He wasn’t stingy either.  He and Grandma just spent their money in places that meant a lot to them like college for the kids and grandkids, world travel, maintaining a yacht.  But the car and the clothes – the things folks usually decide someone’s class – were certainly of moderate to low importance to them.  I remember even repairing the elastic for his favorite PJs.  Sure he could have bought a dozen brand new pajama sets without a flinch but why!?  His older ones did the job fine.

Granddad was frugal in the things that mattered to him.  But he spent money where he liked to too!  His breakfast was fresh squeezed OJ with toast,  a lunch of cheese, crackers and fruit or left over meat from the night before and dinner was always a steak or meat pattie or chicken thigh, peas and rice or potatoes.  Nothing fancy.  He reserved “fancy” for eating out once in a while.  He loved ice cream so he would have two or three flavors on hand and he would have a scoop (about 1/2 cup) every other night or so.

So I learned from Granddad that frugal is just the way to live when you have all you need.  Why don’t we all feel that way?  I have decided that it is poor people that decide if others are poor or not.  Those who are truly wealthy “know” the difference between choosing to be frugal and suffering from poverty.  It really is a state of mind.  Being poor and repairing the elastic in pjs may seem like suffering.  But from Granddad’s point of view, why spend the money when these do the job just fine.

Being frugal is deliberately choosing to live with less than the Jones’.  and after all, who decides what we should all have and be and do?   When is enough really enough?  It is time to decide for myself that I have enough.

I love the book The Overload Syndrome by Richard Swenson.  Probably the best book on the subject of learning to find enoughness.  I borrowed mine from the library but because it was so good I bought my own copy.  Any way you can get it, get it.

It’s time for a new revolution.  The “in” thing is to learn to do with less.  Once you try it for a time, you will relish the freedom you have.

Part of a frugal outlook is appreciating the beauty all around you.  People actually pay money to come to where we live!   So in a way, we live in “paradise” who needs to pay for an expensive vacation when all you need to do is plan a trip to the mountains or visit the ocean on the weekend.

Look around you – do you live within a day of paradise?  Why not start saving money by staying nearer to home and seeing the attractions nearby?

Do you like to eat out because the ready made food feels special?  I do.  But it costs WAAAAY too much.  So, here is what I do for our family.  We like to have icy sodas, deli sandwiches and those big chocolate chip cookies that you see at the National Park Lodges.

We fill the cooler with ice and some favorite soda (found on sale).  I buy some sandwich meat that happens to be on sale that week, chips (on sale) and one of my daughters makes giant chocolate chip cookies.  We make a fancy deli eat out lunch for a tiny fraction of the bought out version.  We even had folks ask us where we “bought” the big chocolate chip cookies that we were munching on.   (smile)

Oh and visiting the National parks or even amusement parks in the off season is a bonus, too.  The feeling is totally different than during the rush.  When I was young, my mom and dad treated me to Disneyland during the off season.  It was so neat!  NO lines.  Sure, it was cooler outside but being a native Left Coaster, I didn’t mind.  Hey I was at Disneyland!!  Costs are lower too since the parks and hotels aren’t dealing with summer crowds.

Learning to think outside the box – that is the key.  Having fun doesn’t need to be expensive.

I believe that except for few individuals that have poor immune systems, no one need to fear the flu.  The problem enters in that many more of us have weakened immune systems — by choice!!  Now who in their right mind would choose to have a weakened immune system?!  Mostly it is due to ignorance but partly due to carelessness.  You see, many of us take our body’s health for granted never thinking that what we do and how we eat has anything to do with how our body functions.  Oh how naive…

I am talking about empty food calories taking the place of real foods in our daily caloric intake.  Think  about it this way: do you think 675 calories of ice cream has the same nutrition as 675 calories of chicken caesar salad?  Not hardly.   Well, the salad would fill you up and satisfy you – feed your body whereas the ice cream just makes you feel good for a few minutes then you want something else to eat, right?

No, your body must have certain amounts of essential nutrients on a regular basis, some on a daily basis to stay in top form.  All athletes know this.  They leave off the “junk” food while training and competing because they know empty calories bog them down.  Hmmmm, sounds like maybe we should all eat like we are in training.

Maybe you don’t feel bad now… maybe you don’t know what it means to feel good because you have felt below par for so long.  One thing is certain, if you get sick every time the newest bug comes along, you very possibly have a “pooped” immune system.

There are other factors involved in keeping your body strong including getting enough sleep and managing your stress levels.  But you can get my free ebook that goes into that more in depth here.  I call it Beat the Flu and (possibly) Never Get Sick Again.  Get it here.

While I’m at it, take a look at my other blog where I share time tested natural cures at:  http://justnaturalcures.com Here I like to talk about how this amazing body can heal itself from all sorts of diseases simply by providing it good food plenty of rest and controlling stress factors.

How do we do it?  I have a bin in the kitchen that holds the day’s cans and packaging as well as rinsed and squashed milk jugs.  That is emptied at least every other day.

I also have paper recycle boxes near my copier and by the back door.  So, when I look in my trash can next to my desk it contains a broken rubber band and mechanical pencil that doesn’t work anymore and the wrapper from new Post it notes.  Whereas the paper recycle next to my desk is already half full after a week of sorting.

All this type of thing tells me how foolish were all those earlier years.  Now I won’t dwell on the past but will endeavor to learn and change.  I hope that my kids will see the sense in it and carry on in their own lives.

Next time I’ll talk turkey – it’s that time again.

Same with Language Arts or History or Science… In the past two years though I sort of settled.  I have used CLP for their Math and Language Arts workbooks mostly because I wanted to make sure that my children got all the basics well covered.

That doesn’t mean that I don’t “edit” the plan if something seems overwhelming or really picky.  I didn’t learn to diagram sentences when I was a child and I manage to keep my subjects and predicates straight.  So we skip teaching that part.

And another thing is that years ago I read Ruth Beechick’s books on how to teach the 3 R’s.  So her voice is always there to encourage me.  Her words remind me that education is for the whole child not just the math facts and writing tools.

You see, I think we tend to get lost in the details and maybe lose sight of what we are after when teaching our children.  For example, as a Christian, I want my children to know the Savior but they are going to get exposed to someone else’s idea of what that means in some predigested book on doctrine or even in a reading or science book.  So, my goal is that they will learn to read and discern so that they will know who He is and make their own decisions on why they love and follow Him.

So much of what is in any ready made text and workbook is tainted with opinions and doctrines of the author or publisher.   It doesn’t matter if it is a Christian publisher or a secular one, they all contain someone’s worldview that may or may not agree with ours.  So, we always discuss the many ideas that come up.

But in our earlier home school years, I never used to even think of bringing in anything secular into our home.  But over time I realized that by completely filtering our books and curricula, I was depriving our family of the opportunity to exercise our faith.  “Clean” books would be like feeding my kids baby food all their lives.  Sooner or later they need to get some more meaty stuff with a bit of bone and gristle that they need to discard.

Now, for the first years we do feed baby food, as it were.  But over time we introduce secular items and we talk about what is going on.  We leave some of the “bones and gristle” in the books so they can exercise discernment and wisdom.

So as you can see, home schooling isn’t just for the children – it’s almost more for me.  Lots of growing and expanding  and reassessing ideals and values.  Some might say we have compromised our values.  I say we came to realize what truly is valuable – a heart truly turned toward God.  And that doesn’t come by forcing a growing soul into a box but guiding that soul to respect boundaries; to meet the Lovely face to face in everyday situations; facing the ugly side of life with discernment and wisdom.

I’d say that the day I stopped trying to teach my kids in stuffed up boring curricula and decided to walk with them daily was a most freeing day.  We talk, argue, research, and discover together.  That is true learning.

Some of us are very new to saving and being conservative with our resources so it might seem extreme to wash out baggies ( rarely save any baggies but then I use reusable plastic containers).   As times get more tough we will have more and more chances to be creative and learn to stretch dollars.

For me, I found it useful to read Amy Dacyczyn’s book, Tightwad Gazette.  I made it a point to add a new way to conserve money or be careful with my resources each week.  It became a game to see what new things I could do to be more frugal with water, food and clothing – everything.  Now I love it.  It is a way of life.

But I will never be as spartan as some other frugalists out there.  And that is OK.  The idea is to be wise and to implement new steps that help your family as well as benefit the community.

Don’t let yourself get too zealous too fast, either.  Your family might “rebel”.  Like adding new foods to their diet, go slow enough to make it fun and interesting – you know your own family.  Also, some  husbands may be all for conserving  while others more used to a liberal lifestyle.

The point is, begin were you are and allow yourself to expand your frugalness as it seems best for you.  Hopefully you won’t get a sudden cut in income that throws you into desperate need, but if you plan to be more careful and add new habits all along, it won’t hit your budget so hard.

New Frugal habit:   We added garbage pickup to our budget.  We carried our own for the longest time.  But we realized our biweekly trips were costing us more to haul our two cans than to have it taken away for us.  It worked out to be $20 a month plus gas to haul it (not to mention time!).  So now we pay $24 a month to have it hauled and we share the bill with my in-laws since the garbage is partly theirs.

We cut kilowatts using less hot water in the kitchen and with shorter showers.  So while the per kilowatt charges went up, the monthly bill stayed the same.  Now that might seem a bit frustrating to be cutting back on energy usage and still be paying as much, in a way yes, it was.  But it showed us what we could do with less of.  And we really can take shorter showers – we just love that extra minute or two of just standing there in the hot water.

I am going to try a new thing this winter by using the clothes dryer less.  I like the fluffiness of using the dryer but not the extra energy out go, so I am going to fluff the laundry for 10 minutes in the dryer and then line dry the rest of the way in the garage (we live in the rainy Pacific Northwest).  I hope this will eliminate the stiffness of line dried clothes and yet drastically cut the dryer energy consumption.

Thankfully it has been a longer summer here – we just last week turned up the one heater in our house.  We have had colds the past week so we are keeping the house warmer for the time being.  But generally we will keep the thermostat at 68* and wear more layers.   Bedrooms are not heated  all night.  We turn up the heat just prior to getting into bed and then off for the night.  Once under the covers we are quite snuggly.

We spent money this past summer on our garden – probably more than we needed to but we also feel it was an investment.  We bought 200 strawberry plants and enough chicken manure to make them happy.  We acquired some nice thornless raspberry plants for free but for the chicken manure too.

We recently found out that we could have gotten a pick-up truck load of barn litter from the local dairy for $15, so we will do that before it gets too much colder.  We plan to use it to mulch all the perennial plants and prepare the beds for next year’s planting of vegetables.

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So, with that entry begins my Frugal Living Journal.  I am inspired to keep a journal for reference for myself and anyone else who might benefit from our family’s frugal ideas.  I have read the Economides’ book, America’s Cheapest Family as well as Amy Dacyzyn’s book, Tightwad Gazette so l have lots of inspiration but even they don’t go so far as we have had to over the years.

Come back often and even post your own frugal living ideas.  In this way we can help each other out in these tough economic times.

His comments were that he saw her older MRI and didn’t really see anything that warranted her taking so much pain meds. He wanted to do another one but she pushed for her Percocet. His hands were tied, I believe. He won’t give her anymore and now she is up the proverbial creek without a paddle. (I guess she’ll have to submit to the MRIs now?)

He had also suggested shots in her back which she only refused and whined about the inconvenience to her to get in to see him for a series of 3 – 4 shots over a 8 week period. She also pointed out that she had had some years ago and insists that it was a waste.

So, now what?

R is fuming. He thinks the whole med system is a racket and is trying to kill the poor and infirm. He drives Betty nuts with his deluded dream that she will soon be able to toss her walker and make meals for him again – like the old days – if she would only try this or that “quack” remedy.

B wants to be dead and wonders why God won’t either take her pain or her life.

You know, I have thought about all this for some time and that is we all “wear” our stress/anxiety in different ways. B wears hers in her back. I wear mine in my gut as do others in the family. You probably know where you “wear” yours. Anyway, I begin to know why they have given her yet another anti-depressant to quell her nerves rather than a stronger pain med.

Stress and anxiety plays games with our minds and sets up shop in our bodies and begins to manifest itself as this or that symptom. They couldn’t find a physical reason for Bob’s shrieking pain in his belly every time he eats so they call it IBS and send him home with something like Zanax or nortriptaline. They can’t find a significant reason for B’s back pain other than normal arthritis and compression fracture, neither of which warrant heavy pain control.

I say it is just remembered pain or what ever you want to call it. The pain is very real but could just as easily disappear if the person could heal the emotional/spiritual hurt that began it in the first place. Am I nuts? I don’t think so.

Meanwhile, I TRY not to lose it – being a bystander in all this. B asked the other day about how I thought about this patch. I told her I didn’t have her body so I couldn’t answer that but that if she thought it would help she ought to try. Well, she wrestles with the possible horrible side effects but gives it a try anyway as the pain is so unbearable.

I am sorry for the whine… I wonder how health care professionals get though the day dealing with patients like B who have no cure in sight. Even dealing with cancer, a doctor can see the “enemy”. With this, the enemy is invisible. It would drive me to some bad habit I am sure.

I am so thankful we don’t have a mortgage – just one of those blessings of caring for someone else’s home.

Here are some things we are planning on doing or are already doing to save cash:

• This year we are definitely putting in a garden.
• We take fewer and shorter showers.
• We use the dishwasher now.  I didn’t want to use the dishwasher for years thinking it took a job away from the kids.  Well, after finding out that a dishwasher only uses 2 – 3 gallons of water as opposed to the 20+ gallons of water (three times a day) used during hand washing I was convinced to change.  The kids still get to wash the meal prep stuff and rinse the dishes for the washer, but I figure we use less than half the water now.  That is less heated water as well as less water going into the drain field.
• Clothes are more carefully used.  Even though I rarely bought brand new, the used stuff got tossed rather than repaired.  Now I am repairing!
• Reusing clothing.  This is different from repairing.  This involves remaking a dress, shirt, pants into something that fits a smaller person.  It is fun and very creative to see what we can remake.  My favorite thing is to remake denim items.
• We cut our garbage bill down by two thirds just by carefully recycling.  All paper is sorted.  Cans are all smashed.  Glass is sorted.  Plastic is rinsed and sorted.  Clean cardboard and packaging is broken down.  Veggie scraps go to the compost.
• What goes into the garbage?  Plastic packaging and plastic wrap that comes on packaging.  Meat and bones.  Wet or food covered paper is trash.  Bathroom trash (and diapers, if we were still using the disposables). That’s it!  Not much anymore.  We go to the dump every 5 – 6 weeks now instead of every other week.
• My next step is to try to only buy things that come in recyclable packaging.  We buy apples from the local produce store by the box instead of those plastic packages like they use at Costco.  There may come a time when we can incinerate our trash again, too.
• Taking one trip to town per week for all needs instead of multiple trips for any excuse.

All this and more will help cut out wasted $$.  I won’t bother to (or continue to) beat myself up thinking I should have started this years ago but now is the best time to start.

I thought I might spend some time talking about how we save here and there in future posts.  Feel free to share your ideas, too.

My family and I use MMS to brush our teeth.  We apply it to bug bites with great success.  Perhaps it would be helpful to take more often, I don’t know, but we get great results with it in any case.

When brushing my teeth, I have not had a negative check up in over a year.

A simple warning to those who think if a little is good a lot must be better:  not so with MMS.  It is easy to think you can handle more but be warned that your body will go into a strong detox with flu like symptoms for a day or so.  Not fun.  So, go easy and add a drop or so every few days till you reach the 18 to 24 drop dose.

I will encourage any readers to read through the comments under the post on a beginner’s guide to MMS as there are others’ experiences listed there.

As a precaution I have to add this:  MMS has not been evaluated by the FDA for medical use.  You use it at your own risk.

Update!!  MMS has been determined to be dangerous by the FDA.  Use at your own risk.

I think this has been due to incautious, irresponsible use of MMS which has brought many to the ER for bad flu-like symptoms which in reality is an extreme detox.  FDA is cracking down on sources and proponents of MMS.

I can no longer advise you taking MMS for internal use.