What I don't miss

I was talking with my son's teacher the other day about the fact that although we own a television set, we do not subscribe to cable or watch any TV channels at all. Living in the mountains makes antennas useless, and without paying for cable or satellite, we can't pick up any stations in our area. This is just fine by us, as we prefer to be totally in control of what we (and especially our kids) are watching. So we only watch the videos we own, or ones we check out at the library for free. It has been years since we have paid to watch anything.

On a recent vacation with relatives, the hotel had plenty of television channels to pick from, but we weren't interested. Flipping through the channels only reminded me of what I dislike the most about television programming. During the day, there is mostly soap operas and talk shows to pick from, which I believe actually lower your IQ the longer you watch. I mean, why would we want to know the life story of someone who requires a paternity test to know who her baby's father is? I think the only reason people watch these shows is to make their lives seem normal by comparison.

Even watching movies seems like a waste of time lately. I sit there and think of all the more productive things I could be doing. Only about one out of every ten movies I watch do I consider really worthwhile anymore. Anyway, that's my two cents.

Deprivation

Sometimes people question my family's frugal lifestyle because they don't understand why we would "deprive" ourselves of everyday luxuries that most families enjoy. Just because we don't watch television, only have one car, and limit our belongings, we are anything but deprived! We enjoy saving money and the environment with our daily choices. And since we have a habit of saving any extra money, we can afford to take vacations at least once a year.

Although we have traveled more than many families, there are still many places we have yet to explore. The east coast is one such area. It would be so much fun to book some Outer Banks rentals and get a large group together to share the vacation. Even the smaller rentals have enough space for 8 people to sleep. Why not share the cost and the fun?? We have also never been to the west coast, and would love to visit Sequoia National Park in California, then on up to Oregon and Washington. A way-in-the-future dream is to visit Europe, and if we continue along the path of simple living, we may just get there someday.

Keep it simple

I have found that for the most part, simple equals less expensive, which is great because our tastes are simple. Simple designs are more efficient and easier to clean, and easier to build yourself. We are planning our future house to be very simple at the beginning, and we will embellish it as we go, as we see fit. This way, the house will be an ongoing project, which appeals to our need for change, and it will keep us busy finding ways to improve things.

In the beginning, don't expect to find Grohe faucets or other fancy fixtures. We are hoping to find deals on used house parts, or if we must purchase something new, it must be on sale. We have already been keeping an eye on the classified ads and have picked up a couple of exterior doors for dirt cheap. When people remodel, they just want the old stuff gone, so there are great bargains to be found locally. We prefer to reuse things if they are still in good shape or can be repaired. It just feels like the right thing to do.

Vegetarian at heart

If it were up to me, our family would be vegetarians. It's not that I hate meat, but I could take it or leave it. My children prefer vegetables to meat in their meals, and would live on fruits and veggies alone if they could. We went completely vegetarian for a little over one year, but my husband got bored with the tofu and bean concoctions and started craving meat again. I mean, it's not like he would ever join a bacon of the month club or anything, but he does enjoy meat a few times a week - especially if it is cooked on the grill.

The thing I miss the most about banning meat from the kitchen is the ease of cleaning. I feel like my kitchen is much more sanitary when I don't have to worry about cleaning up after raw chicken, pork, or beef that has been prepared there. With meat, you have to be conscious of which utensil was used for what, and did it touch any raw meat, or did anything drip on the counter, etc... It is much easier to clean the cutting board and the knives if they were only used to chop veggies.

Oh well, at least we have two or three vegetarian dinners in our house per week, which is a reasonable compromise between the meat lover and the veggie lovers.

A New Earth

I just started reading A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle, as I have heard from many people that this book has transformed their lives and the way they experience the world. Of course a statement that bold intrigued me, so now I am on my way to be forever changed for the better. I am only on page 30, but so far he has talked about how we are controlled by the ego and that from a very young age, we attach ourselves and our worth to the things that are "ours."

I have been yearning to detach from many of our belongings for a long time, and have been succeeding slowly. But there is a long way to go, especially in the way of convincing the children to let go of so many of their things. This is not a money issue at all. There are many people who have plenty of money, but choose to live a simple, minimalist life. In fact, the people with the most money who are not in the habit of sharing their wealth with the less fortunate seem to be the most depressed, spend the most time in drug rehab, and often commit suicide. If money were the source of happiness, these things would not happen.

On the contrary, the people who make lots of money, but donate most of it to charity, like Oprah Winfrey and Bill Gates seem to be genuinely happy people. There are many other folks who are not considered "rich" by our standards, but because they volunteer their time and give of themselves and their money whenever they can, they live very satisfying lives as well. But since they are not famous, they don't usually make it into the news - and they are probably perfectly happy with that as well. The truly generous don't do it for recognition and prefer to remain anonymous.

Time wasted

I often hear people say they wish they had more hours in the day to accomplish more things. You always hear people say "Time Flies" and talk about how fast the kids grow up. What I don't understand is why so many people continue to watch so much television. I know it's easy to get caught up in your favorite series - that's why we have given up television all together. We have movies that we watch occasionally, but I don't feel our time is wasted as much as when we used to watch television.

Television has so much filler with commercials, that you really only get about 20 minutes of showtime anyway. I think if people stopped watching TV and started spending some quality time with their children, the world would be a better place. People would have the time to accomplish those things that always get pushed aside, and children would be closer to their parents and less likely to get into trouble.