Towards a more green and simple life

Today I have decided to take stock of where I am with the various challenges I’ve set myself, and changes I’ve made to our lives since I started writing this blog. Recently a few readers have asked if I’m still using/ doing something I blogged about a while ago, and it got me thinking about what has worked and become part of everyday life, and what’s fallen by the way-side. So here goes…
Handwashing
Well, this has almost fizzled out! When I did the challenge I thought it was do- able to wash a few loads by hand each week, but it’s turned out not to be. I still scrub Maisie’s socks and tights by hand because it gets them cleaner - she’s such a muck magnet! I ought to try washing at least all the underwear by hand again really, as it did reduce the number of machine loads significantly and therefore the save on electricity and water.
Cutting down on chemicals
Still working on this. I no longer buy any household cleaning products- it’s all done with bicarb, vinegar, lemons, essential oils etc , and we use an oil burner with essential oils instead of air freshners. The results are good, it’s cheap and the house and my hands don’t smell of chemicals.
Natural/ homemade beauty
The cucumber cleanser , fell by the wayside in favour of Lush’s angels on bare skin, it contains no preservatives and is a very natural product. (not all their products are as natural as I thought they would be) I also use one of their solid shampoo bars, which has the bonus of being packaging -free. I’ve stopped using the bicarb to wash my hair regularly, but use it from time to time and would use it as a substitute if we ran out of shampoo. I’m still using the lip-balm I made as it’s much better than any I’ve bought, and I’d like to try out some more recipes for lip balms and hand creams. I’ve stopped using shop- bought face moisturisers in favour of pure jojoba oil, and I wouldn’t go back as my skin is much softer, and I’m still using the pitrock deodorant. One of the next projects I’d like to have a go at is making soap, fragranced with essential oils.
Home cooking
I was quite into cooking from scratch before I started the blog, but I’m even more committed now. It tastes better, is free from unnecessary ingredients and it’s cheaper. Inspired by kethry I’ve even started to make bread by hand rather than using the bread machine. When I read her post a few weeks ago, I thought it sounded too much like hard work, when I could just pop the ingredients in the machine and let it get on with it. But for a while I’ve been making the dough in the machine then shaping it into rolls or putting it in loaf tins to bake in the oven, as its easier to slice the smaller resulting loaves. Then last week I decided to take a chance and try and make a loaf by hand, and it was really satisfying, and the bread was great. I won’t be ditching the machine , as it is convenient, but I will make some loaves by hand too.
Money saving
Last month we started a jar for saving loose change, its not going to amount to a huge amount of money, but if we keep going there will be something there at the end of the year, without us really having to do anything. A couple of days ago I signed up to a thread on the money saving expert forum- the grocery challenge. I’m going to keep receipts for any groceries and track how much we spend in a month, and then try to shave just a little off each month to try and reduce the spend.
Recycling
We are continuing to reduce waste and recycle as much as possible, there’s still a lot more we could do, but it’s great to see Joe and Maisie putting things in the right bins as second nature and being aware of packaging etc at such a young age. I have found facilities locally to tetrapaks and so we now drop them off at the same time as the glass .