Calculating carbon: a frugal household is a green household

Shopping Golightly at The Thrifty Chicks encourages us to count carbon, just as we count calories. I wish I could take a literal approach to her idea. In particular, I wish there was a really good carbon footprint calculator out there that would let us track our monthly or yearly progress.  Sure, carbon footprint calculators are easily found on the internet, but most of them are too simplistic to give an accurate, complete picture.  A good many of them are only accessible to United States citizens, but even those that are applicable to Canadians are limited to calculating factors like transportation, gas, electricity and so on.  I have yet to find one that takes a variety of lifestyle choices into consideration.  Tracking progress and seeing results is such an important component to success; whether we’re talking about dieting, saving money, or putting extra hours in at work, we need to know that what we are doing is making a difference. It helps us to stay motivated.

I’m starting to wonder about what kind of inadvertent (positive) effect my frugal choices have had on the environment.  For example, I thrift instead of buying retail - in fact, during the last 6 months, I’ve only purchased three items of clothing from retail stores - the rest of my purchases have been made at thrift stores. I eat vegetarian about 80% of the time.  I usually drink coffee at home instead of buying out. I use the Garden Fresh Box program and frequently shop directly from market vendors or farms, which means that the bulk of my produce is local, and I rarely require plastic bags.  After learning a few tricks from my readers, I have reduced my electricity consumption and now air dry most of my laundry and dishes, avoiding the drying cycle in the dishwasher altogether.   After my old clunker of a car kicked the bucket, I bought a new, more efficient vehicle.  These are more obvious choices that help to reduce environmental impact - but what about waste reduction in the kitchen? My efforts to create a DIY-kitchen, with homemade foods of all kinds - including snacks, cereals, sauces, and junk food - means that I am less prone to buy ready-made food products that come a box, can, or plastic wrapping. In fact, I used to rely on a lot of pre-packaged, often individually-wrapped, wasteful products, which I now make from scratch.  What kind of impact is this having? Although it might be small, I wouldn’t doubt that the accumulation of this kind of living has got to make some kind of an impact over time.

Included in the carbon footprint calculator should be a question related to how many pets you have and what type.  I recently read in The Star that feeding a medium sized dog for one year has twice the environmental impact of driving a luxury SUV for 10,000 kilometres.  I must say that I question the research behind this finding - according to the article, the researchers “based their calculations on the amount of acreage needed to sustain the dog’s diet of 164 kilograms of meat and 95 kilograms of cereals in a year.”  But most dog food, if I’m not mistaken, does not use “meat”, it uses animal by-products. By-products include the leftover feet, necks, intestines and other “nasty bits” that are not considered usable meat.  So although it obviously takes energy to grind and process the by-products, we should not count the total amount of energy required to raise livestock.  The livestock would be raised for other purposes anyway - if we didn’t use the by-products for dog food, it would probably be thrown away.  This, I’m guessing, significantly reduces our pets’ carbon pawprints, so don’t feel too guilty about having your pet just yet.  Nevertheless, it is still another mouth to feed, and if we want to be realistic, we would want to include our pets as part of our households. So far I’ve yet to see a calculator that takes a dog or cat into account.

Which brings me to a final rant, ahem, point.  Pets are worth having. Children are worth having. I hate it when we get into these debates about whether or not we should just kill each other or off ourselves in order to save the planet. The point, I think, is that we need to rethink our values.  My frugal philosophy is to reduce waste and focus my financial resources on lifestyle choices that are consistent with my values.  Likewise, animals and families are worth fighting for - we don’t want or need to eliminate them altogether; quite the contrary.  The whole point of environmental sustainability is to keep on living, and living joyfully.  We need to sacrifice the things that matter less in order to keep the things that matter.

A frugal household, it seems, is a greener, less wasteful household.  I’d like to find a way to track just how much less wasteful it is.

Fields of gold

Nothing, I believe, captures the essence of life’s beauty, wisdom and enchantment, quite like nature. When I was a little girl, I spent quite a bit of time on my nana’s farm, traipsing through the woods, building forts and rafts and playing in the gully with my sister and my cousin.  In the fall, my favourite time to explore, I loved the hearing the crunch of the harvested soybean fields under my feet, climbing on top of hay bails, and admiring the colours of the surrounding trees. Spending time in the country at an early age meant that as an adult, I’ve been able to respect and appreciate the secrets that can be found in a fall day, a field or forest. It’s a great gift.

This weekend we were blessed with some of the early-fall weather one hopes for on labour day weekend.  Warm sun, low humidity.  Gentle breezes. Evenings cool enough to demand a sweater and a pair of jeans, days warm enough to do, well, just about anything you feel like.

My nana’s farm has just been sold, and this weekend I went out one last time to explore. I was accompanied by both my parents. We spent our time collecting wild elderberries for a pie, and my mom helped me pull together a nice collection of wild flowers, which I will experiment with, by drying.

We collected enough elderberries for at least 2 pies, which we will make for Thanksgiving. To preserve them, we picked off all the berries from the stems, placed them in an air-tight plastic bag along with a paper towel to absorb any moisture, and froze them.

This weekend we were also blessed with the opportunity to see some wildlife.  While we were eating dinner one evening, we looked out the window and saw a beautiful hawk, sitting at the feeder.  He wasn’t feasting on bird seed, but was eyeing a much more satisfying treat - the plump, naughty chipmunks who like to gorge themselves on, well, everything in the feeder.  

Earlier that day, as my Mom and I sat outside, reading magazines in the sun, a hummingbird buzzed between us, circling around my Mom’s head. I’d never seen a hummingbird that close-up before, and hearing its little wings whirr like a piece of machinery was a true treat.

At the farm, I also discovered a black and yellow garden spider, an orbweaver apparently common to this part of Ontario and frequently found around this time of year. It loves goldenrod, and a big patch of goldenrod is exactly where I found it.  Normally, I am deathly afraid of spiders, but somehow this majestic insect captured my attention in an awe-inspiring, rather than panic-inducing, way. Its colours, interesting web, and unique shape and size, are actually quite beautiful and fascinating.

What many of us are seeking in our lives can really be found quite easily, quite simply.  It’s easy to always want something more - a luxury vacation, new clothes, more stuff. But truly, we make life more difficult than it really needs to be. A lot of peace and fulfillment can be found in a field of goldenrod, an elderberry bush, and even, if our hearts are open enough, a spider web.

The basic necessities

Something about Gail Vaz-Oxlade’s blog post yesterday, Our Love Affair with Stuff, prompted me to share something that’s been on my mind for a while now.

I’ve been volunteering at a local AIDS Service Organization (ASO), interviewing clients (recipients of care) and writing their stories. All of the clients, who are PLHAs (people living with HIV/AIDS) have contracted the disease in different ways, shattering the myths that unfortunately still proliferate about how the virus is transmitted.  One of the clients I met had been raped. One was infected by her abusive, cheating husband. Others had been chronically homeless and addicted to crack cocaine, which put them in precarious positions. Others suffered terrible tragedies and loss, and temporarily lost the will to protect themselves.  

But the client who had the biggest impact on me goes by the name Alex*. Alex has suffered through a very traumatic upbringing, and he was diagnosed with HIV when he was just 17 years old.  Although he is only 31 - just a few years older than I - he looks about 10 or 15 years his senior.  He was homeless for years and addicted to drugs. But thanks to the ASO, his life has changed dramatically - primarily because he now has a roof over his head.  The Executive Director helped him find subsidized housing, which is something that has impacted every area of his life. The ASO has also provided him with some clothing, food, and counseling, and helped him to learn how to make his doctor’s appointments. (Meeting appointments is not something that comes naturally to someone who has lived on the street for many years.)  With the assistance of the ASO, Alex has been drug-free for over 1 year.  When I asked Alex if he is happy, he looked at me as though the answer was obvious:

“Well I have a roof over my head and food in my belly, so hell yeah, I’m happy!”

What a difference the basic necessities in life can make.

*name has been changed.

Reflections on abundance

After a wonderful trip to Newfoundland, I returned to my apartment with a heavy heart. Unsurprisingly, I am profoundly aware that someone is missing, and I would be lying if I pretended that I am not full of sadness over this loss.  I’ve also realized, though, that a lot of people are going through challenges right now.  The recession has meant that people who have worked long and hard, who have made sensible financial decisions and have attempted to mitigate risk well, are still in troubling circumstances.  And tough economic times strain our relationships, too.  I know I’m not the only one who is facing a difficult time and who is rethinking the future, or questioning the past. The best we can do is to accept that life is not straight-forward; there is no clear cut path to so-called success.  We can do our best to work hard and make good decisions, but rarely does the future appear just as we’ve planned. This is, it seems, both a hard lesson to learn and a fact of life.

I try to stay focused on the present as best I can, and recognize the impermanence of this moment. Life is changing - it changes constantly.  Things we take for granted become but memories, and angst we feel disappears into something new.

I am not trying to stop myself from feeling sadness, but rather I am seeking an opportunity to simultaneously discover abundance. Abundance means, to me, appreciating the brilliance and wonder of our surroundings. Smells, sights, textures, tastes.  Kindness, innocence, forgiveness, authenticity. Diversity, opportunity, freedom, surprise. I think the quest to seek abundance in our lives is a good one to have, particularly during difficult financial times. Instead of seeking a new car, TV or wardrobe to make us feel successful, sexy, or happy, we may come to realize that we are quite capable of experiencing life’s riches without spending a dime.

My trip to Newfoundland was a perfect exploration of all these things. Newfoundland is a place where people epitomize genuineness and random acts of kindness are performed on a daily, if not hourly basis.  A sense of community can be found anywhere, and is extended to outsiders throughout a willingness to share and be open. Most people treated us as though we’d long been best friends.

The land is vast, wild and free.  It’s so wild and raw in some parts it borders on awe-inspiring, almost frightening, untamed wildness.  And yet it produces such a strange juxtoposition of gentle beauty, its wild flowers growing with determination out of a rocky, unforgiving land.  The weather is full of surprises; an early morning of rain and bone-chilling winds quickly turn into a warm and hospitable summer day.  Moose, bald eagles, jelly fish and friendly whales crop up without warning, revealing too the unpredictability of nature, frequently repaying those who pay it respect with the currency of patience.  

The rugged land has charged its inhabitants with years of incomprehensible sacrifice, pain and hard work - drudgery - in return for survival. The pain that its early inhabitants endured only serves to remind me that suffering has always been a part of the universal human condition; that countless people before me have invested much, much more into stakes that never came to fruition, that disappointment and loneliness have accompanied every soul that has ever lived.

And so, a few pictures to share (some of my favourites)

Wild Iris, covered in dew drops on the coast of Cape Spear

Black Horse beer, consumed in St. John’s.

Old fishing shed on the water at Trinity.

Lilacs and a white picket fence at a home in Trinity. (Can’t you just smell them?)

Baby beluga whale near Princeton. I took this picture from the side of the boat as he frolicked and played with us.

Wild flowers on Walker’s Trail in Tickle Cove.

Dock in Trinity

Basement window of a home in Trinity

Puffins, seemingly having a bit of a chat, at the Witless Bay Ecological Reserve

Lobster traps in Trinity

Buttercups against the peeling paint of a house in Trinity

I have many more favourites that will be making their appearance on flickr soon.

Enjoy whatever abundance is in your life today!

Reflections on life and money with Patricia Lovett-Reid

Last night I had the pleasure of joining my friend for a special event held by the Canadian Women’s Foundation, which is a really great charity doing some very interesting work supporting the financial and personal development women and girls.  Patricia Lovett-Reid (Senior VP of TD Waterhouse Canada Inc, a financial planner and host of BNN’s Money Talk) was the featured speaker at the event.  I’m so glad that got to hear Patricia’s funny and insightful, meandering speech. Here are a few of the interesting points she made:

1. It’s not too late.  It’s not to late to change direction, to change your financial habits, or change your career.  Patricia did not attend university, in fact she struggled to finish grade 9 math.  Now a notable financial expert, Patricia began her financial career working as a bank teller for many years, never expecting herself to climb much further than a clerical role.  It wasn’t until Patricia divorced her first husband and wound up with the station wagon, and little else, from the settlement, that she thought “I can do better.” I felt moved by this statement, since so many of us are weary of changing direction, especially when we have already invested so much in making something work.

2. You might be the one holding yourself back.  It took Patricia years to realize that she might just be capable of more than she thought.  She urged the audience to reflect on the limitations we have ingrained in our heads.  After all, if someone tells you that you can’t do something, you probably won’t listen to them. In fact you may even try harder to prove them wrong.  But if you believe you can’t do it, chances are, you won’t.

3. Success if yours to define. In Patricia’s book, “Get Real” (which I shall promptly take out from the public library) she profiles 26 successful Canadian women.  Each woman profiled has done exceptionally well - but to her own unique standards.  The definition of success will depend and vary according to our own goals and aspirations.  Success may look entirely different to each one of us.  I appreciated this comment, because it validates different kinds of lifestyles.  Achieving someone else’s definition of success is just not worth the effort, when we can put that energy into creating a life that truly satisfies us.

4. Start early.  Not just with saving, but with giving.  By starting at a young age, you can make a significant contribution, by helping to create the building blocks of change.  Giving small amounts of money will add up over time to create significant impact. 

5. Your best is good enough.  You don’t have to be perfect.  All you need to aspire to is your best self!

What do you think?  Are you living out Patricia’s words or taking a different approach to your life and your money?

Frugality v. simplicity: Reconcilable?

As I write this, my kitten is gazing out the open window, fascinated by the snowflakes that are gently, whimsically gliding around in no particular direction at all.  

Life is simple, life is good.

This is a post that I’ve been thinking about writing for a while, and it poses a bit a a dilemma for me: the seeming similarity and yet contradictory nature of frugality and simplicity.

When discussing the merits of frugality, inevitably the argument arises that frugality enables us to slow down, enjoy what life has to offer, reduce our wants and focus more on what really matters to us.  (See my earlier post, The fulfilling frugal life, for example). To me, these are the fruits of frugality that almost anyone can achieve, provided they have their basic needs met. 

For some, the main purpose of becoming frugal is to eliminate their debt load once and for all.  For others, it is taking a pro-active approach to make sure that they will outlast this recession without winding up in a van down by the river.  For others, frugality is a lifestyle choice based on religious or spiritual beliefs and values. Whatever the aim, frugality can offer a fulfilling life filled with simple pleasures, treasured time with family, and a renewed appreciation for the richness and beauty in the universe.  A snowflake. An apple seed.  Silence.  Tremendous beauty surrounds us but is rarely paid appropriate attention. By living frugally, we have the opportunity to remove ourselves from the constant bombardment of “stuff” that occupies our minds, our homes, and our time.  A frugal life allows us to escape the abrasive and intrusive nature of advertising by eliminating television, paparazzi, and malls from our daily experiences.  Instead we may find awareness brought to once forgotten pleasures like cooking, focused attention to friends and family, time in nature, the crunch of snow under our feet on a quiet evening walk. What more, frugality brings out gratitude for what we have, and far from leaving us feeling deprived, can actually allow our attention to turn to the abundance we already have.

I have always appreciated these aspects of frugality.  Granted, this kind of living was not forced on me through poverty, but nor was it consciously attended to.  My first recognition of the pleasures of frugality came as a student in Peterborough.  I recall walking down a street, enjoying the beauty around me in the pretty churches and simple homes.  I purchased a hockey t-shirt at Zellers for $11.  It made me so happy, to treat myself to this simple gift.  Not a deluge of clothing.  Not the latest fashions. Just one simple item.  Because I rarely bought clothes for myself (It is a hippie-town, after all - no one cares about fashion) this item made me feel special.  I became aware of the joy I received in simple ways - the friendly bus drivers, the pretty streets, the sunsets that could be observed from our home on the top of one of Peterborough’s many hills.

It is this joy from pleasant simplicity that I am seeking in my life.

But what is frugal is not always simple.

I often advocate saving all sorts of recyclable items.  Couponing.  Stockpiling.  But all of these things can clearly conflict with the simple life. We can become packrats, hanging on to everything we own, in case we might need it in years to come.  While resourceful, do we truly want more “stuff” taking space in our homes?  And what about “gaming the system” through an almost obsessive search for coupons and freebies?  As all my readers know, I love couponing and enjoy getting things for free when I can.  But can these goals co-exist with simplicity?

The biggest contradiction between simplicity and frugality lies in the stockpile.  In efforts to cut back our grocery budgets, it is common practice among frugal bloggers to stock up on non-perishables when prices are low and when you have an abundance of coupons.  In theory this makes sense, but stockpiling can easily get out of hand.  Recently a man in the UK passed away from dehydration after being trapped in a maze of junk inside his home. Frugal Dad wrote about the issue, asking how thick or thin the line is between stockpiling and hoarding.

An example of stockpiling can be found at Saving Your Cents. You can see the results of one of the author’s  stockpiling grocery trips - on a triple coupon day with an 11 foot, 8-inch receipt that took 45 minutes to process at the check-out.  

Looking at the author’s blog it is no doubt that she is very resourceful and she estimates that she saves about 70% on her grocery bill each week.  But I wonder, what are the true benefits of stockpiling, and don’t they conflict with the other merits of frugality?  If we take the time that might be spent in a mall, or watching TV, and spend it shopping to get the best deals and freebies, we might save money, but we’ve done very little to add richness to our lives through the pleasures of simplicity that frugality can offer.

I suspect that frugality can offer a life of rich fulfillment.  By taking only what we need, reducing greed, reducing clutter, we can live in simple abundance, appreciating wholly what we have around us, not weighed down by too many extras, not a slave to any of our possessions or rigid determination to get the best deal.  Just simply, joyful, frugal living.

Do you tend to err on the side of frugal or simple living, or have you reconciled these two?

This year, resolve to forgive

Did you resolve to reduce or eliminate your debt load this year?  The path to financial freedom may begin with forgiveness.

It’s easy to obsess over past mistakes, especially if they are still appearing on your credit card bills, renewing your regrets every month.

But how much does self-punishment and guilt really help us pursue a change in our lives?  Shopping provides a short-term high, and is often used, like gambling, alcohol, or binge eating, to fill some kind of a void.

If you are harbouring guilt or anger over your  financial sins of the past, you might just push yourself right back to the same old habits you want to avoid, desperate to quench the need for comfort and peace that isn’t coming from within.

I’m trying to do the same thing with my body - living with chronic pain at a young age means that I harbour a lot of guilt and anger at my body for not acting or feeling the way it “should.”  Through yoga I am coming to realize that patience and compassion may be the gateways to healing.

And so it is with money.  Try forgiveness on for size.  You may just find that you lose the compulsion to shop once you find peace within yourself.