Green Minded Wallet

I, like most people I know, take medication on a regular basis (and I’m not saying that’s necessarily a bad thing). But given all of the news about the high level of pharmaceuticals in our water, I have been thinking about just how much medication we take nowadays. Not only that, I have also been thinking about how quickly I take my doctor’s advice on which medication to take (or even to take a medication at all). It’s not that I think that doctors are giving out bad advice, but it just seems strange to me that as someone that deliberates on the environmental and financial impacts of just about every decision, I would so blithely make a decision that could impact my body, finances, and perhaps even drinking water for decades to come so readily. Part of the challenge is determining the best way to get information so that I am making an informed decision, especially since individual physiology can play as much of a role as the pharmaceutical in question. While internet message boards can be informative, you often only get the extremes. Friends and family can often be a useful source of information, but are sometimes biased and may not be able to offer assistance in all areas. I do feel however, that given the potential side effects of many drugs and their ability to vastly outweigh benefits it is definitely something that I am going to consider more carefully.

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I’m not sure if it’s just me, but there seems to be something going on with Verizon’s airtime minutes counter. Last month I went online to check my plan balance: I normally do this once or twice a week. When I check, I still had about five days left to my billing cycle, but I was perilously close to running out of minutes (I only had about thirty left). I made sure not to make anything but brief calls during the ensuing week. However, once the billing cycle ended my statement showed that I actually had about 100 minutes left. I figured that it was just something wrong with the software program, and vowed to make sure to double check my balance in the future. Fast forward to this past month when I again checked my balance online and I discovered on the 20^th that I only had about fifteen daytime minutes left. This time however instead of just checking online, I also used the minute counter through my phone (there’s a number you can call to check your balance) for confirmation. Sure enough it gave the exact same balance as on the online site. Then I looked at my most recent billing statement and low and below I finished the cycle out with almost sixty minutes. Had it just happened once, I would have figured that there is a software glitch, but it’s now happened two months in a row. It seems that either calls are getting incorrectly categorized as peak when I make them, or they are adjusting them downward after the fact. Part of the problem is you can’t see how calls are categorized until the end of the billing cycle. My plan this month is to try and keep track of my peak minutes by hand (which I am not particularly looking forward to). If I’m still noticing discrepancies I think that I might have to give Verizon’s customer service a call. I don’t want to get billed 45 cents a minute in overage charges, but I don’t like the idea of losing a large chunk of minutes every month either.

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I love fresh produce: ripe tomatoes from my little plant, peppers from my neighbors, and a wonderful selection at the local farmer’s market. But right about now, as much as I love our produce selection, I’d do anything for a good hard frost. This time of year is probably about the worst allergy-wise I will experience and a nice cold snap will make it much better. I know that the decision isn’t really mine to make, but right now if I could choose between fresh produce and my sinuses, well, I would choose my sinuses. As much as I don’t like the idea of giving up fresh fruits and veggies which I hold so dear, I have to tell you know, I’m willing to say au revoir to my tomato plant, if it means I can get out of bed and breathe through my nose again. Fortunately the gourds should hold up well and avocados will be in season soon, and I’m sure it will get nice and frosty, one of these days.

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I’ll be spending this week and next week with my family and will be returning back home on August 12th (I headed out last Friday morning).  I don’t know how much posting I’ll do; today I slept for almost 11 hours!  It’s becoming very clear to me that some R&R was definitely needed and I’m trulying enjoying seeing my family.  Over these two weeks I’ll have a chance to see all six living generations in my family, which is not something that many people can boast.  Have fun, read the archives, I’ll be back in a week or so.

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In the past month or so I’ve been receiving mail catalogs, but they were actually addressed to me (versus the generic ‘current resident’ junk). I realized that somewhere along the way someone must have gotten a hold of my address, but I really hadn’t given much thought to who the culprit was. I’d been collecting the mailings together so that I could call and get off of the stupid lists, but I hadn’t quite done it yet. Well, on Saturday I received yet another piece of mail and it was just the last straw. So I whipped out my cell phone and started calling places to make sure I had my name removed from any and all lists that they might have. Well, as I was making my phone calls, I noticed something interesting. All of my addresses were spelled exactly the same way, which rarely ever happens, since I live in an apartment and there are always all sorts of permutations on the apartment number. Well I quickly picked up a catalog from a company that I had ordered something from this spring. Bingo. The address was exactly the same as all of the unsolicited mail, and a quick call to the customer service line told me that in fact they do “rent” out your information if you order online.

First things first: you’re not renting my information, your selling it. Once I receive stupid junk mail from these retailers I will likely continue to receive stupid junk mail. So since this process is going to go on “forever” (unless I do something about it), that’s selling. They’re not going to stop renting my address after ninety days are they? That’s what I thought. You sell your customers’ information. But my bigger issue is, why would a company that touts itself for environmental awareness, through recycled paper and “green” powered stores, sell information to other companies that are going to spam their customers, especially their members, with tree-hating junk mail. I know that the short answer to that question is money, but that just seems extremely short-sighted. While I know that a lot of people do the “earthy” thing, because they think that it’s hip and trendy, I honestly believe that there are a growing number of people that care about the planet and are concerned about its sustainability. And if those are the people that you are truly targeting, not just the ones who will come and go with passing trends, then perhaps you should consider the message that you send to them when you allow other companies to flood their mailboxes. I don’t know exactly how we can make these companies accountable, but it does seem like something should be done, if only to let them know the concerns of their longstanding members, rather than letting this behavior continue unchecked.

Any thoughts?

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Tomorrow is the Fourth of July and traditionally people spend a lot of time, energy, and money trying to have a nice special holiday. However it’s easy get lost in the festivities and spend a lot of money and resources. I thought that I would outline my plans for a nice relaxing fourth of July while keeping my financial and environmental costs to a minimum.

First off I plan on walking over to City Hall for a free community pancake breakfast. It will be a great place to meet people, run into people I haven’t seen for a while, and eat free pancakes. Yum.

After the breakfast I’ll probably head back home and relax for a little while then fill up my water bottle, slap on some sunblock, and go out and watch the town parade. Yes, I’m sure it will be cheesy, but it’s a quick walk and again it’s free. Plus cheesy can be entertaining.

During the day I plan on hanging out in the apartment with my dog, reading a book I picked up from the library, and I might call a friend or two. In the evening I plan on hopping on my bike and riding over to the fireworks display about a mile and a half way.

I decided not to grill because to me firing up a charcoal grill for one person’s lunch is both an environmental and financial waste. I will just have a nice sandwich and maybe a cold beer. Plus it’s suppose to be quite hot tomorrow, and standing if front of flames under a blazing sun doesn’t really appeal to me.

I know that some people might think that limiting themselves to only these activities would put a damper on their celebrations so I came up with a list of additional ways to scale back the expenses and waste, but still have tons of fun.

1. Go easy on the food (and beer). It amazes me how much people are willing to spend on food for one day. If you can share the barbecuing with friends or neighbors it can really help cut down on costs. Had I not been so busy with school work (socially lazy) these past few days this is likely what I would have done. It’s a great way to save on financial costs and environmental impacts; it takes about the same about of charcoal to cook two hamburgers as it does six and you can enjoy them in good company.

2. Buy supplies ahead of time. July 5th is probably a great day to buy Independence Day supplies. But even if you don’t want to buy so far in advance, you can buy red decorations after Christmas, and can likely find a good selection of items after Labor Day. The same goes for outfits. And really as far as clothes are concerned, I would recommend buying kids outfits on clearance (or at a garage sale), or they can simply wear something they already own that’s red, white, and blue. If you’re on a tight budget (or should be) then buying special holiday outfits shouldn’t even be on the list.

3. Avoid driving whenever possible. Fourth of July celebrations often draw large crowds. If you drive you may end up stuck in traffic only to park far away from where you are trying to go. It’s a waste of gas, a waste of money, and a big pain. If at all possible walk, bike, or take advantage of buses or shuttles.

4. Seek cheap entertainment. Watch a parade live or on TV. Watch a movie, perhaps Independence Day, or check out a TV show marathon on cable. There are plenty of ways to entertain yourself without spending a lot of money. If you want to get out of the house seek a local park, or a free (cheap) swimming area. You could also get away from the crowds and take the family on a nice hike.

Well these are my suggestions for reigning in financial and environmental during the summer holidays. Anyone have any others?

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