Save and Spend Well
It’s a week until my daughter’s birthday and my back needs stretching after three hours on my knees cleaning, sorting and packing. I’ve told my daughter that she (that means I) have to give away all unused toys to get ANY birthday presents.
In need of ointment me and her toys, packed like sardines drive to the church’s second-hand shop. I’m finally met with appreciation. Afterwards I feel taller and, you might ask, my daughter?
She just keeps on dancing.
The walls of stuff we surround us by are higher than ever. Even though minimalist and no-waste movements occasionally blip on the media radar, the stuff-walls keep rising. The cool fringe have a lot of people to convince.
There are as many reasons as humans to why one needs another pair of shoes. It wouldn’t be a problem if it was financially and environmentally sustainable, but more and more of us step into debt-traps and we’re all in debt to the planet we live on.
Over-consumption suspect number one is our vanity — high on ads and social media magic, making our shoe shelves collapse. In the heat of the moment our desires drive us nuts and we click: score, new shoes!
Loads of science point to the fact that more shoes doesn’t make us happier but in today’s environment we simply can’t help ourselves. So how do we create something that helps us take a deep breath and think twice about that next pair of sneakers?
The poor man’s dilemma might also be something to ponder: a wealthy person can buy a pair of quality shoes, ten times the price of what the poor can afford. Ten years later, the quality shoes are still walking down the street while the poor have thrown away 15 pairs — in total spending more than the wealthy. Can we build something that helps us save and maybe opt for quality?
How to manage impulse purchases, save and spend well are just three things we’re thinking deeply about at Tjing. Because if we can get this right, our stuff-walls might be torn down — or not even built, and parents won’t have their knees and backs hurt.
We’ve just taken our first steps on the long road ahead but we have a solution that already works — at least for our own kids. Try it with your family today, just head over to your app store…
