Can You Go Green AND Save Money?

[Helen May]

The green option is not always the cheapest it would seem.

Has anyone any thoughts on this?

Growing your own food has to be cheaper than shop bougnt, and in many cases, foreign produce.

May be I'm being over simplistic but if we stopped buying for the sake of it and made things last a bit longer it would help all round.

H

[GingerWeegie]

stop buying processed food, food out of season (flown across the world), buy loose veg and anything else to cut down on packaging.

Try taking all the goods out of the UNNECCESSARY packaging AT THE CHECKOUT, let those barstewards deal with all the waste!!

walk when you can, rather than drive

Grow your own...tastes SO much better and you know what's been done to it!!

Recycle

compost

and anything else you can think of.



one planet is all we've got, make it last a wee bit longer please?

[Feverfew]

Living greenly does save money, if you genuinely go green rather than wasting money on 'greenwash', organic designer clothing crap and overpriced organic food.

The problem is that the 'green movement' has been swallowed up by the big multinationals and they are just making money had over fist on it as buying green makes people feel a bit better about the planet.

Going green means actually making some sacrifices and doing without certain things - not browsing a catalogue and deciding what you can replace in your house with overpriced supposedly green products.

[Helen May]

Agree with your last paragraph entirely FF. That's the only way to save money.

H

[Lonegroover]

Some student friends of mine were active in the relatively new Friends of the Earth back in the early / mid 70s and they were saying then what some people are only just cottoning on to now - namely that "going green" requires a complete lifestyle change. If you have to get into your car to buy food or to dump your recyclables into sorting bins, you're not green. The whole movement today is a screen for the corporations to make profit and for the comfortable middle-classes to feel good (smug?) about themselves whilst having very little real impact.

Both my grandparents and my parents all had gardens full of vegetables - not because they wanted to be perceived as being "green" but because that's what gardens were for, weren't they? Almost every day I was sent out to the garden to pick some beans, peas, etc or pull some spuds.

And they taste a helluva lot better than the stuff labelled as "Organic" (whatever that means) in the supermarkets, too!

LG

PS: Home grown runner beans, peas and also beetroot. Lovely jubbly!

[Feverfew]

Exactly so, LG. Growing your own is the first step in going green, which is why government should be doing much more to protect our fantastic allotment heritage and to give priority to people who do not have access to gardens.

Other simple steps such as wearing a jumper indoors instead of swanning around with the heating on, turning off lights, fitting energy-saving bulbs, and using your own bags for shopping are simple ways of being green and saving money.

And of course, getting rid of your car or reducing the use of your car is a huge step forward. Cycling, walking and using the bus are all cheaper alternatives to the private car.

It really is as easy as that. Being properly green means you will automatically save money. The two go hand in hand.

[Rabid]

Do you grow your own sandals, FF?

[Feverfew]

Do you grow your own sandals, FF?


No. But I believe I live a far happier, healthier and more sustainable life because I am capable of making or repairing many of the other things that I need instead of sitting on my ass and expecting someone to do everything for me.

[Rabid]

Do you grow your own sandals, FF?


No. But I believe I live a far happier, healthier and more sustainable life because I am capable of making or repairing many of the other things that I need instead of sitting on my ass and expecting someone to do everything for me.

That's not stereotyping at all, is it?

In the past month I have repaired our washing machine (replaced the bushes on the motor), the shower screen, a snow globe ornament for my mother in law and many more things.

Just because I drive a car doesn't mean I am impractical. Quite the opposite in fact.

Don't feel the need to dress in sackcloth though.

[Feverfew]

That's not stereotyping at all, is it?


Yeah, right. Just like growing your own sandals and wearing sackcloth isn't stereotyping?

For the record, I wasn't suggesting that you aren't capable of repairing things. I'm sure you are. I was just defending a general approach to life in which I have retained some capacity to do things for myself. As have you.

[Deckerd]

I can't fix anything but I'm a firm believer in self-sufficiency so I married someone who can fix anything.

[Feverfew]

I married someone who can fix anything.


My partner is good on mechanical thgings as he's a boat engineer, but he's taught me ton do a certain amount myself too for example on the bike. I'd hate to have to ask someone to do that stuff for me all the time.

[Helen May]

Good one Decks! A school friend of mine who became an optician married a dentist, she always said she hoped her sister would get hitched to a doctor and they'd have it all sorted!

H

[Deckerd]

I'd hate to have to ask someone to do that stuff for me all the time.
I don't see why. That's what he's paid for.

[Feverfew]

That's what he's paid for.


Uhh? Hope you don't get stuck with a broken fan belt, Decks.

[Deckerd]

I don't think you're following my thread here FF. If I have a broken fan belt, he fixes it.

[Feverfew]

If I have a broken fan belt, he fixes it.


And if he's not around...?