Money Musings

        I read an interesting book a couple of weeks ago, called The Year Without a Purchase.  The author and his wife decided to try a crazy experiment to buy nothing "long lived" for a year. By that, I mean they could buy food and toiletries and items that would be used up quickly.  They also allowed themselves "experience" purchases, so going on vacation and going to museums and movies were permitted.

    It's an interesting read.  They found themselves being very creative about opportunities like their children going to birthday parties -- what could their kids bring for a gift if they couldn't purchase anything? They did "cheat" 3 or 4 times on absolute necessities.

   It is clear from the beginning of the book that both partners enjoyed shopping for fun, which isn't true of me.  The husband, who wrote the book, commented that all 4 of them (they have 2 young children) had enough clothes for a year so definitely didn't buy any clothes. That is NOT true of us, as with 9 children we often have kids moving into new sizes and seasons that require clothing purchases.

   All in all, I found it interesting but, at first, not particularly relevant.  I am not someone who shops for fun and I have this perception of myself as not buying items casually.

  However...

  Last week, we bought a "new" car for ourselves, as described in a previous blog post. That slashed our savings significantly.  I admit that I cling to savings for reassurance, so I find our much smaller savings account a bit unnerving.  I have been reminded, again, that the Lord is our refuge and caretaker.  Money is just money. It is a tool, and a helpful one, but I should not put my hope in it.

   However, savings are also wise given that life can throw curveballs when suddenly a big expense crops up. So...I decided, mostly for fun, to try to cut back on personal purchases for at least a month.  By that, I mean I'll happily and easily buy all "necessities" but I'll think long and hard about ANYTHING extraneous.

  The author of The Year Without a Purchase repeatedly makes a relevant point, that people like him (and our family) have a luxury beyond belief to "decide" to save extra money by being careful with purchases.  Billions of people live in poverty.  Many moms and dads go to bed at night wondering if they'll be able to feed their children in the morning.  There is a danger of pride and/or foolish feelings of deprivation for someone like me.  We have enough food in the house to feed us all comfortable for likely several weeks.  We have credit cards and loving relatives nearby.  We are SO blessed materially that to put a word like "frugal" on what we do seems somewhat prideful.

  Having said all that, there is value (of course) in thinking about purchases.  The older I get, the less "fun" stuff I find myself buying, partially because we have 9 children to provide for and partly because I don't need more clutter in our house.  I don't need much more STUFF in our house. The stuff we have already overwhelms me at times :-).

   Anyway, last week I decided 2 things. One, we would poke around cupboards and eat up food languishing in corners (that is still good, of course.)  I think you know how it is -- we buy something and then don't use it and it just sits in a corner.  We also still have sweet potatoes and squash from last fall's harvest. They are still good, but the sweet potatoes have been picked over and are small.  I've discovered the hordes LOVES sweet potato fries, so I've been making them often.

   I also decided to go all hard nose on breakfast. The kids have their "favorite cereals" and eat those in preference to other cereals. I decided I wouldn't buy more breakfast cereal 'til we ate up what we had.  Right now, we are down to 3 or 4 large bags of fruit rings (like Fruit Loops.)  So, I guess the kids don't like those.  I wish I had known that earlier :-).  Oh, we have a little granola, too.  Most of the kids have turned their nose up to the available cereal, and are having toast and apples and I've been making muffins sometimes, you get the picture. Almost certainly healthier, but breakfast is taking more time.

  I'm also not buying items casually. I already said I don't usually, but I'm aware, Ok, I do.  For example, my mother in law gave us an old Rubik's Cube last week.  Many kids were excited about it and there was a war over it. I thought, briefly, of buying a NEW Rubik's Cube so we'd have 2 available. But then I thought, no, I'm not making extraneous purchases.

  So I was feeling all proud of myself, but the Rubik's Cube we have broke this morning!  Well, I'm still not buying one right now. I refuse :-).

  So we'll see how the next month goes.  Will cutting back on groceries and some extra purchases make a difference?  I'll try to report later on how it goes.