It's great news!
A housewife on a very modest income can have a richer life.
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What the housewife can save without batting an eyelid:
Transport and petrol/gas costs. Your trips can be leisurely and well-planned and you may not need to run another vehicle.
Meal costs You will be staggered at what you will save on meals! Expensive takeaways (because you have no time and are exhausted from work) will be replaced by inexpensive, healthy foods, that take 5 minutes to plan in the week. Food won't be wasted, and you won't run out and have to dash to the shops to buy more.
Clothing costs Business clothes can be replaced by pretty day dresses and skirts. You can learn to make them at home and have fun. An inexpensive pattern can be reused often, every scrap of the fabrics can be used to make unique gifts, items for the home, and accessories. The housewife has time to treat her and her family's clothing carefully and they will last much longer.
Electricity costs No more expensive drier. The washing line can be used when it is not wet. Meals can be planned for the oven and items batch-cooked. Just having the time to think will give you easy routines that save on costs around the home.
Maintenance Taking your time, and incorporating little habits and routines will mean less accidents and breakages. Appliances and furniture will be cared for and maintained; they will last for years longer.
Shopping When a housewife learns to potter around her home, changing, arranging and making pretty little touches here and there; things that lift her heart and calm her restlessness; she will find a deep sense of contentment begins to appear. That compulsion to keep buying new 'stuff' is mostly caused by a continual sense of dis-satisfaction with what one has. The truth is, that what we already have, when we have time to care for and enjoy it, will give us more peace and contentment than buying more stuff will.
'Me' time Me-time costs pretty much nothing for the happy housewife. Her schedule is her own, to plan and organise according to her preferences. Inviting a friend for tea and home-made scones; reading her book in the garden after lunch, or listening to some peaceful music, for instance. Or she can pick up her knitting, or take a walk in the sunshine (or snow!). She can teach herself all sorts of skills to enrich her homemaking. These will be happy times - and much more relaxing and rewarding for herself and her family, than scrolling FaceBook or social media.
Child-care Instead of paying through the nose to have your children cared for by strangers, the housewife can care for them at home. She can guide them and give them the security of a mother's presence. As they grow, she will learn how to create order, and routines so that life will be richer for her and them. She will be the one to see and encourage their first steps, or put a blanket over a table to make a little play house. She will be the one to fill the doll's tea-pot with water for the teddy-bear's picnic... while her friend enjoys real tea and a chat. A trusted friend can arrange that each have an afternoon off by looking after the other mother's child once a week if wished.
HELPFUL TIP
Long-time housewife, Dee, suggests keeping track of how much you save your family by not working. Her personal experiences of what she has saved over the years is well worth reading. You will find the full details in the comments section on the post 'Strange Perceptions'.
I would add gardening and putting food up by freezing, canning, or dehydrating. We can shop the sales too. I feel sure if I'd been working fulltime outside the house I would not have had time to arrange a circuit of shoes for sales! Somewhere online the other day I came across a chart of average childcare costs for different ages in different states. Just goggle this. Now THERE's a savings to keep track of. We have never lived near family since we have been married so there would have been no family to do any babysitting. That would have added up! Hubby told me this week with a big smile, after all the helping he has had to do these 2 months since my injury, that he needs to give me a raise. HA! He had forgotten just how much went into running a home. And there was much I had been able to do so he wasn't doing it all.
ReplyDeleteThank you Dee, for mentioning these added savings.
ReplyDeleteI do think a huge thing for us has been being able to take advantage of my husband's goofy work hours. You know, you just can't put a price on things like when there is a death in the extended family you can take off instantly. This has happened with us on 3 different occasions. Rather than a quick run home for a funeral we were able to stay for an extended visit to help others settle in to the new and frightening life without that person. And we were there to help each other through. When my father literally collapsed and died at our home I was profoundly grateful for friends who rushed to meet and embrace us at the ER. And there is no way I can begin to ever recount the value of my homemaker best friend who literally stood beside me with her arm around me for two hours while my mom began the first horrible struggle with death rattles. So. Very. Many of these things have happened. It wouldn't hurt to keep track of those things.
ReplyDeleteAnother one that is beyond priceless: on those first intoxicatingly beautiful spring days to take your child/grandchild for a walk to admire the wonders of the creator. Precious. Precious beyond words.