That expression was commonly heard in our early married years when it meant trying to pay all our everyday living expenses out of one wage. Must look it up on google sometime but, for us and our growing family, it meant stretching our available money to cover our ever-growing costs.

These days, it means more like finishing the job, closing off the circle, seeing the job finished, and that seems a more positive way to view it: “All done and dusted, sit back and enjoy a ringside seat”. Unfortunately, that happy state can’t be shared by those still in the workforce or by housebound carers. I learned in my early married life, and still appropriate, was how to be ‘thrifty’ (that’s another word to look up!).

Sometimes when I visit a shopping centre, I see a lot of money being spent on ‘things’ that are (what I consider) inessential junk; not just food, or even luxury items, but ‘stuff’, items that are really junky plastic, ephemeral, pieces with no long-term useful lives. Yes, I know – we all need some little extras in our life if we can manage it. What I see shoppers carrying, though, is a predominance of junk. Excessive quantities of short-lived items, many with a difficult end-of life disposal problem.

Of course, we all crave our individuality, but it does seem a little over-the-top to see the extent of plastic packaging around so many individual items. It can genuinely protect the contents from physical damage for for health and sanitation purposes, and also enhance the look of the product. Sadly, though, a good deal of packaging is to prevent shoplifting and/or to enforce a multiple purchase. Some packaging is also oversized to trick us into thinking the contents are larger.

Much of the packaging is simply for marketing, to sell more of something, to maybe sell a product we might not have even considered buying. Yes, I am guilty, too of impulse buying, but not often – I’m too mean with my money! The evidence of overspending and over-use of packaging is everywhere…. I see it strewn alongside the paths as I walk. I see it in the overstuffed garbage bins in parks and outside houses on pickup days, and around the overfilled public bins at bus-stops.

Apart from avoiding over-packaged goods, we can all try to be careful in our buying habits and thoughtful in how we dispose, re-use, re-cycle, or re-purpose all that packaging that passes through our hands. Making ends meet can mean more if we consciously avoid overpacked goods and dispose of unwanted packaging thoughtfully. Like many of my readers, I try to keep my rubbishy footprint as small as I can manage. Consider contacting suppliers, too, and voicing your opposition to unnecessary, ineffective, or excessive packaging. Let’s please, ‘make ends meet’ – close the circle whenever and however we can and be an environmental carer.

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By the way, if you are also a person carer…

….you can find information about caring for someone living with dementia on the Family, Friends and Carers page at this website Home | Dementia Australia
Dementia Australia’s Younger Onset Dementia Guide is the go-to resource for people living with younger onset dementia (diagnosed before the age of 65) as well as their carers and family.