside verges less often, letting the wildflowers grow until July. The bees will be happy and so will the council – they’ll save money on contractors.

Photo credit: Sensei Minimal on Unsplash

Categories: Bees, insects & rewilding, Cheap, Gardening, High impact

Eating better step 5 – choose a vegan diet

crispy vegan burger in a bun with salad and vegan cheese

Eating a vegan diet doesn’t have to mean a life of lentils. Seriously, just look at that burger. It’s from Vincent Vegan, Berlin. Yum!

Why go vegan?

Removing all animal products from your diet is the best way to reduce the huge environmental impact caused by commercial animal farming.

What is a vegan diet?

According to the Vegan Society, a vegan diet is based on:

  • fruit
  • vegetables
  • starchy foods e.g. oats, potato, bread, rice and noodles
  • proteins including peas, beans and lentils
  • healthy plant-based fats including omega-3 and omega-6
  • vitamins and minerals like calcium, iron, zinc, vitamins B12 and D, iodine and selenium

It means cutting out meat, dairy, eggs, and any other foods or additives that come from animals.

The good news is that there are so many easy-to-use alternatives to the foods we learned to cook with (and wrongly assumed were essential). For example, we regularly make vegan bread at home (using sunflower or olive oil instead of butter, and oat or almond milk instead of cow’s milk) and it is softer and just as tasty as bread made with a traditional recipe.

Moving towards a vegan diet

Going vegan is a low-risk, cheap, effective way to reduce your environmental impact, but it’s also quite hard – which is why we’re suggesting you get there in stages, particularly if you don’t know any other vegans to help you work out what you’re doing. There’s no shame in starting off as a part-time vegan (e.g. just at weekends, when you have more time to cook from scratch; or a weekday vegan, to make it easier to eat with friends at the weekend).

Any progress is good, and better than making things too hard for yourself and quitting.

Meat substitutes and vegan cheese can be expensive, but you can eat cheaply and healthily if you choose a good variety of vegetables, fruit, nuts and legumes (peas and beans), supplementing with essential nutrients like vitamin B12 and some types of omega-3 fatty acids.

We realise that veganism is a privilege, and that people who are on a very low income, are time-poor and/or don’t have access to adequate cooking facilities may find it difficult to eat well on a vegan diet. This is a political issue and one that you should write to your political representative and the heads of supermarkets about. If this is you, please just do what you can, even if that is just getting through the day.

Choose a vegan diet, but do it safely

This next bit is important; please read it.

Just as many Western diets lack vital nutrients, an unplanned vegan diet can lack some essential nutrients like vitamin B12 and some types of omega-3 fatty acids. If you are following a vegan diet, you need to know what you should be eating or doing to make up the shortfall.

So if you’re going vegan, make sure you read advice from responsible sources like the NHS, the Vegan Society or consult a qualified dietician.

Previous:
Step 4: go vegetarian

Photo credit: Paul Kapischka on Unsplash

Categories: Cheap, Food, High impact, Influence

Eating better Step 3 – cut out dairy & eggs

dairy-free milk made from almonds and cashews

Why cut out dairy and eggs?

Cow farming, including growing crops for their feed, is a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions and deforestation. So cutting out dairy is an easy way to reduce your environmental footprint.

Many people also choose to cut out dairy for ethical reasons. Cows only produce milk if they’ve been pregnant, in order to feed their calf – but the dairy industry relies on removing the calf from its mother so we can use the milk instead. The separation distresses both the mother and the calf, and male calves are usually slaughtered at just over a year old.

You may think that eggs are cruelty-free – after all, supermarket eggs aren’t fertilised, so no animal is directly killed to produce that egg. However, chickens farmed for eggs (layers) and chickens farmed to produce the next generation (breeders) are usually kept in overcrowded conditions that lead to aggression and disease. Farmers routinely give their chickens antibiotics “just in case”, which leads to antibiotic resistance. And male chicks are an unwanted waste product of the chicken breeding industry, routinely killed at just a day old.

So do we need dairy and eggs?

The simple answer is no! The dairy industry has spent decades convincing us that we need cow’s milk to keep us healthy, but it just isn’t true – in fact, 68% of the world’s population is lactose intolerant, avoiding dairy products altogether, and suffering no ill effects whatsoever[1].

But we do need calcium – we just have to get it from other sources.

Cutting out dairy is getting easier all the time, but if you’re finding it difficult, you don’t have to do it all in one go. It’s better to take small successful steps towards the goal, rather than try to do it all at once and fail. Personally, I found it very easy to give up milk and yoghurt, while cheese took several years. But any progress is better than giving up.

Eggs are a good source of protein, and they are often used as a source of fat and for their binding properties in traditional recipes. The fact that egg is used in so many ways means there’s no one-size-fits-all alternative, and we have to be a bit creative, using vegetable oils, flax seeds, and even apple sauce depending on what property of eggs we’re trying to substitute for.

What are some non-dairy sources of calcium?

You can get calcium from many sources other than dairy products. According to the NHS article “The Vegan Diet”,[2], you can get calcium from:

  • green, leafy vegetables e.g. broccoli, cabbage and okra
  • fortified unsweetened soya
  • rice and oat drinks
  • calcium-set tofu
  • sesame seeds and tahini (an ingredient in hummus)
  • pulses (peas, beans and lentils)
  • bread (in the UK, calcium is added to white and brown flour by law)
  • and dried fruit, such as raisins, prunes, figs and dried apricots

What are some dairy alternatives?

Vegan milk alternatives

There are plenty of different plant-based milk substitutes. Oat, almond, coconut and soya milk are all well-established and popular, while more recent products include milk made from peas and even potatoes. I find oat milk is the most versatile, and it also has the lowest environmental impact – but all plant milks have a lower impact than dairy milk, so whichever plant milk you prefer, go for it.[3]

Vegan butter alternatives

Butter can be replaced with nut butter (like peanut butter) or excellent vegan butter alternatives like Flora Plant Butter, which is available in a block for baking or a tub for easy spreading. Many other vegan butter products are slimy and tasteless, so I’d urge you to avoid wasting your money on them and go straight for the Flora. Alternatively, you could just not use butter at all, and swap it for vegan pesto (we recommend Sacla), vegan mayonnaise (Hellmans) or any jam (jelly).

Vegan egg alternatives

When baking, eggs are easily replaced with alternatives as varied as banana, apple sauce, aquafaba, flax seed, baking soda, lemonade and vegan yoghurt. Use a good vegan recipe to make sure the right balance of fats and moisture is retained – don’t just substitute at random (baking is more like chemistry than cooking and goes wrong easily).

If you miss the egg running out of your breakfast butty, egg yolk can be replaced with vegan butter mixed with nutritional yeast (no one really likes the white bit anyway, right?).

Scrambled eggs can be mocked up using tofu, and omelettes made using chickpea (gram) flour.

Vegan alternatives to honey

Alternatives to honey are agave syrup (which comes from cacti, and is virtually indistinguishable from runny honey) or maple syrup (which has its own delicious flavour).

Vegan yoghurt alternatives

Yoghurt is an easy swap – there are many vegan yoghurt alternatives available. I prefer the coconut-based ones but that’s really a personal choice.

One great thing about buying a big tub of plain vegan yoghurt is its versatility. You can mix it up with agave syrup one day, defrosted fruit the next, then crunchy oatmeal and raisins, jam, or whatever you fancy. Plus if you’re looking for something savoury, you can spoon it straight from the pot, onto a curry, chilli or nachos. Add a splash of lemon juice as you serve it to make it a little bit more tart if necessary.

Vegan cheese alternatives

Vegan cheese took a huge step forward in 2022 with the release of Cathedral City’s Plant Based Dairy Free block. It’s an absolute game changer as (unlike all other vegan cheese) it actually tastes and behaves like mature cheddar. Go on any vegan group and ask what their favourite cheese is, and you’ll see it’s the clear winner. It does smell quite a lot, but you could argue, so does good real cheese.

For other types of cheeses and more recommendations, check out our eco-friendly alternatives page for a list of our favourite vegan alternatives!

Next:
Step 4: go completely vegetarian

Previous:
Step 2: stop eating beef

[1] Storhaug et al, (2017). Country, regional, and global estimates for lactose malabsorption in adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis. The Lancet, volume 2, issue 10, P738-746, October 01, 2017

[2] nhs.uk. 2021. The Vegan Diet. [online] Available at: <https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/the-vegan-diet/> [Accessed 17 January 2021].

[3] the Guardian. 2021. Almonds Are Out. Dairy Is A Disaster. So What Milk Should We Drink?. [online] Available at: <https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jan/28/what-plant-milk-should-i-drink-almond-killing-bees-aoe> [Accessed 17 January 2021].

Photo credit: Sandi Benedicta on Unsplash

Categories: Cheap, Food, High impact, In Lockdown