It’s amazing how the more you have, the more you want and the less you have, the more you realize you don’t need that much. I know everyone says it in some form or another but for me it took something like this recession to make me see that I have more than enough to be happy. I always did.
Growing up, my mom bestowed on my sister and me amazingly useful skills. She taught us to sew clothes following patterns, to knit and crochet. She taught us to cook, to make preserves and she taught us about what could be frozen and how. She taught us about the hundred-and-one uses for vinegar. She taught us to fix our hems, take-in clothes and shorten jeans. She taught us to quilt and make decorative items for the home like pillows and curtains. She taught us to grow small gardens, collect seeds and care for house plants. She taught us why it’s ok and smart to clip coupons… Notice a trend here?
The keys were to be:
- Self-sufficient
- To stretch every dollar
- To get the most use from everything we spent money on
We weren’t struggling financially, there was no recession at that time either. It was just common sense. It was common sense when I was a teenager and it’s common sense today… I just forgot. It’s been a costly mistake (boy has it ever been!) but the best part is that I remembered and it’s all coming back to me.
Flickr Creative Commons: Rodrigo Campos
So back to the basics I go. My sewing machine came out. Crafting supplies came out of storage. Found some great recipes online. Invested in durable freezer bags. Purged a lot of stuff I don’t use anymore, or ever did… And that’s just the beginning.
Filed under: Growing up, Living simply | Tagged: awareness, common sense, do-it-yourself, recession
