When I have a full gallon of milk I pour myself a full glass without thinking, but when the milk jug has less than half of the gallon left, I pour myself just enough to quench my thirst.

The same goes for the car in my gas tank, I don’t worry about my driving habits until the gas tank drops below the half-way mark, then suddenly I am the epitome of a gas conscious driver. Even though I can make more milk or grab more gas, I still try to lengthen the life of the last bit.

Somewhere in the back of my mind I have a ‘scarcity’ switch that kicks on telling me to make it last. But that switch doesn’t seem to kick on when I have just pulled out a just filled up the gas tank or made the milk, nope, not until I am down to a the last little bit.

I realize it is a retraining of brain. When my family would go to grandmother’s house she would rinse the paper towels and the paper plates and let them hang to dry for use later. Even though she would have a pile of plates getting dusty in the cupboard or a 6 pack of paper towels in the basement she could still use, her scarcity switch was on most all the time.

For her, the retraining of her brain was due to the depression era, in my opinion. She always said it was just because she was Scottish. Either way, she had looked at the things around her and saw that no matter how much she had, she wanted to make they lasted and found ways to keep using them until she couldn’t any longer, even though she had an abundance stored away.

Sometimes I wonder if it is easier or harder to live with the ‘scarcity’ switch. I certainly don’t romanticize the depression or the idea of constantly living with scant food and things. But I do think that the reality check of ‘what if‘ can be useful even with an abundance.

However the downside to that is if your scarcity switch never turns off you could live in a very cluttered home.

Eventually their has to be some balance to this switch. just like you flip the switch to the room light on when you need and flip the switch off when you don’t.

There has to be a balance found that allows you to control that scarcity switch and that comes with time, practice and maybe even a few reminders from others. Just like learning to flip the light switch off.

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Dawn C. is site owner of FrugalforLife.com where this is a repost from: Living on Less, Having an Abundance and Finding the Balance. Dawn resides in Colorado with her spouse, Teri, of 12 years.

Photo credit: stock.xchng.