by Michael Smith
Now that we have more reason than before, due to the downturn in the financial sector and the economy, to look at our personal budgets we should do with great discernment. The same also as regards to the economy of the nation and the nations as a whole.
When it comes to our budgets, to what we spend on this or that the questions should be “do we need to” and/or “do we needs that, really need that?” and more often than not I am sure that we find that we do not. It is often now a need anyway but a want and there are times when I am as guilty as the next person, so do not think I am just going to preach here.
In the current climate our thoughts should also be to “can I do that not myself from this or that?” and aside from the fact that it would come free or for little money the satisfaction of in fact having made this or that that we need or even want ourselves is the best reward of all.
There are many things that one may need or want that do not have to be store bought but that one can make easily oneself. Also, as far as food is concerned; if the takeout really necessary or the meal in a restaurant. Would the money not much better used elsewhere and would the food not be much better if made at home, to be served and eaten at a time that suits us. In addition to that you know where – to an extent – every ingredient of the meal comes form, how it was cooked and how clean the kitchen and all was. A lot cheaper too.
On the general things front there are so many things that I find that can be found that can be made use of for this or that requirement and I am always on the lookout as to what I can make of this or the other natural thing or and especially of things that are regarded by most people as trash.
Here a couple of ideas that may give you all some food for thought in that department:
Need clothespins? Why buy some crappy wooden or plastic ones with springs from China or thereabouts that break under the least strain when you can go out and make your own that can,if made right, last for decades. I am talking here about the old-fashioned Gypsy pegs, that is to say, split pegs. With a little knowledge and skill – the former obtainable from reading articles and the latter comes with practice often – you can easily make them yourself.
Need some storage containers? Well, look not further than the glass jars that often go into the recycling bin or to the tins that biscuits (cookies to our Transatlantic cousins) often come in or chocolates. In addition, at least here, there are the plastic containers from sweet shops (candy store) in which the candy comes that they sell as individual pieces. Those containers are sometimes sold for a few cents each or even given away.
There is no to go an buy expensive Tupperware containers and similar, whether for storing leftovers or for other things. Glass jars and other containers are fine also in the fridge for keeping leftovers for a few days and containers such as tins or those sweet boxes can be used to store a number of other things.
I use them to store all manner of things and literally refuse to pay good money for things of this sort that I can get for little or no money.
Desk tidies and such too can be had for little or no money from recycling things that otherwise might be thought of as trash and discarded.
Small cardboard boxes can be used as pen bins, as containers for index cards (I use those for my Hipster PDA). Tins of various sorts also can be useful on desks for a variety of uses, such as for paper clips, drawing pins, and other things.
Gift boxes, the kind of small cardboard boxes, for various things, which are often thrown, make great trays for pens and other things.
What else can we think of that we can make ourselves rather than going out to the stores for?
Need some coat hooks? Make your own ones using a reclaimed board for, say, a pallet and some Champagne corks. With some screws and a little sanding of the board you soon have some great looking coat pegs done. An instruction for this can be found in the virtual pages of this journal.
I am sure that we all can put our thinking caps on and I am sure that we can all find many more such ways of reducing waste and even making things that we can use or that can even be given as gifts to someone else to use or, if well enough made, even be sold on crafts fairs and elsewhere.
Now, let's do some of this kind of downsizing and reducing waste at the same time.
Staycations
Staycations is the new term for vacationing at home and we have visited this before and it will help both our pockets and the environment.
I must admit that I have not had a foreign holiday proper ever and I cannot see the reason why anyone who has a nice home, especially with large and nice garden, wants to take holidays abroad with the trauma of traveling there and back and needing a holiday to get over the one one has just had.
I have been abroad and have traveled both by car, train and plane to such places and but neither have been for vacation and I must say that I have not enjoyed such traveling at all. That is why I just cannot understand why anyone wants to go to such lengths to go away for a couple of weeks in the sun, which is not the best idea anyway, when they have nice homes and we have a lovely country that most of them have never explored.
Even if one has not a big home and big garden there are places where one can have a great time while vacationing at home, such as local parks.
Staycations, like Fakeaways, are a way of saving money and also, to an extent, saving the Planet.
Fakeways
Fakeaways or fakeouts is the home version of the takeaway of the takeout meal, the pizza, the Chinese, the Indian, or whatever meals ordered from a restaurant and which one then picks up or gets delivered. In the fakeaway version you make it yourself, from scratch.
I love a Curry though my stomach is not always as fond of it due to the awful IBS and the same for other such “foreign” foods. However, I am no friend of the pizza of the flat, thin thing. Pizza to me is the kind that is made in some areas of Italy in the rural areas, which is deep bread dough in a pan with the topping of a variety of things. All possible to make at home.
Transportation
Depending on where you live leaving the car at home and walking or cycling is also a downsizing option to save some of the much needed cash and not spend it on the gas to power a car.
If you can get rid, so to speak, of the car altogether you can save even more money, as you will no loner gave to pay the road taxes, insurance, and other costs associated with running a car. However, I am well aware that that does not work everywhere and especially not in many of the more rural areas, as stores are no longer local, not even the post office.
Just some food for thought here.
© M Smith (Veshengro), February 2009
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Downsizing our lives and the economy
