To buy or replace equipment, that is the question.
A friend recently looked at replacing good quality lounge room furniture, a couple of 2-seater lounges and a couple of chairs, all in matching material. Cost would be around $7,000 and the old ones would add to the environmental disaster of waste disposal.
So she hunted around and found someone to recover and renovate the lounge for $1,700. They returned a magnificent to-all-appearances brand new lounge plus a bag containing all the material they had removed from the old one.
Much of the material was in perfect condition, particularly the back which had always been against a wall. With that material she recovered the cushions on the other couch and 2 chairs making slip-on covers for the arms
Savings in more ways than one
Saving in environmental waste was a few cubic metres and she was about $5,000 wealthier.
The Trend to borrow
The trend to replace phones, laptops, TVs and cars every few years seriously damages our environment leading to serious climate change. At the same time it impoverishes the people who spend their money or worse still borrow at interest, to buy the new it. Business owners, manufacturers and bank moneylenders make a fortune out of us constantly updating our gear. They frequently earn multi-million dollar annual pay packets while the spenders sometime battle to afford a coffee or a beer.
Borrowing can increase human footprint
If we all keep our goods or equipment for as long as they work reasonably well we can reduce our human footprint on this earth of ours and enjoy far greater wealth, perhaps to ability to live without borrowing money to do it.