Better Living Better World Relaunches with Lunch to London Challenge

Today marks the relaunch of the Better Living Better World Blog.  It is also the place where I will post about Lunch to London which is my way to motivate myself to finally start packing a lunch. I've long known that I could save money, eat healthier and reduce waste by packing my own lunch (a good example of Better Living Better World) but somehow I haven't been able to motivate myself to do it on a regular basis. Then it hit me, I needed to apply the strategy of saving the money for something I really wanted. And something I've wanted, like forever, is to go to London.

Photo credit: André Zehetbauer Creative Commons

I have never been there but I've always wanted to go. I decided this recently but also decided I would do it as part of a relaunch of the Better Living Better World blog and I set March 1st as the date for relaunching the blog as a way to remember and honor my mom who has been gone from us 13 years today.

I hope you will enjoy this site and come back often for tips and strategies that make life better while having a positive side effect for the environment.

The issue of STUFF

As is probably clear from my previous posts I have ongoing issues with STUFF.

On the one hand, there’s a lot of great stuff out there and I’m not one for Spartan living or endless sacrifice.

On the other hand, often too much time and money get spent not only obtaining “stuff” but cleaning and maintaining it and after awhile even “good stuff’ can become junk or clutter (or both).

So the question is where and how do we find the balance between enjoying stuff and having stuff overtake our lives?

I leave you with that question and this classic George Carlin clip on STUFF. (contains adult content.) 

Tips to Start Letting Go of Things

Had to share this post (found on another blog) called “How Buying Less Can Set You Free”. You may realize just from the title that this is right up my alley, but what I really love are the 5 tips given in the post on how to start letting go of things.

My favorites from among the 5 tips are “Be grateful” and “Be content”.  Although I might phrase them differently (I prefer “Be Happy” to “Be Content”), these are simple, but often overlooked, ideas for finding greater satisfaction in life.

As covered in the previous post, “Are you shopping to buy happiness?” many purchases are made in the pursuit of Happiness, but if you aren’t already happy then more stuff will just be more stuff.

A few minutes = more product, for less money with less packaging

One of my pet peeves is excess packaging. As you’ve tried to get the excess packaging off of your new purchase, have you ever wondered why there’s so much of it?

Part of the reason is that marketing executives believe that if an item is in a larger package it will stand out better against  other products and that we, the consumer, will feel that the item is of higher value.

So when I’m shopping I try to avoid buying items that have excess packaging. The interesting thing is that often, there are comparable items with less packaging at a better price.

For example, recently when purchasing an over the counter allergy medicine I took an extra few minutes to do some price-comparison:

One package was priced around $2 but on closer look it only offered five tablets – the box it came in was small, but way bigger than needed for 5 tablets – the size was supposedly justified by the individual wrapping (blister pack).

For about $4 there was a similar box that offered about 12 tablets.

For about $7 there was a small box with a little jar inside  that offered 60 tablets.

Now this would have been even better, if the jar was just wrapped and not in a box, but still a few minutes of comparison between the lowest priced item (which is what many people will grab without thinking) and the $7 item got me 12 times the product for less than 4 times the price (and without all the little blister packs)

Found: Another Like-minded Blogger

Had to share this article from Yahoo Finance on Jeff Yeager, the Green Cheapskate.

Many of the points that Yeager makes in this article are exactly what I had in mind when I first started thinking about Better Living Better World. So often we get stuck in a process of always looking for more and always looking to increase our standard of living. Instead, Yeager encourages people to downsize their lifestyle. (After awhile, more stuff is just more stuff). I love Yeager’s suggestion of having a waiting period before buying something (Wouldn’t we all have a little less clutter, if we’d waited a week before buying?)

(Huge thank you to my fantastic husband who found this article and realized it was perfect for this blog.)

There’s no such thing as Cheap Food

Even since I started on this post, there has been yet another news report of tainted beef. There are many issues with our food production systems, which jeopardize sustainability.

The issue isn’t limited to land. Recently I had the opportunity to watch “Where is the Catch” a short film on the over-fishing of the Pacific. We tend to think, as the saying goes, that “there are plenty of fish in the sea,” but this is no longer the case.

Imagine this, a hunter goes off to hunt a deer but in the process of hunting the deer, the hunter kills all the other animals for miles around and then leaves taking only the deer. If this were a common practice, we would be outraged. This is the analogy used by the film’s presenter for what is occurring in our oceans every day.

After the film someone asked “What can we do?” the presenter responded “Don’t eat 99 cent fish tacos..or at least, only have them once in awhile”  To that I would add 99 cent burgers and other “cheap” food.

Of course, cheap food isn’t really cheap at all. It seems that way because it’s only a buck or two out of our pockets, but not only are we passing the cost off to future generations, we’re paying it ourselves in obesity and other illnesses. 

Today is National Start Walking Day.

Today is National Start Walking Day.

I’ve had the hardest time getting into and staying on a regular exercise program. I’d had the best of intentions for getting back onto a regular program this week – but life happens (rather often in fact).

But I love walking, so with or without a regular exercise program, I try to get some walking in each day. Of course it helps tremendously to both live and work in very walkable environments.

So I decided to research walkability and found that Walkable Neighborhoods are Worth More http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/010357.html.

 That's a great example of the Better Living Better World concept – that is, when we walk to nearby amenities we are improving our health while:

·      Developing connections with our neighbors (plus any friends or family that join us on our walks)

·      Reducing fuel and auto maintenance costs

·      We avoid adding to current pollution and traffic problems

So if you live or work in a walkable environment, take advantage of it an take at least a few minutes, invite a friend and head out for a walk.