By Your Consumer Curmudgeon

I occasionally read an investment blog I like, called (believe it or not) The Tycoon Report. Not because I have much left to invest (having foolishly followed the advice of a rival publication), but then, neither do those actual tycoons. I read it mostly out of sentimentality, perhaps, looking for some silver lining somewhere in that cloudy snowy sky. Or still hopeful perhaps that Santa can still squeeze down my tiny condo chimney, or that Tiny Tim will stop by and wish us Merry Christmas, one and all.

The quaintly named Tycoon Report is actually written by a bunch of young guys in Florida, busy pondering what happened to all their real estate. But I mention it today because they recently published a guest column, which I'd like to share, as part of my own Christmas dispatch.

The writer is a guy named Bob De Dea, a part time actor in Miami who, like most artists, just manages to get by (I can relate) and has acquired some useful information in the process on how to pinch pennies I'd like to pass on.

De Dea dispenses with some basics, which I, conversely, want to reiterate, because they are simple and obvious. Turn down your thermostat. Use compact fluorescents. Drive slowly and don't warm up your vehicle first (I wrote about that last year). Of course it's good to recycle, and you can improve the environment as well as the economy by recycling bags, for example. If you have land you can grow food. Also compost, thus again helping the environment and also reducing the cost of landfills, garbage disposal, etc. If you own a home it's worth it in the long run to install energy efficient windows, proper insulation, and a good roof.

But here's where a new perspective is always fun, and sometimes useful. De Dea's number one item, coming from a Floridian but which couldn't be more useful for a Seattleite, is “invest in a good espresso maker and stop buying a $3 cup of coffee every day.” In my case, a mediocre coffee maker does the trick, but his meaning is clear. If you want to go upscale and make your own organic fair trade lattes and cappuccinos, all the better. It will save enough each month to fill your gas tank too.

De Dea also counsels us “not to buy plastic bags for food. Ever. We use 88 billion plastic bags annually in the U.S. alone. For those who care, that’s about 12 million barrels of oil.” I'll take his word on those numbers. But to those who still make their own lunches (thus saving from $1,250 to $4,000 a year, according to De Dea) he suggests you recycle those bags that bread and veggies come in and use them again and again. And he mentions a trick I discovered myself some time ago: you can seal them very nicely with a clothespin. De Dea, who is clearly a prodigious sandwich eater, claims this saves him $100-$200 per year.

Two further recommendations of his I'll pass on might be a bit harder to take. To quote: “(1) Break the habit of using paper towels. Use old cloths or hand towels or reusable micro fiber cloths. You’ll save a chunk of change and a tree or two. (2) Use reusable grocery bags (like the recycled plastic or cloth ones you can get from Trader Joe’s or just about any grocery store or pharmacy now) and use them to haul groceries, books – you name it. They’re sturdy and often waterproof and easy to clean.”

He is quick to add that “you may not save any money, but you’ll be drastically reducing your use of plastic and paper grocery bags,” which, of course, is good for the environment.

Other good suggestions are for buying on credit and getting a rewards or a mileage card, being sure to pay your full balance every month, thus avoiding those outrageous interest rates (and find one with no annual fee).

De Dea then goes where no man or woman has dared go before (well, not many, anyway): watch less TV! There is actually a host of good reasons for this. TV is not only bad for your health, literally (all those obese couch potatoes in our midst, if not mid-section), urging us to waste even more of our hard-earned money on junk food and other junk we don't need (or gas guzzling cars and SUVs thus still trying to save Detroit from itself), but those 5 hours a day that the average person watches, burn a lot of electricity. And not only is saving electricity good for your budget, once again, it's good for the environment, and helpful in reducing our demand for still more imported oil or terribly dirty coal to produce it. Plus, if time still has value, wasting it watching TV instead of, say, reading a book or learning French or Chinese is about as wasteful as you can get.

In the end, if we can all save just a little here and there with suggestions such as these, we won't need to be such Scrooges in terms of things that really count, like being supportive of important causes, and generous to those more in need than we. Or even, just to our friends and family.

Happy Holidays.