About Living for Less
Every choice we make in our daily spending has an effect on our community and, living within a capitalist model, our choices collectively define our community. Liberal spending can raise prices while frugal spending can lower wages. Buying products made in sweatshops encourages retailers to shift buying toward sweatshops. Buying certified Fair Trade products helps to raise wages for workers. Spending less reduces the effect we have on our communities.
When we spend a dollar, we give up control for how it will be used. The recipient might give it to somebody who is starving to buy food, or it might be used to pay for a car that pollutes or a war that kills. Spending less keeps control of that money in our hands.
Buying new goods typically increases the consumption of energy and natural resources, both of which are in limited supplies. At the other end of the consumption chain, those goods will eventually be recycled or discarded at a cost to our environment. Buying fewer new goods generally conserves energy and natural resources and reduces the impact on our environment.
On a more personal level, spending less saves money for a rainy day. Due to circumstances beyond our control, many of us simply don't have much money to spend.
There are many reasons to live for less and many techniques for doing so. We hope to offer some ideas for living for less that are also good for the communities in which we live.
Ways to Live for Less
Recycling Resources
Recycling used materials is a good way to live for less while still having the things we want and helping to save energy, natural resources, and the environment at the same time. Here's a short list of important recycling resources on the Web. If your community doesn't have an online recycling group, perhaps you might start one.
- craigslist — buy, sell, give, or get for free good stuff in your neighborhood.
- Freecycle — "changing the world one gift at a time"
- Google "[my community name] recycle"
Storing Stuff
Maintaining space to store stuff costs money, so keeping everything you have costs money and the more stuff you keep, the more it costs to keep it. Take a look at the stuff you possess, especially stuff you seldom or never use and ask if keeping it is really worth the expense. It might make more sense to give it away to somebody who can use it and look for somebody else giving it away when and if you ever need it. Never be possessed by your possessions.
Buy Durable Goods
Buy durable goods, the more durable the better. Think outside the box. Instead of just looking for higher quality versions of the same item, look for other items as well.
- Instead of buying a better quality electric swimming pool heater that will cost money for electricity to run and maintain, consider a passive solar heater that gets free energy from the sun and will cost less to maintain.
- Instead of buying a newer television and turning into a couch potato, consider buying some gardening tools and spending more free time growing fresh food which will reduce the money you spend at the grocery store.
- Instead of going on a long trip to get away, consider working on your landscape and garden to make it more injoyable and increase the value of your home at the same time.
Saving Electricity
Upgrading from incandescent light bulbs to fluorescent light bulbs saves money without a sacrifice. More on this and other subjects later.