Introduction

I have blogs all over the place, I needed something new for this. It isn't a "new topic", but it seems to be the most popular topic on the 'net these days. Some call it frugal living, some call it simple living, I call it lessening. I'm lessening the amount of Stuff needed to get through the day, I am using up more of the Stuff I have, and I am lessening the amount of Stuff I have to purchase for my day to be clean, nutritious, and fun.

I have been testing out different recipes and ideas to see what is worth the time and effort, and what really isn't worth the effort for the return. The return/effort tolerance is going to be different for everyone. Maybe you have ten kids, then certain mundane tasks can be spread out more evenly and that laundry soap you made is going to make a huge difference.

I have one small child, and one husband. I live in the desert, I live in a remote area. Because of these factors, not everything works for me that might work for those in larger population areas or more fertile zones. I cannot just run up to the store and buy a bulk bag of many items, and vegetable growing presents it's own challenges.

As I weed out what works for our family, and what doesn't, maybe you can give me some input, tips, suggestions, feedback, let me know how I might improve what I've tried or how you managed to make it work. If you live in a similar situation to my family, maybe we can learn from each other how to reduce our footprint, spend less money, and still live grandly.

I was raised in a time of boxed dinners, two working parents, convenience foods and lots of television. My grandmother didn't exactly impart the "traditional homemaking skills" to my mom and so all of this is brand new to me. I am part of a generation of people trying to relearn what most of our not so distant ancestors already knew, but I am proud that we are all starting to see the wisdom of removing ourselves a bit from the world of prepackaged and back into the world of knowing what is in our stuff.

In that journey, I know that some things may end up being more economical to purchase, that not everything in my life needs to be handmade - this is part of my learning experience. Economy is not just about money, it is also about time, quality of product, and quality of life overall.