Don’t Shop the Earth Day Sale!
It seems that every day or month has something assigned to it to acknowledge or celebrate. And, while I try to be mindful about not hopping on these bandwagons for writing inspiration (you won’t find me writing about National Donut Day – yep, apparently it’s a thing) it’s hard to ignore April – Earth Month. When it comes to how we use money, there’s so much to say for this particular month. I also wrote for Earth Day last year, and you can read that post here.
After years of watching my own and others’ money habits, I’ve found that, as a culture, we are hyper-consumers. It appears we can solve almost any problem by buying something. So, with this as the premise, here is this year’s Earth Day post. (Ironically, I just heard an ad on TV saying “Shop our Earth Day sale now!”).
Our two-year-old is obsessed with trash trucks. Yep, garbage trucks. He has many a toy garbage truck and can, presses himself to the window weekly as the garbage truck picks up our trash. Most notably, his TV viewing of choice is a show on Netflix called “Trash Truck” and various YouTube compilation videos of actual footage of garbage trucks picking up trash.
Last month he spent a considerable amount of time at home sick, and we spent a considerable amount of time soothing him with the TV. We mostly watched the aforementioned YouTube compilations. There are hours of video footage of garbage trucks on their route, picking up trash.
I kept noticing how much stuff we all throw away. Sure, there’s a little bias here – the video is documenting trash trucks picking up trash. But, the amount of trash, and the types of items discarded, was shocking. Prepackaged everything, still-functional furniture, Amazon Prime boxes upon boxes. We throw out so much because we buy so much.
The idea that we buy so much shouldn’t be surprising – most industries are built on selling us stuff. “Unboxing” is now a genre of media where the subject shares the experience of opening a package to show a product. One of the highest paid YouTube stars, making tens of millions of dollars a year, is a twelve-year-old who unboxes toys and reviews them. Of course, the idea here is to sell those products to other kids. Unboxing is for adults, too. Another word commonly used might be a “haul”, where someone shows everything they bought in a particular shopping trip. Not only do they monetize your viewing of the content, but creators frequently earn money when you buy what they show you.
Instead of a commercial every five minutes on TV, the internet has placed a commercial in front of us every five seconds. We can’t escape sales of products that will make us more productive, fitter, happier, healthier, better looking… you name it. And, since trends are constantly changing and products continue to hit the market, we will remain consuming. The more we get, the more we want.
This idea of hyper-consumption was very obvious to me this past Christmas. I was reluctant to give our two-year-old more than a couple of gifts – he was so young and didn’t really understand Christmas. Lo-and-behold, we fell into the trap because spending money on stuff is fun. He ended up with a dozen or more gifts under the tree. When he woke up on Christmas morning, he was overwhelmed. By the evening we finally managed to prod him into opening the rest of his presents, not because he wanted to, but because we wanted him to.
That night when I looked in his room, it was a plastic jungle. There sat a ton of stuff that will end up eventually being picked up by his beloved trash truck. Not only will the toys likely be dumped, we just set up his expectations for these over-the-top holiday experiences, memorable by the quantity of items, not the quality of the experience.
Earth Month is intended to be a reminder of environmental awareness. When I think of Earth Month, or more generally, taking care of the planet, I don’t only think of grandiose changes – those that make me feel powerless or ineffective. Instead, I think we could make a big difference by becoming more conscious of our own daily consumption. Perhaps by making a little less trash for the trash truck to gather each week.
When we bring awareness to our choices, we can ask questions: are we buying things because they truly enhance our lives or are they a mere convenience? Are we buying things because we want to have them around long term, or to satisfy a short-term desire (like a brief holiday)? Are we buying things to fulfill an emotion? Are we satisfied with how the item was produced? Does it support my values?
We don’t have to only do big, extravagant things to support the environment. We can begin thinking about our everyday choices and the impact they have, not only on the environment, but on our future generations’ ideas of how we ought to live.
One of the big goals of Bottom Line is to give you (the Royal you) a framework to assess how you use your money. It’s not to pass judgment on your choices because this is the part of personal finance that is personal – you can and should use your money for what makes you happy. Within the framework, we begin to see that there are tradeoffs. Because income is limited, having one thing means possibly not having another. Eventually, it may start to color your choices. Your values may become more pronounced. How you use your money can become a lens through which you practice mindfulness and bring intention to your life.
How to incorporate Earth Month into your Bottom Line System:
Identify your values. By living into your values, you make purchases that also support them.
Track your expenses. Whether or not you’re living your values depends on your past behavior.
Review your expenses against your values to make sure you’re spending in a way that is aligned with what you care about. If they aren’t aligned, that’s okay, they won’t always be.
Adjust. It’s a lifetime of work to continually assess our values and make choices that feel in alignment with them. This is where we start.