My household organisation mission is starting to morph into a mission to make the house/myself more environmentally friendly. This is a good thing.

I'm taking advantage of being relatively cashed up at the moment, particularly considering things will be a bit tight next year. I've bought an energy saving powerboard for the television system downstairs another for the computer. Then at mc_shamo's suggestion I ordered some sandwich wraps and pockets so we use less glad wrap. And as our green bags are getting quite old and ratty I indulged in some very pretty "Envirosax" bags, which will fit easily in the glovebox of the car and hopefully eliminate the chances of arriving at the supermarket on the way home from work and realising that when I left the house I left the greenbags on the kitchen bench. On the weekend I decided to augment my beloved Diva Cup with some Rad Pads for the days when the Diva Cup is really overkill. As strange as it sounds, I'm actually looking forward to my next period to see how they go.

Next few things on the list for when we can afford it are a solar powered security light- hopefully removing the need to leave a light on outside when we go out- and a solar powered iphone charger.

The less expensive environmental or household organisation things I've done are to keep the 2lt plastic milk bottles instead of throwing them in the recycling. I've been drying them out, taking the labels off and filling them with rice and dried beans and popcorn etc. Protection from weevils and hopefully I can find most of the items in bulkfood places eliminating the plastic packaging. I discovered that unfortunately the jars [info]impostinator very kindly gave me for my preserves and marmalade making wouldn't work (they're old Vegemite jars with plastic lids) but this turned out to be a blessing, because now they house all my baking needs. I have one with shredded coconut, one with cocoa, one with chocolate chips, one with glace cherries and so on. Again, hopefully I can find somewhere selling most of these bulksale so packaging won't be an issue.

I'm also trying to return to my less wasteful roots. I stopped using hankerchieves when I was 19 at the request of my boyfriend who was grossed out by them, and somehow I never went back to them. A few weeks ago when I was over at my cousin's place I sneezed and asked her for a tissue, and she handed my a hankerchief. This inspired me to go out and get more (they are less prolific than they were when I was young) and I am now the proud owner of 8 hankerchieves, which will hopefully be enough to get me through a wash cycle. I'm also trying to follow the rule my mother had when I was growing up- no more lights on that people in the house. If I'm the only person on there should only be one light, even if that does mean turning off and on the light in the kitchen every time I need to stir something.

On the social/animal justice front since we got back from honeymoon I have not bought non free range chicken and have not ordered it in a restaurant. I may have eaten it at friends or relations houses but I figure that as long as I have the purchasing power and choose not to buy it I'm doing what I can. Also we have meat maybe twice or three times a week now, we have a lot more dishes with tofu and/or beans. Next step is only buying free range pork products. I need to find out where I can get free range ham and bacon. Any ideas?

So, that is where I'm at at the moment. If anyone has any ideas about environmentally friendly or frugal products I can buy please let me know, also any advice or tips would go down well. We won't have as much money next year with study etc. so I'm trying to find ways to save money then and hopefully not compromise too much on my environmental and social beliefs. And yes, I'm aware I'm in an incredibly privileged position that I can even consider all this, I figure that since I can I should, and I should remember that not everyone can.