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The questions haven’t started quite yet, but I’m sure they will. When my children ask, “Mama, why do we live this way?” this is what I will tell them.
What is a frugal life?
It means we grow fruits and veggies in the front yard and the backyard. We compost, donate, and recycle. We play outside instead of going to amusement parks.
We gladly accept hand-me-down clothes for grown-ups and for kids. We save our money and try not to buy useless things.
We teach you to take good care of your things, but we don’t mind if your clothes get dirty or your socks get holes in them. You are a kid, and play is your job.
Instead of putting chemical creams on every scratch, we use natural balms and essential oils.
We each choose one cause or one sport and that’s where we focus our free time. We don’t volunteer for everything that comes along and feel like we have to do every single activity in the world. We need time to be together as a family!
Why do we live frugally?
We cook food from scratch and grow veggies in our garden because good nutrition is important for a healthy body. Spraying “9 essential vitamins and minerals” onto breakfast cereal doesn’t make it healthy.
We don’t buy a lot of cheap plastic junk because we don’t need it cluttering up our house, or filling up the landfill in a week.
Teaching you to garden and help in the kitchen is part of our family heritage. You might not remember Great-Grandpa and Great-Grandma, but I’m passing on the gardening skills and recipes I learned from them.
We use natural remedies so you don’t get the idea that medicine or drugs is how you fix problems. There’s a time and a place for medicine–and we use it when it’s warranted–but not for every little sniffle.
We live frugally so that when you want to go roller skating, I just have to look at the calendar–not the checkbook.