Tag Archives: budget

Is Living Green Worth the Trouble?

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If you’re currently earning a six-digit salary, you might wonder whether Greenimalist living is worth the trouble. Perhaps you already own a car and you don’t mind paying extra for insurance and gasoline. Maybe the idea of conserving electricity to save $100 each month seems irrelevant because you earn that much in a single hour. If the savings are tiny in comparison to your income, are they even worth the effort?

First, let me congratulate you on your excellent salary. I wish I had the luxury to turn down free money. I don’t earn anywhere near six-digits, and most of America doesn’t, either. The median household income in America is $50,000/yr. For most of us, saving $25,000/yr. from downsizing feels the same as receiving a 50% raise. Downsizing is the only way I can get out of debt and do work I’m passionate about. Without Greenimalist living, I’d have to find another job and live from paycheck to paycheck.

But even if you’re wealthy, there’s still plenty of incentive to live green. Sure, you might be earning plenty of money now, but you might as well be earning more. If you’re currently earning $50 per hour, why not earn $55? By saving hundreds of dollars with only a few seconds of effort, you’re effectively raising your hourly wage. Most lifestyle changes become habits; eventually, they require no effort at all. For example, I started living without a cell-phone last December. With some minor adjustments, I’m now saving $60 each month without any wasted time. Your productivity might even increase if you frequently receive distracting phone calls.

Imagine walking down the street and passing by an unclaimed twenty dollar bill. Sure, you might not need the money — but you’d probably pick it up anyway. Yet by not living green, we’re passing by thousands of dollars in easy money each year.

It’s much simpler to save money through conservation than it is through conventional tactics. Coupon-clipping, comparison shopping, mail-in rebates, and credit-card cashbacks are all time-consuming. You need to be actively researching newspapers, magazines, and websites for the best deals. But with conservation, there’s no time wasted at all. Time formerly spent shopping and researching advertisements can now be spent elsewhere.

Whereas earning money requires active labor, savings are collected passively. For example, you could save $400/mo. in rent by downsizing to a smaller apartment. Over the course of 40 years, you’d save over $220,000 dollars (1). All it takes is a single, one-time effort to declutter your house and downsize. In contrast, every paycheck you receive will require active work. Earning an equivalent amount of money might require years of overtime.

The best savings usually happen through the conservation of our limited natural resources. Conservation is the simplest way to reduce our environmental impact, whether we’re measuring carbon emissions, air pollution, landfill, e-waste, deforestation, or agricultural run-off. The fewer resources we waste — land, water, wood, metal, coal, oil — the less of the environment we hurt, and the less money we spend.

So go ahead. Stop shopping. Downsize. Live car-free. Unplug. Shop local, eat organic. Save money.

  1. Use the compound interest calculator from Calculator.net. Here are the values I used: starting principle: $0, annual addition: $0, monthly addition: $400, interest rate: 7%, compound monthly, after 40 years, tax rate: 0%, inflation: 4%.

Powering Off

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Play a board game instead of watching TV.

Electricity from renewable sources can never solve our energy problems completely. The most obvious reason is because setting up all that high-tech infrastructure—photovoltaic cells, hydroelectric dams, wind turbines—is extremely expensive. New technology costs money both to develop and to build. Today, many homeowners are looking to retrofit their existing houses with solar panels. However, the installation can easily cost tens of thousands of dollars, even when solar panels are subsidized by the government. It can take decades before the solar panels recoup their investment costs. So when it comes to lowering your environmental impact on the cheap, the best tactic is still old-fashioned, low-tech conservation.

Every effort you make towards conserving energy will be passed back to you as savings. A household electric bill of $100 per month translates into $1200 per year. With some minor effort, it’s possible to quickly save over $1000 each year just by changing old habits. After all, if you’re going to be conscientious about your carbon footprint, why not earn a little reward for your trouble?

Here’s a chart of how much energy (and money) you could save each year by powering off:

Energy and money saved per year from powering off (1).
Appliance Alternative Energy Savings
Central Electric Furnace Thicker clothing and blankets, small space-heater 5690kWh $853.20
Central Air Conditioning Lighter clothing, fan, window AC unit 2520kWh $378
Electric clothes dryer Clothes hanger, clothesline 1370kWh $205.90
Lights Natural sunlight, appropriate lighting 1095kWh $164.25
Refrigerator Smaller fridge, cellar 630kWh $94.60
Television Boardgames, books, sports 365kWh $54.75
Treadmill Outdoor running in backyard, parks, trails 225kWh $33.75
Desktop PC and Monitor Boardgames, books, sports 220kWh $32.85
Xbox 360 “   ” 135kWh $20.25
Theater Speaker System “   ” 125kWh $18.60

Whenever possible, use a low-tech, electricity-free alternative. Whenever that’s impractical, use your appliances sparingly. These are the two key tactics for reducing electricity waste without spending extra money. All it requires is a change in mindset. Electricity appears to be unlimited and practically free, but it’s actually coming from power plants burning coal. So conserve and use sparingly.

Low-tech solutions are the techniques people once used prior to electricity. Sometimes the answer is very obvious. Before the clothes dryer, laundry was hung on clotheslines. Rather than turn on central heating, people often wore extra sweaters and used thicker blankets during a mild winter. Sometimes the low-tech solution will surprise you. It might encourage you to live without television, or even a refrigerator. Since certain appliances are much easier to live without, tackle the easy ones first. Limit central heating and air conditioning, hang-dry your clothes, and tune out mass media from your life–TV, music, video games, and web surfing.

If it’s impractical to eliminate a device, downsizing is the next best tactic. Reduce electricity use as much as possible by powering off redundant appliances. For example, I don’t own any electronic accessories besides my laptop. I have no cell phone, external hard drives, monitors, speakers, or mp3 players draining extra power. Some larger houses have two refrigerators; if you buy less processed food, you can unplug one of them. Washing laundry in cold water saves electricity used in heating. If you use a space heater, you won’t be wasting money by heating unoccupied space. Lastly, try to use natural sunlight in place of light bulbs. Keep as many appliances unplugged as possible.

The technology for sustainable living is already here at an affordable price. We can reduce our carbon emissions while saving money; it just takes getting used to the idea that big, complicated, and expensive isn’t always better. We need a willingness to embrace what our culture, perhaps, is most afraid of embracing: powering off.

Michael Bluejay explains electricity, how to calculate the power a device uses, and how much it costs.

1 To calculate energy used, take the power rating (in Watts), multiply it by the number of hours used per day, then by the number of days in a year. Divide this by 1000 to obtain the energy in kilowatt-hours (kWh). The cost of energy is roughly 15¢ per kWh. Here are my assumptions for the following devices:

Appliance Power Rating Hrs/day Days/yr
Central Electric Furnace 7900W 8 90
Central Air Conditioning 3500W 8 90
Electric Clothes dryer 4400W 6hrs/wk 52wk/yr
Lights 25W 12 365
Refrigerator 72W 24 365
Television 250W 4 365
Treadmill 1500W 1 150
Desktop PC and Monitor 150W 4 365
Xbox 360 185W 2 365
Theater Speaker System 170W 2 365

Escaping High Oil Prices

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Today, the average price of gas in the USA is $3.29 per gallon. It sounds expensive, but it’s actually quite cheap compared to prices in the rest of the world. In Japan and Korea, gas costs around $5.50 per gallon. In Hong Kong, Germany, and Denmark, gas can cost as much as $7.50 per gallon. Filling up a 16-gallon tank in a mid-sized car can easily cost over $110 in Norway. To put that in perspective, $110 can pay for two weeks worth of groceries.

At $3.29/gallon, you could be spending $2000 each year in gas prices alone if you commute 30 miles each day to work (1). If two people commute separately, that’s $4000 each year. And there’s more awful news to come: the price of oil will only continue to increase. It’s a matter of basic economics: demand is increasing, but supply is running out.

Petroleum is a limited, non-renewable resource. This means that oil production follows a curve: it starts slow, hits a peak, and then begins to trail. Oil engineers predicted this phenomenon in the early 1950s—and this may be the decade we may finally reach peak oil. Soon thereafter, global oil production will taper off. Already, most easy-to-reach oil supplies have been exhausted. Oil companies are now increasingly resorting to offshore and tar sands oil extraction, which are both expensive and harmful to the environment. Yet while supply is decreasing, demand for oil is exploding. In particular, the burgeoning middle classes of China and India are acquiring a taste for motor vehicles. With a billion cars worldwide today, and tens of millions more added each year, the price of fuel will skyrocket.

Oil production peak by country. (from US Department of Energy)

Our current era of cheap, unlimited energy is quickly coming to an end. By the end of this decade, the average household could be spending $8000+ on gasoline each year just to commute to work. Our society’s driving habits will change—if not for environmental reasons, then at least because of the price.

The best strategy for dealing with the upcoming energy crisis is to wean yourself off of petroleum. Live with less gasoline so that rising fuel prices won’t affect your standard of living. Not only will you help reduce pollution, you’ll be saving thousands of dollars, too.

Switch over to mass transit whenever you can. They conserve fuel and ultimately conserve you money. A $65 monthly bus pass could save you $100 each month in fuel costs alone, or $1200 each year (2). If you can live without a car, you can save another $4000 each year in auto insurance, car payments, and parking fees. You’ll also save time; instead of fighting traffic, you can read, rest, or relax.

If you’re willing to totally unplug from the oil economy, you can start bicycle commuting . By cycling, you can save $6000+ each year. You don’t even need a specialized bicycle; just use what you have. In fact, if you live close enough, you can just walk. Both tactics will save you money while providing exercise.

For decades, we’ve been willfully ignorant about the fact that oil is a limited resource. We pretended that gas pumps had a supply that could never end. But within a decade, many of us may be forced to live car-free out of economic necessity. We didn’t pay attention to conservation in the past; but today, we can’t afford not to.

  1. Assumptions: $3.29/gallon, 30 miles 1-way implies 60 miles round-trip, 5 days per week, 50 weeks per year, average mileage is 25 miles/gallon: $3.29/gallon × 30 miles × 2 (round-trip) × 5 days/wk × 50 wks/yr ÷ 25 miles/gallon = $1974/yr. Per month, it’s $1974÷12 = $164.5. For two commuters, it’s $1974 &multiply; 2 = $3948/yr. If gas rises to $6.59/gallon (doubling in price), the cost of fuel for two commuters is $7896/yr.
  2. A Los Angeles monthly bus pass is $75, and Orange County’s is $55. If the average bus pass is $65/mo., the difference between gasoline price and bus fare is $164.5 – $65 = $99.5. If we roughly estimate the cost of auto insurance ($1550), parking ($500), and car payments ($200/mo. &multiply 12mo. = $2400), the additional cost of car ownership is $4450/yr., not including the cost of maintenance and vehicle registration fees.