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to our economies' heart. However, consuming just for the sake of it, in irrational detachment form actual needs, is what is increasingly causing economic strokes, especially amongst low wage earners.

The for-profit world and economy feeds off us consumerist individuals and families. But treading lighter and consuming lest (and indirectly also reducing our impact on the environment) is not all that hard to do. Lighter and smaller steps in terms of energy use, resource consumption, lifestyles and daily habits can prove to add up to that extra mile in

keeping our high-interest debts from credit and store cards in check.

For an informed consumer the innumerable paradoxes of an uncritical consumerist lifestyle are not hard to recognize. Regularly drivers complain about supposedly high fuel costs, while they never questioned why they sit in V8 pick-up trucks to idle through doughnut drive-throughs.

Stepping back from the consumerist lifestyles can be as easy as a skip out of the superfluous ruts so many of us have become accustomed to. However generalizations about how to adjust to a notably more sustainable lifestyle need to be avoided. Not everyone can make the same adjustments easily, but most people can make some positive changes that work for their personal circumstances and more often than not, help reduce the debt load carried.

Anyone can sit down and come up with a personal checklist of which costly and wasteful habits, daily routines that can be scrutinized and perhaps changed. Changes made may often be very minor and involve little if any noticeable changes in ones' current lifestyle. Frequently, such changes come along with savings in personal budgets, thus helping to avoid accumulating more personal debt or best, be channeled into serving existing debts, staring with the high-interest ones.

There are many ways how to start cutting down, simple things really. Driving less is a very important one. You may not be able to take the bus to work, but do you really need to drive all the way? Perhaps you can park a bit away, get some exercise and walk part of the way to work. If you need to pick up a thing or two at the corner convenience store, jog, walk or cycle there. If you like fast-food at lunch time, think of finding a seat inside rather than idling at the drive-through, it might even be faster! If you're only driving in town, leave the spare tire at home along with any other dead weight' chances are you won't need the stuff but hauling it around uses extra

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