In the wake of the current credit and banking crises, many pundits have been predicting that the presidential candidates will have to curb their proposed spending plans drastically when the winner takes office in January. With home foreclosures skyrocketing, pumping money towards renewable energy may seem like a luxury. Yet, an investment in these technologies could create jobs and set us on the path to energy independence. Though the initial investment might be high, the cost of feeding our oil addiction may prove much higher.

Aside from voting and petitioning our state and federal representatives, there’s little we can do as individuals to impact federal spending on eco-friendly options. However, on a micro level, we have a chance to save both money and the earth through the many little (and the few big) choices we make on a daily basis. Just as with the federal government’s expenditures, being “green” may cost a little more up front, but could save us money in the long run.

In a recent piece at Grist, Miles Grant observes notes an obvious parallel between tips to help you save money - and tips to help you save the environment:

Who are you to deny me my two-car garage filled with junk, an elegant dining room I’ll never use, and massive heating/cooling bills?

That’s the basic response from critics when greens question McMansions in particular and our consumer culture in general. I mean, isn’t newer, bigger, better the American way? Didn’t President Bush urge us to go shopping more?

But one financial advisor says trying to look rich by buying so much stuff is keeping some Americans from being rich. And while he never once mentions the environment, his prescriptions for building your savings have a lot in common with tips for cutting your environmental impact.

Being green and being frugal aren’t mutually exclusive, you see. Oftentimes, the two go hand in hand.

This year’s Blog Action theme is poverty; because I’m all about intersecting oppressions (such as classism, environmental destruction and the role of the megatheocorporatocracy in each), I thought I might offer some food-related tips for positively impacting your cash flow and your ecological imprint. Since we’re in the midst of the Vegan Month of Foods - for which I’ve been baking, cooking, drying and otherwise experimenting like mad - I’d like to focus on food, specifically, how one can eat green to save green.

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Depending on how you want to parse out our latest credit card bill - which was three times the normal monthly total (!)* - LD and I either spent our $1200 on groceries, gas and other essential miscellany; a fraction of my dental bills (ten years of avoiding the dentist will land you roughly four hours in the chair to the tune of about $2800, after insurance); or Kaylee’s dental work, which was actually just under $1200. If we hadn’t spent the money on Kaylee’s teeth…well, Ralphie’s scheduled for an extraction next month as well.

I had hoped to either save it or make an extra mortgage payment, but no go.

At no time did the thought of squandering it on luxury goods cross our minds.

* On the plus side, the Amazon points I earned through those crazy credit card charges will buy a small library. Ripley, here I come!

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Tagged: rebate checks

As part of their Earth Day Lite ™ coverage, CNN solicited suggestions on saving money in this tough shitty economy. What this has to do with Earth Day, I know not, other than that saving money and “being green” sometimes intersect. They could have elaborated, really.

Anyway, Cheryl from New Mexico kind of irritated me:

DON LEMON: Here’s what Cheryl from New Mexico writes: “I no longer shop online, and I don’t use credit cards except in an extreme emergency. And that is almost never.”

Zum, what’s with all the hating on the credit cards and the internets? As long as both are used responsibly, they can help you save money.

Let’s start with the credit cards, since they’re a wee bit more difficult to defend than the internet. As long as you know how to play the system, credit cards can be pretty durn useful. For starters, don’t charge more on a card than you can easily pay off - in full - the next month. Inexplicably, banks are exempt from usury laws, such that 36% interest rates are the norm. So I’m definitely not saying that you should run out and charge expensive items that you wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford. Overspending, bad. Interest charges, bad. Greedy banks, bad. No argument there.

But as long as you stay within your budget, charging everyday items is a good thing. You can increase your credit score and earn rewards from your credit card company. (I earn $25 Amazon gift certificates, usually to the rate of 1-2 a month. How do you think I fund all those book piles?) And I’ll only pay with credit when shopping on eBay - if the seller ends up being a fraud, I can contest the charges. Not so much if I pay via a cash transfer from my bank, something that Paypal always seems to be pushing, the the point of harassment.

The “Credit cards, evil!!!1!!” meme is especially annoying, perhaps because this is something I’ve been hearing lectures about since I got my own card. Back when I first moved in with Shane, when I was still in college, I worked at a local grocery store part-time. Since I was already there, and I hated wasting time with the unpaid, forced half hour lunches I had to take during every shift six hours or longer, I did all the grocery shopping for us, usually during my lunch break. I could not believe the admonitions some of the guys (they were always guys) in the grocery department would give me about paying for groceries on my credit card! As though I was going to blow my paycheck on shiny glass jars of peaches or something. We wimmins, just can’t be trusted with plastic. We have an extra special femaley spending gland, located somewheres down near the ovaries, donthchaknow?

In retrospect, my store was filled with Nice Guys ™, probably of the concern troll variety. I just didn’t have the blaming skillz to call ‘em out harshly as I should have. Patriarchy-blaming is yet another gift the internets has bestowed upon this featherhead.

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