Things I Have Learned To Live Without ...and why sometimes it's better

We all become adjusted to whatever our "norm" is, be it income, ways we do things, products we use, or some such. One person might NEVER imagine giving up their cable television; to others it's a luxury item. And I'm not talking about people from two different regions: these two people could be neighbors.

I've always been poor by American standards, but the past several years I got even poorer, and had to learn to do without things I once thought of as essential. Now after not having them for so long, I have no interest in getting them again, even if I won the lottery tomorrow ...a perspective I might never have experienced were it not forced on me by economics.

So today I give you: 5 things I choose to do without, that poverty taught me are unnecessary.

#1 A Microwave Oven

When my last microwave threatened to explode and so I got rid of it, I felt like I was living in Little House On The Prairie. I'm heating up milk on the stovetop! How quaint! I'm reheating leftovers in the toaster oven in ten minutes instead of in the microwave in one! It's like the slow food movement!

But now, I use a double boiler so often the only problem is running out of clean pots and Pyrex cups, and it's MORE convenient to pop in something to warm and walk away and do things, instead of standing there, impatiently waiting such that one minute feels TOO LONG. I have a cinnamon roll reheating right now. And my food tastes better, too.

I only regularly use two burners and my toaster oven, and I cook from scratch, so I'm tiny house ready. No microwave taking up precious space when my tiny house dreams come true.

#2 A Million Different Cleaning Products For Each Individual Chore

Toilet cleaner, bathtub and tile cleaner, kitchen cleaner, Lysol spray, Lysol wipes, fabric softener, dryer sheets, Dusting spray, air freshener, scouring powder ...you get the idea.

Nowadays I use: vinegar, hydrogen peroxide, and ammonia, mostly. If I need to really scrub, baking soda. If I really am concerned about disinfecting, rubbing alcohol. The end. Only the ammonia goes under the kitchen sink, next to the dish soap. That cabinet used to be full of potions and chemical brews.

#3 Cable TV

I only really had this for a short while when antenna analog TV first died, but I come from a home where TV watching is What You Do All The Time. My parents each have their own TV and simultaneously watch different shows in different rooms for hours every day ...at dueling volumes (my dad needs hearing aids but won't admit it; mom doesn't but can't hear her TV over his). I do have a digital converter now, but honestly I don't think I've watched TV since the last season of Sherlock. How long ago was that? My (small, CRT, with a VCR attached) TV only gets turned on when I want to play Wii Fit. Once it croaks, I won't be replacing it, either. I may buy something to convert the RCA cables of my Wii so I can still play it on my 14 1/2 year old iMac, though.

This is not to say I never watch TV shows, but I'd rather borrow DVDs from the library or pay for a download, watch the show I want to watch, and then turn it off.

Added bonus: I am now so desensitized to commercials that I cringe and stare at them like I'm an anthropologist studying a foreign culture. They're fucking LUDICROUS, you guys. Way more than you may already think they are if you see them on the regular. At xmas, my relatives were all discussing a funny COMMERCIAL they all enjoyed. Not a show. A commercial. When I didn't know what they were talking about, my uncle exclaimed, "Do you even own a TV?!" like that was the most unimaginable thing ever.

#4 A Stocked Pantry

Prepper friends might flip out about this, but since I ate through my pantry because I didn't have money for food and can only afford to buy what I need, I eat a lot simpler and I waste less food. Things don't expire and go bad as often because you stay on top of exactly what you have and see when you need to use it up before it turns.

Would I be happy to get a large stash of a staple, shelf-stable item like tomato sauce? Sure. But I always had this kind of "emergency" stash of things I didn't particularly eat often and sometimes they went bad before I got around to them.

The first thing I notice about other Americans' refrigerators is the door full of sauces. Three different salad dressings, two barbeque sauces, steak sauce, worchestershire, mayo, three mustards, catsup, pickles, olives, kraut, peppers, oh look, more salad dressing, relish... and half those bottles passed their expiration six to twenty-four months ago.

My fridge door looks like this:

eggs, butter
enchilada sauce°, catsup, syrup, barbeque sauce°, cherry juice concentrate
yogurt, peppers, mayo (near expiration), Worchestershire sauce, mustard, pickles
cat food, sour cream (past expiration but been using up), probiotics, yeast
° means homemade from scratch

I didn't look at expiration dates, btw, I just know offhand. Because I'm considering, when cooking or grocery shopping, that I should make tacos before the sour cream goes or egg salad for the mayo. It's so much more manageable this way! I will never go back to the buffet option pantry again.

#5 (with a caveat) A Smartphone

I was an early adopter to smart phones. I got some of the first proto-smartphones available (hello, TMobile Sidekicks!). When I graduated to an Android touchscreen, I very quickly discovered how addicting it had become to have the internet in my pocket (not to mention how absurdly expensive data plans had gotten). When that phone broke, I bought a simpler phone still with a full keyboard (I hate typing on touchscreens, which I do all the time now because my only internet capable device is a Kindle Fire, but I hate more typing on a 0-9 phone pad, which I do again too because my current carrier does not support that full-keyboard phone). My current phone is as simple as my very first cell phone ever - pre-flip phones.

I've been pretty happy with this choice. Even with a Kindle I spend more time online than I should some days. I don't talk or text as much as I used to (being a depressive, opinionated recluse loses you a lot of friends). I don't need a more complicated phone.

The only caveat is that now society presumes everyone has a smart phone, and you can't do certain things without one! Want to save money with coupons on your groceries? Download our app! Want to pay for your groceries with the safest method, secure from swipe readers? Use Apple Pay! Want to call an Über? You need a smartphone. Want to raise money for the animal shelter while you walk? Etc.

So while I'm happy without one, I get the feeling society is going to rope me back in on this last one in order to survive in the world.

Oh, and if you're wondering? Things I WOULD get if I could?

A laptop (broke years ago), a car (never had one), and a comfortable, brand new bed (I sleep on a broken, secondhand couch).

What are some things you discovered you don't need that makes people in your society look at you like you have two heads? Let me know I'm not the only one!