Smug pollutes the atmosphere
There come points in your life when you realise you have passed from one stage to the next, without realising it. The point when i realised i was no longer an impoverished grad student, but in fact a decent wage-earning adult was when my biking gloves were hole-y and impossible to clean, and i spent the $15 on a new pair really without thinking about it. I needed them, i bought them. No guilt, no bargaining, no rationalizing. Just an offhand purchase as though they were a necessity and not a luxury.
I realised a few days ago that i have passed into another level of economic and financial comfort: The disposable income is sufficient that i can choose ethics over frugality. This is nothing new to anybody who knows me. I haven't shopped at WalMart since i had my first job, so that is no sacrifice. Target and KMart aren't that much more expensive, and i'm not much of a consumer anyway, so that was no great hardship on my wallet.
But a few weeks ago i signed up for organic vegetables delivered to my door. For $27 per delivery i get way more vegetables than two people can eat in a week. (Yes, i'm having it reduced when i get back from the wedding.) I usually only go to the grocery store about once a month, which means i buy very few vegetables that aren't frozen, and are clearly not organic. I tend to spend about $150 when i go to the store for a big trip, so $27 a week is more than half, but if you consider that i'm sharing the vegetables with Mr. New Man, AND that i'm cooking far more than i used to, i'm spending tons less on lunches out. It has gone from 4-5 purchased lunches a week to 1-2 on a bad week. So at $10 a day for lunch, that adds up fast.
Also, i needed that new washing machine, and i drove all the way to South Boston in rush hour traffic to shop at an independent appliance retailer (can NOT say enough good things about Yale Appliance, BTW) instead of going to the Home Depot 1.2 miles from my house. Prices at Home Depot were about 10 % cheaper, which is a lot of money on a big item like a washer. But i wanted to spend the extra money to go there, and hopefully get the better customer service. That gamble paid off hugely.
The final nail in the coffin that is my Smug was the trip to the hardware store a few days ago. I needed bits and pieces: teflon hose for water filter, cabinet mount garbage can, new showerhead. Sexy stuff, you know? Anyway, i passed about 5 Home Despots and a Lowe's on my way home from MNM's (Mr New Man's) house, and i even have a Home Despot gift card i need to use. I don't even object that strongly to Home Depot, i just prefer to spend my money elsewhere. And so i took my little self to the independently owned ACE hardware with the Green Living stickers and Boston Bikemaps and Car Free in Boston literature draped everywhere. Even though i drove there, i felt all green and shiny myself. Spending money at stores that at least attempt to be conscientious. It may be a marketing ploy only, but it works on naíve saps like me.
So does this mean i'm a grownup? Or that i've bought into the propaganda of the People's Republic of Cambridge?
I realised a few days ago that i have passed into another level of economic and financial comfort: The disposable income is sufficient that i can choose ethics over frugality. This is nothing new to anybody who knows me. I haven't shopped at WalMart since i had my first job, so that is no sacrifice. Target and KMart aren't that much more expensive, and i'm not much of a consumer anyway, so that was no great hardship on my wallet.
But a few weeks ago i signed up for organic vegetables delivered to my door. For $27 per delivery i get way more vegetables than two people can eat in a week. (Yes, i'm having it reduced when i get back from the wedding.) I usually only go to the grocery store about once a month, which means i buy very few vegetables that aren't frozen, and are clearly not organic. I tend to spend about $150 when i go to the store for a big trip, so $27 a week is more than half, but if you consider that i'm sharing the vegetables with Mr. New Man, AND that i'm cooking far more than i used to, i'm spending tons less on lunches out. It has gone from 4-5 purchased lunches a week to 1-2 on a bad week. So at $10 a day for lunch, that adds up fast.
Also, i needed that new washing machine, and i drove all the way to South Boston in rush hour traffic to shop at an independent appliance retailer (can NOT say enough good things about Yale Appliance, BTW) instead of going to the Home Depot 1.2 miles from my house. Prices at Home Depot were about 10 % cheaper, which is a lot of money on a big item like a washer. But i wanted to spend the extra money to go there, and hopefully get the better customer service. That gamble paid off hugely.
The final nail in the coffin that is my Smug was the trip to the hardware store a few days ago. I needed bits and pieces: teflon hose for water filter, cabinet mount garbage can, new showerhead. Sexy stuff, you know? Anyway, i passed about 5 Home Despots and a Lowe's on my way home from MNM's (Mr New Man's) house, and i even have a Home Despot gift card i need to use. I don't even object that strongly to Home Depot, i just prefer to spend my money elsewhere. And so i took my little self to the independently owned ACE hardware with the Green Living stickers and Boston Bikemaps and Car Free in Boston literature draped everywhere. Even though i drove there, i felt all green and shiny myself. Spending money at stores that at least attempt to be conscientious. It may be a marketing ploy only, but it works on naíve saps like me.
So does this mean i'm a grownup? Or that i've bought into the propaganda of the People's Republic of Cambridge?