You look like a cowboy!

An introduction to our blog

I’m not often a clothes shopper, but I recently got sucked in by a sale at a store I like, so I bought a couple of items I need. One of them was a new long-sleeved shirt that I picked up on the bargain rack (ticking our frugal boxes). Glynis was with me and she was really enthusiastic about it, saying it looked great, and I was pretty happy with it too. So, I happily bought it, and the other day, put it on. My 10-year-old, Ted, seeing it for the first time looked at me kinda funny then proclaimed “Daaad! You look like a cowboy!” Ted has cerebral palsy and is cognitively impaired, so he doesn’t always have the words to describe what he’s thinking… But he said it in a voice filled with humour that said: “Why are you dressed like that?!”

Funny…

So, there you go… Sometimes when you think you’re all that – you find yourself being brought down a peg 🙂

And that’s not a bad thing I think. To not get too far above yourself…

I hope we don’t do that with this blog. But we may well do – so if we at least find the humour in that (like Ted did in my shirt) we’ll be all good.

What’s this blog about?

Alistair Humphrey’s, who writes a blog we like, says the key to getting started with things you don’t know too much about, is to…

“Start rubbish, get good!”

That seems simple enough, right? We’re applying this to quite a few areas of our lives. Learning as we go on lots of exciting things which are new to us – and also looking for better ways with stuff we’ve done for ages individually. We’re a blended family, which brings its own challenges, but it also comes with opportunities if we look for them; we get to look for ways to do things together and get another person’s perspective.

So our ramblings will include topics such as…

• Trying to be frugal as much as possible. We’re all about experiences over stuff, meaning, the more frugal we can be, the more we can do. There’s also the satisfaction of making do with what you have or making the stuff you need. And part of frugality is budgeting! Not something I’d ever have thought I’d get excited about, but it’s been a real eye-opener. We’ve found a way to do something that can be a major source of stress for a couple, and turn it into an adventure of its own… Seriously! Every month we get to slay the dragon (mostly) and save the realm!

• Living more sustainable lives. We are totally not experts at this, we’re just always looking for ways to do things better. From growing our own produce, to recycling and repurposing, to using less plastic, to Hugelkultur, to being “cycling as an everyday thing” evangelists 🙂

• Planning and going on adventures. Big and small, micro and macro… We fit these in when time, money and weather allows. Usually done on a tight budget and often pushing ourselves to do things new or outside our comfort zone.

• Fitness and health. We love training for events and challenges. We’re into road cycle racing and events and have both competed at a national level. One of our focuses has been looking at new ways to train as we’re often time-poor and also… ahem…. not getting any younger. So, we’re finding ways to get smarter with our training that fits into our lives, and also fits with what’s important, health-wise, as we get older.

• Gladlife.  Always looking for ways to be glad about life (even when there’s a queue).  Being happy with our lot in life.  Finding fun.

• And anything else we stumble upon that we think worth sharing

Why we’re doing this

We both like writing so we figured we’d give a blog a go, and show ourselves (and maybe others) that you don’t have to be all that to do stuff. You can be fifty-something office workers on a budget and still do new, fun, exciting things if you have a plan, a positive outlook, a willingness to get started before you really know what you’re doing… and a sense of humour 🙂

It’s also a chance to play with photography. I’m the photographer of the two of us (but that may change with G’s new flash phone from work). In any case, we’ll endeavour to pepper this blog with photos. You may even see some of me dressed like a cowboy 🙂

How often?

Our aim is for a post a week. We won’t be filling up your inbox if you subscribe to us (which we totally think you should do – you can subscribe on the right-hand side near the top).

Let us know what you think

We’d love to hear from you.  Hopefully sharing ideas is one of the bonuses of this blog.  Click HERE to contact us.