A Family Cutting Back: More Than Financial Benefits

It's so easy for families today to get caught up in their busy lives. In many families, both parents are working. Even when this is not the case, often a stay-at-home parent is busy volunteering or runs a side business out of the house. Kids today seem busier than ever, too. While some say the schools today are falling behind, if you've paid attention to what they are learning, you know that they are a year or two ahead of where many parents were at the same age just a few decades ago. Further, kids are busy with everything from soccer practice and piano lessons to scouts, church activities, and more. You may be stressed with work, but kids certainly have their own sources of stress, too.

With how very busy families are today, it's pretty easy to spend haphazardly without much attention to what is actually being bought. For instance, you may be running around out late on a school night, and make the decision on a whim to simply grab some food for dinner. Your kids may mention that they need or even just want something for school or their sports team, and so you stop to buy it without giving it much thought. You have the money in your account, and so why not?

Recently, my very busy family of three made the decision to just stop spending. Instead of asking, "Why not?" we were asking, "Why?" We certainly still do all of our various activities, but we made the decision that we just wouldn't spend anymore except for the absolute necessities. This was not a decision made my need but rather by desire, and so my husband and I were both fully resolved to stick by our guns and not spend so frivolously. In fact, we decided not to buy anything except for the basics that we actually need. Here's what we discovered:

Home Is Where the Heart Is. Before we made this decision, we thought we would grow bored sitting at home all the time. However, with how busy we are with everything else, it actually was a welcome relief by every single person in our family to just sit at home and unwind. We thought there would be grumbling in the peanut gallery, but everyone seemed to be content to at first go off in their own separate corners of the house and decompress. Then after awhile, everyone seemed to re-discover each other. The kids actually started to HAPPILY play together.

Much Needed Rest. To say that we were running on empty was an understatement, but I didn't realize quite how tired everyone was until we just stopped to catch our breath. Two of my three kids took naps a few times completely on their own. Because everyone got more rest, the overall mood in the house improved.

Family Time. Of course, when you are stuck in the car driving to the ends of the earth together, you are spending time together. It's just not quality time. By staying at home more, we developed a new-found enjoyment in family time together. We have dined out on the back patio a few times, grilled out, cooked together as a family, taken walks around the neighborhood, gone to the park to toss a ball, and otherwise just re-discovered what weekends and evenings at home are supposed to be like. And we discovered that we LIKE those kinds of weekends.

Of course, there were also the obvious benefits that come with staying at home more and cutting back on spending. There is extra money that we are happily saving away. Also, because we are eating at home for every meal, we are all eating healthier.

Altogether, before we started this, I didn't think it would last long. I thought we'd get bored or restless, and we'd stick with it for maybe a week or two. Yet now we just cannot think of why we were living like that in the first place or imagine going back to that lifestyle again.

Here are a few other articles written by this author:

How Positive is Your Parenting?

Helping Your Kids Through Fights with Friends

Kids and Friend Drama: When to Step In