Once a friend asked me what it was that I liked about doing projects. I didn’t have much of an answer except that’s the way I was raised. Since then I have thought about it, and realized that not only does it save me money, it is energizing to me. It stimulates my creativity and learning, satisfies my soul and brings me peace and contentment. To me it’s the best way to live.
A Penny Saved is a Penny Earned
Some time ago the agitator in my washing machine stopped working. The machine went through its cycles. Everything seemed to be working except the agitator would barely move and not swish the clothes around. When I called the repair company it was going to cost $100 just to have someone come look at it. Aagh! Who wants to spend money on a boring old washing machine? So I looked on youtube and sure enough, someone had posted a video showing how to fix the problem I was having. The local appliance store had the part I needed for $5. I removed the agitator and replaced the little plastic part and my machine was back in service again!
There’s a lot of reasons to do things yourself. The most obvious one is that its saves you money. I have been blessed to spend my life as a stay at home mom. I haven’t brought in an income, but I am convinced that our family would not have a better lifestyle if I had gotten a job and made lots of money. The old saying “a penny saved is a penny earned” is just as true today as it was for our grandparents.
Each time I figure out how to do something rather than pay someone else to do it, the affect is the same as me making the money. If I reupholster my couch I don’t have to buy a new one. If I can fix my sprinklers I don’t have to pay someone to come look at them. Instead of hiring a house painter I can do it myself and save $5000.
Some people might ask, why would you want to do that? It’s true that it may be a lot of work, but to me the option of being home with my children and now my grandchildren is totally worth it. I’ve realized that I’m smart and capable, and if anyone is going to benefit from my talents I want it to be my family.
A Better Way to Eat
Some of the things we have learned to do include growing a productive garden, raising chickens, bees and fruit trees. We get a lot of fresh delicious food off of our little lot in the city. It takes some practice but it is something you can learn.
Right after my husband, Alex and I got married we were house sitting for my parents who were out of the country for a while. My dad always had a huge garden and I had always helped with it so I thought I knew how. Wrong! Alex and I planted our seeds, watered, and waited but it seemed like the only thing we grew were weeds. Our first garden was a bit of a disaster. We didn’t give up though, and now we can do a pretty good garden.
When you grow your own food you learn how to use and preserve it, which can save a lot of money. Add onto that the fact that home grown produce is fresh and free from weird chemicals that you can’t pronounce. But perhaps the best part is the feeling of satisfaction you get from having done it on your own.
I don’t consider myself a cook, but we grow things and I cook with them. The ingredients I buy are pretty basic and I make things from scratch. I don’t usually buy something if I can make it myself. And I find that there’s not much I can’t make especially with the help of Mr google. So we eat homemade food from basic ingredients with no chemicals. And that’s got to be a better way to eat.
You Can Figure it Out
Years ago when we were just starting out with very little money my brother gave me an old beat up couch. It was pretty ugly but my friend told me she had reupholstered a chair and she would help me. She came one day and we ripped all the fabric off of it. We were going to start putting it back together the next day. But that evening she called and said she had to leave town for a week! “Don’t worry, she said, “just look at it, and put it back together the way we took it apart.” I was horrified! The couch was scattered all over my driveway. Something had to be done with it.
I went to work using the ripped up fabric for patterns. There was a local man who did reupholstery and he sold me the things I needed and gave me a few tips. By the time my friend got back I had it nearly finished. She proudly said “see, I knew you could do it.” I felt very proud of my accomplishment. Since then I have recovered several couches and chairs and learned new things each time I did.
When I look at my furniture I realize that I have reupholstered, refinished, or repainted most of it, and it looks great. It makes me feel good!
Peace and Contentment
My parents both grew up during the depression of the 1930s. Money was scarce and all family members needed to work hard for the family to survive. Frugality was a part of life, and they learned how to get the most out of the resources they had. They didn’t throw things away. If something broke they found a way to fix it. When they needed something, buying it wasn’t usually an option. Their greatest resource was their own ingenuity.
In our town there is a flour mill with two big silos. One of them has a turkey painted on it and the other has a peacock. When my dad was about 25 years old he was hired to repaint them. They were much to high to be reached with ladders or scaffolding so he was faced with the problem of how to get up there. He rigged some pulleys on the top of the silos and made a little seat for himself on the end of a rope. He attached the rope to a tractor and got his little brother to move the tractor forward or back so that he could go up and down and reach his painting.
They are in their upper nineties now and they haven’t changed. If something gets broken they could easily throw it away and buy a new one, but they don’t. They fix it. If they need something they figure out a way. They are really slowing down but in spite of physical limitations they are peaceful and content. I am grateful for the outlook they gave me. They taught me to look at things that need to be done not as a difficulty, but as a challenge, just a project to get working on.
If a person is willing to put forth some effort and use their ingenuity there is no end to the things they can figure out.
