Frugal Living Today

This is Part 2 in a series on Frugal Philosophy.  Each of the posts in this category - past, present and future - can be found archived here.

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post I consider myself a bit of an environmentalist.

When I was much younger I even took part in my share of Greenpeace demonstrations and more than a few Earth Day celebrations and other environmental awareness causes.  It was through my studies and work with environmental causes that led to my second frugal motivation - the earth itself.

When I was younger, one of the hottest environmental topics was recycling and while I am saddened that it has lost most of the previously held momentum I am happy to see that more cities across America and around the world have adopted local recycling programs.

The amount of items making their way into landfills unnecessarily is something that has always caused me great concern and I started to do something about it as a young activist when I started the first recycling program in my high school.  In June I revisted that school after eighteen years to find that the program I started has grown tremendously.

Recycling and frugality can go hand-in-hand if you think about it.  The cost of packaging drinks and convenience foods is higher than just what we pay at the check out line.  We are adding to a trash heap that will never biodegrade as well.  My environmental beliefs mesh well with my frugality because by reducing the amount of disposable items I consume I am saving a lot of money while saving our landfills from being quite as bloated as they may have been otherwise.

When I moved into my new home, my partner and our roommate were rolling a bloated garbage can to the curb twice a week while there was a smaller recycling bin that went unused.  Today the recycling bin is full once a week and the trash only needs to go to the curb once a week.

“Food miles is a term which refers to the distance food is transported from the time of its production until it reaches the consumer. It is one dimension used in assessing the environmental impact of food.“ source: wikipedia

I’d also like to add to what I discussed yesterday with regard to home gardening and buying local when you are unable to grow it yourself.  Food miles add to the cost of the food we consume because of the food miles necessary to get the item from the producer / grower to our tables.  This transportation also adds to the degradation of our environment by polluting the atmosphere with exhaust and other pollutants.

My frugal philosophy has me believe that living simply and frugally will not only save me money but it will also allow me to show my appreciation and respect for the earth and for those around me.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS