Budgeting for a family, yes it can be a challenge. We do okay but we're not rolling in it and we do better because we are as frugal as we can be and we are trying not to go too crazy spending money on things.
Self control (or moderation, as my mother would say)
I love reading design blogs, especially interior design but I think instead I should be reading organization blogs because these interior design people don't seem to ever be short on space. This line of conversation always seems to end up with me talking about my wonderful eBay store in which I'm going to downsize my stuff (work in progress, I swear). Anyhow, I don't shop much in person, because I never find anything I like and when I do I always think "I should just make that". I buy stuff on eBay sometimes, I admit.
I think these interior design (I would say design but as a graphic designer that would sound confusing) blogs are onto something, and I don't mean cross-processing and DSLRs, I mean visual white space. Surely on a blogger's income, I don't think they all live in country villas or swank NY lofts, but I live in a crappy rundown house in a crappy suburb of one of the most expensive cities in the world, most of the rooms have windows but our bathroom has a wall that moves. Yes, we could get a better place but we can't afford more rent and we have a cat so it seems we will be stuck here for the term of our natural lives. So do I get rid of my stuff? I'm using most of it and we have a storage room which is already full. Crap. Then there's the matter of our baby girl who is now officially a toddler and will probably need her own room soon, and leaving my computer equipment unattended in a room with a gal obsessed with buttons, switches and power cords seems somewhat misguided. Okay, this point is clearly not resolved but let's forge ahead regardless.
Plan B: Cooking, actual food
I mostly eat a plant-based diet. I was vegan for a while there but I got a bit freaked out when I found out I was pregnant because I wasn't consistently eating flax and I don't even have any chia seeds (I couldn't find them cheap so didn't buy any), plus I was going to school and being organized with a lunch that wasn't just fruit and seeds was proving more difficult than it sounds. So anyway, the food court won for a few months there, then I got to enjoy massive pregnancy weight gain, which culminated in my doctor telling me to go on the Atkins diet! (Um, hi, vegetarian!). Anyhow, I kind of fell off the wagon and am now waving my hanky behind it trying to catch it again, cooking with beans and plant-based food takes time and planning. Planning I got, time I do not.
I like to cook vegetarian food because it's cheaper but I don't like buying canned beans. This means we eat a lot of lentils and really, that's no way to live. I love cooking but I'm a shameless foodie who loves fine cheese and red wine and expensive things, but I now have a food budget and am finding big cost savings in making stuff that costs pennies to make, such as tortillas and pizza dough and other things which are basically made of flour and water. I also don't go to the expensive supermarkets like Safeway and go to the smaller ones instead (Donald's, Buy-Low) who have better prices and less processed crap that I shouldn't be buying anyway.
The answer is sewing, of course
I know it can be a lot of work but sewing your own clothes is a good way to not worry about what size you are wearing and avoid those tear-inducing store change rooms. I was lucky and learned how to sew from my mother, but there are tons of tutorials and youtube etc if you need help. It comes in handy, gives you more confidence because stuff fits you properly, plus you can make the kind of clothes you want. Fabric is pretty cheap in charity stores and you can take existing garments and change them.
I hope my daughter likes the dresses I make for her... there's probably an age limit and then she'll want to wear Reebok pumps or whatever. Would love to hear some tips from some more experienced home economists who don't eat a lot of meat. I will not eat canned meats, no matter how economical it is, it's totally gross.
by Lise Eliot
? (I found a book on the topic of girls being cruel to their peers but I've just noticed that it includes things like why "God" thinks about being mean to one another. *barf* No thanks, I will find something a bit more realistic to recommend later.) Women are strong, resilient and have a higher tolerance to pain than men do (according to Mythbusters), we should embrace what we are and what we do, and ignore flash-in-the-pan celebrity morons like Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton and every other talentless attention seeker that they try to distract us from the real issues that matter to women in our society. Let's stick together instead.
