Hummusgirl's Blog

Along the lines of my last post about frugality, I feel like I could be better at buying things from places that represent me.  I do go to fast food places sometimes, but I’m trying not to do that anymore.

I live in a town where there are quite a few restaurants and stores that sell organic or reused wares.  This is the town where I grew up and when I was growing up, I don’t think we had as many stores, but now we have a lot, or at least it seems more hopping.

I sometimes love going to really cool downtowns where there’s lots of specialty shops and nice restaurants.  Of course, I never really go to the restaurants, but if they have a record shop, a spice shop, or cheese or bread shop, I love to go in, smell the place, and maybe buy a thing or two.  But I don’t do that often, or at least I go to the farmer’s market here in town which has a lot of the same things.

I have been to the Ann Arbor, MI and Brooklyn, NY farmer’s market, including the one in Lansdale, PA (where I live) and I have fallen in love with farmer’s markets, just like a lot of people I know.

I often hear about markets in other parts of the world that have no doubt been around for decades, if not centuries.  I wonder if these markets influenced the modern farmer’s market?  It seems to me that they must have.  Did you know that a Los Angeles farmer’s market has been in existence since 1934, but the UK’s first farmer’s market began only in 1997?  Maybe the US is ahead of the game.

I haven’t traveled too much around the country, but in the PA suburbs where I live there are lots of historic places.  I’ve been to a lot of these places with my parents, but every time I go to a historic downtown, I’m always amazed by how proper everything is.  I’ve been to Ann Arbor and Brooklyn to visit family and shop around there too, but there it feels more hipster like.

But I love having experiences more than buying items.  I’m sure a lot of people feel this way, but I wonder if we do this more than ever with the economy being the way it is?!?

I am very frugal.  But not in ways you might expect.  It’s not like I go to Costco and buy things in bulk there or use lots of coupons.  I just kind of spend money on things I think are important, like the arts, food, public transit, exercise, and the like.  And I don’t buy a lot of stuff. 

Does that make me progressive or liberal minded?  I don’t think of myself as impoverished. I mean, I know I have help from a lot of people, but that’s my point.  Maybe we need the kindness of strangers or friends to help us along when times are tough.  I’ve certainly benefited from friends’ help over the years.  I would probably be a different person without their help.

I’m always amazed when I see people make millions of dollars and they end up spending it all and are in debt or committed for tax fraud.  Maybe I don’t understand their way of living, but maybe they don’t understand the 99% either. I think experiences are more important than actual things.  I’m sure plenty of people feel this way, but America is known for consumption more than anything.  Hell, capitalism is our deal so we’re encouraged to go out and buy things.  However, I’ve heard that since the recession from 2008, we are not buying as much as we used to. Maybe we are on the verge of a new world.

Having said that, I often wonder (or think it would be funny in a weird way) if scientists are wrong about oil causing all the global warming.  I’m not saying I believe oil is ok, but what if we were just on the verge of regular climate change.  Maybe it was coming anyway.  Can you imagine?  What with all the work we’ve done to change our ways, and it comes anyway, despite all the changes we’ve made?  It’s amazing what a century can do to a world.