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So I got this email from the IRS late last week regarding a tax refund for $268.32 that I’m apparently due to receive in 3-9 days if I respond to this email…
I think I’ll pass…
Posted on March 17th, 2008 at 6:36 am by Brainy Smurf
Taxes | 1 Comment »
I updated the progress bars on the right this morning and you’ll see that I didn’t pay off the credit card balance in full with my last paycheck like I had originally planned on.
I have the funds in my checking account to do it, but it would make things rather tight for the next two weeks so I’m putting it off until the end of the month when I get paid again.
In the end, at worst, the delay will cost me less than $2 in finance charges, so I’m not going to let it bother me too much.
I also took a bit out of savings likely due in part to ING dropping their rate again. I guess I felt like the money wasn’t doing anything for me just sitting there.
The progress there is almost embarassing, but once the credit card goal is complete, the auto loan will begin to rapidly evaporate and then I should have a few months right at the end of the year to build up savings.
We’ll see.
Posted on March 14th, 2008 at 7:26 am by Brainy Smurf
2008 Goals, Credit Card, Finance | No Comments »
Yesterday Trent from the Simple Dollar quoted a list a of 20 questions from the book Money Drunk, Money Sober that he’s about to review.
While I’m not really interested in this particular book, or any of the other thought-process based finance books since that line of thinking rarely applies to me, I’m always up for a game of 20 questions, so here goes:
1. What five things do you most truly love doing? Think of things that you both enjoy in the moment and also enjoy looking back on later. Do any of these cost money?
Sadly, I’m not sure I can think of five. The first thing that comes to mind that I enjoy most is driving around aimlessly with my wife when we have nothing on the agenda. No place to be, no place to go, just finding new things to drive by and maybe even stop. It’s basically just wasting time, but very fulfilling at the same time.
I like mowing the lawn too when, again, there’s nothing else on the agenda. I also like watching hockey… Pro or youth, it doesn’t matter. I just enjoy it for some reason.
And relating to that, I also enjoy my hobby of collecting game worn hockey jerseys. In the end, that’s the only one that actually costs money.
2. What five things that you do regularly do you truly hate doing? You hate thinking about them and doing them in every way. Are these in any way worth the reward you get for doing them?
Again, five is too many for me to come up with.
I hate talking on the phone so I don’t do it very often.
I’m not real fond of all of the questions my wife peppers me wife before going grocery shopping. In that case, the reward is food, so I suppose it’s worth it, but it’s one of those weekly things that I kinda dread.
But the real thing I hate is, well, my side business. I’ve painted myself into a bit of a corner doing work on topics I have no real interest in and I’ve also grandfathered my pricing to a point where I’m not earning enough to really make it worth it. It’s not hard work, by any means, but it’s never at a convenient time and it’s, well, often just plain annoying.
3. What things are preventing you from doing more of the things you love and less of the things you hate? How can you remove those obstacles?
The side business is what gets in the way. Absolutely 100%. I mentioned the “lack of agenda” a few times above in my list of “loves”. Well, it’s rare that I don’t have an agenda. I *always* seem to have something waiting in my inbox that needs to be done. There is always something sitting there in the back of my mind where I know I need to get in front of a computer and get it done.
I’ve already started removing this obstacle. When I dropped my highest paying customer in the Fall, that was a huge step in the right direction. Unfortunately, I’ve been keeping them “on” in a smaller capacity since then. More unfortunately, they’re months late on payment again which was one of the main reasons I dropped them the first time. Sigh…
4. When was the last time you felt guilty about an expenditure? Why did you feel guilty about it?
Last month. I spent far too much on my hockey jersey collection last month. I felt guilty about it because had I not done it, I’d have been already out of credit card debt weeks ago.
5. What would you do if you went to work tomorrow and your boss handed you a pink slip? Get as specific as you possibly can. What could you do right now to make that less of a shock?
I’ve thought about this a lot lately with all of the crap reported in the news.
If it happened, I think I’d be content. I mean, there would be obvious hardships on the horizon, but my wife’s income is enough for us to pay the mortgage and I’ve cut down my debts to a point where I think we could scrape by — especially because I think I’d be paid for my saved up vacation time as well.
Not something I’m hoping for, but in the event it happened… I don’t think the world would end. It would just put a lot of my plans on hold. Indefinitely.
6. What five people (besides yourself) do you care for most in the world? Do they know this? What could you do to show them that you feel this way? Does your reaction involve money? Does it need to involve money?
Wow. Five?! Again? Well, I’d start with my wife. Then my parents… After that, I can’t really suitably rank people. No one really jumps to the front. But one thing is for certain, money isn’t involved in the equation at all — for any of them.
7. Have you ever been in a situation where you felt powerless about your spending, almost as if something else was in control of it? Why did you feel that way? What do you feel was driving that spending?
Nope. I’ve always been pretty aware that I’m the one in the driver’s seat. My debts are 100% my fault.
8. Can you think of five ways you attempted to control your spending? Did they work or not? If they didn’t, can you remember the exact moment when you realized you were losing that battle?
I’m really starting to hate this “five ways” trend. Can I add that to the list of things I hate?
I kinda blogged about this topic already, but the main thing for me that controlled my spending was to keep it on my mind every time I went to spend. Having just sent $600 to Visa and then spending $750 on a new monitor wasn’t going to get me anywhere.
Once paying down debt almost became like a contest or a game, it got addictive. It originally started back in 2003. It really got going at the tail end of 2006.
9. Do you remember a time in your life where you weren’t concerned about money? What specifically changed between then and now? Is the difference between the two mostly “stuff”?
I think buying a house is when things changed. I’m not really sure I remember a time when I wasn’t concerned about money. I mean, I always knew how much I had and tried to spent it wisely. Sometimes I thought wrong, but for the most part I did okay.
The one thing that has changed in recent years is that it’s not just about paying the bills anymore, it’s more of a “let’s see how much I can accumulate” type of mentality.
10. Can you name all of the individuals and organizations that you owe money to, and roughly how much you owe and what the interest is? Which one is dragging on you the most? Why does it drag on you?
Yes. As of this morning, I owe Chase Bank one thousand dollars. I owe Toyota just shy of $7000. And I owe Countrywide around $116k. Interest rates are 5.14%, 5.35% and 6.735% respectively. I didn’t even have to look those up.
The Chase Bank one is the one that dragging me down the most, simply because it’s a credit card balance. Yeah, it’s the lowest interest rate and it’s also the lowest balance, but it’s just one of those things I want to be able to say. “I have no credit card debt.” I’m almost there.
11. Where do you want to be in one year? Describe your life in as much detail as you can. Can you name five actions you can take in the next week to lead you to that goal?
In one year, I hope to have remodeled or have enough cash banked up to remodel the interior of my house enough so that it’s something I’m proud of and not something that looks it’s age. I also hope to have abandoned the side business enough so that I don’t always have something on the agenda. I want to be able to come home from work, greet my wife, and say, “Now what?”
I won’t take any actions in the next week to lead me to this goal. I’ve been putting things in place for months already to get me there.
12. Where do you want to be in five years? Describe your life in as much detail as you can. Can you name five actions you can take in the next week to lead you to that goal?
A lot can happen in 5 years… But in 5 years, I hope to stay on my new course. I think I should be able to “save” well over $1500/month. A huge interior remodel will hinder that, as could the pink slip scenario, but I’m certain that my life will be a lot better 5 years from now. Hey, the last five have been nothing but an improvement!
13. Do you actually ever want to retire in the traditional sense? If not, what do you want to be doing with your life at the typical retirement age?
No. I don’t golf. But really, I think that when I retire I’ll like to spend my time doing my own things and things that interest me. Thankfully, most of my interests won’t tap into my retirement savings.
14. How much do you actually earn for each hour you work? Don’t just divide your salary by the number of days you work and the number of hours you work each day. Subtract out the cost of commuting, clothes, social events for work, eating out, taxes, and other such expenses, and add in the hours you spend commuting, attending conferences and meetings, working late, and so on. That dollar amount is the exact value you put on an hour of your time - your true hourly wage.
I don’t do this because it just makes me angry. When you put in a minimum of 50 hours per week at your day job, and often times approach 70, then tack on another 30 or so for the side business after hours, it’s just not something you want to calculate. And I’m not even working in all of those other related expenses.
I make enough to get me where I want to go and that’s good enough for me.
15. Once you know that exact value, what else could you be doing to put that much in your pocket, particularly work that leaves you feeling more fulfilled and happy?
I don’t know the exact value, but I’m not sure there’s something else I could be doing to earn this wage. Or at least something I’d be comfortable switching to. I am trying to limit the work I do after hours. Raising my rate was an option, but in the long run, I’d rather not have to work at home at all.
16. What would happen to those around you if you walked out of your house and were hit by a Mack truck and killed? What would happen to those around you if you walked out of your house and were hit by a Mack truck and put into a long-term coma? What could you do differently to cover those bases?
We’d be screwed. I think the coma scenario would be worse actually. We’ve talked about life insurance a little bit, but I think at this point we’re just putting it off until we have children.
17. Think of ten childhood memories about money. Do these memories point to a healthy relationship with money (saving and planning for the future) or an unhealthy relationship (spend, spend, spend!)?
Ten?! Are you kidding me?
Two come to mind…
One was when I was in 5th grade. My grandmother had just had a heart attack and we went up to Toronto to visit her in the hospital. At the time, for whatever reason, I really wanted an Opus (from the comic strip Bloom County) doll.
My grandmother caught wind of this and, from her hospital bed, gave me a $1 dollar bill and told me to get that “penguin doll”.
Well, one buck wasn’t going to cut it…especially in an over-priced hospital gift shop. I’m not sure if she did that on purpose or if she was just out-of-sorts (she died a couple of weeks later), but I never did get that doll. And I never spent that dollar either. I still have it.
Not sure if that makes the memory a “saving for the future” lesson or a sad “holding on to the past” lesson.
The other childhood memory was when my Uncle came to visit us and because I had bunk beds, he ended up sleeping in my room. As he was preparing to leave to head home, he gave me a $100 bill and told me to keep it hush-hush and to sped it wisely. At that moment, I had 5 times more money to my name than I’d ever had. It was exciting.
Sadly, I think I blew that $100 on Double Dragon for Nintendo and some tropical fish. But the good news is that it took me a few weeks to decide what “best” to spend it on.
18. When was the last time you bought something primarily to impress someone else? Did it work? Did you ever buy anything to impress someone and had it completely fail to work?
While it’s not that last thing I bought simply to impress someone else, the thing that comes to mind is my BMW Z3. It did work. And it didn’t work too. I regretted it for a long time but the minute it was paid for, well, I can’t say I regretted it anymore.
19. When was the last time you bought something that was completely unnecessary? When you look back on it, do you feel happy about that purchase? Do you feel happy about earlier frivolous purchases? If some make you feel happy and others don’t, what’s the difference between the two groups?
My Cessna airplane! This was my most ridiculous purchase last year. Looking back on it though, it makes me feel good. It was my first experience in a live auction. And every time I look at the plane, it puts a smile on my face. It was silly, but well worth it.
I can’t really think of a totally frivolous purchase I’ve made that I don’t feel good about now. I mean, I do feel buyer’s remorse from time to time, but I’m not sure I’d call those items frivolous… My wife may have a few examples I’m forgetting though!
20. When you sit down and send out your bills for the month, are you left feeling good or bad after doing this task? Why? Is there anything you can do to change that perspective?
I feel great when I pay all of my bills and have them entered into MS Money. I sit back and think, “Hey, no more bills for another month…” In fact, right now, I’m almost excited to check the mail each day hoping they’ve come in. (All of my utility bills come in between the 11th and 15th of each month.)
Posted on March 13th, 2008 at 10:00 am by Brainy Smurf
Life | No Comments »
How did I find myself in this situation? How did I dig a hole this deep? And how on earth did I climb myself back out?
With tomorrow being a payday, the lull in my debt repayment plan is finally coming to a close. I’m pretty excited as it will give me the funds to be able to pay off the very last of the credit card debt. For good.
I was thinking last night about how and when this whole journey started…
I’ve always kept track of my finances dating back to 1997 when I opened my first checking account. Problem was, I only kept track of my checking account.
It wasn’t until after I’d bought my house in 2002 that I started to keep a detailed record of my credit card use. In the past, I’d always known what my balances were, but I never really kept track of how they got as high as they did.
In May of 2004 that changed. I put together a spreadsheet that listed all of my open credit cards with columns for the balance, the interest rate, the amount I paid for each specific month, and the amount I spent for each specific month. I still update it monthly and reference it all the time.
At the time, the running balance was $22921.42. It was time to start getting serious.
Or not.
Five months later, even though I was paying back at a clip of over $1250 per month, the balance had ballooned to $26145.56. I was headed in the wrong direction, but now I finally had visual proof of how wrong a direction it was.
I set up my first auto-payment in October of 2004 to start rapidly paying down an MBNA card that I no longer used. By February 2005, I’d wiped out a $3500 balance. At this point, I’d never even heard of Dave Ramsey, or snowballing, but I was essentially following his plan.
With one card out of the way and off the spreadsheet, I very foolishly opened a new account and used a balance transfer to partially take out the next target on my debt payment plan. In the long run, and even the short run, this line of thinking backfired. Instead of one bill for one card, I now had two bills for two cards and both had sizable balances.
I plodded along for the entire 2005 calendar year. In the end, I’d wiped out three different credit card balances but my total balance was still $18479.20.
Grand total for the year, I’d sent the credit card companies $26983.29 but my total balance had only fallen $6743.62. Finance charges didn’t make up the “missing” $20k. My own excessive spending did.
This is where I failed. While I had a solid plan to pay down debt, I didn’t have a plan to stop accruing it.
The next year didn’t get any better. I still hadn’t figured it out. I stepped up my repayment plan but still found myself deeper than when I’d started. By March of 2006, I was carrying $24184.37 in credit card debt all at rates higher than 17.99%.
My minimum payments were nearly $500 per month.
My monthly finance charges were exceeding $250 per month.
By this time, I was sending $3k every month towards Chase, MBNA, and Bank of America but was only treading water. I couldn’t understand it.
In May of 2006, I *finally* figured it out. Spending was my problem.
I decided that my last big expense on the credit cards would be an engagement ring. And with that done, it was time to start eliminating the balances. No tricks. No gimmicks. No balance transfers. Just huge weekly auto-payments.
And you know what? It worked!
By January of 2007, I’d wiped out all of my personal debt and only had a balance of $8962.39 on a business card. Things were definitely looking bright, but as with all things in life, a setback was on the horizon…
Unable to get a home equity loan (which turned out to be a blessing) because of our insurance situation, we took out a $12k loan at a high 15.5% rate to finance our roofing project. Six months later, we would finance over $20k of our siding project using credit cards.
Before I knew it, I was back over $20k in debt again. That’ll take the wind out of your sails.
But there was a big difference this time. Spending was, again, the culprit, but this time, they were more intelligent purchases. And this time, I had a plan, already implemented, to pay them off quickly.
It was also around this time that I decided that just eliminating credit card debt wasn’t good enough. It was time to really build some wealth at the same time.
I remember what sparked that vividly. I had been reading various PF blogs pretty regularly at that point, but never really “connected” with any of them. I dunno, none of their numbers seemed real or obtainable to me. Just interesting reads with some good financial advice here and there.
A co-worker had just purchased their first home. Financially, I wouldn’t say that I looked up to this person. Morally? Definitely not. I don’t even really admire their work habits. But they did mention how it “sucked” to have taken over $35k out of savings to make the down payment.
My jaw hit the floor. That’s impressive. Didn’t see that one coming. Total shock. In all honesty, yes, I was jealous.
I’m a guy who’s checking account rarely exceeds $2k and has virtually nothing in savings. I’m still that guy. But I’m not going to stay that guy.
See, I admittedly have a bit of an ego. I keep it pretty well sheltered, but it’s there. There is no way I can just cruise along in life the way I have been when people like my coworker have managed to save up that kind of money. No way.
Things were going to change. And they did. Immediately.
I took my repayment plan up a notch.
I took all but one of my credit cards out of my wallet.
I increased my 401k contributions, twice.
I finally looked into Dave Ramsey’s snowball plan and implemented it.
I started paying down my mortgage, first with an additional $25 per week, then increasing it to $125 per week plus a $25 biweekly payment from my wife.
Now I don’t have $35k in savings yet. I’m not even close.
But by the end of this week, I’ll have less than $7000 in non-mortgage debt and $0 in credit card debt.
Even with the additional mortgage payments and increased 401k contributions of late, my current pace still exceeds $2000 in debt repayment per month. Best of all, spending is not longer the problem it once was.
Doing the math, I’ll de debt free by the mid-summer.
And then the savings will commence.
Posted on March 12th, 2008 at 12:08 pm by Brainy Smurf
Finance, Life, Motivation | 6 Comments »
As of market close last night, the balance on my 401k is down $4600, or 7.25 percent, so far this year.
Dollarwise, that’s not really very much, but when you look at the percentage, well, the six-figure gains and losses you see occasionally on some NetworthIQ profiles start to make a little more sense. It’s all about the number of shares/units.
While annoying, neither number, the $4600 nor the 7.25%, really concerns me though.
I think a big part of it is because it (the market) truly is a level playing field. My holdings are pretty diverse, so my balance has generally paralleled what the markets have done.
The most comforting factor? It’s not just *my* 401k that’s tanking — it’s pretty much everyone else’s too.
The bright side is that my contributions usually go in right in the middle of the month, for this month I’d guess it’s lining up to be “deposited” this Friday.
With that in mind, I hope the market continues to fall so I can grab another monthly contribution’s worth at a discounted price.
Even chugging along with a -10.25% rate of return for 2008, things still look pretty good.
The market will turn around sooner or later, and right now, later is just fine by me…because the more I’m able to buy at a discounted price, the better off I’ll be in the long run.
Six-figure monthly swings, here I come!
(okay, maybe that’s thinking a wee bit far ahead…)
Posted on March 11th, 2008 at 9:14 am by Brainy Smurf
401k, Finance, Motivation | 6 Comments »
Here’s one of those perks to having a business credit card that isn’t often mentioned.
I have my own business, which is why I have a business card, but I’ve heard that pretty much anyone can apply (and receive) a business credit card.
That doesn’t really make sense to me, but whatever…
Recently, I had to activate a new card because my current one was expiring. I hate this process.
Most times, they want you to call from your home phone. You have to go through a huge automated menu, entering your account number, social security number, phone number, favorite number, favorite prime number, favorite odd number that isn’t prime, etc…
Then you wait on hold.
Wait for it.
Wait for it.
Your call is important to us. Please stay on the line. A representative will be with you shortly.
And when you finally get a human, they ask you all of the questions over again, then pepper you with offers for things like accidental death insurance like a seasoned telemarketing pro.
It’s horrible.
And I hate it.
You can say “no thanks” fifty times and they’ll still come back with, “Well, how about a subscription to Family Circle?” or “But the 30 day trial is free, there is no obligation to you… Why don’t we just try it out?”
Argh?!
So, last week, I had to make this call on my business card. I was dreading it.
I called the number, punched in all of my info and then sat on hold.
A moderately friendly voice answered the call, asked my name and home zip code followed by:
How can I help you today, Mr. Smurf?
Hi, yes, I’m just looking to activate my new card this morning.
Alright sir, one moment…your card has been activated. Is there anything else I can help you with today?
Nope, that was it! Thank you very much!
And that was that.
Posted on March 11th, 2008 at 5:49 am by Brainy Smurf
Credit Card, Rants | 1 Comment »
Apparently the Pope recently sounded off with a few new sins to add to the list of seven, one of which will affect most of the PF bloggers out there:
There used to be just seven, but the list of sins that could threaten your mortal soul just got a whole lot longer.
The Vatican has overhauled its list of mortal sins, adding several more to cope with the age of globalisation.
The new sins take aim at those who undermine society in far reaching ways, including by taking or dealing in drugs, polluting the environment, and engaging in “manipulative” genetic science, The Times of London reports.
Also new to the list are paedophilia, abortion, and social injustices that cause poverty or “the excessive accumulation of wealth by a few”.
They join the long-standing evils of lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, anger, envy and pride as mortal sins - the gravest kind, which threaten the soul with eternal damnation unless absolved before death through confession or penitence.
The church’s revised position came as the Pope lamented the “decreasing sense of sin” in today’s “secularised world,” and falling rates of Roman Catholics going to confession, The Times reported.
I guess we’re all going to hell, huh?
The text of the full article is available here.
Posted on March 10th, 2008 at 7:57 am by Brainy Smurf
Current Events | 3 Comments »
Times are changing, for sure.
I’m not sure I remember the last time I saw a paper bag from the grocery store. Even those are taboo now.
It’s darn near impossible not to get dirty looks from the crunchy tree-hugging granola-eating Whole Foods crowd these days.
How on earth do kids make bookcovers for their text books now? What do they use? Really, I’d be curious to know.
Anyway, there was an article by David Funkhouser in my local paper today about how the State is considering banning plastic bags.
Since their debut in supermarket checkout lines in 1977, plastic shopping bags have become the tote of choice.
Back then, plastic seemed like a good option: a way to stop cutting down so many trees to make all those paper bags. They take less energy and are less polluting to produce than paper. They’re lighter, easy to carry, reusable.
But they are also starting to look like the quintessential environmental nightmare. Shoppers use 100 billion a year in the U.S. alone, and they have become a universal symbol of a throwaway consumer culture — use them for a few minutes, then throw them out. And, like many things plastic, they last a long time — by some estimates, up to 1,000 years.
The bags wind up as litter, blowing in the wind, and tons of them float out to sea, where they pose a different kind of threat. Sea turtles, who love jellyfish but seem unable to tell the difference, eat them and die from suffocation or starvation. The bags also harm birds, dolphins and seals, environmentalists say.
Now, the legislature is considering a bill to ban them.
Which Pamela Rome is OK with.
Rome paused this week outside Whole Foods in West Hartford to rearrange groceries in a large paper sack. The store went plastic-bag-free last Saturday, and Rome said she does not mind at all.
Whole Foods likes to stay a little ahead of the curve: The company gave away tens of thousands of reusable bags — made from 80 percent recycled plastic bottles — as part of its nationwide campaign to wean its customers from the more disposable kind.
“I still use [some plastic bags], but I try to use reusable bags — when I remember to take them out of the trunk,” Rome said. “I’m trying to save the environment for my children.”
But clearly, a society without plastic bags will take some getting used to.
Kathy Velez of Hartford, who was shopping Tuesday with her young daughter at Wal-Mart on Flatbush Avenue, is not ready to give them up.
“To me, it’s harder if you have to bring the cloth bags in. I’m not a big fan of using those,” she said.
She tosses most of her plastic bags in the trash but like many people reuses some around the house. They’re handy for lining small wastebaskets, covering up stuff in the fridge, packing a lunch, collecting a few toys for your child to carry around, emptying litter boxes.
In parts of Africa, women weave the bags into baskets and sell them.
Valerie Rivera, Jessica Rodriguez and Yamarilyn Vega, all from Hartford, see the problem from both sides of the counter: They work as cashiers at Wal-Mart, and were outside after a shopping trip there Tuesday.
All three said shifting away from the plastic bags would slow things down at the checkout line.
“I would miss them,” Rivera said. “I use them as little garbage bags and for dirty diapers.”
Lindsay Mejnartowicz of Naugatuck works behind the counter at a Subway sandwich shop on Route 17 in Durham. She agrees that eliminating plastic would be less convenient for customers. Not to mention a little juicier.
Connecticut was one of several states last year to consider the mandatory recycling of plastic bags.
Although this year’s proposal would go even further and ban the bags completely, Sen. Edward Meyer, D-Guilford, co-chairman of the legislature’s environment committee, said he expects to see a compromise, perhaps a mandatory recycling provision.
The bags wind up as litter, blowing in the wind, and tons of them float out to sea, where they pose a different kind of threat. Sea turtles, who love jellyfish but seem unable to tell the difference, eat them and die from suffocation or starvation. The bags also harm birds, dolphins and seals, environmentalists say.
Now, the legislature is considering a bill to ban them.
Which Pamela Rome is OK with.
Rome paused this week outside Whole Foods in West Hartford to rearrange groceries in a large paper sack. The store went plastic-bag-free last Saturday, and Rome said she does not mind at all.
Whole Foods likes to stay a little ahead of the curve: The company gave away tens of thousands of reusable bags — made from 80 percent recycled plastic bottles — as part of its nationwide campaign to wean its customers from the more disposable kind.
“I still use [some plastic bags], but I try to use reusable bags — when I remember to take them out of the trunk,” Rome said. “I’m trying to save the environment for my children.”
But clearly, a society without plastic bags will take some getting used to.
Kathy Velez of Hartford, who was shopping Tuesday with her young daughter at Wal-Mart on Flatbush Avenue, is not ready to give them up.
“To me, it’s harder if you have to bring the cloth bags in. I’m not a big fan of using those,” she said.
She tosses most of her plastic bags in the trash but like many people reuses some around the house. They’re handy for lining small wastebaskets, covering up stuff in the fridge, packing a lunch, collecting a few toys for your child to carry around, emptying litter boxes.
In parts of Africa, women weave the bags into baskets and sell them.
Valerie Rivera, Jessica Rodriguez and Yamarilyn Vega, all from Hartford, see the problem from both sides of the counter: They work as cashiers at Wal-Mart, and were outside after a shopping trip there Tuesday.
All three said shifting away from the plastic bags would slow things down at the checkout line.
“I would miss them,” Rivera said. “I use them as little garbage bags and for dirty diapers.”
Lindsay Mejnartowicz of Naugatuck works behind the counter at a Subway sandwich shop on Route 17 in Durham. She agrees that eliminating plastic would be less convenient for customers. Not to mention a little juicier.
Connecticut was one of several states last year to consider the mandatory recycling of plastic bags.
Although this year’s proposal would go even further and ban the bags completely, Sen. Edward Meyer, D-Guilford, co-chairman of the legislature’s environment committee, said he expects to see a compromise, perhaps a mandatory recycling provision.
China has banned free plastic shopping bags as of June 1.
“We’re very much for mandatory recycling of plastic bags,” said Stan Sorkin, executive director of the Connecticut Food Association, which represents grocers and others in the food industry. The organization, however, opposes an outright ban.
“The grocery industry has been in the forefront and recognizes the role we must play in using and reusing plastic bags,” he said. “Everybody has had their eyes opened in terms of the environmental message … reduce, reuse, recycle.”
Most grocery stores these days sell reusable bags of canvas or recycled plastic, typically for 99 cents each. Some like Stop & Shop have set up bins where customers can recycle the disposable bags.
Whole Foods plans to end the use of disposable plastic grocery bags in all of its 270 stores in the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom by Earth Day, April 22. Its paper bags are made from 100 percent recycled material, and the store offers refunds of 5 cents a bag to consumers who bring their own.
Wal-Mart started selling reusable bags for $1 in October, and the company is setting up recycling bins at most of its stores, company spokeswoman E.R. Anderson said. The company developed an effective recycling method and has recycled 97 million pounds of plastic, she added.
Anderson declined to speculate on what the company might do if Connecticut passes an outright ban.
Dropping plastic bags might seem a lightweight assault on environmental problems.
But proponents argue the change of mindset might be just as important.
“It’s a process of thinking beyond the purchase,” said Lisa Mastny, an editor at Worldwatch Institute, an environmental organization based in Washington. “It translates into a lot of other things. It ingrains in people the idea of thinking before buying. That hasn’t been in the American consumer consciousness.”
Plastic bags have yet to achieve the socially unacceptable status of fur coats or littering.
Like many consumer habits, this may come down to a matter of money.
Consider that when Ireland put a 15 cent tax on the bags in 2002, use of them dropped by 90 percent in a few months.
At the Durham Market on Route 17 in Durham, owner Chet Mounts says he would not mind cutting out the plastic.
But he notes that consumers may pay for the change: His paper bags cost him 8 to 10 cents each, as opposed to about 2 cents for plastic.
Over the past month, Mounts said, he has sold about 500 cloth grocery bags to his customers, “but I don’t see many coming back.”
“The consumer’s going to have to be retrained,” he said.
At the market’s checkout, part-time clerk Amy Ercolani of Durham agreed.
“People just need to adjust,” she said, with a hint of frustration. “People come in and get one item and want a bag.”
She herself has used cloth bags for years.
Meanwhile, eco-conscious shoppers like Pamela Rome will try to remember to grab the reusable bags before they hit the store.
“I’m getting better,” she said. “My kids remind me.”
For plastic, what about the sea turtles?
For paper, what about the rainforests?
For the re-usable, can I take a Target bag into a Walmart?
I’m not really sure where I stand on this issue. We use the re-usable “green” bags for the grocery store regularly now. It took a while to get used to them, but they’re actually a lot nicer than paper or plastic.
They hold a lot more, they have a flat rigid bottom, and they look kinda neat. On the downside, it feels a little weird walking in to a store with a bunch of empty bags tucked under you arm…
Which ever way they go, I’m sure some interest group will come along saying it’s hurting the environment even more regardless of the outcome.
The key is to leave the environment out of the marketing ploy to get people to change.
Change to the reusable ones because they’re simply better. Not better for the environment, just better period.
It’s a lot easier to swallow that way. For the turtles too.
Posted on March 7th, 2008 at 11:10 am by Brainy Smurf
Current Events | 2 Comments »
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I'm three apples high and nearsighted. I like yellow-haired smurfs, robot invasions, sarcasm, and anything where the secret ingredient is love.
I started this blog in March 2007 after accidently stumbling across a few PF blogs while researching the idea of using 0% balance tranfers to finance a home improvement project -- from there, I was hooked...
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