What is the difference between Thrift and Sustainable Living?

Thrift (Synonyms: frugality, penny-pinching, scrimping, skimping) implies that you spend your time researching to find the cheapest product.

There seems to be a bit of confusion about Sustainable Living.  It is a thought that I am struggling to counter.  I frequently run into articles, blogs and websites that link sustainability with thrift, extreme seclusion from society or other varying degrees of isolation from the mainstream.  One thing that needs to be understood is moderation.  Sustainable living is a cycle, one that impacts many if not all areas of your life without really going to one extreme or another.  Pushing an ideal to the extreme actually disrupts the sustainable cycle in one or more ways.  Being thrifty definitely has a part in our lives, but not enough that we feel like we need to spend much time on it.  It is more important to look at how your decisions help you continue to live sustainably.

We always look for the best product that meets our specific needs, this may be the cheapest product, but it also may be the most expensive.  We always keep our financial sustainability in mind when making intentional decisions—no matter what we are doing; we still need to stay within our allowed budget.

One example for us is milk.  We purchase from Twin Brooks Creamy.  Milk is priced significantly higher in this case, but it is worth it to us to purchase this product.  It is what we are looking for in milk; tastes better, local creamery, pasteurized, non-homogenized, Christ centered dairy Mission Statement, family business.  We simply had to ask ourselves if we could afford it.

Another example is soap.  We found a “middle of the road” as far as cost and is actually cheap for specialty natural soap.  Our requirements were simple; it has to actually works, ALL ingredients are natural and locally sourced when possible, doesn’t irritate ultra-sensitive skin, and local (Made in Shoreline, WA).   Additionally we have developed a bartering relationship with the owner to customized requests of products and barter for items I could supply him.

In a nut shell (Our purchasing directive):

Look at not only where it is made, but sourced.  Local first, Regional second, USA third, Purchased at Source fourth, Quality standards - We expect what we purchase to last a reasonable lifecycle and perform properly.  Does it meet our financial sustainable requirements?

We choose this path to help develop and continue a local demand to keep the market growing, support our local business and local community, and help build community interactions to counter the anti-Christian mentality.

In short, we don’t look at cost first, but how it will perpetuate a sustainable lifestyle.