Three Things I Stopped Paying For

Have I told you I have weird life choices? 

Here is a short list of things I stopped spending money on with the goal to lessen my environmental impact.

1. Bottled water

In the Philippines, we have two types of bottled drinking water---the regular bottled water you can buy from the grocery and convenience stores, and the 5 gallon refillable ones.

Most people would probably be okay giving up buying bottled water, but for me, I want to go the extra mile and will give up both.

If you are active on social media, you’ve probably seen a few videos or photographs depicting the various negative impact single use PET plastic bottles does to the environment (like this one or this one), but why include the refillable gallons?

First of all, I am in no way promoting hate for water refilling stations, this is just my personal decision.

I live alone and spend most of my awake time outside and I realize I can do without buying “mineral water”.

Also, there is free water everywhere!

What I do is everyday I carry with me a 1 liter reusable water bottle and just get free water from our office or from the mall’s water fountain.

Bought this Nalgene reusable water bottle as a gift for my 30th birthday.

Additionally, water from these refilling stations is just tap water that underwent an extra purification process. In the event I run out of drinking water, I can just boil tap water. Actually, I drank water straight from the tap once and nothing happened.

By choosing to stop buying water, not only do I minimize my trash, I also save a little bit of money.

I also love playing survival games so looking for free potable water feels like an adventure for me instead of an inconvenience.

2. Tissue

When you eat out or visit a cafe, they usually hand you with free napkins or tissue. I do my best to minimize my use of tissue by using a hand towel to dry my hands, but as a female, we can’t not have tissue.

So instead of buying wet wipes or Kleenex, I just collect these free napkins. It might also help that I’m Asian.

I have this ziplock bag for ages where I keep the free tissue. 

3. Cotton Pads / Rounds / Balls

I’m obsessed with skin care. I used to keep a stash of cotton rounds for my cleanser, toner, makeup remover, etc. When I started to become more “eco-conscious”, I made my own reusable cotton pads but washing them takes a lot of energy and time.

What I do now is I changed my skin care routine by opting for multi-purpose products and started swapping some items with zero-waste alternatives.

Instead of using astringent cleansers, I wash my face with bar soap. For deep cleansing, I use a facial brush. 

Get this Pore Cleansing Brush at Camp Wellness

For toners, I apply directly to my face using my bare hands. I should do a separate post about my bathroom routine. Would you like that?

So these are the three things I stopped paying for. Do you also have things you gave up in order to lessen your environmental impact / carbon footprint? Please let me know by dropping a comment below.

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