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Cell
/ Small Group Resources
Money
Autobiography
A great resource for small groups or personal use. The
idea is to write a “money autobiography”,
which perhaps sounds a bit trite, but in essence there are
a some questions to get us to reflect on the place of
money in our lives: What has formed our attitude to
money? What do we really value? How good are we at managing
money? What place does money have in our life and faith?
Money
CV
This is not a budgeting chart but a chance to review
each area of finance and identify areas that frustrate
or disappoint as well celebrate areas where you feel you’ve
made real progress in your stewardship. For each area of
spending there is a chance to reflect on progress, decide
on the next step in the journey and consider what your vision
is in this area of your finances.
Financials
Advice
Guide Scotland
A
host of practical advice, including debt
(found at http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/scotland/life/debt_scotland.htm)
MoneySavingExpert.com
A good site for getting the best deal on consumer
goods. It helps us to be better informed consumers,
but maybe we also need to consuming less?
The
Money Secret
Available from Care for the Family, an excellent
easy-read book full of how-tos for budgeting, getting
out of debt etc and with many references to other helpful
resources and organisations. There is also a website where
you can learn more and sign up for e-mailed money tips,
post up things that’ve helped you etc.
Ethical
Investors
Recommended by Paul Barfoot.
He says: "I have been looking into the world of ethical
pensions recently, and am using these people, who seem
to be very good (also do mortgages). Wouldn't like to fully
recommend them as I haven't completed the process yet, but
certainly could be a good place to start."
Triodos
An ethical bank recommended by Adam
Archibald
Kingdom
Bank
A Christian and Ethical bank.
[Recommended by Kerry Hails]
Budgeting form
This is a form for working out your income and expenditure
in detail, as well as detailing any debts you may have.
It is produced by the British Bankers Association and the
Money Advice Trust and is therefore the recognised standard
form used across the country by money advisers.
Debt
advice
If you know you have a debt problem there are a number of
free advice agencies that you can go to for help.
They offer everything from a brief chat to negotiating a
repayment plan with all your creditors. The attached leaflet
gives details of all the agencies in Edinburgh and the Lothians.
The two nearest to church are The Advice Shop, 85-87
South Bridge, 0131 225 1255 or Edinburgh Central Citizens
Advice Bureau, 58 Dundas Street, 0131 557 1500.
Food
Whitmuir
Organics, Whitmuir Farm, Lamancha 01968 661908
This is the farm that we, along with the McNeish's
and the Jones's are
members of - very good quality meat and vegetables, and
would recommend as being local, organic and more flexible
than many of the 'box' schemes around at the moment ...
plus as members you are involved in the life of the farm.
[Recommended by Paul
Barfoot]
Fairtrade
Products
The Fairtrade Mark is an independent consumer label which
appears on products as an independent guarantee that disadvantaged
producers in the developing world are getting a better deal.
For a product to display the Fairtrade Mark it must meet
international Fairtrade standards. These standards are set
by the international certification body Fairtrade Labelling
Organisations International (FLO). Producer organisations
that supply Fairtrade products are inspected and certified
by FLO. They receive a minimum price that covers the cost
of sustainable production and an extra premium that is invested
in social or economic development projects.
[Recommended
by Drew Murphy]
Books and Articles
Keith
Tondeur - Your
money and Your life.
An interesting book, with some thought provoking
stuff. Worth a read.
"Money,
possessions, appearances: it's an illness"
- An interesting article written by Oliver James.
He has written a book too on what he calls "Affluenza".
"Food
miles or Fair miles" - an interesting article
on where we buy our food, and some of the tough choices
we have to make.
Books
avaliable to borrow from the King's Hall Library, see
the `Ethics' section for relavent titles.
Environmental
Good
Living Tips
A great website for environmental and ethical living
tips. Loads of great ideas from shopping, clothes, and
travel tips etc.
[Recommended by Rupert
Ward]
Waste
Aware Scotland
A place where you can buy all the stuff for home composting
and info about recycling.
[Recommended by Rupert
Ward]
Ecotricity
Apparently its the only "real" green electric,
the others use offsetting!
[Recommended by Colin
Hewitt]
nPower
Juice
if you're with npower, then for no extra charge you can
switch your electricity over to npower juice, which means
that effectively all your electricity will be generated
from renewable sources. Have just done it myself
and am reliably informed that it's for real. Perhaps Npower
are jumping on a bandwagon, using green tokenism to increase
profit when in reality they care little for the environment.
But having said that - using Npower juice vs. doing nothing
is better!
[Recommended by Adam
Archibald]
Power
Provider Warning!
Beware
of the big power providers' 'green tariffs'... All ‘dirty’
power companies are required by law to produce a certain
percentage of energy from renewable sources. So if you sign
up, you may be paying extra for green energy that they had
to legally provide anyway. Ecotricity
is 100% wind power plus they guarantee to price match Scottish
Power. Good Energy
provide it from a range of renewables. They're rated more
highly ethically but are slightly more expensive than Ecotricity.
For both you can switch online and it takes about 5 minutes.
[Recommended by Liz
Holt]
Eco
Tips
Some tips from Andrew
Jones following on from his talk `God
is Green' on Sunday 25th Feb 2007.
General
A
web page looking at cost comparison for real nappies
vs. disposable nappies.
[Recommended by Colin
Hewitt]
Beyond
Belief Finances BBC Radio 4
In light of the current teaching series on finances, you
may be interested to hear an inter-faith discussion on
debt and money on BBC Radio 4’s Listen Again
website. To listen, go to the webpage
and choose the Feb 12 broadcast from the drop-down list.
ResponsibleTravel.com
The world's largest collection of responsible and ecotourism
holidays.
[Recommended by Colin
Hewitt]
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