The Cost of Busyness
I am shocked at how the calendar is already filling up for the summer. June weekends are already all but gone! There are plenty of other things penciled in during the week too. July doesn't look quite so busy, but there is an out of state trip then, and the county fair.
Busy is good, to a point. I do find that I am more productive when I have a lot to do, but it is hard to find the line that crosses into too much to do. The last couple of weeks I've been over that line. There have been field trips, various appointments, picnics, and guests. Not to mention more outside work to tend to with gardens, and additional animals.
The busyness creeps up on me. I intend to live more simply with less busyness, ideally just going out to running once during the week. When I am too busy, and constantly running, it is hard on us all. I'm grumpy, the kids are grumpy, and there is a lot more bickering. I've also noticed that our budget and finances suffer too.
The most obvious place that suffers when we are so busy is the gas budget. At these gas prices, it makes a noticeable impact on the budget when I am running a lot. Wednesday when I filled my tank, it cost $50!
There are other more subtle costs to busyness. The biggest is food. When life is calmer, I will pack a lunch for the day we are out running errands. When life is busy, lunch is a trip through the drive through, or something convenient picked up at the grocery story. That adds up quick, especially when there are five (me & the kids, Tim is at work) of us, and it happens on multiple days.
It isn't just lunches that suffer, dinners do too. When life is chaotic, I tend to reach for the more convenient options at the store. I don't feel like cooking, and want meals to be easy. Though this hasn't happened for awhile, when life is really hectic, it is too easy to have Tim pick up something on the way home from work.
My record keeping suffers too. The paperwork piles. I don't get to entering the receipts, and paying the bills. I am embarrassed to admit that in the last few weeks, we have gone in to our Overdraft Protection, twice, for the simply reason that I did not have my paperwork caught up. That cost us $20 in fees! Not keeping up with the paperwork can also cost in late payments when bills don't get paid on time.
There is a cost to busyness. It takes its toll on us emotionally, and financially. Frugality does take time. So, what to do about my quickly filling calendar? Prioritize. We can't do it all. I'm looking at a particular week now. We will be out of town over the weekend, and the following week has a meeting, field trip, and a play date penciled in. Something has to go. I can't afford the cost of busyness.
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16 comments:
I totally understand. When I was in college and even after, I stayed way too busy with work and friends and schooling. After James and I were married, at one point I had three jobs!
I get overwhelmed easily when there are too many demands on my time. I love simplicity.
Busyness really messes up our system too! We have a good system here for doing things, but throw a bunch of stuff into the mix, and we are thrown off. If it's always busy, I would have a system for that, but the back and forth between feast and famine is what's stressful.
We've noticed the same...get busy = bigger gas bill, things get forgotten, meals on the fly(more expensive).
I'm trying to prioritize our schedule which means sometimes we don't get to do everything we want to with outside activities. Making wiggle room is helping too...leaving time for the unexpected. Still don't think it will slow down much 'til the chil'ens are grown though!
Your post raises some excellent points. I know whenever I get busy I also find myself reaching for more convenient (and costly) options and seeing my entire home routine go a little nuts.
Oh yes, the cost to the routine, good points ladies. It sometimes takes weeks to get back into the flow after an extremely hectic time!
Great post, Stephanie. It takes us a long time to settle in after too much activity, too. And my dd likes all the activity, so it takes a while to settle her spirit into home routine.
routine? what is that? do we have one of those? I will look that up at dictionary.com
Is there any chance the playdate can turn into a trade-off of babysitting? This time around, you stay home and 'catch up' (either on rest for yourself...or bills, for example) and next time around, you take your friend's kids? And take this from a mom who's 'been there, done that': you don't have to fill every hour of their free time. And there are a lot of things you can cross of your 'to do' list, I bet! The world won't fall apart if you take it easy for a weekend. Oh, listen, for those days when you have to rely on fast food: check your big phone book. I'm not sure about where you live, but here there's a whole section of coupons in our Yellow Pages, including some BOGO deals for BK or McD's! Keep them in your wallet at all times, and you'll have them when you need them. Every little bit helps, right?
Tim,
Yes we do have a routine. It is what we do while your at work! :)
Mom2Fur,
thanks for the suggestions.
Wise counsel. It's important to understand and recognize your limits. ThanX for the food for thought!
Banking fees can have killer price tags. You must get a handle on them. Don't give your precious money to banks! Make a commitment to check your account daily if necessary via phone or internet to prevent that from happening. Good luck.
There's always the alternative...stash the cash under the mattress, or out back under the tree in jars. ;)
Such a good post and so true. I fight being overbusy all the time. Sometimes I think my kids don't do enough and see enough compared to their peers, but then my kids love spending hour upon hour playing with Legos--free play, something lots of kids don't get enough of.
I agree with you on all counts of this post! Great job!
Found you through CoFL!
Yes, busy, busy busy here at So Sioux Me, www.traceesioux.blogspot.com and www.blogfabulous.com. My husband is sometimes so unaware of my busyness I wrote a story In Defense of What I Did All Day, http://traceesioux.blogspot.com/2007/01/in-defense-of-what-i-did-all-day.html . It really had no effect on him. Then I added working from home to the mix and now my poor baby is just desperate for more attention. I can not wait till Sept. when daughter goes to Kindergarten and son to Mother's Day Out. Then I can work in Peace for 10 hours a week! Such Bliss.
I understand and then some. Our weekends are pretty much committed through the end of the summer.
One of the ways we deal with the expense is through leftovers. We make more than we'll eat, save it and eat it later. Part of what makes that work is that our schedule is mostly by day of the week. We know Wednesdays are busy. Wednesdays are a leftover night. Anyone in the family can heat leftovers, even the kids. It means that no matter how busy we get, we still have family meals.
The other good things about that is that the kids have never had any pressure to eat everything in front of them. They know that there will be leftovers. They don't have to grab it now or be afraid they'll miss it.
We really do the leftovers and making two meals at a time and freezing one. Although with only two kids and a very laidback approach to life, we're not out that much, it still works better having something on hand that we can just warm up. To save gas, we go out one day a week to the library, grocery store, discount bread store, and the local cheap buffet restaurant. It's $5.99 for my oldest son and $3.99 for my daughter. That's our entertainment for the week. We don't have cabel, Dish or Netflicks, just the library, so that's not excessive. One day on the weekend is visiting friends with kids and that's their playdate. Alternating weekends, they have a friend over. The rest of the time, we just stay home and enjoy the woods and fields around us. We're slackers, but low-key works best for us.
Lill
I HS my son and we should have a quiet life but I found that these past weeks have been filled up too much. Last night I lay in bed longing to stay at home tomorrow and do the ordinary things like ironing etc! I am off again today as it is Sean's birthday and we are taking him to see a castle... Here's hoping for a quiet day tomorrow! Just loved your post.
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