Lean, Mean and Cheaper Than Caffeine

by Katy on June 21, 2008 · 2 comments

I did it. I finally took the plunge.

Did I get an American eagle tattooed across my back? Did I buy a 1969 summer-of-love style VW bus?

Nope.

I finally switched my electric service over to green power. Wind energy. Biomass energy. Geothermal energy. What’s not to love?

I wrote previously about about the dilemma of wallet vs. idealism. I knew the green source energy was the right choice, I just couldn’t make myself do it.

Why pay extra money on my electric bill, when I’m simultaneously doing everything I can to lower it? I use CFL’s and obsessively turn off the power strips. Heck, I even line-dry my laundry in sunny, sunny Oregon!

But the Green Power Oregon director was on the local NPR radio station the other morning. Somehow, the guilt seeped through my iron-clad frugality armor. This is something I really should be doing. He talked about how the average green customer’s bill was only $7 more per month. Hmm . . . thought The Non-Consumer Advocate to herself. I’m not the average customer! He even used the tired analogy of “less than the cost of two lattes.” 

I navigated myself through the PGE website. Sure enough, last month’s bill would have been only $4.32 extra. That clinched it. Even I am not that cheap

Click. Confirm. Done.

Now I can relax in my occasionally well-lit home, smug in the knowledge that my electricity is lean, mean and cheaper than caffeine.

-Katy Wolk-Stanley

“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”

 

{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }

Caroline June 21, 2008 at 12:30 am

Hi Katy, i really enjoy your blog.

I’ve been trying to work through the frugality v idealism debate myself and I came to the conclusion that even though local/green stuff is often more expensive, i will pay for it, because i feel it’s a truer cost of the item.

The true cost of the use of oil isn’t immediately financial and not immediately paid by us as individuals – but eventually the true price will need to be paid, and i’m willing to bet that price will be much higher than the few extra dollars each week that we put towards green power or locally made soap or whatever it is we are consuming.

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