Hi Everyone!
I’m very pleased to have a guest post on the blog today in honor of Mother’s Day. Aja McClanahan is a business owner and the main contributor at www.principlesofincrease.com where she writes about faith, family and financial freedom. She is the author of Debt Free in 24 Hours and teaches frequently on financial topics in her community, Englewood, Chicago. She resides there with her husband of 10 years and two daughters. To all the mothers out there-Happy Mother’s Day!
Enjoy,
Michelle
Something Old, Something New
Three thousand dollars. That was the number that stayed in my head for almost 5 years. We started renovations on our home in 2009 and I knew that the struggle had only begun. We had committed to doing this whole ordeal with cash. How on earth would we be able to rehab our home and furnish it with cash? This was ridiculous. Where’s the credit card? Nope, it wasn’t an option anymore. Through miracles and elbow grease, we got through it. However, adding the bells and whistles would have to come later. We weren’t totally without furniture, but it would have been nice to have a few new pieces.
Thankfully, our house got full pretty quickly between what was already there and some friends who had a fire sale on some of their nice furniture. There was one thing I longed for that we didn’t have. That was a really nice dining room set. What was there was tattered, torn and cat-eaten. When I looked at table and chair sets that I liked online or at department stores, the price tag was steep- to the tune of $2,000 and $3,000. I didn’t want particleboard or cheap piece-meal stuff. This has to be real-deal, elegant and able to withstand the wear and tear of our family’s habit of eating at the table each night. From what I saw, those tables cost the amount of a decent used car. That was too much.
My husband had a brilliant idea. “Why don’t you restore the dining room table and chairs you have already?” The thought was too much to even consider. My life, my family, my business- forget it. For five years he gently nudged me in the direction of restoring the sturdy, beautiful 1930s mahogany furniture that been our hand-me-down stand in until we were wealthy enough to get our “real” furniture. Forget that! All I needed was $3,000 and we would be eating in style. But hubby was holding out until I got a clue.
As the holidays drew near last year, the urge to have a dining room set was so strong that I was desperate. I wanted to invite people over and entertain, but the lack of a $3,000 table always prevented me. It’s dumb. I know. In this distressed state, I started perusing Pinterest. In one moment, “pinspiration”, desperation and the power of suggestion culminated into an epiphany: “I can restore my granny’s table!”
What happened next was nothing short of amazing. The table came out beautifully, but that wasn’t the amazing part. The amazing part was that I learned so much about so many things in this process: myself, the human will, generational generosity, frugality, determination and the list could go on. I mean, I could write a book just on this experience alone. But I won’t do that here.
As I worked on this project for over a month, pride swelled up inside of me. I could almost envision the look on my grandmother’s face. If only she could see that all the life long lessons she taught me about saving up and being frugal were being heeded and put to good use. That look from her alone would be priceless. Forget a $3,000 table! Her wisdom to save up, buy and pass down good, quality furnishings not only saved us a small fortune, but it taught me that so much of what we yearn for in life is already available to us.
I hope that this post encourages you to dig deep down inside of yourself to see if what you need and what you are looking for already exists inside of you or close by around you. Sometimes, we are just a hair’s breadth away from breakthrough. In this case, it was just a few steps away in my very own living room!
Thank you, Granny. You are still teaching me, even from heaven. Happy Mother’s Day.
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Michelle, thank you for recommending Aja McClanahan. I visited her site and it seems like she’s a great blogger. I and my wife like her posts on “10 Most Surprising Benefits of Home School” and other related posts.
I really loved that post too! I grew up with kids who were homeschooled but I think that Aja is doing a better job of socializing her kiddos! I am now very seriously considering doing this for my future kids when they are younger-and using Finnish curriculum.