The Weekend & A Shift in Thought

We had a pretty quiet weekend around here. Tim worked on Saturday and I was up early and on the road with Mom to West Newton's library. They were having a bag sale on used books and a jewelry sale at "drastically" reduced prices. Who are we to say no to a book sale or drastically reduced jewelry?

I spent $8 and came home with a bag of books, which also included a read-along book and CD of The Little Mermaid (Leah is very into Mermaids right now), DVD's of the first two Pirates of the Caribbean movies, a DVD of Space Cowboys for Tim, a pair of Christmas earrings, a sweet turquoise leather bracelet with slide charms that spell L-O-V-E and a leaf, and a classic Avon brooch that is a gold bow you change the dangling charms on for each holiday.

We were home by lunchtime and the rest of the day was spent on laundry, reading, and a visit from the kids. Supper was meatball subs. We sat out on the porch swing for a bit and then Tim was ready for bed and I watched some television.

On Sunday I went to church and Tim worked on fixing our riding mower (Megan had run over a steel bar last week and broken some part. The part came quickly from Amazon, but Tim hadn't had time to fix it before that. He also got the solar light caps Mom gave me for the deck put on. It rained off and on part of the day and then got icky muggy so we stayed inside all afternoon and evening. The kids were in and out, though.

One of the things I did while staying inside enjoying the A/C yesterday was search online job listings. With gas prices rising and the cost of everything else going up, too, I am feeling guilty about being at home and Tim having to bear all the burden. 

I am thinking I will apply at a couple of the nursing homes in the area, including the one Megan just got hired at. I have some of my certifications and my Covid vaccines are up to date so if I got hired it's possible I'd actually start before her! If I go there, I'd be looking at being an aide/companion. 

Another home I'm looking at needs someone for transportation. It would be driving residents to appointments and activities. It would be daylight and mostly Monday-Friday, but it would be full-time...and their ad said nothing about what it pays. The other one pays $14.50 to start and would be part-time, which I'd rather do, at least until the grands are in school full-time.

Aside from looking for a job, I'm really trying to cut costs where I can and live more like folks used to....simply and frugally. I admit we haven't really lived like that all the time over the years, but I do grasp the concept having grown up with it. It was simply the way of life, how everyone did things back then. 

When my daughter looks at me and says they are doing without and living simply because they only went out to eat one time last week...I cringe. She views going out once a week as real deprivation and doing without. When money gets tight it never crosses her mind to cut luxuries like Disney+ or things like it. Our son-in-law won't even consider trying to break his chew habit and that costs him nearly $100 per week! It makes it very apparent that we dropped the ball showing our kids how to be self-sufficient. We know how, but we didn't pass it on. 

I think it's probably the same for many my age (57 and the tail-end of the Boomers). We were blessed to have grown up during this country's safest, most prosperous times. Most of us never really had to do without or make-do. If something broke we didn't fix it because the money was there to buy a new one and that stretched into burying our kids under a mountain of possessions that were taken for granted. We also bought a new one when nothing was wrong with the old one except a newer, more exciting, one came out. Fueled by marketing and the media, we wanted it ALL and we were told we could have it and thanks to loosey-goosey credit, we could have it NOW and pay later!

Anyway, the economy has me searching for a job and going back to things I grew up with...not eating out, simple meals, less meat and more veggies, homemade treats, little to no recreational shopping, doing things at home or that don't cost much if anything, etc.

Now I'm wondering, is the economy changing the way you're living? Are you cutting back or changing how you do things? Do tell. I'd love to hear!