lowimpacthome.org

For those of you that follow my blog you will remember that I was trying to go all summer without turing on my air conditioner in my car…well I did it!

It ment there were a few close calls when I had to run out into an inpending storm to roll up my windows, and there was the time that I knew it was going to rain but I was dumb and only rolled up the drivers side windows so everything on the passenger side was soaked.  It also ment on those 100 degree days that I broke a sweat just sitting in my car on my 8 minute drive home, but I made it and the benefits were great!

Before when I used the a/c I would only get an average of 25mpgs without the a/c I averaged 32mpgs, in fact my miles per gallon went up so much that one week I even got 34mpgs.  So out of every tank I was able to get an extra 70 miles.  With my daily round trip being 16 miles that meant I was able to get appromimately 4 more trips to work, so instead of filling up once a week I started filling up once everyother week.

Now I know that I changed a couple other driving habits that also helped in the consumption of fuel.  I stopped running yellow lights, well tried to at least.  When I light would turn yellow I wouldn’t floor it to make it through and gently pushed on the break and coasted to a stop.  I also tried not to travel over 40 unless I was on the highway and then I would only go 55.  To me this was the hardest thing to do because I have a lead foot.  Normally on the highway I would be pushing 80 and on the streets 55 weaving in and out of traffic.  But as I watched my gas meter plummet on those days that I was in a hurry and decided to exceed the speed limit, I realized that it wasn’t worth it.  Not only was I setting myself up to get a ticket, I was also wasting precious resources…my money and the nation’s petroleum reserves.

I recently went to get my oil change and after spending $45 for 4 quarts of oil and a filter (OMG!) with oil prices like that we need to change the way we are thinking about our driving habits.  Can you shorten your commute?  Can you share a ride with someone in your office?  Can you bring your lunch to work so you don’t have to go somewhere and eat?  Can you push the accelerator gently and ease up on your lead foot?  All these things make a difference in the amount of gas we use, take a minute to figure out what you can do to help ease the oil crisis.

I was reading through a maganize the other day while I was sitting in the waiting room of my Doctor’s office and I noticed something interesting.  As I flipped through I stopped to look at an Ad Council’s ad about Global Warming, it was simple and to the point, but on the adjacent page there was an ad for the new Lincoln MKS a car that gets 17mps in town.  Now I am not sure who approved that layout but it seems pretty ironic to me that one page says “What are you doing about Global Warming?” and the very next page has a car that has a much larger carbon footprint because of it’s lack of fuel efficiency.

I don’t use ads on my site, some of my blogging friends do and that’s ok, but it’s hard to keep ads that you don’t approve of off the site when you use some of the ad generators.  Hey it would be great if I could make a little money selling ad space, it would help pay for the upkeep of the site and the other fees associated with running a website but I don’t want any “ironic” ads appearing on my site and causing controversy.

I mean if I was the Ad Council I would be furious.  They are trying to get the good green word out and the magazine is pushing a car that goes against most everything environmentalists believe in.

For one thing I don’t think an environmentalist would buy a brand new car that costs over 35k.  Secondly if they were going to spend that kind of money they would at least buy a car that has better fuel efficiency like the Prius or another hybrid car.  Yeah it’s true that the MKS is a V-6 and it has a lot of getupandgo but I hope most environmentalists are hyper-milers and so speed doesn’t matter.

I’m glad that the Ad Council is trying to get the word out and I know that the other advertisers have so many ads that it’s hard to keep irresponsible ads away from the more environmentally savy ones but let’s push magazines to trade their usual “black” ads for the “green” ones and maybe we can get the word out to more people in less time.

I was feeling lazy the other day and since it was Friday and there were no kids around I didn’t want to cook.  So knowing what take out places use Styrofoam and which don’t, I dial my local plastic free Chinese restaurant and ordered dinner.  I pick it up and duh, I ordered soup so it came in a plastic container…no big deal I can use it again.  But then as I went through the bag and the little plastic packets of duck sauce, soy sauce, hot mustard and the sweet and sour sauce started to appear.  There must have been 20 of them, all for 2 people!

Do people actually use that much stuff on their Chinese food?  Do you know how much sodium is packed into one of those packets?  I don’t think they have an expiration date so they are full of preservatives, do you really know what you are putting into your body?  Think of all the little plastic packages that are being thrown out each day because of Chinese take out!

As I thought about all those questions I watched my husband tear into a couple of the hot mustard packets and gobble it down with his spring roll.  I mean if I got 20 packages and let’s just say for easy of math that 100 other people who ordered take out that night received the same amount that’s 2000 plastic packages that are going into the landfill just from one restaurant in one night!

I thought it about that number some more…if you do a google search for “Chinese restaurants, Germantown TN” you get 6 restaurants with Germantown addresses (there are countless more in a 5 mile radius but I’m gonna stick with ones in my neighborhood).  If we use the same math with the average amount of packets in a take out bag as 20 and the average amount of take out customers in one day as 100…heck let’s say 50 to make it more believable…and the number of restaurants in the local area as 6.  That would bring the amount of plastic packets given out to 6000 in just one day!  Now if your like me I put most of them in my refrigerator, so let’s say only half get used and thrown away that day.  That’s 3000 plastic pieces added to the landfill just from Chinese food take out and only from a 3 mile radius!

Think about how much Chinese take out is eaten everyday…OMG!  Think of all that plastic that is needlessly thrown away everyday because we are eating take out.  Not only are there the Chinese plastic packets but there are ketchup packets and dressing packets, mayonnaise and barbecue packages, honey mustard dipping sauce containers, plastic lids from the drinking cups.  Mc Donalds alone serves 47 million customers a day around the world, think of all the plastic lids that are thrown out each day.  That adds up to millions of pounds of plastic that is discarded from our eating out, no wonder our ocean is full of trash!

So remember this…don’t just go through life ignoring the stuff that surronds you, it all has to end up somewhere and plastic doesn’t just decompose overnight.  Do you really need a lid on your cup?  Or what about that plastic straw, can you drink straight from the cup instead?  When ordering take out can you say hold the condiments, I have my own?  Most Chinese food condiments come in glass jars it would be so much better if you bought it in a larger size and were able to recycle the jar later then needlessly throwing away plastic packet after plastic packet.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again…Don’t just do, think first then do.

There is a new commercial out from Discover Card that makes me very angry.  I looked for it on You Tube and couldn’t find it but let me give you the jist.

It says that it’s not a big deal to spend, spend, spend.  I believe what they say is…We are a country of consumers and that’s not a problem.  The problem is that there is just so much stuff to buy.  But maybe if credit card companies were different it wouldn’t make a difference how much stuff we bought.

Of course they are pushing their new website and their “Bright Idea” campaign, but in my opinion they are pushing people to spend more money and not think about the consequences until after they “put it on the card”.  They are saying that since their company is going to “help” you pay down your balance smarter, that it shouldn’t matter what you spend since you will be able to pay it off how you want.

I don’t have any credit cards, anymore.  I am still paying off a small balance but at the rate I am paying it, it’s gonna take me more then a year and it’s gonna cost me $150 in interest charges.  I agree it’s easy to pay with plastic.  Even now with my debit card I sometimes forget to think about the amount of the purchase that I am making but now it comes out of my checking account immediately so there is no chance of me not being able to pay it off in a month.

I know it’s hard not to want the newest and greatest thing but just like all other purchases, it affects the world around you every time you buy something.  It had to come from some plant that is producing waste and possibly toxic waste.  It had to be shipped to the store where you bought it and that truck, plane or train was pumping out air pollution and burning foreign oil.  The item that you replaced or when the item has been used up, has to be thrown out and take up room in a landfill.  If it is recycable, it will probably be shipped halfway round the world to a developing country where there are not the same safeguards and they will more then likely be exposed to chemicals that will someday kill them or at least make them very ill.

We need to pay attention to all the purchases that we make.  It’s more then the money that it costs.  It’s about the after effects.  Always ask the question…what does this really cost?  And always remember…there is more to life then stuff.

In one weekend Apple sold 1 million iPhone 3G’s.  The first iPhone, introduced only 1 year ago sold approximately 5 million.  Sources say they could sell upwards of 10 million of the newest 3G phones, since they opened up their overseas market.

So my question to you is…where are all the broken, discarded or replaced cell phones going?  Apple doesn’t offer a take back program or at least I can’t find mention of one.  Are the people that spent $500 a year ago to buy the original, just tossing that one in the trash or are they being responsible and taking the old one to a recycler?

All electronics have trace amounts of toxic chemicals like lead or phthalates, a chemical known to have hormone disrupting qualities, even the energy efficient CFL lightbulb contains trace amounts of mercury. The problem is not the chemicals…the issue is that most consumers don’t know that they are there and what to do with the electronics once they have lived their usefull life.

Now let me say this, I think that the buying of cell phones is out of hand.  In my opinion there is no reason to spend $500 on a cell phone and less then a year later need to buy another one.  Now I know there are more bells and whistles on the newer phone, but why can’t the old phone just be upgraded?  This is not the consumer’s fault, it’s the developer’s fault.  We as consumers are pulled in by the new shiny things.  The fact that you can pin point your location on your phone is a pretty nifty or serf the web with lightening fast speed while you are sitting on the train waiting for your stop.  I am not suggesting that electronics are not useful and needed, I am suggesting that we need to make sure consumers are better informed of what’s inside those electronics and what happens to them when you just throw them away.

I talk about being better informed consumers a lot in this blog, but if we are not informed producers will walk all over us and we will buy just for the sake of buying.

If we were to just throw away all of our electronics, we would slowly poison the surrounding ground and water.  We would eventually have so much heavy metals in the soil that we would be unable to plant and grow crops.  Our children would not be able to play outside because of the risk of lead poisoning.  Our children are already getting fat, if they were unable to go outside and get some exercise think of what would happen.

It’s not going to happen overnight, plastics take years to decompose but the pressure of the landfill will eventually put breaks in the plastic or glass and once the rain gets in the metals will leach out.  We need to stop the throwing away of electronics not for our children but their children and generations to come.

Write to your electronics producer, encourage them to start a take back program or better yet an upgrade program that takes those old electronics and makes them new again!

While you are waiting for that to happen, don’t forget to recycle.  Most municipalities have a electronic recycling program, if not go to E-Cycling Central search for your state and get the name of a local recycler. Just don’t throw things away, you never know what they might do to the earth.

Earth Day is next week and I want to know what you are doing to celebrate.

I will be celebrating a day early at the Shelby Farms Earth Day Celebration. My other website will have it’s debut in the Memphis community, I have a sign and everything! I feel so official…

So what are you doing? Is your town putting out the green carpet? Or are you going to make a statement and not go to the wasteful celebrations? I know I will be watching out for waste and excessive plastic usage. I will report my findings on Monday morning.

So whats Earth Day mean to you? Let me know at abigail@greenermemphis.com.

We all know that we didn’t do as well as we had hoped durring our month of less consumption, but I wanted to do an update to let you know how things will proceed in the next several months.  Just as a review here are the “Rules”.

1.  We are still working on the budget, when you just pay bills as they come in, you don’t remember what they are from month to month.  So in April we should have a pretty good handle on what bills we have and when they are due. 

2. We have been talking more about purchases before making them, but still not enough.

3. When it comes to not eating out…we failed miserably.  From now on we will budget $100 for eating out a month, that gives us a free night about once a week.

4. No buying cigarettes, I am pretty sure that he struggled with this but I do have to say that I haven’t noticed the stinky smoke smell as much as I used too.

5. Not buying new clothes and shoes was the toughest thing I have ever done.  You can read more about it here…I did return all the items that I bought and I never bought any new shoes.  Starting next month we will be budgeting $100 a month for new clothes.

6. I went the whole month without getting anything dry cleaned.  I only have a few items that must be dry cleaned and cannot be washed, so from now on I will only do dry cleaning once a month and we will budget $50 for it.  That’s probably way to much, but as it gets warmer my husband will need to get his sportcoats cleaned more often.  So I would rather go high then not budget enough.

7. Not having someone do the deep cleaning in my house, made for a very dirty bathroom.  I know some of you think I am lazy and that I should be able to find the time to clean, but cleaning takes time away from my family and I am not willing to sacrifice that time.  But to make my husband happy and not to break the bank I will go to a once a month cleaning instead of twice a month.  That will mean a $75 budget item for maid service.

8. My feet and hands are looking pretty rough, I can give myself a pedicure but I am not corordinated enough to do a manicure, luckily it’s the pedi that cost the most money.  So another budget item of $30 for manicures each month.

9.  Now that the swelling in my knee has gone down I can start riding my bike more, especially now that the weather is turning beautiful.  In April I promise to ride my bike at least 2 times a week to work.

10. Getting hair cuts done at the cheap place instead of the $60 salon.  This one was easy, I have found a great lady at the cheap place who does great work, so not a problem at all to switch.  This means that the budget for haircuts will only be $25 instead of $90.

Just a guess but I figure that we will be saving close to $400 a month, once we get the budget down and finalized.  That will help us pay down some bills that piled up when I was out of work for 2 months.  We finally have caught up on all utility bills and they are current, being out of work sucks especially when you still have bills to pay.  We are paid up on my medical bills from my weeks hospital stay (that’s how I lost my job), so I would say that things are good.

Cutting back on your spending is good for your pocketbook and the environment…how far can you cut back?

Things were going along pretty well and then the opportunity to go shopping came along and all bets were off!  You see the weather has suddenly change to warm and beautiful and my youngest kids didn’t have any spring/summer clothes, so I had to go shopping.  Well that was the biggest mistake that I could have made, cause things got out of control.  I was sensible and only bought a few outfits, but I made the mistake of venturing into the women’s department and that’s were the trouble started.  I couldn’t help myself. 

Hello my name is Abigail and I am a shopping addict.

I bought 5 tops and 1 pair pf pants, and now I racked with guilt.  I haven’t worn any of the items so I will be returning them, but it’s just the fact that I couldn’t restrain myself that makes me angry. 

I will have to admit that the rule about not eating out has been broken several times, but it seems the harder I try to cook at home the more things gets in the way.  Normally we eat out about once a week, but it seems that in the past 2 weeks we have eaten out 3 or 4 times.  It’s been a combination of several things, like practice schedules and gigs.  My husband has been performing more this month (YEAH!)  then in past months, so it’s making more difficult to find the time to cook.  Like last night, we had to be at Church, for Easter practice, at 6:30.  It takes 20 minutes to get there and I don’t get home until 5:15.  When I cook dinner it’s normally ready about 6ish, so there was no way that I could throw something together that quickly. 

Now when we do go out, we go to the restraunts that have “Kids Night”.  That normally means that kids eat free or for a reduced price.  Last night for example we only spent $12.00 on dinner, so at least we are spending our money wisely.

So for the 10 rules, we have only broken 2.  That means we still have a “B”, so that’s still passing. 

I have to say that the other rules have been just as hard not to break.  I have a large bag of clothes in my closet waiting to be ironed.  I don’t think that I have enough clothes to make it through the end of the month, so some of those clothes will have to be ironed.  Maybe that’s what I will spend my day off doing…oh yea, I’m sooo excited.

All I can say is….Hooray for you!  All you people that have gone compact and have been able to stick with it.  I’ll keep trying to follow the rules, but it’s much harder to stay within the rules once you have gone to the darkside!

I was paid on Friday and I still have more than half of my check left…that makes me happy!  Due to my overspending (yes I admit it) I would be down to just enough money to get me to Friday when my next check comes out.  Now don’t get me wrong I don’t buy extravagent things, but I do buy things that we really don’t need (I see that now).  Plus I am pretty sure I shop because it’s a stress reliever.  I picked up that habit when I was married to my first husband. 

Now that I am “compact”, I tried not to go anywhere near Target or the Mall, but then my will caved in and I went.  But to my suprize just buying items that I needed was enough to satisfy my need to shop.  Just yesterday I went to Target on my lunch hour, to pick up some lightbulbs.  I don’t know if it was my willingness to stick to the rules or the amount of plastic packaging that turned me off, but all I left with was the lightbulbs.  The guy at the counter didn’t even bat an eye when I told him that I didn’t need a bag, so it was a good trip to the store.

I did sucumb the other day, but I did buy used clothing.  Unfortunitly one of the shirts doesn’t fit and is a nightmare to iron, so I will be Freecycling to the next lucky girl. 

I mean how much stuff do we really need?  My husband has enough clothes to make it through the week, six shirts and 5 pairs of pants.  He is perfectly content to wear the same clothes every week, why can’t I be that ok with my wardrobe?  I have 5 pairs of pants, 3 of which are black, so what can’t I be satisified?  What is it about my obsession with having more stuff? 

I think it all goes back to elementary/high school where I was made to wear a uniform everyday.  Now granted I think that uniforms are great.  They cause the students to be more focused on their work and not their clothes but unlike my son’s uniform, he gets to choose what color shirt and pants to wear everyday, I had to wear the same plaid jumper and white shirt everyday for 12 years. So I think now I am obsessed with not wearing a “uniform”.  Though now that I think about it…I wear pants, a blouse and dress shoes everyday, isn’t that a uniform? (It’s amazing what analogies you can make when you really think about things.)

I also believe that it’s due to today’s society and the fashion industry.  Why do we need to change out our closets every season?  In the mild climate that I live in, I can get away with wearing short sleeves all winter long.  I wear flip-flops all winter long too.  (I went outside yesterday without any shoes on at all! GASP!)  Maybe that’s my problem…I see the same 10 shirts everyday and need a change everyonce in a while…what do you think?

I’m not saying that it is not necessary to have fall/winter clothes and spring/summer clothes, what I am saying is I don’t think that we need to empty out our closets after Fashion Week and run out to buy the latest fashions. 

We need to be ok with what we have and stop coveting what we don’t have.

Now I want to set the record straight…I am not suggesting that we stop buying things completely.  I believe that we need to pay attention to what and why we are buying it.  (Gosh, that seems to be my mantra)  Paying attention to your feelings when you buy something, how long does that feeling last?  I admit that I love a good bargin and most of my clothes were on sale, but as my husband likes to say “you could go broke shopping at sales”.  Is the feeling that you get fleeting?  Does it come and go with each trip you make to the store?  Don’t worry I know that feeling and it’s almost as good as…well you know! So if you are shopping only to feel good, isn’t that like doing drugs?  Just one more trip to K-Mart man…I’ll stop after that!

I admit going cold turkey, just to stop shopping was rough.  As you read I couldn’t do it, I have to get my “fix”.  My husband is having a hard time too. Both of us have habits that we are not proud of, that need to stop, but I guess baby-steps are better then no steps at all.

Anyway…do you do things because of the way that you feel after you have done them?  Do you really need that extra sweater or are you buying it to fill a void?  I know that’s delving into the psychological realm that I’m not qualified to talk about, but if that’s why you do it then it’s really an adiction and something that needs to be looked at.

Next time you are tempted to buy that dress for the next special occasion (that may never come) stop to think.  Is it really about the dress or about the time that you need with your husband.  What about those 12th pair of shoes, do you really need them or are they a substitute for something else that’s missing.  If we all thought that critically about each and everyone of our purchases, think of the differences that would be made in the world. 

Did you know that the average “hour long” tv show only lasts 40 to 45 minutes?  And guess what fills those other 15 to 20 minutes? Commercials of course!  Now don’t be suprised if you didn’t know…I always knew that there were several minutes of commercials durring an hour show but who knew that there were close to 20 minutes of them.  I didn’t realize it until I started watching all my normal programming online.  But even if you are watching tv online you still have to watch 4 or more minutes of advertising.  The worst part about commercials online is that they are usually the same commercial shown 4 different times, so by the time the show is over the commercial is engrained in your brain and now you really have to go out and get whatever it is.  There is no escaping advertising, there are even ads before movies.  And of course there are placed ads in all tv shows and movies.  Ever wonder why the street that the characters are on just so happens to have a McDonalds on it?  More ways to spend advertising dollars.

Some commercials just seem to last forever.  Take the Energizer Bunny commercial, it’s been around since the late 80’s.  Do you remember the commercial?

I bet even if you don’t eat at McDonalds, you know it’s new jingle.  I know my kids know it.  I refuse to shop at Walmart but whenever I see a yellow smiley face, my brain automatically knows what the advertiser is selling…low prices, right?I even have the grocery store self service kiosk’s parting comments memorized, because it’s catchy and repeated everytime I use it.  What kinds of jingles and the like are floating through your head?  Do they work?  Are you more apt to shop or buy something because of the commercials that you see?  I try very hard not to fall into that trap…how about you?