Day 152 - Luxuries

This week we made more financial changes such as going to very basic cable, downgrading our phone and eating more frozen foods that are less expensive. Our main goal is to be able to stay in our house and pay the rent so we are just working towards that and giving up whatever we can. We made a lot of financial changes over the years like renting smaller, getting rid of the housecleaner, downgrading all of our services, cutting back all spending but now we are down to the bare bones until Mark gets a job. It's funny how shell-shocked I am at the bare bones. As of yesterday we no longer have caller ID, digital voicemail, the DVR, and kids stations like Nickelodeon and Disney Channel. I'm not sure I really understood how luxurious technology has become, how special it was that we could use the DVR to record our favorite shows and have a long list of channels to watch. I loved having caller ID so I could see who was calling and never having to worry about missing a call or being able to see who is on the other line. I have to admit that the television part is pretty hard to explain to the kids, but I have lots of DVD's and we all know that life without TV is better for them anyways. Still it's hard to have to let go of things that they care about.

The food part has taken me the longest to get use to. There is nothing nutritious in frozen foods but lets face it, they are cheaper. We received a lot of frozen food from the outreach program last month and we bought some stuff with our gift card at Costco last week. I am saving our grocery money and our other gift card for fresh fruit, veggies and healthy snacks for the kids. It's just too expensive to make individual meals every night and I need to make our money last longer so I will be doing basic meals and frozen meals for a while. You know what, that is fine. I need to be okay with that because in the scheme of life it's not that big of a deal. When Mark gets a job we can go back to eating the way we used, but until then we will survive.

What a lesson this has been for me. Learning to give up control and not having the things I want. Having to give up things that felt like they were the ordinary every day parts of life, but in reality were luxuries. So now we live like most of America, or in reality much better. I am pretty sure that most of America never had a DVR and organic meals. Yet, we still have a roof over our heads and all of our basic needs are being met. My kids are learning that life doesn't automatically come with the Nickelodeon Channel and that in fact, gasp, we can live without it. And, that although my basic desire it to provide my family with home-cooked meals every night, that we will survive living on what we have and we will come out just as strong, if not stronger than before because we did everything we had to and never gave up.

So hug your DVR today and pick up the phone even if you don't like who the caller ID is saying is on the other line. They really are luxuries.