As anyone got any tips for me

[Fucket]

We are a family and have young children. They’ve been learning about plastics in the ocean at school Yr1 and Reception. I feel it’s the perfect time to get them onboard for the new way of life we are going to adopt in the new year. Although some of it has already started.

Things we’ve done:

-changed energy supplier
-bought all secondhand furniture
-stopped buying snacks in plastic wrappers and making our own for school
-no foreign holidays
-refuse to take part in buying one-off charity gimmicks for things like children in need.
-buy their clothes one or two sizes bigger so they get lots of wear and have a minimal wardrobe.
-have never used baby wipes.
-going meat free on or two times a week.
-nothing made with palm oil.

Things I can’t do:

• give up the car, no public transport, roads are too dangerous for young children to cycle to school, no footpath for a mile, and a notorious dogging lay-by to go through.
• go completely plastic free we don’t have a lot of money and it breaks my heart that we have to buy things in plastic wrap (food)
• solar panels, our roof would need replacing first.

I would be grateful for any tips x

I believe with things that are difficult to find without plastic bulk buying where you can is better. reducing how much you use your car, if its manual using the clutch and break properly, could you switch to electric car?
eat seasonally. eat even less meat and diary.
switch to online billing if not already done
dont have more children
save water devices, reusing gray water.
using recycleable cards, decoration and wrapping papper even better if e card, decorating with nature ie flowers and fruits displays, using scarves or paper to wrap presents or giving them in reuseable boxes or tins.
just buy less in general..there are blogs on no spend year.
giving gifts of experience and time rather than objects.
regifting instead of buying brand new, maintaining devices and fixing them instead of buying new.
I think if you have a particular area of waste you can focus on alternatives..for me I made my own tooth paste, face masks (due to the recycling issue) and used a 100% recycleable tooth brush. you could also use Siwak sticks which are little plant stalks popular for brushing before the explosion of toothbrushes..

I also think that connecting with like minded people, ideally in person would be really good for moral support, a good rant and exchanging services, tools etc.

Thank you BettyCrook, our car is automatic and thankfully automatically cuts out when stopped in traffic. Although we rarely are stuck in traffic. DH already uses public transport for work. When we can afford a next car I’d like to go electric.

I already have big Xmas sacks to reuse and next year we are stopping sending/receiving cards. It’s stressful and it’s going to stop. I’m not going to be buying them loads of presents, they need to learn to appreciate things.

I will google gray water collection. I assume this is from bath water etc / going to the toilet?

I spoke with the water board, they told me our water usage is half what they expect for a family. I am relieved because we only have a bath, but we do a lot of stand up washes and baths twice a week. A shower is also on our wish list.

I will have to try and reach out to people locally to see if there any groups I could contact.

Bulk buying... yes I will look into this.

Thank you.

Mostly following, but having recently researched it, if you're with a 100% renewable energy supplier then my understanding was the benefit of solar panels was purely financial?

This is such a tiny thing, but the last time I bought soap for the bathroom I got an organic bar one. It was pricey - £2.50 compared to the usual £1 I'd spend on liquid soap, but it's outlasted the liquid soap by aaaaaages. In the time we've had the bar soap, I would've bought 3 or 4 liquid soaps, all in plastic bottles at a cost of min £3.00 so it's already paid for itself and is nicer smelling and longer lasting. I think we'll get at least another 1-2 weeks out of the current bar before we need another one.

It was this one BTW: www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/299918776