The Inspired Shopper

The Tale of an Attic: Thinking before You Renovate

2012-02-08T12:16:00.000-08:00

Our homes are our castles. They’re the place on Earth we have the most control over, so it’s no wonder we want to make them as comfortable and right for us as possible. But things can go wrong if we don’t take the time to consider all the factors involved. Below is a shopping story that illustrates the importance of biding your time and getting all the facts when it comes to home renovation.

An architect friend of mine, who I’ll call Chris, had a ripper idea while he was having the tiles fixed on his roof. Why not create more space in his house by turning the attic into a proper room? A study with a relaxed feel that he could escape to when he needed to get some work done? His Edwardian red brick home had generous living areas but his two daughters were growing up. They currently shared a bedroom but were clamouring for their own rooms, and his tiny study near the kitchen would soon be lost forever.

The attic wasn’t a proper room at that stage, just a space between the ceiling and the roof – but there was easily enough height to stand up in, so it could be done. The entrance hole was large and situated in the main hallway of the house.

Chris didn’t think too much about what the job would involve. Because he was an architect, he assumed he had the expertise to oversee the job himself, and he wanted to do it cheaply. He bought a fold-down extension ladder and had it installed. Then he purchased some cheap flooring – chipboard – and paid someone to install it.

It wasn’t until later that he thought to consult his friend Alan, a builder. It was lucky he did. Not only had he got the type of flooring wrong – chipboard absorbs moisture, so it’s not suitable for roof cavities – but the flooring structure wasn’t strong enough for the purpose. It would put too much weight on the ceiling joists, which would lead to sagging. The floor needed to be underpinned by load-bearing timber. The flooring Chris needed and that he ultimately bought with his friend’s guidance was thick board covered by malamite; with the supporting timber underneath, the floor ended up being 15 cm thick.

Acting on Alan’s advice, Chris also put a safety fence around the entrance to which the folding ladder was attached.

The tale ended happily. The room is now a study, complete with mood lighting, built-in drawers, cupboards and desk. It has a lovely attic-y feel. But in ripping the floor out and starting again, Chris ended up spending more money than he needed to. In trying to save both time and money, he’d wasted both.

This story illustrates just how important it is, when you want to do any sort of redecorating that involves purchasing, to bide your time.

Just as we sometimes give in to impulsive shopping, so we also act impulsively when we want to make major changes such as renovating our homes. It’s vital to carry out research, but sometimes the information we need isn’t available instantly. Perhaps Chris had wanted to contact Alan right away but couldn’t. Or perhaps he feared that if he took Alan’s advice, the whole thing would get too complicated (and too expensive!).

It’s especially difficult to take your time when you’ve been undecided for a while and then you finally make a decision. It’s natural to want to start right away and ask questions later.

What lessons can be taken from Chris's experience?

Listen to yourself when you want to dive straight into a home renovation project. Perhaps there are things you need to consider that you’re not aware of yet. Think about what they are, and where you might get the right information.
Before you begin, wait until you’ve considered all the factors involved; wait until you have all the information you need. Think about the plan for your project as a puzzle for which you need all the pieces before completing. Ask yourself if you have all the pieces before you begin to carry out your plan.
Consult with someone who can see the whole picture. Individual tradespeople quoting on their own jobs won’t necessarily consider every factor; they may be concerned only with their piece of the puzzle. Even if they are aware of other considerations, some (not all) may fail to inform you of the ultimate requirements and costs because they want to provide a cheap quote.
Develop ‘negative capability’. The poet John Keats coined this term to describe the state of uncertainty and unknowing in which creativity manifests itself. When it comes to making big changes to our homes, being open to uncertainty can help us determine the type and extent of research we have to do and all the factors we need to take into account.
By all means be organised and use your rational mind. But also let your inner self guide you, when it comes to both the changes you decide to make and the people you contract to help you carry them out.
Above all, keep your mind (and your ears) open!

Until next time!

If you enjoyed this blog entry, you might also like Steps to Take before You Buy a Big-Ticket Item.

Plastic Not So Fantastic - Tips for Using Less Plastic

2012-02-05T11:59:00.000-08:00

The other day I found the plastic top of a takeaway coffee that had blown into my front yard.

As I picked it up I thought of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which I’d just been reading about. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a floating soup of 100 million tons of garbage, 90 per cent of which is plastic, in the North Pacific. It’s impossible to estimate the area accurately; one study found it to be twice the size of Hawaii. In 2010, similar patches of decomposed plastic debris were found in the North Atlantic and in the Indian Ocean.

While navies and commercial shopping are partly responsible, it’s estimated that perhaps 80 per cent of marine plastic originated on land as litter and industrial waste. Some of it has been dumped on the beach and in rivers or streams, and some has been blown away from landfill, or while being transported to landfill. Water bottles and plastic bags are the most familiar part of the problem – for example, US citizens consume an estimated 50 billion bottles of water per annum, and the annual figure for the globe is around 200 billion bottles – but the plastics in the garbage patches range from pocket combs, tampon applicators and toothbrushes to fishing nets, detergent bottles and toys.

Bits of this waterlogged mass of rubbish end up in the stomachs or around the necks of birds, turtles, whales, seals and other sea creatures, many of which die slow and horrible deaths from starvation, strangulation or suffocation. It’s likely that over 100,000 marine mammals and turtles and hundreds of thousands of sea birds die each year due to marine debris, including plastic. Scientific American describes some of the effects on sea life of coming into contact with plastic: ‘fur seals entangled by nylon nets, sea otters choking on polyethylene six-pack rings, and plastic bags or toys stuck in the guts of sea turtles’. More information about marine debris and what’s being done to clean it up can be found on the NOAA website.

Large pieces of plastic debris are just one aspect of the problem. Estimates for the time it takes various kinds of plastics to decompose range from 20 to 1000 years. They don’t biodegrade – get broken down by microbes – in any reasonable amount of time, but they do photodegrade, breaking down into smaller and smaller pieces. Much of the plastic in the ocean consists of tiny fragments that are less than 1 cm in size, some of them microscopic. These fragments release toxic chemicals into the ocean and into the food chain. Tiny marine organisms ingest the particles and these organisms are then eaten by fish, which in turn are eaten by humans.

A problem like the Great Pacific Garbage Patch can seem overwhelming; individual actions aren’t ever going to solve it on their own. It would take government action and regulation on a global scale to simply stop the situation getting worse, by legislating for less use and greater recycling of plastics, for example. In the meantime, though, it’s surprisingly easy to cut down on your own consumption of plastic, and there are plenty of resources if you want to advocate for tougher regulations.

Below are some simple ways to reduce the use of plastic in your life, reuse it where possible, and recycle the plastic you can’t reuse. (There are also some more ‘hard core’ suggestions.)

* Put plastic containers in your recycling bin. There are many different types of plastics, and not all can be recycled. In the US, UK and Australia, local authorities usually allow some kinds of hard plastic such as drink bottles in their curbside recycling services, but the types of plastics they recycle will vary – check the website of your local authority. A Plastics Identification Code (used internationally) is stamped on plastic containers to indicate their type. According to Clean Up Australia, most local councils here recycle plastics labelled 1, 2, and 3, but many are now extending their recycling programs to include plastics labelled 4 to 7. Clean the containers before you put them in the bin.

* Recycle your plastic bags at recycling drop-off points in your area. Plastic bag recycling stations are now increasingly common. As well as supermarket plastic bags and the heavier store bags, packaging film is normally recyclable at these stations (eg plastic packaging for paper towels, toilet paper and junk mail), as well as drycleaning plastic. Cling wrap, compostable bags and prepackaged food bags, including frozen food bags and prewashed salad bags, normally can’t be included. It’s important that you only put in clean bags.

If you’re in the USA you can locate plastic bag recycling stations in your area at plasticbagrecycling.org or www.earth911.com. In the UK, some supermarkets offer plastic bag recycling; find a station near you at RecycleNow. In Australia you can drop your plastic bags off at your local supermarket.

* Wash and recycle dirty plastic bags rather than throwing them out. The thought of washing a plastic bag is a put-off for some. It’s not hard – turn the bag inside out and give it a quick rinse under the tap, wiping it as you go. Dry your bags on the line or on a clothes rack, using pegs to attach them.

* Use your spare plastic bags around the house. Here are some great ideas for making use of spare plastic bags.

* Compost your unused food scraps. You’ll generate less rubbish and therefore need to use fewer plastic bags for household waste. Many options for outdoor and indoor compost bins are now available.

* Don’t assume that so-called ‘biodegradable’ and ‘degradable’ plastic bags are the answer. These bags may cause more problems than they solve. Oxo-degradable bags, for example, contain toxic metals that may not biodegrade at all. Even fully compostable bags require light and heat in order to biodegrade efficiently, which they won’t get if they end up in landfill or the ocean. They can also cause harm if they are included in plastic bag recycling systems.

* Buy fewer plastic toys. Consider reducing the number of plastic toys you buy for your children. Join a toy library, and buy eco-friendly toys where possible. Here’s a good article on eco-friendly dolls.

* Don’t buy exfoliants that include plastic. Unbelievably, minute granules of plastic are now used in some exfoliants! These can end up in the water supply and make their way to the oceans. Don’t buy exfoliants that include ‘micro-fine’ polyethylene granules, polyethylene ‘micro-spheres’, polyethylene ‘beads’, or just plain polyethylene.

* Stop buying plastic water bottles. Plastic water bottles can be reused several times as long as they haven’t been heated and you wash them with soap and water and allow them to dry before refilling. Better still, buy an aluminium drink container. It’s worth paying more for a good-quality bottle – a couple of years ago I bought a cheap aluminium water bottle that leaked water into my bag from the get-go.

* Buy a reusable takeaway coffee container. Look forward to your daily hit of takeaway coffee? Bring your own reusable takeaway coffee cup to the cafe.

* Reuse bubble wrap. If you receive something in the mail packed with bubble wrap, store it and reuse it as packaging in your own parcels.

* Reuse straws. Wash straws or better still, buy a non-throwaway straw. Alternatives include aluminium and glass straws.

* Stop using plastic film for keeping food fresh. Other options for covering food in the fridge include silicon lids, or simply putting a dinner or bread plate over a container of food. Use wax paper for wrapping sandwiches.

* Reuse plastic food containers. Buy your dips from delis and market stalls that serve the dip from bulk containers, and bring your own containers. (You can also buy slices of unwrapped cheese from deli counters.) When you buy takeaway food, bring your own used takeaway container. Used dip and takeaway containers are great for storing food in the freezer. There are dozens of uses for margarine and yoghurt containers; here’s a good list.

Extreme plastic reduction

* Recycle your toothbrush. Once you start becoming aware of how much plastic is needlessly thrown away, even tossing a toothbrush in the bin may start to feel wrong. Alternatives include a company that turns your used toothbrush into picnic tables, one that offers a toothbrush with replaceable heads, and sustainable toothbrushes made from bamboo, wood and cellulose. Some of these ideas can be found here.

* Use your own plastic containers for liquid goods. Buy your liquid goods such as shampoo and conditioner in bulk at food co-ops, health food stores, or speciality bulk stores, and bring your own used shampoo bottles to store them in.

* Buy your dry goods loose, and bring your own plastic bags to carry them. You can find grains, flours, nuts, seeds and pulses at produce and farmers markets, as well as food co-ops and health food stores.

* Bring your own plastic bag when buying meat and fish. Wash your used plastic bags and take them with you for wrapping meat and fish when you go to the butchers, fishmonger or supermarket.

* Use newspaper to wrap wet or smelly rubbish that you can’t compost. I remember my parents doing this when I was young, before plastic bags were widely used for rubbish in Australia.

Suggestions for taking action

* Pressure your local authority to widen the scope of its plastics recycling, eg by recycling plastic food containers if it doesn't already.

* Organise for your town or city to become plastic bag free.

* Pressure your state or federal environment minister to create stronger regulations for the use and recycling of plastic in manufacturing and packaging.

Organisations

These organisations and websites aim to decrease the use of plastics and stop them polluting our environment.

USA

Plastic Pollution Coalition BerkeleyCalifornia

Australia

WRAP

Help with a plastic-free lifestyle

Life without Plastic

Ethically sourced alternatives to plastic products

Plastic Manners

The blog of a woman who decided to try to live without plastic

Until next time!

If you enjoyed this blog entry, you might also like How to Carry Out Your Green and Ethical New Year's Resolutions and Book Review: Greeniology 2020 by Tanya Ha.

Fully Updated Edition of The Inspired Shopper Now Available!

2012-01-29T11:12:00.000-08:00

The latest edition of The Inspired Shopper is now available! If you haven't bought it already, this is a great time to buy. You can buy it cheaply and easily on the Amazon website. At only $2.99 it's an absolute steal. I'll keep it at this price for the time being, but I may put it back to its original price, $5.99, in the future.

If ethical shopping, decluttering, thrifting and saving money are the theory, then Inspired Shopping is the practice. Whatever the changes you want to make to the way you buy, they start with a willingness to slow down and listen to yourself, and an openness to the unexpected. This mindset is what Inspired Shopping can help you achieve.

This brand new edition contains more advice for conscious shoppers than ever before. It fully incorporates the smartphone and internet as part of Inspired Shopping. There's more information on making the shift to ethical shopping and ethical fashion on a budget, and loads of up-to-the-minute resources for thrifty, frugal and fair shopping. There's also commonsense advice on:

saving money
decluttering
knowing your consumer rights
shopping safely on the internet
giving inspired gifts
buying an appliance, car and even a house
supermarket shopping
shopping with children, friends and your partner
shopping for those with 'too much' money.

If you've bought earlier editions of The Inspired Shopper, I'm happy to send you a mobi file (ie suitable for the Kindle) of the latest version. Just drop me a line at caetem@yahoo.com and I'll explain how to provide verification.

Not quite sure but intrigued? Here's some more info about what's in the book and how to buy it.

Until next time!

Sublime Swapping - Giving a New Lease of Life to Fashion and Just About Everything Else

2012-01-19T10:18:00.000-08:00

21 January is World Swap Day! It's the perfect time to look at all the many ways you can experience the delights and money-saving benefits of swapping, whether on or off line.

An estimated $43 billion worth of stuff is stashed away across Australia alone. Swapping goods is a growing trend, as more and more consumers seek a second life for their unwanted goods while reducing both their carbon footprint and their budgets.

So popular is swapping that, along with lending, bartering, gifting and sharing, it’s been recognised as a key part of a growing trend – collaborative consumption, a sea change in not only what we consume, but how we consume.

But it's in the area of fashion that swapping is really hitting its stride. Clothes-swapping events take place regularly in cities across the globe, and international websites devoted to the online thread swap make it easy to swap your clothes with other budget fashionistas.

Sartorial swapping

We get sick of our clothes, no matter how much we love them. Swapping is a wonderful way to experience the novelty that new clothes offer without damaging your wallet or adding to the world’s landfills or your carbon footprint. It’s also great for items that you’ll only need for a certain amount of time, like children’s clothes.

In Australia, the Clothing Exchange runs regular swap meets in all states except Tasmania, while details of UK events can be found on the Swishing website. The Swapaholics team host regular fashion-swapping events in the USA. The Swapaholics website includes a list of swapping groups across the US and internationally, and the team maintain a directory of swapping events across the world at http://events.swap.com.

Many options are available if you'd prefer to do your swapping via the internet. swapstyle.com is an international website for swapping fashion items that includes a forum. Thread Swap is an Australian website that enables you to swap your unwanted clothing for credits that you then use to ‘buy’ clothes online. Swapkidsclothes.com.au is an Australian service that allows members to exchange unwanted children’s clothes for points that can then be used to select clothes from the range; there are many similar websites for swapping children’s clothes.

Other items

The types of non-clothes items that can be swapped are limited only by your imagination. Sites that enable you to swap all kinds of items easily and safely include SwapAce.com, Swap.com and Swap Australia. The UK boasts a book-swapping site, ReadItSwapIt. The Australian trading site Gumtree has a ‘Freebies’ section, as well as a section where people offer to swap goods for specific items – one user offered a three-month-old queen-sized mattress in return for ‘something interesting’.

Republic of Everyone, an Australian green marketing company, has created The Great Gift SwApp, an app that allows users to swap their unwanted presents for something they really want. This app is built in Facebook, so you need to have a Facebook account to use it.

Hold your own swap party
Swapping with your friends is a great way to enjoy the benefits of swapping! Swap unwanted clothes and other goods with one or two friends with similar tastes, or even hold your own event. Holding a swap party at home is an easy and fun way to make good use of all those unwanted goods cluttering up your cupboards. Fashion, baby clothes, gifts, and surplus food are just some of the things you can swap at a swap party.

The freedom of freecycling

Freecycling is a similar idea to swapping without the expectation of getting something in return, in the short term at least. The Freecycle Network is a worldwide network of groups whose members offer each other free goods that they no longer need themselves – there may be a group based in your town or city. The ReUseIt Network is based on a similar idea, but also offers an online chat group, support to set up local groups and an emphasis on conservation and recycling. (Check websites for information on your nearest Freecycle or ReUseIt group.) Ziilch is a website that enables people to give away items they no longer need.d and find free stuff

The fun of connecting locally

Ever wished your next door neighbour had a brushcutter you could borrow? The popularity of websites that connect people living near each other who want to borrow, lend or rent goods is also growing. Open Shed is an Australian website that enables owners of appliances and other goods to rent them out to people living in their local area. Streetbank is a UK website that allows users to borrow and lend goods in their local area and get to know their neighbours. Share Some Sugar is a US website that encourages neighbours to connect in order to lend, borrow or rent goods from each other. There are many websites like this; do a Google search to find sites that operate in your local area. Some of these sites are profit making, some aren't - check out the terms and conditions on the website.

Hope you enjoy your swapping adventures.

Until next time!

If you enjoyed this blog entry, you might also like Buried Treasure, Hidden Duds - What Lurks in Your Wardrobe?

How to Carry Out Your Green and Ethical New Year's Resolutions

2012-01-10T11:30:00.000-08:00

Picture: sheknows.com

Now that 2012's finally arrived, many of us are trying to put our new year's resolutions into practice. Some of you may have resolved to make the switch to ethical shopping this year, or perhaps you're planning to overhaul your entire lifestyle and go green.

Making wholesale changes in shopping and lifestyle habits is a challenge. At first shopping ethically may be more time consuming, not to mention confusing, than conventional shopping. Facing the array of choices in the egg department of your local supermarket, from accredited free range to grain-fed and barn laid, could make your head spin.

Luckily there’s plenty of support and information out there. The internet is bursting with websites, blogs and forums that offer valuable guidance. Here are some great tips to help you make the switch, whether you’re planning to change the way you shop or want to make your entire lifestyle more sustainable.

* Give yourself time to adjust. If you try to make too many changes at once you may become discouraged. Start with the easiest changes and make progressively more challenging adjustments as your confidence grows. Two small shopping examples: Revlon is one of the larger cosmetics companies that doesn't test its products on animals; Bardot, Veronica Maine and Cue are Australian fashion brands that, while they lack green credentials, have been accredited by Ethical Clothing Australia. Easy green changes to make straight away include putting a 'no junk mail' sign on your mailbox, arranging to hire a green waste bin from your local council, and investigating whether your energy company provides green energy.

* Set goals. This is a great way to motivate yourself. Goals should be SMART – Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely. Reward yourself for achieving your goals.

* Plan ahead. Expect things to take longer, especially at first. If you’ve decided to start riding your bike to work, it may take a while to figure out the quickest way and to get your morning routine sorted; if you’ve decided to catch public transport to the food market, you’ll probably need to allocate more time. You may also have to put some thought into how you’ll shop, eg remembering to bring along your own carry bags, or buying equipment like panniers or a shopping trolley.

* Deal with setbacks. If you lapse by doing or buying something that goes against your principles, it’s not the end of the world. Making major changes takes time, and setbacks are part of the process. Forgive yourself and move on!

* Connect with others. Reaching out to likeminded people is a great way to motivate yourself to shop and live differently. Start a blog on your shopping/sustainability journey, a Facebook page on your favourite green or ethical cause, or a Twitter account. Humans are social creatures; it’s amazing how telling other people about the changes you’ve made, or would like to make, can motivate you. If you’d rather connect in the real world, join a green group, start your own, or enlist a friend who wants to make similar changes so you can encourage each other.

* The phrase think globally, act locally may be a cliche but it still holds. When deciding which websites and news sources to keep up with, it’s a good idea to choose a combination of those with international and general information on green and ethical issues, and those that focus on your country, state or local area.

* Research ethical and green claims using credible sources. It’s a great thing to read labels when you buy, but it’s not enough. You may need to research the various labels to ensure that the goods you’re interested in aren’t simply an example of ‘greenwash’. It’s probably safest to take a sceptical view of corporations and to use credible sources to check green and ethical claims. The recent watering down of fair trade requirements by Fair Trade USA illustrates that if you want to be an aware consumer you need to stay informed of what companies and accreditation bodies are doing.

* Ask your favourite brands to make the changes you want. If enough people put pressure on mainstream brands to adopt ethical practices and sustainable or organic lines, they would be forced to do so. You could email brands you’ve stopped using for ethical reasons to let them know why you no longer buy their products, for instance.

* Shop locally where possible. Slow Food is a movement that encourages people to support small, local food producers and to adopt a seasonal diet (see website for more information). You can support some of its principles by buying your food at food markets, farmers’ markets, co-ops, organic grocery stores and local greengrocers as an alternative to the supermarket. Don’t confine your local shopping to food; you might be amazed at what your neighbourhood shopping strip has to offer.

* Connect with people in your local area. Many great local sustainability initiatives fly under the radar. Google a search for websites with information about sustainability in your local area or city. Is there a freecycling group in your neighbourhood, community garden, tool-sharing service or even a group that meets regularly to cook and share a meal? Sustainable Melbourne is an example of a website with regular updates of local initiatives.

* Check out local recycling options. Perhaps you’ve assumed that the only option for recycling in your area is putting out the council recycling bin once a week? You might be surprised at how many other options there are for recycling goods like mobile phones, batteries, printer cartridges, and even whitegoods and paint tins. Search local government and sustainability websites for more information, or google ‘recycling’ for your local area.

* Don’t pike out if you’re a renter. These days there are many resources available for adopting a greener lifestyle if you don’t own your own home. For example, Green Renters is a Melbourne-based not-for-profit group that provides advice on sustainable living for renters.

Until next time!

If you enjoyed this blog entry, you might also like Ten Green Books for Your Christmas Stocking and Be an Ethical, Frugal Fashionista: How to Shop Ethical When You're on a Budget.

The Tuck-In – A Versatile Look for the Frugally Fashionable

2012-01-03T11:43:00.000-08:00

Happy new year! It has come to the attention of this blogger (okay, probably at least a year after the fact!) that a 'new' trend is on the rise – the 'tuck-in'. It's now officially okay – in fact downright fashionable – to tuck shirts and T-shirts into jeans and other casual pants, as tightly as you want, and, if you so wish, without a belt in sight. This is great news for the frugal and fashionable.

For years tuck-ins were usually loose, had to include a belt, and as far as I'm aware (I'm happy to be proved wrong) weren't done if the pants were skinny or straight. Now any kind of tuck-in is de rigeur, and the belt-less tuck-in with skinnies is particularly favoured. And you can tuck in as tightly or loosely as you want.

Pants can be seventies flares, skinnies, tapered in the nineties style, 'boyfriend' and cargo shapes, including ultra-baggy, and even middle-of-the-road tailored flares.

Footwear is versatile but includes comfy brogues and oxfords.

For a preppie look, tuck in a T-shirt or fitted shirt into skinny jeans as shown below. (A tight-fitting short-sleeved shirt would add to the preppiness.)

For a fifties girlie look, tuck a T-shirt, shirt or sleeveless top into a pair of capris or rolled-up skinny jeans (a gingham shirt is particularly retro).

For a retro seventies look, tuck a shirt (especially one with a tie) into high-waisted seventies flares.

You can easily dress up the tuck-in with heels.

The tuck-in goes well with various kinds of skirts, including buttoned skirts.

In fact, if you're trying to get the most out of your existing wardrobe, the tuck-in has some great things going for it:

* It gives a new look to your stuff. It's amazing how tucking something in can create novelty - novelty is what shoppers crave, and why we always want to buy new clothes.

* It makes some pieces work together that otherwise wouldn't.

* It's particularly suited to shirts and may give new life to some shirts that you hadn't got around to getting rid of. You could also buy boys or men's shirts from the op (thrift) shop and tuck them in.

* You can create some retro looks very easily, without significant outlay.

* You don't have to worry about your waistline. Okay, so the tuck-in can seem unforgiving. But you don't have to tuck in tight. A loose tuck-in for the tummy challenged (ie virtually everyone over the age of 25!) can be very flattering, especially in the case of low-waisted jeans.

* There's huge versatility in the tuck-in. You can tuck in to low or high waists to create different looks, as the pics above show.

Until next time!

If you enjoyed this blog entry, you might also like Wanted – An Annie Hall for the 2000s and An Op Shop Find Transformed by the Needle!

Keep Calm and Carry Water: Great Tips for Coping with the Boxing Day Sales

2011-12-25T03:46:00.000-08:00

Hauling yourself out of bed at some ungodly hour after the festivities of Christmas just to buy even more consumer goods is not everyone’s idea of shopping savvy. But despite the hype around Boxing Day sales, they can be worth the effort, especially if there are things you need and you’ve planned ahead. If you decide to join the craziness, the tips below will keep you focused and ensure you don't come home with ten bottles of Old Spice aftershave past their used-by-date, a whopping headache and nothing else.

* Prepare in advance a list of items you’ll be searching for on Boxing Day. Stake out stores that you think will discount those items on Boxing Day and use this information to help you decide which shops to go to. You don't have to buy everything on the list: it's just a guide to give some structure to your shopping.

* Map your planned journey for maximum efficiency. Be realistic about how much energy you’ll have after Christmas. At the same time be prepared to deviate from your plan if your energy takes you somewhere unexpected.

* Dress for shopping success! Choose sensible clothes and comfortable shoes and get them ready the night before.

* Take advantage of one-day discounts. If you’re running out of everyday items like moisturiser or shampoo, hold off on buying them until Boxing Day and take advantage of one-day discounts that some stores offer on every item in the store.

* Keep your spending under control. Set a limit on the amount you will allow yourself to spend on the day. Do this mindfully and ensure the amount is realistic and affordable.

* Get your supplies ready in advance! Bring plastic or canvas bags. To stay hydrated, bring or buy a bottle of water and drink it while you’re queuing. Bring a healthy snack like nuts or raisins. (Alternatively, plan a relaxing meal or drink break.) If you're shopping alone, bring something to read while you're queuing up at the check-out.

* Before you go, take note of advertisements for Boxing Day sales. If you’re planning to buy a furniture item or appliance, eg a new dining setting or home theatre system, do your research thoroughly beforehand so you can rush in and rush out again with your Boxing Day bargain. If you’ve identified the exact item you want to buy but you’re not sure if it will be on sale on Boxing Day, use a smartphone to check prices, or ring around the stores on the day. This is the kind of situation where a smartphone really comes in handy – instead of the phone ‘telling’ you what to buy, you’re using it to obtain what you’ve already decided you want.

* When you hit your favourite store, take a deep breath. Use the experience as an exercise in following your energy rather than a do-or-die attempt to get everything you need. Picture a white light shining in your abdomen, and let the light guide you to where you need to go.

* If you have a smartphone, remember you're in control. Retailers will be trying to lure you into their stores with special offers. Use your intuition to decide which ones, if any, you respond to.

* Don't assume you have to buy something just because it's ridiculously cheap. Be really careful about taking advantage of those megabargains stores use to lure the early birds in. Just say you want to buy a new microwave oven and the store is selling them for $40. Have you done some research? Is this the microwave oven you really want? Will it do all the things you want it to do, and do you truly believe it's the right model for you? If not, you may be wasting your money.

* Don't be taken in by the shopping 'shoulds'. Your rational mind is very important in making the decision whether or not to buy, but it can't do the job on its own. Just say you've decided to buy one of those nifty mini-chainsaws because you want to start keeping the trees in your garden neatly pruned. You find a great model that's 35 per cent off, and you can't see any reason not to buy it. You have a niggling feeling that you shouldn't buy the chainsaw, but you ignore it, and bring one home from the sales. Two months later you get a job offer in another state and move into an apartment without a garden. If you can learn to listen to your gut feeling, you can work out when you're buying something just because of the shopping 'shoulds' - and perhaps decide not to buy at all.

* Don't give in to panic. You will probably feel a strong fear of missing out just because so many other shoppers will be desperate to get their hands on anything that looks cheap. Let yourself experience these feelings but try not to act on them, as this will actually reduce your chances of getting what you want and need. The world won't end if you don't buy a handbag at 50 per cent off. I know it feels like it will, but that's just because your mirror neurons are on overdrive and your dopamine levels are soaring. You can make a decision based on what you really need, you just have to listen. Act as if you know you’ll get what you need and you’ll be more likely to.

* Think of finding a genuine bargain as a bonus, not a right or a necessity. Remind yourself that many people don’t even bother with Boxing Day sales, waiting till a few days after Christmas before they check out the bargains. The point is not to grab every single item you might possibly need, or to compete with other shoppers, but to pick up a few really useful items if they come your way.

* Don’t follow the crowd – they’re not always right. Just because a store is packed with frenzied shoppers doesn’t mean the best bargains reside within its walls. Go where your energy guides you – you may find yourself in a nearly deserted store where the very item you need is waiting for you. On one Boxing Day outing I found myself in one of the larger clothing chains in the centre of a mob of frenzied shoppers who had poured in as soon as the doors opened. A quick look around confirmed there was nothing I wanted, and I left with hardly a twinge of regret. A bit earlier I'd found myself in a near-empty boutique, and homed in on a $20 pair of black capri pants that I was still wearing last summer.

* Be prepared to queue at the checkouts. Use the time you spend queuing to practise patience and mindfulness, and, as I said earlier, bring something to read. One Boxing Day I found a fantastic pair of good quality sunglasses at 40 per cent off. I had to wait about 25 minutes to get served and almost gave up, thinking of all the bargains I was missing out on. I got more than enough wear from those sunglasses to justify the wait.

* Practice 'letting go' even if you're in a hurry. If there's something you think you want, put it back on the shelf and start to walk away, and check out how your gut feeling responds. Really try to give up the item while you're doing this. If it's a large item, simply walk away. Now monitor how you're feeling. Do you forget the item right away or does your gut tell you to go back? Trust your intuition to let you know if you really need the item.

Until next time!

If you enjoyed this blog entry, you might also like A Free 'Shopping App' to Guide You Through the Christmas Maze.

When a Computer Crashes, and Returns Forever Changed

2011-12-18T22:22:00.000-08:00

My computer crashed on Friday. This inconvenient event acted like an asteroid crashing to Earth, leaving a huge crater in my confidence.

The actual crash was fairly minor as they go, although the implications may be worse than the events to date. The computer had its own internal recovery mechanism (oh the relief!) and running through the recovery process, traumatic as it was (which files had been lost?), was ultimately successful – the Word and Outlook files were all still there, although the software would need to be reloaded.

But the whole look of the desktop had changed. It was a stranger posing as a friend. There was hardly anything on it except the useless software from Acer, the manufacturers. Programs I’d downloaded since buying it were gone. How alienating this was after my initial euphoria at realising there was a recovery process.

Meanwhile, a dire notice kept telling me that there was something wrong with the hard drive and it could self-destruct at any moment.

I took the computer off to a trusted computer technician in a nearby suburb. He got the basic software up and running again, seems to have given the computer a tune-up, removed some annoying glitches that had been there from the beginning, and only charged $120. The computer was only away for a day, not bad if you're not paying for on-site help.

But he didn’t really check out the hard drive. When I came to pick up the computer and asked him about this, he said the warning notice hadn’t come up while he was working on the computer. The unpleasant possibility is that there is a hard drive weakness that could continue to cause these relatively minor crashes (not to mention a worse one) if I don’t replace the drive. (Following the technician’s restoration, I’ve had to spend more time reloading printer drivers, and the additional software I’d downloaded since buying the PC.)

After I set up the computer at home, the warning notice of an imminent crash kept coming up but, like the boy who cried wolf, the threat never eventuated. So I’ve simply disabled the notice, effectively shooting the messenger. And of course saving everything in sight – I’ve even found a way to save my Google Chrome bookmarks.

Do you want holes with your warranty?

The computer is still actually under an extended warranty, a warranty that was useless for this particular situation, when I needed (and was able) to get the data reconfigured and the computer up and running again as soon as possible. True, I’ve had to pay only a piddling amount to have my data reconfigured, but a PC warranty that doesn’t take software into account gives you a false sense of security and ends up costing you more.

I run a microbusiness – I'm a freelance editor and copywriter – and I’d underestimated the extent to which my PC is like a second brain. These days so many people have smart phones and tablets and aren’t reliant on just one form of digital technology to access the internet and communicate online. I’ve chosen not to go down this path – I don’t even have a laptop, don’t want an iPad – and it’s worked for me, helping to create balance.

But when things go wrong, it’s devastating. Of course I’ve had computer crashes before, but now with my own self-managed website, more blogging than I’ve done in the past, and having become a hopeless Twitter addict, I’m more enmeshed in the online world than I’ve ever been.

The extended warranty cost a couple of hundred yet will only be useful if I decide to, or need to, replace the hard drive. The computer support people at Harvey Norman, where I bought the computer, have told me it will take three weeks, if I leave it to the new year, to do this, partly because they'll send it off to the manufacturer to get fixed. Which means in the meantime probably a return to my ancient previous PC, assuming the leaky garage in which it’s currently precariously stored hasn’t rusted it into useless tin. If I do choose to replace the hard drive or if the time comes when I have no choice, all the software will be taken off the PC, and it'll be up to me to put to put it on again - at my own expense.

So I’m going to wait to replace the hard drive under the warranty until things go wrong again, while backing up madly.

This seems like a big black hole in either customer service, consumer law, or both. Neither the time frame – three weeks is way too long – nor the software issue seem fair, and my first reaction was to have a hissy fit, create a big song and dance and ring up my state consumer affairs office. But you have to pick your battles.

A solution in sight

I started to think about what I needed as not just a small business person but a tiny business person, and what was realistic. I didn’t want to be in this childish position any more, a position of fear that something could go horribly wrong at any time. I’d already lost the chance to work on a project of a few hours duration because of the initial crash. I couldn’t afford not to have computer access even for a few hours, and I didn’t want to be like an anxious parent waiting for a diagnosis for their child every time something went wrong.

What I thought I needed was an on-site IT expert who wouldn't charge a small fortune to come out and do quick repairs whenever things went wrong. But what would be the point if the computer was fundamentally a lemon and kept crashing?

Leasing a PC suddenly seemed like a good idea and I found a company that offered good back-up IT service. But their main product, after all, was the leasing – how good would their tech support be, and how much would they care about retrieving files? Not to mention the fact that leasing is more expensive than buying a computer. And mine’s only 18 months old, so I’m not ready to abandon it yet.

For the first time I understood the attraction of online back-up: the feeling of not having to worry about saving files. You can buy portable hard drives with automatic back-up, but data storage companies provide this basic back-up online for very reasonable prices. In fact, Norton, my anti-virus software, provides a tiny bit of free online back-up and is constantly telling me I need more – a message I’d ignored, because their extra gigabytes are not particularly cheap.

I think I may have found the solution. There’s a US company with a branch in Australia that offers very cheap, very secure-sounding online back-up. I rang them to inquire about the service, but was really searching for something more. Was there any way of avoiding the traumatic, expensive, time-consuming software reinstalment after a crash? The trauma for me had been not just the fear of losing files, but the actual losing of my PC’s configuration. A bit like having your house cleaned after a flooding, only to find someone’s put all the furniture and household items in the wrong rooms and you can’t find anything.

The polite spokesperson told me the company is setting up such a service in Australia next year: a service that saves a mirror image of your operating system and computer configuration.

A quick search revealed that this was in fact old news. Offline mirror back-up is already widely available. As usual Apple is ahead; on their latest systems, the files are integrated with an offline Time Machine that not only provides mirror back-up but also saves frequent versions of the file stretching back for weeks, so that you can access the file as it was at a particular point in time without having to save it separately.

This, of course, brings me to 'the cloud'. It's a step up from online back-up, in that files are stored on and used via a network, usually the internet. This means files are portable and can be used and saved on any compatible computer.

Whether I had mirror back-up or used the cloud, though, I'd still need a spare computer if mine crashed again, given I don't have on-site IT support. Perhaps I should buy a cheap laptop, so I’ve got a replacement I can set up instantly if things go wrong.

Shopping lessons
How did I end up in this situation given I strive to be a careful shopper, and what have I learned? When I bought my computer I made the best decision I could at the time, and I did some research. But a fundamental thing I failed to do was take my own needs into account – to adequately research myself, and to think about the 'unknown unknowns'. I treated myself as an average computer user rather than someone in business who needed a superior service, and I didn't look ahead to what my needs would be if things went wrong.

I honestly don't know if I would have bought differently given what I know now, but at least I would have been more aware of the risks. The fact is that the $120 I've just spent gave the computer a much-needed a tune-up as well as a reload. But this experience has taught me that I need to value my business and to be proactive when protecting not just my files (I knew that already) but my ability to get back to work straight away.

I don’t know at this point what I'll end up doing. Perhaps I’ll be gradually lulled into a false sense of security until the next crash, when I’ll have to act. In the meantime I may opt for conventional online back-up, for extra peace of mind; my portable back-up hard drive, after all, is only non-human and could perform its own self-destruction at any time. Or perhaps I should consider buying offline mirror back-up instead.

Whatever I decide to do, the idea of the face of my beloved PC being saveable and transferable – for a non-tech-savvy sole practitioner, that’s heaven sent.

Until next time!

If you enjoyed this blog entry, you might also like Cultural and Frugal Potential of the Kindle Part 1 and Part 2.

Ten (Really 11) Green Books for Your Christmas Stocking

2011-12-11T19:02:00.000-08:00

Are you still hunting around for suitable gifts? Perhaps you’ve decided that 2012 is the year you're going to live more sustainably? Below is a list of ten recently published books for your Christmas stocking that can help you go green, consume wisely and live simply (well, really 11 if you count the last one!).

I've included links to the original publisher website, but most of the books will be available from a variety of online and bricks-and-mortar bookstores.

The Little Veggie Patch: How to Grow Food in Small Spaces

Fabian Capomolla and Mat Pember

Fabian Capomolla and Mat Pember run a successful business installing edible gardens: in polystyrene boxes on balconies, in crates for the backyard, or by creating no-dig, raised garden beds. After years of helping clients set up spaces to grow their own fruit and vegetables they believe anyone can create their own little edible garden, in almost any area.

This lively guide provides comprehensive information on soil, climate, watering, composting, worm farms, saving and sowing seeds, and raised garden beds and crates – each section includes an illustrated step-by-step activity to help you create your own little veggie patch.

The complete A-Z of edible plants provides vital information on more than 40 vegetables (and fruit trees), including planting information, maintenance advice, best companions and when to harvest. There are hilarious tips and stories, and the family activities scattered throughout the book will get the kids involved.

Publishing details here.

Greeniology 2020: Greener Living Today, and in the Future
Tanya Ha

Tanya Ha is Australia’s foremost mainstream advocate for the benefits of going green. Greeniology 2020 is a reference book that covers going green in Australia in all major aspects of a modern lifestyle. It combines practical tips and Ha’s trademark accessible style with scientific rigour.

There is information on green cleaning, health and beauty, sustainable food and fashion, saving water, saving energy, cultivating a green garden, buying a greener car, and green building and renovating. There’s also a chapter on healthy homes and indoor air quality that is particularly useful for those with allergies, one on how to go green at work, and one on how to have a green baby.

Ha moves from the straightforward kind of green advice to more complex and technical areas while still writing in an accessible, conversational way. Thus, there’s information on the ingredients to avoid in cleaning products, as well as how to make your own; but you’ll also find detailed specifications for different kinds of lights and light fittings; what and how to recycle; the costs and carbon emissions of various hot water systems, cooling systems and heating systems; and environmental ratings for new homes.

The book also covers what to consider when installing a rainwater tank, and the role of building orientation when designing a green home. Home-based renewable electricity sources are explained, and windows, floors, decking, insulation, cooking ranges and fridges all get a look-in.

Interspersed throughout are Ha’s answers to detailed questions sent in by readers, and there is space at the end of each chapter for readers to create weekly, monthly and longer term green goals.

A full review can be found here.

Publishing details here.

Fair Food: Growing a Healthy, Sustainable Food System for All
Oran B. Hesterman

A host of books and films in recent years have documented the dangers of our current food system, from chemical run-off to soaring rates of diet-related illness and inhumane treatment of workers and animals. But advice on what to do about it largely begins and ends with the advice to eat local or eat organic. Fair Food is an enlightening and inspiring US guide to changing not only what we eat, but how food is grown, packaged, delivered, marketed, and sold.

Oran B. Hesterman shows how the dysfunction of the modern food system came about and defines the new principles and concrete steps required to restructure it. Along the way, he introduces people and organisations across the country who are already doing this work in creative ways, from bringing fresh food to inner cities to fighting for farm workers’ rights and putting cows back on the pastures. He also provides a wealth of practical information for readers who want to get more involved.

Publishing details here.

The Thrifty Forager

Alys Fowler

Foraging is a fast-growing global phenomenon that is fun, environmentally friendly and thrifty. This UK book takes a fresh look at foraging, and encourages you to look closer to home than the fields and hedgerows of the countryside, from the weeds in your garden to the trees in your street.

Fowler showcases her favourite edibles with a plant directory that includes photographic identification, detailed descriptions, and tips on how to grow and eat the plants, including recipes. The book also features innovative ideas for eating your local landscape, from community gardens in Todmorden, UK, to Edimental (edible ornamentals) gardens in Norway.

Publishing details here.

Green Crafts for Children: 35 Step-By-Step Projects Using Natural, Recycled, and Found Materials

Emma Hardy

Kids love to make their own toys, games, gifts and ornaments. If they can use recycled materials, so much the better for them and the planet! None of Emma Hardy’s projects in this book use any special materials. Instead, they all rely on items that are likely to be in the cupboard, can be found around the house or garden, or collected on walks in the park or at the beach. There are recipes for salt dough and methods for easy felting, plus ways to imaginatively use old gift-wrapping paper and worn-out clothes, as well as pine cones, tree bark, shells and other natural bits and bobs.

Gifts for relatives and friends are included, together with games and toys that can be made and then played with again and again. From painted stones and a friendship bracelet to a simple dolls’ house and a driftwood boat, children will love the projects in this engaging book.

Publishing details here.

The Transition Companion: Making Your Community More Resilient In Uncertain Times

Rob Hopkins

In 2008, the bestselling Transition Handbook suggested a model for a community-led response to peak oil and climate change. Since then, the Transition idea has gone viral around the world, from Italian villages and Brazilian favelas to universities and London neighbourhoods. In contrast to the ever-worsening stream of information about climate change, the economy and resource depletion, Transition focuses on solutions; on community-scale responses; and on meeting new people and having fun.

The Transition Companion picks up the story three years later, drawing from the experience of one of the most fascinating experiments under way in the world today. It tells inspiring tales of communities working for a future where local economies are valued and nurtured, where lower energy use is seen as a benefit, and where enterprise, creativity and the building of resilience have become cornerstones of a new economy.

Publishing details here.

Naked Fashion: The New Sustainable Fashion Revolution
Safia Minney

Safia Minney is founder and CEO of fair trade and sustainable fashion label People Tree, an award-winning social business. She has been awarded Outstanding Social Entrepreneur by the World Economic Forum.

In Naked Fashion, Minney invites you to join the growing movement of consumers, entrepreneurs, and creative professionals who are using their purchasing power, talents, and experience to make fashion more sustainable. Designers, photographers, models, illustrators, actors and journalists from all over the world, including Emma Watson, Summer Rayne Oakes and Vivienne Westwood, talk about what they are doing differently to make fashion more sustainable. And there’s information on all aspects of sustainable fashion – fair trade and environment, styling and modelling, upcycling and slow fashion, and how we can change the high street. The book includes an ethical brand directory, and stunning visuals throughout.

Publishing details here.

Upcycling: Create Beautiful Things with the Stuff You Already Have

Danny Seo

Renowned environmental lifestyle expert and Today Show regular Danny Seo shares 100 of his most inspiring projects for creative transformation. Neglected items around your house can be the source for exciting craft possibilities! Turn your old leather belts into a cool doormat (or even a briefcase); worn-out paperbacks into gorgeous bud vases; tennis balls into a quaint country swing; chopsticks into a handsome trivet, and many more.

With full-colour photos throughout to guide and inspire, Danny shows that it’s easy to be crafty, and fun to be budget- and eco-conscious.

Publishing details here.

The New Organic Gardener: The Ultimate Guide to Organic Gardening in Australia

Tim Marshall

Tim Marshall runs a consulting and training business for organic farmers and is regarded by many as Australia’s foremost organic certification expert. His passion for gardening infuses every part of this book. He guides you through the principles of organic gardening, and explains the reasons behind these principles.

Marshall believes that organic gardening is much more than simply throwing a bit of mulch onto your garden beds. A true organic gardener adopts a holistic approach, starting with the most precious organic element of all: the soil.

The book is full of practical information about applying organic methods for a large range of vegetables and herbs as well as flowers, trees (including fruit trees), shrubs and even a traditional lawn.

The New Organic Gardener also investigates the role of new science and manufacturing in explaining how organic gardening works. It provides readers with options for ‘off the shelf’ products to make organic gardening easier, safer and more precise.

Beautifully designed and illustrated, and drawing on Tim’s vast experience in organic gardening, this book is a comprehensive reference that features all the latest, most-up-to date thinking balanced with tried and true methods.

Publishing details here.

Consumer Republic: Using Brands to Get What You Want, Make Corporations Behave, and Maybe Even Save the World

Bruce Philp

Bruce Philp believes that consumers have much more power than they realise. An industry insider – he has worked in branding and advertising for almost three decades – he argues that companies spend millions on creating and sustaining brands, but a brand is actually a fragile thing because consumers have the power to make it worthless.

Using fascinating case studies, Philp dismantles the simplistic predator–prey narrative behind the anti-brand movement, confronts us with our real role in the system, and inspires us to make every dollar we spend count. He wants consumers to buy less but demand better, make meaningful choices instead of just easy ones, and speak up when they’re happy and when they’re not. Pin every one of these acts to a brand, he believes, and corporations will be forced to cooperate in making our way of life sustainable. Abandon brands, and we’ll surrender our marketplace to scoundrels.

Publishing details here and here.

Oh alright:

The Inspired Shopper: A Unique Guide to Fabulously Successful Shopping

Catherine Magree

This scintillating ebook, available through Amazon and shamelessly promoted on this blog by its author, will help you decide whether or not you need to buy the other ones!

Increasing numbers of us want to buy quality goods, shop ethically, save money, and stop cluttering our homes with things we don’t need. But how do we actually put this into practice? When we do buy, how do we know that what we’re buying is something that we really need? And how do we know whether it’s right for us?

The Inspired Shopper is an introduction to the art of slow shopping. It shows you how to find goods you truly want and need by shopping mindfully. It reveals techniques for uncannily spotting bargains, finding goods that ‘fit’ you, and developing helpful new shopping habits. It’s great for overspenders, underspenders, budget and frugal shoppers, and may also be helpful for recovering compulsive shoppers.

With information on thrifting, buying ethical fashion on the cheap, eBay, sustainable shopping, buying household goods and big-ticket items, and even how to buy a house intuitively, The Inspired Shopper will show you how to transform your shopping life and become the relaxed, confident and efficient shopper you always wanted to be.

Publishing details here.

Until next time!

If you enjoyed this blog entry, you might also like Yuletide Thrift: Tips for a Sustainable and Frugal Christmas.

A Free 'Shopping App' to Guide You Through the Christmas Maze

2011-12-03T14:03:00.000-08:00

At this time of year, as holiday shopping swings into gear, you’re under more pressure to buy than ever before.

Advertisers tell you to spend up on your family and friends to show how much you love them.
Stores lure you in with tempting displays, subtle aromas, scarily good-looking staff and special offers.
Brands evoke strong moods, emotions and character traits that make you crave their products.
Christmas hype and preparation can make you feel confused, depressed, tired and emotionally overloaded.
You add to the mix by heaping guilt on yourself for not being a good enough parent or friend.
Your smartphone sends you constant inducements to enter stores, pick up merchandise, and take advantage of time-limited discounts.

Advertising companies have long employed psychologists to advise them on the emotions and thoughts that unconsciously govern the behaviour of consumers.

But their knowledge of what triggers consumer behaviour is becoming more and more sophisticated. The burgeoning science of neuromarketing uses scanning to measure changes in brain activity and physical responses to discover what parts of the brain are involved in the decision to buy. Brands and stores are making use of this knowledge to influence your behaviour in ways you’re probably not aware of.

With the smartphone revolution, marketing in the form of discount offers has never been more intimate and in-your-face. Even when the discount is genuine, the question is: do you really need and want the product? Or are you just buying it because your buttons are being pressed?

A free app that looks out for you

The news isn't all bad. The fact is, you already have an amazing 'app' that counteracts the marketing messages. It's called your intuition, it's totally free, and it's at your disposal 24 hours a day. And better still, you don't need a smartphone to use it, although it does help! (Not really – I’m just being silly.)

Many people aren't clear as to what intuition really is or whether they have it. Some scientists routinely confuse it with emotions, and therefore warn that you can't always trust your intuition. However, other scientists are starting to take notice. One writer, Paul Bernstein, describes it thus:

The appearance of accurate information in the mind of an individual ... which can be shown to have come not through the five senses, nor through a rearrangement of the individual's stored memory contents.

When we shop, we have access to a number of sources of information about what we truly need: our rational mind, our emotions and our intuition, or gut feeling. Our bodies also give us information, such as telling us we’re tired or hungry.

Shopping can produce a whole spectrum of emotions, or simply strengthen feelings you already have. You might feel irritated, sad, depressed, excited, confident, triumphant, disappointed, apprehensive, anxious, fearful or even self-hating.

Your rational mind can help you by finding and processing practical information about the products you’re planning to buy. You can also use it to help talk yourself out of a bad buy, but you may sometimes use it to rationalise buying something you don't need.

Underneath all the hoopla of what’s going on for us is a steady stream of inner wisdom. It always has our best interests at heart, and a better understanding of our financial situation than our conscious selves. It’s there all the time, and all we need to do to access it is slow down a bit and take the time to tune in.

How to use your shopping app

Practise mindful shopping. Slow down. Breathe. Go ‘home’ to yourself. Be aware of your body in space, the feel of your feet walking, your arms swinging. Make calming self-statements. Remember there are plenty of goods, enough time, and plenty to go around.

Focus on the experience of shopping and not just the outcome. Stay in the moment. Be nice to the hardworking retail staff. Practise not shoving aside other shoppers. Stay aware of your perceptions.

Get to know how emotions affect you when you shop. Emotions and intuition aren’t always in tune. Discover how your emotions work by going on a shopping expedition where you simply browse. Note how you react to finding goods you love. What happens to your body and brain when you contemplate a Gucci handbag or a pair of Italian loafers? How does feeling tired affect your emotional state, eg do you suddenly feel an urge to buy products you would ordinarily dismiss? Do you lose the plot if you shop for more than two hours? Use this information to help you plan your shopping so as to manage your emotions and minimise the negative ones.

Build a secure base from which your app can operate. Intuition and rational thinking aren’t usually opposed (although sometimes intuition can trump rational thinking). It really helps to have a structure so you know roughly how much you can spend, and what you want to buy in the short, medium and long term. Research big-ticket items before you buy them and use intuition to make the final decision. Create a budget and keep track of what you’ve allocated to different areas. Create a Priority List of goods you want (and presents you intend to give). Do these tasks mindfully, and remember both your budget and Priority List can be flexible and dynamic – you are allowed to change your mind!

Let go of outcomes. Practise ‘negative capability’. Try to accept that, however much you plan, your internal shopping app may have its own plans. It’s great to be organised, but try to let go of the outcome of your shopping expedition. Be open to accidental finds, and to the possibility that you may not come home with what you set out to get.

Get to know how your shopping app works. A great way to find out how your intuition operates is to find something you’re almost sure you want to buy. If you’ve decided it’s within your budget and done any necessary research, decide to mentally give it up. Put it back on the shelf, walk away from it, walk out of the store if you need to. If you're online, navigate away from the page by opening another tab, or take the item out of your shopping cart. Mentally tell yourself you are letting it go and see what your gut feeling tells you. If there is a very strong protest at a gut level, approach the item for a second time and see what happens.

Use your shopping app for all aspects of the shopping process. Use it to decide how you will shop, where you will shop and for how long. Use your app to decide if it’s worth going into individual stores. Listen to your app if it guides you to new ways of shopping, eg ethical and sustainable Christmas and holiday gifts, shopping with small retailers instead of big box stores, charity-based gifts, thrifting.

Use your app to help you avoid going with the herd. Be aware of the energies of others, and mentally separate them from your own. Remember they have their own agendas, and you’re biologically wired to want to follow your fellow creatures. But your internal shopping app can help you override this urge and only buy what’s right for you.

Use setbacks to become a more effective shopper. If you have an unpleasant shopping experience, use it as feedback to get to know yourself better. What are your triggers for overspending? What times of the day are best for you to shop? Could you set some limits on your online shopping? Remember, every shopping expedition can make you a more aware and effective shopper if you’re open to the lessons.

Until next time!

If you enjoyed this blog entry, you might also like Steps to Take Before You Buy a Big-Ticket Item and How to Distinguish Between a Good and Bad Impulse Buy.

Thrifting and Decluttering - Are They Compatible?

2011-11-24T11:34:00.000-08:00

As Buy Nothing Day approaches, it’s time to look at two movements that both aim to change consumer shopping habits but seem diametrically opposed.

Out of the ashes of the GFC and the continuing economic malaise have risen two huge consumer movements that are now burgeoning – simple living and thrifting. They’re part of what is being dubbed ‘the new economy’ – a wholistic approach to the acquiring and exchanging of goods that involves cooperation, community building, and a commitment to both environmental sustainability and workers’ rights.

Yet despite their common provenance, these two movements can sometimes seem at odds. While one is about shedding unnecessary goods and opting for minimalism and simplicity, the other is focused on the excitement and money-saving benefits of hunting out secondhand bargains. Can they be reconciled?

Simple living and decluttering

Simple living is about simplifying one’s lifestyle and is sometimes linked to sustainability. It has been advocated for centuries and was popularised by Thoreau as far back as 1854. Its modern incarnation is partly a reaction to the excessive materialism that the manufacturing boom and easy access to credit brought about in the nineties and noughties.

In fact, some of us have so much junk that we are living in bigger houses than we need to partly to accommodate it. A UK survey reported in 2010 found that ‘The amount of rarely used items owned by an average Briton has doubled in the past three decades to fill 3,370 cubic feet’. The survey found that all that unnecessary clutter was typically taking up an area worth over £70,000.

As a response to this, a key aspect of simple living is getting rid of excess goods – junk that is not only useless, but actually impedes quality of life because it takes up space, time and energy. This is achieved through the process of decluttering. The aim is to acquire only those things that have lasting value. This has led to the idea of domestic downsizing – moving to a smaller house or apartment while shedding the unwanted goods.

But decluttering isn’t against consumerism per se. Rather, it’s about ensuring that the goods we acquire for pleasure actually improve our lives rather than complicating them. The unclutterer website stresses that:

Living beyond one’s basic needs becomes a problem only when the accumulation of property becomes a source of stress rather than enjoyment ... finding balance is difficult for many because purchasing and accumulating can be effortless, while planning ahead and organizing takes effort.

The rise of thrifting

Thrifting, like decluttering, is hardly new – for our ancestors who lived during the two world wars and the Great Depression, making the most of secondhand goods was an absolute necessity. But the recession has led to a thrift store boom.

Not only that, but thrifting has been transformed for good (and for the better) by a combination of the internet and the rise of sustainable fashion. Fashion savvy, ethically minded young (and not so young) women have embraced traditional craft skills, refashioning and upcycling their thrift store finds, whether they’re taking the sleeves off a dress and adding a piece of black lace to the neck, shabby chic-ing a desk or cabinet, or turning a tablecloth into a gorgeous retro apron. Then, true to Gen Y imperatives, they share information about their upcycling through blogs and Twitter.

And while there will always be a place for serendipity in thrifting, there’s been an internet-inspired explosion in information about it. Not only guides on how to do it (some of the information incredibly specific), but where to go and, as mentioned above, what to do with the stuff once you’ve got it.

What powers thrifting, then, is often quite different from the force behind decluttering. For the crafty, thrifting is inspired by creativity, and for the ethically minded, it’s a greener, kinder alternative to buying new. But what also drives it is the desire to find a bargain – a desire that seems hardwired into the human brain.

A 2010 study found that the level of excitement that shoppers feel when they are faced with special offers is the same as they feel from sexual arousal. Apparently bargains give our brains the same level of excitement they get from sex.

Since the recession, shoppers have become more determined and ruthlessly efficient when hunting out special deals. According to Pat Conroy, vice chairman of Deloitte LLP, shoppers treat finding a special deal as a game they play with stores and brands, in which they emerge the winners.

While he’s referring to consumers buying new products, the sense of shopping as a game is also often present in the comments of those who share their thrifted finds on Twitter.

Reconciling thrifting and decluttering

But the thrill of thrift-store bargain hunting may lead to pitfalls. Because thrifting is so cheap and there are so many bargains available, frequent thrifting could be a recipe for recluttering. How to reconcile the message of simplicity with the joy of finding a bargain?

Beth Dargis, who teaches groups and individuals skills in simple living and runs the My Simpler Life website, understands why thrifting is so popular. ‘It’s wonderful in that you can get things more inexpensively,’ she says. ‘Things with character and a history. Plus, people aren’t buying new things that cost money and environmental resources to generate.’

But she agrees that ‘Thrifting can be dangerous if it becomes “the thrill of the hunt”.

‘If you buy things you don’t need because it’s a fantastic deal and you feel like you made a grand bargain, thrifting may need to be put on hold for a bit.

‘It’s also a trap for people that like to collect things. Some people have so many collections there is no place to live in the house.’

Beth suggests that dedicated collectors could set an upper limit on the size of their collections, ‘and when you reach it, one piece of the collection needs to go before getting any more.’

She gives the following advice on avoiding cluttering up the house with thrifted goods you don’t need. (This advice is equally applicable to buying new goods.)

Notice what you are buying for. How are you feeling emotionally when you buy something? Is it to make you feel better, more accepted, or to give you that shopper’s high? Or is it really useful? For it to be useful you need to ask these questions before buying:

1. Where will I put it?
2. Do I have the money to buy it right now?
3. Do I already have something else that works?
4. How many times a year will I use it?

Thrifty minimalists, unite!

It seems important, then, to apply the same skills to buying used goods as we increasingly do to buying new ones. There’s bound to be a raft of bargains when we go to the thrift store, and there’s simply no need to snap up every bargain we find. Some bargains really are meant for other people.

And of course, there are plenty of way to get rid of excess goods, thrifted or not, as long as they’re in decent condition – selling them on Etsy and eBay, donating them to a thrift store, or giving them away on websites such as Ziilch or through the freecycling community.

So yes, it’s possible to be a thrifty declutterer and a minimalist thrifter – it just takes a wee bit of knowledge, a soupcon of willpower, a dash of intuition, and a dose of shopping savvy!

Until next time!

If you enjoyed this blog entry, you might also like Great Tips for Successful Op and Thrift Shopping and Clearing Out Clutter: A Goodbye Ritual for a Loved Object.

All the Fun of the Fair: Festival Showcases Burgeoning Ethical and Fair Trade Market

2011-11-17T14:43:00.000-08:00

A free festival in the heart of Melbourne that showcases the burgeoning fair trade and ethical market in Australia is set to take place in two weeks time.

Started three years ago by a Melbourne banker, Moral Fairground at Federation Square (Fair@Square) has already become Australia’s largest fair trade and ethical festival.

More than 80 businesses and an estimated 75,000 people are expected to take part in the festival, which will include a VIP Ethical Fashion Show, a walk-through display of an eco-friendly house, cooking demonstrations at the Fair Indulgence tent, discussions about ethical and sustainable issues, live music and children’s activities.

Cutting-edge sustainable fashion, ethical beauty products, organic goods and culturally diverse giftware, accessories and jewellery from around the globe will all be on show.

Festival Director Susanna Bevilacqua, a banker, was shocked by the working conditions and environmental impact of mass consumerism she witnessed when she visited some of the poorest countries in South East Asia. Determined to do something, she launched the festival three years ago with the help of fellow banker Boby Vosinthavong.

Despite never having organised an event before, Bevilacqua sought corporate sponsorship and a venue, and set out to build awareness about ethical, socially responsible and environmentally aware businesses.

Fairtrade labelling contributes to sustainable development by offering better trading conditions to marginalised producers and workers, many in low-income regions. It aims to empower them by paying fair prices for their work, helping them to operate in the global economy, and challenging unfair trading practices.

A global survey conducted by GlobeScan for Fairtrade International shows that 93 per cent of Australians believe companies should pay farmers and workers fairly.

It also reveals that 81 per cent of us believe independent, third-party certification is the best way to verify a product’s ethical claims.

While Fairtrade labelled products were launched in Australia as recently as 2005, the industry was already worth $AUD120 million by last year, and sales increased 200 per cent from 2009 to 2010.

Bevilacqua said that Australians were increasingly prepared to spend money to ensure that the products they purchased were ethically produced.

While she would like to see an umbrella group set up here purely to promote fair trade, she points to the recent launch of Fair Traders of Australia, a new network of businesses committed to selling fair trade products, as a positive development.

She is also keen to see the full range of fair trade products become available in Australia.

‘The power lies with ... consumers, we need them to buy fair trade products so that the retailers can see there is demand’, she said.

‘We need consumers to let their retailers know that they want more fair trade products on the shelves.

‘[This] means approaching your local schools and sporting clubs [and] asking them to use fair trade footballs or asking major department stores to stock fair trade fashion.’

Moral Fairground Advisory Board member and senior associate at Net Balance, Cameron Neil, says the growth of Fair@Square over the last three years has been phenomenal and a clear reflection that consumer demand for products with purpose and meaning is here to stay.

‘Businesses are recognising this isn't a feel good fad. Some are leading the way, ensuring their products are produced in a fair and ethical way, and seeking to reduce the environmental impact of their production, use and disposal.’

The Festival is at Federation Square in Melbourne on the weekend of December 3 and 4 from 11 am to 6 pm. The Ethical Fashion Show takes place on December 2 at BMW Edge from 7.30 pm to 9 pm. Find out more.

Until next time!

If you enjoyed this blog entry, you might also like Kylie Kwong Partners with Oxfam to Bring Fairtrade Design to Your Table.

Yuletide Thrift: Tips for a Sustainable and Frugal Christmas

2011-11-10T12:29:00.000-08:00

An orgy of gift buying takes place each Christmas. Not only will most of this generosity eventually end up in landfill, but much of it is misplaced. In 2009, British shoppers spent an estimated £1.7 billion on Christmas presents that weren't appreciated by their receivers, while in October 2010, Australians were already planning to sell their unwanted Christmas presents online.

A greener, more frugal Christmas can reduce waste, increase your savings and even bring you closer to your loved ones. Below are some tips for a less commercial Christmas.

Changing what you buy and the way you buy it

* Don’t leave Christmas plans till the last minute. You’ll end up spending more. Planning is the key to a more frugal festive season. Make a list of all those you plan to buy for, and look out for suitable presents whenever you’re shopping, including online shopping.

* Buy within your means. Create a Christmas budget. Decide what you can afford, including separate amounts for gift giving, going out, and Christmas meals. Start with the assumption that you will only spend the amount you can afford, and then plan who you will give presents to, the amount you will spend on each person, and how you will entertain.

* Consult family members if you want to change present-giving traditions. If you want to make changes to the way you give presents in your family, eg by giving fewer presents or giving to charity, it’s important to discuss this with family members. Gift-giving traditions in families have very deep roots, and changes to those traditions can seem threatening.

One change might be to stop giving presents to every family member and have a Kris Kringle instead. You can have more than one Kris Kringle in the family, eg one for the adults and one for the children.

If you want to make changes to your gift giving that help others, such as giving gift cards that buy a resource for a struggling family in the developing world, you may need to run a campaign to get the family on side. This can take time; provide the family with literature and information, and be willing to discuss the benefits, such as teaching children the importance of giving. Oxfam Unwrapped sells gift cards that provide resources to poor communities; there are 44 gifts to choose from.

* When you’re Christmas shopping, be aware of the emotions that Christmas can stir up. Christmas is a very emotional time of year, and the mixture of nostalgia and sense of anticipation may affect your buying choices. Practising mindfulness while shopping is a great way to stay in touch with those feelings so that they don’t hijack your wallet!

As well as buying for others, there’s a strong temptation around Christmas to buy what researchers call ‘self-gifts’ – gifts we buy to reward and pamper ourselves. When buying self-gifts, awareness of what your motivations are can help you decide if the choices you make are right for you.

* Take the time to ask your loved ones what they want. This means you’re more likely to buy things that they want, which in turn means less waste. To retain the element of surprise, ask them to make lots of suggestions (where teenagers are concerned you may have to probe!). In my experience it’s fine to tell them you’re on a budget so they can tailor their suggestions to your budget.

* If you’re successful in streamlining your Christmas shopping, be prepared to feel guilty! Anthropologist James Carrier believes that we deliberately make Christmas shopping hard work because we want to demonstrate just how good we are at turning impersonal objects into tokens that express our bonds with our families and loved ones. If you successfully negotiate simplified Christmas giving with your family, reduce the amount you spend on Christmas and finish your shopping early, you may find yourself feeling guilty. Simply note and accept these feelings – there’s no need to rush out and buy up half the stock of a major department store.

* If you’re trying to teach your children to be less materialistic, be patient. Being too dogmatic and imposing your own values on the child could backfire. Perhaps you could compromise, combining presents that are blatantly commercial (if that’s what your child craves) with some less commercial alternatives.

* Choose sustainable toys and children’s gifts. There are loads of eco-friendly toys and gifts for children, many on the internet, but even mainstream toy chains are starting to stock them. This guide from Treehugger provides information on the properties to look for in eco-friendly toys.

* Buy certified Fairtrade items as gifts. Certified Fairtrade items, which guarantee a fair price and conditions for producers, is a burgeoning area and the choice of goods is growing all the time. A good place to find out where to buy products in your country is this list of contact details for Fairtrade organisations.

Oxfam Shop and New Internationalist are two Australian websites selling Faitrade items. Don’t forget that these types of online sites also have sales.

* Buy secondhand gifts. I don’t believe in the taboo that you can’t buy secondhand goods as Christmas gifts! But if you want to buy from thrift stores, yard sales and vintage stores, planning and consultation are important. Your local thrift shop will probably close way before Christmas, and it will take longer to find suitable secondhand gifts, so get your skates on if you haven’t already started your Christmas shopping.

* Buy gift cards. While gift cards give the receiver more control over what they buy, there are pitfalls. An estimated 15-30% of gift card vouchers aren’t redeemed. Check with the recipient first as to the retail store you will buy the card from, or if you don’t want to do that, choose a card that gives the receiver a great deal of choice – eg don’t buy them a $100 card for Barbecues Galore if they have no intention of buying a barbecue! You can now buy gift cards at a discount from sites on the internet. Cardlimbo is a website that buys unwanted gift cards from consumers and resells them at a discount.

Cheap gift ideas

* Give something you already have. A great way of cutting down on the cost of gifts and avoiding goods ending up in landfill is to give something you already have as a present (or part of a present). Don’t give any old junk, but heirloom and vintage items that are valuable to you and that you may not use any more, such as jewellery, clothes, knickknacks and furniture. Carefully tailor your choices to the receiver.

* Practise regifting. It’s okay to regift something that’s not right for you, but only if you use your intuition to decide who would appreciate the gift.

* Give a small amount of money as a present. Kids love receiving money as it gives them control over what they buy. The beauty of giving money to children is that you don’t necessarily have to give a huge amount, as what’s a small amount to you may not be to them.

* Make your presents. You don’t have to be a craft whizz to do this. Scarfs and sarongs, for exaxmple, are easy to run up on the sewing machine. This website gives you instructions for making 13 different types of scarves. Another option is to use spare buttons to make a button necklace.

* Give experiences rather than material objects. Studies suggest that people derive more enduring pleasure from life experiences than from material objects. Experience-based gifts don’t have to be expensive; a couple of free movie tickets are a great low-cost way to give a fun experience.

* Don’t forget the old standbys. If you’re looking for cheap standbys, you can’t go past books and DVDs or Blu-rays, but do consult with the person first.

Plants are another great gift – they’re great value for money and (assuming they’re looked after!) they last. Choose hardy, low-maintenance plants that suit the person’s garden and their lifestyle. You can ‘upcycle’ a plant cheaply by buying the plant and a fancy pot separately, and repotting the plant.

* Give your time instead of a material object. If you’re really skint or trying to avoid the materialism of Christmas, create certificates where you pledge particular tasks, eg washing the car, or two hours gardening, babysitting or housecleaning.

* Make up a hamper of deli goodies. Low-cost goods include jam, cashew nuts, shortbread and cold-pressed olive oil. If you’re in the US, you can get significant discounts on these items using coupons. You need to ensure that you don't buy goods containing ingredients to which the receiver may be allergic.

* Bake or cook small gifts. Slices of home made coconut ice or shortbread wrapped in cellophane and finished with colourful ribbon make great gifts for neighbours and work colleagues.

Frugalising other aspects of Christmas

* Make your own Christmas cards. A friend of my mum’s creates her own cards using simple watercolour floral designs that she paints on white card using watercolour paints. Using stencils to cut out designs is another great idea. Another option is to use rubber stamps, but you do need to take the cost of the ink into account.

* Cut down on food waste. Wastage of food is a huge issue at Christmas. The festive season is a time of giving and it’s very natural to want to be generous with food at this time. However, there’s no need to over-cater. It’s important to plan ahead and write a list before you shop for food for Christmas meals, but don’t rely entirely on your rational mind. Stay mindful and listen to your gut feeling, as it will tell you if you’re going overboard with the number of potatoes you’re buying for the roast, or if you really need that extra packet of dipping crackers.

* Make your own Christmas decorations. Use odd pieces of wrapping paper, and cut them up into strips of equal size. create a loop with the first strip using sticky tape or glue, then link each strip in the ‘chain’. Hang the decoration from a mantelpiece or wall.

Until next time!

If you enjoyed this post, you might also like Top Tips for Inspired Supermarket Savings.

Why Do We Buy? Twelve Hidden Motivations for Your Shopping Behaviour

2011-11-03T19:47:00.000-07:00

If you’re serious about reducing the number of things you buy, a good way to start is to look at your underlying motivations. They’re probably more complex than you realise! Below are some of the main reasons why we shop. Being aware of these motivations can reduce their hold on you, and put you on the road to more conscious shopping. Which of them apply to you?

Status

Humans have always used material goods to advertise high social status. Many of us are more than willing to buy things that have a higher price tag simply to tell the world how wealthy we are. In some cases, the extra quality is in the packaging only. And marketers and advertisers are constantly encouraging us to believe we’re entitled to spend up big. We’re as good as the next person, so why can’t we have those sleek Italian ankle boots or the latest Audi?

These days, status isn’t just about luxury goods. Many of us (me included) inadvertently use material goods to tell people how with-it we are, how hip and original, or even how green.

Independence and power

In 2006, Stella Minahan and Michael Beverland conducted a landmark study on why and how Australian women shopped in retail stores. They discovered that many women enjoy the feeling of mastery that they get from being able to afford certain goods.

But this led to a paradox. For Minahan and Beverland’s shoppers, feeling powerful sometimes hinged on being able to afford a specific item; these shoppers felt compelled to buy another, equally expensive item if what they really wanted wasn’t available.

There’s nothing wrong with a desire to demonstrate financial independence. But wanting to feel powerful can lead to powerlessness if you feel compelled to buy. Men may feel a similar kind of pressure: the need to demonstrate their financial success and masculinity by producing their wallets and spending up big at call.

Branding

Brands have symbolic meaning and emotional appeal: we experience certain feelings, access happy memories, or affirm our values simply by buying a particular brand. And we advertise our spending power and good taste by wearing or using goods of a luxury brand.

Branding is reaching ever deeper into our psyches: increasingly, it’s also about our identities, activities, interactions, and even our self-esteem. A 2010 study found that not only did certain brands have appealing ‘personalities’, but that the positive traits associated with those brands could rub off on consumers. In other words, some of us actually feel that we adopt more appealing personalities when we use a particular brand!

Because we’re so inundated with choice these days, brand loyalty can seem like a convenient shortcut for decision making: ‘I trust this brand – I’ll try the company’s new anti-ageing moisturiser / wireless headphones / hiking boots’.

Self-expression and identity

Urban geographer Jim Pooler suggests that these days ‘we shop to self-actualise’. Minahan and Beverland’s research found that one of the main reasons that women shop is to express themselves and their identity. Social theorists Jane Pavitt believes that we create our identities, our very selves, through the goods we buy: we often ask the question ‘Is that me?’ before forking out for a piece of clothing, choosing a restaurant or planning a holiday.

The internet has only increased the trend of self-expression through buying. It’s dead easy to download an exclusive recording of your favourite progressive rock band’s latest offering, buy anything you need in the way of freshwater-fishing tackle, or order your preferred style from a huge variety of designer nappy/diaper bags.

Store ambience

Retailers know that the longer we’re in a shop the more likely we are to buy. The lighting, music, smells, signage, display fixtures, colour scheme and layout all work synergistically to create an inviting ambience that encourages us to hang around and inspect the merchandise. Even the staff are chosen for their attractiveness.

Wide aisles make it easier to look at and examine the goods. Evocative scents trigger positive memories that we then associate with the store’s brand. Some stores boast dramatic, architect-designed interiors that create a powerful statement about the brand.

Social interaction

Some researchers claim that the shopping centre has taken the place of other social spaces such as churches and public squares. Many women love nothing more than hitting their favourite shopping zone with a group of close friends and a credit card in tow. And some shoppers relish casual chitchat with sales staff and the acknowledgement they receive from stores they shop at regularly.

Joining the crowd

Neuromarketers such as Martin Lindstrom have found that we are strongly motivated by the desire to buy the items we see other people using or wearing. This tendency is the reason why some items become fads, taking off in an irrational way until they’re popping up everywhere. According to Lindstrom, it’s all due to the fact that our brains contain what he terms mirror neurons.

Mirror neurons are a specific type of brain cell that enables feelings of empathy when we watch someone else perform an action. Mirror neurons are the reason why, despite vowing and declaring you would never buy a pair of harem pants when they started appearing in fashion magazines, one day you suddenly found yourself at the checkout of an upmarket department store, grasping a black satin pair of – harem pants.

Reward

Many of us shop to reward ourselves, to give ourselves a pat on the back for all our hard work. We even reward ourselves for doing mundane shopping like grocery shopping! Simply being aware that you do this can help you to distinguish between useful and wasteful rewards. One option is to set aside a set amount of reward money for a specific period of time. Alternatively, if you want to stop or cut down on buying expensive rewards, give yourself treats that aren’t necessarily related to shopping.

Snagging a bargain

The satisfaction of snagging a red-hot bargain is a major motivation behind the urge to shop. In Australia, Boxing Day sales get more chaotic each year as people clamour for the hottest deals. In the USA, frenetic crowds storm stores on Black Friday, and websites are inundated on Cyber Monday and Green Monday.

The internet provides bargains all year round. This represents a potential danger if you want to save money: the capacity to snag a bargain becomes almost infinite, no longer limited by time of year or your ability to visit particular stores.

Finding a bargain can fuel the production of dopamine that gives us a shopping high. It can swell your self-esteem, give you a sense of power, and reassure you that you’re a skilled shopper.

Deprivation

Desire – the gap between what we already have and what we crave – is the basis of consumerism. We decide that we need a product or item and go out looking for it. This desire can turn to frustration and annoyance if we don’t get what we want.

In fact, underlying the retail high some of us seek is often a general sense of deprivation. We all experienced loss as children; memories of these early experiences can resurface whenever we crave material objects. The losses of the present produce additional wounds while they reawaken old ones. And according to writer Oliver James, the world we live in encourages us to believe that objects can supply non-material things that we may not have, such as ‘love, or a better character or higher self-esteem’.

Feelings of deprivation are part of being human and they’ll come back after the shopping fix is over. Once you can acknowledge these needs they will have less power over you, and will be less likely to impinge on your purse and your time.

Collecting

There is a bit of the collector in most of us, I suspect. Collecting is a tricky area, standing perilously close to both hoarding and shopping addiction, with all the disastrous consequences of these habits. If your collecting impacts badly on your life, financially, space-wise or otherwise, it could be in danger of turning into hoarding. If you think you may be a hoarder, seek professional help.

Novelty and aesthetics

The human thirst for novelty is one of the main reasons we pound the pavement or sidewalk, or trawl the web, desperately in search of something fresh and different. We get sick of our doona (duvet) covers, lounge furniture, crockery, clothes, cars and mobile phones, even if they’re still in perfectly good condition. But some of the need for novelty can be satisfied without having to actually buy.

According to neuroscientist Gregory Berns, dopamine is produced in the brain when we see something new or unexpected – that’s an important part of the shopping high many of us experience. But while dopamine fuels the desire to buy, actually finding and anticipating buying the item is what matters in the production of dopamine. There are plenty of no-cost and low-cost ways of satisfying the thirst for novelty in your shopping life.

Until next time!

If you enjoyed this post, you might also like In with the Old and Out with the New: Shopping and the Search for Perfection.

Book Review: Greeniology 2020 by Tanya Ha

2011-10-30T17:35:00.000-07:00

The idea of ‘going green’ can seem so overwhelming that it’s easier to just get into the car, put the pedal down and drive as fast as possible to the nearest shopping mall for an afternoon’s retail therapy. But a new book on living sustainably in Australia demonstrates that you don’t have to be a tree-hugging hippy to adopt a green lifestyle. Tanya Ha’s Greeniology 2020: Greener Living Today, and in the Future is a reference book that covers going green in Australia in all major aspects of a modern lifestyle.

Guidebooks on adopting a sustainable lifestyle are hardly a new phenomenon, but that Melbourne University Press has published this one indicates just how mainstream the concept has become. MUP’s publishing role here is also fitting for the reason that this book combines practical tips and Ha's trademark accessible style with scientific rigour.

Tanya Ha’s green credentials are impeccable; in fact it’s probably fair to call her Australia’s foremost mainstream advocate for the benefits of going green. A science graduate, she’s a natural communicator who has made it her vocation to demystify environmental issues for the layperson. She’s already published a number of books in this area, including the 2007 Australian Green Consumer Guide, which received rave reviews; is a reporter on ABC TV’s science program Catalyst; and was environmental coach on the SBS program Eco House Challenge.

Greeniology 2020 covers the entire spectrum of areas you’d expect in a book like this, as well as a few more. There is information on green cleaning, health and beauty, sustainable food and fashion, saving water, saving energy, cultivating a green garden, buying a greener car, and green building and renovating. There’s also a chapter on healthy homes and indoor air quality that is particularly useful for those with allergies, one on how to go green at work, and one on how to have a green baby.

What Ha does particularly well is move from the straightforward kind of green advice to more complex and technical areas while still writing in an accessible, conversational way. Thus, there’s information on the ingredients to avoid in cleaning products, as well as how to make your own; but you’ll also find detailed specifications for different kinds of lights and light fittings; what and how to recycle; the costs and carbon emissions of various hot water systems, cooling systems and heating systems; and environmental ratings for new homes.

Ha makes the leap from simple to complex while seamlessly weaving scientific knowledge into the book’s structure. Each chapter includes the ecological context that requires us to act, as well as plenty of useful facts and figures, for example, an explanation of the concept of greenhouse intensity. Interspersed throughout are Ha's answers to detailed questions sent in by readers, and there is space at the end of each chapter for readers to create weekly, monthly and longer term green goals.

I did have a problem with how Greeniology 2020 positions itself, which in turn throws up questions that go beyond the intentions and scope of the book itself, to the larger terrain of how we as a society deal with climate change. In her introduction, Ha strongly advocates the path of personal responsibility. She aims the book at what she sees as a new kind of green citizen, someone who’s fairly middle of the road and wouldn’t think of protesting against government inaction but is willing to take measures to reduce their own footprint.

I’m sure Ha deals with political responses in other forums, but this appeal echoes a widespread and erroneous assumption that could lead us into letting governments and large corporations off the hook. Citizens doing their bit just isn’t enough to significantly reduce carbon emissions; strong government regulation is absolutely essential. Indeed, setting an emissions reduction target means that the more the population helps the federal government reach its target, the more corporations will be able to pollute. ‘Greeniology’ can’t stop at your front door if it’s to be effective. There are other ways to agitate besides protesting, such as writing letters, blogging and so on.

Having said that, the two areas – personal responsibility and pressuring governments to make radical, society-wide changes – are in fact complementary. That Ha deals primarily with one side of the equation isn’t in itself a problem. If a groundswell of people take up green energy, for example, the industry would have to transform; and if enough citizens reduced their emissions, this would put pressure on governments to increase their reduction targets. Nor is going green purely about climate change, although that remains our greatest challenge.

I also found the chapter on green fashion a bit disappointing, having recently read an expose of the UK fashion industry, Lucy Siegle’s To Die For. Ha acknowledges the huge complexity of the issues in this area, but I think she could have advised readers of more of the options available, for example the growing range of ethical and Fairtrade fashion available from online stores in the UK. The birth of the sustainable clothes stylist, and trends facilitated by the web such as the renaissance in home sewing and the practice of transforming op shop clothes through alterations also deserved to be included.

Despite my quibbles, this is an excellent all-round reference book for anyone who wants to go green and stay that way. It’s comprehensive, clearly written, up to date, and with plenty of in-depth information from someone who is not only an expert but a talented communicator.

Until next time!

If you enjoyed this blog entry, you might also like Be an Ethical, Frugal Fashionista: How to Shop Ethical When You're on a Budget.

Secrets of Harmonious Haggling

2011-10-25T18:57:00.000-07:00

Haggling in a retail store is one of the last taboos. Unless you’re buying a big-ticket item, it can feel humiliating to tell a salesperson you’re only willing to buy something at a lower price than the store is advertising: you fear you'll look cheap.

Since the economic downturn, however, haggling has become more acceptable, especially if you have a smartphone. But you can still be an effective haggler if you don’t have a smartphone, or in situations where you can't use it. And of course, haggling is a longstanding tradition at flea markets and garage sales. Try the tips below to become a happy (and effective) haggler!

* Effective haggling takes practice. You may have to try it a few times before you feel confident about doing it, or before you’re successful at negotiating a reduced price. View your first attempts as practice, and if your spiel or approach isn’t effective, change it the next time.

* If the item you’re haggling for is available elsewhere, research the price before you start haggling. It's important that you can truthfully tell the seller you could buy it more cheaply somewhere else - obviously this is where shopping apps coming in handy, but you can also research on the internet and by ringing around.

* Create a rapport with the seller before you start to negotiate. Make eye contact and greet them in a friendly way. Don't rush them, but at the same time, if they're obviously busy, wait for a lull in the customer traffic.

* Be absolutely confident you are willing to pay the price you offer for the item. If you're making a low offer, you need to be willing to follow through.

* If you’re expecting a discount, offer the seller something in return. This could be loyalty, word-of-mouth advertising, bulk purchasing, or buying an additional product. Offering to pay cash is an obvious incentive for retailers to accept a lower price.

* Don’t haggle if you want the item very badly, or you know it has limited availability. Only haggle for items you’re prepared to walk away from, and make it clear that you are willing to walk away.

* Don’t haggle if you know the price of the item is already rock-bottom. To be successful, you need to feel justified in your haggling!

* Don't be afraid to haggle at secondhand stores. Traditionally haggling hasn't been the done thing at op shops (thrift stores) but it's becoming more acceptable as prices have risen; however, I'd suggest only doing it if you think an item is grossly overpriced. You can also haggle at upmarket recycled fashion stores. A friend of mine spotted a sequinned George Gross dress in one of these stores that looked fantastic when she tried it on. The price tag was $100 but my friend managed to bargain down the saleswoman to $60, although the dress was retailing for $900 in George Gross stores.

Part of the reason why haggling is embarrassing is because we often shop to express our status and wield power. Haggling suggests that we don’t have the money to pay the listed price. But these days most of us are trying to save money. If you can get over the initial embarrassment, you could find yourself saving money throughout the year rather than just at sale time, and even enjoying your haggling.

Until next time!

If you enjoyed this post you might also like Be A Creative Stinge - 12 Great Tips for Cutting Your Spending and Saving Money.

Steps to Take Before You Buy a Big-Ticket Item

2011-10-20T16:57:00.000-07:00

There comes a time in every shopper’s life when you have to make a large purchase. Whether your washing machine has gone on strike, your oven has decided to call it a day, or you can no longer live without a tablet or e-reader, buying a household appliance or digital gadget can be a stressful and drawn-out process.

Getting to the point where you’re able to make a good decision on a big-ticket item can take time, but it is worth it. The following steps can help.

1. Decide whether you really need the item, and can afford it. Sometimes we buy a new product because we are hoping to change a longstanding habit or because our friends or family have it. Other times, we succumb to the purely rational belief that we need the item when we actually don't - the Shopping Shoulds. On the other hand, there are big-ticket items that we genuinely need and that can make our lives easier or more fun. Think about how much you're likely to use the item; if it's only once in a blue moon, (eg a chainsaw or drill) it might be simpler to borrow it from a neighbour, family member or community borrowing scheme whenever you need to use it. If you decide you really need the item and you can afford it, then it's time for the next step.

2. Ease yourself into the research process. Use internet search engines to gain an overview of the kind of features and benefits you can expect from the item, and the issues and pitfalls to be aware of. Don’t worry about details at this stage, but focus on getting general information from many sources.

3. Speak to salespeople. Salespeople are often surprisingly honest about the products they sell. Tell the salesperson you’re just researching, and promise not to take up too much of their time. Then ask just enough questions to get information you can use as a basis for further research. Have a pen and notebook with you and take notes. Salespeople often earn commissions on what they sell, so try not to monopolise them if you’re not intending to buy from their store.

4. Research yourself! Take an honest look at your own lifestyle, and how it will affect your ultimate choice. What are you going to use the item for? Will it fit in with what you already have? Which features are important to you, and which can you do without? Should you buy new or secondhand? If you buy secondhand, what additional checks will you need to make? Do you have any special needs, and if so, what features should the product include to accommodate those needs?

Decide on the price bracket you can afford. Think about the ethical and green considerations you want to take into account (for example, plasma television screens use more electricity than do LCD screens).

5. Obtain in-depth information from trustworthy, independent sources. Once you have an overview and you’ve worked out your own needs, you’ll need more specific information: the price points of the item, the best time of year to buy it, the special features you can expect for different price points, the quality measures you might use to compare different products, the level of customer service offered by the various brands, and the cheapest price at which you can obtain the item once you’ve chosen it.

Use a range of trustworthy sources, including consumer websites and journals, comparison and product review websites, and shopping apps. Detailed specs are often available on company websites, but you can ring the company’s consumer information line if the information is incomplete. For Australian readers, Choice is an excellent resource for comparing the performance of different products.

Follow your energy during the research process, as it can prevent you going up blind alleys that lead to unnecessary confusion.

6. Research the store as well as the product. The store you end up buying the product from will affect the experience you have is something goes wrong, so this needs to be part of your decision making. Find out about the returns policies and customer service record of the store before you buy.

7. Don’t overdo the research. Consumers get fazed by too much choice and may even opt out if it gets too hard! Putting some boundaries in place early on – eg the upper limit you’re prepared to pay, brands you don’t trust – can be helpful. Another option is to ask a salesperson or knowledgeable friend to recommend four or five of the best brands, and use that information to determine the direction of your research.

8. Shop wisely to get the right price. There are loads of shopping apps that can help you find the best price for a product. Here’s a list of the best iPhone shopping apps from lifehacker, and here’s one for the best Android shopping apps. If you find the best price at an online store, ensure you take freight costs into account. For extra savings, combine a coupon app with an app that gives you the cheapest price – but also consider points 6, 9 and 10.

If you don’t have access to shopping apps, use comparison websites to check prices, but also use the internet to check the prices offered by bricks-and-mortar stores that may not be included on comparison websites. You can’t assume that online stores are always cheaper, even when freight costs are waived.

9. Don’t assume you have to use price as the sole basis for deciding your preferred retailer. Because I value convenience and avoid risk, I prefer to buy big-ticket items from retailers to whom I can easily return the item if something goes wrong. In contrast, many consumers are happy to buy significant items from online stores, especially those stores with good returns policies.

10. Don’t let the smartphone rule you. You are the ultimate arbiter of what you buy, not your smartphone. Use shopping apps to give you the information you need to make a good decision – don’t let them make the decision for you.

11. Use your intuition when making your final choice. You may reach a point where you’ve worked out what’s right for you, and still have to choose between two similar items. If so, using your intuition can save you much time and effort. You just know you need to choose brand X rather than brand Y, although you can’t say why. (Note: this is not the same as mindless brand loyalty!) You will probably never know why this decision is right, but it may mean you avoid the hassle of a faulty or inappropriate product.

12. Let go for a while. If you’re finding it hard to choose between brand X and brand Y, step back and practise letting go. Decide that you’re going to temporarily give up, and let your unconscious handle it. Symbolically give the whole thing away. Do something that occupies your mind and see if an intuitive choice presents itself. This could be in the form of a mental image, a coincidental mention of the brand by someone or something, or just an overall sense that you’ve made your decision.

13. Give yourself time to get used to the item once you've bought it. A big-ticket item can take some getting used to and incorporate into your life. Expect a period of discomfort and uncertainty while you adjust to it. However, don’t hesitate to return it as soon as possible if it’s faulty.

Until next time!

If you enjoyed this post, you might like Become an Expert at Navigating Online Sales.

An Op Shop Find Transformed by the Needle!

2011-10-16T19:46:00.000-07:00

I’m not much of a sewer, but when it comes to op shopping for clothes, I’m discovering how important it is to be willing to alter op shop finds, even if the alteration is only minor. The top above was altered with no sewing machine stitching at all, so if you can handsew, you an alter.

This is a Katies top that cost only $4.99 from Salvos in Carnegie. I liked the texture of the top, the weave and the earthy colour. Originally it had a large band that hung down without any elasticisation, which made the top look ‘draccy’ (a word that never gets used any more and reveals my age!). The sleeves were very wide and hung down past the elbow, which also did nothing for the look of the top. If I’d been more confident, I could have simply cut the band off and quickly hemmed it using a sewing machine (I could have made the top shorter but felt okay with this length). Instead I just took the band up so that it now has a very large hem, handsewing the whole thing.

The sleeves were much easier. I just rolled them over twice and handstitched in four places on each cuff – at the top, the bottom and in the middle of the cuff on each side (ie the back and front).

I don’t have my own sewing machine and in hindsight I probably would have been better off enlisting my mum’s help. She’s always been a sewer and to this day is constantly altering things she buys to fit her better. Although she was able to teach me the rudiments of sewing as a teenager I didn’t practise threading the machine often enough and was never confident at bringing up that bobbin thread. And when the thread knotted while I stitched, which always happened sooner or later, I would throw a tanty and start abusing the Singer. Now I regret my impatience!

Anyway, my mother was wrapped with my alteration and declared that I was ‘your mother’s daughter’ (the implication being ‘after all’)!

Until next time,

If you enjoyed this post you might like Great Tips for Successful Op and Thrift Shopping.

Cultural and Frugal Potential of the Kindle: Part 2

2011-10-12T18:51:00.000-07:00

Part 1 of this blog entry looked at some of the ways the Kindle could encourage you to read more, and enable you to get more out of your reading. This time we're looking at the frugal possibilities of the Kindle, including finding cheap and free e-books.

Lending potential

As you may already know, Kindle e-books recently became available for loan from 11,000 US libraries.

You’ll need to contact the libraries themselves to find out whether they offer this service, as Amazon doesn’t provide a listing of participating libraries.

Owners of Kindle books can also lend books to each other.

My understanding is that at this time both these services are available only in the USA (let’s hope that changes soon!). And not all e-books can be lent out: availability depends entirely on the publishers and rights holders.

Free e-books on the internet

There are loads of free e-books available for download onto a Kindle, most of them classics. Some of these can be found on Amazon but there are many more on other sites, almost 2 million altogether. Amazon has a good guide to them; this guide also tells you how to download the non-Amazon books to your Kindle, a process that is less straightforward than downloading Amazon books. (Many of these books will have poor formatting because they have been scanned from traditional books.)

Many of the books available on the Smashwords site are also free or cheap, and you can usually download a Kindle version.

Free e-books on Amazon

There are thousands of free e-books available on the Amazon website. Two categories are ‘Limited-Time Offers’ and ‘Kindle Popular Classics’. However, there are many more free books on Amazon apart from these ones.

A good way of finding the most popular free e-books on Amazon is to go to the Kindle Store and choose any book, then go to the Product Details section and press on the ‘See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store’ link.

This will take you to a list of the bestsellers in whatever category the book is in, with a separate list of the top 100 free books in that category. Choose ‘Kindle ebooks’ from the the list on the left-hand side, and this will give you a list of the various subject categories. Choose the subject area you’re interested in, and you should get two lists – the top 100 in that category, and the top 100 free books in that category.

Cheap books on Amazon

Once you’re in the Books section on Amazon, you can find e-books that fit into the ‘Bargain Books’ category. While you’re in any of the major subject areas, select Bargain Books from the left-hand side column, and then select Kindle books from the Format menu running across the screen. (For some reason the ‘Bargain Books’ category doesn’t appear in the left-hand column if you start off in the Kindle Store, only if you select Books first, select a subject area, select Bargain Books and then specify that you want Kindle books.)

As well, Amazon offers a Daily Deal, which is announced on Twitter (this book won’t necessarily be available in all territories).

Amazon also offers discount coupons for a very limited range of books.

Sometimes it’s worth paying a small amount of money for a book rather than going for a freebie. For example, while it’s possible to buy free classics, occasionally it may be worthwhile to pay, say, $2.99 for the collected works of a major author published by a reputable publisher. When you consider that the author’s entire oeuvre is conveniently included in the one book, three bucks doesn’t seem like much to pay.

Cheap and free author-priced books on Amazon

As you’re probably aware, the explosion of self-publishing also means that there are simply ginormous amount of free and cheap e-books available on Amazon (and Smashwords), where the low price, or the fact that the book is free, is determined by the author. To access all the free and cheap books on Amazon, not just the classics, promotional offers and most popular books, you need to go to the subject and genre areas.

Once you’re in the Books section on Amazon, select your preferred subject area from the left-hand side column and then select Kindle books from the Format menu running across the screen. Then select ‘Price low to high’ from the ‘Sort by’ link on the top right-hand side. Any free books will be shown first. And of course the cheaper ones will be shown next.

I did a quick perusal of the free books that aren’t classics in subject areas of interest to me, and to be honest the pickings were thin – but it’s still well worth checking the free books in your areas of interest. And of course there are heaps of books that are under ten dollars and as cheap as 99 cents.

Amazon also features book lists created by Amazon users, known as Listmania lists. These include lists of free and cheap books in various genres. You can search Listmania for your preferred types of lists using the main search function on Amazon; for example, you could search Listmania for ‘free science fiction books’. The writers of these lists may also link to blogs that review books in your favourite genres.

Checking out free and cheap e-books

With so much to choose from, if you want to sort through the chaff, it's best to read a number of reviews for each book. Don’t just check the stars on the Amazon book page, but read a few of the actual reviews.

Here’s a list of five good book review sites. There are also dozens of bloggers that review self-published books (although the vast majority review only genre fiction). Here’s a list of e-book review blogs, which also includes sites that provide info about free e-books. But there are many more review blogs – I suggest doing a Google search for review blogs in your favourite genres, and don’t forget the links to blogs from Listmania.

Hope your frugal journey with the Kindle is great fun.

Until next time!

Thanks to Michael Wilbur-Ham for additional research. If you enjoyed this post, you might like The Last Days of a Dying Behemoth.

Cultural and Frugal Potential of the Kindle: Part 1

2011-10-09T21:29:00.000-07:00

Warning: this article is biased towards Amazon and the Kindle, as I’ve published an e-book for the Kindle and also own one (a Kindle, that is!).

I was given a Kindle by a friend about two weeks ago. It was a complete and welcome surprise, and I’m still adjusting to it. The potential frugal (and decluttering) uses of the Kindle are immense, but there’s more to the Kindle than saving money and space.

Because I wrote an e-book for the Kindle before I got mine, I was aware of the massive cultural change that the explosion of self-publishing enabled by e-readers was bringing about, and I’d already thought a bit about how that would affect reading. Now, having my very own pet Kindle, I feel even more positive about its potential to change and improve the way we read. And the release of three new Kindle models, including a tablet, raises further questions about how the Kindle will affect reading.

So here are some thoughts about how the Kindle can enhance life, with some information about its frugal and cultural potential, and some questions about how the Kindle Fire might fit into this (or not).

You don’t actually need to buy a Kindle to benefit from it

You don’t have to own a Kindle to benefit from its frugal and cultural potential – you can use any of Amazon’s free Kindle reading apps. You may not fancy reading a book on your PC, but if you have a laptop, iPad or iPhone you can read Kindle books on these devices for free.

If you switch between different devices your place in the book will be kept, as will bookmarks, notes, and highlights.

You can also read books on your Kindle that are formatted for other e-readers, such as classic books that are out of copyright, as long as they don’t have digital rights management (DRM). To do this, you need a conversion program such as Calibre. For example, if there was a classic book in EPUB you wanted to read, you could use Calibre to convert it to Mobipocket, which is the correct format for Kindle e-books. Amazon also offers a free program, KindleGen, which converts EPUB files and several other formats to the Kindle format.

Reading becomes an easy choice

Often when I’m tired but not ready for sleep, I want to read but I’m too fatigued; it’s easier to watch TV, even if there’s nothing decent on. Because of the lightness of the Kindle and the control you have over the text size, you may find it easier to make the choice to read rather than watch TV when you're feeling fatigued.

Getting more out of the classics

One of the first things to go onto my Kindle was a free copy of Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities.

There are loads of cheap and free e-books on the Amazon website that can be downloaded onto your Kindle at no cost as soon as you open an account, including many of the classics. (More on finding the freebies in the following entry.)

But it’s not just that you have access to these cheap and free classics. In fact, using a Kindle will enable you to get more out of them.

Classic books are often very long and, especially if they’re cheap editions, tend to be written in small type. These two factors definitely affect how much attention I pay to the language. When reading a thick book with small type, I usually get preoccupied with the Herculean task of completing it, and focus too much on how much progress I’m making. Not to mention the physical effort involved in holding a thick, heavy book.

With an e-reader there is only one page of text in front of you or, depending on the text size, perhaps just a few paragraphs. With total control of the size of the text, all you need worry about is the block of text you can actually see. Suddenly the language comes alive like never before, and you are free to appreciate its intricacies and the skill of the author without the manual difficulties of reading, or concern about how far you’ve got to go.

This in turn may encourage you to read more, and especially to read and appreciate more classics – a relaxing, low-cost hobby!

E-reading as a whole new hobby

With the rise of the e-book came warnings from the publishing industry about the death of reading, the fear that no one would read books straight through any more and, because of the potential to reconfigure books and so on, the fear that a book would lose its autonomy as cultural object, and become malleable. In other words, legitimate fears brought on by the internet about loss of attention span and capacity for deep thought (and capacity to produce texts created through deep thought) were being projected onto e-readers.

All this actually made me think that the opposite could well be the case. With its convenience and capacity to store huge amounts of text, as well as the explosion of self-published genre books (and online communities formed around genres) it struck me that reading on an e-reader represented a new form of entertainment along with, say, gaming. You could watch TV, stream a movie on your tablet, read a traditional book, play a computer game – or you could read on your Kindle.

Think I’m being overly optimistic? A computer-savvy, film buff friend of mine whose offline reading was previously confined to New Scientist bought a Kindle a few months ago and recently completed The Raw Shark Texts, an IT-based sci-fi thriller that was perfect for his sensibility. He is reading books on the Kindle that he simply couldn’t be bothered reading in paper form. This harks back to my previous point about the Kindle encouraging you to read more.

A shift away from reading?

Will the release of the Kindle Fire, with its access to other Amazon products besides books, including music, streaming movies and TV shows, full-colour magazines and games, destroy this potential of the Kindle to make e-book reading a whole new pastime? Probably not, according to telecommunications engineer Michael Wilbur-Ham. He says that the Fire is a ‘cheap multimedia consumption device’ that is not aimed primarily at readers of e-books, but at users of tablets.

‘Amazon knows how many of their users buy different kinds of products, and many of their users don’t buy books', he said. 'The Fire is primarily for those who can’t afford or don’t want to buy more expensive tablets.’

This doesn’t mean people won’t read books on the Kindle Fire – of course they will (and they do on their iPads). But the emphasis seems to be on the colour screen and how this will enhance the experience of watching movies and TV, gaming, and using apps. At the same time, Amazon has released new Kindle models that are dedicated e-readers, the Kindle wifi 6” and the Kindle Touch. Both have advanced ink displays for ease of reading and are touted as being lighter and smaller than their predecessors, indicating that Amazon intends to keep producing a device that is primarily for the purpose of reading.

(In fact, at only $199 the Amazon Fire may be cheap upfront, but like the iPad it’s designed to make users consume and buy more of the company’s offerings – so frugal consumers may not necessarily consider it a good buy.)

Note: Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet and Touch e-reader are not available in the UK, Europe, Canada or Australia; but the Fire would be next to useless if it were available, as users wouldn’t be able to access the movie streaming, music, apps and games because of licensing restrictions.

In Part 2 I'll look at ways to find free and cheap books for the Kindle, and other frugal aspects of the Kindle.

Until next time!

Clothing Conservation - Tips for Making Your Clothes Last Longer

2011-10-03T20:44:00.000-07:00

Got a throwaway approach to fashion? Throw it away! It doesn’t matter how little your clothes cost or whether you bought them new or secondhand, you can get more wear out of them simply by looking after them – and that means you’ll need to buy fewer new clothes, which will save your precious dollars and help the environment.

Building TLC for your clothes into your routine also helps you to appreciate them and reminds you of what you already have in your wardrobe, which in turn will help you reduce your clothes spending.

Some of these tips will sound mind-numbingly obvious, while others are more obscure. But sometimes it’s good to be reminded of even the most obvious ways to look after your clothes. After a while, greater care for your clothes will become second nature.

Prevention is better than cure

* Always wear an apron when cooking. This rather obvious tip applies just as much when frying up a quick omelette as it does when settling in for some serious baking, as oil stains are extremely difficult to remove. After a while putting on an apron will become automatic and you won’t have to think about it.

* Use napkins (serviettes) when eating. The same principle applies here; placing a napkin or serviette on your lap before eating will soon become second nature.

* Keep some old, ratty clothes in your wardrobe that you wear just for domestic tasks. You may think it’s fine to weed the garden in jeans, but grass stains are very difficult to remove! Even a bit of housecleaning is better done in old clothes, or at least with an apron.

* Eat and cook mindfully – stay focused on what you’re doing and you’ll be less likely to spill food!

* Always iron clothes according to the instructions. If you’re ironing delicate fabrics, iron your clothes inside out. For extra care, keep a large handkerchief near your iron and place it over a section of fabric before ironing it.

Mindful maintenance

* Check the label on a piece of clothing before you buy it. You may still decide to buy it if it says ‘dryclean only’, but at least you’ll be forewarned that the garment will be more expensive to maintain.

* Sew buttons on properly as soon as they become loose, so you don’t run the risk of losing them (this tip is actually aimed at yours truly, who tends to turns a blind eye to loose buttons).

* Hang your clothes up in dry, mould-free cupboards. Use plastic from the drycleaners to safeguard them from dust.

* Air the room you store clothes in regularly.

* Don’t use mothballs to store out-of-season clothes safely. Store them in cedar chests or vacuum-sealed bags (but you do need to wash them first if you’re doing this). Moth repellents made from herbs and essential oils are another alternative, but I wasn’t able to ascertain how scientifically effective these methods are. This website has useful information on making your own herbal sachets while this website provides info on which essential oils are effective in repelling moths.

* When you’re sitting in front of the TV, use the time productively – use a decomber to remove pilling from pullovers, brush your clothes with a clothes brush, and catch up on your mending.

Wiser washing

* If you’re buying a new washing machine, buy a front loader. It uses less water and is gentler on your clothes.

* Always check the washing instructions on the label. If in doubt, a cold wash is best.

* For delicate clothes and those you want to preserve, consider handwashing for at least the first few months. Wait until you have a few clothes in the same colour and do a batch at a time. Ensure that you’ve dissolved the laundry liquid in the water before you put the clothes in. This is easier to do in the warmer months when it’s easy to take advantage of natural solar power to dry them.

* Don’t wash your clothes more often than you need to. This blogger has some useful information on washing clothes less often. If you work from home and just put on something for a couple of hours to go out in, depending on the weather it may be okay to wear three or four times – or even more! For me it depends on whether I’ve worn clothes next to my skin – I confess that with cardigans and jackets that I wear for only a few hours at a time, I may not wash them for many wears. Use your gut feeling (along with your sense of smell!) to decide whether clothes need a wash or not. Airing clothes is a great way of reducing the need to wash them.

* To keep track of clothes that you’ve worn but don’t yet need to wash, set aside part of your wardrobe space and store them there.

* Jude’s (my mum’s) tip: If your clothes don’t need a wash, hang them up as soon as you take them off at night to air them and prevent creasing.

Delightful drying

* If you have a dryer, try to minimise your use of it. Dryers wear clothes down faster, and can damage the elastic in clothes and underwear. Needless to say they’re also energy guzzlers.

* Line drying is great for clothes, although not for woollens and anything that will stretch. Hang the clothes their full width, pull them down to minimise wrinkling and include space between each one to maximise drying. If it’s a hot day, don’t leave clothes that can fade out in the sun too long. Also, check your line on a regular basis for worn-out plastic, as this can expose the wire and lead to rust.

* Don’t keep your pegs on the clothesline – store them in a peg bag in the laundry.

* Dry woollens on a flat surface after gently removing excess water. Place a towel on a large square drying rack, and carefully arrange the garment on the towel so that it’s as flat as possible. If the day is warm enough, place the drying rack out in the sun. For quicker drying, turn the garment over when one side is ‘done’!

Savvy stain removal

* There is loads of information on the web about getting rid of stains, but be careful. Try more gentle approaches first and then proceed to more drastic solutions if these fail. Test substances out on the fabric first if possible. Don’t use hot water on the stain in the first instance and don’t rub the stain if the fabric is delicate, as this may damage the fabric permanently. If in doubt, it might be worth taking the garment to the drycleaners.
Useful sources of information regarding stain removal can be found here and here, while this is a good article on using green methods to remove stains.

Until next time!

If you enjoyed this blog entry, you might like Be a Creative Stinge - 12 Great Tips for Cutting Your Spending and Saving Money.

Are You a Shopping Addiction Enabler?

2011-09-28T21:55:00.000-07:00

When you shop with friends, are you encouraging each other to overspend?

Writing The Inspired Shopper really got me thinking about how I buy fashion. Currently I have a moratorium on most mainstream brands, and am buying only from those with ethical (but not sustainable) accreditation, as well as secondhand clothes.

Recently I went clothes shopping with a friend in Acland Street, a tourist precinct near St Kilda beach that is famed for its cake shops, but in recent decades has succumbed to commercialisation. We wandered into one of those overstocked stores that sells obscure brands made in China and has prices that scream ‘sweatshop’. I didn’t buy anything myself, but when my friend held up a bright red fitted jacket and asked me what I thought of it, I found myself encouraging her to try it on.

While I was still completing The Inspired Shopper, I visited my dentist for a check-up and clean. I mentioned that I was working on the book as I was getting seated on the dental chair, and this gave my dentist and her dental nurse permission to discuss their shopping lives – I listened avidly, only able to nod vigorously, as tubes and drills were stuck in my mouth! The dental nurse confessed that her friends often encouraged her to buy expensive items that she often regretted when she got home.

Shopping with friends is a recreational pastime that never loses popularity. It’s fun, uplifting and a great distraction from whatever problems we’re dealing with. But friends can exert undue pressure on you to buy something, particularly when it comes to fashion. This can be difficult to resist, but often it’s their own agenda they’re pursuing, not yours.

Why does this happen? I think the human tendency to help other people spend their money actually starts with empathy rather than greed. Perhaps your friend is urging you to purchase that bright orange sundress because she’d like to buy it herself but it doesn’t suit her; or perhaps it’s beyond her budget and she knows that you can afford it.

Or perhaps your friend is addicted to shopping and, like a heavy drinker who needs to get drunk with others, wants a spendthrift companion to justify her own overspending.

In my case, the red jacket didn’t fit with my ethical beliefs, but I was still willing to encourage my friend to buy it.

My friend doesn’t have a spending addiction – in fact, she’s pretty careful with money – and neither do I. But what if she had had an addiction? Can friends shopping together encourage each others’ compulsive buying habits? Are you more likely to overspend if you go shopping with a friend?

The answer to the last question may be yes. According to retail guru Paco Underhill, women often spend more time and money when they shop with a friend than when they shop alone. (This is especially the case with teenage girls, who spend more money when they’re with a group of friends.)

It doesn’t have to be that way – when you’re shopping with another person it’s possible to have fun even if you arrive home empty handed. Here are some tips:

* Give yourself a breather before buying. If you're out shopping with friends and you see something you think you want to buy, ask your friends what they think, but don’t buy the item; ask the store to put it away for a few hours. Wait until it’s time to take a coffee or food break and then use the time off to decide whether you really want it.

* Use the day purely for recreation, not buying. If you think it might be too hard to make a buying decision with friends around, you could decide to simply enjoy the socialising and browsing aspects of the day without buying anything. If something catches your eye, you can always ask to have it put away for a few days, and return later to buy it if it still feels right.

* Try the ‘broken record’ technique. If your friends are insistent about you buying something, you can calmly refuse, without changing your tone or expressing anger, every time they insist. Each time you have to repeat yourself, change the wording slightly, eg ‘Thanks for your input, but I’ll have to think about it’; ‘I value your opinion, but I just don’t feel like buying that’.

* Shop with friends who are in touch with their intuition. It’s sometimes possible to harness the intuitive energy of others to make better decisions. I have a friend who is quite intuitive, and when I’m having trouble making a decision, she lets me know what her intuition is telling her; this sometimes helps me get more in tune with mine.

* Get into the habit of shopping with friends at thrift shops and recycle stores. Because the choices made at these stores tend to be more individualised and you have to hunt for goods that are right for you, you’ll probably put less pressure on each other to buy.

* Let other people make their own decisions. It’s important to let go when you think that a friend or loved one is making a poor shopping decision. Offer your opinion if it’s sought – and if you’re sufficiently close, even if it’s not – but let the other person make up their own mind.

* Look at your own motivations when shopping with friends. If you sometimes play the role of shopping addiction ‘enabler’ yourself, ask yourself why you want your friends to spend their money and whether you need to work on your own attitudes to spending.

Until next time!

If you enjoyed this post, you might like How to Distinguish between a Good and Bad Impulse Buy.

Furnishing the Future: Fringe Furniture Exhibition Showcases New Design from Old Materials

2011-09-26T14:37:00.000-07:00

In its 26-year history the Fringe Furniture Exhibition has proven to be an accurate barometer of emerging talent, trends and ideas in interior design and architecture.

So much so that it now has iconic status as a central part of Melbourne's annual Fringe Festival, a showcase of innovative and cutting-edge art across a range of genres.

The theme of this year's exhibition, 'Dancing in the dark', fittingly deals with the elephant in the room when it comes to the future of design, and indeed Life As We Know It - sustainability. Forty-five up-and-coming furniture designers have responded to what seems like an overwhelming environmental challenge with a tiny 'dance step' towards a greener future. Their work is showing in an industrially themed space fittingly located in the picturesque Abbotsford Convent.

There were plenty of enthusiastic visitors when I popped along last Saturday afternoon. Some of the works opted for a homely aesthetic that privileged function over form. But a number of works delighted the eye as well as the conscience.

David Davenport's square table with diagonal legs, made from recycled Australian hardwoods, was an example of classic elegance melded with contemporary design. Christopher Shaw's 'Maeva' cabinet, made from Sydney bluegum, and Ryan Straford's 'Red Hill' seat, made from oak wine barrels, both used shape and texture to create warmly pleasing furniture. MacGregor Knox's 'Rosa' (pictured below) a bold curvilinear lounge chair made from salvaged sequoia wood and reclaimed soft urethene, created visual impact through exaggerated form.

The lightshades in particular shone - pun intended. Who knew recycled champagne bottles could be so attractive? Ashley Allen, that's who. Then there was Sally-Anne Mill's flamboyant chandelier collection, 'Spring collection II', made from salvaged springs. This collection deservedly won the Best Design Addressing the 2011 Fringe Furniture Theme award, as well as the Lighting Design award.

But the highlight for me was the collection of 'Mr.Cooper' pendant lights by Kate Stokes (pictured above). Inspired by the old tin can telephone, the lights are made from spun copper and combine modern simplicity with a charming retro feel.

The exhibition is on at the Abbotsford Convent, 1 St Heliers St Collingwood, in the Industrial School building in the Sacred Heart Courtyard. It runs until 8 October, from Thursday to Sunday, from 11 am to 5 pm. Entry is free.

Until next time!

If you enjoyed this post, you might like Kylie Kwong Partners with Oxfam to Bring Fairtrade Design to Your Table.

Be a Creative Stinge – 12 Great Tips for Cutting Your Spending and Saving Money

2011-09-22T22:30:00.000-07:00

Discovering new ways to save money and reduce consumption is a creative act - once you're on the journey to frugality and buying less, it never ends. After a while, thinking up new and different ways to save money and consume less becomes a habit.

Below are some of the things I do to cut spending and stick to a budget. While the focus is on saving money, some of these tips will help reduce your consumption and therefore waste. Do you have any creative stingeing tips you’d like to share?

1. Get more from your groceries. When a bottle or container of a liquid product such as dishwashing liquid, moisturiser or shampoo is getting low, leave it tipped upside down in a plastic cup (with the lid still on), giving the liquid the chance to travel to the lid. Do this until you’ve used it all up. Do a similar thing with cooking oil, leaving the bottle standing upside down on a wad of newspaper. If there’s still a decent amount of product in there and the bottle is made of thin plastic, see if you can cut the bottle using scissors (be careful doing this!).

2. If you’ve bought goods in bulk, use them sparingly. Storing goods in larger quantities can encourage you to use more of the goods at a time. A study conducted by Pierre Chandon and Brian Wansink in 2002 noted that people tended to consume some products at a greater rate if they were bought in bulk. To curb your unconscious eagerness to use up the product, try to challenge yourself to make it last as long as possible. Alternatively, transfer the goods to small containers to give the illusion of a lesser amount being available.

3. Cut down on the amount of washing powder you use per wash by at least a half. A washing machine mechanic once told me that washing powder companies encourage consumers to use far more product than they need to; this can actually reduce the effectiveness of the wash. Front loaders require less soap powder than top loaders because they use less water, but the advice applies to both types of washing machine.

4. Re-use tissue boxes. Don’t like spending a lot of money on tissues but prefer boxes with attractive patterns? Buy a fancy box of tissues and when they’ve run out, keep refilling the box with store-brand tissues.

5. Halve the money you spend on tissues – literally! Tissues are two-ply – simply divide them into their separate sheets before use, and use one sheet at a time.

6. Renovate your car as an alternative to buying a new one. Do this only if you’re sure your car is reasonably mechanically sound and that you will be holding onto it for a number of years. For example, have the windows tinted and the exterior and interior detailed, and, if you can afford it, treat yourself to any new accessories you’ve been thinking about.

7. Park your money in a credit union rather than a bank. The overall fees are usually much lower, and internet savings accounts can offer excellent interest rates. My credit union allows me to conduct a certain number of transactions for free every month, including using another bank’s ATMs. When you’re comparing the fees of different financial institutions, look at fees for out-of-the-ordinary transactions (eg cheque dishonour, bank cheque, account overdrawn) as well as the usual account-keeping fees, as the former especially tend to be far lower for credit unions.

8. Spend less money on recreational items by swapping with friends. Do your friends and family have similar tastes in magazines, books, computer games or DVDs/Blu-rays? Arrange with them to swap these items so you end up buying fewer. Sort out your DVDS, books and games, store them in alphabetical order, and set up your own ‘library’ so you can keep tabs on who is borrowing what.

9. Make your own greeting cards. There are many ways to do this; for example, the internet is loaded with free vintage images that can be printed out for use in cards as well as items such as calendars. If you’re not the crafty type, stake out places to purchase cheap cards and buy them in bulk a long time before the relevant birthdays, choosing them to suit the individual recipients. Discount stores and large galleries often offer relatively cheap cards, and galleries also sell art postcards that are cheaper than standard greeting cards.

10. Make your own Christmas decorations. Use odd pieces of wrapping paper, and cut them up into strips of equal size. create a loop with the first strip using sticky tape or glue, then link each strip in the ‘chain’. Hang the decoration from a mantelpiece or wall.

11. When it comes time to renew your home and car insurance each year, shop around. Prices can vary hugely for very similar products, so it’s worth comparing your premium with those offered by other companies to ensure you’re still getting a good deal. Even if you want to stay with your regular insurer, give them a call and bargain them down if you think the price has increased too much from the previous year.

12. Look after your clothes, even if you buy cheaply. If you have a top loader, consider handwashing some types of items you normally wouldn’t, at least for the first few months of wear. When you need to replace your washing machine, keep in mind that front loaders will be more gentle on your clothes, as well as being more environmentally friendly.

Until next time!

If you enjoyed this blog entry, you might like Green Fingers: Gorgeous Gardens on the Cheap.

How to Distinguish Between a Good and Bad Impulse Buy

2011-09-18T21:24:00.000-07:00

The impulse buy – the expensive item you come home with when you actually intended to pick up a packet of pasta, a jar of anchovies and some tinned tomatoes – is an institution in our shopping culture. ‘I just bought it on impulse’, we say, or ‘I was just passing and I saw it and I had to have it’.

Impulse purchases are unplanned purchases. They often occur at cash registers where goods are displayed so as to tempt shoppers as they leave the store. You’re most vulnerable to an unwise impulse buy when you’re tired, hungry, or feeling low.

The irony of the impulse buy is the contrast between the buyer’s lack of conscious planning and the lengths that stores go to in preparing their ambush. About 60 per cent of what we buy is unplanned, and store displays are carefully designed and positioned to tempt us to reach for our wallets or add an extra item to our trolleys on the spur of the moment.

The internet is rife with its own triggers for impulse buying. Anonymity, easy use of credit cards, navigational software and a seemingly infinite number of choices make the internet an ideal environment for encouraging us to buy on impulse.

Impulse buys aren't all the same

The difference between an impulse buy and something you buy intuitively – something that you really do need and want – isn’t always obvious. In fact, they can sometimes be the same thing – it depends on the reasons behind the purchase.

Often when we buy things suddenly, we’ve actually been planning the purchase for a long time. One evening my brother-in-law Robert came home with a shivery little ginger-coloured spaniel. He’d supposedly bought the pup ‘on impulse’, but his two young daughters had been nagging him to get them a puppy for over a year. Perhaps Robert hadn’t planned to buy the puppy – but his unconscious mind had.

On the other hand, if you’re feeling low and find yourself poised to purchase some overpriced video game based on a blockbuster that you enjoyed at the cinema, although you have no idea whether the game itself is any good, this is less likely to be the result of intuition.

So how do you distinguish between a good impulse buy and an unwise one? Here are some tips to keep you on track.

1. Have a budget in place. A budget with allocated spending for different categories gives you a structure that helps you to identify whether you can afford the item that’s clamouring for your attention.

2. Start a Priority List. A Priority List, which I describe in detail in my book The Inspired Shopper, makes a great supplement to a budget. It’s basically a list of all the things you want and need. Prepare this list slowly and mindfully, noting how you feel as you write an item down. Do you really need the item or not? Could you repurpose something instead?

If an item you get the urge to buy on impulse is on your Priority List, it may be something you want and need. But you still need to ‘check in’ at the time to ensure that it feels right to buy it.

3. Get in touch how are you’re feeling. There are many emotions that can tip us over into wanting to buy. Sometimes the item may be directly related to how you’re feeling (a chocolate bar when you’re hungry) or sometimes it’s just that you’re desperate to buy something – anything – and the item conveniently presents itself in front of you! Common feelings that can set off the urge to buy are sadness, disappointment, anger, fatigue, hunger – but even positive emotions like joy, triumph and relief can lead us to buy.

4. Tap into your intuition. There is another layer of experience deeper than emotions – your intuition. It’s always there, regardless of how you’re feeling. Once you’ve worked out how your intuition responds in shopping situations, you can always rely on it. Start to experiment with it in simple scenarios, like choosing the best bunch of celery, and go from there.

5. Let go of the item. Letting go of an item before you decide whether to buy it – a process I call relinquishing – is very similar to a cooling-off period. But it doesn’t rely on moving physically away from the item, or waiting a long time before making a decision. What’s important with relinquishing is that you actually let go of the item mentally. You decide that you won’t buy it, place it back of the shelf or rack, and then you stop to listen to how your intuition responds. Does it feel genuinely wrong to leave the item behind? Or is there a sense of relief?

The impulse buy and your Priority List

An impulse buy that your unconscious has been planning for a while may sometimes be a good thing. Deliberately hunting out a new wool wrap, kitchen trolley or pair of summer sandals can lead to a long, fruitless and debilitating search; when you most feel you need something, you often can’t find it.

The Priority List lets your unconscious do the searching for you. When you have an idea of all the things you need, you can be proactive without really trying because your unconscious mind will be on the lookout for those items. When the right item appears, you’ve checked out the specifications, the price is right and you’re ready to buy, snap it up.

However, in the case of any significant purchase, you’ll need to carry out research before you buy. You can delay what would otherwise have been an impulse purchase by researching the item once you’ve found it.

Should you buy something on impulse if it’s not already on your Priority List? Ultimately you make the rules – how much structure you need depends on how prone you are to overspending, and how confident you are that you can stick to your budget.

The more you practise, the better you’ll be at distinguishing between intuitive and purely emotional shopping desires. It’s better to err on the side of caution if you’re unsure –you can always put something on your Priority List once you find it, and go back and buy it when you’ve had time to decide whether it will genuinely enhance your life.

Until next time!

If you enjoyed this post, you might like How to Stay Calm When Shopping Online!

Kylie Kwong Partners with Oxfam to Bring Fairtrade Design to Your Table

2011-09-14T15:58:00.000-07:00

Iconic Australian chef and restaurateur Kylie Kwong has launched a stunning range of Fairtrade tableware, soon to be available online and in Oxfam shops within Australia.

The collection includes a soup bowl, rice bowl, Chinese teapot and teacup, all adorned with a striking hand-painted pink lotus flower design. It was created in conjunction with Oxfam Australia.

The range is handcrafted and hand painted in Vietnam by Oxfam’s Fairtrade producer partner Mai Vietnamese Handicrafts. Kwong travelled to Vietnam and consulted extensively with the artisans during the design phase.

Each item is smoothed by hand using a pottery wheel, fired and glazed. The pieces are then carefully hand painted before being fired in a kiln to create the vibrant tones that adorn the finished range.

'I wanted to create a design that was not only aesthetically pleasing but which also had great depth and a wonderful story to it', Kwong said.

'As part of my inspiration I looked towards the symbol of the lotus flower. To me the lotus ... represents femininity, spirituality, and the importance of nature and the environment.'

Founded in 1990 to support Vietnamese street children, Mai now employs the mothers and elder sisters of these children and most of its employees are women. Workers receive decent wages and training in areas such as quality control, marketing and export procedures.

Oxfam Australia’s Director of Trading, Nadine Silverberg, who initiated the Lotus project, said Ms Kwong’s involvement would make a huge difference to the producers Oxfam works with, both in Vietnam and more broadly. 'Kylie’s support is also playing an important role in raising the profile of fair trade in Australia', she said.

Kwong's involvement in the project supplements her passionate advocacy on behalf of fair trade. It's the same holistic philosophy that she brings to her celebrated Sydney restaurant, Billy Kwong.

The Lotus range is now available at Oxfam’s Australian online store (which also sells to international customers) and will be available at Oxfam's retail shops in Australia from 1 October. For further inquiries call 1800 088 455.

Until next time!

If you enjoyed this post, you might like Groovy Secondhand Bookshop with a Conscience.

Green Fingers: Gorgeous Gardens on the Cheap

2011-09-11T22:39:00.000-07:00

Want to spruce up your garden but trying to save money? Here are some great tips for developing your garden without the need to hire Jamie Drury!

Cheap and cheerful plants

* Choose hardy plants that are suited to local conditions.

* Use plant cuttings – politely ask for them when visiting friends and family. Choose plants that transplant easily, such as cactuses. (In my experience, cactus cuttings don’t even need root powder to take.)

* To help cuttings grow roots in the soil, most of the time you will need root powder. This is available from the hardware store, but you might also want to make your own. Here’s a method for making your own root powder.

* School fetes are often great places to get cheap plants, as the stock has to be cleared on the day. Large nurseries often hold sales or discount days - if there's one near you, sign up for their mailing list to be notified of future sales. Farmers markets sometimes sell plants at reasonable prices.

* Some op (thrift) shops sell cheap plants. My local op shop has an amazing volunteer who paints tin buckets and plants cactuses in them before covering the top of the soil with decorative pebbles. Of course, you might want to do this yourself.

Perfect pebbles and ornaments

* If you want to decorate your garden with pebbles and rocks and are buying in bulk, it’s cheaper to buy them in bulk from a landscape supplier rather than a hardware store. (Try to ensure they have been ethically sourced, and don’t pick them up yourself from natural environments.)

Pots with punch

* Do you have friends or family members with a garden shed or garage full of junk? Offer to help clean it out in exchange for thrifty finds – it’s almost guaranteed there’ll be some pots and garden ornaments you can take home with you.

* Recycle household items, including furniture, to make planters; suitable items are only limited by your imagination. Here are some great ‘out there’ ideas for making planters from recycled materials. The comments in this article about making your own pots from tin cans include additional recycling ideas.

* The main thing to do when making any kind of container for a plant is to provide a drainage hole for the plant. In the case of glass you may have to use a drill. Here's how to drill a hole in a bottle.

* Restaurants are a great source of recycled materials for making planters – as well as throwing out tin cans, they may also be able to supply vegetable packaging (useful for seedlings) and glass containers.

* If you’d rather buy pots, haunt garage (yard) sales for cheap pots, or buy them in bulk from out-of-town pot suppliers, which are often cheaper.

Great garden furniture and ornaments

* Use local council hard rubbish pick-ups and garage or yard sales to find garden ornaments, furniture, and shelving for outdoor pot plants.

Fantastic fertiliser

* Water-soluble nitrogen of conventional fertilisers is a huge contributor to water pollution. The internet has heaps of information about making your own more environmentally friendly fertiliser. There are some great ideas in this article, and some more in this one.

* Compost makes great fertilizer – this site provides very detailed information about making compost.

Marvellous mulch

* Make your own mulch from lawn clippings and dried leaves. If you’d rather buy mulch, landscape suppliers offer mulch in bulk. Another good source is tree removal companies, which often sell prime mulch at bulk prices. Some local councils supply free mulch that can be picked up from transfer stations.

Happy herbs

Grow your own herbs on the cheap. Herbs can be produced from cuttings; this article shows you how. Some brave souls have been known to use fresh herbs bought from the supermarket to propagate their own.

Don’t be a Wally with water!

* Keep a bucket in your shower to catch the flow, and use the water on your outdoor plants. Also use the rinse water from handwashing of clothes. Some people catch the water from running the kitchen tap and recycle it in the garden.

If you’re serious about growing a gorgeously frugal garden, there are plenty of blogs that provide forums and advice. A good one is Frugal Gardening.

Until next time!

If you enjoyed this post, you might like How to be Frugal When Your Friends Aren't.

Shop with Your Children without Having a Nervous Breakdown: Nine Great Tips

2011-09-05T14:32:00.000-07:00

Shopping with your beloved children in tow is an experience that represents life at its most unpredictable. Depending on what happens, the shopping trip could be a fun adventure or a journey to the outer limits of your sanity! The tips below can help you avoid the pitfalls and turn your next shopping trip into an outing, both for you and your children.

1. Shop with another parent and their children.

Having another adult around means you can take turns to mind the children when one of you is trying on clothes or busy with a salesperson. One enterprising parent on the Simple Savings website goes grocery shopping with a close friend and ‘swaps’ children for the duration – the children are much better behaved because they’re not with their own parent!

2. Use positive reinforcement.

As I entered a busy mall on a recent Saturday morning I passed a young family, two small daughters flanked by their mum and dad. ‘You shared really well then’, the mother said to the elder girl. ‘How did that feel?’ Positive reinforcement is simply providing positive feedback when your child does the right thing. It tells the child that they’re on the right track without being bossy, and is a great way to build your child’s self-esteem and confidence.

3. Use teachable moments to help your children become smart, effective shoppers.

Everyday occurrences can offer valuable lessons in life. When you’re at the supermarket, point out how the cereals are displayed so as to encourage people to buy them; ask the children if they think the loaf of bread you’ve chosen is good value; let them help you choose the freshest fruit and vegetables. Before the trip, involve them in preparing the shopping list (‘Do you think we should get some zucchini?’). Try to avoid making negative comments about how expensive things are getting – give your children a sense that you’re in control of your shopping and spending, and that they can be too.

4. Acknowledge emotions.

You can support the development of your children’s intuition and emotional intelligence when you’re out shopping. Be aware of how they’re feeling and acknowledge their emotional state, eg ‘You’re looking tired – do you want to sit up here?’ Gently remind them to stay centred with a prompt like ‘What’s your heart telling you to do?’ Encourage them to think about how they are feeling when they demand that you buy them something. If they’re being a bit loud and overactive, respond positively: ‘It’s great that if you have so much energy, but you can shout and run around outside once we get home’.

5. Learn when it’s better to leave your child alone.

We all need periods of withdrawal and contemplation. While it’s great to involve children in the shopping process there will be times when they just want to withdraw. Children are easily stimulated and the retail environment can be overwhelming for them; sometimes they need to take stock and get back in touch with their interior world. Use your gut feeling to decide when to engage your child and when to simply leave them be.

6. Plan ahead to avoid tantrums.

Try not to shop at times when your child is likely to be hungry and tired, and take their needs into account once you’re out. Bring along small toys and books to keep them occupied. When supermarket shopping, have a plan in place to deal with demands for food. This could mean letting your children choose a piece of fruit as soon as you arrive at the supermarket; bringing a healthy snack; or having an agreement with your child that a particular snack will bought after the shopping trip. Plan activities to distract your children at the crucial time when you’re approaching a cash register; for example, you could start a game of I Spy.

7. Deal with bad behaviour calmly.

It’s easy to go into bossy mode when a child is acting up, especially if you’re both tired. A useful technique when your child starts to misbehave is to present them with a choice, eg ‘Sweetie, you have two options: you can give the toy back to Samantha, or I’ll have to do it. Which would you rather?’ This encourages children to behave without disempowering them.

8. Deal with tantrums if they do arise.

If your child is really upset, try to think of yourself as an oasis of calm in their storm. Take some deep breaths before reacting, then acknowledge how they are feeling. This is more easily said than done, but it helps your child if you’re able to model how to stay in control while they are still learning how to deal with emotions. Don’t give into unreasonable demands, however upset your child is: you’ll set a precedent and create a monster. If the tantrum continues, sometimes removing yourself and your child temporarily is the best solution.

9. Build in the fun.

Try to make the whole trip fun for your children with games and challenges. Treasure hunts, guessing the weight of fruits and vegetables, finding low-cost goods, and finding items starting with particular letters of the alphabet are just some possibilities. Create a sense of adventure, and reward your children when they behave well. Remember, too, that rewards don’t have to be about food: shopping at the mall could be followed by a ride on a mini-merry-go-round or a trip to a nearby park.

Hope these tips help! Until next time

If you enjoyed this post you might like Top Tips for Inspired Supermarket Savings.

Saving and Spending: Confessions of a Chronic Underspender

2011-08-31T13:55:00.000-07:00

Downsizing, going frugal, cutting spending – everyone’s doing it these days. It’s part of a huge wave of consumer empowerment that the mainstream media seems incapable of grasping, instead simply complaining that ‘retail spending is down’.

Partly as a response to the GFC, the frugal movement ties in beautifully with another trend – people who, empowered by social media, are trying to reduce their carbon footprint and the amount of goods going to landfill while ceasing to purchase goods that exploit others.

Many of the frugal are reformed overspenders and shopping addicts who took control and are now paying back debt and learning to live richly on a much smaller (and saner) budget.

But I’m not one of those people. It took me ages to figure out that in fact I have the opposite problem. I’m not a reformed overspender. I’m a reformed underspender.

Before I became an underspender I was a spendthrift. For most of my twenties I simply spent everything I earned. But even then I wasn’t extravagant; I didn’t even have a credit card (come to think of it, I’ve never had a credit card, apart from a temporary one for an overseas trip; I now have a debit card). Nor was I particularly into shopping, or good at it. I just never saved anything because I didn’t realise I could.

When I started stingeing, I overdid it. It was a correction that went too far. I couldn’t tell the difference between necessary and unnecessary spending. For example, for about four years I went without a car; yet during that time I wouldn’t spend money on taxis to get home from a party, even though I was saving hundreds of dollars a year in car expenses.

I wrote my book, The Inspired Shopper, as an attempt to work out how to spend money wisely and how to buy the things I really needed.

The book has helped me to do those things, and most of things I buy these days are right for me. I imagine it would also be of use to reformed overspenders who want to spend in moderation.

But it doesn’t entirely take away the anxiety about spending. It just means that most of the time I don’t have to act on it (or fail to act because of it). Fear of spending money runs deep. It’s a basic distrust in the process of life. Giving money away to get something in return requires a degree of trust – that the object is not faulty, that it will work for a reasonable amount of time, that you’re not just throwing money away.

Usually I think I’ve worked through this. And then one bad buy and bang! I’m back to underspending hell again.

The lure of underspending

The extreme end of the frugal movement is compacting. Compacters commit to buying no new non-perishable goods, apart from necessities such as underwear and health and safety items, for a year. They can buy secondhand goods, barter, and receive gifts. Compacting seems to be less popular now, but the Fashion Challenge has taken over where compacting left off.

In some ways the Fashion Challenge is more extreme than compacting. For a year you commit to not buying any clothes at all, including underwear, socks, material for making things, or secondhand goods. You can swap clothes with others but you can’t receive clothes or undies as gifts. When I’m in underspending mode, the Fashion Challenge actually sounds quite tempting. No difficult decisions to make!

It’s not that I don’t enjoy shopping these days. I love it. I just don’t love spending. They’re not the same thing.

Underspending is actually quite painful. It can lead to compulsive buying because you end up holding out too long for something you really need. You may hurriedly buy something without checking that it has all the features that you require because you’re so desperate to purchase a necessity.

Neuroscientist Gregory Berns has found that when we have money in our bank accounts (or pockets) it means more to us because it offers unlimited possibilities. We don’t have to commit to spending it on one thing. Twenty thousand dollars could fund an indulgent trip to Paris that includes sampling a series of five-star Michelin restaurants, go towards a down payment on an apartment, or pay for one year of a law course.

When you spend that money, it’s gone. Committing to one or more things means that all the other possibilities fall away. If you’ve been saving for a while, it may become difficult to let a large slice of money go.

Frugality doesn’t mean a miserly approach to life. Most people who write about budgeting recommend building small treats into the process. And many frugal people make it their policy to buy quality goods when they do buy. Ethical purchases make even more sense in this context. Of course, for many people frugality isn’t a choice, it’s a necessity.

The habit of saving

Even if you don’t come from a history of underspending (and I understand that in our consumer society most of us don’t), is it possible to become addicted to frugality so that we become afraid to spend? Could too much compacting be bad for you? Or, once you’ve curbed the overspending, is it relatively simple to get the balance right without too much pain?

I would love to hear from readers about this. How do you know when to save and when to spend? How do you treat yourself? Is it possible to get addicted to saving? Is it hard to spend money when you’ve been saving too long? How do you get the balance right?

Until next time!

If you enjoyed this post, you might also like In with the Old and Out with the New - Shopping and the Search for Perfection.

Clearing Out Clutter: A Goodbye Ritual for a Loved Object

2011-08-26T14:11:00.000-07:00

We alll know that clearing out unnecessary clutter is good for us. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy. Some of the items we hold onto, whether they’re a favourite T-shirt, an out-of-date knick-knack, a trusty old couch or a once-cherished piece of jewellery, have such strong memories and emotions attached to them that it’s hard to let them go, even when they’re well past their practical use-by date.

Perhaps we associate them with a past relationship, or a version of ourselves that we’ve outgrown; perhaps we fear that the fond memories will disappear if we send them off to the op or thrift shop, or put them on the curb for the council's next hard rubbish collection. One way of preparing yourself to let go of a cherished item is to conduct a simple farewell ritual. This gives you the chance to acknowledge your feelings for the item, and makes it easier to give it up. Think of it as giving your loved object a send-off!

You’ll need:

the item itself
a plastic bag or cardboard box suitable for storing the item ready for disposal
a box of tissues.

Set aside 10 to 15 minutes. Go somewhere quiet and warm where you can be alone. Sit on a cushion on the floor, in front of the item you need to let go of. Place the bag or box on the floor behind you. Close your eyes and think about some of the emotions and memories you associate with the item. Experience what the item means to you. Let yourself feel any feelings that come up. Do this for as long as you need to.

Open your eyes. You’re now ready to say goodbye to the item. For this part of the exercise you will need to speak out loud. This can seem odd, but remember you’re doing this for your own benefit, and no-one else is watching!

The exact words you use will depend on the item and its role in your life, but the following will give you an idea:

‘You’ve been an important part of my life, and meant a lot to me. [Include some words on why the item has meant so much, and its role in your life.] But now it’s time for me to let you go [either ‘to a new owner’ or ‘for the next phase of your journey’]. Thank you for being a part of my life.’

Now pick up the item and experience its energy. If you want to, you can touch or hug it. If the item is associated with especially sad or happy experiences, you might want to have a bit of a weep.

Now slowly and symbolically place the item in the bag or box. Put it somewhere ready for disposal, such as the garage, a spare room or even your car (but don’t put it back in the cupboard).

Deal with any feelings of grief that arise by treating yourself gently.

You can easily adapt this ritual for a group of items that have particular associations for you. If the item is particuarly large, conduct the ritual where the item is located, and symbolically throw a sheet over it, or simply shut the door and walk away, when you've said farewell.

Until next time!

If you enjoyed this blog post, you might like Staying Mindful at Sale Time.

How to Be Frugal When Your Friends Aren't

2011-08-23T13:28:00.000-07:00

Years ago in my spendthrift days I shared a house with someone who was frugal in the extreme – but she was also very conscientious and caring towards her friends. I admired the way she was able to maintain friendships with people from a wide range of backgrounds and incomes while remaining frugal.

Since then I've become frugal myself and I really struggle with maintaining my stingey habits in social situations. It's hard being frugal when entertaining or going out with friends – there's always the danger of looking cheap. So here's what my housemate did, and some of the things I do. Many of these tips revolve around food and drink, because that tends to form the basis of our friendships.

* Be prepared to cook, and stock up on food staples. Inviting less frugal friends over for a meal is one of the most important things you can do to maintain your friendships with them. Vegetarian meals are usually very cheap to prepare, and if you cook a flavoursome cuisine, such as a Mediterranean, Asian or Middle Eastern dish, your friends won't even notice it's vegetarian. You may have to stock up initially on spices and flavourings but once you have these in your cupboard, vegetable curries, tortillas and so on are very cheap. Ingredients like creamed coconut for curries last quite well in the fridge. Olive oil, rice and pulses can be bought in bulk from health food stores and Asian grocery stores. Coffee beans can be kept in the freezer and then ground in a grinder for freshly brewed coffee.

* Arrange some in-house entertainment. If you don't want to spend money on film tickets, invite your friends around for video evenings. Create some atmosphere with freshly popped corn or home-made dips.

* Combine a free event with something that costs money. If catching up with friends who like to go to cafes and restaurants, arrange to do something that's free (eg an exhibition or an outdoor concert) and then spend the money on a restaurant meal, or just have a drink with them at a cafe.

* If you're meeting up with friends for a drink, don't buy alcohol – it's much cheaper to sip on a soft drink or soda water. Pay for drinks separately so you don't end up paying for your friends' expensive cocktails. If buying alcohol when you entertain at home, buy in bulk (but there's no need to drink in bulk!). If you like to entertain, consider having the makings of cocktails at home – it's much cheaper than buying them. You could even type up a little cocktail menu for special occasions!

* If you're frugal and your friends aren't, be prepared to do any legwork required to organise cheap entertainment. For example, Melbourne has a booking agency that sells cheap theatre and concert tickets, Halftix, but you need to buy the tickets in person. If your friends don't care about frugality but you do, putting the extra effort in yourself will ensure that everybody pays less.

* If your friends like to meet up for a meal, scout out restaurants that are both cheap and of reasonable quality. The internet has loads of food blogs that provide guidance to the best cheap food in different parts of the world – this list of cheap New York eateries is just one example. Some cities have hard copy reference guides that you could borrow from or consult at your local library; the Age newspaper's Cheap Eats Guide is a Melbourne institution.

* If your friends tend to buy food whenever you go out, let them know that you're comfortable simply having a drink while they're eating. I have a friend who rarely cooks, and whenever we go out for a coffee she always buys food, even if it's mid-afternoon. We are both used to this – it's no big deal for her to eat a meal while I sip on a drink.

* If your friends spend money on you, pay them back in kind. Help your friends out when they're painting a room or moving house. Offer to walk their dogs, collect their mail when they go on holiday, or babysit for a special occasion such as a birthday or wedding anniversary. I often help family and friends with small editing jobs.

* Pay your friends back with freebies and discounts. Use coupon deals such as two-for-one offers to treat them. Sites with daily deals like Groupon and Jump On It have cheap deals that can be given as gifts. There are many online opportunities to obtain free tickets for various events, eg some film review sites offer free film tickets.

* Rewrite the rules for gift giving with your friends, or plan ahead. If you usually exchange gifts with friends, curtailing this arrangement can be difficult. You could try simply discussing it with them – they might actually be relieved not to have to exchange presents. If they tell you that they enjoy buying you presents, start buying or making thrifty gifts in exchange. If you're not the crafty type, organise cheap gifts in advance – create a list of friends that you buy presents for (and their children), and be on the lookout for cheap, suitable presents throughout the year, particularly at sales.

Until next time!

If you enjoyed this post, you might like Need an Alternative to Retail Therapy? 18 Low or No-Cost Ways to Treat Yourself.

Where to Start in the Search for Ethical Fashion? A Guide to the Guides

2011-08-18T15:56:00.000-07:00

Hemp wrap by Viridis Luxe

Ethical fashion – including fair trade fashion, sustainable fashion and, a term I admit to not being crazy about, 'eco-fashion' – is huge. You'd never know it in the mainstream media (in Australia at least), but this area is burgeoning, with new brands and online stores appearing, it seems, by the minute. (Of course, the handmade, thrifty, upcycling fashion movement is also having a huge influence.)

Because there is so much choice out there now (assuming you're willing to buy online), this is not a guide to individual brands but a guide to individual guides and lists – a metaguide! (I've also included some particularly informative blogs and magazines.) If anyone knows of any good guides or lists I've missed out on, from any country, please let me know and I'll add them. I've grouped these lists according to country, and at the moment it's confined to the UK, USA, Canada and Australia. However, most of the stores are online so in many cases you will still be able to buy from the overseas ones.

As far as the Anglo world is concerned it does seem that the UK is well ahead of the pack. But the more information about ethical fashion that's out there, the more its popularity will spread in all countries.

Hope you enjoy my guide to the guides.

Overall

Eco Fashion Guide

A searchable guide to sustainable, ethical designer brands and online eco-fashion stores. You can search by brand, store, eco criteria, category or country – 15 countries in all. It's far from comprehensive but worth a look.

http://www.ecofashionworld.com/ECO-FASHION-GUIDE.html

A great list of eco fashion and beauty blogs from around the world

http://www.bachelorofarts.com/the-complete-list-of-eco-fashion-blogs

PETA’s guide to animal-friendly brands and stores

A huge list of companies that sells cruelty-free products

http://www.peta.org/living/fashion/cruelty-free-clothing-guide-vegan-companies.aspx

UK

Marie Claire’s list of top ten UK sustainable fashion brands

The UK has some fantastic ethical and sustainable fashion brands, and they’re not all at designer prices. Here is Marie Claire’s list of the best 10.

http://www.marieclaire.co.uk/fashion/best/6715/10/eco-fashion-brands.html#play

Feze Fair Trade

The webpage below includes a list of websites that sell women's fair trade clothing. The website also includes a list of men's fair trade clothing, as well as information about other fair trade products.

http://www.fezefairtrade.com/womens/womensclothing.html

Ethical Consumer magazine's guide to clothes shopping

http://www.ethicalconsumer.org/BuyersGuides/Clothing.aspx

Guardian Ethical fashion directory

The Guardian's own ethical fashion directory

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/interactive/2008/jul/21/ethical.fashion.directory

Style with Heart

A portal to a wide range of websites selling fair trade, ethical and sustainable clothes and accessories

http://www.stylewithheart.com/

Ethics Girls magazine

The Ethics Girls website sells a wide range of ethically sourced fashion. It's a cooperative with a commitment to selling fairly produced fashion.

http://magazine.ethicsgirls.co.uk/magazine

The Ecologist's list of top ten ethical labels

http://www.theecologist.org/green_green_living/clothing/748975/top_10_ethical_labels_to_love.html

Style Will Save Us

This website sells a wide range of ethical fashion, beauty and gift products, and also has an ethical fashion and lifestyle magazine.

http://www.stylewillsaveus.com/content.php?ContentType=Magazine

USA

One Green Planet list
A list of ethical and sustainable designers in the USA and elsewhere from a website promoting a vegan, sustainable lifestyle

http://www.onegreenplanet.org/lifestyle/beyond-green-hype-eco-concious-and-ethical-designers-labels

Ecouterre

A website that promotes sustainable fashion

http://www.ecouterre.com/

Socially Responsible Style

A guide to green and ethical buying including ethical fashion brands (the webpage also has a very good blogroll)

http://sociallyresponsiblestyle.com/resources/

LovingEco

A range of eco fashion at sale prices

http://www.lovingeco.com/

Treehugger fashion and beauty blog

This is based in the US but includes some overseas news.

http://www.treehugger.com/fashion_beauty/?campaign=th_nav_fashion

Behind the Seams blog

A very newsy blog about the latest in ethical style

http://ethicalstyle.com/blog/

Sustainable Sartorial blog

A personal journey by an aspiring ethical designer

http://sustainablesartorial.blogspot.com/

Australia

Ethical Clothing Australia accredited brands

A list of Australian fashion brands accredited through Ethical Clothing Australia (note that these may not be sustainable, and some sustainable brands aren't listed).

http://www.ethicalclothingaustralia.org.au/_webapp_826193/Fashion

Australian designers producing sustainable fashion

A very good list from RMIT

http://rmit.libguides.com/content.php?pid=3719&sid=21576

How Big Is Your Eco

A website that is a guide to Australian and ethical fashion

http://www.howbigisyoureco.com.au

Blue Caravan

Based in Australia, Blue Caravan sources and sells independently made, ethical and sustainable fashion, homewares, beauty products, homewares jewellery and other items.

http://www.bluecaravan.net/

Peppermint Magazine

A hard copy magazine and blog with a focus on sustainable, ethical fashion and lifestyle

http://peppermintmag.com/category/events/

Wardrobe Wonderland

An Australian ethical fashion blog

http://wardrobewonderland.com/

Style Wilderness

A Melbourne blog that combines sustainable fashion and style with thrifting and handcrafts

http://stylewilderness.blogspot.com/

Canada

Fashion Takes Action

A list of members of an industry group for sustainable fashion

http://www.fashiontakesaction.com/content/membership/members-directory?start=20

Until next time!

If you enjoyed this post you might also enjoy Be an Ethical, Frugal Fashionisa: How to Shop Ethical When You're on a Budget.

In with the Old and Out with the New - Shopping and the Search for Perfection

2011-08-14T03:15:00.000-07:00

What are you really looking for when you shop?

Shiny, upmarket boutiques and department stores drag us away from the imperfections of life, promising an eternal present where things never get lost, get old, wear out or break down. Their gleaming surfaces and stark cream walls offer a tantalising backdrop from which to ogle an array of items that are pristine – never used, unmarked, tags still on.

When we enter a retail temple we succumb to the illusion that the goods it displays are a kind of virgin territory waiting to be discovered – by us. It’s as if they appeared on the designer shelves fully formed. The seductive store fit-outs urge us to forget about the source of their manufacture. And they beg us to believe that we too can be renewed, and our very lives made over, by this pure, unsullied world.When we shop, there’s often something in particular we need to buy – something practical. No matter how frugal we are, shoes wear out, jeans tear, gadgets take early retirement, fridges break down. Sometimes buying something new is a necessity, not a hobby or leisure activity. But there are many reasons for our buying that have nothing to do with practical considerations.

A common reason we go out on the hunt is that we’re really seeking something new. One reason why we crave new things is that we're searching for an elusive perfection that's missing from our own lives.

I was backing my car out of the drive and noticed just how untidy the front garden was looking. The art deco style unit I rent is over 70 years old and the outside walls, which are cream-coloured and roughly rendered, are cracked following Melbourne’s recent ten-year drought. The weather has been too miserable for me to garden – well, too miserable for my version of gardening, which basically consists of weeding – and the front yard really needed a mini-makeover.

Easier, of course, to go to the mall and buy something shiny and new.

The same goes for my car, a little emerald green Toyota Starlet. It’s now well over ten years old and is beginning to show its age. There is some loss of colour on the roof, and plenty of scratches. Yet there’s absolutely nothing wrong with it. Once a year it gets a service. The mechanics charge like wounded bulls but are finicky to a fault – the sort of mechanics who change the spark plugs regularly. I would love to buy a new secondhand car, a little Echo or Yaris, and I could afford one. But there is absolutely no justification beyond the look of the car, and the need for something that is less worn and in better condition that my trusty Starlet.

Many of us have been taught from an early age that it’s worthwhile to seek perfection, and that if we try hard enough we can attain it. Yet in our lives, so many things are unfinished, unresolved, worn, imperfect. Our relationships and jobs are imperfect. We home in on our physical ‘imperfections’. The problems of the world remain unresolved and seem to get more serious by the day. We are chronically imperfect beings living in a chronically imperfect world.

Clinging to the ideal of perfection can sometimes affect our ability to make good choices – choices that are right for us – when we do have to buy something.

Below are some pointers for combatting the need for perfection that sometimes drives us to buy, and can also adversely affect how we buy.

1. Give your existing possessions some TLC. Think of making your things and environment better rather than perfect. Polish your shoes and boots, reorganise your cupboards and drawers, handwash your sweaters, get your mending up to date or do some handyperson tasks around the house. This kind of self-maintenance can be extremely rewarding – it makes you feel looked after and makes your things seem newer and more valuable. You’ll gain an appreciation of what you already have, and how it is serving you, and you’ll have less need to seek the new. I know that when I get around to weeding my front yard the cracked walls won't bother me as much. I always feel much better about my Starlet when I’ve lavished some attention on it – taken it to the carwash, vacuumed the seats and carpet, polished the windows.

2. Celebrate and highlight the worn and used aspects of possessions. Old can mean full of character, lived in, loved. Part of the frugal and thrifty movement is to play up and enhance the ‘old’ aspects of objects. We already do this for some things – jeans come to us prefaded, and some homewares stores proudly display their ‘shabby chic’ furniture. Repurposing, such as stacking old trunks to make a table, is now a craze. I’ve already placed plants in large terracotta pots against the cracked outer walls of my unit to create an olde worlde look, and I intend to add more, working around the cracks rather than trying to hide them.

3. Hide an imperfection you can’t easily live with. There are some imperfections that are simply irritating rather than endearing. We’re visual creatures, and it’s easy to forget what isn’t in front of our eyes. Cover up a mangy carpet with a bright rug. Cover the fading on a piece of upholstered furniture with an attractive throw. You may sometimes have to buy something new (or secondhand) to do this, but at least you’re dealing with the imperfection rather than blindly buying something unrelated in a bid to ignore it, or spending thousands on new fittings or furniture. This is especially worthwhile if you’re renting your home and can’t make significant changes to the decor.

4. Replace the concept of ‘perfect’ with ‘right’. This goes for all areas of life as well as objects – partners, friends, work, home, and even suburb. Instead of thinking about things as not being perfect, ask yourself whether they are in fact right for you at this time. Of course, not everything will be – when something isn’t right, making changes is not just worthwhile but vital. But when we’re measuring the things we have – both materially and otherwise – why not try to replace the measure of perfection that we often have in our minds with the measure of rightness?

Until next time!

If you enjoyed this post, you might like Inspired Thrifting: What Makes a Good Find at the Op Shop or Thrift Store?

(Picture courtesy of oh my goods!)

Need an Alternative to Retail Therapy? 18 Low or No-Cost Ways to Treat Yourself

2011-08-10T14:03:00.000-07:00

When I joined Tweetdeck, I set it up to search for tweets on the topic of retail. Now I’m bombarded with tweets about retail every few seconds. A huge proportion of these tweets consist of either ‘I need retail therapy’ or ‘I love retail therapy’.

There is often a hidden logic in our reasons for seeking retail therapy. Perhaps we feel we deserve a treat, or something bad has happened that we need to process. Yet we don’t usually get what we really need when we use shopping to mediate our emotions. On the contrary, the short-term high from the hit of dopamine when we buy can lead to long-term buyer’s remorse and a serious debt problem.

It’s still important to reward and treat ourselves sometimes. Perhaps you’ve done a solid stretch of work and need time out. Perhaps you’re a bit down and need a pick-me-up. Perhaps you’re just feeling needy or bored.

Below are some tips for ‘rewards’ and treats that are either cheap or free. Some of them are absurdly simple, but they may be hard to put into practice. Society not only gives us permission to shop, but presents it as a virtue. Governments panic when consumers stop buying. After 9/11, George Bush told Americans that shopping was a patriotic act! Self-care and nurturing don’t make the big corporations any money. It can feel a bit self-indulgent to look after yourself, while hitting the streets and scoring a bargain feels more like an achievement. Giving yourself permission for non-retail treats and rewards is the first step in combating the need for retail therapy. Here are some options.

* If it’s a nice day, grab a rug, a water bottle, a hat and a good book or newspaper and head down to the nearest park. Sit yourself under a friendly oak and wile away an hour communing with nature and your favourite author. Or simply set yourself up in the backyard on a sun lounge with your iPod and a good book.

* Schedule some serious down time. (This will be hard if you’re a workaholic or have kids, but if you can arrange it with your spouse it’s a great way to regenerate your batteries.) Allot yourself a set amount of time on the couch. Set up your supplies (hot drink, healthy snack, books and newspapers) or simply have a nap. Alternatively, retreat to bed with said supplies. A ‘doona day’ (or half a day) may sound lazy but can be incredibly replenishing.

* Stake out a public art gallery holding a free exhibition in a neighbouring or rural town, pack a lunch and head on down – make a day of it.

* Find out from the internet or your local paper if there are free or very cheap architectural/historical tours in your area. Profit-making tours are expensive but sometimes local history societies hold walking tours for as little as a $2 donation.

* Enjoy a relaxing bath, complete with bath salts, essential oils and gentle music.

* Give yourself a pedicure, including a foot soak, in front of your favourite TV program.

* Plan a low-cost ‘date’ with your spouse or partner. Plan a frugal meal, buy some cleanskin wine and candles and choose some romantic music. Or simply go for a stroll along the beach or a river followed by a coffee.

* Visit a flea market and allocate yourself a small amount of spending money. Tramp around and soak up the atmosphere.

* If you’re into gardening or just like viewing gorgeous gardens, visit a garden show – these vary in price but can often be quite cheap. Find out if your local area has any open garden schemes, with owners of beautiful gardens opening them to the public for a small entry fee.

* Arrange to stay with a friend in another state, town or region.

* Arrange to have a Skype or phone chat with an out-of-town pal that you haven’t heard from for a while.

* Take advantage of any free summer concerts held by your local council.

* Schedule some laughter time. Hire a stack of comedy DVDs or Blu-rays. Choose shows and movies that you can rely on to make you laugh. Alternatively, borrow comedy DVDs from your friends. (Note: you don’t have to wait to the weekend to do this; it's often cheaper to hire DVDs during the week anyway.)

* Schedule some crying time. Borrow DVDs or Blu-rays that you know will give you the chance for a good bawl.

* Schedule some time to bake one of your favourite dishes. When I was a kid we didn’t make biscuits (cookies) much, we made slices – hedgehog, brownies, coconut ice, and my personal favourite, the three-layered caramel slice. If you’re trying to steer clear of sugar, bake a favourite savoury dish or experiment with Italian, Thai, Indian or Mexican food.

* Get some pet therapy. If you don’t have your own dog, borrow a friend or relative’s dog and take them to the local dog park. Not only will you get lots of doggie energy and probably enjoy some friendly chats, but you’ll earn the unconditional love of a faithful friend. Or connect with the local wildlife: a friend of mine lives opposite a park with a pond, and on most days he finds time to check in with the duck family who live there.

* Put some music on and dance around your lounge room.

* Plan a cheap beauty therapy afternoon with your pals. Make beauty masks from common ingredients, and/or dye your hair and paint your nails.

If you enjoyed this post you might also enjoy Are Any of These Negative Beliefs about Money Holding You Back?

Until next time!

Inspired Thrifting: What Makes a Good Find at the Op Shop or Thrift Store?

2011-08-08T14:06:00.000-07:00

Finding something wonderful in an op shop or thrift store can feel a bit magical. This is when serendipity happens – you’re pottering around the store or walking past a shop window and suddenly you spot a special item that seems to have been waiting for you to arrive and claim it as your own. But how do you know it’s a genuine bargain and not just a cheap piece of junk that will clutter up your house and give you a short-term dose of retail therapy?

A bargain is something that feels right at a gut level – even if your emotions and rational mind aren’t quite sure – doesn’t cost a lot of money and will enhance your life in some way. It doesn’t have to be something worth a lot of money that you pick up for a song, although it can be.

This sense of rightness isn’t just about the item itself. It’s about the way it ends up working with its adoptive environment to produce a kind of alchemy that transforms the environment, even if that transformation is subtle. Together the item and its environment become more than the sum of their parts. There’s an uncanny fit between them.

When I saw the framed print above in the window of a Salvos store in the prosperous eastern suburb of Camberwell a few weekends ago I was a bit dubious. Sitting in the midst of a window display featuring the usual assortment of stilettos, hats and semi-formal dresses in eye-catching colours, it looked like just another example of late nineties or early noughties kitsch. Which essentially it was.

Price-wise it wasn’t a huge bargain. It was $25, half the original price of $50, which I discovered when I went into the store to have a closer look at it and saw the original label on the back (impossible to say if this was the original price or an earlier Salvos price).

The piece was essentially tacksville. Yet something about the boldness of the colours and the cartoonishness of the design screamed ‘buy me’. So I did, unable to think of where I would put it.

Given that it was probably over ten years old it was in quite good condition. The stained wooden frame, possibly pine, had very few marks or nicks. The picture had a twin, with an almost identical print, displayed in similar fashion in the other shop window. Its condition was clearly inferior, with significant scratches on the frame and a few marks on the glass. It didn’t take much willpower to decide to leave the companion behind.

When I come home with this kind of item – something I’ve pounced on without much pre-planning – I sometimes engage in a bizarre ritual that would look quite mad to an observer. I walk around the house carrying the item and saying to to myself ‘where does this go?’ If I try to be too rational about the answer to this question, the process doesn’t work.

I finally settled on my office, easily the most boring room in the house and boringly festooned with testaments to my achievements. Did I really have to keep reminding myself and anyone else who walked in that I have a Masters degree? I think it’s sunk in by now. Same with the framed arts degree. Both were relegated to storage and this little beauty hung up instead.

And it has been a bit transformational. It now takes pride of place on a large patch of wall that is to the left of, and above, my desk. Because of the expanse of wall around it, the fact that the picture is square and the frame is dark and plain, the placement of the picture suggests a window through which you see the oversized flowers. The striking colours are the first thing the eye notices when you walk into the room, instead of the files, papers, books and office paraphernalia that would otherwise dominate. Because it’s just to the left of my computer I can see it out of the corner of my eye and glance at it any time. I like to think that when I'm writing, its fiery colours stoke my imagination.

Already I’ve grown incredibly fond of this picture, yet like many of my inspired finds it’s certainly not what I would have envisaged. Now I can't imagine life without it!

If you enjoyed this post, you might also like Sole mates, or a Gift That Suits Me Down to the Ground.

Until next time!

Top Tips for Inspired Supermarket Savings

2011-08-05T12:31:00.000-07:00

Supermarkets are alluring spaces. Bright and colourful, with invitingly wide aisles, a feast of seductive aromas, and a soporific atmosphere that invites you to linger, they are designed with your weaknesses in mind, and primed to capitalise on them. The tips below will help you stay on track and save your precious dollars.

* Use cash - it's easier to stay aware of how much you're spending. If not, a debit card or credit card with a very low limit is a good way of curbing overspending.

* Shop in the early evening if possible. Supermarkets often start discounting stock that is nearing its use-by date at this time. Look for discounts on meat, bread and other perishable items.

* Buy fresh fruit and vegetables rather than packaged, processed foods. Choose vegetables that are in season and on sale and and plan your meals around them.

* Avoid the supermarket if you're hungry or tired, as you're more likely to buy food. Of course you can't always do this; if you're hungry, bring along or buy a healthy snack (eg a piece of fruit or a packet of raw cashews).

* Write your shopping list out before you go. Write your list slowly and mindfully. Check your pantry. As you're writing your list, note how you're feeling - perhaps there are some items you think you need when you actually don't. When you get to the supermarket, confine your shopping to what's on the list.

* Be realistic about future plans when you're writing your shopping list. An interesting fact unearthed by Brian Wansink and fellow researchers back in 2000 is that many items that consumers buy at supermarkets but don't end up using are purchased because of overly optimistic plans - eg a party that wasn't held or a dish that was never made. To avoid a pantry full of mouldering obscurities, substitute a more versatile item for one that is specific to the recipe, for instance buying honey instead of molasses.

* Get to know the supermarket layout so that you don't have to go up every aisle, but only to the aisles that have the goods you're planning to buy. Supermarkets have dozens of devious ways to tempt you to buy extra items. To get to the milk, for example, you may have to go to the back of the store, and therefore pass at least one aisle of merchandise. If the store has a written guide to the location of different types of products, use it, or ask a staff member for help.

* Be willing to crane, stoop and search the shelves when you're comparing prices on different products. Supermarkets want you to preference the items that are at eye level, and easy to take from the shelf, so they place the more expensive items on these shelves. Also, we read from left to right, so the more expensive items are positioned on the right - a good reason to focus on the goods positioned on the left-hand side.

* Pay attention to the tricks supermarket use to make you buy. On your next shopping trip, focus on the way the goods are marketed to encourage you to buy them, and take note of your emotional reactions. Goods at either end of supermarket aisles are displayed in eye-catching ways; the stock bins dotted around the store don't always contain cut-price goods, although they may appear that way; gourmet foods are sometimes displayed in attractive small baskets, while vegetables may appear in display bowls conveniently located at eye level. Staying in the present and being aware of your perceptions means you notice the merchandising aspects of shopping and your reactions to them without being seduced.

* Beware of the shopping 'shoulds'. If there is an item on your shopping list and something tells you not to buy, obey! This is really difficult when you're planning to entertain, as you're probably terrified of not having enough food. Trust your inner guidance: it knows better than you do how much food you will need.

* Remember that there are alternatives to the supermarkets, and they are often cheaper. Asian groceries sell dried goods such as rice, pulses and spices in bulk. Greengrocers and organic grocers also sell dried goods. Farmers markets are wonderful places to get fresh goods at cheap prices. Vegetable markets are the place for cheap fresh veggies and there's great atmosphere as well.

* If shopping with tired toddlers is unavoidable, plan your strategy in advance. Bring along some toys and healthy snacks, and have distraction plans at the ready for when the inevitable requests for junk food arise. Try not to let your child handle a junk food item because once they've done this it's much more likely you'll end up buying it. Also, once you give in to one tantrum, you're setting a dangerous precedent.

Want to find out how to save money and uncannily locate the groceries and other items that are right for you? Priced at just $6, The Inspired Shopper is your indispensible guide to fabulous budget shopping with soul!

If you enjoyed this post you might like 11 Positive Money Beliefs That Can Help You Save.

Until next time

Be an Ethical, Frugal Fashionista: How to Shop Ethical When You're on a Budget

2011-08-03T14:24:00.000-07:00

Many of us who adore fashion – me included – want to move towards more ethical ways of buying clothes. But that’s not an easy ask if you’re a budget fashionista. Despite the inroads it’s making into the mainstream, to some extent ethical, environmentally sustainable shopping is still a niche market for those who can afford sustainable designer threads, or those who can happily confine their wardrobes to organic cotton T-shirts, trousers and hoodies. (An exception is the UK, which is miles ahead.) So how do you shop ethically if you're also living frugal and on a strict budget?

If you want to buy new clothes cheaply in fashionable styles, it’s easier to source clothing that is ethically produced than clothing that is both ethically produced and completely sustainable. It is possible to combine the two, but your choices will be more limited. If you want both and your budget is low, you may be better off focusing primarily on secondhand clothes and supplementing your wardrobe with a few well-chosen new garments.

Having said that, there are some exciting options available, and they’re growing in number. The sustainability area is relatively new and very dynamic, with new brands and techniques coming on board all the time. Online stores offer some reasonably priced options, although of course you’ll need to take postage costs into account.

(BTW, I welcome any news from readers in this area. I’d particularly welcome any info about mainstream brands from non-Anglo countries that combine ethical manufacture and sustainability as well as offering great style. Because of time constraints and where the majority of readers are, I tend to confine my (limited) research to Anglo countries. If there are any stand-out brands that you think deserve a mention please let me know.)

Some of the options below, then, focus on ethically produced fashion in terms of workers’ rights rather than environmental sustainability. I’m not a full-on ethical shopper, although I’m moving nearer to it at a glacial pace. The tips below are advice to myself as much as to anyone else for shopping ethically on a budget.

* Don’t give up if you fail to be completely ethical and sustainable all at once. Make changes gradually.

* If you want to find ethical fashion on a budget, being proactive is the key. You can still rely on serendipity – great accidental finds – at op and thrift shops, but you’ll need to think ahead if you want to source the fashion you enjoy at a good price. You’ll also need to be a bit of a bowerbird, buying clothes from an eclectic range of sources. Don’t focus on just a few favourite brands or stores.

* Stake out upmarket secondhand clothes shops and designer recycling stores in your area and visit them regularly. In Australia, for example, Red Cross stores focus exclusively on selling secondhand clothes and accessories at cheap prices.

* If you love online shopping, explore the options for buying secondhand clothes online. No longer is your choice confined to eBay! Secondhand Posh sells recycled designer fashion in Australia. The Clothes Agency is a UK-based website selling secondhand (and new) clothes for a minimum listing fee. Etsy is a US-based marketplace specialising in handmade goods and vintage items, so you get a huge array of choice when it comes to both handmade and vintage clothes, and a great philosophy to boot (the handmade goods won’t all be sustainable).

* Ethical and sustainable fashion stores with high-priced clothes can still have great sales. One UK brand with online sale items at mainstream prices is Bibico. This brand is World Fair Trade certified, and the clothes are stylish. World Fair Trade certification focuses on ethical standards, but it does have a sustainability factor.

* Independent clothes stores in edgy, hip parts of town often have alternative fashion brands that are relatively cheap and yet aren’t mass produced.

* Some mainstream brands are committed to ethical manufacture, and are no more expensive than non-ethical, but they may not be green. In Australia, some of these brands don’t want to associate themselves with the move to ethical fashion and therefore don’t use their accreditation in their marketing. Sillies! I think they are grossly underestimating their customers. In Australia, these brands include Bardot and Cue, both known for their great style. A full and growing list of Australian accredited ethical fashion – only some of it proudly so! – can be found on the Ethical Clothing Australia website.

In the USA, American Apparel is an institution, offering middle-of-the-road, reasonably priced clothes that are ethically produced in the USA (according to their website – they don’t have any formal accreditation, but the info on the site is fairly thorough). Apart from some organic cotton options, most of the range isn’t necessarily environmentally sustainable.

If you live in the UK, you’re way ahead of us in this area. It really seems to be a vanguard of ethical and sustainable fashion. As more people buy ethical fashion it moves into the mainstream and the prices go down. People Tree in the UK has pioneered fashion that is both committed to fair trade standards and minimises environmental impact. The prices are a little higher than mainstream but they have excellent online sales.

* Clothes swapping is a wonderful way to reduce landfill as well as your carbon footprint. Threadswap is an Australian website that enables you to swap your unwanted clothing for credits that you then use to ‘buy’ clothes online. The Clothing Exchange runs regular swapping events in all Australian capital cities except Darwin and Hobart. The Swapaholics team holds regular fashion-swapping events in the USA, while details of UK events can be found on the Swishing website.

* The USA has a new, comprehensive accreditation system for fashion that takes sustainability into account as well as ethical employment practices. It’s early days yet and there’s not much choice offered by the retailers on the web page, although it’s good for basics.

* Visit flea markets regularly, as well as markets specialising in recycled fashion. In Victoria, markets selling recycled clothes occur periodically; for example, Take 2 Markets runs regular events in Geelong, Darebin and Hawthorn. Conduct an internet search to find out if events like this take place in your area.
* Finally, vintage clothing is such an obvious inclusion in this blog entry that I almost forgot it! But where do you start if you’re on the hunt for vintage threads? The Vintage Fashion Directory is a great guide to bricks-and-mortar vintage stores in Paris, London, LA and New York, and it look as if it will soon be enabling stores to sell online through the website. The Vintage Vault is a US online vintage boutique that offers a very long list of online vintage stores. And there is an Australian vintage fashion directory on Facebook.

Good luck in your quest for fair fashion, and remember I'm always thrilled to receive any news on this topic.

If you enjoyed this post you might also like Great tips for successful op and thrift shopping.

Meet the Man Who Invented Shopping as We Know It Today

2011-07-31T14:58:00.000-07:00

I adore shopping. It’s something I’ve taught myself to do and I’m not ashamed to say I’ve become good at it. But these days whenever I enter yet another gleaming retail temple, I’m always painfully aware of the labour that’s gone into creating the goods that are now presented in upmarket and sometimes opulent splendour for my delectation. There’s always another setting that is not seen, but that I think about.

This is what struck me most about Seduction in the City, a wonderful documentary screened on SBS, a government-funded Australian TV channel, last Wednesday night. It was a fascinating program about the birth of the modern department store. Many innovations that we take for granted today are incremental. But if the show is to be believed, the entire department store concept as we experience it today seems to have been dreamed up by a visionary marketer, the French entrepreneur Aristide Boucicaut.

Boucicaut owned one of the world’s first department stores, Le Bon Marche. It started off as a dry goods store in 1838 but after 1852 Boucicaut began to innovate, and he was spurred onto greater things by the World Fair that was hosted by Paris in 1855. The innovations he pioneered, and that we now can’t imagine life without, include price tags, the ability to return goods, on-site toilets, lifts, home delivery, sales, store catalogues, relying on high turnover to sell goods with a low mark-up, and the very idea of browsing. According to academic Sally Feldman, ‘The freedom to wander and gaze without having to buy ... was the most arresting feature of the very first department store’. And this, of course, is what still seduces us today.

Most important of all, Boucicaut decided that he was not just selling individual goods, but a lifestyle. Boucicaut’s consumer paradise offered customers more than the satisfaction of material needs. He was selling consumer desire itself.

Boucicaut was decades ahead of his time, but not just through his concept of an inviting store that would offer a complete experience. He focused on a target market that was ignored and denigrated at the time by a sexism that had permeated every discourse: women. Patriarchy was at its intellectual height and science was ‘proving’ that women were both weak and, to put it plainly, stupid.

Ironically, department stores became portals to female emancipation. They got women out of the house and into the public sphere and gave them objects of desire and aspiration. They created new public spaces that welcomed the presence of women, and developed the idea of consumerism. They gave jobs and a measure of independence to young women who came to capital cities and obtained work as shop assistants.

With half the population radically disempowered, leisure shopping for the first time offered women not only a public space where they were valued, but a dazzling array of consumer choices. Is it any wonder that so many women still adore leisure shopping today?

Continuing the tradition
Australian online shopping is way behind the USA and the UK both in popularity and the choices available to customers. Australian department stores and shopping centres are still undergoing stunning and opulent refurbishments in a bid to immerse customers in a seductive bricks-and-mortar experience. In late 2009 Chadstone Shopping Centre opened a new luxury precinct where shoppers stroll in light-filled splendour past elegant, architected-designed spaces housing international luxury brands. Myer’s flagship department store, a Melbourne institution, unveiled its dramatic architectural redesign (pictured above) in March this year.

I visited Myer’s Mural Hall in the city centre on the weekend. The 1933 hall, restored as part of the recent renovation, is a grand art deco space on the sixth floor of the main building, with a striking double staircase that sweeps down from twin balconies and three huge, ornate chandeliers. A series of murals around the walls that are set in decorative panels celebrate the achievements of women. Given that the murals were painted decades before second wave feminism, they attest to the importance of women as a target market at the time, and the need for the store’s design to contribute to women feeling good about themselves.

Behind the scenes
Watching the beautifully produced Seduction in the City, with its recreations of a nineteenth-century department store complete with quaint rows of wooden drawers to hold the stock, and elegant ladies in Edwardian costume, I kept thinking about the coal mines that powered the industrial revolution, and the horrific conditions in which the goods had no doubt been produced.

I was saddened to think about how little things have changed – we’ve simply exported the dark satanic mills to China. Indeed the show’s director, Sally Aitken, has written:

Many a time I have marvelled at the ingenuity and the tenacity of the early department store retailers. And many other times I’ve been appalled – their cunning ploys have left us the legacy of a society beset with instant gratification, debt, throwaway goods and endless fashion.

I still get seduced by the gleaming retail temples I visit, although increasingly less so. Simultaneously appalled and enthralled, I keep reminding myself that new models of making, buying and selling are now being developed that are in contrast with this model of consumerism, which is arguably outdated. We just don’t hear about these new models in the mainstream media – a subject for a future blog entry?

The final instalment of Seduction in the City will screen in Melbourne this Wednesday at 8.30 pm.

If you liked this blog entry you might enjoy Last Days of a Dying Behemoth.

11 positive money beliefs that can help you save

2011-07-27T15:35:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it’s the things in our psyche we don’t acknowledge that have the most power over us. Once we’ve taken them out, dusted them off and held them up to the light, they lose their ability to sabotage our lives.

In my last blog entry I listed a set of negative beliefs about money and spending that could be holding you back without you realising. This time I’ve identified a range of positive beliefs that can help motivate you to successfully stick to a budget, save money and spend wisely.

Money is a charged subject, and beliefs about money and spending are influenced by our values and political affiliations. While the beliefs listed below are very general, they’re also subjective. Certainly they’ve helped me to save my hard-earned, and buy things that are right for me and my budget. You may have other positive beliefs that are helpful to you.

If you find any one of these beliefs particularly helpful, you could write it down and place it somewhere prominent so you can be reminded of it on a regular basis.

Here’s my list.

I can’t control everything in life – the world and life itself are inherently unstable. However, it’s possible to improve my chances of being financially independent by planning ahead and being prudent in my spending.
The feeling of satisfaction I get from looking after myself by paying a bill can sometimes be as gratifying as the short-term high of buying something I don’t need.
Just because my parents were poor at saving money doesn’t mean that I have to be.
Just because I’ve been a spendthrift all my life or lived in insecure housing doesn’t mean I must always remain in that position. Plenty of people have changed their fundamental attitudes to spending as well as their financial situations.
Some of the best things cost little. I can have fun while spending little or no money.
Money is not love, and I don’t have to spend a lot of money to tell others I love them. My hyperactive cocker spaniel would much rather I took him to the park for an hour than bought him a diamond-studded collar.
It’s not self-indulgent to treat myself sometimes – it’s important!
Money and possessions aren’t measures of personal worth. I don’t need to judge others on the basis of how much money they have and what they own.
The world is an unfair place. Many people have more money than me, and some of those at the top have rigged the system for personal gain. I can work for a more just society if I choose to, but in the meantime I have to deal with the world as it is, and look after myself accordingly.
Even though I may be sure that I want something, this doesn’t mean I have to have it the moment I decide I want it. Waiting for it may actually be a good thing.
Everyone is on their own path. I don’t have to have a particular material item or the latest piece of technology just because my friends, family members or colleagues have it. I buy what’s right for me and my lifestyle.

Try this exercise: find paper and a pen, and brainstorm a list of helpful beliefs about money and spending that you either already hold, or would like to. For the next week or so, keep the list handy and add to it whenever you become aware of any additional positive beliefs that you hold.

Use an e-file to create your own permanent list of positive beliefs about money and spending. Include any beliefs you find helpful, whether from this list, other lists, or your own.

Whenever you make a spending decision that you think is unwise, refer to your list to help put you back on track.

What positive beliefs have helped you stay on track with your saving and spending?

If you enjoyed this post you might also like Beware the Shopping Shoulds.

Are Any of These Negative Beliefs about Money Holding You Back?

2011-07-25T15:03:00.000-07:00

I’ve got a confession to make – I used to be a spendthrift. Basically that meant that I spent whatever I had. This seemed natural to me, an unwritten law: money was there to buy stuff, not to be saved. I’m ashamed to say that during my school years I even distrusted school friends who had managed to put away nest eggs!

We all have beliefs about money and spending, even though we may be unaware of them. I’m not one of those people who claim that you will achieve instant prosperity as soon as you change those beliefs – life is much more complicated than that.

But if you do have negative beliefs about money, until you face them fair and square they will almost certainly influence how you shop and how much you spend, and you’ll have trouble being more frugal, saving money for significant goals, and gaining control of your finances.

Here are some destructive beliefs that may be holding you back, starting with the most obvious. (I’ve subscribed to many of these beliefs at various times of my life.)

Note: you may still be holding onto some of these destructive beliefs even if you are being successfully frugal; even if you’re not acting on those beliefs any more, they may be making you unhappy.

• Money is there to be spent. When money comes in, it has to go out again.

• When I get a windfall, I need to splurge, otherwise I’m missing out.

• I always need to have the latest piece of technology, otherwise I’ll be uncool and out of the loop.

• I need to keep up with the standard of living pursued by my friends, family and neighbours.

• I need to be rich before I can start giving.

• I deserve to have [insert item of your choice!] because I am a good person.

• The world is an uncertain place. It’s safer to spend money rather than save it.

• Saving money is boring. It’s the kind of thing accountants do, not creative people like me.

• I don’t have to worry about money because the universe will look after me.

• I don’t have to worry about money because my parents will bail me out if need be.

• I don’t have to work for money - I’ll just attract it if I believe I can.

• I always have to buy only cheap goods and sale items otherwise I’ll go broke. It’s not safe to spend extra money to buy higher quality or ethical goods.

• It’s not fair that my sisters [or brothers, friends, neighbours, colleagues] can afford [their own house, an overseas holiday, a renovation, private schooling for their children] and I can’t, so it’s okay for me to borrow and overspend to obtain these things myself.

• I’ m a progressive and believe there should be a decent welfare safety net in place, so there’s no need for me to look after myself financially.

• The cost of living these days is outrageous. It’s not worth trying to live within my means.

• I’m too chaotic to develop the organisational skills that would enable me to save money, eg preparing my lunch in advance rather than buying it.

• There’s no point in trying to save money because whenever I start to get ahead, something happens that sets me behind again.

Identifying your negative money beliefs
Here’s an exercise: grab a piece of paper and brainstorm a list of negative beliefs about money and spending that may be holding you back. Note that some of these beliefs may lead to underspending rather than overspending.

Keep the list handy. Start to notice whenever any of these beliefs (or ones you haven’t yet pinpointed) are in play when you’re shopping, or doing anything that requires spending money, including paying bills. Add to the list any new negative beliefs that you’ve discovered you have about money.

Next time I’ll look at some helpful beliefs that can replace the unhelpful ones.

If you enjoyed this post, you might also like 11 Positive Money Beliefs That Can Help You Save.

How to Stay Calm When Shopping Online!

2011-07-21T17:06:00.000-07:00

Shopping online, or just browsing, is great fun. But because it is so convenient, it’s all too easy to fall into a delicious trance from which you wake hours later, having bought up the entire stock of Heavenly Homewares or Car Accessories R Us! Below are some useful tips for staying grounded when buying online.

* Ensure there is some natural light in the room. Open all blinds and curtains to let the day in.

* How are you sitting? Are you comfortable? Adjust your posture so you’re not slouching. Hunch and then relax your shoulders and move your head in a circle, a few times one way and then the other, to loosen your neck muscles.

* Be aware of your body in space – the feel of your feet resting on the ground; your fingers as they type on the keyboard or touchscreen; your breathing; your backside sitting on the chair; your back leaning against the chair or hunching forward. Try to maintain this body awareness for the entire shopping or browsing session.

* Take note of the temperature in the room. Are you hot, cold or just right?

* Stay aware of sounds: traffic, a clock ticking, floors creaking, a heater or air conditioner whirring, the hubbub of an office, a child’s voice, a dog barking, your fingers on the keyboard. Don’t judge the noises, or focus on any particular one; just be aware of each sound and then let it go.

* Tune into your emotions. What are you feeling right now? Where are the feelings? Are they in any particular part of your body? Don’t analyse or judge the feelings, just acknowledge and let yourself experience them.

* Don’t try to do more than one thing at once. Don’t text someone or speak on the phone as you’re browsing or shopping online. Stay focused on what you’re doing.

* Take your time. If you find yourself wanting to buy something in a hurry, perhaps you’re trying to tamp down some hidden doubts about the purchase. Slow down and listen to any doubts you have. Work out where the doubts are coming from, and whether or not you need to take heed of them.

* Stay grounded during the purchasing process. If you decide to buy something, stay aware of what’s going on for you, both physically and emotionally, as you buy.

While the tips above may slow you down a bit, the more grounded you are, the more efficient you’ll become. And of course, these techniques aren’t just useful for online shopping; use them throughout the day to stay grounded and in the present.