Rasmeii

I’ve not done anything about this yet even though I think about it a lot; possibly because it feels like such a mammoth task because palm oil is in EVERYTHING. The time I seem to worry most about it is when I’m using shower products (maybe because I read the bottles and sodium laureth sulphate is ALWAYS in the ingredients). So I thought as a baby step towards cutting out palm oil, I could try and find an animal and environmentally friendy palm-oil free body wash to use in the shower. It would be good because in my household the four of us all use the same body wash, so that would be four people’s worth of responsible body wash usage :)

I’ve still been going about my hoarding ways. This is really important. I don’t want to live a life that revolves around material things. I need to reduce the amounts of everything that I have! Clothes, bits and bobs…probably books but I don’t want to let those go :P
It shouldn’t be so difficult getting rid of clothes. Nobody needs twenty t-shirts, it’s just the way our society seems to work…people feel they need variety of clothes, but we leave so much sitting in our wardrobes untouched and unworn!
Ah. My drawers are overflowing, why can’t I let go?
I need to try. Perhaps I should start with pyjamas? Or tops? Or socks? I don’t know! I’ll be battling to keep them all!
I’ll just have to repeat ‘you don’t NEED them, you don’t NEED them!’

I suppose this is a bit of a lifelong dream for me. Ever since I was about 12 or 13 I’ve adored the idea of living in a caravan, not being tied to a big house, just living with small essentials and being able to take off and travel without packing and leaving things behind.
This idea has recently come back around for me as I begin to think about the future for myself and my partner. We’re young, we don’t know where we’re going, we don’t have much money. We want to be together. But renting is so expensive, and it feels like money down the drain. Of course, I’d be willing to make lots of compromises to live with him – such as shelling out to a Landlord/lady, signing their contract, following their rules…but I can’t help thinking it would be much nicer to own our own home. And why shouldn’t that home be a caravan? No worries about spilling curry on the carpet and having to shell out fines for moving the wardrobes around, no worries about being given a month’s notice to leave if they decide to do something else with their property.
I find the idea of buying a small second hand caravan (whether static or not I don’t know), paying the considerably smaller fees to pitch at a residential caravan site, and just living together in a little home together for a while. It’s different, it feels more individual, maybe even more independent, than renting or getting into debt buying somewhere.
I’m not considering this permanently at the moment, but whilst we find our feet, decide what to do and where to go, this could be a nifty way of living together and saving money for the future. I feel like a one-off large sum for the caravan and then caravan park fees are more promising than just paying rent to live in somebody else’s house. Plus if and when we decide to move on, we’ll get a little of the money back by selling the caravan on again.
I’m really really excited about this idea. I hope we get to a place where it could be a possibility!
My Mum actually has a friend who lives in a static caravan. From what she can remember, her friend bought a HUGE second-hand caravan for around £16000, pays a yearly fee to the residential caravan park of around £250, and other than having to vacate for 2 weeks of the year is left to her own devices. Sounds grand :)