Report From The Field

I made the choice to follow through on being frugal. I am now enjoying the gift of time I have purchased for myself. In my regular day job, I work 36 hours over 4 days. Assuming I can learn to live on that, I have the luxury of 3 days per week completely to myself. I’ve caught up on rest and self-care after working 6 days per week this winter. I can now choose how to spend my ample free time. I am rich!

There are other benefits that I’m already seeing from this lifestyle. For the past few weeks, I’ve kept to limits on spending for gas and food. I’m always tempted to spend additional money from my cushion on the day before I get paid. I resist and now I notice a little lift in my self-esteem when I do that. I’m starting to trust myself and feel like I can, indeed take care of myself.

I’ve discovered one danger of the road is the knee-jerk reaction to eat mostly carbs. Pasta is cheap. So are potatoes. Don’t go there. In one week of the all-carb diet, I gained 4 pounds. Eeeeek! I’ve now taken off two of them, but it’s sure slower coming off than it was putting on. And it is totally unnecessary to gain that weight. Especially when you have one of those handy discount food stores around. I’ve got two, just over the river in New Hampshire.

It does take planning and cooking. And calculating the cost of everything. It can be fun to do that. One day I had $10 to spend on food and I was amazed with what I got – broccoli, chickpeas and a pepper to make my favorite salad, cheese, yogurts, biscuit mix. I think I got some fruit too. It’s satisfying to eat well on a small amount of money.

Looming on the horizon is the need to accumulate the $3000 I’ll need for heat next winter, but I have time. Right now it’s May and the flowers are blooming. Robins are nesting in the garage over my car. Life is good.