If you’re thinking of heading to the NEC for Grand Designs Live next month (7 – 9th October 2011) then take a look at their early bird ticket offers – if you book online before 16th September and quote the code SAVE10 then you’ll save 10% on the price of standard admission tickets.

But if you’d like to make more of the trip then they’ve got a couple of other offers on the table. Their VIP experience includes fast-track admission, access to the VIP lounge, Champagne, coffee and more (have a look at the website for full details and to book your tickets). Normally priced at £39, you can book ahead for £35 if you use the code VIP10.

And if you really are an early bird then for just £27 you can order yourself the luxury breakfast package, which includes fast track entry and a Champagne breakfast in the fine dining restaurant. Use the code LBR10 to get yourself the 10% off price, as the normal fee is £30.

You can use the codes to order by phone if you want – the number is 0844 854 1348.

If you listen to the show then you’ll know that Pete and I have made the trip to Grand Designs Live at the NEC a couple of times over the years. I haven’t seen any free ticket offers yet this year, but they currently have a ticket deal that saves you 45% if you book by 19th August 2011 (the show itself is early in October).

Book via the Grand Designs Live website, or phone 0844 854 1348, and use the discount code NEWS12 to claim your saving. Kids 15 and under go free, as well :D

The following discount codes are valid online at the Green Shopping Catalogue, and for telephone orders, from now until the end of September 2011.

Buy Dave Hamilton’s Grow Your Own Food for Free for £12.95 (saving £2.00), when you use the discount code GYF/PM69.

John Kruse’s Common Land is just £10.99, a saving of £2.00, when you use the promo code CLA/PM69.

Carol Deppe’s The Resilient Gardener is available with a discount of £2.00 with the offer code RGF/PM69.

Buy Small Green Roofs for £14.99 (saving £2.00), when you use the code SGR/PM69 when you place your order.

Preserve your garden’s bounty with a hanging herb drying rack for £13.95 (use code BBLHDR/PM69 or use HERBD/PM69 to buy a herb and seed drying rack for £27.50.

And collect fallen leaves for leaf mould in jute leaf sacks. The current offer is £19.95 for 10 sacks, a saving of £9.97, when you quote the code LEL15/PM69.

Cook outdoors this summer with a Western style Dutch oven cook set and save £5.00 with the coupon code DOBS/PM69.

Pete and I have both signed up for writing challenges this month. NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month, where people all over the world (I guess, originally, it wasn’t international) attempt to pen a 50,000 word novel (which is short, for a novel) during November. If you manage it you get a certificate and a 50,000 manuscript to polish and publish or use as a door-stop.

Pete and I have both signed up for NaNoWriMo. If you want to be our writing buddies then stop my my profile or his. You’ll also find our current word counts there.

We’re both NaNoWriMo Rebels – neither of us has any intention of writing a novel. I’m working on a book about gardening and Pete is calling his endeavour NaCoWriMo as he’s opting to write 50,000 words of web content during the month.

Anyway, I’ve written 1690 words this morning, and Pete isn’t out of bed yet. Not that I’m gloating or anything – that would be dangerous because Pete always responds enthusiastically to that kind of challenge and Word War I will break out in Cooper Towers.

What I am doing is reminding NaNoWriMo participants, and writers in general, that it’s very important to back up your work. Save as you go along, sure – there’s nothing worse than Word crashing and taking hours of your work with you – but you also need to consider hard drive failures and the kind of catastrophic stupidity that involves overwriting your entire work with junk or blank space AND THEN SAVING IT OVER YOUR ONLY COPY, which I have done more than once.

So, back-up options:

• Hard drives. If you’ve got more than one hard drive in your computer, back your files up to the other one, simply by copying them across. Do it every time you finish working on your project. Put the date in the filename, so you have a record of what it was like evey day. You can delete them later if you need the space, but for now it’s helpful to be able to roll back. You’re now protected from hard drive failure, but not house fires, sorry.


• CDs and DVDs. Your computer may have the ability to write to blank CDs and DVDs. They’re cheap and they’re easy, but remember to label them well and store them somewhere sensible, or you won’t be able to find your back-ups when you’re stressed.


• Memory sticks and pen drives. Like CDs and DVDs but reusable. Slightly more prone to failure and infinitely more easy to lose.


• Email. Just email yourself the file, or the text. Store it in a folder. This only works if you have web-based email, or you use your work address, so that the message is stored on a different hard drive. But it’s quick and easy and free.


• If you’re lousy at remembering to back-up then you need an automated system to do it for you. Your computer may well have one, but if it’s backing up to the same hard drive your work is on then that’s pretty pointless. Invest in an online backup service for your precious files. Mozy.com is free to home users who don’t need much space (perfect for NaNoWriMo manuscripts!) and we can get you a good deal on their paid services if you sign up using one of our codes.

Pete may have more to say on this topic, later, since he’s the resident computer geek.

Have you saved money using one of our Emma and Pete promo codes? We’d love to hear your stories – how much you spent, and how much you saved! If you can remember which code you used (for a vendor like GoDaddy, where there are several), then so much the better!

If you’ll get in trouble with your spouse/parents/bank manager for over-spending, then don’t worry – you can stay anonymous! Just email your savings stories to emmaanadpeteshow@gmail.com (or you can leave them in the comments) and we’ll share them here on the site and we might mention you on the show as well :)

The more happy customers we have, the more deals we’ll be able to bring you!

Where do you buy your green office products? It can be a tricky question to answer, as not only do you have to find a reputable stockist for some rather unusual items, but really you should be checking their ethical credentials as well.

You don’t need to worry about that if you shop at the Green Shopping Catalogue, as Pete and I can vouch for the fact that they’re lovely people with the highest ethical standards – we’ve met them!

They’re not an office supply company, but they do have lots of lovely things that green businesses and workers would love to get their hands on, including energy-saving devices like the OWL wireless monitor and the Bye Bye Standby energy-saving kit. They’ve also got some great solar chargers if you want to take your eco business on the road.

Another great product for a green office is the Tefal Quick Cup that combines a water filter with a kettle that boils just one cup of water at a time. And there are items to help you recycle as well – including the Biobox Kitchen Caddy, a bottle and can crusher and a logmaker that allows you to turn all that waste office paper into fuel!

Don’t forget to check out the books, too, to learn more about living a sustainable lifestyle. Those of you with short commutes might find a copy of Bike Easy helps you to transition to carbon-neutral transport.

And we have an exclusive discount for you! If you spend £25 or more at the Green Shopping Catalogue before the end of September, you can save £5 on your order by using the coupon code GS£5OFFSEPT.