Zero Waste Groceries for $0!
Welcome back to my Zero Waste on a Budget series, which was previously randomized, but I am working on organizing slowly but surely. You can check out the full series here with nearly 500 ways to live zero waste without spending a single dollar. Some are organized into themes, and others are random, so watch which ones you prefer.
Today, let’s dive into zero waste on a budget while shopping and at the grocery store!
Feel free to drop your eco on a budget tips below to help this series continue to grow.
Pre-Shopping
Do a trash audit before you even decide which areas to swap and which ones to leave alone. This will help you determine the areas where you make the most waste. All you have to do is save all of your clean trash and recycling: peanut butter jars, hummus containers, receipts, Ziploc bags, and things like that. Please do not save food waste, dirty diapers, and the like. Use common sense here. But save it for a week or a month to learn your shopping and waste habits. You can use this to plan your grocery trip to avoid waste!
Email brands you order from online and tell them to put a note on your account asking for as little packaging as possible. Online shopping comes with waste, but we can reach out to these companies to try to limit that waste on our orders and potentially other orders, too. It never hurts to ask!
Ask your neighbors, friends, and family for items you might need before buying new. Just recently, I asked on a Facebook group I’m in if anyone was decluttering and had a journal they were getting rid of, and I scored a free, second-hand journal. Low waste and low cost! If you’re not friends with folks in your area, try a No Buy Group. This is a public forum where you can get rid of stuff for free and ask for items from your neighbors. It’s the gift economy that keeps so much out of the landfill.
Reuse scraps of paper. I used to throw away a grocery list after each visit, even though I only used like 1/3 of it. Now, I use a piece of paper until it’s completely filled. If I have a flyer or a handout I get at work, I take it home and use it as a scrap piece of paper for things like to-do lists. Use both sides of the notepad. I used to be guilty of this, too. I would use one piece of this paper for one grocery trip, and then it would go into the recycling. But, Emma, it’s being recycled, what does it matter? Well, the less often you throw away or recycle something, the less you purchase, and the less of that product has to be created. This meaningless task actually has a huge impact. So, instead, use both sides and all areas of the paper.
Meal plan so you don’t have any leftovers in the first place. I love to do this before heading to the store. It keeps my bill low and my compost bin empty so that I’m not wasting food. Even if you compost, it’s best to use that as a last resort. I pick a few meals I want to make for the week and buy precisely what I need.
Simply use what you have before buying new. Still have plastic toothbrushes? Use them before buying a bamboo one. Don’t have reusable grocery bags? Use the plastic ones you already have. The list goes on! It’s okay to use up the last of those “wasteful” items before buying the eco swaps.
And there are many things you can just stop buying in general. You can check out this video here about 100 things I no longer buy as a minimalist, but there are seriously so many unnecessary things we buy continually because society says we need them. For example, dryer sheets and paper towels. You can save so much money and resources by quitting buying unnecessary things.
Think about borrowing before instantly buying something brand new. If you want to read a book, borrow it from the library or a friend. If you need a bowl, a movie, a lawn mower, or whatever, try to borrow one from someone first before heading to Walmart. My rule of thumb is, if it’s something I’m going to use daily, weekly, or monthly, I will try to source it second-hand. If it’s something I will use once or twice a year, I will borrow or rent it.
Make trading popular again. Let’s go back to the roots of humankind! Trading is great because you can give something away that you don’t like anymore to someone who will want it in exchange for something you truly want or need. You can utilize the Bunz app for this or local buy nothing groups or trading groups on Facebook or Instagram.
Shopping
Learn about your impulses and try not to give in to them. Instead, write down when you want to make an impulse purchase, and if you go a few weeks without thinking about it again, you probably don’t need it.I have a full guide to breaking up with overconsumption here that you can check out after this.
When buying bananas, opt for the single bananas instead of a whole bunch. They cost the same, but chances are, no one is buying the singles and they will just get thrown out.
Don’t use produce bags. You really don’t need to if you wash your veggies anyway. But, if you must use bags... Make your own out of old fabric. It takes a little sewing knowledge to make draw string ones or you can make no sew. I will leave some patterns below. If you still feel the need to get the plastic produce bags, though, use them for dog poop bags or for storing items instead of throwing them away. Then you don’t have to buy dog poop bags either!
A fun tip I learned during this pandemic since my grocery store wouldn’t allow us to bring our own bags in is to just place everything back in your cart and take it to your car. This is great if you don’t have reusable bags yet and you have other things like boxes or baskets to carry groceries into your house and don’t want to bring those into the store. There’s a bonus tip, too, use boxes for your groceries!
If you have the option when purchasing something, opt for no receipt. As we learned in this video here, receipts are not recyclable. If you don’t need one, and you probably don’t in our age of digital banking, don’t get one.
Understand green labels and certifications. I made this handy guide on Instagram, linked below, for you to use. This helps you by distinguishing truly eco brands from greenwashing brands. Not all brands who don’t use these certifications are bad, though, the certifications just give you that reassurance that the brand is top notch. Learn about greenwashing and how to avoid it. This allows you to quit giving your precious money to big, wasteful brands disguised as eco-brands and spend money on truly eco brands instead.
Buy in bulk. No, I don’t mean the classic bulk stores. I mean, buy the biggest bag of tortilla chips vs 2-3 small ones. This goes with anything: ketchup, carton of milk, box of cereal, you name it. This will be considerably less packaging and often cost less in the long run.
Avoid products with excess packaging. What I mean is, if you have the option between a bag of individually wrapped candies and a bag of unpackaged candies, pick the latter.
Avoid gimmicky items. What I mean is these containers I saw were for the sole purpose of storing avocados and things like that. Just use what you already have.
Post-Shopping
After you’re done shopping, you may have noticed some brands that could improve on their transparency or their waste management: reach out to them! It never hurts to send an email (a nice one) about a suggestion you have. Especially if you’re a loyal customer. It could improve their entire business model and help them open up to new, eco markets!
Use old plastic grocery bags as small trash bags. Or, you can use them for traveling to keep dirty shoes off of clothes, keep dirty clothes separate, or keep wet clothes separate. I reuse as much plastic as I can as cat litter bags, storage bags, and even craft materials.
Utilize free pantries to donate food items you won’t eat before the best by date (or give them to food banks). This is a great way to prevent food waste and help your neighbors all at once.
Check your warranties! You never know if someone may do a free repair to keep that item out of the landfill and help you not have to purchase a new item which saves so much money!
That’s it! I hope you enjoyed. Again, let us know your eco on a budget tips below to help this series continue to grow. And you can check out the full series here with nearly 500 ways to live zero waste without spending a single dollar.
As always, remember that your small actions make a big difference in the long run :)
Emma
