Poverty and going green.

Looking through the magazines and catalogs you could be mistaken for thinking that to ge green you need to spend a lot of money.
After all, those solar panels and hybrid cars don't come cheap do they!

As a family who live below the poverty line set by the government I can categorically state that money is no barrier to living as green as you can and in many cases is a positive hindrance.

A lack of money can make you more aware of the materials you have around you to do a job. A bottle does as good a job as an expensive candle stick, half a plastic drinks bottle is a fantastic mini cloche in the greenhouse.

Yesterday I saved myself £100 by building my own wormery.
Admittedly its with supermarket boxes that don't OFFICIALLY belong to me, but that's by the by. They shouldn't keep leaving them with me should they!

I took 3 boxes and lined the bottom one with thick cardboard then half filled it with well rotted muck, then I put the second box in and filled that halfway with muck, then lastly the third had a sprinkling of muck then some veggie peelings and a layer of newspaper.



Yes..that is more snow you see *sigh*



The worms came for free out of the muck heap and will be added too as the weather grows warmer. Hunting for worms in the snow wasn't very profitable!
I topped the whole thing off with a lid held on with a bungee rope.
Not only did I save money but I also had no need for a product to be made for me and transported to me, so extra green brownie points for me!

I also had to use my (rusty..ok , none existent)sewing skills this week.
Little Merle dog is still teeny tiny and has a thin coat not suited to being only 3lb in sub zero temps, so he needed a coat, but I wasn't about to spend £30+ on some ting that probably wouldn't fit him as he's so small...so I MADE one!!!




Its basically the sleeve of broken fleece jacket that I cut and hemmed and added a band of elastic too! Does the job and fits him well, and I won't cry if he out grows it!

So that's my creativity this week.

Another problem this week is the semi-demise of our washing machine.
I don't know if its because we can never afford the "good" electrical equipment or because all electric goods have built in obsolescence but this stuff just won't last!!
At the moment I can get a spin out of it so I am washing clothes in the bath and spinning them after.
How long this will keep working though I don't know.

What I would really love is a good twin tub like my Mother in law used to have.
You could fill it from the tap with water as warm or cool as you liked and re-use the water as well. I used to split washing into 3 groups, lights, darks and dirty's.
The lights would go in the first, then the darker clothes then the dirty clothes like gardening and stable clothes, gloves etc, that way you could use the same water for 3 washes. Then simply swap it into the spin part and fill with water for a quick rinse and spin.
Looking out for one in the free papers, a brand new one STARTS at over £250.
The other option is a spin drier and to continue to hand wash but I don't know how feasible that is, guess I will find out over the next few weeks!

So you see its pretty easy to be green when there is no money.
There are a million stores and websites catering for the monied green wannabe, but is it really a "green" option? Is it better to buy a dress made form organic fair trade bamboo or to bye one from a charity shop and then turn it into something else when your done with it?

What do you think?