12 easy actions you can take to save the world while getting richer

Last time I did a mini-rant about why I think ethical investing doesn’t work. Bit of a downer huh? But I did promise that I would follow up with some positivity. So here it is. The good news is that it’s still possible to do things to, genuinely, help save the world. Hopefully as relevant for all of you, there are things that you can do to save the world that will make you richer at the same time. Win right?

As an aside I’m a big believer I the idea that in order to do the ‘right’ thing people need to a reason (beyond it just being the ‘right’ thing to do). But that’s for another time.

Today is about some actions you can take to save the world – just a little bit.  And, to keep on brand, it’s also about how you can make yourself richer at the same time. I’m sure that there are other things this is the list of stuff that I do myself (or at least try to). I’ve talked before about idleness so this also works for idlers.  The beauty of these things is that they require little, or no incremental effort. In fact some of them could even reduce the amount of effort you expend.

So, without further ado, let’s get on with it

Save the world tip 1: Turn down the thermostat

I’ve talked before about keeping warm at winter. As I said then, I’m a big fan of turning the thermostat down a degree or two (I keep it at 18 C) and putting on a jumper. Uses less energy and saves you money.

Save the world tip 2: Turn off lights

This is very similar. My wife used to turn on lamps in our bedroom early in the evening as she liked coming in at bedtime to a welcoming glow. I can totally see the appeal in that but the thought of burning energy unnecessarily to do so makes me feel really uncomfortable. Turning on lights when you need lights makes sense, but turn them off when you don’t. As with the heating this will keep your power bills down.

Oh, I was going to add putting in energy saving lightbulbs in this bit as well, but I don’t think that it’s possible in the UK to buy any other sort any more is it?

Save the world tip 3: Repair stuff

I talked about the simple pleasure of repairing things in the context of marginal gains. As I said in that post, repairing stuff not only saves you the money from having to buy a replacement but it also saves you the time to get it.

If you don’t fancy having a go then see if you can pay someone to do it. The magic of trying to fix something that you were otherwise going to throw away is that it’s broken anyway so you lose nothing by trying.

Save the world tip 4: Carry a reusable bag

One of the more successful changes that the UK government has made has been to introduce a charge if you want a plastic bag when you buy something from a shop. It has led to a massive fall in the number of plastic bags that are used. So, if you carry your own bag around you don’t have to pay for a bag and you reduce plastic waste. Win.

Save the world tip 5: Carry a reusable cup

Reusable cups are another example of single use plastics that you can eliminate from your life. If you take your own cup to a coffee shop, many of them offer discounts on your drink. My favourite option is to get a filter coffee from Pret with a reusable cup. A 99p filter coffee more than halves to 49p

Save the world tip 6: Buy to a meal-plan

The most recent stat that I saw about food was that, shockingly, £13bn of food is thrown away in the UK every year. It’s really easy to see how that happens and we all end up throwing some food away.

About 18 months ago though we started to buy fresh food to meal plan.  That means we only buy things that we needed for that meal. To be clear we still have bags of pasta or rice, or store cupboard things like tins and jars. But, we only supplement that with the fresh produce that we need that week. As a result of that we now throw away almost nothing and our food bills have fallen. Good huh?

Save the world tip 7: Buy from local markets

While we’re on the subject of food, look into the idea of buying from local markets. The environmental benefit of this is that you massively reduce the food miles that your meals have travelled. In addition they usually are put in paper, rather than plastic, bags.

The thing that I’ve found is that often the food stalls are dealing in seasonal produce. That means that at different times of the year things like strawberries, or asparagus, or cherries will be outrageously cheap – usually much cheaper than the supermarkets. You have to be a bit selective but you can often save a huge amount.

The other benefit is that I’ve got to know the couple that run the fruit and veg stall a little. I pass it every day so picking up fruit doesn’t add any effort to my day. Little things like a cheery ‘Good Morning’ from them, even when I’m not buying anything, can really lift my day.

Save the world tip 8: Less, better, meat; more vegetables

My final food one isn’t going to work for everyone. Eat less, better, meat and more vegetables.

I know that some people have strong feelings about whether to eat meat or not. However, I don’t think that it’s controversial though to say that in general cultivating meat has a bigger environmental impact than cultivating vegetables.

We have essentially become accidental reducetarians. I’m very sorry but that’s actually now a thing with its own movement. We generally only eat meat or fish once a week (although if we do a roast we will then eat that as left overs as well). The meat we buy is free-range and often organic as well. The rest of the time we are vegetarian.

To be honest it’s not at all hard. It helps that we still have dairy in the mix (although we do also substitute some o that with oat milk). I would find vegan a lot harder.

In terms of money the meat we buy is undeniably a lot more expensive per kilo than the alternatives.  The flip side is that we buy far less we’re saving a significant amount.

Save the world tip 9: Move to a green energy tariff

When was the last time you changed your energy provider? We did it when we moved into our house years back and haven’t thought about it since. When we finally did we realised quite how much over the odds we were paying. Like all utilities ultimately this is ridiculous. The electricity and the gas that comes into our home doesn’t change depending on who the provider is. I guess there could be some differences in customer service but we pay by direct debit and don’t expect that to change. So the getting richer part of this will come if you move to a better tariff.

The saving the world bit comes from looking at moving to a green tariff. The idea behind these are that all of part of the energy that you consume is matched by the supplier buying it from renewable or sustainable sources. Sadly, as far as I can tell, in many cases it looks like you pay a modest premium to the best tariffs for green tariffs. But hopefully you can still save money from a lot of the default tariffs? To be honest even ignoring the green bit it’s just good sense to pay less by shopping around and finding a company that you are comfortable relying on.

Save the world tip 10: Walk (or cycle) rather than taking the car

I realise that this is classic Mustachian territory but the logic is sound. It’s cheaper and more environmentally friendly to walk or cycle rather than taking the car. In many cases for local journeys it will also be faster as you don’t have to find parking.

For the last few years I’ve been doing a lot more walking. In addition to the financial and environmental benefits I just feel so much healthier as a result. In fact I have put more walking as one of my resolutions as I love it so much!

Save the world tip 11: Embrace staycations

I spent a lot of my late teens and early twenties spending months at a time in different countries and I loved it. Even now I love seeing other parts of the world though. What I struggle with though is that planes consume a huge volume of fossil fuels.  At the same time they emit as pollution high in the atmosphere. Our environmental answer is to try to find holidays that don’t involve flights. We have had some great holidays in the UK over the last few years. We still go abroad but we try to limit the amount of foreign travel that we do and in particular try to limit long haul travel.

From a money side having a ‘staycation’ really works for is. We take the time to visit and stay with friends and family around the country. Or, we have them come and stay with us. Either option is much cheaper than going away. We also take time to go for walks along the beach or in the woods, or read, or go to the playground. Having fun doesn’t mean having to spend money.

Save the world tip 12: Buy clothes from charity shops

If you haven’t been to a charity shop for a few years (or ever) you should check them out. In particular the chains as they are now a world away from what I remember from my childhood. From what I can tell the shops now spend a lot more time filtering and checking their stock so everything that is on the rack is good quality and in good condition.

I rarely go clothes shopping for something that is more specific that getting a casual shirt or a jumper. As a result I’m not tied to a particular brand.  Whenever I go, I always find that there are multiple things in my size at the charity shop that I would be happy to buy. Often barely worn big brands at a fraction (15-20%?) of what they would cost new.

This is the trifecta of a) supporting a charity, b) reducing waste, and c) saving money.

Final Thoughts

As a said at the start, these are all things that require little, or no, additional effort on my part. They make me richer and, hopefully, they do a little to make the world a better place.

My final observation. As I write this I realise that a lot of these things mean that I have actually turned into my Dad.  Was it just me whose dad during my teenage years would go around the house turning off the light gently grumbling to himself? That’s literally me now. Hmmm, maybe my dad had something…

Thoughts?

What are your tips to save money?

Do you do any of these? Do you find them easy?

As you get older, do you find yourself turning into your parents?