Bold and True: Frugality

Over at One Little Window the suggestion to be Bold and True once a week in blog form was suggested. I've taken up the challenge and here's my first bought of honesty. I tend to write about what I'm doing and less about what I'm thinking. I don't like to thrust my opinions on others and prefer to silently just be who I am and let that speak for itself. But here is a little rant on something that I have become passionate about over the last year.

I've seen a lot of bloggers lately naming their year. "The Year of the Bee" for beekeeping goals, "The Year of Mud" for cob building goals, etc. This got me thinking, what is this year to me? Last year, surely, was "The Year of the Garden". This year I think is "The Year of Frugality". I managed last year to live within my means despite buying a house on one salary only to be laid off four months later and having to make due on unemployment. Now I need to live below my means.

Unemployment is a funny purgatory of money. There is the hope and expectation that you will make again what you were making and you are merely in a valley of belt-tightening. It's not until you get to the other side do you realize that valley never ends. Thanks, Recession, for the lack of industry-standard paying jobs. So, I'm now on a permanent wage equivalent to unemployment. No longer can I say, well, when I go back to work I can take that vacation; we'll just have to live with this home repair undone until I go back to work. I am back at work and it hasn't helped the monetary situation one bit. So, what's a girl to do? Require less. If I can't make more, then I need to need less.

I have become hyper-aware of money over the past year and have come to realize how much stuff I simply don't need. Getting rid of the car was a big weight lifted and I felt a sense of freedom. It was a sense of freedom not only from the financial obligation of owning an automobile, but it was a sense of freedom to realize that I don't need an automobile. I am fortunate to live in a place where that is an option. There is a good public transit system and a relatively dense population. The city does it's best to encourage neighborhood growth and ensure there are parks, grocers, pharmacies, retail and restaurants within walking distance of everyone. I could have lived in a suburb and paid the same for a larger house, but I would have required a car there. That was a trade-off I wasn't willing to make.

My house is small. It's under 1000 square feet, in fact, it's only 750. I got the greatest joy last summer at my family reunion telling my relatives how big my house was. There was always a pause and you could see the wheels turning as they tried to comprehend how small that was and why on earth someone would live someplace so tiny. Don't you need a living room and a family room? A dining room and a breakfast nook? A guest room and a study? A two-car garage? The answer is, no, I don't. I need shelter and out of the shelter I make it a home. I've been thinking a lot about how much I really do need out of a house. Could I live in a tiny house? Could I live in a cob house? What about a small cabin? How much do I really need? When I drive through fancy neighborhoods in the hills and I look at those stately homes I don't marvel so much at their beauty anymore, but rather I am shocked beyond words that someone would think that they need that much of a house. I am saddened that this is the cornerstone that our society is built around. Everyone is encouraged to strive for excess and I don't think it's healthy for the people or the society involved. I could ramble on about Wall Street and bankers and greenhouse gasses, but you can turn on cable news for that.

These are all questions of the larger frugality. I have my head around those. I yearn for less. What I don't have my head around is everyday frugality. I got home late from work, sure let's go grab dinner out. Our friend is in the neighborhood, sure let's go grab a beer. I didn't have time to make a lunch, sure I'll go out to lunch. Grocery shopping is hard to be frugal about. I have gotten to the point where my grocery lists are only a handful of items long and that will provide me with enough to make four or five good meals. I always eat well though, even when sometimes I shouldn't. It's not to say I don't have the money; I've just gone over budget on groceries, but I have to eat, right? So, I go to the store and get more food when I should go through the pantry and be creative. This is something I will work on this year. The same thing with going out. I have a budget, but I rarely stick to it.

Frugality is an adventure in creativity and one of the major hurdles to being frugal is laziness. They say time is money, which is true. If you don't want to spend the money you have to put in the time. You can't have both. I bought a cardboard cat scratcher at the pet store for $10 and I am beating myself up for it. It was on impulse. I knew it wasn't worth $10. The $10 was worth the time it would take me to make one at home out of an old box and some tape. I bought it in that split-second decision because I didn't have faith in myself that I would spend the time to make one. I gave in to my laziness. I don't want to do that; it makes me feel bad. I want to be active and pro-active about doing things for myself and spending more time and less money.

This is why this is "The Year of Frugality". It's the year when I will get my head around being practically frugal. I will learn to live with less everyday. I will learn to live below my means. In the process I think I will find more joy within myself. I will learn to do things I never thought I could do and I will do things I never thought of doing. Living without constant gratification only makes those treats sweeter and brings a new view on the smaller beauties in life. It fosters spiritual growth and hopefully a little monetary growth in the process.