I was reading an article last week on The New York Times about this subject. It chronicles the life of several families who were impacted by the economic recession and found they couldn’t live the lifestyle that they used to. They got creative and found ways to make their lives even “richer” with less money. This is one of my favorite topics because I truly do believe that we can all live a lifestyle of frugal luxury, a term I fell in love with after reading this amazing book. Here is a blurb from that review:
A mental image from one of the chapters has always stuck with since I first read this book over a year ago. It talked about a family living in an abandoned wood shack. A group of charity workers heard someone was living in it and decided to stop by and leave food for the family. When they went inside they were stunned by what they saw. The wood floor was scrubbed until it gleamed and was covered with wood wax. A fire was burning in an old river rock fireplace and on the hearth sat a pot of simmering apples and cinnamon that made the place smell divine. A spool discarded by the cable company served as their table and it was adorned with floor length green and white checked gingham cloth. Simple curtains made from the same fabric covered their windows and hung from willow branches. A garland of evergreen and pine cones hung from the ceiling like a wallpaper border. They sat on fruit crates topped with red cushions and their guests were treated like royalty when they stopped by.
My own family has greatly simplified over the years and become quite content with those frugal luxuries. As do many young families we started out in debt because we didn’t feel the need to start from scratch as most young couples used to do. When we struck out on our own we used credit cards to accumulate all the “stuff” we had when we lived with our parents. We never stopped to think that our parents had worked years to accumulate all that they had… for some reason we felt we needed it all right away. Our kids were showered with toys… I never once (seriously) went to a store with the kids and failed to buy them something. They got used to getting whatever it is they wanted. I had a very “disposable” mentality and even then it drove my husband kinda nuts. If the kids destroyed something or something got really dirty I would propose we just go buy a new one. I would throw CDs down on the floor of the car and just think that if it got scratched and started skipping, I would just go buy another.
Were were drowning in stuff, creating massive amounts of waste, we were deep in debt, and big surprise we weren’t really happy because we wanted more.
Things changed when I quit my job to stay home with my kids (only two then). We simply had to make do with less because we were a one income family and I was also pretty much a single parent since my husband’s job was as an over the road trucker driver trainer. Ironically we both work now and still make way less than what he made alone back then and it seemed like such a hardship to manage to get by, LOL. I started a cloth diaper business for play money and that lead me to attachment parents (who were a big part of my customer base). Being a marketer I knew I had to understand my customers and I guess I drank the koolaid because I found my tribe. When I re-evaluated the coersive parenting style that I had originally fallen into (and was unsatisfied with) I found that I had to model the behavior I wanted my kids to learn and frankly I was selfish, wasteful, greedy, and ignorant. That wasn’t the role model I wanted to leave for them. I didn’t want them to grow up thinking that “things” made you happy and that our lifestyle choices had no impact on the people and planet around us. So I had to learn to embrace those things myself. Getting cancer helped that process along as you can imagine… simply being grateful you get to live can be an eye opener to the things that are truly important.
Adopting a more simplistic life and attitude has literally been the best thing that ever happened to us. Our recession moment didn’t hit last year. It happened the year before that when we decided my husband had worked on the road for too long. He quit his job and came home to a new one which paid him half as much. He works a 9 to 5 job now and I work at home. We make less money (about 30 grand less) but we don’t struggle. We eat better than we ever did back then and the kids have far less toys (at least new toys) but they have more of our attention and more “experiences” than they had before. I don’t have a brand new car car anymore, instead I have a used model that is ten years old and my husband drives that every day so I have been borrowing an old truck to take the kids back and forth to school on super cold days. I shop at thrift stores now for clothes, toys, and furnishings. I search Craigslist for bigger items that I think we need but 8 times out of 10 I end up deciding we don’t NEED the stuff after all.This week I was trying to organize my daughter’s books which have always just sat piled up on the floor in this house because our old house had built-in bookshelves (I miss them). I wanted to buy bookshelves but our local thrift store had nothing so I shopped in our garage hoping to find cinder blocks and planks of wood. Instead I found this:
This is a baby doll crib I bought for $5 at a yard sale and my daughter broke one of the rails off and both doors off. She also marked all over it with permanent marker. So it has been sitting in our garage for months. I looked at it and suddenly saw a rolling bookshelf. I painted it ballet slipper pink and put it in my daughter’s room for a bookshelf. We also decided that if this thing gets filled we will need to start donating books.
Does it look as nice as store bought shelves? Uh.. no but it is functional, cute, and it has a story. I think the $5 was well spent.
Its been a long journey but most days I feel truly rich. We have everything we need. The only thing I miss from days gone by is travel. I have fond memories of trekking around with my oldest son in a sling on my back as we hopped subways in New York City, rode the waves in Miami, or explored museums in Chicago. We want to add travel back into our lives and plan to do so as my income grows since I can do my work from my home office or a rented condo in Costa Rica. My parents will also be retiring soon and will be traveling and we want to accompany them when we can. But of course now we want to travel modestly, simply, frugally, and as sustainably as possible. But yet we do still go to amazing places.. state parks, waterfalls in the city, covered bridges, historic monuments, etc. We aren’t missing out on seeing amazing things.
There is a whole new world of possibilities when you decide that you can do more with your life even if you don’t have much money.
What do you think?
In this rough times, it is essential that people do not continue to drown themselves in debt. As much as I love to shop designers and really nice products, these days all I look for is functionality and it doesn’t matter .where I find it.
I’m not sure if you have mentioned these ideas for thrifty travel before but wwoof (Willling Workers on Organic Farms) are a great way to travel and help the community you travel to – not to mention learning about organic farming or projects. You receive accomodation and food in return for an agreed number of hours working on the farm. Some farms will happily welcome families. My youngest is 3 so this is something we’d like to do when she’s just a bit older. Another option is house swapping.
Love that bookshelf. I’ve been looking for a bookshelf for my daughter and have been unsuccessful for months (because I’m only willing to pay about $5). I think I’m inspired now to check out the garage and the basement to see what of my husband’s treasured junk can be turned into a shelf. I’m not normally creative that way.
I love this post of yours. I live in an area of Calgary that is quite affluent (though we aren’t!) and often feel like the odd ball. I sometimes get the case of the gimmies when I see what and how the others around me are living. But then I stop and reflect on how both sets of my grandparents immigrated with nothing and were able to provide a loving, nurturing home for my parents…and they lacked nothing. We truly do not lack for our needs today. And I want to give my kids that richness too…
great post!
Simplicity is music to my ears. Love the bookshelf. :)
Cheers XOXO,
Kristen :)
What a nice post…thank you. It’s a good reminder. And I like hearing your story again. Sometimes when I read your blog it seems so easy for you & I feel stuck. I need to remind myself that we’re all working at making life more simple (and that we’re all in a different place)…hearing that it was difficult for you at one point makes it more real…something we can really strive for. And I love the term frugal luxury…haven’t heard it.
One of Suze Orman’s sayings in one of her first books sticks with me – people first, then money, then things. I really try to remember that when spending. And that I’d rather have $$ than things…security.
You did a great job on the bookshelf!
My grandparents lived during the depression and lived extremely conservatively. They greatly impacted my ways. I hope that there will be good that comes out of these hard financial times, causing people to waste and buy less.
When we traveled to Guatemala to adopt our daughter, we saw homes with no running water and some no electricity. The cleanliness of these homes were amazing. The floors literally shined. The people themselves were clean and neat. No sloppiness. They had pride in themselves and what little they had.
Another beautiful post. I hope the simplicity life style that families begin today because of economic hardships will last throughout their lifetimes and be passed along to their children. That is the only hope that our planet has of surviving in any condition worth passing along. Thank you for spreading the message and living the good (simple) life!
I think it’s a gredat book shelf. :) I love being able to reuse things rather than buying new ones all the time. Simplicity just makes you feel good.
Very nice!! We’ve always lived by the thought that happiness is more important than money and over the yearsmy husband and I have both walked away from good paying jobs that made us miserable. Since having a child, over 2 yrs ago, I became a SAHM/WAHM. The income my husband made wasn’t enough for the basics, but we were determined to raise our own child. He’s since switched jubs and we’ve changed so many of our habits and with the little bit I bring in we’re now trying to get back to even. One thing that has made a huge impact is that we’ve greatly expanded our gardening (we’re a vegetarian family) and we’ve learned to really look at things we own and don’t feel that we need to see if they can be something else. We’ve also eliminated paper products. Thanks to one of your posts. We only keep tp, kleenex, and paper towels for guests. I am amazed at the difference this has made on so many levels.
Love your blog and thanks for the inspiartions.
Stuff…I have lots of it and it seems to keep coming. I need to take this post to heart and start thinking more thrifty. Thanks for the great reminder.
You are right, it’s not about how much you have. We are working hard to scale back and got rid of lots of stuff before Christmas. We donated to people in need so that Santa would be proud and stop by our house. This is a good reminder that living simple is something we all need to get back to, especially after the results of our country’s irresponsible spending/lending. Thanks and check out babyminding.com for green and natural parenting info!
Jennifer, Partner
http://www.babyminding.com
Wonderful as always! I really love repurposing items we no longer use into something new. I think your ‘new’ bookshelf is lovely! We repurposed our dresser (wont fit into our room) into a tv stand and the drawers for games (yes, my husbands xbox addiction is one thing I have not been able to break sadly :/ ). Were a young family with some debt from emergency needs, but we were blessed with hand-me-downs from family and friends, otherwise our house would be pretty empty! Your posts are always a wonderful reminder of what is truly important in life, happiness for our families and ourselves.
Last year I read through the Anne of Green Gables series, and I was taken back by the daunting task of setting up a house as a newly wed during the last turn of the century. Having to make or receive as a gift all the dish cloths, towels, sheets, quilts, rugs, table cloths, doilies etc…. how daunting, and how lovely.
I have started to attempt to make or at least maintain our items as if our home were more a homestead (I read the Little House on the Prairie books right after); knitting the dish cloths, mending the sheets etc… I know what I make will last, and how to mend it when the inevitable happens; I take pride the patches on my sheets, just as I take pride with the herbs growing on the kitchen table.
I think living a simpler life, is really simpler… it’s personal. You’re more involved with your own life, and the means by which you live it.
Lovely post, I’m playing with the idea composing a concurrence in my own blog (will let you know if/when I get around to it).
*in the patches
*isn’t really simpler
That’s what I get for not reading through my own writing. Sorry.
Hello my kind friend Tiffany! How I missed this wondrous post (and the generous mention) when it first came out a few months ago is beyond me. That being said, I’m so happy to have found it now! Yours is such a lovely story, and one so many of us can relate to…our society trains us to be consumers. The beauty is that so many souls are breaking out of that old, selfish mindset and drinking “kool aid” of our own making this time!! Thank you for the thought provoking post and the kind words and good thoughts.
Warmly,
Tracey
x0x
P.S. I forgot to tell you… I think the book case is charming!! Perfect for a little girl’s room and so clever of you to think of re~purposing a broken baby toy into a useful, attractive book case. Plus, what a wonderful shade of pink! x0x
Wonderful! We also live on much less than we used to…and our lives are very rich! I am hoping that one of the gifts from this recent recession will be that people realize how to cut back and what is really important in our lives….not things.