Flexi-ing my bank balance & carbon footprint #collcons

To kick off my Collaborate Consumption life, I got myself a Flexicar Membership via a Green Renters membership. A double win.

A Green Renters membership starts from $25 to $100. No matter which membership you take out with Green Renters, you're guaranteed to score yourself a Flexicar Membership as well. You see, Flexicar is a carsharing business that recognizes there are cheaper and greener ways to car ownership. Partnering with Green Renters highlights Flexicar's committment in paving the way for a more sustainable world.

The 3 major benefits of a Flexicar membership:

• Rid the responsibilities and costs of car ownership such as servicing, car insurance and registration
• Eliminate the fears of purchasing a dud car
  
• Reduce your environmental impact by only using the car when you truly need to

Check out the car locations to see if they are conveniently located near you. I'm pretty lucky, the closet flexicar from where I live is a 2 min walk away. Booyah!

What I'm also loving is I can also choose the type of car I need or want. So if I need to pick up something large like a bookshelf from Gumtree or at the market or on eBay, its so much cheaper and less of a hassle to simply grab the flexicar than to organize a delivery guy (usually $50) or hire a car for a whole day.

Taking out a Green Renters membership helps support the work they do in providing sustainable living advice to those living in rental property.

With Christmas just around the corner, this could be the gift of all gifts! "Hey hun, guess who gotcha a car for Christmas?! It's all yours when you need it!"

Challenging the Status Quo with #CollCons

#CollCons, the Twitter hashtag for Collaborate Consumption. A term used to define a way of life in the 21st century as opposed to 20th Century Hyper Consumption where it's about more, more and more. #collcons gives real meaning to less is more.

Christmas being just round the corner means we're also headed towards a new year. Wowzer, another year already? While I'm not a fan of using this phrase but I will, boy time sure does fly. Rather scary actually, there's still so much to do, and yet the years seem to keep passing me by.

I've wasted so much time constantly searching and hoping others will do the right/honorable thing, and while I have the support, I am still seen as a complicated character, or the nicer term would be free-spirited. People simply don't understand why I choose to work part-time and occasionally freelance. I continually get sent full-time job offers and I know it's because they care. But you see, I feel I have more control of my life when I work 2 jobs. Having watched organizations screw people over, I don't need to waste my time worrying if one day I'll be the one screwed over. One job will always be a back up for the other. I know I have a strong work ethic but I also know I don't like being taken advantage of either.

Life ain't a dress rehearsal. And I want to live.

So enters Collaborate Consumption. If I reduce my consumption or if I share my consumption, I can work less and live more.

In the next few weeks, I'll be joining, signing up, registering with #collcons focused businesses to support my life changes. Watch this space. Sustainable behavior change, absolutely!

Dining the way it should be

I probably have mentioned this a number of times that I'm a hop, skip and jump kinda girl. So it says quite a lot when I say I will travel to the otherside just to dine at Little Deer Tracks, a cafe and gallery in Coburg. Two trains will get me there or a rather long bike ride or lets compromise, 1 train ride and a reduced bike ride!

There is much to list as to why Little Deer Tracks has found a way to my heart. I've always had a soft spot for Italian family home style dishes (Da Noi in South Yarra being my ultimate favourite restaurant of all time... get the picture?!), but it also doesn't hurt that the cafe is the brainchild of Marco Sellitto, a veteran known for iconic venues such as the Continental, Marios and the Italian.

You wouldn't know until someone decides to order bacon on side that this is a meat-free cafe. Being meat-free however, doesn't mean boring and blah. Far from it. Spaghetti with lentil ragu, brocolli saffaron lemon fetta risotto, fetticinni with wild porcini mushoon and truffle are a just a few dishes to tempt you with. Yes I love my carbs and naturally those dishes linger in my memory more so than any carb free ones!

Little Deer Tracks is a place where one can expect healthy, fresh food, organic, free-range, pure olive oil used for frying, rennet-free cheeses, homemade and slow cooked but without any of the "hippie" tags or labels. Coz at the end of the day it's all about good food. No "faux" meat, just real food.

Should you cave and order a pasta dish, I recommend that you throw in the towel and load up on the cafe's infamous sourdough bread, which Marco calls ''Pascoe Vale brew'', where he nurtured the starter for four years on his window sill. I would never have thought bread could be sooo amazing but it can.

Btw, staff are mighty charming, unpretentious and knows a thing or two when it comes to dressing vintage!

Quirky love, the cafe is scattered with loads of little piggie figurines. But don't think it's just for decoration, one has gone missing and continues to be soarly missed.

Could I, will I eventually become a Coburgher, who knows? But what I do know is that this is how cafes and restaurants should be. A fine example, something for the government to consider when selling climate change?

Nature's Alternative Soap is A-OK

A while back I purchased a packet of Wild Soapnuts. I had read about them in an Oxfam email blast but it was at one of the many markets I loiter at, that I finally made the purchase. While I may have made the purchase I either forgot about them or there was so much laundry detergent laying around that I just never had the need to use them. I'm all about not wasting anything unless I really dislike it but I will always give it a go first or it's past it's used by date.

Anyhoo, I finally took the plunge and tested these Wild Soapnuts over the weekend. I had finally run out of laundry detergent, outside was washing weather and I was in desperate need of underwear. Everything was going swimmingly until I realized a funky smell on my fingers. These Wild Soapnuts sure are smelly. Not sure if its just the ones I got but lets say I had to wash my hands not once, not twice but three times to rid the funky smell. So I was worried during the wash cycle. Will my precious clothes reek? OMG I hope not.

Guess what? They didn't, actually there was no smell but maybe a clean one! Plus my mascara stained towel was no longer mascara stained. Booyah! I really need to have more faith, don't I?

What are Soapnuts?

The soapnuts I used are from the outside of a macadamia-sized berry found in the Himalayan foothills, which is then cracked open and dried in the sun, producing a dark golden shell. The shells are found to contain a high percentafe of saponins (mother nature's soap), a surfacant, which is found to remove dirt and oils from fabric when dispered in water.

Why Soapnuts?

Soapnuts are a wild harvested product in true organic form. Used for centuries in India, China and Nepal, and has been tested to be hypollergenic, antibacterial, biodegradable. It's on the supermarket shelves in Europe and it's cheaper than the chemical alternatives.

Soapnuts can actually be used as a liquid soap as well, but for the time being I'll just stick to using them to launder with first! For more info check www.wildsoapnuts.com.au

M.I.A. Green Chic

Yes, I've been kinda M.I.A lately. But I've not been away. I've actually been rather active on the social media front. Tweeting, Facebook-ing, Blogging, YouTubing rah rah rah under the moniker(?) Buy Nothing New Month. That's right folks I've taken charge of the social media side of the campaign. Privileged, absolutely. Busy, damn straight. But all in all it's exciting. It's a campaign where it's not asking for money, it's more, in my opinion, about setting you free.

I personally, view the campaign and these are my thoughts only, as why be manipulated into buying stuff you don't need? Know what you like, buy what you like. But don't say you don't have money or boo the carbon tax or the economy and retailers will suffer. These are pretty poor excuses. For retailers, are you scared people will realize you're selling them a crap product? What makes you so special? What about service businesses? What about businesses that are striving to do good or design for the better? Do they not deserve a fair go? As oppose to retailers manipulaing people to buy stuff they don't need? I pity those who defend these retailers, how they need someone they don't even know to stroke their ego for a brief moment, just to be sucked into buying an item they may never use so as to feel better about themselves in the short-term. But in the long-term they end up the sad fool who continues wishing they were something they're not, rather than just living and doing what truly makes them happy. If you are angered by my opinions, then I guess I've hit a nerve ?!

I'm not saying there's a right or there's a wrong. Everyone's values are different. If you value buying stuff you never use, higher than saving for something you really want, like a house or a holiday, or even that beautiful hand made necklace, then we don't have a problem. We only have a problem when you're not truly honest with yourself.

Wooah a light hearted campaign and I've not made it light hearted in this post. But this is my personal blog and I own my thoughts.

I'll leave you with the light hearted side of the campaign by quoting Buy Nothing New Month ambassador, Paul Gilding;

“Buy Nothing New Month isn’t about going without, nor is it Buy Nothing New Never. With the rising costs and pressures of living, it’s about living smarter, reassessing how much we really need, looking at where our stuff comes from, where it goes, and what our alternatives are. Importantly, it highlights the time and money we can access by modifying our consumption and waste.”

WORD.

Round the Corner I find 2 Bushrangers

Two-ish months ago, I moved into new shin digs and while I miss having the yarra river right at my door steps (now I’m 10 minutes away from it), I am however rewarded with a new local. I do love Tofu International on Bridge Road but I consider that a little far for me. I’m a hop, skip and a jump kinda gal. So coming across Gypsey and Musquito was like finding gold at the end of the rainbow!

Why I am in love with Australian bushrangers from Van Diemen’s Land? The story of Musquito, an Aboriginal, and Gypsey, an British, uniting to fight for indigenous rights, teamed with servings of free-range eggs and pork, offerings of 6 types of bush teas, use of leatherwood honey from Tasmania and bush tomatoes (for chutney) from the Northern Territory, basically keeping it short and sweet, they work under the banner of local, native and iconic produce.

Recycle, reuse, upcycle, all things that encapsulates sustainability and tables that faciliate communal bonding, makes this local treasure a home away from home.

For coffee connoisseurs, 5 Senses is the choice of brew. And for those who have a soft spot for childhood favourites, Spiders (the drink) are also on offer but with a twist. Mineral sodas such as blood orange together with ice cream in jim jam jars, helps make Summer not seem so far away.

NB - KeepCup friendly yes they are!

Do your bit with just one call

I live in the City of Yarra. As a renter I don't really take much notice of what's happening in my municipality but you know I really should.

What I didn't realise and I reckon most residents don't either is that we don't have to dump our hard rubbish on the streets. While leaving hard rubbish on the kerb can be seen as a generous way of letting go of items, it's also a fast track way of sending items to landfill. And we want to avoid landfill as items sent to landfill increases greenhouse gases.

So how has the City of Yarra address this issue? They have set up a hotline (03) 9205 5190 for residents who wish to request a hard or green waste collection. By having council collect our hard/green waste, they are in a better position to dispose, recycle and recover items for re-use.

One phone call, too friggin easy don't you think?