Living Like The Long Winter ~ Having Extras

“I do wish we had some butter for them,” she said. “Salt brings out the flavor,” Pa was saying when a loud knocking sounded on the kitchen door. —

Mr. Boast was getting out of his wraps, “Well, no, you see, Ellie thought she must do the washing while the sun shone. I told her we’ll have more good days but she said then she’d come to town on one of them. She sent you some butter. It’s from our last churning.” Mr. Boast sat up at the table and they all began on the good baked potatoes, with butter after all. ~ The Long Winter p. 136

I like this paragraph in The Long Winter. Even though Laura wanted something more, something that might make her dinner better, Pa made the best of it. Maybe Laura didn’t think so, but in Pa’s mind, salt is what made the potatoes better. It didn’t matter that they didn’t have butter or that maybe he wanted butter too, salt made them better.

We go through lean times and full times. I always know these times because they tell me what groceries I’m going to buy. In better times I know that it’s ok to maybe add something to my grocery list that I might not normally get. In the lean times, I will go without and not even try to think about those things I can’t have right now. Instead, we make the most with what we have!

When we sit and want, want, want all the time when we can’t have it…when it finally gets to the better time we end up spending way to much money on things we don’t really need, but in our minds, we spent all that time wanting it so instead of just being a “want” it’s become a “need”.

Yes, I’ve heard the saying about how when you have a little extra money you shouldn’t splurge. I disagree with that (especially in this post!) HOWEVER, only as long as you are “splurging within your means”. It definitely is not smart to go out and buy a big screen tv when you have a bonus check, just because you have that extra that you don’t really need, but I think it’s ok to reward yourself with a trip to the ice cream shop, or maybe a new shirt instead of a used one. If you continually deny yourself anything extra you will wind up feeling deprived and start to feel sorry about yourself and your monetary situation. I know, I’ve been there.

So just remember, in the lean times, make due with what you have, in the better times, buy butter for your potatoes. 😉

So what about you, do you find yourself getting “too frugal” and feeling deprived? What is your favorite mini splurge?

Make sure you check out the entire Living Like Little House series!