Poll #3: How often do you leave your home?
I am looking forward to seeing what y’all have to say about this week’s poll, but first – last week’s results.
Last week’s question was “What percentage of your budget do you spend on food?” Thank you all for answering and explaining how you budget for food in your families. It really is helpful to hear from others – you never know who is going to give you a great tip!
The average food budget turned out to be 12.7%, with a range of 4 – 20%.
I wanted to say that I hope that this does not discourage anyone. It is really easy to look at someone’s else’s numbers and be discouraged. One thing to keep in mind is that we do not know someone’s circumstances, nor what their husband prefers. Here’s a simple thing that I’ve learned, if you start with what your husband’s preferences, numbers don’t matter and everyone will be pleased in the end.
Now, onto this week’s question.
Because of the stage of life I am in (two littles) and the season (cold winter), I haven’t been leaving the house very often. A year ago, this would have driven me absolutely mad. Now that I have better embraced the things I need to get done around the home, I have found myself more content not getting out – at least in the cold months. It also keeps me more motivated to stay on top of my tasks and creates a warmer environment for my husband when he gets home. Come spring, I may be singing a different tune.
So, this week’s poll is all about how often do you leave your home (not just for your backyard) during the week in the winter months.
I’ll go first. I get about once per week, sometimes less.
[polldaddy poll=1187962]
I leave every day to at least take Peapod to the park in the morning and out for a nature walk in the afternoon, after naptime. We also do errand day once a week and make the trek to the library for story time on another day. And we’re usually happy to accompany anybody who asks us to go anywhere with them, even to the boring big box store. It’s amazing what becomes exciting when your husband is deployed. LOL.
I leave the house every day (Mon – Fri) because I work outside the home. It usually turns out that I leave the house on Sat/Sun too. Saturday to do errands, groceries, etc.; the stuff that I can’t get done during the week because of work, girls school activities, etc. Sunday it’s off to church. Once-in-a-while I’m lucky enough to have a day of the weekend where I get to stay home ALL day. It is such a treat to me and I absolutely love it when that happens, unfortunately,it’s not as often as I’d prefer. I know though that I’ll have more opportunities to stay home in the years to come. And it saddens me to think of those days because I know that means that our daughters will have flown the coop and I will miss them. Guess at that point I’ll have to leave the house to go see them!
hmmm, if I had my way I’d stay home more too. I work outside the home and my kids go to Christian school so we have to drive them/pick up every day as well. Like Nancy, I love a weekend day at home but also love going to church on Sundays.
I am home with my son and we are a one-vehicle family. Normally once a week my husband drives home mid-morning to pick us up and we drop him back off at work and we run any errands we need to on that day. I normally try to hit two stores, frequently Costco and the normal grocery store (for smaller items), or grocery store plus co-op/health food store, or Target plus grocery store or grocery store plus JoAnn’s (this combo about once every two months or so!) depending on what we need in our pantry and freezer, what is on sale and where, etc.
Then, on the weekends we normally go out at least one day as a family, but rarely shopping (since we did that earlier in the week, plus my husband hates shopping and dealing with people in that situation on his time off. He’d rather just pick up essentials (if necessary) at the closest store and get home.) Most of the time our weekend outings are for family activities, from a walk to the park and the library (I reserve books online so they’re ready for me when we get there), to the beach (we live in SoCal so the beach is available year round. Sometimes we wear flip flops, this time of year we wear sweatshirts) or sometimes someplace special like the zoo or a museum or a day trip. Plus church.
We also walk to the neighborhood park several times a week, either during the day or as a family after my husband is home from work, but since we live in a condo without a backyard, I don’t really consider that “going out” since it is more like going to play in our backyard. 🙂
So, in conclusion, I’d count us going out of the house as two planned times per week, plus or minus church.
Good quiz!
Best,
Sarah