Worthwhile Book Review

[rockinlibrarian]

Well, I wanted to share this but haven't gotten around to it, but with magnolia__'s rumination about thrift stores, iamdamanda's rant against judgemental parents, and rockonliz127's renewed environmental fervor, it seems now is most definitely the time.

The book, based on three separate books, based on a newsletter, called finally The Complete Tightwad Gazette by Amy Dacyczyn, has changed the way even a cheapskate like ME thinks about Things, and by Things I do mean it with the capital T (that rhymes with P and that stands for... products?). It's basically an exchange of ideas on how to save money by people who REALLY MEAN IT, as opposed to advertizers who try to convince you to Save Big by Spending Only Ten Dollars on this Twelve Dollar Thing That You Don't Even Need That Will Just Take Up Space In Your House!

Now, the book itself is full of a wide variety of ideas, many of which I'd still never actually do or have the need to, many of which I already do, and many of which I say, "Hey, that's smart, never thought of that," but the POINT of the book and the point I wish to discuss today is not the ideas themselves, but the general mindset, which is, in a word, Eyeopening.

It is amazing and frightening just how WASTEFUL our society really is! And not just on the surface, the usual things, but even people who think they're pretty conscious about waste, even people like me who have been pack rats from the time they were old enough to call anything their own, even we are wasteful in ways we completely take for granted!

There is SUCH a glut of overpackaging in stores that you really only think about when you try to picture a store of a hundred years ago, how were those things packaged then? And THAT suddenly makes you realize how many MORE products are around now, and THAT makes you realize how many of those products are REALLY NOT NECESSARY! You save not only money but also resources and landfill space by really stepping back and eliminating from your spending everything you can make yourself from scratch ("scratch" is more likely to be sold in bulk or be free-- even less packaging) or actually don't need at all, and then the packaging you DO end up with, how much of THAT can even be reused! I'd occasionally reused Ziplock bags before, and I'd used grocery bags for garbage, but why can't I rinse out ALL decent bags and use them for something else? Well, all bags except ones that hold raw meat (even the relative extremists of the Tightwad Gazette draw the line there).

And think about paper napkins and towels. It's one thing if you have to take your laundry to a laundromat, but if you have your own machines, why DON'T we use cloth more often? I started using cloth diapers in effort to save money, and I myself am kind of amazed how easy it actually is in practice, and I'm a person who otherwise forgets to do laundry until someone is out of some kind of clothes that they need. But now I'm rather ashamed at myself for using paper at all. Seriously, it's a waste! Now I don't really have enough cloth napkins to make it worthwhile to give up the paper right now, but maybe I ought to.

And how much stuff do people just THROW AWAY when it can be repaired or even reused as something else? And why do people insist on buying more and more new stuff when used stuff will do just as well? Or maybe isn't even needed?

Why do otherwise intelligent freethinking people keep buying into the System? All of us think we're pretty savvy about not being brainwashed by commercials but if we really think about it there are lots of ways society has convinced us of needing things we really don't, or that a slight improvement in quality or convenience justifies a large increase in price. And when I really think about it it's scary how dependent people are on the System. People can't grow their own and make their own anymore, they just assume they can buy whatever they want let alone need. And boy do we waste electricity! It's hard to get on here because I usually only have little pieces of time at a time, so I leave the computer on to save a few minutes, but it seems like the small time savings is not worth the large electrical waste, doubly so when you think how hot the computer makes the room, which makes the air conditioning run more. And air conditioning! I've been so oblivious to summer because we've got whole house air conditioning, but could we save if we opened the windows while it's cooler outside? (Figures, though, I come to this conclusion during the hottest week of the year, when there IS no cooler time outside). But I'm suddenly conscious about what little electrical things I REALLY don't need to be wasting, and think What can I do that requires NO electricity right now? on occasion.

I seriously just want to drop OUT sometimes. Get back to the Simple Life. Except with stereos and DVD players. Oh yeah, and refrigeration. :)

Comments

[sal_amanda]

I'll have to look into that book. I have to admit that I am an unbelievably lazy person. I'm way too lazy to deal with cloth diapers. I know I'll be way too lazy to make my own baby food. And part of that is being a mom, working, and going to school (and I haven't even totally started the latter two up again in full force yet so I know it'll be bad), but really, I'm just lazy.

But I do want to become more simple. My neighbor just gave us a giant box of baby toys that her daughters have outgrown and I tried to only take the ones that I really liked, but she wouldn't take no for an answer. I have grown up as a packrat, but I am desperately trying to de-clutter. However, I seem like I'm always fighting an uphill battle against my husband and against my own self. I want Nora to be different, but she's already drowning in more stuff than she could possibly ever need.

And I'm someone who totally falls for the gimmick. It's a running joke in my home how I'm such a sucker for shiny new things. But I'll take them used if I can get them because I'm also broke. I totally fell for it when I was pregnant and got all this stuff new that I wish I had just waited for garage sale season to get, or checked craigslist or the classifieds in the paper.

I suppose the good news is that I know this stuff about myself and, as G.I. Joe used to say, knowing is half the battle. I do want to change so I guess that's another fraction of the battle.

As for the packaging, that has always irked me. There is no good reason why stuff needs to come in as much plastic as it does. Plus it bugs the lazy part of me that has to make a serious effort to get my product out of said plastic. ;)

[sal_amanda]

I thought of something else this morning in relation to your entry. There is, I believe, a way to definitely take the tightwad thing too far. It's no secret that I think my in-laws are a bit on the weird side. They have these antiquated Victorian ways, but that's a whole different story. But my MIL also has some of the tightwaddiest ways imaginable at times. When the whole family gets together, it's pretty much expected that the paper napkins at your place at the table will be reused over and over and over again, unless it's so dirty you couldn't possibly use it again, and even then, I'm not sure what that would mean. I'm not against reusing wrapping paper, but they have used some pieces for well over a decade and I think there's more tape marks than actual design on some of these pieces (for my part, the lazy in me uses gift bags and has absolutely no qualms about using those over as many times as possible). I always tell John to wrap their stuff in the paper we like best since we'll be seeing it again for many years. John has stories about his mom actually pulling kleenix out of the garbage right after he had thrown one away because she it was still usable. I'm not even kidding. And he'd kill me if he knew I was sharing that story.

She's also got major packratting because of the tightwadness. Like, you never know when you might need that item again so you must save it for your entire life. We don't tell her some of the things that we've sold at garage sales because she would request them back and I am not lugging things the 9 hours to New Hampshire for our once a year visit just because she can't let things go. Now, to be fair, I have diagnosed her with a very textbook case of OCD personality disorder and the hoarding is part of that, but you should see their basement. John had never given anything away to the Good Will before he met me. Ever.

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

There's a bit in the book about finding balance in ones tightwad life, as well. Though I am guilty of reusing paper napkins until they can't take it. Would be more sensible just to get cloth I suppose.

[sal_amanda]

I don't think the paper napkin thing is that big of a deal, but she does so many other weird tightwad things that it's just like the icing on the cake with her.

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

I just opened a box of eardrops for Sam that actually says on the package something like, "We know this box is huge compared to the bottle inside, but we needed to make all the writing on the box big enough for you to read." I could think of a lot more options myself. A larger quantity of drops? Print on the inside of the box as well as the outside? What about forgetting the box entirely and just printing the info on a fold-out label on the sealed bottle? Anyway.

Knowing is totally half the battle. I'm determined to do a lot of stuff that I've been too lazy to do, but I feel so much more AWARE of what I do now!

[sal_amanda]

I don't even ever save the box for those kinds of things. I usually just keep the insert. That's just absurd.