photo by epSos.de

Being stuck in the bed postpartum with two bouts of double mastitis has forced me to simplify my days even more than I thought possible before.   But note, this post is not titled “5 FRUGAL Ways to Simplify Your Days,” so you might have to cancel the cable to pull this off, but it’s totally worth it.

1.   Order a monthly meal plan from someone else and OBEY it.  Tweaking is a real time eater.  I have a super-impossible diet for health reasons, so you may be able to do this for much less. $16/month

2.  Get a teen to cut the lawn.  We don’t use him every week, but when we get really lazy, we wander over from next door.  Our front lawn is 2300 sq feet. $15/mowing

3.  Get a scrubby lady. I clean my own house in a general weekly way, but one to two times a month, someone else gives it a good scrub down.  I don’t mess with the bathrooms.  I don’t dust.  I do a passable job on the kitchen floor and counters.  She takes up the slack.  Love her.  My house is 1700 sq feet.  $60/cleaning

4.  Put all the kids in the SAME activities. When someone goes to karate, they all go to karate.  When someone is singing at mass, they all sing at mass.  This may save you money if you had them each in different activities, but I didn’t.  The others weren’t even interested in karate, so that meant I would be entertaining #2, #3, and #4 while #1 is in karate class.  No way.  If anyone does an activity, they all do it.  If I’m going to the trouble to drive one there, I expect to get an hour of complete freedom for my trouble.  60$ extra/month