Local produce - honey

It's great to be able to support local food producers, but not quite so easy you might think when you live in central London.
There has been quite a resurgence in urban bee keeping lately, and we are lucky enough to have a bee-keeper working SE London.  Local lady Svea who has tested it says Brockley honey...

"Tastes slightly of anisseed/ fennel. Very delicate and nice.
Cannot recommend Catford honey though- very strong fennel flavour and could only enjoy it in cooking...."

Selling pots costing under £5 not only are you benefiting your local environment, your garden, you could also be helping your ability to fight off hay-fever!


If you want to find local producers near you contact The British Bee Keepers Association

Ethical gift wrap - Furoshiki

It is possible to buy recycled wrapping paper, but it still ends up in the recycling bin, but the Japanese have a rather lovely way of wrapping gifts in cloth (furoshiki), which can be used over and over again.

There is a brilliant video showing how to do it here
http://www.recyclenow.com/what_can_i_do_today/furoshiki_japanese_w.html

Bargain organic baby clothes

A subject dear to my heart, green baby and frugi always have excellent clearance sections of their websites where gorgeous things can be found:

GreenBaby toadstool T-shirt £4 reduced from £10

Toadstool T-shirt

Frugi poplin summer top £5 reduced from £20

Poplin summer top

Support the arts - museum shops

Ahhh, lovely stationery at the V&A, prints and toys at the Tate. Have had a little look around and seen this lovely William Morris Anemone Writing Set


Lots of lovely toys for under £5 at the tate, but don't seem to be able to link to them. It's a really nice site so not too much of a hardship for you to have a look around


Natural History museum has 'dinosaur', 'under the sea', 'garden gang' and 'animal safari'  biscuit cutters, all for £3

Handmade fudge

www.homemadesociety.co.uk

My brother-in-law's partner makes lovely home-made fudge in his kitchen in Vauxhall. Ethically sourced ingredients, hand-made and delicious, 200g of fudge will set you back £4. You can even go and pick it up for free, so no postal costs.

The challenge...

The economy is going to hell in a handcart, cuts and mass job losses are expected and Christmas is coming. Are we downhearted? Well maybe yes. But we can do something about it. We can take the pressure of ourselves by not spending so much. We can take the pressure off of the planets resources by not spending so much, and we can do our bit for small businesses and worthy causes by spending our money with them.
I have told my dear family that this year we will be spending £5 per person and buying British made goods, or fairly traded items from abroad.
I am going to post links to things I have found that fit the bill, but there may be some things that are suitable for couples that cost £10.
If you want to join me, please post your own finds up here too.