Living Simpler

Could you live on 1,500 dollars? not a month but a year! $1,500 for one year for groceries, household items and personal care expenses. This is for real - see it here. The family of four is in the US news and they are a coupon family in the main. I am not sure about really how healthy their diet is given the amount of prepared foods they are using but it's an interesting thing in a recession and an age of consumption. Fox news here reports so far they are on 125 dollars a month.

How much simpler can you live? I try and live pretty simply in many ways. Though my computer etc have taken up money recently and a number of hobbies/projects also. Perhaps these I need to keep a tighter reign on. I know students who are living on 60-70 dollars a week and I pretty well match their level. Though currently my travel pass is costing me money.

I wonder where does that saved money go? The tension is already that global economies are unstable and in recession because people aren't buying consumer items in sufficient volume. Capitalism and the free market depends on consumption. There is something wrong here and yet if we all lived like the Spooner family, then whole economies would collapse. Is there a balance?

This weekend, I was talking with an international student about cost benefit analysis when thinking about civil engineering and environmental impact and risk. Current discussions have indicated that the Szechuan earthquake may have been caused by a large dam and it's lake sitting over a fault line. The benefits of water management over the risks of such an event. Cost benefit is an important thing to have in mind. Saving money is only one aspect, what we do with the money we saved is also something important. How we use that money is also important! Laying up our treasures in the right place is important. However making sure the heart and mind are in the right place first is very important. Perhaps this is where balance starts.