Is “frugal” the latest sexy trend?

After seeing our recent interview with Colin Beavan about his No Impact Project, my friend Dara sent me an email link from gourmet magazine (of all places) about W. Hodding Carter’s extreme frugality series. (she told me she thought his initiative was way cooler in her humble opinion). In the intro to the series Carter confesses the state of his finances and how he and his family have been living outside of their means. As a result, they are forced to return to a “little house on the prairy” existence, where they are making their own candles, canning Cod, and other back to earth activities that you do when you are saving money.

Now is the moment when I should step in and mock this, right?

Truth be told, I have no desire to. (I’m secretly craving a dose of this experience myself.) When the green movement began the media mantra was to show people there was a way to care for the environment and address sustainability issues without giving up the creature comforts of their current life style. And so the great green spending spree began. The message was, “you can keep spending, but use your dollar to vote for the sustainability practices that support your belief system.”

But is “extreme frugality” the latest emerging trend? Have we come to a place where we understand that (gasp) resources are limited: and the limited reources in our wallet could be the best metaphor to understand the limited resources on the planet?

As it turns out, while in the middle of writing this post I hopped on over to my personal email account to check in how many love letters I have received today (the answer is none btw), but what I did encounter was an email from my sister-in-law about a new initiative that launched today called “slow money.” Frankly, after spending 10 minutes on their site I wasn’t entirely sure of what they are up to but it has something to do with a grass roots effort to create a new economy and support sustainable agriculture and involves donatting $5. Here’s what they have to say:

"The perfect combo about slow food, slow money and local sustainable foodsystems, this “Thrive, Don’t Just Survive” set is a loaded, how-to guide on destressing, eating healthier with less, the missing links to achieving healthy immune and eco-systems, personal and planetary transformation, and Feeding Ourselves, No Matter What!"

Ok…so they say things come in threes….what do you think? Has “green” turned a new corner? Are we entering into the age of self reliance and frugality? (Meanwhile, I’m going to head on over to the library and check out a few of the Little House on Prairie books, and start studying…)

(this is the full post: but if you want links to everything mentioned: hop on over to the blog)