What Can You Live Without?

I was raised by my maternal Grandmother that went through the Great Depression. She saved aluminum and tin foil. She was constantly after me to turn off the lights, when I was not in the room, and she washed plastic silverware and separated paper towels. Her favorite phrase in Italian was “LaLuge-LaLuge” which translates lightly to “you’re being wasteful!” In a time where everything was plentiful we thought she was an archaic dinosaur. Who new she was teaching us something so important. Then 3 years ago, my family went to Panama. We visited my 95 year old paternal Grandfathers house. I was struck by the fact that I could have bought his humble abode for the amount that I spent in one day on my wedding in the US. On the same trip, I also met a relative that made 1 dollar a day—we were their guest. The trip was transforming. I realized how blessed we were. My husband and I made the conscious decision to scale back our lives. Omar Khayyam in the Rubaiyat said that all you needed was “a loaf of bread, a jug of wine, and thee.” It’s pretty true. When we came back from Panama, I quit my career to give our children more quality time rather than things. Our motto became Making Family Life a Priority. In addition, our family gave up cable, eating out regularly, and shopping--Home Parties being the hardest because it was connected with a social group. Now, we buy a lot of our stuff used. Goodwill and second hand stores are regular stops. Sometimes it is hard on our kids who don’t understand why they don’t have the latest Wii, 700 channels on the TV or regular parties at the Kids Super Extreme Mega Bounce Zone. They have had melt downs when we have tried to limit the amount of TV and computer in their lives and said that they are “board,” but we are all learning values (as a family) to last a life time—kind of like the ones my Grandmother gave to me. Two new changes that we have recently made, is that we discuss our decisions in family meetings and read books like Wayne Dyer’s children’s book It’s Not What You’ve Got! The accumulation of stuff has been replaced by hugs, family dinners, game nights, and car trips. The sacrifices has been worth it! Our kids have less temper tantrums then when I worked full time. . We have found happiness in simplicity, and more importantly we love spending time together. And yes every once in a while we still splurge and buy something extraordinary which we appreciate so much more.