CHANGING MY WAY OF LIVING - THERE ARE SO MANY THINGS I WANT TO DO, BUT JUST DONT KNOW WHERE TO START! CAN YOU HELP ME?

[kittylette]

It sounds silly but I have this image of how I want to live in my head, Ive had it for a long time but I just havent made any steps to achieve it.

Ive just read the 'boycotting tescos' thread and it really made me think about the way Im living and the example I am setting for my sons.

If I give you a list of the kind of things Im thinking about hen maybe you can give me tips.

I feel like my life is in bits at the moment and EVERYTHING lacks structure and i need to change it around!

I want to ...

*recycle - i dont do this at all.

*grow some of my own food, I have quite a big garden - so i feel this is totally achievable!

*shop locally but Im on a budget so dont know if this will be achievable - i want to switch to Organic - is it that much more expensive??

They are the 3 main things Im looking at.

OH and also STOP USING CARRIER BAGS - i hate them, but never get round to finding alternatives!

Its not just for the environment - its also for my kids health. I recently strated to buy wholemeal and brown produce instead of white, bread, rice, pasta ect - which is the first small step ive made -- but they were still bought from Morrisons! lol

I dont drive so this could be the major setback in shopping locally, because although there are FAB organic markets (unicorns) and such (delis ect) under 5 miles away (thanks to that barns website) 5 miles is still quite a long way when you have to walk with 2 babies, get the shopping and get the 5 miles home again! iykwim!

And theres NO WAY my mum would swap from supermarkets to them so no lifts with her whilst she does her shop anymore!!

Im sorry, I know this is a ramble - but its been going round in my head for such a long time that its all poured out at once!

Any tips for getting started would be SOOOO appreciated!

And remember i am a COMPLETE beginer !

kitty what you are doing sounds great

re the organic

we do bascially eat all eithr organic or locally GROWN, but we might have to stop that soon.

I spend about £70 pw on food max for 4 of us (but we usually end up feeding more anyway-we have family and friends round to eat, also my kids). I am prety sure can't get it down any further without switching from organic. We eat fish, but not meat.

Quite often its less if we use stuff we've grown which we do sometimes, and that includes treats! Bascially we cook everything from scratch, eat seasonally (MUCH cheaper), lots of pulses.

We also go to PYO farms-not organic (never sure WHY) but good environmentally I THINK. Oh and eat stuff like nettles.

start with the energy saving lightbulbs currently on sale at 39p in Morrisons, since you mentioned shopping there. They will quickly save you the cost of buying them Recommend you get 100w ones for living room but 60w for anywhere you don't need a strong light.

Cheapest way to go organic is to grow your own food. Peas are very easy, fresh from the pod taste great, can be planted anytime and need little care. Runner beans have pretty flowers but you may need to buy plants now. Slugs love them - but like the growing tips so plant out only when they are at least 6 inches and they will survive. Easiest to get a net and grow them up that. Tomatoes are also easy and the plants are available now but you may get a lot of green ones unless you live in the south or have a greenhouse. 3 plants can be grown in a grow bag almost anywhere but you need to water a lot. Do you have space for fruit bushes or trees? Trees can be trained along a fence, raspberry canes grown up one.

Have you considered sprouting seeds or growing cress indoors with the children?

Any buses to the local shops? Ours will deliver if you spend over £10 - you go in, choose what you want and it's delivered later in the day.

Great that you want to change.

e bulb for energy saving spot lights. We replaced the 4 spots in the kitchen light which were forever going and cost us a fortune with energy saving led spots. it cost nearly £40, but it is running at 80watts instead of 200, and are guaranteed for 1000's of hours = last loads longer than the non green alternatives.

Change to a green electricity supplier. Would really recommend Good Energy who are the only 100% renewable supplier I think. We switched to them about 4 months ago expecting to pay about £5 more for electricity a month (we used to pay £72 a month). In fact they've just reduced our direct debit to £30!

I know you use less in summer anyway but i think it's down to all the other measures we've taken - incl. energy saving bulbs and everything gets switched off at the mains when we're not using it including tv/set top box/video/tv/microwave/phone chargers. It's just become a habit. We don't use clock radios any more and don't miss them.

Have just seem this on the energy saving trust website -

Around 8% of total UK TV energy consumption is from standby alone - so turn it off when you have finished watching and save yourself money.
The new large flat screen TVs can cost up to three times as much to run as traditional TVs. This can add up to a surprising £85 to a typical household electricity bill every year. Do your research before you buy to make sure you're getting the most energy efficient model.
The UK's DVDs and VCRs consume over £200 million worth of electricity each year and this is expected to nearly double by 2020. This is mainly because they are left on standby, so turn them off at the plug when you're not using them.
Every year set-top boxes in the UK use around £285 million worth of electricity. Energy Saving Recommended TVs have a built-in set top box, which saves enough electricity to make around 2,000 mugs of tea a year) - and reduces carbon dioxide emissions.
The latest generation of computer games consoles consume up to an astonishing 180W of electricity - the equivalent of leaving three 60W bulbs burning (and potentially adding £160 per year to the electricity bill). Switch off your games console at the wall when not in use to save money and energy.

For energy saving spotlights try to find LED spotlights - we found they give a much nicer light than the regular energy saving. They also only take 1W or so, really minimal consumption.

We found a couple of the regular energy saving failed really quickly, which was disappointing.

You just have to check the shade on the LEDs you buy, some of the white ones are so white they have an almost blue tinge.

Look at the light output of energy saving light bulbs.

I found that the cheaper ones were not so efficient as the more expensive ones, ie 20W did not give so much light.

Ive just replaced all mine, and the smug feeling is fantastic!