Have you ever felt really frustrated because you couldn’t quite place a word you wanted and then felt so relieved when it eventually comes to you?  I had a concept floating around in my head and I decided there wasn’t a word out there that was working for me. I had a burning need to put a word to it though, so I made one up and here it is: upuse – ta-da!

I might not be quite the Oxford dictionary, but here is my definition of upuse:

The reason this was bugging me so much was because it is something I have started doing semi-regularly. The closest descriptions to it I could think of were making do, but I didn’t feel that was specific enough and upcycling but I think that implies that the item is altered in some way.

Some examples of upusing I have done around the house include:

• I used to have large mixing bowls and similar sized serving bowls. It honestly had never occurred to me that I could use my serving bowls for mixing (or vice-versa), but the mixing bowls disappeared during my Year of Eco Challenges (read more here) when I was buying nothing new for myself and it didn’t take long to realise that my serving bowls, which were rarely used previously, would work just fine as mixing bowls. Now I make bread dough in them regularly. Incidentally it turns out after getting Mr ETL to read this post before I published it, he has been been doing some upusing of his own and we do still have them!
• I used to put the plastic bags I brought home from the supermarket in a plastic bag dispenser. Now I use the dispenser to store and dispense reusable cloth wipes for use around the kitchen (read more here)!
• I have written about this quite a few times on the blog, but I now use a freezer bag to keep food cool and hot and as a kind of thermal cooker – perfect for making yogurt in or to keep bread dough warm .
• My kids decorated some mugs at a club last summer, which I haven’t used because we didn’t really have room for them on our shelf of mugs. I didn’t want to get rid of them, so now they are being used as attractive and personalised pen and pencil holders!

I currently do my food shopping every week with Abel and Cole (an online organic fruit and veg box site), one of their listed retailers. So now when I do my shopping if I take a quick visit to Bonsum first I can gain a few bonets each time. Other retailers include, Green and Blacks, Planet Organic, Etsy, Toms, Traidcraft, Green People and more!

Bonsum has a set of five criteria that they judge each of their retailers on and they make sure that at least two of them are met by each retailer. These criteria include whether or not the item is fair trade, animal friendly, is made from sustainable, recycled or recyclable materials, contains safe ingredients and is CO2 neutral. I like the page they have written about each shop and exactly how they feel they have met these criteria. They detail the good stuff the retailers are doing as well as acknowledging where the retailers aren’t perfect.

I think it would take quite a while before the Bonets added up to much, but after the initial registration it only takes seconds to click through to your chosen site. It is quite nice to collect a few points either for charity each time I shop or if I manage to save up enough I might even splurge on a jar of coconut oil!

If you decide to sign up, use the code helloecothriftyliving and you will find yourself with 200 Bonets to get you started!

Disclaimer – This is a sponsored post.