Archive for the Category »just my life «

13
Aug 2010

Cutting Back On Trips To Town

FrugalBabe

Last night, I went grocery shopping for the first time in two weeks.  I love my new shopping schedule, and I also love the fact that my total bill for two weeks now is less than what it used to be for one week before our garden began producing so much of our food.   It took me a total of 20 minutes to get our groceries last night (plus driving time), and I won’t have to go back for another two weeks.  The grocery store is about 15 miles from here, so minimizing trips is a good thing.  And if I don’t have to go grocery shopping, there is pretty much no reason for me to have to go into town at all, for anything (I just registered to vote in our new county and renewed my drivers license, online, from my kitchen.  Life is good).  The little town where we live has a library, post office, bank, and basic grocery store, all within easy walking or biking distance.  I found a note in the glove box of my car from an oil change my husband did back in September of 2007, and the mileage he noted at the time was 10,000 miles under what it is now.  I knew that I didn’t drive much, but now I know the specifics – 10,000 miles in three years.  Not bad!  If I can keep up my twice a month shopping schedule, I can probably get that number even lower going forward.

I dropped off a couple more boxes at the thrift store last night when I was in town (my mom, who used to love thrift store shopping just as much as I did, referred to the thrift store yesterday as the “give away store” which is what it has become for both of us).  I ducked inside quickly looking for a flower pot for a plant that has outgrown it’s planter, but didn’t see anything suitable and left within about five minutes of walking in the door.  It’s amazing to me that I have been able to completely do away with my thrift store shopping habit, and how happy that makes me.  There are tons of resources on the internet about decluttering, and I started reading a lot of them a few months ago.  Apparently they had quite an impact, because I no longer have any desire to accumulate possessions or add “stuff” to our life.  Instead, I want to be able to spend time experimenting cooking in the kitchen, hanging out with my husband and son, going for walks, doing yoga, having “adventures” at the park (that’s how our son and I refer to our little trips to the playground).  Acquiring stuff has never really been fulfilling in the long term for anyone.  But for most of us (including my former self), it is quite fulfilling in the short term.  Then it wears off and we have to go hunting for new stuff in order to continue to be satisfied.  Thankfully, I always got my fix with used things, so the cash outlay was never very big.  But the clutter factor is there, regardless of whether the stuff comes from Neiman Marcus or a dumpster.  And I just don’t want the clutter anymore.

Until this past spring, my trips to town were pretty much a weekly thing, and just about always involved at least a half an hour (usually more) of browsing around the thrift store before heading to the grocery store.  Invariably, I would find at least a few treasures that I just had to have.  These days, I can go to town and back in less than an hour and half total, and not only do I not come home with stuff from the the thrift store, I also usually have at least one box that I donate while I’m in town.  Much better.

Category: clutter, family, just my life  8 Comments
06
Aug 2010

A New Dishwasher

FrugalBabe

We have not had the best luck with dishwashers over the last few years.  When we remodeled our kitchen at our old house, we got a used dishwasher that we loved, but the motor burned out after a year.  When we moved into this house, the dishwasher was on its last legs, so we got a new one.  It was a relatively low end dishwasher, and we have had problems with it a few times in the last year.  We’ve been able to fix it ourselves, but when it stopped working last month, we discovered that it had been recalled as a fire hazard.

Maytag was offering a rebate on a new dishwasher for people who had the recalled dishwasher.  There were two rebate levels available ($250 or $150) and three or four dishwashers that qualified for each rebate.  I spent a few hours on line comparing dishwasher and then shopping for the best deals.  The dishwashers that qualified for the $250 rebate were a little more expensive, but I was able to find sales on them that eliminated most of the price difference, and we opted for one of those models.  The MSRP was $860 (yikes – that’s an expensive dishwasher!), but I found it at an online retailed for a total of $690 including shipping (no tax).  I found it at local places like Lowes and Sears, but it was about $100 more expensive.  Going with the online appliance store meant that we had to wait about three weeks for our new dishwasher, but to save $100, I was willing to wash dishes by hand for a few weeks.

When all is said and done, we should have an $860 dishwasher for $440, between the sale price and the rebate from Maytag.  And by next week, I won’t have to be washing all of our dishes by hand anymore.

When the dishwasher broke last month and we then found out it was recalled, I was tempted to just not have a dishwasher at all, and wash our dishes by hand forever.  I lived in Africa for two years where not only did I wash dishes by hand, but first I had to go fetch the water to wash them with.  Surely I could wash dishes in my kitchen sink?  But I have to say, after three weeks of hand washing, I’m glad that we opted for a new dishwasher instead.  My husband and I both work from home, and our son is always here with us, so we eat nearly all of our meals at home.  We don’t eat processed, packaged food (the sort that requires no dirty dishes), and I’m a big fan of cooking from scratch and kitchen experimentation.  So we go through a lot of dishes.  I like clean, clear countertops, but for the last few weeks, It has felt like we have a constant pile of dishes drying on the counter beside the sink.  With a dishwasher, we can load the dishes into it after a meal and then wait until it’s full to run it.  But hand washing means that we either have to wash dishes multiple times per day or have a sink/counter full of dirty dishes for a while.

I feel a bit spoiled (especially when I think back on my time in Africa and remind myself that all my friends there are still washing dishes by hand, and still fetching the water before they begin), but I am very glad that I’ll have a dishwasher again next week.  Shelling out the money for a new dishwasher wasn’t easy for me (oh, so many things I would rather do with that money!), but it is nice to know that we’re getting a high end dishwasher this time, for about half price.  Hopefully our luck with dishwashers will turn around now, and this one will still be in our kitchen when our son goes off to college.

Category: just my life  18 Comments
30
Jul 2010

Inside-Out Simplicity

FrugalBabe

inside-out-simplicity-125X125It’s very rare for me to purchase a book, but I was inspired to buy Joshua Becker’s new e-book, Inside-Out Simplicity, and I just finished reading it this morning.  In so many ways, it echoes my sentiments exactly.

Minimalism and simplicity have become quite trendy lately, but quite often the people who are attracted to simple, minimalist lifestyles are young, single, and don’t have children.  Joshua Becker – married with two children – is an excellent resource for people looking for ideas on how to life a simple life, without a lot of stuff, even if they have children.  Since we have a child, his words tend to ring especially true for me, and a lot of the life lessons from children that he discusses in his new book are things I’ve witnessed myself over the last two years since we became parents.

Not only is simplicity possible when you have children, but I believe that it’s even more important when we have children.  As parents, we are responsible not just for feeding, clothing, and sheltering our kids, but we are also responsible for shaping and teaching a new person.  And the things we do are far more important than the things we say.  So focusing on what really matters in life (rather than material possessions, status, power, etc.) is even more important if you’re trying to teach your values to a new little person.

There are many ways to view minimalism and simplicity, and I believe they can enhance your life regardless of your goals or values.  I have no desire to live out of a backpack or count how many possessions I have.  I currently have very little desire to travel, and am very content on our little mini farm that we’re creating.  Maybe that’s because my husband and I traveled quite a bit throughout our 20s.  I was also a Peace Corps Volunteer in Africa, which entails heading out on a two year journey with only what you can fit in two suitcases (the return trip had the same two suitcase limit, which meant that nearly everything I acquired while I was in Africa was given away before I left).  I have had lots of travel adventures (which I thoroughly enjoyed) although currently the adventure that appeals most to me is creating a happy, nurturing home for my husband and son.  And I’m finding that the adventure is enhanced by minimizing our possessions and focusing on our inter-personal relationships rather than our stuff.

Many books have been written on the subject of minimalism as it relates to physical possessions.  How to get rid of things, how to stop shopping, how to downsize… all are valuable tools (including Joshua’s first book, Simplify.  7 Guiding Principles To Help Anyone Declutter Their Home And Life – a great read if you want practical tips and solutions).  Joshua’s new book, Inside-Out Simplicity, gets to the root of it all, and forces us to really look at what truly matters and peel away all the stuff that doesn’t. 

One of my favorite lines from Inside-Out Simplicity is “…in our consumerist culture, where discontent is promoted and material gratification is encourages, learning to be content can be very difficult”.  The book is over 100 pages of tips and insights for how you can achieve contentment, and it’s well worth reading.

Joshua starts the book by noting that he doesn’t expect everyone to agree with all that he’s written, and that he knows it may generate some controversy.  The only part of the whole book that I didn’t agree with was the section on spirituality, as it’s different from my own views.  I believe that generosity, simplicity, gratitude, selflessness, and equality are terribly important, but I have come to this conclusion without any sort of spiritual beliefs… I just think that those things are what it means to be a good person, and I am content with simply striving to be a good person, without an external spiritual or religious code to guide me.  Obviously everyone is going to have a different view on this sort of thing, and I can whole-heartedly recommend Joshua’s book as I agree with the other 98% of it.  If you read it, please leave a comment and let me know what you think.

EDIT:  I forgot to mention that although Inside-Out Simplicity is much deeper than a how-to manual for de-cluttering, it still inspired me in that regard.  I’ve written quite a bit over the last few months about how I’ve kicked my thrift store shopping habit and donated several car-loads of stuff.  I hadn’t been donating as much lately, simply because most of the extraneous stuff has already been donated.  But after reading Joshua’s book, I filled the trunk of my car with stuff to donate today, and it feels great.

Category: just my life, kids, lessons learned, other bloggers  6 Comments
22
Jul 2010

The Story Of Cosmetics

FrugalBabe

I just finished watching Annie Leonard’s new video, The Story of Cosmetics.  It is well worth the few minutes it takes to watch it, and the message it contains needs to be heard by all of us.

I’ve been on a mission to get rid of toxic crud in our home for several years now, which I’ve blogged about several times.  Some of the changes we’ve made include:

  • I no longer use bleached, synthetic tampons.
  • Our son never wears flame resistant pajamas.
  • He’s been in home-made cloth diapers since he was about three days old (almost all disposable diapers contain super absorbent gel beads (sodium polyacrylate) that soak up moisture, but their chemical content is suspect.  In addition, most disposables are bleached, which creates a highly toxic by-product called dioxin).
  • I went through our bathroom a few years ago and got rid of everything with suspect ingredients.  All my nail polishes, make up, lotions,  shampoos, conditioners, sunscreens…. I tossed all of it, because I knew that I was never again going to feel comfortable putting that junk on my body.
  • I started using soap nuts to wash our laundry about a year ago, and am completely satisfied with them.
  • We don’t have a dryer (by choice), so no need for dryer sheets – everything is line dried.
  • I clean with baking soda, vinegar, and water.
  • We don’t buy anything labeled “anti-microbial” or “anti-bacterial”.
  • I use baking soda as toothpaste, and food grade hydrogen peroxide as a mouthwash.
  • We use Dr. Bronner’s soap all the time.  It’s at our sinks as hand soap, and in our shower.  It’s all our son has ever been bathed with.  The food co-op where we shop allows us to bring in our own empty bottle and refill it from their huge jug, which is less expensive than buying a new bottle, and also cuts down on packaging waste.
  • In the evenings, when mosquitoes are all over the place, I wear jeans, long socks, and a long sleeved shirt (so does our son).  No need for mosquito repellent.  I would much rather be a little warm than be covered in some sort of chemical spray.
  • I stopped wearing sunscreen about three years ago.  I have a big wide-brimmed hat that I wear pretty much anytime I’m outside (we live in a very sunny climate).  I also have a light weight linen zip-up jacket that I keep by the door, and throw on if I’m heading outside in a tank top or short-sleeved shirt.  It’s a lot faster than putting on sunscreen.

In case you’re wondering… I still manage to look pretty well put-together most days :)  My grooming tools include a brush for dry brushing, a pair of tweezers (I will admit that I am never without them… even when I was in Africa in the middle of nowhere with a 6 inch square mirror, I still had shaped eyebrows), a razor, a hair brush with wooden “bristles”, a comb, a jar of coconut oil that I use as wonderful-smelling lotion, a solid exercise routine, a great thrifted wardrobe, and a smile :)

In my attempts at de-toxifying our home, I have tried hard to avoid replacing products I used to use with high-priced “green” substitutes.  Instead of switching to safer make-up, for example, I just stopped wearing any.  I opted to have bare nails all the time, and just keep them clean and trimmed (and in all honesty, my nail painting days had ended long before I finally tossed my nail polishes).  I started buying big jugs of vinegar and big bags of baking soda at Costco rather than purchasing high-priced cleaning products at the health food store.  Don’t get me wrong… I’m glad that there are responsible companies who are trying to make safer products for us to use.  But I have found that I often don’t need the products in the first place, and it saves us a lot of money to realize that.

I wasn’t always this way.  A decade ago, I used things like self tanners (actually only tried that once and turned orange), lotions with sparkles in them, all sorts of make up and nail polish, perfume, hair spray, cleaners with bleach, etc.  But the more I’ve learned about toxic chemicals, the more I want to avoid them as much as humanly possible.  I hope that the ideas I’m sharing, and the Story of Cosmetics video, will help some of my readers to lessen their own exposure to toxins and reduce their personal care products budget.

Category: just my life, organic living  20 Comments
04
Jul 2010

Avoiding Nestle Without Even Trying

FrugalBabe

I was aware from a very young age that my parents didn’t buy any Nestle products.  They explained the reasons for the boycott, and it made perfect sense to me.  After spending two years in Africa with the Peace Corps, those reasons made even more sense.  I don’t knowingly buy Nestle products, but the boycott is rarely something I think about.  It’s sort of like brushing my teeth – just something I do.

Recently there has been quite a bit of chatter in the blog world about the fact that BlogHer 10 is being sponsored in part by a couple of Nestle subsidiaries.  Several bloggers have decided to opt out of the conference, and others have been quite torn by the decision.  Attending conferences isn’t very high on my list of things I like to do, so this isn’t an issue for me.  But I know that it’s been painful for several bloggers who are actively involved in promoting breastfeeding.  (I’ve had BlogHer ads running on my site for a few years now, although I’ve manually opted out of having any ads for baby formula/bottles/nipples, etc.)

Boycotting Nestle takes more than just avoiding candybars and cocoa with their logo on it.  They own a tremendous number of other companies, and produce everything from bottled water and pet food to Lean Cuisine and Hot Pockets.  Actively boycotting them might require taking a list of the brands with you to the grocery store.

Unless you’re into frugal homemade food, and simple, whole, organic foods.

I will admit that even though I never knowingly purchase Nestle products, I hadn’t seen an updated list of their companies in years.  When I sat down to write this post, I checked out the list that I linked to above, and was happy to see that I’ve been avoiding Nestle without even trying.

I do my grocery shopping at the local co-op and at a small, regional chain health food store.  95% of what I buy is organic.  I do not buy prepared meals or processed food, which eliminates most of the companies owned by Nestle (and helps to keep my grocery bill down).  I make our own desserts, often inspired by something from Kristen’s Raw (I tend to make things that aren’t particularly fancy and take very little time to prepare).  We drink mostly water, but we don’t buy bottled water.  I don’t wear make-up, and we don’t buy candy or ice cream.  When I grocery shop, the cart is filled mostly with produce (not as much anymore since our garden is producing more – yay!) and stuff from the bulk bins like nuts, seeds, flour, coconut, etc.

Shopping at farmer’s markets, co-ops, and small health food stores has a lot of hidden benefits.  If I have to spend money on food, I like knowing that I’m supporting small local businesses as well as farms and companies that have similar values to my own.  Nestle is pretty bad, but let’s face it, so are a lot of other big corporations.  Buying food from small local companies makes it easier to have at least a bit of an idea where your money is going.

Going to thrift stores for non-food items is another great way to direct our dollars somewhere besides the pockets of big companies.  The thrift stores where I shop are non-profits devoted to helping the needy, the homeless, people with epilepsy, and people with developmental disabilities.  I know that there are some for-profit thrift stores out there, but most of the others are set up to raise money for various charitable causes, which is one more reason to shop there.

Shopping the way we do, for both food and everything else, makes our money go further and keeps us healthy and happy.  It works for us, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.  And it has the added benefit of not contributing profits to companies that I find reprehensible.

Category: food, health, just my life, organic living, other bloggers  Tags: , , , ,  19 Comments
16
Jun 2010

Reducing Our Dependence On Cars

FrugalBabe

People are often amazed that my husband and I have cars that are 20 years old and still going strong. Yes we’ve been lucky to have reliable vehicles, and we’ve also stayed on top of basic maintenance. But the real key is that we don’t drive much. We bought my car from its original owner in 2003. In the last seven years, I’ve driven it 38,000 miles, with most of those miles in the first three years I owned the car (before we had our business set up to be completely from home). These days, I put about 3000 miles on my car each year – so of course it’s lasting longer than it would if I were driving it 10,000 miles a year.  Our cars are old, so the registration fee is very low, as is our liability-only insurance.  And of course we don’t have car payments.

When we chose to move last year, we knew that there were some things we were giving up by moving to a small town.  The most notable of these (and the only one we even notice) is the lack of public transportation and the distance we have to travel to get to a good grocery store.  We don’t really care about other shopping – we don’t do much of it anyway.  But groceries are a must, and the small-town grocery store near our house just doesn’t carry most of the food we want to buy.  I support them whenever I can, and buy small packets of organic frozen veggies there, along with a few other things.  But they don’t have a single organic item in the fresh produce department, which is where I spend most of my grocery dollars.  Our garden is starting to produce stuff now, so my grocery needs are steadily declining, but I do still need to buy a lot of our food.

So about once a week, I load up my reusable grocery bags and head into the big town ten miles down the road to shop at the co-op or the health food store.  Lately I’ve been taking advantage of the trip to also drop off stuff at one of the big thrift stores in town.  If there are any other errands that I need to run, I make sure that I coordinate them so that I do them all in the same trip.

Other than my weekly trip to town, I’m able to do everything I need right here in our little town.  And my rule is that I never drive my car unless I’m leaving our town.  Nothing is more than about three miles away, and I can easily get to everything in town either walking (pulling our son in his wagon) or by bike.  The library, post office, credit union, hardware store, liquor store, even a grocery store that will do in a pinch… all are within easy walking or biking distance.  I told myself when we moved here that I wouldn’t drive if I needed to go somewhere within our town, so getting around by bike or on foot has just become second nature.

Working from home also makes a huge difference, as neither of us has to go anywhere for work.  We’re working hard to create a life that we love, and to be honest, we’re both happiest when we’re at home, working, working in our garden, hanging out with our son… just doing the things we do on a daily basis.  And that means that most of the time, our cars are just hanging out in the garage.

Tammy Strobel has written an e-book called Simply Car-Free for people who are looking to minimize their dependence on cars.  Check it out if you’re looking for ideas and inspiration.  We aren’t car-free (yet… maybe once our town grows a bit we could be someday), but I suppose you could call us car-minimal.  The disaster in the Gulf should be a big motivator for all of us to look for ways we can consume less oil, and driving less is a good start.  Do you have a self-imposed rule about not driving your car to go short distances, or on certain days?  Do you make an effort to combine trips to limit your total driving?  Do you prefer public transportation, bikes, or walking?

If you haven’t given much thought to the idea of being car-minimal or car-free, maybe today’s a good day to start.  A good first step is to tell yourself that you won’t drive if you’re going less than two miles (or whatever distance works for you) and then gradually increase that distance as you get more comfortable walking, running, or biking.  And enjoy the added benefit that comes with getting a workout while you do your errands!

Category: just my life, the simple life, ways we save money, work  Tags: ,  14 Comments
14
Jun 2010

Do You Want Your Own Business?

FrugalBabe

Because of the little business that we started when we first got married, my husband and I have been able to move to a better location where we can pursue our dream of growing our own food, without having to be tied to a particular location for work.  We’ve kept up with advances in technology over the years in order to make our business nearly paperless, very automated, location-independent, and with multiple streams of revenue.  We have worked hard, but we’ve also been very lucky.

I know that I have lots of readers who want something similar but aren’t sure where to start.  There are lots of people who are looking for information and ideas about starting their own business… without going broke in the process.  Blogging has exploded in popularity over the last several years, with lots of people trying to start a blog, put some ads on the sidebar, and then kick back and watch the money roll in.  It doesn’t really work that way for most of us though, and I think that a lot of people get discouraged when they don’t see big traffic numbers or ad revenue after the first few months.

I’ve been reading Everett Bogue’s site, Far Beyond The Stars, for several weeks now, and I’ve been really impressed with everything he writes.  If we didn’t already have our own successful, flexible business, I absolutely believe that I’d be motivated by Everett to start something.  He’s a walking-the-walk expert on minimalism (which is something that I’m finding more and more appealing), and he’s also figured out how to create a business that can support him, and allow him to work and live anywhere, all while still having lots of free time for things other than work.  He’s re-releasing his e-book Minimalist Business tomorrow morning (Tuesday, June 15th) at 10am PST, and I wanted to spread the word to my readers and fellow bloggers who have an interest in creating or growing their own little business.  A blog is a great platform to spread your message to the world, and it can also generate income… but it doesn’t just happen.

If you’re interested in Everett’s other e-book, The Art Of Being Minimalist, he lets you read the first 30 pages for free before you buy the e-book, so check it out and see what you think.

My husband and I are very lucky to have a business that we own and run ourselves.  We work from home, we set our own schedules, and we make a good living.  We work a lot, but it’s work we enjoy, and we’re able to fit our job around our life.  My husband’s office is in the basement, but he just came up and spent the last hour playing in the backyard with our son.  Even though it’s a busy Monday, he was able to take a break in the middle of the day and have some great family time.  As an aside, right before our son was born, we hired Spectrum Communications to answer our phone if we couldn’t get to it.  Most of our business is done online, and most of our communication is by email.  But plenty of clients choose to call, and we feel that it’s better to have a live person answer the phone (even if they just have to take a message) than a voice mail system.  In the two years we’ve been using Spectrum, our monthly bill has never been above $250 (it’s usually below $200), and they have always done a really good job.  Having them there to answer the phone allows us to be even more flexible in our schedules.  During the time that my husband just spent playing with our son, two clients called, and both times the Spectrum folks took messages and emailed them to us.  I can definitely recommend a service like this if you’re self employed and need a little help juggling the phones.  (no, they aren’t paying me to recommend them – I just think that they’ve provided a really good service for our family, and it’s been very affordable).

I’m feeling very fortunate right now to have the little business we’ve created, and I hope some of you are inspired to start diversifying your income a bit.  You don’t have to (and probably shouldn’t!) quit your day job and dive right into supporting yourself with your own business.  But a little extra money can’t hurt, and who knows what it might turn into down the road?

Category: just my life, other bloggers  Tags: , ,  4 Comments
10
Jun 2010

Letting Go

FrugalBabe

Thanks for all the great feedback on my last post.  I especially liked the comment from David, who said

I’ve found that the problem with comparing ourselves to others is that you’re usually comparing your strength to their weakness or vice versa. Either way, it’s not fair.

Exactly!  That is so true, and a good reminder for the times when we start to compare ourselves – either favorably or unfavorably – with other people.  Focusing on how we can make ourselves better people compared with who we were a year or a month or a day ago is probably a much more effective way to make positive changes.

I made a big step in my purging process today.  Physically it was only one box, but mentally it was a big step in terms of letting go of things that are no longer useful, regardless of how much they cost or how much we once liked them.

About seven years ago, back in the very early days of our business, my husband and I purchased a multi-media business card package.  It was supposed to be an interactive DVD that we could send to our clients, and it was packaged in a fancy case with our pictures and lots of info about our business.  It took several months to complete the process of making them, as they were custom made for our business.  Sometime during the process, the company that made them ran into serious financial problems, and nearly declared bankruptcy before our order was finished.  To make a long story short (and boy was it ever a long story at the time, complete with lots of tears on my part), the “interactive DVD” part of the package turned into a generic DVD about our industry rather than one specific to our business.  Although we were disappointed with that change, we were generally pleased with the finished product, and sent lots of them to clients and prospective clients for the first few years after we got them.

We had signed up for a payment plan to finance the project, and it took quite a while to pay them off.  Our business wasn’t making much money back then, and we were making the minimum payments each month for a long time.  Eventually we were able to pay more than the minimum due, and I think we paid them off sometime in 2004 or early 2005… Funny how I can’t even remember now, given that I was so stressed out about it at the time (a lot of the stress came from not knowing if we would even get the finished product, even though we were on the hook with the financing company to pay for them either way).  Whatever happened, that money is long gone and forgotten – the proverbial water under the bridge.

Our business has become much more successful over the years.  And it has also morphed into something that we do entirely on-line and over the phone.  We never have to drive anywhere or send anything to clients by snail mail.  We’ve basically made our office paperless; I can’t even remember the last time we bought paper or envelopes or anything like that.  Times have changed, and we’ve changed with them.

And that brings us back to the multi-media business cards.  We still had a box full of them sitting in our basement.  It’s probably been two or three years since we sent any out to clients, and the last box had just been hanging out in the crawl space of our old house and the basement of our new house.  Were we ever going to go back to sending them out?  No.  We have much more efficient ways of communicating with clients now, and our marketing strategy is much more targeted and streamlined that it was in 2003.  So what was I going to do with the box that was taking up space in our basement?

I checked to see if the cases were recyclable… they were not.  I checked to see if our information could be taken out of them so that they could possibly be used by someone else (I was thinking of putting them on Craigs List for free if I could get our info out of them).  But that wasn’t possible, as our marketing material was permanently encased in the plastic.

So I threw them away.

It felt great.  The box actually sat on the kitchen counter top for about 24 hours before I got up the nerve to toss them.  I pondered all the money we had spent on them.  But then I thought about all the ones we had sent out to clients back in those early years, and all the good feedback we got.  The money hadn’t been wasted.  We had ordered the minimum number of cards possible, but we just didn’t need all of them.  We weren’t going to start going backwards in our marketing strategy just because we had leftover multi-media business cards.  And I was tired of seeing that box every time I went down to the basement.

Now the empty box is sitting in the garage waiting to be filled with stuff to donate to the thrift store, and my life feels just a little bit lighter.  Just because something cost a lot of money doesn’t mean we should hang onto it forever.  Once it’s no longer useful, it doesn’t matter what we spent to buy it, or how useful it was in the past.  We live in the present, and we might as well make sure that the things we surround ourselves with are helping to make that present as good as it can be.

The other take-away lesson here:  don’t sweat the small stuff, and it’s all small stuff.  I wish I could go back in time and see the me who was crying over those business cards.  I’d tell her that she really doesn’t need to worry, and that seven years down the road she won’t remember how much they cost, when they arrived, or how long it took to pay them off.  Focusing and working hard to pay off debt or solve whatever problem is facing you is definitely worthwhile.  But stressing and freaking out about it are not – they don’t solve the problem any faster, and they take away from time we can be feeling happy instead.  Now I just have to focus on applying that lesson to my current life.  I’m much better about not stressing about things than I used to be, but it’s still a work in progress.

Category: just my life, lessons learned  14 Comments
08
Jun 2010

Getting Off The Frugal High Horse

FrugalBabe

I’ve been blogging here for almost four years now – time flies! – and sometimes it’s fun to look back at posts I wrote back in the day.  It makes our debt-free (except the mortgage) life feel even better when I remember the days when I was keeping track of all of our debts on a yellow legal pad.  But I notice when I read some of my early posts that I was a bit of a self-righteous frugalista.  And I see that as a pretty common theme in the frugal blogosphere – it’s easy to start to feel superior and smarter when you’re focusing on debt reduction, saving money, living frugally, etc.  It’s easy to start thinking that you’ve got everything figured out so much better than all the people who aren’t doing whatever it is that you’re doing.  I know I was guilty of this, and I know I’m not the only one.

I mentioned recently that I’ve been making lots of small changes in my life, and one of them has been to be less judgmental in general.  I’m also feeling very grateful for all the good luck that has brought me to where I am today.  Just a few years ago I’d have scoffed at the idea of luck being a factor.  I hated the idea that I had ever been lucky – I preferred to think that it was all a result of hard work and dedication.  But that’s just not true.  Fact is, I was born to two well educated parents who wanted me and loved me from the very beginning.  That alone is a pretty lucky start.  And then I was encouraged to get a good education of my own, to eat well, to exercise, to value nature, to live without debt… and the list goes on.  Yes, I believe my husband and I have worked very hard to get where we are today, but I’d be a fool if I said that luck wasn’t involved.  I really like this quote from Barry Switzer:

“Some people are born on third base and go through life thinking they hit a triple.”

I was definitely born on third base, but I don’t want to go through life thinking I hit a triple.  I want to be grateful for what I have, and to not judge other people who see things in a different way than I do.  I truly believe that living within one’s means is a pretty important aspect of happiness, but it’s up to each of us to decide how to do that.  For my own family, saving a good chunk of our income is very important.  But that isn’t better or worse than another family who spends a bigger chunk of their income – as long as they are happy and content with their life, and living within their means (and hopefully doing the best they can to take good care of this little planet that we all share).

Personal finance is just that – personal.  Don’t let things you read on blogs make you feel guilty about the way you spend your money – it’s your own money after all.  If something about your life – financial or otherwise – is making you feel bad, then change it.  But don’t change it just because it’s what someone else is doing.  We’re all different, and we all want different things.  Just keep your focus on what you want most, and you’ll be fine.   There will always be people who are smarter, richer, happier, more frugal, etc.  Be inspired, but don’t feel guilty.  I’ve found that the less I judge others, the happier I am.  Hopefully it works for you too.

Category: just my life, lessons learned  23 Comments
02
Jun 2010

Creating A Life That Needs No Escape

FrugalBabe

Now that the summer vacation season is underway, I’ve been pondering the idea of vacations.  My husband and I have been self employed for years now, so technically we can go on vacation whenever we want.  We do have to continue to work while we’re away, but our job can be done from anywhere with a laptop and internet connection. 

Once our son is old enough to appreciate and enjoy trips, we’ll start going on them again.  But for now, they’re on hold.  But as much as I enjoy traveling to new places, I am not sitting here thinking about all the places I’d like to visit five years from now.  Instead, we’re actively working to create a life from which we don’t need or want to get away.  I think that for a lot of people, vacations are as much about getting away from normal life as they are about seeing new places.  Most people get two or three weeks of vacation time each year.  Do you really want to have two or three great weeks per year, during which you try to get away from whatever it is you do with your time the other 49 or 50 weeks?  I would rather have 52 great weeks and no desire to escape from my life.  If we get the urge to see some new, exciting place once our son is a little older, that would be great.  But I don’t ever want vacation to feel like escape, or to be something that I look forward to with so much anticipation that I forget to appreciate all the regular life days that lead up to it.

Some people are in situations (for example, being a full-time caregiver to a person with Alzheimer’s) that probably require some form of regular "escape" no matter how they tweak their life to make it as enjoyable as possible.  But for many of us, the things we’re trying to escape from are self-imposed stresses.  Tons of extra-curricular activities for our kids is one example.  Kids do not need to be enrolled in six different kinds of lessons throughout their entire childhood in order to grow up to be good, talented people.  Another example is the vehicles we drive.  We don’t need to be spending a good chunk of our income each year (which translates into a good chunk of our time) buying, insuring, and maintaining cars.  Old, paid-for cars are great, and so are bicycles.

The money we earn can be used for so many things, but most of us are using it to pay for houses, cars, stuff to fill up the houses, and two weeks of vacation each year to escape from our lives.  It doesn’t have to be this way.  What if we started to really focus on how we can create a life that we never want to leave?  Travel could still be a part of that life (if that’s what makes you happy) but it could be for the adventure rather than as an escape.

My husband and I have made the happy discovery that we both love working in the garden, with our son and our dog playing in the yard nearby.  We both love digging in the dirt, tending our little plants, adding beautiful flowers and trees to our little oasis, and seeing new sprouts and buds each day.  We’ve been harvesting radishes now for a week or so, and the kale and chard are exploding.  We will have zucchini ready next week, and we’ve been eating spinach salads every day lately.  Our dream is becoming a reality, and it feels amazing.  It took a lot of effort to get here.  We had to make some major changes – realizing that what we really wanted (a huge garden) was not compatible with where we were living, and then going through the process of selling our house and buying another one.  Our 3/4 acre yard was a blank (but weedy!) canvas when we first saw it a year ago, and now it has an orchard, a berry patch, and 27 vegetable beds.  It also has ten new flowering trees (each about a foot tall), lots of new evergreens (also about a foot tall), some new shade trees, and lots of flowering perennials that we found for free on the sidewalk down the street last fall.

But although it has taken much effort to get to this point, we have enjoyed every minute of that effort.  We have found something that we both love doing, and it doesn’t feel like work. It feels like we’re on vacation every day.  Yes, we still have to work to keep our business running, but we get to do that from our own home, and hang out with our son at the same time.  And every afternoon/evening, we get to go out and play in the yard. 

What it takes to feel like you’re on vacation every day is obviously going to be different from one person to the next.  But the important part is to figure out what it means for you.  And what it doesn’t mean.  And then take a close look to see if what you’re spending your time and money on is really what matters to you.  If it isn’t, start making changes.  It’s that simple, but putting it into practice isn’t easy.  Really, major changes rarely are, because we are creatures of inertia.  It’s easier to stay in a rut, even if that rut isn’t making us happy.  But the effort required to get out of our ruts is truly worth it.

For a little more inspiration, check out today’s article on Far Beyond The Stars.  Everett has some great ideas there for ways that you can cut expenses (and thus the money needed to sustain your lifestyle) and free up time and money to pursue the things that really matter to you.

I’ll leave you with some pictures from around our yard this morning.  This is our potato bed, freshly covered with a new layer of compost and hay:

100_8376

And here is our son’s sandbox, which he loves.  We ended up lining the hole with weed blocking fabric to create a barrier between the clay and the sand, and our little guy has been having a blast out there.

100_8378

And some beautiful surprise irises that popped up this spring:

100_8377

Happy Wednesday!  Enjoy pondering what you can do to start creating a life from which you never want to escape.

Category: garden, just my life, lessons learned  25 Comments
« Previous Entries