The Green Budget Guide: 101 Planet and Money Saving Tips, Ideas and Recipes

by Nancy Birtwhistle

'Worth its weight in gold' Gaby Roslin
'Great for the pocket and the planet' Daisy Upton

Saving money doesn't have to cost the earth.

How can you remove even the toughest stains? How can you make the best use of your microwave and keep meals healthy and tasty? How can you remove mould safely? Sunday Times bestselling author Great British Bake Off winner Nancy Birtwhistle is here to answer all of these questions and more, featuring 101 thoughtful, cheap and time-saving tips and tricks on how to run a budget home – all while protecting the environment.

Born in post-war Hull in the 1950s, and formerly a single working mum to two kids, Nancy is no stranger to frugality. Building on her astonishing 12p laundry detergent and wildly popular recipe, ‘Pure Magic’, The Green Budget Guide includes more of the inspired, sustainable and budget friendly hacks that have made Nancy so loved by readers and followers on social media, as well as tips and tricks from a lifetime spent learning how to run a household efficiently by saving time and money.

‘Previous generations were very good at being “budget-friendly” long before “eco-friendly” became an everyday word, so by combining the two we can begin to meet these difficult challenges and actually feel empowered, resilient and resourceful.' Nancy x

Genres: Nonfiction, Reference, Finance, Cooking, Environment, Green

332 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 4, 2024

Reviews

[Megz · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read The Green Budget Guide without knowing anything about Nancy Birtwhistle. After finishing it, I looked up her Instagram page, and found her to be SO DARLING and sweet and grandmotherly that the tone of my review has entirely changed. Choose kindness, always, I suppose!

I did not NOT like this book. I found myself bookmarking a few interesting bits, but also spending a lot of time thinking, “This feels like something from an Instagram reel” (turns out that’s exactly what most of the tips are).

Basically, there is not much in The Green Budget Guide that can NOT be found on Birtwhistle’s Instagram page, which essentially makes the book mostly for people not on Instagram (which aren’t that many… right?). Much of the content of the book also seemed more like “general life advice” - like making an oven dessert if you are going to use the oven for supper, anyway. But now that I’ve seen her grandmotherliness on Instagram, her giving sweet and well-meaning life advice, makes complete sense.

So The Green Budget Guide, besides introducing me to Nancy Birtwhistle and her social media (which I will much rather use as reference), is a bit of a “miss” for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Sophie Crane · Rating 5 out of 5]

We have enjoyed Nancy's green Gardening book and decided to get this one too - full of great information and Eco friendly and cost friendly!

[Jenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Why did no one tell me you can make golden syrup at home?! This book is already worth it.

This is my first run in with Nancy, but I like her chatty style and simple instructions. Having anecdotes from her life is helpful as well, as it shows how her cleaners work in 'real' life. I skimmed some of the recipes but will definitely come back to them next time I need one, and it seems like everything is covered here!

Increasingly we all need to be using this kind of knowledge, and it's great to have it so handily compiled and ready for us here. This is a great start to get everyone going greener.

[Devon · Rating 1 out of 5]

Unfortunately, the author has two other very similar books about green cleaning and lifestyle (and then another about gardening!). This book is super repetitious of the other two. It repeats cleaning recipes and processes. The only difference is perhaps that this book has a few additional uses for the products that weren't mentioned in previous books but are all over her Instagram.
The second half of the book is basically cooking recipes, which for me aren't useful as there are better recipes out there.
Given Nancy promised no cross over with her other books, it's disappointing 😩
Not as good as the other books and I'd say you certainly don't need to own all three!!! Reading/owning one is plenty.

[Sam Ing · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely love Nancy Birtwhistle, whether you're at the beginning of your green journey or already in it, this is the book for you. Packed with great tips, recipes and things you can do at home, this book has it all. There are some fantastic cleaning tips, gift ideas, cooking ideas and tips, home hacks and so much more. This book is number 3 in the range and every one is amazing! It makes me think of those good housekeeping books your mum or nan had when you read younger. Thank you to the publishers, the author and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read this amazing book!

[Cidney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Couldn't find a category to put this under!! Have never heard of the author but this book reminded me of so many things I had learnt from my grandmother who brought me up. I read this book all the way through on my kindle, pity I didn't have a paper copy I could have scrawled comments in the margins! But it is divided into sections so you can easily find anything you want to know and this is a book I'll keep, although if I can find a paper copy somewhere I'll replace it with that!!

I mean it covers so many different things you may need to deal with such as mould, spillages, broken glass, repairing glazed porcelain items, rust on carpets because of leaky radiators, how to make liquid detergent and travel wash and powder detergent, how to deal with different stains (yes!), removing curry stains printer ink stains, how to clean make up brushes and making your own makeup remover pads (yes!), getting rid of unwanted smells (yes!), stains on mattresses and carpets etc, burnt pans, getting rid of odours from flasks and plastic water bottles (this one was a must for me!), getting rid of the food stains in storage containers (also a must!), cleaning plastic chopping boards (yes!), getting rid of washing machine and dishwasher smells (yes!), and reminding me how to darn things (yes!).

This has multiple pages about multiple things, there will be several which will be useful to people today, these would have been methods used by our grandparents all the while in a life where there were yet to be detergents like we have today and expensive they are too. Love this book, am now on the look out for a paper version as I can scrawl notes in the margins and tick the ones I will use on a more daily basis! I mean this lady is telling you how to make your own golden syrup for goodness sake, she is a genius in today's world!!

[Johanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book mostly because find Nancy's tone very comforting. If, like me, you are a fan of her personality, this books will be enjoyable. However, if you are more focused on simply getting the budget info, especially when it comes to cleaning products, Clean and Green contains most of this info.

There is some energy conservation information in this book, but I find this to be less reliable as there are many differences between the UK and the US in appliance voltage, electricity costs, climate, not to mention electricity source and availability of small scale renewable energy production like home solar panels. Where I live, water conservation is probably a more important focus but that's not much a focus here.

[Steffi]

I think this would be a very helpful book for a lot of people - it has interesting tips and ideas and I think it's written in an endearing way. Personally I screenshotted a couple tips for later use, but overall I found it a bit too far removed from my own lived reality to actually use much of this. For example I have never needed 95% of the tips given in the stain removal section (and a bunch of other things also just weren't applicable to my life) and I found the cooking/baking hacks to be very "British" (- which is not meant in a negative way, I just don't need tips on how to make things that I have never needed before in my whole life).

(no rating because I don't rate nonfiction)

[Melanie Cooke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Get your fix with 101 mend and make-do life skills we could all benefit from learning. This book reminds us that green isn't just a product marketing term - and it isn't a new concept either. At some point, it was baked into life experience with a bit of bicarb and elbow grease. I don't want to glorify the past, but in the human quest for convenience, we have made life more complicated than it needs to be. Birtwhistle offers us a salve, a long buried treasure map and many a recipe for getting back to basics.

[Heather Craven · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve recently borrowed a series of Nancys books having seen her own Facebook. Some wonderful tips and recipes some of which I have already adopted.
It does have a UK feel to it of course so some items have different names here in Australia and some items such as Conker soap pretty much don’t exist here. Easy to read and implement. Worth a look if you’re trying to save money and/or try to be more environmentally friendly.

[Moyna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant as always!

Nancy’s eco-friendly ‘home and garden management’ books are a fabulous reference library for me. I am slowly moving away from branded ‘chemical laden’ products on the market which all state they are harmful to aquatic life, thanks to Nancy for coming into my life!

[Alicia Brear · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very inspiring to make things yourself. I love that Nancy is thinking about the planet and her plastic use. I just wish she didn’t use a microwave for most of her recipes. It might save money on electricity but think of the dangers to your health.
I will definitely attempt to make my own laundry detergent and car screen wash though!

[Kirsti · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favorite tip from this book: If you break something made of glass, cut a two-inch-thick slice of bread and treat it as a single-use sponge. It will pick up tiny glass shards better than paper towels do, and you can bag it and throw it away when you're done with it.

[Barb · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a lot new in this one, if you have read her other books. If you have not, likely you will enjoy more

[Nicola Hardesty-Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rolling tips and easy remedies for around the house. Excellent I think I am going to buy them in physical book form.
A*

[Jacqui Heywood · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick read, full of practical ideas.

[Helen Temple · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read last year.

[deborah foster · Rating 5 out of 5]

Handy little book

What a read full of money saving information i would highly recommend buying this book it's a must for saving you pennies

[Jane West · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really great tips and ‘recipes’ for natural household cleaners and Nancy’s own recipes .

[Rachel N · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remember Nancy Birtwhistle winning the Great British Bake Off way back in 2014 and being so impressed by her ability with all sorts of baking. She was obviously someone who had a huge background knowledge of all sorts of things and used them in her everyday life. Since then I've taken to following her on Instagram, not just for her (foolproof) recipes but also for her environmentally sound and economical tips for around the house and garden.

This book is an eclectic mix of all sorts of homemade recipes for cleaning products, tips for how to remove stains from all sorts of materials and a jumble of all sorts of other items that make up an essential reference book for every household. Nancy has always come across as someone you'd love to have a coffee and a chat with, a brilliant neighbour who knows everything and is happy to help. It's not necessarily a book you pick up and read in one go, but it's one that every kitchen could use on its shelf to refer to when needed. I love the fact that her items are greener as well as cheaper than most shop bought cleaners, easy to put together with ingredients that can be bought in most supermarkets and are adaptable to anyone's lifestyle. Highly highly recommended as an accessible way to make a difference.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy in return for an honest review.
#TheGreenBudgetGuide #NetGalley