Not always for ourselves...

I got up early this morning. I even got my children up early, in spite of their protests. I have a preteen who is in training to be a teenager and I think she could sleep half the day if I let her. We got up early so we could go help lay sod at church. Our church is erecting a new building and it was time to put down some sod around to help reduce the erosion. Since the church customarily pays part of the cost for the youth and children to go to camp, the youth pastor asked the youth to come lay sod in order to save some money. I went because I have children who will be benefiting from the camp assistance and because I am one of the youth teachers. I believe in teaching and leading by example.

We were muddy from head to toe. It was cloudy (which was a blessing) and there were a few light sprinkles, but just as we were finishing up the skies opened. My husband says you can only get so wet...well we were so wet. But as I was driving a couple of the kids home I was thinking that helping others is a kind of frugality. Time is money and sometimes I have more money than time. Since I have been staying home I have more time than money. Combine that with an willingness and ability to do work and you have something of value to offer.

In this case I donated that item of value to the church which allowed the church to save money, but in other situations that value could be bartered for other services. I can sew, but I am not good with things electric. I could trade mending or making something for the installation of a ceiling fan. We have become so used to paying cash (or using credit, unfortunately) for products or services we have lost the ability or desire to put value on our talents. We also fail to value the simple work of our body. It took no skill to lay sod today. That sleepy preteen helped as much as the teenagers she was working next to even though she had never even seen a piece of sod before. When I asked her the previous evening if she wanted to participate she quickly said yes and then asked "What is sod?" Use of simple labor for others helps them to be frugal too.