Pantry Challenge December and January!

 I couldn't come up with a clever name for the pantry challenge so I tried to punch it up with an exclamation point.  My writing is not good today.

Anywho...I have a butt ton of food.  Lots of protein and carbs, some veg and fruit (especially dried fruit), a giant dark chocolate bar that I can dress up by melting in some nuts and maybe even coffee beans.  Enough coffee and tea to get me through the next apocalypse.

Hence...a pantry challenge.

I do need to take one person out for a holiday meal because that is what works for us.  Aside from that and when people randomly hand me stuff, like the lovely neighbor who dropped off turkey, potatoes and gravy Sunday afternoon, I shall eat from the pantry and the eggs the hens may or may not produce.   

A few of my go-to recipes, like banana eggs for breakfast, will run out, which will make me come up with some other options.  Always good.

I think making the coffee last will also motivate me to get back to tea rather than a 2nd cup of coffee.  (...ok, 3rd and 4th cups of coffee) (don't judge me).

Pantry challenges always improve my meals, cooking and health (like limiting sodium).  The only thing I might not have plenty of is peppercorns.  How incredibly bougie is that??  

I never did a total pantry inventory so maybe this will motivate me to do that.  Or not.  

I may well have enough TP to get through January if  I am clean but judicious with the use.

We'll see how it goes!  At least I should waste less food!  I'm already thinking of how to ration the squash and onions and carrots (the "Fresh") and when to start sprouting seeds for greens.  

Slow Fashion October OTD (outfit of the day)

 I started the day at the gym.

Shoes: ANCIENT and resoled shoes bought on sale.  Over 10 years use so far.  They are good leather and comfortable.   They got demoted to gym wear as the top is separating from the sole a bit and the glue doesn't hold as long when used outside.  

Socks:  Gift

Pants: bought for 1$ at thrift 2 or 3 years ago.  They just live in the gym bag.

Undies...old.

Foundation garment: See previous post. Same one.

Shirt: tank top purchased at thrift maybe a decade ago.  It's an eddie bauer or something and just will not wear out.

I also did yoga while there.

yoga bag: gift (actually, it was a gift bag but is a nice canvas shopping bag that now transports yoga stuff)

Blocks: bought on super sale during a 'rona closure of a local studio

Strap: I think I paid retail for this but it was like 15-20 years ago.

Mat: super cool FOLDING yoga mat bought at thrift for 2$ or so.  Used for several years now and shows no wear.  I like the flat fold better than the roll.  I can travel with it in a suitcase.  

Towel/blanket: Gramma got me this when I STARTED college so it is over 37 years into pretty well daily use.  It's thin but still soaks up liquids like water and sweat.  

Slow Fashion October: Another OTD (outfit of the day...see how I am all hip with the lingo if it is 1998)

 I WILL have a change of shoes here in a bit so I'll include both options:

Boots: bought by my job, warm insulated rubber boots.  Wore them home one day and back to work today to get them back to the office.  I wore them 5 times in the last week.

Shoes: Bought on deep sale 2 or 3 years ago.   Not thrift, I think they cost about 50 or 60$.  I wear them 3-5 days a week in fall and spring depending on weather.   They are good leather with good soles so will last a while. 

Socks: gift (thanks Chris!)

Jeans:  Ancient thrift jeans, this is day 1.  If I can keep them clean they will see several wearings this week.

Belt: Same as before.

Undies: Bought new, but worn weekly for about a year an a half.  They were part of the early 'rona underwear stock up that allowed me to go 2 weeks between laundry runs which saves $$.

Foundation garment:  Bought on super sale at Ross or TJMaxx.  Over a year ago.  Worn tons.  Protip: It is grey and grey bras don't look dingy like white ones after a year or so.  I don't generally use bleach and have touchy skin so whites get dingy looking.   Solution: avoid white clothes.

T-shirt: From a giveaway at work.

Button down (because I thought I had a meeting but now it is canceled):  Bought at thrift years ago.  I am pretty sure I paid 4-5$.  I usually stop at 2$ but this is a high quality shirt in orange (not a fave color but counts as "high visibility" on construction sites), it fits my line-backer shoulders and long monkey arms, AND has the coveted DOUBLE pit zips (vents for hot days) so I can wear it a lot all year.  Hence, it gets worn almost weekly.  I get compliments.  It is an REI or Eddie Bauer brand.  I'm not a brand rat but those two do tend to be high quality construction and fabric, along with a few other brands, so when I see them at thrift, I give them a 2nd look even if they are above the usual 2$ limit on shirt price.

Hair tie: Haven't picked one yet but all the ones with me are used.  I know this because they are around the bottom of my travel french press (thrift, obv) and it looks like it is wearing a fuzzy bracelet.  Tons of hair stuck in the ties.

Next time I buy some new garment, or maybe those carhartts mentioned in a previous post, I should put a dot or hash on the inside of the garment each time I wear it.  Then I can track the "cost per wear".  With some of my 2$ shirts I'm pretty confident we're approaching a penny a wearing.

Slow Fashion October Outfit of the Day

 Today...

Boots bought on deep sale (35$ usually 135$) and worn...80-100 times so far. 

Sox: none.  You don't need any with these boots unless it is cold out.  They are lined with cotton flannel

Jeans:  Thrift, worn 5 times so far this week.  Purchased many years ago.

Belt (I forgot this last time!):  Thrift, 3$ and I resented the cost, real leather sturdy belt with a brass buckle.  Worn almost everyday. Bought years ago.  could be 1000 wearings so far.  I reverse the direction it goes in the pants each time so it doesn't get that permanent dip in the back from always being worn the same direction.

Undies:  NEW!  but from thrift.  First wearing.  They are from that pack that was still sealed and the undies still taped to the cardboard insert that I found at thrift.  The pair I changed out of were in tatters. Clearly over 7 wearings.

T-shirt: Gift (thanks Chris) several years ago.  The collar is starting to get a bit wonky, but no holes yet.  Worn about once every 2 weeks for 2 years.  100ish wearings.

Foundation garment: It is on day 5 like the jeans.  I haven't sweat much this week and no one is going to be around me at work today (it's a holiday but I'm going in to make up some time rather than use vacation time for a day last week).  Bought new at deep discount at Ross Dress for Less. Probably 5-8$.  That's the price range I wait for for the high end foundation garments.  

Coat: Thrift, years ago.  

Hairties: dollar store.  Not sure how many times one hairtie gets worn.  Until it breaks.

Even Slower Fashion October

 Yeah, that's right.  Struggling with titles.  Leave it alone.

I talked to a couple of friends and they too were stunned at the thought of wearing something a few times and chucking it or donating it.  We were chatting and wearing clothes with visible wear and tear from age, wearings and work (and my tendency to run into barbed wire).

E.G. today's ensemble:

Shoes bought new and worn almost daily since I got them (on sale) (obviously) so over 100 times so far.

Sox:  Gift (Thanks Marcie!) and worn 2x so far this week.  I got them over a year ago and they are summer weight so probably over 100 wearings to dat.

Pants:  Jeans bought at thrift (hopefully after the original owner wore them more than a few times).  I've had them 2 years or more.  I put clean jeans on Mondays and wear them until they are stinky/dirty or it's the weekend.  So, day 2 this week.  And I wore them last week .   Right now I have 4 pairs of jeans in rotation and haven't put a new pair in the mix for over a year so...lots of wearings.

Undies: bought new in the box, but at thrift (and as it turns out a size too small but dammit I WILL get my money's worth out of these).  I've had them since the beginning of 'rona.  Many wearings...unlike jeans, they get worn once and washed, not for the week.

"Foundation Garment": ...ok, it's the bra.  BOUGHT NEW (at TJMaxx) over a year ago.  I have 4 in rotation so it must get 365/4 wearings per year...OK, true confessions, no bras on the weekend so more like 265/4 per year.  About 66 wearings per bra per year.   I do have one bra that is a frankenbra made from 2 others.  1 had the hooks all torn up and stabbing me but was otherwise fine, the other was so low cut in the front that the hams weren't staying in the sack unless I was just sitting at a desk all day.  So, hooks off both, good hooks sewn onto the better formatted bra, and voila...more life in that foundation garment.

Shirt: a tank top for under button downs.  I got it at thrift YEARS ago.  Like I can't remember how many years ago. It is a really good quality one and won't seem to wear out.  If I've had it 3 years (it's been longer), I wear the tank tops half the year under button downs and to yoga etc,, one wearing then washed.  So, about 20 wearings a year per tank which puts this at 60 wearings minimum and I'm thinking more.

Sweatshirt: like the jeans, put on on Monday (always with a t-shirt or tank under sweatshirts to keep them less sweaty), and wear it until soiled.  I wore it 3 days last week, 2 so far this week.  Had it a year, wear it half the year.  50+ wearings.  Bought at thrift and it has the design section of a previous sweatshirt applique'd on it (thanks Anne!).

Coat:  Bought at thrift over 5 years ago.  It is a letterman's jacket from the 1990s.  Super warm and sturdy.  Worn lots in the winter.  I'm going to say 50+, likely 100+ wearings.  

I did buy 3 more undies because I found them new in the box, and in the right size, at thrift.  Also got a new or nearly new pair of Carhartt work pants at thrift (10$!!!  so expensive but they fit and have no spandex.  We know how I feel about spandex).  They are at the bottom of the pile of 3 pairs of work pants.  As the ones above them wear out, these will come into rotation.  Or if I fall in the creek twice and get down to the third pair in a day.

Slow Fashion October

 OK, I know if my sister happens on this she will question the term "fashion" in anything I write.  I don't have any fashion sense at all.  Which, for slow fashion October, works perfect in reducing clothing waste.

I watched a youtube...which I do too much of late.  But then I fact checked this one and it was correct.  Dang it!

I had heard the term "fast fashion" but since I have no fashion interest and am of an age where "fast" is moot, I ignored it and filed it under run of the mill consumerist BS that was probably wasteful.

But...I had no idea HOW wasteful.  Wow.

Here's a link to the youtube:  https://youtu.be/F6R_WTDdx7I

And here's a link with some background on slow fashion October:

https://www.interweave.com/article/knitting/slow-fashion-karen-templer/

Interesting stuff.

I no clue how many clothes people in 1st world countries have!  Good lord.  Throwing out over 80lbs per year in the US????   I don't have 80lbs of clothes.  Probably 50 to 60lbs.  About 20lbs of that is boots.  I should count my garments.  It's not a small number.   But clearly I am behind most of the US population.

Anyway, according to various studies you can link through the above links, in the US in 1990 80-90% of the clothes Americans bought were made in America.  After NAFTA (which for the record I thought was BS when it was put in place...different rant) jobs in the textile industry moved to other countries where people are paid less.  Less than a living wage.  And human rights are violated in the sweat shops.  But it's cheap!!  

What percentage is now made in America???  2.5% roughly.  That's a loss.  Big loss. I have trouble finding clothes made in  the USA.  Even my hippie dippie zero drop shoes from a company based in Portland OR...the actual shoes are made in china.  The company claims they couldn't find a manufacturer in the US.  ONE of my pairs of boots IS made entirely in the US.  Actually, the leather may have been tanned overseas.  Apparently that's a thing we do.  Ship hides overseas for tanning and have them shipped back to make stuff out of the hides.  That is BONKERS.  Anyway, I traded a pair of boots with a friend.  The boots I got from him didn't fit me super well but better than the ones I gave him (which passed on to a dude who was fixing his roof and I think that dude is actually wearing them).  I traded that 2nd pair of boots to a neighbor who gave me a pair of used White's Boots!  Hand made in Spokane, WA.  So not only in the US, but in the same region as me.  Nice.  I'm working on learning to wear heavy boots again.  They are awesome.   

The other garment I have that I know was made in the US is a t-shirt I bought this year.  One of the first "new" items, like actually new from a retail store, I've purchased in ages (other than sox, undies and some shoes) at full price.  I paid a higher price because it is made in the USA.  Also, because the design on it is the bomb.

Of my used items, the vast majority are made elsewhere.

Now for another factoid...apparently we wear our clothes a few times and throw them out as "old".  The studies claim people in the 1st world chuck the clothes (or forget them but don't chuck them) after an AVERAGE of 7 WEARINGS!!!  WHAT!!!  I wore the aforementioned t-shirt 3 times the week I got it and 2 times the next week. It's already over 7 wearings.   The sweatshirt I have on was purchased used, then a couple of pieces of a previous sweatshirt (That I wore until it fell off me in shreds) are applique'd on it (thanks Anne!!).  My "good" black t-shirt with long sleeves that I wear under button downs and sweaters was purchased new but at a deep discount (5$) literally years ago.  Like 5 or 6 years ago.  In Portland at Powells Books.  It made its first outing of the season this week and I noticed that the cuffs are so worn they are splitting into two unrelated layers instead of a coherent folded over ribbed edge.  I will keep wearing it until it is in tatters. It won't even be demoted to non-office wear yet.

The shirt I wore with it, an orange button down REI fishing shirt with vented pits...love the vented pits, I bought at a thrift store a few years ago and wear about once a week 6 months of the year. 

I wear my jeans (which I get in the 100% cotton version because 1) better quality 2) don't stretch out and make it look like I crapped my pants, 3) without the plastic stretch crap in them I can use the scraps of wornout jeans in the garden as weed mat or tomato ties and it will just dissolve into the soil eventually) until they fall off of me in shreds.  Then they are diced up for the rag bag.  Then end up as kindling or in the garden.  I haven't bought jeans new in probably a decade or more.  I've tried to buy all cotton workpants new but I can't find any that fit because only a few brands do all cotton anymore, and then pretty much only in men's sizes and then they don't carry a long inseam with the waist size I need.  So, I comb the thrift stores and try to have 3 jeans and a few workpants in active rotation and a few in backstock for when something falls off me in shreds.

I wear my bras and undies until I can't figure out which hole is for a limb and which is for the torso.  Sox get mended (and are cotton or wool, but sadly rarely 100% cotton or wool because that is almost not a thing anymore...I keep looking) until there is more darn than sock.  Then they go in the rag bag.  Sock tops are great for lots of things and the feet make reasonable cleaning mitts.

More factoids...cost per wear.   With fast fashion, even a dress at 30$ that is worn the average 7 times, that's about $4.28 per wearing.  If you are a chump and buy one that says "dry clean only" (and extra chump points if you take that on faith rather than trying to wash it by hand and block it) then it will be "cheaper" to throw it out rather than clean it and wear it.   If you are me, you didn't pay $4.28 to start with!  I might pay 10$ for jeans if they are all cotton and fit really well and have lots of wear left and the pockets are actually deep enough to put sh*t in.  Then I wear them ...let's see....a pair lasts 1-2 years for me, and I have 3 pairs in rotation at a time.  So...1/3 of a year I'm wearing each pair.   That's 122 wearings (roughly) per year per pair...but I do wear chore pants on the weekend usually so we'll call it 100 wearings per pair per year.  Even if a pair only lasts the one year, that's 4cents a wearing.  Since I usually wear a pair of jeans for a week and then put them in the wash (they go in sooner if they get sweaty or grubby), I spend less on laundry than most.  Less washing makes clothes last longer and puts less microplastic waste in the water ways.

There are more horrifying factoids like how much fast fashion is thrown out before anyone even buys it!  It is produced, shipped, put up on display, and thrown out!  Wasted clothing, resources, effort.  And still the companies selling this crap make money hand over fist.  So how much is thrown out?  60%  MOST of it.  Cripes.  You can read 20 of the more horrifying factoids here:

https://goodonyou.eco/fast-fashion-facts/

How to reduce clothing waste at the consumer end:

-Inventory what you have.   You will be surprised.

-Don't buy crappy clothes.   They don't last.  Buy clothes that last.  You can do this new or used.  

-If possible, buy clothes produced in a first world nation.  

-If you can, buy local.  

-If you can, make your own!  (I can't sew clothes or knit or crochet.  I am hoping to learn to weave.)

-Buy natural fibers (thereby not contributing to microplastic waste AND enhancing recycling/reusing options)

-Wash judiciously.  I have written about doing laundry well, also do it infrequently.  A good airing is the old febreeze (don't use febreeze). 

-Use the dryer sparingly!  Line drying is better or hanging on hangers or a drying rack.  The sun kills germs for free.  Dryers are hard on clothes and all the "lint" is what used to be the fabric in your clothes.

-Wear what you already own.  Go shopping in the dresser, closet, wherever you keep clothes.  Try them all on.  If something feels good, fits right, looks decent and suits the tasks you expect to do in it, keep it.  If not, donate it or do a clothing swap with friends and neighbors.  Everyone brings clothes that are in good shape and fresh washed, but they don't want anymore.  Best to sort them by garment type and/or size.  Put the clothes around a room, then people can pick what they want.  Try it on, take it to a relative/friend it might fit or work for.   After that, check with a shelter or other social service agency to see if they an use any of it.  

-Try new combinations of what you own.   We get in ruts.

-Remember that people are so worried about themselves they really don't give a crap what you are wearing.  In 2014/2015 I blogged about wearing the same 5 sweaters to work everyday for a month.  It turned into a winter's worth of wearing those sweaters because it was comfy, easy, simplified my morning.  I had a few choices, but not dozens.   And, since I wore an undershirt with the sweater, I washed them once at the start of the season and once at the end of the season.  See above "launder judiciously."

-Borrow clothes if you need a specialty item.  Like a party or wedding or something.  See if you can borrow an item. 

-Thrift and redonate for a special occasion item if you can't borrow something or wear something you already own.  I've done this for the odd wedding.  Like one in the summer when it was SUPER hot and all my "formal" clothes (you know, the ones without holes) are for cooler weather.  So I ran to a thrift store and got a doable linen outfit and sandals for about 10$, wore it, washed it, and redonated it.  

-Change your clothes before you do dirty chores.   Change into older stuff that you are wearing out.  

-Learn to mend clothes.  Good brands of shirts with buttons give you a couple of spare buttons.  They are sewn to the inside of one of the side seams or hooked to the tag at the top along the neckline.  Keep those.  Really good quality clothes come with a bit of spare thread too.  Keep that as well.   Designate a box or drawer for mending thing and put the buttons in there.  When one pops off, watch a youtube and learn how to sew it back on.  (Get your sewing kit at thrift and get cotton, linen or silk thread...polyester and nylon thread are crap.)

-Pick styles and colors and things that YOU like, not what is in fashion at the moment.  Like broom skirts in shades of mustard and puce?  Knock yourself out.  No one really cares.  

-When shopping new or used, check the seams, washing instructions (only chumps buy "dry clean only"), and fabric content.  Pull on the fabric a bit and see if it is sturdy.   Anything weak, frayed or hard to wash isn't worth it. 

-Be willing to reformat a garment to get more wear.  I mentioned my tendency to wear through the cuffs on t-shirts above.  I also wearout the cuffs on sweatshirts.  By the time the cuffs are work to tatters, the shirt is generally too raggedy to wear to work anyway and is a chore shirt or pajamas.  So, cut the cuffs off.  You still have over 90% of the shirt and it is still wearable.  You can cut the sleeves off a hooded sweatshirt when they get too worn and frayed and wear it as a work smock (with cozy hood) for dirty chores like butchering.

There's more but this is a good spot to stop.  

Food Waste In America

 So, I thought the main issue with food waste in the US was at the production and processing phases.  I watched a documentary on the youtubes (forgot which one...it was running in the background while I was doing something) 40% happens at HOME after we pay for it and bring it to the house with the intention of eating it.  CRIPES!!!!  That means 40% of the average American grocery (the food bits, not the TP which is no longer wasted EVER) is wasted as well as the food.

Cutting food waste, any waste but today is the food waste rant, is cutting the budget so you have that $$ to spend on sh*t you enjoy.  Sh*t like not working forever because you have enough savings to retire early.

So, I am refocused on cutting food waste.  I don't waste a ton.  I even have started choosing squash not only for flavor but for meat to hide ratio...though I need some hide for the worm bin and the chickens.  

Actual methods to cut waste:

1) Know how to store food.   There are guides all over the internet.  Do a search and print out a couple.  Put them on the door of the fridge and/or pantry or wherever you will see it.  Maybe next to the toilet so you can grab it and read it when your phone runs out of batteries and you can't text people while you poo.  Also, if you write the date you opened something on the package, and do so BIG, you'll know at a glance what is getting to more than a week or two out and should be eaten ASAP.  Finally, smell stuff.  Learn what it smells like when it's good.  When it smells different (and is covered with what I like to call "advanced composting substance"), time to compost it.  

2) Know how to cook.  You don't have to be a chef, just learn that to make soup you start by chopping and frying an onion.  To make eggs, you start with eggs and a pan of water or a skillet.  To make a stir fry, start with hot oil and chopped ingredients...and remember to STIR.  One of my old roommates remembered the fry part, but not the STIR part and we had an almost-fire with the grease.  Stir it.   If you want a roast or a roasted something like chicken, turn on the oven and make sure the meat is thawed.  Know that hard veggies take longer to cook than floppy veggies.  Cut the big ones smaller or start them cooking earlier.  A good place to start is at the library with a SIMPLE cookbook.  Or some youtubes if you have free internet access.  

3) Buy what you actually eat, not aspirational things like "I WILL switch directly from cap'n crunch just berries to plain dry oats with bitter melon".  If you eat cap'n crunch, well, you're wasting money but at least you're not also wasting the nuclear power plant by-product I suspect is the main ingredient in that crap'n crunch (which is delicious).

4) Eat what you bought.  Go through the fridge and cupboard BEFORE you go shopping.  Figure out a few things you can make, that you will actually eat, from what you have.  Make at least one of them and put it in the front of the fridge or wherever it will be OK and you will see it.  If you see it, you will eat it. 

5) Use up as much of the meat/fruit/veg/whatever as you can.  Limit the amount you peel, scrap, cut and chuck, even into the compost.  

Have you noticed how you didn't have to  buy anything to do those things?  

Here are a few concrete ways to avoid food waste on specific items.

Let's start with squash and melons.  SAVE THE DAMN SEEDS.  I keep a few to plant but MOSTLY I toast and eat them.  If you run a wood stove, throw a handful on top and eat them.  Put them on salad, on soup, in that trail mix you made or the homemade granola/protein bars.  I don't bother shelling the seeds, eat the shell and all.  So far no digestive issues with that.  Once dry, they save for ages in a jar.

How to save the damn squash/melon seeds:

Gut the squash (pumpkin, butternut, zucchini, cantaloupe, whatever) using your favorite method.  Put the guts in a bowl that will hold twice the volume of the guts (approximately, use the bowl you have, pans count as bowls).  Put water in until the guts are covered.  Do whatever you're doing with the squash/melon.  Come back a while later, same day, next day...not much more than that.  Stick your hands in there and squeeze the seeds to separate them from the guts, not to break the seeds.   Pull out the guts and seeds separately.  The guts go to chickens or compost.  The seeds to out on paper or a kitchen towel to dry.  I like a towel because the seeds don't have to be turned to avoid paper stickage.

Let them get SUPER dry.  Takes a day or two.  If you have a garden area, save a couple of seeds to plant.  The rest, you can put in a jar as is if they are really dry.  Or, toast right away, let them cool, and then put in a jar with a tight lid.  If you put them in hot, there will be condensation and mold.  Eat.

You can toast them in an oven, on top of a woodstove, in a dry skillet over low heat.  You'll know they are toasted when they look a bit brownish and smell good.  And a few will pop open.

People pay a mint for pumpkin seeds at the store.  Pumpkins are squash.  It's all seeds.  All are delicious and nutritious.

Perhaps potatoes, carrots, apples and other peelable things with edible peels are next.  DO NOT PEEL THEM.  Wash them.  Use a veggie scrubber. This is the same as your dish scrubber but new.  When it won't work on veggies anymore, then it's a dish scrubber.  (when it won't work on dishes...floor, then toilet, then trash).  Or, use a clean dish cloth.  or the edge of a spoon, back of a knife...or...wait for it...YOUR HANDS.  Yes, you can rub the dirt off potatoes with your hands.  Carrots don't have skin so you're just peeling off perfectly good carrot.  I scrub them and if they are pretty grubby, use the back of a knife to scrape off the dirty bit with minimal carrot loss.  I do this outside (because carrot bits go all over) and the chickens think it's raining treats.  Apples...the peels do not interfere with apple enjoyment.  Same with pears.  If you making apple sauce or butter (or pear sauce/butter), you can dice small and enjoy the red or green flecks in the final product, or use a stick blender if you already own it and do the dicing later.  Obviously any cores/seeds go in compost or to the chickens or out for birds to eat.  If you insist on peeling apples, sprinkle the inside of the peel bits with cinnamon and bake them along with the pie or whatever it is you peeled the apples for.  Or add them to a squash soup that you are going to blenderize with the blender you already own (stick, regular, food processor).  If you really really MUST peel that damn potato, at least put some seasoning on the peel and bake it like chips.  People pay good money for potato skins at restaurants.

And now, meat stuff.  Buy the right meat.  You can't use stew meat in a fast cooked dish because stew meat is tough.  Yes, it is cheap, but it needs long slow wet cooking to be decent.  If you insist on it for a non-stew dish, you'll need to chop it to a pulp, at which point, just buy the burger.  Buy only what you need.  Freeze it, fridge it, or cook it asap.  If you cook it and don't eat it, chop it up and freeze it in the soup container (see below).  Or freeze it in single portions and LABEL IT.  Put the purchase date and the freeze/fridge/cook date on it.  Labeling is your friend.   When you cut the fat off pork, that's good for frying stuff.  If you don't like the fat, don't bring it home.  Buy a leaner cut.  When you fry meat, save the grease.  You can cook in bacon grease, duck fat, beef grease, almost any grease.  If you don't want to eat it, and it's not tooooo salty, there are recipes for suet type bird food blocks you can make with it.  If you still don't want to do that, rethink how much grease and fat you are bringing into the house.    Save the bones!  Bird carcasses like chicken and turkey are great for soup base.  Put those either in water and boil up right away, or in the freezer to flavor up the scrap soup you're going to have in a bit.  To save waste on a bird carcass:  eat the skin.  If you hate the skin, why did you bring it home?  If you must have the skin and not eat it, dice it up and bake it hard as pet treats.  OK, back to the carcass:  wash your hands and use them to pick off every bit of meat from those bones.  Save that separate from the bones.   Use the bones to make a simple broth by boiling them up.  If you have something in the oven, put the bones in a pan, with a bit of that skin you don't want to eat, that can go in the oven, cover with water and let it go for as long as you can.  You can do it on top of the stove, in a crock pot, pressure cooker whatever.  The basic thing is bones + water + heat + time.  People pay good money for bone broth.  It is the juice from boiling bones.  Don't be frightened when you take it out, let it cool, remove the bones (you can compost them now or even....throw them out if you must...burying them in the garden provides years of minerals to your plants so maybe do that) and chill the broth.  It will thicken.  That's the collagen people are paying money for in powders and bone broths.  It's good for you.  You may not have to buy all that glucosamine anymore if you use this in your scrap soup.

What's this soup container and scrap soup we've been reading so much about lately (in this very blog post)?  It's what you think it is.  If you have a fridge and/or freezer, then get a container...one that you already own.  Perhaps a margarine tub or ice cream bucket or peanut butter jar.  If you have a family of 20, a big container or a few containers is good.  If you live alone, then a container that holds a few cups (I was going to say a pint but do non-canners even know what that is outside hipster beer bars?)   Make sure the container is clean, still has structural integrity, and a tight fitting lid.  If you are a canner, a large mouth pint or quart jar will work.  I avoid metal as some things going in will be acidic but you do you. Find an obvious spot in the fridge or freezer to put the container.  Easy to access daily.  

How to use it:  put food scraps in it after meals.  Have a bit more chopped onion than you need? Put it in the soup container.  Find one lone garlic clove starting to get soft?  Take the paper skin off and put the clove in the container.  Bit of left over salad with no dressing?  Into the container.  Bit of left over salad with dressing?  Rinse the dressing off (in the collander you already own or just in the bowl and then drain by holding the salad in the bowl with your hand) and put it into the container. You rinse off the dressing because ranch does not go with everything.  If it's a vinaigrette, you might leave it.  Don't worry, even lettuce is fine in soup.  Don't put cheese or big hunks of pure fat or egg in the container.  These don't freeze well and interfere with soup texture. Bits of bacon, that last pork chop no one ate...dice those up and put them in the container. Three pieces of salami?  Go ahead, put it in the container.  Zucchini boat to far?  Chop and put in the container.  Did you make spaghetti and there is like a half serving of sauce and 10 noodles left?  Those go in the container.  Apples and pears do ok in most soups.  So a slice or two of those will be fine.  Left over rice and other grains...same thing.  When the container is full, look at it.  If there is no onion or garlic or chives or other oniony/garlicy/chive thing in there, you MIGHT want to fry a bit of one of those in the soup pan before you dump the container contents in.  Or not.  Just dump the container contents into a pan big enough to hold them, about an hour before you want to eat.  Add water ...or some of that delicious bone broth you made...or both.  And that last tablespoon of tomato paste you just noticed in a can at the back of the fridge.  Bring to a boil, lower the temp to a simmer.  Put a lid on it.  Let it simmer until it is time to eat.  It will work great in a crock pot or in a pan in the oven if you are making biscuits to go with it. 

Taste it.  If it is bland, put some in a bowl and try a tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice if you have it.  It will perk up anything.  Add salt, pepper, spices to taste. Usually whatever you threw in the container has enough seasoning to see you through.

Once you sort the seasonings out, put it in bowls and enjoy. 

No Food-Spend February Final Results

 HOLY COW!   You save a LOT of money if you don't spend it on food.  I mean, for reals.  You also learn stuff.

1)  You save on food

2) You save on tips (because not going to restaurants)

3) You save on gas (because groceries and laundry are my towntrip motivators)

4) You learn to eat new, often cheaper, things that have been sitting in the pantry

5) You really start to appreciate that living off other people's "waste" food is pretty amazing and get more and more willing to eat it.

6) You learn that 6 is my favorite number so I had to have 6 things in the list.  

As of Feb 28 I had 2 heads of garlic and a few random cloves as "fresh food" and still have almost all of my sprouting seeds.

Still had a few cans of 2nd harvest veggies and peaches.  4 or 5 cans of peas.  No more beans in cans.  Maybe a half cup of lentils left.

Some dried carrots.  No more bouillon cubes or dried veg mix as soup base.

Still have plenty of berries in vinegar (actually gave a pint and a half jar of them away today...must remember to get that jar back, I love that size/shape) and have been eating them pretty regularly.  They are nice on a veggie and bean soup and add some color other than the carrots from the cans of veggies.

I still have plenty of rice and put 6lbs of spaghetti in the little free pantry over the weekend because it was too much.  While I was there, I grabbed a can of diced tomatoes.  Just one.  It made a really nice tomato-garden soup with the last of the dried veggie mix.  Surprisingly good.

I'm a bit low on spices but still plan to use up what I have.  I'm out of cumin and paprika which are surprisingly handy for adding flavor to almost anything with rice or beans.  BUT I still have chimayo green chili powder and a tube of "poulet" (thanks Chris!) seasoning that is about half full and seems to have some smoky paprika in it.  It is delicious on much more than poulet.  I also have 1 or 2 small jars of salsa from the farmers market.

I was planning on going to the store in a week or so because I will be in town anyway.  I was thinking through what I "need" vs what I want and turns out I don't "need" anything.  I'd like a small bag of sugar to keep my kombucha mother going and keep making kombucha.

I thought I'd like some oatmeal or flour of some sort (still kicking myself for not grabbing the bag of 5lbs of corn meal for 25cents...damn! but I had enough flour).

I say "thought" because I am just moments back from an extra "2nd Harvest" distribution day.  A random truck showed up about 6hours ago and after lunch, the call went out far and wide that there was TONS of stuff available.  INCLUDING MEAT!!!!   

I got many many too many pounds of pasta.  I will re-donate that.  Already passed on the mac and cheese to a colleague with kids.  I don't do the dairy so much and that is totes not worth the dairy cost.  I will pass on most of the spaghetti because I got 3 or 4lbs of spinach rotini and still had 2lbs in the pantry. 

There was also....OATMEAL!!! Maypo brand.  Plain oatmeal.  No sugar.  Whole grain.  Nice.  It's quick cooking but whatever.  I kept thinking I could make a nice fruit crumble if only I had some oatmeal.  And there it was.  2 boxes of 1lb 2oz each.  Lovely.  

More than a dozen cans of fruit.  4 cans of peas.  4 cans of kidney beans.  4 cans of pork and beans (I ate one...oddly good cold out of the can...but tooo salty so the other 3 are getting donated to the little free pantry). 

3 pounds of frozen ground beef.

3 pounds of frozen ground BISON!!!!!  YAY!!!!

Since I was down to 3 or 4 jars of my home canned meat, this is excellent. I cannot remember the last time I had a burger.   I plan to fry one up this weekend and put the rest in soup with the potatoes left from last week's regular distribution (they have some dark spots so need to be eaten sooner rather than later), some of my garlic and dried carrots.  Whatever spices I can round up.   I know I have fennel and peppercorns.   I'm skipping the salt as much as possible so not adding it to most dishes.  I gave away my hot sauce but have that delicious green chili...oooo....green chili bison stew...oh yeah.  That sounds good.  With a random fruit crumble using the oatmeal and a bit of the buckwheat honey or stevia (I bought that stevia powder...less than an ounce, before I moved into the wee shed.  It lasts forever because you need so little).

There are also cans of the mixed veggies in the 2nd harvest "non-perishables" box.   I have started just emptying one into a bowl and adding meat and spices.  The home jarred meat is already cooked.  Just heat and enjoy.  The broth from the veggies in the can is good enough as soup.  Left over soup with a bit more spice and oil is good on pasta or in rice as a casserole.   Like, really not bad.   

I'm not as much of a food princess right now.  I'd RATHER eat local, organic, no-spray and think that is the way farming and consuming food helps the planet.  I think that eating up food "waste" also helps in a different way.  When I have more cash flow, once the house is done or whatever, I can go back to the fancy eating.   

I do appreciate fancy food more now.  

I put money in the grocery budget for March, but could continue to eat healthy meals without it.  I didn't put any money in the dining out lines of the budget.   Or the coffee out budget.

I still have money on the fancy bread gift card and by cutting back to every other week and getting less, like 2 small treats rather than a whole loaf of bread, I am stretching that out for another month at least.  That's kind of fun.  

Hopefully most of the March food budget will go to pantry staples I'm unlikely to get from 2nd harvest, spices, cocoa, coconut oil (one of your better no-dairy oils that keeps reasonably well in the wee shed).

I have enough coffee beans to make it through the month and still have enough tea to host the royal family a few times.  I've cut back to one cup of coffee in the morning and then black or green tea for the next couple of caffeine shots.  It works well so far.  I also found the dregs of a bag of ground chicory root so I can add a bit of that to a small ration of coffee beans and make some New Orleans style coffee.  It's quite tasty really.

Overall, my total spend for things that were NOT the "new" used car (more anon) or the house building bill, was 700$ less than January.  About 300 of that is attributable to the no food-spend.   In the summer, while building the pantry stock, I can spend 200$/month on groceries.  It is easy to spend 50-100 a month on coffee and restaurant food with a couple of work lunches and a few fast drive through coffee hut trips.   March has some annual bills to be paid so won't be as much lower.  But I think I can keep the food bill a great deal lower than it was and that I will keep patronizing 2nd Harvest late in the day after the truly needy have had a shot and the food pantry folks from the small towns around have stocked up their rigs and headed back for those 2ndary distributions (does that make it 3rd Harvest?)

Mid and Longer Term Things to Do: This Is a Marathon, Not a Sprint

So, work is shutting down but I'm the office point person.  I volunteered.  It makes sense.  With schools and daycares closed, those who were not as careful with the birth control have childcare and often elder care issues.  I solved that second bit with what is known as the "geographic fix" in the anonymous type organizations.  I moved. (Sorry Sher!)  (Sorrier Pam!)

Anyway, rather than beating people up for the last sheet of toilet paper, perhaps we could do things that might really work.  Remember: you can wipe your butt with anything, just don't flush it.
With a humanure bucket toilet (which might be a good idea to start...and which I thought I had blogged but can't find a post so maybe a blog on that) I don't have to worry about clogs so as long as I'm not using plastic bags to do the job, my wiper can go in the system.
If you're rich, get a composting toilet and paper that decomposes easily should work.

I ran into this video on one of my favorite YouTube channels.  The lady has passed away and her advice is still good.  With so many people off work without benefits and the congress busy gutting the benefits bill, frugality NOW will help you both be and feel more in control of your finances from here on out.  (I hear that that "feeling" bit is important to some people.  Not my bag but whatever.  I'd rather be in control than feel in control.)

https://youtu.be/fgq5lqd4cxc

Her basic tips:
Family
Have a garden
Use and re-use
Make your own meals
Eat healthy

I figure "friends" count as family too as does the neighborhood.   So I emailed my phone number to my across the road neighbor (she was easy to find as she is a college professor).  We don't really chat because neither of us is like that.  But when I was waiting on a tow truck, she hollered over asking if I needed a ride.  When I go to the community band concerts where she plays the kettle drums, I say hi and chat about nothing for a minute.  We're both cranky so I assume we're both effective people.
She's older than I am and may end up not allowed out.  I can drop some groceries to her if need be.  Or meds.

As for the garden...check.  Do plant one.  Lots of libraries now have "seed libraries" and may be able to get some to you even if they are closed.  Stores are open and seeds are cheap.  You don't need the best and brightest to get started.  Cheap radishes are good.  They grow fast and are tasty and pretty.  Kids and old people love them.  You can dice up the greens and put them in fried eggs or use them in salads.  Let a few good looking early ones go to seed.  Replant every week.
In my raised bed, I had lettuce coming on and a volunteer kale (not because I meant to keep seed...because I was lazy).  We had a cold snap that might have killed them but it was nice to see something get started.
Lettuce is fast too.  Carrots are pretty easy to get going and you can use the tops like parsely.

As for Use and Re-Use...maybe don't reuse the TP unless you've gone with butt-cloths and you wash them between uses.
As for food...buy the whole version of veggies.  Carrots with tops.  Celery as whole bunches.  Skip the sliced and the diced and the trimmed.  Cut off the carrot about an inch down from the top.  Cut off the green bits (the tops) and use as parsley.  THEN, put the carrot nubbin, top side up, in a shallow container of water and watch the top regrow.  You can usually do this once.  Sometimes twice.  With celery, cut the stalks (not "stocks" as I keep seeing in stores...cripes) off about 1 inch up from the bottom.  Set the bottom in a bit of water.  Little celery stalks will grow up.  Remember to dry the celery leaves by laying them on a bit of paper (not that precious TP).  Use as a soup seasoning or in salad dressing when you don't have actual celery.  There's more.  Google it or tell those kids to figure it out with all their out-of-school free time.

As for the Make Your Own Meals...yes please!  I just gave a co-worker a recipe for homemade egg noodles because she couldn't find macaroni and wanted some.  She isn't much of a cook but has a pack of kids at home so it might be something to try with them.  One of them must have a knack for cooking.  Here's the video I sent her...with a note to skip the food coloring:

https://youtu.be/W2JzYzut_FE

Making your own meals is healthier and cheaper and will keep the kids busy.  Kids need to do real things that really help when a family or whomever they live with is/are going through a rough time.  Telling them to stare at a screen or play in the corner tells them they are ineffective and that carries through to adulthood.  Helping cook, garden, regrow a carrot top, find out how to do something, help with laundry, etc...let them help; it's all good for their stress level in the moment because they are making life better for their family/group and in the long run because each kid knows that he/she CAN make things better for themselves and those around them by DOING stuff.  There's research on this.  Look it up.

As for Eat Healthy, well, obviously.  Bingeing on sugary crap to make yourself feel better won't work.  A sugary diet makes one more susceptible to infections of all kinds.  Never mind the sugar-crash that can fuel bad "feelings" that so many of you find so important.  I do not understand why "eating healthy" is left off of the lists of things to do during this pandemic.  Worrying about not getting fastfood if you have a kitchen or even a hotpot or a wood stove and a pan (this does not apply to the homeless, destitute and others with so few resources...you get to eat whatever you can get your hands on safely), but for the majority of us, it is important.  Making your own meals makes it easier to eat healthy than to eat crap.


Thanks to Clara in the first video for her tips and for her family for putting the little video out yesterday from what they'd already filmed.
Her cooking and recipe videos are excellent and fun to watch.  Easy to cook along with.

DAMN YOU PLASTIC!!!

2019 for me is all about reducing plastic coming into my home/life/whatever.  It's a bit rough.

Each evening, when I remember which is about 75% of the time, I write down my plastic use/acquisition whatever.  I don't count plastic I salvage specifically to pass on to another person.  That sounds odd, but so am I.  Yesterday I picked up a plastic pallet for a friend who is coming to till up my garden.  She uses them as the base for her duck house.  easier to scrap the poo off and easier on the duck feet than a wooden pallet or wire base.  I get these used sitting in alleys or where ever.  I figure at least they are getting used longer before they end up in that plastic island in the Pacific ocean.  They are also out of the sunlight which should mean they degrade more slowly.  She is tracking the effect on the ducks.

ANYWAY...since China decided they don't want our dirty plastic buggering up their country, we've been able to "recycle" fewer types at my local recycling place.  I realized before that some of what we were putting there wasn't really recycled but instead just put in landfills later or polluting somewhere else.  When it quit being accepted, that point got driven home, as discussed in a previous post.
This article at CNN reminded me to redouble my reduction efforts:

CHINA'S RECYCLING BAN HAS SENT AMERICA'S PLASTIC TO MALAYSIA.  NOW THEY DON'T WANT IT - SO WHAT NEXT


I'm not linking that because the link will die in days anyway.


So, 2019 is as good a time as any to cut back on plastic.  The first step in figuring out how to get to a new place, on the planet or in life, is to know where you area when you start.  I did this with money budgeting and dieting.  If you don't face facts about the current situation, you don't understand why things aren't working.  This is why I started paying attention to my current plastic usage in January 2019.  It was higher than I thought...same with money and food intake when I started cutting those back.  Better to be honest with oneself than to keep pretending you didn't eat an entire box of nutty buddies (damn you Little Debbie!) or buy an old hotel safe for a silverware drawer (damn you Craigslist!).

About a week in to tracking plastic use, I started where I seemed to have the most coming in...groceries.  Damn you convenience!   I now do better at remembering to bring my own bag or ask for paper or just carry arm loads of crap to the car.  I took empty jars and coffee cans with reasonably tight lids to the food co-op and wrote the tare weights on them empty.  Same with the produce bags I've been given over the years.

For solstice a favorite aunt sent me a new beeswax food wrap!  Thanks Marcie!  (other aunts are favorites too). Getting one of these per year would be ideal.  They last a long time but eventually get mungy and the wax flakes and things. She also wisely chose the one made on organic cotton and packaged in paper.  Some are hemp fabric and I am allergic so that I would have passed on to another person.  I looked up how to make my own wax wraps online and may try it.  We'll see.  I am nothing if not lazy.   So, using that for left overs or apples or whatever instead of cling wrap is another good way to cut back on the plastic, especially the thin plastic.

Cutting back on using plastic bags for my bulk foods purchases wasn't too hard, though when I forget a container or end up at a store where they don't let me use my own container or won't deduct the tare weight from the total weight...I have to start debating.  I have found that some places will let me re-use a paper bag for bulk foods (like nuts 'n such) but not a jar...I don't get it but I did start saving the paper bags that are in good shape and found some lunch sacks (in plastic dammit!) at a thrift store for super cheap and try to remember to throw a couple of those in the grocery basket Sherry (Hi Sherry!) got me years ago for Xmas and it's still good and I still use it almost every day.  It's made of plastic but more on durable plastic vs single use below.

Packaging on foods is a tough one.  I end up buying more bulk, more fresh fruit and veg, and precious little meat.  Sardines in tins and tuna in tins has less plastic than wrapped meats.  Getting my own meat, e.g. fishing or going to a friend's house when she butchers (Hi Cindy!) ducks and chickens works pretty well.  Cindy pressure cans the meat usually so only the lid liner on the re-used jars is new plastic. I think meat independence and canning, drying, and pickling meat will help me with this.  Also...beans.  But I'm taking yoga and lifting weights so I don't want to eat TOOO many beans and then be that lady in yoga who farts through the whole class.  When I lift at the gym, I'm usually alone, then I sneak out a toot and instantly someone else shows up and I don't even have a dog to blame it on.  So, easing beans into the diet.

The bit that should not have surprised me is how much healthier it is to eat when one avoids plastic.  I end up buying "super foods"  (formerly known as "food") like steel cut oats, apples, potatoes, carrots, lentils, rice, flour to make my own breads, and etc.  I'll do a "super foods" rant in a different blog.

When I'm traveling, and I end up REALLY wanting a coffee, having forgotten my plastic-free (or low plastic ) system of my travel french press (yay Planetary Design from a thrift store!) and an insulated stainless steel bottle of super hot water (yay thrift stores!), then I do a drive through.  I try to get the least plastic but alas and alack, those damn coffee lids.  I do get a lid when I forget my own mug because showing up to whatever meeting with a giant brown coffee stain from chin to knees is not super professional. Showing up without the proper level of caffeine in my blood stream results in other non-professional behavior.  I'm keeping an eye out for more of those french presses at thrift so I can keep one and a jar of coffee in the car. Hot water can be had at most gas stations and grocery stores.  I HAD 2 extras but passed them on to friends who were looking for ways to avoid the constant plastic waste from the keurig type coffee makers most offices at work went to.  (I did break down and use the keurig twice last week...to avoid flaming out at a colleague who was getting on my last nerve).

I have also found that some restaurants with drive-thrus use less plastic than others and have targeted those. The one where they hand-patty their burgers and sell them in paper bags with paper wrappers closed...due to employee cash theft or something.  (Damn you underpaid fast food workers!)  A local cafe started a drive up window if you call ahead and I have used it a few times because they cook from scratch and do their best to use up food which will result in less food and plastic waste.  BUT they now put the meal in a styrofoam clamshell, in a thin plastic grocery bag.  If their BLTs weren't so damn good (at the lunch shift..the youngsters working in the evening use cold half cooked bacon fat blobs and yet somehow get the sandwich to sweat in clamshell...and once I had to tell them what the B, the L and the T stood for...and I ended up with a cold sweaty cheese burger in a plastic box.  That pretty well cured me of ordering there in the evening. (Thanks slightly dim cafe worker kid!) I could order an extra lunch and bring that sandwich wrap thing if I planned ahead and walked into the restaurant). 

The quest for the plastic free restaurant and to-go meal resulted in me using that as an excuse to eat at too many drive thrus and restaurants with resulted in 5lbs gained and quite a chunk of change lost.  I warned my new co-worker that May was all about NOT having delicious restaurant lunches when we are out of town.  I'm trying to keep and apple and container of nuts (bulk purchased) in my bag or car at all times to avoid this.  So far, remembering it about 50% of the time.

For non-food type plastic avoidance, things get more complicated still.  I have stopped buying anything but wood or metal stakes for my plants and tree starts.  More expensive than fiberglass and plastics, but also more re-usable.

Sometimes I cop to a durable plastic item that I will use and re-use.  And if I can get it used, all the better.  I still grab 5-gallon plastic buckets at the recycling center free bucket bin.  These are the corner stone of my composting toilet system.  They seem to last years.  A bucket starts as a storage unit for bee equipment or food, or seeds or whatever.  Or as a toilet buck (old crusty weak buckets that have been in the sun and the plastic is brittle are not a good option for toilets ...I don't want to risk a break down mid---well, you know).  Once a toilet bucket, it stays a toilet bucket until it might get weak and then it is an outside garbage bucket for when I have to pick up trucker bombs by the highway (with gloves) and haul those to a dumpster.  I'm afraid I'm not willing yet to pour out the trucker pee from the old plastic they peed in and threw on my property.  It goes in a well used bucket, into the back of the truck, and to the dumpster.  I'm not unwilling to have pee on my land, but god knows what the high levels of no-doze or painkillers would do to my flora and fauna.
Storage buckets move next to water hauling buckets, then to tool and trash hauling buckets before retirement to the recycling center or dumpster depending on the type of plastic and whether I can recycle it right now.

When I buy buckets to use on the property, I go for metal which is about double the cost of a plastic bucket and lasts, apparently, forever.  These don't have air-tight lids so aren't great for some storage needs.

Buying clothes...I buy mostly at thrift but undies need to be new.  I found some (at a 2nd run retail where old retail goes to die) new and on a plastic hangar rather than in a plastic bag.  I don't know which is better or worse. I looked in to buying online, but the packaging for shipping is usually a few layers of plastic bags, and the undies cost more. So...dear readers who know me....cotton undies size 6 hipster style would be excellent Xmas and Bday presents.

I try to avoid nylon, polyester...actually this will be shorter: I try to buy cotton and wool and leather/suede clothes rather than synthetics.   And almost all from thrift.  Sox and undies and some shoes/boots I buy new.  I look for durable and the highest natural fiber content I can get, then look at style and color.  I do have several fishing shirts with pit-zipper vents that are mostly synthetic.  I have yet to wear one of these out.  One was a gift and is at least 10 years old.  These qualify as a "durable" plastic to me.  I find that less offensive than one-off things like store bags.  I go for high quality so I can stitch up rips and tears an patch them and get maximum life out of them.  The synthetics still give off micro-trash in the washer and dryer that ends up in the streams and in the wind and harms the environment so I'm still trying to limit the number of these I own, minimize the washing/drying especially at the laundromat where the wear and tear sends more of the fabric downstream/wind.  Hand washing and hang drying tears them up less and they last longer.  People must be sick of seeing me in the same 10 shirts, but do I care?  I do not.

Buying thrift store stuff...Goodwill locally now bags things like candles, matches, office supplies and other smaller goods in PLASTIC!  Dammit! I use lots of candles as light spectrum correctives at my place because I use rechargable LED lights which are a bit blue and annoying.  Also, a candle is a nice minimal light and makes one feel warm.  But I don't want a big plastic bag on my cheap candles.  I'm re-melting candle nubbins and trying to make more candles with candle wicks I find at thrift.  The wicks have less plastic on them than the bagged candles.  So far, not a crashing success and I'm hoping to be able to make my own wicks some day.  I have bees so perhaps I will also have beeswax, but not enough for the next few years at least.

I may have to revert to new paper goods over thrift store office supplies or find alternative, grungier, thrift stores for paper because the plastic bags really annoy me.

When I do get plastic bags, I re-use them.  I have a high quality smallish plastic store bag that I call "the bag of bags" and rinse, dried plastic bags, and other bags, get stuffed in there.  Then when I'm casting about the wee shed for a bag to put something in (perhaps an apple and some nuts) I know where to find a reasonable clean one.  If I'm giving food away I find people like to see it in a zip-type bag.  I get those when people give me stuff, wash them out, and re-use. I tried giving stuff in an obviously re-used paper sack and some folks got grossed out.  I have many tin, steel and glass containers but stopped handing food out in those because only a small subset came back to me and it was pissing me off.

I have also been tracking plastic-coated paper.  Partly because I can't compost this or make it into paper fire bricks.  Coffee hut coffee cups ...usually plasticized.  Receipts from stores (which I take to track my budget) ...usually plasticized.  Junk mail, catalogs, etc etc etc...often plasticized.
I'm also finding plasticized stickers on my local organic apples!  GEEZ!!! Really food co-op?   If I can get a couple of root cellars going I hope to buy and grow basic vegetables and fruit to avoid more of those stupid stickers.


Then there is the plastic people give you.  I'm trying to do a number of plastic-free days per month, just like the "no spend" days that help my budget.  I will be going along well, not buying anything, not using the keurig coffee at work, drinking tap water rather than bottled, etc.  THEN someone will give me a gift or office supplies arrive at work.  In plastic or made of plastic. Dammit!  It is everywhere.   I'm lucky to get 5 or 6 days a month without plastic coming into my possession.  If I stay home, see no one, buy nothing, I can do it.  That is my preferred mode of living, but with a job and volunteering and people knowing where I live, it doesn't happen often.

Specific to me things...I went "foundationless" on my bees, though I'm using bits of plastic foundation I already had as comb guides in the hives. That wasn't "new" to me plastic and if it works, it will cut back on the apiary plastic consumption.  I got 2 packages of bees (more in another post) and those came not in the old wood and screen type packages but in STUPID plastic packages!  DAMMIT!!!  I don't know if they will take these at recycling and I'm looking for ways to re-use them.  Perhaps mouse traps?  Queen excluders?  Entrance reducers? Hive ventilation?

Any and all ideas on how to avoid, limit, reuse, recycle and otherwise reduce plastic in my life are welcome.

10 ways to save $10 a Week!

If you do all of them, you'll save 100$ a week. 5200$ a year.

If you do half of them, 50$ a week. 2600$ a year.

A half assed job at all of them, also 2600$ a year.

A half assed job at half of them...still 1300$ a year.

These aren't in any order and are because I'm doing a frugal touch-up and rereading The Tightwad Gazette. I don't know how many of these I can do but I'm going to try.

1) Make 2 homemade coffees instead of buying 2 fancy coffees per week.

Assuming $5.25 and a tip per fancy coffee, you could even use those spendy pod or cup thingies for the coffee.

I am already using my thrift purchased travel french press stainless steel mugs and a thrift purchased thermos of hot water (heated upon the butane burner I found for free in a former apartment like 3 years ago and using the cheapest butane I can get my hands on)

To cut that EVEN MORE, I asked for coffee for my birthday and my favorite Aunt...well, one of my favorite aunts...sent not the 1 lb I asked for, but 2 full lbs AND several little fancy roast samplers that I can get 3-5 cups from. Nice. I figure that's 3 months of coffee. After that I still have an lb of chicory blend coffee I bought for 6$ in Louisiana (I was there for work) as a gift for someone but ended up not needing. So there is a few more weeks of coffee.

AND I need to cut back to just one cup per day. More than that gives me hot flashes anyway. I do make a 2^nd cup from the same grounds. It's not good, but I don't want to waste the last of the caffeine.

2) Cut out 1 restaurant work-lunch per week. 

 It's hard to get a restaurant lunch with a beverage for under 10$. In the past few weeks I've been invited to work lunches repeatedly.  I go because people expect me to be minimally social.  The trouble is, it costs $$.  The other trouble is, I eat too much and get fat and salty and tired and have hot flashes. I guess that's several troubles.

I am retrenching personally on this one.  I texted the colleague who most likes to do lunch, and knows the VERY best lunch spots.   I suggested that since I need to save $$ AND the delicious food was undermining my health goals and making me sweaty...we should meet up in the conference room with salads or whatever. Perhaps we could share lunch preparation.  We've tried to help each other in the past with cutting sugar content in the diets so this is someone sympathetic to at least the health part of the equation.   It's much cheaper to even buy bag of salad and some fancy tuna than to go out.

3) Cut 100 miles of driving.  

For reals.  At the current price of gas, a 50 mile round trip is costing me about 5$.   Actually a bit more. I drive 25 miles each way to work.   That's not very cuttable. I use my car for work during the week and am “on call” from the office to field sites so can't really share rides with people unless they want to not know what time they will be home at night. I could cut one trip to town (25 miles each way) and try to consolidate work trips each week. I can also walk more once I get to town for errands. This one is a challenge in the summer when I'm called out more. But, worth a try.

4) Cut food waste by eating what I have and eating all of what I buy.

Food waste….On the “Dollar Stretcher” website there has been a forum called Food Waste Friday where those who choose to participate can post what they wasted each week. Despite my efforts, I still chuck some of the fresh food I buy. Convenience foods tend to get fully consumed, but cost more. Buying fresh or at least not convenience and eating all of it would save the most money. Making the effort! It doesn't take much waste to add up to 10$. Since I try to spend 200$ a month on groceries, 40$ (4 weeks at 10$) is 20% of the budget! That's worth the effort and will more than offset any extra groceries needed by not going out to lunch.

5) Shop in my stuff before I shop at the store. 

 I have more often than I wish to admit bought a duplicate of an item that I already own, just because I forgot I had it. So, before I buy a clothing item, I will go through the clothing back stock and really see if I need the exact item or if something will work just as well. E.g. today I say a nice raincoat at thrift (5$), but thinking through it, I have a rubber rain coat (also from thrift) that works fine. Just doesn't look fabulous. Ultimately, not worth another 5$ to me to have a nicer looking less rubbery raincoat that might not be all that waterproof.

I've also bought medical supplies when I already HAD that medical supply (bandaids, elastic wraps, creams, etc). So, a few weeks ago I went through the box in storage marked “meds” and got out the aspirin I'd forgotten I had. I was out of aspiring at the homestead. I also went through the first aid kits at home and in the vehicles and made sure the stock was evenly distributed instead of all the bandages in one case and none in the other. This way, hopefully, everything will get used up at a fairly steady rate.

I periodically go through my clothes to see what really isn't getting used and can be donated, chucked, recycled, or in several instances...put back into circulation. E.g. I have too many pairs of lovely knee high wool skiing sox. I can't store them all in the homestead. So some are in storage. When the ones in full rotation get tatty, I try to remember to go through the stored winter clothes before buying new socks. In trying on all my pants to see what did/didn't work I found that one pair that I hadn't worn in a while, was actually presentable and fit reasonably well. They aren't my favorite pants, but no reason not to wear them. An old pair of work pants is just too big, but also pretty tattered so may be turned into a set of pouches with the waist band and belt loops still attached so I can use it when gardening to carry pin flags, seeds, tools, etc.

6) Cut back on entertainment expenses. 

 Mine are pretty well cut, but there is always more to be done!

I used to do a movie a week at 5$ (2^nd run theater...1st run theaters are too expensive to even be considered). This year, I bought a 10 movie pass for 50$, which is a better deal than it sounds since their basic movie rate went up to 7$. I was also buying the 1$ popcorn. I can skip the popcorn. The 10 prepaid movies means I can see how many movies I want to spend on this year, it's already spent, and prioritize which ones I go to.

I get most movies from the library. I rent a few from the local video co-op. I will be cutting back on co-op movie rentals.

I also rarely spend on books anymore (says the woman who spent 20$ on a plant guide this morning….more on that anon). I get them from the library. Even audio books. Library. With interlibrary loan I can get pretty much anything. Today I asked about a book I wanted but could not find in the system. The librarian put in a “purchase request” for the book. If they don't buy it, they will look further afield to interlibrary loan it. If I find I check a book out over and over, I put it on the list for things to find used, at thrift, or ask for when it's gift time (holidays, birthdays). Just this year I got multiple books I'd been coveting (including a different plant guide than the one I bought) as gifts.

I don't go out to clubs or bars so that saves but that means it's also a spot I can't cut from the entertainment budget...already cut to 0.

Radio: don't under estimate it. I listen most days to get the weather and news. I don't have internet at my place or a smart phone. The radio is the basic info stream. No TV on the premises (movies watched on the laptop). One day I couldn't get the weather I wanted on the radio so I called information...that's a thing we used to use all the time and DOES cost a buck or so, and got the number for the local national weather service office. Sure enough they have a phone line where you can get the weather forecast for your area. NICE!! No need for a TV and cable to watch the weather channel. I programmed the number in the phone so it's a one-time cost for information.

7) Review car insurance coverages.

I recently did this and saved over 400$ per year. I had full coverage on one vehicle, including rental car. This made sense when I had one vehicle given how dependent I am on it (life choice that costs $$ but one I made with my eyes open). I would need a rental vehicle. NOW that vehicle is worth much less and I have a 2^nd vehicle. I don't need the rental. Should I decide to make a long distance road trip, I will look into adding the rental coverage back in. You can do that. You can also suspend the insurance on the vehicle you aren't driving at the moment. I don't have the attention span to turn the insurance on and off depending on which rig I'm driving on a day, and often drive both in one day for different tasks. So, cutting insurance made sense. See what you can personally tolerate and see if you can cut back. Also, compare companies. That's my next step.

8) Use the discounts or coupons that you have AND that you need. 

 I won't use a coupon for an item I wasn't buying anyway. I won't go somewhere or buy something just to get the discount. I keep a list of what I need or choose to buy, then watch for a coupon or discount that will apply to that.

Today, I knew I had a 10$ off customer appreciation coupon for a local hardware store. It was good yesterday and today only. Yesterday I wasn't going to be in town and gas to town and back is about 5$ so ...not worth a specific drive to use the coupon. TODAY I was in town for multiple errands and tasks. I took my list to the hardware store. It included the above mentioned plant guide (it is specific to local native species and I am trying to restore native species on my property). I also needed a ground tamper and had compared prices during other trips to hardware stores. This store had one in stock and at the same price as elsewhere. So, the cost of the book and the tool met the minimum amount to use the 10$ coupon which maximized the value of the coupon. I went in, spun the wheel for a free gift (which turned out to be a free sample of dog treats...I don't have a dog but I can use them as bait in traps), grabbed the two items I had already identified as the best things to buy there with the coupon, and hit the check out. Then it was off to the next errand.

9) Keep a list and keep it on you. 

 I have a master list of things I need or want and have chosen to buy. I don't go to stores without it. This morning I had to get out of the car and go back up the hill to the homestead on foot (no driveway up there...too expensive) to get the list. No point in going to town to do errands without the list.

With the list, I can go to thrift stores and yard sales I may pass, and see if things on the list are available for cheap. Just yesterday I stopped by a yardsale and found a ground squirrel trap! That was on the list. I have a ground squirrel problem and have chosen not to poison them. The trap was 5$ at the yard sale. In full working condition. I looked online and new it would be 56$. I would never spend that much. I'd suffer with squirrels. For 5$ I will try it and if it doesn't work the way I like, I can resell it or trade it for something else.

At the farmers market and grocery stores today (walking from one to the other to save on the gas noted above) I carried the list and got things at the best price without duplicating or having to go back and return something when I found it cheaper elsewhere. TP at the co-op. There is cheaper TP but the co-op TP is one roll in paper, not 4 or 36 in plastic. I have limited storage and store things in tins. I can store 3 or 4 rolls, not 36. I also don't like to buy things in plastic if I can avoid it. I wanted stevia sodas this week as I get off the sweet restaurant food. Those are cheaper at a grocery store. As was mint tea. There was a 3^rd grocery store. That one has the best “discontinued” or “discounted” food rack and the cheapest allergy stuff that was on my list. It is also near the recycling center with the free book bin. I got a free book and next time I'm through I will drop off a free book I'm done with.

10) Free stuff! 

 I love those little free libraries and the free book bin at the recycling center. I use them. A few times I year I actually find books on my list. That's always a treat. Sometimes I find awesome antique books like the vest pocket dictionary from the early 1900s that I have now been using for more than a year. It's tiny and handy and antique and free. I've found a few books from a home designer that I admire and have used ideas from them in designing my next home. The free book bin also yielded a honey cookbook that I've been using and may pass on if I ever stop using it. Today, I got a multi-cassette audio book about how to be a winner...I can't wait to find out how I can be a winner. The brand new used pickup has a cassette player.

At the community garden, in exchange for helping them while I learn new things, I am given greens and a few eggs. That's a win-win-win. They get help. I get educated. I get food.

Next to the community garden is a 2^nd harvest food distribution center. The manager there is happy if we take pallets. Many pallets. I do take pallets when I need them. I try to remember to drive that brand new used pick up that day and load up on the pallets I can use.

At work, people open lots of boxes of stuff. Big boxes. When I'm setting up new garden beds or smothering thistle thickets, I take boxes. Leave them in the rain a day or two and the tape and other plastic peels right off. Then they go down where needed, often held in place with pallets that haven't been used on their assigned project yet.

Beware of free stuff with strings. If it's new and free, you may be the product. I don't sign up for free stuff on the internet if it requires my contact info. That means someone is selling my contact info and/or trying to sell me crap for NOT free. I hate that.

I don't take free things I don't also need.

Today at the library I used the free seed exchange. I took 6 asparagus seeds. I could have taken enough seed to grow a market garden feeding dozens of people, but I don't need that much. I want to see if I can start asparagus in a newly tilled up garden bed. 6 seeds should give me an idea about that.

What Do "Regular" People Spend on Groceries and Food????? ???

So, I was listening to the radio last night.  The little solar powered (also a dynamo crank if there isn't sun) that my sister bought me years ago.  Still works although the handle broke off the crank and the broken end digs into my hand.   ANYWAY, listening to the radio.  The John Tesh show.  I can only get about 3 stations and it was that, music I loathed, or christian radio.  I can tolerate the 1980s power ballad line up on that show if not the "info for your life" bits he does.

An advertisement comes on with little Johnny Tesh's voice.  Marketing some pre-packaged-DIY meal/food delivery thing.  The selling points were "only 10$ a plate" and "faster than waiting for expensive delivery food."

I would not put "only" in front of "10$ a plate."  That would mean spending 30$ a day per person on meals.  Coffee trips, snacks, and meal time/other beverages not included.  900$/month for just your meals.   If it's only supper, still 300$ a month and you've got a lot of eating left to do.

My monthly grocery budget for high end organic food is under 200$. I spend about 50$ a month dining out for work lunches or treats and 20$ a month is currently in the "coffee out" budget so I can have a coffee with a friend about twice a month or do a drive through espresso if I'm on the way to an especially crap meeting.

270$ a month.  That's all meals, beverages and treats.  OK, in fairness, the 1$ popcorn at the local independent 2nd run theater goes in the "entertainment" budget line.  I see an average of 6 movies there a year so $270.50 a month if we're being totally honest.

What do "normal" non-thrifty people spend on groceries and food????

Do the people subscribing to these services sending them prepackaged meal kits think they are saving $$? 
Are they saving $$?

How much can they spend on food?

And what of the waste (much of it while the meal kit is being prepared and put together in the factory)?
What of the packaging?  How much food-packaging trash do these people haul out of the house (or pile on the floor if they are hoarders...no judgment)?

I've been being "lazy" by buying bag-o-salad which I find wasteful and feel guilty about.

I've checked some online resources for "average food budget" and I come in low for my income-level, and will be cutting back to afford some other things this year. 

Most sites note that people eat many meals at restaurants, as take-out, or delivery.  That wouldn't seem to be true in rural areas but maybe it is.  If so, the 10$ a plate wouldn't seem AS bad to those who buy restaurant and delivery frequently.  And the level of food and packaging waste would not be as dramatic as it would for me.

To each her own I suppose.

I like to cook and I don't mind butchering chickens, gardening, canning, and doing dishes.  Those meal delivery kits are not for me.

White Trash Craftery™ Part Deux: Hummingbird Feeder

"Deux" is Paris talk for "2"


So, I was spending a day INSIDE (inside the wee shome) because I was sick of humanity.  More so than usual even.

I decided to watch movies, listen to the radio, talk on the phone with carefully selected others, and do crafts.

Crafts.  Tiny shed home.  I used what I had.

Supplies:
A left over jar with a sturdy screw on lid

Turns out I LOATHE caviar.  It tastes like salty fish slime.  But it was on sale and I wanted to try something new...and it was in a cool tiny jar that would be handy for something.

A used bottle with a sturdy screw on lid.  It looks like I used a wine bottle but it was actually filled with stevia sweetened sparkling apple juice.  Also, on sale.  It cost less than the jar of nasty salty fish slime.  I will be keeping an eye out at the recycling center for cool bottles and jars.

A coat hanger (wire).
Duct tape (optional)
A bit of glue or silicon sealant (probably optional)


Tools needed:
Leatherman
Scissors (optional, you could just use the knife on the leatherman or your teeth).

Step 1: Wash the jar and the bottle very well, but don't bother picking the label off the bottle unless you want to.

Step 2: Use the screw top of the bottle to make a circle more or less in the center of the jar lid.
Use the olde tyme bottle can opener thingy on the leatherman to cut a cross from the center of that circle to not quite the edge of the circle.  You want the bottle top to hold the jar lid onto the bottle.
Use the needle nose pliers thingy on the leatherman to tear off these little tabs you just made, still trying to stay inside the circle you drew.  The pliers can be used to fold back, toward the inside of the jar, and pinch the sharp bits from tearing the metal.

Step 3: use the tiny screw driver or punch thingy on the leatherman to make little holes about 1/8inch in diameter around the lid.  I made 4 holes.  A couple were a tad big but that can be corrected later with the duct tape.  Punch the holes from the outside toward the inside so you aren't creating little hummingbird beak stabbers.

Step 4: use the rasp thingy on the leatherman to mash down and smooth out any sharp bits on the jar lid.  When you can run your finger over it and not get cut, it's probably good enough.

Step 5: Use whatever portion of the leatherman works to make a biggish hole in the top of the bottle lid.  Smooth off any sharp bits as above.

Now it gets complicated:

Step 6:  Push the jar lid over the top of the bottle threads.  You want the top of the jar lid "up" when the bottle is upside down.  Once you get it part way on the threads, start screwing on the bottle lid to push the jar lid along firmly.

Step 7: you can put a little ring of glue or silicone around the seam between the jar lid and the bottle lid if you want.

Step 8:  Screw on the bottom of the jar and admire your work.

Step 9:  Use various parts of the leatherman to twist a wire coat hangar around the bottle so you can hang your contraption up, jar at the bottom, rear end of the bottle facing the sky. (Duh)

Step 10: Optional decorative crafty bit!  Find some random British flag duct tape you forgot you had (how do I lose things in that tiny space?), use scissors, the knife thingy on the leatherman, or your teeth, to get rid bits out of the tape and apply these to the jar lid, keeping the  holes open.  I strategically placed some of the tape to smallify the holes that were a bit large.

And Voila:

Mix up some hummingbird food and you are in business!
Unscrew the jar from its lid, use a funnel to fill the bottle.  If you take the bottle lid on and off you will loosen up the jar-lid-bottle-lid joint that is crucial to the White Trash Craftery™ Hummingbird Feeder longevity.
















There was a rufous hummingbird at the feeder within an hour or so of hanging it up.  Perhaps sooner since I was elsewhere on the estate for a bit.