Feathering My Nest

I was reading this delightful post and interesting comments, called My Wants vs My Needs. Yesterday I was pondering similar ideas.

I was walking along basically the path in my Skywatch Friday post. We were at an unfamiliar shopping centre. I was going to Spotlight in the centre of town, and my daughter said "Mum weren't you going to Spotlight?" I had forgotten there was a new one and I was driving right past it. So we went in. It was not like a mall or shopping centre so much. So we had to ask where the public toilets were as we had just got in from a big drive.

We walked to where we were directed, and I came across a large mat for sale. It had red and orange on it, if you know my old blog, you may remember that my new house has a red bedroom and an orange loungeroom. That was part of the reason we bought it, because I liked the colours. On one of the paint companies little desert colour schemes it has the red and orange together.

So I saw this mat, very cheap for what it was I thought, and easy to clean. If I had the $99 I would have bought it. The thing is, that for a long time, especially this year, I haven't had $99 for anything. Maybe back a few months, $60 would have been OK for something. I actually bought my daughter a game, thinking about it, but $99 is just that bit harder.

So I have gotten away from house spending except the few things we bought during the renovation which is nearly a year ago perhaps.

I was quite concerned that I could get to the point, that you just don't see what needs doing if you are used to not spending money, or saving it, or using the savings for a worthwhile purpose. Yes, I got middle daughter a good jacket this week. But, previously, before saving, I would be more focused in making sure everybody had what they needed. So once you are in the non-spending mode, and saving mode, how to you keep your sense of balance? I found this video since, if you haven't seen part one, it is very good.

I don't know the answer, but one of the comments (Sharon) in the blog post was hopeful. My feeling is that our money drought has gone too far. I look forward to a bit extra this financial year. It is very hard in a remote location to keep up with needs and housekeeping. Often the things are only to be had in places like that shop. So the problem is compounded.

I found this wants and needs game for children. It is harder than it looks. I found instead this very simple explanation that I may refer to later.

In the small holders diary, I could relate to that. But we are past that stage of our lives. I guess we learnt the same things about cars and houses, and are in a position to avoid some of those things now. I am very conscious though of how old my car is, and have decided to spare it and drive the older but less kms on the clock one, even though it is not on gas/LPG.




This photo I took actually, as I thought it was the perfect picket fence colour.