On Not Being Frugal.

Is BrocanteHome about frugality? Oh, Gosh, No!

How can it be, when I’m telling you to slip tiny little treats into your basket everytime you pass a shop?

To me, the very notion of frugality is a curious one: are there really people out there being mean with themselves, even when they don’t have to? Does frugality remain a way of life for some people even when they’ve got money growing on tree’s in the back garden? I can’t get my head round it.

BrocanteHome is about living life as scrumptiously as you can manage on your household income. It is about re-thinking every tiny detail of everyday and re-inventing it so that the mundanities of life become the rituals that sustain us. It is about making life lovely however many pennies you may or may not have…

Just to make myself clear, lets talk about soap: I want washing your hands to be a delicious experience three or four times a day; I want you to look forward to something this boring because your sink is sparkly clean, there is a gorgeous towel next to the sink, freshly laundered and crisply ironed and the scent of your soap on your hands makes you smile half an hour later.

Now if I was of a frugal nature, I would tell you to save all the little odds and sods of soap you usually throw away, boil them all together and reshape them into something that doesn’t bear thinking about and ta-da, there you have a new block of soap…

But lucky for you, I am not frugal in the traditional sense, because what I would prefer you to do, is remove that extra packet of biscuits you bought for the kids and replace it with a bar of Pears Soap, because it reminds you of being a little girl (when you spent a lot of time staring into the mirror, lathering soap into your delicate skin in circles and pretending you were in the advert), or abandon the supermarket altogether and take yourself into a boutique and choose a tiny bar of Fench violet soap that will look pretty and forever after remind you of the day that you mattered so much that you bought the soap and then nipped next door and bought a tiny little posie of flowers to pop into a jamjar and place on the shelf above the sink…

I think that what I am trying to say is that this is not necesarily about spending money; it is about re-ordering your priorities so that alongside all the boring things we have to do and buy, there are a few precious little treats mixed in to make the ride worthwhile.

There is nothing worthy about deprivation for the sake of it.