Living Without ~ Guest Post

Hi everyone! My name is Melissa and I write over at Living A Frugal Life. Come visit me and get some new frugal ideas a long with some deals, coupons and DIY projects. I LOVE frugal things and ideas and I am so excited to be guest posting today to talk a little about a type of living frugal that is a daily part of my life.

I have spent a lot of time in my frugal journey of the last 6 years thinking about how much we really NEED. There are many things that are MUSTS in our life that we couldn’t really live without if we tried. I think about people in the 50’s and how they lived. They had much less then us, but they were happy for the most part. I think we tend to forget how much stuff can cost us int he long run, and I am not just talking money. there is a cost mentally and emotionally that this can effect.

We currently live live in a 950 square foot 2 bedroom home. We have 5 people living in the house currently. It was built in the 50’s and still have much of the original layout and set up. The walls are plaster, the kitchen counters are so small and we have NO dishwasher… GASP!

I thought it was going to be hard to fit everything in, to make room for the toys and such. Having 3 kids in 1 room was a challenge, but we have found that things are not as bad as I thought they would be. Things are surprisingly easy to fit in and put up with. The Kitchen is the hardest area to function in, but we have made that work too.

So you get an idea of what I am talking about, the counters are small and they have a tile ledge on them making them even smaller. I have often wondered how did people use to function when they didn’t have any modern things. They had no microwaves, cooked most items from scratch, and had to be in their kitchens most of the day.

The answer is that they just did it. That is what they had to work with and they worked with it. They made bread, rolled it on the table if they had to. They made the choice to do things that way so they could live with what they had.

This has taught me a great lesson in making things work. I think you would be very surprised at what you really could live without. Things you never thought were essential may not work very well for you now. We have many modern small appliances that just wont work in our house. They don’t fit on the counters or under the cabinets. So we are having to figure out ways to do without them. We use our stove a whole lot more then we used to, but it is working and I am not missing the other things we have in the garage sale pile.

Another great way to make things work and do without others is to use a substitution. Sometimes when I use a substitution in recipes things taste a little different and sometimes we don’t like it very much, but I am trying it and not buying something. We learn what we like and what we don’t.

When trying to substitute things in other places in your house you may have to get creative. If you ran out of wipes and they aren’t on sale, use water and pieces of cloth and wash them out until you can get them on sale. Doing dishes by hand when you run out of dish washer soap before the sale comes up is another great way substitute and do without. It may be a little bit more work, but it pays off in the long run with a simple life and saving money!

Living without can sometimes be tricky. You sometimes have to step out of your comfort zone but in the end it helps you to be more simplistic, frugal and happy.

What are somethings you could do without in your life?

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