Green guilty pleasures and penance !

I'm sure lots of environmentally inclined people, like me, have that area of their lifestyle that they deliberately gloss over when it comes to thinking of green measures ...

I think I've probably made it clear that my guilty pleasure, eco-wise, is travel.  Both I and Mrs C-H love seeing new places, cultures, traditions, and tasting different foods.  All of that comes at a price to the eco credentials, but I find it very hard to cut back.  Really not doing too well with Japan, Berlin last year, and the niece's wedding in New York coming up this summer  Don't think I can do much to make up for that.

The other thing I enjoy is the outdoors, walking and cycling.  That in itself is not too bad, but of course there are all the car miles getting to somewhere to do those things - hill walking in Bedfordshire is a bit limiting   My sister is also a walker, and she is does a "Walk 1000 miles in a year" challenge, from Country Walking magazine.  She did it last year, and is doing it again this year (though breaking her foot on 4th Jan was not a good start).  She suggested I should count my walking miles and see if I can do it.  But 1000 is quite a lot, and I don't want to risk turning an enjoyable recreation into a chore.  Then I had an idea;  for fitness / training I often walk or cycle to / from work, 5 miles each way.  Perhaps I could try to offset my car mileage for walking / cycling trips by car journeys to work avoided by going by bike / on foot.  Still sounds pretty tough, but if I allow myself to count only my share of journeys where we go as a group car-sharing, it might just be on. So far I've banked 84 miles self-propelled in January.

What's your guilty pleasure ?  Any ideas to offset it ?

1000 miles a year is only 2.73 miles a day. I walk the dog that far as a minimum. I worked out a while ago that at a very conservative estimate I have dog walked at least 5,500 miles over her lifetime, though probably rather more.

But guilty pleasures? Not a travel fanatic. It was really nice about a year ago to treat ourselves to a new sofa and armchair. We have always had 2nd hand, but I just got fed up with things never being quite right. Although now we're going to be moving, it probably won't be right for our new home!

I did think that how difficult the 1000 mile target is really depends on how much of it you can fit into regular life. Walking weekends / holidays aren't going to do it alone. My walk to work option is good in that it replaces a car journey I'd have to make. But 5 miles each way is a bit long, I have to find a couple of extra hours in my day even at my rather brisk walking speed. So, can't do that many days per week. But if it were 2 miles each way, I could do that most days. Much shorter than that I would do every day, but it wouldn't be enough. So living the optimal distance from work would be a big help !

Could you drive part way and leave the car, giving you a shorter walk each way? Probably no more eco friendly though, as the worst part of car emissions is starting a vehicle from cold. Leaving the car 1.5 miles from your destination would give you less than a half hour walk each way, and a mile and a half 'in the bank' by the end of the working week.

Very boring but my guilty indulgence is the tumble drier. Everything washed goes in there and then gets folded while warm (life's too short for ironing). With the excessively wet weather we have it can be impossible to get stuff dry and I will not tolerate wet stuff draped round the house. I got a drier after I had brought a load of washing in from the line 3 times to spin the rainwater out of it. I didn't replace the washing line after it got eaten by pigs.
Where I live it's not an option to not drive but I don't make unnecessary journeys and I wait until I have several things to do in one trip.

Ploshkin wrote: I didn't replace the washing line after it got eaten by pigs.
 

I love it!!

I have a nifty cover on my rotary airer invented by a local entrepreneur (I was going to put a link to the website but it is down for refurbishment.) So I do try to dry as much as possible on the line: on a work day I can peg the washing up in the early evening, and leave it until I get back from work the next day. It is usually at least half dry even in the winter. But on those November days of fog and high humidity nothing dries, so I do use a tumble drier then (and enjoy not having to iron!)

My other guilty pleasure is ready meals - not very often, but with working fur days a week and having family commitments too sometimes it's just lovely to put a tikka masala in the microwave. The ready meal containers go into school - the art department has one on every table for the students to sharpen their pencils into!! I would love to have time to cook every meal from scratch, but sometimes it's wonderful for it to have been done for you!