Coming from a poor upbringing, I have a tendency to hoard things …… furniture, clothing, shoes …… and especially food.  The subconscious need to “stock up” is strong. The fear of a lean period, or possibly actually going hungry, and perhaps expecting rellies to drop in, tends to mean that I buy excessive amounts of food.   This is not to say that I waste food, thankfully my menu planning means that I don’t tend to have a huge amount going off, but certainly I buy more in advance than I really need to. I suppose part of me doesn’t understand the fact that my job and Tony’s is secure, that we can buy on a weekly basis without worry.  Security of income is a new experience for me ….. I have never been “comfortable”.
But I need to change. Being more environmentally conscious, I really need to cut back the number of appliances in the house. We have a large two door fridge/freezer. Having another freezer is excessive. The same goes with the bar fridge.  The children don’t need soft drinks every day, Tony does not need beer every day. We don’t need 5 different types of breakfast cereal. I don’t bake enough to buy a 3kg bag of flour.  Having more storage space, means that we also have more opportunity to leave things until they are past the point of being edible. And I don’t need to cook large volumes, just to place leftovers into a freezer that never get eaten. Do I really need a breadmaker? or icecream machine? I certainly don’t need the big food processor. And I am thinking that the pasta maker is not achieving anything other than gathering dust.
I am at a different point in my life. At the end of this year, I will finally be shifting into full time work. My boy will be at high school, the girl will be in Uni, and largely self sufficient.  I don’t have to stay moulded into the “at home mum” role. I can go on to bigger and better things.  Its a new experience for me, and I must say a scary one. I don’t respond well to change, especially of myself.  I need to do these things gradually. But change will happen …… in my own time.
