Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Green With Envy




I saw this quote on Pinterest over the Christmas break and I fell in love with it for so many reasons.

As I've mentioned in the past as a renter it is a requirement to keep the grass at our property green. It is probably the most difficult clause of our rental contract.
We live in Perth where summer runs from December to May and winters are dry. We get maybe two months of the year where we get a fair bit of rain but it's right before summer hits. So you get your grass looking lush only to have it scorched by the summer heat by Christmas Day.

We have to abide by water restrictions as we pay the fine if we don't, and because it's the right thing to do of course, but to be honest it is just not enough.

So I spend a lot of time truly admiring the greener grass in our street. There are few homes with grass that is just asking to be played on, blades of soft green buffalo ready for you to lie on with a good book. I often think of the term 'The grass is greener on the other side' because it literally is.

However one house just down the street very recently ripped up, not too soft looking but definitely green, grass. The entire front yard was pulled up and disposed of. It was replaced with a lovely landscaped garden, limestone retaining walls and fresh rolls of heavenly looking grass.

Now three weeks later the entire yard is dead!

So I'm finding myself thinking of the monetary meaning behind the saying that this quote is inspired by.

The house with the now dead lawn is lived in by its owners, I cannot know for sure but given statistics I'm fairly certain the landscaping they had done was bought with a fair amount of credit.

When I look at that dead grass I smile. I feel bad for its owners because it would not have been cheap but I smile because the grass is now actually greener on OUR side, literally and figuratively.

We are tending to our grass, which incase you missed my possibly not so subtle hint is actually our finances, and we are feeding it the right stuff to get it the greenest it can be for the future.

To make things a little less about grass...

We are not going crazy with credit - in fact we don't use credit at all anymore - we are being smart about what we spend money on, we are having fun as a family without blowing the budget, and we are all very happy.

Give your grass a good look, if it's not as green as you'd like or if you find yourself longingly looking at the lawn two houses down take a moment to stop and think about how you can better care for your own grass, it needs your help as it won't stay green on its own.

Oh and if anyone has any budget friendly suggestions for actual lawn care I'd love to hear them.

Hears to green grass for everyone in 2015

Skye

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Location:Green With Envy