- Introduction: Some Personal Thoughts From Founder, Dave Wampler
- New Resources: Highlights Of The Latest Additions To Our Resource Directory
- Backing Into Simplicity: A Natural Evolution
- The Secret To A Relaxed Holiday Dinner
- A Car Diet: The Three-Week Experiment
- Frugal & Green: Doing the Math
- Simple, Sustainable, Clutter-Free Gift Ideas: Simplifying The Holidays
- Recycling Is A Last Resort: Natural Living
- Gems Of The Discussion Forums: The Holidays
- Taking Refuge In Simplicity: Harmony In Everyday Life
- Simplicity In The City: Excerpts From Get Satisfied
- What's The Economy For, Anyway? Take Back Your Time
- Money/Life Balance In The New Millennium: Valuing Your Life Energy — Minimizing Spending
Greetings!
Autumn is in full swing, the leaves have fallen, the harvest is in, Halloween has come and gone, and winter is just around the corner. The nights are longer and it is the time of year to hunker down, build a warm fire and spend quiet evenings reading and contemplating life, the universe and everything.
As such, I have been thinking a lot about simple living lately, even more so than usual. My emphasis has been to learn about new tools and techniques that will help me focus on my life goals and the things that bring me joy and fulfillment in life (one of the best tools I've read lately is Eat That Frog! 21 Great Ways To Stop Procrastinating & Get More Done In Less Time).
As many of you know, I live on a modest income, in a modest home/office in a remote mountain community far away from the big city where I might be tempted to be a consumer. Besides my mortgage (which will be paid off in just a couple of years), I have no debt. With two exceptions, I do not spend money on anything beyond the necessities of life. I do not have much of a savings account yet, but I am consciously and consistently working on building my nest egg (reaching "Financial Independence" for fans of Your Money Or Your Life).
The two exceptions to my otherwise frugal spending habits are food and music (both in the form of entertaining others).
I like to cook and I have heard I am good at it. I do not hesitate to invite over 10 or so friends for a feast. Unfortunately, throwing dinner parties can sometimes be expensive. Recently, quite by chance, I came across an opportunity to take a part time job at a local coffee shop as lunch cook. I work two to three hours a day, three days a week. The owner of the establishment needed some extra help to move from a coffee shop to a full deli — creating new menus, redesigning and expanding the kitchen, etc. I've been granted full creative license. After two months, I can say that I truly love the experience. I am not making that much money at my new part-time job. However, every cent I have made is going directly into savings. What's more, I am regularly doing one of the things I love most in life without a negative impact on my income.
As for music, I have played keyboards since I was five years old. I often drive long distances to rehearsals and performances with the talented collection of other musicians I have met over the years. (The travel can be expensive, but I plan for it and know that I receive ample fulfillment in exchange.)
Earlier this year, a talented friend and fellow simple living advocate, Lincoln Crockett, began work on his first solo album, Angels & Devils Alike. Yes, I am biased, but I believe Lincoln has created a true work of art. It was an honor to perform on one of the tracks and provide input upon the mixing of the entire album. Congratulations Lincoln!
Well, enough about me. In short, life is full and good here in Trout Lake. I hope this edition of our free, on-line Newsletter finds you all well and continuing the pursuit of simple living — especially important at this time of year when the consumer-driven holiday season is just around the corner.
Finally, thank you to all of our CyberAngels. We are closing in on our 2007 goal of raising $14,000 to support this free Newsletter and the other free services on this web site. Keep up the good work gang!
Simplify, simplify,
Dave Wampler
Founder
The Simple Living Network
Copyright © The Simple Living Network. All Rights Reserved.
- Get Satisfied: How Twenty People Like You Found The Satisfaction Of Enough
Hot Off The Press! - Eat That Frog! 21 Great Ways To Stop Procrastinating & Get More Done In Less Time
Printed Edition - Highly Recommended! - Eat That Frog! 21 Great Ways To Stop Procrastinating & Get More Done In Less Time
CD, Book On Tape Edition - Highly Recommended! - The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan For Financial Fitness. Revised & Updated. New York Times Bestseller
Also available as an Audiobook CD and supporting Workbook. - The Power Of Purpose: Creating Meaning In Your Life & Work
- Gifts From The Mountain: Simple Truths For Life's Complexities
- The Prairie Girl's Guide To Life: How To Sew A Sampler Quilt & 49 Other Pioneer Projects For The Modern Girl
- Angels & Devils Alike: A new music CD by Lincoln Crockett
- 2008 Calendars
A selection of 2008 calendars, including the popular "Out Of Office Countdown." - Coexist: Note Cards
- Coexist: Poster
- Earth Pledge: Poster
- Make Art Not War: Note Cards
- Make Art Not War: Poster
- Make Art Not War: T-Shirt
- Tree Hugger, Dirt Worshiper: T-Shirt
Copyright © 2007
Reading the Newsletter, which speaks directly to my needs nowadays, I realized that in my case the Simple Living ethic didn't come from any sudden insights or long-held philosophies, it just evolved as I got older and lived through certain cycles. Perhaps it does for many people, and the way to persuade some others in the public to consider this lifestyle is not to portray ourselves simply as followers of a movement, which would just make us look like off-putting extremists. Some of us are only those who have shed former values as thay have evolved; it occurred to us gradually, and perhaps a gentle nudge into re-evaluation would yield results.
I'm in a very different place now than I was thirty years ago. At age 60, I feel an enormous deja vu watching certain patterns of culture: the latest movie star whose fame only lasts through two or three films, and who looks a lot like last year's Flavor of the Month; the latest corrupt politician whose excesses resemble those of a generation ago, and of a few before that; and the latest war in Iraq, which looked from the beginning a lot like Vietnam (which should have given many who were grownups when Vietnam happened wiser judgment, but didn't).
Similarly, around age 50 I began behaving the opposite of the way I had before. I started unloading "stuff" – the things you don't really need. A major example is that I stopped shopping for clothes, having previously been an Olympic shopper. On a Saturday afternoon nothing had been more fun than the thrill of the chase, hopefully getting a great bargain by 4 o'clock. Suddenly, when I walked into a store everything started to look like items I already had or had thrown out a few years ago. Nothing is really new in fashion, and it's no mystery why fashion marketers target 18-to-34-year-olds who still believe that there are styles they haven't seen before. Even the articles in fashion magazines are recycled: compare this month's issues with those of five years ago. Also, off-price shops have goods that are just as high quality; you can't see the defects, and the only difference really is that the label isn't Mr. Big Designer. You get the same fabrics and styles without the enormous markups. In addition, being my age I find myself feeling motherly toward the undernourished and teenaged-looking models. I want to exhort them to "eat, already!" I still like looking nice, but find myself declared fashionable with a lot less effort. I've even had the experience of label-conscious friends admiring articles of clothing I know cost very little and from a most unfashionable label (and I gleefully think "If they only knew").
I have my own business, work from home (no overhead) and make enough to survive with a bit left over, which amounts to what would be shockingly little in New York City. I don't have children and aggressively stay out of debt, and feel a lot of freedom. I've never enjoyed just going for the money. I wouldn't turn it down, but work has to have meaning. And if you have enough – well, to me a major equation is Enough = Freedom. After that, money is simply paper and metal.
I've realized, at this point in life, that my only desired luxury is travel. I say "luxury" because travel does involve some money – not a fortune, but airline flights aren't free as yet. I've always loved going new places; there's nothing quite like the thrill of discovering another culture, or even street. I can get just as excited by something new in New Jersey as in a foreign country. Over the past year I've traveled to India, Mexico, Canada, London, Paris, and domestically to Cape Cod and Virginia, and will go to Turkey this fall. And everything is paid for.
My husband and I live in a now-expensive area of Brooklyn - we could sell our coop, which was low-priced when we bought it, for almost three times the original cost. That's a nice thought, but we're staying put and certainly don't live rich. We could have bought a grander, more expensive place, but didn't want to be house-poor. There's just the two of us; we have enough room. We also have enough money left over for our passions.
The big benefit? Jerry and I emphatically do what we want to. And we don't do what we don't want to.
About The Author
Since 1980, Reva Cooper has marketed and publicized music, dance, theater, visual arts, films and arts education, on Broadway and Off-Broadway and for resident arts organizations. Reva currently has her own business, which also includes consulting and teaching. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, and is married, with no children. She can be reached at revacooper@earthlink.net.
Related Resources
Copyright © Deborah Taylor-Hough. All rights reserved. Used with permission.
Can you imagine a relaxed holiday dinner without needing to actually cook your turkey on the big day? You'd be able to enjoy the festivities as much as your friends and family!
Believe it or not, it's possible to roast your turkey ahead of time and store the cooked meat in the freezer to reheat and serve on the big day. If this sounds a bit too much like eating leftovers, let me assure you that by following these simple freezing and reheating instructions, you'll have moist, delicious turkey — and not one of your guests will suspect you didn't spend the entire holiday slaving away in the kitchen keeping watch over a hot oven.
Feel free to use your own favorite turkey recipe if you prefer, and then follow the freezing/reheating instructions at the end of this article (but I personally don't think you'll find a tastier turkey recipe!).
TO PREPARE TURKEY:
- 3 onions, quartered
- 6 celery stalks, cut into 2-inch pieces
- 2 medium carrots, cut into 2-inch pieces
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 1/2 cups white wine (or water)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 2 teaspoons pepper
- 2 teaspoons sage
- 1 teaspoon thyme
- 3 cups chicken broth, canned (reserve for freezing process)
In bottom of a deep roasting pan, place two quartered onions, four celery stalks, the carrots, bay leaves and white wine (or water). Remove turkey giblets, rinse bird inside and out. Pat dry with paper towels. Stuff turkey loosely with remaining quartered onion and celery stalks. Brush turkey with olive oil mixed with salt, pepper, sage, and thyme. Cover turkey loosely with a large sheet of foil coated lightly with olive oil, crimping foil on to edges of roasting pan. Cook according to chart below. During last 45 minutes, cut band of skin or string between legs and tail. Uncover and continue roasting until done. Baste, if desired.
TURKEY ROASTING CHART
(loosely wrapped with foil)
- 12-16 pounds / 325 degrees F / 4 - 5 hours
- 16-20 pounds / 325 degrees F / 5 - 6 hours
- 20-24 pounds / 325 degrees F / 6 - 7 hours
TESTING FOR DONENES
About 20 minutes before roasting time is completed, test bird. Flesh on thickest part of drumstick should feel soft when squeezed between fingers, drumstick should move up an down easily, and meat thermometer inserted into thickest part of leg should read 185 degrees F. (Or follow manufacturer's instructions.)
FREEZING INSTRUCTIONS
DRIPPINGS: Pour liquid and drippings from roasting pan into a bowl. Remove vegetables. Allow bowl of liquid to cool in refrigerator until fat congeals on top. Scoop off fat with a spoon and pour drippings into a labeled freezer bag. Thaw to use for making gravy on serving day.
TURKEY: Allow turkey to cool in pan for 1/2 hour; then place turkey and its roasting pan into refrigerator. Allow to cool completely (several hours). When fully chilled, slice turkey as usual. Remove all meat from bones. Place breast and dark meat slices into labeled freezer bags. Pour canned chicken broth into bags over meat. Freeze.
SERVING INSTRUCTIONS
Thaw bag of meat and broth, and place into a covered baking dish for 30 minutes at 350 degrees F. Or place turkey and broth into a microwave-safe dish, cover with plastic wrap, and heat until hot (the time will vary with different microwaves, so check manufacturer's instructions). Drain off broth (reserve to make more gravy, if needed). Arrange the heated turkey slices attractively on a serving platter. Serve hot.
Excerpted and adapted from the 10-Day Holiday Meal Plan in the popular book, Frozen Assets: How To Cook For A Day & Eat For A Month.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Deborah Taylor-Hough (mother of three) is the author of several popular books including Frugal Living For Dummies(r); Frozen Assets: How To Cook For A Day & Eat For A Month; and A Simple Choice: A Practical Guide For Saving Your Time, Money & Sanity. For more tips and ideas on cooking, parenting, saving money, and homemaking, visit Debi online and subscribe to one of her free email newsletters at: thesimplemom.wordpress.com.
Copyright © 2007
I recently read a book that has changed my life: Material World: A Global Portrait by Peter Menzel gives an inside glimpse into the lives of a number of families around the world. Reading about the alternative forms of transportation people use worldwide was a real eye opener.
My husband Serge and I work full-time. We have two vehicles - a necessity, I've come to believe, in this rural area of Vermont. Yet I kept thinking back to the book I read. If entire families go without a car, some without even a bicycle, would it be such a hardship for my husband and I to try to cut back to one vehicle? And so I decided to try an experiment: Two people for three weeks with one car in rural Vermont. As part of the experiment, I decided to use my small scooter as well. A scooter puts off much less carbon waste and costs much less than our V8 pickup.
We live approximately seven miles from the nearest shopping area, about ten from my husband's job and eighteen from mine. However, if this experiment were a success, it could make a difference in our health, the health of the planet and our finances. Long-term it could mean a different way of life for us. Gulp! Let the experiment begin...
Week One
As fate would have it, our truck decided to get a head start on our experiment and died while we were running errands on Saturday. It was fortuitous that we already had a plan in place for getting around sans one vehicle.
By midweek I can't help but wonder if this will get easier. Making the morning transition is hard. When using the bus I need to be ready forty minutes early, but still have to finish breakfast in the car some mornings. I also discovered that while I enjoy a peaceful, silent drive to work my husband likes to listen to a talk show. Loudly. I felt a little irritated having to fork over the three-dollar fare for a nine-mile bus trip. Walking from the bus stop to my job was nice though; I enjoyed the cool air and listening to the birds. Later in the week, stranded at work and desperate to be alone at lunchtime, I walked to a gas station about a mile away and got a cup of coffee. It was a cool day and a nice one for a walk. Friday's commute was nice and because it was my turn to drive, we enjoyed a quiet ride!
Week Two
This week seems easier. I know now that if we don't leave the house by 6:20 AM, I have a good chance of missing the bus. The bus itself is large and comfortable and uses biodiesel fuel, so I feel even better about using it. Though riding my scooter is a nice change and allows me more independence during the workday, it's a cold drive in. I bundle up with three or four layers but I'm still chilled through; after the thirty-five minute ride I'm ready to get to my desk and thaw out.
I went on a couple more lunch break walks and noticed something interesting: No one walks around here! I used to work in Burlington, Vermont's largest city, and people walked and biked all over the place. But in the small town where I work, I get stares and worried looks from people who seem to think my car must have broken down. An interesting observation...
Week Three
People who know about the experiment are asking how it's going. "Better!" I say, and it's true. The first week was definitely the hardest. Though I still miss my early morning alone time and the slow morning pace, it's getting easier as time goes on.
Financial/Environmental Impact
How Much Money and CO2 Did We Save?
Normally, I spend between $25.00-$35.00 a week in gas, Serge about $30.00. Some of my cost is for non-work related trips like going to the grocery store or to visit family. Approximately $20.00 is used for work travel. So that's $50.00 a week, or $10.00 a day that we spend on gas. It hardly seems possible! I re-check my math.
Using the bus we spend $3.00 on fare, plus about $4.00 in gas (Serge picks me up after work). The total trip cost for a bus day then, is $7.00. Using my scooter is a real savings though. I can go to work and back home twice on about one gallon of gas - about $1.40 per trip. Cheap!
So, totaling things up: We averaged use of the scooter twice a week for three weeks and the bus the other three weeks. The total for our per week commuting: $24.00, compared to our total cost not commuting: $50.00. Holy smokes! I didn't realize how much money we saved!
Now the environmental savings: Per week we saved one hundred miles of driving. Our truck, the vehicle we chose not to use for commuting, gets about 16 miles per gallon. There are approximately 25 lbs. of CO2 per gallon of gasoline. Because we didn't use the truck to commute to work, we saved 6.25 gallons of gas per week. That's a savings of 156 pounds of CO2!
Summary
Pros: I enjoyed commuting with my husband, despite the radio programs first thing in the morning, and riding the bus as well. Though it wasn't a lengthy trip, it did give me some extra time to read or knit before starting my workday. I also enjoyed the extra walking incorporated into my day.
Cons: A $3.00 bus fare for 9 miles still seems expensive to me. Losing nearly forty minutes of "me time" in the morning hurt! The scooter, while a nice option, could only be used about 5 months out of the year.
Final Synopsis: Though I don't think switching to one car is anything we will want to do in the immediate future, it was an eye-opening experiment, and one I'm glad we tried. We are planning to continue using the bus to commute two or three days a week. We are also looking into other forms of transportation for long trips out of town, like using Greyhound or Amtrak, as well as researching a more fuel-efficient vehicle to replace my husband's truck in the near future. I'd also like to continue some of the more healthful transportation options such as walking on my lunch break instead of being constantly dependent on my car.
About The Author
Joy Perrino is a freelance writer who lives in Vermont with her husband and pets. She enjoys creating altered art, reading voraciously, baking, yoga, and trying to help save the world, in whatever small way she can. She maintains a weblog online at http://achickwithaconscience.blogspot.com/.
Related Resources
Copyright © 2007
When I first read Your Money Or Your Life, the book's message sank into place in my mind like the last piece of a jigsaw puzzle. This was what I'd been trying to get at for many years; frugality comes naturally to me. I was one of those irritating kids whose birthday money gathered dust in a piggy bank because I just didn't have anything I wanted to spend it on. My take-home messages from the book were that standard of living is not the same thing as quality of life, and that it is possible to put my money to work for me so that I don't have to work for money.
For over thirty years I've also been strongly attracted to the ideal of living lightly and being green. For a couple of years after reading Your Money Or Your Life, the ideals of living simple and living green seemed to be in conflict. It looked as if I had to choose: "green" seemed the difficult, expensive route whilst "simple" looked at first as if was also easy. "Simple" meant that I could still have anything I wanted as long as I could find it cheap enough. "Green" meant in the back of my mind, personal deprivation, and having to cut down on the number of dollars I could invest for my future freedom.
It's like the choice between nipping into Safeway to pick up a dozen generic eggs on a buy one, get one free special, or schlepping via bicycle to an organic cooperative to seek out a dozen brown shelled beauties from cruelty-free hens, at three times the price for one dozen of the Safeway two-for-one. I was uncomfortably aware that I was deliberately closing my eyes to the impact of my lifestyle in my pursuit of what I saw as living simply. Where I went wrong was in equating "simple" with "cheap," as well as in not applying the principle of cost-effectiveness.
The turning point came when our friends Pat and Rose showed us their video of Affluenza. Two distinct images have stayed with me from this film: one of piles of trash spewing into a landfill, and one of piles of sliced up credit cards pouring out of consumer counseling agencies. I realized that these are expressions of the delusion of MORE. People imagine that there'll always be MORE "away" to throw rejected stuff into, and there'll always be MORE where that came from. I was skimming off the cream from this affluent society, buying never-worn cashmere sweaters for $20 at garage sales, eagerly seeking out food bargains, and stashing my savings into CDs and bond funds.
Now I could no longer reconcile it with my conscience to continue being part of the problem. The time had come to bite the bullet and stop spending LESS - even if it meant delaying our crossover point into Financial Independence.
But a funny thing happened along the way! I found that despite shifting my food buying (which is the major part of my spending) from Safeway and Albertson's to the farmer's market and Trader Joe's, that it wasn't costing me any more to eat! How could this be? I had to pull out my calculator and delve into the math. Here's one example:
I bought a pasture-raised roasting chicken from Trader Joe's, and a generic bird (Foster Farms) from a generic supermarket (Safeway). Initial cost: TJ: $1.69/lb, Safeway $1.29/lb. The TJ's bird weighed 6.1lb, and the Safeway bird a tad over 3lb. Each bird had the same amount of bone; the factory chicken had much more fat. Yield of meat per bird: 5lb for the grass chicken, 2 lb for the factory bird. At this point the grass chicken's cost per pound for actual meat was $2.06/lb, the same cost to the penny as the factory bird. However, this was raw weight. I weighed the meat again after cooking; the grass chicken had lost only 1 oz of weight per pound whilst the factory chicken had shrunk quite alarmingly - each pound of raw meat yielded 12 1/2 oz of cooked meat. The grass chicken was now well in the lead at $2.20/lb ready-to-eat meat, with the factory bird at $2.64.
The same thing was true of grass-fed ground beef at $4/lb, compared with the feedlot version at 99c/lb during an Albertson's 10-for-$10 sale. The "expensive" beef had so much less fat and water that the two versions ended up costing much the same per ounce of meat-on-the-plate. Also, the psychological barrier of paying four times as much per pound meant that I bought less to start with, and used it more sparingly.
Paying the true price (initial reaction of OUCH!) for cheese made from the milk of grass-fed cows meant that cheese took its rightful place as a relish to a real meal instead of being treated as a casual snack.
Although some vegetables like potatoes and carrots cost more per pound at the farmer's market, others like leafy greens and tomatoes in full season cost considerably less. Fruit also turns out to be a wash overall; the advantage of buying from the farmer's market is that I don't have to worry about problems like the environmental and ecological costs of eating bananas in San Francisco. Life just became simpler! I don't eat bananas now; I eat what's in season locally. However, I get on a roll when I see all those heaps of wonderful food, so now I buy more vegetables and we spend more in this category.
With so many more veggies on our plates we eat less rice, less pasta, and less bread. Tortillas have taken the place of raised loaves, because we can keep them in the freezer and take out a couple when required. We no longer routinely throw out moldy bread, and we feel we can afford to buy handmade organic tortillas. Our grains bill has gone down, and I have lost ten pounds in six months without even trying.
It looks as if I was worrying for nothing. Living Green and Living Simple turned out to be the same thing.
About The Author
Suzanne Ubick enjoys reading, writing, and 'rithmetic; when not tweaking her wall chart or cutting a link off the paper chain that symbolizes the time left until her Your Money Or Your Life crossover point, she writes essays for Rebel Wolf and plans her escape forward to the land.
Related Resources
Copyright © 2006
Every November, without fail, I'm asked for my holiday gift list. Unsatisfied with my protest, "I really don't need anything," well-meaning family and friends continue to prod me for ideas. It's not that I don't enjoy or appreciate the tradition of giving and receiving at this time of year. It's just that the resulting accumulation of stuff goes against so much of what I stand for.
Similarly, it can be challenging to find a special gift that honors the
person you love without compromising your own priorities. Many gift
choices only add more disorder to our already cluttered homes, but what
can you do? My answer is to request and give disappearing gifts,
relieving the burden on the receiver to find space for the gift — while
sparing the environment at the same time.
The following lists provide environmentally-friendly, clutter-free gift ideas to suit any budget. Many of these can be homemade to save money while adding a personal touch.
Practical gifts
- Prepaid phone card
- 100% recycled stationery (with postage stamps)
- Calendar (do-it-yourself photo calendars, available through most photo developers, are a perennial favorite for grandparents)
- Beeswax candles
- Gifts in a jar (soup mix, pancake mix, cocoa, etc.), frozen meals or other edibles
- Organic and/or locally crafted (or homemade) bath-and-body products (soap, lotion, etc.)
- Fair trade coffee (add some biscotti for a nice combination)
- Seeds, flower bulbs or birdseed
Gifts of service
- Babysitting
- Yard care
- Cleaning
- Automobile maintenance (oil change, etc.)
Gift certificates (try to avoid gift certificates for merchandise that will ultimately generate more clutter)
- Health club, exercise classes or massage
- Healthy restaurant
- Natural foods and home store
- Local greenhouse or nursery
- Bulb or seed catalog
Annual memberships
- Arboretum or botanical gardens
- State parks, county parks, etc.
- Museum, zoo, conservatory, or historical society
For kids
- Special outing (see "Annual Memberships" above)
- Art materials (paper, paint, scissors, glue, tape, crayons, fabric scraps, ribbon, yarn, chalk, etc.)
- School supplies
- Homemade play dough (see recipe at www.JenniferSwanson.com/recipes.htm)
- Bubbles
- Stocks, bonds, CDs, or contributions to their college education funds
Other ideas
- Coupon book for environmentally friendly products and services (e.g., Blue Sky Guide or Chinook Book)
- Simply In Season cookbook by Mary Beth Lind and Cathleen Hockman-Wert (this gift won't "disappear," but it does present delicious, vanishing recipes that make the most of the season's freshest produce)
- Charitable donation in their honor (e.g., many organizations promote "adopt-a-something" programs; think about causes that would be meaningful to the recipient — then you take the tax deduction!)
My favorite exceptions are heirloom gifts. One all-time favorite gift to our parents was a "day-in-the-life" scrapbook of our daughter, who was two years old at the time. Every year since then, we've created highly anticipated, personalized photo calendars.
Once you choose a gift, the next step is to decide how to wrap it — or not. In her book Simple Living, Jose Hobday describes the Native American tradition of giving gifts unwrapped. Rather than allowing paper or a tied-up box to come between the giver and the receiver, a gift is handed over without secrecy. This "flesh-to-flesh connection" provides an enhanced sense of unity.
But if you must wrap, remember the 3 R's: reduce, reuse, and recycle. Reduce waste by wrapping gifts within gifts. Reuse paper, bags, or other containers. Recycle by choosing wrapping materials that won't end up in a landfill. (Most traditional gift wrap is not recyclable, due to its high metallic and dye content.)
Use your creativity to reconsider this holiday season's gift-giving as well as those other special occasions in the New Year.
Recommended resources:
- Holiday Gift Exemption Voucher — PDF File Download
- Holiday Resources from The Simple Living Network
- Gift & Craft E-Books from The Simple Living Network
- Celebrate Simply: Your Guide to Simpler, More Meaningful Holidays... by Nancy Twigg
- Environmentally-Friendly Gift Wrap Ideas by Jennifer Swanson
- Gift ideas from the Center For A New American Dream
About The Author
Jennifer Swanson is a professional organizing consultant, speaker, writer and mother of three. She publishes a free monthly e-zine, offering practical ideas and encouragement to help you organize and simplify your life. For more tips visit www.JenniferSwanson.com.
Copyright © 2007
My husband and I teach courses on environmentally conscious leadership. In promoting the course, we often we get questions from people asking why we are teaching people how to recycle. That is the last thing we want to do!
Well, what we mean is: most people don't realize that recycling is the absolute LAST resort (next to dumping in the landfill)! Why?
- Just because a product has a recycling symbol on it, doesn't mean it can be recycled. Have you tried to recycle Styrofoam packaging in your community? Many communities are choosing not to recycle Styrofoam, and some areas are even banning the use of Styrofoam.
- The recycling process produces environmental toxins, uses natural resources, and takes considerable energy.
- Often, recyclable products get 'tainted' by people who throw debris, pet waste and other non-recyclables into the recycling bin, thus ruining true recyclables which then wind up in the landfills (in excess of 25% in some areas).
- Many products only have a certain 'recyclability'; for example, copier/printer paper can only be recycled about five times before the fibers break down.
The point is, there are many easy things we can do when it comes to the everyday products that we use so that a) we are not creating excess waste and b) we are not polluting ourselves and our environment.
What we are learning is that in order to be environmentally conscious leaders, we have to rethink everything we are doing, everything we are buying, and all of the choices we are making to reduce the amount of waste (both trash and recycling) we produce.
It has almost become a game for us. Originally we would challenge ourselves to see how many weeks we could go without putting garbage out on the curb. It wasn't that the garbage was hiding in the garage creating a stink; it was that we focused on buying products that were recyclable. We went from throwing away up to two bags of garbage a week to one bag every 3-4 weeks. The problem was, we began increasing our recycling output! Instead of a half-full blue bin we began to have up to three blue bins a week!
Now we are focusing on reducing our recycling output also. When we go shopping, we not only look for recyclable containers and packaging, but we try to choose products whose packaging is reusable in some way. For example, my husband loves buying the bulk-sized peanut butter not just because he enjoys peanut butter, but he uses the containers to store his manly knick knacks (nails, screws, bolts, etc.). I love when we buy items in glass jars because then I can reuse the jars for my end-of-season canning, or to store baby food and leftovers in.
Our latest challenge is creating 'litterless lunches'. This is a great one for kids too. The goal is to include food, drink and related packaging that doesn't have to be trashed or recycled. It's funny, thinking back to the 70's before the big disposable consumer movement, we all had thermoses and the ugly green Tupperware containers for our sandwiches. Even the straws in our thermoses were reusable. Now everything is pre-packaged, 'convenient' and disposable.
It might take a little creativity, shopping in the bulk food stores, and an investment in some Tupperware (or better yet, Corningware) containers, but it can be done. The investment in the reusable containers will have a long-term cost-savings and an environmental savings that will be more than worth the money spent!
About The Author
In addition to being a new Mommy, wife and business partner with her husband/leadership and life coach/best friend Jeff, and a proponent of natural and simple living, Colleen serves as Editor for the Natural Living Site on BellaOnline. Feel free to check out her site on Natural Living at naturalliving.bellaonline.com and her and Jeff's site at www.jcweber.com.
Related Resources
Copyright © 2007
Let the forums help you through the holidays!
There's a discussion forum named Holidays that sees most of its traffic in these last two months of the year. It's full of ideas on how to simplify the holidays. One woman writes that she's attempting to change Christmas for her family, in order to put the emphasis on togetherness. Other participants share tactics for handling gift giving, including opting out of it gracefully. There's also a discussion of how vegetarians handle Christmas dinner (veggie Christmas).
The Consumerism & The Media forum tends to get quite busy this time of year too. It's a good place to vent frustrations with commercialization of the holidays. The Family Matters & Relationships forum, on the other hand, helps those frustrated with family or friend dynamics around the holidays. Many a person has related a tricky situation and been given helpful advice on ways to create happy holidays for everyone.
A final note - there's a "sticky" post of a holiday gift exemption voucher, suitable for printing and giving to all your favorite people. It exempts your loved ones from the hassle of shopping for a gift for you. Enjoy!
CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT THE INTRODUCTION to our on-line community. Then join in the fun!
About The Author
Ann Haebig is a part-time geek, part-time bicycle advocate, and dedicated follower and promoter of the Your Money Or Your Life program. She lives in the San Francisco Bay area with her partner, cat and recently adopted banjo. Ann can be reached at ahaebig@pobox.com.
Related Resources
- Simplify Your Christmas
- Unplug The Christmas Machine
- Unplug The Christmas Machine Kit
- Whose Birthday Is It, Anyway?
Copyright © 2007
In the Beginning Was Simplicity
In our ever expanding, complex and competitive world,
- which is driven by a corporate business culture that ruthlessly pursues the maximization of profit,
- which exploits the world of natural resources including the "commodity" of labour,
- which is unelected, undemocratic and largely unaccountable,
- which wantonly fuels the fires of possession and greed in people through a multi-billion pound advertising industry,
- and which contributes massively to adverse climatic changes,
I seek refuge...
I seek refuge in a life of chosen simplicity. I affirm a positive commitment to a life that deliberately disengages from participating in the dynamics and growth of greed.
The goals of economic and material prosperity that governments encourage us to pursue in the name of promoting individual liberties and freedoms are, I believe, fundamentally flawed. The driven competition inherent in the marketplace, which is seen as the engine of development, is in reality a tool of separation. Its power, based on the Victorian principle of Social Darwinism - survival of the economically fittest - is instrumental in achieving financial prosperity for the few and poverty for the many. The explosion of the global market in recent years has enabled multinational corporations to build a dominating power base to safeguard their interests whilst slowly destroying indigenous, community-based, "organic" economies that have met the needs of their people for centuries. Tawney's dictum, which I read many years ago now, has never left me:
"Freedom for the pike is death to the minnow."Tawney
On an individual level we note that with all the financial abundance that the privileged few attain (some individuals now have wealth far in excess of the GNP of many third world countries), there is no evidence to suggest that happiness follows in its wake. Indeed it seems that wealth can, and does, create many additional problems of social and personal malaise.
"I find all this money a considerable burden."John Paul Getty, Jr.
Real abundance, the abundance of personal contentment and equanimity, can only be cultivated in the fertile ground of simple, right living which does not set out to exploit anyone or anything, for it celebrates cooperation not competition. It implicitly recognizes the needs of all people to live in a fair and caring world by reaching out to greater humanitarian and egalitarian ideas.
But what exactly is simplicity and how can it be achieved?
One distinction that needs mentioning at the outset is that highlighted by Duane Elgin in his seminal work: Voluntary Simplicity. In this remarkable book Elgin distinguishes between voluntary simplicity that is chosen consciously by individuals as a way to direct their lives, and involuntary simplicity that is enforced on people who have no choice - in reality poverty. He continues to say that "To bring the quality of simplicity into our levels and patterns of consumption, we must learn to live between the extremes of poverty and excess. Simplicity is a double-edged sword in this regard: living with either too little or with too much will diminish our capacity to realize our human potential. Bringing simplicity into our lives thus requires that we understand the ways in which our consumption either supports or entangles our existence. We must learn the difference between those material circumstances that support our lives and those that constrict our lives. Simplicity requires living with balance."
But simplicity is not solely about adjusting our lives to be in tune with more agreeable levels of material consumption, for it embraces in its widest compass aesthetic and spiritual realms as well. All interrelate in supreme moments of harmony to give to the individual a precious gift: a sense of personal, innate rightness without any corresponding feeling of smugness. This psycho/spiritual attainment - which dissolves the desire and need to put oneself above others whilst simultaneously recognizing everyone's unique qualities - is a cherished state of mind which goes against the grain of our normal deep-seated egotistical concerns and obsessions. But because of the many powerful distractions and hindrances within society that work on us to create false views we can easily stay embedded within that framework, unable at times to see the broader, deeper picture.
In order to reach the summit of 'right view' (in the Buddhist sense), we need to work on our spiritual development in a forthright and consistent fashion. Remember, your destiny is where your character leads you...
One notable example of this quest for character refinement is Mahatma Gandhi. He constantly worked in a disciplined and conscientious way to try to purify his life by working on the impediments that blocked his path to the cultivation of a simple lifestyle and corresponding character. Many have testified to his heroic sincerity in pursuing this end, but it was never easy. In his early days whilst studying to become a lawyer in London, Gandhi, like many other aspiring Indians influenced by British values, did try to take on the 'dandy' persona of Edwardian society. But slowly and perceptively Gandhi underwent a deep-seated metamorphosis. He had started reading an assortment of works including the Hindu classic The Bhagavad-Gita, The New Testament, and Unto This Last. This latter work was thought to be very influential with early socialist M P's who identified with Ruskin's argument that community and fellowship, not wealth, lie at the heart of society. Even when Independence was gained by India and Gandhi became its first Premier, he still pursued in a very real, engaging and truthful way the road of simplicity in the style of living he embraced and in how he treated all people who came into his orbit, from Heads of State to Untouchables. Gandhi's legendary humility blossomed in the soil of commitment to character training influenced by rich spiritual values; it did not just 'happen'.
"Complete self-surrender [is] the price for the only real freedom that is worth having."Gandhi
My personal commitment to the simple life has always been deeply influenced by Thoreau. I constantly seek to find, through personal exploration and experiment, how I can best go forward in simplicity given my particular set of circumstances.
One area of interest in which I have been keen to engage for the last few years is the growing of organic vegetables for personal consumption on a local allotment (a small piece of rented horticultural land). Although I have shared the work with a friend, it has undoubtedly been hard physical work in transforming a hitherto neglected plot of land into a well-organized growing site complete with a new purpose-built shed constructed from recycled timbers. I have gained enormous pleasure from all aspects of this work: satisfaction from engaging in meaningful activity, companionship with a community of gardeners, enjoyment of the wonderful taste of home-grown food, observation of the seasonal wonders of nature in a very direct way and finally, the opportunity to reflect in a mindfully aware state on the mutual dependency of everything in nature.
The East London allotment site is situated at the rear of a fine community building (The Assembly Hall) that has inscribed over its Portland stone facade in large bold letters the following words of Walthamstow's most famous son:
"Fellowship is life, and lack of fellowship is death."William Morris
These are words that I remember from my school days in Walthamstow, which have nourished and inspired me over the years.
Another area of interest for me - which has been a continuous, enduring thread running throughout my life - is the Arts and Crafts Movement. I very much come from a 'tool culture' where exploration and expression of materials was considered appropriate and rewarding in itself. Unnecessary dependency on other peoples' labour (products, maintenance and repairs) was a considered a luxury that we could not afford. If we could not make it or repair it, we went without! Working mindfully with materials to produce well-designed functional objects that informed our lives was, although I did not realize it as a child, a very fine aesthetic experience - a spiritual practice. The sight of my Dad in full concentration, working on so many different projects, using a wide variety of different materials, has been an enduring image that I have drawn upon in my remembrance of him. Today amongst my large collection of tools are many that I inherited from him; they are still regularly used in the work I undertake.
The pioneers of alternative, simple lifestyle communities that engaged in the 'noble crafts', like Ruskin, Ashbee, Carpenter, Gill (and many more, in many lands) are indelibly etched upon my mind because of their passion not to be incorporated into an exploitative industrial society that placed no value on the very people who produced the real wealth in that society. Their visions of opening up better ways of simple living found expression in a number of successful communities that placed at their heart the worth of each and every member of that community.
Today we face a stark choice: We either scale-down on corporate business, which is undoubtedly damaging our world through the adoption of wrong values, or we continue at full throttle and run the risk of more social and environmental destruction. I know what Thoreau would say, and it is as relevant today as it ever was: "Simplify, simplify."
May we ALL find that ground...
About The Author
Michael Lewin, who has a degree in Psychology, has spent 25 years teaching and supporting a variety of different groups, from children with special needs to adults with learning difficulties. He is active in a number of UK-based Buddhist groups and has regularly published articles in a number of UK psycho/spiritual magazines. As he says, "I am at that stage in my life that I want to pursue the spiritual path even further to find out the depth I can penetrate. I am a seeker, if not for perfection, then at least for some kind of personal progress that can bring me joy, contentment and happiness." Contact Michael at: lewinmick@hotmail.com.
Related Resources
Copyright © 2007
Introduction: Get Satisfied author Emily Houston in Brooklyn, NY begins her "Simplicity in the City" story with the excerpt below, among many diverse views in the book. Get Satisfied: How Twenty People Like You Found the Satisfaction of Enough is newly published by Easton Studio Press for Simple Living America. Visit their website at www.getsatisfied.org to join the nonprofit organization for a 50% discount on the book or to download the free Get Satisfied House Party Discussion Guide by Katherine Hauswirth. And don't forget to post your own story onsite to spread The Satisfaction of Enough!
As a twenty-four year-old this year, it was very hard for me at first to think of a reason why I feel satisfied. The world around me moves at such a fast pace and demands that everything happen in an instant. It's easy to get lost in wanting more. Spending four hundred dollars on a pair of shoes, going out to dinner at expensive restaurants, and having the world at the touch of a button on a phone the size of a palm... nothing is basic anymore. It's so hard to feel fulfilled in a world that teaches you to always want more.
However, I didn't always find myself living in a world such as this. I grew up simply. My father was a Southern Baptist minister in Georgia and my mother was a housewife. We lived twenty minutes away from any civilization, and one of the most exciting events for me each week was the tradition my father started when I began school. Each Friday, he would pick me up from school and let me pick out anything at the gas station that I wanted. Meanwhile, my mom taught me respect for my elders and the prayers that I still pray to this day.
Besides the gas station, all we had in our small town was a post office, a general store, and several different churches. There were only two other children my age, a boy and a girl. We had the run of the town and got into trouble at every turn. It wasn't always easy living in a small town with nothing to do, but I believe that my creative imagination was formed in the Deep South.
When my father first told me years ago that we were going to move to upstate New York, I was both ecstatic and scared. On the one hand, at first I was excited to find myself in a new place that had a mall within a mile, and to find myself meeting new people with different accents, and living in a place where there was snow six months out of the year. But on the other hand, it was extremely hard to leave most of the people in my family with whom I was so close and to leave the simplicity of a small town behind. I was moving away from almost everyone I loved and everything I knew. However difficult, I embraced it as a new experience. I met friends then that I have to this day and I found out that I could survive in a place far different than what I was used to. I also found myself closer to my dream of living in New York City.
Six years ago a high school exchange program allowed me to visit one of the most exciting and creative cities in the world for two full weeks. I knew I had fallen in love the minute I stepped off the plane and got my first view of that famous New York City skyline. There would be no getting around it, I had to live there someday.
Copyright © 2007
Not long ago, I talked with one of the world's richest people. One day, one transaction alone earned him hundreds of millions of dollars. A compassionate man, he was troubled. "Since the Bush tax cuts, I pay a smaller percentage of my income in taxes than my secretary does," he said. "I think that's wrong."
I think he's right.
I first met Selena Allen last year. She had a sad story to tell. A mother of two from Kent, Washington, Selena and her husband work tag-team shifts because they can't afford full-time childcare. They earn barely enough to pay the bills for a modest house and lifestyle, even though both work forty-hour weeks and Selena is a college graduate.
But the worst part of the story was that when Selena's second son was born premature, she had to leave him in the hospital and return to work three days after giving birth. With no paid maternity leave, she could only afford to take one month off with him and wanted to do that when he came home.
She was choked up, her brown eyes watering, when she told me about it. I was too. Working on my most recent film, The Motherhood Manifesto, I found that Selena's story wasn't exceptional.
In the August, 2007 issue of National Geographic, there's a map of the world. It shows who gets paid childbirth leave and who doesn't. We don't. What's most shocking is that all but five countries in the world guarantee paid childbirth leave, at least for mothers. The United States, the richest of all, doesn't.
Short Americans
Recently, another article caught my eye. It seems a Princeton University study has discovered that Americans are getting shorter. Shorter? Well, not in absolute terms, but compared to Europeans. Half a century ago, we Americans were the world's tallest people. Now we're shorter than most Europeans, more than two inches shorter than the Dutch or the Danes. In every European country, people have been growing faster than we are (and yes, the study controls for the effects of immigration and racial diversity).
So who cares? After all, I'm short myself. Napoleon was short. But the article explains that average height is a powerful indicator of the social health of a society. It tells you how well infants are provided for. So it figures that the Dutch and the Danes also rank on top in a study of child welfare in industrial countries released last February by UNICEF. The U.S., by contrast, ranks 20th of 21 nations studied. Whoa!
America the Short? Next to last in child welfare? Are we talking trends here? What's going on?!!!
Remember that big sign that James Carville posted in Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign war room: IT'S THE ECONOMY, STUPID!?
He should have said, "It's a stupid economy."
Contrasting Economic Policies
For most of the past 35 years, the United States has pursued an ideologically-driven economic strategy markedly different from that of nearly all western European nations.
From 1932 until 1972, the United States used government policies to increase economic opportunities for the poor, the middle class, women and minorities. Wages kept pace with increases in productivity.
But since then, and especially since Ronald Reagan declared that "government cannot be the solution because government is the problem," we've followed a different path, toward what has sometimes been described as market fundamentalism. Increasingly, in the name of "personal responsibility," our policies require more and more Americans to provide privately for all their own economic security. For most of us, the "ownership society," emphasizing privatization, de-regulation and massive tax cuts for the wealthy, is really a "you're on your ownership" society. We've cut taxes dramatically for wealthier Americans, and privatized and deregulated large sections of the economy.
But to make America better, President Bush tells us, we must do even more of these things, making tax cuts for the wealthy permanent and abolishing the estate tax, for example.
By contrast, most northern and western European countries have followed a different path they call "the social contract." To work well, they argue, markets need strong rules, an activist government and powerful protections for the rights of workers and consumers. For the most part, Europeans have continued to strengthen their social safety nets, offering increasingly generous unemployment compensation, old age pensions, paid family leave, long vacations, and other benefits such as universal health care.
Who comes out on top?
Given these two different approaches, it seems fair to ask which one has worked better.
That question leads to another, more fundamental one: What's the Economy for, Anyway? How much stock can we take in the Dow Jones? Is the Gross Domestic Product the measure (the grosser the better), and stuff the stuff, of happiness? Is the good life the goods life?
If so, then our way seems a winner. U.S. per capita GDP (the value of all goods and services sold on the market each year) is still 30% higher than the average in western Europe, just as it was a generation ago. We've got bigger homes (and more storage lockers for what doesn't fit into them), bigger cars, and more high-definition televisions.
But what if we measure success by the happiness, health, fairness and security economies provide for their people?
Lately, I've been comparing statistical data, trying to see how countries are doing when it comes to health, quality of life, justice and sustainability.
Shockingly, compared for example to western European nations, the U.S. ranks worst or next-to-worst when it comes to: [see bottom of article for sources]
- Overall child welfare (UNICEF)
- Health care system ranking (WHO)
- Poverty rate (OECD)
- Income equality - rich/poor gap (OECD)
- Air pollution per capita (UN HDI)
- Carbon dioxide emissions per capita (UNHDI)
- Ecological footprint (Global Footprint Network)
- Personal savings rate (OECD)
- Income and pension security (OECD)
- Balance of payments (OECD)
- Municipal waste per capita (UNHDI)
- Development assistance to poor countries per capita (OECD)
- Longevity (OECD)
- Infant mortality (OECD)
- Child abuse (Every Child Matters)
- Depression (WHO, AMA)
- Anxiety (WHO, AMA)
- Obesity (OECD)
- Murder rate (Nationmaster.com)
- Incarceration rate (OECD)
- Motor vehicle fatalities per capita (OECD)
- Vacation time (CEPR)
- Paid family leave (GWF)
- Paid sick leave (GWF)
- The size of its middle-class by percentage (UNHDI)
- Voting rate (IDEA)
- Press freedom (FreedomHouse.org)
- Personal freedom (World Liberty Project)
These indices and many more show that since conservative policies like tax cuts for the rich have triumphed, Americans' quality of life, economic security and environmental sustainability have all declined in comparison to those in Europe.
Wealthy, But Not Healthy
We used to be among the more egalitarian and healthy nations. But now, our rich-poor gap has become the widest chasm in the industrial world, with the majority of economic gains over the past generation going to the top 10% of the population. The Republican economic revolution has produced a gush-up instead of the promised "trickle-down." A new study, supported in part by the conservative American Enterprise Institute and Heritage Foundation, finds that Americans actually have only about one-half to one-third as much chance as Europeans of escaping low-income lives and rising to the top.
As Michael Moore makes clear in his powerful new film, Sicko, Americans are now far less healthy than Europeans, despite spending twice as much for health care per person. In fact, we spend nearly half the world's total health care budget, an amount that will reach 20% of our GDP by 2010 — with worse outcomes than anywhere in western Europe. Shockingly, the U.S. has now fallen to 42nd in life expectancy, down from 11th two decades ago.
Amazingly, all of that spending counts as a plus when it comes to GDP. But the healthy leisure that Europeans enjoy — lingering meals and café conversations, long walks and bike rides — count only as wasted time, adding not a single point to the GDP. La dolce vita, by that measure, is for losers.
Which countries come out on top in quality of life measures? It's the Nordic and northern continental European nations, those that combine a strong social safety net with shorter working hours, high but progressive tax rates and strong environmental regulations.
But those high-tax European economies are bad for business, right? Actually, it turns out that The Economist magazine ranks Denmark, Finland and the Netherlands as having a better business environment than the U.S., even though all three pay higher wages and have far stronger social safety nets. American business leaders know you can make money in Europe. They invest four times more each year in Germany than they do in China, and more in Belgium than in India.
The conservative revolution is a proven failure, and the working definition of insanity is to keep doing the same things hoping for a different result.
What should we do?
How do we start changing things?
First, for all of us, as Michael Moore makes clear, universal healthcare is a no-brainer. It will probably have to come in stages, by adding coverage of all children to Medicare, for example.
But it's not enough to have good health care; we need to be healthier. Taking better care of children can make a big difference there. One place to start is the Balancing Act, introduced in Congress by Representative Lynn Woolsey (D, California). It provides for paid family leave to care for newborns (an absolute essential) as well as pay parity for part-time workers and high-quality childcare for our kids.
Another bill that could make a big difference is Senators DeLauro and Kennedy's Healthy Families Act, which guarantees several paid sick days for all workers. As things stand, 50% of American workers have no paid sick days; as a result they come to work sick and get the rest of us sick too. That's silly, and every other industrial country recognizes it.
The Take Back Your Time campaign, of which I am the president, is working for a law that would offer three weeks paid vacation for all Americans. We call it the Leave Protection, Family Bonding and Personal Well-Being Act of 2007. Europeans already get a minimum of four weeks, but a quarter of Americans, especially the poorest, get none at all. That's absolutely unheard of anywhere else in the developed world.
I recently met a desk clerk at a hotel in Florida. She told me her contract gave her two weeks of paid vacation, but for seven years she hadn't been allowed to take it because the company was understaffed. They paid her extra instead, but she needed the time. She couldn't quit the job, though. A single mom, she had a son about to start college. She was exhausted and almost in tears. It's just not right. In fact, it's outrageous.
Vacations have been shown to improve physical and mental health dramatically. Take Back Your Time's campaign is really about values. Is economic growth our only goal, or do we want to give people a chance to take care of their health, families, communities and environment? I am convinced from speaking around the country about this idea that the great majority of Americans would support such a law. Every progressive candidate for President should support it.
If we want to build societies that really work, we need to ask, "What's the Economy for, Anyway?" Then we need to separate the real results from the myths, shed a little of our American hubris and start looking at how other countries are actually edging us out by providing policies that succeed. That way lies a happier, healthier, more just and sustainable world.
Sources
- WHO: World Health Organization
- OECD: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
- UNHDI: United Nations Human Development Index
- AMA: American Medical Association
- CEPR: Center for Economic and Policy Research
- GWF: Global Working Families Study
- IDEA: International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance
About The Author
John de Graaf has been writing and producing award-winning television programs for several decades. In addition to Affluenza and Escape from Affluenza, the highly acclaimed PBS documentary series, he also produced Running Out of Time, For Earth's Sake: The Life and Times of David Brower, Circle of Plenty, Green Plans, and Genetic Time Bomb, among many others. John is also the co-author of the book Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic with David Wann and Thomas H. Naylor.
E-Mail: jodg@comcast.net
Web Site: Take Back Your Time Day
Related Resources
- The Motherhood Manifesto
- Take Back Your Time Handbook
- Affluenza
- Escape from Affluenza
- Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic
Copyright © 2007
This is the sixth article in a series discussing Your Money Or Your Life from a modern, personal perspective. The most recent article in the September-October edition of this Newsletter reviewed Step 5: Making Life Energy Visible. That step led us through the creation of a wall chart showing our monthly income, expenses, and savings. Now in Step 6 we'll consider some ways to minimize our spending while still enjoying the peak of fulfillment.
We all know there are a zillion publications already available to give us a great many tips on cost cutting. Rather than address this topic from that same perspective, I'd like to talk about a few very general ways that I and others around me have successfully made the shift from an expensive lifestyle to a frugal one.
What Do I Really Need?
When I was in my early 20s and quickly growing dissatisfied with my life of full-time office work, I sat down one evening to calculate how much I would need to save to pay my most basic monthly expenses from investment income (this was before I read Your Money Or Your Life). I was so dissatisfied with my life that I decided it would be fine to only be able to pay my bare-bones minimum expenses this way, and have to work sometimes to cover any additional costs such as entertainment, toys, etc.
I decided my basic expenses would only include minimalist housing, groceries, thrift-store clothing, and health insurance. I could rent a room for about $300/month, buy my groceries for $200, and pay $50 for a major medical policy. Clothing in thrift stores is nearly free ($2 shirts, $5 pants, etc.), so I figured that about $600/month would include some miscellaneous expenses such as utilities and even a cheap used bike.
A person I knew a few years ago spent some time in the Peace Corps. He told me of a saying they have: "If you find your needs aren't being met, perhaps it's time to adjust your needs." That's the way I did that calculation back in my early 20s. Even though I often spent much, much more than that, I always remembered that in reality, I simply don't need much.
Getting Down to the Core
When Ann moved to San Francisco, she was shocked and dismayed at the cost of housing. With rents starting at $600+ for only a small room, and the median price to buy housing at over $700,000, she was determined to find a way to cut that expense. Ann says she worked to identify the core need, and then solve the problem of meeting that need. She needed a place to sleep inside, out of the rain. She needed a place to cook her food. She needed a safe place to keep her cat. She needed a place to feel reasonably comfortable.
Having determined what her housing needs were, Ann spent some time thinking about a variety of unconventional ways to meet those needs. She rented a very small studio apartment in a not-so-beautiful area of town. That too was expensive and left her unfulfilled. As she began considering other ways to go about this, she tried finding someone who would rent her a long driveway where she could park a used RV to live in. That didn't pan out. She discovered that it would be possible to legally live aboard a boat not far from the city, so she researched and found a used houseboat. In the end, she found a way to cut her housing expense in half while still meeting her core needs. The problem was solved.
Thinking Outside the Box
Another person I know has done a lot of international travel. Her husband's family hails from Croatia. She currently lives in California, growing her own vegetables as best she can in a small backyard. To reduce her expenses and increase her quality of life, she plans to move to Croatia in the next few years. There, she'll enjoy more land in which to grow her own food. She also loves the tight-knit community of village life there. As she ages, Croatian medical care will cost a small fraction of the same care in the United States. As a result, she can spend more of her prime healthy years enjoying life, rather than working to save for expensive health care later in life.
Letting Go of Fear
I recently overheard someone humorously term the USA the "Excited States of America". In retrospect, I think they had a good point. We can be held captive by our fear of the unknown. One example is a friend of mine who always drives a new car. She won't take the risk of driving a car that's a few years old, because it might break down somewhere, leaving her stranded. It's an unlikely scenario, since she has the security of a cell phone and a good network of friends who would immediately come to her rescue. But that's not the point - the breakdown itself is a frightening enough possibility that she'll pay tens of thousands of dollars to assure herself that it won't happen.
We have come to think of money as security against anything that might go wrong. In reality, true security comes from personal relationships. Money only buys goods and services. In contrast, friendships bring safety and security. A strong network of friendships gives us all the ability to lower our expenses, knowing that help is there if we need it. We share tools, skills, and mutual support.
Another type of fear that we all experience from time to time is the fear of trusting ourselves to do things right. Instead of trying something new, we'll often pay a professional to do it for us. We pay the plumber to fix the leaky faucet, pay the investment advisor to steward our savings, and pay the barber for a haircut. Each of these people wears a special uniform and speaks a particular language to gain our trust. Why else would we trust these people's skills any more than we'd trust ourselves to learn how to do these things on our own? If they can learn these skills, so can we. I learned how to cut my hair, and haven't paid for a haircut in 15 years. That's a lot of money in the bank, and a little bit of money I don't need to spend each month. Yes, we will make mistakes as we learn new skills. That's a small price to pay for the long-term advantage of not needing these "professional services!"
But Why?
What's so wonderful about minimizing our expenses? Sure, there's the obvious result that we can save more money. In the long term, we're spending less of our precious life energy at work, freeing ourselves to live the life of our dreams.
All that's great, but what does it mean to the practical application of the Your Money Or Your Life program? As our monthly expenses drop, the amount of capital required to achieve Financial Independence drops accordingly. In short, it's not about how much we have, it's about how little we need! If we are comfortable and happy with a lifestyle where we spend only $500/month, our nest egg doesn't need to be as huge as others may imagine. Financial Independence becomes realistically attainable.
Conclusion
In this article, I've only touched on a few general ways of thinking which helped some of us change our lifestyles from spending to saving. Chapter 6 of Your Money Or Your Life offers many more ideas. Another excellent resource for practical tips is The Tightwad Gazette by Amy Dacyczyn. We all lead different lives, so each of us can use different tools to help us align our financial lives with our values. The important thing is to find the tools that work for you.
What's Next
Next time we'll discuss Step 7, which examines how we can maximize our income. As identified in Step 2, money is something we choose to trade our life energy for. Given the fact that we each only have a finite amount of life energy remaining, we strive to value it highly. That's what Step 7 is all about! In alignment with our values, we'll consider ways to receive the optimal amount of money for the life energy we spend at work.
Enjoy a wonderful and frugal holiday season!
About The Author
Fred Ecks is the volunteer Newsletter Editor for The Simple Living Network. He's a dedicated follower of the 9-step program detailed in Your Money Or Your Life. He uses the time freed up in his life for writing, volunteering, sailing, and trail running. He can be reached at fredx@pobox.com.
Related Resources
- Your Money Or Your Life
- Transforming Your Relationship With Money — Audio CD/Workbook Course
- On-Line Study Groups For Your Money Or Your Life
Registration In Progress. - The Complete Tightwad Gazette
What Is An On-Line Study Group?
OnLine Study Groups were created by The Simple Living Network (SLN) in cooperation with The New Road Map Foundation (NRM). Our purpose is to provide hosted, interactive, on-line classes for those following the nine-step program in the best selling book Your Money Or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin.
Your Money Or Your Life presents a simple, nine-step plan that will transform the way you think about, earn and spend money. This plan, a whole systems approach based on simple record keeping and your own unique life situation, works for anyone who earns or spends money. Singles and couples (with and without children), retirees and students, big earners and those below the poverty line have all been successful in doing the program.
We have created this OnLine Study Group venue because we recognize that group study is very helpful for those following the nine-steps. However, we also recognize that there are many folks out there who...
- do not have access to a local Study Group,
- find it difficult to attend face-to-face meetings on a regular basis, or
- wish to maintain the anonymity provided by the Internet.
