The challenge is on

Is it possible to go green without having a penny to spend on it and still retain a happy family life? That is the challenge I have set myself (and my family) for the next year.


4 months ago we moved to a new house in a small town in the Central belt of Scotland. It is a great house and we absolutely love it here. Before we moved I decided that this would be a good time to implement some changes. We needed to become greener!
Like a lot of people I do worry a bit about the future of our planet and I somehow had visions of me and my family living this green, organic, carbon neutral eco life in some super energy efficient house with solar panels and probably a wind turbine in the back garden...

But reality always returns to hit you on the head! (In this case it feels like a hammering with a baseball bat)

I have had to admit that becoming greener always requires one of two things: either money or effort. And both can be hard to come by.
Some things don’t require too much effort, insulating your house, getting double glazing or changing your boiler for example – You get somebody to come and fit it for you. But all these things require money up front. Obviously it would be an investment which would save you money in the long run, but if you don’t have the money to invest in the first place (or in my case if you have spent all your money sorting out the new house) it becomes slightly difficult.

Lots of green things you can do completely for free, but as a general rule these things require some level of effort. E.g. you have to remember to bring your own shopping bags into the supermarket and not realise at the checkout that you left them in the cupboard at home. You have to sort all you waste for various re-use and recycling, not just the easy stuff the council picks up. Or even worse you have to get your bicycle tyres pumped before you can ride it...

The fact is 4 months down the line the only real change that has happened in our household is me realising that green utopia is exactly that - utopia!

So I started asking myself, what is the matter with us, are we really too lazy to bother about our planet? Is it that difficult for an average family like mine to let go of old habits and settle into some new greener ones? If I can’t do it, how can I expect anybody else to make an effort?

So the challenge is on! Can we (me, my husband, a 5 year old and a 2 year old) over the next year adopt enough changes in our lives to truly call ourselves green - or will we turn into a bunch of miserable grumpy people.

I shall keep you all updated on the highs and lows of going green on a budget.