past challenges Archives - Eco Thrifty Living

Are you ready to kick start your journey to less waste?

Zoe — Sat, 02 Sep 2017 20:14:04 +0000

September is often a time for new beginnings. There is that back to school (or work) feeling after the summer holidays are over. It’s a great time to set new goals and with zero waste week starting on Monday. Why not let it kick start you on a journey to less waste?

September is also a good time to start preparing for Christmas. Prints of my drawings are now in my Etsy shop. They are printed on bamboo paper and use recyclable packaging. They make a really great Christmas gift. Hint, hint, nudge, nudge

You can check out my shop here: Zoe’s Zen Art Etsy Shop. If you would like something customised feel free to get in touch with me here to discuss: zoeszart@gmail.com.

Last week in the Reduce your food waste Facebook group we prepared for zero waste week by keeping a food waste diary.

My food waste this week

The idea is to see if there are particular problem areas that needed dealing with. My food waste for the week included bananas and milk which I had tried to rescue by blending together. I then realised I had ruined the bananas because the milk was too far out of date and I wasn’t happy to use it.

One son managed to some spill oats and milk on the floor making his breakfast, my other son sneaked a potato skin into the compost when I wasn’t looking and I burnt a small amount of popcorn. Other than that, the things that went in the compost weren’t edible (or they were things I wouldn’t usually eat) e.g. avocado peel, banana peel and pepper innards, so we didn’t do too badly.

This week in the food waste group we are going to get as close to zero food waste as possible. Come and join us! I will be posting each day to see how everyone did. We can also share our food waste avoidance tips with each other.

You might not think keeping a food waste diary for one week would have much of an effect on you. However, I’ve found that keeping a food waste diary changed the way I thought about food in my kitchen. Now I hardly waste anything and we have saved ourselves so much money reducing our food waste!

Don’t forget to sign up to Zero Waste Week itself to get all the zchallenges and tips! Sign up here: Zero Waste Week

Good luck with reducing your waste – I hope it goes well!

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Are you up to the food waste diary challenge?

Zoe — Sat, 26 Aug 2017 07:09:22 +0000

Before I tell you about the challenge, I would really appreciate your help with my bamboo paper art prints that I am selling on Etsy. I am new to this and I have put together a quick survey on the prints and what I should be selling. The link to the survey is here: Zoe’s Zen Art Survey. Please take a few moments to complete it – filling it out will really make my day. Thank you so much! In case you missed my blog post about it last week – until l the end of September 2017 I will donate £2 to Zero Waste Week for every print sold. You can check out my Etsy store where I am selling them here: Zoe’s Zen Art Etsy Shop .

Food Waste Diary Challenge:

Zero Waste Week starts on 4th September this year and in preparation I’ve challenged the members of the Reduce Your Food Waste Facebook Group to keep a food waste diary next week. Each evening starting Monday and finishing Friday I will post in the group asking people to share what food has gone in the bin that day. The idea is to work out how much food is being thrown away in our homes and what it is. Then the week after, during zero waste week we will try and aim for a no food in the bin week.

It’s up to you to decide what counts as food waste. If you are regularly throwing food you would eat in the bin e.g. leftover pasta or bread, then just stick with recording the foods you would usually eat. If you are really good at using up the foods you would usually eat, then you could record everything including the foods you don’t usually eat e.g. fruit and vegetable peels and skins.

You can record your food waste diary however you like – you could write it down, take pictures of it or weigh it. Do whatever works for you. To join in with the food diary challenge, you can join the Facebook group here: Reduce your food waste Facebook group and to join in with Zero Waste Week, sign up here: Zero Waste Week. I look forward to seeing all your food waste diaries next week!

Pin it for later

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Art prints and raising money for #zerowasteweek

Zoe — Wed, 16 Aug 2017 09:48:00 +0000

If you have been following me on Facebook and Twitter, you might have noticed that I have started up a new project – Zoe’s Zen Art! You can buy my prints from my Esty shop here: Zoe’s Zen Art Etsy Shop

What does this have to do with being eco-friendly and saving money I hear you ask?

Well on the money side – it could be described as a side hustle and I have lots to say on the eco-side.

Firstly Zero Waste Week is coming up in September and for every print sold between now and the end of September 2017 I will donate £2 to Zero Waste Week. I have been an ambassador of Zero Waste Week for a few years now and it has massively inspired me. The lady who runs it – Rachelle Strauss has had an amazing impact on so many people and has been challenging us all to reduce our rubbish for years now. If you haven’t already signed up – do it now here: Zero Waste Week. Go on – you know you want to!

Secondly I have chosen eco-friendly and recycled materials where I can. The prints are printed on bamboo fine art paper which a more eco-friendly alternative to cotton, which fine art paper is often made from. Cotton is water and pesticide intensive to grow. The packaging that I send the prints out in is recycled and recyclable where possible.

My drawings are mostly abstract and when I make ‘mistakes’ I incorporate them into the picture where I can which helps to reduce waste as I don’t scrunch up the paper if the picture isn’t going quite the way I planned!

If you choose to buy a print you will be helping to support an independent artist and blogger as well as Zero Waste Week 2017.

Your support in buying these prints and helping to spread the word about them is really appreciated. Thank you!

Some of the pictures I have for sale (note – frame not included):

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Week 3 of the #stillgood decluttering challenge

Zoe — Mon, 20 Mar 2017 08:00:00 +0000

We are heading into the 3rd week of the #stillgood decluttering challenge and this week the focus is on the freezer! It’s time to dig out those icy relics and use them up! If you know you will never use them give them away or consign them to the compost and try to get a system in place so you don’t forget about your freezer foods again!

Last week was all about decluttering our long life store cupboard foods, like baking ingredients, herbs and spices, tins and cans. Did you join in? What did you find and what did you use up?

I am pretty on top of the store cupboard situation. I do need to make better use of my spices though as there are some that I don’t use. I found some oatcakes that had been crushed at the bottom of a bag and I had put in the cupboard to use at some point but hadn’t worked out what to do with them. I asked the members of the Reduce your food waste Facebook group for suggestions of what to do with them and they had some great ideas:

Cheese cake base – sweet or savoury!
Crumble topping on an apple or vegetable crumble.
In a nut roast
Use instead of breadcrumbs in meatballs or burgers
Add to falafels

I really liked the idea of making a savoury cheesecake or savoury crumble, but I already had some mince in the fridge and so it made sense to make meatballs with them (see my meatball recipe here – I substituted the breadcrumbs for the crushed oatcakes and used dried herbs instead of fresh ones). They actually tasted really good, so if I ever have a crushed oat cake problem again I know what to do with them.

Come and join in with our #stillgood decluttering challenge over in the Reduce your food waste Facebook group or comment below on how it is going for you! Hope you all have a great week!

Coming soon – look out for my blog post on Thursday about why we have decided to make the switch to Oct opus Energy (affiliate link – this won’t cost you any extra to use, but if you click through and sign up I will make a small commission and you will help to support the blog – thanks!).

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Week 2 of the #stillgood decluttering challenge!

Zoe — Mon, 13 Mar 2017 07:32:00 +0000

Last week was the start of the #stillgood decluttering challenge and the plan was to declutter our drinks cupboards, work out what was #stillgood, what had to go and what needed using up! Did you take part? How did it go for you? I found three very out of date drinks including a carton of orange juice, a can of beer and a bottle of sparkling wine. I had been saving the sparkling wine for a special occasion and although sparkling wine doesn’t go off, it didn’t taste nice. The beer didn’t taste good either and I didn’t want to risk trying the orange juice. The juice and beer went down the sink and I’m going to have a go at making vinegar with the sparkling wine. I did try combining it with some (in date) juice, but it didn’t help sadly. I learned that champagne/ sparkling wine should be stored lying down (to keep the cork from drying out) and at a continuous cool temperature to prolong it’s life. I hadn’t done either of those things :(. On the upside I had, had a really good clear out of our tea and coffee cupboard a while ago and didn’t find anything to declutter in there!

We have had some bottles of spirits, some full and some with a tiny bit left in the bottom of the bottle, which have been untouched for years and years and I wanted them out the cupboard so that we can use it for other things. They were all fine, but they were either brought back from holidays as souvenirs and never opened or left at our house by visitors from long ago parties (in those far away days before we had kids). I used up some vodka and bacardi by pouring them into an old cleaned out olive oil bottle and added some vanilla pods. I’m hoping that we will have vanilla extract in a couple of months! Some of the spirits I am going to give away and some we will keep because we know they will get drunk eventually.

This week the focus of the decluttering is going to be on checking the dried, tinned and canned goods (including herbs, spices and baking ingredients) in our cupboards and using up the things that need using up! It would be great if you joined in and if you want to chat about it with others online, join in with the event in the Reduce your food waste Facebook group – hope to see you there!

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Take the #stillgood decluttering challenge!

Zoe — Thu, 02 Mar 2017 08:00:00 +0000

When was the last time you had a good rummage around your food and drink supplies to see what needs using up and what needs to go?

This month I am setting you the challenge of having a good clear out and working out what is #stillgood! Hopefully the challenge will save you some money, stop food being wasted and relieve all that poor food that has been stuck in the same position for so long

Some things will last years past their best before date, but if you have stuff languishing in the back of a cupboard that you are never going to eat or drink, you could free up some space and give it away. Otherwise make a plan to use them up! If something is past its use by date, doesn’t smell or look good, or if you see any mould, don’t take any risks – compost it or if you can’t do that, bin it.

Starting on Monday 6th March, the areas to be tackled are:

Week 1: drinks – both dried and in liquid form e.g. tea, coffee, alcohol, juice and so on.

Week 2: tins, jars and dried goods e.g. flour, rice, pasta, herbs, spices.

Week 3: Freezer foods and/or the condiments in your fridge

Week 4: The food you keep outside your kitchen – e.g. in your office drawer, in your car, your secret stash of munchies

Join in with the challenge with others in the Reduce your food waste Facebook group or on Twitter or Instagram using the hashtag #stillgood. Each week post a picture of the things you find that are past their best before date but still good to eat or drink.

Thanks to Anna from Rosie’s Ecoblog for suggesting the hashtag #stillgood!

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4 ways the sharing economy could help you make some extra cash to help pay for Christmas!

Zoe — Thu, 24 Nov 2016 08:00:00 +0000

Christmas doesn’t need to break the bank, there are loads of ways to make it affordable, but there are times when you might want to spend a bit extra. The minute you put the word organic in your shopping list, the price goes through the roof. Sustainable gifts can be pricey and if you are visiting family and friends that aren’t local, costs can spiral. Last year the Mirror said that the cost of Christmas had ‘pushed up to 87% of adults into debt and nearly half of those will still be in the red at the end of 2016’. Getting into debt over Christmas is not a good idea especially if you are still recovering from last year! It is so much better to save up the money first and if you are running out of time and options for that, another alternative is to try and make a bit of extra cash in the run up to Christmas!

Easy Car Club: Rent out your car when you are not using it! EasyCar club lets you list your car for free on their website for potential punters to rent out. I thought about doing this and to be honest didn’t get very far, but I don’t live in the right area. I think this would probably work best in city centres where lots of people can rely on public transport most of the time and only want occasional access to a car. If you are away over Christmas and won’t need your car, it might be the perfect time to rent your car to someone who wants to rent one to go and visit their friends and relatives!

Uber: Become a taxi driver in your spare time. Uber allows people to book your services virtually and handles the rates and takes payment as well. We took our first Uber ride a few weeks ago. We were pretty impressed with the service and it was cheaper than getting a traditional taxi.

Just Park: Rent out your parking space! If you have a parking space or garage near a station, a popular beach, or in a city centre that you aren’t using, you could make some money renting it out. Garages aren’t just for parking in – we actually rent out part of our garage for long term storage, which is such little work for a bit of regular money coming in.

Airbnb: Rent out your spare room! We rent our spare room to students on and off throughout the year and I prefer having someone in it to not because when we don’t have student it just ends up being filled with junk and tidying it is another thing to add to the to do list. Make sure you are comfortable with whoever you are renting to before you do (ask for more info, check passports if needed) and also make sure you comply with any relevant legislation like having a gas safety certification and reporting any earnings which are taxable.

So what are you waiting for? Make your assets like an underused car, parking space, garage or a spare room start working for you, pay their keep and help you avoid getting into debt this Christmas!

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Zero Waste Week Day 5!

Zoe — Fri, 09 Sep 2016 17:06:00 +0000

It’s the final day of Zero Waste Week today and so far so good!

There was a very wobbly moment this morning when it looked like my younger son wasn’t going to finish his breakfast, but then he asked for an apple and the rule in our house is that you have to finish what you are eating before eating something else. So he decided to finish his breakfast and eat an apple.

At lunch time I didn’t have time for a salad because I had a really busy day and I was getting ready for the Show Me the Money conference and awards tomorrow – buying train tickets and deciding what to wear. I’m still not sure yet – I was having one of those days looking in a wardrobe full of clothes and thinking I have nothing to wear! So instead of salad I had some marmite and cheese cracker sandwiches using up some of the free crackers I got via Olio with a little bit of veg on the side and nothing got left behind!

When I picked up the kids from school, one of the school mums was handing out beautiful baked breads, french sticks and rolls that were left over from a cafe or bakery (her husband has a cafe I think and it is either their bread or from a bakery or something nearby). We took a couple gladly and the kids munched on half each of one of them on their way home from school and this one below made it home!

For dinner I decided to make the kids food early – they had mashed potato / sweet potato with cheese and fruit for dessert. We are having dinner later – spring rolls, crispy duck and pancakes which we buy from a local specialist Chinese supermarket to have as an occasional treat. The potatoes needed using up as they are starting to go a bit soft and wrinkly and the duck has been in the freezer a while. So we are making do with what we have. I’m sorry but I’m not going to report back after our dinner as as I need an early night!

I want to say a massive thank you to Rachelle Strauss for all her hard work organising Zero Waste Week, her dedication and enthusiasm have been so inspirational to me and so many. I want to also thank her for starting up a great podcast series called ‘Be the change’. She is interviewing people who are making positive changes for the environment and you can listen in on her interview with me published today here Be The Change Radio – Zoe Morrison!

Zero Waste Week is going from strength to strength and it is a lot of fun to be a part of. If you missed out this year, don’t worry you can sign up to the newsletter and be on top of the game for next year! Also in the mean time you don’t have to wait for Zero Waste Week to start reducing your rubbish – take a look at the stuff you are throwing away and see if there are any easy changes you can make. You never know by next Zero Waste Week you might be volunteering to have a week without throwing anything away!

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Zero Waste Week 2016 Day 4!

Zoe — Thu, 08 Sep 2016 19:55:00 +0000

It’s day four of Zero Waste Week and I have to report some food went to waste today dun dun duh!

Breakfast was ok – we had the usual porridge and banana with the banana peels going in the compost.

A friend dropped off some eggs mid morning – I run a group where we take it in turns to go and buy organic free range eggs from a local farm in bulk. They are so much cheaper than the supermarket and it is great to support a local farm. However one had a crack in it and I wasn’t there when she brought them round – they had been left outside for a bit and I didn’t want to risk using it, so I chucked it on the compost heap. I didn’t remember to take a photo – so here is one of the missing egg.

At lunch time I had the most amazing salad. It was my first ever entirely home grown/ foraged salad substantial enough to eat without supplementing with other bits – thanks to Mr ETL for growing a lot of it! It was bitter and sweet with loads of incredibly tasty ingredients including, rocket, sweet woodruff, lemon balm, a extremely over ripe tomato which was very sweet, cucumber, onion, courgette, plum, blackberries and grated frozen horseradish. I also added some of the blackberries which we foraged for yesterday. If you have never grown tomatoes or courgettes and you like them, you have to try it – they are the tastiest ones you will ever eat! Unfortunately I got a bit distracted towards the end of my salad and some bits ended up not getting eaten and put on the compost heap…

Rocket with the plums, blackberries and tomatoes

The rest of the salad ingredients added

What was left at the end – including a tomato stalk.

That was only a tiny bit of salad though, my worst offence today was related to plums. When I was picking a couple for my lunch I noticed some rotting on the tree and some not looking so good on the ground as well – quite a lot of them! I’ve been leaving them on the tree to pick as and when, but I think now might be the time to pick the rest of them and put them in the fridge.

For dinner we had tuna pasta/ cauliflower rice. I used up the ends of various different packets of pasta and added some ground up mustard seeds to the tuna, which I noticed in my spice cupboard when I was having a clear out of it. I used half a cauliflower which I steamed over the pasta to save energy. I put the whole thing in the steamer including the leaves and the stem and when it was cooked I added some saffron, which smelled nice and tasted nice too (although it was a very mild flavour). The kids had some yoghurt with chopped up kiwi and plum for dessert and my older son had a satsuma – more peel in the compost…..

About to steam the cauliflower over the pasta!

Cauliflower saffron rice with cauliflower leaves and stalk!

My older sons ‘leftovers’ from dinner – some kiwi peel and a bit of satsuma

I’m noticing a trend of not using up my fruit / veg peelings, but I don’t want to make stock as it takes hours and then you have to use it or freeze it and that could take up a lot of space in the fridge or freezer! I know that you can polish shoes with banana peel, but there is only so much shoe polishing I want to spend time doing (i.e. none), so I’m all out of ideas for how to use up peel…Anyone have any great ideas out there that don’t take up much time, space or energy?

Hope you all had a great 4th day of zero waste week and that tomorrow there will be less food waste in my house for the grand finale of ZWW 2016!

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Zero Waste Week 2016 Day 3

Zoe — Wed, 07 Sep 2016 19:35:00 +0000

It’s day 3 of zero waste week 2016, the theme being food waste this year!

Last night I got invited to host #MondayMoneyUK by Andy from @UKMoneybloggers on Twitter. It was the busiest hour on Twitter I’ve ever experienced, but it was fun – thanks to Andy for organising it! I asked 5 questions along a zero waste week theme and lots of great tips were shared! Check out a round up of what went on here #MondayMoneyUK – Zero Waste Week Twitter chat

Today I was feeling pretty chuffed with how much progress we have made when it comes to reducing our food waste compared to last time we did a food waste diary and we again had very minimal food in the compost heap! In fact the only food that went in the compost was some banana peel, the end of a carrot, the bottom of a cucumber, a bit of tomato that wasn’t so nice (looks alright on the side I took a pic of, but it wasn’t on the other side), some fish bits and bones and some potato peel (yes I know I could have used it for something, any suggestions?).

For breakfast we had porridge and banana – no waste except the banana peel.

For lunch I made myself a salad using up rocket, tomatoes and some of the massive courgette from our garden as well as other veg from the fridge.

Food waste from lunch

I also made some rolls for the kids, some of which I added cheese on top! I’ve never made cheesy rolls before, but they turned out ok luckily. I froze the ones that didn’t get eaten so that they won’t go off before they can get used!

We went out blackberry picking in the afternoon and came back with these beauties, well actually they weren’t the best I’ve ever seen, but I’m not complaining about having some free food!

We also came back with this beautiful passion flower which we found overhanging from someone’s garden into an alleyway. The kids decided to put it in a flower press, so we managed to avoid wasting it phew

We had some delicious apple juice lollies when we got back from blackberry picking. We got given the apple juice from my uncle and his girlfriend who we visited when we were over in Brittany recently – thanks guys! They have loads of apple trees and each year they juice the apples to drink all year round!

For dinner we had some mackeral which had been in the freezer for a while and I had forgotten about, some chopped up potatoes and sweet potatoes and some peas. I also had some more of the massive courgette, which tasted absolutely amazing steamed with the fish! As I said before I did put the potato peel and fish bones and bits the kids didn’t like in the compost at the end of the meal.

For dessert we had banana icecream (frozen blended over ripe banana) – some mixed with cocoa, some mixed with blackberries and some plain. I also added some frozen milk to the mix! I froze the milk when we went away and couldn’t use it all up and the bananas got frozen because they were a bit too ripe to eat! Strangely there wasn’t even a tiny bit of this left…

Following on from yesterday I found out that plum pit nuts are not edible so don’t try them and that chopping off a bit of cinammon stick and putting it in hot water makes a really delicious tea! I’m going to put the rest of my cinammon sticks and my licorice root in my tea cupboard now!

Hope you are all enjoying zero waste week – how is it going for you?

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