I have been thinking lately of how many different ways we have learned to have more while spending less. I thought I would write about a few of those things today. So let's begin....
This year I have enjoyed receiving good quality books in the mail to read and keep for free thanks to Book Sneeze.
BookSneeze is a book review program for bloggers and they will give you books as long as you will review them on your blog. This is associated with Thomas Nelson publishers and so the books are "christian" books. I have enjoyed the books I have gotten and not only have I been able to enjoy them but I have also been able to pass them on to others to read and enjoy too.
We look for and enjoy the beauty around us. I love having a pretty home, especially filled with fresh flowers. I could spend a lot of money to make that happen but I have discovered that there is beauty all around us even in plants we might look at as normal and mundane. This week my mint plants (which grow in abundance!) are blooming. It is a small bloom, nothing spectacular, but it is pretty. I filled a whole vase with peppermint and have it sitting in our entry way and it has helped to cheer me up every time I see it. With mint not only does it look nice but it also smells good.
We have also enjoyed many wildflower bouquets picked by the children this summer. These bouquets don't cost anything but they certainly make us feel like we have "more"!
Another way we have "more with less" is by really focusing on cooking with what we can get inexpensively and have in abundance. I have been able to spend less money than normal on groceries so far this year but we have been eating very well! Not only do we eat well but we are able to have company over frequently and feed them. We also have been able to share food with others. We have made full use of the berries, potatoes and other garden produce that God so abundantly supplies for us as well as other things we can get economically.
Another way I have learned to use less in the last year is by making my own shampoo (along with the laundry soap I already made). The cost of making my own is way less than buying and it still does an okay job of taking care of my hair. With homemade shampoo I have also been able to quit using conditioner though I do rinse with apple cider vinegar occasionally.
We enjoy doing a lot of crafting around here and we are able to do that because almost all our crafts are made out of recycled items. In the picture above some of the kids are holding sock puppets they made which would be one example of that.
Another example is their shirts. My sister Keren invited them to do some tie dyeing with her and of course they wanted too. We could have gone to the store and purchased new shirts for all of them to dye but instead we looked through what we had. Megan and Jonathan had some stained shirts in their drawers which now look pretty nice thanks to the dye. Aaron's shirt and hat we found down in our stash of craft stuff, the shirt was a stained one that had been passed on to us but now it works just fine for him. Mara ended up dyeing a white cotton slip/skirt that I had made for her as well as a used onesie that we can now pass on to some baby. (The shirt she is wearing is one Keren did for herself but it was then too small.)
We also have been learning to have more with less in our recreation. Last year we paid to have the boys in baseball ($40 each) and we had to do tons of running and sitting around with that. This year we instead organized
homeschool baseball where the parents help out with coaching, pitching and stuff. We have had such a wonderful time doing that this year and we have saved money and time too! This has definitely been a more with less experience for us.
Remodeling clothes has been something else I have learned in order to have much more for much less. You can check out some of the ways I have done that in these posts:
Some remodeled skirts of mine,
Pants for Jonathan,
Swimsuits and dresses.
Another recent more for less experience was a play that our family went to. Our family really enjoys plays but the main theater in our town is pretty expensive so generally when we have gone it has just been Ken and I to go. Not only do the cost quite a bit but they often throw things into the plays (swearing, suggestive conversation) that I don't like so I have left many times when we have gone feeling disgusted that we spent a bunch of money to go. This summer I happened to read about a play that the community theater was putting on at the state park. It was supposed to be family friendly and it was free (except for the $5 park entrance fee). We went and had a great time. The play was well done ( though not quite professional) and it
was family friendly and free.
I have also been learning ways to be able to give more gifts with less. We have been working on making a lot of homemade gifts which helps with that but there are some other ways we have been able to give more with less too. This year I have decided to think a bit differently about garage sale stuff and what a gift should be like. This year I have found a bunch of brand new looking books for 25 cents each. I bought them up to stock my gift cupboard. I also found some basically brand new looking baby socks (in a bag of 10 pairs for 10 cents!) and I used some of them to create a "flower" for the top of a gift that I gave. I also found a brand new (still wrapped) photo album for 75 cents that I was able to give away. This has enabled me to give more for a whole lot less!
Another thing that has helped with my gift giving is by using
swagbucks to earn Amazon gift cards. This allowed me to buy some Christmas presents for nothing and I am planning on using some to buy birthday presents this fall. There are various ways to earn swagbucks but I mainly earn them simply by using their search engine. Also any time somebody signs up under you then you will earn more. So if you haven't signed up to use it yet, I would love to have you sign up under me by simply going
here.
As I thought about having more with less I don't think there is anything that makes me feel like I am abundantly blessed than the ability to give to others. Even when we don't have a lot (and actually we do have a lot, we just need to realize it!) we can usually find some way to give whether it be money, time, or things. Giving can become quite addicting too!
I would love to hear the ways you have found to have "more with less"!
