Shopping!
[Frederica Mathewes-Green  02/21 07:32 PM]

A short footnote (and guys, we need to start keeping these short, as Our Dear KLo instructed us), on the apparent problem of needing $$ to lead a Crunchy life: My suggestion is to search out and buy whatever you can secondhand. It really solves two problems at once — maybe three. First, since there's such a cultural premium on newness rather than quality, you get a steep discount merely for buying something that's not wrapped in plastic. Second, you get a corresponding rise in value; goods are cheaper than at Walmart, yet often nicer in quality. And third, in many cases, your purchase helps a charity (eg, buying furniture at a thrift shop).

When our kids were young, we were poor. The audience shouts: How Poor? Couldn't afford bottled milk, so the kids grew up on powdered. The budget for a weekly playdate at McDonald's was one dollar. I washed and saved ziploc bags. That kind of poor. My husband is a pastor, and back then I was a home-mom, not yet earning a per-movie-review salary in the high two figures.

So I started out shopping at K Mart, but then changed to making a scan of the thrift shop shelves first. It was a habit that stuck. We really began to enjoy living with eclectic old stuff. The kids couldn't damage it; if they did, no big loss. I enjoyed learning how to mend and re-design clothes, and to refinish furniture. Along the way we picked up some real finds — artwork and antiques. But if something doesn't work out, you just donate it back. Its nice, too, to know that no Big Brother marketing computer is keeping track of and analyzing all my purchases.

You'll still have to spend real money on food and computers, but you'd be surprised how much you can save by shopping secondhand.