How do I do this?

Well in an attempt to reduce the amount of stuff that goes in our wheelie bins ... I am currently looking into ways to reduce this but to also make some cash out of it.  So I have emailed a bunch of scrap metal dealers in Inverness (our closest city) to see if there is any way that they would accept domestic scrap metal (like food and drink cans) and if they do, then how much would they pay for this.  I know it's a long shot but if people in England and Wales can make money from their scrap metal then so can I! That would certainly reduce the amount of waste going in my wheelie bins!  I know our local council provide these little pathetic blue boxes for cans and paper but to be honest they are pants!  I can fill one in a week with tins and if I recycle my mum's tins as well I would fill two in a week and these pathetic little things are collected fortnightly!!!!

I am also getting my mum to save all her jars for me so that I can start making some preserves.  I will start small with stuff like onion marmalade but will branch out into jams and stuff when I am a bit more confident that I can do it properly.  That will prevent jars going into the bin as well!!!!

We already compost but that was a complete disaster last year and have had to start from scratch again this year and it's not really working as well.  Last year, my compost bin (affectionately known as george ... I'm going to get another one and call it mildred!) was doing nicely.  Then we went on holiday.  My lovely next door neighbour was providing us with her kitchen peelings etc which was really helping the composting along nicely but when we went on holiday she chucked whole potatoes in!!! So we came home from holiday to find tatties growing in our compost bin!

The whole lot had to be chucked out.  To say I was gutted was an understatement as we had some proper good quality compost at the bottom.  But off it all went and this year hubby decided to site the compost bin elsewhere in the garden.  Big disaster.  It's in a shady area at the side of the house and the stuff just does not seem to be composting down as fast.  But I will wait and see how things go.  I will continue to supply the bin but we are just not producing enough to keep the bin filled up.

But I did have a total brain wave!!! We have 3 brown garden waste bins.  One is ours, one is next door's (her gardens front and back are paved and gravelled) and we found one when out on a walk.  So the third one now has drainage holes in it.  I filled it with shredded newspaper and hubby then piled all our grass cuttings on it and we have left it.  Hopefully it will mulch down and we will be able to add this to the compost bin to speed up the processes.  If it works then I will be well chuffed!!!! But I really need to get one of those aerators for compost bins.  Having a really bad back means that I just can't use the garden fork to move the stuff in the bin as it's all so far down!!!! But I think I will just leave that for hubby to do ... it can be his job.

On the home front ... the children are really getting into the spirit of money saving and being thrifty.  They always give their teachers a gift at Christmas and last year it cost a small fortune as they don't just have one teacher, even though they are still at primary school.  There are a number of teachers so this year it is going to be different! I will post about it separately as I am very proud of them for it. 

Anyhow ... it's off to do some laundry and dishes ... although the dishwasher will do the latter ... all I have to do is load it lol.  I will be back later on ... have a good day y'all x