Thursday Thoughts - Basic Thriftiness part 1 or Do It Your Own Self

I’ll try not to step up on any soapboxes or on too many toes while I make my point. We as a people are, in general, spoiled! We have so many conveniences that are available at our fingertips that we have forgotten that they are conveniences. We have stopped seeing that they are supposed to save time and in fact complain about how long these new versions take. Perhaps an example would help to illustrate my point. I can only imagine how excited people were when that little blue box of macaroni and cheese showed up on the grocery store shelves. The traditional dish involved boiling the pasta, making a cream sauce, then baking the whole dish for another half hour. It’s not exactly a quick side dish. Now mac’n’cheese could be made in 1 pot in about 15 minutes! Wow, that’s amazing! And it’s simple enough that older children can make it by themselves. Along comes the next generation. Stove top mac’n’cheese is just not convenient. It takes a whole 15 minutes. We want the kind that we can make without a pot and takes only a couple of minutes in the microwave.

We pay a pretty price for these new versions of classics. They are less nutritious and are full of preservatives and yuckies. Oops, stepping off of the soapbox now.

Let me get back to my original point. If we can look at conveniences with a skeptical eye, then we can learn new skills and save tons at the store. Many times I walk through the isles of the stores looking for ideas, not products. I wonder, can I make this at home? Can I do this my own self or do I need to pay someone else to do it? I can make my mac’n’cheese and my chicken noodle soup. I can bake a birthday cake and a batch of biscuits. They may not be as pretty as store bought, but my children don’t mind being my guinea pigs. I can knit up my slippers and sew up my skirts. I can build a chicken house and build a deck. We can grow veggies for supper and to put up salsa. If we are willing to spend time, we can keep from spending money. The real question to ask yourself is this, “What are you willing to do to save money? Are you willing to do the work?”