10 Ways I Simplify; 10 Ways I Complicate
Posted by Lise on 04 Sep 2007 at 08:46 pm | Tagged as: frugality, voluntary simplicity
Does perhaps a balance stand
Between the Devil on one hand
And God on the other, which must be gained
As often as lost, and so maintained?–
And what I love as my own soul
I spit upon–to make me whole?- Edna St. Vincent Millay, “Journal”
We are imperfect creatures. Voluntary simplicity and frugality are certainly my goals, but sometimes I fall short of the mark. This post is my own way of balancing the scales; of assessing what my husband and I do right as well as what we do wrong.
Ways I Simplify
- I use simple cleaners (such as vinegar/water or diluted Simple Green), with rags, for most of my cleaning needs.
- I compulsively reuse. Plastic grocery bags become litter cleanout bags. Litter tubs become planters. Plastic tubs for food are washed out and used again. I have rows of raspberry syrup bottles cleaned out and ready to reuse for gifts somedays.
- I love my library – so much so that I have almost stopped buying books entirely. We also borrow books and DVDs from our friends.
- We don’t have a land line – just two cell phones. They’re basic cell phones, too – no smart phones here, although they’re tempting.
- My husband and I carpool to work 3-4 times a week.
- I almost always bring my own lunch to work. Sometimes, if I forget, I’ll walk down to the nearest supermarket and pick up some lunch supplies, instead.
- We make use of Freecycle, Craigslist, yard sales, and the kindness of family and friends for many of our needs. We just got a working Toro snowblower through Freecycle!
- We only go to the movies two or three times a year The last movie I saw in a theatre was the second Pirates of the Caribbean movie.
- I reuse tea bags at least twice; sometimes three times. Surprisingly, the most inexpensive teas are most often the ones that are stuffed with tea and can be reused again and again.
- We don’t have kids, and don’t intend to. We’re staunchly childfree, and I don’t see the point—ecologically, economically, or philosophically—in bringing another methane-belching living thing with a 70 year lifespan into the world. Plus, we’re having too much fun without them.
Ways I Complicate
- We pay for basic cable (~$80/month with bundled high-speed Internet) and a Netflix account ($17.99/month). We also have a home-built PVR which we use to record our favorite shows; the listings for this cost us $5/month.
- We own more house than we should. We pay a minimum of 44% of our income in mortgage expenses.
- We may not have kids, but we do have four cats, which accounts for $200-$300 out of our expenses each month.
- Even though we do carpool most days, we live 20 miles away from my job and about 40 miles away from Matt’s. Additionally, many of our friends still live in the closer Boston suburbs, so we find ourselves driving back there a few times a month.
- We’ve managed to cut back on the dining out habit, but our weaknesses are still Panera and Dunkin Donuts. Breakfast really IS the best meal of the day!
- We don’t make a great effort to eat cheaply. Matt and I love filet mignon steak, expensive cheeses, fresh raspberries, and fresh-cut asparagus. When there’s no time for that, we live on convenience foods like whole-wheat pasta with jar pasta sauce.
- We pay too much interest on our credit cards. I am attempting to remedy this.
- We are energy-inefficient. While we have a wood stove in our house, we still used oil most of the winter - at around $500 per fill-up. In the summer, we do so love our central air - to the tune of $150-$200/month.
- One of our hobbies - costuming - eats up the largest portion of our entertainment budget. It is not unknown for us to spend $500+ on creating one costume. We then travel to conventions to compete with these costumes, which involves convention fees, travel, lodging, and food.
- We are not proactive. Recently I had to miss a half day of work due to a windshield repair that should have happened six months ago. We don’t mail things on time and then pay expedite fees. A plant we bought died because I was too lazy to repot it. And the list goes on…
Random Posts
Diluted Simple Green, FtW! My parents first tried that out years ago, when it was a new product, and I’m a fan. Now it comes in Orange as well, but there’s something about that original pine scent…. We also use a bleach solution that we make up ourselves. A few spray bottles from the Container Store or Home Depot make these a lot easier to get in bulk and dilute appropriately for use.
I’m with you on the cell phones thing. We’re the same way. I’ve been trying to reduce my cell phone plan on T-Mobile’s website, but I think they are sticking their fingers in their ears and are ignoring me.
Did you know that when you reuse a teabag, the caffeine is brewed out in the first cup, and subsequent ones are caffeine free? It’s an easy way to naturally decaffeinate your tea if you are trying to cut out the caffeine. (Herbal Teas are typically caffeine free to begin with though) So a quick steep to lose the caffeine, then a longer one in a fresh cup to actually make tea with.
Childfree: Children are not your thing. As they’re not your thing, it makes no sense to have them, other arguments aside. As for those who do bring them into the world, it’s up to them to deal with, pay for, clean up after, etc. Eventually these children become adults who can have a positive impact of their own upon the world. Or not.
Amanda and I allocate about $50/week for groceries (total, not per person), and regularly trim our options to fit into that allotment. Try it, you’ll be surprised how far it can actually go.
Energy inefficient: part of this is the too much house. We have window units, and are pretty good about closing off just the part of the house we are cooling, and only cooling it when it is truly uncomfortably hot or humid. Electric Bills this summer have been in the $50-$60 range.
How did it go with the windshield replacement??
Your Simple Green smells like pine? Odd. We got one of the big jugs at Home Depot to dilute, and it smells minty to me. I actually like it because not a lot of household cleaners smell like that!
The windshield replacement would have worked well, except that the Tercel developed issues the day of. So I couldn’t get to work, and what’s more, the windshield guy didn’t show up, possibly because Matt spent so much time dithering on the phone with him about when to show up (so that he would have time to bring me to work).
As for the energy efficiency… I think this year we’ll try to save up paper garbage for burning in the wood stove. Just a little bit of a fire in there warms the whole house. Closing off rooms is only effective when you have a separate thermostat for each room, which we don’t. On the other end of the seasonal spectrum, while I could deal with the heat and humidity without too much need for central air, I suspect Matt would suffer.
CF also.
if only everyone knew how effective vinegar & baking soda were!
thrifty grocery buyer? not me. i mean, i have a generally allocated amount per month for groceries but ive stopped reading articles like ‘how to cut your grocery bill’ or ‘eating on $15 per week’ because i LOVE food. i am lucky enough to not need to cut my food budget to survive so food is where i spend for what i want to enjoy my meals. i am very thankful for this luxury. as far as eating out though, i have a strict budget per week of “allowance” and meals out are taken from that. unless… =]
good post!
[...] on how FFL got started. Thanks for visiting!I like the way that Lise has thought over how she simplifies her life and complicates it. One way I simplify is to declutter (organize, give away) my stuff about every 3-4 months. I get [...]
[...] I’ve written before about my childfree status. Early in our relationship, my husband and I idly discussed the possibility of children, but at some point we just turned to each other and said, “Really, are we ever going to be ready to give up our financial freedom for kids?” As a result, our financial future is clearer and our path to retirement is shorter. Every time I see a finance article talk about starting a college savings plan, I cross my fingers and give thanks that I never have to worry about that. I know that when the house is paid off, I can pretty much retire. Hell, I can predict when the house is going to be paid off. I don’t have to worry about outgrowing this one. It’s a real joy to know that I don’t owe anything to a little being, no matter how adorable they may be. [...]
Your simplifying sounds a lot like ours — except that we’ve just about kicked bag tea for good. I still reuse the leaves, but it’s so much cheaper for us to buy loose tea and it tastes better too. (And I love mixing teas.) And, alright, we got the cool phones — but my husband’s work pays for most of the expense since he actually needs to internet on his phone for work.
Your “complications” also sound similar. My husband and I have four cats and our roommate has two more, so I definitely understand about kitty expenses. But they are totally worth it. Eating right is worth it too, though I eat more veggies than filet mignon and my grocery bills have come down a lot this year by eating more simply.
We actually got our house for a good deal — I guess less than 20% of our income right now. Our mortgage is less than what some of our friends pay to rent much smaller places in locations not nearly as nice. However, at 1800 sq.ft. it’s still more room than we really need, even though only about 1300 of that is really living space due to long-term renovations that are going to cost us more than we had expected (ironically, in part because we still want more room in the kitchen and living room). It’s amazing how much even cheap houses can cost! But our solution has been to put an extra bedroom to good use and have a roommate. So far, that has worked out really well. It saves us all money.