Category Archives: Conscious Consumerism

Conscious Consumerism

H&M Conscious Initiative – For a more sustainable fashion future

Give forward by bringing back

This month I have decided to write a very important and quick post on helping out H&M with their garment collecting initiative. It actually goes no all year round, not just this month only.

Each year tons of clothing ends up wastefully ends up in land fill that could be used again. This means up to 95% could be used again. H&M are passionate about decreasing the waste and closing the fashion loop. Reusing or recycling all old textiles in any condition so they can bring it back to life encouraging zero waste. They want to reduce the environmental impact that the fashion industry has on the environment.

Together we can close the loop

By dropping off all your unwanted clothes, worn, torn or out of style will be reused and turned into raw materials for new products in the future. Textiles that can’t be reused get a second chance as textiles fibres for cleaning cloths, or used to manufacture products for insulation materials for the auto industry.

H&M garment collection

H&M are happy to receive any bag full of clothing or home textiles as you want to hand in to any store around the country. Your textiles are sent with their usual deliveries to the nearest processing plant. They are graded and hand-sorted with zero waste in mind. If the item is too worn or torn to be reused it will be recycled into a new product.

Reuse, recycle or rewear

H&M does not profit from the returned garments? No,  instead they use their own revenues to reward customers to make to local charity organisations investing in recycling innovations.  When rewear, reuse and recycle are not an option, the textiles are used to produce energy.

Donate bags all year round

For each bag you donate you will receive one voucher of 15% for each bag you hand in, with a maximum of two vouchers per day. These vouchers are redeemable on your next purchase, what a great reward!!!

H&M star charity

For each kilo that they collect about 3 cents will be donated to your local charity organisation chosen by H&M. To find out more about the amount of textiles collected and the money donated, visit hm.charitystar.com or to learn more visit hm.com/garment-collectingion-spirit.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

Conscious Consumerism

Meal Ideas

Do you like trying new things?

Recently I made a salad in a make shift kitchen which turned out rather well…unfortunately I did not take any photos as I never thought to do it at the time. If you would like to give it a go and try it out here is the ingredients.

Charmaine’s Salad

  • 1 pack of Tabuli salad
  • 4 pickled onions
  • 2 spring on greens
  • 4 cups of rice pre cooked
  • 1 punnet of cherry tomotoes
  • 1 cup of flax seeds
  • 1 seeded pickled chilli
  • 1/4 cup of soaked sultanas or raisins
  • 1 cup of olives
  • 1 cup of pickled gerkins
  • Salt and pepper to taste

So easy!

Just mix and eat. I hope you like it as much as we do.

Enjoy!

 

 

 

Conscious Consumerism

Watch out for shopping tricks

Tricks that some shops are doing

There are some tricks I have notice some stores are doing with the shelves of late. So I thought to do this quick little blog about it so you can know what to watch out for so you don’t get caught like I almost did the other day.

Misleading Signage

On one of my scanning trips to the shops for the specials, I noticed this misleading signage on the shelves where to pre prep soups are. This is one of my go to places in the cold sections of the store as you maybe able to pick up a quick meal for a lunch or as add on to a imagination meal for two.

Shelving Positioning

Do you notice that there are the same types of products on two areas of the whole section of shelving? The first picture of ‘special’ products were situated on the top right hand corner of the whole shelving with a totally different price to the lower left hand shelving at the right price.

 

Same product different area and showing a different price on the sale section as to the normal price section. So just be very observant when buying.

Marked as a sale not always is the cheapest

The other trick I have noticed at the super markets is some sale items in bulk or larger packaging are actually much more expensive.  Be very alert when buying as what is mark as sale not always is the cheapest option on the shelves. So be on the lookout for that one.

That’s all I have to say on that….Cheers.

Conscious Consumerism

Save on your weekly food bills

If you can adapt you will save…Big time!!

Just recently I have decided to take a whole new approach to shopping and am saving a lot of money…….I am finally back to explain a few things that I have found that has helped me.

Buying only what is on special for that week

If you have not got a fussy eating house hold or you don’t mind thinking outside the box when it comes to meals, then these ideas really could help you save more than $40 per week!

Just recently I have taken a whole different approach to meal prepping and planning for the week. Lately I have let whatever is on sale at the time of shopping,  dictate to me what meals I will prepare with what is in the trolley.

Stir up your imagination

This can stir up some great parts of your imagination to think of how you can make a meal out of what you have in front of you as well as in the stock cupboard already.

Hunter Gatherers

Remember that hunter gatherers never had the luxury that we have today to just drive up to our favourite local shops to buy whatever was on there shopping list, their list was what was in season and available in their local area.

Early Ancestors

When you really think about it, our early ancestors were eating everything for their body’s requirements at the exact time they needed it and being supplied by mother nature which was all around them. We have lost touch of this connection to the consciousness of the earth, I hardly know what is in season anymore.

Timing is everything

Timing is everything and if you can go in the afternoon say after 3.30pm when most things are marked down for the fresher things that are going to be put on the shelves for the next morning.

So here is an example of one of my special that I got at one of my weekly trips to the store:

Asian Style Chicken & Corn Soup

We froze the whole thing and have stocked that for another day when the sales at the supermarket are too low to make much of anything else. Its a really handy for another base to a meal later on. NOTE: if you reheat this make sure you eat it all or throw out the rest as you do not want to expose yourself to food poisoning.

These are the packets I found that were all marked down at a great price.

Thai Style Salad Kit with the whole packet of bean sprouts added.
Would have cost $10 now $5 for them both

This salad fed us for that night and a enough for a second night as a side dish for the crumbled frozen fish that we got on sale three week before. I did not put the bacon bits as we do not eat bacon and I used two fresh lemons with some sesame oil instead of the packets as who really knows what is in them except loads of sugar most probably.

Simple Stir Fry Traditional veggie the whole packed. Was $5 now $2.50
2 cups of rice from the stock cupboard, stirred in hot coconut oil to brown before cooking

So with the rice I fried up one onion, a bit of ginger I had around left and mixed it into the rice, but you could put anything you like to for flavour that you may have in the house or for medicinal reasons. Then I mixed the veggies through and sectioned it of into meal sizes as there is only the two of us, this made us our meal for that night and two more meals each.

When I re heat the other meals, for one, I put in a handful of cashews and one chopped up chillies to change the meal taste completely so it did not feel like we were eating the same meal. For the other meal I dropped in a can of corn and tuna that was on special the last week I went shopping. I often do this if I am making a base veggie meal (with no rice or pasta) for the whole week so each meal is still different.

I always comb the fresh food prep areas as you can find some quick meal add ons, this works ok if your not a total organic minded person, saying that I have bought many times very marked down organic broccoli, cauliflower, beans, mushrooms, corn ect.

Hope this was in some way helpful. 🙂

Conscious Consumerism

Our weekly food bill…

Keeping costs down

The cost of the weekly food bills are going up…this is a fact. So how do we make the most of our hard-earned money when it comes to shopping? There are so many things all of us can do to keep the cost down.

Grocery advice on specials

I personally do not have time to troll through the specials that come in the mail or through targeted emails from our favourite grocery stores. Most of the basic advice on doing the shopping I do adhere to……The top of my list is that I do not go to do grocery shopping  when I am hungry, this is very useful for me keep in mind.

A basic shopping list

I used to have a basic shopping list of what I had to get and then top it up with things that caught my eye, but even this approach to shopping would have me spending way more than I had expected by the end.

Under $10 meal deals

Some supermarkets are trying to help families out by making $10  meal ideas, these are good if you have family and have trouble thinking outside the box. There are a few problems I have with this marketing angle from certain supermarkets.

  1. Most meals require you to buy a lot more than is needed for that one meal.
  2. A lot of the meals don’t cater for those with diet requirements.
  3. I have noticed that a lot of these meals do not have quiet enough veggies in them for our daily requirements.

I have at times made meals using these recipes and have frozen the rest for more meal later as there are only two of us. I have also reduced the amount of meat in these recipes an added more veggies which significantly brought the cost of the meals down to even $6 instead of $10.

If you adapt you will save…Big time!!

Just recently I have decided to take a whole new approach to shopping and am saving a lot of money….Be on the look out for my next blog where I will explain it in detail.

 

Conscious Consumerism, Working on the road

No Cash No Coffee

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The introduction of a cashless society

Just recently, I heard that some companies are doing away with cash transactions all together and card only will be excepted with these certain establishments. Bernie and I are totally doing the opposite when it comes to starting our coffee shop on the road….That’s right you heard it here first!…Bernie has a great idea to use part of the bin space under the bus near the front door for our pull out cafe.

Affordable food on the road

Right now it’s just an idea, a concept that has to be fully planned out, but one thing is for sure we are only selling to people with notes and coins and not card. This is one way to keep costs down so we can make good quality organic food and coffee more affordable to those on the road.  Why give the banks our profits when we can give it back to our customers instead.

Empower people to make a real choice

Some people may say that this is going to make us loose customers, yeh that’s most probably true. Providing a cash only cafe gives the people the money in their pockets and not the banks. We want to empower people to have the choice in making real savings without loosing out on quality, these days this very choice is getting much much harder to find. If the banks show some initiative and offer a better solution to cashless transactions then of course we would consider it, but until then, it’s cash.

Another way we want to be empowered to save is to encourage people to use their own cups and get a further discount on their coffee purchase, we may call it something like ‘your cup discount’. We are all for recycling as much as possible and help customers do the same. If you have a good idea please leave a comment and we may use it….all ideas are helpful.

Conscious Consumerism

Product Promotion through Big Bus Big Adventure

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Conscious Consumerism 

There are thousands of products these days and we are all spoilt for choice in every direction we turn. We go out to the local shops and our huge shopping centres with their half empty shop fronts that promise the world but most times don’t deliver a true Aussie product.

Most people are unconscious consumers when it comes to buying and only look at the price. Is it on special? Is is a brand I am emotionally attached to? One huge question is…do I really need it. The answer is usually NO.

Being A Conscious Consumer

Bernie has been asked by people travelling if we promote any products and the answer has been always a no. It’s far more important when starting out to be a conscious consumer. What is that? You may be asking….  ask yourself the right questions. ……Where is that product made? Is it promoting Aussie jobs? Is it doing a benefit for my body and health? Is it a quality product or just a brand name? Is it something that correlates with my belief systems? Where is my money going? Church people all around Australia do not give money to the church they do not believe in, ….. so what is any different when buy a product?

This journey of conscious consuming does not come easily to any of us these days,…..why is that so? I can only think of one large word to answer this…CONSUMERISM!!!!.

Bernie and I feel that it is important to firstly inspire people to find their own moral compass…whatever that maybe.  Obviously, we both use and buy products for cleaning, bathing, and restoring our health and wellbeing, These mostly correlate with our belief systems,  but not all the time, …..as we are on our own  journey of rediscovery ourselves and are far from any end.

We both want to encourage people to find what works for you,  if you have found something that works for you,  please just add a comment, as it may help someone else on their own journey as well….Let’s learn together!

In the next few weeks and months Bernie and I will be putting more blogs up in the ‘Conscious Consumerism’ category.

Have a great Day!

Ps. If you want to read another great blog, read Alden Wicker’s on March 01/2017 …