Becoming Creative and Cheap---part one

You already know the WHY it is becoming more important to become creative and cheap. This post is to help you see--- 
the way it can be done. . . 
how you can survive when obstacles get in the way . . .
and how, by having the right attitude, challenges can be beneficial and fun!   

Because we have been broke, mostly intentionally* for most of our married life, life has been challenging.  Fortunately, it didn’t take me long to not only rise to the challenge but to love the challenge. Now, even though money is not so tight, I still love seeing what I can make myself instead of buying.

*I’ll explain in next Tuesday’s post -- Becoming Creative and Cheap -- part two

In some of the Copy-Cat posts you will see pages that appear to be from a book (sometimes, unfortunately, placed a little crookedly). If plagiarism flashed through your mind you can relax because they are from my books! Around 1995, I began writing and self-publishing a series of what I called "bookettes" because I didn't think they qualified as official books. Each title began with the word Simply. . . I hope they helped a lot of moms and homemakers.

In today's world the need for learning, or returning to, simple things is becoming more and more important---more and more of a necessity. Each day the challenges are becoming increasingly more challenging. 


Today’s new technology is the only way I can share my ideas and what I have learned with a lot of moms and homemakers.

I have always been technology challenged and trying to understand, even a tiny bit, what the 21st century has to offer, has been one of the biggest challenges I have ever faced.

In spite of the obstacles this wonderful God-inspired world-wide-web and other electronic technology presents me with, Dave and I feel very strongly that I am being guided and that sharing what I have learned is what I am suppose to do at this time in my life. It certainly wasn't in my plan and I am most certainly not doing it alone.

I owe many, many thanks to those who helped me get here.

our daughter-in-law Cheri for suggesting I do this --- (when she suggested it, less than two months ago, my response was a sincere and emphatic  “You are out of your mind!”)

my boss Mary from 20 years ago (who originally introduced me to the computer) and who suddenly, last month, reappeared on the scene and not only encouraged me but taught me, by e-mail, how to do a blog ---

my good friend Sandy who has patiently spent many hours by my side teaching me there is much more to a computer than word processing —

my sister Pat for unknowingly providing us with the title of our original blog:        “2 Coats of Paint.”
Years ago she accused Dave and I as being as tight as two coats of paint, which back in those days meant downright cheap.
Our new title seems to better sum up who I am and what I am about--- especially since we discovered our kids and younger friends were clueless as to a definition other than you “get better coverage if you use two coats of paint.”
Actually we were, and still are, and still prefer to think of ourselves as creative, frugal, and okay--- cheap! Creative Cheapskates!

the three small town newspapers in the Midwest who were brave enough to take a chance on me and publish weekly Simply, Gail columns — and to the faithful, supportive readers who followed the column regularly.

Dani, the editor of Desert Saints Magazine, who published my articles for years, and has given me permission to recycle them. Many of the articles I post here had their beginnings in it's monthly Simply, Gail column. Acknowledgment will be the bottom of those articles. The originals are in the archives section at www.DesertSaintsMagazine.com. ---

our kids, their spouses, and our grand-kids for their enthusiastic "go for it!" ---

Dave, my best friend, biggest supporter, and totally (it seems) honest critic (when I ask for it!)
Dave had been an English major and my major was journalism — back then journalism was “just the facts: the who, what, when, where, and why, and only in feature articles was opinion and speculation allowed— so our academic styles were like comparing apples to oranges.
We hadn’t been married long when he asked me to edit his seven page assignment. Without much effort, and not thinking about the apples/oranges thing, I quickly reduced it to a concise four pages!  Oops!