Giving It Away - The Honest Consumer

You'll notice a new widget over on the right-hand column. It's a picture of a bag of groceries with the title: The Honest Consumer.

The Honest Consumer is a companion blog to this one. It's purpose is very simple. It is a documentation of everything I consume (purchase or receive) in the year 2009. I will try to document what the rest of my family consumes, as well. We'll see how that goes. Since I'm the one who does all the shopping (pretty much) for food, clothes, books and gifts, it should cover the bulk of what we go through.

Why am I doing this? As a way to get a better handle on my family's footprint on this earth. It's easy to look up numbers for things like carbon consumption and all that. There are plenty of guesstimates about the goings on of a "typical family of four". But we're a family of six. And we're not that typical. Or are we?

I guess we'll find out.

If you hop over to The Honest Consumer, you'll see I went shopping for clothes today. I got six shirts/jackets and one pair of pants for less than $60. Not bad. Some of my old layering t-shirts have gotten stained. Others aren't flattering. I feel all right about this purchase.

But I'm not planning on doubling my wardrobe, so here's a picture of the clothes going to Goodwill and the consignment store. I already halved my wardrobe, so the amount I'm passing on equals the amount I took in today.



If I keep this up, someday I will adore every item in my wardrobe.