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Eco, Natural, Plant-Based: Are You Paying More for Words on a Label?

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  Eco, Natural, Plant-Based: Are You Paying More for Words on a Label? A green label can make a product look environmentally friendly. It doesn't necessarily make it so. Stand in front of a supermarket shelf and you could be forgiven for thinking that buying washing-up liquid now requires an environmental science qualification. One bottle is natural. Another is plant-based. A third promises an eco formula. There are leaves, waterfalls, brown cardboard and reassuring shades of green. Some of these products offer worthwhile improvements. Others leave us with a warm feeling and very little information. The challenge is to tell the difference—and decide whether a higher price buys a benefit that matters. The answer begins with three questions: What exactly is being claimed? What evidence supports it? What does the product cost each time it does its job? The Greenest-Looking Bottle May Have the Least to Tell You Imagine two labels on a household cleaner: “Kind to nature. Inspired by pla...
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Is an Electric Car Still Cheaper to Run If You Can't Charge at Home?

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  Is an Electric Car Still Cheaper to Run If You Can't Charge at Home? Going Green — by Philip M Russell Two people can drive the same electric car and pay very different amounts to keep it moving. One plugs in on the driveway and lets an overnight tariff do the work. The other lives in a flat, parks on the street and relies on public chargers. Same car. Same distance. Very different electricity bills. That matters whenever an advertisement promises motoring for a few pence per mile. The calculation may be perfectly valid for someone with a suitable home charger and tariff. It may tell you very little about the cost of using the same car from a terraced house without off-street parking. An electric car can still be cheaper on energy without home charging. But the advantage depends on the public prices you can actually access, the car's efficiency and the petrol or diesel vehicle you are comparing it with. The useful starting point is a practical question: what would 100 miles c...
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Plant Now, Save Next Spring — Five Garden Jobs That Will Cost You Less Later

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  Plant Now, Save Next Spring — Five Garden Jobs That Will Cost You Less Later The cheapest way to improve next year’s garden is to start before this year has finished. On a grey November afternoon, it’s easy to look at the garden and think that everything can wait until spring. Then March arrives. There’s a gap in the border, last year’s pelargonium has turned to mush and the vegetable bed is already growing something you certainly didn’t sow. I like to approach the garden as I would a practical in the lab. Start by looking at what you’ve got, decide what you want to achieve and try one small job you can check later. A plant you divide now, a seed envelope you label properly or a pot you get under cover before a frost can all make a difference. The saving only counts if it replaces something you’d otherwise buy. Sometimes the real gain is having one less job to do on the first fine weekend in March. 1. Split a healthy clump and fill a gap for free Walk round the borders and look f...
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Could You Find £100 of Wasted Electricity in Your Home?

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  Could You Find £100 of Wasted Electricity in Your Home? Your electricity meter knows where your money is going. Do you? A light glowing in an empty room is easy to spot. Electricity being used quietly, hour after hour, is much easier to miss. An old computer left running. A heated towel rail following a schedule nobody remembers setting. An immersion heater providing an unnecessary boost. Individually, they may seem unimportant. Over a year, they can become surprisingly expensive. Could you find £100 of avoidable electricity use in your home? Perhaps. Some households will find more; others already use electricity carefully and will find less. The useful challenge is to measure what happens, identify what serves no purpose and calculate what changing it could save. Start With Evidence, Before Shopping My home has 26 solar panels, substantial battery storage and a heat pump. I enjoy technology and the possibilities it offers. But owning equipment does not remove the need to underst...
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The 20-Minute Outdoor Challenge: Could It Change How You Feel This Winter?

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  The 20-Minute Outdoor Challenge: Could It Change How You Feel This Winter? One of the best things you can do for yourself this winter doesn't need a subscription, an app or a gym. It might simply begin with putting on a coat and opening the front door. At this time of year, it is surprisingly easy to spend almost the whole day indoors. We get up in darkness, work under artificial lighting and notice, rather too late, that the daylight has disappeared again. Going outside becomes something we do between the house and the car. Yet winter does not have to mean putting our relationship with the outdoors on hold until spring. Here is a small experiment: try a 20-minute outdoor activity each day for a week, preferably in daylight, and notice how you feel. There is nothing medically special about the number 20. It is a practical target, rather than a prescribed treatment or a promise of better health. You can shorten it, split it up or adapt it to your circumstances. Why Winter Can Shri...
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Can You Eat Better for Less Than £3 a Day? The Real Cost of Healthy Food

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  Can You Eat Better for Less Than £3 a Day? The Real Cost of Healthy Food “The healthiest food in the supermarket may also be some of the cheapest.” Walk past the protein bars, premium smoothies and packets promising a healthier lifestyle, and you will find ingredients that receive much less attention: oats, lentils, beans, potatoes, carrots and frozen vegetables. They do not need fashionable packaging to make nutritious meals. But can they provide a satisfying, balanced day of food for less than £3 per person? The worked example below comes to approximately £2.47 for the ingredients used. That is encouraging—but it is different from buying an entire shopping basket for £3. The interesting question is what makes that calculation work, and what it can teach us about eating well. Healthy Eating Has Acquired an Expensive Image A healthy breakfast can look as though it requires imported berries, specialist powders, expensive yoghurt and several varieties of seeds. Those ingredients m...
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