headinthesandguy

I decided to try to reduce my 'car farts' (CO 2 and other noxious gas emissions) by cycling to work. It's a bit far for me to go there and back each day (10.25 miles each way), so I decided to cycle to a train station, leave one bike there, catch a train, then get on my second bike at the station near my work (I had to leave a bike there for this purpose) and cycle the rest of the way to work. So does it save me money? The journey by car is 9.6 miles, so twice a day that comes to 19.2 miles. journeyprice.co.uk tells me that this journey will cost 2.00 pounds each way, so 4.00 pounds a day for petrol. The price for my return train ticket was 6.20 so the train only cost a little more. If I get the train for a whole year (260 working days), it should cost me 1488 pounds, compared to 960 pounds for petrol for my car for those days. However, if you get a  season ticket , it turns out you can save lots of money. For example, if I cycled to work every day, for my journey (ju

I found a local veg. box company Cambridge Organic Food Company and ordered a veg. box for 16.45 pounds a week. All organic from local farmers near Cambridge. Was it cheaper than the supermarket? Nearly! It had: 3 banana, 6 pears, 3 apples, 4 satsumas, 6 tomatoes, 4 parsnips, 140g mushrooms, 1 kg potatoes, 520 g onions, 200g chard, 110 g lettuce, 500g carrots. I checked the Sainsburys website and they would have charged 12.50 for the same. Considering that I would probably have unknowingly chosen out-of season veg. from Sainsburys, probably buying my veg. from Sainsburys would cost me more, because I'd have chosen peppers or something that's only grown in Kenya or New Zealand and therefore costs 5 pounds! And the local veg. box has veg. in paper bags, no nasty plastic! Also saves on air miles. The organic thing I'm not so sure of, but people say it means less pesticide use (better for bees), and better care of the soil (see this  article in The Washington Post ).