The value of a blog

I have, over the six or seven years since I discovered the blogging world, read quite a few blog posts wherein bloggers are questioning their motives for blogging, worrying that what they were posting didn't match the type of blog they were writing, switching to a new blog because the old one doesn't reflect what's happening in their lives and so on and so forth.  When I first came across the term blog I had no idea what it was and looked it up to find that is was short for weblog, a type of online diary.  I've always wanted to keep a diary and never kept it up for more than a few days or weeks at a time but being able to type far better than I can write, I was taken with the idea.  And that's how I've always thought of my blog.  When I first started it, I was setting off on a journey to try and embrace a simple or gentle life and I wanted somewhere to document that.  And to make lists.  As I discovered personal finance blogs, I realised that I could use this space to try and document some of that aspect of my life as well.  And during my worst periods of depression as well as just 'ordinary' difficult times, I have used my blog to just generally unload some of what's floating around in my head.  Better out than in, after all. :)  While this has meant quite a lot of emotional drivel and repetitiveness (in my more generous to myself moments I just cal it stream of consciousness), there really are also some genuinely useful posts to be found in my archives. I resisted adding any blog statistics tools to my blog when I first started it but a few years ago blogger added them as standard and since then I have found it very interesting to see what the top posts are, what the top search terms are that will lead people to my blog, etc.  And every once in a while someone has looked at a post and I cannot remember what it was about based on the title so I click through and am reminded of something interesting.

That's what happened today when I clicked through to a post someone read today entitled River Cottage, from back in the first months of Living the simple life I want.  And that post contained a tip that I am very glad I copied into a blog post all those years ago and even more glad to have found again now.  Because if all goes according to plan, I will be debt free in a few months and, in addition, my sealed pot savings challenge will keep me saving enough during the year that when we open our pots in December, I will have about enough to buy a freezer.  I did originally think that I'd use the money to buy myself something fabulous from etsy but then I realised that a freezer is something that has been on my list of wants for a long time so that I can finally make contact with a good farmer and start buying bulk meat once a year or so.  And given how much I struggle and undoubtedly always will struggle with managing money, this tip is a good one to remember for whenever I get to that point.

From my River Cottage post, originally from the River Cottage forums (typos and all):

"The butcher that we use will sell quarters or halves of any animal and a deepfreez is a life saver. Comming up with 600 for a side of beef isnt easy but it lasts the year and as its from his own herd its great. We have a jar in the freezer that we put in whatever the shop price would be for whatever meat we take out for dinner that day. When the freezer is ready for restocking the money is there."

And to me, that is the greatest value I can get from my blog.  Not only having somewhere to write out anything that bubbling up (or festering) inside me, but a place to collect ideas without having to rely on my memory.  And a place to remind myself of some of the stuff that's important to me, even when I feel like I've gotten too far from the point of it all sometimes.  Hooray for blogging!