by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Is it possible to live the “green life” in an economic downturn and depression?
The short, sweet and simple answer here is a resounding “yes” with the addition of “and why not?” and it is definitely good for your pocketbook.
Reducing the use of energy and water in order to be environmentally conscious will also help your finances for the less you use the less you have to pay. Only turning the heat down by a few degrees or the running the air conditioning, if you must use one, at a a few degrees higher than usual can already save you lots of money. Now add to that showing in cold water, which is better for your skin anyway and washing clothes on cool settings rather that on a higher one and drying clothes in the sun and wind and the savings add up.
You do not have to buy organic fruit and vegetables if your budget does not allow; buy local instead, as that is more important than the other aspect anyway, and also buy in season.
Organic green beans from Kenya have a bad footprint attached to then that I, for one, am not intending to contribute to. Also, how sure can we be as to the “organic” status, eh?
Neither do you have to buy overpriced green gadgets, such as the Eco-Button or things such as a “Belt Lace” which, while recycled, has a price tag that rather is extortionate.
Practical recycling, that is to say, upcycling, of waste items into things to use is another money saver and a green thing to do for sure.
The rescued paper notebook that you make yourself is a notebook that you do not have to spend money on to buy and at the same time is reuses paper that was printed on only one one side.
The same is true as regards to anything else that you can make for yourself by upcycling this or that items which others would simply regard as waste.
Our grandparents and even our parents often were thus in that they reused and repurposed that which others, as said above, might regard, and in fact do regard, as waste, as trash, as rubbish.
It sure was like that in my family and our folks, in fact, made things from “waste” for sale. Something that was, and in some places still is, a common trade for the Rom, the Gypsy.
We made things from discarded fence wire, from tin cans, and our speciality was the making of new knives from old ones that had been thrown.
While the making of goods from trash with view of selling those in an economic downturn-cum-depression may not work that well unless the price really is right and the price must be right. Not like the way of getting money for old rope – literally – called “Belt Lace”, for instance. A price tag of $75 fore a piece of old window sash cord and a couple of bits of old wood painted in some bright colors and strung onto that piece of rope will turn people against recycled products. Is taking the you-know-what.
Reusing and reworking for our own purpose and use in the current way that things are standing is something that can save us lots of money.
This is a win-win situation in that you save money and at the same time you help the Planet. Can't be bad. And that all for nothing or next to nothing from nothing.
In the beginning I already mentioned the savings that can be made by turning down the thermostat on the heating just a degree or two and the same, in reverse, for the air conditioning. Turning off lights in rooms that are not occupied is another such green habits that save us money and this is important too.
There are many other such green tips that also save money – your money – while at the same time doing a good turn for Mother Earth.
Those alone, without the practical recycling already are ways you can help the environment and your pocketbook in those hard economic times. Add to that the making of things for yourself from what would be considered trash and the reuse and repurposing of things both the Earth and you are winners.
Buying Secondhand is obviously another way of helping yourself and the environment.
Personally, I have been buying most of my clothes secondhand from Charity Shops for years now and often this is not really secondhand but new goods that people did not want and were it not for them being able to give those items to a Charity Shop for resale those would end up in the trash.
So, buying secondhand from those Charity Shops I help three causes at one; the charity that owns and runs the shop, the environment and myself, and that not necessarily in that order as far as savings and money are concerned.
Buying secondhand given things another life that they otherwise would not have had and saves them from the landfill.
Scavenging in Dumpsters is yet another way that helps the environment and your pocketbook.
Even in an economic downturn such as this one that is affecting the globe almost people still seem to have way too much money to burn, in the main, to be still able to throw away often perfectly good things. Like bicycles that just happen to have a puncture or electrical equipment were the power plug has been torn off by accident or even only because a fuse has blow. Such is indeed the state of affairs still.
But, as far as I am personally concerned, if people have money to burn in such a way my pocketbook says “thanks” and I will most gratefully receive all those donations, as long as they, obviously, are of use to me.
On the other hand I am also quite happy to make things for myself, and for sale and barter, from trash and what I thus do not have to spend money on leaves me with more in the bank. The right approach to all of this equals a compete and total win-win situation.
It is possible to be green and live green, even in an economic depression, especially when employing all those methods that save you money while at the same time helping the environment.
© 2009
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Green Living in a Depression
