I read a fair amount of personal finance advice these days. I’m also a consumer of green living blogs and magazines, and I enjoy learning about how people are making their lives more sustainable. But here are ten common tips that I would be happy never to see again:
1. Eat less meat.
2. Drink less soda.
3. Cut back on premium cable channels.
4. Drive less. For the truly ambitious, consider carpooling to work.
5. Use fewer processed foods. Shop the edges of the supermarket.
6. Consider buying used clothes at thrift stores or consignment shops.
7. Scale back subscriptions to magazines and services like Netflix.
8. Discover Freecycle, and other forms of community barter.
9. Grow some of your own food.
10. Refinance/consolidate your debts into
I am already doing all of these things. In most cases, I’ve completely outdone them. Some of this is particular to me: not everyone has been a lifelong vegetarian, I got off easy on that one. But does anyone seriously start slashing their expenses or their carbon footprint and not notice that HBO or SUVs are a bad deal?
Far from helping me, being admonished over and over to do these basic things simply depresses me. Is this all there is? If I’m doing this stuff and my finances are still broken, does that mean they’re unfixable?
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