Reducing Consumerism
Reducing Consumerism is ultimate freedom
While running in packs of society which surrounds us has its own set of benefits, such as the ability to run to the grocery store when you forget an important ingredient, it also has an element which degrades the fiber of society itself. What I mean by that is the unspoken intention… Dependence. The story they like to tell us is that when we won the revolutionary war we declared our own independence, and that may have been true for a time, but if you are honest with yourself, none of us have ever seen independence. Not true independence anyway. I don’t even think any of us truly know what independence is, in fact 2020 was a true to life experiment. Just by the powers that be creating hiccups in the supply chain we often didn’t have needed items in the grocery stores. This caused a few of us to take matters into our own hands and develop a more resilient set of skills.
These skills will become not only an important cornerstone to build for your own independent survival, but also when it comes to rebuilding society in a fashion more suitable for cohesive living. Smaller communities. I know what you’re saying, “We tried that, it led us here.” Aaaah! But did it? I mean were we not led to this type of lifestyle? Were we not led from being a more independent self-sustaining community and less dependent on the Government and its many created systems to being dependent zombie drones thinking that the only way we can sustain survival is by being more reliant on the government itself.
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Believe me, I wasn’t always this out there. But I think Corona did a lot of waking up for many people in varying ways. Personally, my life changed very drastically. Still in the same house but surrounded by different people and a very very different way of thinking and living. I have gone back and forth recognizing my thinking and those around me as fear based, and that is what I wasn’t comfortable with. Now, my whole goal is to reduce my consumerism footprint and control the ingredients that go into what I consume (what goes in and on my body). There are many systems at play in this fight. Not only the Government and its overreaching controls, but also in the Agriculture system, Medical and Pharma system, Education system, Employment and Financial systems and many more. It takes a lot of elements to ensure the health and wellbeing of a small family unit much less a small community.
So what can we do to fight the systems already in place? The best thing to do is to do some soul searching to see if the way you currently think is in line with who you really are or if you have been handed down those thoughts from other elements of society. The truth is we are a product of our environment and our parents, school, and church plays very big parts in our lives. These elements of society influence how we see things and how we think about things and even how we act in certain situations. Sometimes, when we get to be adults and can make our own decisions we choose to conform to what society has taught us instead of taking the time to explore what is actually right for our own selves or our own families. It is imperative to live your life true to your own self.
If you are still interested in fighting the power, then the next thing you can do is view where you are spending the majority of your money. Outside of rent or mortgage of course. We have to have a place to live. Definitely more will be on this topic in later blogs, but for now we are going to look past housing. When I looked at where I was spending the majority of my money it was with food predominantly. If I am being honest, this began with cutting out eating outside the home. Fast Food first, then out to eat all together. This was easy as quality has become a huge issue in the industry as was service. It became fun to locate better and better food quality. Then came the fuckery. The amount of what we were getting for the price began to decrease and I noticed I was spending twice as much for a meal as I once was. So as a normal consumer I thought the answer was purchasing wholesale and in bulk. Welp! While that cost more upfront, the bigger challenge was storage and using it all before it went bad. Then… Corona happened.
CORONA CREATED A CLIMATE FOR CHANGE
For context, I was the one in my family to get Corona first, before we had a name for it. It was bad. I hardly ever got sick but I was down, down for at least 5 days. Shortly after going back to work, the house in place mandate began and I filed unemployment. I was living with my husband, mother and 2 children. Again with the honesty, not an ideal situation, and like Forrest Gump, that’s all I gotta say about that. While everyone in the house was taking the mornings to sleep in and be lazy, I had to let the dog out anyway, so I took advantage of the time and made myself coffee and threw the ball to my dog every morning. This probably went on for about a month. One morning I decided to share my morning routine on social media. And this is where my life changed. I shared an image of my backyard, and an old friend of mine commented, “If I had a yard that size I would grow my own food.”
I am not someone that does anything Willy Nilly, so I began doing some research. How can I create a garden? What was the best way to do so? What materials do I need? To my surprise there were so many ways, it didn’t really matter. My husband at the time, rounded up some cinder blocks and we laid out a raised bed garden. After that he said he was done, and he meant it. So, I got to work filling it up. But what to fill it with? Soil was pricey by the bag and topsoil didn’t seem of high enough quality to grow anything but grass. I watched enough YouTube gardening videos to realize composting plays a big role in building healthy soil. I started to realize this choice was taking me down a huge rabbit hole. I’ve always said the older I got the more expensive my hobbies were.
Ok so we got soil in the garden, now what are we going to grow. I knew to grow things we actually eat so I went to the garden center at every store I went to and purchased starts of things we ate, or what I knew how to make from things. Tomatoes, cucumbers, herbs, peppers, anything at all that looked cool I grabbed it. Once everything was in the ground, I realized I had nothing but time and went back to YouTube university to learn more. Another life changing moment is when I discovered how easy it was to start plants from seed. So that gave me reasons to not only to return to the store but to start my seed collection. Which if you see now, you would just shake your head at. But I am very proud of it. Once I got my seeds, I started to learn how to create my own seed starting mix so that the seed start can have the healthiest environment to grow amazing food.
WHAT OTHER THINGS DO WE WASTE MONEY ON?
I am not even going to mince words about this one. The next thing I spent money on was weed, and for my husband at the time was tobacco. The amazing light bulb realization I got when I realized I can grow both of those things was a sincere boost to sticking it to the man. I had kept seeds from marijuana that we had purchased previously. When medical marijuana became legal I knew I wanted to be a grower. Just thought it would be cool. Never mind the turn of events that got me into growing food for myself and my family, now I intend on growing the most common of our vices as well.
Even Though we had Medical user cards in the state where we resided, I didn’t want to grow the cannabis directly in the ground because I was just a little paranoid. So I get some five-gallon buckets and fill it up with that super fantastic seed starting mix I previously made and started those same seeds I saved. Y’all! They sprouted and it was off to the races after that. The next thing I know I am learning to identify the difference between male and female plants, and the benefits of both. The short answer is the male you will get more seeds and less potent weed, while the female plant will produce big buds and higher potency of weed.
Tobacco was harder. And honestly, I wasn’t able to source seeds until it was too late in the season to grow it. So that led me to think about other things. Beer was often consumed though not by me. Well, what do you know? Hops can be grown among other grains. Needless to say, a lot of the things that we consume can actually be grown for yourself. You can also control what you put in your soil and ensure that poison isn’t being put on your produce either.
HOW CAN I LIVE THIS LIFE FOR GOOD?
I have had this horrible habit since I could remember which is attempting to make everything I enjoy a business. This time it was different. I enjoyed this new lifestyle. I was finding it possible to finally balance. More time was being spent with my family. More time was being spent studying. More time was being spent finding myself. More time was being spent on things that mattered the most to me. And I liked it. I liked it a lot. I began pondering how much it would take me to actually replace my income. I saw all the possibilities but was really blown back by the restrictions I had been placing on myself for my entire life.
We have all been told and indoctrinated that to earn money and live a good life you need to have a good job. But that “good” job comes along with the ability to sell your soul and be okay with that. Some people are built to keep the systems of society working and others are built to tear those walls down and rebuild the life they see fit for them. Realistically, being able to pay a little over $1000 a month for all my needs to be met isn’t that hard when you think about it. We have been programmed to believe you have to grind and that the only reason to work is for money to pay out to others. The reality is money only has value because the powers that be told us it did. What has value is things that help solve a problem for you and your circle.
Barter and trade is the only real form of trade. Some things just cost money and those things you will need to have some physical form of currency for, but most other things trading something of value for something else of value is a win-win. Society was never meant to be a we concur you and force our ways upon you type of society. How can you pledge allegiance to that? No one is satisfied except the holder of the majority of the money. Which Government overreach and Corporate lobbying have conspired for hundreds of years to control.
FIND YOUR VILLAGE
When you start finding your way out of the rat race, all your rat race friends and family will try to keep you in the labyrinth. Your family you once knew growing up will likely think you are crazy, or better yet, like and enjoy the fruits of your hard work without contributing to your sustainably green lifestyle. Like any other niche or highly specialized hobby, you’re going to have to find the people who get you and the issues you may face on a regular basis. If you are into homesteading you may not be able to really connect with a fashionista who likes keeping up with TMZ, and if you are an artist and a craft creator, you may not really jive with a marketing director. Connecting with people who are like minded is necessary. Survival is best done in small groups, I like to call them villages.
A village is best when everyone has each other’s back and has the best interest of the whole group at heart. These people will give you advice, hold you accountable and be a support system even when you didn’t think you needed or wanted one. The truth is that there always comes a time when you will need to lean on someone else to help you, so you need to surround yourself with good people who get you before you need good people by your side. You also need to be part of other people’s support system too. In this world you get what you give, don’t think for one second you can take from the village without giving.
Online can get you so far. Truth is you’ll have to take the risk and meet people in person. Period. Facebook is a 50/50 toss up on a normal person versus the crazy pack. Take your time to get to know people. Groups based on your interest are great ways to get connected to other people who are into what you’re also into. You would be surprised if you type any one word how many groups will come up. Another great resource that many people sleep on is Meetup. The whole premise with Meetup is to physically meet up and connect. Covid has changed some of the concepts to include some Zoom like Meetups, just depending on what you are looking for. Neighborhood is an app that connects you to others who are signed up also in your neighborhood or zip code vicinity. Posts range from community groups, neighborhood watch, services and sales, and much more.
FINAL SAY
Once you start in any way you choose this becomes a pretty addicting way to live. Finding new ways to reduce your dependency on any system is like a huge game that you rack up points by learning new life skills. It becomes truly rewarding when you start seeing how many items are skyrocketing and how many you can do without purchasing because you can grow or make it all yourself. In house is always the best policy and creates the most precious memories you just can’t get any other way. Since I have started my journey of reducing consumerism, I have learned to garden, make pickled products, make jellies, make bread, preserve herbs, preserve teas, rely more on natural products for medicine, make homemade pesto, make fermented sauces, make fire cider, sold plant starts, grew microgreens, stocked food, made my own insecticide, and even my own laundry soap. I have made my own bird feeder out of empty bottles or jugs and some chopsticks. I have reused laundry soap containers as book and magazine shelf storage. Like I said. It gets fun and addicting. What way’s are you reducing your dependence on the system and consumerism?
