Guest Post

For anyone who may be interested I have made a guest post on www.myzerowaste.com today to help out Mrs Green and the family due to the loss of their beloved pet.

Please take a look.

Weekly Weigh In 38

We have again kept below our target weight of 200g per week.

This weeks landfill waste came in at 182g.

I will be for the next few weeks monitoring again to see just what exactly is going into the landfill bin.
I'm hoping that now I've swapped the boys choc bars for totally recyclable packaging that this will eliminate some more.

Watch this space.

Weekly Weigh In 37

This weeks landfill bag weighed in at 198g.

As this is just under my target weight of 200g I am happy.

I'm quite surprised though as the boys have been on an eating frenzy.

We have however come to a compromise on chocolate bars (penguins etc); I will not be buying these any more but instead will buy some poppets or smarties which both come in cardboard boxes/tubes only, if bought individually, only just not as many due to the price increase.

I am still baking up a storm and to that end have not purchased any biscuits for at least 3 weeks, which also means hardly any waste, only baking ingredients wrappers, most of which are recyclable.

Weekly Weigh In 36

This weeks bag weighed in at 193g which just under my 200g target.

Most of this again was non-descript plastic packaging in particular, spagetti, and pasta bags.

You know the time when you have used the last in the storage jar so have to open the new packet. This happened with both this week.

A Day in the Life Of

I have decided to also do a typical whilst the boys are in school and I am at work. The evenings are dictated to more by which after school activities the boys do, be it at school or individual clubs; Tom does football on a Wednesday and David does Karate on a Thursday.

6.30am - Alarm goes off

6.45am - Myself and Dave get up, we have a cup of tea, I sort his pack up and put an extra load of laundry in if needed. I also make the bread dough into whatever bread I want for the day and put to prove whilst the oven is heating, if we need cakes then these are also made at the same time.

7.15am - Daves wakes the boys, they get up and have their cereal etc, then get any last minute things sorted for school.

8.00am - Dave goes to work and the boys go to catch the school bus, I put bread and cakes into oven to bake; prepare the dinner to put in the slow cooker if using. I then peg out first load of laundry. Obviously I am checking the bread and cakes as well. The computer is switched on so it is ready for checking online banking. ( I try to do this daily)

9.00am - The second load is usually finished by now so this also gets pegged out, (On wet wintry days I use an airer to hang the laundry on) I then empty the dishwasher as this has been running overnight on economy 7 electricity. I will then put away the laundry from the day before, and quick clean the bathroom. I straighten the all the beds. Hoover the upstairs and gather laundry which will go in overnight. This is the time I would also spend half hour doing a bit of sorting out.

10.30am - Coffee break, I check emails etc again,

11.30am - I have my own lunch

11.45am - I get ready to leave for work

1.30pm - return form work, cup of tea and check emails etc, I would then spend some time reading maybe or do some extra sorting and hoover downstairs,
once we start using it I also set the coal fire so it is ready to just put a match to just before the boys come home.

3.30pm - the boys come home and raid the fridge ( both claiming starvation!!); I have usually made a plate of sandwiches and left in there, they both have school canteen dinners.

4.00pm - they are off outside with their friends.

4.30pm - Dave comes home, we have a cup of tea and catch up on the day.

5.30pm - David usually comes in does any homework and spends approx an hour on the PC on MSN, Facebook and the online games he likes. I will prepare dinner if not done earlier in day.

6.30pm - I prepare the remainder of dinner, the boys set the table etc.

7.00pm - we eat dinner, the boys clear the table, I load the dishwasher so it can be put on timer to run overnight. I also load the bread machine and set the timer. I set the washer as well on its timer. Myself and Dave will either read or watch tv.

7.30pm - The boys both go back outside with their friends, they usually come in approx 8.30pm. Tom then does any homework and has approx 1 hour to catch up with his other friends on MSN, Facebook etc (certainly cheaper than him phoning all of them).David either watches tv with us or a dvd in his room or goes on Playstation or Wii.

9.00pm - David goes to bed,

10.00pm Tom goes to bed

10.30 - 11.00pm Myself and Dave go to bed.

Once the really wintry nights come in the boys obviously don't go back outside after dinner and will probably be on the Playstation or Wii, or we play family games.

Also although I think it is good for them to get a good blow/burn some energy off when first home from school homework takes priority over the extra leisure time after dinner.

Grocery shopping would be fitted in one morning once the boys had gone to school and before I needed to be at work.

Weekly Weigh In 35

Well the boys are back at school now. Has this had an impact on the amount of landfill waste?

You bet the landfill bag weighed in this morning at 153g.

That is a good reduction on the amounts we had been putting into landfill during the holidays, and more in keeping with the amounts I'm fairly happy with..

National Zero Waste Week

Over at MZW Mrs Green has declared next week National Zero Waste Week.

So pop over and have a look at some interesting articles to inspire you to join in and have your own Zero Waste Week.

Myself I am going to not buy any biscuits/choc bars/sweets unless the packaging is totally recyclable.

So I will have to get my baking head on, and also look very carefully at my purchases.

Crisps are also gradually being replaced by pop corn done on the stove with either a little salt or a little sugar sprinkled over as soon as it comes out of the pan.
It does mean there is one plastic bag per week that the corn came in but that is preferable to 20 odd crisp packets plus outer bags.

Weekly Weigh In 34

I'm a day late with this but the landfill bag was still weighed on Monday morning.

The bag this week weighs in at 197g.

So considering Dave has been off work as well as the boys on holiday this is really good.

Over the last few weeks by doing the No Spend Challenge I have used some things out of the freezer, and from the tins cupboard.

I do though like to have a store cupboard/pantry so it will be refilled this next week; but I have taken note of things which were not regular items we eat and will not be getting those again unless needed for a specific recipe.