Not In The Budget

Most of the things we buy in this house come under some heading of the budget, but there is one area of spending that just slips under the radar. Decorating for the seasons. I was putting up some of our fall items and realized that there is a lot that goes into decorating for the seasons and I don't even spend much compared to some. If you are trying to have that Martha Stewart kind of house or one that might be found in the pages of a glossy magazine then you probably have items for all the major holidays that you put around the house. I do fall and Christmas. Not more than a couple items for spring time and nothing much for summer. Oh wait, I did decorate for outside of the house for the 4th of July this year. And those things were certainly wants and they were not listed in any area of the family budget.

What made me think about all this was being at the store and seeing an array of fall color towels and bath accessories. My immediate thought was, "oh, it would be cute to "do" the bathrooms for fall. New shower curtain, a few new towels and then there are some really pretty little bathroom rugs. I have some cute fall fabric pieces that I could make a window curtain from and maybe even trim the towels with. Nothing major, only about $60 total. Oh wait....$60 is a good size chunk of change and then what about the things I have on hand that I could use, maybe the total would be more like $75. I did buy pumpkins and Indian corn, oh yeah some gourds and a cinnamon broom already this year. I saw so many cute ideas in a magazine. I bet if I added up the entire holiday or season decorating stuff, it probably totals somewhere around $200 without much notice. You can mindlessly spend a good amount at the dollar stores over a year. $200 could buy a lot of groceries for a family in need or several warm coats for children in need ! Now just ad in the amount for the glossy magazines that we buy to inspire us to decorate and then if we are craft minded, the supplies we buy, it can add up to a sizable amount over the year and honestly, looking back through my life, I remember with such fondness the holidays of my childhood, where the decorations might consist of a couple cardboard cut outs taped to the window and in the fall, some leaves we gathered, pressed between two sheets of wax paper and a pumpkin. The memories we cherish about the seasons and holidays don't come from extraordinary decorations, but from the time spent with family and friends. For me, fall memories are of raking leaves and jumping into the great piles we created. My children don't think about the decorations I put up, but of coming into the house that smells of pumpkin bread or some other fall time goodie.

We have fallen for great marketing ploys that get us to spend money on things that don't improve the quality of our lives to any profound extent. We feel like we have to have these things. Have to have a house that gets a "wow factor" from anyone that sees it. These decorating items might make it pretty, but it doesn't transform us. It doesn't make us better people and often times we end up spending money we don't need to be spending.

The argument may be, " I have the money " or "we deserve some pretty things" or "these things make me feel good", well I am just guessing that if you have that money, then spending that same amount of money for someone in need, might just make us feel even better.

Living our lives with a purpose greater than decorating for the seasons might just give us more joy then we could ever imagine.

Even the crafts we do can be costly ventures. No longer do we create from what we have, we head off to the craft stores and buy supplies that often times we never get around to using. A waste of money. Maybe we can find balance by looking back a couple generations. Quilts made of worn bits of clothing....mitten wash cloths cut in cute animal shapes, embroidered with faces, sewn together, made from the good parts of worn out towels. Yarn dolls made for hours of entertainment for little girls, made from scrap, no fancy eyes sewn on, just a family of yarn dolls, with furniture for them made from match boxes. True creative minds create something out of virtually nothing. Wooden spoon dolls and tiny bi-planes made from a roll of life saver candies and two sticks of gum for wings. Brightly colored mittens made for winter play, knitted with bits of leftover yarn creating wonderful strips of color. Stocking hats to match, fun in how long they can become.

Window sills decorated with real acorns and colorful leaves. Pine cones gathered on a walk, sit in a simple basket with some dried berries found along the roadside. Surrounding ourselves with beauty and creating wonderful items need not be costly. These are times to rethink our spending habits. Maybe turn back the hands of time to a simpler way that certainly would be easier on the budget.

The book is McCalls Giant Golden Make-It Book, copyright 1953...the very book my sisters and I found hours and hours of fun from. Not so sure that today we would want/allow such home made decorations sit in our fine homes. We want matching, themed decorations that look like they came straight out of a magazine, not three coat hangers put together with stuff dangling from them. But oh how well I remember making one of those decorations and feeling so proud that my mom hung it up right next to the tissue paper wreath made on a wire coat hanger my older sisters made. The joy was just as great at holidays then...maybe even a bit more.