by S B BLACK

Created on: May 31, 2009   Last Updated: June 01, 2009

Before the days of credit cards, lines of credit and home equity loans there was a way of life that everyone followed. Today we call that lifestyle "Frugal", but what that lifestyle was really called was "Living Within Our Means".

Over the years we have been taught that the more we buy and the more we have the better we are as people. Instead of one car for a family we must have at least two. Each home must have at least two bathrooms or there's no way we can possibly survive. We need walk in closets and enough clothes, shoes and accessories to fill those closets. We simply must have the newest pieces of technology that come out or we'll never be able to keep up. Keeping up with the "Jones'" was what life was all about.

Well, the bottom is falling out and the new economy we have is not allowing people to keep up. We have come up with the term, frugality, to explain this new inability to buy, buy and buy some more. In reality this is the way our families used to live each and every day of their lives.

The majority of the time there was one breadwinner in the family and that was usually the husband. He would go off to work each day and bring home the money to support the entire family. His wife would stay home to raise the children and take care of the home. There was not a lot of money, but families made do with what they had.

Clothes were mended instead of thrown out if there was a small hole or a broken zipper. They were handed down from sibling to sibling until they could no longer be worn. Backyard gardens were more prevalent than they are now. Why spend money on something like potatoes when they could be grown so easily on your own? Meals were cooked at home and eaten at the table together and not at the restaurant down the street. Children were outside riding bikes, playing ball and in general just plain having fun and learning to use their imaginations. There were no video games, computers or iPods to keep them cooped up in their rooms.

Today, we are in shock. People are scrambling to pay off debt, cut back on expenses and save money however we can. We have started shopping more at second hand stores. There are more and more gardens being planted. Eating out has slowed considerably and families are starting to eat together again. More emphasis is being put on getting our children outside and learning to enjoy nature again.

So, while it may seem that we are changing as a society with our new found "frugality", in reality that is just not so. We are really starting to get back to our roots. We are relearning a way to live that brings families back together and shows us that it really isn't the stuff that we can accumulate that makes us happy. It is the time we can spend together as a family that really makes a life.

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