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| Siesta with Wife Hulda in the Hammock, 1885 by Johan Krouthen |
13 years ago, Mr. Peasant and I were married. The fall of that year, we went on a vacation to a little cabin in the North Carolina mountains. It was the one and only typical vacation we ever went on. On this trip, we decided that we wanted to start saving for our own little cabin. Spoiler, we never got a cabin in the scenic mountains. We did save up and got a little house in our small town ten years later. All this to say we cut out vacations completely to save up for a house. We eventually realized that we wanted a life we didn't need to take a vacation from living. We wanted a quiet life.
In lieu of trips, we do treats instead and lots of them. These are not once a year cruises or credit card fueled weekend get aways. We want our treats weekly. I think most people would be a lot happier and richer if they ritualized their joys into scheduled weekly treats. You can look forward to these treats. Frequency matters. A two thousand dollar cruise once a year or a 700 dollar beach getaway weekend is still one moment in the year. I say spend small amounts every week on little treats and celebrate Fridays or Saturday nights. You can make an Aunt Bea Sunday meal or pancakes to add something special for the Lord's Day.
If you are at a loss for ideas, try to jog your memory of times past. It wasn't too long ago when small treats were the norm and travels were a very rare occasion. A big trip or cruise would be for a huge celebration like a 25th wedding anniversary. When I was a kid there was an excitement over Friday pizza nights. The radio station echoed the friday celebration of the end of the week by playing "I don't wanna work I wanna play on the drums all day" song. Ice cream, air popped popcorn, or potato chips and a night of watching SNL would be something to savor together.
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| Five teenage girls with ice cream cones, Gainesville, Georgia, 1952 |
The truth is you can have a lot of treats throughout the year for a fraction of the cost of a big blow out treat once a year. Let's say every week you spend 25.00 on treats. That would be only $1,300.00 a year! We are very frugal so we keep our treats simple, at home, and spend almost nothing. But you could go bigger with a movie at the drive in, a dinner out, a pint of ice cream, a fancy coffee at Dunkin' Donuts, a frozen pizza tv night, buying a magazine to read in bed, baking a sweet every Sunday or cooking tacos on Tuesdays. Whatever you do, make it easy to repeat financially and planning wise. Set it and forget it so you can look forward to something special every week.
Mr. Peasant and I have movie night on Fridays. We pick out the movie early in the week, so we can get super excited by Friday. I play the local 80s radio station and get excited for the night. We make popcorn and watch the movie with battery candle lights in the living room. Saturdays, we watch a Perry Mason TV show episode. We don't eat sugar much, but on Sundays I'll make a frugal sweet treat to enjoy. These little treats are weekly rituals that refresh our hearts. Life is hard. And it's easier to enjoy small frequent child-like joys than to plan and pay for that one week dream vacation. Keep your treats simple, inexpensive, uncomplicated, planned and frequent. Ultimately, what we really want is time together with our loved ones. Spending quality moments together doesn't have to be expensive and only once a year. Start scheduling treats now.
This is the day which the Lord hath made:
let us be glad and rejoice therein.
-PSALM 117:24 DOUAY-RHEIMS
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| The Reagans eating on TV trays in the White House, 1981 |
