Talk About Inspiring

Sew Mama Sew has posted a Ruffle Skirt pattern by Emu. Her flickr photos are here and they are fantastic. Check out the clothes I made group.

I love the fabrics she has used - recycled vintage fabrics too.

What great inspiration for thrifty-ness and eco-ness. If only we could all sew like this. My efforts at clothes making tend to end up looking like a Year 7 project. Perhaps I should sign up to a class and learn how to sew clothes properly.

Thriftyness Here We Come

We are reasonably new to the art of thrifty-ness but I think we reached a milestone yesterday. We were driving home and I spied some polystyrene boxes on the side of the road.

Perfect.

We are renting at the moment and our lease is coming up for renewal soon. I didn't want to plant my garlic and leeks in the garden just in case we move before harvest time - they are too valuable to leave behind. I already had two polystyrene boxes which I filled with white garlic but I needed more boxes and I was planning on making a trip to the local grocer to see what they do with their polystyrene boxes.

Polystyrene boxes I planted white garlic in - if all goes well I will have about 25 bulbs comes spring.

The point being, I made asked Mr Berry to pull over and put the hazard lights on as I jumped out and put the boxes in the boot. We got home and I gave them a bit of a clean and they are now ready for my leeks and probably a few onions.

There is something really satisfying about reusing items - especially when you have saved it from being rubbish (or even better when you have cleaned up the roadside). I could have just gone and bought some plastic pots at the nursery or even at the local discount store. That would have been easier and quicker - I have been on the lookout for some boxes for about three weeks - but the satisfaction I get from sourcing the boxes in a frugal and environmentally responsible way is huge.

Although we have been moving towards living consciously, frugally and sustainably, it wasn't until I was able to pick something off the side of the road that I really felt like we will get there.

As long as we don't get run over first.

Reduce Reuse Recycle

I believe we throw out too much. There is disposable or single use everything. Not only that, but I think it is expected that you use a disposable item. Perhaps people see reusable items as old fashioned and what ‘poor’ people do because they can’t afford the ‘better’ single use item.

Well, we used to think like that too, but I came to the conclusion that that idea stinks (sorry, had to be done). Each week our bin was so full we had to jump on it to fit the last lot of rubbish in on bin night. We still recycled, but our recycling bin was also full each fortnight.

We have reduced our rubbish output dramatically over the last few years as we became conscious in our everyday lives and now our bins are rarely full, but our goal this year is to only ever have our garbage bins half full.

So, how are we going to do this? Here are a few things that will help us to achieve our goal.

Our worm farm and compost bin. 90% of our food scraps go to our worms or to the compost. Apparently Australians throw out a ridiculous amount of food each year and I know I used to buy too much and then had to throw some of it out at the end of the week. Now I buy less perishable items at a time and by putting food scraps in the worm farm or compost we have pretty much eliminated food going into the bin.

Cloth Nappies. I must admit to not using as many cloth nappies as I should and some days I am really slack, but using cloth nappies will reduce your garbage volume significantly. I will point out that it is important how you wash your cloth nappies. If you use a hot wash and bleach and huge amounts of water in the wash then it may be doing more damage to use cloth. Just another thing to consider. I have talked about my cloth nappies here.

Being aware of packaging. If you are cooking from scratch you won’t be purchase food with lots of unnecessary packaging but you should still be aware of this as it can sneak into your trolley at times. For example fruit and veg that have been wrapped on one of those trays or putting 2 apples in a plastic bag.

Reusing things. I know I spoke about reusable things instead of single use items, but reusing also means thinking of a new use for something. For example, I shred any non-glossy paper that comes into the house and add it to my compost and use it as mulch on the veggie garden. I also use the punnets that the strawberries come in to start off my seeds. Before you throw anything away, ask yourself what else it can be used for.

Stop buying stuff. I know I seem to harp on in almost every post about this but really, we buy way too much stuff and most of it isn’t built or designed to last.

If anyone has any other ideas on how to reduce our garbage volume I would be happy to hear from you.

A Frugal Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s Day is fast approaching and The Long Thread has some great ideas for gifts and cards using recycled materials around the home.

I especially like the covered cans.


I will definitely be using some of these ideas this Valentine’s Day. Showing someone you love them does not mean spending a fortune on gifts.

Plastic, Plastic, Everywhere

As part of our move to be more sustainable I am working on reducing the amount of plastic my family uses and throws away. Like all of the changes we are making, it has been hard because plastic is such a bit part of our modern lives. We automatically reach for plastic – glad wrap, containers, and packaging – and it can be difficult to find an alternative.

Difficult mainly because of habit. Only a couple of generations ago, there was no glad wrap (it was invented in 1953) and obviously people survived quite nicely without it. But to suggest not buying glad wrap and using a non-plastic alternative it kin to suggesting we should rip our toenails out because cutting them leads to kilos of land fill each year (most people wouldn’t believe either suggestion is serious).

Once again my solution to this has been to make small changes over time. The first obvious change is to use those green shopping bags instead of plastic bags. If you have little ones buy the funky Sesame Street or Wiggles ones (I started with these funky bags before little ones, how can I resist Shrek?)

My collection of shopping bags

Keep them in your car so you will always have them when you do your grocery shop. Don’t forget to use them for your fruit and veg, bakery items and meat (I have a separate one I use for meat). Once this becomes a habit, stop putting your fruit and veg into separate plastic bags (why do we do this?). You are going to wash them anyway, why not bung them in the one big bag? Don’t forget the grapes too – no need for a plastic bag for them either.

Once I was doing this all the time I became conscious of the other plastic bags I was using – my non-grocery shopping. Since the green bags are in the car, why not use them for all purchases? I have now learnt to say “don’t worry about a bag thanks, I'll just take the receipt”. Sometimes I forget and they put it in a plastic bag but as I said this is an ongoing process.

I think these steps are the easiest beginning steps to take in reducing our plastic use. From here you will become much more aware of how much plastic you are using and disposing of.

You might be asking: “What do you line your kitchen bin with?” This was Mr Berry’s question when I suggested we make this change. We don’t line our kitchen bin. We made this change at the same time we started our worm farm and compost bin so our waste was mainly dry. When we empty the kitchen in it gets washed and now there isn’t any wet waste or food scraps as they all get composted so the bin doesn’t get yucky. I will admit we are lining our council bin with a plastic liner but it is on the list to get rid of that too – baby steps.

Fake Plastic Fish - Beth has just written about a group of bloggers concerned with reducing plastic usage. She has links to their sites.

Jorth - Here is an Australian blog

Here are some articles of interest:
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Choice article on Plasticisers

My New Gardening Tip

Just a quick post today as we are heading off to the art gallery to see Monet.

I learnt of this trick to keep slugs and snails off seedlings:

It is a food can that the bottom has been taken off making a cylinder. This is pressed into the ground around the seedling and stops the slugs getting to the seedling. Once the seedling has grown past the stage where it is at risk of being completely eaten you can remove the can and use it on another seedling. I have used the small and larger cans and so far it is working really well. You can see in the photo the basil on right was chomped on before I put the can on. The seedling on the left is a Black Russian Tomato.

You may have also noticed that I have used a mix of sugar cane and shredded paper for my mulch. I have used equal amounts of each and mixed it together before spreading it on the bed. We have a severe weed problem and this is the only way I can stop the weeds coming through.

An update on yesterday:

I did get some cooking done.

This is the lentil hotpot I made up for Miss Berry. I always have some in the freezer and I use it as my convenience food for her. She will eat it hot or cold.

Lentil Hot Pot

1 carrot

1 stick of celery

small potato or swede or similar

1 clove garlic

2 tbsp dried red lentils

2 tbsp rice

1 tin of tomatos
1 tsp tomato paste

parsley to taste

Add everything excpet the parsley in a saucepan and add enough water or stock to cover. Simmer covered for about 30 mins or until veges and rice are soft, adding water if neccessary. You can also blend this so that little bubs can eat eat.

Once cooked, I let it cool and then put into clean baby food jars and then freeze - super easy and yummy!