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If you notice the tense of that word, it says it all. I doubt I would ever have the will power to be a vegetarian. In fact, I love Pepsi. I have though foregone it this week for several of my Frugal Fam core values…especially saving money. I won’t lie it has not been easy.

What I do though is try to promote the little things that most people can do and that would be an improvement in their lifestyle and probably life span as well. For instance, walking to the grocery store a quarter mile away rather than driving or taking the bus. If you did this two or three times a week, it would actually be good exercise. Another of my favourites is cooking at home rather than using ready meals or eating out. By cooking from scratch, you have better control of added sugars, salts and fat. The truth is that we can make some big differences by the little things we do or don’t do every day.

I suppose it is a bit like Jaime Oliver’s campaign, except the dishes you see posted on my blog I made them all myself. And it is an absolute necessity in our Frugal Fam, because we do not have his salary. We are actually more like the families he has assisted in those shows. We live and die by our budget and aren’t perfect.

The biggest difference is that my step-dad demanded that my mother teach me to cook at the age of sixteen. Mind you, like my daughters I had often hung out in the kitchen as my mother and Nanny (what I called my great-grandmother) cooked. Now I am generally able to re-create those things from memory. But they were very possessive of their domain. I was never allowed to do more than peel potatoes or chop the salad. Right after I turned sixteen, my step-father told my mother…I am not allowing you to send that girl out to get married without knowing how to cook. That night I fried fish for dinner and from then on once a week I cooked dinner.

It is a lesson that each of my children, boy or girl, have learned as well. Of course to varying degrees, my oldest son actually considered becoming a chef. He like me is an excellent creative cook. He can look in his fridge and cupboards and create a feast worthy of a four-star restaurant. I correct that…he is better than me. With my younger son, it is the complete opposite. He can make spaghetti and scramble eggs. But he actually burned his hand a while back trying to flip sausage like a pancake. But at least when he leaves for university, he won’t have to eat ready meals or take-out every single day.

Like the environmentally friendly, this core value is about my family…being healthy so I have longer with them. And there are some wonderful other benefits such as the time we have together as we walk to the store or make dinner together. Those are simply and rich times that exemplify all that the Frugal Fam stand for.