Confession: I have never budgeted.
I’ve gotten by because I’m frugal. Plus my dad’s
addicted to Costco and ensures I never run out of granola bars or cereal. But
rather than relying on my cheapness or a stream of bulk items, I'd like to
be smarter with money.
Then, Halloween.
Middle daughter and three friends dressed as M & M’s. Now, this did NOT mean a colored pillowcase with M & M Sharpied on it thrown over jeans. These are middle school girls on snapchat and
instagram M & M’s.
This required—
1) rainbow knee high socks
2) white Keds
3) white leggings
4) suspenders
5) M & M t-shirt
6) a tutu
Yes. A tutu was essential for the M & M Halloween
ensemble.
Middle produced the list at the same time I read this year’s
stats on Earth Overshoot Day, the day on which humanity's resource
consumption for the year exceeds Earth's
capacity to regenerate those resources for that year. We hit overconsumption on
August 2.
Meaning, we’ve
already shot our planetary budget for 2017.
For the
remaining 151 days of the year, we will be consuming resources we don’t have, borrowing
from the future. Buying all this stuff new is the environmental equivalent
of paying with a high interest credit card or cashing out at a Payday loan. It
fucks up the future. While there may be a line item for Halloween in a family
budget, there is no ecological line item for this expenditure. We are deficit spending the planet.
Since Earth’s revenue is maxed out sustaining life for all
earthly beings, how can I ask the planet to supply these items in order for my
daughter to be a yellow M & M for six hours, max?
But budgets are concentric rings.
The first ring is my daughter’s needs and
wants to be considered.
Then there is the 12-year-old middle school girl ring. The
priority in her social budget is to be included in and match the pack;
belonging is paramount. Good grief, I remember.
Next ring out is the practical consideration of do I have
the finances to manage all six items given everything else I’m responsible for.
Most of us stay within these budgetary rings. For my
lifetime and I suspect yours, we’ve been taught these alone are our
priority. While we strive to balance our input and output columns to the penny,
we have been woefully ignorant of the reality that we exist within a finite
planetary ledger. But denying the overarching ecological ring renders all
others pointless. Yellow suspenders cannot substitute for clean water.
Unlike my dad who inflates my fiscal capacity with a steady
supply of string cheese, there is no one outside this planet sending in clean
air, water, soil, intact ecosystems, carbon sequestering forests, and whatever else we need for a life-supporting healthy planet.
There’s not even a Costco, a big box planet store.
Clearly, there is no ecological budget to justify Costco.
But my dad feels connected, useful and gratified providing my daughters high fructose corn
syrup food product. Yet another ring to consider.
The planet is the ring that rules us all.
So with Middle’s Halloween list, or when I have to purchase
anything, these questions run through my mind:
1)
What do we have? (white tutu, rainbow socks, keds)
2)
What can we borrow? (yellow suspenders)
3)
What can we find at the thrifty? (white leggings)
4) What can we make from what we have? (dye white tutu)
5)
Do we absolutely need it? (Friends dressed as M & Ms)
Wait, does that count as budgeting? Yes, yes it does.
In a planetary
vein.
