Coffee and Tampons

Coffee and tampons…

Coffee and tampons…What the heck?

Yup, coffee and tampons…

That’s where my brain is this week…coffee and tampons. What? You would like me to elaborate? Okay, but it’s a bit of a roundabout tale…you ready? It starts with your last blog entry, Sparrow,  “Simple Pleasures”, or actually, it starts with clipping coupons, as you mentioned in that entry…

At the old house, I didn’t get flyers. Flyers make me angry. What an environmental waste, I would proclaim, loudly, to anyone who would listen. Besides, why would I plan a trip based on savings that I had to map out from a sit down with flyers when I could easily get everything done in one location? Would I really be saving money running from one place to another, I would argue. Would the sale on bread and milk at the Independent grocery store be worth the amount I would spend in gas if I first started my shopping at another grocery store and then made a pit stop at Wal Mart? Nope, no way, not this girl.  The extra savings generated would never justify wasting my time running around!

Now…

Now, my life, and yours, is different.

We’re now thinking about money in a way that we haven’t had to in the past, aren’t we? You’re “hoofing it” around Vancouver (PS I’m jealous…I love Vancouver. I’d love to be walking, with you, around Vancouver) rather than pay extra for transportation, and I’m walking to the local stores so that I can make a tank of gas go further. I’m also, as I mentioned in a recent email, cutting coupons; counting my savings, making my grocery dollars go further! I bet neither of us will be indulging in new wardrobes this season and we’ll be pretending not to covet the gorgeous array of shoes on display in the shop windows (we do have a weakness, Sparrow, don’t we?!). The changes we’ve made in our personal lives have come with huge costs, and neither of us can pretend that it hasn’t hit, particularly hard, financially.

But, and I have to stress this, we are still lucky, incredibly so, blessed even, in a way some of our followers may not be, and, in the midst of my new-found respect for coupons, I have to stress that I am not seriously deprived, nor am I going without in any meaningful way, as I’ve discovered.  Since this blog started, Sparrow, women are spilling their stories and, unlike us, many of them didn’t start their journey’s knowing that they were going to be okay financially, and, in the end, we know we will be.

I’ve admired the courage and strength of my daring friend “Raven” who moved from one province to another with her young daughter in tow in order to pursue her own journey, refusing to let the battle of being a newly-single Mom get in the way of providing for her daughter, and, I must say, that daughter is turning out to be a stunning creature. I’ve listened with awe and respect to the stunning “Songbird” tell me a heartbreaking tale of moving to another city without her children because lack of employment possibilities in the small town she lived in as a married woman did not offer enough opportunity for a single woman to raise her family. It was a heartbreaking story, but I came away from it with a sense of her incredible strength and love for her children. Songbird, like Raven, will make it, and her children will be better for her bravery, but, God, what a battle her emotions must face on a daily basis. I take my hat off to these two beautiful women that I proudly call “friend”.

In the end, Sparrow, we, unlike a lot of women, knew we were going to be okay even if our leap from the nests meant we were not going to have the same financial realities we once had. We’re fine. We will remain so. We will cut coupons, “hoof it” rather than spend extra on transportation and forgo the new shoes, but we will be fine. So, too, I’m happy to say, will these stunning women I mentioned, the difference is, it was easier for us to jump because our flight path was more padded. Fortunate for us, no?

      

So, Coffee and Tampons? Through reading flyers this week, I discovered that a grocery store I never shop in has my favourite coffee on sale for 3 dollars off and my regular brand of tampons has a similar price reduction. All week, when I would talk to my oldest daughter, I would tell her, proudly, of this incredible sale I found on coffee and tampons. I still haven’t made it to the specific grocery store to claim my savings but today is another day; another day to save money on coffee and tampons and to be thankful that I didn’t have to fly from the nest with just the shirt on my back.

I’m counting blessings today, Sparrow, along with savings, and I want the women, and men, that follow this blog to know this…my journey is my journey as yours, Sparrow, is yours. None of us, no matter how similar, has the same experience. Life doesn’t hand out the same “helpings” to each of us. My journey is, most definitely, made easier because I started it in a financially healthy place. DO NOT judge what you do, with respect to your journey, based on what the experience has been for either Sparrow or myself. We all can only take so much and you will have to do what’s right for you, even if it means flying from your nest later than you’d like. Reach for your friends, give yourself some breathing space, and be gentle on yourself. Meanwhile, go buy some coffee and tampons.

All my love,

Red Bird