Pssst....

Ethical online retailer Adili.com are in the midst of a sale with certain items up to 50% off. My favourites are:

Colourful embroidered dress

£66.50 [was £95.00]

Chenna's quilt pumps

£45 [was £90]

Silk mix button waist coat
£63.70 [was £91]

Second-hand style....

As an ardent shopper one of the things I really battle with in my bid towards greener living is the idea that I shouldn’t really be buying stuff I don’t need. And to be strictly honest, at this point in my life, when it comes to bags, shoes, clothes and jewellery I don’t actually need anything. Even if it is fairtrade/ethically sourced/organic….or any of the above. It is one thing acknowledging this and another trying to live by it so in the meantime, one of the ways to assuage my conscience somewhat is charity shop shopping! Because if I’m buying something pre-owned then I am really just contributing towards the recycling process….right? Don’t disillusion me please, I am sure this theory has its own flaws, but let me just have this one for now….

Historically I’ve only really scoured the charity shops for books. But recently I’ve broadened my outlook somewhat and realised that with a little patience and regular check-ins they can be the source of all sorts of goodies. I bought a gorgeous striped-glass jug with two matching glasses recently for £2. So effectively what I’ve bought is recycled glass, I’ve just cut out the middle man!

I have also just ordered my first purchase from Oxfam’s online second-hand shop. The beauty of this option is that you don’t need to keep visiting a shop (which is a necessary component of an effective charity shopping strategy if you want to find something great) which can be time consuming. The online option means you can easily narrow down your search to your size, price range and/or category. And even better, you can then narrow it down by the condition of the item. So you can just search the Used: As New category if you so choose, or if you’re exta fussy, there is also a ‘with tags’ category so you’re essentially buying a new item. As an added bonus, all purchases from the second-hand store come with free delivery until the 20th of July. So check it out for some guilt free shopping that is also easy on the wallet……

Enjoying London doesn't have to cost the earth....

I agree so much with the general premise of this article ‘Bargain London’ [guardian website travel blog]. Check out the comments to this as well for a whole lot of ideas on what to do in London when money is tight.

London can be incredibly expensive, as can most major cities, but there is also plenty to do on a budget. I am just too lazy to get out and do these things most of the time but as this article mentions, there are a host of websites and guides that can offer inspiration. On a ‘green’ note (just cause I can ;) Visit London even has a ‘green’ section of their website: www.visitlondon.com/people/green which not only has ideas on where to go and what to eat, but also tips on how to make sure you’re a ‘responsible tourist’ (which doesn’t sound particularly exciting I’ll admit but is more along the lines of throw away your litter and respect your environment rather than prohibiting any wild behaviour!).

Keep one Onya (groan....)......

I am truly appalling at remembering to take my own bags with me when I go grocery shopping. Although I generally do manage to take my own bags along when doing a ‘big shop’, I tend to forget when it’s just a general popping in to get a few groceries, or when it’s not for groceries at all but clothes or books or toiletries etc. And I have all manner of cloth/hemp/plastic shopping bags but the issue is just that I don’t take them with me when I’m not anticipating a major shopping trip.

Hence my purchase of an Onya bag. It’s the best ‘fold-up’ bag I’ve seen/bought predominantly because it’s made out of parachute material so it can be stuffed into its own little pouch in a couple of seconds (I used to have another synthetic fold-up bag but it seemed to require advanced engineering skills to return it, folded and neat, into the little pouch it came with). Visit www.onyabags.co.uk. to check out their range. I have the original Onya which is the perfect size to keep in my bag for general purchases.

Plastic bags just seem such a ridiculous way of causing environmental damage when really, they’re so easily avoided. I still forget to carry my Onya bag with me sometimes, and have to use plastic ones, but I’ve definitely cut down and managed to avoid unnecessary leftist environmental guilt! ;)

Kind of cool....

Chicza, organic rainforest gum, is now available at Waitrose. I haven't actually tried it yet but as a sporadic gum chewer I am definitely intrigued.

Chicza is not only biodegradable (the lifespan of a wad of ordinary chewed gum is anything up to 5 years where as Chicza apparently dissolves in about a month, causing no environmental damage) but it is also the first certified organic chewing gum and is produced by 56 cooperatives with the sustainability of natural resources of extreme importance. Visit http://www.chicza.com/. for more information on how the gum is produced.

Tube strike madness....

Well I like complaining about the tube as much as the next Londoner, I really do. Tube ranting is one of my favourites. But I now have tube strike fatigue to be honest. The guardian even felt the need to blog about it and to share their journalists' journeys via twitter...and oh god, now I am talking about it too. So I will keep this brief...

I have no idea about my official position (and I know people are dying to know) on the strike. I think it's just not possible for a member of the general public (i.e. me) to really know what is going with regards to who is being the most unreasonable....and I don't really care. But I do like this website: http://www.walkit.com/ which I consulted so that I wouldn't have to use the tube to get to work. While forgoing my little tube commute only prevented (or avoided as the website prefers to say) 0.06kg of CO2 emissions, I have realised that the walk is far quicker than I anticipated and about a hundred times more pleasant than my usual Circle Line experience. So strike/don't strike...I don't really mind, just please don't tell me any more about it.

Wishlist....

Adili, one of my favourite ethical online retailers, has a number of dresses that I am coveting at the moment. This is (probably) my favourite. It is by People Tree, which has recently won the Observer Ethical Awards for Fashion.

Ethical fashion options just keep on growing, a great thing for the world in general but a bit of an issue for my wallet......