We all work (too hard) for our money, and we don’t enjoy that terrible feeling we get when we realize we’ve wasted it on something that’s not worth the money.
Here’s a list of things to avoid, along with a few things humans should stop buying so we can at least act as if we care about what happens to the planet, too.
Win/win, right?
17. But don’t replace it with something else.
Crack. People definitely should stop buying crack.
16. I’ve never thought about this before.
I can’t understand the people that buy holiday decor every single year. Are people buying fake trees and tossing them every year and needing a new one? Same with ornaments and what not.
Obviously people move out of their parents or they need to replace ornaments if they’re broken or something but the amount in stores does not add up to me.
Why so much new stuff every year?
15. Just leave them be.
Generally speaking, wild-caught animals as “pets.”
I had to go to the pet store today to buy some supplies, and was utterly horrified.
Cages of wild-caught lizards, snakes, turtles, frogs and salamanders, many piled on top of each other and writhing around trying to escape. They all looked sick and stressed, and were being sold at “impulse buy” prices.
Unfortunately, none of the species I saw have a “protected” status in this state, and all are considered “fair game.” But that doesn’t make this right.
I can guarantee that 90% of customers in that shop have no idea how to take care of such creatures, and the remaining 10% who do know better than to support their ongoing mass collection.
Unless you work for a professional conservation facility or animal rehabilitation center, please leave wild animals in the wild.
14. It’s poor quality.
Fast fashion.
Sustainable/thrifting isn’t for everyone but there’s no need to buy $300+ dollars off of Shein. It’s garbage and ends up in the dump
13. Adopt don’t shop.
Animals that are so inbred to meet a certain ‘breed standard’ that they are a walking vet bill from birth.
Brachycephalic dog breeds such as French Bulldogs being an example.
12. We hates it.
Microtransactions, especially in sports games.
Cosmetics in a free to play game? I don’t have a problem with that, gotta make money somehow and it doesn’t affect gameplay.
Blatant gambling and pay to win functionality in games like NBA 2K and Madden? Those can eff right off.
MUT (Madden Ultimate Team) is notorious for this. You can either a) make Madden your full time job and spend almost every second of your day grinding for the good players to win or b) buy the coins and buy the good players to win. GTA V shark cards are essentially the same thing.
11. If it seems unnatural, it probably is.
I had a coworker tell me about a teacup kitten the other day. I didn’t even know that existed. She said “they have so many health problems though.. I don’t know why”.
I explained this whole thing to her and she said “eh I don’t care. If it’s something I want I’m gonna get it.” I’m glad she solidified my bad feelings that I got around her
10. I know, I know.
K-Cups
If you have a Keurig, use the reusable K-Cup.
9. If we could stop the old ones from breaking.
A new phone every year.
8. It somehow is.
Any home exercise machine or equipment that requires a subscription to use. You paid 2 grand for a treadmill and then a recurring monthly fee to use it.
How is this business model working?
Literally any hardware that requires a subscription is a plague. Avoid it entirely, it will offer no value with a few exceptions like CCTV that offer decent cloud storage. Even then, I wouldn’t put video of my home into something like that.
7. It’s not as complicated as they want you to think.
If you are a normal, working-class person, you do not need to pay for tax services. Governments and financial institutions (like your bank) provide free software you can use to file your taxes.
Remember that it is a tax return that you are getting, not some bonus reward, so if you don’t have to, it does not make sense to pay to get your own money back
6. How did they become a thing in the first place?
Caskets.
Especially those sealed tight ones… Our dead need to decompose, and they will, but the casket can just explode.
When I’m dead I want to be buried in a blanket and tossed in a hole. Let nature worry about me.
5. It’s really not that hard.
Plastic bottles.
Just buy a water filter and fill up the same bottle
Edit: for people saying just drink tap water, I agree 100%. I’m just saying there are a lot of people who only buy bottled water, drink it, throw it and buy another one. Ridiculously unnecessary. Those plastics are so difficult to recycle, if at all. Most just ends up in landfill anyway.
Trying to convince them to buy a water filter is good middle ground!
My FIL boasts about how eco-conscious he is but still does what I said above. Drives me mental.
4. Or a Pink Lady.
Red Delicious apples. You deserve better than that mushy garbage. Get yourself a Honeycrisp.
Fuji are eating apples. Granny smith are pie apples.
Red delicious are trash apples. Only good for the trash.
They also apparently use to be good back in the day but have been selected for beauty and shelf life and subsequently taste like shit.
Also all apples are just grafts of existing trees. So if you try and plant a honeycrisp apple seed you will just get crabapples or mutant garbage apples.
3. We cant’ stop.
Clothes. I know I don’t need any more, I have way too many as it is and yet I keep buying more and I kinda hate myself for it.
New clothes make me feel so good though.
2. Just bring your own!
Plastic bags.
My father’s village is drowning in plastic bags. They are everywhere! Sometimes they melt in the sun and I don’t even want to know what the consequences are for the environment
1. Do it today.
Please uninstall Yelp off your phone. They are nothing more than extortionists that hold small businesses hostage to bad reviews (real or fake, doesn’t matter). I can’t express how shitty Yelp is as a company. Every time you open their app, you give them support.
As a small business owner, it’s a double edge sword for us.
I could be the hero, die on this hill and take the business down with me. Or, I can continue to amass a large amount of 5 Star reviews and get a ton of business because of it. The majority of my customers are either because word of mouth referral and Yelp. I truly believe if we had bad Yelp reviews, we would have gone out of business years ago.
I’m going to have to strike a few of these things. Oops!
What would you add to this list? Tell us what and why in the comments!
