Tom Ruen, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

I've not changed anything in response the the ODP, but gone without a car now for 18 months and made it through one Minnesota winter so far between a bike and bus for commuting, ride-sharing to events outside my range as possible, and generally moving about less than I did when I had a car.

I've had a backyard garden and local community garden plot now for somewhere around a decade and figure my local veggies save money and energy. Composting yard and kitchen wastes is also an easy compliment to gardening, and reduces the silly wasted energy to carry around yard waste to compost sites elsewhere. I'm not a vegetarian, but don't really cook meat, and can put out my trash seasonally. Reducing trash seems pretty easy, buying bulk at the co-op, and 99% of the recycling I put out comes from what I carry home from work since our office building only recycles aluminum.

My house is heated by natural gas and when the 40 year old furnace had a cracked heat-exchanger, I replaced it with a 94% efficient model. I'm not sure what's the next best investment - insulation or energy efficient windows perhaps, although paying down my mortage seems the best conservative investment for now.

I appreciate the perspective of Wendell Berry more than abstract protocols, and E.F. Schumacher too. Good stewardship starts in the home, simple is better, and good relations with neighbors and community beats a well furnished home or large bank accounts.

In practice it is not easy to do everything alone, and I can run a low-key household, but not a very interesting one, and I'm too busy to connect more than randomly with neighbors. Time debt at least something limited, and I guess I do value keeping up on sleep over keeping up on gossip. STILL, I'm SURE there's much financial savings/security available with improved social networking!

For me money debt is the scariest issue, considering the view that harder times will come, and whose going to help make ends meet when the middle class squeeze finally can no longer live as they are accustomed with ever expanding debt payments, much less the lower class who may be luckier if they've lived without debt.

I'm not even sure a -3% oil usage is the right answer for individuals, even if a correct approach at a collective level using tax
incentives/discentives. For individuals it is about INVESTING in ways that reduce the need for FUTURE consumption when prices rise further. Easy for me to say, and harder for many with more financial demands than me.