For me, Simplicity is a bag of baby carrots. But I didn’t always realize it.
When we were saving up the money for the placement fee to pay for our son’s adoption, we went into ultra-frugal mode. We stopped going to movies, cancelled our cable (hardly miss it, except for Shark Week 🙂 ) and basically cut corners wherever we could.
I crockpotted (is that a word?) entire chickens rather than buy chicken breasts. I chose whole carrots over baby ones to save 50 cents a bag. I bought heads of lettuce and whole veggies to make salads. Only I never made the salads; it was too much work. And when I actually did peel the carrots (which wasn’t very often), I didn’t like them as much as the moister, sweeter baby carrots. So I didn’t eat them.
I thought I was being frugal, when actually I was wasting money. I’d have been better off just buying the pre-made salads and baby carrots rather than wasting the time-intensive but cheaper alternatives. The whole carrots and salad-from-scratch method just complicated my life and made it less enjoyable (not to mention less healthy, since I wasn’t eating as many veggies).
When I really stopped and looked at it, I realized I was doing it because I thought I should. I should take every step possible to save money for our adoption. I should be frugal in every way I knew how. I should put my own dislikes secondary to our budget. It finally dawned on me that I was shoulding all over myself 😉 I was trying to live up to someone else’s standards rather than my own reality. When I finally gave myself permission to buy baby carrots and bagged salads again, I felt relief. Not because I gave myself permission to be lazy, but because I honored myself and my time more than my wallet.
Don’t get me wrong. I believe in being good stewards of the money God gives us, and being frugal when it makes sense. But remember back on Day 2 of this series when I said that Simplicity is not Frugality? When frugality stresses you out, makes you less healthy, or makes you do too many things you really don’t enjoy, it’s time to re-evaluate. Often, a big convenience is worth a little extra cost. You are worth more than your checkbook.
Maybe people who love spending time in the kitchen prefer to make their own salads. That’s great! More power to them. It didn’t work for me. For me, bagged salads and baby carrots are a sanity-saving shortcut that’s well worth an extra dollar or two each week. It’s honoring myself and giving myself permission to simplify where the cost is small but the pay-off is big.
We’re all busy and over-committed. I urge you to give yourself permission to take a few shortcuts for the sake of Simplicity. What shortcuts can you take to simplify your life? It’ll be different for each of us, and I look forward to hearing your answers. Leave a comment below and let me know what you think!
