fallen off the band wagon

[barefootlinzi]

Hi everyone,

I have fallen off the green bandwagon and would like your support to get back on it!
I am due baby number 2 in June and while suffering morning sickness let things slip, and now I am feeling much better so want to catch up.
Over the next week I am going to cut down and stop my tumble dryer use, and start planning what to do with my new allotment.
I also want to look at our energy usage in the home and see what I can do there. We live in a council owned property so I feel limited in what I can do. Does anyone have any ideas?

I also currently rely heavily on T***o's, as we are a one income family and that income isnt very big! What tips do you all have for me to buy more local and ethical and not blow our £40/£50 family food a week budget?

Also, what should I be doing at the moment on the allotment?

Thanks everyone!

[Big Al]

Hi everyone,

I have fallen off the green bandwagon and would like your support to get back on it!
I am due baby number 2 in June and while suffering morning sickness let things slip, and now I am feeling much better so want to catch up.
Over the next week I am going to cut down and stop my tumble dryer use, and start planning what to do with my new allotment.
I also want to look at our energy usage in the home and see what I can do there. We live in a council owned property so I feel limited in what I can do. Does anyone have any ideas?

I also currently rely heavily on T***o's, as we are a one income family and that income isnt very big! What tips do you all have for me to buy more local and ethical and not blow our £40/£50 family food a week budget?

Also, what should I be doing at the moment on the allotment?

Thanks everyone!

Hi Barefoot linzi,

Don't be limited in what you can do to save power in a council house... the council don't leave the lights on,lol.

At a risk of being shameless here is a link http://talesfromtheedgeoftown.blogspot. ... ctric.html to my blog where I say a few of the things I done to reduce my power bills. The tarrif cost for ebico is different now and now not at all as good as it used to be but that's by the by for now. Also keep checking the utillity providers websites direct as comparison sites can be somewhat misleading and we will leave it there.

Sometimes shopping local isn't a great way to save money and despite a lot of thoughts big supermarkets are not the ogres they could be. I prefer Asda to T*^$O's anyway but do a shopping list and go round some local shops and then super markets and write down prices of the produce and the shop it's at then decide if 1, you can be bothered to be walking / drive / park in town for the savings of thrupence haflpenny or indeed a super market might be cheaper in some instances. Again a shameless plug for my blog, I done a month without plastic and this entailed doing a lot of local shopping as Asda didn't do things without plastic wrappers in most cases but I found that shopping local was way more expensive than buying at Asda.

If money is tight then ethical shopping isn't for you in a lot of ways. I know I'll get slagged off for this comment but then most women wear diamonds and they are the worlds worst for so called "ethical shopping" .

As for the allotments, do a lot of searching on the web, speak to your neighbour plot holders and ask advice from them. Even if you know the answer to a question appear as if you don't and not only will you get a lot of advice you will also get free plants to " get you started" etc.

Other than that don't do too much at once, 2 or 3 rows dug over w each day will satisfy you and won't really knack you up although you are getting ready to drop soon so be careful for this year.

I'm told the water butts are a good source of child proof escape modules. all you do is put your child in one and they can't go anyware.. mind you empty the water out first please.... ( [disclaimer] only a joke about the water butts)

Big al

[Clara]

Well congratulations!

You don't mention how your property is heated, so that would be useful to know before making suggestions. The other thing off the top of my head is to approach the council to see what they have on offer to help - extra insulation, double glazing? Afterall it is there property so it's not really like they'd be giving the money away!

Growing your own is about as local and ethical as it gets so make it a priority. Can you keep chickens either on the lottie or in a garden? Do you eat meat? If so, cut it out or down, learn to cook with pulses as a protein source, or if you live rurally you can usually find someone selling whole or half lambs etc that you could share with others and freeze. Making your own bread is far cheaper too.

Given that your food budget isn't that high can you find others to buy in bulk with? Infinity foods only require something like a 200 quid wholesale order before they will deliver - will make staples that store well a lot cheaper and probably allow you to buy organic for a similar price to supermarket nuclear foods.

[barefootlinzi]

Don't be limited in what you can do to save power in a council house... the council don't leave the lights on,lol.

This is the sort of energy saving idea i was looking for, when i say i feel limited in acouncil house i mean installing a woodburner and compost loo are out of the question!!!! I will take a look at your blog. What troubles me is I would love to have our electricity from good energy or similar, but we need to keep costs a priority!

I'm told the water butts are a good source of child proof escape modules. all you do is put your child in one and they can't go anyware.. mind you empty the water out first please....

The other thing off the top of my head is to approach the council to see what they have on offer to help - extra insulation, double glazing? Afterall it is there property so it's not really like they'd be giving the money away!

actually they have already installed double glazing and put 2 miles of insulation in the loft and it really makes a difference. Trouble is we are more prone to damp and mould now as the house cannot breathe as well!

our heating is gas central heating and i am going to swap providers in the near future.

we are vegetarian (well me and my little one are, his daddy does eat meat but not often as we cant afford it!) and i love cooking with pulses, so cheap and nutritious.

I really want to keep a few chickens but didnt want to do too much too soon (what with starting an allotment and having a baby) so maybe next year we will get some.

We did have our own whole food co-op set up with suma but found that T***o could beat even their wholesale prices! but that was just before xmas when the supermarkets were selling food so so cheap, maybe its changed now, i will have to look.

maybe i havent become as bad as i thought - my little one uses cloth nappies (and i sell them) and we try to live without lots of 'things'. i have just become lazy and been putting the heating on rather than getting a jumper and using the tumble dryer. I cannot help that today because just dug out my airer and its completely knackered!!!

[Clara]

It doesn't sound like you're doing too badly at all1 In fact I rather think you're ahead of the game.

Seeing as you're openminded, and I'm evangelical about both (!), have you thought about replacing toilet paper with cloth (not as gross as it sounds if you wash before you wipe!) and turning off the fridge. We live fridge-free in the south of spain and only use a freezer a couple of months of the year when we have sufficient solar power. It is totally doable in your climate.

[mrsflibble]

for reducing your supermarket outgoings, find out which day your local one reduce produce. most dont have a set day now which can make this difficult, but our asda still does and it's tuesday afternoon.
they do meat and fish at the same time lol!
take a budget and a list, do the budget in cash. try not to go over it.


we have had to fall off the organic box wagon, but have gone over to the asda equivalent; all our veg is still organic but cheaper lol! We can not afford to go into organic or free range meat; it's a sheer impossability. we have swtiched to free range eggs though, but i cant afford organic flour considering how much we use...it's all so copmplicated!

as for reducing energy use, i am doing whatever we can without structural changes which we notonly cant affored, but i refuse to do to a house we don't own.

it's a bit late this year, but n=xt year i will be window filming our patio doors.

we moved the livingroom around to free up the radiators and get more heat into the room wuicker, and therefore for less power, we've also followed the foil tricks mentioned in the "bible".

I cook a LOT using the slowcookers, and if i need to put the oven on i make sure i cook more than one thing, for instance i refuse to put the oven on for 3 baked potatoes, but if i am doing a pizza, cake or some bread or whatnot THEN i will stick potatoes in it!!

for raising dough for making pizzas or the occasional loaf i use a cool bag and a hot water bottle. we dont have a conventional airing cupboard so unless the heating is on or unloess i put the oven on for a bit, i have nowhere warm to raise bread.

i cook double portions and freeze them of things like curry, bolognese sauce, sausage casserole etc.

erm... dont know what other tip-s i can give!!

[Big Al]

It doesn't sound like you're doing too badly at all1 In fact I rather think you're ahead of the game.

Seeing as you're openminded, and I'm evangelical about both (!), have you thought about replacing toilet paper with cloth (not as gross as it sounds if you wash before you wipe!) and turning off the fridge. We live fridge-free in the south of spain and only use a freezer a couple of months of the year when we have sufficient solar power. It is totally doable in your climate.

I'm well intrieged about the no fridge Clara, i tried this last year but it didn't seem practical for me. I'll look at this link for more inspiration as my fridge and freezer uses 3.5 units a day or nearly 60p a day.

[Clara]

Oh Mrs F you've just made me think something...

I cook with the oven off! By experimentation I have found (and scribbled all over my recipe books), how I can cook stuff like bread by turning the oven off after a certain amount of time - clearly they don't go cold immediately. I also tend to have something else like flapjacks or biscuits ready to go in afterwards as I have found that they will cook entirely in a pre-used turned-off oven. For us this came about by necessity because I fell in love with this gorgeous retro looking secondhand restaurant oven that doesn't have a thermometer so just gets hotter and hotter. I've also found that terracotta holds heat better so getting terracotta dishes (especially with lids) helps the process (and cooks far nicer meat).

Mrs F have you inquired at you local independent whole food store about ordering flour in bulk? It may work out affordable for you to buy it in 5kg or 25kg sacks - I find that I get through a 5kg bag really quickly, it's only 10 loaves!

Like Mrs F I use a cool box, hot water bottle and old sleeping bag combo as a modern "haybox" cooker and to make yoghurt (in the winter months when the woodburner isn't on).

[Clara]

It doesn't sound like you're doing too badly at all1 In fact I rather think you're ahead of the game.

Seeing as you're openminded, and I'm evangelical about both (!), have you thought about replacing toilet paper with cloth (not as gross as it sounds if you wash before you wipe!) and turning off the fridge. We live fridge-free in the south of spain and only use a freezer a couple of months of the year when we have sufficient solar power. It is totally doable in your climate.

I'm well intrieged about the no fridge Clara, i tried this last year but it didn't seem practical for me. I'll look at this link for more inspiration as my fridge and freezer uses 3.5 units a day or nearly 60p a day.

What problems did you come across? I'd be happy to see if I can help. Did you try a pot-in-pot, they work terribly well but I gave up on ours as I found it unnecessary!

[Shirley]

We pay more per kilo for our organic flour from suma than we could buy it for from the supermarket - suma doesn't have the same amount of buying power as the likes of the mighty T. We buy a 25kg bag at a time.

[Clara]

Cripes! I'm guessing I forget that Organic is so much more mainstream in the UK, here I can't buy organic flour from a supermarket within 3 hours drive (though next time I'm in the city I shall have to remind myself to pop in and see whether it is cheaper than the local organic co-op I buy from).

Whilst y'all may struggle with the prices always be thankful that you have choice - free range eggs, ethical meat etc just ain't on the agenda here!

[barefootlinzi]

thanks for all those tips mrs Flibble, i think i will tackle it a bit at a time so i dont get over whelmed. i am off out shortly to buy a new airer so i can start drying washing inside (and then have to go mould bashing but oh well!). The allotment is another priority - it is a half plot shared with a friend, so actually a 1/4 plot but perfect for a beginner! I also must sort out my garden - its a junk hole at the moment and I want it lovely or summer for DS to play in plus productive for veggies!

[sleepyowl]

Go for cheap cuts of meat. plan a weekly menu, don't go shopping when you are hungry, don't buy convenience food, only buy as much as you need of a product (e.g don't buy an entire bag of carrots in you are only going to use 2), only go for special offers if you were going to buy that product anyway, bake your own cakes & biscuits, this saved us on average of £40 a week

[Flo]

Hi everyone,

I have fallen off the green bandwagon and would like your support to get back on it!
I am due baby number 2 in June and while suffering morning sickness let things slip, and now I am feeling much better so want to catch up.

Don't forget to use freecycle and the charity shop for baby bits that you don't have yet.

Over the next week I am going to cut down and stop my tumble dryer use, and start planning what to do with my new allotment.

Grow the easy things on your allotment - salad items are easy but costly in the shops; if you can get strawberry runners to plant on these are good for fruit supplies - first year ones from the garden centre or wherever don't produce; get organised about what you can compost lots of help here with things that people don't usually think of using; that is a real money saver. You don't want to take on too much with two small youngsters who are very time consuming she said having been there and done that.

I also want to look at our energy usage in the home and see what I can do there. We live in a council owned property so I feel limited in what I can do. Does anyone have any ideas?

The line drying is will save you a lot of money and mould growth. You want to get round to a comparison site and try for a dual fuel on-line account as this offers the most discount - probably you will have gas like me for central heating. The mould can only be really beaten if you can leave a window open on the catch most of the time but less washing in the house will help. You can also get anti fungal paint which will help your mould problem. You should ask the council for help and advice as it may be that you have other problems that effective insulation - they may need to look for incoming leaks from faulty guttering and downpipes along with faulty pointing outside which may be affecting you. You might need damp proofing or air bricks adding too. Am waiting to have the pointing on the sodden gable end done here too so know that it isn't always you at fault. Oh and be persistent in finding the source.

I also currently rely heavily on T***o's, as we are a one income family and that income isn't very big! What tips do you all have for me to buy more local and ethical and not blow our £40/£50 family food a week budget?

Certainly vegetarian does help the budget. But that's a hard option with a dedicated carnivore in the family. However don't be put off from doing the hearty bean and/or lentil based soups. Here's a handy page for cheap, green cleaning tips. You need Either Asda or T***o to be able to get washing soda which will clean everything and which can be used either on it's own or half and half with a detergent for laundry. I know what being financially stretched is like but if you can put money aside so that you can buy in bulk then going to one of the sites such as Faith In Nature and being able to buy green in quantity without having to pay postage is a great thing. It was hard to get on track with this for me (think state pension) but now I find that by putting aside the cleaning money regularly I buy better and it goes far further. Sometimes buying cheap is not effective.

Also, what should I be doing at the moment on the allotment?

Thanks everyone!

Getting the soil into good shape, making sure you have a compost area, trying to see if there are cheaper seeds left in the supermarket or the Pound Shops and trying to see if you can acquire some decent compost for tubs. Do you have a gardeners association locally that sells cheap to members?