Friday 30 January 2009

All About You...and your credit-crunching eco-tips!

Photo: Winter Brightness by Grant Macdonald



Well here's a wonderful surprise for the weekend and a fabulous start to February and I'm not talking about the forecast of snow. It's far more exciting than that.

The folks behind Allaboutyou.com (the online home of Good Housekeeping, Prima, SHE, Country Living, House Beautiful and Coast magazine) have asked readers of The Rubbish Diet to have a good natter and submit their favourite eco-friendly tips that can help with the credit crunch.

Examples include making potatoes last longer by adding an apple to the bag (cor, I never knew that) or using vinegar, water and a newspaper to clean your windows.

Once all the tips have come in, I get to judge and submit the best tip to Allaboutyou.com for them to include on their website....oh the responsibility.

So, I'm going to get my thinking cap on and I hope you will too. Feel free to submit as many as you like over the course of the next week. Just simply add your suggestions to the comments below. I'll be announcing the chosen tip for publication on 9th Feb. Right... where shall we start?

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13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oooo, mrs A - whatever next. I'll have to wrack my brains.

In the meantime I've been having a blast using today's leftovers as tomorrow's ingredients. I think I've saved a LOT of money (not to mention fuel) this week by using things up that I already have in the house and not buying new. It's been quite an eye opener. Plus of course, it keeps food from the landfill, where is sits and produces methane - a big no no for the environment.

Very cool tip about the apple in the potatoes byw - you live and learn, eh?!

In the words of Arnie - I'll be back :D

Rev. Peter Doodes said...

You have shamed me! I have neglected my enviro DIY blog for some while now so after reading this I have started adding to it again...

http://diyenvironmentalideas.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

Hi Mrs A,

Making things last longer, is certainly a money saver. My take on this is the bathroom situation.

Using bars instead of bottles for shampoo, foam bath, deodorants etc., loss due to excess dampness or heat can be avoided.

Bars are stored in a dry, well ventilated room and placed in container when fully dry. Shampoo bar use involves a cold soak and lather followed by placement on a plate and carriage to the dry. Turning over at halftime dries the other side.

Christina S said...

My tip would be to grow your own veg to save money, and it doesn't necessarily mean you have to buy lots of paraphernalia to do so. Plastic packaging lids and boxes will do as seed trays, and bio degradable pots can be made from folded newspaper or toilet rolls (as Mrs Green demonstrates on her blog)!

Maisie said...

This is more a money saving idea than an eco idea but works in that you use less meat when making a mince dish etc.

For every lb of mince I add in 2 handfuls of oats and loads of chopped/grated veggies thereby making lb mince stretch to 2lb easily, and thereby saving fuel as well as cooking once eating twice maybe 3 times.

Anonymous said...

Knit your own shopping bags! There are loads of patterns out there, you can make the 'yarn'by cutting up old plastic bags, or old teeshirts if you prefer a cloth option (and knitting is dead easy, I will hear no excuses ;)

Almost Mrs Average said...

So good to hear your tips folks. Thank you so much - there are some great ones there and there's still time so keep them rolling in. :-D x

Alexandra Bone said...

Excellent tips there. People can save some good pennies through this. Just seen your blog linked from the WRAP blog too. Rock on!

:)

Anonymous said...

I thought those green things were some kind of freak St Patrick's day cookies.

Almost Mrs Average said...

Hi Alex - LOL - it does feel kinda cool to be linked from the WRAP site. By the way, loved your account of Richard Madeleys rubbish recycling remarks - folks do pop over to Alex's blog for a looksey! :-D

Hi Tea Diet - LOL - I've had another look at that photo of the shampoo bars and I entirely get your drift LOL - great to meet you by the way and thank you for sending me this chuckle :-D

Strawberry Jam Anne said...

If you have any silver that has become tarnished use this quick tip. In a bowl put a handful of plain washing soda crystals, a small piece of tin foil, scrunched up and add boiling water. The mixture will fizz a little. You can then dip your tarnished silver items into the mix and they come out lovely and shiny. A x

Gill - That British Woman said...

make your own laundry detergent and fabric softener, not only does it save you money but is good for the environment as well. You can reuse the same container over and over again to place it in.

Here is the "recipe" for laundry detergent: http://thatbritishwoman.blogspot.com/2008/08/homemade-laundry-detergent.html

And here is the "recipe" for the fabric softener: http://thatbritishwoman.blogspot.com/2008/08/homemade-fabric-softener-recipes.html

On a side note, I have been buying the Prima magazine on and off since it first came out, in the 80's and I think it was something like 89p an issue.

When we moved to Canada nearly 20 years ago I packed up my magazines and brought them with me, dh thought I was potty, but every now and then I look through them, as they still have great ideas in them.

Gill in Canada

Almost Mrs Average said...

Hi Anne - I must remember that one re the recycled silver bracelet I bought last summer. It was made from sugar tongs and is now looking a tad tarnishe.

Hi Gill - thanks for those and for the links to your recipes. Those are fantastic. For anyone looking in do pop over to Gill's site because she has loads of recipes for all kinds of things. Really worth a visit.

Thank you all for leaving your fabulous suggestions. They're great. I've just updated the blog with details of the tip that I finally decided to send to AllAboutYou. It was a really difficult choice though. Racked my brain for ages. :-D x

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