Move to Simplicity
Liquidity. After our McMinnville house sold in 2009 we experienced something we had never experienced in our life. A savings account which actually had something more than “meager” in it; and a debt column containing a single digit – 0. We relished the idea knowing is was only temporary, and that soon the 30 year [...]
“Glen Kellman: No matter how many cereal boxes people want to buy, there will always be more boxes in the back room. So any chance of price appreciation for the next, probably five years, is gone.”
When we pulled our offer, (which was the 4th for those who are counting), last spring, the uneasiness – [...]
One of the main reasons we moved downtown to a smaller place was to reduce our our time behind the wheel, which it has. However more importantly, we wanted to reduce the heating and cooling of our living space. Our previous rental had a lot of unneeded space that took more time and [...]
Well ok. I pulled the plug on the cable box yesterday. It felt eerily like pulling life support on, well… not a person, but something more connected to my soul than an “object”. You hear all the jokes about a remote control being the extension of the male psyche. There may be some truth to [...]
$55 for full cable channel access, plus an additional $20 in rental fees and taxes for the DVR.
“Most DVR boxes use more than half the energy an average refrigerator… That’s $2 billion each year…” (NPR, Natural Resources Defence Council, June 16, 2010) Seriously!?
That sucker’s a goner.
As far as the cable [...]
I knew this day would come. Paring down our lives to be mobile, liquid and light isn’t something that happens quickly. I’m the kind of person who gets excited about a new idea, pours a bucket of effort at it, then gets bored after awhile and wants to just go find a good, new book [...]
Sometimes I think I might have been happier if I’d been born in another era. Probably, I wouldn’t, but maybe I would. It depends on how much actual happiness I derive from modern medicine, dish-washers, and the other conveniences we have vs. not having to be a slave to computers, tv’s, and the sort of [...]
Another book I’ve been reading recently is The Joy of Less. The author, Francine Jay, makes a good case for a minimalistic lifestyle. She talks about how the more stuff we accumulate, the more cluttered our lives and minds become. She has some great ideas on how to declutter the home, like when [...]
Simplifying (read: lowering) our grocery bill is a difficult thing to do!
Of course, if we completely cut out all the processed foods we buy, the bills would be less. Some of the worst culprits?… cold cereal, chips and crackers of all sorts, and condiments (like salsa, hummus, mayo, etc.). So, if we’re going to [...]
So, everyone is writing about eating and buying local foods lately. There’s all sorts of chatter about the slow food movement. I’m pretty sure we all know processed foods are bad for us and real, fresh foods are good for us (generally).
What I would want to add to the discussion is [...]
- A family experiment to see if we can free ourselves from the clutter of modern life and the ideas we come across while trying it.
