Nothing's Too Small to Make a Difference

Rating:
Summary: You can make a difference!
Review: This book helps the reader develop an awareness of how simple steps can make a difference towards improving the quality of ones life and towards impacting our environment.

One of the authors, Wanda Urbanska had a light bulb moment one day. Surveying the mound of cups in the trashcan near her desk she realized that if she subsituted a travel mug for her styrofoam cup she would save the landfill 72 hundred styrofoam cups over a twenty year period! She realized that simple changes can make a big difference. If we all make small changes we can make a tremendous impact.

The Urbanska's cover money, time, work, child rearing, community and more. They make suggestions to enrich your life and simplify. For transportation for example they recommend choosing ways to travel that do not involve air transportation because though only .5 percent of the total distance people travel each year is done by air, planes take up 5 percent of transportation energy. They recommend carpooling, observing the speed limit, checking the air pressure in your tires to promote fuel efficiency and other simple changes to help our environment and our life.

Though I agreed with many of the authors suggestions a few I felt were off base. For example they recommend you limit yourself to one credit card. If you can't manage your credit perhaps you should only have one or none for that matter. But most people need more than one to establish a good credit rating. If you only have one card you will not get the best rates for a mortgage as one card does not show you can handle credit. In addition, its good to have more than one card so you have a back up. When we traveled to Mexico, our credit company would not approve a charge we made for a once in a lifetime swim with the dolphins because of possible fraud. We were unable to contact them to get the charge approved. Fortunately we had another card to use. When we were in New Orleans and my purse was snatched one card was left in the room and good thing because the other card had to be canceled due to its theft. What would we have paid for the room with? But as I mentioned earlier the main reason for more than one card is to establish good credit and get the best possible rates.

The Urbanskis also urge you to buy used goods like clothing. They suggest doing this because once you have purchased an item it decreases in value by 20%. Let me say that regardless of depreciation if I find a wonderful outfit that looks and feels good and is within my budget, its worth every cent. I would rather have one fine quality garment from Nordstroms or Neimans purchased to fit me and look good on me than a ton of thrift shop items. (And I am not referring to the upscale thrifts with the slightly worn clothing) I am referring to the thrifts where Frank Urbanski buys jeans that dont stay zipped in order to save a buck (ok ok he didnt realize they didnt stay zipped). Buy less but buy the best.

Ditto on the avoid status purchases. Though some status purchases are just plain silly. There is often a reason why a product has status. Because its quality and well made. The Urbanskis question why someone would buy a status item giving Coach as an example. Well I will tell you why. I bought a black leather Coach pocket book for around $160. It was a beautiful black soft leather. It looked good. It felt good. I toted that pocketbook around for 13 years! Thats about $12 per year or $1 a month. My sister bought several pocketbooks each year! Why because they fell apart or stopped looking fashionable. But she refused to pay for a good one. She spent way more than I did and the bag on her arm didnt look anywhere near as good.

Bottomline buy cheap and weep. When my husband and I married we decided to buy the best we could afford and if we couldnt we did without. We have used that rule ever since. As a result the things we have last years and look wonderful and we enjoy them!

So I do think the Urbanskis miss the mark on certain things. But the concept of doing more with less and making small changes is a powerful one that should be heard. So kudos to the Urbanskis for sharing their thoughts and Wanda I would give you my old Coach so you could avoid buying a new pocketbook but I sold it at a yard sale. The lady bought it because she said "It was a Coach and they are known for their fine quality!"

Lee Mellott