An Eco Life can Save Over $10,000 PER YEAR
A zero waste life seems expensive, but it doesn’t have to be! You can live zero waste for FREE. Just watch this playlist with over 450 $0 zero waste swaps and habits.
Now, to be fair, some zero waste swaps are expensive! Things like a reusable water bottle or a bidet, for example, cost quite a bit up front. The catch? They reduce a ton of waste, making your home more eco-friendly. Not only that, since they reduce so much waste, that means they save you a lot of money every day, week, month, year, and lifetime! I’m talking literally $1000s.
This is part 5 of zero-waste swaps that save you money, and I try to pinpoint a precise amount to encourage you to try that money-saving swap and start living sustainably!
Let’s get into it!
Not driving or owning a car
This is one of the harder ones on the list to fully capture the monetary savings, but let’s do our best! We can go two routes here:
Still owning your car, just not driving it most of the time
Selling your car and not buying another one
It’s more realistic that most of us will fall into the first camp. I may walk and bike most of the time, but if I need to leave my general area, I need a car to navigate to the next city. If this is you, how much would you save? Most estimates land between $2000-5000 per year on fuel costs alone. Not to mention, you would need to change your oil less frequently, and your tires would last longer, among other maintenance needs.
Now, what if you fully give up your car? Well, for starters, you’d never have to buy one again. That will save you 10s of thousands of dollars from the upfront cost and even more $1000s over the years in interest rates. And that’s just purchasing the car! Other regular monetary factors that go into owning a car (besides fuel costs) are insurance, licensing, registration, state taxes and fees, and maintenance.
NASDAQ estimates those costs to be:
Auto loan payments: $10,565.76 Gas: $2,160 Maintenance: $1,350 Insurance: $1,765 License, registration, taxes: $762 Total: $16,602.76
And the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) backs this up with a report they did in 2018 in which they surveyed 20 of the largest US cities and compared the prices of gasoline and other car expenses to those of taking public transportation. The average came to about $10,181 per year. More expensive cities, like New York City, could yield savings of over $15,000 per year!
Dermaplaner
Dermaplaning is a great way to exfoliate your skin, and it can be done at home on a budget! Though most at-home dermaplaners are single-use and very wasteful. So, is it cheaper to buy a reusable dermaplaner from Leaf Shave?
The Cleveland Health Clinic states that you shouldn’t dermaplane more than once a week, but other sources suggest once a month max. So, let’s assume that on the high end, someone dermaplanes 52 times a year and on the low end, 12 times a year.
Kitsch is an eco-ish brand. They sell this 12-pack for $10.00. Pretty good! This could last you an entire year if you used one per month. If you used one per week, you would need 4.3 packs per year, which would cost $43.33 per year.
They actually seem to be more expensive at Target. They sell a 4-pack for $4.99, meaning 12 single-use razors per year would cost you $14.97, and 52 per year would cost you $64.87.
What about the reusable option? Leaf’s reusable dermaplaner costs $49.00. Steep, yes, but it is endlessly reusable and comes with 10 blades that actually last more than 10 uses. This kit could easily last you the whole year, but let’s say on the expensive end, you use one razor per dermaplaning session, and you dermaplane 52 times per year. You would also have to buy their 50-blade refill kit for $14.95, making your yearly total $63.95. That’s still cheaper than Target! And, every year after, you’d only have to buy their $14.95 50-blade refill kit. And that’s only if you use 52 razors per year, which you likely will not.
So disposables cost $10.00 - $64.87 per year, and reusables cost $63.95 up front, but $0 - $14.95 per year after that. That yields savings of $4.95 - $64.87 per year!
bulk herbs
The bulk store appears to be more expensive, but it actually isn’t. I bust that myth in this video. That being said, I understand that not everyone can shop there for one reason or another. Let me try to convince you to buy your herbs there, though, because of the money-saving alone (and of course the waste savings!).
I recently went to the refill store to price compare. I bought rosemary and basil in the refill section and then walked to the baking aisle to price check. I ended up saving $4.50 per herb or $9.00 on just one grocery trip! Now, that’s probably savings on the high end, since the herbs in the baking aisle are probably more “high end” since this was at my local natural foods store.
Let’s price compare to Walmart since they are a common option, and it’s easy to find their prices online. Walmart’s branded herbs cost just $1.13. Since my bulk herbs cost around 50 cents each, I still save money (and waste), but I would save around 63 cents at Walmart vs the higher savings at my local natural foods store.
That’s savings of 60 cents to $4.50 per herb refilled. I’d estimate that I refill at least one herb or spice per month on the low end and maybe two per month on the high end. I’d estimate my personal savings to be $7.20 - $108!!
not shaving
Hot take, but you could quit shaving to save money and save the planet! Or, just lower your shaving frequency. But for the sake of maximizing our money savings, let’s say you quit shaving the next time you run out of razors and never have to buy them again. How much money would you save?
Let’s say, on the low end, you normally shave once a week with really cheap razors from Target, which are just 24 cents per razor, and they’re sold in a 5-pack. If you need 52 razors for the year, you’d have to buy 11 packs, which would run you $13.09 for the year.
Now, on the high end, let’s say you now shave every day and use a more expensive razor. This Schick razor is between $6-9 for just 2 razors, meaning $3-4.50 per razor. For 52 razors, that would cost $156 - $234 per year. Wowza!
And from above, we know that the Leaf Shave 50-blade pack runs at $14.95, which is on the low end!
So stopping shaving altogether will save you $13.09 - $234 per year!
Dryer balls
Right off the bat, I don’t think these will save a ton of money, but they will save you some!
Dryer balls are designed to replace dryer sheets, which are made of plastic and cannot be recycled. Not to mention, dryer balls can also cut down dry time, which saves you MORE money! Though this is harder to quantify, so let’s just stick to the swap itself.
Most sources say you should use 1-2 dryer sheets per load. And these bad boys are CHEAP. Packs of 195-250 sheets cost only $8.49 - $9.99. The National Park Service estimates that the average household does 300 loads of laundry per year. I think that’s a bit on the high end, personally. For smaller households like mine, I’d estimate closer to 100. So let’s set that as our window for comparison.
Using 1 laundry sheet per load on the low end, you’d need 100 laundry sheets per year. Any of the packs mentioned above would last you two whole years! But on the high end, let’s say you use 2 laundry sheets per load and do 300 loads per year. Then, you’d need 3 packs of dryer sheets per year, totaling around $27.00.
As for dryer balls, from Earth Hero, a 3-pack of wool dryer balls costs $21. I’ve never used more than 3 at a time, so I don’t recommend the more expensive 6-pack. Otherwise, Earth Hero also offers individual dryer balls for $5.95. Buying 3 of them would cost you $16.47. But maybe you’re vegan and prefer silicone. Even Walmart sells them for as little as $9 for a pack of 4. That’s a total of $9.00 - $21.00 up front, but these truly last a lifetime. Every year, after the first purchase, will cost you $0!
That makes total savings $0 - $27.00 per year. Just about as I expected. But, hey, every penny saved matters, and it all contributes to saving the planet. And you’re not OUT any money with this swap, either!
Making drinks at home
I love a cafe run as much as the next person, but it adds up in waste and in money. How much money can I save by making my own tea, coffee, and even soda at home?
Well, Policy Engineer estimates that the average American spends around $1100 per year (or $90 per month) on getting coffee out and about. That’s roughly 250 cups per person. That’s a lot of money AND a lot of waste!
Sure, you can bring your own cup to tackle the waste problem, but on this channel, we’re also in it to save money. Plus, when you make coffee or tea at home, you can choose ingredients from the bulk store to reduce waste, as well as vegan and organic ingredients to further reduce your environmental impact. It’s much easier to reduce as much waste as possible at home and save a lot of money!
Of course, you still need to buy some supplies to make coffee and tea at home, such as beans, tea (hopefully looseleaf), milk, sugar or honey, and, if you want, add optional flavorings.
Despite having to buy all of that yourself, Low-Key Coffee Snobs estimates that making a cup of coffee at home is just 25 cents to $1.25, while getting coffee out and about can cost anywhere from $3-8 a cup, depending on the style of drink and the quality. That will add up to $400-1300 in savings every year!
Thriftbooks
In past iterations of this series, we discussed libraries and the gems that they are (learn more here). But not everyone is down to borrow. Sometimes you want to own a book or a movie. Let’s shop secondhand instead of new!
How much money ThriftBooks can save you per year will depend on the person. Are you usually buying 1 book per year or 100? Let’s use my real-life data from 2025 to see how much money ThriftBooks saved me on books and movies in 2025:
Books: I read 10 books from ThriftBooks in 2025. Their total had I purchased them new would’ve been $201.40, but thanks to ThriftBooks, it only cost $68.85. That’s savings of $132.55 on just 10 books! Multiply that if you buy more books than I do for your personal savings.
Movies: I bought Dan a ton of movies and TV shows on DVD for Christmas, secondhand via Thriftbooks. Looking up the average price of a DVD and a box set of TV shows, it should’ve cost me $140-$440. But it only cost me $166.52. That’s still a lot of money, oops. But I ended up saving $0-273.48, and none of this had to be created.
For my shopping habits, I saved approximately $400 by buying secondhand media in 2025!
Vegan
Yes, go vegan for the animals and the planet (learn more here), but also do it for your wallet! I’m not here to argue that a vegan burger is cheaper than beef or vegan cheese is cheaper than dairy cheese (though, at my local store, they are…), I’m here to say that eating whole foods like beans and tofu is leaps and bounds cheaper than meat. Let’s prove it!
Let’s head on back to Walmart just to compare these few staples:
1 lb of beef is $5.44
2 lb of dried pinto beans is $1.98 which is cheaper than cans!
1 lb of canned pinto beans is $1.42, though
I couldn’t find tofu on Walmart’s website, but estimates show 1 lb of tofu is at $2-4
So for a low estimate, let’s say you buy 1 lb of ground beef per week. That’s $282.88 a year. But if you swapped it for the above:
1 lb of beans per week, dried, would cost $51.48 per year
1 lb of beans per week, canned, would cost $73.84
1 lb of tofu per week would cost $104-208 per year
That’s a total savings per year of $74 - $231 per year, and I’d say this is a low, conservative estimate.
And to be clear, you don’t have to go vegan to save this money. You could just swap out the most expensive meats for a plant-based alternative to save money and reduce your environmental impact!
Conserve energy and water
This is another category that’s quite tricky to narrow down since everyone has unique costs for water and electricity (and also often, gas), plus we all have differently sized homes, and we all use different amounts. So, let’s just look at some broad averages.
Here’s what the EPA has to say about water: “Each American uses an average of 82 gallons of water a day at home (USGS, Estimated Use of Water in the United States in 2015)” and “The average family spends more than $1,000 per year in water costs, but can save more than $380 annually from retrofitting with WaterSense labeled fixtures and ENERGY STAR certified appliances.”
As for energy, it’s a little harder, but ENERGY STAR estimates savings of around 20% of your normal bill by being conscious of your energy usage and also swapping to energy-efficient appliances when your old ones run out. No, you don’t need to swap them all out right this instant! Monetarily, it is estimated to be between $200 and $400.
That’s a total of $580 - $780 per year!
Reusable makeup remover options
Last but certainly not least (for real, go check out parts 1-4), let’s talk about reusable makeup remover options. There are a few!
First, a free option, just cut up an old t-shirt into squares (large or small) and use those! That’s it! That’s 100% savings since you used something you already had.
Second, you could buy fancy pre-made makeup remover rounds from brands like Earth Hero. These are great for those who won’t want to do the DIY option, but cost $19.99 up front. Though after that first year, it’s 100% savings.
Another popular option is the Makeup Eraser cloth. This is $15-25, depending on the style you choose.
If you need a liquid makeup remover, I recommend this eco one from Zerra & Co, which costs $23.99
Now what about disposables? This standard pack from Neutrogena costs $5.69 for 25 wipes. If you wear makeup 365 days a year, you’d need to buy 15 packs, which would cost $85.35. Wow!
So our totals are:
Use what you have + Zerra & Co remover: $23.99
Earth Hero reusable pads + Zerra & Co remover: $43.98
Makeup Eraser + Zerra & Co remover: $38.99 - $48.99
Neutrogena: $85.35
Of course, every year after you would only have to pay for the Zerra & Co makeup remover and no the cloths after that. That brings our savings to $61.36 every year after, but the first year you would save between $36.36 - $61.36.
Totals
Not owning a car (or driving a car): $2000 - $17,000
Reusable dermaplaner: $4.95 - $64.87
Bulk herbs: $7.20 - $108
No more shaving: $13.09 - $234
Dryer balls: $0 - $27.00
Coffee/tea at home: $400-1300
Thriftbooks: $400
Plant-based foods: $74 - $231
Energy and water conservation: $580 - $780
Reusable makeup remover pads/wipes: $36.36 - $61.36
Grand total for part 5: $3515.6 to $20,206.23!!
That’s WILD! Shoutout to the car. But even factoring that out, you can still save between $1000 - $3000 from just these 10 zero waste swaps!
Now let’s add back in the 40 swaps from the previous posts for a GRAND TOTAL savings of:
Part 1: $1415 - $2359
Part 2: $951 - $2995
Part 3: $731.60 - $2942
Part 4: $1271.86 - $1897.90
TOTAL: $7885.06 - $30,400.13 !!!!
Even on the lowest possible savings, you can still save $7885 per year thanks to zero waste living…with just these 25 popular eco swaps and habits! The more you implement, the more you save. And, yes, this all accounts for the initial price of the swaps.
The next time someone says zero waste is too expensive, send them this!
Thanks for reading. I hope you learned something and feel inspired to try a low waste lifestyle after this.
As always, remember that your small actions make a big difference in the long run :)
Emma
