How do you do it

We have been using the Monday market trader for all our fruit and veg, they have not been there for a couple of months due to ill health, but to keep an income they have been delivering, not only is the fruit and veg the best quality, but other than soft fruits, they use no plastic, the delivery comes in a cardboard tray, which they received the bulk veg in.

We are using the butcher for some of our meats, this photo of his window shows a good fast moving business, so much choice, we only eat meat 3 days a week, we have fish twice and eat plant based twice a week. We buy chicken breast when we need them from Lidl's, we often have their individual pies as well. We are also eating Quorn again as a substitute for mince beef, which I dislike. 

I follow Dilly Carter on Instagram, she is part of the team for the program Sort your life out in 7 days, with Stacey Solomon, Dilly is the tough member and sorts everything.  I have not asked for this book, as I don't think there will be anything much new to me. It is great to see the message being given, stop buying stuff you don't need, use what you have, clear your space have room to live. 

At the end of each month I post the round up for the month, I am always saying how little we waste, the very good reason for so little food waste, is we purchase the quantity we need, so at the butchers we purchase just 5 sausages, and the fruit and veg, just the weight we need. Supermarkets sell you their preferred packet sizes, mainly aimed at a family of four, often the fresh produce does not last for more than a few days. Purchasing items locally is more expensive cost per  weight, so we don't save money, we get great quality and very happy to have no waste. 

We have been living with less for years, down sizing our home 14 years ago was the big eye opener, retiring from work as well gave me the insight into how much we were holding on to, just because we have spent money on purchasing it.  Saturdays was spent shopping, coming home with loads of bags, often filled with stuff we did not know we needed. Clearing my wardrobe of so much clothes was brilliant, I can see everything I own, I should have another clear out soon, I do have loads of items I have not worn for years. Sorting my craft items, I can see what I own and use it, I have less of everything and more money in the bank.

I am not perfect, I recycle and reuse imperfectly, some things I could change but choose not to, I am aware of our global crisis, I can't change it on my own, but if we all do our little bit we can help. Each year I post about Overshoot day, it's the day each year when our country used all the renewable sources for that year, ours is  in August, so the resources used for the last four months can't be replaced. Already this year, some countries have already hit their overshoot days, often these are countries which don't have huge natural resources.