Psst! Do you want to buy something else?

Recently, I made a combination trip to the grocery story, the pharmacy and the vet office to pick up some needed items. I hit the grocery store first and since my list was short and I prefer go in, get what I need and leave, I was done in a few minutes. However, the pharmacy was not open yet so I recalled my previous hunt for an item at the hardware store ended with me empty handed and a suggestion to visit Wal-mart. Now, I am not a fan for many reasons and don't typically enter the store. In fact, my last trip there was the first in two years.

This trip was an unwarranted one--I had not planned on going--and an eye-opening one. Because I was only looking for one item and wanting to kill some time, I found myself realizing the bright colors, the presentations, everything was encouraging me to pick up more items--because they were pretty and not that expensive. I was taken aback at just how blatant the consumerist lifestyle was. Wandering in the cleaning aisle was overwhelming. As I make my own detergent and use baking soda and vinegar, the bright packaging seemed garish to my naive eyes. I realize now because the Wal-mart store was lit so much brighter than my grocery store, all the colors seemed more vivid and eye catching. Not to say I did not succumb to the siren call to spend. I came away from the store with one item I needed (more 5W-30 for my car), something I could use if not the most eco friendly (a refill on my lint remover) and one item I did not need but decided to buy anyway (a pack of three canvas bags I could use to make gift bags). And unfortunately, not the item I was looking for in the first place.

Because I confine most of my spending to the second hand store, I did not realize how retail stores that sell new stuff are really trying to sell their stock. Because I still watch television and do feel some influence of the advertising even if I generally react with skepticism, I had forgotten about the direct sell in the stores themselves. Yes, I am aware of the way grocery stores leverage their space to encourage spontaneous purchases. I know I am not perfect, but a list really helps keep me from impulse purchases. Plus, I am only focused on finding the items I want instead of what else there is available to purchase.

So confronted by the reality of American consumerism, I could only ask myself if I really needed this item in hand? The engine oil--yes. The lint roller--no, but my current one was only out and this was a refill, something I had not purchased in over five years. The three canvas bags--no, but $1 per bag was cheap and I had decorative items at home to personalize them and give them as gifts to nieces or nephews. Plus I was reminded I could make bags as gifts for others with all the fabric I have.

So be wary when you enter any store. A retail shop does want to part you from your money and once inside, you are subject to their displays until you leave. Wal-mart received three times the amount of money than I should have spent and that was only in the fifteen minutes I was there. They did their job well and I learned I need to work harder at resisting the sales pitch.

How much do you overspend in any store you enter?

A difference in philosophy

I am a pretty frugal gal. I buy used rather than new, try to figure out how to reuse an item, follow a spending plan that allows me to save for immediate and long-term goals, and live a more sustainable life. Other than a weakness for buying items to stockpile and occasionally drooling over Apple hardware, I stay on the frugal and greener path I have chosen.

This means instead of buying a new television for the age of digital signals, I signed up for the $40 converter box coupon back in December 2007 and was one of the first people to receive the coupon in February 2008. My modest 19-inch television was purchased new at Best Buy in 2000 after my 13-inch TV (new in 1994) stopped working. I found it ironic that the larger TV weighed less than the smaller one.

Recently, one of my friends commented I needed a larger television as we were watching a widescreen DVD. I will admit, more screen real estate would be nice. However, most of my viewing is for broadcast shows and rarely for widescreen movies. What I have suits my viewing needs, and the set is small enough to fit in the corner of my living room on top of my free entertainment center. My plan is to replace my television with a used one when it decides it no longer wants to present pictures to me.

My friend understood my refusal to get a larger television, but his comment reflects a difference in our philosophies. What I have is adequate to serve my needs and I will wait until the item breaks before considering replacement versus his assertion that bigger is better. I am satisfied with what I have. This makes it easier to live a more frugal and sustainable life.

Have you recently come under peer pressure to update electronics? How did you handle it?

Celebrate the new year with challenges!

Looking to a fresh new year means setting up new challenges for myself. While I am not ready to tackle a No Plastics Month, there are a few things I am going to try this year.

Buy Nothing Month
While there is no such thing as buying nothing, I plan to tackle February 2009 as no frivolous spending month. That means groceries and other necessities are allowed, but that cute sweater at the thrift store is not. While I may be selecting the shortest month of the year to do this, I am considering a second month this year to buy nothing. However, I will have to see how successful I am at saving money and keeping my spending to a minimum. I am not sure I can ignore craigslist and the thrift store for an entire month. Oh dear, I do have that hair appointment scheduled for February...

How Does Your Garden Grow?
I will be the first to admit my inherent laziness. In fact, I tend to work in bursts of activity, usually when the situation is so bad I have to do something or the thought of someone else seeing the messiness of my house spurs me to action. However, I want to keep track of the foodstuffs I grow and use in 2009. For example, I will note I planted five potato plants, three made it to maturity and I harvested five pounds of potatoes at the end of the season. I also plan on visiting the u-pick farm for strawberries and red raspberries as I did in 2008. Keeping track of how many quarts of berries I pick and how many jars of jam I make (and how long they last) will help me figure out if I need more or less, especially since I plan on giving away more jars of freezer jam. So, at least once a month during the growing season, I will be tallying what is growing, what I harvested and how it was stored.

Keep the Furnace Off
In 2008, my goal was to keep the furnace off until November 1. Due to a warm weather spell, I was able to hold off turning on the furnace until November 7 even if I had to suffer through 53 degrees Fahrenheit while showering in late October 2008. My new goal will be to beat that date and not turn on the furnace until November 8, 2009. Depending on how the autumn shapes up, this could be easy or difficult. It is hard to tell in the upper Midwest what type of weather to which we will be subjected since rain, snow, ice and flooding all occurred around Christmas 2008.

The reverse challenge, when to shut off the furnace, will come when I note the last time I use the furnace this spring. I assume that will be by April 1, 2009 but who knows what the weather will be like. By the time March comes around, I will pay closer attention to my furnace usage.

Are there any self-imposed challenges you are contemplating this year?

Reducing my consumption levels

I have starting keeping up with Sharon Astyk's blog Casaubon's Book. Her topics and ideas are great food for thought regardless if I agree with her perspective or not. Throughout various entries, she kept mentioning something called Riot 4 Austerity, piquing my interest. Once I found a web link, I followed it here. To summarize, people pledge to reduce their consumption in one, some or all of seven different categories by 90%. This means they try to use ten percent of the current levels of consumption of natural gas, consumer goods, gasoline, water and electricity, only throw away 10% of the garbage, and increase the amount of locally grown and purchased food. Being the numbers gal I am, I calculated several numbers to compare my consumption to the average and see how close to 90% I am. To be honest, I did not think I would have made it close, but I had the sense I was running ~50% of average numbers. How did I measure up?

Gasoline
Riot 4 Austerity: The average American uses 500 gallons PER PERSON, PER YEAR. Ten percent levels means 50 gallons per person, per year.
In keeping track of my miles per gallon, I had a handy-dandy notebook that could tell me how much gasoline I have consumed in the past year. From July 7, 2007 to July 8, 2008, I consumed 377.35 gallons of gasoline, just over 75% of average usage. This number was achieved with minimal carpooling, combining trips, driving to and from work five days a week as well as at least monthly visits to see family. When I did carpool twice a week, eliminating one trip to work per week, I used 366.87 gallons of gasoline (July 6, 2006 to July 7, 2007). With similar consumptions rates for the last two years, I can see that I have not really reduced my gasoline usage. I have started working from home once every two weeks, occasionally carpool to work and am conscious of how much driving I do. I hope I reduce my consumption, but anticipate it will not drop below 300 gallons unless the mpg suddenly skyrockets. In fact, since I have started keeping track of my consumption, I have reached and passed the 90% reduction goal of 50 gallons in two months. However, this number may look promising, but my gas mileage decreases in the winter compared to the summer. I would love to achieve 300 gallons in one year, but I could reach 350 gallons for one year.

Electricity
Riot 4 Austerity: The average American uses 11,000 kwh PER HOUSEHOLD, PER YEAR, or about 900 kwh PER HOUSEHOLD PER MONTH. A 90% reduction would mean using 1,100 PER HOUSEHOLD, PER YEAR or 90 kwh PER HOUSEHOLD PER MONTH.
I like my modern life equipped with my iBook, TV, dehumidifier, lights, oven and refrigerator. However, some of these, Energy-Star certified or no, suck down the kilowatts like price is no object. I used 4,705 kW of electricity from July 2007 to June 2008. While this is 42% of the average consumption, I know my electricity usage spikes during the warmer months. Between central air and dehumidifiers (and adding in a chest freezer), my consumption dramatically spikes compared to the cooler months. I average ~400kW per month, four times the goal. While I buy 300kW worth of renewable energy, I have not completely offset my usage. I want to reduce my usage to an average of 300kW per month so I am solely buying renewable power. With the cooling season almost over, reducing my AC use is easy. In fact, I have already seen a drop in my most recent bill compared to the month before. I am slowly replacing my incandescent bulbs with CFLs as the incandescents break. The clothes dryer is convenient especially in winter, but I will try a few days in the winter to hang out my clothing. I am still looking for other ways to reduce my electric consumption without giving up all my electric-powered toys.

Natural gas
Riot 4 Austerity: US average Natural Gas usage is 1000 therms PER HOUSEHOLD, PER YEAR. A 90% reduction would mean a reduction to 100 therms PER HOUSEHOLD PER YEAR.
According to my calculations, I used half the average amount in 2007--500 therms, but this is still above the 90% reduction suggested. While it is easy to keep the consumption low during the summer since only my water heater is pulling natural gas (last bill, I used 6 therms), winter is my highest usage. I already set my thermostat as low as I can handle it, but I plan on setting it lower during the nightime hours. Last winter, I set it to 55 when away from home, 64 when home and 58 when sleeping. I will have my daytime and nighttime temperatures agree this winter and see if I can decrease my usage further. I have a down comforter and an electric blanket. With the electric blanket to take the edge off the cold bed just before I climb in and the down comforter, I should stay warm overnight. Blankets, slippers, robe and sweaters are my usual winter wear. I have supplementary heating based off electricity, but I will try not to use it much to keep my kilowatts down as well.

Water
Riot 4 Austerity: The Average American uses 100 Gallons of water PER PERSON, PER DAY. A 90% reduction would mean 10 gallons PER PERSON, PER DAY.
This is a tough number to hit. If I cannot reduce my natural gas, gasoline and electricity usage to 10% levels, how could I get water down to 10 gallons a day? According to my water meter, I use about 1,100 gallons per month. This comes out to ~36 gallons/day. Guesstimating what I use when at work, I believe I use ~45 gallons per day. This is pretty good, about half of the average daily consumption. My biggest water waster is the shower followed by the dishes. I could halve the amount of water I use in the shower if I shut it off when lathering, but in my current setup, this is a hassle. I am working on minimizing the water I use to rinse dishes and hoping I can further reduce the water used. My goal is to get to 1,000 gallons a month.

Waste
Riot 4 Austerity: The average American generates about 4.5 lbs of garbage PER PERSON, PER DAY. A 90% reduction would mean .45 lbs of garbage PER PERSON, PER DAY.
I mentioned in an earlier post about how surprised I was to find out how people could throw away 4.5 pounds of garbage a day. Between recycling and composting, I have reduced the amount of waste coming from my household. The fewer packaged items (especially plastic) I use, the emptier my garbage bin is. I put out my garbage can less frequently than my neighbors including the person who occupies the other half of the duplex and is there less than 50% of the time. I estimated that I throw out about half the average person, but have started keeping track of the garbage I discard. Based on the last nine weeks, I have discarded approximately 2.75 pounds of garbage per week. This is based on the weight of the garbage in from house plus ~1lb/week allowance for work and eating out. Since I eat out approximately once a week and up until September, used paper towels in the bathroom, I thought this was adequate. I am thrilled I can meet at least one of the 90% reduction goals. This calculation excludes the weight of my old windows. The installers said they did go to the landfill (minus one pane I kept). If I take that weight on myself (and I am unsure of the total), I would exceed the 90% reduction, bringing my total closer to 5 pounds/week. This is less than the typical household, but I will keep working on this number. Being so conscious of what I discard, I feel guilty when I throw away plastic I cannot recycle or reuse (e.g., CD-ROM for an old printer).

Consumer goods
Riot 4 Austerity: The average American spends 10K PER HOUSEHOLD, PER YEAR on consumer goods, on things like gifts, toys, music, books, tools, household goods, cosmetics, toiletries, paper goods, etc… A 90% cut would be 1,000 dollars PER HOUSEHOLD, PER YEAR.
So how is this one calculated? The site states: Used goods are deemed to have an energy cost of 10% of their actual purchase price. That is, if you buy a used sofa for $50, you just spent $5 of your allotment. The reason for this is that used goods bought from previous owners put money back into circulation that is then spent on new goods. This would apply to Craigslist, Yardsales, etc… but not goodwill and other charities, as noted below. This rule does not apply if you know that the item would otherwise be thrown out - that is, if someone says, “If you don’t buy it, I’m going to toss it.” Those items are unlimited as well, because they keep crap out of landfills. Goods that were donated are deemed to be unlimited, with no carbon cost.

With that in mind, I am attempting to keep track of my spending on consumer goods. According to my totals, I have spent $128.58 since July 12. I cannot exclude I have missed a few entries, but most of my purchases are for secondhand goods, many of which have no dollar charged to them since I purchased the items at a charity thrift shop. The remainder are trips to the hardware store and one excursion to Bath and Body Works. I rarely purchase music since I have $5.11 left from my $25 iTunes gift card from Christmas 2007 and have only purchased a used book this year. I hope I can hit the $1,000 mark, but know that garden purchases and any electronics will bring me closer a lot quicker than I anticipate. I would like to keep it under $2,000 and will report on my progress here.

There is one other category (food), but I have chosen to work on these six. How do you think you measure up to the "average" American consumer?