this post was submitted on 02 Sep 2024

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249

What is something you SHOULD cheap out on? (feddit.nl)

submitted 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

353 comments fedilink hide all child comments

....to a reasonable degree, at least.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

You should just stop spending money in general if you can. So many responses are like "buy literal garbage like disposable decorations at the dollar store," do not do that. Stop spending money on garbage. Every dollar you spend is damage to the environment and more power for the wealthy, just stop it. Stop spending.
Don't buy entertainment, use archive dot org. Read more. When you like something culture you consumed, give it to somebody else so they don't try to buy it. Pass entertainment around to your friends.
When you have to spend on things like haircuts, repairs, etc, keep the money in your social network. If you don't cook, learn. If you aren't a part of your local grocery distro, join it.

Avoid giving corpos money whenever you can and you'll save lots of money.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

When you have to spend on things like haircuts, repairs, etc, keep the money in your social network.

While I agree with the idea of not buying garbage, there is absolutely no way we can unconsume ourselves out of the capitalist ploy to extract surplus value. Do not put the blame on people who try to (often) satisfy legitimate needs, but on those forcing labor to be spent at the cost of both the environment and workers themselves.

Ecofascism (not accusing you here) is not going to solve the climate crisis.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I'm not suggesting unconsuming, I am suggesting consuming outside of the corpo economy and limiting the use of fiat economy. And this is an ideal to work toward. I think about money I don't spend to a corpo as money that hasn't been extracted from my community.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

It is nice where possible and can help locally, but on scale it will not force through any changes. To see why, we only need to consider the historical material conditions that allowed the development of the current capitalist form in the first place. Small businesses where defeated by capitalists that could employ tactics the others couldn't answer.

In order to answer to the consequences of our current mode of production, we have to force changes to how production is carried out. Saying we want our products locally, ethically and environmentally made will only change their branding, not the fundamental exploitation in search of surplus value.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Alkaline and rechargeable NiMH batteries. The price per hours of use favors the cheap brands. A top brand might last longer but you are paying a premium for it. Rechargeable NiMH batteries with a good price to battery life ratio are from IKEA.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

Same. I'm using IKEA brand in the keyboard I'm using to type this.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

I usually by the house brand of anything the first time I buy anything. Cooking ingredients, household chemicals, drugs, tools, and anything else you can think of. I have found a number of places where saving money is not worth it, the difference between organic tomatoes and the conventional ones is huge for example but if you don't care about tomatoes you may be fine with the cheap ones.

There are a few things I will spend good money on first time through. Basically anything I am not going to have a chance to replace if I don't like it. I had to replace the floors in a few rooms in my house. When we first moved in and could not afford nice carpet. It took 10 years to wear out the carpet and for us to have enough to replace it. If I had to do it again I would have stuck with the original longer to save a bit more and put in better flooring.

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