Why do we feel deprived?

Do you ever feel deprived?

Money is tight for us right now and even a simple grocery shopping trip makes me depressed. Always having to buy the store generic, go without, put stuff back, etc.  Seems to be the norm these days.

Sound familiar?

Well I was thinking this morning...my grandmother, Alice, passed away last year suddenly. I talked to her one day, and a week later she suffered from a massive stroke. The one thing that stands out in my mind about this woman was her frugality. She's a child from the great depression. When my parents came to visit last month, they brought some items that I wanted that were hers (crochet stuff, cookbooks, her sewing basket, etc). I was looking through her sewing basket and it cracked me up. The amount of containers she reused. You know those international delight coffee rectangular containers? She had a ton of them that held buttons in one, ribbon in another, etc. She didn't have special organizing containers for that! It was actually pretty cool to see since they were really old and definitely don't look the same anymore.

This woman was frugal until the day she died. Only as she aged did she finally get herself a dryer. When she was a young housewife, she hid money away and saved for YEARS, and then out of no where (not even telling her own husband) she put an extension on the house (boy was my grandfather surprised when he got home! lol! I wish I was there for that!).

Very rarely did I ever see her by anything new. She got good quality stuff when she needed it and made everything last for years. If you wanted advice on how to be frugal, she's the one to talk to.

There is one thing that I never thought about until now with her. SHE NEVER FELT DEPRIVED. It didn't bother her to go without. She didn't find a need for many of the modern things. She only got a cell phone once her elderly mother lived with her, and if my grandmother was out, she wanted her mother to be able to reach her. The only way she had a VCR and then a DVD player was because my dad would get her that stuff like that for her birthday or Christmas. She just couldn't care less. In fact, she thought people were foolish with how they spent money.

I keep pens and crayons (I use them as highlighters) in an old crystal light container and use them for when I spend time in the Word. Just this morning as I was finishing up 1 Corinthians, I grabbed for a pen and this feeling of deprivation came over me. Why? Because I was using a crystal light container and not some pretty container. REALLY? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

I need to get over myself!!!....and QUICKLY!!

Do any of you deal with this craziness?

If you live in a house with running water, plumbing, electricity, doors that lock, and food in the fridge (whether it's generic or not!), you are blessed! I am blessed. I get mad at my son when we buy him something and only after a few days it's no longer "new" and he wants something else. But I do the same thing! Yay! I got a new skein of yarn. I start crocheting with it and then wish I had another color. I buy a few plastic drawer organizers and now wish I had another type of organizational thing. I get cable TV and then want the bigger packages. I get one book in a series, and then I want them all. I get a new eye shadow, and then want another color to go along with it. This needs to stop!!! Pray for me and I'll pray for you!! lol!

Please tell me I'm not the only one who deals with this!!


Linked to: lowercase letters, The Better Mom, What Joy is Mine, A Mama's Story, From My Mountain View