I would, but...

Some excuses reasons why we (okay, okay - I) fall off the saving money/time/planet (MTP) bandwagon:

 

1.      Too ______ (you fill in the blank - lazy/busy/naïve?) to bother

 

The fact is - saving anything requires some sort of planning and then sticking to the plan. Some of us are either just too lazy, busy or just plain naïve (or all 3 [me – Yikes!]

We also lack patience, everything is bigger, better and faster and if we can’t get results/info in a nanosecond…we lose interest faster than Usain Bolt. We live in a happy bubble of ignorant bliss, as long as we aren’t aware of what is happening to our bank accounts, our planet or our time, then everything is A-OK and it’s someone else’s problemo.

 

2.      All or nothing

 

Like any other habit, saving (anything) takes time and practice. I am very much an all-or-nothing girl and it doesn’t take much for me to cry “Bore SNORE!” and throw in the towel. If you’re anything like me, you freak out at the thought of going totally vegetarian {or worse the dreaded Vegan [which I have been before okay, Vegans out there, tighten your leashes this is not an attack on you ;) in fact I salute you!]}, we scream in horror at the thought of wearing hessian dresses [although quite stylish and ultra-cool in summer ;)], we faint at the thought of saving HOW MUCH a month (face of horror!) and we get tired (we are human after all), and then decide to skip those plans to get ahead on the washing, cooking a week’s worth of meals to freeze etc. We are creatures of habit and comfort; things that threaten scare the banoodles out of us!

 

3.      You hypocrite

 

Similar to point number two, I feel we feel we need to be 100% perfect in every category and if we do things that contradict each other then we are hypocrites. For example, how can you worry about saving water when you enjoy a candlelit bubble bath, how can you say smoking is a waste of money when you drink that bottle of wine every night. How can you preach about recycling when you buy ready-made meals. We feel guilty and then avoid it all together, and stick our heads in the sand, which only makes us feel guiltier.  Well if we had to only do something when we could do it 100% we wouldn’t do anything at all. Believe me, the extremists out there will find something to criticise you for, but in my book, even if you do only one thing positive to help you save MTP, you are making a positive change to your life which is helping you feel happier which is sending out positive energy into the world (ooo how tree huggerish of me!).

 

4.      Your environment is not geared for it

 

Humans are social creatures and tend to follow the crowd. Yes there are those who don’t conform but these are not the norm (hence – nonconformists). We experience a certain degree of anxiety when we are not part of the group (I don’t care how much you say you don’t). Therefore, when your environment is following a certain trend and encouraging that trend you are more likely to move with the movement. Here in SA, we still have a long way to go in terms of living green and recycling. It is not easy to find somewhere to recycle and many times it involves a huge growing mountain of material in your back yard until someone finds the inspiration (or time) to drop it off. We also love credit (okay who doesn’t love the magic world of imaginary money) and every second day we receive retail account cards with our name on it, or bank calls offering more credit. The temptation is as persistent as a Jozi traffic light vendor.

 

5.      Saving doesn’t go with our image

 

We are a shallow generation, unfortunately, if something isn’t fabulous, awesome, expensive, amaze-balls, unique or branded we are just not interested. Who wants to care about saving money when you need to splash it around in the form of dinners, clubbing, clothes, cars, and holidays. Who wants to save the planet when it means “wasting time” growing an organic garden and cooking in bulk (which could break my newly manicured nails doll!). Blah! What a bore snore! We are training our brains to believe if we want it, we can damn well have it, and pity the poor soul who gets in the way of my Jimmy Choos!

 

I’m sure there are hundreds of other reasons why people as a collective, and you and I as individuals prefer the happy place of denial. However, I am not going to waste precious blogging time (see-saving time!) on excuses. I know that for a long time I have felt I need to hop on the saving bandwagon (especially for the planet) and this blog is in a way my effort to stay on track. So, I dare you to dare me to stay on track!