Rich or Wealthy?

Just a few thoughts for today...
Ive just been reading another website, I get hooked once I get on this damn computer.

The theme of the writing was are you rich or wealthy... the point being that the difference between 'getting rich' and being 'wealthy ' is that being rich is a sort of over night thing, like winning the pools or getting a very high power job with ooodles of dosh, but that can also vanish quickly... and being wealthy is a more long term, huge investments, family money type thing....

It made me think though... hehehehe how much money seems to be the deciding factor in so many things in our lives, from where and how we live to what we eat for dinner or even if we have a dinner. The whole point in how we are living our lives in Portugal is to decrease our reliance on money as much as possible, now I know that to some extent we will always need dosh... thats a no brainer. But surely there must be ways we can cut our dependance to a minimum. We already have worked hard to change our attitude to having very little money. When we first came over it was very hard to manage without the computer, the tv and all the other gadgets most take for granted, nowadays I'd not go back, I dont miss them at all. Its training yourself to think differently, I always write shopping lists, never go to the market or supermarket unless I NEED something.. I always look at something that is broken torn or just not working, to decide if there is anything that can be done with it, mending, or taking parts to be used in other ways... its a different mindframe now, before I'd just have binned things straight away..
Dont get me wrong, we dont spend our days thinking about money or how not to spend it, its just become a part of our life that money isnt really important any more. Dont go thinking we are deprived though, we have a great life, eat lovely food, have good friends and good times with them, but it just doesnt revolve around money anymore, with the right mindset you can have a good time without spending money, just learn to take pleasure in different things and different ways.... I class us as wealthy... we have so much, we are blessed with many things that make us happy and contented ... isnt that what life is really about?

On a more practical note, I have a few more things to try to work out.

1, We eat chicken and eggs frequently, so I need to find someone locally to barter with, so it will save us both money. (we do not want our own due to attraction of vermin)
2, Try to talk rik into letting me have a volunteer sometime this summer , to help with organising logs, weeding and working on our land... he hates the idea...
3, Try to persuade rik to try goats milk (he dislikes it fromchildhood) in the hopes that I can get a goat to use for milk and cheese... it would cut our grocery bills dramatically.

So I feel wealthy almost every day... hearing the first woodpecker of the year made me smile half the morning, looking out and seeing the frost sparkling on the grass in the garden knowing I was snug in by the log burner, made me warm inside as well as out, seeing the sun slowly melting that frost and the sky turning bright clear blue made me smile too... smelling my bread baking in the oven and fresh coffee bubbling on the range gives me great contentment in my life.
There are so many ways every day to find things to take joy in, things that come as free as the air... we just have to learn to look for them instead of buying them....

So what makes you feel wealthy...?