The Goods Are Odd

Currently in a financial situation I hope to never repeat I have been exploring some of the resources out there for budgeting, saving, cutting costs. Paired with this exploration (which is really more of a necessity to change my spending, improve my income, and really work towards reducing debt and saving what I can) is how to maintain quality in my life and my commitment to supporting quality goods and services.

Get Rich Slowly has bee great resource for the nuts and bolts on the process for getting out of debt and increasing savings my cutting costs, simplifying spending and getting creative.

For the most part I think many of friends would benefit from the discussions there, specifically the original post on his reviews of books on personal finance. (Which is very well written and much appreciated because I would probably never sit down and read them)

I’ve started on some of the ideas of debt snowball, a high yield savings account, etc. What I felt was missing from the discussion was how to cut spending but ensure that what you do spend your money on is quality (healthy for you, the world, and the people who produce it). Well, it shows it takes a while to get to know a good blog and I found the points I was looking for, both on the general idea of quality and addressing my need to continue to buy expensive organic products while knowing I really can’t afford to (but knowing the world can’t afford not to…that sort of thing)

I have to say that buying organic produce is not the problem. This is does easily and enjoyably at the many farmer’s markets in the area. In fact without my weekly trip to the farmer’s market I would be spending way more on food than I feel like I already do. We take 20 bucks in cash and load up. Last week we made the mistake of spending almost 10 on just wild mushrooms and the rest went to enough veggies to last us just fine.

But all the other stuff, organic shampoo, and local organic butter, and (yes) raw milk. For the most part I think that both living simply by only spending on quality goods will work out to be the easiest, the most effecient, and the most cost saving. The higher quality, non-mass-market products will last longer and keep me healthier. It just seems so obvious. The problem is at the given moment we should be spending the least amount possible. But I just can’t seem to make myself do it. So I’m figuring out how to make it work. With debt, no savings, and barely enough income- when I buy, I’m still going to buy right.