My husband & I were both "victims" of the dreaded "corporate downsizing" about 5 years ago. He was an
IT Support Engineer; I, a loan processor for a mortgage company.
Currently, I'm employed as an Office Manger for a small erosion control company. Husband dear has not been able to find steady employment, but he does pick up a few odd jobs here and there and we get by.
At the time of our layoffs, we went through shock, stress, horror, disbelief, the "what on earth are we gonna?!" phase. Over time though, we've come to realize that it just may possibly have been one of the best things that could have ever happened to us!
Suddenly, we had to examine our priorities and re-categorize some things. Our "non-essential" column became a lot longer than our "essential" column. We've been forced to take a close look at our spending habits and become more conscious and careful. Not that we ever lived "high on the hog" mind you. But there was more "free money" in the belly of the piggy bank. It was a lot easier to be lazy and say "Let's eat out tonight", when there was a kitchen full of food and I could have had a nutritious, simple meal on the table in under half an hour. And did we really used to spend that much on a 20 oz soda when we'd stop at the convenience store?!
Some of the changes we've made in our household are to get rid of the family cell phones, the cable tv, and to sell my car that we were making payments on and keep my husbands truck that is paid off. We've went "back to the beginning" and shop at the thrift stores and discount outlets like we did when we were first married and were watching every dime. We no longer buy pre-packaged or individual serving food. Soda or ice cream are an absolute treat and luxury nowadays.
Through this whole "forced" learning process, we've been reminded that we are some pretty resourceful people. There are always items around that we can re-use and re-purpose rather than rushing out to the store and buying materials. I've blown the dust off the cookbooks and recipe boxes my mother gave me and found that making things from scratch really isn't as time consuming and tedious as I once thought. And we eat so much healthier now! By making foods from scratch, I know exactly what is going in, and we're not filling up on preservatives, hormones, HFCS, and all those other chemicals they process "non-food" with.
A decision was made a few months ago, that once our youngest son graduates high school and gets established at college, we are leaving suburbia. We are heading to the country or the mountains. We'll still only be about two hours away (I can't be too far from my babies!) but there will be no traffic driving in front of our house and the backyard will be lit up by the stars, not the streetlamps.
All the advice, tips, hints, folklore and stories that we listened to from our grandparents and parents about surviving the depression and hard farming life we're trying to put to practical use. We're trying our hand at gardening vegetables this year to help cut our grocery bills and be a bit more self-sufficient. Currently, we have tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, okra, watermelon and peppers growing in the ground and containers in our backyard. I've managed to pick up a pressure cooker and a pressure canner for FREE from folks just giving them away. (It doesn't get more frugal than free, right?!) I plan on being a harvesting, canning, freezing and preserving mommasita once the crops are ready. :-)
I feel so fortunate that neither of us came from money. That we weren't spoiled as children growing up - dried beans and cornbread were quite the norm in our households. I like it that we started with nothing, had something, and now it seems we have everything. There's such a calmness in our household now. Clarity, focus, drive, excitement. No longer do we despair over what we can't afford - we just come up with an alternative.
It is my feeling that a lot more people are going to be heading back to simpler times. With the job losses, the increased cost of living, not to mention the price of gas these days. I think we all long for that place of "zen" and stability.
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