In our consumer culture, it’s too easy to equate being unhappy with needing something. We look outside ourselves to find happiness – food, clothes, the latest toy. Many times, this just doesn’t cut it, or the joy is temporary. Now throw in frugality, and you have a starvation reflex building up. If you are cutting back on your budget or trying to live a frugal life and are still looking for outside things to make you happy, then it’s easy to feel deprived – creating a belt-tightening/splurge cycle. This is what happens when you cut back, cut back, cut back, then feel the need to “reward” yourself with something – a new wardrobe, or car, or a short vacation. Afterward, you are back on your starvation diet and feeling miserable because the wardrobe isn’t quite working for you, or the pleasure is over.

So how do you live frugally, and happily?

It took me a while to understand why I was happier in college, when I had $3 that had to magically feed me for the week, few belongings to speak of, rotten roommates who didn’t do the dishes or clean the bathroom we shared, and my idea of a good time was riding my bicycle through Flatwoods Park. I didn’t have money to go out to dinner, or to see a movie, or get myself some cool looking clothes like so many of my classmates did. But I was happy, why?

The answer was pointed out to me in Your Money or Your Life – the authors explained that there is this curve, where at some point after your basic needs are met and you accumulate your worldly possessions, that the thrill of each new thing grows less and less. You get your first car. You buy your first home, a good TV, an equipped kitchen… and from there the thrills go downhill. Another new car is fun for a week, then reality and payments set in, and it doesn’t make you happy anymore.

The trick is to learn to live in the moment. Enjoy what you have, and see the beauty of each moment of your day. It takes practice, and it took a while before I felt like I was applying it as frequently as I should. But over time, I’ve gotten better at appreciating these little moments. For example, as I type this, it’s a simply gorgeous day outside, and I am enjoying the play of light on the wood floor behind me as it filters through the young leaves of the sugar maple outside. Spring is here, and all the trees have new leaves and growth, everything is green and it’s a joy to glance out the window for a second or two as I type.

I re-appreciate my slate-tiled bathroom every morning. I always wanted a slate-tiled bathroom floor, now I have it. I enjoy watching my dog try to catch bees, or watching both dogs run and play in the (admittedly weedy) yard. I could go on explaining these little things forever – they are just little details that make me smile and be glad for the moment. I get infinitely more pleasure from the smell of the soup I am cooking as I slice veggies on our wooden board, the late afternoon sunlight catching the bottles my husband and I painted back when we were dating on the kitchen windowsill, than if I just sliced veggies for dinner because it’s one more thing I have to do. See? It’s a mindset, and it needs to become constant. You just learn to appreciate that which your senses tell you is nice in every moment. The next thing you know, you find yourself a very happy and satisfied person.

Live in the moment, and there is no deprivation.

I get an email or a text message from time to time declaring how we should all hurt the oil companies and not buy gas for one day. Hit them where it hurts, show them what would happen if we didn’t buy gas at all. Yeah! Let’s be patriots and stick it to them! Grab your torches and pitchforks!

I can hear the oil tycoons laughing. They have us by the short and curlies, you know. People participate in this, sure. But they either buy more gas the day before the protest, or they fill up in the days after the protest. The oil companies won’t lose any money at all, and we just went out of our way to make an ineffectual demonstration.

A better solution fits right in with frugality AND tree-hugging: Drive less. Carpool. Walk. Ride a bike. Or even a horse. My neighbor has a big dog that could pull a cart – cart-dogs used to be used by people who couldn’t afford a horse. I actually think that would be really cool, we could charge the neighborhood kids for dog-cart rides, and it would wear the dog’s hyper butt out a little in a healthy way. I bet we could even take him to the grocery store.

Back on topic – the only way to hurt the oil companies is: To stop. Buying. Gas. They’re posting record profits as these prices go up, so you know they are being a little greedy. It hurts most Americans, but if we’re frugal, it won’t hurt us so much.

I know I am lucky. I can walk to my grocery store or I can ride my bike almost anywhere in town that I need to go. Most of us in the States really only live a mile or two from a grocery chain of some kind. Having a bicycle with a couple of baskets on the back isn’t a bad idea. You can be frugal in two ways in this manner: who needs a gym membership/spinning class, when you can just ride a cheap old bike to the store? Don’t forget your cloth bags! I found one bag fits neatly in each basket, makes for really easy unloading later!

Getting to work is another story. A large percentage of us have a long way to go to get to the office, and if you’re expected to look pretty and smell nice, riding a bike isn’t exactly the best option. Unless your office is cool and has a shower, which only one of my former employment places did. Answer: carpool. Even if you have to drive half the distance before you can ride with the other folks, that’s half the distance saved.

Carpooling isn’t just for work though. Living where I do in Timbuktu (as a friend of mine puts it) it’s no fun driving a half hour to an hour one way to the next big town or city that has the other items you need from time to time. Finding a few like-minded people and riding together works really well, especially if you all know what each of you is looking for and you all help each other look for those items. You may wind up making a day of it as opposed to a half day, but if the group is good, you may have a few new friends too. There’s something to be said for feeling more connected with people in your community, too.

One of the guys in the group of road cyclists I like to hang out with recently sold his car in favor of a motorcycle. Not really a bad idea. As I understand it, those things get around 40-50 mpg. Works for me.

People who know my spouse and I well understand us. But some people look at us and think we are crazy. Here we are, in our early 30s, living in a nice house in town and with enough money to surely afford most anything we want within reason, and here we are hanging laundry on a line, growing veggies and herbs, whipping out the sewing machine for curtains and dog beds, and hauling buckets of rainwater around the yard for plants. To make matters worse, we’re vegetarian. I try to be vegan and I’m slowly getting that way, but it takes time. And we’re opinionated.

Part of the impetus for this site is a reaction from the new Green movement, which is happily gaining momentum. The part that isn’t right in my mind is that all these “green” things — from lightbulbs to solar panels — cost a lot of money. Making your home “green” shouldn’t empty out your bank account, especially now in these less than wonderful economic times. Some call it a recession, some call it a “correction” and some expect another Great Depression but thankfully everyone at this point agrees the economy isn’t humming along.

There are many great sites for treehuggers and many for the green movement. There are many sites on frugal living as well. The goal of this site is to seek out, and try as much as possible, to find ways to affordably make our own “green” things. Our goal as people is to live a little more in harmony with this planet, and not only try to decrease the size of our footprint but improve our health while we are at it.

Our bigger goal is to have saved up the money to buy our little piece of land and build ourselves a green home. This is going to be a process, but this website is part of the process. We are researching and learning how earthships work, how things were done way back when, and newer ways of doing things. Inventing our own even, if we need. And we’d love to hear of your efforts and experiments as well.

We are not going to talk about Global Warming. Whatever your thought on the subject, we still ought to be better stewards of the earth and take better care of it.

So what can you expect here?

Weekend projects - these are things like solar ovens and home-made water distillers that you can make in a weekend (or a few, some projects are bigger than others).

Nourishing Recipes - great recipes that are good for the body, as easy to make as possible, and affordable. I try to be all-organic or pretty darn close to it. But a vegan meal doesn’t have to taste like bland tofu or health food. Don’t believe me? Check out www.veganyumyum.com - I’m convinced this girl can make anything.

Appreciating Life - In our consumer-driven culture, we classify our status by our things. Somehow things are what are supposed to make us happy. I’ve found if you truly appreciate the moment, and appreciate what you already have, all that new stuff that you want really turns out not to be so important. Practice frugality without feeling deprived.

Small Adjustments - Little things we can do in our lives that make a difference in our pockets and/or the environment.

New Use, Old Thing - this just falls under being frugal. Old blinds get cut up to be plant markers, for instance. All kinds of stuff like that we can find and make use of!

In the Garden - Yes. I garden. A lot. If I have too many gardening posts, please please tell me to shut it and find something ELSE to talk about!

Herbal Remedies - some things don’t need a doctor or a pharmacist to clear up. For some common ailments, skip the store and pick a few leaves from your yard.

Thanks for visiting! We lookforward to your input!

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