Temporary Living Situations

Living with Less

We are currently renovating our bathroom (on a budget) which I will write about when it’s been completed – hopefully next week! But in the interim, my husband and I (yes we got married! Definitely more to come on that also) are living with his mother whilst we have no bathroom/toilet of our own.

As my mother in law lives in an apartment, we’ve only been able to pack limited items, even though so far we’ve been here for two weeks (it will probably end up being about two and a half weeks in total that we’re here). So, whilst we have been living out of a suitcase which has been slightly irritating, it’s reminded me how little I can get away with ‘needing’ and sometimes I must say it’s nice to have that reminder. Even though my wardrobe at home is not as extensive as most peoples’, I’ve found operating with about a week and a half worth of work clothes has actually worked, though I am starting to get a little bored because I do like to have a few more options. I have fewer around the house clothes, less active wear and only two pairs of socks, but surprisingly it actually works. I don’t need the normal draw full of socks and undies that I think I need, less is surprisingly okay (even though I am finding it slightly boring because sometimes I do like to change things up, so that’s really my only complaint so far)

It’s been a real reality check, particularly in the lead up to Christmas. I have no doubt I will receive some gifts so as soon as we are able to move back home I will most definitely be having a big clear out of all the things that I haven’t used in a long time. I don’t think I can stand the thought of feeling cluttered again, particularly after this current experience.

Eating for Less

On the flip side, because we’ve been spending so much time between going to work and going to and from the house supervising the work that’s being done (and my husband and dad have done some of the work themselves). It’s been hectic. Further, because we’re living in someone else’s house, we can’t just take over their fridge/freezer space and a combination of both of these factors results in a lot of meals out/takeaways. Whilst we’ve been able to cook a couple of meals and utilised some of our frozen pasta sauce it’s not always easy or feasible for us to cook meals daily.

Even though we’ve been eating out a bit we have also been trying to do this in a relatively thrifty way. We decided that tonight, we’d get a curry for dinner from a local Thai restaurant. We found some quick rice in the pantry we were told we could use (my mother in law is not currently eating carbs) to make the meal cheaper – buying cooked rice from a takeaway restaurant is expensive and it’s one thing I find really hard to justify. Before I placed our curry order though I decided to check some of the delivery services I’m signed up to, such as Uber Eats, Doordash and Menulog. I struck gold with Doordash and found a 25% off discount code which meant dinner for two for $14.98! I also went to pick up the order so I didn’t have to cop a delivery fee. Saving $4.98 off something I was going to buy anyway is an absolute win in my book.

All in all? It’s been an interesting experience to live out of home and try and live with and eat for less all at the same time.

Have you had to move out of your house while renovating?