I still get emails fairly frequently asking me to define simple living and if I can explain how to live like Hanno and I do.  Many of the long term  readers here would know that I encourage everyone to live their own life and while Hanno and I might be an interesting enough couple, our life is ours - it's what we do because it suits us, our personalities and the stage of life we're at.  I write about our life here not so you might copy it but to show you what's possible, easy and enjoyable on retirement.  I think the stages or seasons of living - those periods you progress through at various stages of life - are the key here.  In each season you need to do different things - a simple life, like every other life, will reflect those seasons and the requirements of it.


So with that in mind, I thought it might be a useful exercise to focus on a few stages of life in general, and see how simple living fits into those stages.  I would like to start with what I know best - retirement, but it would not make sense to work backwards, so let's start with students and those in their 20s, then progress to the 30s, then middle age - 40s and 50s together, then retirement.  Remember that this is my version of what it may be like, so please help me define these stages and what happens in them; I really want your input if it's the life stage you're currently in.

MONEY MANAGEMENT
Let me stress here that money should never be the most important thing in anyone's life, but it is the glue that holds life together, so it will feature heavily in every stage of life.  Money, or more accurately, debt, will make or break the plans you have for yourself.  When you first leave school, leave home, start work, or start university there is a very strong urge to buy everything you couldn't buy when you were younger. As soon as you start earning a bit of money, most of us want to create our own style - in what we wear, how we spend our time, where we live and what car we drive.  I guess it's one of the ways we separate ourselves from childhood - the ability to earn and spend money is a marker of adulthood.  The trick in every stage of life is to get through it with the things that make life worth living without being saddled with debt that we take into the next stage.  The one debt that will travel with you through a few stages is usually a mortgage, try not to have other debts with it that tie you down.

Learn how to budget as soon as you start earning your own money.  You will still buy a portion of what you want but you'll be in control of your money instead of recklessly spending whatever you earn.  At some stage in your late 20s or early 30s, most people settle down and think about buying a home.  If you arrive at that point in control of your money, with little debt and maybe even the beginnings of a home deposit, you will have placed yourself in the best possible position.

Personal finance in your 20s and 30s
How to build your first budget
How to manage your money in your 20s
College budget 101
Preparing your budget
mint.com

Whenever you want to buy something that you want but don't need, work out how many hours you need to work to pay for it.  If you're earning around $20 an hour, by the time you take out what you pay in tax and what it costs you in the form of clothing, transport and grooming to earn that money, you'd probably get about $13 or $14 an hour in your hand.  If you see a pair of shoe that you MUST have and they cost $100, you will have to work more than seven and a half hours - almost a full day's work,  to cover the cost of those shoes.  Is it worth it?

SELF DEVELOPMENT
If you're lucky and smart, you'll never stop learning.  What you learn at school and university are just the basics - it sets you up for life but you need to fill in all the gaps in your education along the way.  I can't tell you here what it is you'll need to learn, only you know that, but there are a few fundamentals that everyone should know.  Now is the time when you'll start shaping your character and how you'll be later in life.  Chance will play a part in your decisions if you don't make plans for yourself.  Take control of your life, don't just react to what life throws at you.  If you make plans, learn the various life skills that will help you live well and happily, you'll find that you can direct yourself towards certain paths. Take time out, think carefully about what kind of life you want for yourself, what your values are, what you value in other people and what your ideal life would be.  Don't get caught up in the silliness of celebrity and wish you'd be a star, or famous.  That lifestyle is difficult and can be toxic.  Be sensible and think realistically about what might be ahead and how you can change it to make it the best it can be.

• Aim to be self reliant so that you may look after yourself  throughout your life without having to rely too heavily on others.
• Learn how to cook from scratch.  Over the years it will make you healthier and it's much cheaper than relying on convenience foods and fast food.
• Learn to bake, it's a lot of fun and people will love  you for it.  The bread, cookies, biscuits and cakes you make yourself will, hopefully, have no artificial flavourings, preservatives or trans fats.
• Find a mentor or role model.  It could be someone in your family, someone you work with or someone you meet along the way.  Ask questions, watch how they conduct themself be aware of their values and how they apply them to their everyday life.
• Get rid of friends who drain you or who are negative or toxic.
• Learn how to sew, knit and mend.  This will help you extend the life of your clothes and if you're good at it, you might even be able to make some of the clothes you wear.  I have seen some dresses, skirts, tops, shawls, scarves and bags on some young peoples blogs that are really fabulous and much nicer than store bought.  You can really define your own style if you make some of your own clothes. 
• If you have some land - use it. Learn to grow food.
• Read.
• Disregard advertising.  It is there to create an insatiable want in you.  Don't give it any power, march to the beat of your own drum. 
• Reuse, repair and recycle.
• Travel if you can - even if it's just to the next county or state.  Expand your horizons by travelling cheaply by train or get a group together in a car.
• Self discovery - this is the time when you work out what kind of person you are, what you hope your life will be and how to gain those illusive goals.
• Get enough sleep.
• When you leave the family home, stay close to your family.  They are important.
• Heather's comment made me realise I should have added this important note: expect to make mistakes.  All mistakes are learning opportunities.
• And I liked Rachael's comment on starting early on your retirement savings.  Your superannuation,/401K plan/pension scheme will serve you well in your older age, especially if you start it early.

I would love any one of you, especially if you're in your 20s, to comment on what you're actually doing that makes your life enriching and satisfying. If you have a blog that focuses on this age group, let me know. If you have any links that may help, let me know.  I am sure I've left out things that should be here but I welcome your input. 


Blogs of people in their 20s - can you send me some links to add here?  I'd love to share some young bloggers who are studying, travelling, settling down, working at their first jobs, and living simply - single or married.


I guess the one thing I'd like to leave you with is that your 20s is the launching pad for your life.  If you can establish yourself on a firm foundation right now, learn the lessons that you need, create a circle of supportive friends and maintain a good relationship with your family you'll be setting yourself up to be in the best position to continue through to the next stage, and that one is a real spinner.  If you thought your 20s were high energy, just wait - you're in for the ride of your life in your 30s.

Today's kitchen is all the way over on the other side of the world.  We have Rachael's kitchen in Scotland.

My name's Rachael, I'm 22 and I live in Scotland with my husband and 4 month old daughter. I have recently started a blog at happydoings.blogspot.com

Here's my kitchen. It's very small but I really like it. The last flat we lived in had an open plan kitchen/lounge so it's nice to have a separate room to cook in. You can see my ginger beer fermenting on the counter there. Today I'm going to dilute it and bottle it- thanks for the instructions! There's also some chicken stock bubbling away on the stove. It smells so good :)

On the windowsill we have rosemary, basil, mixed salad, rocket, beetroot, courgettes, spring onions and radishes which we just set up last weekend. It was beautiful and sunny and we though we we headed for spring but then we got a surprise fall of snow (hence the glare!). Hopefully our little seeds cope ok and we can plant them outdoors in May. We have such a short season for growing anything up here!

I couldn't really take a second photo of the kitchen, as there's not much to it, so I thought I'd take a photo of Kaelyn asleep on my back. This is our living room/dining area.

Thanks for looking at my photos!

There is an air of serenity in our backyard.  It's aided by the weather, wandering chooks grazing on green grass, the sound of unseen birds calling from the rain forest and the knowledge that here we can support our passion for home grown organic food.  We spent much of yesterday morning outside.  Hanno planted and weeded the garden and I spent time in the bush house sowing seeds and propagating ginger and turmeric.  We have our first seeds and seedlings in and growing well, but to support the need for food next month and the month after, we need to have  more seedlings ready to plant out.

On the way back from the chook pen, I saw this little kookaburra on the fence watching my every move.

When I was in Maleny last Friday, I went over to Green Harvest for supplies.  I bought Scotch curly kale, celeriac, Wakefield cabbage - a heirloom sugarloaf type and a trio of organic Italian garlic heads.  I always buy Green Harvest seeds, they germinate readily and there is a large selection of old varieties for me to choose from.  They're often local seeds too, so I know they're suited to the conditions here. The lovely Francis was in the shop when I walked in and after saying hello, she left me in the capable hands of one of the women there to place my order.  Soon after she returned with a handful of perennial leeks.  She had brought them in from her own garden for her staff and gave some to me to try.  What a thoughtful and unexpected gift!


Hanno was keen to get them in the ground yesterday morning and like our Welsh onions they'll happily grow out there for years without needing to be replaced each year.  We have trouble growing onions here because of the warm weather so having Alliums in the form of Welsh onions, perennial leeks and garlic, gives us some form of those vegetables although we still have to buy our brown and red onions.

I was asked last week what our bush house is.  Well, it's just a shade cloth covered structure, located in the backyard, near the water tank, where I sow seeds in trays, propagate plants, store potting soil, keep the worm farm, and generally protect young and emerging plants from the harsher conditions outside.  Inside the bush house is always cooler in summer, and if I keep the water up to it, provides a cool and humid place for ferns, orchids, sick or baby plants and seedlings.  I guess  it's the tropical equivalent of a glasshouse - it provides protection from sun, heavy rain, wind, birds and wandering insects.

Inside the bush house (ditto on the tidying up), the potting mix bins sit under the worm farm (bathtub), seedlings on the left and assorted plants sit on the shelves.

It's early Sunday morning now and I know we'll have a lovely day today because Shane and Sarndra are coming over for lunch.  I've already made a mountain of little meatballs that I'll add to homemade tomato sauce,  I'll pick a salad from the garden, bake bread rolls and, depending on whether there is an egg or two later this morning, make a lemon tart for dessert.  I'll sow the celeriac seeds before they arrive and then we can all relax and enjoy the afternoon, knowing that all our work has been done and those little seeds are slowly making their way through the soil into the sunlight.


 Newly sown seeds, seedlings and propagated herbs sit at the sunny end of the bush house.  They get the gentle morning sun for about two hours to warm the soil, then sit in shade all day.
All this week's roads have been leading to this lunch; a time to sit back and enjoy life with my family.  Even though most of our days are similar now, made different only by the days I go to my voluntary work, there is still something special about Sunday afternoons - they seem to be made for experiencing, first-hand, the comfort of one's home, socialising, connecting and being with family and friends.  These are the days that memories are made of.

"I love my kitchen - I designed it myself (I used to work as a Kitchen Designer) so everything is just how I wanted it. My sink looks into our family room and out to the vegetable garden. And the main orientation from the kitchen, when I'm preparing food, is outside. We've been in this home for over 4 years now and my kitchen still makes me so very happy."

There are certain times during the year when the air temperature is so mild and gentle we seem to blend into the natural environment and become part of it.  It was like that yesterday.  Late in the afternoon, as I was making dinner, I noticed Hanno was outside planting and watering.  I grabbed my camera and went out to join him.  There was no breeze, the air was neither cool nor warm, the conditions were perfect.  

Just a few short weeks ago, our garden was almost bare.  We stopped planting in November and have scratched a few harvests since then, but the main activity in the garden has been when we let the chook loose in there to scratch around for insect eggs and eat all the grubs and caterpillars.  After that, Hanno built the soil up again with cow manure, compost, old chook manure and worm castings.  When he planted the first lettuces and cucumbers in the garden a  few weeks ago, they burst into life and have been feeding us for the last week or so.  There is nothing better than the taste of fresh vegetables and nothing gives me a greater feeling of self reliance and confidence than walking outside in  the afternoon to collect food for our dinner.  It's sublime on every level.

While I was outside yesterday afternoon, I took these photos.  They speak for themselves, so I'll let them tell their own story.  My thanks to Hanno for providing us with such healthy, sustainable, organic food.

Yellow passionfruit.  There are black passionfruit at the other end of the trellis.

I've had another email asking for help with ideas so, with the permission of the writer, I'm opening this up so we all have a chance to offer ideas, support and encouragement.  Today's email is from Jo in the UK.  To summarise Jo's email,  her husband is working nights, her work hours have just been doubled and although she loves her job, she feels she has no time left for herself.  Jo lives in semi-rural England with her husband and two chidlren whom she loves very much.  Jo writes: 

"while others try to out do each other with credit cards, latest fashions, flashy cars, we don't, we have an allotment ( you probably knew what they are) large piece of land that we pay rent for each year, its ours for as long is we want it, we have had it five years now, we grow all our own veg and fruit there, we keep chickens in our back yard, I cook from scratch even the dogs and cats food. We mend things, reuse things, recycle a lot. But recently I feel we have lost out way, got stuck in a rut that I don't like and don't know how to get out of. 

Jo, I think the mother in any family is like a wagon that loads the family aboard and keeps everything on track.  Mothers do much of the housework and if you have an outside job as well, you'll have a lot, and maybe too much to do.  Don't let the wheels fall off your wagon, ask for help, start saying "no", establish boundaries - for yourself and others, and give yourself time to relax and recover.  You are not a machine, you need time when you can do whatever you feel like doing - be that reading, sewing, gardening, thinking or walking - or spending time with the family.  But it has to be your choice and what YOU want to do.  If you always do for others, you get lost and eventually feel resentment.

I think you might need to go back to your old work hours so you have more time at home.  You said you've just paid off a lot of debt so I doubt that is a problem for you.  You'll be able to do more, and organise yourself and your home in the way that suits you.  You mentioned that you recently took on more guinea pigs and that your work hours were doubled.  Those two actions sound like you're just going along with what others want from you.  Be proactive with your life.  You make the decisions and it's entirely your own choice what you say yes to.  You have consciously decided to grow vegetables and keep chooks, you need to also consciously decide to balance the time you spend working with time you give to yourself.  Not only do you need to invest time in your home and family, you need to invest it in yourself too. These two old posts may hold a message for you: When mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy and Learning how to say NO.

When you get yourself back on track, you might also think about changing various things you do in the normal course of your day.  I often change things here so it stays fresh for me and I keep enjoying repetitive tasks.   Those changes might just be rearranging my work spaces and changing how I do certain tasks, but those tiny changes keep it interesting and keep me going back for more. Learn new skills, that brings interest too. And take breaks, make yourself a cuppa and sit reading for a while.  When you go back to work, you'll feel refreshed and that you are being looked after too.

Jo, you have got the basics right. There is no doubt about that.  You love your husband and children, you're all working together towards being debt-free, you've simplified your lives and are living in a way that will enrich you and keep your family strong.  But this is not suppose to be difficult.  You make your own rules, you decide what it is you do each day.  I think that if you ease off the accelerator and give yourself some time to regroup and organise your daily chores, you'll rediscover that joy you used to find in day to day life.  Remember to take small steps and to find joy in small achievements.  Look for the beauty in your lives and disregard what your friends and neighbours are doing.  You've make some significant steps towards a happy future, all this is just fine tuning.

I hope you have some words of encouragement for Jo.  If you do, please add to the comments.  Thank you friends.

Today I am featuring Heather's kitchen in Pennsylvania USA.  It's another unusual kitchen which proves, yet again, how diverse we all are.

Heather writes:

"We live in an octa-decagon shaped house that we built from a kit, so our kitchen is a little unconventional, but works just like any other kitchen.

My husband & a friend made the cabinets from leftover wood from our ceiling. You will see that I have my calendar/house binder, cookbooks & bread bowls stored on the island. My sink is a double-bowl stainless steel w/ a curved-neck spout for filling big stock pots.When I look out my kitchen sink window, I see our chicken coop & can check on the chooks. 

 

Our kitchen is part of our "great room" so when I'm busy in the kitchen, I can help my girls with their school work, talk w/ visitors & be warmed by the woodstove all at the same time! Most of our walls in the great room are windowed, so we use a lot of natural light & rarely have to turn the lights on during the day."