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The ability to live a simple life
I've never thought of myself as a trend setter and indeed I don't think I've ever set any trends, but it appears that within our particular environment I am. Or rather we are - Wayne and I are a partnership and our lifestyle is as much a result of that partnership as it is of my efforts.
Thirty years ago - wow, it's that long - when disaster struck we stepped back and took a long, hard look at our lives, our lifestyle, our hopes, dreams and goals. It was a forced step back and a very forced look, but we did it.
What we realised was that a lot of what we did was based on what others around us were doing and our concept of what was expected and indeed acceptable amongst our peers. It was like being hit with a brick to realise that for the most part we preferred being at home with our young family or spending time just together. We didn't have to be doing anything special or have organized "date nights" or even leave the house.
We weren't big on eating out or parties or long holidays (although I am partial to room service). We didn't want a bigger house (more work) or new cars.
Instead we wanted to be able to enjoy the things we had.
And so although we refer to that time as "WHEN DISASTER STRUCK" in hindsight it wasn't so disastrous.
We stepped back and made the decision to put our money, time and energy into the things that were important to US. If our family and friends didn't like it, that was OK. But we wanted a better life, not a busier life.
And we wanted it for our family.
So the decision was made. Things were tough but I would be a real stay-at-home mum. We would raise our children with our values to our standards. We would become the family we wanted to be.
In a nutshell we would ditch all the stuff we did and had that wasn't important to us and focus on the things that were.
We switched from avid 20th Century consumers to simple living. We made our tree change without realizing that was what we were doing.
In fact at the time my main focus was keeping a roof over our heads, food on the table and the new baby. I didn't even notice that turning the sandpit into a veggie garden was making us self-sufficient. Or that cooking from scratch and learning to recycle were lessening our impact on the environment.
Those realizations came later, after we'd become comfortable with our lifestyle and decided that we were happy, happier in fact than we'd ever been before. We were living better on less than half our previous income and it was easy.
It was so easy that we had friends and family members, even mere acquaintances, asking us how we did it. To the outside world our lifestyle hadn't changed all that much, but our circumstance certainly had and they knew it.
Fast forward all those years and we still live simple lives. Not to be confused with poor lives, or miserable lives or hard lives. I am very fond of my creature comforts and while I would one day love to go off-grid, for the time being we are connected and make use of the electricity it supplies. I still go shopping and yes, I even buy new things, but not before I've tried to find whatever it is used or to recycle or remake something I already have into it.
There is a family joke that if ever anything happens and we have to choose what to take with us in a hurry I'll opt for the dishwasher and the vacuum. I probably would too!
Because we decided 30 years ago to focus on what's important to us and do away with all the things that weren't and that were actually making us unhappy, we became by default a part of the simple living movement.
Simple living or living the Cheapskates way, doesn't matter what you call it, it's simply living life debt free, cashed up and yes, laughing!
I'm just so grateful that disaster chose us to strike, because we've never looked back.
Thirty years ago - wow, it's that long - when disaster struck we stepped back and took a long, hard look at our lives, our lifestyle, our hopes, dreams and goals. It was a forced step back and a very forced look, but we did it.
What we realised was that a lot of what we did was based on what others around us were doing and our concept of what was expected and indeed acceptable amongst our peers. It was like being hit with a brick to realise that for the most part we preferred being at home with our young family or spending time just together. We didn't have to be doing anything special or have organized "date nights" or even leave the house.
We weren't big on eating out or parties or long holidays (although I am partial to room service). We didn't want a bigger house (more work) or new cars.
Instead we wanted to be able to enjoy the things we had.
And so although we refer to that time as "WHEN DISASTER STRUCK" in hindsight it wasn't so disastrous.
We stepped back and made the decision to put our money, time and energy into the things that were important to US. If our family and friends didn't like it, that was OK. But we wanted a better life, not a busier life.
And we wanted it for our family.
So the decision was made. Things were tough but I would be a real stay-at-home mum. We would raise our children with our values to our standards. We would become the family we wanted to be.
In a nutshell we would ditch all the stuff we did and had that wasn't important to us and focus on the things that were.
We switched from avid 20th Century consumers to simple living. We made our tree change without realizing that was what we were doing.
In fact at the time my main focus was keeping a roof over our heads, food on the table and the new baby. I didn't even notice that turning the sandpit into a veggie garden was making us self-sufficient. Or that cooking from scratch and learning to recycle were lessening our impact on the environment.
Those realizations came later, after we'd become comfortable with our lifestyle and decided that we were happy, happier in fact than we'd ever been before. We were living better on less than half our previous income and it was easy.
It was so easy that we had friends and family members, even mere acquaintances, asking us how we did it. To the outside world our lifestyle hadn't changed all that much, but our circumstance certainly had and they knew it.
Fast forward all those years and we still live simple lives. Not to be confused with poor lives, or miserable lives or hard lives. I am very fond of my creature comforts and while I would one day love to go off-grid, for the time being we are connected and make use of the electricity it supplies. I still go shopping and yes, I even buy new things, but not before I've tried to find whatever it is used or to recycle or remake something I already have into it.
There is a family joke that if ever anything happens and we have to choose what to take with us in a hurry I'll opt for the dishwasher and the vacuum. I probably would too!
Because we decided 30 years ago to focus on what's important to us and do away with all the things that weren't and that were actually making us unhappy, we became by default a part of the simple living movement.
Simple living or living the Cheapskates way, doesn't matter what you call it, it's simply living life debt free, cashed up and yes, laughing!
I'm just so grateful that disaster chose us to strike, because we've never looked back.