One Looney Idea - Day One

Shedding Excess

Yes, that is me—a week old. Vulnerable and dependent. Unaware of life’s opportunities and challenges, but born into a country of relative wealth. In 1966, the average household income was, $6,900, with average house prices double that. Now, the average house costs seven times the average annual income. When I was born, gasoline cost 32 cents a GALLON; I don’t even know if my parents owned a car.

2015. Excess. Look around. What do you have  filling  your space, your life that is … dare I say … unnecessary? I have a lot. This year long challenge—to average one looney a day on “unnecessary/discretionary” items—is not completely altruistic in nature. Yes, I want to make a difference. Yes, I have seen the effects of poverty: not just in Ethiopia, also in my own childhood home. Yes, I want to be responsible with the abundance I have been given. However, I also want to hold my current habits up to the “mirror of conscious thought”, and see them for what they are.

This challenge is about habits. How long does it take to develop a new habit or break on old one? There are varying answers to this question: 21 days, 30 days, 6 weeks, 5 minutes. It comes down to motivation, which is affected by the emotion that surrounds a behaviour. We have to stop and ask: Why do we do the things we do?

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.” – Aristotle

Your beliefs become your thoughts, 

Your thoughts become your words, 

Your words become your actions, 

Your actions become your habits, 

Your habits become your values, 

Your values become your destiny.” —Mahatma Gandhi

These 365 days of minimal spending will be hard, some might say—IMPOSSIBLE. I like “stuff”. Sometimes I even feel like I deserve stuff. I am a master at justification. Many of us participate in impulse spending; I know I am not the worst. To gain some perspective, I took a peek back at 2014. I spent an estimated $25/day, not including gifts, course work, or vacation. The top categories were: food and specialty coffee on the run—for me PLUS three or more kids,  house cleaning, clothes and home decor.  

Habit “experts” all say some variation of the same thing: start small when making a change. I am not going to do that. Starting today—January 15^th—I am going to be a responsible consumer; I am going to spend an average of one looney a day; and I am going to be a mindful role model for my kids. 

Why would I do this, when I don’t need to?
Because . . .

• At least 80% of humanity live on less than $10/day 
• About 1 in 4 people live on less than $1.25/day
• According to UNICEF, 22,000 children die each day due to poverty.  
• About 72 million children of primary school age in the developing world were not in school in 2005: 57% of them were girls.
• Less than one percent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 and yet it didn’t happen.
• A quarter of humanity live without electricity.
• Approximately 790 million people in the developing world are still chronically undernourished.
• A mere 12 percent of the world’s population uses 85% of its water, and these 12 percent do not live in the Third World. 

                                                                                    Poverty Facts and Stats, January 7, 2013 

Ethiopian woman carrying wood to the market. 

Ethiopian woman working in the rock quarry- all day, seven days/week.

Ethiopian girls in one of the Canadian Humanitarian projects.

The bottom line: I am going to decrease my spending to one dollar a day, AND at the same time, I am asking you to decrease your spending by one dollar a day, and earmark that dollar for Ethiopia. Over the year it is my hope to “recruit” 50 friends, family and neighbours to pledge one dollar/day to Canadian Humanitarian, in support of my challenge. 

My family and I will make a difference. However, if “I tell two friends, and you tell two friends, and so on, and so on”*, the difference that we will make TOGETHER will be astronomical! 

1 X 365 = $365 

5 X 365 = $1,825 

50 X 365 = $18,250 

Pledging is easy. On the left hand side of this blog, you will see a heading: Wendy’s Pledge Page. Click on it, and you can donate directly from there, anytime up until January 2016. Alternately, click the link here, right now—go ahead, I know you want to: Pledge Page

Amisegnalo. 

*Watch the first ten seconds of the Faberge Organics Shampoo commercial for a blast from the past: http://youtu.be/mcskckuosxQ)