The suffering and destruction that go on in the world crush my soul. I tell myself that I am doing my bit to help by trying to be a positive influence to my kids, my family and friends, and sometimes staying sane among the chaos is all I can contribute. But I want to do more.

So today I had an idea. I will try to support different causes this year, not with donations as my resources are limited, but with change in habits and behaviour and will document my solidarity in my blog. This may not produce a huge impact but it’s more than what I have done so far. I will start small: supporting small and local businesses.

When we buy from small businesses we help a sector that employs 70% of the Australian workforce and if the business is local our dollars stay in the community. If you choose goods that are produced locally there is less transport involved so they don’t require as much packaging and petrol which is good for sustainability.

I’ll try my best to do all my shopping the next fortnight from local shops and farmers markets and will be checking where the goods come from before I buy them. As I have not done any planning I am wondering if I will be spending more money than I normally do to run the household. Watch this space to find out.