Simple Little Steps To Lessen My Footprint And Be Nice To My Wallet

If you've ever been truly poor, you know this catch-22: that in order to get yourself to a place where you don't need so much income, it requires an upfront investment.

This is seen in everything from a simple action like, the bulk price is cheaper but you don't have enough money to buy the big bulk size; to more complicated things like paying off your debt will save you from paying interest (hello, student loans). My ultimate goal of a tiny house owned outright would be super freeing, but I haven't even got money for a trailer, or plans, or supplies, or a place to park and build, or a car to go scavenge supplies off Craigslist, or...

You get the idea. It can be very frustrating when all you need is enough of a hand up to get to your feet, and instead everything is pinning you down. Take food stamps, for example: unless you have a medical waiver, you have to be working a certain number of hours; if you are unemployed, rather than spend your time job hunting, you have to "volunteer" (it ain't really volunteering if you have no choice but to do it or starve) for the government or take classes you don't need from the government. How are you supposed to get out of the hole by finding a good job if you are doing forced menial labor for food money instead of job hunting? The system isn't set up to help people get on their feet, it's set up to keep them trapped, often even deeper in poverty than they were before. Maybe you might have been able to at least find some temp jobs before, but you can't get a temp job if you're unavailable because you're taking a mandatory "resume building" or "eating on a budget" class.

Same.

Ironically, I am super good at managing money, when I have some. My best paying job ever never even made me 30k/year, but with it I started a savings account and a Roth IRA as well as having no debt besides those student loans (because I paid it off. When the "credit crunch" happened in 2008, I was one of the people who had a credit card close because I didn't carry a balance on it. It was the one that was just good for the vet and the dentist, you know, those emergency situations I needed it for later... ). So yeah, I am not one of those people who is poor because I'm blowing it all on booze or gambling or 40" TVs or whatever the fuck people buy who feel dollars burning holes in their pockets.

But I digress.

So when I'm able, I like to take little micro steps toward my more-self-sufficient goals. A couple of years ago that meant taking the gift cards I got for Yule and spending them on a drill, because I have the list of recommended tools to build a tiny house from one of Jay Schafer's books (he's the guy who founded Tumbleweed and Four Lights tiny houses). Now the only main tool I need is a circular saw (and yes, I use the drill now for other things)!

Other examples might be when I bought a battery charger and AAs and AAAs for it, so I didn't have to keep buying batteries. Or my recent purchase of more handkerchiefs so I don't need to buy so many tissues (hello, allergies - I blow my nose a lot). These two fall under the environmentally better AND save me money category.

Tonight I was thinking; I had cashed out some cryptos to pay my electric bill and buy cat food. I bought the cat food, and started poking around online for solar panels with batteries attached that could be used to charge devices: like, this Kindle that is my gateway to the internet, or my simple phone that is not, lol. I don't use a lot of electricity; my bill for last month was under $20! That's half fees. So charging my Kindle twice a day on average is probably a fair small % of the power I do use. Why not make that power solar, so it can be more eco-friendly AND I don't have to pay for it ever again? And bonus: I'll still have a phone in a power outage.

After some frustrating searching and review-scouring (WHY is it so difficult for manufacturers to specify the exact type of connections they use, instead of "works with most Android devices"? That's great, are "most Android devices" micro USB type a or b? And why doesn't the Samsung site say either, when I just looked there to see what a Galaxy s9 took because that phone got mentioned by name? Because they want you to buy "official Samsung accessories," of course), I found what I needed for $30 (the price of an average monthly power bill; the $20 is low for me):

Ta-daaaaa: what I just bought on eBay

Being a renter, I can't put solar panels on my roof; I could pay extra every month to either ostensibly fund solar and wind development from a power company who should be doing that anyway even if just to save money, or to offset emissions with a third party, money I don't have; OR I could make a one-time investment to take a wee bit of my power needs off-grid. I chose the latter (and I paid the overdue part of my electric bill, rather than two months at once. I roll forward a lot because I often don't have it. This time I rolled forward because I made an investment).

Maybe it's not a huge dent in the grand scheme of things, but it's a little piece I could do, and will make me happy every time I plug in now. Maybe my hankies are not a huge difference over the recycled tissues I buy, but all these little changes and all these dollars here and there that I won't have to spend in future, are tiny steps toward a cleaner, less expensive future for me that I can sustain.

One day I'll have the power to make a big change, like get my house built! But until then, I'll keep downsizing and sharing my abundance in Little Free Libraries and free stuff forums, keep finding little changes to use less or waste less or grow more, and keep finding ways to lessen my outflow of dollars. I am where I am and can do what I can do. I hope it maybe inspires you to do so, too! 😊

Happy Beltaine!

That Red Fish your momma always warned you about

Referral links:

Get free Manna, crypto UBI: https://www.mannabase.com/?ref=6e4b50d35e

Join Simbi, the barter economy website: https://simbi.com/wren-paasch/welcome