This site is an opportunity for you to get active, informed and engaged in issues around less-cost living - lifestyles which enhance personal wellbeing, maximise resource and energy efficiency and minimise harm to people and the environment. 

Firstly, we want it to be interactive, so join a discussion, start a debate, or if you have any information, research, links, events or anything you'd like to share, please add it to one of the following pages below (note - the date and author of the last update on the Pages section below are incorrect):

1) Food and drink        2) Getting around        3) Clothing and accessories 4) Around the house    5) At your work     

6) Get informed           7) Get active: activism 8) Events                            9) Blogs                    10) Urban Living Guide

11) Eco headquarters   12) Guides to less-cost living  13)ReConnect            14) World Environment Day

Secondly, one of the central objectives of the forums is to help develop guides to less-cost living, in partnership with other likeminded groups. The purpose of these guides is to help people to live a ‘less-cost’ lifestyle, by providing them with advice and tips about the choices we make in everyday life, and putting them in the know about less-cost products and services that are available in their local area.

The first guide, ‘the Urban Living Guide’, developed by Gecko from Victoria University, provides a great introduction to all aspects of life in Wellington. Hardcopies are available around Wellington, and you can check it out on our website (www.42collective.org.nz/projects). Next up will be a Guide to Wellington's café scene, which is currently being developed by a group called Conscious Consumers. This guide will help you find great Fair Trade and organic coffee, show you where you can bring your own take-away cup to cut down on waste, and identify cafes which provide biodegradable packaging. The guides will also link suppliers of these less-cost products with the cafes, to help the business make the less-cost shift.

Several more guides are in the pipeline, and will be developed from the information that people like you are contributing to this forum. To help develop these guides, within the pages relating to ‘Getting around’, ‘Food and drink’, ‘Clothing and accessories’, ‘Around the house’, and ‘At work’ you will find a section called “Less-cost living in Wellington”. This is where you can add local information about where you can buy products and services that will help people to live a less-cost lifestyle. For example:

• What cafes have you been to lately that sell fair trade coffee, or let you use your own takeaway containers?
• Have you used some good chemical-free cleaners recently?
• Is their an energy efficient appliance which you want to promote?
• Can you buy lead-free paints at your hardware store?
• Have you found a new second hand clothing shop with some sweet deals?
• Keen to join a car-sharing group in your neighbourhood? 

Hope you find the forum site useful, and have time to share some of your ideas and expertise…

The 42crew

www.42collective.org.nz