A mum managed to save £11,000 in just one year by living a frugal, eco-friendly lifestyle, including giving up toiletries – and LOO ROLL.
Zoe Morrison left her job as an internal auditor after the birth of her second child – and has realised she can survive without a salary just by cutting back on unnecessary luxuries.
And her passion for the environment soon saw her turn her life around completely – by not buying toilet paper for a month and using a water pistol instead.
She challenged herself to do a year of eco challenges – cutting things out for a month at a time.
So far, her experiments with cutting back have led her to stop using shampoo and toothpaste in a bid to penny-pinch as much as possible.
The 36-year-old eco-warrior said: “I tried cutting out different things to see the effects.
“Some things I tried out for a short while – I stopped using shampoo and toothpaste and even loo-roll for a month.
“I used bicarbonate of soda instead of toothpaste and I washed instead of wiped.”
She says she didn’t mind using bicarb – although after a month she needed a filling which put her off the idea, and thankfully for any guests, she has also now gone back to using loo-roll.
The mother-of-two started developing an interest in the eco-friendly lifestyle about four years ago.
She was on maternity leave with her second child and decided to start writing about her interest in the environment in a blog.
By thinking about her lifestyle and of ways of being more environmentally friendly she thinks she managed to save about £11,000 in a year.
She said: “I started cutting back when I was on maternity leave and then realised I wanted to quit my job.
“So I was thinking of ways of saving money.
“But I decided if I wanted to save and quit my job I had to do it in an eco-friendly way.”
Zoe did go back to work after her second child was born – but quit a year later.
She said: “Before I quit I was an internal auditor for ten years.
“I have professional qualifications and a masters – so it was a big deal quitting my job.”
When she first went back after her maternity leave though, she spent that year with a completely new attitude.
She took a look at her household expenditure to see where she could make changes.
By the time she quit her job she had made a lot of cutbacks – and her and her partner also had money coming in from students, solar panels – and even her blog.
She said: “When I started my blog I just asked myself if something was eco-friendly every time I used it.
“I soon realised that being eco-friendly actually does save you money – even if some products do cost more.
“Even if you have to spend a bit more at first, what you’re buying lasts longer and you can buy stuff in bulk.
“It saves you money in the long run because you get rid of things like disposable items.”
As time went on money became less of a focus for her and now she’s really keen just to reduce the impact she has on the environment.
She says quitting her job and changing her lifestyle to a more eco-friendly one has definitely changed her life for the better – and her children aged five and seven.
Now she is writing a book on practical advice on saving both money and the environment, and continues to write her blog.
She said: “I’m so much happier now.
“I’ve got two small children and I just wanted to be a stay at home mum.
“It’s a passion to understand the things I’m doing and the effects it’s having on the environment.”
