Can you live with less?
B had a challenge for us for this year. Can we do more with less? Well actually, his specific quote was "we should follow the Republican school of thought, for every thing you buy, you must get rid of something else". What! Can I actually do this?
I love to shop. I love clothes, cookbooks, magazines, and home decor. When we moved to Baton Rouge a year ago (about 4000 km.) we got rid of a ton of stuff so we had less to move. We really have not accumulated more stuff in the past year. We figure if we did not miss it in a year we do not need it. I really do not shop that much (I promise!), I have learned to use Pinterest for recipes rather than purchase cookbooks, and I now use the Zinio app and my public library's subscription to get tons of free magazines every month... with no added clutter in the house!
This past weekend I donated 20 books to the public library. Wither they will use them in circulation or sell them in their yearly book sale to fund raise money. No matter what, someone will benefit from my old books whether it be improved literacy, reading to relax, or funding for library programs.
We are always taking about how to live simply and with less. We love to travel so that motivates us to save our money for experiences rather than material things. We bought reusable SB cups so we can save 10 cents per trip or make our own at home... less of a carbon footprint from paper cups being thrown out. We have also survived a year without cable TV. Okay, this one is easy! We use apple TV with Netflicks and the NHL package, all the aps on the iPad, and various online networks on the laptop. This means no cable bill! Yes, we probably miss out on "some amazing television" but we get to watch our shows when it is convenient for us. Some of our friends think we are crazy but I feel like we are more productive this way.
Soon, we will be doing one more thing to keep our lives simple. I won't tell you just yet, but if you follow me on Pinterest you may be able to figure it out. We are quite excited about it!
I really like talking about living more with less. Maybe I should do this more often... blog therapy at its best!
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