Frugal and Sustainable Shopping Tips
For most individuals living in first world countries it is normal to
get food from supermarkets and clothing from department stores. These
methods, while nice and convenient, can also burn holes in our pocket
books and cater to unsustainable methods of production/consumption.
Supermarket prices are often slightly higher than the products
themselves are worth due to the shipping and packaging costs. Why pay
for these unless you really want that cool looking oatmeal or cereal
box?
Do not feel obligated to buy buy buy, even though today's economically
driven cultures tell you it's the right then to do. There are ways to
navigate around the shopping game in order to get quality sustainable
goods for cheaper than normal. Lets take a few of the big resources
we all consume on an average basis and identify some methods of
consumption that are healthier and will make us more self-sufficient.
I. Food
Obviously food and water are the most important resources we consume
regularly. It's a scary thought that as little as one hundred years
ago, most individuals knew where the food they were eating came from
and they even knew how to produce it. Today individuals have given up
this ability in favor of allowing someone else to do it for them.
Here are a few ideas for getting back in touch with what foods you
consume:
1. Grow your own food – Don't be afraid to start growing some of your
own foods. This makes you a little less reliant on the supermarkets.
Obviously we don't mean you should produce all the food you consume
yourself, although that's a great ideal. Shop regularly at the
supermarket, but substitute some of your purchases with things you
grow at home. It doesn't matter if you have acres of land or just an
apartment balcony, you can grow some of the foods you eat regularly
for yourself, such as tomatoes, radishes, lettuce or carrots. See our
article on “basket gardening" in issue 3.0 for more information on how
you can start your own garden at home.
Not only does growing your own food give you the security of knowing
where the food comes from and what was done to it during the growing
process, but it also will give you a sense of accomplishment and
brighten your day. Having a green thumb puts us back in touch with
other organisms we co-exist with and as such gives us greater
ecological insight. It is also a cheaper way to get some of the foods
you like.
2. Join a Co-Op - May sound too hippie for some, but then again the
hippies didn't do everything wrong. A co-op is an alternative to
supermarkets. It places you in more control of what kinds of foods
you are receiving and where they are granting you, the paying member,
as a co-owner of the market. Co-ops generally have a wider selection
of good foods from local growers. Buying locally is a key in living a
more free and sustainable life as it supports the economy of your home
and your local friends and family. Local grown items cost less for
shipping as the distances to get the food to the market are shorter.
Co-ops often have a larger selection of these locally grown/made
products, which makes them another resource to consider when shopping
smart.
3. Take up barter and trade with community members – This is another
method you might attempt in order to gain more control over the food
resources in your life. If you are growing some of your own foods,
consider trading some of them with your local neighbors for other
foods they may be growing. You might even be able to barter other
products with them. Barter is a fine way to build community trust and
a community relationship. If you manage to get a system going it will
be cheaper for all those involved and it will keep products
circulating locally.
4. Buy your food in bulk – This is one money saving strategy when
purchasing food. Buying in bulk means you get more for less. You
don't pay for shipping and fancy boxing like you do at regular
supermarkets. Buying in bulk also allows you to create a storage
cache of food, which is helpful if any tragedies should befall your
community and there is a sudden shortage of food. Bulk retailers are
everywhere and vary from more mainstream retailers like Costco, to
small local retailers in your area that very from co-ops to small
privately owned markets.
II. Clothing
Most of us probably have closets full of perfectly good cloths we
never wear anymore, yet we still go out and buy new clothing at higher
prices than the clothing itself cost to make. Let's discuss some
alternative ways to getting and keeping good cloths:
1. Use it up, wear it out – This is a logic too few of us live by
today. Why discard something just because it's no longer “cool, hip,
my thing?" Use it up and wear it out. Wear those jeans and socks
until they have holes. This doesn't mean you have to walk around
feeling like a bum, it simply means all of your items get full use.
Don't give them up after a month of light wear just because you see
another pair of shorts you think are cooler. If your pants rip at the
knees, turn them into shorts. When your socks get ripped to shreds,
turn them into rags. Applying this logic is both adaptive and
resourceful as it causes us to find alternative uses for objects than
they were otherwise intended for. When you use something to its full
extent you save cash as you aren't spending it on new objects when you
don't need them.
2. Thrift Stores - Don't be afraid to check out thrift stores for
clothing. You will probably be surprised at the amount of quality
things you will find in a thrift store for cheaper than normal retail
stores. If you don't find what you want in a thrift shop, then go to
your retailer, but check your local thrift shops first. It's much
nicer buying a good pair of jeans for 4 dollars than it is to buy
relatively the same pair of jeans at a retailer for 15 dollars.
3. Surplus Stores – Visit your local suplus stores as well. You can
often find items there you won't find in a retailer. Prices vary
depending on the surplus store, but they can often be cheaper than
retail.
4. Handed Down Items - Why not pass down good clothing to other
family members if it is still good? If little Johnny outgrows his
jacket, but the jacket is still good, why not give it to another
family member it will fit? This is a two way street, give hand downs
when they are there to be given, take them when they are there to be
taken.
III. Accessories
For things outside of the two major categories we have just discussed,
the field of accessories, electronics, furniture, etc, the few
following suggestions yield universal help:
1. Look in dumpsters – Gasp! Dumpster diving!!! Yep. In a time of
mass wasting, it is the waster who is to be shamed, not the individual
that salvages the waste. Besides, we don't recommend the scavenger
behavior of eating half eaten apple cores, or pizza that was resting
up against the side of the trash bin, we do however recommend checking
dumpsters for perfectly good and salvageable items. Dumpster diving,
it should be noted, can be considered a crime in some areas, so know
what you're doing and do it safely so as to not break any of your
local laws.
Often electronics stores will dump out electronic equipment that is
salvageable. If you are constructing your own computer, look for
gadgets in dumpsters you might be able to use in building your own
computer or in upgrading it.
You can find clothing, paper, linens, books, etc in dumpsters that are
perfectly fine. Check your local college campus at the end of a
semester to find items such as these. When students leave to go home
from the dorms, they often leave materials they find unable to pack
out. These items are often left in hallways and in dumpsters.
2. Buy straight from a manufacture – Avoid packaging and store
shipping costs when you buy items straight from a manufacturer. Doing
so cuts out the middleman. With the advent of the internet, it has
become much easier to buy products from the manufacturer.
3. Buy the longest lasting materials you can find – Remember, being
sustainable and self-sufficiency does not just mean getting more for
less, it means getting more out of less. Sometime you must pay more
to get more. When you purchase goods, purchase quality goods so that
they have a long life and don't break/fail on you. When you buy light
bulbs and batteries, for example, pay a little more to get the longer
lasting brands that are more energy efficient. This not only gives
you more out of less, it also gives you more for less in the long run.
A good ethic for the frugal individual to have is to look towards the
long term.
4. Surplus Store – As mentioned in the clothing section, surplus
stores are an excellent alternative to other retailers, especially for
outdoor gear.
5. Second hand shops – in addition to thrift shops, check out second
hand shops. Second hand shops usually offer quality deals with
furniture and tools. These shops are usually privately owned. Look
into the second hand shop first as some are run by nefarious
individuals who will charge just as much for second hand goods as they
are brand new. But a well run second hand shop or a pawn shop is a
good place to find tools, furniture, musical items and electronic
equipment.
6. Yard sales – Pay attention to yard sales in your neighborhood.
You can often find good things at yard sales and it gives you the
opportunity to strike up a relationship with other members of your
community.
7. Auctions – Look into auctions. Auctions, such as those run by the
police, often allow you to get very expensive items for cheaper, such
as cars and electronics.
IV. Conclusion
These are a few ways you can increase your self-sufficiency, health
and sustainability in your purchasing and consumptive life. Remember
that the healthier ethic of frugality is not to be miserly and cheap,
but it is to be adaptive, creative and resourceful. Efficiency does
not just mean to get more for less, it also means getting more out of
less. It is the later definition that separates the miser from the
strategist in the shopping game we all are obligated to participate in
to function in our societies.
It should be noted that relying on others is not in and of itself bad. No man is an island unto
themselves as they saying goes. Gaining sufficiency from the retailer
or the supermarket does not mean giving them up and it does not mean
giving up various luxuries and conveniences of the modern world, it
simply means gaining more control over these resources in our daily
lives so we do not become absolutely dependent on them. The
strategist finds that should the system as it is fail, they will be ok
because they have the much desired skills of adaptation and
creativity.
In becoming more sustainable and independent, we leave a
better mark on the world for our future generations. We give them a
garden to tend and a positive ethic to live by when we live by our
codes of conduct, and express and adaptive and creative spirit that is
at the heart of our evolution. Understanding frugal shopping
strategies offers us much more than just a consumer/producer logic and
strategy, it offers us a strategy for merging our many goals into one
holistic lived being. - Gestalt
exponentiation ezine: issue [6.0:self-sufficiency]
[self-sufficiency | food]