To mix things up this week, I ended up with a theme for these three posts today. Considering we are in the middle of climate strikes – and real discussions on how we need to take climate change seriously – it feels appropriate to curate this roundup in this way. Personal finance is a great topic to focus on, but without a stable planet, all the money in the world really doesn’t matter. (On the flip side, if you are struggling on the money front, I completely understand when the bandwidth to look beyond the next bill just isn’t there). With that, here’s to Week 54 of these roundups:

Welcome to another week of the Women’s Personal Finance Wednesdays roundup. I started this series after months of debate because I wasn’t certain I wanted to up the ante and commit to publishing three posts a week. However, now that I’ve started sharing these posts, I’m so glad I started.

There are so many fabulous women writing about personal finance online, and yet there is still a perception that women aren’t good with money, don’t care about money, or don’t understand it on a granular level beyond perhaps knowing how to coupon and score a good shopping deal. These roundups are my way of doing a small part to change that perception. There are no shortage of women online doing their part to make it clear that they DO understand money, and these posts are meant to amplify that fact.

The hardest part of this post every week always is narrowing it down to my favorites, because there is just so much good content out there. If you’re ever interested in what else I’m reading, I share quite a few other posts on Twitter (and that’s also where I read most of the content to begin with these days).

Our Women’s Personal Finance Facebook group also has a sharing thread on Fridays, and that’s the place to read all the blog posts written by members over the previous week. If you’re looking for more articles written by women, that’s a great place to continue reading (plus we have plenty of great discussions on finances the rest of the week as well!).

If you don’t have the time or inclination to go searching down myriad posts, though, I will be continuing this series every week to showcase some of the best of the new content I read. If you ever read a post you think I absolutely need to consider for this roundup, please let me know! I am always open to reading new blogs (and posts of blogs I do know, because I miss some).

Women’s Personal Finance Wednesdays – Frugal Sustainability Edition

1. The Inherent Privileges of Shopping Secondhand The Eco-Conscious Consumer

I absolutely adore this post. Chelsea breaks down the long list of ways privilege impacts shopping secondhand, many of which aren’t necessarily obvious on the surface and easy to overlook if you’ve never experience them yourself. She doesn’t stop there though, and gives a great starter list of things you can do to combat that privilege and help to bring more equity into the secondhand market.

The next time I look to sending things from our home to a thrift store, I’m going to keep these suggestions in mind. I might have limited time, but I still have much more than others (as well as a whole host of other privileges). Clearly, I am a huge proponent of thrifting and hand me down options, but it’s important to pay attention to the ways this isn’t a level playing field. 

2. How To Save $5,337 A Year By Going Zero Waste Almost Zero Waste

This is the crux of the ecofrugal condition: being more sustainable and focusing on zero waste options are almost always going to help you come out ahead financially. Of course, this means looking to reuse items and new purposes for things you already own first, rather than the greenwashing that occurs with many sustainable brands. Buying fancy new mason jar mugs are always going to be more expensive – and less sustainable – than reusing that jar you already have in your pantry.

If you’re looking for ways to green, this is a great place to start. This list is one of common household items, so odds are, there are a number of these changes you could make right now. Even making a change to a couple of these can save you a good amount of money each month (and, for the most part, zero waste items are vastly superior to their disposable counterparts – if they do sometimes require a bit more time). I would love if everyone who reads this roundup this week could commit to just ONE change from this list – think of the impact we could all make together.

3. I will be caught on the metro His and Her FI

Anyone who knows me well knows I’m quite the transportation nerd. My thesis work in college revolved around the local bus system, and I’m currently the president of a local transportation board. Riding the DC metro was undeniably a highlight of my first FinCon last month. And nothing feels quite as empowering to me as learning how to get around car-free in a new city.

Bethany has a way with words in this post that truly describes the adventure and the romance of exploring new places via public transportation. While, as she admits, it isn’t always quite so amazing, there is little else that can immerse you in a new place as much as taking transit. 

I hope you enjoy the posts this week as much as I did. I read a ton of content and it was hard to narrow down my favorites. I’m looking forward to sharing some new ones with you again next week!

As always, if you’re looking for a categorized list of self identified women writing and speaking about personal finance, here is my comprehensive guide to the Women of the Financial Independence Community.

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