The Budget Fashionista

You may not have realized this quite yet, but personal finances and being environmentally conscious can go hand in hand. Going green is really trendy right now, so why not combine your environmentally-conscious savvy with your efforts to get your personal finances in order?

Here is an example: You choose to shop for vintage clothing at a consignment shop instead of heading to the mall to buy up a bunch of new stuff.

Why this is Green: Recycling goes beyond cans and paper bags. Any time you extend the life of a product – like clothing – you’re living a more sustainable lifestyle. If more people bought clothes secondhand then fewer resources would be used up for the production and shipment of new clothes.

Why this is fabulously frugal: Secondhand clothing can save you a lot of money because it usually doesn’t cost as much as brand new clothes do, and as an added bonus you can find some clothes that not everyone else is wearing at the moment.

Another example: You bring your own reusable cup filled with water when you head off to the gym.

Why this is Green: Even though plastic water bottles are recyclable, a good portion of them wind up in landfills instead of getting recycled. Plenty of valuable resources are used to produce these bottles too.

Why this is fabulously frugal: You can save a lot of money by drinking water from your faucet, even if you run it through a filter first. Buying disposable water bottles over and over again can get awfully expensive.

It’s true that some Green clothing – especially organically produced clothing – can sometimes cost a lot more than clothes produced using traditional means. When you’re trying to keep your spending down you need to pick and choose which products you’re willing to spend more for in order to be more environmentally friendly. This is one instance when the frugal choice is still the best choice for the environment. You have less of an environmental impact by purchasing some secondhand clothes than you do by purchasing some brand new clothes that are certified Green.

Then again, it’s probably a greener and more frugal decision to not buy any additional clothes at all, but who wants to do that really?

The point is that going green and being frugal doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to go join a commune and forgo your love of fashion. You can still be fiercely fabulous while also keeping your finances in order and lessening your environmental impact. You just need to look at things from a Green perspective while also keeping your personal finances in mind.