When I was a kid, Saturday night at our house was Fish ‘n’ Chip night. My brothers and I would look forward to Saturdays all week, when Hey, Hey, Its Saturday would be on and we would be allowed to watch TV on the lounge room floor while eating dinner. One of the things I loved about my childhood was that we always ate dinner together at the table because it made Saturday nights in front of the TV a special treat, not the norm. We would each get to choose if we wanted a potato cake or a dim sim and we shared piece of flake. Those Saturday nights when I was a child were such good fun. Simple and inexpensive.
You wonder how you could improve on this, don’t you? What about a night at the footy? Oh wait – that’s right, the footy is no longer simple and inexpensive, is it? $4.50 for a pie or a hot dog, $5.00 for chips, $3.80 for a Coke. Multiply this by the average family with 2.3 kids, add tickets and parking and you had better hope your team wins because your bank balance certainly won’t be. There is, however, a much easier way to enjoy the footy with your family, another of my favourite childhood pastimes – even if my team might be different now to when I was ten years old.
Head on down to your local supermarket, pick up a pack of hot dogs and matching buns, along with a big bag of frozen chips (or an equally large bag of potatoes if you have some time on your hands) and a 2 litre bottle of Coke. Cook the lot up and serve to your brood wrapped in newspaper and in brown paper bags. Turn off your heater, put your team scarf on and settle in on the couch for a blockbuster match. You’ll save travel time, ticket costs and food expenses while getting to spend a night together as a family. You can even invite your friends around and have a good old fashioned bet on the outcome – loser does the dishes.
Another of my favourite simple pleasures is cut flowers. Most flowers in stores are expensive and for something that will essentially only give you a few days of pleasure, is it worth spending $30 on? I won’t deny it – I do love receiving flowers, but one of my guilty pleasures (and fully in the realm of the single girl) is buying flowers for myself. If you have a garden that blooms, pop a few brightly coloured gems in a glass on your bedside table or in your living room. The simple smile it will bring to your face when you see them of a morning is enough to get you through any kind of day, while if you are an apartment dweller like myself with barely a weed to speak of, head to your local market.
Everyone has a local market, from South Melbourne to Prahran, Queen Vic to Yarra Glen, and they all have gorgeous flowers bundled up and wrapped in tissue paper ready for you to take home and smile over or gift to a loved one and make them smile. If flowers aren’t their thing, these markets have fresh fruit and vegetables cheaper and tastier than anything your local supermarket can serve up. A healthy meal that you prepared from scratch with fantastic ingredients is not only cheaper than a restaurant, but also morale boosting and good for your mind, body and soul.
Among my favourite sayings are ‘simple things in life are often the best’, followed by ‘the best things in life are free’, so it makes sense that the suggestions and ideas I present to you in these columns are going to be simple and cheap (I am realistic, I don’t think there is very much in life for free these days). Think about things you did as a child and how much you enjoyed them. What did your parents do before they had a television and a McDonalds on the corner? Learn to knit, take a walk or do a jigsaw puzzle. Get out there and explore. Or, simply stay in and enjoy childhood past-times.
