Possible to live without a car?

©Mr Green

For ages I've said that when our car dies, we'll try and not get a 'new' one...well the reality of that is now looming!  The verdict of the garage isn't positive, and so I'm trying to do some speedy research on alteratives.


We don't use our car on a daily basis, as I work from home and cycle with the kids in the area (the joy of living in a dense city is that everything literally is on our doorstep...well, except the woods).  Andy gets the train to Bristol for work and cycles there.  So we truly are infrequent car users.  It can sit in our street for a couple of weeks without being started and has definitely enjoyed it's retirement, since it's long IBM communting to Bedfont days.  However, we do need one for visiting relatives and going on holiday, and in fact need one for 2 weeks in the not too distant future.

For the odd short requirement, we have great local friends that will lend us their cars, although I do need to look into the reality of whether this still works if I don't have my own car insurance.  But asking someone to borrow their car for 2 weeks, is a bit more of a challenge.

So I'm looking into local car clubs (existing and possible to set up), car hire, permanent car sharing, and alternative transport such as trains (although not really workable with a tent and camping gear in tow!).  One of the challenging factors of car clubs, is where the car is based.  There is one that has cars based at the Civic Offices.  But with two small children in tow, and their two car seats, plus whatever else we need for the trip, it's an enourmous effort just to get to the car!

Ironically it might end up cheaper to buy another car, although there is then obviously the unknown factor of future repairs, as we certainly wouldn't be getting anything new.  But I really don't want to end up doing that.  This seems a great opportunity to try and do something good for the environment, and also to share resources with others.  So more homework required!

General Update

In addition to the car issue, the past two months have brought up several unexpected expenses, and yet talking with others and asking around have brought some great alternatives to cash being spent!  

The blinds in our living room have been on their last legs for a while, but now each morning that I open them, I pray that they will actually open and not disintegrate in my hands.  When I was talking about it with a friend, she mentioned that she had some curtains in her loft that we could use as a short term measure.  And my mother-in-law found her old curtains from two houses ago, and although they're too short, is happy for me to recycle them and make a long term solution.  (Just need to find some clear time to find some co-ordinating fabric, and get unpicking and then sewing.)


Kester was at the perfect moment to leave his cot and move into a bed, as he's so tired at bedtime, having dropped his daytime sleep, that he isn't worried about getting out of bed, and he also really wants to be like his big sister ;-)  A friend was letting us have her son's bed, once they'd got a new one for him off eBay.  M will have that one, and K would have hers.  And in the meantime we managed to borrow a toddler bed from another friend's loft for K, so he could make the transition.  This weekend the other friend got her son's new bed, so we got their old cabin bed.  Yesterday, was the big move day, and last night, M slept up high in her 'new' bed, and K slept in his big sister's old bed.  Lots of great recycling, and the only expense was a new mattress for M!

'I never want to sleep anywhere else, Mummy!'

We also got a bonus 3 months of membership at the local acquarium this week!  For the past 3 months they've been promising us our membership card, and keep mislaying it.  On about the 7th time of asking they decided to ask me to fill in all the forms again, and then said they'd start the year from that date.  Bonus!

And at last the front yard/community herb garden is starting to show signs of development!  Yesterday, Southsea Greenhouse (check out their community garden launch day below) came and dug up the large plant, and is going to rehouse it at the Pyramids (Mariella is very happy that we can go and see it when we have a swim there ;-)  The other main plant was taken last weekend.  A couple were passing on Mother's Day, when I was at the front door, and asked what the plant was called.  They'd admired it previously and tried to discover what it was, but to no avail.  I had no idea, but said they were really welcome to it, as I might need to move it for the herb garden anyway.  They were rather taken aback, but after further convincing, agreed to take it as long as they could bring me some herbs in exchange, and invite us to their open garden later in the year.  (A great deal!)  And so now that the winter appears to letting up, at last, I need to get some pots round the front, collect all the promised-to-me herbs and start growing.  Exciting!!!

http://southseagreenhouse.co.uk/events-and-news/

 

Great fun making!

Gifts are definitely taking longer to make currently, but they're great fun to do.  

I was challenged on postable items, and this week came across a pattern for a mug cosy, which I've adapted slightly.  It took all of about 2 hours to make, and is heading out in the post tomorrow.  Don't think that's the last one of these that I'll be making.

I've also had fun melting LPs and adding some papier mache.  (I started the melting here: Melting LPs & Boiling Oranges ) They've been turned into gifts, and have definitely generated some conversation ;-)

One became a plant pot with an Aloe Vera cutting from our kitchen window ledge, and the other held a selection of homemade delights (marmalade, muesli & fudge).

Mixed success in charity shops today

So I trawled the charity shops in Southsea today, and the bad news is that there is hardly any wool around, so not sure I'll be unravelling too many jumpers to make other things this year.  The world seems to make all jumpers with cotton and acrylic (no wonder they're not that warm!).

But the good news is the amazing children's gift stash that I picked up in the Cry shop.  Amazingly the pile below only cost £8 in total, and most of them are totally unused.

I'll definitely keep visiting the charity shops, and keep hunting out gifts and fingers crossed on the wool front.

A Year of Unravelling Jumpers?

So as the official start of our year begins tomorrow, I've been thinking about how I'm going to have to be far more creative than I've been during our warm-up of the past couple of months.

This week I've started knitting a hoodie for the kids again (there was a long pause after K was born), and it's reminded me how much I love knitting and how that is another avenue for making gifts and getting clothing etc.  However, for anyone who's bought wool in the last few years, it is a very expensive option, in comparison to buying anything in the shops.  (I honestly don't know how they can justify the cost of clothing as it is, even if you halved the cost of wool!)   So buying more wool to make things; toys, stockings, jumpers, pen holders etc, seems like a dead-end.

Then revelation hit!!  (Amazing what things you think about in a darkened room whilst breastfeeding in the middle of the night...am never sure if I'm awake or dreaming up these things).  In my regular charity shop trawls, I can hunt out wool jumpers and unravel them for a giant supply of cheap wool!  It surely can't be that hard, once I've managed to undo the sticking that holds it all together.  So watch this space on whether it works or not (photos to follow later in 2012).

I've also decided I need to be more creative on food production.  This week I managed to get our new compost bin in place, in the corner of the backyard.  I've never been too optimistic about the amount of food we could generate in such a small space, with little sunshine, and lots of paving slabs.  Although the pots have done us proud, with tomatoes, apples and bay leaves.

But I noticed that we have a little strip of soil between the slabs and the wall (probably not quite 2 foot deep), which is hidden under bits of slate.  The soil underneath seems really good.  And all I need to do is relocate the apple tree pots (I'll probably need to get rid of a few shrubs, which aren't that exciting anyway), and we'll have a little strip farm of our own.  So I've emailed our friends who have a real strip farm (the source of our apple harvest earlier this year, and the beautiful bunch of mistletoe on our front door this Christmas...thanks!!!!) to get some tips on where to start, and hopefully we'll get some veg going later this year.  Something else to try and regularly fit into the week, but I've always aspired to an allotment later on, but am put off by the distance we'd have to travel to get to it....so no excuse on this challenge!

So as the New Year dawns there are lots of ideas and activities bubbling away.  It really is exciting, and I'm hoping that January and February (traditionally my least favourite months of the year (even though my birthday is in the midst of them)) are more positive than normal.  The biggest challenge will be time, especially as I juggle returning to work too, but I like nothing better than change and a challenge...so here goes.

So Happy New Year, to anyone reading this, and I hope you find something to challenge you this coming year, and find some richness in less too!

Unable to Outgive God

So we started this festive season with the focus of giving, rather than receiving.  No big present wishlists; a focus on gifts for the kids that encouraged great family time; and a desire to spend more money on those who are really in need, rather than on us having a 'Merry Christmas'.

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Over the past few days I've been looking back over the month to check that I haven't been distracted by sparkly lights and advertising (hard for someone that never watches anything other than CBeebies in real time anymore...and loves the skip forward button for anything that's been recorded on a channel that even does ads).  To my surprise/amusement/thankfulness, whilst we've been focused on giving, we seem to have been blessed by others giving to us, in a disproptionate way!

We've had friends doing clear outs, that have invited me round to delve through bags of things before they head to charity shops; I've helped my Dad clear out my Grandma's house, as she's unable to have much in the care home, and is more than happy for family to put to use her decades worth of stuff; we've had random things passed to us that are no longer needed, or are simply things people have received in duplicate....and for all this, we are truly thankful!

I have to confess to two shop purchases, but with mind-boggling discounts.  I have at last got a new coat that will keep me warm and dry on the bike, or when pushing the buggy in driving rain (a Berghaus 3-in-1, that firstly had 50% off, and then a further 25% off).  And yesterday, whilst popping into a shop for a lightbulb (haven't worked out a way to survive without these!), we saw some kids shoes discounted.  I managed to get the next pair of shoes for M....they had been £30 at full price, and everything was discouted to £15....that is apart from the one box I picked out for her, which was only £9!  Nothing wrong with them, no apparent reason for the extra discount...weird!!

So here are some examples of what we've got:

• a lovely sewing box
• a wet suit
• a four slice toaster
• a barometer
• kids jigsaws and games
• kids clothes
• M's next size up shoes
• a really warm and waterproof coat for me
• a presige hand-whisk
• the next size up car seat
• a blanket box
• a big flour sack storage box.

From all this, we've got things that I've been looking for, for months (in one case, about 3 years!), but haven't got as they've been too expensive, not quite what we wanted, or just seemed like a luxury we could do without. 

I love the way it's been the opposite to the normal way the world seems to work...more often than not, people spend far more than they earn....perhaps, we should all try giving, more than we spend, and let God worry about the rest (not with the motivation of getting lots of stuff) in the knowledge that we are blessed, and it's great to bless others.

Visit My New Highstreet

I'm discovering several different ways of getting hold of things for free or buying pre-loved items, and I thought I'd share some of them here so that others can check them out too. 

I'm also getting ideas from people that are reading this blog, and I thought I'd get a bit of a useful list of links going that you'll be able to view on a tab at the top of this blog shortly.  Feel free to contact me with any other useful suggestions.  I'm particularly interested in ones that link with the local community, but not exclusively.

Free Items

• My main way to give things away, outside of my immediate friends and family is Freegle
• And I've recently discovered StreetBank which is a similar concept (nicer interface, ability to lend, not just get, but not a great number of people on it yet...please join)

Pre-Loved Items to Buy

• The good old classic eBay (I particularly like using the 'Collect Only' pre-loved items, especially for larger items)
• NCT Sales are pretty good for children's clothes (although frustrating that you can't negotiate with anyone on the day)

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