Biggest kitchen table - On being at home

Our no spending mission ends today. I know a few of you had to make small purchases but you got back on the horse and trotted to the finish line, congratulations. No spending helps us think about why we spend and it shows that we can stay at home and that our lives don't have to revolve around shopping. I'd love to hear a few of your stories. Did you find it difficult? Were the family on board too?

This is the last of our current series of kitchen table talks. I thoroughly enjoy it and hope you did too. I am often thanked for what I put into this blog, but the truth is that you give me inspiration, and good ideas with your comments, so I think it's a two way street; all good conversations are. Thank you all for taking the time to comment. It lets me know you're out there and that others are walking this path along with us.

So how do we round off a series that has talked about disposables, green cleaning, money, home production and a few other topics? I think the perfect way to end is to examine our feelings about our homes. Home is the central point for me. It is where I feel the most comfortable, and where I live each day according to my values. We are our true selves here, this is where we reveal who we really are and it's where I share common ground with Hanno and my family. And it is where we celebrated one of the most important events in our lives just a couple of weeks ago - the marriage of our son Shane to his beloved, Sarndra. So just in those few sentences I've revealed a few of the reasons my home is important to me.

I have lived in many houses over my many years and I know that it takes work to make a dwelling a real home. In the first couple of years we lived here, when I was still working outside the home, I saw my home as just a place to sleep. I thought excitement and fulfilment waited for me in other places. It was only when I started doing my own housework and shopping, that my view of home changed - an along with that I changed too. I finally realised that my home was a reflection of who I am and making it comfortable, secure and warm, made me that way too.

Our home is not fancy by any stretch of the imagination, it is what it is because of our gardens, the homemade goodies inside, the smell of home cooking, welcome mat at the door and the unwavering certainty that in this home we work to produce as much as we can for ourselves. That work gives us independence, makes us self reliant, and rewards us with a self made home that fits us like a glove.

Your home should reflect you and your family. It should be the one place where you can kick off your shoes, sing at the top of your lungs, sit quietly with your thoughts and a cup of coffee, raise your children in safety, make things you can and can't buy at the shops, welcome your family and friends with cool home made fruit cordial in summer and hot and hearty soup in winter. Your home is the place where it's okay to put up red curtains against a purple wall, or live surrounded by stark, white minimalism, if that's what you want. Your home should be a safe haven where you can close the door on everything that is outside and feel secure and comfortable. And if you make your home everything you want it to be, and if it nurtures you and your family, when your children, your partner and yourself set off into the world from a home that is loved, you're setting everyone up for their best chance of success.

I hope this series has helped you think about your home in a positive way, enabled you to make the changes you need or given you the confidence to not change what is loved. There are many important and significant things we will do in our lives, making a good home is one of them. It won't happen overnight but if you put the work in and if you march to the beat of your own drummer, you will be rewarded with the best possible place in which to live your simple life.

Take care, everyone and have a lovely weekend.