Well, That's Crafty  

We just completed week one in the February #SpendZero Challenge. I wrote about it last week. You can find more info or join in at www.livingwellspendingless.com. For us, the challenge really isn't about not spending anything at all. It's more about making conscious choices about where we spend our hard-earned money and what this says about our priorities.
Over the past week, some things struck me.

1. It's easy to spend "just a little more."  It occurs to me that little add-on items really boost the bill. The appetizer, extra drink, chips, whatever...just boost the bill. I still went out to eat last week but limited myself to an appetizer and water. For me, that means visiting my beloved Plaza Azteca and ordering a side of refried beans and water. No cheese dip. No peppers, sour cream, soda or tea. Good friends ordered cheese dip and shared. So, do we really need all that food? Probably not. How much of it is habit? Probably, quite a bit. Might this approach save people more than money eating out? What about gym fees and special diets later? What about the toll on our health?

2. When did we start going to look for crafts? I'll be honest, I don't have time to craft (in the normal sense) these days. What I do have time to do is solve an immediate problem with a creative solution. My composting sign (above) made from a meat tray is a good example. I needed a way to direct the neighbors to which compost bin we were actively filling at the time. A bit of paint, a meat tray, and a ribbon from a Holiday package solved it. That's crafting. The best crafts arise from NEED. This week, I made household cleanser from vinegar and discarded citrus peels. Really simple. We normally clean with vinegar but citrus scented cleanser cuts the grease better and smells delish! When the coffers were full, I started making orange peel and honey marmalade by boiling orange peel in salt water and then adding honey. By the way, the honey is from left-over packets that came with tea over the last few months. Put it all in a jar and store in the fridge to use on meats or toast. It's fun. It doesn't cost me anything but time. It gives me a feeling of accomplishment.

3.When did we forget we had resources past our credit card? Friends help friends. It keeps us connected. It's fantastic that we can use a credit card and go online to solve any problem but should we use it as our first line of reaction? Probably not. Keeping items out of the landfill is good for the environment. Repairing is good for our wallet and those in our neighborhoods. It's hard to outsource repair to another country. There are worst things than owing a favor to a neighbor and few better than them owing you a favor. A favorite site is www.freecycle.org Just this week, I was able to find a part for a truck at work--for free. Sure, my boss would have opened his wallet and paid for the part (which is made overseas). Finding the part allows an employee to get more hours on the clock doing the install and get some training. It saves the fuel for shipping and the packing materials which would end up in the landfill. It allows us to keep equipment operating and reduces the chance that we would need to raise rates to clients because of expenses. You get the point. Sometimes the easy way robs us of so many benefits.  

Any challenge has a way of making us look at things in new ways. Someone else, somewhere, is thinking these same things. Someone has written an article or a book and has lectured on it. But until it's in our path, we don't see it the same way. If it were routine or easy, we wouldn't call it a challenge.  We started this challenge because we faced new uninsured medical expenses and needed to be sure we could cover them. Our safety net disappeared several years ago. There is a lot of uncertainty in life. We don't know if we will be able to cover them or not but it won't be because we didn't try. This challenge gives us a little bit of control in a wildly uncontrolable world.  These little seemingly insignificant choices are the very fibers that form the fabric that is our lives.   A friend said, "We are just three poor choices away from disaster."  We are hoping that with the guidance of others, we can stop at one or two.