5 affordable ways to live an eco-friendly and healthy lifestyle

This 5 affordable ways to live an eco-friendly and healthy lifestyle post is sponsored by iHerb.

5 affordable ways to live an eco-friendly and healthy lifestyle

These days my family is all about trying to be more eco-friendly while maintaining a healthier lifestyle. In the past several years, we have changed a lot about what we eat, how we run our household and really who we are as a family. This means giving up some things that we were paying more for and/or finding better ways to live our lives.

Here are 5 affordable ways to live an eco-friendly and healthy lifestyle that we do daily in our home. Being eco-friendly does not have to be cost prohibitive and I hope that these tips give you some great ideas on how you can live an affordable and eco-friendly lifestyle like we do.

Recycle.

This seems like a no brainer but do you know that there are many cities that don't require recycling? We live in Atlanta and we are not required to recycle. Everyone gets the recycling bins but actually using it is another story. The best thing that we did with our recycling is to divine everything up. In our kitchen, we have a bin for trash, one for paper, one for glass and one for plastic. This gives me the opportunity to make certain our kids are recycling the right way and to see if I can find anything that can be upcycled. Everything then is put into our recycling bin outside for pickup. We made it as easy as possible to recycle in our household.

Upcycle.

In our household, we reuse everything. Jars and plastic containers are in abundance re-purposed to hold things like:

• markers
• pens & pencils
• crayons
• earbuds
• makeup & toiletries
• and so much more.

The sky is really the limit when it comes to what you can reuse. Plastic containers make great planters; simply drill a few holes in the bottom for water to drain and you are ready to go. Check out a few of our favorite recycled crafts on this blog like: Upcycled K CUP Peacock | Upcycled Ice Crystal Mason Jar Candle Holder | Upcycled T-shirt Strip Headband  | Upcycled Mason Jar Lid Jewelry Dish | Upcycled Picture Frame. Honestly I can pretty much recycle or upcycle anything. Give it a try!

Water.

Water makes up a large portion of our bodies and we all know the importance of drinking water every day but did you know that there are several easy ways you can save money & water in your home? Here are small changes that we made for a huge impact:

• Turn off the water when brushing your teeth and washing your hands. We never let water just run and if we do, we capture it.
• Capture your extra water. Every bathtub in our home has buckets to capture the cold water as it heats up. We use this water for plants, our lawn, cleaning and more. It is amazing how much your water bill will go down.
• Make certain that your appliances are energy efficient. Our dishwasher and washer were recently upgraded and we could tell the difference in our water bill immediately. Washes dishes and clothing by hand uses so much more water than your appliances.

Rethink your purchasing habits.

That new shirt that you are thinking of buying? Do you really need it? As we have pared down our wardrobes, we have also started buying less items of better quality. I would rather have one really nice eco-friendly, organic cotton, sustainable tshirt than five tees that I can get anywhere for cheap. I love knowing that my purchases are well thought out and that we are making sustainable choices.

In addition, between the two of us, my sister and I have six children ranging in ages from 9-17. We never buy anything for these kids without consulting the other because the chances are whatever we want to buy, one of our kid already has and has most likely outgrown. We have saved so much money this way and I would like to believe that our choices make a better impact on our environment.

We also share food especially after buying from warehouse stores. We frequently split large purchases to insure that everything is a fresh as possible and to have little or no waste.

Get the right vitamins and supplements at the best prices

We all take vitamins and supplements in this house. We have been doing this for years. But what I hadn't been doing was price checking what I was ordering or really paying attention the ingredients. We had it all sent automatically to our home which was just very easy to do.

Our vitamins, minerals and supplements come from iHerb because we can get them for 30-40% off plus they have over 1,200 brands and 35,000 brand name products with free or discounted shipping. How great is that? Now I know that I am getting the best prices possible and since I love sharing what we do as family, iHerb makes it easy to get rewarded with Reward Links.

To get my entire family to eat breakfast each day, we became a smoothie family and have never looked back. Every single morning, all five of us enjoy a smoothie for breakfast and I add Paradise Herbs ORAC Energy Greens to every smoothie so that I know we are getting what we need. Each canister of the ORAC Energy Greens contains:

• Organic Alkalizing Greens
• Organic Berries
• Organic Veggies
• Superfood Concentrates
• Herbal Adaptogens
• Probiotics
• and More.

One scoop and I know that we have all had fruits and veggies plus many other things that are good for our bodies.

My husband takes the MegaFood Men Over 40 Daily which he loves because he can get everything that he needs from one tablet. For years, he was taking 7-9 pills per day because someone told him to do that. After doing his research, he found that he could get what he needed from this tablet plus now it only costs 1/4 of what we used to pay because he can get it from iHerb. He loves that he knows exactly what he's taking and that he is getting the best price available.

My kids used to take several different pills a day to get what I thought they needed. Again, after some research, I found that they could also get everything that they needed from these MegaFood Kids One Daily tablets. For parents, getting kids to take multiple pills is pretty much an exercise in futility. Getting to them to take one tablet daily that gives them everything they need makes their mom a rockstar! 😉

Get more details about each product and learn more about iHerb in our previous post:

Get the world's best overall value for natural products at iHerb

If you are looking to live a more eco-friendly, healthier lifestyle but don't want to spend a lot of money to do it, look no further than iHerb. Get what you need, when you need it from people who care.