"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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