I look around me and see wall to wall bullshit. TV, adverts, radio, cars, fashion, careers… it’s all pointless, manufactured commercial shite to me. So what can I do?

1. Sit around moaning and getting gradually more depressed.
2. Do something useful.

My reaction to the things I despise gives me a picture of my ideals. I sometimes find it hard to know what I DO want in the middle of hating so many things.

£20k BMWs are my idea of wasteful, expensive ego trip - I value simple, cheap, old, distinctive cars. I will not fork out a fortune to drive and maintain a flash new car merely to swan around showing off in it. The action at the end of this process is to buy a really old car. Rather than hating BMWs and resenting every new car I drive past, my energy is now directed towards restoring and rebuilding my Opel.

It is so easy to become apathetic with the problems in the world being so big, so widespread and controlled by people with the biggest sticks. It seems like I cannot fight against them. However, there are many things that can be done to help. It’s about making lots of small steps. Apathy is the reason the world is like it is, so I don’t let it waste another day of my life. You have a “circle of influence” - make changes where you can and leave the bigger problems to those who can influence them.

Where are you spending your money?
Do you live a costly lifestyle? Why? Where is your cash going? Local or corporate businesses? Are you buying worthless shit to fill up your house? If you buy things on finance or credit cards you will pay an inflated price for those items. I know that sounds really obvious, but would you buy that item if it was that price on the shelf? There is also the fact that if you spend less then one of two things will happen.

1. You will have lots of cash
2. You can work less and spend more time doing things you enjoy

Support your local shops and tradesmen
Ask about to see who does what - you might find that smaller businesses treat you better than corporate outlets. “Mates rates” are always better. Smaller business do not have the overheads that larger companies do.

Get a good deal
Buy from shops where you get good service or complain and make sure you receive service you are happy with. You are perpetuating bad service if you let them do it to you. You are doing them a favour, not the other way round.

Ask for a discount. If you don’t ask, you don’t get!

Buy second hand if it is practical. You will save a fortune if you do some research.

Buy in bulk where possible. Larger sizes of things cost less. Have more, pay less! Get a larger amount of something between a group of people and save yourself some dollar.

Check prices and specs on the internet or in magazines. Make sure you are buying the latest version/model and that the price is fair. Prices vary between shops.

Give somebody a lift
Cut down congestion, pollution and costs, make a friend! If it doesn’t work out, for example if they are a serial killer, a social retard or they smell, try someone else.

Share or borrow things
We buy a lot of items that we rarely use, or could buy between us - try sharing and borrowing stuff…

Spend your time wisely
Soaps, crap “news” and the rest of it… TV is a passive medium, is full of shit and makes you stupid and docile. Sure, watch some TV but is is necessary to sit in front of it all night, every night? Find something healthier and more active to do with your spare time, you’ll be dead soon….

Action can take the form of reducing or stopping certain things you are already doing and also starting to do new, healthier things. Having a big list of things you should stop doing is no fun. There is no need to stop doing unhelpful things immediately - making a reduction, however small, is still progress.