Thank Goodness for the Recession

There, I said it.  I am officially thankful for this economic downturn, and here’s why:  Frugality tips are popping up all over the internet now that we’re almost certainly in a recession.  Have you noticed?  Many of the frugal measures not only help the wallet, they help the planet too.  It’s amazing!

Well, not really.  For those of us who have been going green already, we know that being environmentally friendly also means saving some money in some ways.  For example, a lot of the tips recommend stretching your food by using beans and lentils in meals instead of meat, or in addition to meat.  Beans and lentils are cheap, filling, and can be just as tasty as meat.  And they’re also green!  The less meat we consume, the less artificial hormones we put into our bodies and the less water we consume.  Have you seen the quote that’s been up on my sidebar for the past week or so?

If I had known that for every pound of beef I did not eat, I would save anywhere from 2,500 to 5,000 gallons of water, I would have been moved…. John Robbins points out that in the 1980s and 1990s, to conserve water, most of us went to low-flow showerheads. If you take a daily seven-minute shower, he says, and you have a 2-gallon-per-minute low-flow showerhead, you use about 100 gallons of water per week, or 5,200 gallons of water per year. If you had used the old-fashioned 3-gallon-per-minute showerhead, I calculate you would have used 7,644 gallons of water per year. So by going low flow, you saved almost 2,500 gallons of water per year. Wonderful. But by giving up one pound of beef that year, you’d save maybe double that. You’d save more water than you would by not showering at all for six months! [Steve Boyan from EarthSave]

See?  Amazing.

Then we come across the driving tips: drive slower, invest in a smaller car with better gas mileage, or a hybrid.  The hybrid may give you tax breaks, the better gas mileage will save you money at the pump, and driving slower will use less gas.  All eco-friendly ideas; all reduce the amount of emissions you produce and the amount of resources you consume.

Ah, I see we’ve reached the heart of the matter: reducing the amount of resources we consume.  Remember the three Rs?  Turn down your heat, take shorter showers, use CFLs instead of conventional bulbs, shut off the lights when you leave a room, conserve gas, carpool, take public transportation, shop at thrift stores, spend less at Christmas, eat less meat, make meals at home — all frugal ideas.  All green ideas.

I might have let this topic pass if it weren’t for the conversation I overheard the other day at work.  The fiscally conservative, inconsiderate, selfish, and usually annoying asshole of a man who works in the office next door came in to talk to us the other day about the benefits of buying a Toyota Prius vs. purchasing a Honda Fit, and their respective resale values.  This coming from the man who’s worked in close quarters with a nonprofit for five years (even helped out at some events), and who still doesn’t understand why nonprofits receive discounts and insurance companies don’t.  If he can learn new ways, anyone can.

Thank goodness for the recession indeed.