Frugally Green

First of all, I’d like to express my gratitude to everyone that completed the very first Frugally Green survey. Your feedback is really important to me and it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy that I have readers that care enough to give up some of their precious time to help this site be the best it can.  That said, here is a brief review of some of, in my opinion, the most important results:

Everyone that took the survey completed it.  This tells me that I at least formatted it right and made it easy for people to share their thoughts.

An overwhelming majority of responders said that social responsibility, sustainability, and personal development were really important to them, but only half said that personal finance was kind of important.  I never would have guessed that second part.  I’ll be doing some real brain busting to figure out what this means to me and how I can better connect with you.

I noted that I was thinking of writing an e-book and threw out a few titles for consideration.  The most popular one was A Frugally Green Reference Guide: Affordable Sustainability for Every Facet of Life. Automated Environmentalism: Set It and Forget It as well as Nature’s Money: Greening Your Finances did well also.  This will be my first big project here and I am really excited to get started.  I’ve never written an e-book before, but there’s a first time for everything.  I hope you look forward to it as much as I do.

I got some interesting responses to“What’s one burning question you have about personal finance and/or sustainability?”  I am planning to answer all of them in an upcoming post. That should be a good time!

Finally, a few of you asked some personal questions and requested feedback.  I will be following up with all of those questions over the next week.  If you ever have a question you’d like me to address, don’t hesitate to contact me.

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Thank you so much for being a part of the first of many surveys.  I love hearing about what I can do to make this a more valuable place to you. Together, we will take over the world!  Alright then, enough with the mushy stuff.  On to the cool bits around the web this week:

Helen Maynard at Affine Financial Services explains a bit about why she is a “solar skeptic” with her thought provoking post, Sustainable Energy: Solar Cell Skeptic. Helen talks a bit about the manufacturing process for solar energy and touches on some of the fuzzy science behind the real energy “break even” time on a solar panel. She says:

“I would rather use Uncle Sam’s money to figure out which of the bazillion solar cell configurations currently under development (or on university sketchpads around the world) is the best solution, rather than burn our limited fossil fuels creating thousands (millions?) of metric tons of mediocre stuff right now.

I can get behind that 100%.

Getting 133 MPG in a 1998 Pontiac certainly caught my attention when I saw it pop up on The Daily Green.  It’s an interview with a gentleman, Darin Cosgrove,  who got the itch to learn about hypermiling long before there was a term for it.  I have no qualms admitting that Darin absolutely puts me to shame.  I’m still hypermiling like crazy, but my efficiency has dropped off a bit since the colder weather kicked in.  You can point and laugh by following me on Fuelly.

Finally, a Frugally Green reader, Jen over at The ArkHaus let me know that she was working on a few frugally green projects herself.  Little did I know that what she meant was she’s building a whole stinkin’ eco-compound of off-the-grid container houses with her boyfriend and their family.  And no, they’re not huddled in the corner of some of some old rusty shipping box.  These things are chic.  Jen, if you’re reading this, I hope you see the incredible business potential!

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Here’s a roundup of blog carnivals that Frugally Green participated in this week.  Thanks to all the hosts.

Zach at Zachstocks published the Carnival of Financial Planning.

The Carnival of the Green was hosted this week by Tate over at Green Stocks Central.

Thanks to The Skilled Investor for hosting the Best of Money Carnival.

The Festival of Frugality can be found over at Gather Little by Little, hosted by Mike.

Kyle over at Amateur Asset Allocator was kind enough to host the Money Hacks Carnival.

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Connect with me on Twitter: @FrugallyGreen

Surveying image by Wessex Archaeology

Do you harbor any fantasies that you wish you could fulfill but don’t think you can afford?  What about guilty pleasures you’ve given up for the sake of the environment?  In my quest for a sound financial and eco-friendly future, I’ve done a lot of thinking about the things I’m “giving up.”

The truth is, I don’t really feel like I’ve given up anything.  The more I search to find something, the more I realize how much I’ve gained.

• I quit driving my truck all over town, but I’ve gotten extra exercise and learned how to relax a little by riding my bike instead.  I’ve noticed things you don’t notice in a car and I’ve learned about bike maintenance.

• I quit using my dryer and found out that hang drying my clothes actually saves me time because I’m not waiting around for the dryer to stop.

• I quit eating meat every day and realized how little I was enjoying it.  Now when I eat it, I actually appreciate it.  I’ve learned about new foods and ways to prepare them.

One of the things people worry about when they decide that they really want to change is that they’ll have to give up all of the things that they love.  I worried about that too, but now that I’m on the other side of the fence, I can see what I couldn’t see before – all the opportunities.

What do you feel like you have to give up if you want to lead a sustainable life?  Is there something nagging at you that is holding you back?  What if you knew now what I learned the hard way? Would you even hesitate?

Opportunity Costs

Life is is full of opportunity costs.  When you decide to change your habits, you also decide whether to work for or against yourself.  By dwelling on what you’re “giving up” you mask everything you’re gaining in the trade off.

If you’re trying to save more money, but your standard operating procedure is to spend all your extra income every paycheck, you’re probably going to have a hard time seeing any benefits when your main focus is on the latte you’re missing out on. There’s always an upside, you just have to find it.

Why do you even want to change?

So why have you decided to do something different?  If you never had to worry about money and you didn’t care about sustainability, would you still want to change?  Are you trying to achieve something that goes deeper than the surface of these issues?  If you’re not, then maybe that’s the problem.

Money and the environment are external issues.  They’re outside influences.  Meaningful change comes from within. If you decide to rearrange your life because everyone else thinks that it ’s important, you’ll never get there because  no one else really knows what’s best for you – not like you do.

If your only goal is to minimize something about yourself that you perceive as negative, you’re destined for failure.  Without an upside, there’s no way to stay positively focused on your goal.  You have to look at what you’re getting in return.

Test, test, and test some more

Now it’s time to get focused. So you gave up your daily latte.  Now what?  You’ve got more money.  Why?  What are you going to do with it?  You have to get clear on this if you want meaningful change to occur.  Do you want to buy a house?  How many lattes do you have to give up to save up a down payment?  A hell of a lot, right?  Are there any other things sucking money from your life that you don’t notice because they do nothing for you?

Test, test, and test some more until you figure out what’s actually going to work. As the 80/20 rule applies, you’re going to try a whole bunch of things that do little for you until you eventually find something minute that sends you soaring.  Trying to find this needle in the haystack can be frustrating at first, but finding it is the difference between ‘just making it’ and totally kicking ass.

In my case, I didn’t start off each change with a solid perspective of what I was going to get out of it, but I was able to keep my mind open long enough to find them.  Sure enough, there they were.  I had to do a little tweaking along the way, but the benefit was there.

If you think there’s something in your life that you need to change, and you’re not certain what the outcome will be, try it anyway!  Action always beats inaction and if you decide later that what you’ve changed isn’t working for you, well, you know exactly what you can go back to until you try again.

Scarcity vs. abundance

In all your efforts, I think there is one thing that should never be forgotten – creating meaningful change is not about settling for less.  It’s about finding ways that less can create more - more enjoyment by forgetting about the things that don’t matter, more time by eliminating inefficiencies in your life, and more money by spending less on things you don’t care about and more on things that bring value to your life.

I gave my examples above.  What negatives are you trying to change that could be spun into more positive aspirations? How can you do more with less?

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Connect with me on Twitter: @FrugallyGreen

Problems are Opportunities image by DonnaGrayson

You know that feeling you get when you suddenly realize how many things you have to get done in the next two hours and see that it’s simply not possible to finish them all. For me,   it’s that sudden panic as the overwhelm sets in.  You know what I’m talking about?  That feeling usually lasts a few minutes until you realize that there’s no choice but to eliminate a few things you thought were important if you’re going to even come close to making it.

So what do you do when you feel like the things you have to eliminate to make it are the things you care about the most? I’ve felt that way recently.

It’s been slow at work lately and I’ve been making the best of it by trying to focus my efforts on developing Frugally Green so that I can easily manage it when things eventually pick up again.  But, a few weeks ago, several potential projects all came up at once, and without notice, I was really busy again trying to win more work.  For better or worse, it has settled down and I’ve found myself thinking about some potentially serious disconnects between what I’m doing and what I say my goals are.

When goals and life don’t align

During this busy spell, I noticed that I quickly gave up my goal to eat less meat.  When I only had a few minutes to figure out what to stuff in my mouth before getting back to business, it was too hard, or at least I justified that it was, to spend the extra time trying to find a vegetarian meal that would satisfy.  One weekend I had to work on Sunday, my laundry day, and I simply couldn’t spare the few minutes needed to air dry my clothes, so I put them in the dryer.

If you’ve been reading Frugally Green for awhile, you know that I go on and on about how spending a little time or money up front to do what’s right can really pay off down the line, but now I’ve seen first hand how hard it can be to find those few minutes when your “time bank” is already in debt.

I imagine this must be similar to what it feels like not being able to pay all your bills.  You know that socking away a few dollars every month for retirement is really important, but when a creditor is calling every other day to harass you about a past due account, the sense of urgency that comes with that probably overtakes your mind.

I’ve mentioned before that I’ve been fortunate enough to possess the skills of healthy money management, but what I haven’t mentioned is that I’ve never had much success managing my time.  It’s not something I’m proud of and I was afraid that talking about it could damage my credibility here.  Maybe you’d think I was a hack if I told you about my weaknesses and how I struggle with them?  Maybe you’d quit reading?

Then I realized that it doesn’t matter.  I have to be honest. If I’m experiencing this, then I’m probably not the only one.  Maybe I can even help a few people in the same situation by addressing it.  If anyone did quit reading because of this, then we probably weren’t a good fit for each other anyway, which is perfectly fine.

Recognizing the cause to identify solutions

While I’ve written before about focusing on your strengths and forgetting about your weaknesses, it’s important to note that even though you’re probably never going to turn a weakness into a strength, it’s necessary to bring truly limiting ones up to an acceptable level so that they aren’t actively hindering any of your talents.  That’s what I aim to do now that I’ve realized that my ability to manage time is keeping me from growing the parts of me that I find really important.

After taking a good look at how I approach my goals, I’ve identified three major points of focus for myself to improve my time management in order to allow me to better pursue them.  When you take a good, hard look at yourself, you might find other things that you need to focus on.  Hopefully this will get you started and on the right track.

Pursuing goals simultaneously

Pursuing multiple goals at the same time is the most important thing I can do to make sure I’m fulfilling all of my personal needs.  This can be tricky, though, especially when you have two or more goals that might feel like they’re competing interests.

In my case, I want to do a great job at work because it brings me a sense of fulfillment, but I also want to pursue my personal environmental goals that give me a sense of contribution.

Right now it feels like a game of tug-o-war, but it doesn’t have to.  In order to meld these goals, I’m going to start analyzing and simplifying the steps necessary to complete my most important green goals to make them more portable and adaptable.  Reducing my meat consumption is difficult when I don’t have the time to wander the grocery store for ideas or find a restaurant that cares that I’m not a carnivore that day.

So, I will begin to assemble a weekly shopping list with adaptable vegetarian items that I can work into many different meals and start bringing them to work.  This will serve the double benefit of providing a routine that I can follow but is not so structured that I quickly become bored with it.

What goals do you have that, with a little creativity, could be combined?

Managing many tasks

This feels like it should be the simplest area to improve, but it has evaded me for so long.  Every day we are presented with more options for things to do and tasks to complete than we are capable of handling.

For most of us, these tasks get subconsciously organized and completed based on the habits and biases that we’ve developed throughout our lives.  When we decide to change one of those habits or biases, it becomes necessary to think a little bit harder about how we are going to approach the things we decide to do each day.

For instance, I’ve decided that the absolute most important thing I can do to achieve my environmental and financial goals is to consistently write really great articles for Frugally Green.  Well, before I decided that, my default approach to using my free time was reading blogs, cleaning the house, and doing other random tasks that I thought were necessary to leading a successful life. 

Where was Frugally Green going to fit? To an extent, I am still trying to answer that question.

One major revelation I’ve had, though, came from a fellow named Randy Pausch through his “Last Lecture” about time management.  It’s over an hour long, but it’s worth watching.  If you don’t have the time, let me paraphrase one major point that he makes.

If there’s something that you’re supposed to do, and you can’t concretely see how it’s going to help you achieve your goal, ask yourself these three questions:

• If I don’t do it, will I get arrested?

• If I don’t do it, will I get fired?

• If I don’t do it, will my family leave me?

If you can answer no to those three questions, then it’s not actually important and you don’t have time to waste on it. As it turns out, reading blogs, cleaning the house, and doing random tasks were all things I didn’t have time to waste on. If, after reading this, you realize that you don’t have time to read Frugally Green and fulfill your dreams, that is a reality that I am willing to live with.  I’d rather you were out getting the most out of life.

Hint: There is a huge difference between urgent and important.  One does not imply the other.  Don’t let an urgent task trick you into thinking that it’s important just because it’s staring you in the face.

Get serious and relax

Finally, I’ve realized that if my main focus is always on being productive and trying to churn out more “stuff” in less time, it doesn’t take me long to get tired and burned out. Always focus on quality over quantity. Becoming a better steward of my money and the environment is hard work that should be taken seriously, but never at the cost of my quality of life.

Knowing when to take a break and relax is one of the most important things I’ve learned I can do for myself.  It provides me the peace of mind and focus needed to be even more productive when I get back to it.  The best way to know if you need a break is to simply ask yourself if you’re having fun. If you’re not, it might be time to take a few minutes to relax and replenish the other parts of your life.

Tip: If you were never having fun in the first place, well, you may need to re-evaluate your goals altogether.

Don’t take life too seriously; you’ll never make it out alive.

How do you manage your time?  How do you make sure you’re focused on what’s important?  When do you know it’s time to take a break or switch gears?

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Connect with me on Twitter: @tylertervooren

Hourglass Image by John-Morgan.

Hey everyone.  Thanks for stopping by.  I am changing the posting schedule for Frugally Green to now include 3 posts every week.  I didn’t know if I would ever get here, but the time has finally come. I started Frugally Green with one post and a prayer back in April and am pleased to now be able to offer you so much more.  I expect this to stretch my abilities as a new writer, but the personal growth will be worth it.  As my dad always said, “nothing worth doing is ever easy.”

You can now expect a new post here every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  I hope that you’re as excited as I am about this.  I can’t wait.

See you Monday! I’ve got my work cut out for me this weekend.

This is the first Friday edition of Frugally Green where I’ll update on things going on with the site and point you to other resources around the web that can help you on your quest to become the frugal environmentalist that you aspire to be!  My plan is to make this a weekly occurrence.

On Wednesday, I promised that I would finally update you all on my computer fiasco.  Nearly two months ago, I came to you begging for help on what to do about my ailing PC.  I wasn’t sure how it would turn out.  I was afraid I wouldn’t get any responses.  I was wrong.  I got lots of great tips and encouragement that spanned an array of opinions.  I want to thank you all so much for your help.

Just over a week ago, I finally received my new (to me) Macbook Pro.  This decision was the result of a lot of thought about how I want (and should) use a computer.  Ultimately, I decided that portability was an important priority that I simply hadn’t considered before. I settled on an Apple machine because I wanted to continue to use the recording software that I’m comfortable with. So, I ended up with a refurbished Macbook and couldn’t be happier.  It didn’t hurt that Apple (accidentally?) shipped me a model with more memory than I had paid for.  Bonus!  I’ll be wearing my palm marks into it for the next decade at which point I’ll ask you for your next suggestion.

Now, I have just a few more hours of work to do on the ol’ desktop that was once my workhorse PC and then it’s off to Free Geek where it will hopefully become a usable machine for someone that really needs it.  Thanks again to everyone that helped me in getting to this decision.

Now, on to the cool stuff going on around the blogosphere:

Heather at The Greenest Dollar reveals a whole bunch of Extraordinary uses for Ordinary Things.  She tells of  set of jelly jars that she converted to candle holders and argues that the things we find valuable in life are those that we give a history to.  If we continuously throw out the old for the new, we rob ourselves the value that comes with caring for an object over a long period of time. Heather goes on to describe a whole bunch of new uses for old objects that she gleaned from a book she read.  I found the sentiment behind her words very moving.

Earth Friendly Holiday Season Tips is a nice little resource for people looking to green up the gift-giving season from Michael over at Green Living Tips (Yes, I know it’s not even Halloween yet!).  There are all kinds of practical ideas from buying rechargeable batteries for gifts to ditching “things” altogether and giving experience based gifts like event tickets instead.  I also really liked the idea of making charitable donations in the names of others, as well.  Christmas is a time when many of us realize that we have so much more than we need and even want.  There are still so many people out there that do not have their basic needs met; I think I’ll be fine without an extra present under the tree this year.

Finally, Aldra at Consciously Frugal wrote a hilarious bit about working class foodies. Aldra always gets me with her wit and I found myself intrigued as I read about the idea of food television for regular people that don’t have spotless kitchens, $10,000 cooking sets, or a make-up and lighting crew.  I am assuming that fits Frugally Green’s demographic pretty well.  If you have a make-up and lighting crew, please identify yourself so that I can contact you about some PR work.

And here are some blog carnivals that Frugally Green is pleased to be a part of this week. Check them out to really work out your learning muscle:

The ever popular Best of Money Carnival was put on by the Canadian Finance Blog (I was the #1 pick this week!)

The Carnival of 20-Something Finances was graciously hosted by The Amateur Financier

Over at Reduce Your CO2 you can read the 199th Carnival of the Green

Green Panda Treehouse hosted the Money Hacks Carnival #87

The 200th Festival of Frugality was put on this week by the lovely Miss Thrifty

You can find the Carnival of Home Improvement over at LEAD Construction

Simply Forties was kind enough to host the Carnival of Money Stories

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Want to get even more out of Frugally Green? Share this post with your friends, leave a comment, or get free updates.

Connect with me on Twitter: @FrugallyGreen

Alright friends, put on your thinking caps.  If you’ve had the itch to boss someone around lately, I am about to present you with an opportunity.  I’ve made a lot of changes in my life over the last 6 months, and I am ecstatic that I have been able to share them with you.  If you haven’t been around too long, check out the archives and make sure you read my last update on how things are going.

Awhile back, I asked you to help me make a decision on a new computer.  You guys were awesome and gave me a ton of feedback.  That really felt good and I want to try it again. By the way, I’m planning an update post very soon to let you know how that whole mess played out.

I’ve been thinking lately about what my next big environmental goal should be.  It’s come time to add a new aspiration to the list.  I started piecing together a few ideas, but then I thought, “Hey, I bet my readers wouldn’t mind having a bit of a say in what goes on around here.” That’s when I decided that it’s your turn to tell me what to do.

Why do I want your input?

I’ve spent plenty of time telling you what to do, now I want to turn the tables a little bit.  I want Frugally Green to feel like your website just as much as it feels like mine.  This is our site!  We’re in this together!  When I started thinking of ways to make that happen, this was a natural fit.

By giving you the opportunity to share your input, I’m hoping to achieve a win-win situation for all of us. By actively asking what meaningful change is to you and making an effort to implement it, I’m aiming to make you feel like you have more ownership of what goes on around here.  I’m constantly looking for more ways to listen to what you have to say and give you what you want.

I love hearing from readers that say I’ve helped them in one way or another, and by opening this up to you, I’m hoping that you’ll feel like you have a real, direct impact on my life.

And what about me?  Well, this should help me out tremendously, as well.  Sometimes I tend to be a stubborn guy.  I have a habit of becoming married to routine and get caught up doing the same thing over and over again without consideration for a change of pace.  What better way to expand my horizon and find new avenues to change than by gathering ideas from you?  I want to become more adaptable to new situations in my life and foster greater connections with you, my readers.

The rules (that you’re free to break)

That said, I only have two guidelines for the types of suggestions I’d like to receive:

• Your suggestion should be truly meaningful to you. You should have a real interest in learning about what you suggest because whatever lifestyle change I decide to make, I will be writing about it.

• Your suggestion should be scalable.  What I mean by this is that I would like to find something that can be implemented relatively quickly with few barriers to entry.  It should be something that the average person could start doing right away and continue to grow into a larger, more advanced lifestyle change over time .  Don’t worry too much about this, though.  If you have an awesome idea that would be a great fit for me and this community, I will find a way to make it work.  Like I said, Frugally Green is a two-way street.

That’s it, really.  I think this will be a great way for me to find something new and exciting to try and an opportunity for you to make me your personal guinea pig.  If there’s something you’ve considered trying but aren’t sure how it will turn out, throw it out there.  Let me take the risk out of the equation for you.  What’s the worst that could happen?  You’ll get a few a good laughs as I crash and burn?  The upside is potentially unlimited for both of us.

So think big and let me have it! Throw your thoughts and ideas out there.  Ask your friends.  Tell your neighbors.  What sort of lifestyle change do you want to see me chronicle on Frugally Green?

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Connect with me on Twitter: @FrugallyGreen

Transforming Man Image by Man met bril

On Thursday, bloggers around the world united to write about one single topic: climate change.  It was an act of solidarity organized by the folks at blogactionday.org.

Every year, a major social topic is selected and willing participants around the world discuss the issue on their blogs on the same day in an attempt to raise widespread awareness.

Unfortunately, little old me didn’t know such a day existed until it was too late. Even though I write about this, one way or another, every day, lets consider this my belated contribution.

I learned about this year’s blog action day from Chris Guillebeau while perusing my new favorite site, The Art of Nonconformity. There’s always some great discussion over there and one comment in particular caught my attention:

Yet again the focus is on the little guy. Does the little led on my TV really matter when cities the world over are full of high rise offices that leave their lights on 24/7? Manufacturing and business produce the most harmful emissions and yet the emphasis is on the little home dweller?

This really got me thinking. Was he right?  Are we picking on the little guys when the the big boys are the ones causing all the problems?

What difference does it make that I turn off all of my lights when the office buildings down the street leave theirs on all night doing 10,000 times more damage than I ever could?  Who cares if we buy an electric car when all the electricity it produces comes from a wildly smoking coal plant hundreds of miles away?

Why should I bother?

Here’s why: because you and I are the most powerful change agents that exist on this planet.

You may think that you can’t make a difference and that some guy in a suit sitting in an ivory tower that doesn’t care about you is calling all the shots, but it’s not true.

We own that suit.  We own that ivory tower.  When we say jump, that guy listens. The only reason he isn’t jumping yet is because we haven’t told him to. Maybe we’ve started, but we haven’t raised our voice yet.  You and I hold all of the power. Let’s wield it.

How corporations work

The  #1 responsibility of every corporation that exists is to make money for its shareholders.

Sure, they all have noble secondary goals that tout their value to society, but the one, big, underlying goal that every single one of them is a slave to is to make lots of money for the people that invest in them.  The beauty in this is that, usually, the very noble secondary goals must be met in order to generate that profit.

They have to provide us with something that we find valuable enough to trade our hard earned money for.

You see, you and I don’t really care about shareholders and all those shinanigans.  How much money they make doesn’t bother us so long as we think we’re getting a good deal for something useful. In fact, if we decided to pay attention to all that, we might even be happy that these businesses that are making our lives so much better are making tons of money.

This is where we get to step in and call the shots.

Why you and I are responsible

Like I mentioned above, if a business must attract tons of our money to return great amounts of it to shareholders, it has to impress the heck out of us. To impress the heck out of us, what it offers must deeply connect with what we value the most.

Whatever it is that you and I find the most important in life, a company must provide to us in order to rise to the top.

So the buck stops at you.  It stops at me.  What do we really care about?

Do we care that Corporation A runs a sweat shop filled with incandescent lights that stay on all day and night? Does it matter to you that Corporation B swallows up tons of resources and spews out waste at an alarming rate?  What about Corporation C that produces its own energy with wind and solar power and recycles all its waste back into its production stream? Does any of that actually matter?

What I believe the commenter on Chris’ post points out, inadvertently, is that it does not. We all say we care about and want the best for our environment, but is that really true?  Every marketer out there that’s worth his weight in salt knows that what we consumers say we want and what we actually want are oftentimes very contradictory.

McDonalds knows this better than any business out there and they openly admit it.  Their customers say they want salads, so McDonalds offers just enough varieties of them to get you to come in and buy a cheeseburger.

If we really, truly, in our heart of hearts, valued Corporation C above, that business model would be the industry norm.  But we don’t and it isn’t.  What we really care about is money and giving up just enough of it to get something just barely acceptable in return.

We care about this because it strengthens our ability to do it again and again. We’re consumers.  Now, don’t get offended. I’m guilty as sin.  Luckily, there’s something we can do.

The power we wield

What we seem to fail to realize seemingly over and over again is that the cheapest things in our lives are the ones we buy the most often.

Even though they’re made from recycled materials, sourced from renewable resources, and manufactured with renewable energy, the most sustainable products and businesses out there are still more expensive than their opposing counterparts.

If you and I decide, together, that a shoe made from recycled car tires by union employees is what we really value, then it won’t take that long for such a product to become less expensive than a plastic one made in a sweatshop by 8-year-olds as the economies of scale push the cost of such a product lower as we buy more of it and less of the other.

And that’s just the thing. We have to actually buy these products - not just say we will. Actions speak much louder than words and this all ties back to the concept that spending more upfront can often save us bundles down the road.

Nope, the little things don’t matter

“But I’m just one person.  What difference can I make?”

Well, I suppose that depends on how you interpret the question.  The little steps you take to improve your awareness and value for the environment will never add up to much. All by yourself you will never make a difference, and that’s OK.

Big changes are bigger than you and me. What you do doesn’t really matter.  Who you influence does.

If only one person reads this post (I’m secretly holding out for more than that) and decides its worth their effort to try something new, then I have doubled the effectiveness of my minuscule efforts.

If that person influences someone else they know to change as well, I’m three times as effective. By acting on my values with sincerity, however little they’ll accomplish on their own, I have the opportunity to attract many others that are predisposed to my message.  There’s little else I have to do as others will take over the cause for me.

If you do this right, you can be the head of your own multi-level marketing scheme, tell all the CEOs of the world how you want your fair-trade coffee served, and finally buy an organic cotton T-shirt for a reasonable price.  And while you’re at it, you can let them know they need to turn off their lights when they go home.

Can ya dig?

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I’ve had some great responses to the survey I posted on Tuesday.  Thank you so much to those of you that have participated.  If you haven’t yet taken it and would like to, please do so now. I will be closing down responses on Wednesday.

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Shopping cart image by just.Luc (just.Censored)

How would it feel if you found out that you were wasting 80% of your time doing things that weren’t getting you any closer to your goals?  What if you learned that you could stop, or at least quit focusing on, 80% of the things you do on a day to day basis and still enjoy the same success you do today – still live the same life you’re living? What new and exciting challenges could you add to your life if 80% of the time you spent managing your money and your eco-footprint were simply gone?

What a crock, right? That’s what I thought, at least at first, because that’s what comes to mind any time I hear anything earth shattering (I don’t necessarily recommend this life perspective, by the way).  But guess what?  It’s true, and it works – at least to some extent.  If you don’t believe me, and I wouldn’t expect you to since this post intro is already playing out like the first 30 seconds of every Sunday morning infomercial you’ve ever seen, just take it from some of the richest and most successful businessmen in the world, greatest leaders of all time, and various instances of math and science.  That’s right, math and science.

The Pareto Principle

Enter the Pareto principle. A long time ago, in a land far, far away (think Italy in the late 1800s) there was a gentleman by the name of Vilfredo Pareto who happened to notice that 80% of the wealth of Italy was owned by only 20% of its people. After further research, he found that the same balance applied across many countries and, cumulatively, the world.  Fast forward to the 1940s and we find a business management consultant by the name of Joseph Juran who, fascinated by Pareto’s findings, decided to apply it to his field, finding that 80% of the success of businesses comes from 20% of their efforts.

Juran found that many of his clients could experience substantial growth and success by reorganizing their priorities to focus more on the 20% of things they do that have the biggest impact on their bottom line.  Microsoft has reported that, when they release new software, they’re able to eliminate crashes 80% of the time by focusing only on the top 20% of the bugs that users report.  Many businesses today have learned that 80% of their income is produced by only 20% of their customers.  This is why they offer lavish incentives to their top clients; they know just how much they depend on them for continued success.

What’s in it for us?

If so many others have been able to find success by applying the Pareto principle to their situation, why the heck can’t we? In my mind, there’s no difference between what we’re doing and what the business world is doing.  We’re all trying to get the most bang for our buck and make the biggest change we can with the time and resources we have.  When I analyze everything I’m doing, its pretty easy to see where I’m making the biggest difference.

I know that by eating less meat, I am helping to make a huge dent in the conservation of the environment by reducing the amount of space needed to raise animals and reducing the number of them that are emitting methane into the air.  I also know that by winterizing my home (something I’ll be posting about soon since it’s starting to get cold) I can save a bunch of money on my energy bills since the furnace doesn’t have to work as hard to keep me warm. But these two things are only a small fraction of all the things I do on a daily basis.

In terms of personal finance, I’ve found that by spending just minutes a week using an online account aggregator (Mint.com), I have considerably more control over my money by being able to visualize where it’s all going on a regular basis.  This has been a huge benefit to me since spending countless hours trying to develop money saving systems for myself before turning to Mint proved relatively ineffective.  For me, the secret was in being able to easily see a snapshot of my finances at any given moment.

What about the left over 80%?

So, now I’ve whittled down my list of “really important and meaningful tasks” that deliver far more value than all the rest of the things I do and I’m going to spend way more time working on them.  But what am I supposed to do with this giant pile of waste that comprises the remaining 80%?

I guess this is the part of the infomercial where, just after becoming entirely sold and actually picking up the phone to order, you realize that there’s no way you can actually  get fit drinking beer and watching infomercials all day with your Mega Ab Buster 4000™  stuck to your gut while you lay on the couch.  But that’s a tad over-dramatic because the Pareto principle actually does work, you just don’t get to entirely throw out the rest of your commitments.

When you start to put this rule into action in your own life, you’ll find that you still have to do a bunch of the things that don’t have a significant impact on your success.  This is a reality of existing.  There will be at least a few things on that list, though) that you’ll notice you were spending way too much time on for how little you were getting out of them (this was a bit of an embarrassing revelation for me).

While implementing the 80/20 rule into your life could certainly eliminate a number of no-benefit tasks you were fixated on, the whole point is to reorganize your priorities. By focusing on the 20% of things that are really effective for you and your goals, you should start to see more success in your progress towards achieving them.  This makes dealing with the remaining  80% of the sometimes necessary busywork in your life a whole lot more bearable.

Final Thoughts

If you ever wondered before why you were working so hard but achieving so little, this might be at least part of the answer.  Hard work and determination are amazing characteristics, but if they’re aimed at the wrong targets, the wheels are just spinning. Put the rubber to the road by nailing down what’s really important. Exclude the rest until life forces you to deal with it.

What are you trying to achieve and what’s the 20% that you need to focus on?  What’s some of the background noise that seems to get in the way when you try to do this and how can you deal with it?

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Yesterday, I announced a survey for my readers. If you’re at all interested in shaping the future of Frugally Green and it’s content, please click through to yesterday’s post and give me your feedback by completing the survey.  I do a lot of talking around here, but your opinion is the most important.

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