Q&A | butter dish or napkin holder?

Is your cloth napkin holder a repurposed butter dish?

A couple of people asked variations of this question after taking the virtual tour of my secondhand home, so I thought I should cover it here.

It’s actually way bigger than a butter dish, but it was hard to see that in the photos. Here’s a picture with an actual butter dish for scale! 

This is what it looks like with the lid on.

And here’s what the bottom says. 

I got it from my Buy Nothing group, so I have zero idea what it originally was intended for. But it’s working great to hold my napkins. 

Why are you getting your BSN?

Several of you have wondered about this; I think I mentioned it somewhere else, but I’ll just answer here since it must have gotten buried!

I am currently a registered nurse (RN) with an associate’s degree in nursing (ADN). We take the same NCLEX as 4-year nursing graduates do, and we are allowed to do all the same skills as nurses with a BSN. 

However, hospitals do usually want you to have that BSN degree; mine requires us to get it within 5 years of our hire date.

The good news is:

• Hospitals will usually reimburse you for your BSN classes
• RN to BSN programs aren’t very long (15-18 months) or super intense (for example, one of my classes this fall is Information Technology in Nursing and Health Care. That sounds…not hard.) 
• The classes can all be done online
• You get a little pay raise when you get your BSN

I chose the ADN-then-BSN route for financial reasons (of course!).

I got my ADN at the community college (so much cheaper than four year schools), and now my hospital will pay for me to get my BSN while I am also getting paid to work as a nurse.

Overall, this is a great path for my financial life.

Plus, my community college has a very highly ranked nursing program and a crazy high NCLEX pass rate.

So, this path is a win both financially and educationally. Seriously, guys, do not sleep on community colleges! 

Anyway, I’m starting my BSN this fall with an online program designed to be done while working as a nurse, and I should be finished by next December. 

I have heard from lots of my coworkers that these classes are not nearly as tough as what I have just been through in nursing school, so I’m not too worried about my upcoming course load. Most of these classes are sort of “fluff” classes in comparison to the classes I took for my RN. 

Did you or your readers need to declutter before living a frugal/minimalistic life? Any words of wisdom?
I beg people not to give me gifts. I am also guilty…somehow I amassed many, many pairs of underwear! I would like to move and am going thru my belongings.

-Margaret

You know, I’m not sure that frugal and minimalist always need to go together. 

I mean, in a sense, they are obvious bedfellows. If you buy/own less stuff, then theoretically your expenses will go down. 

But some minimalists spend a lot of money, either by buying very expensive versions of whatever they do own, spending a lot of money on experiences, or owning a large but sparsely decorated home. 

And on the flip side, some maximalists have acquired their dizzying array of possessions by thrifting or picking up freebies. 

 

Fashion Girl, a hardcore maximalist, falls into this category. A lot of that big U-Haul truck was filled with her things! Ha.

Honestly, I think even a fair number of hoarders don’t spend a lot.

Consider the abandoned house; I believe the owner amassed this wild collection of stuff by going to yard and estate sales, so I would imagine cost wasn’t the big issue here.

(Of note: hoarding is usually a mental illness, so it’s quite different from minimalism and maximalism. I’m just saying…you can own a lot of stuff without spending a lot of money.)

I personally lean more toward the minimalist end of the spectrum because:

• less stuff means less to wash, dust, repair, and maintain
• keeping my space tidy is easier with less stuff 
• if I buy less stuff, I can afford to buy long-lasting, quality items
• I enjoy the look and feel of a low-stuff home 

So honestly, I think this is just a case of preference and figuring out what works for you. 

HOWEVER.

If you are the type of maximalist who is paying full price for your stuff, or your shopping habits cause your spending to outpace your budget, then yes, you probably will want to consider changing your approach.

Based on the brief email from you, here’s my take:

You can start living frugally right away, before you declutter. 

Decluttering doesn’t have to happen first! There are a million and one ways to be frugal that don’t require a decluttered home. 🙂 

You have good reasons to declutter

It sounds like the extra possessions are bothering you, plus you plan to move. Those are great reasons to minimize your possessions, aside from any discussion of frugality. Go for it! 

But as I said above, you can live frugally now; decluttering takes a while and you don’t want that process to be a roadblock to you saving money. 

I think a move can be such a useful decluttering event. And to everyone else: even if you’re not planning a move, try pretending.

Going through your items and asking yourself, “Do I like this enough to put it in a box and move it to a new home?” can really help you clarify which possessions matter to you and which don’t. 

____________________

Readers, do you think minimalism and frugality need to go together? And are you a minimalist or a maximalist?