Reduce, reuse, recycle.
The old phrase from our government mandated advertisements but it works. too many people in my generation have a throwaway attitude to everything. Life is past paced and time is too valuable to waste fixing things or shopping around.
Convenience is worth the extra cost and anything that doesn't work is replaceable.
It's why so many people have so little money these days. They place too much value in brands and items over the really important things in life.
How could they when these things are handed to them. If children are given these expensive toys at a young age without realizing how much time and effort goes into earning that money in the first place.
It starts at an early age for kids with all of the toys they have now. Every visitor seems to bring more bits with them and honestly it's not good for the kids. They have an expectation of stuff every time that we have friends over. They get bored with their toys so fast since there are always new ones. They don't settle because they have too much choice. Always new and shiny objects coming to the house for them to play with.
As they get older it will only get worse.
Teenagers walking around with $1400 iphones will never value money properly.
They have to have the latest toy for their age and it has to be the right one.
This option is 8% the price of the iphone and does the exact same thing. Obviously there will be a difference in quality but i'm sure that there are plenty good options in the middle that don't cost crazy money. But image is everything to some people.
Buying second hand helps.
I try to get the best value for money that i can when buying new items and ones that i need but even better is when you can find good quality items in thrift stores or online.
There are so many wasteful people out there that it's great for those of us that pay attention to what what we're doing. Who try to get value for money. Who want to make positive choices.
We have lots of second hand shops in the country and i can see a huge uptake in their use form how fast the stock is moving these days. It's brilliant and most of them are ran by charities which puts money back into their funds at the same time as they keep items from becoming waste.
Their is one about an hour away that i'm hoping to visit at some stage that's privately ran. A proper salvage yard.
They have a huge collection of used items from outdoor to clothes. A great way to find specific items if you have the time to wait. I think that's t's such a cool idea and i know they are a bigger deal in America from tv shows but i would love to see more of them springing up in Ireland.
I would even love to own one myself and source goods form around the country for resale. Make a profit and help the environment at the same time. A win-win.
We can't change the celebs having private planes across the world but we can look after our own piece of the puzzle. Be sustainable and make better choices. Getting back into producing our own food will be another big step but one thing at a time.