More Than Money
Issue #27
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Lifestyles of the Rich and Simple

Table of Contents

“Decisions, Decisions - How do you decide what's important?”

"My buying decisions are not based solely on money. I do consider cost as a factor, but I also consider whether something is environmentally sound. I think about trade-offs. For example, I bought a very expensive heater, which I got half-price on eBay. Although it is more expensive than what I had before, it is much better environmentally. I know many people who go farther in their environmentalism than I do. I would aspire, as a culture, to build the full environmental cost of products into them, so that we are all paying the real cost. I believe this would force the availability of more ecologically sound choices and I wouldn't have to weigh the trade-offs. They would already be built in."

-Stef Fuegi

"When I have the impulse to buy something that I know I don't truly want, I get creative about it. For instance, when I want to try a new snack food, I think of a lot of reasons not to get it, not just one or two, e.g. The money could be better spent elsewhere. It's not good for me. The packaging is bad for the environment. I don't like this company anyway. That puts things in perspective. I ask myself, 'Is it really that important?'

"If I really think I want something, I'll put it off for two weeks. I often find I don't need it; or, by then, I've found an alternative. For example, I needed something for my garden and all of a sudden my neighbor had one. Things like that happen almost magically. My needs are supplied in weird ways. Something I'd been wanting seems to appear out of nowhere, or I find it at a garage sale."

- anonymous author


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