I'd think twice before relying on the USDA's nutritional recommendations. The USDA was created to protect the interests of farmers, ranchers, and slaughter houses. They weren't created to help Americans be healthier. More milk? Hmmm, could that be because of all the DAIRY FARMERS on the committee?
The organization is one of the most biased political organizations that exists in our country today. Lobbyists they are; nutritional experts they are not.
I've learned to avoid paying full price for clothing. I used to justify paying full price on the grounds that my size (mens XL) was usually gone if I didn't jump on something I liked, however I shrank to a mens L so now I can wait for an item to go on sale.
Be careful when buying the cheapest available item. Certain items can be treated as commodities, while other items might be worth a premium. I'd rather have a $100 coffeemaker that will last half a lifetime than a $20 one that I'll trash in a couple of years.
Green buying is all about buying local, not whether a given product is organic. It does the planet no good if Wal-Mart offers organic lettuce grown in California on shelves in Wisconsin since such a process still uses vast fossil fuel resources to move the product to a store shelf. If you care about the planet, buy locally grown produce at a farmer's market. I always get a chuckle at the Whole Foods customers who arrive in a Land Rover and hold up organically grown blueberries flown in from Chile in the dead of winter and think they're doing their bodies and the planet something good.
Wow, I just finished reading a Wisebread entry about how gasoline is cheap compared to other things, and now an entry about how being frugal may be bad for us.
I actually do much of what you advise with the exception of stocking up -- for most items. I do notice many herbs and spices losing their potency after a few months (powdered ginger, for example, just doesn't last). So I buy in small amounts, as needed, from my local health food store. They buy in bulk and package the herbs, and they cost me the same amount per ounce whether I buy a lot or a little. I save by buying small amounts because I don't end up throwing so much out.
I've done bulk ordering through a co-op and through Penzey's, and each time, I have ended up throwing out quite a bit after a year.
I also freeze a ton of basil in the summer -- enough to give me several pesto meals and flavor many more dishes during the winter.
I buy at the local food coop. They buy in bulk and resell to me in whatever quantity I want. I've got a collection of little spice jars that I've had for years, so the only cost is the herbs and spices themselves.
In fact, just yesterday I decided it was time to dump the spices and renew the whole set. I bought small amounts (less than an ounce, generally) of about 25 different herbs and spices. Most of them, I bought less than a dollar's worth, and that will last me 6 months to a year. The prices look ridiculous, $12/lb, $29/lb, and in one case $50/lb (mace). But since I'm buying 1/2 to 1 ounce -- that's what fits in my jar -- the total price was maybe $1.50 for the mace, and less for everything else.
If there are spices you use a lot of, for "ethnic" cooking, try the ethnic groceries. Whole spices last a long time, so the 4 ounce bag of cardamom that I bought at the Indian grocery for a few bucks has lasted me years, and when I split the pods and grind the seeds, it smells just as good as new.
I also think it's too cheap not to buy at least some books and magazines. Cutting back on subscriptions and trips to bookstores is one of those things that frugality websites are recommending. But how are publishers going to publish books if nobody will pay for them? Ditto for plays and movies. If you admire a director or an actor, or you want to have the arts alive in your area, invest some money in the arts.
I also think it's too cheap not to buy at least some books and magazines. Cutting back on subscriptions and trips to bookstores is one of those things that frugality websites are recommending. But how are publishers going to publish books if nobody will pay for them? Ditto for plays and movies. If you admire a director or an actor, or you want to have the arts alive in your area, invest some money in the arts.
Very true... Today Wal-Mart is an industry leader in getting organic products to market, turning all that urban sprawl into energy efficient space and developing new breed of truck that is ultra efficient... does this all still perpetuate consumerism? yes. but Wal-Mart is making a true effort to changing itself and getting these products more mainstreamed... the days of target being better than
wal-mart are over i think.. target is just riding on its chicer rep/products and method product line..
Carrie--
I really appreciated both the thoughtfulness and the beautiful honesty of this post, for it's not often that people a) examine the impact of their habits on others and b) admit that they are lacking in some areas.
I had a serious moral awakening when I started drinking coffee in college. I walked into Wal-Mart (oh, the shame!) and noticed that those nice large cans of coffee were only $4 apiece. There must have been hundreds of them. Then I thought about all the Wal-Marts and all the other supermarkets and the sheer volume of coffee being produced, and it dawned on me: there's a lot of brown hands working very hard every day for next to nothing so that I can have my $4 can of Folgers.
What pained me even worse was that I knew if I paid the people the fair cost for their labor, I would not be able to afford coffee. But by drinking the coffee I could afford, I enabled this unjust system to remain in place. In fact, I encouraged the system to remain in place.
I then generalized from there and felt overwhelmed. At the end of the day, I still drank coffee and buy other similarly procured items. I don't know if it's better to do this while knowing the cost on others or whether it was better, morally speaking, when I didn't know the cost.
Keep up the good work and let us know if you reconcile the dilemmas.
I tend to freecycle stuff that I can't donate elsewhere. Like the boxes from our last move. And I'm about to list a plastic swimming pool that has a small enough crack for GW to refuse it but easily patched by someone more industrious than I.
I understand and agree with some of the listed questions, however I think that being "too" frugal is a very minor issue in the US's economy issues. I think in fairness that if the heads of state and corporate leaders want people to spend more, then I feel inclined to ask them to maybe spend less.
A couple fairly standard things folks haven't mentioned:
Being an RA (undergrad)
Graduate Teaching Assistant (grad school)
Other schools offering to cover tuition and fees for people/parents making under a certain amount include Stanford, Yale, and Harvard.
Article about that: http://www.diversityinc.com/public/3117.cfm
I've decided to try, whenever possible, to buy meat that has been raised locally, humanely and sustainably. This usually means that I'm paying between 4 and 8 dollars a pound, even for hamburger. So, I just buy less of it, filling in the calories with veggies. I'm eating healthier, treading more lightly on the earth, condemning fewer animals to short, miserable lives, and encouraging the farmers to keep up the good work. And I'm not really spending any more money, just spending it differently.
And, yes, it still hurts a little to walk past the $1 hamburger and $1.98 ribs in the supermarket. But in the long run, it feels good.
Thanks for the comparisons. The only aspect of the cost of gas that bothers me is the oil companies profits; they are obscene. Like the failing Detroit automakers before them, they are drowning in their profits, rather than investing in alternative energies that will be so vital to our future.
Current gas costs and scarcity are the future of water. Both have hidden costs that we subsidize in other ways, and BOTH should be more expensive than they are now (epa.gov/waterinfrastructure).
Political and legal battles over water rights rage on, have for years. Meanwhile, Coke, Nestle, and Pepsi have all become a bigtime players in the bottled water industry. Do you buy bottled water now? What does it cost? Who's profiting from it? What social good comes from those profits? It already mirrors what the oil companies have done with gas.
So I would argue that even though Exxon makes a crapload of money, the profit on gas is much less than the profit made on soda pop, and if you want to link how cheap you think a product is to corporate profits, then soda pop is much more expensive than gas.
I was pretty shocked by number 1. My wife works as Target and loves it there, however, Target is just as anti-union as Walmart. All that bad press that Wal-Mart gets can really be applied to all big box retailers, and if you look at Target they aren't much better that Walmart over all. Please read over this for more information: http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=13508
I don't think gasoline is cheap by any stretch of the imagination, or is illustrated by any comparison to the types of products you mentioned. Oil companies are drowning in profits. I'm sure that a gallon of gasoline is worth more than a gallon of tap water, but when Exxon reports that it is earning 10 million dollars PER HOUR (literally--http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aZ9zrp0QJOKI&refer=home), I have trouble with anyone trying to explain that we should feel like we're getting a bargain!
I have a slightly different pang of guilt when it comes to giving my things on freecycle. By me giving my things away, I am not allowing myself to be a pack rat. However, I can't help but wonder each time if I'm just helping someone else perpetuate their need to collect things.
i understand your arguments, but i see this as the "buy american or the terrorists win" type stuff.
i refuse to pay more for a car because it was union made in the usa, to my own detriment. I will not be without something so that a line assembler can make $45 an hour. that is not capitalism.
Keep in mind he's paying taxes and I'd have to assume he's paying allimony and child support. In my mind that would certainly entitle him to the rebate.
I put things that can be turned off (ie not the fridge) on power strips so that when they are not in use, i can turn off the power strip. it's much easier to just turn off a few power strips around the house than all the things that need to be plugged in but i still feel like i'm making a difference.
Regarding #4. I have done quite a bit of freecycling lately, always on the offer end. I had to pause and wonder when a college-aged girl drove about 50 miles round trip in her new Hummer to pick up a little bag of hotel soaps and shampoos. Maybe I should have saved those items for somebody who needed them more?
One of my problems is that I want to know that my un-needed items are going somewhere that they will be appreciated. I prefer to give directly to other people (or to organizations like food/clothing banks that distribute directly and don't re-sell). Salvation Army and similar organizations seem like such a bottomless pit where you have no idea how your donation of clothes or toys is going to help.
Another good article, Nora. It's depressing to know how much energy we waste. Your stuff is always relevant and I enjoy reading it. Keep up the good work!
I'd think twice before relying on the USDA's nutritional recommendations. The USDA was created to protect the interests of farmers, ranchers, and slaughter houses. They weren't created to help Americans be healthier. More milk? Hmmm, could that be because of all the DAIRY FARMERS on the committee?
The organization is one of the most biased political organizations that exists in our country today. Lobbyists they are; nutritional experts they are not.
I've learned to avoid paying full price for clothing. I used to justify paying full price on the grounds that my size (mens XL) was usually gone if I didn't jump on something I liked, however I shrank to a mens L so now I can wait for an item to go on sale.
Be careful when buying the cheapest available item. Certain items can be treated as commodities, while other items might be worth a premium. I'd rather have a $100 coffeemaker that will last half a lifetime than a $20 one that I'll trash in a couple of years.
Green buying is all about buying local, not whether a given product is organic. It does the planet no good if Wal-Mart offers organic lettuce grown in California on shelves in Wisconsin since such a process still uses vast fossil fuel resources to move the product to a store shelf. If you care about the planet, buy locally grown produce at a farmer's market. I always get a chuckle at the Whole Foods customers who arrive in a Land Rover and hold up organically grown blueberries flown in from Chile in the dead of winter and think they're doing their bodies and the planet something good.
Wow, I just finished reading a Wisebread entry about how gasoline is cheap compared to other things, and now an entry about how being frugal may be bad for us.
Was Wisebread recently acquired by Fox?
I actually do much of what you advise with the exception of stocking up -- for most items. I do notice many herbs and spices losing their potency after a few months (powdered ginger, for example, just doesn't last). So I buy in small amounts, as needed, from my local health food store. They buy in bulk and package the herbs, and they cost me the same amount per ounce whether I buy a lot or a little. I save by buying small amounts because I don't end up throwing so much out.
I've done bulk ordering through a co-op and through Penzey's, and each time, I have ended up throwing out quite a bit after a year.
I also freeze a ton of basil in the summer -- enough to give me several pesto meals and flavor many more dishes during the winter.
I buy at the local food coop. They buy in bulk and resell to me in whatever quantity I want. I've got a collection of little spice jars that I've had for years, so the only cost is the herbs and spices themselves.
In fact, just yesterday I decided it was time to dump the spices and renew the whole set. I bought small amounts (less than an ounce, generally) of about 25 different herbs and spices. Most of them, I bought less than a dollar's worth, and that will last me 6 months to a year. The prices look ridiculous, $12/lb, $29/lb, and in one case $50/lb (mace). But since I'm buying 1/2 to 1 ounce -- that's what fits in my jar -- the total price was maybe $1.50 for the mace, and less for everything else.
If there are spices you use a lot of, for "ethnic" cooking, try the ethnic groceries. Whole spices last a long time, so the 4 ounce bag of cardamom that I bought at the Indian grocery for a few bucks has lasted me years, and when I split the pods and grind the seeds, it smells just as good as new.
Gasoline may be cheaper than Windex, but I'm not buying 15 gallons of Windex every other week.
I also think it's too cheap not to buy at least some books and magazines. Cutting back on subscriptions and trips to bookstores is one of those things that frugality websites are recommending. But how are publishers going to publish books if nobody will pay for them? Ditto for plays and movies. If you admire a director or an actor, or you want to have the arts alive in your area, invest some money in the arts.
I also think it's too cheap not to buy at least some books and magazines. Cutting back on subscriptions and trips to bookstores is one of those things that frugality websites are recommending. But how are publishers going to publish books if nobody will pay for them? Ditto for plays and movies. If you admire a director or an actor, or you want to have the arts alive in your area, invest some money in the arts.
Very true... Today Wal-Mart is an industry leader in getting organic products to market, turning all that urban sprawl into energy efficient space and developing new breed of truck that is ultra efficient... does this all still perpetuate consumerism? yes. but Wal-Mart is making a true effort to changing itself and getting these products more mainstreamed... the days of target being better than
wal-mart are over i think.. target is just riding on its chicer rep/products and method product line..
Carrie--
I really appreciated both the thoughtfulness and the beautiful honesty of this post, for it's not often that people a) examine the impact of their habits on others and b) admit that they are lacking in some areas.
I had a serious moral awakening when I started drinking coffee in college. I walked into Wal-Mart (oh, the shame!) and noticed that those nice large cans of coffee were only $4 apiece. There must have been hundreds of them. Then I thought about all the Wal-Marts and all the other supermarkets and the sheer volume of coffee being produced, and it dawned on me: there's a lot of brown hands working very hard every day for next to nothing so that I can have my $4 can of Folgers.
What pained me even worse was that I knew if I paid the people the fair cost for their labor, I would not be able to afford coffee. But by drinking the coffee I could afford, I enabled this unjust system to remain in place. In fact, I encouraged the system to remain in place.
I then generalized from there and felt overwhelmed. At the end of the day, I still drank coffee and buy other similarly procured items. I don't know if it's better to do this while knowing the cost on others or whether it was better, morally speaking, when I didn't know the cost.
Keep up the good work and let us know if you reconcile the dilemmas.
I tend to freecycle stuff that I can't donate elsewhere. Like the boxes from our last move. And I'm about to list a plastic swimming pool that has a small enough crack for GW to refuse it but easily patched by someone more industrious than I.
I understand and agree with some of the listed questions, however I think that being "too" frugal is a very minor issue in the US's economy issues. I think in fairness that if the heads of state and corporate leaders want people to spend more, then I feel inclined to ask them to maybe spend less.
A couple fairly standard things folks haven't mentioned:
Being an RA (undergrad)
Graduate Teaching Assistant (grad school)
Other schools offering to cover tuition and fees for people/parents making under a certain amount include Stanford, Yale, and Harvard.
Article about that: http://www.diversityinc.com/public/3117.cfm
Also, MIT offers a ton of course material free online:
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm
Sure, it's not a degree, but still, useful.
I've decided to try, whenever possible, to buy meat that has been raised locally, humanely and sustainably. This usually means that I'm paying between 4 and 8 dollars a pound, even for hamburger. So, I just buy less of it, filling in the calories with veggies. I'm eating healthier, treading more lightly on the earth, condemning fewer animals to short, miserable lives, and encouraging the farmers to keep up the good work. And I'm not really spending any more money, just spending it differently.
And, yes, it still hurts a little to walk past the $1 hamburger and $1.98 ribs in the supermarket. But in the long run, it feels good.
Thanks for the comparisons. The only aspect of the cost of gas that bothers me is the oil companies profits; they are obscene. Like the failing Detroit automakers before them, they are drowning in their profits, rather than investing in alternative energies that will be so vital to our future.
Current gas costs and scarcity are the future of water. Both have hidden costs that we subsidize in other ways, and BOTH should be more expensive than they are now (epa.gov/waterinfrastructure).
Political and legal battles over water rights rage on, have for years. Meanwhile, Coke, Nestle, and Pepsi have all become a bigtime players in the bottled water industry. Do you buy bottled water now? What does it cost? Who's profiting from it? What social good comes from those profits? It already mirrors what the oil companies have done with gas.
Exxon earns a lot of money because there is a lot of demand for its products, but the oil industry's profit margin was only about 7.6% last year:
http://www.usnews.com/articles/business/economy/2008/02/01/exxons-profit...
Compare this to Coca cola: http://finapps.forbes.com/finapps/jsp/finance/compinfo/Ratios.jsp?tkr=KOThe profit margin on soda pop is 27%.
So I would argue that even though Exxon makes a crapload of money, the profit on gas is much less than the profit made on soda pop, and if you want to link how cheap you think a product is to corporate profits, then soda pop is much more expensive than gas.
I was pretty shocked by number 1. My wife works as Target and loves it there, however, Target is just as anti-union as Walmart. All that bad press that Wal-Mart gets can really be applied to all big box retailers, and if you look at Target they aren't much better that Walmart over all. Please read over this for more information:
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=13508
I don't think gasoline is cheap by any stretch of the imagination, or is illustrated by any comparison to the types of products you mentioned. Oil companies are drowning in profits. I'm sure that a gallon of gasoline is worth more than a gallon of tap water, but when Exxon reports that it is earning 10 million dollars PER HOUR (literally--http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aZ9zrp0QJOKI&refer=home), I have trouble with anyone trying to explain that we should feel like we're getting a bargain!
I have a slightly different pang of guilt when it comes to giving my things on freecycle. By me giving my things away, I am not allowing myself to be a pack rat. However, I can't help but wonder each time if I'm just helping someone else perpetuate their need to collect things.
i understand your arguments, but i see this as the "buy american or the terrorists win" type stuff.
i refuse to pay more for a car because it was union made in the usa, to my own detriment. I will not be without something so that a line assembler can make $45 an hour. that is not capitalism.
but...the same will become true of water before terribly long.
Keep in mind he's paying taxes and I'd have to assume he's paying allimony and child support. In my mind that would certainly entitle him to the rebate.
I put things that can be turned off (ie not the fridge) on power strips so that when they are not in use, i can turn off the power strip. it's much easier to just turn off a few power strips around the house than all the things that need to be plugged in but i still feel like i'm making a difference.
Regarding #4. I have done quite a bit of freecycling lately, always on the offer end. I had to pause and wonder when a college-aged girl drove about 50 miles round trip in her new Hummer to pick up a little bag of hotel soaps and shampoos. Maybe I should have saved those items for somebody who needed them more?
One of my problems is that I want to know that my un-needed items are going somewhere that they will be appreciated. I prefer to give directly to other people (or to organizations like food/clothing banks that distribute directly and don't re-sell). Salvation Army and similar organizations seem like such a bottomless pit where you have no idea how your donation of clothes or toys is going to help.
Another good article, Nora. It's depressing to know how much energy we waste. Your stuff is always relevant and I enjoy reading it. Keep up the good work!