On living like you mean it
Mon Oct 6, 20:20 | OnI’m in an interesting position. I’m just establishing myself as a young professional – moving out, getting a financial planner, living on my own, finding non-expensive ways to spend my time.
Reading articles about the recession (and future depression in all likelihood) in the United States and knowing that Canada is headed towards its own recession makes me more than a little concerned for my future.
A number of reports I’ve read portray not spending money as a horrendous evil thing. Women are talking about how tight prices are while – gasp – using coupons and purchasing from the sale rack. They’re still shopping for new clothes, but they’re making such significant sacrifices by doing common sense things.
The time has come to stop attempting to live like a celebrity, to stop purchasing highly-advertised products in magazines, to throw away the last Starbucks cup and realize that these things are treats and not life requirements.
I admit, I need to make some shifts too. I need to conclude that I don’t need my cable or landline, I need to get a plan with my cell phone, I need to stop eating lunch from the food court, I need to pick and choose what will really be important to my entertainment in the upcoming years.
A lot of things will change for me in the upcoming months, as I completely move out and start strictly living on my budget. However, things will change for everyone else too, and we all need to fix how we live our lives.
Live like you live in the country. Live like people lived a hundred and ten years ago. Live like you have little, but give much.
Grow a garden if you have a yard, go to farmers’ markets if you live in an apartment. Stop eating as much – we could all stand to lose some weight. Bring leftovers for lunch, cook in bulk and freeze, learn how to preserve. Join a co-op, make friends with a farmer and buy a half a cow to freeze every year. Cook your own food.
Learn to sew, shop for gems in thrift stores. Almost all of my clothing is from a thrift store, and I blend in perfectly well with Nygard-sponsored news reporters. Develop a sense of style, not a hole in your wallet.
Exercise outside of a gym, or go to the YMCA. Take up jogging, buy a cheap used treadmill or elliptical on eBay, find your community pool and sign up for a class.
Start a blog, go to the library, learn to properly use your computer and find free information. Stop thinking you have to go to every concert or movie in town. Stop watching television and pick up a video game or book. Take up a productive hobby, start an Etsy store.
Attend free seminars at the Manitoba Business Services Centre, join a volunteer organization, look for community or online classes to take. Learn from online university courses. Pay attention in school, take pride in your work, remember that you are your own most valuable asset. Better yourself. Donate to charities you’ve thoroughly researched.
Buy everything you can secondhand. Use Craigslist, Kijiji, UsedWinnipeg, Freecycle, or any of the thousands of other locations. Go dumpster-diving for objects bugs can’t nest in – I have a new mirror and a decorative birdcage thanks to my mom.
Stop drinking booze and premade coffee. If you must, make your own – and that goes for both. Give up smoking, give up drugs, live a life full of information and self-betterment than self-delusion and degradation.
Wake up an hour earlier. Stop watching prime time. Watch the news, read online news sources, stay informed about your community and your global village.
Clean your homes. Have garage sales. Donate things you haven’t touched in a year to people who will use it. Make your own cleaning products – vinegar and baking soda will replace almost every product in your home.
Stop buying objects made for planned obsolescence. Take care of what you have. Buy a used car and pay cash up front. Spend $20 more on an item if it will last another three years. Don’t use credit cards at all. If you must have a credit card, get a limit of no more than what you can reasonably pay off in two paychecks.
Take careful inventory of the friends you keep. If you require substance abuse to have a good time with them, odds are they aren’t very good friends. Talk over Skype, start up literary nights, play board games, make up games yourself. Care about other people as you care about yourself. Respect people you don’t know. Find a hero and try to be greater than them.
Stop driving your car everywhere. Plan your trips. Use public transportation. Ride your bicycle. Walk unless it’s too cold. Get a personal shopping cart. Don’t buy trucks or SUVs unless you absolutely need them.
Recognize that treats are treats. Nothing is owed to you that isn’t owed to any other human being. Recognize that holding the door open for someone should be done without even thinking. Stop spending $50 on manicures and pedicures every month and spend $10 on a kit that will last a year. Get over yourself.
Stop buying houses you can’t afford. Don’t have a lawn unless you plan on having a garden. Condense and learn how to properly organize goods.
Push toward digital media free of DRM. Recycle. Repackage. Refuse wasteful objects. Hate styrofoam and plastic bags.
The shift would be dramatic. It would also cause a lot of economic uncertainty – service, retail, and restaurant industries would take a major hit, and unskilled labour and student labour would be greatly unsettled for a while. These are all problems that have to be greatly considered before such a significant shift could occur, as well as many more.
The greatness we could achieve by being thrifty, by being socially conscious, by putting down the metaphorical bottles and picking up the metaphorical books would help to change the world.
But the sad thing is that the people who are intelligent enough to pay attention and to properly handle their finances, the people who would actually listen to the above… well, they are the only ones being disturbed or even acknowledging the crisis going on.
The people who could really stand to change will never try to.