"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?" Matthew 6:25
Last week, my husband, Kevin, told his boss he was resigning--not because he doesn't want to be gainfully employed, but because his pain level just doesn't allow him to sit at a desk 8 hours or more a day. So, Kevin took his doctors' advice and quit. He has to be out of work for a year before he can apply for disability. While we both know that he has to do this, that we have to do this, it's difficult to know that we'll essentially be living on my salary during this time. It's certainly a blow to the lifestyle we've been accustomed to living these last few years. We pay our bills. We buy what we need, and for the most part, what we want. We also realize that we buy a lot of things we just don't have to have.
A few years ago, I read an article in Good Housekeeping or some similar magazine about a family who chose not to buy anything new for a year. I think they had a lot of credit card debt and maybe one of the parents had been laid off. It was an inspiring concept to me. Everyday, I become more aware that our vast consumerism and the production of goods to meet our demands is fueling global warming or climate change (or whatever you want to call it). Even more disturbing is that the more our climate changes and the more natural disasters and droughts and floods occur, the people who suffer the most will be the people who didn't have the money to buy (and throw away) cups of designer coffee or 64 oz. Big Gulp sodas served in Styrofoam that's now floating out in the ocean somewhere.
So, given that this cut back in spending was going to happen anyway, Kevin and I decided to make it more purposeful. We're taking a page from Good Housekeeping and taking a year to stop buying new stuff--a year of living simply. This blog is merely a journal of our experiences, our trials and our triumphs. We're not financial experts. We're just two people who realize that God has blessed us with more than we need. We have plenty of stuff. We're taking this time to simply live.
Last week, my husband, Kevin, told his boss he was resigning--not because he doesn't want to be gainfully employed, but because his pain level just doesn't allow him to sit at a desk 8 hours or more a day. So, Kevin took his doctors' advice and quit. He has to be out of work for a year before he can apply for disability. While we both know that he has to do this, that we have to do this, it's difficult to know that we'll essentially be living on my salary during this time. It's certainly a blow to the lifestyle we've been accustomed to living these last few years. We pay our bills. We buy what we need, and for the most part, what we want. We also realize that we buy a lot of things we just don't have to have.
A few years ago, I read an article in Good Housekeeping or some similar magazine about a family who chose not to buy anything new for a year. I think they had a lot of credit card debt and maybe one of the parents had been laid off. It was an inspiring concept to me. Everyday, I become more aware that our vast consumerism and the production of goods to meet our demands is fueling global warming or climate change (or whatever you want to call it). Even more disturbing is that the more our climate changes and the more natural disasters and droughts and floods occur, the people who suffer the most will be the people who didn't have the money to buy (and throw away) cups of designer coffee or 64 oz. Big Gulp sodas served in Styrofoam that's now floating out in the ocean somewhere.
So, given that this cut back in spending was going to happen anyway, Kevin and I decided to make it more purposeful. We're taking a page from Good Housekeeping and taking a year to stop buying new stuff--a year of living simply. This blog is merely a journal of our experiences, our trials and our triumphs. We're not financial experts. We're just two people who realize that God has blessed us with more than we need. We have plenty of stuff. We're taking this time to simply live.