Money Mondays # 1, Introduction

When I was a wee little growing up in the 80's the heyday of the Home Economist had already largely passed. My vision of a Home Ecomomist was always part Girl Scout leader, part County Extension Officer, and part Betty Crocker.  These were the authors of helpful articles in women's magazines who told you how to get the most out of your 5LB box of Borax or baking soda on cleaning day, gave you the  latest news on home canning from the USDA, and shared the secret to perennials that didn't wilt in the August sun. They ran the healthy, clean, and happy homes seen on television shows set in the 1950's and they did it all on the shoestring of a single-income family budget.

Is it a sexist and somewhat repressed vision of the past that I was daydreaming of? Maybe.  It was never the social dynamic that I was after, but the promise of better living through science.  The main goal of the original home economist was to spread the latest scientific advances to people in rural areas: supporting American agriculture and the drive to be the most modern industrial power on the planet. Now, we live surrounded by the crumbling remnants of our own abandoned dream and I wonder what can be done to bring it back.

The purpose of this blog is to chronicle my attempts at replacing the thought that "someone should do something about...." with "I'm going to do something about....".  Starting with learning to become less focused on money and more on happiness. Learning to make do or do without, to value things for the work needed to make them, and to get back to a sense of optimism about the future.