Folk Fest Philosophy II - Time and Money

The Claire Lynch Band was another group of performers that had me digging through my backpack last weekend at the Folk Festival to find my paper and pen so I could quickly scribble down some more inspiring lyrics. In her sweet Alabama voice, Claire sang,

"Find the time to make your pay: Give a dollar's worth away to make a quarter."

The song was called "Moonlighter," about a mother working two jobs to pay the bills while trying to take care of her kids. The mom in the song makes coffee in her sleep and hopes the kids get ready for school on time so she's not late for work, all the while lamenting that she doesn't have the time to spend with them that she'd like to.

It's a cliche to say that time is money. I think Claire's words speak to the idea that time is worth more than money, but that our 'rat race' type of society devalues time in favor of money. That's hardly a new concept, but what about this concept: Sometimes time is just time. Time with family, time for ourselves, time in the garden. Time for tea and a book.

What if people took back their time? Imagine if people on a large scale decided that it was more important to go camping or play board games with their kids/spouses/siblings/friends, than it was to rack up one more overtime shift. What if instead of working those overtime shifts to pay for that motorhome or cruise we get to enjoy for two weeks out of the year, we spent time on a regular basis with the people we'd be going on vacation with anyway? Would employers value their employees more? Would people value their loved ones more? Would we be less attached to material things?

Each moment in life comes by only once. I'm trying to get better at remembering that, and acting accordingly.

April Challenge Summary

This month I signed up for two challenges: Crunchy's Buy Nothing in April, and Chile's Cut the Crap decluttering challenge. I did reasonably well with these challenges, but as usual, they were harder than I thought.

I did pretty well in not buying any unnecessary goods this month - we bought a window blind duster/cleaner that was on sale and which Gord really wanted (he likes a clean blind!) and a 205 litre rainwater collection barrel that was also on sale. The water barrel may not 'count,' by Crunchy's rules, since it will collect water for the garden and therefore is related to growing our own food, but it is nonetheless a fairly big household item. Other than these two things, we bought just groceries, vehicle fuel and paid the monthly bills. We resisted buying a new TV, and that turned out to be fairly easy, actually.

Where I didn't do so well was in resisting buying my lunch instead of making it. I make my lunch most days, but usually do have a day or two per week where I am too lazy or too tired or just don't feel like it. On those days I usually get something from the cafeteria at work or I go to my favorite cafe, Three Bananas. I had intended not to do this at all in April, but I gave in and did it anyway, once a week, sometimes twice. And I also went out for dinner twice - once planned and once unplanned.

As for the decluttering challenge, I was pretty low key with it. I gave away a spare hand blender and some items of clothing, cleaned out my filing cabinet up to to and including the letter "C", earmarked some items for a future garage sale, dealt with a backlog of receipts and bills, and had a bonfire to deal with some rotten deadfall and brush that isn't suitable for burning in the woodstove. I didn't add to my clutter at least, since I barely bought anything!

There have been some good outcomes from these challenges for me! It was quite free-ing not to have to decide to buy something or not. I just didn't buy it. And the two things we did buy, we really thought about if we needed them first - there was no impulse shopping at all. Not buying unnecessary things also spilled over into our grocery shopping habits - our monthly bill was 24% less than usual and we still ate as much as we normally do! It was just that the food was in the form of unprocessed, non-prepared items. And, I was able to double our normal monthly debt repayment amount because of all the money we didn't spend this month! All in all, it was a good month of learning that stuff doesn't equal happiness!

Thanks to Crunchy and Chile for organizing these challenges. I've gone ahead and signed up for three challenges in May but I will blog about that in another post soon....

Oh boy. What have I done?

Well, I've gone and done it.

I've joined in Crunchy Chicken's latest challenge: Buy Nothing in April. I've wondered before about how many Buy Nothing Day[s] I could string together, but now I've committed to a whole month of buying nothing other than necessities. Well, almost nothing. Crunchy has kindly allowed me one possible exception (and it's a big one), because it was pre-planned. Barely.

We have been putting off getting a new TV because there just wasn't anything wrong with it. It is just small-ish (27") and old-ish (~10 years). We also try not to watch that much TV - I just can't stand the commercials anymore, and a lot of the shows are just plain crappy. And last year we even disconnected the cable/satellite for the Summer, which was very nice, not to mention saving us over $200 in satellite bills.

But last month (or was it the month before?), the speakers on the TV would only work intermittently. And now they barely work at all. And the NHL playoffs are coming. And the Edmonton Oilers just might make it into the playoffs this year. So last night, Gord and I were talking and we decided that if the Oilers made it into the playoffs, we would go ahead and get a new TV. Then this morning I see this new challenge of Crunchy's! She had given virtually no warning so that people couldn't pre-buy stuff. She is so very crafty and wise, that Crunchy.

I whined a little about this. I asked Crunchy for a special Canadian Hockey Fan exemption. And, a few other people over on her site had also commented about things they had planned to buy in April, and wondered if they could still join the overall challenge. I left it up to Crunchy to decide, and she did. She's letting me (and the others) participate, even if the Oilers do make the playoffs and we do buy a TV, because we had pre-planned the purchase. But, she has now listed me on her participant list as "Theresa at Pondering a New TV. I guess that's only fair!

Now I'm not sure if I want the Oilers to make the playoffs or not!

On another Crunchy-related note, and with somewhat ironic timing, I received in the mail today the book I won in Crunchy's anniversary draw, Simple Prosperity: Finding Real Wealth in a Sustainable Lifestyle. I can't wait to delve into this book! And when I'm done, as promised, I will hold a random draw of my own to send this book out into the blogosphere once more. I figure it will take me about a week or two to read this book, so sometime in mid-April I will hold the draw. OK....time to make a cup of tea and start reading!