It’s just one of those facts of life – Earning money is difficult but spending money is easy. More often than not we end up spending a lot more than we should. In today’s consumerist world, we find that most of the things we buy are ones we seldom or rarely use, simply adding to waste. There are several ways in which all of us can save money by cutting down on wasteful expenses.
To start cutting down on wasteful expenses, the first way to start is to make a list of your monthly income and all monthly expenses. Preparing this simple list will give you a fair idea whether you have a surplus left over or you’ve actually reduced your savings. Once the list is ready, go over all your expenses carefully, one at a time. Carefully scrutinize each item. Ask yourself what you can do without. What other expense can be lowered?
Accordingly work in that direction. Surely, you can cut down on one’s cable, telephone and electricity bills with a concerted effort on your part. Can you do without a few premium channels? Do you own both a landline as well as a cell phone? Do you really need both? Try making long distance calls from your cell phone instead of the landline – it’s cheaper. Get rid of the automated answering response from your phone company (unless that is free or just dirt cheap) and get yourself an answering machine if you have enough requirement for automated response.
Switch off all appliances when not in use. Use appliances, like the washing machine, judiciously. Try and plan out a weekly cycle for making full and efficient use of the washing machine. Use cold water in the machine instead. Not using the computer for a few hours? Shut it down rather than keeping it on standby or hibernate mode. Every small effort counts in the end towards reducing your electricity bill.
Prepare a monthly budget and more importantly, stick to it. See if you can restructure the bills for easy payments. Plan your shopping. Shop at discount stores, garage sales – wherever you can save money. Make full use of coupons and combo offers, refunds, rebates. Constantly follow up on rebate offers to make sure you get them. Avoid paying extra for anything.
Avoid the use of credit cards as much as possible. Pay cash for small amounts. Payment by card attracts interest and other charges if not paid on time. You’ll be surprised how much you end up saving by not using a card for small amounts. Never withdraw cash on your credit card – it works out to be very expensive.
Used to a certain amount of luxury? Try cutting down on expenses like entertainment, food and vices. Must you watch every new movie that releases? Cut down your visit to the theatre every once in a while. Avoid using the car for short distances. Walk it down if it’s not too far, cycle, or use public transport instead. Cut down on your gasoline bills.
Don’t be tempted to pick up the phone and order that pizza just because you’re too lazy to prepare food yourself…order fewer lunches. Try a few simple preparations yourself. A simple sandwich, some salad, and coffee are not that hard to prepare. This should help you cut down on that food bill. Do you drink or smoke? Resolve that you must stop. If you do drink, why not start by drinking at home, rather than at a pub or bar outside?
Remember that vices will harm you in the long run and add to your health bill as well.
Finally, go ahead and invest whatever you end up saving. You’ll be surprised how much money you have left over at the end of the year, which can be reworked towards other expenses. So go ahead, cut wastefulness and start saving!
I am volunteering for the local rodeo this year (its my first time) and I’m pretty excited. Last night, while helping others build a fence around what will be a parking lot, someone brought us over a case of bottled water (it helped, it was almost 90 degrees). I looked over and saw a small trailer with at least 4-5 cubic feet of bottles on it (this is a big rodeo). I opened mine, sat down and started reading the label. The label pointed out some nice design changes they call “eco-shape”, which include a bottle made from lighter plastic for easy recycling, a smaller label that uses less trees to make the paper, and a smaller cap that uses less plastic as well. They tout all these as being “good for the environment”
And they are, in a sense. Yes, using less paper and plastic is a good thing for the environment. It will help our resources last longer, less pollution, blah, blah, blah. The problems that I have with this are:
- They are not getting to the root of the problem
- People are buying it
The root of the problem is…
Consumption. Plain and simple. Instead of carrying around a water bottle (to save money or for your health), they want you to buy theirs. It”s ok though, because they’ve done all they can to minimize the impact of the bottle, except ask you to get a re-fillable bottle that will end up in a landfill once every 3-5 years (just a guess) instead of after a few uses (at the most). To get people to stop thinking about the fact that you’re still wasting things, they just design/sell eco-friendly bottles that you can still throw away. Everyone wins! You get your water from a bottle and they get your money.
However, in typical american fashion, the real issue (using a crap-ton) of resources is more or less ignored, but some short and medium term issues are brought up (and resolved). For the short and medium term, it’s still ok to buy and drink the water bottle and it’s actually good for the environment because it’s made with less plastic. So instead of using a crap-ton of resources, we are now using .94 of a crap-ton of resources (which according to the ICUWOM – the International Committee for Unstandardized Weights and Odd Measures – a sister institute of the ICWM is exactly 1 butt-load), and consumption can now resume its break-neck pace unabated because we are considering the environment when buying this water — Just look at the package — it says its good!
Everyday, we (the american consumer) fall for this nonsense. We go on thinking that we are doing right by the environment as we guzzle water from 1 time use bottles that are made from thinner, more earth friendly plastic so it’s ok. It’s not. According to the Food and Water Watch we are using 47 million gallons of oil to produce this plastic, and 1.5 million tons of waste. Couple this with the fact that 2 of the largest bottled waters (Pepsi’s Aquafina and Coca-Cola’s Dasani) are just filtered municipal water, we are putting a lot of resources into making (and moving) this bottle of water. Despite all this, we still gravitate towards the bottled water company that claims to be better for the Earth.
Unfortunately,
And this is really the rub, is that basically anything that you buy that says “we are a green product” is most likely not true. Consuming anything (the way the current system works) is inherently not green. Buying something means you are trading your resources (your time, in the form of cash) for the resources of something else. There is not really a way for this to be friendly for either party unless it is held in check. Consuming the stuff is bad for your wallet (many some go into credit card or other types of high interest debt for it) and you’re depleting the resources used to make it.
The best way to ensure that resources will be there in the future (aka sustainable) is to not use too many of them in the first place.
Getting to the root of the problem — We want our water in a bottle, but we want that bottle to be environmentally friendly. Even though arrowhead spent time/money engineering a bottle with thinner plastic and a smaller cap and are now calling it “green” it’s still not as green as buying a water bottle.
They are missing the point. You cant consume a crap-ton of stuff and still be green. You cant spend in a frivolous manner and stay out of debt. You can’t TV watch your way to good health. All of these things are common goals of mine, and a lot of others. Many times, we find our that our habits don’t line up with our goals.
They are in an inherent battle with each other. Which will you choose?
