Day 22 summary kids snack pacifiers and exciting cereals have all gone

Day 22

22.7.19

It's getting hard now

I remember at the start of July how I was saying the first week was going to be the easiest as we had the contents of our cupboards to eat down. Well I was completely correct it is now day 22 and the good stuff as the children would say is all gone. In my children's eyes the fridge is empty and the cupboards are clear of all things junk. 

In reality the fridge is full of the healthy stuff but the problem is it is not grab ready therefore there is no food in the house. I will say I am feeling tired today and the washing from the weekend away is slowing going through the machine.   

The issue with not having the grab ready snacks now is that the children moan, I going to give them credit though as they have put up without packet biscuits and treats now throughout July. They have also been very supportive of the plastic free task but they are bored of food and their reduced sugar intake is beginning to take it's toll. 

The grab snacks are a needed essential with this family and if I have not baked the snacks then we have the issue of the hunger snack moans.

The children made pancakes last night and also a chocolate concrete however this did not last the morning and by tea time they wanted to eat each other lol. 

The pantry items are running out or have been used up, I cannot find plastic free brown soft sugar anywhere to make more biscuits, but I am going to try the caster sugar to see if that can be used as an alternative. 

My husband and I went to the co-op supermarket today and struggled with many items however it was pleasing to know that the cold meets and cheeses were plastic free from the counter. I was unable to buy grated mozzarella cheese for our pizza making in the week and have gone with an alternative cheddar cheese block  that I hope the children will enjoy.

Lovely to have a paper wrapped cold meat section 

A great selection of meats and cheeses to chose from 

Just the bread in plastic however I am going to use this bread bag again.

The husband returns to work tomorrow and I am left at home with the children and very little junk food to pacify them with. This is going to be the real test of plastic free endurance to be able to get through full summer holiday days plastic free with children.
I must leave now to plan the meals for the week because I do not plan on running here and there with three kids in tow catch up tomorrow. 

Day 21 Camping plastic free!!!!!and a tesco delivery

Day 21

Hi I'm back after a couple of days away glamping with the children, James football team families and a disappointing Tesco delivery that catered for 30 people perfectly. As you can imagine 7 families preparing for a weekend away with two or three children can be stressful, just to pack the clothing and needing to be arriving at camp after the last school day is very time consuming, especially when you have also worked that day. All the mothers planned at a meeting last week the catering for such a large number of people and this plastic free parent was out voted on a few items. The decision to meal plan for each meal and list out a delivery was the easiest and less stressful way of doing the catering for such a large party.

I did fight my corner though on the waste side of things especially when the other moms mentioned buying water bottles. My suggestion was a drink serving dispensers to refill the children's drink bottles. Each adult and child was to bring their drink bottles to refill during their time at camp and the dispensers would be filled with squash and water. The parents agreed on this and of course we saved money this way also. The second suggestion was that I bought the meat from the butcher in order to reduce the plastic packaging that the supermarket always wrap their meat in. The parents agreed that I could order what we needed from my local butcher. So last week I ordered the meat and on Friday morning I turned up at the butchers with my reusable tupawear and collected it. I also baked three different cakes for the children to snack on and a birthday Victoria sponge was homemade too for James 9th birthday.

I could not really do much more because some items on the list included nuts, biscuits, crisps, fruit, bread, salad, dips etc and I'm unfortunately not wonder woman and had to agree on some plastic covered items to feed and pacify 30 people especially 16 kids which included 3 teenagers.

We took two dispensers that I had borrowed from the scout hut.

The campsite owners prepared fresh pizza's for us all the first night so not a plastic wrapper in site, even her tomato base sauce was homemade.

I will say though how impressed I was at the support I was receiving throughout the weekend from all the parents and children who were recycling what they could, composting all compostable foods, egg shells, egg boxes, cartons and paper. The waste to landfill was only one black bin bag at the end of camp from 7 families of 30 people in total which I think is very impressive.  We were staying at a campsite that prides itself on being eco friendly and it had all these waste facilities available to enable us to reduce what waste went to landfill. So overall it was impossible to buy plastic free for such a large number of people as snacks, salad mixed grab bags, biscuits, nuts and most snacks are not offered at the supermarkets (Tesco delivery option) without the plastic wrapping. The weekend shop for each family worked out about £60 which when feeding 30 people in 7 families throughout 6 meals I thought was a reasonable cost. I also feel that it could not have been avoided in anyway as these items when finding alternatives are just not available anywhere without driving here and there to find them. Quite disappointedly it's was not achievable with a  Tesco delivery due to no available alternatives items. I could have baked cookies, shopped for fruit unpackaged, made the dips, brought the salad separately to make up but I could not have done it all, especially when catering for such a large number of people and feel that baking over 120 cookies may have just finished this tired end of term mom off. The one other plastic free was tuna mayonnaise made by one of our mothers from tins however the mayo was plastic bottled, one plastic bottle instead of about 8 tuna mayonnaise plastic made up pots.

As you can witness glasses were used for beverages

The pepper sauce mix my husband found in Sainsbury's was lovely on my pizza. My first pizza in a long time as I have a tomato intolerance.

No packaging in sight just the hubby and the BBQ

All the cutlery was metal and the plates, bowls, mugs etc were all porcelain, washable and reusable. The younger children did have plastic bowls and spoons but these were also reusable.  No waste to landfill at all of these items.

Happy wife, Happy life is what my husband says.

The honest wheelbarrow of unavoidable plastic wrapping catering for such a large number of people. 

Day 18 summary

Day 18

18.07.19

So today was a pleasure day as I walked the dog this morning along a nature reserve, did some washing and went for a litter pick along the canal with The Pickup Artists volunteers. My dog also went for a long walk along the canal and is currently fast asleep. Plastic free today which has been lovely. The teachers received their gifts from the children and two teachers expressed their joy of a plastic free gift and went on to explain how they also are reducing plastic within their households.

Once again the menu was decided the weekend and we had a lovely homemade Chinese chicken buns with sweet and sour noodles. 

I made the filling and my nephew made the dough and buns.

The homemade bees wax candles turned out lovely

So I am going away the weekend for my son's birthday and his football team families are coming too. To my delight we are staying on a Eco campsite and will fill you all in on what happens over the weekend regarding plastics or any tips I can use from the campsite itself.

No much to report today its been a very relaxing day.

Day 17 Summary

Day 17
17.07.19

My delivery arrived

Today was a bread machine disaster however there was success on the plastic free family today. My shampoo and conditioner bars arrived with my husbands shaving bars. I stole one of these for a teachers gift but I won't tell him.

The shampoo and conditioner bars if left in the bath for instance by the kids will dissolve away. So I am going to crochet a soap bag for them to put the bars back in after they have used it on their hair. Rules must apply if these are going to last and be good value for money.



So the children reminded me the last day of term is Friday and their teachers presents are not ready. So off to work I went making candles, wrapping up my homemade soaps and collecting some bamboo toothbrushes that my friend had personalized for each teacher.

My homemade candles in the yogurt jars for teachers gifts

So I added a litter note

perfect for a male teacher with a candle of course

no plastic in sight
I brought the cards from card factory as they sell the cards without the plastic wrapping.

It’s my sister in laws birthday today and I asked the florist to send a bouquet without plastic My sister in law said.

Yes they had a grass woven tie on them and no plastic stick holding card with kids names on they stuck that and flower food to the paper wrap with blob of glue 😃. Xxx

The kids were happy when they returned home to more home baking made and cottage pie for dinner. I did not visit a supermarket or shop today so again planning ahead is proving more relaxing. 

As i'm typing tonight summary the husband has just walked in with this in his hand.
 MY BREAD SUCCESS without a machine. lol

Day 17 Bread Maker disaster Hilarious

Day 17

17.07.19

So last week I visited a friends house and experienced her son's bread made from a bread maker and how he puts the bread maker on every night so that they have fresh bread for the morning. They have not purchased plastic covered bread for a long time. 

So a bread maker went on my list and I mentioned on Facebook that I was looking for one and a second hand one came available for £10. Bargain so I thought. My nephew accompanied me to collect it and we decided to have a bread off competition. If you remember from yesterdays blog he made a lovely loaf by hand that everyone in this house has enjoyed.

So the competition was on "Who was going to make the best bread?"

As he moved around the kitchen being all kneady, I smugly followed a recipe and found that when using a bread maker you simply put the ingredients into the bread maker and turned it on. how easy was that, I then sat down with a cup of tea and watched him work his bread laughing how difficult mine was.

However after his bread had proved and cooked my bread machine was still hard at work so I thought? turns out the machine kept blowing the fuse in the house and when the machine turned back on the program started over again. The trouble being that the bread maker had been running for a hour and when it stopped and then started again once the electric switch was turned back on, the bread dough was ruined. 

So my nephew won the bread off and smugly reminded me all day that his way was the easy way. The funny part was I moved the machine in determination to another plug today and it only went and blew the fuse again. So if anyone wants a bread maker I now have one going for free.

The bread maker 

The nephew's handmade success

Mine today given up on the machine

Day 16 Summary (THE COST SO FAR)

Day 16

Today has been a relaxing day full of a breakages, reduced waste and baked goodies. The ice cream is ready from our berries, mousses are done for pudding, Biscuits and more dough made to pacify kids snacking needs and bread crumbs made for the dinner. 

Laundry has been put away and the house is now organised from the weekend. The dog is happy sleeping after her long walk and I am not stressed running around shopping for plastic free alternatives.

So far day 2 of this week I am convinced the organised lifestyle is the best way to go for plastic free living. This whole challenge has been refusing to buy the unnecessary single use plastic's covering our foods & house goods, Living by producing less waste and living a healthier life style.
 Today is day 16 of 31 meaning 15 days left. 

As I have been driving around feeding more CO2 emissions into the environment, reducing plastic waste to landfill, using more recyclable glass and metal (tins),  I have to question is it all worth it. The only real question people are asking is 

"Does plastic free cost more"
*  My answer so far is yes more time as I don't really know where to find alternatives!
*  More time prepping the fresh food but fun with the kids!
* More fresher food being eaten
* More car journeys

Food Expenses
July 19 verses June 19 

2019
Total spent so far in 16 days is??????? £348.79
This might seem excessive but this weeks food is in the fridge plus i'm feeding 6.

2018

Total spent in month June 2019 is????? £544.21 
So day 16 of July I've spent £348.79

If I spend more than £195.51 in the next 16 days this month has cost me more going plastic free so I will keep track of this.

Mousse looks great

Ice cream maker 

Homemade ice cream with blackberry
 and raspberry fruit from the freezer.

The bread machine I up-cycles for £10 from Facebook group
 "Every bit helps"

My nephew decided to prove me wrong about the bread machine and made a perfect loaf by hand, this was after the machine made it home that he showed me this talent of his.

The last biscuit role 

biscuit role cut and ready for the oven for when kids come home from school

Yummy

My confession today was that yesterday I purchased these plastic items. Please don't be disappointed as my overall plan is reuse the bottles. I ran out of washing up liquid and fabric conditioner and I was going to make the 7.3 mile journey to the Eco shop when I realized I did not have enough refill bottles to fill. Also if this family is going plastic free it needs to be planned better and I hope to only visit a shop that is 7.2 miles away from my home once a month. So my plan is to use up these bottle contents and then refill the lot at once.

  

AS YOU CAN SEE FROM THE ABOVE plastic free needs to be a transition in a household, if someone gave me a list of where to buy just what I needed and used this transition would be easy. Every family run their household differently and finding the alternatives to suit my family is still on going so at the moment yes, plastic free is impossible straight away in plastic free July. However it is not completely impossible long term and when i'm looking at my plastic waste today it has reduced massively. Plus I'm not feeding the plastic supply chain any of my usual money which delights me after watching the recent documentary War on plastic and knowing that the plastic producers plan to grow and make more instead of less. 

I will continue this challenge to achieve my plastic free family and I am also looking at ways to reduce my tin can and glass waste within the household to.

Day 15 - Day 16

I would like to apologize for my missing blog yesterday 15.07.19.

Monday's for me are far too energetic as the kids return to school after a weekend of messing the house up, relaxing and lounging around and basically laundry everywhere. Mondays are very much mom job day and the house needs to return to some kind of organisation.

Breakfast has been easy omelettes, pancakes, cereal.
Lunch we had sandwiches and children had lunch at school.
Dinner for the children was Chicken and bacon pasta bake, for the adults we had salmon, bacon, cabbage and sweet potato.
Pudding was homemade snacks

Monday evenings I am a volunteer scout leader, that's why yesterdays blog is being done today, I was just too tired to type after having so much fun with a bunch of great kids.

Also

Monday am, after taking kids to school my friend came round to make more homemade soap, then I had to walk my dog, do housework, laundry and I need to go to the hardware store to get some plumbing  repair items. Guess what PLASTIC only option. I was actually quite proud that I was able to fix the plumbing issue without the hubby, however the nephew did help me with it.

I had to buy the plastic as the broken part
 needed to be replaced because
it had a great big hole in it.

I am still looking for a bread maker and hopefully I will have one today 2nd hand and can start making fresh bread rather than buying bread in its wrappers.

Day 16

Today's dinner we have homemade chicken strips and chips, with a mousse pudding. The children will be helping me make the dinner on their return home from school. I did suffer one issue with the bread crumb making!! My food processor has finally died and I started to panic as the menu had been planned, kids excited, shopping had been brought, money spent....HELP....
Then my wonderful nephew came to the rescue with a brilliant idea that I would have never thought of, we had the most fun laughing our socks off as the bread crumbs crumbled away.

Take a look

The blender worked a treat panic over lol

So then I thought the biscuit snacks that I have been keeping in the fridge are making about 18 cookies per time and I have one of the three dough rolls left. So I thought lets make some more dough to last us until Friday. I opened my baking draw to find my light brown sugar has been used since we have been a baking July family so my next dilemma was "where in the world do I get light brown sugar without the plastic wrap. (answer NOWHERE) 

I did however have dark brown sugar so I set to google for a cooking dough recipe and made the three cookie dough's I need to pacify the snack craving the kids seem to be having at this stage in July plastic free challenge.

   

I will let you know how they turn out and if they are a success with the kids.