Frugal Shopping - Making Room for Principles (Part 1)

This post inspired me to ponder a bit on whether, and how, should people stick to the fair-trade-ethical consumerism in case we are financially on the edge.

I've always been a responsible shopper. I try to research not only the brands, but the shops/supermarkets I buy my stuff at, favour bio/ecological production and check where the stuff comes from (that being said, I still have this special brown sweater from Promod that's been made in Burma - as a memory that I should pay attention). However, just a few weeks ago I've been kneeling in front of a supermarket shelf, trying to chose between three brands of chocolate spread - one "bio", another "fair trade", but finally buying the one that cost 97 eurocents.

The answer to the question - can I shop ethically in these dark times - depends on our budget, but just in part. Theoretically, we can always buy less things and pay an "ethics" premium on what we do buy, but eventually we arrive at the point where costs cannot be cut any further - especially if you have children to feed (I don't). However, there are less expensive ways to be a responsible consumer.

Our shopping needs, barring the big items such as houses, cars and like, can be roughly divided (in terms of how often we shop for them) into groceries, essential household items (many of which are chemicals, such as cleaning solutions), fashion, and bigger household items such as electronics or furniture. Every big group can be divided into subgroups, and I don't think that you can even theoretically commit to fair trade everywhere, but you can take a number of small steps towards ethical consumption in each and every group:

• check your supermarket - this is probably the most important thing. Why should your fair-trade money support a shop that behaves like this (OK in this case the shop's commitment is more than questionable). Thanks goodness we do not have that monstrosity in Belgum. Even if you do not, or cannot buy fair trade, you should stay away from "unethical" supermarkets. This and this pretty much means me staying away from LIDL, and this made me cautious about ALDI - maybe I should write to them and ask to keep their suppliers in check. OK, you still need cheap stuff, but now virtually all supermarkets feature their own economy brand. Somehow, I've been unable to find any dirt on DELHAIZE, and I quite like their "365" brand, which, regardless of delhaize's pricey reputation, is occasionally the cheapest choice. Of course, choosing the most reputable of affordable supermarkets does not guarantee that the suppliers/manufacturers behave, but it does make a difference in terms of who cuts prices by exploiting employees. It is a good idea to check your favourite supermarkets on the Internet, and if you are serious about ethical consumptions, you can write them - please do something about the problems reported by so-and-so, otherwise I'm taking my hard-earned-money to someone else;
• groceries: take solidarity to the local level! Fair trade is essentially there to support developing countries, which makes it quite pricey. If you cannot afford it, think if you can support local producers instead - hey they're in recession just as you and me! If it makes you feel better, just tell yourself that you are choosing environmental concerns (think of all those "food miles") over development concerns just this year. And stick to the seasonal foods - better chance to snatch them cheaply;
• groceries (and maybe other items): check if there are any subsidies producers near you - I found this farm that employs handicapped people (and therefore qualifies for some government subsidies); their bio-veggies basket prices start from 8 Eur, as opposed to the 36.90 bio-basket you can order otherwise. I plan to visit the farm this week, and will tell you all about the prices!
• groceries: don't ignore the markets. OK there are a number of concerns with open markets, but I just don't think they are worse than discount stores. Yesterday I made substantial savings on meat at the Clemanceau market, and there are some local producers' stalls at Midi market that are quite a bargain. Come late, and you can snatch unbelievable discounts:
• household chemicals - again, you can chose environmental concerns. I did buy some powdered Marcel soap for less than 3 Eur/kg, which is very kind to the planet and relatively kind to my wallet; Ecover delicate at 4.23 for 22 washes is not exactly cheap, but a good value for money and still cheaper than Woollite (I love Ecover all-purpose cleaner by the way, but the upholstery/carpet cleaner was too foamy for my taste). Again, there are cheaper solutions, so what I did was to buy something cheap for my main laundry and use this Marcel soap for my wool/silk - not 100% Eco, but hey at least I did something (carrefour own brand for wool/silk would still be cheaper). I am also learning to use white wine vinegar for my stainless steel surfaces - if you live ecologically in some parts of your house, it makes you feel better about that cheap toilet cleaner!
• fashion - OK, here is a big one. Clothes need to fit, feel good, be comfortable and appropriate. They also need not to come from sweatshops. The big thing to remember though is that high price tag does not mean it was produced in fair conditions. My problem with buying clothes/footwear/bedlinen is that I might know what to avoid, but can never make a "safe" choice. The ultimate authority in ethical fashion shopping, the Clean Clothes Campaign, admit that there is no whitelist. The solution can be found by either checking your favourite brand on their website or consulting their reports. Just in time for winter sales, the Belgian chapter of CCC released a free report on a number of fashion brands. I can also recommend the report on the leading UK high street brands;, however, it's a couple years old, so you might want to check the companies' page of the CCC website for the updates. And stay away from clothes produces in China, Burma or other countries with known human rights issues! Regardless of what cause they support, you are not helping by endorsing the status quo;
• Electronics and larger stuff - I don't really have a solution here other than check the shop, check the brand, and try to re-use as much as possible - if you are revamping your shelves (I did!), use some eco-friendly paint if your budget stretches to it.

Finally, try to view fair-trade stuff as your "karma bank" - you don't have to buy a fair trade chocolate bar and live without fresh veggies, but if you have some of your groceries' budget left, go get some free trade rice or coffee - you give to the others, and you will be given in return - good karma is what's essential in recession.

That's all. Check back tomorrow!

Hit by the heating bill, hope to bounce back

The last thing I did before going to sleep last night was..
switching the heating off!
And I only regret not having done it on the night before, and the night before that.

One of the things that sort of messed my financial planning up was a huge heating surcharge. In September, I just got paid for a big assignment, took a mini-vacation and invested something in my personal comfort at home, and then there was it. The paper bearing "techem caloribel" sign in the top left corner, travelling from my concierge to my landlord to my post box, and resulting in me having to reimburse extra central heating costs incurred during first three quarters of 2008 - the amount exceeding two my months' rent. Can you believe it? And I wasn't even heated that much - travelled a lot for work in the first half of the year, and then there was summer.

Ah well, nobody is safe from human error - I could have gone away for a week or two and forget to switch heating off. Still, this doesn't explain the monstrous amount I had to pay and makes no sense in terms of consumption patterns - I had no surcharge for 2004-2005, a tolerably big one for 2006 (fuel oil prices increased then, and it was a summary for the whole 3-year period), then a token sum for 2007 and then this... just for the first three bloody quarters!

I must admit that madame concierge was really sympathetic; she took time to explain me how to read the heating counters, and how her family kept their bills within limits. She even made me measure the windows and sent them to some companies so my landlord could get a quote for double-glazing (by the way, you can get a tax rebate for that in Belgium); haven't heard from them since but OK, at least we tried.

You see, many of my centrally-heated faced the same problem - but of much milder proportions. That is, I was doing something really wrong and had to make a change, but what should I be doing exactly? Well, here's the plan:

• dress for the weather, even at home. I've been feeling much warmer and happier having found those two pairs of woolen socks I once brought home "just in case". The blue-and-green ones actually even look nice. Right now I'm wearing cotton jazz pants and a very nice long-sleeved t-shirt, with a really warm fleece that came with those cat-and-mice pyjamas I never admit to own :) - and feeling fine, but the socks make all the difference;
  
• always remember to switch the heating off when you are away from home, even for the week-end. The key word is "remember". Make it as much a reflex and checking whether you left your iron on. However, on its website techem, the company responsible for our heating bills, recommends lowering the temperature but not to the point when the radiators would freeze;
• think how much heat do you really need - madame concierge, for example, uses only two radiators out of five, with the one in the kitchen and the lobby permanently off. Me, I don't like cold kitchens, so I'm just trying not to spend time there unless cooking or cleaning. Techem recommends to lower temperature in all rooms you're not using;
• if you switch the kitchen/lobby heating off, your other radiators will still continue to heat those places, so keep all doors closed. This should improve your feng-shui situation too, if you are into this sort of things;
• ok this one is without any academic reference, but i trust the source: a friend told me that if the temperature at your place is even one degree higher than at your neighbour's, then you'd be heating your neighbour's place too. The young lady downstairs, by the way, had very little surcharges, so I might have been heating her place! Try to keep temperature a bit lower than you would if someone else paid for it, and put those socks on!
• Belgians are very fussy about not opening the windows when radiators on. In fact, this was the first thing madame concierge asked about when she saw my bill. Apparently, even five-minute-long airing of your place with heating at max messes something up;
• techem says never cover the radiators. I took all furniture away from them, although I must admit to drying my bedlinen on radiators occasionally - which is a big no-no;
• In 2004-2005 I had my bed positioned in a way that I could switch one radiator on and off out of bed. Always switched it off at night, not for the costs but for some strange assumption that it's healthier not to have your bedroom heated. As long as I put my bed somewhere else, bills soared. 7-8 per day of unheated bedroom goes a long way! So I'm doing this again. The key is a good blanket, maybe a woolen throw over it, and keeping your bathrobe, old cardigan or whatever takes you from bed to bathroom, close to you - otherwise you'll never get out of bed!
• A word for windows - I grew up in a cold climate, where my parents would put some special tape around the windows during the winter. Me, I like to air my place frequently, so paper is not the solution - I saw monsieur concierge hanging out of his window doing something with the window joints - must find the way to have it done to my windows! When you do air your room, have the window wide open for a few minutes rather than half-open it for a long time. Techem recommends to keep your curtains down when it's dark, but I haven't really seen Belgians do so. Yeah, and getting a quote for double-glazing might be a good idea, especially if you still have enough income to look for the ways to optimise your taxes;
• Sometimes, life is just not fair and there is nothing you can do about it. The heat loss can occur through your floorboards and through your roof. Apparently it's just better to live on the middle floor and have nice fluffy carpets; otherwise hot tea and going out should help.

For those who can read in local languages, here is the techem ticks-and-trips link
http://www.techem.be/French/Info/Info-Plus/d-=C3=A9conomie_d-=C3=A9nergie/index.

And yes, my consumption seems to be reasonable according to the electronic meters at home. If you want to know if my plan actually resulted in less surcharges, you have to check back when the next bill arrives. I promise to blog about it.

That's all for now. Check back tomorrow!