A simpler lifestyle is less stressful, leaves me with a healthy bank balance and shopping locally means supporting my community.

Sustainability in your shopping lifestyle

When you start a plastic-free lifestyle journey you can panic and want your habits to change overnight. I found this approached incredibly stressful at the times and it also costs me more money through the determination to achieve plastic-free living in one month.  

What I have learnt since starting this challenge in July is that it cannot be done without local knowledge of your resources to achieve a reduced waste bin every fortnight. When people say Eco-Friendly or plastic-free they automatically think that it's going to cost more money and more time. The main focus should be to reduce the household black bin landfill waste and gain knowledge on the recycling system the council have in place. (www.letswasteless.com)

 For Example: As a family, multi-packet buys of crisps is a necessity on my weekly list however I have learnt that I can recycle them locally. Therefore, my crisp packets go into a reusable shopping bag on top of my fridge and when it's full I drop them off at the nearest drop off point. Most schools are now taking on the crisp packet recycling scheme becoming the communities drop off point and raising money for their school at the same time. Here is a link to drop off points.

https://www.terracycle.com/en-GB/brigades/crisppacket

 Knowing where to go shopping for your weekly needs to achieve less wastefulness is also key to winning in this fight. It's so very easy to just pop to the big branded supermarkets and get everything under one roof however I have found this costly as I buy other products that are not on my list or multi-buy offers and I'm left with food going out of date through bulk buying and overstocking unnecessary, lots of packaging causing more waste in my bins and produce is low in quality to the alternative I have now changed to.

Changing your shopping habits is the key to less waste success and its that simple.

Here are some ways in which I have changed my weekly shopping habits.

1. Say no to plastic bags food wrapping, buy fresh and singular items to reduce less food waste.
2. Carry reusable shopping bags in your car I have a box right outside my front door to remind me to take the bags with me.
3. Give up single-use plastic bottled water for a reusable bottle, tap water has been tested healthier than bottled waters.
4. Shop your local farm shops, butchers and fishmongers taking you reusable tubs with you to reduce unnecessary waste. Supermarkets accept your own reusable containers at the deli counters. 
   
   

   

   Containers used at the butchers 

   

   Own containers no household waste 

   
   

   

   Local fruit and veg shop
    no waste and locally grown

   

   Supporting locally-made products
   that's better quality and healthier.

   

   1. Choose a glass-bottled milk delivery option to your door where bottles can be returned for reuse. This saved me tons of space in the green recycling bin and stopped those panic shops buy visits when the milk has run out. https://www.findmeamilkman.net/

   
   
   

   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

   I cooked with the sundried tomatoes this week and
    was left with infused flavoured olive oil in the jar.
    So I bottled it up to use in future cooking.
   Washed out the Jar reusing it later in the spring. 

   
   

   I left out the single apple here in the picture, so you can see the size difference you are being persuaded to buy. The single apples were brought for my children's snack after school. I brought 3 larger apples for £1.07 or I could have brought 6 apples in plastic wrapping. So yes once again cheaper apples were available but I chose a better quality of apple that had travelled fewer miles to the supermarket shelf and  I only had the apple cork to compost at home after.

I even left the label at the till however, they can be
 weighed at the till meaning no label needed in the first place.

This was my Tesco shop this week for a family of 5. Toothpaste products can be recycled locally, the plastic wrappers here can also be recycled or reused.  Thinking about where this waste ends up is my overall goal.

The result of the above has made a huge difference to my bin waste, black bin bags this week were two and the recycling green bin was half full. before this journey, I was filling two black and two green bin a fortnight. Composting at home, reusing, recycling and buying only what I need is the reason for the less waste success. 

Christmas greener living fayre post 2

Christmas community greener living fayre 

The most amazing people live right next to you in your communities, the greener living fayre for me personally was inspirational on so many levels. 

A few stalls were run by selfless volunteers who had turned their passion and crafts into items they sold for the charity they were supporting.

Save the Children volunteers use their candle craft making skills to up-cycle used church candle wax to make brand new candles. I was delighted to buy these candles for my Christmas table but also proud to know my donation was going towards a good cause.

Animal Asia table items made great practical gifts for my homemade Christmas crackers and whoever cracks them open will know that the donation for these items has gone to a good cause.

These Bee saver kits are brilliant to for the children Christmas stocking they are packed with information and challenges to help save the Bees at home in your garden. Brilliant idea with this one and the donation I made has gone to Friends of the earth Charity. 

These Christmas earrings were purchased on the Dogs charity table and these will also go into my homemade Christmas Crackers for the girls.

incredibly inspired at the simple but effective crafts advertised at the fayre, crochet is a passion of mine and somewhere in my loft I have my crocheted baubles. My tree will stand out this year and also hold memories from when  I made them when my children were very small.

Feeling excited to decorated these wreaths for gifts

My handmade crocheted soap bags

I have three tins of buttons that my nanny collected over her many years that I could not throw away  so I have been wondering what to do with them. My family Christmas crackers will include these making them personal and heartfelt gifts to hand down to Nanny other generations.

Greener living Christmas family

My last post was the 10th May 2019 when I had visited the Kidderminster greener living fayre. (Last Blog)
Last Night I visited the Kidderminster transition greener living Christmas fayre and returned home not only inspired but full of Christmas gifts for the family. I have been incredibly busy being a mom and also with my volunteer groups that seem to have taken up a lot of time lately. Christmas is fast approaching and i'm nervous about time to prepare our plastic free Christmas but also excited as there is an element of achievement when you complete a greener living task.

My parents live in France and tomorrow they are visiting for lunch and this week I have been up-cycling items in my home so they can take a box of gifts with them for their Christmas morning.

I have used a jam jars and a Kilner jar to create prepared soup in a jar gifts. I have been completely inspire by a Facebook post that not only advertised these jars but provides the recipe and free print off gift labels for the jars too. These have turned out beautiful and the recipe I have chosen suits my parents taste making them a thoughtful and personal gifts. If my parents choose to have a lazy day over the festive season they, know they only have to empty the contents of the soup jar into a saucepan and wait for their easy dinner to cook.

I used a shoe box to pack them in and I cut all the sides so that when mom pulls the lid off it automatically falls opens to reveal a box of personally homemade gift surprises. I personally think the shops these days offer such a easy gift choice that the personal touch is lost in the convenience to just get the gift job over and done with. 

I have also used the packaging paper that Amazon use in their delivery boxes for the wrapping the gifts and also for the homemade Christmas crackers.

What I liked about doing the Christmas crackers was that my daughter choose the jokes, wrote them and the gifts inside were not only practical but once again choose for them making their gift personal and thoughtful once again.

Home baked Christmas cake gift

A couple of weeks ago I started soaking the fruit for my Christmas cakes. This is a tradition in our family to home bake the Christmas cake and have it as a feature on the table on Christmas day. I decided I would make two smaller cakes at the same time as baking our one to give to my parents and a friend as another gift. The have turned out quite cute and once again personal and individual.


I quite surprised at how easy it is to achieve a plastic free Christmas and if you have the time I highly recommend a personal touch.

Ruby Slippers amazing talent

Soap bags 

These kind of Christmas fayres open up a hall of talent and original gift ideas. If you can get to a local event you would be so inspired but also see just what amazing local talent is out there. I saved a huge amount of time and unnecessary spends going last night and can see the light at the end of the tunnel for my Christmas planning now.

Gift sets loved these 

Sandwich bags

Straws and a straw pouch cute 

Willow wreaths 

One of the stalls last night completely inspired me and it was the wreath table, the lady who makes these wreaths makes them out of nature free offering. \Take a look she had a real talent and made beautiful Christmas decorations. I was so inspired I bought a couple of plain willow garlands that I will decorate myself for gifts. I recently got back into crocheting making soap pouches for my homemade soaps previously mention on this blog. Parents Christmas box also includes soap and crochet wash pouches.

I fell in love with this one absolutely stunning 

Just incredible ideas  

These wreaths are original and can only be found at events like these where incredibly talented people show off their homemade delights.

Greener living

My last blog was on 22.08.19 which was a few weeks ago now and lots has been happening in my community since. September for me is always a nightmare month as the children start back to school after their summer break and I try to get back into the mom normal routine and my time is limited.


Food shopping has slipped backwards a little into convenience life style and the plastic free household has seen a slight rise in the green recycling bins plastic waste. I have surprised myself though as I still have reduced my overall waste and I refuse to buy unneccessary plastic packaging.

 Today I visited the Greener living fair in Kidderminster and i was completed overwhelmed with the amount of stalls offering alternative greener living advice.  I am totally Inspired as ever to keep going now and I'm even planning my plastic free Christmas. Most of my September shopping was not buying the easier option but sometimes I was pushed for time and failed. My children have also decided to go back to packed lunches and whilst using reusable drink bottles some snacks have been in the plastic wrapping.  

 I make up 4 packed lunches each school day and I am proud of how I have changed them. I use a cotton wax wrap for the sandwiches (not tin foil or cling film) which I wipe clean and reuse. The drink bottles are reusable and I fill them with water or squash. Unfortunately the squash has returned and I have been buying the Robinson 2 for £2.50 plastic bottles. The fruit is quite easy as it is not wrapped but the snack bars I put into the sandwich tubs are in a wrapper. I really need to look at an alternative that my children will eat. I did run out of snack bars this week and the children put in a couple rich tea biscuits and crisps, making sure they bring the crisp packet back home to me for Terracycle recycling.  So I need to look at ways to do more plastic free lunches boxes as I feel I am letting the family down.



Today at the town hall there were lots of inspiring ways to change a couple of my habits and I am really interested in the repair workshop stalls. These stalls offered to fix broken household items, repair clothing or generally up cycle old clothes. Crafting stalls, home baking vegan ideas and plastic free gifts were also on offer.  I now have more ideas for my plastic free Christmas home.

My daughter was asked to judge the decorated plastic bottle competition completing her ambassadorship job for The Pickup Artists. Lots of great entrances made this an incredibly hard competition to judge.


Outside of the town hall were 3 electric vehicles with their owners offering their knowledge to the public? This was totally inspiring and I came straight back home to price up a Nissan Leaf to lease. My excitement turned to anger as yet again businesses are making money from people wanting to be more planet friendly. I could hire a petrol/diesel car for a fraction of the cost of an electric vehicle. This idea is now too far out of my reach and the companies are preventing a faster national change over due to this. When I priced up my petrol costs, tax and mileage from my petrol car I decided that I could afford £180 per month to hire an electric car instead. The advice I was given was to rent a electric vehicle instead of purchasing one. When I looked at online deals I would only be able to drive a maximum of 10.000 miles per year and pay £280 - £360 per month to lease an electric vehicle. This is what I have discovered online so I will however visit a show room to find out more information i'm not giving up on this one.

The turnout of stalls, community representatives, wildlife enthusiasts, litter picking groups, repairing groups, vegan alternatives and others was absolutely commendable. Kidderminster town along with Wyre forest district council is moving forward to make positive changes toward a greener living environmental town.

The bottle return scheme demonstration for me as a litter picker showed that a purchaser is more likely to return their items to this machine. This system is far from complete however its showing some options for the future. Unfortunately I think single use plastics should be banned full stop with this machine offering the incentive for tin and glass only. When thinking of the bigger picture recycling is never the option for plastics but this machine is a step forward none the less.

Eat, Love yoga our beloved Kidderminster cafe was there promoting ways in which everyone can change their shopping habits. If you are yet to visit their shop on comberton road kidderminster then I highly recomend them. Lots of ideas at affordable prices offered to help you with a plastic free lifestyle.

My vegan style stall was an absolute eye opener for christmas gift ideas, their prices were very affordable and the item ideas are boxed and ready to gift. plastic free all the way.  www.veganmystyle.com
loved this stall and my daughter is delighted with her gift box of goodies.

Worcestershire nappy exchange wow I wished I knew these nappies when my children were younger. When I think about the amount of nappies I sent to landfill knowing what I know now it makes me feel ashamed. what a great incentive they now offer to families and so much cheaper than disposables.

I have joined a volunteer group that hope to introduce Surfers against Sewage national incentive scheme to help Kidderminster become a plastic free town. Today the room was full of inspiring people who I had previously met in this group and you can clearly see the town’s enthusiasm is behind them 100%.

When I look at our community and see the incredible people who makes an event like this happen I am full of pride to be part of this team. Today was all credit to the organisers Elaine Halford-Bishop and Councillor Vicky Caulfield you really did put on a incredible greener living event Thank you.

Exciting news for Kidderminster

Plastic free Kidderminster 

This evening Plastic free Kidderminster steering group had their first meeting to start the ball rolling for a plastic free town. Surfers Against Sewage is a national accreditation process that encourages town centre businesses to change just three items within their business to plastic free alternatives. I was delighted to be invited by the group to join them in their quest to help make Kidderminster a plastic free accredited town. This is incredible news, Kidderminster can now be part of many towns all over the UK that have also signed up and many have completed the plastic free town accreditation with Surfers Against Sewage.

   https://www.facebook.com/groups/2327530877573646/?ref=share

https://www.sas.org.uk/

This is an incredibly large ambitious project however it is not unachievable as together we can make a difference to where we live. 

Bewdley has also signed up to surfers against sewage.

You don’t need to be by the coast to work on this project, or even based in the UK. Plastic finds its way into our environment from every location on earth. Stopping our reliance on unnecessary single use plastic at source is the key to becoming Plastic Free.

Plastic free communities are spreading all over the UK and Kidderminster can now be part of this amazing journey in preparation for the governments single use plastic ban.

Should you wish to get your business involved with our community incentive to get Kidderminster accredited please private message us through our Facebook Group.

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2327530877573646/?ref=share

It’s catching on

Monday 19th August 2019

I have been on holiday for a couple of weeks and have not blogged since finishing my Plastic Free July challenge. So what’s changed,? What food went back in the cupboards and how has it changed the way I shop since?

These are always the questions people need answering when they have followed a journey like mine.

So what’s changed?????

The way I shop is the biggest change, I went to Tesco to panic buy as I was not organised or prepared for the household on my return from holiday. As I strolled around the isles I refused what I would have conveniently shopped for before.  I did not spend a huge amount of money which was a nice surprise after our family holiday spends. I also did not buy and food that occur waste to landfill or waste to recycling bin.
 

The plastic covered food that has returned to my cupboards is walkers crisps & biscuit packets. I don’t feel too bad because neither of these items end up in my bins as they go to Terracycle for recycling. Toothpaste is another return on these same lines as I have not looked into an alternative yet due to my time being spent on holiday memories with the kids. 

I have to say the shampoo & conditioner soap bars have not worked out either due to the final washed result ending up with my hair being like straw. Someone said it does take a while using the soaps for the hair to become chemical free, after this process your hair will be fine and turnout lovely. I used these soap bars for three weeks but the end result was the same and my head was itchy. So I have returned to my medical and allergy free plastic bottles. That is it, Everything else in my blog has stayed within my lifestyle and cooking with fresh seasonal ingredients also has been a huge change in our diets. I do think the way the climate crisis is changing how, what, when we buy certain vegetables our children need to experience more types of food to encourage their future cooking habits stick with what will be on offer in the future for them. I have also started to grow and bake more of my own products which also keeps the fun going in the home.

Sunday dinner today has mostly been donated by Mike, grown at home or baked. 

Take a look 

Homemade bread

Homegrown peppers 

Birdseed ready to be filled with the leftovers fat from dinner

Home grown veg box from Mike

My tomatoes plants 

All veg prepared for cooking 

Veg box 

These are the oils and seasoning I added to the veg dishes

The Bread turned out lovely which should compliment my roasted vegetables 

Bathroom Alternatives and where to shop for them.

Shopping the alternative way

Reducing your habit and changing the way you are sold to bulk buy items unnecessary. 

Here are some of the ways I shopped to reduce the plastic in my bathroom and a summary of the product to see if I would replace the original item to the alternatives. How did I find them after using  the products and cost of the products too. I have named the company but had to remove the links due to blog polices.


Bathroom

Toilet roll

Toilet roll is usually brought for £8 in Tesco for 24 luxury soft rolls = 33p each roll.
             The alternative eco friendly "Who Gives a crap" 49 rolls for £31.00 = 63p each roll.


Shampoo 

Allergenics Hair Gentle Medicated Shampoo 200ml £7.49

Shampoo bar from cosy cottage kitchen £3.95
The shampoo bar has left my hair looking greasy and feeling very stringy and dry. My fried has told me that this is due the chemical being removed from my hair. We will have to wait and see 

Conditioner soap

This conditioner bar does not work in the same way as the original conditioner it leaves my hair hard to untangle and brush after use.
 Dove Conditioner Moisture Conditioner 200Ml £2.70

Men Shaving foam
My husband uses shaving foam and I have changed him to a shaving soap bar, he is still using what stock of shaving foam we have at home therefore I cannot right a review on this product yet.
https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/255355189
Foam £2.50 for two Gillette foams
Shaving Soap £3.50 per bar

Deodorant

This product is far more expensive then my usual one. However it works well and does the job but I will look for another alternative on this one.
Natural Deodorant £5.50
Dove deodorant £1.75

Make up removal

I have to say I am a fan of these pads, 3 pads for £9.99. The best thing is you use water with the pad to remove makeup. No chemical make up remover needed and these are washable to.


Eye make up remover £3.00

cotton pads £1.80


Bathroom Cleaner

Koh
My previous blog about this product was quite harsh however after using it in the bathroom I am quite impressed. This product does clean the whole house so there is no need for the cupboards to be full of plastic. I do have some cleaners left to use up but this Koh I will be keeping as an alternative and enjoying my new found cupboard empty space.