Day 208

I used to tell my children we were “rich”.   This was my attempt at a life lesson to my young kids.  They are loved by an extended and quite boisterous group of aunts, uncles, grandparents and cousins.  It is practically a sitcom worthy group.

We have access to healthcare, clean water, flushing toilets and more calories than we really need to consume in any given day.  I’d say by most of the world’s standards—that’s rich.

So that is what I told them.

But, I had to stop using that term when I realized my youngest who was five at the time, was telling anyone who would listen, “My mom says we are rich.”   She wasn’t explaining the figurative aspect to that statement and was extending this information to her classroom, the man who cut our yard, random cashiers, her soccer team and her friend’s parents.

That Kid

I tried to explain to her—again–but apparently in Kindergarten they hadn’t gotten to the lesson on the subtleties of language yet.  So rather than risk embarrassment—or robbery, I just gave it up.

Well a couple of years have passed and discussions about money are suddenly present again,  in part, due to The Simple Year.   The youngest, spent the first half of the year telling people we “didn’t buy anything because daddy left.”  After I set her straight on that point, she amended it to “we aren’t spending any money.”

That is not exactly right, we still spend quite a bit of money on food and other consumables, experiences like movies, the theatre and travel.

Whatever

My point?  Money is necessary, important and seems to pervade much of our lives.  I mean you would hate to have to carry your live chickens in your wallet to trade for the coffee beans your neighbor was hauling around in her purse.

So it is not surprising with The Simple Year that the assumption is that it’s all about the money.  For example, here is an all too typical conversation I might have with someone:

Me: Oh thanks, but we only buy things used

Them: Oh, well it’s ONLY _______ (insert appropriate small price). That’s the same as buying it used.

Me: Oh, well it’s not about the money, we are trying a project for a year in which we don’t buy anything new.

Them: Even food?  (common question, although I’m not sure what my other options would be, I guess grow my own?)

Me: No, I still buy consumables

Them: Blank Stare….long pause…Yeah, I couldn’t do that

Me: Oh….OK

Although it has never been primarily about money, certainly a nice byproduct of The Simple Year is the savings.  Some individual things are definitely more expensive, but overall we aren’t spending as much. I won’t bore you with a detailed ledger you will just have to trust me on this.  I’m also not saying our experience is necessarily typical.  The military has been a steady employer during this down economy, and I suspect we are not living as close to the line as some.  But, for us, those little one and two dollar items (think magazines, paper napkins, ChapStick at the checkout stand and zip lock bags) have added up.

The plan is to save the money for a trip or some other fun -and rich- family experience.