Living on Less and Having Fun Doing So!

My family recently had the opportunity to do without heat for a few days. Where we live we, have a swamp cooler, rather than "refrigerated air", which requires us to choose each season when to call the maintenance man to switch us over from cold to heat. We cannot freely switch back and forth between the two. Now, where we live, we've not yet had freezing temperatures, but we have had a few nights where it's been in the upper 30s at night, but warmer during the day. Those cold nights have taught us a thing or two!

Granted, those nights were cold, but we saw that, with a little effort, we could live comfortably with our thermostat turned down lower in winter! A few extra blankets on the bed, and some sweaters made us quite comfortable. And we actually found that we slept better in the cooler air!

For fun a few months ago, the children and I decided to pretend we live in the days before electricity was discovered. As the sun went down, and it became darker and darker, we sat by the light of one candle, telling stories and enjoying each other's company! No tv or radio, just us! It was fun brushing our teeth and getting ready for bed by candlelight, and we could see how people back then went to bed at sundown and rose with the sun in the morning...it is much more practical. Nevertheless, I was glad when the children went to bed and I could flip on the computer to check my e-mail!

Food is one more area where it can be a challenge to do without. In trying to see how much money I could save, I decided I would not buy it if I could halfway easily make it myself for cheaper! Our grocery bill that week was a lot less, and I had fun finding creative homemade things to substitute for the usual pre-packaged items we usually ate. In this area, there are a whole lot of things we could do without if we had to, and we'd still live quite well with just the basics!

Voluntarily doing without is not so bad, even fun, especially when you know it's temporary! But, it does teach a valuable lesson: we can survive, even thrive, on less if we have to, and we could actually save money by choosing to do so!

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