If you want to live a frugal life style you have to work a little harder than most people on certain things. I know I have written about this is in the past, but it hit me again this week when I was cleaning out the fridge and trying to figure out how to use up all the extra food I removed. Also the garden is going great guns and I have to pick everyday and then either prepare to eat or to freeze. This takes time. It is work.
It would be much easier to buy fresh green beans at $2.99 a pound and buy fresh zucchinis and bell peppers. As I chopped all the eggplants, yellow and green zucchini, onions, peppers, tomatoes from our garden on Sunday and put together the Ratatouille I thought about the work that is entailed. I could have just gone to the store and bought all the veggies, I could even have bought some of them cut up. But I choose to grow, harvest clean and cook these things myself. This is work and then there is the clean up.
Once the tomatoes are really producing I will be canning about 4-6 quarts a day. I do this outside to keep the house from getting too hot. Home canned tomatoes are so much better and I use alot of tomatoes over the year.
It took time to hull and clean and freeze the strawberries I used in the cakes I made. Although they were mixes, I could have purchased cakes at the bakery instead of mixing up my own. Making food from scratch takes longer. I also think it tastes better. It is work.
If you want to save money or you are trying to get out of debt you will have to work harder. You may have to add extra hours to your work schedule. You may have to not go places and find ways to entertain yourself for free. It is so much easier to spend money. You may have to choose to walk more rather than using the car. You may have to give up things that make your life more convenient. Like the housekeeper, or calling for a pizza when you are short of time.
I know that I nursed all of my babies until they were a little over a year old so I did not have to buy formula. It would have been much easier to bottle feed them at times. You can save money by cloth diapering, but I did not do this. I think if I had to do it all over again I would cloth diaper. At least when we were not out and about.
We always had to live on a very tight budget, so I learned to do with less. Now my money savings is not because things are so tight but because I choose to utilize my money in a different way. I want to be debt free. I want my house and then the car paid off. I want the freedom that this will bring.
Sometimes we are frugal because we have to be, and then sometimes we are frugal because we want to be. I have had to learn to want to be frugal. I have had to learn to tell myself I don't need that even if I want it. I have had to learn not to be a conspicuous consumer. It is so easy to fall into that trap. All it brought was debt and unhappiness, worry and depression. You think it is going to make you happy but it doesn't.
I have learned to do most things myself and yes it does take more time, but the savings is incredible. Saving money can also be a satisfying game one plays. Seeing how much money I can save has become a form of entertainment.
Do any of you enjoy money savings? Do you like to see how much you saved by doing things yourself Is this entertainment for you? Am I just crazy?
Have a great and productive day staying positive while you are in the negative.
Kim
