Simple Living Update

Back on August 8^th, I had an epiphany of sorts … a conviction to put all my simple living ideas and talk into practice. I had been inspired especially by Jay Shafer’s Tiny House which arrived here at The Lodge in July.  I decided that I had to begin the first day of my ‘year-long’ experiment  without giving myself any lead time in which to ‘prepare’. Human nature being what it is – even with an iron will like mine – I decided it was “now or never”, and so began my “Year of Living Frugally”.  It has been two full months now, and this is an update on how it’s going. It was designed to be a year without purchasing anything but necessities, and I drew up some guidelines on how to define what that meant.  The ‘approved purchases’ were of course things like mortgage payments and utility bills, medical expenses and an account into which I set aside money for two of our children’s upcoming weddings.  Books, being my personal obsession and my biggest possible weakness, I made certain guidelines for them: 1) Library usage comes first; 2) digital downloads next, and 3) second-hand books are acceptable, if absolutely needed. No new books. Period. Whole foods and simple healthy eating will be the norm, as always, but restaurant meals are a no-no.  Being both a writer and a business owner, a computer and a cell phone have become absolute necessities in my life, and would need to be replaced if they broke. While I personally could do quite well without either, under my circumstances it was out of the question. And then as Murphy’s law would have it, the touch screen on my cell phone went on my trip to Baltimore, while taking our son Noah to college at the end of August. Not only could Verizon NOT fix it, they couldn’t get me the phone I wanted for a full month. During that time I found that I could survive  (and it was actually quite liberating to be cut from the umbilical cord). However, the new smart phone – when it finally arrived -- set me back a pretty penny. One good thing about me and cell phones: once I figure out how to use all the features on them, we are inseparable until one of us dies!  This one was a full year overdue for an upgrade. The most unsettling situation of all, however, is that my laptop is now showing signs of following suit … only intermittently connecting to the internet, and many applications not working at all … I could be due for an unplanned purchase there.  Rats!  On all other fronts, however, spending has stopped; there have been NO spur of the moment purchases, and my checking account has steadily gone up in these two months, a wonderful result. Not only that, my credit cards have a zero balance for the first time in years.  I can now start planning ahead for special ‘simple living’ purchases, such as building a Tiny House.  So all in all it has been a painless two months, and actually, they have been  extremely satisfying!  I will report in again in another month as I complete my first quarter of my Year of Living Frugally.