Not too long ago we went through a frighteningly long time of financial thinness, that is we were paying our bills but because of a lost job and a not yet found job we were scraping by with very little for extras. It was an enlightening time in a lot of ways. We made our groceries last longer, bought less and maybe most importantly, we learned to entertain ourselves with very little or no money at all. It is very easy to come up with an activity to entertain two toddlers when money is no option-there are restaurants and toy stores and museums. But when you are calculating hours of part time work patched together to pay rent, it is very difficult to justify four tickets to the children’s museum on a rainy day or happy meals on the way home from grandma’s house.  Instead we found creative ways to stay busy and got better at staying home too.
Now that I am working again, there are margins for these extras again. We have been going out to eat a lot more often; we take trips and stop for treats and generally picked up the spending habit again very quickly. Being able to predict an income and have any extra is really liberating and makes life much easier. But as we’ve settled into this more financially soluble life, I can’t help but think that easier isn’t always better. Not that I want unemployment again-I definitely do not. But being bare bones brought out the best in us and I want to remember some of those lessons we learned, how on a shoe string budget we had some of the best times because we had to build up with little expectation of being “entertained” in that classic sense of something being done to us. Instead we enjoyed ourselves by proactively seeking out new ways to spend time, to know each other better, to be happy. Weather we had money or not.

Here are a few of my favorites:

1. Garage sale-ing. Hands down one of the most thrilling experiences for young kids. We gave each of the boys a few dollars in change and set out on a Saturday to find treasures. They rummaged through boxes of hotwheels and stuffed animals, negotiated prices and handed over their change. Some sales were better than others and that was part of the thrill. Our oldest started to rate the sales as we drove up, peering out the window saying, “drive on, no kid stuff here!”

2. Riding the train. I know James has mentioned how much we love the train here in Portland a number of times but it really can’t be underestimated the joy that a three year old boy who loves all things with wheels feels when riding a train. No seatbelts or car seats. Just hanging on to the railing and watching the city go by. We spent a lot of time on the train even when we weren’t entirely sure what our destination was.

3. Baking. With both boys perched on the counter on either side of the mixing bowl, measuring out ingredients and sticking there fingers in the dough, we learned to make all manner of treats. We had less money but much more time and so we made cookies and bread and cakes and elaborate dinners just because we could. Needless to say, we also gained weight.

4.Drawing with chalk. Our front porch steps down to a wide sidewalk that steps down again to the street level sidewalk so there are three layers of playing in our front yard. One day with a large piece of yellow chalk, I started drawing a parking lot and then a road that lead to the muddy flower bed and then a multi lane highway that sloped down the curb on the side of the stairs around the japanese maple and back up to a second parking lot. The boys parked and drove their toy cars on this cement jungle for hours. We spent many of these hours reading on the porch and listening to podcasts of this american life.

5. Taking walks. Usually in tandem with riding the train, we explored whole new parts of the city by taking long walks, packing a snack in the stroller and setting off for a yet unknown destination.

6. Got to know the library. Letting the boys pick out books each week always made for entertaining bedtime story time: Peter Rabbit in spanish, potty books, and anything with a truck on the cover.

We still do a lot of these things now and I’ll always be grateful to the time we had all together with no money, grateful we learned how to have a good time, grateful we got through it, grateful it’s behind us.

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