Beating the Blues With No Green$

I love Blues music. Growing up in the south has acquainted me with the saltry sounds of blues, jazz and southern rock for years. . .there's a sadness, a cry to it underneath the tones that soothes and calms...Without sound finances, the blues could be more than a genre of music for us who are living on less than we once had or less than we had hoped or less than is adequate for our "needs." So how do we beat these blues without green$ or money? Many people find that the ability to do things that cost money, to bring loads of "joy:"travel, possessions, experiences and more can suddenly be out of reach and now there's a need~a void where something once was that NOW may or may not ever return...how can we be happy and joyful, beating the blues without the green$?



Here are some ideas:

1. Consider our 'mindset' to think about what's really important or satisfies.

I wrote about this an entry or so back...what satisfies you? Is it touchable by human hands or is it something that is inward, inside your being that does this? The ability to be satisfied is rooted in our priorities. God should be our number one, but then where do the other areas find their place in our lives? Prioritize the things and ideals of this life...

2. Create a plan to do something with what we already have as a ready and able resource. Huh?

Yes, look at what is available and within our grasp that we might not be utilizing to its fullest. Do we have a deck or porch, an out door swing? Get on it and listen to the birds! Sit in the sunshine for a few minutes and breathe the fresh air! Does it need scrubbing? Go do that! Sidewalk? Sweep it~clean it, edge it... While outside, hear, smell and feel all of God's beautiful nature! Take a walk. Pick wild flowers by the side of the road (as long as it's legal to do so!) Do you have a bike? Take a ride! Craft items unused~get them out~work on a project...does your office or school room or den or kitchen pantry need organizing? WHAT about creating something in the kitchen to eat? Do you cook? What is there to do? What is there to use up and or re-purpose for another item! Find a way to use those ready and able resources that are just THERE without us using them~busy hands and minds lifts the spirit!

3. Concert with true joy!

Music with positive effects will chase the blues and beat it! Turn on music when you can...I like a quiet home with the sounds so low that you literally hear the dog snore, birds sing and keyboard keys clicking, but some homes have the noise of the television and radio constantly around them. Is NOISE a problem? If so, quieten down the atmosphere. If quiet is too much, then add some musical sound~I like online radio and radio theature. I always have liked a good radio drama or story. I enjoy a dramatic reading of books and the Bible. These can be found online or at the libray to be borrowed for FREE~

4. Creation~God's showcase!

Living with a sense of the wonder of God and creation beats the blues with no green$ I have enjoyed looking at the sky from time to time. Did you ever like I did lay in the grass and watch the cloud formations change with the breezes to create different looks that could be most anything my imagination could see? I love looking and watching a sunset, sunrise and the moon cycle. I like star gazing and have been known to check out when mediaorite showers were occurring or other night sky activities. Appreciating God's creation lends itself beyond skyward watching but into all of nature. I love wildlife. We have a bunny living in our back yard~little wonder if our garden didn't survive, but my hubby put wire around it at the level his ears would have touched and he didn't like it, so he's pretty much left it alone! But I love bunnies and dear and raccoons, possums, beavers, badgers. . . I like turtles, not snakes so much or lizards, but most else...they are amazing! I enjoy the seasons watching our follage change with the times...ALL this stuff is FREE! Amazing that the greatest amusements are not man contrived and are true budget boosters!

5. Camp out for fun!

Do you camp? I am not a tent camper. In fact, we own an old OLD hard side shell camper with air just because I am not a real rough it kind of gal...but for vacationing, it's really less to go to state and national park camping sites for a few~going rates now for full hook ups are around $15-20 per night...Camping in the rough without bathhouses is less. . . I CAN see why! ;-)) But when we have vacationed, the camper provided our own home with our own facilities for minimal money. How cheap can you go? Is a good question here~but since I like to go this way...it works for us...tent camping if you already own it, or if you can borrow it or get it for a song is really less! But camping can really make travel affordable~and relaxation back to nature!

6. simpliCity~

Simplicity~I just realized that on my kitchen table is a mayo jar that we had cleaned out~I save these for bulk spices and left over storage in the fridge as well as craft projects and even kid science~bug homes! This jar has some wildflowers in it that I am certain my son went out and found beautiful that he has brought home to share with all of us. Simple? YES! But I wouldn't trade my mayo jar-vase and my son's flowers for the nicest boquet of roses I could be given~there's love in that bunch of flowers from a son to his family~simple? Oh yes...but also priceless! I've written about all kinds of things that can be used for things they were not originally intended for in their uses~but do the trick inexpensively...simplicity is an art form of simple which can lend itself to clean and oderly. Less really is more!

7. Cool cost saving water!

Water is a cost saver! Drinking water is healthy and loads healthier than almost any other fluid we can consume. First by drinking water, we will save on all the other drinks that we've been socially conditioned to drink...LET ME SEE...CoolAid, CokaCola, Pepsi, CountryTime, Tea-many brands...somehow have come to equate wealth or a sense of having, but as our ancestors and even the original peoples of society knew, water is at the VERY core of all of life! Drinking it is the best thing not only money but health wise...OH I forgot the very fashionable pricy coffees these days...I happen to not like coffee, so this is no draw for me~but it's a challenge to drink water, but so so sooo good to do so...whole towns and cities grew around clean and good water sources~now we can truck or pipe it in...the desert regions are populated...but water is essential to survival and it definitely beats the blues! Just turn on the tap...chilled or not...mmmm, it's so wonderful!

8. Celebrations can be cost savers

They need not break the bank! Simplicity is the key here too! But inviting friends and family into our lives to share our joys and even our sorrows beats the blues. Fixing a simple meal, desert or just a glass of tea or water. . .now our culture says we generally offer something! But it need not be elaborate! Gatherings can perk up the spirit. I like Christmas open houses, or New Year's Eve gatherings~these can be fun!

9. Country roads and rides...

Going for a drive~I like long country roads with nothing but trees and nature. My favorite road is called Stagecoach Road in Bloomingdale, GA where it once was an actual stagecoach trail with double ruts where wheels were pulled by horses...today it's paved from one end to the other and has grown with houses, but as a child riding this with my parents taught me so much about the landscape of how people travels before cars and the modern highway system...the trees overhung to the point of brushing our old stationwagon...the canopy was dense over where it was shady and cool. . . Where can you find the past in the view of your vehicle? These kinds of rides beat the blues by bringing a sense of wonder and curiosity~who was here? What did they do? Where did they go? I also like..OK, I am weird...cemetaries. I love old and historical ones with old old old old headstones and markers...I want to KNOW the people of the past...this must be part of my love for history! I am not saddened by these places as death is part of life, but find in the types of remembrances in the markers a testament to those who once lived. I come from a city full of history, but really no matter where you live, whether it's "historical" or not, it ALL is history...all places, people and things have a story to tell. . .I guess I just want to know...I care...So get out like I and find your community's history and story...these are pricess!

10. Contribute...

Tell your own story~share something about yourself or even share yourself. You can blog like I am doing~which is virtually free-we already have the items needed in computer and internet sevices, but sign up to share pieces of what you uniquely bring to others. . .visit retirement or rest homes for added boosts of busting the blues...in giving there is more receiving! I've never given that I ever received less than what I gave! God has seen to this in my life~and even in my most depleated worn out state, He has shown me that what I gave returned multifold. But share, give and reach out to someone~there's no price in this kind of love and goodness! AND it's generally free on our end of it...of we give of ourselves to show love with either listening or helping~can we volunteer in an effort to help? Can we show a help to someone who needs to know they are loved? Beating the blues can happen without money!

What are you doing to beat the blues, the depression that can accompany an economic downturn? What are you trying, have tried and how's it working?

Singing a little song and beating the blues...