Being environmentally friendly often comes with a premium. With financial troubles beginning to nip at even the most well-heeled, Sarah Lewis looks at ways to beat the credit crunch without giving up on being green.

FOOD PLANNING
“Credit crunch” and “food crisis” are two frequently used phrases in the press at the moment. But with 6.7 million tonnes of mostly edible food thrown away every year in the UK, it’s hard to believe the answer lies anywhere but with ourselves.

Spending half an hour at the weekend to have a look at what is in your cupboards, working out what meals you can make and then planning the week’s menu can not only dramatically slash your food bills and save you loads of time in cooking, planning and shopping, but will also almost eliminate food waste from your life.

GROW YOUR OWN FOOD
This one is a bit of a longer-term investment and payback time ranges anywhere from four weeks to several years. The UK’s leading organic growing charity, Garden Organic, says a 4ft x 4ft plot could supply vegetables all year round for just £50 – the same haul would cost around £1,700 from a supermarket.

Not all of us have the time and space available but rocket leaves or cut-and-come-again salad grown on a windowsill will be ready to eat just two months from planting. If you’re a user of bagged supermarket salad, you can easily save several pounds a week for fresher produce.

And it’s all very eco of course, as long as you aren’t dousing the veg in pesticides.

CAR CLUBS
By the time we go to print it’s entirely possible the price of petrol will be so high as to have broken the petrol station billboards. At the time of writing it was hovering somewhere around the $145 a barrel mark.

For car drivers in Brighton that means average petrol prices of 119.2p and diesel at 132.2p.

According to responsible-car-use charity Car Plus, if you drive less than 6,000 miles a year, joining a car club can save you up to £3,500 annually. And as for being green, although you are still using a car, you will be using it less, and it is said one car club car replaces up to 20 privately owned cars.

GREENER CARS, PUSH BIKES AND PUBLIC TRANSPORT
Car clubs aren’t always appropriate, especially if you commute to work or travel around regularly. Bicycles are a great option for short to medium distances if it’s just you travelling, and the only fuel required is regular feeding. They are cheap, green and have the added bonus of keeping you fit and healthy.

Again, public transport is a good car alternative, but not always cheaper or more convenient.

A blessing to all those petrol-heads with an eco conscience is the rise of the eco-friendly car. After purchase you’ll see savings in CO2 emission, petrol prices and road tax.

Visit www.yourgreencar.com for comparisons.

SWAP SHOPS
Swapping is the big new trend when it comes to being cheap and green. From having your friends come round for a glass of wine and some clothes swapping, to posting your old things on websites such as Freecycle, swapping – rather than just chucking stuff away – is a great way to reduce waste in landfill, ease the demand on resources (every new T-shirt requires new materials, an old one is already there), and save you a few pence.

Just make sure you befriend people with fabulous clothes.

PUT IT DOWN
Whatever it is you are thinking of buying, you probably don’t need it.

One of the biggest culprits of environmental degradation is our rampant resource use – from clearing the rainforests to grow soya or oil palm, to mountain-top removal in mining for coal.

It all ends up in our stuff: our frozen ready meals, iPods, disposable goods and novelty toys. That isn’t to say these things are inherently bad, but over the past three decades, one-third of the planet’s natural resources have been consumed, which theoretically means in the next 60 years, we will have used everything there is to use.

REUSE IT
In the light of yet another crisis – resource depletion (see above) – isn’t it time to throw away our throwaway society?

What is the point of paying, every week, for 7,500 paper cups for your office (three cups of tea a day x 500 staff x five days) when mugs do an infinitely superior job?

Mugs don’t require constant treecutting, processing, bleaching and waxing – and only need paying for once. Sure, you want things like catheters to be one-use only, but when whole ranges of single-use underwear can be found (www.onewear.co.uk), isn’t our obsession with the throwaway going a bit too far?

WARM IT
Fuel prices are high and are going to stay high, which means heating your home is going to become more expensive.

It is not inconceivable these rises will tip you over the “10% of income spent on fuel bills” mark, into official fuel poverty.

Here, a little bit of outlay can make a lot of difference. Good insulation, in your loft, floor and walls if possible, can make a massive difference. Loft insulation can save up to £155 a year, while saving one tonne of carbon dioxide (figures from Energy Savings Trust). Double-glazing can take £110 off heating bills and 750kg from the CO2 bill.

A comprehensive grant system is available from Brighton and Hove City Council, called Warm Homes, to help you pay for any relevant work done to your house. Find out more on 0800 048 0727.