Old Style Living

Every January I always have a chat with my husband about the year ahead. We talking about our hopes & dreams for the year as well as reflecting on what has passed. It didn't take long for us to realise that we would really like a different lifestyle, a simpler one in many ways. But we also wanted to be able to do things like go away for a few days here & there, something we have never done. There are places we would like to go for the day, things we would like to do with the children.

Money is tight. My husbands job pays less than it used to but the mortgage still needs paying. To be able to do the things we want to money has to be saved from somewhere.

Our challenge for this year is to live as frugally as possible, finding ways to cut expenditure. To me this means only buying what we need, thinking once, twice, three times before we buy anything. Cutting back as much as possible on the grocery expenditure, for too long we have been boosting Tesco's profits with impulse buys, convenience food & buying more than we need. Our food waste has at times been horrifying, when I think about all the money we have effectively just thrown away it's shocking.

So from here on in I am recording every penny we spend, making note of every single thing we buy. Planning all our meals & shopping in such a way there there is no food going to waste. Meals will be 100% home cooked, not only will this be cheaper but better for us than convenience foods. I'll be baking regularly providing cakes & biscuits so there will be not shortage of yummy things to eat. My hope is all this will save us money but also make us healthier as we will be eating better & leaving all those additives behind that come in shop bought products.

We will be growing our own vegetables in the garden. Our space is limited so it will mostly be container growing. We are on the waiting list for an allotment but it's a very long list & we have been told it could be years before we are offered one.

I hope to use the car a lot less. I have bought a bike that will be delivered on Monday. More about that in another update.

Gifts will be home made, cards will be home made. Everything that we can do ourselves we will.

This old style way of living as many call it will be our mission for the year. I'm really excited about it & have already enjoyed the first steps we have taken on this journey. Roll on 2010, it's going to be an interesting year!