Frugal Living

It is astounding how much money you can spend on nothing.  When hubbie and I were both working we were earning quite a bit of money, saving a little and just spending the rest.  What on…clothes we didn’t need, expensive food and wine, take-outs, eating out at least once a week and stuff, stuff, stuff!

Although our income was reduced more and more, as I was off work on statutory maternity leave one year, back and then off again the next year, we still spent and purchased far more than we actually needed; failed to use our resources and wasted produce and opportunities for being Eco and frugal.

Since leaving the rat race and starting our housesitting journey we have completely downsized (although we are now in a massive 4 bedroomed house).  The amount of stuff we have is minimal.  The amount of stuff we left behind, phenomenal.  We had a two bedroomed flat stuffed to the gills with ‘things’ to think of how cluttered we were back then makes me a little bit sick in my mouth.  It was scary.  Two kids and a whole load of stuff.  Chaos’ bedroom was jam-packed with everything we owned as there was no storage in our flat.  We packed up a lot of it (too much) into a storage container and left for our housesitting adventure  in our camper van.

Mayhem (only time he would sit in a pram) in Chaos’ stuffed bedroom

Now we are living off our savings we are really enjoying being as frugal as possible.  We no longer have oodles of income and really want to use our time wisely, making do and mending, repairing, cooking from scratch frugal meals, using natural resources and getting back to basics.  We are looking for a more sustainable life where ‘stuff’ doesn’t quite have the same impact or need.

Find out more about our frugal adventures, our hiccups and successes along the way on these pages.