Quality Family Time - What Does It Mean To You?

Modern life decrees that we should all run around like frightened ferrets to maintain a lifestyle none of us can afford. We add stress to our lives to ensure that we are earning enough to pay for the house, the car, the annual holiday(s) the latest hi-tech gadgets, and we do this intentionally. Nothing is ever enough.

I'm done with it all - I did the stressed out thing years ago and look where it got me, fibromyalgia, crohn's disease. My family live very frugally these days - we have to having given up, or had taken away through austerity, the high powered, high earning roles we once had, we're now both cashiers in convenience stores. But even our frugal lifestyle dictates that we must work at least 37 hours per week between us to make ends meet and that means that six out of seven days in a week one, or both of us are at work. We only get Thursdays when we can be a complete family together.

But we get by. We earn enough to pay the mortgage and rates and utilities and, because we rarely go out for meals or social occasions, we treat ourselves to a decent package of entertainment through Virgin Media.

We don't buy a new car every three years like we once did. Our car is now twelve years old and probably in need of some TLC - but only when, and if, we can afford it. We don't have the latest in high tech gadgetry - we have a ten year old laptop, pay as you go mobile accounts with second hand handsets and a Samsung Galaxy Tablet (one out of three ain't bad!) which we had to get for Emily to use for her education. We don't take annual holidays overseas for two reasons 1: We can't afford it and 2: We really don't want to. Many of you might find the latter a little strange but we really don't want to - we have all we need on our doorstep, so much history within a hundred mile radius of us that we have yet to explore, so many visitor attractions, beaches, lakes and natural beauty within walking distance, why would we want to fly half way round the world when we can do it all at home?

It's also good that we are all singing from the same song sheet too - it would be hell on Earth if one of us had some kind of wanderlust and the other wanted to be a hermit - we ALL love the way we live - work as little as often, earn what we need to live in that time and the rest of the time be together as much as we can and enjoy "Quality Family Time" in front of the TV or playing a game or doing some sort of craft,  with a cosy fire, a nice cup of tea and warm slippers!!