Mindful Consumption

[lessisbest]

Some think I carry being frugal a bit too far, but I prefer calling it "mindful consumption". I read that description someplace years ago and it made being frugal a positive, instead of a negative. I just hate to see waste, so hubby and I try to avoid waste in all areas of our life. These are a few of my key areas of mindful consumption. What are yours....?

-Avoid disposable items.
-Gift cards - remember to use them, but use them wisely.
-Try not to waste food.
-Subsidize our pantry by growing and finding free food sources. This helps us stick to a $125/month food budget for 2 adults.
-Use more of our solar resources. Solar-powered lighting, cooking, heating....
-Use rain barrels.

[ApatheticNoMore]

The only thing I've ever had any talent for is: don't buy things, don't buy things, don't buy things. This is a corollary of: STOP SHOPPING! ;) Stop shopping and I usually take it as far as not buying much. But I've contemplating taking it quite far, do any of us need anything at all more than we have, except to replace things (look if your all your clothes have lots of holes I'm not saying you don't need new/newer clothes - a bit far for me - it's more do any of us need any more say household items beyond what we have other than the occasional replacement?). That's a whole level of "not buying things" I struggle with though. That craving. And ended up reading parts online of Buddhist books on consumerism ("mindfulness in the marketplace", 'Hooked; buddhist writings on greed, desire and the urge to consume") that reminded me of Zoegirl but were a bit overly Buddhist for me as I'm not Buddhist - but added them to the wish list out of mild interest.

So I'm decent at not buying things, but I don't always avoid disposables (training myself off of using the disposable silverware at work now - baby steps - haha - yes of course i already use regular silverware at home), I don't avoid all food waste. I buy the green power option from my utility and turn all off when not at home (even flip the surge protector to off) but I'm not going to say a light in another room isn't sometimes on (in a 1 bedroom apartment). And I don't aspire to the green lifestyle I could only get by owning property (as yes it's enviable in some ways, but it doesn't fit my actual life - basically not rich enough and need to be too mobile for jobs).

[Zoe Girl]

. That's a whole level of "not buying things" I struggle with though. That craving. And ended up reading parts online of Buddhist books on consumerism ("mindfulness in the marketplace", 'Hooked; buddhist writings on greed, desire and the urge to consume") that reminded me of Zoegirl but were a bit overly Buddhist for me as I'm not Buddhist - but added them to the wish list out of mild interest.

.

yes buddhist books can be very buddhisty, i gave a friend a book who was interested in what i believed and ended up making him quite angry at some of the things said, not my intention. but they are one of the groups talking about simple living which makes it difficult. i don't know many christian or other writers talking about this right now or i would recommend.

i am already bringing my lunch daily, added a cloth napkin and non-disposable silverware.we produce half the trash of our neighbors in general. my clothing is pretty low key, at least not as much as others. i was just looking through shoes so i could get the amount to one underbed box instead of 2, that means i am getting rid of all the sandals my mom passed down (i can't really wear sandals in my work, but still i am spending time on this) i actually get cravings for the coolest ikea type perfect organization container, ahhhh, so there is craving in all of us

My big goal is to go through papers again, i need to drop my paperwork by a couple boxes but some of it is photos and other things i am not willing to get rid of. i might just get a storage unit with this move. i have some furniture items and musical gear (the nice weighted keyboard)t hat i am also not willing to part with at this point so an inexpensive storage unit makes sense and i don't have to deal with it cluttered. it looks like i can afford a 2 bedroom for my son and i,

[SteveinMN]

I'd say my main two are packaging and using fuel.

In the complex equation of which products I buy, "points" are awarded to products which come with no/minimal packaging or highly-recyclable packaging (e.g., glass instead of plastic). I reuse grocery bags and boxes when I can (though I don't always remember) and will do without a bag for just an item or two. We recycle a lot of our waste: between the two of us, a compost bin, and curbside recycling and some special recycling (metal scrapper, hazardous collection, Goodwill, etc.), we don't even fill a partially-smushed-down 30-gallon trash bag each week.

And I hate to waste gas/diesel/electricity. I drive a car that gets 40-55 mpg depending on season and how much I'm on the highway and I still bunch up trips so I'm not driving a bit every day if I can help it. We (okay, I) programmed our setback thermostat aggressively and I have no qualms about pushing it to the out-of-house setting when I leave the house empty. I'm the one forever switching off lights (or getting smarter and just getting LEDs and CFLs for the ones I cannot readily switch off, like the basement light that's on as long as wash is being done by someone in the house who is not me). Even the exhaust fan in the bathroom is Energy Star rated.

You can't win 'em all, but there are a couple of areas in which I really try.

[lessisbest]

Lots of great ideas! Thanks for adding to the list. Your comments made me think of a few more.

-Avoid or break costly addictions, include food, drink, tobacco. I consider buying bottled water one of the newest addictions that contributes greatly to waste.

-Purchase foods with less packaging. Recycle or reuse as much packaging as possible. I'll carefully take apart a box tea came in, cover it with brown paper from packing material or use hand-made paper (I make from waste paper, catalogs, etc.) and put them back together and use it as a gift box.

-We dry our clothing indoors in the basement. We dried them outdoors for many years until we put 6 lines in the basement for winter use. It didn't take long to realize our clothing was lasting longer because they weren't being beat-to-death by the wind and no more sun fading colors. The sun also degrades fabrics quickly. Now we use the inside lines 99% of the time.

-We purchased our currant home when it was new and designed the landscaping. We incorporated xeriscape landscaping (very little grass), we have 1,000 gallon capacity water storage in our rain barrels, and the plants we do have, mostly native, many are also edible.

-Switched from incandescent bulbs to CFLs and over the last few years to LEDs.

[rosarugosa]

This ties in somewhat with another thread on clothing, but I think buying classic, high quality clothing that lasts a long time turns out to be mindful consumption. I have a great pair of short black boots (Ecco) that I like so much and have held up so well that I'm going to resole rather than replace them, and I was just sewing a button a one of my Talbot's work blazers the other night which is at least 6 - 8 years old, and I'll probably be able to keep wearing it through retirement.
Lessisbest: You are so right about the addictions. When we quit smoking three years ago, we were spending over $400 a month on something that was doing nothing good for us whatsoever, and the prices have only continued to rise since then. So many better ways to use that money!

[Lainey]

Was reminded of this thread when I did a volunteer stint at the local Food Bank distribution center yesterday. Was with a group who were sorting the donated food items. We were told that we had to check all of the "best by" or "sell by" dates and then could go backwards one year from today to keep it. Meaning we could keep everything donated that was dated May 2014 and forward. Even with that, we filled up a giant red metal trash can with the items that were still packaged or canned but were too old, along with dented items where the seal was damaged.
It was sad to see food that was edible not long ago having to be destroyed. So my plea is for everyone to clean out their pantry regularly and use or donate what you cannot use.

Related to that is what a friend told me yesterday. She works as an aide in a school grades 1-6, and is shocked by how many students discard their uneaten lunch items every day. Whole fruit, uneaten sandwiches, etc., all in the trash. Somehow our children are not learning the value of mindfulness in eating - that someone worked to get money to purchase this food, prepared the food and packed it for their lunch, and all of that effort is disrespected or ignored. Although I was surprised when she said the school policy is that students cannot trade or eat any else's lunch because of students with food allergies. I know that's a real issue, but that's a new rule I hadn't heard of.

[pinkytoe]

You should see the waste at work with frequent catered events. Trash cans overflowing with food and containers afterwards. A lot of the disposable containers can be recycled - aluminum and plastic trays - so I end up fishing them out of the trash, rinsing and putting in the recycle containers after everyone leaves as it drives me nuts to see the waste.

[ApatheticNoMore]

The waste is pretty hopeless when you see tons of waste even at green events.


This ties in somewhat with another thread on clothing, but I think buying classic, high quality clothing that lasts a long time turns out to be mindful consumption.

Personally I think it's a myth. No fabric really lasts forever and furthermore everything is made in China or some other impoverished country anyway even more fancy brands usually. It's one of those things that may have been more true several decades ago but not so much now when EVERYTHING is pretty shoddily made regardless of cost. But if one likes the styling of a higher end brand, there's nothing wrong with it at all, nothing wrong with people wearing what they think looks nice on them if they can afford it new or buy it used, nothing wrong at all. But justifying it by saying higher end brand is better made, I haven't seen it to be true - for clothing that is, sometimes for other things.

[kib]

Have some free space in the next few days so I'm doing something weird in an effort to renew my mindfulness - I'm listing everything I use or buy or do. Everything - fork, bra, dish towel, comfortable chair, electricity, making coffee, feeding cats, sleeping, playing sudoku, writing forum posts. If it's on the list I can use it / do it, otherwise I have to add it on or find a work-around. Right now this is just basically acknowledging the things I'm doing, or eating, or owning, or buying (and acknowledging how much there is, sort of like keeping a food diary.) What I hope to do with the list is take a closer look at places where I'm duplicating or I'm meeting needs and wants in a way that could be better, and then, ideally, identify some changes and simplifications to make. Yep, craziness born of a week off, but I'm amusing myself. It's really very interesting to see that if I want to, after 2 days and about 200 individual items, I can get by with the items already on the list rather than the 90% of other stuff surrounding me.

[jody]

Rereading this thread reminded me again why I love this forum!

Its nice to have like-minded people to interact with. Not long ago, I posted that I had some left-overs and ask for ideas on how to use them. I got great feed-back here. At the same time, I posted the same request on another board and at least 75% of the answers were "throw them away, not enough there to worry about".
One poster went so far as to try to reassure me that I didn't need to feel guilty or bad about throwing them out.

Anyway, I always learn things here that help and motivate me, so I wanted to post this here as a thank you to all but also to bump this thread back to the top for anyone that might have missed it the first time around.

[Ultralight]

Jody:

I used to turn my nose up to leftovers. Then someone suggested I use a leftover dollop of Indian food in an omelette. And I was like: "Whoa! So good!"
That really expanded my consciousness about leftovers, or as I now affectionately refer to them -- 'Tovers!"

More to the larger point. Having like-minded people to interact with is nourishing in a profound way. I am a simple living/minimalist person in Columbus, OH. And while I joined a local group of aspiring minimalists about a year and a half ago the group fizzled out. Why? Because simplifying and minimizing can be tough and time consuming at first (before it becomes liberating and amazing). I also took a North West Earth Institute discussion course on voluntary simplicity with 8 other people. No one stuck with it. :/

But this seems like a good group with many people truly aspiring for simpler living. I am sure glad I stumbled upon it!

[Tussiemussies]

I only buy clothing basically when it is on sale at the seasons end or on the sale pages. We have well water but I still try and turn off the faucets when using the sink. I still have my twenty four y.o. Car. It has been going a little rough lately but DH found the battery was put in backward and the cables were linked to the wrong hook up. So it's great to have someone who can fix and do things, it saves us quite a lot of money. DH is doing our bathroom over, he had someone gut it and got one of those Home Depot bagsters which saves a lot of money compared to a dumpster. Now he is doing all of the rest of the work.

I never buy drinks for our home, we make our own ice tea, lemonade and various other thirst-quenchers. We have the well water but we use a triple filter anyway. I always bring a snack and drink on our outings.

We never use paper plates, but still have not made any homemade napkins yet.

These are just some of the things I can think of...PS. My sweet husband is usually the one who gets my drink and snack ready we go out, he is so very sweet!

[Chicken lady]

Tussiemussies,
i haven't made napkins, but my mil loves gifts. If you don't ask for stuff she makes things up, so I tend to save all my non- critical items for her gift list. Last year I found a place where she could buy me a pack of restaurant supply cotton napkins. They are terrific! Wash and wear really well.

Ultraliteangler, I tried to do that course, but I had to drive 45 minutes, and the facilitator spent a lot of time on " defining what simplicity means to us" after which I basically got to answer everyone else's needs (here are the local thrift stores, this is where you can recycle, this is how to compost...)

[Gardenarian]

Kib - how did the list experiment go? That sounds so much like something I would do :)

[Tussiemussies]

Hi Chickenlady, that is so nice that your mil makes you things that you ask for so you wind up getting things to fit into your SL lifestyle. You are very lucky to have someone in your family who wants to make you things!

[Chicken lady]

Oh no, she didn't make them, she bought them. She likes to buy us things. And it is nice that she is willing to buy me pretty much anything I want. It's just hard to want enough things because if I run out of ideas, she buys other stuff. Then she comes to my house to visit it and gets hurt if it's not around.

But she likes to buy, not shop, so if you send her a link to a product, you get exactly that.

[pony mom]

I hate waste as well, whether it's food, water, paper products, anything. My lunch is homemade every day; my "sandwich" is turkey and cheese wrapped in romaine. I feel a bit guilty and wasteful because plastic wrap is the easiest way to keep it together enough to easily eat. I've been trying to come up with some sort of washable vinyl square that I can velcro closed and reuse.

Always have a small folding shopping bag in my purse and use cloth bags in the supermarket. At least 95% of my clothes are from thrift stores; shoes are better quality and will be replaced with same when they wear out. No more shampoo bottles since I now use shampoo bars wrapped in paper. When it's warm I'll turn off the shower while I'm soaping up. Rarely use a hair dryer anymore and turn on a nightlight in the bathroom (no windows) instead of the 6-bulbed over-the-sink lights.

My car isn't economical (2003 Subaru Forester with so-so mileage) but with 212k miles, I plan on keeping it for a few more years. I commute 22 miles each way to work. My Act fluoride rinse comes in a bottle that can't be rinsed out before recycling so I'm not sure if I should anyway (usually it goes in trash). My Chobani yogurt comes in plastic containers (which I do recycle but it seems wasteful).

I need to be more mindful throughout the day and see what else I can change.