What Is Simple Living To Me ......Thinking Out Loud.....( Thinking Allowed)

This is Hubby's sister's property in NW New South Wales.

I have really been thinking about what I mean when I say that we live a simple life. Simplicity is different for every person. For some it may be as little as a way of thinking or philosophy whilst for others it may mean complete self sufficiency. We are all at different stages and phases in our lives and no one way is correct. So my question to you is.... if you say you live simply, how do you define it ?

Over the years since our first child was born we seem to phase in and out of our simple living mode. It seems that we are on track for a while then slowly drift off the path until we have totally lost the plot and then we have a giant revamp and get it all back on track again.

When we first started trying to be more frugal and live a bit more old fashioned I used to joke about how I could close the front gate and feel as though I was on 30,000 acres. We used to laugh and say our family motto was "peace, love and vegetables".

Over time the idea of simplicity has changed somewhat, particularly as the children got older. When I think of living simply now I think of the following things that suit us as a family:

1. Cooking from scratch - for that 'old fashioned feeling', less food additives and much cheaper and healthier.

2. Working with a cash budget

3. Planning Menus

4. Not watching commercial TV - minimising advertising exposure

5. Playing together as a family

6. Living in a home that we own - not living beyond our means

7. Working part time

8. Growing what we can

9. Reducing belongings and clutter

10. Eating locally where possible

11. Having a grocery stockpile

12. Making our own bread

13. Composting our food scraps

14. Riding our bicycles instead of using the car

15. Thinking before we buy anything

The list goes on. I guess the biggest thing for me is a sense of control. Not feeling as though we are adrift in the ocean being knocked around by every wave that comes in.

I believe that when you are living a life authentic to your inner values you will experience a sense of peace. Once you have this feeling, it is easy to know when you go off the path and it's great to have that sense of peace return when you are back on track.

I would love to know your thoughts on this. Drop me a line.

Joy Joy Joy .......down in my heart !

The Christmas Season is over for another year. We had a really lovely day. We went to my Sister and Brother In Law's house. They live on a property about 10 minutes from a little town in north west New South Wales. The weather was really kind to us in that it wasn't too hot.

We had quite a lean Christmas.

We made a real effort this year to buy our boys things that they could use rather than heaps of toys with thousands of parts that are broken by New Year. We also tried to avoid over priced licenced merchandise, you know the ones, where the price is doubled because the item has a picture from some movie. For the grown ups this year we did a 'Secret Santa' - where everyone's name goes into a hat and you buy just for one person.

On Boxing Day we headed off on our holiday and stayed at our favourite resort. It was VERY relaxing. We really took the time to wind down. We also spoke about our goals and plans for 2008.

Now we are refreshed and ready to tackle the new year. I love the new year time. It's a chance to draw a line under everything that's happened and start afresh.

A Blogging Break

Wishing you all a very lovely Christmas and a relaxing break.
See you back in the New Year, refreshed and relaxed.
Stay Safe.

XXooXX
BusyWoman

New Floors Down

The floors are down and the furniture is slowly going back to where it should be. The floors need to be polished a little as they are a bit flat and have a powdery coating.

The next step is to complete my 'VISION SPLENDID'. My vision is of a well maintained, organised house with a place for everything and everything in it's place. Clear of clutter and unused items. A place where our children can grow and learn in a simple environment free from the distractions that the world puts in our way (read consumerism!) I believe that when children have too much and are never bored, they don't ever develop their imagination. It is the child who is allowed to become 'bored' from time to time who builds a cubby house, creates a 'shop' or sits down to sketch and design.

So the task of decluttering, simplifying and creating peace continues.

Not A Vision Splendid

Last night we had to move everything so that the timber floors can go down. FINALLY !

We have done a lot of work to this little house over the past few years. It has grown as our needs have grown. The latest project involved closing in a back cement veranda and reclaiming an over sized laundry for living area. We then updated the bathroom and combined the laundry with the bathroom because the bathroom is a good size and we use a front loading washing machine that doesn't take up much space.

Now it's time to put timber flooring down - all the way through the house except the bedrooms. Hopefully it will cut down on dust and will be easier to keep clean.

I am looking forward to putting things back and minimising all the clutter. I will create my Vision Splendid, that is, I will design it exactly the way I would like it to be !

$21 challenge Meals

As regular readers will know, we have been gathering meal ideas to be able to carry out the $21 challenge from Simple Savings ( see the link below right).

Here is last nights dinner. - Home made wraps which I have posted the recipe of before. ( see recipes section)

As you can see from the picture - the wraps are not perfectly shaped like the ones you buy in the packet, but believe me they are much tastier and they roll without breaking. They are also very filling. You would be pushing it to eat more than one. You can fill them with whatever you have. Last night we marinated some chicken strips and had some salad with them.

....And the costs ? Well....... difficult to calculate -flour, salt, warm milk, vegetable oil. Hmmmm probably about 75 cents for the four wraps. The extra cost comes in the filling, so about $2.50 for the chicken strips (250g) and the salad is difficult to estimate because you use the same items for many meals.

It is certainly a meal to add to the list for the challenge. It's also a very healthy one.

An Entrepreneurial Spirit

As you would have ready earlier in my blog I am fascinated by the ways of my Grandmother who is now a healthy 100 year old. I believe that we have lost many of the good things about this style of living.

 I am not saying that it would be nice to go back to having no electricity and no running water but I think we can implement many of the ideas and philosophies from that time to benefit our modern lives.

One thing about the old ways that I love is the entrepreneurial spirit.

That is, the ability of people to create their own incomes. I am certain that it wold not have been viewed in such a romantic light back then, it was more a case of survival.

 If you wanted to eat then you needed to either grow it yourself or make some money doing something in order to buy your food.

There were no credit cards. If you didn't have the money then you didn't buy the goods. I often think that if it wasn't for credit cards and redrawing on mortgages we would be living almost like the Great Depression days.

How would you go if you got your weekly income out of the bank, held it in cash and new that it was all you had to sustain you for the week, or new that you had to actually save some of it to buy more expensive things?

In times gone by people created their own money without a job as such. Lots of people worked for themselves - the old idea of the butcher, baker, candlestick maker. My Grandmother worked hard to save money when it came in from selling wheat and wool. She also made money through extra things like selling eggs and turkeys.

Have we lost our Entrepreneurial Spirit ? Would we be brave enough to sell our services or goods for money ?
Would we be brave enough to know that if we worked hard we would make more money but if we were lazy we would make less?

Something worth thinking about.