Tree Hugging Family - Living Green

Why Does Being Green Cost So Much?

by Jennifer on April 18th, 2008

I think there’s a general consensus that green is more expensive than not green. Say for instance when it comes to laundry soap or toilet paper. On one post we were asked about finding cheaper green products because everyone can’t afford 7th gen and so on.

There’s good news and bad news. The bad news first? Ok.

Well sadly, green product overall are more expensive across the board. I’ve been buying green products for years and there’s not many that compare to or beat conventional items price wise. Some, but not many. More on why this is later. So the worst news is that you’re not honestly going to find cheap green products.

The good news…

Green products are not that expensive in the grand scheme of things. “BUT… you just said they were!” I know - hear me out.

What you may not like to hear is that we all make choices. We can think of green products as expensive and therefore unreachable or we can adjust. Believe me, this is not something I’m saying lightly. I’m a single mama supporting a son. I blog for a living, which by the way, is not a real rich lifestyle choice. We all make choices.

My choice is to eliminate the unnecessary and buy green. We don’t buy many extras. We don’t buy soda, chips, TV dinners, or tons o’ toys. We don’t go expensive places or even to the arcade - we go outside. I’d rather be able to afford organic apples and bleach free dish washing soap than go out for pizza or have another pair of shoes. It’s a choice.

Now the argument may be, “I already stick to a budget, and green is still too expensive.” That’s a fair statement and I bet maybe even a small percentage of you do stick to a budget. However, I used to think that I stuck to a budget too. But really little things add up. About seven or so years ago I read Your Money or Your Life - a book that pretty much changed my life, which makes me sound like some infomercial, but it’s true. The whole book is a must read, but one tip in particular from the book is what really changed my world.

The tip is, “Write down all income and expenditures.” In 2001 I did this for the first time and it was really hard, even though I’m extremely organized. My partner was on board with saving money, but not so good with the writing stuff down. But since I was determined to find out where our money was going (we had a new baby - Cedar to support) I’d gather all our receipts and each week sit for two hours on Sunday and figure out what we bought. Once a month I’d sit down for about five hours and figure out the whole darn budget.

We wrote down every penny - if we bought a 25 cent pack of gum we wrote it down. It was the hardest but most eye opening experiment I ever did. Also, for those who are really worried about how hard this is, by the third or fourth month it gets a lot easier.

What to write down:

The whole point of this experiment is to see where your money is going. You make necessary categories like food staples, basic clothing, and toilet paper. Then you make extras like soda, extra shoes, renting videos, and meals out. Obviously everyone’s ideas of basics needs vs. extras will vary, which is why I suggest you read the book, because it helps lay these issues out. You have to be honest if you do this. Magazines and chocolate - no matter how stress reducing, are extras. We had a fun category because even if you’re on a budget you need to allow some extra money for a movie once in a while, but mostly we focused on basic needs vs. not.

How we did:

At the end of the year guess what we found out? We added up all our costs for the year. We did ok on stuff like groceries and home products. BUT we spent something like….

• $300 extra on clothing and shoes that were extras (my ex used to be a big clothes shopper).
• $600 on coffee out of the house - I was a college student and my ex worked nights - we both drank a lot of coffee on the go.
• $120 on paper towels - we already used cloth napkins but hadn’t figured out that we should use old cloths for cleaning yet.
• AND the worst - $600 on slurpees and soda.

Thankfully we used our own reusable cups for things like coffee and slurpees but still, we honestly had no clue, because what’s a dollar here and there? Obviously it’s a lot. We had more unnecessary costs on there too, but even if you look at just the above extras, that still around $1,600, which will buy a whole lot of organic apples and bleach free cleaners. Green products seem a whole lot cheaper when you realize you spent $200 in books or unused office supplies over the last year.

“That’s not me - I know where my money goes”:

Maybe? Maybe not. I’ve met a lot of people since then who have done this experiment and it’s always the same. Families are always spending money in some surprise unnecessary category. People tend to be shocked after writing down their expenses so closely.

We discussed this a bit before in this post: As a parent, do you understand the impact of the need for stuff? After my ex and I did that money experiment we knew exactly where our money was going and we were able to actively cut stuff out or make changes. Like we made all our coffee at home and I bought my ex a crushed ice maker and he’d make juice slurpees at home. If you cut out all the extras you end up living healthier, battling the need for stuff, and having more money available to go towards the products you really want to invest in, like organic produce and greener cleaners. You and the planet benefit.

There are exceptions - people already living on a barely there budget. There are greener options for even people with no extra money to spare (we will discuss those later too.) However, in most cases the families I know can cut back on extra stuff. Until you write down each and every penny, and figure it out, you won’t know where your money is going. But like I said we all make choices. That part is up to you.

To learn more visit Your Money or Your Life.

Coming up: How green saves you money and the cheapest green options.

Do you really know where your money is going? How do you know?

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POSTED IN: Save Money, Shop Green, Stuff Owns You