Written by Cora Gold, Editor-in-Chief of Revivalist
Living below your means and leading a sustainable lifestyle aren’t mutually exclusive. Some think dealing with higher expenses is the price of environmental stewardship and social consciousness. After all, you typically must pay more to drive an EV or own a house with a green certification. Many eco-warriors also spend more to support businesses that share their values.
While this can be true, spending less than you make allows you to be a better force for good. Financial resilience is one of the tenets of sustainability. Follow these five tips to keep your bank account and the environment green.
Develop a Minimalist Mindset
Minimalism means owning no more than you need and being deeply conscious about your spending habits. Budgeting only for what you need and what gives you long-lasting happiness should increase your savings and help keep you out of credit card debt.
This concept is also about choosing quality over quantity. It emphasizes the merits of acquiring a few valuables that last a long time instead of possessing many items with limited utility.
Minimalism and sustainability are closely related because many of today’s environmental issues stem from excessive materialism, which leads to unchecked consumerism. Every product and service requires resources to produce and transport. Unfortunately, they often come from nonrenewable sources.
Overcoming your need to purchase unnecessary things makes you part of the solution, not the problem.This change positively impacts the extraction of finite virgin resources, wildlife habitat loss, greenhouse gas emissions, nonbiodegradable waste generation, and various types of pollution.
Differentiating Needs and Wants
Start your journey through minimalism by differentiating your needs from wants. Tracking your expenses and clarifying which item belongs to which category can help you think twice before spending. Sort everything you own to determine which items to keep and which to discard.
Self-reflect and reassess your core values to avoid reverting to a materialistic lifestyle. Identify what motivates you to buy things that only give you fleeting joy. Some people value status, compelling them to buy things they can’t afford for validation. Others use retail therapy to cope with negative emotions.
Remember that fulfillment comes from within. Try to master your impulses to avoid financially and environmentally irresponsible purchases.
Rightsize Your Home
About a third of a year’s spending goes toward housing, and that number keeps going up. The average annual housing expenditures in the United States rose 4.7% from 2023 to 2024, following a 7.4% jump from 2022 to 2023.
The roof over your head directly impacts your budget. Rent or buy a property that fits your needs, not the biggest you can afford. Living in an oversized house is a waste of money and environmentally unsustainable. Larger properties have greater maintenance needs and costs than smaller ones. Plus, plenty of unused space can tempt you to spend more on furnishings to make your home feel less empty.
Home improvement and decoration projects can increase your carbon footprint. They fuel demand for mining and quarrying. Unethically sourced timber causes deforestation. Manufacturing and transporting processed building materials overseas emits tons of climate change gases. The U.S. construction industry generates about 600 million tons of debris in one year.
Reconsidering Your Housing Priorities
The drawbacks of living in an oversized home typically outweigh and outnumber the benefits. Moving to a smaller residence that fits your needs will significantly reduce your housing costs. Many empty nesters and retirees downsize to gain more financial flexibility and freedom.
Selling your house to a growing family benefits the environment. It helps alleviate the housing shortage and diminishes the reward for unnecessary development projects. Fewer builds mean lower construction-related greenhouse gas emissions and waste. They also discourage urban sprawl, preserving greenbelts that serve as wildlife habitats and carbon sinks.
Adopt Zero-Emission Mobility
Americans spend more on transportation than on food. It’s a symptom of the nation’s heavy car dependence. Depending on where you live, it may be more affordable and sustainable to go car-free.
For example, in New York, which was built long before cars were available, residents and visitors bike, walk and take public transportation to get where they need to go. Owning a car there is often not a necessity or a priority.
Choosing Affordable, Eco-Friendly Transportation
Commuting on two wheels doesn’t release pollutants and greenhouse gases. Biking is an effective cardiovascular exercise, helping you stay fit without paying for a gym membership. Although taking mass transportation isn’t emission-free, it has a much lower negative impact on the environment than driving a gas-powered vehicle from home to work and back.
Many socially conscious individuals defer EV ownership due to high upfront costs, expensive maintenance charges and steep insurance premiums. While this is understandable, you can take a different route to minimize your transportation expenditures over the life of your electric car — choosing hybrid.
Buying a used plug-in hybrid is a sound strategy to enjoy zero-emission transportation without overextending your budget. Plug-in hybrids have an internal combustion engine, so they should be less complicated to repair than battery EVs with limited aftermarket replacement parts. Some models have an all-electric mode, which is perfect for emission-free day-to-day commutes.
Barter Unwanted Items
Bartering is experiencing a renaissance in a growing number of areas. Apps and websites like Facebook Marketplace, OfferUp and Nextdoor enable you to find diverse items you may need at home, list the valuables you want to get rid of and engage with others willing to swap.
Some marketplaces encompass everything, while niche sites focus on certain goods, such as books, fashion items and vacation stays. You can find networks for people interested in trading services with each other. Others only accept donations.
Joining these sites helps you find essential goods or enjoy much-needed services at little to no cost and curb waste at the same time, making decluttering more rewarding.
To keep things green, use community-based networks to help you find like-minded individuals within local areas. For safety reasons, you don’t have to meet strangers personally to barter, but trading with those closest to you helps lower your carbon footprint.
Be Self-Sufficient
Homesteading represents the ultimate lifestyle, allowing you to enjoy sustainable living while spending a fraction of what you make. This concept centers on self-sufficiency and simplicity, helping you learn practical skills to survive and support yourself without relying too much on external systems.
Although some homesteaders prefer to live off the grid, you can be self-sufficient as an urbanite or suburbanite. You can start by growing food.
Gardening provides quick access to organic ingredients, encourages home cooking to spend less on takeout and food delivery, and is an eco-friendly way to repurpose green waste. Garden plants attract, sustain and shelter wildlife. Vegetation sequesters carbon and cools the air to mitigate the urban heat island effect. Cultivating crops in your backyard or with neighbors promotes food security and good health.
This outdoor activity is a moderate-intensity workout and a low-cost hobby. It’s a healthy, productive way to pass the time. It can cure boredom without overconsuming entertainment content, easing the pain of cutting the cord and canceling some streaming subscriptions.
To help reduce water and electricity use, you can dig or drill a well to tap groundwater and generate electricity with solar or wind energy. These projects may require some elbow grease and a little money upfront, but they should help you live more independently without affecting the environment.
Live a Financially Stable, Sustainable Lifestyle
Living below your means while prioritizing sustainability means living on purpose. It’s about spending your hard-earned cash on what matters to you and benefits society without sacrificing comfort. Although you can’t change your ways overnight, adopting these tips over time should help you successfully reach financial resilience and enjoy green living.
About the Author
Cora Gold has a passion for writing about life, happiness and sustainability. As Editor-in-Chief of women’s lifestyle magazine Revivalist, she loves to share her insights and find inspiration from others. Follow Cora on Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter.