How can you maximize your money
and minimize the environmental impact?
Living within your means – at times – necessitates the cheapest, lowest cost product. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the fairest on the environment. Some of the most affordable products come from half-a-world away in distance, and the people are subjected to abject poverty (i.e., parts of China, India, and Haiti). The labor conditions are grotesque for many and the poverty is encouraged by continued international spending. In fairness, this is an economic slant that I’m coming from, and it’s called: “Race to the bottom.” (Wikipedia)
Race to the bottom theorizes that the globalization and efficiency of markets can have a negative impact on the worker conditions, living wages, and much more. Essentially, when we are frugaling by buying the cheapest product, there’s an indirect consequence that includes wage suppression and continued poverty. To make the cheapest products, there must be consequences. Shipping the cheapest toys, clothing, and cleaning products burns countless amounts of fossil fuels. Between the Earth-destroying consequences and poor worker conditions, frugal spenders should try to go beyond this – when possible.
The consequences of inaction or continued spending decisions that are only aimed at the cheapest version can be harmful, externally and internally. Every day you can make little decisions for yourself and those around you. There are choices we can make that benefit everyone.
Coffee
Waking up to a fair-trade, organic coffee is a perfect example of putting good in and getting good out. Think fair trade is too expensive? Check out Target’s Archer Farms Brand for $6 a pound. That’s cheaper than Starbucks, Dunkin’ Donuts, and a wealth of other popular brand names – not to mention it tastes great! The soap and detergents you use can be harmful, rough on your skin, and non-biodegradable.
Soap
Buying a gentler, biodegradable soap/detergent will keep your clothes in healthy shape and longer, while caring for the waste water that ensues. Some of the cheapest vegetables and fruits are the most pesticide-laden commodities in the marketplace. Those pesticides pollute the farms and waterways in production, and you invariably digest some of them.
Vegetables
Organic and pesticide-free can be expensive, but you can try to stay away from the worst polluters (e.g., bell peppers, apples, and cucumbers – see more here). Cows that are given growth hormones and antibiotics are harming our ability to fight infection and causing serious medical complications.
Milk
The cheapest milks and cheeses on the market are often from these ill fed animals. Look for the cheapest breads, and you’ll find bleached, enriched products that likely contain high fructose corn syrup. These breads have been stripped of their intended nutrients and injected with fake, man-made sugar syrups. I, for one, aim to do better.
We’re still trying to improve as well, but my plan is to gradually switch over to eating a diet that is so healthy and inexpensive it’s easy to afford the organic and humane versions. We’re not vegetarian, though we eat very little meat, but it’s so easy to afford to the “expensive” dried beans, for instance.
The industry has given a name to this: Organic products. Ironic when Walmart sells them too!
Haha. That’s true. A lot of conscientious products are made with an organic label.
I’m not into “fair trade”, locally grown, or organic foods. But I tend find that local produce is the cheapest available since shipping costs and product spoilage increase in relation to how far away the food is coming from. Those costs translate directly into prices you see on the shelf.
I’ve also been focusing on buying fresh ingredients (though some are grown using inorganic fertilizer and pesticides). I wash veggies well or peel the worst offenders, so I figure I’m getting close to “organic” in the event some slightly dangerous pesticide is on my produce.
As for fair trade, I’ve read that very little of the money ends up with the fair trade farmer. Without researching a specific product and their fair trade program, I figure my money might be better spent buying the cheapest product of reasonable quality then donating the $20 or $40 or whatever I save per year to a charity that helps with food security or agriculture or development overseas.
I guess the important thing is to be aware of what you’re buying and think about the supply chain and externalities and whether you can do something to offset any externalities you might cause.
Sam
I’m from India.
Personally it infuriates me when people try to pay me less for the same thing,simply because I’m supposed to be from a poor country where what is on offer is supposed to be a big deal.It’s one thing if the person making the offer can’t really do better,but when they have the means,and routinely pay better elsewhere,I find this sort of behaviour offensive.I deal with the situation by seeing the money as a means to advance my personal agenda and categorizing the person as a not so great client,to be dealt with accordingly.
Like me,a lot of other people see opportunity in this unequal trade.Hence all the sweatshops.I don’t know if you have been reading the news out of Bangladesh,where garment manufactures and labourers are agitating against work conditions.But there is no getting away from the fact that opportunity and exploitation are 2 faces of the same situation.
As for the picture of the shanties,the story is a lot more complex than just poor incomes.Space in these shanties often costs more than well built flats and offices in the suburbs.There are million dollar businesses in these shanties and many people living in these shanties often have incomes that would allow them to live better elsewhere.
A lot of these shanties are about real-estate dealings in a place like Mumbai.They flourish because they are part of a business that deals in tens and hundreds of billions-and mind you,US Dollars not Rupees.