Big Holidays, Getting More For Less

Today I would like to talk about one of the best ways of going green, reducing consumption. Our society has come up with this notion that we need to incessantly buy things, mostly useless things at that. Of course being the clever marketers that humans are, we've turned Christmas, birthdays, anniversaries, engagements, Valentine's day, boxing day, black Friday and much more into consumer holidays. So this means the pressure is on to buy the perfect gift, the perfect gift which is marketed as something expensive that provides little to no value. So, it's up to you to impart a change.

Here's a couple easy ideas:

• For these special holidays buy a single gift that will last instead of many disposable ones.
• Take a family vacation as your holiday gift.
• Buy something practical, a bike, hiking gear, something for climbing. Remember getting active is a great alternative to staying indoors and if you respect the outdoors it's good for the environment too.
• Buy something practical for around the house, start a green-renovation, replace those leaky faucets, switch to CFL's when the old incandescents burn out, switch to green energy (more about this tomorrow).
• More importantly get back to the root of holidays, spend time with friends and family.