Busy busy busy.…
I wrote this last week but totally forgot to post it so I will added this and a quick update on this week:
Not having the best week at the moment, it started off okay went to university on Monday which this stupid cold but my mother was late picking me up so instead of getting home at 4.30pm did not get home till 6pm. Tuesday I did not go in due to the fact I am running out of money and half my lectures were cancelled, but I did manage to get the website I have been working on for the last 6 weeks to be completed, it is a to-do list web application made up of css, php, javascript, jquery and sql, I am really pleased with it and I hope I get a good mark
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Wednesday was a waste of a day had to go in for this stupid career development for a couple of hours which was a complete waste of time and I do not know why we had to go, after this there was a protest at university, 50 students had got into the management building protesting the cuts in informatics, about 6 police vans, several police cars and a police dog later. In the end 2 students were arrested and 6 students were suspended
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Thursday to Sunday my husband was off so the bathroom was being done and now it is nearly done, apart it from it needing to be painted.
I had a really embarrassing time on the train this morning, I was on the train, my stop was coming up so I stood up waiting for it to stop but it never came, the train went speeding pass and I ended up at a totally different station 20 minutes later. Lucky for me I already know that area quite well so I managed to get back to the university stop.
I am sorry I haven’t posted other than green related topics, university is so busy and they already have me choosing next years modules. It is a little too much right now, feel like I am going to explode with all these exams, group work, driving, house and baby related items.
Saw an amazing film this week, Valentines Day, so cute!
Issues
Having some issues with my current theme hopefully get it back up again by today.…
I have fixed it now, hurrah, unsure why it went random on me for a day, I think it had something to do with my stylesheet… I am going to work on a new theme in summer as there is too much university work going on right now, plus my exam timetable is up and it horrible!!
Being Green in the Kitchen
Long await post about being green in the kitchen, this one is more than likely going to be a long one as I can think of so many way of being green in the kitchen.
Dishwasher
Now I know a lot of people worry that using a dishwasher is worse than hand washing but I have researched this in depth, and it turns out that no using a dishwasher on a ECO wash is cheaper and uses less electricity than hand washing. But I would like to mention please remember to turn the plug off while not using it as this is use wasting energy that doesn’t need to be wasted.
I found this article which works out how much energy and water you will use in a dishwasher vs hand washing
Water use, energy use, and carbon footprint
There are three big factors we’ll consider: water use, energy use (for heating the water, largely), and the carbon footprint that results — we’ll save things like soap and dishwasher cooking for another post. And, of course, following energy-saving tips like running the “light” cycle and turning off the “heated drying” option will change the way the numbers work.Built-in dishwasher efficiency
The average dishwasher uses 6 gallons of water per cycle; the average Energy Star-rated dishwasher uses 4 gallons per cycle, and their energy use ranges from 1.59 kWh per load down to 0.87 kWh per load. Using the Department of Energy’s carbon dioxide emissions numbers of 1.34 pounds of CO2 per kWh, that’s 1.16 to 2.13 pounds of carbon dioxide emitted per load, to go along with 4 gallons of water.Energy Star assumes each load in a “standard” dishwasher (usually 24 inches in size) has “a capacity greater than or equal to eight place settings and six serving pieces,” so we’ll go with that when considering how many dishes need to be washed by hand.
Can hand washing be as efficient as dishwashing?
The short answer: maybe. First, let’s look at water usage alone. The average faucet flows at 2 gallons per minute, so if you can successfully wash and rinse eight place settings — plates, bowls, forks, knives, spoons, glasses, etc. — and those six serving dishes that your dishwasher can handle without running the faucet for more than 2 total minutes, then, you might be better off hand-washing. Assuming you’re washing 54 pieces of dishware (that’s 48 pieces of dishware — 6 pieces per setting — and 6 serving dishes), you’ve got about 4.4 seconds of wide-open tap water per piece, or about 9.5 ounces of water to wash and rinse each dish.Impacts of heating the water
Let’s assume you use warm water for both washing and rinsing — half hot water and half cold water. Heating 2 gallons of water with a gas hot water heater (from about 60 degrees as it enters your house to, say, 120 degrees, set by the thermostat on your hot water heater) takes about 960 BTUs, or about 0.9% of one therm (100,000 BTUs), assuming 100 percent efficiency.
Gas storage tank water heaters
Gas water-heaters are usually more like 65 percent efficient, so it really takes 1477 BTUs, or about 1.5 percent of a therm, to heat that water. One therm emits 11.7 pounds of CO2, according to the EPA (pdf), so heating the water with gas for each 2-gallon load emits about .17 pounds of carbon dioxide.On-demand (or tankless) water heaters are closer to 80 percent efficient, which changes the numbers a bit; it works out to about 1200 BTUs, or about .14 pounds of carbon dioxide.
Electric storage tank water heaters
The story is a bit different when considering an electric water heater; while most electric water heaters use between 86 and 93 percent of their energy for heat (compared to between 60 and 65 percent for gas), electric heaters aren’t as efficient at heating water. It still takes 960 BTUs to heat that much water; it just takes about .28 kWh (since, according to the EIA, 1 kWh equals 3412 BTUs) to heat 2 gallons of water at 100 percent efficiency, or about .30 kWh at 93 percent efficiency. Each kWh emits 1.715 pounds of CO2, on average (thank you, EPA), so heating water with electricity for each 2-gallon load emits about .51 pounds of CO2.
Built in dishwasher vs. hand-washing: And the winner is…
These numbers indicate that it’s possible to be more efficient when hand-washing, but it’s pretty tough. Can you successfully wash and rinse a soiled dinner plate in just over a cup of water? If you can keep the water use low, equal to an efficient machine, you’ll require less energy, but doing an entire load of dishes in 4 gallons of water is roughly equivalent to doing them all in the same amount of water you use in 96 seconds of showering (using a showerhead that emits 2.5 gallons per minute).So, as long as you don’t often run your dishwasher when it’s only half full of dirty dishes, or unless you are very miserly with your water use (or have an old, inefficient dishwasher), the automatic dishwasher is likely to be more efficient. That is to say, it’s possible to use less water and energy by hand washing your dishes, but it’s not easy. Of course, if you do it just right, it might just be a wash.
More information at treehugger.com
Cleaning Products
Now I have mentioned this before down in the being green in the bathroom but cleaning product are an large impact on the world, using more organic, more natural products is always best, the only issue that gets me if the price, I understand why that have to be more expensive because it is not just chemicals like the cheaper brands but I wish they would bring it down a little bit as not all of us have money to burn.
Pet related
This one is a tough due to the fact it has taken me forever to find cat litter than is not going to kill the environment, I have tried loads of cat litter for one I hate the clumping ones as they take forever to clean (which wastes water, cleaning product and not to mention it smells), I have gone for a one at the moment which is little tubs of old wood shavings, the think I like about it the most is the fact when the cat goes to the bathroom the little tubs disappear a leave what I can only describe as sawdust (kind of like a hamster cage lining) but it does have a nice pine smell and lasts longer so you don’t use as much saving money and saving time. If you can go for an eco cat litter it is nicer for the cat and for your noses.
Cat food tins wash out, I know it is a huge pain but if you have one cat or three like myself you will end up going through at least one tin a day, with mine it is two tins a day (I swear Onion steals everyone else’s food but I can’t prove it!), I did try putting these through the dishwasher but everything smelled of cat food so now I have to hand wash them with bleach as well as washing up liquid, please use a different wash cloth as it is not nice otherwise.
Also check out Eco-Me Cat Kit Natural Tool Kit, you can make your own cat litter and flea spray, also cat treats, I might have to give this one ago.
Recycling
I am huge on recycling, lucky for me my council provide me little pink bags which I put out every week, what I have found is a lot of items can be recycled, in my household we have one bin for rubbish and one for recycling, my mother is even better and has a bin for vegetable ends, egg shells and other organic food matter which she puts in her compost down at the end of the garden. I haven’t got a huge garden more like the size of postage stamp but I could fit a small one in my mother informs me.
Having two bins really saves me the headache of having to keep the bag somewhere, since recycling (I even have my husband doing it who told me it was a waste of time) we hardly but out much black bin bag rubbish.
Growing your own Vegetables
See I tried this last year but only managed to grow a cucumber and some herbs, my mother on the other hand split half her garden into her vegetable and fruit patch and grew so much, loads of leeks (I love leeks), but this year I am going to grown my own carrots, potatoes and leeks plus the normal amount of herbs, I’ll have to update you about this later in the year. I think growing your own vegetables doesn’t take a lot of work but it is so pleasing to see them grow even for me growing anything makes me happy and I suck at gardening in general, I get the husband to do it for me. Even if you don’t’ have a garden just a small balcony you could grow new potatoes in big pots.
General Tips
- Don’t over fill the kettle
- Don’t waste food
- Bulk cook where you can
- Make your own lunches
- Re-use items where you can
- Turn the lights off when you leave a room
- Re-use packaging
- Use energy efficient
- Only wash full loads this goes for the washing machine, dishwasher and the tumble dyer
Next week I am covering female products and make-up
Sorry I haven’t been around so much uni has me all tied up.
Life Insurance
Just like for car insurance there are websites out there that help you find the cheapest and most cost effective life insurance. It is easy and simple to use and it only takes a few minutes to get a quote, you should have life insurance just in case something happens to you and what will your partner do if they have to pay the bills on their own, I would say you should have it!
Disney World Hotels
When I went to Florida about five years ago now (whoa that makes me feel old) to visit two friends out there, we drove from Ohio down to Florida and went Disney world which to me was like being in some weird world but the gift shops were lovely!
Now when we brought out tickets for Disney world, we stayed in some rubbish motel but I wish we had stayed in one of the Disney World hotels. When I went the weather was in mid summer and it rained all the time (hot rain, very strange) and we had to buy these big plastic bin bags to wear!
Car Insurance
Oh the joys of car insurance, this really annoys me just because every year unless you look around for different quotes your current insurance company puts up the price by hundreds of pounds, and this annoys me more because I have never claimed on the house insurance, lucky for me getting a infinity auto insurance review is really easy to do these days. I managed to find one that only costs us £13 a month also there are reviews about the current car insurance agencies out there which always helps
So my word of advice is to definitely look around and see what other deals you can get out there, you never really know until you try, saying that I should go and look into our gas and electric as it is way to high!
Alive
I am alive
It is 4 weeks before the end of Spring term so all the assignments have been coming out, so I have been so busy with them oh and my driving lessons are going really well right now, fingers crossed I’ll pass at the end of April. I had to cut the lessons down to one a week while all this crazy university work is going on but in my holiday I am going back up to three a week!
My week is a little bit crazy at the moment, here is my schedule:
Monday — up at 6am, lessons from 9am till 3pm then home again (must add it takes me a total of 4 hours to get to and from university).
Tuesday — up at 6am again, lessons from 9am till 4pm, home again
Wednesday — all day university work, from 8am till 9pm at night I am getting worn out
Thursday — up at 6am again, lessons 10am till 3pm
Friday — driving lesson and more university work
Saturday/Sunday — university work, housework and all that fun stuff
I am so tired from all the university work I have to do, and it is all I do 24/7 well apart from sleeping of course. Drama the other day husband fell down a flight of stairs at the train station landing on his tail hone, he was in so much pain he couldn’t move all evening had to lie on the bed, I thought we would have to go to hospital but he seems to be okay now still can’t walk very fast, has pain here and there but looks like he has just bruised it, I hope anyway.
Other news we had a power cut yesterday, no power for two hours and I was in the middle of doing an assignment and the computer went “bing” and everything went out, the thing that annoyed me the most was there was no information on the helpline it kept just telling me that knew about the problems, pfft!
I’m off to do some more assignment or sleep or watch Big Bang Theory (just finish How I met your mother all 5 seasons, so good!!), a green kitchen post tomorrow since I had to clean my kitchen for two hours today.
Getting Green in the bathroom
So after having all this work done on my bathroom, I thought I could go through ways of being green in the bathroom, I’ll slowly move to other rooms in the house
when I chance of course.
The bathroom normally uses a lot of energy also a lot of money due to the fact you can normally have your washing machine in there, all hair related items (hair dryers), toilet and of course the bath/shower, anything that uses gas or electricity. (NOTE, Normally plugs outside of the bathroom also you might have a separate cleaning area for the washing machine and laundry).
Cleaning Products

First I would start with cleaning products better for the environment, sometimes more expensive but they do reduce potential allergens, and toxic cleaning products have been linked to childhood wheezing and asthma. In the UK our main green cleaning products is ecover, which smells good, my parents have been using it for years, I have started to recently. What I find about the products sometimes you might have to scrub a little bit harder but other than that no difference.
Home-made solutions to cleaning products:
Scrubbing sinks, tubs, and counter tops with a paste of baking soda and water effectively removes dirt rings and some stains; if that doesn’t work, try a paste of washing soda and water, and be sure to wear gloves.
For cleaning windows, fill your own spray bottle with water and either one-quarter cup white vinegar or one tablespoon lemon juice to cut grease.
Polish furniture with a mixture of one teaspoon olive oil and one-half cup white vinegar, or look for solvent-free products that use mineral or plant oils.
Washing Machines
Now we all know that washing machines use a lot of water and even more so if you have a baby or a young family, now I have tried a few different types to save money.
First one was this soapnuts, now it says this about them:
Soapnuts (Sapindus Mukorossi) are grown in India and Nepal, harvested in a sustainable way in October from 15m high trees. The soapnuts are sticky and golden in colour when removed changing to reddish brown when dried. Soapnut shells contain saponin (a natural detergent) and when they come in contact with water they make mild suds. Soapnuts are a natural, organic, environmentally friendly alternative to soap, detergent and shampoo.
Which I thought would be an amazing idea, and I was keen on them, I tried them so many times but they did not work for me which was really disappointing. I personally think it was because my husband (who I adore) is a little overly sweaty.
At the moment I am trying ECOZONE — ECOBALLS which are two balls contains these natural pellets, they are hypoallergenic and only cost 7p a wash. So far with these I have had clean smelling washing.
Some other home-made solutions to washing machine cleaning related:
To remove stains from clothing, try soaking fabrics in water mixed with borax, lemon juice, hydrogen peroxide, washing soda, or white vinegar. Or, look for “non-chlorine bleach” made from sodium percarbonate or sodium perborate, available from Bio Pac, Ecover, Naturally Yours, Shaklee, or Seventh Generation.
Fabric can be softened by adding one-quarter cup of baking soda to the wash cycle; this recently worked on several pairs of catalogue-bought cargo pants made of a cardboard-stiff cotton that literally scraped a teenager’s skin. A quarter cup of white vinegar will also soften fabric, as well as eliminate cling.
Toilet
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It was not until I had an issue with my toilet that I realised how much it costs me to run my toilet about £500 in six months just from the toilet alone, it was leaking day and night.
Now I would recommend to everyone that you get what is called a hippo bag they are normally free from your water company, you place them in your toilet inside the cistern under the ballcock and fill up with water while you are flushing, this saves about 3 litres of water when flushing.
Bathing/Showering
As they always say to save money and water have a shower, we had one fitted recently and it is amazing how much less water you use, I am hoping that the bill will show how much it is saving plus it takes less time and the water stays hot the whole way through washing.
Ideas around this one is to have a low-flow shower head and if you have a shower curtain use a vinyl one instead.
Paint
Now see I didn’t think of this one so much it wasn’t until I was researching that I came across this one, according to it you should use paint with a low volatile organic compounds (VOC) label as it is not so toxic. I guess I will have to try this one out when I get around to re-painting the bathroom.
Also another idea is the normal one replace light bulbs with energy savings ones.
Links of interest:
Whoa long post, okay next week I’ll move onto the kitchen area.
Brighton Vs. Chesterfield
If you are visiting Brighton for the first time or for the fifth time, there are always places to go in Brighton, one of my favourite places is now the shabby streets which is a couple of lanes away from the train station that hold some of the most interesting shops I have ever seen, since Brighton is a place to be unique individual you definitely have to check it out, my favourite shop down these lanes is a comic shop. I have been collecting comics on and off since I was fourteen years old and my husband has been doing the same for about six years so our collection is quite impressive but you will always need new comics as they are new ones coming out each week. Another places to visit the sea life centre and all the slot machines which are dolt all very close to the sea front edge down on the pier. It was such a shame when the second pier in Brighton fell down and then burnt down!





























