My Frugal Life: Defining Thrifty

We should try to make thrifty not just doing with less, or spending less, but also thinking how to be globally responsible. You know, rags rather than paper towels, cloth napkins not paper, using a drying rack or clothes line instead of our very wasteful (gas or electric) dryers.

Fortunately many things that cost less, thinking long term here, are also better for our environment. If you drive around for the best buy, how much time and gas do you waste? Granted it pays to shop around on items we use, especially big ticket items. There are just more efficient ways to shop prices.

When I think of what I have saved over the years, it amazes me. Some things may seem silly to you, but the 4 dozen nice cloth napkins I've used for roughly 25 years, has no comparison to what I would have spent in paper napkins in that time frame. Yes, I said it, 25 years. See, not using the dryer saves more than just the cost to run that dryer. The money spent on paper napkins doesn't even count the cost in trees, fuels to cut, transport, process, package and to transport again.

I'm not an environmental nut. I do think that if you are bothering to try and be fugal and/or thrifty, that we should look beyond our noses to the larger picture. Think dominoes, the chain reaction that happens when you think through the long term costs, globally.

By Zoek from Western CO

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