OK, we’re a quarter way through what appears to be another pandemic year. As we battle new variants and push for mass vaccination, we’re beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel…but there’s still a long way to go. I hope everyone reading this is in good health and finding ways to stay positive.
As for Project Twenty n0ne, I wanted to track the first three months of this journey – from an empirical, anecdotal and psychological perspective. The pandemic lockdown over the past four months has no doubt made this project a little easier – with little to no opportunity to peruse local stores and shop for new non-essential goods. That said, this past year also sparked an accelerated trust and adoption of buying things online. As we looked to remove this far too convenient consumption habit, we cancelled pre-paid subscriptions, unsubscribed from any promotional e-blasts, removed shopping apps like Amazon and Canadian Tire, along with social media apps that pushed new products into our newsfeed.
As I write this, we have already started to realize some meaningful impacts in our lives, our relationships, and our family values.
Empirically, if our household was a publicly traded company (which it currently is not), I would be reporting a big first quarter and strong year-over-year (YOY) growth. I recently began tracking our household revenue like a small business, and can report that we closed out our first quarter with a 267% YOY increase in our NET profit (revenue minus expenses). While the +267% may seem like a lot, note that the base (last year’s first quarter profit) was relatively small.
Fortunately, through this pandemic our household revenue has remained mostly intact, meaning our increase in NET profit has been driven solely by the elimination of buying any non-essential goods. While not the main objective of this project, the natural causation of these financial benefits has been much welcomed. I knew our spending would be down, but I had no idea how quantifiable it would be. So far, it’s been pretty easy to track. Again, setting personal and custom baselines makes everything easier.
Now onto the main objectives…our footprint and our values.
You may remember my post introducing this project in January (if not, read here). I was blown away by the overflowing recycling and garbage bins after Christmas. Well, thanks to our reduced consumption and a very conscious effort to eliminate as much waste as possible, I am pleased to report that we have significantly reduced our overall waste output – by over 50%. I know using the term “approximately” quickly eliminates this as “empirical evidence”, but I haven’t yet found a good way to weigh waste and I now lack a measurable baseline. So, instead, I’ll report back on visual evidence:
- For Recycling, the norm for us was a full blue bin every two weeks – filled up to the top, with just enough room to close the lid down completely. After the first three months, our blue bins are down to 50% full every two weeks. That’s a 50% reduction in recycling waste.
- For Garbage, our black bins were typically 75% full every two weeks. They are now being collected at roughly 30% full (just 2-3 small bags every two weeks).
- Even our Compost is down significantly as we are finding new household uses for fruit peels, eggshells and coffee grinds. We’re down from a full weekly green bin (of 5-6 bags) to less than half full (2-3 bags).
These early results are very encouraging. Our family’s push to start this project was to reduce the lasting impact of our consumption. The weekly reduction in waste is a big win thus far, and I think we can do even better as we become more and more familiar with sustainable products and alternatives. In fact, I’ll write another post shortly about our discovery of a local low-waste bulk food store which has enabled us to rethink and restock many items in our kitchen.
From a psychological standpoint, we are noticing some big value shifts across our small family. For the first time in our lives, my wife and I find ourselves not wanting “things.” Well, let me correct that. We still think of things that would be useful, but knowing we cannot buy them we find ourselves getting resourceful. In many cases, we’ve repaired or repurposed things we already own to fill that need. In other cases, we’ve approached friends, family and neighbours with a simple ask to borrow the item we want or need. And guess what? People love sharing things…and we make sure to share back.
While this has led to a newfound sense of resourcefulness and simplicity in us, perhaps the most important thing we have observed is the change in our children. When we discussed this project with them at the beginning of the year, we explained that “mommy and daddy can’t buy any stuff this year – including clothing, toys, games, etc.” We also explained to our kids that they will continue to earn allowance for their weekly chores, and are free to spend their money on whatever they feel they want or need.
What we have seen in just three months has been pretty awesome. Our daughter has become a very diligent saver and hadn’t spent her money on anything…up until a week ago. Last summer, we agreed that next year (this year) we would help her buy a new (and bigger) bike by paying for half of it. When she came to us to cash in on our promise, we had to stay strong and explained that we couldn’t help her buy a bike this year. After some initial anger and disappointment, she shifted her energy towards finding a new bike…on her own. She decided she would budget $100, forgoing a “new” bike in lieu of finding one second-hand.
She eventually found a bike that she liked and we went to look at it. After a quick test run, she handed the seller $90 of her hard-earned money. She had bought a “new” bike all on her own, and she was so proud of herself. On top of that, we quickly sold her old bike and she offered us 50% of the yield since we paid for half of that bike a few years ago. We were so proud of how she approached the whole situation – setting a budget, saying “no” to many options, before settling on a bike she really liked…and could afford. And buying used meant one last new bike (and packaging) being consumed. That is conscious consumption at its best.
Our kids are still kids, and they still “want” many things. The significant difference we have noticed is that the initial must-have fascination quickly seems to dissipate. They are now consciously thinking about the waste and packaging that comes with new things, and doing their own cost-benefit analysis on whether they really want to spend their money on it.
It’s all pretty cool.