The freedom of less

For a recent catapult issue, I wrote an article about living on less. For those of you who know me, you know that I'm probably one of the cheapest people you know. And when people talk about living on less, I can often out-do them. I'm finally getting over my dislike of spending money, which is a healthy thing, but it's still a process.

The article talks about the good that has come from my being able to live on less, but that it's not always been good.

"The Freedom of Less

When I was growing up, there weren’t a lot of extras. There simply wasn’t money for them. Everyone got about three Christmas presents — and there was a clear price limit on them. Hand-me-down clothes were standard, vegetables were either frozen from the garden or the canned variety, and vacations consisted of camping a couple of weekends in the summer. As a child, I’m sure I was disappointed that I couldn’t have more of what I wanted; yet, I had no idea how bad the situation really was. It wasn’t until after I’d left the house that my mom told me that there were times when we had so little money that a gift of groceries on the porch was understood as God’s provision. Living on less wasn’t a choice we’d made — it was simply the reality.

The reality of living on less has followed me much of my life. Years of studying have put to good use the skills my mother taught me...."

The rest of the article can be seen at the catapult website, if you follow this link to the article.