We’ve been having a lot of laughs lately. But I feel a need to bring back an old post from January and get a little serious.
Thrift is easy on the pocket book. It’s a sustainable economic practice. It drives funds into charities that repurpose lives. Thrift is an eco-friendly practice and this is not always discussed.
The act of thrifting can be silly and light and fun. But, it is a serious endeavor and we need more people participating because, trust me, American homes have enough inventories to feed our nations thrift stores for a good long while.
We need to change our retail ways and going to the neighborhood thrift is one of the easiest ways to start.
January 28, 2009
For months I’ve been brainstorming a sister for frugalista. I’m a proud frugalista. But, it’s not just frugality that drives my thrift store pulse. As mentioned before, Shopping Golightly is also Shopping Go Green.
I’ve been hard pressed to find a word that describes a person who “shops with the intention of reducing their personal carbon footprint.” I’ve thought and thought and thought. I’ve banged my head against my desk. I went on a week-long vision quest in Death Valley without water, food, clothes and sunscreen. (Well, okay, I did that my dreams.) I even got punchy and fell into Rob Schneider’s SNL Copy Guy persona, “The Greenster, the Eco-ater, the Green Meister savin’ the planet, protectin’ dolphins. Greenorama, Green!”
I tried eco-thrifter on Wikipedia and the wiki police eventually gave that humble attempt the boot. Admittedly, I didn’t think it all that great but had to try something.
Then it hit me, environista! It rolls off the tongue just like frugalista! We need environistas! We need a whole lot of environistas!
I kindly ask you to comment to this post and pledge that you too are not only a frugalista but a smart and beautiful, handsome environista too! Okay?
For other references on this topic, please see my commentary in The Christian Science Monitor on March 2nd “Green shopping, Don’t Say ‘eww’ to thrift stores” and on May 3rd “We count calories. Why not carbon?”
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
8 comments:
A "smart and beautiful, handsome environista?" I'll go w/ the handsome part! Environista is a catchy phrase.
For Sept thru Dec, I am calling on all Reform Dandies to go on a "shopper's fast." Repairs and alterations are ok, but no new acquisitions of clothes or shoes.
It has been a great experience so far and my wardrobe is far more functional. Unfortunately, I don't the retail industry will support me.
I am turning into and environista! I absolutley LOVE this blog. I have been only shopping the thrift stores over the summer for my wardrobe and it has made a HUGE difference for me. I am planning on carrying this to all areas in my home and life that I can! I pledge to be as much of an envirnista as possible!
Environista! I love it. Thank you for giving me a word for what I am.
Reform Dandy is pretty cool too! Not sure I can take you up on the fast, though, Alan, unless new-to-me purchases are allowed. I have a pretty slim wardrobe already and I'm afraid of wearing the bottoms off a few of my pants before the end of the year.
I'm proud to be part of the thrift store movement for several years now, ever since my sister clued me in on the wonderful bargains to be found in thrift stores. I hardly ever buy retail anymore, since I seem to find everything I need at the thrifts. Therefore, I'd love to be a frugalista environista!
I just stumbled across your blog from an article on Thrift Store shopping on MSN. I am proud to say that I am a frugalista environista and have been for several years now. It all started because my husband was in school and money was tight; while he's still in school, I find that it has become deeply ingrained in my psyche and I love it!
I am absolutely an environista as well as a frugalista! Case in point: yesterday at Goodwill I picked up a used stainless steel tiffin for $2.99. I used it to pack my lunch for work. Not only is it frugal and green, it's also very cute.
I do like to consider myself an environista. I still do shop some at retail stores, but I usually start at Goodwill and other local thrift stores for clothes, shoes, etc. The other thing that I've started to do lately is clothing swaps. I used to love getting hand-me-downs as a kid, and I felt that it was time to rekindle that old love.
I found out on another blog this last week that Goodwill has been advertising in that(blogger's)area for donations. Apparently they have a real need right now.
I know that our Goodwill is really small and the maternity section is all but non-existant.
We do, however, have a few other thrift stores not too far from here. They are really busy places! They are both quite large.
I know people will be doing holiday shopping at thift stores. If we have things to donate, now is the time!
Post a Comment