Thinking about it, I believe you made my point in a more concise and articulate manner.

My brief foray was during COVID and the froth was evident. I hope it works out for you.

You have followed much of my own trajectory: highly educated -> higher income from somewhat dull, time-consuming job -> unfulfilling high consumption -> minimalism + FIRE + solar punk + secular Buddhist philosophy.

This final phase has been ongoing for five years and solar punk is the least certain part. I’m hoping it becomes a movement where I can find community with likeminded people who don’t self-define by their consumption and want to live simply but well.

Congrats on sticking with the renewable field. I was there briefly but became disillusioned with the financing side.

Books were my weakness, but I accepted I had to cull after two moves and the reality that liberty and sustainability require minimalism. Don’t deprive yourself though. Finish your series. You’ll pry my Calvin and Hobbes and Tintin from my cold dead hands. Whereas I didn’t need a physical copy of 1Q84; there’s no pictures.

I can recommend heavier weight selvedged jeans if you want pants that last, but they come at a price. Line drying and cutting washing frequency by airing between wears extends the life. For shoes, I am either in AllBirds which hold up well (wool uppers with longer lasting treads) or leather dress shoes with goodyear welts that I have resoled every three years. I haven’t bought new footwear since 2023, though grabbed some jeans in Japan for cheap a few months ago.

I love your self-hosting softeare and one day when I have time, I want to build the same. I’m simply time-poor right now between job and kids. I miss RSS feeds.

Eating healthy makes you feel better and saves money. Kill your high interest debt as quickly as possible and the sodium and saturated fats in instant noodles are terrible. Oatmeal, rice, and pinto beans are cheap in bulk (seal the bags well with binder clips), easy, fast (you have to soak the beans for a day but your labor time is maybe five minutes with a pressure cooker like the InstantPot), and healthier. I target <50% of the daily recommended maximums for salt, sugar, cholesterol, and saturated fats, and my blood work shows it works.

We thought about an ebike, but we don’t really have intermediate distance driving to substitute that would be safe. As our careers already require two cars, there was no reason to add a unnecessary device. For shorter distances, I’d rather get the exercise anyway and cycle.

The larger streets in my neighborhood have wide sidewalks/bike paths. I can safely cycle to two local grocery stores where I also drop off any plastic bags to be recycled, the post office, our Goodwill (used store), and a strip mall with various shops and restaurants. Florida has a horrendous pedestrian/cyclist fatality rate so bike paths are the true limiting factor. Naples is especially bad. It took time to find a safer neighborhood.

I also have an e-reader, but there’s something about seeing physical books displayed and handling them that I love. Learn about all your library’s onsite and digital services. Make it part if your weekly routine and get to know your librarians. Solarpunk is community. Here I love the free Consumers Reports when researching larger purchases and interlibrary loans for obscure books. As for the physical ownership, I donated over 1,250 books in 2021 that I could easily own digitally or borrow. I don’t miss them. Minimalism is a healthier way to live and a tablet with a backup NAS is a much smaller footprint.

I would love an herb garden, so good for you, but I suck at maintaining plants. So I grow what is easy in the windowsill above my sink for now.

Consider used clothing as well. The quality of new has deteriorated to a point where used is often better. I would love strong consumer laws, but would still likely skew used for environmental reasons. I bought my eldest child a used laptop in 2020 with a chipped case for $250. One $40 new battery last year and a free swap to Linux Mint from Windows 10 and it’s still going strong (glad your mom likes it too!). What do you run on your home server?

What helps in general is to think in cost per year owned. In the case if the used laptop, I’m at under $60/year. It both encourages wise buying, repairs, and using things longer. It also helps that I block all advertising I can and never read about new electronics. As a result, I’m satisfied with what I have.

I truly believe sustainability is key to a quality of life that maximizes health and happiness. You are taking great steps. I am a planner so I always make sure I have targets and timetables for the next phases to ensure I hit them. As a result, my life gets better every year.

Here are the steps in our journey over the past five years:

• Subscribed to solar power for 100% of my electricity
• Drive an electric car when I have to, but bike exclusively within a two mile radius
• Bought a laundry line and line dry clothes
• Eat a mostly whole food, plant-based diet with lots of legumes to maximize my health and wealth while cutting my climate impact
• Slashed my single use plastics consumption as well as durable to reduce microplastics breathed and consumed
• Visit a library once a week
• Grow simple plants (green onions, basil)
• Keep air conditioning to a minimum (live in Florida)
• Buy used/refurbished preferentially
• Pesticide-free outdoors to encourage native insect predators and now my backyard is filled with butterflies
• Recycle maximally following all guidelines and produce less than 1/10th the waste stream of my neighbors for a family of four with two pets
• Replaced older, less efficient air conditioning with newer, high efficiency

I’m proud of what we’ve achieved, but there’s still more to do. In the next five years we will:

• Replace our other, less driven ICE vehicle with an electric
• Transition to full pesca-vegetarianism
• Install balcony solar as hopefully it will become legal (or I will smuggle a system in from Utah or Vermont)
• Plant fruit/shade trees
• Paint our home a lighter, high albedo color
• Blow in additional insulation in the attic
• Install a home car charger
• Replace the last of our plastic clothing with natural fibers

2 tonnes CO2eq/person without carbon offsets for everything but travel is our end goal.