with Britt Reints
Forget the 9 to 5; Full Time, All the Time is a blog about the mobile working life - when you have the freedom to work from anywhere and the responsibility of always having your smartphone turned on. Britt Reints works as a freelance writer while traveling fulltime in an RV with her husband and two kids. She explores balancing real-life bills with an unconventional work life, and finding time to maintain relationships with family and friends.
You can also find Britt at InPursuitOfHappiness.net.
|
I’ve been purging a lot of stuff from our family’s home and life recently. As most people who have gone through any kind of downsizing will tell you, it makes you stop and think a little bit about the value (or absence of value) of your stuff.
If you’d like to have a similar epiphany without getting rid of your house, try having a garage sale. Something about pricing your items for strangers really brings the idea of “value” into focus.
While part of this process for me has been learning about what I don’t want to spend money on anymore, the fact remains that I work for a living for a reason. I do still spend money. There are things I want to have and do, and that’s why I’m not hanging out in a tent in the woods somewhere living off the land.
I’m just starting to develop higher standards for what I deem worthy of my time and work - because that’s really what I’m giving up when I make a purchase. If you follow my money’s life cycle, it comes to me by way of work and leaves me by way of purchases. Instead of thinking of purchases in terms of dollars and cents, I’ve started think of them in terms of hours spent working.
So what is worth spending a few hours at the computer?
Really good food. I love enjoying a meal with my family that is both delicious and healthy - even if it costs an extra hour at the keyboard.
Seeing and doing new things. This could be travel, visiting a new restaurant, or discovering a new neighborhood. The price varies, but the thrill of discovery is the same.
Warmth. I hate being cold. I will work overtime to provide heat, blankets, wool sweaters, or a tropical vacation - whatever is necessary to keep me from shivering.
I’m sure that’s not all, but those are the things that immediately spring to mind when I weigh going to work against living a life of leisure in a tent.
What about you? What are you working for?
Right now I’m working to live up to my business commitments, more than anything else. But yes, I do spend money. My kids have this pesky habit of growing, so I have to buy them clothes - and I don’t have the time or patience to buy much second-hand, nor friends with young kids to hand clothes down. I spend on food - not an outrageious amount by US standards, but more than I technically need to, because I buy organic and eat out for convenience.
A high priority of mine is preparing my kids for the future. So I sign them up for all the “extras” at their daycare plus swimming lessons, buy memberships that I consider beneficial, and drive them somewhere almost every day. I have bought a collection of good CDs and DVDs and tickets to live stage / musical productions. I just got their passports and we hope to start doing serious traveling soon. If I didn’t already have a decent 401K balance, I’d want to build their “education fund” as well. I’m probably going to send them to a Lutheran school when the time comes.
My house needs a fair amount of work. I really need to just throw a whole bucket of money at this and get someone to do it. Not sure when that will actually happen, though.
Oh, and I do buy medical insurance through work. I could buy it as an individual, but I guess I’d still need the money for it, huh?
In general, I’m a “less is more” kind of person, and I’m working to get rid of a lot of stuff that has accumulated over the years when I had more of a scarcity outlook. (Ironic, huh?) Except for the stuff listed above, I buy less than most people, because I want to use up surplus stuff and just live a simpler life.
SKL | March 17th, 2011 at 1:15 am
Extras for my child, both fun (e.g. dance, theater) and therapeutic (speech & social behavior).
Time for me. I will pay the sitter to stay a couple extra hours after I’d technically be home from work to go see a friend’s band, have a drink with someone.
Mich | March 17th, 2011 at 1:42 pm