Frugality is the hot new trend

[hs_teacher_IHB]

i'm doing the subway diet to save money. it's only $5 for a footlong. I lost 5 pounds in two weeks! trying to drink less. keeping away from the clubs and the bars. keeping a way from nice restaurants. would cut cable, but my girlfriend's livelihood depends on it.

 

[Girl In the OC_IHB]

Ok, so with all the "earth day" stuff and that "frugality is the hot trend" and all... I figured I would start recycling...

I don't drink any beverages in cans, so I never bothered recycling before.

So, last Friday I placed a separate container in my garage and rinsed and placed every plastic container that I would normally throw away in the container for recycling. Man! I never realized just how much stuff I was throwing away that could be recycled! And it's only been one weekend... and I'm only one person! The item that wins hands down are all the water bottles I go through... I guess one good thing is I must be sufficiently hydrated!

 

[CalGal_IHB]

The item that wins hands down are all the water bottles I go through? I guess one good thing is I must be sufficiently hydrated!

GITOC, congrats on the recycling! We try and recycle as much as possible. Our recycling bin is almost always full, where our trash is only about 1/4 full. We now recycle more than we throw away.

Go the extra step and return the water bottles to a Redemption Center for the cash. You can help put it towards these rising gas prices. :cheese:

 

[Daedalus_IHB]

We used to go to the redemption center, but the closest one is about 5 miles away. We would fill up the trunk or the truck every few months, stand in line at the recycler, then stand there feeding the bottles/cans one at a time into the automated redeemer thingy, take our voucher over to the next door Vons, stand in line again, and finally collect our ~$15 reward. Needless to say, we didn't do that too many times before saying F- it. We now throw our stuff into the weekly recycling bin and derive some small amusement from watching the can scavengers try to out-time each other for the prize. We leave what they want on top of everything else.

How long has it been since the last bump in redemption value? With the prices of metal rising so much over the past few years it seems they need to increase each can's value.

 

[Girl In the OC_IHB]

The item that wins hands down are all the water bottles I go through? I guess one good thing is I must be sufficiently hydrated!

GITOC, congrats on the recycling! We try and recycle as much as possible. Our recycling bin is almost always full, where our trash is only about 1/4 full. We now recycle more than we throw away.

Go the extra step and return the water bottles to a Redemption Center for the cash. You can help put it towards these rising gas prices. :cheese:

Thanks CalGal!

Although, I am in outside sales... and do so much driving that the redemption values would not make much of a dent in my fuel costs! :long:

Question for you... Since I am new to recycling... I have been rinsing out all the plastic containers and trying to take all the labels off... do I need to be doing this? Or can I just pop them in the recycling bin?

 

[CalGal_IHB]

Question for you? Since I am new to recycling? I have been rinsing out all the plastic containers and trying to take all the labels off? do I need to be doing this? Or can I just pop them in the recycling bin?

I don't believe you have to take the labels off- we never take the labels off.

Back in Boston if you put one thing wrong in the recycling bin, the recycling person would put a huge yellow violation notice on the entire bin - and not take anything. We wouldn't even know what we did wrong. It was sooooo frustrating - to the point where we didn't want to recycle any more. They never said anything about the labels, and I'm sure we would have gotten a violation notice if we were supposed to remove them.

Although, I am in outside sales? and do so much driving that the redemption values would not make much of a dent in my fuel costs!

Most of the redemption centers are actually at grocery stores. I usually bring my bag of bottles when I grocery shop.