Canadian Personal Finance Blog

My wife and I have fallen into the daily trip to the grocery store trap (very dangerous, because you just never figure out how much you are spending until you do your Quarterly Financial Report).

We came up with an idea, that I am pretty sure we can’t live up to, but I throw it out to the folks who might also have fallen into this gas wasting, and money wasting trap.

Premise: You are spending too much money going to shop every day for groceries, and you are wasting gas doing the trip every single day.

Walk !

Yup, if you are going to go to the grocery store every day, you must walk there ( we will accept cycling there or taking the bus, if you have a bus pass). I will allow for if you go shopping on the weekends, you can drive 1 day, to pick up a “weekly order“, however all other times you must walk.

Why walking? Am I some kind of Physical Fitness Wacko? Nope, but let me be more precise:

Benefits

1. Exercise (yes, you, the one that is eating that second donut, I mean you). For me the walk is about 1.5 km each way, maybe, I tried it out today, and it is about a 55 minute round trip proposal. Exercise tends to help your appetite get under control as well.
2. You will only buy what you can carry home with you. If you are taking the bus, you might want to put some kind of limitation on this, but if you are walking, you aren’t as likely to over buy, because, you know how much you can carry all the way back home.
3. There will be days where you go, “We don’t need fennel that much”, and not buy it that day. You will then not buy the donuts, and/or other things that you might impulse buy too.
4. You save money on the gas, and right now, that is not chump change either. If you cut out 5 trips a week? Over the year that could add up to some serious money.
5. If you go with your wife, it gives you time to walk and talk without the kids around too!

Flaws

1. It’s pouring, and you just ran out of milk for your toddler, because the teenage locusts drank it all.  (sorry dear, the big cajun wife is driving)
2. You need your meds and have run out of your prescription (no plan of this kind should be life threatening). Go get your meds, you are allowed to take your car!
3. The walk to your grocery store is over 5 Km (one way), then I guess it’s ok, but my bet is, you don’t shop every day if that is the case as well!

As I said, me and Mrs. C8j may try this out, we did on Monday, and it was quite nice, but I was on vacation that day as well.

With Earth day passing yesterday my wife asked me the question, “How expensive is it to be Green?”, I wanted to consult with Kermit the Frog, but I figured I’d look at my life and see in the obvious areas, would it be cheaper, more expensive or a wash to be “Green”.

1. Automobiles, currently I have two cars. A relatively frugal and clean(er) Toyota Corolla and a gas guzzling Montana van (that most likely pollutes more as well). The green solutions here might be:
   1. Get rid of both cars and use public transit and walk where we need to go. This is a non-starter, with kids and such, my lifestyle and my families could not tolerate that option. Would it be cheaper to buy 5 bus passes a month at $375 ? Not sure, but I do get to use the mass transit tax credit.
   2. I could get rid of the van and only have 1 car. This option will be more possible soon, when I hopefully have less kids living at home. For a while we only had 1 car and I took the bus to work, but it was an inconvenience, as OS Transpo does not offer great service from South Ottawa to West Ottawa. If I worked downtown the story would be very different.
   3. Staying as I am is definitely not green and not as frugal either.
      Grade: D (not very green choice by us, but I am being honest as well).
2. Attempt to limit my families water usage. I’d really like this to be better in my house, because it is getting out of control.
   1. I don’t water my grass and I rarely water my garden, mostly because I am a lazy sod, but also because I view the Grass as a gift from God, and if God thinks it should be green, he’ll water it.
   2. Low flow toilets, or better still composting toilets? Well, not really, I do need to replace the toilets in my house, so I think the water usage there might be better, but composting ones, um, no.
   3. Low flow shower heads. Yes, I do have those, and they help.
   4. Screwed up water heater. At first I thought this was a bad thing, but the fact that my water heater doesn’t seem to store that much hot water is a good thing, since it shortens my daughter’s showers significantly. Don’t think I’ll have anyone come in to fix that issue!
   5. Low water usage washer and dishwasher. The dishwasher is pretty new and is supposed to not use as much water, and my washing machine is “up on the roof” so that will get replaced this summer.
      Grade: C+ (could do better, but at least trying)
3. Good insulation in house and good windows to limit use of fossil fuels? I think my house is ok, but the windows need replacing, and that is going to cost me a bloody fortune, so I will make sure I get fairly good ones when I do.
   Grade: C
4. Efficient heating and cooling systems. Replaced two years ago and my gas bill has been dropping as has my electric bill, very worthwhile investments.
   Grade: B+
5. Composting of household wastes? Yup, we do that, not as much as we should but we do have two compost containers in the back yard and we do use them. We don’t do this in the winter, because the snow is too bloody deep!
   Grade: B-
6. Recycle? Yes indeed, and we put out yard waste too. Our garbage output is still fairly high, but we are careful not to put recyclables into the normal garbage. Once Ottawa goes with a “Green Box” for kitchen waste this should drop our garbage a great deal.
   Grade: B
   
7. Replace conventional lights with lower electric using ones? In a couple of places, but the fact that these “super bulbs” then have to be disposed of in the Hazardous Waste dump, worries the hell out of me. This doesn’t strike me as being “Green” at all.
   Grade: C-
8. Green household cleaning products? Maybe a little, not much. Might be an area we can explore some more.
   Grade: F
9. Really wacky green ideas:
   1. Alternate feminine hygiene products? Um… no.
   2. Home Solar panels? Don’t have the capital to invest to make this a worthwhile investment, but if electric prices keep going up, who knows?
   3. Not running the air conditioning in the summer? Not in this current lifestyle, my kids would revolt, that is for sure. I try not to run it too cold, but I plead guilty about being used to this creature comfort.
   4. Worm farms in my compost heap? Nope, sorry, don’t fish enough to have some Red Wigglers (the Cadillac of Worms) in the backyard.
   5. All natural clothing, no synthetic fibers? Sorry, just am not that with it as to what material I am wearing (nor am I wanting to be ensconced in velvet).

   Grade: F
   

Not too bad really, I think there is a great deal more my family and I can try to do to be more Green, however I also don’t feel heavily obliged to go out of my way to be Green if it is going to cost me a bloody fortune (or causes an incredible inconvenience in my current lifestyle).

The two ways I think the Green Movement will make farther in roads into every day life will be, Gas shooting to $150 per barrel and higher and the Government giving “Green” credits on taxes or eliminating taxes on “Green” products.

How Green are you?

Over the holidays I channeled my inner David Suzuki and decided I needed to deal with some of the bigger trash issues in my house. I am a pack rat when it comes to High Tech devices and keep thinking that I will find a good use for things, so I collect them, much to the chagrin of my wife and to the dropping storage capacity of my house.

I had a computer monitor (CRT) from my Church that I had taken thinking I could find a good use for it, but I finally broke down and admitted that it was never going to really get used (it was only 15″ in size), so I took it to a local store that recycles equipment.

As soon as I got there I knew this was not going to be as simple as I’d hoped, as the chap I spoke to said he couldn’t resell the monitor because it was just too small and nobody wanted a small CRT monitor these days (I agreed with him in that area). He said he would take it to recycle it (i.e. take it apart and ensure the 4 lbs. of lead in the monitor and the various other toxic chemicals in it don’t end up in a land site) but it was going to cost me $1.50 per kilo.

The whole thing ended up costing me about $20.00 which I think I am willing to pay for now, but now I am wondering what the heck am I going to do with my monstrous 32″ CRT Television when I want to get rid of it? I suspect that is going to cost well over $100 to dispose of -and- I have to get it to wherever to then pay to dispose of it.

The cheap part of me is whining about how much I spent on it, but the Suzukian side of me is smiling, so I guess it is a wash for my conscience for now. I also still have a basement full of old computers and many more old monitors as well, I suspect I am going to have to get rid of soon as well. This whole green thing is going to cost me.

Day 2 of No Spending at Work

I have challenged myself to not spend any money at work at all. I remember when I first started working I couldn’t afford to buy coffee and lunches, and now I am wondering just how much money I am blowing at work, so I have vowed to try to limit my spending to see whether this has a significant impact on my living costs and whether it is really as big a hardship (not having my Tim Horton’s at work) as I think it will be.