Frugally Absent

Sorry, dear readers, about my MIA status over the last week. I'll go ahead and contribute that to two things:

1. Triathlon training (although this is mostly a lie as the pre-race week has something like "senioritits" going on ... you just don't care anymore).

2. Focusing on frugal time

Since I already admitted the first one is mostly, well, bull, let's focus on the second.

I am astounded by how much I got done last week and it is all thanks to being very, very purposeful with how and on what I spent my time. A sampling:

Sunday -- morning spent with friends, afternoon spent on one-on-one time with Luke and David as we explored the Mt. Saint Helens area, including some way cool lava tubes. It was amazing and so much fun.

Monday -- Workout, library, coffee with a friend, grocery shopping, work

Tuesday -- Very productive work day with lots of writing, but no workout (see senioritis above).

Wednesday -- Semi productive work morning, workout, quality time with David, farmer's market, intense household organization/cleaning time (like the deep dark cabinets you never get around to cleaning but must. be. done.)

Thursday -- Bible study all a.m., workout, work

Friday -- Time with Luke and David in the evening proceeded by very productive work afternoon and mixed in with no less than 10 loads of laundry. I know, right?

Saturday -- Triathlon! And the family time/errands

Sunday -- Church, quality family time

Now that I've written that all out, honestly, I see room for major improvements. For example, on the days I worked half days I haven't the foggiest idea what I did the majority of the morning of afternoon I did not work. I DID manage to spend major time reading and playing with David every single day, but not hours on end. So where did the time go? Food for thought.

We are also trying something new: making Sunday family day and family day only. We are planning to go to church in the morning and then spend the afternoon exploring where we live, playing tennis or doing something else fun and active together (if the weather would only cooperate ...). Yesterday, for example, we visited the Steilacoom history museum and then got the week's grocery shopping out of the way (it was really rainy, folks, grocery shopping wont be on the to-do every week OK? We were GOING to go on a nature hike but it just didn't happen). It was really neat to hit up a place just down the street with us and learn so much about where we live. Score.

So, here's my question for you: how can YOU better use your down time? Think about it, and reign in those hours.

Frugal Time

I have been taking a break from the frugal blogging world as I try to prepare myself for an upcoming year of working from home, at least part time.

It's gotten me thinking about how frugality must be something applied to not just money, but also to time (and everyone said "time is money!"). I must be careful about how I allot and spend my time so that, at the end of the day, I have enough left to get/finish everything I need.

Compared to time frugality, money frugality is a piece of cake.

Just like with money, being frugal with your time comes down to priorities and wants/nice to haves/needs. There are things that I WANT to spend my time doing -- watching endless episodes of Friends and drinking lattes, for example. There are things that are NICE to spend my time on and if I tried really hard I could say "well that's a NEED!" -- like training for my triathlon and staying up with the bargain blogs so I can get the most out of my grocery trips. And there are things that are definite NEEDS, like spending time with God, Luke and David (in that order) and working.

But for some reason managing my time is so much more difficult than managing my money. How I use both reflects what I value most - my personal idols, you might say. I was reading I Kings this morning and came across this verse:

"No one else so completely sold himself to what was evil in the Lord's sight as Ahab did under the influence of his wife Jezebel. His worst outrage was worshiping idols just as the Amorites had done -- the people whom the Lord had driven out from the land ahead of the Israelites." (I Kings 21:25-26).

Ahab was one bad dude (I was going to say "bada$$ but that didn't seem appropriate, haha). He killed people. He stole stuff. He oppressed the poor. All sorts of things I would say were way, way, WAY worse than ignoring God. .. I mean killing people is bad!

But God considered the idol worship to be THE WORST THING EVER. ... and if I am spending my assets (time and money) to do things that do not put God first I am doing the Exact Same Thing.

Uncool, Amy. Very, very uncool.

And so I have to stop and ask myself, first and foremost, as I organize my life and budget my time -- is God the thing that gets top billing? Is He -- and is His will -- my top priority? Do I consider Him before making major decisions?

My little junket (OK, major junket) back into journalism is going to cost me a major time commitment and is causing me to make some major priority decisions. I have to decide how to care for Dave during this and what (if any) childcare to use. These are hard, hard decisions.

Sigh.