Cheap Women

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Magazine Article Review "The Compact"

This is from GOOD Magazine, Issue 7, page 98. Link here. This article is about a group called The Compact. Described by their founder, John Perry, as "just a group of people responding to a rising tide of environmental anxiety, and it's broad and loose enough for people to project their own concerns on it.". I am still a little confused at to what exactly it is, but I think the general idea is to stop buying anything new and unnecessary. It started with a group of friends in (where else!) San Francisco making a pact to barter, borrow or buy secondhand for a year, excluding food, drink, health and safety necessities. Well, it caught on like crazy. Now there are over 9000 people participating in it. The link to the sf branch is here. Members all around the world are participating in really cool things, like the Really, Really Free Market, a big bazaar where everything is free, including haircuts from a mohawked cycler, Tarot readings, Barbie roller skates and dog eared books (to name just some of the wares). Or looking for goody bag fillers at SCRAP, a warehouse full of things for the taking.
This is the same concept being tried by many people, but it is hopeful. Perhaps we are growing tired of searching for our happiness in things. Of filling landfills. Of being owned by our things.

Check out this article. In fact, check out GOOD Magazine. They are touted as a magazine for "People who give a Damn". $20 gets a year (6 issue) subscription, with 100% of the money going to a charity of your choice. No articles in here about the latest fad diet, or what Britney Spears is doing. It is full of environmentally and world conscience articles that talk about things that actually matter. This is one $20 I don't regret spending.

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Serve God Save the Planet: A Christian Call to Action

by J. Matthew Sleeth, MD

So much environmentalist rhetoric is pessimistic ... and that makes sense. Noah was pessimistic. Jonah was pessimistic. It's hard to be jolly when you're prophesizing the end of the world.

Even so, I found Serve God Save the Planet to be an uplifting book. There are a few things that we can do that really don't take much effort -- like switching light bulbs, keeping correct tire pressure, and plugging TVs and computers into power strips so the whole unit can be turned off easily -- and make a huge difference.

I was also surprised at how eco-friendly this Cheap Women project really is. (Plans to change the name to Green & Cheap Women, or Cheap Treehuggers, or Save Money, Save the Planet are already in the works.) (No, not really.) According to Sleeth, downsizing and being thoughtful and purposeful in your spending and with your home is the key to being green.

I do think he gets overly preachy in the last half of the book. It's not that what he's saying isn't true, exactly (it'd be nice if we all recycled our TVs and labored over the ecological impact of owning a dog), just that it's pretty overwhelming. And he does seem to climb onto several soap boxes that are only sort of related to ecology.

Still, the book is thought provoking and practical. It explains our global impact (using my hair dryer has a real effect on the air and drinking water for a girl in China ... who knew?) and responsibility as Christians to save people from a world that's literally making them sick. Ignorance may be bliss, but, in this case, it's also sin.

Selling my belongings, changing my light bulbs, buying less: all these things help me save money. But (perhaps) more important, they help change the world as well.

An Excerpt!

"We buy things for many reasons: to cheer ourselves up, out of guilt, to reassure ourselves of our worth ... to try to make our lives more meaningful, easier, or interesting.

On no subject is Jesus more clear than on materialism: a life focused on possessions is a poor and misguided life. Over and again, he urges us to seek a spiritual path and a life of loving one another. It may not be technically impossible to get to heaven if one is rich, but it is nearly so, he warns. Real treasures do not rust, run low on power, become obsolete, clutter up closets and garages, or rack up credit card debt."

SHOUT OUTS
Thanks to Milestone Books, who ordered this book for me and got it in within ONE DAY!

The Starving Arist's Way: Easy Projects for Low-Budget Living

by Nava Lubelski

In a post-Martha, post-ReadyMade world, it's hard to believe there's anyone left who needs to be convinced to "make it yourself, make it cool, make it cheap." Between Trading Spaces and ... oh, I don't know, the internet ... there's no shortage ideas for weekend crafters who want to redo their bathrooms with crazy color schemes.

In light of this craft saturation (craftsteration?), a book needs more than a cute concept and a list of ideas to get me to buy it. I want inspiration that takes me beyond a list of how-to's. I want practical ideas, not chewed-gum end tables (p.33). I want cheapness and re-usefulness, not "recycling" projects that require me to use new materials as well (p. 228). I just want something cheap, healthy and filling for dinner: I'm not that interested in absinthe (p.46) or pomegranate liqueur (p. 49).

I thought the Food and Home Decorating sections of The Starving Artist's Way were pretty weak. However, the Potions section had some good ideas (and sounds like Harry Potter, yay!). Oatmeal and Almond Scrub (p.219) is cheap and simple ... and it works. I'd never thought of using Olive Oil as a makeup remover (p.223), but it's effective, cheap, and natural. Lubelski also includes some good how-to's for making your own envelopes (p.237) and fortune cookies (p.253) that I'm excited to try.

All in all, the format of the book suffers from lack of pictures and excessively cheesy asides that feebly connect famous and "cutting edge" artists with each project (yeah, I get it ... starving artist ... but it doesn't really work). A lot of the ideas are silly or obvious. But the book includes 100 projects, several of which are solid, and some good reference information.

SHOUT OUTS
Thanks to Jonathan Benton, Bookseller for letting Cheap Women borrow a review copy! This and other books available now ... call 205-870-8840 and tell them Cheap Women sent you.

Monday, September 24, 2007

Nickel and Dimed By Barbara Ehrenreich

Nickel and Dimed By Barbara Ehrenreich

The Blurb about this book reads "On (Not) getting by in America".

I hear you, Barb.

In Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich decided to join the millions of Americans trying to make it on poverty level wages. This book totally changed the way I look at the folks working at the grocery store and Walmart. Of course they are surly and mad...they are spinning their wheels trying to make ends meet in a society that is not friendly to the low-income class. She explores the problems of trying to get housing when you do not have the money to save for a deposit, or a phone number to set up electricity. Things you do not think about normally. How does one get a place to live with no ability to save? You end up living in a flophouse somewhere that does not require a deposit, but costs an exorbitant weekly rate (upwards of $250 a week, with a roommate). Hotel rooms with no kitchen, forcing money to be spent on eating out. It really is a vicious cycle. And these are all working folks, so you can't say "Well, they should get a job". They have one. At Walmart, with Merry Maids, at Waffle House. All companies that treat their employees like cattle. No health insurance, long hours, unfair hiring and promoting practices.

If you have ever had a problem with Walmart, this book will enrage you. Truly. I stopped shopping at Walmart immediately after reading Nickel and Dimed.

I have a new appreciation for the 'low skilled' work force. I work a service job at Starbucks, and am realizing how lucky I am. Health Insurance for part time employees, paid time off, above market wages...I had no idea how good I have it. Even with all of this, I still feel poor. It just goes to show me that I am confusing my needs and my wants. My favorite paragraph is this one (she is speaking about customers at the diner where she works):

"The worst, for some reason, as rhe Visible Christians-like the ten-person table, all jolly and sanctified after Sunday night service, who rn my mercilessly and then leave me $1 on a $92 bill. Or the guy in the crucifixion T-shirt (SOMEONE TO LOOK UP TO) who complains that his baked potatoe is too hard and his iced tea too icy (I cheerfully fix both) and leaves no tip at all. As a general rule, people wearing crosses of WWJD ("What would Jesus Do?") buttons look at us disapprovingly no matter what we do, as if they were confusing waitressing with Mary Magdelene's original profession."

Ah, visible Christians. To take a quote from the great Jon BonJovi "They give love a bad name".

Anyway, check this book out. It will change your life, it did mine.

But don't take my word for it...