101 Money Saving Ideas: Numbers 74-83

 To Review:  Idea stolen, with permission, from Centsible Living with Money Mom on youtube.

FYI:  I loathe the new blogger interface.  Sucks. The 3 things I used to do with a single click are not several step processes.

Anyway.  Digging deeper for the tips now that we're approaching 101.

[I had to "revert to legacy blogger" option.  Too hard to find the 3 things I use all the freaking time.  GEEZ google.  WTF?  Did you look at blogs and think "how can we get these Luddites to just use facebook?  I know, let's make it hard to type, hard to post, hard to save, hard to see what labels you've used, hard to put in a link, and hard to find your own blog.]


74  Track What You Don't Spend.  If you want something and don't spend money on it, just do with out, track that like you track your spending.  I do this when I need extra motivation.  I make a note.  This week I noted the times I wanted a coffee out or forgot part of my lunch and didn't run to the store and fill in the gap.  I mean, I am in ZERO risk of starving in the 4 hours between lunch and heading home. 

75 Eat Enough, Not Too Much.  In a NOT NEWS FLASH: Many of us eat more per day than we need, hence we get fat or spend $$/time/effort (check all that apply) burning the calories we didn't need.  I do exercise and burn 200 or so calories a day.  I go ahead and eat enough healthy, or unhealthy, quality food to cover that and the basic being alive thing.  What I'm trying to do during the current budget tightening to pay for the house-build, is NOT just over eat and end up having to cut back on food the next day or exercise more.  That's silliness.  There was a time when I overate quite a bit and much of America and the world intakes nearly twice the food needed to live and work and to enjoy living by getting out and about and doing active stuff.  If we stopped that, we'd save money on food, save on stress on the land by not having to produce as much food, and have (as we already do) enough food to feed the planet.  We'd still have the distribution problem and wouldn't feed the world with the food we have plenty of, but we'd still have the option to sort that out.

76  Know Needs vs Wants.  This is a good place to start actually.  It involves some hard looks at life.  Sure, I "need" clothes because sometimes it's cold and sometimes I burn the bejeebus out of my upper back by not wearing enough clothes for the amount of sunlight (recent issue...oops!  Stupid strappy tank tops).  But do I need NEW clothes.  Nope.  Almost never.  The minute you get the clothes home and wear them or wash them or just have them, they are used clothes.  You usually need to wash new clothes before you wear them.  Same with used clothes.  Thrift, consignment, yard sales, clothing exchanges etc.  Do I need 20 coats.  Nope.  I have maybe 10.  Also don't need 10 coats so I'll work on that. I regularly wear about 8 of them.  It's not that you don't get to buy anything that's a "want" but know that it is a "want" not a need.  Know that one life choice between want/need has repercussions in other want/need areas.  I need a place to live.  I WANT to live on acres in a house of my own design.  So I'm spending money to do that.  The repercussions include a more reliable car than I would have if I lived closer to town.  If I had stayed in town, 3 blocks from work, I could have gotten by with no car.  I wouldn't have but I could have.  Where I am, I COULD get by without a car, but it would mean riding a bike or walking or finding a ride to town sometimes.   So, each choice influences other want/need choices. 

77  Make Conscious Choices.  When you decide to do something, do it on purpose.  Can't pay all the bills this month?  Think through which one to pay.  Which thing has immediate consequences and how serious are they?  Which has long term consequences?  How serious are they?  What are your options.  Once upon a time I couldn't pay all the bills.  This was due to choices I'd made to be in grad school and stop taking student loans.  Hence, temporary poverty.  I couldn't pay all the bills.  I had nothing to liquidate that would sell in time and bring in enough money to cover things.  I chose to pay rent rather than electric.  I asked a friend to help me cover electric and paid her back out of the next check.  Hated doing it but there you go.  I made a choice.  Not paying rent resulted in a big fee.  Not paying the electric bill resulted in a small fee.  The friend helped me stay far enough ahead that I didn't have to pay that fee twice.   Recently I forgot to pay the cell phone and had a 5$ late fee.  DAMMIT!  I hate that.  That was not a conscious choice.  It was a mistake.  So, back to having an automated alarm in my phone reminding me to pay for phone service. 

78  Sustain Effort.  It's like getting or staying healthy, getting through school, raising kids, saving the world.  You have to do it for a long time.   Keep trying even if you screw up.  See above...screwed up the phone bill so trying again. 

79  Reboot. Sometimes try new things or let go of things that don't work for you.  Some people need to have a cash envelope system.  It hasn't been my thing but if I need a reboot, I will try it.  I didn't used to track my budget on paper.  I used to get 200$ cash when I got a paycheck and make that last, or intend to, until the next paycheck.  Groceries and gas came out of it.  This broke down off and on and with my longer commute and the sometimes high gas prices, fuel costs eclipsed food and the rest and so it didn't work well.  I also found that gas was no longer cheaper when I paid cash at most places so the going in and talking to people and maybe buying a pop was no longer something I wanted to do.  You can go back to something you used to do.   I used to keep a paper budget.  Then let it go for a while when the debt was paid off and the savings seemed to be building up fine.  I'd track 1 or 2 months a year and let it go the rest of the time.  When I wanted to up the savings for a new goal, I went back to full time paper budget/spending tracking.

80  Think in Systems.  As above in #76, one thing leads to another.  The housing choice connects to the transportation options. The job choices connect to the income level.  My personality type makes me prone to systems thinking.  I see a whole pattern and the weak points.  This helps with budgeting or being frugal.  It's obvious to me how choices between wants/needs in one area affect others.  Not just in money areas, in all areas I think in systems but those areas aren't relevant here.  Apparently the whole system isn't obvious to lots of people.  I'm forever staring at someone thinking "How did you choose to buy a truck that gets 3 miles to the gallon and NOT realize your fuel costs would go up?"  I would think those two things are clearly linked.  Nope.  I live in the boonies and am constantly amazed that folks buy a place an hour from town on a dirt road, and think they can drive a Prius.  You can OWN one, but it won't drive to/from your new place 6 months of the year due to depth of snow and mud.  I have often failed to care for my health (see above sunburn), but I'm not surprised when that results in healthcare costs or other costs (this time just aloe vera gel).  I see how it happens.  Re that sunburn...sometimes I'm not focused so don't see the systemic issues like wearing a tank top and being in the blazing sun too long.  When I'm focused or thinking through a choice, being conscious, I do see the system.  I'm not pleading perfection here, I'm pleading aspiration.

81  Commitment.  Make a commitment to something. Or a few things.  If committing to frugality for its own sake doesn't appeal, perhaps debt elimination does.  Or avoiding taxes (live on less than the minimum taxable income and you don't have to pay them!  As long as you don't earn more than that or donate to your favorite charities to the point you get your net income below that line).  Whatever.  commit to it and you might end up saving $$ or the planet or whatever it is you want to do.

82  Half-Assery.  If you don't want to commit to something that hard, half-ass it.  This also comes from Jeff Yeager, author of "The Cheapskate Next Door."  If you remember to track your budget half the time, you'll figure out some of the leaks in it or some of the ways you spend money that bring you no life-benefit.  Remember to contribute to savings half the months of the year and you'll save more than if you never do it. 

83  Talk to the Duffers.  Old people have been through some crap in their time.  Talk to them.  Perhaps more importantly, listen to them.  Ask some questions.  I asked my gramma what her family garden looked like growing up and she eventually mailed me a letter with a list of what she remembered her folks growing.  It's pretty interesting.  I took some tips from that like grow what you eat or grow the high dollar items.  I asked her how many clothes people used to have.  LOTS less than most of us do now.  She said most families had 1 or 2 outfits for each kid to wear.  Maybe 3 if they had a "sunday best" option in addition to school and chores/play.  She said her family had lots compared to others partly due to frugality, partly due to income, partly due to her parents being more indulgent and a lot to do with spinster aunts who could sew and got clothes donated from other people that they reworked into clothes for Gram and her siblings. Good to know.  Made me rethink my wardrobe. 

Grammas Rock

First off...my Grammas were way cuter than that.  But the saggy boobs (swing low sweet chariots) are familiar.

I just liked this picture because it shows how far we've come in a couple of generations.  Or perhaps how far we've fallen.  Whatever.

How much of my food do I produce?  Or gather?  Or hunt? ...um, like NONE of it.  OK.  A few greens and when my apple trees cooperate, I have home grown apples.  Occasionally I get a handful of berries.  Time to double down on production.

Since 2019 is all about me being aware of my plastic acquisition and use and whatnot, I also notice the distinct lack of plastic in the picture.  Some plastic I'm not going to be able to avoid, but I don't need it all over my food.  It IS a challenge, just like money budgeting and dieting and any other lifestyle change.  So, the first part of the year is about being aware of when I get plastic.  It sneaks in there!  Like today, I took my own trash out at work and mindlessly grabbed another plastic bag and lined the trash can even though I had a paper bag in the office ready to go.  Dang it!
One day I got a coffee out and forgot to hand over my own cup, getting a plastic lined paper cup with a plastic lid.  I managed to avoid the stupid straw.
I think I've only gotten 2 plastic grocery bags in the past couple of months.  Getting better at that.

It is killing me that my favorite thrift stores are now putting lots of stuff in plastic bags for display.  CRIPES!  One of the ways of avoiding plastic packaging has been to buy used.  Now I'm going to have to go to stinky yard sales.

I invested in real rubber dish gloves for cleaning and I must say they are lasting forever, so that is nice.

I've been doing "No Plastic" days  (meaning I don't acquire any plastic that day) and find that even if I don't buy ANYTHING (helps with the budget), eat food I bought in my own fabric or recycled bags or paper bags for things like grains, and use my stainless steel travel spork and make my own coffee in my travel french press and on and on...STILL sometimes people will give you something and it's generally plastic and/or IN plastic.
I was doing really well one day...almost done with work...and a coworker brings me a new pencil sharpener she got me.  Not the all metal hand powered one like I usually use...an electric one made of plastic in plastic packaging in a plasticized cardboard box taped shut with ever more plastic.  CRIPES!  I appreciate the gift and the thought, but the amount of plastic so I could use a wooden pencil was ridiculous.

There will always be phones, cars, I like to have a computer, and those sorts of things that will be in my life.  For now I'll just keep hacking away at the edges.

In the Bee-ginning, There Was the Pun, and the Pun Was Bad

So I got bees and there seem to BEE an endless supply of bad bee/honey/hive puns out there.  I've shamefully produced too many myself, now that I'm the BEE-yatch in charge of 2 hives.

Bees and equipment provided by a grant to a local group!  Yeay!  They also paid for our training which makes this a fairly thrifty endeavor.  And no, you can't have any honey!  That is the first thing TOOOOO many people have said when I mentioned I was getting bees..."Can I have honey."  No, I don't have any and the first year's production is for the bees and if they die, there won't be any anyway so let's let that go for a bit, shall we?

Best pun so far was a young friend who came up with "Beesus loves the little children."

Here is a little photo essay on the bee package and the un-bee-oxing.


The package:













 That's what the bees and a queen arrive in.  3lbs of bees.  The can in the middle is the sugar syrup they have fed off of on the trip.  The tile is what I'm going to cover the can-hole with as I get the queen out.


Here she is.  Inside the screen box.  you can't see her well but I didn't want to dick around any more.













She's got a white dot on her back and is twice the size of the others so easy to spot.  The white dot indicates a 2016 queen.  There is a color rotation so you can keep track of which queens survive the longest.  A couple of years is supposed to be pretty good, but like all old ladies, the eggs dry up and it's time for the next generation.


Hive box at the ready













Hive box with feeder (black thing...feed them sugar syrup while they acclimate and until there is enough food out and about in the world), a few frames for comb, and a gap to set the box of bees in.  More frames go there probably tonight because I can't not check on them so I'll feed them and check and take out the package.

Here is the package in there:

The little metal thingy on the middle frame is where the queen cage is hanging.  You take out a cork in the bottom of here cage, replace it with a minimarshmallow.  The worker bees will eat through there and by then will have accepted her as the queen.  She didn't birth them so need to acclimate.  I took the tile off to let the bees out...at least I hope to god I did!  Crap, now I want to go check.  Anyway, you SHOULD uncover the hole and let the bees out.  Then put the various components of the top on.

Here's another hive

I installed the bees here by pouring them in.  The brush is to get them off surfaces and not crush them with reassembly of the hive box.  I put the frames from that gap back in.  We'll see which one does better.

 Here it is with the frames in:















The package with remaining bees (they don't really all want to come out so fast) sitting in front next to my hive tool.  Used for prying things and pounding things as needed.

Close-up of the bees:















And some bee diarrhea on the rubber tub I had all my stuff in:













Like many of us, bees get a bit of diarrhea in the spring, what with the diet change and not wanting to poo too much in the house all winter or however long they've been in there.  There were yellow stripes all over the place including the bottom of my jeans.  Funny.

 And finally, my great grandfather with his bees in 1920:

Bit More Solar Cookery and a Laundry Drying Triumph

So, in no particular order let's start with the bread and breadlike products:


 This bread was quite heavy since I made with 100% sprouted whole wheat flour, a bit of yeast, salt and water.  That's it.  It rose really fast due to extreme heat.  I punched it down and threw it in.  Then it didn't rise so much but it's QUITE good.  And it is keeping well.  I've left it in the pan (metal plus lid equals mouse proof...also, I took it in to work with a jar of almond butter I got on super sale to use for lunches this week)

This is service berry bread!  Service berries are similar to huckleberries or blueberries but grow on tall bushes and are easy to harvest.  IF you beat the birds to them.  It took me 3 or 4 days to accumulate a cup and a half.  Birds love them and I'm not going to put netting over random shrubs and make life harder for the birds this year.  Anyway, first I soaked the berries in my homebrewed honey vinegar to make a sort of shrub liquid to add to water, ginger ale, whatever.  It's delicious.  The berries are of course still good and a bit tangy.  I drained off the shrub and used the berries in this. 














The berries are a bit vinegary and tart, in a good way.  So I cut out one egg and added extra baking soda.  The soda mixes with the vinegar as leavening.  The vinegar made for a less sweet bread.  I'm liking it a lot.  In fact, it was gone in 3 days.  It was also made with all sprouted whole wheat flour but was not too heavy.  Quite moist.  Here's a view of it cut.

It was baked in a stainless steel fridge container with a slide on lid (hello mouse proof!) which made it easy to transport and works super well in the solar cooker.  I left the lid on for about an hour then took it off for a bit to let the top get a bit more crusty like I like it.

This and the bread above were cooked the same day.   The oven ran about 325 steadily without too much turning or aiming. I was a totally sunny clear day with almost no smoke or dust haze.  I'm not sure why the oven wasn't hotter.  I may need to do a better job getting dust off the mirrors and glass cone.

Here's an earlier whole wheat bread that was WAY too heavy.  I still ate it though.














The cooker was running even hotter that day and things got a tad burned.

Below is yet another bread.  This one part high gluten flour to help along the sprouted wheat flour.  It turned out fabulous.  The downside was i ate it all way way too fast.

 In the skillet is a squash and amaranth frittata (my word for stuff in eggs, baked or fried).  It was actually SO hot and sunny that day that when I opened the cooker and took the lid off the skillet to check the frittata, it was sizzling!  The cooker easily hit 375F that day.  Putting the cast iron skillet with lid in there, I suspect the frittatta was a bit hotter than that.

All this cooking was in the "Death Ray" or "Solar Chef".

I do still use the cardboard box corner with foil cooker to make my weekend coffee.  It isn't ready at 8am, but a lovely cup of coffee at 9:30 or 10 is a good reason for a break from hauling garden water or fretting about plans or whatever.   I was talking to Gramma last weekend as I drank that coffee and since I don't bother with careful filtering as I pour it into a cup, I noted that I had hit the grounds.  She said her dad's answer to that was another spoon of sugar and then chew.  I hadn't added any sugar but I may try it with the grounds.


And finally...my laundry triumph:














2 loads of laundry on the awesome 6$ thrift store purchased rack! (the same one that was inside before) Yeay!  That saved me about 4$.  And wear and tear on the clothes.  And I must say I much prefer the smell of sun and breeze on my clothes to leftover-bounce from public laundromat dryers.  These euro style drying racks are more compact than the american ones.  So far it's holding up well.  The cardboard under it is in case something fell off.  And to keep the grass/hay seeds off my clothes.  I spend too much time picking pine needles and seeds out of surprising places.

My Great Great Grampa, And G-G-Gramma, and G-Gramma and G-G-Aunt!

History of Dakota Territory By George Washington Kingsbury, George Martin Smith


It doesn't display quite right, but just click on it and you go to the original page. How cool is this??

And just for giggles, here's my Gramma. Daughter of Jane in the above excerpt.
I KNOW this pose and glare (and she never did get much bigger!):