Cutting back on stuff

So, I have been talking about reducing the ‘stuff’ that we consume for the last few posts. You can see the list of stuff for the month of April here. I would encourage anyone reading this to try recording all the stuff they buy or are given for a month, and how much they spend. I think you will be surprised at the amount of small items that may otherwise go unnoticed. The question for me is, could I cut this list by 90%?

There are some things that would be really easy to not buy. For instance, I purchased the fibre plant pots, partly because I was impatient for empty loo rolls to become available, and partly because I was trying to grow sweet corn for the first time and the packet suggested using fibre pots because they don’t like having their roots disturbed. To be honest I am not impressed with them and regret buying so many. (The sweet corn are not looking impressed either :-( ) The plastic seed propagator I also didn’t like, because when I tried to get the modules out as a tidy cube, ready to plant on, the compost just crumbled away, offering no protection to the root. What did I do wrong? Plant label tags, seemed like a good idea, because I am normally too lazy to mark where my row of seeds are, making it difficult to weed, but really with a little fore-thought I could have saved wooden lolly sticks. Part of this spend is experimental and also I got caught up in the panic of having a late spring.

I have stepped my gardening up a notch this year, and gardening stuff was 20% of my spend for the month. Some of the items I bought can go on being used year after year, like the seed tray and water sprayer, so really this is an investment in a new venture. I did in addition use a whole host of pots, plastic tubs, egg boxes, leftover seeds, seeds that came free with other stuff and saved potatoes, so the vast majority of what I have used has been free.

The dwarf apricot tree, is rather expensive and also a bit of a risk in our climate. My view is that if I am going to invest in a long-term exercise like growing trees, then I need to give myself the best start possible. I am quite happy to buy 10 pak choi plants from the market for £1, but if I am going to dedicate part of my garden to a tree for the next 10 to 20 years, then I would rather buy it from somewhere I trust. I purchased a cheap ‘dwarf’ plum tree from the local DIY store four years ago. It certainly isn’t dwarf, has only had plums on last year, and then every plum had a maggot in it. This spring there has been no blossom, so it is going to get the chop.

Looking at all the compost and mulch, and how expensive it has become, I am going to put a lot more effort in with my own compost. Currently I have a shop bought compost bin, which seems to act more like a wormery. I bought it to reduce the rubbish that I discard, and for that purpose it is excellent. I can load it with 10L of vegetable peelings a week and the magic worms just make it disappear. When it comes to emptying out the ‘compost’, it is just one wet mass of worms and twigs that sticks to my fork. Once the worms wriggle away there is little ‘compost’ left. I think I need to have an open compost bin allowing more air in, so will be knocking something up this summer with some scrap wood or just reverting to having a pile of compost.

In addition I pay the council £15 a year for a brown wheelie bin for garden waste, which they collect every 2 weeks and then I buy cheap sacks of compost from them. This makes no sense does it? Pay to take it away and pay to get it back! I’m not sure I have the space to compost everything, but I will certainly be looking to reduce the amount that goes in my brown bin from now on.

I missed the Transition seed swap this year, but I will make sure I attend next year and will also do their workshop on seed saving, which should help reduce the seeds that I buy. I think I will always need to buy some grit to dig into the soil, whenever I reclaim a new area of my garden for growing. It is such heavy clay soil and really poor drainage. Does anyone know of a free alternative?

If all goes well, then next year’s spend on the garden front could be significantly reduced, to just garden gloves, grit, half the compost, a few packets of seeds and some baby plants, costing about £23 and saving 75%. What I like about this is that I have determined the skills I need to learn to take the next step towards sustainability in the garden.

The largest chunk of spending for April was on kids clothes and shoes. Out of the 8 clothes that I bought for my youngest daughter last month 2 were made in Sri Lanka, 2 in Cambodia, 1 in Portugal, 1 in Tunisia and 2 in Bangladesh, where the tragedy of the collapsed garment factory is still unfolding, and over 1,000 people have lost their lives. (You may wish to support the People Tree’s Rag Rage petition to get compensation for the Bangladeshi workers and improve health and safety conditions.)

Four or five years ago my oldest daughter saw a documentary on TV showing young boys, the same age as her little brother, working long hours sewing sequins on clothes. These clothes were then sold in one of the discount chain stores in our town. It was upsetting and we gathered up all the clothes that we had bought from that store and gave them all to charity. I have tried to buy at least some ethical clothes since then, but it is difficult. Does anyone know where I can find fair-trade school trousers for instance?
 

My youngest daughter gets a lot of hand-me-down clothes and we hardly ever buy new clothes for her, as we did this month. She was so thrilled with her new clothes that I felt somewhat guilty. She does normally enjoy getting given clothes too. This week I have written to the clothing retailer to ask about their ethics. I am sure they will tell me that their clothes are made in reputable factories, but at least my letter might add to the pressure to improve working conditions.

 
Transition Town Totnes have produced a LocalEconomic blueprint for their town, which really explains the importance of buying local and keeping money and jobs in the local community. The main output of Loughborough used to be hosiery and garment making, but it has all gone now. I will hunt around and see what locally made clothing I can find. Meanwhile I have a plan to make the hand-me-down clothes more appealing. Firstly I will make sure I wash everything before I even show it to the kids. That way, the clothes won’t smell differently, or of other people. Next I will do some measuring against existing clothes, so I know what is likely to fit and what should be put away until later. My kids get fed up of trying things on quite quickly, so this may save some rejections. Thirdly I will make more effort to repair and make good any items that I can, and even re-use material to make something else.

I already wear clothes until they are worn out, and buy ethically where I can. But I can’t stop my kids from growing! This area of my spending, which is 55% of the month’s spend, is going to be tough to crack, unless I can start making clothes again....

As for the other 25% of my one month spend, they are oddballs really. For instance the laundry basket should last me another 10 years, before it needs replacing. (I did have dreams of making one out of wicker though, before my husband just went out and bought a plastic one!) The old peg rack only got broken because the dog was stealing socks from it, so we have moved it out of her reach. The dog only needed an injection because she broke her leg a couple of months back, so hopefully that won’t be needed again. I buy half a dozen books a year at most, and mainly second hand. I am given books and I pass on my books after I have read them, which feels sustainable to me. The DVD is a one off and I will pass it on now I have watched it. There will always be sports equipment though. I have no plan for how to reduce this area of spending, I will just have to keep an eye on it.

I realise now that it would have been helpful if I could have tracked where all my stuff came from. This is because everything that is made outside the UK is never included as part of the UK’s carbon emissions. When we talk of China’s emissions rising, a large part of that is down to producing products for people in other countries. Our government sees it as China’s problem and takes no responsibility for the overseas coal-fired power stations that provide the energy for the goods that we ultimately consume. (You could also say the same about worker conditions and ethics, which are also out of sight and out of mind!)

If you have any more ideas of where I can cut back on stuff, then let me know.

One month stuff analysis

After the relief of finally getting my One month spend list posted I can do some analysis.

What I wanted to determine is whether tracking the money we spent gives an indication of the amount of stuff we have consumed. In a rough and ready kind of way, I feel it does. Second hand and re-used items are free or cost less, so increasing the re-use of items rather than buying new would show a drop in money spent, which is good. What is missed by just tracking money, is whether a product is local or fair-trade. Local products are likely to be more environmentally friendly especially if they are made with local resources, and in the UK this also means that they are fair-trade. We have a minimum wage and a welfare system which provides healthcare and education for all, so it is far less likely that people have been exploited to make these products.

As fair-trade and some local products can be more expensive than cheaply produced imports, for tracking purposes it could look as if you are buying more stuff, rather than trying to be more ethical. But as the aim is to track stuff and reduce resource use, fair-trade and local products are still consuming materials, so their contribution should count. Also I haven’t bought any fair-trade goods in April, so their effect on my spend over the year is likely to be fairly small. The local products I have bought such as the pak choi plants, were from the local market and far cheaper than purchasing from a store, so there is not always a premium for local goods.

The other issue is whether the purchase is necessary and useful. I can see several areas where I could avoid some of my purchases and will discuss these further. However as far as tracking is concerned, unnecessary stuff will end up as waste, so maybe monitoring waste would give a fairer picture of this. (Don’t worry I am not going to keep a photo journal of my rubbish J)

 

So given that using money spent is a fair enough method of tracking stuff, what does the UK’s spend on stuff look like?

The Household final consumption expenditure in the UK for 2012 was £973,393 million (around $1,512 billion) (Office for National Statistics, Statistical bulletin: Consumer Trends Q4 2012). With a population of 63 million in the UK, that makes £15,406 per person ($23,945). This seemed rather high, and looking at the detail includes food, energy, vehicles and housing costs. Splitting it down to just ‘Household goods and services’, ‘Recreation and culture’, and ‘Clothing and footwear’, which more or less covers all the items I have included in my list, it comes to an average of £3,283.94 ($5,104.56) per person per year.

Sharon Astyk had a target of reducing consumption by 90% of the average for the US, so for comparison I have looked for figures from the US, and found the total Personal Consumption Expenditure is £7,237 billion ($11,249 billion) (US department of commerce: Bureau of Economic Analysis, National Income and Product Accounts Tables, Table2.3.5. Personal Consumption Expenditures by Major Type of Product). Using a population of 307million (The United States Census Bureau, The 2012 Statistical Abstract, Population) that gives £23,575 ($36,643 per person). Breaking it down, the categories don’t quite match with the UK, but the best fit is using ‘Furnishings’, ‘Recreational goods and vehicles’, ‘other durable goods’(jewellery, luggage, phones), ‘Clothing and footwear’ and ‘Recreation services’. It comes to an average of £3,370 ($5239) per person.

I was surprised that this was so similar to the UK figure, but then we have VAT to pay on all our purchases, which is currently 20%. A quick look on a comparison site shows that consumer goods are on average 25% more expensive in the UK. This has really mucked up my figures! The point is though, that even if we do consume 25% less stuff in the UK than people in the US, we would still need to reduce our consumption by 86% to reach the same target. So while we may feel that we are less extravagant, there is really no room for complacency because we are still significant consumers.

Based on a monthly spend of £442 ($684) for 5 people, our annual average individual spend would be £1,060 ($1648), that is far below the average, but it is not very accurate. I mean just imagine the fridge broke down in April, it could have doubled my spend for the month. I really need to collect a full years worth of data to have a better idea and see if we can make reductions. Hopefully the UK average figures above will give other people something to compare their spend against in any case.
 

One month stuff

In the previous post, I promised a photo journal of all the stuff we have purchased over the month of April, and finally it is complete. Sorry that it has taken me so long to post this. I didn’t start at the beginning of April and had to do some head-scratching to work out what we had already bought. Even when I thought I was on the ball, items kept slipping past me unrecorded.  

 

It is a long list for just 1 month and is the total for 5 people including gifts and services, but excluding food, toiletries and business purchases. I like data in tables, but my blog doesn’t, so you may need to click on the link if you want to read the descriptions.



 

Click to enlarge

 



I was pretty surprised to see the amount of stuff we have accumulated in just one month. Total spend on stuff for the month was £442 ($684), grouped into 30 photos, but actually closer to 50 individual items. Let me know what you think – does it seem excessive or meagre? I can definitely see some areas where I can reduce on stuff, but 90% less is going to be a tough target. I will do some analysis in the next post.

Part 5: 90% Stuff continued

I am trying to get my head around measuring how much stuff I ‘consume’ and how to reduce it to 90% of the average American’s consumption. How much stuff do we consume in the UK and how do we compare? I am struggling with the measurement of this, because counting money spent would be the simplest, but does that really equate to stuff?

For instance, if I were to stop at McDonald’s and buy a Happy Meal, it comes complete with a crap plastic toy that amuses kids for about 3 minutes. Sometimes these toys come with tiny batteries to make them flash, sing or beep. If you want to dispose of this toy safely, you are supposed to remove the batteries first. Has anyone else tried to do this? They were never designed for the batteries to be removed, and I have resorted to using a hacksaw on occasions. (This must contravene some EU regulations surely?)

What I’m trying to say is that some stuff, like the McD toy, comes for free and is completely useless. Yet significant amounts of energy and raw materials have been used to produce it, it has been transported long distances and is in no way re-usable or recyclable. Compare this to my favourite jumper which was rather expensive, because it is a fair-trade item that was hand-knitted in Nepal (yes, still not local), with 100% wool, and it will keep me warm for years, until it is worn out, when it will go to be recycled. More expensive still was my bike, but by using it I save fuel, get exercise, have fun and if I keep it maintained it could last for decades. When I give up cycling or get a new bike, it will be sold second-hand and could continue to be used and enjoyed.

How can we measure stuff based on the amount we spend alone, when there is so much more involved than that? I have decided to monitor our stuff for a month by keeping a photo record of everything I buy. This won’t include food stuff and toiletries which I am dealing with separately, or work purchases. Already this is an eye-opener, and it is making me consider much more, whether it is really necessary and if there are alternatives, such as buying more things second-hand instead. I will post the full compilation on the 1^st May.

I like the idea of buying second hand clothes. The original owner is responsible for the resources used and pollution created, so in theory I can buy them with a free conscience. Some of my friends and my eldest daughter find fantastic outfits for next to nothing in the second hand shops and online, but I am not good at it. Firstly, having spent the last 20 years shopping with young kids in tow, I avoid any shops that require hunting through clothes for the correct size. After a minute of standing still, my children become bored and then start playing hide and seek in the clothes rails, or start whinging. This diverts my attention and raises my stress level, so I will undoubtedly leave empty-handed. Nowadays I get some free time without kids, but it seems too precious to spend shopping.

Secondly, I am not an average size which cuts down on choice. With a bunch of clothes from different outlets the sizes can vary and everything needs to be tried on, regardless of what the label says.

I am not bothered about fashion or having lots of different outfits. I would rather buy something new, that I like, is good quality and is a nice fit, and then wear it until its only good for rags. This way I really get my money’s worth. Young children’s clothes are often outgrown before they are worn out, so there is much more potential for ‘hand-me-downs’. I look for fair-trade and organic items, but apart from the expense, they are not easy to find in larger sizes or for kids.

 

Meanqueen has some money saving tips on her blog Life AfterMoney, one of which is that she always wears mens pants because they are designed to last far longer than womens. It is definitely true that mens clothes are designed to be much more hard-wearing. Good news for my shopping averse husband, who’s clothes seem to last him decades ;-)

 

Other than clothes for me, I get given a lot of second hand stuff, from cookbooks to tennis rackets, knitting needles, kids clothes, jigsaws and garden tools. Also some things we have had the opportunity to buy secondhand, for instance cars, our sofa, printers, computers, mobiles, and books. With the all the internet sites for selling unwanted goods, this is so much easier and very popular now. But where we excel is not buying things in the first place. Well, maybe ‘excel’ is too strong a word, but I think we are quite good at this.  

Rule one is if you don’t go shopping, then you don’t buy anything. If you do have to shop then make a list and try to stick to it. I will only buy furnishings and furniture if my partner is with me, because I like to buy something we agree on. Of course he hates shopping for furnishings, so that cuts out a lot of spending opportunities. Kids toys is an area where I used to take care, especially when they were younger, selecting toys that would last, can be shared and could be added to, like lego, board games and a climbing frame (after 16 years I gave it to my cousin for her children!).

Reducing the amount we spend on stuff by 90% seems incredibly hard. It isn’t just a matter of cutting back. To achieve anywhere near this reduction will involve some lifestyle changes. Changing the way you shop, determining what your true needs are, minimising what you need, re-using items, sourcing secondhand goods, buying things to last longer, maintaining what you already have, sharing where you can and making things yourself, are all going to be necessary to achieve such an ambitious, but necessary, target. Hmmm....

Checkout why this reduction is so necessary here.

Dream

I had a vivid dream that I thought I would share. It went like this.....

 

We arrived at a campsite, a lovely green grassy field sloping down to a beautiful golden sandy beach and the sea beyond. It was a typical British coastal scene complete with dunes and a cafe selling teas, but not anywhere real that I had visited. There was a stiff breeze at first, so there weren’t many people on the campsite or wandering along the beach, but everyone I saw smiled at us and nodded a polite greeting.

I felt that we should pick a pitch and set up camp first, but the sea sparkled in the light and the soft, golden sand looked warm and enticing, so we ambled down to the beach. We walked along the beach and then sat on the sand, and enjoyed the feel of the warm sand. The children ran to the sea and we relaxed, breathing in the beautiful scenery and enjoying the tranquillity, in the early evening sun.

When we finally turned back to the campsite the number of people around had swollen, and as we reached the edge of the camping field it was busy. At a glance I could see that all the best pitches had been taken. The ones that I had coveted, on the flat ground closest to the beach, with a wonderful view out to sea, were now full of close-knitted tents. So began the hunt for a suitable plot to pitch the tent on, though it was a choice of severely sloping land or a rather boggy patch. All the while the field filled up with more tents and more people, and we were driven further back up the steep hill away from the view and the beach.

Now I am not normally one to dwell on dreams but this one was rather vivid and seemed to convey so many possible meanings. It may be the story of my longing for some land. Finding a patch to reside on, in order to become more resilient and sustainable, is becoming harder and harder. The impossible task of trying to find an affordable plot locally is it's own nightmare. Or the dream could be conveying my concern about overpopulation, and the worry of how there can be enough space and resources for everyone. (That may be due to commenting on population increases before going to bed.) Or perhaps it is just that spring is in the air and there is always so much that needs to be done, but the temptation is to sit out in the warm sunshine and just be.

It is also a reminder about leaving things too late, just as in the story of the cricket and the ant. The ant spent his time wisely, working steadily all summer to collect food to store for the winter. The cricket however enjoyed the summer relaxing and left it too late to prepare for winter. Then as the last leaves are falling and there are barely any nuts or fruit left, the cricket realises he has left it too late and scurries around at the last minute trying to find the last scraps of the harvest. He wishes he had followed the advice of the ant rather than laughing at him. 

I have been working on my garden, preparing a new vegetable patch and growing seeds indoors. I am also planning to de-clutter and re-organise to give me more storage space in the kitchen. In fact my head is full of jobs and improvements and my desk is covered in to-do lists, which I am slowly ticking off. But the warm sun has been sorely missed.

 

Last summer was not great. The sunniest week in the Midlands, was the week that we weren’t there. We were on holiday in Ireland. The West coast of Ireland is beautiful and full of history and dramatic scenery, but we barely got more than an hour or two at a time when it wasn’t raining. The weather varied between a light drizzle, to a full downpour (as it had for the previous month in England!). My shorts barely made it out of my bag, let alone beachwear! And yes we were mad enough to be camping on a sloping green field with a view out towards the golden beach and sea beyond.......