Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Falling off the frugal bandwagon!

I was very impacted by Rhonda's post yesterday...I am slipping in my frugal ways...and I know it is time related.

I, like most of you, am in the stage of life where my children take up huge chunks of time - time I am so happy to give them. We homeschool too, so this means my mornings (until 2pm) are taken up with school activities. Thereafter, 3x a week, they have activities. This leaves Tuesday for my business (packaging and posting orders) and Friday for groceries and errands.

Saturdays and Sundays are meant to be quiet at home days but Saturday seems to fill up with stuff...anything from making something in the kitchen through to a family outing for something....Sundays I am really trying to rest which is not easy for my "must-be-busy" nature.

So in this hurly burly of life I have relied more and more in the last few months on shops. I still make my own bread most days, cook from scratch, garden, line dry washing, no heaters - rather a fire, but our household bills climb increasingly.

It doesn't help that we now have one of our precious children meeting with a speech therapist for dyspraxia weekly which gobbles a huge chunk of cash every month. This is not negotiable and is necessary for him...please don't take this as a moan...it isn't.

So somewhere, somehow I need to make time to save more and I know from the past that living frugally = time...something that I don't seem to have right now.

Is there anyone out there who can give me a VIT B frugal injection? I sure would appreciate it!

3 comments:

africanaussie said...

Don't be too hard on yourself... you are doing so many wonderful things and recognizing you might have slipped is always the first step to discovering areas that need help. I know that here in Australia the price of food has risen dramatically in the last year, so take that into account.

Patti~~~ said...

Being a regular reader, I can see that you live a beautiful and authentic life. Sometimes, though, we have ups and downs in how frugal we can be. Life throws things our way, or we make choices that use up our time (I am a homeschool mom, too, and I wouldn't have it any other way!!)and then, we just do the best we can.

I love Rhonda's blog, I have learned SO much from being a faithful reader. Remember, though, that she is no longer in the child-raising season of life and, therefore, has a bit more time than many of us who have young ones at home, run a business, etc. IN ADDITION to growing/preserving our own food, cooking from scratch, sewing, and the myriad things that goes into living frugally/simply.

If we get so caught up in trying to do every single thing the "frugal way", we can allow ourselves to be robbed of the sheer joy of living----that is NEVER a good thing. There is always more I can do to save money and practice greater frugality and simplicity, but I am not willing to trade off having energy to enjoy my family (I struggle with fibromyalgia so having enough energy is always an issue) and some time to spend with them in order to do that.

I take "inventory" now and again and see what areas might be okay to make some changes in, and then I do the best I can to implement them. But if I am in a place where it does not seem practical to do so, then I choose not to fret over it and move on, recognizing that, one day, it may be a good time to do those things once again.

Thank you for such a wonderful blog---I appreciate your efforts.

Blessings from northern California!

Urban Homestead South Africa said...

Thanks so much for your comments. I know that our food prices have risen here too and this is where I think the bulk of the savings can be made - but I cannot compromise on our organic foods which do then to be more expensive.

Patti - I appreciate your comments so much. You are correct in what you say about seasons of life and joy of living. Thank you.