Time & Money {Why I DIY}

In the wake of my cost analysis for our meat chickens this year, an interesting conversation began on why I didn’t include labor in my analysis and whether or not the endeavor of raising our own meat was truly profitable.

There was much food for thought in the question, but when you boil it down, food for thought really doesn’t keep your belly from rumbling and I came to the conclusion that my time is worth diddly squat.

At least so far as dollars and cents are concerned. I find real, true value in how we spend our time for several reasons, even if we can’t put it in the bank for a rainy day.

{Satisfaction}

I’m sorry, but there is nothing that even comes close to comparing to the value or satisfaction of what I can do by working willingly with my hands in the home.

Sure I could have paid a lot less (a LOT less) for farm fresh eggs, but I know my hens. I know how they’re living. I know they get to act like a chicken and that they are eating a wholesome and varied diet that will culminate in a nutrient dense, golden-orange egg cracked into a bowl. There is such goodness and satisfaction in that! It tastes better! Honest. Don’t ask me how the blood, sweat, and tears adds savor to the food we eat, but it does!

There is a satisfaction in watching your food grow during every step of the way and actually end up on your plate.

There is a satisfaction in knowing that you can provide for the most basic of needs for your family.

There is a satisfaction in knowing you are doing everything you can to steward the earth and the resources the Lord has placed within your power.

There is a satisfaction knowing you can produce for yourself what others are working 9-5 plus the commute to pay more for.

{Generational Impact}

Passing on the valuable skills we’re learning that will in turn bless my children and grandchildren one day is priceless to me. In fact, you couldn’t pay me to miss out on this part of my life!

These babes of mine will know the value of the life that goes into the food on their plates. Once you’ve been so connected, you can’t forget and it will be passed on. The stories and memories will plant seeds in the minds of my posterity. When they plant their own tomato, they’ll feel that connection and it will drive them to want to explore and learn more.

As I learn new skills and hone old ones, these babes of mine are learning right alongside me. They’re getting the taste of a different type of life that most don’t have these days, a type that many want but are instead stuck in a cubicle in some place where green things are rare and the earth doesn’t smell so fresh. I hope they’ll find it sweet.

{A Penny Saved Is A Penny Earned}

As a wife and homemaker, when I start placing a monetary value on my time, I’ll quickly find myself in a 9-5 working overtime (it pays even more) and doing work that isn’t nearly so enjoyable as being at home. So while I’m not making money I can put in the bank, I can take what money my husband earns and stretch it to last longer and go further than it would if I put a monetary value on my time and paid someone else to do whatever didn’t reach that threshold. From soap & toothpaste making, to sewing, scratch cooking, making DIY cleaners, creating our own curriculum, to growing and raising food, all the pennies here and there add up and I am able to make it as though I did indeed work outside the home.

{Who’s the Boss?}

I am a scheduler of my own time. I can spend as much as possible out of doors. I can always be with my children, raising them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. I’m answerable to nobody as to how I spend my days. If I have a deadline, it’s because I set it myself. If something comes up in the day, I’m free to take advantage of the opportunity. If I wasn’t investing my time to save pennies here and there, I couldn’t do that! Saving $.50 or $1.00 per pound of chicken is just one way I do that. All the while breathing in wholesome air and wondering at the heavens declaring God’s glory and without ever having to clip a single coupon.

{No Idle Hands}

With free time that comes from paying someone else to raise the food that feed’s our family, clean’s up after us, manufacture our personal care products and so on, comes the free time so often frittered away on recreation and entertainment. Surely we weren’t placed here to while away our time amusing ourselves and having fun? Yes, we might raise backyard chickens and potatoes and count the cost at $.03 per hour for our labor, but it sure beats watching entertainment gossip shows, grown men chasing each other in circles after a ball, or people fake killing each other in slow motion on television. Which is what we used to do pre-homesteading days.

Instead, I work for pennies and call it play. I enjoy it, my children don’t seem to gripe much, and the secret is, they’re building character that doesn’t happen when one is always playing.

So while I could save myself a few hours and buy our soap, I’d rather know that the soap company isn’t getting one over on my by shrinking the bars and charging the same price because I made a superior product of my own…

And while a Bic Stick costs a couple pennies, my son holds a hand turned wooden pen made by the same hand that holds it to work his lessons…

And though he could put his feet up at night instead, my husband spends his time making a dining room table that will be valued by generations…

And my little man can find worth in helping Dad & big brother go out every day, twice a day caring for and milking our cows, or installing lights, or making his own ice cream.

This is why I don’t count my labor in our cost analysis… because sometimes doing it yourself is just priceless.