Eco-thrift: Going Green on a Shoestring

Eco-thrift: Going Green on a Shoestring

Louann Vertrees

Published by Louann Vertrees at Smashwords

Copyright 2010

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Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1: The Psychology of Money

Chapter 2: The Rise of Consumerism

Chapter 3: Eliminating Debt

Chapter 4: Developing an Eco-thrifty Mindset

Chapter 5: Greenwashing

Chapter 6: Reducing Energy Consumption at Home

Chapter 7: Water

Chapter8: Trash

Chapter 9: Food

Chapter 10: Clothing

Chapter 11: Cosmetics and Personal Care Products

Chapter 12: Cleaning Products

Chapter 13: Greener Homes and Gardens

Chapter 14: Transportation

Some Final Thoughts

Printable Recipe Section

Introduction

Despite the ongoing debate over climate change and its causes, there is no escaping the fact that we are using up the earth’s natural resources faster than they can be replenished. While environmental damage is a global concern, Americans are by far the worst offenders: we comprise only 5% of the world’s population, yet we consume 40% of the planet’s resources. For the past 60 years or so our consumption of manufactured goods has outpaced that of any other nation in the world, and this has had a direct impact on the environment from the production of these goods to their disposal. Americans not only consume more, we also lead the world in waste production, and there is no truly safe way to dispose of all of our trash. When the garbage in a landfill is incinerated, gases and particles are released into the air, and when it is buried it contaminates the groundwater supply. We enjoy a high standard of living in the United States, but it is clear that our excessive consumption is damaging the planet and driving many of us into debt.

The advertising industry spends $300 billion per year to entice us into buying everything from candy bars to diamond rings, but movies and television programs also have an effect on what we consume. If you have any doubt about the media’s influence on our spending patterns, consider the movie Sideways and one of its characters’ love for Pinot Noir. According to George Christie of California’s Wild Horse Winery, sales of that particular wine increased by 135% after the movie’s release. The layouts of department and grocery stores are not accidental; they are purposely designed to encourage impulse buying—to get to a gallon of milk, you have to first pass shelves of snacks and convenience foods. Expensive brand-name items are placed on shelves at eye level, but you have to look around a little for the more economical brands. Most of us consider ourselves too sophisticated to fall for these obvious marketing ploys, but stores would not continue to use them if they didn’t work so well.

Although we are influenced by advertising and marketing practices, we can’t place the blame on an industry that is just doing its job. At some point, we collectively bought into the idea that more is better. Easy credit has allowed us to have what we want now and pay for it later. We are even told that consumer spending is necessary in order to keep the economy healthy. After the attacks of September 11, 2001, we were advised to go shopping and go on vacation, and later received tax rebates that we were encouraged to spend, not save, in order to stimulate the economy. While we all bear responsibility for our own actions, it is hardly surprising that we so often confuse our wants with our needs, consider luxuries to be necessities, and have developed the poor spending habits that have caused so many of us to go deeply into debt.

But the current economic crisis has impacted even those who have spent wisely and managed their money well. With the collapse of the stock market, loss of retirement savings, and unstable job market, many of us have had to re-evaluate the way we earn, spend, save, and invest our money. At the same time, it is important to take a hard look at our own relationship with money, and decide whether or not our spending habits are aligned with our personal values. Our decades-long spending spree may be coming to an end as more Americans look for ways to simplify their lifestyles, spend more time with their families, and do their part to ensure that our children and grandchildren will have clean air to breathe, fresh water to drink, and unspoiled natural beauty to enjoy.

I don’t know who first coined the term eco-thrift, but it is a perfect description of a lifestyle based on frugal living and treating the planet kindly. Being eco-thrifty means managing your money, living within your means, and getting out of debt, while at the same time considering the environmental impact of each and every item you buy. It is about reducing, reusing, recycling, and repairing, and understanding that even small steps can make a real difference in our lives, now and in the future. But being eco-thrifty does not mean depriving yourself—you don’t have to hoard pennies or sit in the dark to save electricity. It simply means thinking differently about how you spend your money. And you can still live well; a home-cooked meal is a fraction of the cost of a restaurant meal, even if you serve lobster. Being eco-thrifty is choosing to live a balanced life, avoiding the extremes of a Spartan existence at one end of the spectrum, and excessive consumption and debt at the other end.

Many Americans would like to live a greener lifestyle, but few of us can afford to upgrade to a hybrid car, or install solar panels in our homes. Even green cleaning products are more expensive than conventional ones, although as demand continues to grow, prices are coming down. Living an eco-thrifty lifestyle means appreciating the value of both time and money, and understanding that sometimes you have to compromise. A homemade oven cleaner, for example, doesn’t contain the chemicals that make it work as quickly as a conventional one. But waiting a little longer for it to work is a small price to pay for a product that is better for the environment and healthier for you, your family, and your pets. Compromising may mean making a few small changes in your energy consumption to lower your electric bill, and with what you save in electricity, you are able to pay a little more for green cleaning products.

If there is a bright side to the recent economic meltdown, it is that more Americans are finding that it is possible to live comfortably within their means. But it requires an honest examination of the way we think about and spend our money. Eco-thrift: Going Green on a Shoestring examines the impact of consumerism on both the environment and our wallets. It offers practical tips on reducing, reusing, recycling, and repairing that can save you money on the products and services you use every day. Saving money and living a greener lifestyle truly go hand-in-hand, and this book was written to show you how making just a few changes can save you money and help save the planet.

The Psychology of Money

Over one million people filed for bankruptcy in 2009, a 35% increase over the previous year. The majority of these filers are not deadbeats, but intelligent, hard-working Americans who have somehow amassed too much credit card debt. A recent survey reports that 70% of Americans believe that they are only a few paychecks away from poverty. Adjusted for inflation, consumer debt in 1970 was almost $134 billion, about $650 per person. Consumer debt in the United States is currently around $2.5 trillion, or $8,265 for every man, woman, and child in this country.

Interestingly, in a recent poll, 80% of Americans said they would not feel comfortable discussing their credit card debt with someone they just met. People are relatively comfortable talking about their salaries, mortgage payments, and even their political or religious views, but there seems to be a particular kind of embarrassment attached to credit card debt. Our reluctance to talk about this subject may be based not only on how much we owe, but also on the kinds of things we charge. In September 2008, total credit card debt in the United States reached an all-time high of $975 billion. The loss of 2.6 million jobs in 2008 caused many Americans to use their credit cards for things like buying groceries and paying their utility bills, but according to financial analyst James Quinn, in that same year McDonald’s became the second largest credit card merchant-vendor in the United States.

Over the past few decades, credit card companies have actively encouraged people to incur more debt than they could reasonably manage. New laws were recently passed to stop the credit card industry’s most blatant abuses, but before they could take effect, credit card issuers lowered credit lines and raised interest rates, even for those who have good credit and have always paid on time. Clearly there has been a need for more regulation of the credit card industry, but at the same time, no one forced us to keep charging Big Macs the way we have, not to mention the billions spent on clothing, toys, and electronics. Our relationship with money is complex, and our spending habits often do not reflect our true circumstances. People worry about getting behind in their bills or running out of money before payday, but fail to see how their daily $4 cup of coffee and twice-weekly takeout dinners contribute to their personal budget deficit. Traditional economics operates on the assumption that when it comes to finances, human beings sort through all the available information and weigh the pros and cons in order to make the financial decisions that will best serve us. But maxing out our credit cards and taking on mortgages that we can’t afford are clearly not in our best interests.

The field of behavioral economics emerged about 30 years ago to try to explain why people so often make financial choices that get them into trouble. Researchers have determined that we tend to make gut decisions about purchases when pressed for time or when it seems to be too much trouble to weigh the options or compare prices. Rather than having a clear sense of where our money goes, we fall back on what economist Richard Thaler calls mental accounting, a particular way of categorizing and thinking about money. Thaler believes that mental accounting is the reason we don’t notice that daily $4 cup of coffee eating into our weekly budget: there is a mental account for my daily coffee that sets it apart from other expenditures, as well as an emotional aspect that tells us we deserve to have what makes us happy. The same kind of thinking allows us to absorb extra purchases into the grocery budget, or add extras when making a large purchase. If you are buying a $28,000 car, what’s another $2,000 for a navigation system? Mental accounting also explains why we look forward to splurging when our income tax refunds arrive: we consider it extra money, even though it is really just our own money being returned to us.

Author and psychologist Stuart Vyse believes that our unmanaged spending is due to both a failure to control our impulses and new technologies that make it easier to buy things. Cable television shopping channels, internet shopping, and credit cards allow us to spend money without even leaving home, and plastic makes it easier to spend money anywhere. Research shows that we don’t spend as much when we use cash for purchases as we do when we use credit cards or debit cards because whenever we spend, we weigh the immediate pleasure of the item against the pain of paying for it. With cash, the pain of paying is felt immediately, so we are more likely to think carefully about how we spend it. But when we use plastic we can have immediate pleasure and delay the pain of paying for it until sometime in the future. Credit and debit cards make it easy to forget that we are using real money, but the debt eventually must be paid, and with interest.

The Rise of Consumerism

In a recent American Psychological Association survey, 71% of Americans reported that money is a significant source of stress in their lives. Many of us are struggling to pay off credit card debt or worrying about how to save for retirement or college for the kids. The costs of food, fuel, healthcare, and housing continue to rise and just living from paycheck to paycheck has become more difficult. When faced with the fact that their expenses exceed their income, many people think the answer is to take on a second job. But in another recent survey the majority of respondents said that what they wanted most was to be able to spend more time with family and friends. For those people, taking a second job would clearly not be a satisfying solution and maybe not a solution at all because no matter how much money is coming in, we tend to spend as much as we earn. Rather than adding more stress by working more hours, a better solution would be to figure out how to live within our means.

Until fairly recently in our history, Americans have managed to live within their means. We spent when times were good, and were thrifty when we had to be. During World War I President Wilson expressed his hope that America would ...correct her unpardonable fault of wastefulness and extravagance. Posters and radio ads informed the public that it was their patriotic duty to practice thrift and economy, and people responded by planting vegetable gardens and fasting so that food could be sent overseas for the troops. During the war, American manufacturers increased production of a variety of goods that were purchased by the army and exported to European countries whose production capabilities had fallen off during this period of time. But when the war ended and army purchases and exports slowed down, economists became concerned that manufacturing profits would suffer if people continued their thrifty ways. Posters and radio spots now urged Americans to buy, and consumer spending increased dramatically throughout the 1920s.

When the stock market crashed in 1929, businesses failed, jobs vanished, and Americans had no choice but to become thrifty again. Economists began to push the idea that consumer spending was the only remedy for the unhealthy economy, and government programs such as the Civilian Conservation Corp and the Works Progress Administration were instituted to create jobs and get people spending again. Recovery from the Great Depression was slow and in 1939 unemployment in the U.S. was still 15%. World War II put people back to work and gave them money to spend, but as during the First World War, people were again encouraged to buy only what they needed and make it last. Gas, meat, sugar, and other commodities were rationed, and people again planted gardens to make ends meet.

And again, when the war ended people were urged to spend in order to build up the economy. Americans had jobs, money to spend, and plenty of new products to spend it on. Soldiers returning from the war wanted to settle down and raise families, and suburban housing was developed to meet this demand. Things that many families had considered luxuries just a few years before, such as a second car, or even a washing machine, were now considered necessities. Shopping centers sprang up in the suburbs so people didn’t have to go into the city to spend their money. The advertising industry went into overdrive to promote the wonderful new products that were available, and lenders encouraged us to take out loans to pay for it all.

According to Lauren Weber, author of In Cheap We Trust, during the 1940s and 1950s buying was not only seen as patriotic, it was also considered to be psychologically healthy. The people who knew how to really enjoy life were the ones who didn’t hesitate to buy the latest refrigerator, television set, or vehicle. Being thrifty and saving money was for squares. In the 1950s, banks introduced the first general purpose, revolving credit cards. For many years, department stores, specialty shops, and gas companies had extended credit to their customers, but the charges had to be paid