This article first appeared on medium.com. Enjoy.

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This article first appeared on medium.com. Enjoy.

The post Could You Feed Your Family For 7 Days During An Emergency? appeared first on The Complicated Simple.

The middle-aged woman beside me at the bank looked nervous.

She kept turning in her chair and jiggling her foot and so I asked how her morning was going.

She looked at me with anxious eyes and blurted,

“I am so nervous.  I’m meeting with a manager as I want to start saving for retirement but after the bills are paid there’s nothing left for me.”

I didn’t quite expect that response but I certainly know how stressful money can be.

Haven’t we all had some kind of financial stress at some point in our lives?

So I told her,

“We’ve all been there at one time or another.

What has worked for me is to do it the other way around. 

I use the automatic transfer to pay myself first.”

She looked a little surprised and doubtful but I told her to ask her financial person about it.

But she stayed on my mind all day.

Are you the last person being paid each month?

I get it.

You have lots of things that need payments:  the mortgage or rent, utilities, credit card debt, insurance, health expenses, childcare, car payments and more.

It can make your head spin and keep you up at night.

Most people pay the bills first, then keep money for entertainment/and if there’s anything leftover it may get saved.

But if you’re serious about simplifying your life you have to flip this upside down.

1)You Have To Get Paid First.

2)Pay Your Bills Second.

3)Fun Stuff Gets The Leftovers.

Now before you send me a message saying that you CAN’T do it – just hear me out.

I want you to remember this:

No one should care more about your money than you.

The government doesn’t care.  The utility company doesn’t care.  The bank doesn’t care.

You have to be the one who saves for your future, your dreams and also for an emergency fund account.

It takes time but it can be done WHILE you still pay your bills as the responsible person you are.

Here’s The Boring Formula That Works:

If things are tight – start with 1-5% of your take-home pay.  Get it automatically deducted from your account just as if it were a bill.

Have it automatically transferred to an account that you can’t tap from the ATM or with your debit card in a shoe store.

And make sure the money is invested and not just sitting in a fat armchair and earning a lousy 1% interest.

The key is to get it automatically withdrawn from your account so your well-manicured hands stay out of it.

And when you start to have more money available to you – you increase the % you save each month.

And then, slowly, slowly it will grow.

But you will feel something really amazing.

You’ll be proud of yourself that you’re saving for your future and that you aren’t leaving things to chance.

It changes your stress.  It helps you sleep at night.

And you can make your complicated life a little simpler.

You can do it, little turtle!

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I must confess – people tend to be surprised that I love living simply.

And that I have done so for most of my life.

I thought I’d share my confessions of a simple living freak.

Hopefully, you’ll laugh and maybe, just maybe, I can convince you to simplify a few things in your life.

Simple Living Doesn’t Mean Living Stark and Broke

I think because often people think of the stereotype of a hippie; no make-up; old and out of date threadbare clothing; a beat-up car that barely starts; and eating granola.

(OK – I DO make granola and will share my recipe soon!)

I don’t fit the stereotype.

Sometimes, people associate simple living as a forced lifestyle vs a loved lifestyle.

 

I fall into the loved lifestyle category. 

I live simply by choice. (But I’m complicated. More on that in a minute.)

And for the record, you also shouldn’t discount those people who may not look rich on the outside.

They probably have far more money and far less debt than you.

Simple Living Isn’t A Lack Of Success.

It Actually Shows The Success Of A Well-Lived Life.

I’m complicated which means I like all sorts of things.

I like raw oysters and champagne.  I drive a nice car that’s paid for.

I travel around the world.

Like I said – I’m complicated.

But everything is accomplished in a creative and simple way.

Look – I don’t care how people find their way to simple living.

I just want them (yes – this means you) to give it a try.

You live lighter on the earth.

You get to be your creative self.

You spend less money.

You save more money.

You tend to have more time to do what you love.

You usually reduce your stress level. (Not worrying about money or what people think.)

You say NO more.

You say YES to only what floats your boat and fits your values.

And you have a hell of a lot of fun!

My mother-in-law laughs at me sometimes.

She says,

“You’re the only person I’ve ever seen mow the grass wearing a dress, red lipstick, and a necklace.”

OK. She just caught me on an I-must-cut-the-grass-now-moment.

Most of the time I mow the grass in jeans and an old shirt.

Simple living can be whatever you want it to be.

And you won’t burn in hell if you’re complicated.

People in my life see me:

• make bread
• forage for mushrooms
• take wild mushroom classes
• berry pick in the woods
• make a fire from birch wood
• pick up litter when I go for a walk
• recycle
• compost
• cooking
• manage my own stocks
• buying a down-sized home
• volunteer
• plant a garden
• thrift shop
• make homemade gifts

Sometimes what I do gets raised eyebrows.

But I’m not a puritan.

I wash Ziploc bags which means I buy Ziploc bags.

I have reusable grocery bags in my car and I forget to use them 50% of the time. (I really hate when I do that!)

I love to cook but you won’t have to twist my arm to eat McDonald’s fries.

I drive a luxury car but it was 3 years old when I bought it, it is paid for and I’ll drive that baby for at least 7 years.

I work from home and don’t have to drive much.

But I do travel 3-4x a year on planes.

I rarely eat out but when I do it is probably in another city.  Maybe even in another country.

I buy local food but I do also buy wild-caught shrimp from Argentina.

I try not to buy from China because their policies are terrible.  They don’t have the same food regulations. They mistreat their citizens. Go to jail or disappear because you wrote a poem?  Screw you China. (Ok – that turned into a bit of a mini-rant!)

So there you have it.

I’m not perfect.

But I am passionate about living a simpler life.

So I don’t care if people laugh when I come out of the woods with twigs in my hair.

Or when I throw stale bread on the garage roof to feed the crows. (Hey – they have to eat too.)

Or that I love thrifting.

Or that I make many beautiful homemade gifts at Christmas.

Or that I turn leftovers into something new and delicious.

I’ve found what works for me to enjoy a simpler way of life.

And I hope that you will be tempted to give it a try too.

You will secretly be proud of yourself.

Because simpler living just feels good.

So there.

The post Confessions of A Simple Living Freak appeared first on The Complicated Simple.

In this meditation on cooking and eating, Tamar Adler weaves philosophy and instruction into approachable lessons on feeding ourselves well.

I love her and you’ll never look at stale bread ever the same way again.

Buy it through my Amazon Affiliate link (at no extra cost to you). Thanks!

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A down-to-earth cookbook that proves you don’t need a lot of money to create nutritious, beautiful meals at home.  Emily is hilarious and a fellow Canadian.  She makes me spill my coffee when I read her – great recipes mixed with a laugh!

Buy it through my Amazon Affiliate link (at no extra cost to you). Thanks!

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Handmade felt letter boards. American-made with oak frames & soft gray felt, these boards are built with love, to last.

Buy it through my Amazon Affiliate link (at no extra cost to you). Thanks!

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10.25 Inch Seasoned Cast Iron Skillet. Lodge has been making cast iron cookware in South Pittsburg, Tennessee (pop. 3,300) since 1896.

Buy it through my Amazon Affiliate link (at no extra cost to you). Thanks!

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You’re complicated.

Which means the odds are pretty good that you have a freezer that looks like Mt. Everest.

Hey, listen – I’m complicated too.

Are you ready for this?

We have 4.5 freezers in our house and they aren’t the itty-bitty apartment-sized ones either.

My Good Natured Man hunts and fishes and so our freezers are filled with incredible food: moose, deer, elk, salmon, halibut and cod.

We also buy lamb and chicken from local farmers.

I am the foraging queen so I have bags of apples, saskatoon berries, sour cherries, chokecherries and wild blueberries.

We’re definitely ready if the zombies attack.

But sometimes I just want to find a package of goddamn pork chops without freezing my arm off.

I used to feel like I needed an ice axe, climbing rope, a parka, and boots while I went into the depths of our freezers.

Three of them are big 6-footers and I have a fruit freezer and then we have 2 below- the- fridge-kind of freezers.

I have my own version of Greenland in the basement.

BUT.  Freezers are worth it.

And in Canada – where 6 months of the year you may not want to go for a “quick trip” to the store in a bloody, howling blizzard?

Freezers are an absolute must and they can be your own version of fast-food.

(More on that in a minute.)

They are inexpensive and they allow you to save money by freezing your own fruit and vegetables as well as meat.

You can easily freeze leftovers in marked and dated containers.

When I find meat/veg that we eat often, on sale? Into the freezer they go.

I’ve become a fan of stand-up freezers.

Easier to organize, rotate food and they save space.

Plus you don’t need a freaking excavation team to get the peas.

My trick?

I’ve claimed a freezer just for me.

I call it my Girl Food Freezer and my husband knows he can’t pile 300 pounds of elk in there. (Or he may end up like the elk.)

My fruit and vegetables get popped in.

Pie crusts, pork tenderloin, pasta, soups and stews and stuff that can be either reheated or cooked within one hour.

Sometimes even an occasional pizza too.

Hmmm. What else?

My loaves of homemade bread. Yes. I even taught myself to bake bread.  (More on that soon!)

Plus any baking goodies or special treats that I am saving for a Netflix night.

(I know damn well you know what I mean.)

So how does freezer food become fast food you may ask?

Your Girl Food Freezer is only for leftovers and food that can cook within an hour.

Take it out the night before and leave it in the sink to defrost.

(If you want to defrost it in the fridge that is completely up to you and how paranoid you are.)

In the morning pop it into the fridge (or take the left-overs to work) and when you’re ready to start prepping dinner?

Well. There it is.

No ice chipping or excavation teams necessary.

If you’re super organized like I was for about a year?

Keep an ongoing inventory list taped to the front of the fridge with a pencil or pen taped there too.

And if you dare – send me a pic of your freezer hell and we’ll post it here!

Evil laugh.

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