Life Without a Car

Since my last post, I did actually sell my car. The process was relatively simple. This is not to say that going without a car has been all cherries and roses. I've had my fair share of feeling too lazy to walk from a bus stop to a friend's house on more than one occassion, but all in all, I feel great about not having the extra burden of car payments, parking fees, maintenance costs, and the like each month.

Yesterday, in particular, was a moment of truth for me. I was to meet a friend at a location in the city that was not readily accessible by public transportation. I had agreed to do it, and I knew in advance that it would require me to walk about a full mile. I was up for it...until I actually started walking.

My trip was set for midday, at the peak of high summer temperatures and high weekend traffic on city streets not designed for pedestrians. As I walked, I thought about how much faster I'd have gotten to my destination if only I had driven a car. I doubted for a moment whether selling my car was actually the right thing. I complained internally about the heat, about the food I was carrying that had to be refridgerated, about the sweat dripping down my back, about how terribly foolish I must have been to sell my car. I could have avoided all the discomfort and worry if only I were driving.

When I spotted a 7-Eleven, I went in for a Slurpee. Then I realized that I was at a crossroads. I was at a six-way intersection and I didn't know which way to turn. I was lost in a way. I knew the street I wanted was just one block away, but I didn't know which one to take.

My thinking about how I sold my car was like being at that crossroads. I had two options:

--Accept and embrace my decision to sell my car.
--Fret and go back into debt to buy another car.

I knew I did not want to go back into debt, so I just accepted what lay before me. I embraced my decision and came out on the other side of that day alright. I made it to my friend without any trouble (using my GPS) and I freed myself from having to feel any regret.

After having lived through the process of selling a car and continuing to live by that decision today, I wholly recommend going carless to everyone who lives in an area with good public transportation. I'm living the life to tell you about it...with no regrets.

Selling Your Car Can Save You Hundreds Each Month

It's been a while since I've written. That's surprising really because I've been thinking a lot about this blog and all the great information and ideas I want to share with you.

Recently, I finally got around to thinking about selling my car again. I've been toying with the idea for several years, but when living in the nation where the automobile was built, it is sometimes difficult to garner support for such a move from friends and loved ones. I know Americans are dependent on their cars because we're still buying gas like it's free-flowing tap water. It's nearly $5.00 a gallon, and many people have yet to break their stride or their dependency on oil and gasoline.

I have been dependent on my car for a long time, too, but I'm beginning to make more use of public transportation, car sharing, biking, and dozens of other alternatives to owning and driving my own car. If I think about it and remain honest with myself, the only time I use my car these days is when I'm feeling lazy or when I want to do something at the spur of the moment. Yet, as I continue to research alternatives to driving, I am beginning to find that there are even options available that can counter both my occassional laziness and the impromptu errand to the other side of town.

The next few posts will explore the journey I'm taking to sell my car and whether at the end of it all I'll actually do it. I think I will though, and I'll walk you through the process.

The most compelling reason for my considering the sale of my car, of course, is all the money I'll save. I am very excited about not having to pay $5.00 for a gallon of gas and not having to make car payments, insurance payments, parking storage fees, etc.

Now, as I go through this journey, I'd like to hear from you. Have you ever thought about selling your car? What was the defining factor for you that made you decide to keep it or sell it?

Evaluate Your Hobbies and Save

One step toward achieving a more simplified life is to examine your hobbies. If one of your major interests is something that requires expensive memberships, high-priced gadgets, or large amounts of time with little intrinsic return, then you may need to reevaluate how you spend both your money and your time. There is a saying that the best things in life are free. There may be some truth to that, and it could be, for many people, the key to living a simplified and prosperous life.

While many people may already be familiar with this concept, it is much harder to implement than preach because it requires thinking of and adapting to alternatives to things that you may have grown accustomed to doing in a certain way. Let’s take exercise, for example, and our hefty health club memberships.

The alternative to exercising at a gym is exercising at home or outdoors. The principle is simple enough, but why don’t more people do it?

One reason is that fitness machines make the work of exercise a lot easier than it is real life. People accustomed to jogging on a treadmill sometimes comment how much harder it is run on asphalt. The conveyer belt we run on in the gym gives us a little boost of speed that we don’t get when there’s nothing between us and the ground.

Another reason is that people feel like they’re not exercising alone when they exercise with others in a gym. Just being on the elliptical next someone makes people feel they are in a crowd even if they are exercising alone, isolated by the music blaring from their iPods.

Adapting to the alternatives to exercising in a gym requires more thought and effort. People who feel a little slow running on asphalt might try modifying their exercise program to develop their speed rather than giving up or going back to the gym. People who would like to exercise or run in the company of others can join a free outdoor running group, walking group, or yoga class.

Exercise and gym memberships are just one example, but people whose hobby it is to buy the latest techno-gadget, collect stamps, or download the latest novel to their reading device all have options and alternatives to excess spending. Perhaps a common theme to many of these alternatives is the power of collaborating with others.

The alternatives are out there, but it does take some time and effort to make them work.

About Debt

Recently, I had a conversation with a friend about finances. Essentially, I was trying to convince him that the whole mindset most people have about debt being “natural” and okay is hugely flawed. Even Shakespeare advises against it. In Hamlet, he writes:

Neither a borrower or lender be

For loan oft loses both himself and friend

And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry

We all know how the stress of debt changes people. It eats away at them like a virus, especially when the amount they owe seems insurmountable. Debtors also risk losing their sense of self-sufficiency, of being able to save for things, of developing a dependency on a system that discourages the accumulation of wealth. Similarly, lenders of credit must be cautious against greed, against the loss of humanity, against the root of all evil.

So, this one friend I have says he’s content with debt. Of course, he’d rather not have it, but he accepts his condition and is working to get out of it. But getting out of it is not one of his biggest goals. When I confide that getting rid of my debt is crucial to me and that I think it should also be crucial to him, we end up arguing about it.

What is wrong with wanting to be debt free? What is wrong with wanting to keep the money you earn? This isn’t even about wanting to become a millionaire, but if it happens, what is so wrong with obtaining such a level of financial independence?

Part of simplifying your life includes getting rid of the shackles. Debt is a shackle, a hindrance. So, why on earth do people cling to it?! Why do people when made consciously aware of the dangers and limitations of having debt continue to hold on to it? Why don’t they fight for their lives back?!

My friend holds a belief that I am supposing many other people (and our government) subscribe to. Whether they voice it or not, their actions show that they are comfortable with debt and that in some cases, they have no intention of paying it off anytime soon. In fact, they would just as easily accumulate more debt than look for ways to pay it off faster or pay it off at all.

I don’t have a solution for them, but I do know that for me, controlling and conquering my debt is a top priority. I realize I will not have everyone’s support on this (and by “everyone,” I mean society and friends and family who believe that having debt is okay), but in an earlier post, I talked about how sometimes a person just has to be willing to go out on his or her own. It looks like I will have to do more agreeing to disagree in the miles still left in my journey.

Planet Home -- Book Review

On a whim, I began reading Planet Home in the hopes of learning a thing or two new about simplified living. There are so many books on the market these days about simplicity that it is difficult to find anything comprehensive or anything that ventures to offer something you did not learn from another green guru several books back.

Imagine how delighted I was when I found that Planet Home was not only a fine compendium of best practices in green living, but it was also one with new tips and ideas that I had never come across before. Granted, I am a novice at all this green business, but the book truly has a lot to offer. For example, in the chapter on food, Hollender includes a section about buying local and/or organic produce. The common-knowledge benefits of buying local and organic are addressed, but there are also guidelines about what produce to buy when you cannot find these options in your area. He gives a list of the "dirty dozen" -- produce you should always buy organic and the "clean fifteen" -- produce with the lowest pesticide residue. Tidbits like these separate Planet Home from a lot of other green books I have read.

What also separates Planet Home from other books is its understated philosophy about the environment and our relationship to it. Holland writes:

"There are plenty of resources available for people interested in 'eco-friendly' living. And primarily, Planet Home provides a road map for anyone who wants to green and clean a home. But the following pages go well beyond offering typical 'go green' advice. This book is an attempt to inspire us all to open our minds, expand our collective consciousness, and think without compartmentalizing."

In essence, he is writing about being green or, as others may call it, having a simplified life. It goes beyond thinking about something small like using energy-efficient bulbs to thinking about why saving energy is worthwhile in the first place. Is it anything more than the latest fashion in home accessories? Or is it a political statement, a social stance, a new way of thinking about one's part in the world in making the earth sustainable. Holland says all this without being preachy. Rather than proselytize, he gives reference to resources throughout the book. So, when you are ready or so inclined, the knowledge is there for the asking.

Planet Home's organization is useful because it makes the book a resource that you don't just want to stick up on your shelf. As your own green journey evolves (growing from changing one's light bulbs, for example, to changing one's habits of energy consumption), you will want to reread passages and follow up on leads to resources that perhaps you had not tried on your first reading.

Planet Home is a book I read after checking it out from the library. However, after reading it, I know I want a copy for my own collection. It is that good and that useful.

Strawberry Jam -- The Gateway Preserve

Recently, I have stepped into the forays of canning. It started with a simple purchase of strawberries. They were on sale, and I just could not walk away without buying some. When I got home, I realized that one problem would be that I would not eat them fast enough. I had already had strawberries from a previous purchase and I was still trying to eat my way through those. After a bit of searching and thought, I decided to use those extras to make strawberry jam.

There are dozens of recipes on the Internet, but the gist of them is the following:

--sugar

--hulled strawberries (cut off the tops)

--lemon juice (optional)

Another option is to add a bit of vanilla bean, but for me, this additional ingredient seemed like a bit of overkill. What more do delicious strawberries need than a little love and a few shakes of sugar?

Making the jam is simple: toss the berries in a saucepan over heat, mash to a pulp of your desired chunkiness, add sugar, and add lemon juice (optional). Then cook for 15-20 minutes until the sauce thickens. Pour the hot jam into canning jars and process in boiling water for 15 minutes.

If you plan to eat the jam right away, you do not even have to process it. Just wait for it to cool and spread over some hot buttered biscuits.

My one container of strawberries yielded a small jar with half a jar left over. The jam is not as thick as I would have liked, but after having made it once, I know I need only increase my cooking time next time to get it the way I want. With a process so simple, it is baffling why more people do not make their own jam.

The hugest expense is the startup cost. I did not have any jars or any tongs to hold a hot jar with, and I did not have a pot large enough to boil my jars in. After making an initial investment, the only other costs are ingredients.

With such success at my first attempt at canning, I know I have just made it very unlikely that I will ever buy another jar of jam from the grocery store again. I also hope to try other flavored jams and even other foods like relishes.

At first, I am sure it seems that going back to making food from scratch is like turning back the clock and taking a huge step away from simplicity. However, if simplicity means ridding your life of excess (like chemicals and extra fats found in prepared foods, for example), then cooking at home means less waste and less of the things you want in your foods.

Investing an extra 20 minutes to cut, chop, and heat just seems like a very simple way to become healthier and have a simplified life.

Simplifying Requires a Lifestyle Change

Simplifying one’s life requires a lifestyle change if you want to make it last. Lifestyle changes are often the hardest to make when you do not have social support. It can be difficult to say to friends who know you as someone who does one thing and tell them that you are trying to change your life to another.

Without trying to trivialize things, I liken the process of trying simplify one’s life to that of a substance abuser trying to stay on the straight and narrow. She has made up her mind that she will no longer resort to substances and old ways of thinking to solve her problems or find emotional or physical relief. So, instead, she works hard to set up her life for success: putting in place mechanisms that she can default to in times where she feels like she wants to go back to the old way of doing things.

Having social supports like friends who do not use substances and family members who will encourage her to stay on track are critical. The same is true for someone trying to make any other sort of lifestyle change.

Part of developing a simple lifestyle requires thinking about things in a different way. If a simplified life is to include elements of financial discipline, then one must begin to think differently about money. If it includes elements of reducing clutter, one must think differently about “things,” all the stuff surrounding a person that when left unchecked becomes a massive stagnating pile. If it includes being better about one’s impact on the environment, one must think differently about waste.

Having supportive friends and family can help you make the transition to a simple lifestyle. What makes things most difficult is when you have well-intentioned folks in your life who have not made the same commitment change as you have. These are the people who, for example, remember you as someone who did not recycle. They now think you are being a fanatic when you refuse buy yet another bottle of water and choose instead to refill old bottles and carry them with you everywhere.

“Stop being cheap and just buy another bottle,” some will say. “Look, I’ll even buy a bottle for you if you can’t afford it today.”

While well intentioned, these people, who may well be or have been your friends, fail to realize that it is the principle of not buying another bottle of water that helps you stick to your commitment. It will not always be easy to say no to friends and other acquaintances, but it will be worthwhile in the end.

There is also something else to remember. Like-minded people tend to find each other in a crowd. So, while for a season or two, it may seem that you are the only person in the world who wants to live a simplified life, the truth is that there are thousands, if not millions, of others who are living that life successfully. Just live the simplified life—shop where they shop, eat what they eat, do what they do—and soon you will find more than enough kindred folk who are equally as passionate about simplifying their lives as you are.

One major tenet of having a simplified life is having a supportive network of others who also share your goals and philosophy.