9 Things Your Nana Could Teach You About Going Green
by Ethan Ewing
- Live below your income. Do not spend more than you earn. Those who are hooked on plastic can withdraw enough cash each week to cover necessities — even groceries and gasoline — and put the credit cards away. Ewing noted that a recent study by Visa found that people who pay for their food with a credit card spend 30 percent more on average than people who pay with cash.
- Focus on needs, not wants. Americans need to understand their income and their necessary expenses, and account for these needs before spending money on any wants. Think like your elders: A new shirt for the weekend, new home décor and a flat-screen TV are not ‘needs, food, home payments, utilities and medical care are needs. To avoid confusing the two, put off purchases for at least 24 hours whenever possible to think about them carefully.
- Stay home. In the 1940s, only about half of larger companies offered paid vacation time. With automobiles slower in those days and air travel not a given, most families seldom traveled on vacation. Save an average of nearly $2,000 per year by skipping the far-away vacation. Talk, play games, work on a project or watch a movie to relax instead of heading for the amusement park or the airport. Think “staycation.”
- Eat in. In 2000, Americans ate an average of 4.2 meals per week at a restaurant; in your grandparents’ time, an occasional restaurant meal was a rare treat. With the conservative assumption that each restaurant meal costs $7, the cost for 4.2 meals per week would mount up to $127 per month, or more than $1,500 per person, per year. For a family of four, costs could soar over $6,000 per year. Learn to cook a variety of foods and use convenient tools such as a slow cooker to save time, money and calories.
- Skip the alcohol. Have dinner with your grandparents, and odds are good that they most often drink water, iced tea, coffee or soft drinks. At home, choosing iced tea instead of a cocktail will save 50 cents to a dollar per day. In a restaurant, the savings could be $5 or more.
- Choose regular coffee. You will not find most children of the Great Depression slugging back lattes. Not only could it ruin their sleep schedules, it would cost twice as much as a cup of coffee. Your best bet is to make a cup of tea or coffee at home and take it with you. Second best is to forego the coffeehouse cachet for a respectable — and cheaper — cup of Joe from a fast-food establishment or doughnut shop.
- Do not shop for entertainment. Online or in person, it is all too easy to start adding items to a cart because you are bored. Read a good book (get an old-fashioned library card) or learn a useful hobby instead.
- Keep the old car. A car is transportation, not a fashion statement. Better yet, carpool and/or own only one vehicle per family to trim transportation costs even more.
- Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without. Do not throw out a bottle of shampoo simply because you are tired of the fragrance — use it up. Keep jeans past their fashion prime. If your shape of your turkey platter is not perfect for Thanksgiving, does it matter? And do you really need color-coordinated, fabric-lined baskets for your linen closet, or would old boxes work? Think twice before spending by reciting this mantra of the frugal home.
Saving is a state of mind, and there’s no time like the present to get in the mindset. If your grandparents are still living, give them a call (fortunately, phone calls are more affordable than your grandparents might think they are) and ask for a few more tips.
Seriously wonderful tips. I think I’m going to tape them to my bathroom mirror where they can be in my face everyday! Thank you so much!
This post is great! I was thinking along these same lines this week when I found a hole in my favorite set of sheets. If I were my grandmother, I would patch the hole and make those sheets last another few years. Then eventually use the remaining shreds of them as rags. I decided that this is really what I would do (even though I don’t actually sew)!
Our predecessors are wise, and probably often role their eyes at all of the ‘new trends’ towards ‘green living’. They have been doing it all along.
I plan on printing this one out and taping it somewhere noticable, like the previous commentor. We should all remind ourselves of what we truly need to live.
I love these! I these are amazing life tips and ways to go green and probably find happiness in a more simple way of doing things. I just spent an hour on the floor with 2 toddlers drawing silly things…what a simple way to be green!
The day I became a parent I think a switch went off that just made me want to live by all you listed above. Grandparents are a wealthy of information, and we should take note of their very wise advice.
What a great post! I bet Nana never considered the way she was living “being green”
I agree with everything - except the coffee. Skip the fast food places and get a cup of coffee from a local coffee house. It will taste better, and you’ll be supporting local business, not huge corporations that sell fat laden processed food.