Return of the green granny

Recently, there's been a surge in people watching our favourite green granny, Barbara Warmsley on our YouTube channel. Barbara has been sharing loads of great tips in the films and I think viewers have been shocked to learn that in the UK we throw away a third of the food that we buy. That's just staggering. Think of all that food rotting in landfill, as well as all that packaging.

Thankfully, for people who are a bit clueless, like me, Barbara's got plenty of ideas about how you can make food and clothes go further. If you haven't seen her yet, check out the first of the four part series above.

I find the videos are full of practical ways to make the most of what you buy and in her words 'live better'. With all of the economic doom and gloom filling the news it certainly appears that tightening the belt and saving for a rainy day are the things to do. Of course, the best bit about all of this is that you get to do your bit for the planet and save some cash at the same time.

It's fantastic that people have taken our green granny to their hearts. There have been lots of comments about Barbara posted on Youtube. A couple that caught my eye were, "What a sweet wee granny", which is difficult to argue with. However, we're not too sure about this comment, "Sewing buttons back on when they come off. This woman should be president of the world." Now, I could think of worse presidents but sewing buttons on shirts, while impressive, is it really a solid basis for ruling the world?

Although, thinking about it, she'd probably get my vote. Have a look at the video and let me know what you think.

Ian Sullivan is a campaigner at Oxfam