Removing Consumerism

In order to measure how close we are to our goals,  we have to take a look at where weʻve been with personal progress related to our causes and reasons in life.

~Topic 1~

As a child,  I was raised half country, half city.  

I learned the values of recycling and saving, while watching others live a fast-paced consumer lifestyle.  Whenever we had money,  there was always family to spread it to.  Whenever my peers had money,  they went shopping.  We never really got too upset about it,  as long as we had the right outfits for the right events.

As a single parent,  I took it back to my grandmotherʻs theories.  Hers were far cheaper than modern living.  This enabled me to enrich my children with other experiences, as opposed to being in the house with a lot of stuff to clean.  But the fact of the matter was that I did not raise them materialistically because I knew what happens to material things.  I also secretly wondered where it all went after the trash truck picked it up.  That meant that later on,  somebody was going to have one huge smelly mess to clean.  No good.

My grandmother taught me crazy things like how to reuse ziploc bags and the art of jarring.  She made most of my clothes and I proudly wore them as custom designs.  I thought that other people were less fortunate that nobody loved them enough to make them clothes.  I didnʻt know it was a poverty thing.  We walked everywhere and she said that cars make fat people.  We were too good to be fat.  Unfortunately,  that prophecy came true once I did start driving.

My life taught me so many lessons on how to preserve what you have,  or take care of things so that they will take care of you.  I also learned that taking care of your stuff saves you money to help others.  This saving stuff really goes far. 

~Topic 2~

Environmental issues stem from a lot of things but since each one of us is only one person,  we can only do one personʻs worth of making positive change in the world,  or on a more global scale.  

Looking at ourselves in context with a whole globe can be a bit overwhelming.  So we break it down to a "one person level" to make the global scale match the world we live in.  From the world to us,  we see the whole globe first.  From the whole globe,  point to your continent or land mass.  From there,  point to where you live.  This is where you will do most of your helping,  although you would never believe how far - just your help goes.

In practicing home remedies for otherwise expensive, lung damaging cleansers,  I have saved thousands of dollars!  This came as a surprise to me too,  especially when I found out that baking soda and cheap dry laundry detergent are the same thing as Oxyclean.  I also found that either baking soda or vinegar cleans most surfaces and if you put lemon or orange rinds in the vinegar water,  after 3 days it will be the most beautiful smelling power cleanser for every spray bottle! 

But in moving on,  I found a million little ways to save both money and the environment, making life so much cheaper and less harmful to the global environment!

~Topic 3~

Now the third part of the equation is actually activism.  I am not happy with the way the corporate world is handling things and I feel the need to break the monopoly.  The single most powerful way to make a point and pseak your message is through money.  Follow the money.  Always.  So I donʻt want to buy from the bad guys who treat workers bad,  who keep high prices for no good reason,  and who do bad things like poison our food.  If I have to question it,  itʻs poison.  If I canʻt read the ingredients,  itʻs poison.   If my grandmother couldnʻt cook it,  it must be poison, because she made everything from scratch.

~Progress Tracking~

Letʻs take a look at some progress.  Iʻve lived in several different regions in the last decade,  but monopoly stores are everywhere.

Walmart: 

1997 - the first time I saw one

2007 - shopped there a handful of times between this decade,  but nothing notable

2008 - it was the only store to get most of your stuff from

2008 - $3600-5000 

2009 - $4000-6000

2010 - $3000-4500

2011 - $1600-2000

2012 - $1200-1600

2013 - $1000-1500

2014 - $600-1000

2015 - $600-1000 +major increase in family size

2016 - $600-1000

2017 - $1500-2000 (the only furniture I could afford)

2018 - $500-800

2019 - $100-400

McDonalds:

1997 - 0 

1998 - $20

1999 - $100

2000 - $100-250

2001 - $100-250

2002 - $250-500  (Kidsʻ father was big on McDonalds)

2003 - $400-750

2004 - $400-750

2005 - $350-500

2006 - $200-400

2007 - $500-750 (Homeless in Philadelphia with kids)

2008 - $500-750

2009 - $400-600

2010 - $350-600

2011 - $250-450

2012 - $100-250

2013 - $250-400

2014 - $250-400

2015 - $400-700 + major increase in family size

2016 - $500-800

2017 - $250-500

2018 - $200-350

2019 - $50-100

Kmart  - maybe $50/year

Burger King - maybe $50/year 

Jack in the Box - maybe $50-75/year

Taco Bell - maybe $50/year

Genuine & Local Owned Restaurants - We try to go 6 times/year

Movies & Entertainment Spending - We try to go 2 times/year

90% of retailers that we shop are locally owned,  as a lifestyle.  

Processed Food:

1999 - 10%

2000 - 35%

2001 - 35%

2002 - 50%

2003 - 50%

2004 - 50%

2005 - 45%

2006 - 30%

2007 - 75%

2008 - 60%

2009 - 60%

2010 - 60%

2011 - 50%

2012 - 20%

2013 - 35%

2014 - 20%

2015 - 25%

2016 - 45%

2017 - 35%

2018 - 30%

2019 - 25%

**Fluctuations due to activity levels and family size vs food affordability.  Certain years are higher due to homelessness.

Single Use Plastic Trails:

1999-2007  Everything was disposable,  however:

                      ***re-cycling, re-using, and  re-purposing

                      personal challenges for a one man change:

                      ***zero styrofoam

                      ***compostable materials

2007-2013  Life was purely about survival, new challenges added

                      ***Ended use of balloons,  altogether

                      ***Household ban on CFCʻs

                      ***Began making household products

                      ***Saving single use plastic utensils and cups

                      ***Begin to use less plastic

2013-2019  Improvement sought, new challenges added

                      ***End single plastic use

                      ***Re-purpose harder

                      ***End tupperware use

                      ***End plastic straw use

                      ***End paper plate use

                      ***End paper cup use

                      ***Begin jarring

                      ***Donate recyclables to poor & recycling

Removing consumerism wasnʻt easy and all started with 5 levels to the challenge.  Certain challenges were harder than others.  These challenges forced a lot of thinking,  sacrificing,  explaining to kids and more.  Often times,  I would break the explanation down in these areas for the kids to understand.  This was how I told them about our life changes:

"For thousands of years,  even long before Jesus,  our people roamed the earth and traveled with food.  They took food to grow,  for the stuff that doesnʻt stay long or we needed a lot of.  In some of our cultures (we are multiracial) they took this food for hundreds of miles on the ocean,  in canoes.  Then they grew more of it when they got to their new home.   People survived on plants and things they made from the plants.  I do not know much of their knowledge,  but I know the plants for where we live now.  We can start there.  

Only in the last 100 years,  were there things like plastic,  modern medicine,  pills,  fake stuff that scientists make in their science projects,  and big drugs problems.  I think that as long as fruit rotted,  there were alcoholics.   But all these things go against nature and they eventually make us sick and sometimes even die.  

The plastic gets in our foods and poisons our bellies.  Thatʻs one reason that so many people are not healthy.  It also gets stuck on animals and sometimes makes them die too.  If plastic gets into the ground,  it will be in our food and we will get sick.  We donʻt have anywhere to put plastic,  because it is not from Earth.   The Earth gets sick too,  if she has to eat it.

They even invented fake food.  Sometimes we eat the fake food because somebody else gave it to us,  then we like it.  But its bad,  so mommy wonʻt give you a lot of it.  We have a super mission to save the planet, just like all your superheroes.  But theyʻre grown and youʻll get special powers from the Earth too,  if you take good care of it.  So while we learn and grow,  we are going to practice.  As you grow up,  we will both get better.  And by the time you grow up,  you will be ready to become a superhero of your own special kind."

***This helps you get past all topic points at the top, in truth & reality.***

With the money you save from saving the Earth,  you are now able to spend more quality time and money with your family,  making organic memories that count.  Removing consumerism goes a lot deeper than that,  but I suspect that this is a lot to do for some,  and growth-based change takes even more self-reassurance than just a change in direction.  Growing is never comfortable but it is always worth it.  Grow with love and genuine happiness.  Be thankful,  respectful,  loyal,  honest and most of all friendly.  All of these small things matter and are contagious.  Thank you for always being brave enough to step up your game and creating new trends.  

Copyright,  June 2019