Becoming an Eco Hero

I guess since I’m the one who instigated this blog, I should be the first one to make an entry.

Managing a family, especially with four kids, is a challenge. Growing up as a child in a time of plenty didn’t made it easy on me to learn either. I’m used to convenience and for the most part when I was a child, my family never really had to “make it do or do without” as my MIL always says.  Now every day I’m cognizant of how much money it takes to keep the household going. We have a responsibility to live within our budget and to also teach our children how to be responsible with their spending.

Initially, I thought about all the things we could do just in terms of being thrifty - turning off the lights, reusing something as something else before buying new, etc. Unfortunately, no one in my family thought that penny pinching was a cool thing. Then I realized that being frugal, also means being environmentally conscientious. It was a whole new way to get my family on board with the things I’ve been harping about all these years.

The children are now enthusiastic environmentalists. They don’t care about how much our heating bills is going to be if someone leaves the door open unnecessarily, but they all realize that the more energy we use, the more we are depleting the earth’s resources. That’s something they DO care about.

I’ve started seeing things through their eyes. I’m now looking at the health of my family as a direct result of the health of the planet, and I’m looking at the health of the planet as a direct result of the choices we all make in our lives every day. What if there isn’t enough to go around in the future? Do we have the right to squander the resources of future generations? Do we not have each have a responsibility to keep our drinking water safe and the air that we breathe clean?

Even though my focus has changed, something terrific has come about as a result of that. Our family budget suddenly doesn’t seem as restricted as is was before. We are actually saving more money by thinking environmentally friendly than we were just by being frugal! And best of all, no one feels like they are being deprived like they did when we were simply on a budget.

Instead, we feel like Eco Heroes.