Frugality is Rewarding!

I can’t believe it’s been over a year since I started my Blog.
It has been a joy to have place where I can document things in my life that are important to me!
This technology is wonderful and really has changed my life as I am so bad about writing in a journal and even though each daily event isn’t recorded this is a great way for me and my family to look back in years to come and remember my thoughts, feelings and memories about our life.

Even though I have shared about our journey towards voluntary simplicity, I wanted to expound just a little bit further.

For the record,
I have found from many a talk with family and friends when some people think of being frugal or thrifty many times an image comes to people’s minds of a family that is just living hand to mouth in poverty and barely scraping by.
We are not poor!
Frankly, it’s quite opposite of that with our family. We are actually in our financial prime. We are making more money than we have ever made. But, several years ago, we realized we weren't living far enough below our means and emergencies happen, children get sick and you acquire medical bills, etc... and you soon realize that you are using your house like a cash register (borrowing against the equity).
We realized real quick that we didn't want to be on the 15-30 year treadmill of "paying off debt" like is the "societal norm". We knew more than anything that we wanted to be completely FREE from debt so that we could finally live the life we have dreamed!! With much self discipline we are 4-5 years away being completely debt-free (including our house) and frugality has been at the core to us reaching our goal.

Living frugally has been a quest and a fun challenge!
I just really love and enjoy seeing how good and healthy we can eat for very little money spent. Tracy’s and my adventurous spirit has greatly helped this challenge as well. By learning to live frugally we are learning lifelong skills. None of us can see the future to know how the economy is going to turn, if we may be faced with unemployment, etc…. but someday we are all going to be in the same spot…
at retirement age and living on a fixed income
and the lifelong skills we are learning today will benefit us greatly on whatever the future brings our way.

It really is ironic how living frugally can actually mean eating healthier than if you didn’t live frugally (obviously this varies greatly).
By making things from scratch yourself, it is SO much more healthy because it isn’t full of preservatives, chemicals and added sugar and salt that comes from buying and eating processed foods. Besides the health benefits of living frugally, the food you purchase for your store room actually lasts longer and many times is pennies on the dollar compared to buying packages goods.. Boxes of cereal, cake mixes, muffin mixes, hamburger helper, etc…. only has a shelf life of a few months before it goes stale.
However, staples of beans, legumes, home canned goods, flour, sugar, salt, etc….have a shelf life of a year to many years. Another benefit of cooking from scratch is it makes it so you actually can have more money to buy plenty of produce to enjoy daily.
If you save in one area it gives you more money to enjoy in another area.

YES, we do splurge and eat very well…Salmon is cooked weekly, we all enjoy an apple each day and many other varieties of fruits as well.
One of my greatest things I believe is that:
"Health is Wealth"!
(see “Our Splurges” post here).

So, I consider frugality a very rewarding challenge that is actually a part of me. It has taken years and many baby steps to get to this point, but
frugality is running through my veins…
the concept of trading our precious life energy for money and then choosing what that money is spent on is instilled in me and there is no turning back.

To quote Joe Dominguez in the book
"Your Money or your Life"
(which, this is one of my all-time favorite books)

"Goldilocks expressed it well when she declared the porridge
"not too hot, not too cold, but just right".
Frugality is something like that...not too much, not too little, but just right. Nothing is wasted. Or left unused. It's a clean machine. Sleek. Perfect. Simple yet elegant. It's that magic word --enough."
Keep this in mind as we explore ways to save money.
We aren't talking about being cheap, making do or being skinflint or a tightwad. We're talking about creative frugality, a way of life in which you get the maximum fulfillment for each unit of life energy spent".

(more Joe Dominguez)
"Remember Frugality isn't about being a cheapskate, or a penny pincher. It's about honoring and valuing your most precious resource--your life energy.
Shopping smart, saving money, following the adage "Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without" isn't about deprivation;
it's about loving yourself and your life
so much that you wouldn't think
of wasting a second".

"If you want to feel rich,
just count all the things you have
that money can't buy".
******