Where do you start your plastic free lifestyle?

 Where do you start your plastic free lifestyle?

I think most people find it scary to "Go For Green" as the stigma around eco friendly lifestyle is that it's expensive. The hardest is definatley coming out of your routine and changing habbits is difficult for anyone's busy convenient lifestyle. We all live a busy life, I should know I have three children, with working, school runs & sports clubs time was aways against me. The supermarket had the easiest and convenient all in one place shop in 10 minutes and Job done. 

When I started litter picking and mixing with other like minded people in 2018 who put the planet first by living a wasteless lifestyle, I said exactly what I hear now 5 years on from other families. "It's too expensive and I can't access the refillable/farm shop option" and "where do I start"!!

In 2019 I challenged my family to the Plastic free July campaign where we were not allowed to buy anything if it had plastic packaging. As a family we did our last shop on 29th June where the kids panic brought snacks thinking "Mom is going to starve us, as there will be no food for us to eat" When we returned from that shop I asked them to place the shopping on to the table where we unwrapped 2 bin bags full of plastic packaging, some of which was recyclable but others unfortunatley went in to the black bin bags.

Whilst this was a fun challenge it was also very difficult as I was trying to change the way we lived over night in a kind of rush to help reduce the families waste to landfil or puting waste in to the circular movement. So my advice to anyone is to just start by changing one thing and see how you feel. For me the joy came when I had reduced my family to two black bin bags a fortnight and half a green bin of recycling instead off two full black and green bins each fortnight for the council to take. 

The supermarkets for me now are just expensive especially if you are trying the quickest time consuming shop option. I can have all the lists I need but a supermarket has the power to sell you things you don't need and I always buy more than I need or want. As a family we plan meals, house chore rota and dog walk responsibility. We do one shop a month for the meal plan and only purchase fresh products like bread, eggs, milk. I find keeping the cupboards orgaised I can see what I need to use up first so I don't double buy and planning meals to what is in the cupbaord saves me a fortune. 

If you are reading this blog as you too would like to join the "Go For Green" lifestyle I would like to challenge you to sorting out your food cupboards first. Lableing and stock rotating your food to ensure you use what you already have. Plan you first week's menu then organise to shop for what you need not what you would like, as it makes life easier. I bet you save money and time this week with a plan.

Here is my families week planner and my 16 year olds excel spreadsheet organiser that helped me with the shopping list and save on shop costs too. 

I would like to thank you for reading my blog, there are many tips throughout the blog to help you start to make your lifestyle alot easier and cheaper. Have fun it really is a rewarding challenge.

From Karen