Shopping awareAs the value of the dollar drops, food prices climb and the price of gas edges its way into every conversation, I’ve noticed more and more people trying to stretch their money farther. Of course, Queercents readers have been doing this for a long time and just yesterday Dawn pointed out the Joys of Frugal Living.

And if you’ve missed noticing that the increasing trend towards green life style (again, bonus points to Queercents readers for being all over that), you’ve been living under a rock. For me, there’s also a third factor that I’m constantly trying to be aware of when I make a purchase, and that’s making what I call ethical purchases, for lack of a better term.

While grocery shopping, I needed to pick up some more soap. Though I’m not immune to advertising, I’m not terribly picky about what amazing powers the soap may or may not have; as long as I wind up clean I don’t really care. However, I’ve been trying to stick to my resolution to buy products that aren’t tested on animals. Sometimes, it works out. In the case of V05, not only do they not test on animals, each bottle costs less than a dollar. A victory all around. For some products though, it’s not that easy, and on a student budget it’s sometimes hard to shell out that extra money for an ethical product, like Tom’s of Maine, which is all natural and not tested on animals but costs almost five dollars a container. It also takes time to look at all the labels for the disclaimer, and I typically don’t want to spend more time than I have to in the grocery store. What to do?

Outside the realm of toiletries, The Simple Dollar has a great recipe for DIY laundry detergent that I like because it doesn’t contain all the frightening chemicals of store bought detergent (it’s basically bar soap and borax) and, like the V05, at approximately two cents a load it’s also incredibly cheap. But like the Tom’s of Maine example, this isn’t always the case and when you move out of the grocery store it becomes more and more difficult.

Another big issue for me is trying to find ‘œsweat-free’ clothing, or clothing that wasn’t made using sweat-shop labor. I’ve been looking for a pair of spandex shorts recently (after having weighed the goofiness factor of spandex against people being able to see up my shorts while climbing) and my sister wants a pair too. Her first priority is finding the biggest discount, so sweat-free isn’t necessarily a factor for her. She found a pair for under ten dollars, and I’m left wondering whether I can stand to shell out twice as much to buy from American Apparel. In addition to feeling good about buying sweat-free though, I also feel better know that even though I spent more money, it’s worth it to spend more for a product that generally lasts longer anyway. Again, it depends on your priorities and what you’re looking for. Of course, things are never simple and American

Apparel does have those three pesky sexual harassment suits against the CEO. Sometimes you just can’t win. But since I don’t know of any other company sweat-free American made clothes, I’m stuck crossing my fingers that one day corporations will stop focusing so much on the bottom line and think a little more progressively.

I’ll get off my high horse now and say that I recognize that everyone has their own causes and issues that are near and dear to them, and that many of the people I know don’t think about their purchases in nearly the same way, so I’ll thrown in the disclaimer saying everyone is entitled to buy based on what they feel to be important, especially since it’s not always feasible financially. And I’m not perfect either; it’s hard to know the policies of all the companies on the market, and they can sneak up on you, like discovering Unilever was responsible for both Dove and Axe advertising campaigns, which seems pretty contradictory. In addition to the time, there can be a lack of options and then there’s the aforementioned expense…

Fortunately, these decisions don’t always have to be based on negativity and avoidance. I recently received a great gift from a friend, and was astonished at how thoughtful it was. I had made her a shirt that she had requested–a pink and black tee saying ‘œMy Butch Girlfriend and I Just Beat Up Your Homophobic Boyfriend,’–and as a thank you she got me a jar of jam. Jam doesn’t sound all that exciting until she explained to me that it was a Maine company (since we go to school in Maine) owned by a gay couple. She was buying local and supporting gay business, and I thought it was fantastic, because it was a kind gesture that obviously had a lot of thought behind it. Since I’m also from a very gay town, I love being able to go out and support gay owned restaurants. One store even has a map of all the gay friendly shops in the area and an HRC sticker on the window of any store is enough to get me to go in side and look. There’s a lot of immediate gratification in this one because I’m also getting to know the people I’m buying from, which is always a plus.

Ultimately, for me, a lot of times the hurt in my bank account is assuaged by the sense that in some small way my purchases went to support the causes I believe in (as a recap, no animal testing, sweat-free and, perhaps the most enjoyable, gay friendly/gay owned stores and restaurants). There’s the somewhat tired line ‘œPut your money where your mouth is,’ and though it seems to always be used in conjunction with gambling it also works well with every day purchases. It’s not always easy and it’s certainly not always cheap, so I’m curious to know how much you think about purchases in terms of issues or affiliations. Are there any really great products or companies that are also cheap that we need to be aware of? Share your thoughts in the comments below.