The Simple Life

I've seen many posts about people panicking about the rising grocery prices & gas prices. While I don't like all the price increases, I am choosing to not panic or deprive ourselves. I completely understand why many are upset about all the increases and cutting corners in several different ways. My reason for not panicking - I grew up in a different country and lived a far simpler life than most Americans. I'm sure there are many older Americans (or in other parts of the world) who will understand and who have also grown up with similar ways - way back when life was simpler (I do miss those days). I've also taken a step back and analyzed everything to see if I needed to cut corners or not. I've decided not to. We can still live & especially eat very well on the same budget. Price increases be damned. There's a reason why I was known as the shopping queen in my national couponing group years ago. I'm not trying to toot my own horn, but I know how to squeeze the heck out of a dollar. I'm no cheapskate. I don't like cheapskates. I like to live well - I just do it on a smaller budget that most (hence the name of my blog). I'm not gonna lie - it takes work, but when you do it long enough, it becomes a lifestyle. 

Let's look at the gas prices for instances. I cringed when I saw that it costs me almost twice as much as it used to, to fill my tank. However, I cannot understand those folks who sit in those long lines at Sams, because the gas is cheaper. I've never seen such long lines at my local Sams before. It looked like something out of a movie, when high gas prices hit. However, my analytical mind did the math. Let's say gas costs around $3.89-3.99/gal at Sams. The gas is currently $4.09 (was $4.19 before) at my local gas stations (there's 3 right on my doorstep). My car only holds around 10 gallons. Why would I drive to Sams (about a 3 mile drive), sit in a line for about 20-30 minutes, just to save $2-3?! In what alternative reality does this even begin to make sense? My time is far more valuable than that. Please don't get me wrong. I'm all about saving! However, I'm not just going to do silly things like that, just to save a small amount. Besides, I would have to waste gas to drive 6 miles to & from Sams too. So how am I really saving?

Then with grocery shopping. You all see my numbers every month. The budget includes groceries, HBA & cleaning items.  We eat VERY WELL on that budget! I don't care much for processed food. All our meals are cooked from scratch. I buy organic chicken and many organic produce items. I stick to better quality dairy and other items (many name brand). How do I offset all that high costs? I buy several store brand items, eg canned veggies, cereal (we've never cared for the junk sugary cereal. we eat wheat brand or Fiber One), pancake mix. Many of the Walmart store brand items actually taste better than name brand products. I know my prices and keep an eye out for good stock up sales. We mainly eat fresh produce, so the canned goods are for those times when there's slim pickings at the produce market or like during lockdown, when we couldn't venture out everywhere. 

I still play the drugstore game. I will say that the drugstores have saved us thousands of $$$ over the years. We get to try all kinds of brands for a fraction of the cost. While many drugstore trips can be super frustrating (WAGS especially, is not for the faint hearted), it's totally worth it. I also tend to pick up cleaning products with drugstore rewards. 

You all know that I sell most of our old clothes to offset the cost of new clothes and help pay for Christmas. The point earning sites paid for a new laptop for DS last Christmas.

If I want the high end makeup at the department stores, I wait for a good sale, especially those free gifts ones. Many times, the free gift contains items I want or need. So I buy the makeup item I want, take some of the free gift items I need and sell the rest. That pays me back for the item I originally wanted. On the other hand, I'll pay $100+ for a bottle of perfume (I do splurge on certain items).

I do lots of different things so we can still enjoy all kinds of things we like. It's all a game to me. I'm a numbers girl. I'm always running numbers in my head - it's 2nd nature (or maybe I'm just a geek...lol). I enjoy seeing how little I can spend on the things that I want. Why spend an arm and a leg? The majority of items are way overpriced. I know this, because I've been taught all about store markups by my father. Now, we can afford to just pay full price for things (as I'm sure many of you are too) and just call it  a day. But why allow retailers to get wealthier from our hard earned money? 

So, I've decided to still continue shopping for the things we enjoy. I will admit that I cut out a lot of things when the pandemic started. Then I thought 'why am I depriving ourselves?'. If the items are in stock & the price is good, I'm buying it. As long as I stay within budget, it's all good. 

As some of you know, I grew up during the Apartheid era. Our country had many sanctions, so most things were manufactured locally. Like many European countries, we lived far simpler lives - some due to Apartheid and others, because it's just a way of life for us. Please remember that we didn't have all the privileges that white South Africans did (this is not about race, just an explanation. DH is white, so there's definitely no racism involved with me). So here's a bit more about my family life.

• We never ever had food waste. We were a family of 7, so there were lots of mouths to feed. However, we ate well. Our meals were cooked from scratch. Any leftover food (some of us kids didn't always eat everything on our plates - me raising my hand...lol). Well, that leftover food went to our dogs. Growing up, we always had dogs. No, we didn't feed our dogs anything they shouldn't eat. We ate meat, lots of vegetables and rice, so that's what our dogs got too. Our dogs were fed dried dog food too, but people rarely bought the processed canned wet dog food. 

• Our laundry were always line dried.  My oldest brother bought a dryer after getting married, but they only use it during winter. There's no way people are gonna pay high electricity bills just to run the dryer. Our temps aren't as extreme as it is here, so if it doesn't rain, you can still line dry your laundry. We had a covered backyard (mainly for family get togethers come rain or shine), so we could hang laundry year round. 

• To this day, dishwashers are very rare in SA households, for the same reason as dryers. Nobody's gonna pay a high electricity or water bill just to run the dishwasher. Dishes are still washed by hand. 

• I had to shake my head when people started brown bagging their lunches when the recession hit. This is something that we've always done. However, we never had brown bag lunches (that's too wasteful and costs money too). We all had lunch boxes. Our lunches were packed in those. Sometimes your sandwich was first wrapped in wax paper (to keep your sandwich intact) and then placed into your lunch box. No lunch bags involved. You'd just stick your lunch box into your backpack for school or purse for work. 

• Paper towels were considered a wasteful luxury item. We did have it in stores and my mother occasionally bought a roll or 2 (we even had a paper towel holder), but it was rarely used. I still don't use much paper towel.

• Tea time was on Sunday afternoons. That's when we ate cake & other sweets. We ate chips and salty snacks during the week, but cake & biscuits (cookies) were reserved for Sunday afternoons. It felt like a real treat. My grandmothers always baked cakes for Sundays too. I just remember those rich chocolate cakes my maternal grandmother used to bake. She made a really good fruit cake too, filled with booze (my grandmother never drank though. I wonder if she bought booze especially for the cake of just asked one of my uncles for a bottle...lol)

• We wore school uniforms. All public & private schools had uniforms, so you didn't have to spend a fortune buying clothes for your children to keep up with their peers at school every day. I remember polishing my school shoes to a high shine every Sunday night. For many years us girls wore mary jane school shoes. They were genuine leather shoes.  I hated those shoes. They just weren't cute. We had a different style in high school though. 

• My family never owned a car, but we were out all the time. Public transportation is still very common for most people. Those few people who could afford to own a vehicle, would still take public transportation to work, because it was cheaper than driving your car. There's no such thing as a leased vehicle in South Africa. You have to purchase a vehicle. Back then, those who bought cars, bought used vehicles because it was affordable. 

• We walked almost everywhere else. To the local grocery store, to church, to the local sports field, to the movie theater, the mall etc. We even walked to the stores during our lunch break. Yes, I power walked in 4" heels. Our offices were always in the CBD (central business district) and there were always shopping malls and grocery stores within a stone's throw. So we'd power walk to the store & back (we only got half hour lunch). No wonder we never gained weight...lol. We were getting regular exercise without even realising it. 

• I never owned a vehicle in SA. It's not that I couldn't afford one. I could well afford to save up and buy a brand new vehicle (I made good money). However, I chose to take care of my family (a family of 6) financially, instead of buying a car. I don't think I could ever have lived with myself, driving my new car while my parents couldn't afford to eat or pay their utilities. My family depended on me, so that's what I did. 

• Despite taking public transportation to work, I was always the first person at the office. I could've taken a later bus or train, but I chose to always be at work early. I don't like waltzing into the office at start time & then being bombarded with work and phone calls. I like to grab my coffee, check email (boy that sounds outdated now...lol) and plan my day. Sometimes I'd just start work early. I wasn't getting paid extra, but I like to get things done.

• We had no fast food places in SA when I was a child. The only thing we had were fisheries (The British will know what this is). It's a fish & chips (fries) shop. This was our version of fast food. Friday nights, my family ate steak with onions & gravy, baked potatoes & baked beans or homemade hamburgers. Boy, I sure didn't know how good we had it then. I mean, who eats steak every Friday? Granted, it was tenderized steak, but not everyone was able to afford it back then. There I was hoping that we'd get a fast food place, while not realizing how well we actually ate. We eventually got KFC, but that was a luxury food to eat. When I was in college, Burger King came to SA, but didn't last long. We did have a own burger places (Spur & Steers) by then. I have to admit that they are way better than the burger places here, especially Spur. I always have to visit it several times whenever I'm in SA. 

That's just a few of many ways we lived a simpler life. The biggest take away from my childhood, is that we were always happy. We didn't have fancy things or lived an upscale life. We had a roof over our heads, food on our table, good clothes to wear (we got lots of perks in the fashion department, due to my parents' jobs), but most importantly, we had love & each other. So yeah, we were more blessed than most. We weren't poor, nor were we rich, but we were happy. 

So this is why I've decided to not stress over things or deprive ourselves. I believe in having balance in our lives. We can't just save, save, save so much while depriving ourselves and possibly end up being miserable. In the same way, we shouldn't just spend, spend, spend so much, that we don't know how we're going to make ends meet. Life is short, so enjoy it. I'm not here to tell anyone how to live their lives or spend their money. I'm just going to try to enjoy our lives in a balanced way. I might have gotten a little off track here, but I hope this made some sense (I'm really not good at putting words to paper. Give me numbers instead). I know that there's a lot of misconception about me (not just online, but in my personal life too), because I give people very, very little insight into my life. I'm still an extremely private person for several different reasons, but mainly due to growing up in the public eye. I might or might not share. I only open up to those I consider really close to me. All I can say is that here's a helluva lot more to me than meets the eye, but deep down, I'm just a simple girl who enjoys simple things. Don't be fooled by all that shopping & spending I do. Always remember, there's method to my madness ;)