From Get Rich Slowly – Living on (a Lot) Less

This post is from staff writer Sierra Black. Sierra writes about frugality, sustainable living, and getting her kids to eat kale at Childwild.com. I spent last weekend at a lake house in Maine with a broken water pump. For three days, we had no running water. Being beside the lake gave us ample access to water, but nothing flowed from the taps. To get clean, we swam in the lake or bathed with damp cloths. To flush the toilet, we carried buckets of water up from the lake. We did the same for washing dishes, boiling the water before washing our plates in it. Drinking water became a precious resource. We were careful to drink what we needed without waste. We hard-boiled half a dozen eggs in the same pot we cooked pasta in, and steamed a basket of veggies over it. We made every drop count. When you have limited water, you’re highly motivated to figure out what [...]

I bike to work whenever it’s nice, which is most of the time. I haven’t filled up my car in about two months. It feels good.