Beyond money

Welcome back to Mindful Money Week!

One of the ways we can make peace with money is by it taking a less prominent role in our lives, in moving beyond money.

The more you are plugged into the external economy and the outside world, the more cash you need to fulfill your needs. The more self sufficient and plugged into informal money-less economies the less you will need. 

We are all plugged into the external economy to a greater or lesser extent and its impact can be damaging and scary, emotionally and financially for families, especially in these turbulent times.

How can we make our families more resilient, so we can ride the economic rollercoaster with maximum joy and confidence?

The sustainable money circle

1. know how much you have
2. know how much you need
3. know your skills
4. know your networks
5. know your value 
6. set up your income streams
7. do your work
8. collect your income
9. use your income
10. rest and reflect

Neighbours, everybody needs good neighbours

Neighbours, everybody needs good neighbours 

With a little understanding, 

You can find the perfect blend.

Neighbours should be there for one another,

That's when good neighbours become good friends.

The sun was shining, the sky was blue... 

Up went the bunting and out came the food, the tables and chairs and picnic rugs... and a party atmosphere.

Six households and another neighbour turned out for our community picnic, part of the Big Lunch initiative. Eleven adults and thirteen kids - more than we had hoped for - and everyone delighted. One neighbour came up on crutches just to say he was sorry he couldn't stay but what a lovely idea it was! Even Shouting Man came! And didn't shout once. In fact he was very nice! (For more about the planning of it and Shouting Man read here!)

Know thy neighbour?

“The community you want starts at your front door”

Neighbour Day, Australia

We have just past our first anniversary of living in the Pink House. And along with boxes still to unpack we have many neighbours yet to meet.

You see, unlike my mama, I am not a knock-on-people's-doors-and-learn-their-life-story kinda girl. I get all wriggly in my tummy and think I might puke if I have to say more than hello.

So I annoy myself hugely by having a deep rooted "community" urge. If I have a moment on my hands I find myself organising sandsculpting events, or women's circles, or writing groups, or arts festivals. I really don't know why, but I have this strong, "let's get together and stop ignoring each other and make this a fun and doodle dandy place to live full of happy faces and fun stuff to do..."

I have always wanted to live in a “community”. You know the type, lots of long haired hippies, a communal garden, shared creative/ yoga space and bringing up the kids together.

A combination of lack of land, planning permission and cash in our group mean that instead we are living on a housing estate in a small Catholic village. We have the ties of the local school to bind us, but not the local sport or religious practice.

My dear friend Mary said to me the other day "My life is so much richer for knowing you Lucy cos you're always getting us caught up in your next mad project!"

So my latest mad project, which I urge you, dear reader to join me in, now we are friends, is "The Big Lunch". Brain child of one of my favourite impossible doers - the visionary behind the Eden Project in Cornwall (a complex of vast geodesic greenhouse bubbles which house a rainforest and others eco systems in a disused quarry in the south of England).

The Big Lunch is all about bringing communities together through eating together... On Sunday June 5th thousands of communities, hundreds of thousands of neighbours will be eating together in parks, on their streets, in gardens festooned with bunting, playing street cricket, making music... I feel that the best way to build family resilience, is to be deeply rooted in our geographic communities, which we will be relying on more and more in future years.

Community is at the heart of resilience. If your car breaks down or the power's out, or you need some milk, or to use a phone, your nearest neighbours are those you need to be able to call on. So many of us do not even know the name of the people who live two doors down. We drive miles to see friends. Of course there is little chance that everyone on our street are going to be our best friends. But there might be more like minded people, allies, companions, human beings, behind those closed doors than we realise. As oil prices rise and wages fall, we will be living closer to home. Soon gone will be the days of empty commuter estates.

Because of our hyper-mobile society, we now find ourselves living in newly built housing estates like ours, or apartment blocks, villages and towns surrounded by strangers. It feels instinctively unnatural, and leads to defensiveness. Which we experienced soon arrived our arrival here, when a neighbour popped by to yell at us about suing and insurance because his son had injured himself playing on a digger bucket which was being used by our contractors but left for a couple of hours on common land. What a wonderful introduction to the neighbourhood.


And so it was with trepidation that I put together an invitation to each of the 19 other houses on our estate. We delivered them by hand, my kiddies delighted to play postman, and we managed to avoid small talk with any of our neighbours we are so longing to meet!!!! and then we retreated to our little Pink House to wonder what the response would be, and what the gossip would be! So we shall wait and see... thankfully one neighbour, whose kids are friendly with ours, dropped by to say it was a lovely idea and that they were wanting to organise something similar but had never gotten round to it. Phew, so we won't be sitting by ourselves on our picnic rug come Big Lunch day... I wonder who else will join us...I'll let you know!


The Big Lunch is a UK based event, however there are Australian, American, Canadian and Irish versions of "Know Your Neighbour" type events. 

http://www.thebiglunch.com in the UK (June 5th)which is the brain child of the indomitable Tim Smitt, creator of the extraordinary and visionary Eden Project in Cornwall

http://www.neighbourday.org/ in Australia and New Zealand (late March)

Know your neighbor weekend in Ireland (late July)

http://www.european-neighbours-day.com/ on the last Tuesday of May, celebrates its 10^th anniversary this year. In 2010, over 10 million people in about 1200 towns hosted gatherings all over Europe and even further.Neighbours' Day has become a major event in more than 30  countries 

National Good Neighbor Day in the US- September 28th

(And if I can do a little advert too - JUNO magazine is out  June 1st and is has a number of really inspiring features on community...)

There's a shop in my cupboard... why bulk buying makes sense

The end of the world is nigh... well to look in my utility room and larder cupboard you'd think so...

Note the couple of kilos of fair trade chocolate!!

I bulk buy... I get a weekly order of basic groceries delivered from the supermarket, a large wholefood delivery every 6 weeks, and other occasional deliveries from specialist food suppliers and eco retailers. We buy in bulk in both ways: quantity and size. Now I'll tell you why you should consider it too:

Sanity. It means I don't have to trek three squabbling kids round the shops, look for parking etc. Instead we can get fresh, local fruit, veg, meat, dairy and bakery from local shops as and when we need them. And someone else gets to pick all the boring, heavy. mundane stuff off the shelves and lift the heavy stuff and bring it to my house (and they get paid!) 

YES! A big shout out

I have just come across a new idea right up my street in YES! magazine  which author Chuck Collins, a senior researcher at the US Institute for Policy Studies, refers to as Common Security Clubs. Those who have been interested in my Transition Family posts and this week's Radical Homemaker's week, will be into this.

I have only just discovered this US publication and am just about to subscribe. At the moment US readers can get a free sample issue. International readers can sign up for a free weekly newsletter with a selection of articles to get a flavour of it.

YES! Magazine deals with peace and justice, the new economy, people power, planet, happiness. It states its purpose as:

• Reframing issues and outlining a path forward;
• Giving a voice to the people who are making change;
• Offering resources to use and pass along

http://www.yesmagazine.org

Disclaimer:I have no connections to this publication, nor am receiving anything from them in exchange!


If you liked this...Why not read....


My Transition Family Series

Building Family Resilience

Instead of Money

Skills for Resilient Families

The Radical Homemakers Series

Book Review - Radical Homemakers

Part Two - Value beyond Money

Part Three - Dispelling the Myth of Self Sufficiency

Part Four - Niggling Issues

Book Review - Fleeing Vesuvius

Balancing Work and Parenting

Be Prepared (Part 3): Instead of Money

Money, money, money
Always sunny
In a rich man's world

A little Abba to brighten your day!

Our global culture has moved from one in which indebtedness was considered a sin or a crime, to the past decade, where indebtedness became the norm. But now the chickens have come home to roost.

We are all plugged into the external economy and its impact can be damaging emotionally and financially for families. How can we make our families more resilient, so we can ride the economic turbulence with minimal suffering?

Be Prepared (2): Skills for Resilient Families

It is my belief that the most important investment you can make for yourself, your family, your community is in yourself. Learning new skills and then sharing them with others, either through your work, or by teaching them to others. This, regardless of what sort of state the world is in, is where the richness of life comes from.

Be Prepared (Part 1): Building Family Resilience

As parents we know that we need to be prepared for many events. We carry nappies, a snack and a change of clothes for our kids when we go out. We take our driving license and a spare tyre when we drive. Us women need to have sanitary items (and a few other essentials: chocolate, lipstick, a pack of tissues, last year's petrol receipts...) stashed in our bags, just in case. So that if and when something comes up we can deal with the situation and carry on with our day, rather than have to cancel our plans and have a cold, wet, hungry crying child for good measure.