Last year I embarked on a career as a freelance writer. As part of that, I created this blog, Mysteries of My Life, which was was designed to allow me to use my sense of humor while stretching my writing talents. I really enjoy this blog and looked forward to growing it.
Life, however, has a tendency to get in the way. Because of some unexpected events our family’s finances became precarious. Somehow, it became difficult to find something to be funny about. What began as a joyful expression of humor became a burden and chore, and my fledgling blog was abandoned before it could ever leave the nest.
As our funds grew tighter, however, a funny thing happened. I discovered that there are some benefits to having less. One of them is, well, having LESS.
What you do with the resources you have at your disposal makes all the difference. We started at the beginning and identified the basics that were crucial to our lives – love, faith, family, and friends. Then we took inventory of what we already had.
I turned a generally inquisitive nature into my biggest asset. Maximizing my belief that there is nothing that I cannot do given enough time and desire, I found ways to satisfy our needs with a minimum expenditure. I swallowed my pride and started shopping at thrift stores. I embraced the celebration of low prices that is Aldi’s. I began to exploit the valuable information on the Internet and taught myself to do things I would never have dreamed of doing a few months earlier.
In the process I learned a lot about myself and what is truly important to me, and have become the better for it. And the journey continues – there is a loooonnnng path before we are out of the dark and scary woods!
Over the following months, I will be transforming and re-launching this blog on my new website, back2basicscentral.com. I’ve created this site to help others who, like me, have had to re-imagine what life can look like when stripped to the bare essentials. While the primary focus of the blog will shift from humor to living frugally, there is still plenty to laugh about in my life.
So come, walk with me as together we explore the most troubling mystery of my life so far – just how far can you lower the thermostat before the cats freeze?
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Mysteries of My Life 