Compostable Kate

I've been trying to organise some money to live on for the last two weeks, ever since my teaching contract expired at the end of November (two weeks before the end of term so they don't have to pay me over the holidays). While I do qualify for the "Lump  Sum Summer Payment" from the Department of Education, it doesn't come through until the end of the month. In the meantime, and for the rest of the summer break (unless I can find some temp work), I need some help from Centrelink. I was being supported by the Disability Support Pension until about 4 weeks ago, when they changed their policy and dropped me (and many others in my situation). I had previously been assured that it would be there for me over the summer break, even though it didn't pay me any money while I was earning. With the loss of the DSP also came the loss of subsidised medications (OMG, I had no idea what they really cost(, my electricity subsidy, and my subsidised stamps from the Post Off

I've been banging on a bit about Plastic-Free July - but not *too* much, I hope - to try to encourage more people (really, just ONE more person) to take up the challenge to reduce their plastic consumption, or to at least ensure their plastics all get recycled, not put in landfill. I did the challenge for the first time last year, and drastically reduced the amount of single-use plastic I use, while also becoming painfully aware of how ubiquitous single-use plastic is in our lives. It is EVERYWHERE. And it's not just where we can see it. Even if your product sits on the supermarket shelf plastic-free, the chances are it got delivered swathed in plastic. I'm afraid to ask what happens to that plastic.... Trying to do grocery shopping without buying things wrapped in plastic is *really* difficult, not to mention expensive. Plastic-free bread (if you can persuade the bakery to put it in a paper bag, not plastic) is much more expensive that the $1 bread in a plastic bag