Monthly Archive

I think one of the most difficult things for me the past couple of years as we’ve dealt with my husband’s illness, our changed living arrangements, moving, doctors appointments, and all the other myriads of things going on, has been keeping up on simple things like housekeeping, laundry, cooking, and budgeting.

For those of you who don’t know what’s been happening in my life, you can read a brief update here:   My Life As It Stands Today

Honestly, as long as my kids and I were alive and well each day, everything else has sort of taken a back seat.

But getting behind on things can really take a toll on my mental health, I’ve found.  If the house is picked up and everyone has access to clean clothes everyday, I feel amazingly better about life.  Now that life has settled down into its “new normal” a bit more, I’m going to make an effort to get control of the areas of my life that slipped over the past year or so.

At first, I hesitated to share any of my struggles with these things, but then I recently realized, “Hey, I’m a human being.  I have struggles and troubles and weaknesses just like everyone else.”

And I suspect that my current struggles just may help someone else out there feel a little less judgmental about themselves when they see that even people who write books about cooking, cleaning and budgeting, can have relapses and fresh problems in those very areas.

I think this coming month (July), I’m going to focus on keeping up on my housekeeping.  Not deep cleaning at this point, mind you … just keeping things generally picked up and at least semi-presentable.  It’s amazing how quickly the house can fall apart just by having four people – and more than our share of cats — simply living their lives.

I’ll also try to remember to do a Ten-Minute Tidy once a day with the kids.  That always seems to go a long way toward keeping things from getting too frighteningly out of hand.

I’ll keep y’all updated as things progress with revamping my life. 

I know it’s awhile ago, but if any of you have the May 2002 issue of Consumer Reports, you may have noticed in an article about saving money that they mention me, the Frozen Assets book, and the URL of one of my websites.

One of the things Consumer Reports mentioned in the article was that I was able to cut $400 off our family’s monthly food budget by cooking ahead for the freezer.

Those numbers might seem a bit difficult to believe, but we used to spend $700 per month for a family of five on food-related expenses. Considering how much we regularly spent on drive-thru meals, pizza delivery, and lunches at work, having easy-to-prepare meals waiting in the freezer really cut down on all those extra expenses.

We were also able to take advantage of buying in bulk and purchasing large quantities of different items on sale. We also reduced the amount of waste … plus, we started eating healthier, too!

If you haven’t tried cooking ahead for the freezer but you like the idea of saving your time, money and sanity, I always recommend starting out at whatever level meets your personal comfort zone. Maybe just doing a week of meals at a time, or cooking ahead some easy breakfast meals would be a good way to start.

Or double and triple occassional meals as you go about your regular cooking. Just one week of tripling meals (eating one tonight, putting two in the freezer) will give you a two week stash of Frozen Assets with hardly any extra work at all.

Even just having a couple of extra dinner meals in the freezer for those “too-busy-to-cook” evenings we all have, can be a tremendous sanity saver.

For more information on cooking ahead (email discussion group, recipes, meal plans, recommended resources), go to:

Frozen Assets Home Page

~Debi, The Simple Mom 

Recently, my family and I had a quick little two day trip down the central Oregon coast (we live in Washington state). Much to my suprise, I discovered that just two days away from the daily-ness of life/work at home was actually enough to fully recharge my batteries and make me feel ready to face life again.

So if money’s tight, don’t feel you need to necessarily forego a vacation or time away. Even a quick jaunt to the beach for the day can do wonders.

We try to plan regular mini-vacations into the regular fabric of our family’s life. Whether it’s a day-trip to the zoo, a drive to the park for an afternoon of kite-flying, or a weekend camping with the tent, just getting a little break in the routine and time away from home is definitely a benefit for this particular woman’s mental health.

~Debi, The Simple Mom

Several summer’s ago, my oldest daughter took a beginning sewing class through the local Cooperative Extension office. For only $10, she received sixteen hours of instruction over four days. The classes were taught by Master Clothiers, and the teacher/student ratio was excellent — only three students per teacher.

If you live in the United States, try calling your local County Extension office and asking about their various programs for the public (they’re affiliated with one of your local state universities and the US Department of Agriculture).  I’m always impressed with the excellent (and highly affordable!) resources available through their offices. They often have articles, pamphlets, classes and other resources for minimal cost.

Many of the Cooperative Extension publications are also available online. I’ve been especially pleased with the wide range of articles provided on the North Dakota Cooperative Extension web-site. If you’d like to browse some of these free resources, go to:

Foods, Nutrition and Health Publications
Family Resource Management Publications