I think one of the biggest advantages you can give yourself in both regards to your finances and contentment in life is to know the difference between needs and wants. To know the necessary out-go and what you need on a daily, weekly, monthly basis, and then to understand that anything over that are pure, sweet luxuries. They are extras that are beautiful and wonderful, but the are just that, extra. We are so used to an inflated idea of "necessities" that we immediately feel deprived if our standard of living drops below that amount. We rail on unfair life circumstances, the government, unfair wages, and the list could go on.
We all know it is a bad idea to live to the limit whether that be the limit of our finances, our time, or our mental bandwidth. It's a precarious place to be and sooner or later it all starts to topple. The effects can be mildly disturbing to absolutely devastating. It is prudent to create space, a buffer if you will, in all areas of our lives.
I have recently been evaluating this in connection with my food budget. It is the one area that I spend in most often and that I feel the most pressure on since a lot rides on me extracting the best value and nutrition for my family. We have seen increases in most of our bills this year. Our vehicle insurance, our phone and internet, our water and trash bill, gas to get places, our storage unit (thankfully this one can and will be soon eliminated,) not to mention the costs of everything you would normally buy. Even things that used to be pretty steady have seen marked increases. Just between grocery shopping last week and this week, bananas increased $0.20/lb in our local grocery store. It has been hard to get in a groove when I must constantly evaluate and reevaluate the things I buy when it comes to prices. No longer can I just buy the same standard thing and move on. What I buy each week is changing and in flux.
I am sure that we are not alone in this current phenomenon and I wonder how people are navigating this in other places. I mostly hear defeat, complaints, or a resignation to spending more hard earned money on basics. The later may be necessary to a certain degree but this pattern is troubling to me because we are, after all, women who should be full of pluck and ideas about how to meet this current formidable challenge called inflation. We should be creative and cheerful, undaunted yet flexible, meeting our current situations with all that makes us women of great value. Our attitudes are most of the battle, I believe. I personally refuse to be beaten or discouraged. I do have times when I feel a wave of overwhelm at the things I cannot control and I must refocus my attention and effort on the things I CAN do and to give thanks for the incredible blessings we have.
The fact that we CAN pay for our electricity, and more than that, to cool our house in the summer and heat it in the winter. What a huge blessing! The fact that we DO have good food in our homes and that we can purchase necessary items from the store is a reality that so many don't have. It may be easy to dwell on what we wish we could have or what we used to be able to purchase. The basics of food can still be purchased, and what amazing flavor and treats we can create with the simplest of ingredients if we will just learn how and implement them.
Last month we went to an airplane museum for my son's birthday. It had lots of history and planes from World War 2. I am simultaneously reading several books set in that same time period; a cookbook called Rosy's Riveting Recipes, a book called Farm Journalist of writings from Laura Ingalls Wilder, and some children's books for the children during that time. I think it is fascinating to study other times in history and other challenges that people have faced and all of a sudden our own current challenges seem small. These women faced rationing, things not being available they would have been used to, needing to substitute or do without, or eat things they wouldn't have otherwise. All while dealing with the stress of war and having husbands, brothers, and sons in harm's way. And that was just for those women who were fortunate to not live in the war zone. I cannot even fathom the lives of those in the middle of the destruction and carnage of war.
With this perspective, making a few sacrifices in the grocery store and eating a couple meals of beans a week, or finding cheaper alternatives to certain things, or doing without some of them don't seem near so inconvenient. My husband is home each night. We can afford to not only cover the basics but also so many luxuries that we take for granted! Do you realize that data on your phone is a luxury and not a necessity? Having home internet is also usually a luxury, even though most of us would feel otherwise. The amount of clothing we buy, having more than one car, having a nice phone, and so many other things that we feel are necessities truly fall into the category of luxuries.
From this place of recognizing our needs, we have better perspective of how to approach things creatively and from a place of inspiration instead of defeat. If we realize that our true needs are met above and beyond, it does not feel like we are losing anything by adjusting our expectations or cutting out things that can be cut. Instead of feeling like we are going in the wrong direction or "missing out" we are simply cutting out things that are excess in order to make wise use of the resources we have.
A few ways I'm creating wiggle room in our budget right now is finding things I can cut out or reduce. We have a storage unit currently with meat packing equipment in it that my husband is trying to sell. We had purchased it before our move last year when we thought we were going to purchase the property where we were living. We had plans to put in a meat packing plant. When we moved, we put the equipment in a storage unit and it is still there. We plan to move the equipment to our garage until my husband can get it listed and thus save on the $143/mo. We are also planning on reducing our cell phone to the lowest plan offered which gives 1gig of data per line which should save us a total of $30/mo. We don't have any other option for phone service at this time and that is the only way to reduce the bill at all unless we were to not both have phones or to cancel our home internet. Those are options, but not great ones as long as we don't have to do that. They are options though and it's good to have those in your back pocket if needed.
As far as food, I am going into the store with the aim to spend less than my budget and not up to the max of what I have to spend. This way I am slowly creating a buffer to purchase sale items in bigger quantity. So far I have $30 saved in a separate fund from what I have had leftover of my weekly grocery runs. Coming in just $5-$10 under budget can add up. If you have extra money to fund bulk purchases or sale items, that's great! But if you don't, you can create a fund for those things without ever raising your grocery budget by reducing your spending each week to create a little wiggle room. I think that when we cut the "fluff" out, it is still surprising how far our money can go even in rising prices. Focusing on basics and simple luxuries create an atmosphere for thankfulness and keep us from feeling overwhelmed or defeated. A simple cup of tea and homemade muffin with a book is still simply luxurious and oh, so frugal! Keeping our homes and our possessions in good working order requires very little in the way of money but brings great satisfaction and improves our opinion of what we already have. It takes so little to enjoy so much. Let's be wise with what we have, be creative, and enjoy our many blessings!