Saving Money & Wasting Less

Lesson 1: Starting out

Starting where you are

You may want to save money because you don't have enough of it. You may want to live a simpler lifestyle for ethical or moral reasons, and in doing so will save money. Or, you may be badly in debt and want to get your finances back in line. Whatever the reason you're doing this course, you can only start where you are today. There is no point in regrets.

Little changes every day, every time you buy something, or think of going shopping, will make a difference. The very act of thinking about how and what you consume, will change you little by little, and almost every change you make will save you money.

Few of us are truly aware of the pressures our society pushes on all of us to consume. We are now even called consumers, when not so long ago we were called citizens. Becoming aware of this pressure helps to counter it.

We are urged to work longer and longer hours to earn money we are told we need to live a lifestyle we 'deserve'. In other words, we 'deserve' consumer goods that are often so useless we have to be convinced by powerful advertising that we need them. Many people in the West, now even have an extra garage in which to store the useless junk they have been persuaded they needed to buy!

We are urged by magazines, television, billboards, radio and other media, to constantly compare ourselves to others, and ask ourselves: "Have we got this?" "Do we need that?" "Have we got what the neighbours have?" "Do we need a refrigerator with Internet access?" "Are you as happy as the people smiling at you from the ads?"

The pressure and stress of this advertising bombardment and stream of cultural commandments is largely felt subliminally, but it is extremely powerful. (see the website 'Emotional Response Marketing' for a look at advertising and selling pressures from the advertiser's point of view). The whisperings of our society are all around us, telling us the same thing over and over in myriad ways: consume, consume, consume.

That's our job: consume the planet (Ishmael, by Daniel Quinn). But then what?

"Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realize we cannot eat money."
Cree Proverb

Try an experiment, if you can. Turn it all off for a month. Turn off the television and radio, and buy no magazines or newspapers. I do this every year, and I found the first year I almost went wild with withdrawal symptoms for a few days, but after that I slept better, and felt calmer. I was no longer distressed by violent or upsetting images on television, and I wasn't pummelled half to death by the barrage of advertising. If there was some news I needed to know about, people told me. How much of this 'news' do we actually need anyway?

I felt better in my 'media-free month', and I saved money without even trying, and not just through a lower electricity bill - I simply found I wanted less. I also read more books, and watched more sunsets. If you can't do it for a month, try a week, or even just a day. If you think you can't or don't want to turn it all off even for a week - ask yourself, why not? After all, humans lived for hundreds of thousands of years without television - so why can't you live without it for a week?

So, start where you are. Be aware that you are being pressured by society to consume goods you may or may not really want. Be aware you are being bombarded by messages that tell you that you are less of a person than you would be if you only had 'product x'. Be aware you are probably working harder than you need to in order to buy goods you don't need, or to keep up with the excessive consumption of neighbours or colleagues. Start to look around you. Start to think about your consumption habits.

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