3,000 Things I Don't Buy Anymore!

 Ok.  Hyperbole.  A bit. Not really 3000 in the list but if you expand the classes into individual things I think I'd have a pretty high number.

I've been following some frugal youtubers. The recipes are usually useful because they are like mine:  Take what you have, apply heat, eat.

The youtube then posts a list down the side of the screen of other stuff I might enjoy.  The list is usually wrong.  I noticed that many many of these are videos you have to watch to putatively find out what X number of things the person or family (all well staged in full make up and often wearing yoga pants) doesn't buy.  You might find out, admittedly I only watched a couple to get the flavor of it, that this person/family gave up buying a brand new Mercedes each year, no longer orders from the most expensive restaurant in town more than once a week, etc.  The real goal seems to be to build views and clicks and ad doses so the youtuber gets paid.  I moved on.  The youtubers I like for the frugal tips are the ones who clearly are filming on an outdated phone, no make up, and wearing the same outfit in pretty much every vid.

So, I gave up the new car yearly before I even started.  My "don't buys" are a tad more advanced and rest assured if you read this, I make no $$.

Most my "things" are whole classes of things.   Many of the blogger/vlogger types have "things" that are actually subsets of things...like they don't buy top end shampoo anymore.   One who is running in the background is saying they gave up "expensive make up"...ok.  What if you just looked like what you look like?

Some things I have quit buying or never bought/paid for:

1) Make up.  Once I bought mascara but it was green and blue and specifically to bug a creepo professor I was working for.

2) Hair products.  A bit of Sun-In in the 1980s, shampoo and conditioner until I went no-poo.  The occasional deep conditioner (turns out it was just olive oil). In the last 2 years I have spent 5$ on specific hair products.  An expired box of henna.   Still baking soda or salt to wash the hair, and vinegar-water to rinse, then a cold rinse.  A year ago I got a fantastic hair brush and comb so not even those.

3) Car washes.  In my life I have never washed a car that I own.  I trash them before they rust.  And, I don't care how my car looks.

4) New cars. Never bought a new car.  Don't plan on it.  Used cars and I'm shifting back to more used.  The 3 year old car was hard to get the money out of.  

5) i-anything.  I have never spent money on an apple product.  I have one. It's a gift (thanks pam!) of someone's used old one to replace another hand-me-down version of an outdated i-product.  

6) Anything from Amazon.  ONCE in 2020 I got a thing on Amazon because it couldn't be had from any other source in the timeframe I needed it to keep working.  I blame covid.

7) Cheese. OK, dairy.  I can't eat it hence I don't buy it.

8)  Booze.  I don't drink much so why buy it.  I remember buying prosecco in Italy a decade or more ago.  I might have treated to some booze in Portland a year ago...then again, might have been Unca Pat who sprung for the Brennevin.

9)  Earrings for myself...because I do not have pierced ears. 

10) Haircuts.   As covered in other posts, not even a trim since 1989. 

11) Manicures/pedicures.  I don't even get why people spend money on odd looking fingernails.  Whatever.  

12) Tattoos.  Don't have one.  Don't want one.

13) Piercings.  Why?  Why spend money to have a hole punched in your body that you now want to buy jewelry to fill the hole back up?  Those who want to pierce, help yourselves. You probably wonder why I want to spend money on thrift store coffee makers.

14) Purses. I don't carry them so I don't buy them.  I do have ONE that I carry on vacations because it fits a bottle of water and is the "personal item" I can take on an airplane in addition to the carry-on.  I got it in San Gemignano (spelling????) Italy more than a decade ago.

15) Sox.  This one I might have to start again some day but I get enough REALLY NICE sox on the holidays (3 pair or more this year...all fabulous) that I haven't needed to.

16) Dish clothes/sponges. I have a friend who knits amazing dish clothes and have a few in back stock, 3 in rotation.   An Aunt (Hi Marcie) sends me re-usable cellulose ones for holidays pretty often too.  I also find that the pockets off worn out jeans make a really good dish rag for things like cast iron pots.  Given that I buy thrift jeans and wear them out about 3 pairs a year, that's 6 dish clothes I'm producing...I should have a sustainable system going.  Yes, I wash the worn out pants before I repurpose them.

17) Paper towels.  I have dish towels and a rag bag.  AND I'm not above taking the end of the roll after the custodian at work refills the fancy (stupid?) automatic electric paper towel dispenser that seems to be unable to cope with the last 1/2inch of the roll.  That's a lot of paper towel to chuck in the trash.  That said, I have bought shop towels in 2020 so maybe I'm lying.  People were helping me with plumbing and they like shop towels to use.  So I got some.  Used up the remainder as TP during the mid 'rona times.

18)  Anything at Walmart.  Haven't been there since the floods in Iowa and that was about the only store in town with what we needed. Before that I hadn't been in a Walmart in years.  It always surprises me to see cars in the parking lot as I head to Goodwill next door in Moscow.  Much like Bezos, the Waltons do not need my money.

19)  Cable/dish/etc.   I don't have a TV.  Until the 'rona hit I didn't pay for wifi either and when it's over I plan to cancel it.  It's 20$/month for the wifi hotspot.  

20) Streaming service.  No hulu, netflix, whatever.

21) Gym membership.  I get one free at work and another one with the Dr I use.  So I have access to 2 gyms, but only one with showers.

22) Bottled water. This one I have the occasional mishap with.  Once in a while I am somewhere and have forgotten my tap water in a bottle or jug and can't find free potable water.  I then buy a bottle of water in a really good quality bottle if I can so I can re-use the bottle.  I hate it though.

23) Subscriptions.  No magazines, no food boxes, no make up boxes, no scarf/purse/etc.  I can't even conceive of how some of these are subscriptions.  No automatic re-order or re-ship things.  Since I buy less online than most of the other people I know, that helps.  

24) Autopay anything.  I don't autopay ANYTHING because it's complicated to get it stopped.  And it would make me ignore the bill.   I have auto-notices for the phone and storage, but I pay them individually and review all bills before I pay them almost every time. Twice in 2020 I paid the phone bill late so I put a reminder on my work calendar.  

25) Cleaning products.   I make what I need from vinegar, baking soda, borax, etc.  During early 'rona I bought a thing of bleach in case I had to drink my well water during a 2 week quarantine when I hadn't been running much water through the storage tank. It can get a bit funky...and not in a good "Jame Brown" kind of way.  The bleach is sitting unopened on the porch.  I may use it in laundry eventually.

26) Keurig pods.  I don't have a keurig or any similar coffee maker.  There is one at work.  I have a little adapter and fill that with whatever coffee is at hand.  The little pods are expensive compared to even nice beans you grind up yourself AND they are creating a layer at the dumps that will rival the layer of disposable diapers (I'm not just blaming babies for that...duffer diapers are a huge industry too).  

27) Audio equipment.  Because I have a bad ear for music.  No point in my buying fancy headphones or  speakers.  I have a 3 little radios, one was a gift and 2 were thrift, so I can check the news or weather or listen to something.  They are mono-speaker deals with crank things to charge them up.  One is solar.  OH!  Wait.  3 years ago I bought 2$ speakers at thrift because the speakers on my computer died.  I don't think they count as "audio equipment".   Work bought me headphones so I can do zoom meetings more efficiently.  I often forget I have them.  

28) Furniture.  The world is FULL of free furniture especially if you had my Gramma.  I bought a little shelving unit in the late 1990s when I lived in a house with a strange kitchen.  No drawers!   And the cupboards were narrower than a dinner plate.  So I got some folding shelves to put my plates on and to hold cans to stand the silverware in.

29) Electricity!  I have a wee solar system at the wee shed so that's paid off.  I will need to maintain the system through the years but no monthly electric bill.   Same with the water...put the well and pump and etc in so no monthly bill.  Something blew up last night or snapped.  Could have been a battery...which would SUCK or it could have been a frozen tree (cold and windy last night) snapping off.  Or a transformer on the electric line on the highway blowing up.  If it was one of my batteries I will need to replace that.  I think 1 or more need replaced anyway. But maybe not when it's 10 degrees out.

And much much more!    

NOT buying stuff is thrifty, frugal and helps with voluntary simplicity.  If I don't buy it, I don't have to deal with it.

I Did NOT Change My Mind

This is a rant.  Because I am SICK OF IT.

To the many doctors who would not tie my tubes in my 20s because "You will change your mind" or "your husband will want kids" and to all those others who told me that I would change my mind, or die alone and sad (as if people WITH kids don't die alone and sad), or that I am selfish (that's rich!) for not having or wanting kids:  BITE ME.

I did NOT change my mind.  I didn't spawn and I'm glad.  I love it.  It's my favorite thing.

Those doctors sentenced me to 23 years of birth control pills and condoms.  I always use a minimum of 2 birth control methods.  No mistakes.  No accidents.  I spent thousands of dollars and untold hours to avoid pregnancy and unwanted children.  As if the world needed more unwanted children.  The world does not need any more children. 

What made those doctors think that I would marry a guy who wanted kids? And that it would be MY JOB to have them just because some asshole wanted some?  There are plenty of breeders out there for those guys.

What made those doctors assume I would get married?  To a guy?  I didn't.  And I'm fine.  Quite happy.

As for dying alone and sad; well, I suppose I COULD die happy in a a group but that's pretty rare.  Most people are the only one in the room croaking at any given time and very few are happy about it.
I know many people who did have kids.  Most of those kids don't want their mother or father dying in the living room in a hospital bed full of feces and urine.  Most of those kids moved on and are trying to lead their own lives (selfish little bastards...if one follows the above logic anyway).

How selfish is it to have children in order to avoid your own fear of death?  More selfish than me NOT having children and just dealing with the idea that some day, I'm going to die and that at some point before that, I will probably crap my pants and have no one at the ready happy to wash me down?  According to my accusers, I should have had a kid and made it super dependent so it would stand me up in the shower and hose me off  (Mom:  I will totally hose you off if you need it because I know that is NOT the reason you had me.  You were young and stupid, that's why you had me).

One woman in particular who accused me of being selfish and of changing my mind later (mind you, I was WELL into my 40s at the time so that ship had seriously sailed) had gone to great lengths and tens of thousands of dollars in infertility treatments and adoption procedures in order to make her family.  Good for her.  She invested in getting what she wanted:  children.  She did not see that as selfish but me NOT bringing unwanted children into the world, she does see that as selfish.  To her I say:  BITE ME. 

To the fish and other beings poisoned by the decades I spent peeing out excessive estrogen from the birth control pills:  I am sorry.  I did consider this when going on the pill.  The other option was destroying you through bringing kids, who may have produced ever more generations of children to decimate the limited resources of our planet and kill you that way.  If I'd been given the tubal ligation when I asked for it in my 20s, I would have saved enough to retire on and saved the planet. 

Instead I was patronized and told that I would change my mind and it wasn't reversible and on and on and on.  Even at Planned Parenthood where they were happy to prescribe the pills or an IUD or jam tubes of estrogen in my arm.  Anything but tying the tubs.  To them I say: BITE ME.  BITE ME. BITE ME.   

BITE ME.

I declare today, the day before mother's day to be
"Happy People Who Did Not Overpopulate the Planet Day"

A series of cheesy/sappy cards will be coming out soon.
Appropriate gifts include anything but a giant vase of dead flowers.

FAIL!!! A Thrifty Tale

So, as they say, pride goeth before the fall.  Or rather, confidence goeth before the fail.

A friend (HI!) asked if I could teach her how I thrift shop.

Well, I had a plan.  It didn't work.  I asked about a list and she didn't have one and instead of stopping and doing that, we went in stores anyway.  I didn't think things went all that well, but then again, I've been honing my technique, which works for me, for years.  She has different goals and plans and was new to these thrift stores.


Here's what I think I do to get some good deals thrifting, and shopping in general:

Keep a master list.  I keep it in my ipod (which is ancient and was a gift from a friend so free to me).
On the list are sections like "GROC" and "HARDWARE" and other things.  If I think I need something it goes on the list.  If it's something I need soon, like say toilet paper when I'm on the last roll, then it gets capitalized or moved to the top.  Sometimes both.    If it's something that can wait, like upgraded rubber boots, then it sits at the bottom of the list where I have to scroll down to see it or stuck in a general "thrift" category.  Right now, in the low priority longterm areas are things like a good beekeeping reference book, more comfortable rubber boots, and a scythe or sickle to cut weeds.  Not immediate issues, but if I see a really good option at a yardsale or something, I can get it.

Donate BEFORE I buy. I'm trying to cut back on the crap.  It's a battle against both genetic lines that lead to me.  Hoarders all the way back to primordial soup.  So I have to take stuff OUT before I bring stuff into my life.  There are side effects. It makes me shop in my crap before I go.  If I think I want a new tool or need nails, first I go through the unorganized box of hardware stuff and find something that isn't getting used.  Sometimes I find what I was going to buy.  Or, as happened last weekend.  I might go through a box looking for one type of thing (a sweater...which I found) and find another...my good line level was in with a sweater.  Why?  No one knows.  But I have it now and it comes off the list.   ALSO: If you donate to Goodwill, get a receipt.  There is a 20% off coupon on the bottom.  You get a tax write off for donating and 20% off a purchase if you make it.

Wait a while.   If something goes on the list, other than TP or food, wait a while.  If I see the list later and I don't really care one way or the other about the item, it comes off the list.


Hit the thrift store when you are already in the neighborhood.  I don't make a special trip to shop. If I'm going by, I stop if I have things on the list that might be there.


Review the list before I get out of the car or walk in the store.  A list unused is a pointless endeavor.

Pay cash if possible.  Especially at thrift.  Cash is the most salient type of money for me. I notice cash leaving my hand and pocket.  When I get paid, I get about 2 weeks worth of money in cash, the rest goes in the bank.  I notice when my pocket starts to get empty.  At thrift, pay cash.  Those stores aren't all making big bucks and the percentage the credit/debit costs them matters in the big picture even if it doesn't matter to you personally for that transaction. 

Know your thrift stores. In the local area, I know which thrift stores have better prices and selections on various items.  One has a better hardware section, one has better clothes for outdoor work, another (the most christian based one) has cheap dress clothes and canning tools.  And so on.  I run through all the sections in each, but I can usually count on particular stores for the best prices on various items.

Know the sale of the day.  Most thrift stores have colored tag sales each day to keep stock moving through.  One store has sales by room (it's a big store) each day of the week so it pays to know which day furniture or clothes or dishes will be on sale at that store.  For colored tag sales, if I need a shirt or pants, I only look at the clothes with that color tag.  Jeans are jeans whether I pay 20$ or 5$.  Since I have a list and a long term view, I can wait for the sale.  If there is something I really need I might buy it if it's the wrong color tag.  That's what those 20% off coupons are for if it's at goodwill.  I've gotten carhartt pants and things that weren't on the tag sale because I know those will go fast. 

Check the items carefully before you buy.
-For clothes:  Check the fabric, construction and quality.  Check for tears, stains, missing buttons, bad smells, etc.  There is so much thrift clothing that I no longer buy clothes that just need a button or have a stain.  There will be another shirt or coat or pants next time that is in perfect shape. Many have the tags on them after the holidays or at the end of the "season" when retail stores pass on overstocks. 
ALSO:  check the care instructions on clothes.  There is no point in paying big bucks to dry clean a daily wear shirt I got on sale.  I also don't have room to dry things flat right now so I don't buy things that need to be dried flat.  That said, I might buy things very cheap, e.g. the 25cent bin at St Vinnie's, and just wash as I usually do even if they have special instructions.  For 25cents, I don't need to get much wear out of a garment.   I reuse as rags or fire starters. 
-For dishes, jars, etc:  check for chips.  Run a finger around the edges.  See if it is food safe or if it was maybe meant as decoration.  Smell it.  You can't get stank out of a plastic thermos.
-For furniture, hardware, etc: check the quality and wear and tear.  A hammer with a loose head is not a deal.  Rust can be dealt with sometimes but not all times.  Think about how much effort you want to put into the item for the price and how much use it will get.

Think again.  I start in the section where I actually "need" stuff or have things on the list.  That's often hardware.  If I see something on the list, I check it out.  If it passes the check, I either leave it on the shelf and think about it, or carry it around while I scope out the things on the long term list.  If I forget the item before I walk out, I probably didn't need it.  Sometimes I remember that these items are usually cheaper elsewhere or that I forgot to check the tag sale.  Often, it can wait.

Ask about the return policy.  If I don't already know, I ask about the return policy.  I rarely return things, but if it's a big item, something over 10$, I might need to return it.  If it's "no returns no how now way"...then, I might put the item back and see if it's there next time I'm in town.  Or buy it if it seems like it's needed, on the list, good quality and the right price.  If the policy is "store credit" then it depends on whether I get to that store or am likely to buy there again.  Store credit is useless if one does not shop there.   If it's cash back, that's best but pretty rare.

THEN I buy it if it makes it through all those steps.  Once I buy it I try to notice whether I use it or not.  I'm still using the travel french press (stainless steel...oooo) coffee mug I got fore a couple of bucks many years ago.  That was money well spent.  So were the vintage Norwegian ski sweaters.  I spent more...one was 15$!!!   I wear them all winter every winter...actually, only when it's really cold.  But they show no wear and are still good.   The really cool thermos that is still in the box...that was not a good purchase.  That helps me assess how I'm doing on my list and my purchases.

No wonder trying to pass that on in one quick thrift shopping trip didn't work.  It's a process and it's geared toward my life and habits.

Retirement?

There is a question mark on that because the discussion is so often presented as "must save 1million dollars!

It's as if f Dr. Evil were in charge of retirement planning...



There is no way in heaven or hell, or even in places that actually exist, that I will have 1 million dollars for retirement.  Not happening.

So, can I retire?

What about Social Security?  I hear that it might go bankrupt any minute.  But will it? Just because less will be coming in, fewer workers per retiree etc, doesn't mean it immediately heads to zero or that we can't start taxing the wages above whatever the current top limit is for SS tax (seriously, there is a top limit...I'll never hit it).  But, what if it DOES still pay out at something near the current rate.
Here is a spot to find out approximately what you'll get:
https://www.ssa.gov/oact/quickcalc/

You can see it in today's dollars or future dollars.  It did NOT say "zero."  I will get something.

I have a retirement plan at work, 401k type.  I contribute to get the maximum match from my employer.

I could contribute more but I'm going a different route.
I'm cutting expenses.

IF I can get expenses down below my estimated social security payment, then my work retirement account will be there to cover slack and unexpected expenses.

First, I do not currently have any debt and I take drastic lifestyle measures (to some, they don't seem drastic to me) to avoid debt.  E.g., I live in a shed and a camper. I paid cash on the barrel head for my current car.  For my land.  I have a small solar system for which I paid cash.  Same with the well.  My only recurring monthly out of pocket expenses at the moment are my cell phone and a storage unit with the stuff I hope to put in the future cabin I hope to build without debt.  Annually I pay car insurance and a healthcare/fitness program that I choose to fund and find worth the expense at this time.  The healthcare/fitness could be dropped if I lose some income.  As could the cell phone.  There is no TV expense, no internet, no utility bill of any kind (no utilities...like I said, some might find that drastic).

And of course, taxes on the land which I am working to keep to the minimum, like everyone else.

I do spend on travel, gifts, and other things.  Those expenses can be minimized or eliminated if need be.

Food...I'm going to need that.  I'm always trying to find ways to be cost effective with food.  Eating crap processed foods...which I do...is not the best.  While it can seem cheaper up front, one is not healthy on that.  And, turns out it's not cheap.  So, I try to eat as much whole food, cooked from scratch, as possible.  I'm also working on growing more food.  I have space, but not much decent soil so it takes time to get that going.  I do have 2 apple trees, some berries, and a small garden.  I have access to a cheap fishing license and stocked trout ponds which I could take better advantage of.

In the coming months, I'm going to focus back on eating whole foods, more fruits and veg and working to get my "added sugars" down to the recommended levels (6 teaspoons a day...which is 24 or 25 grams).  Since it's hard to tell how much of the "sugar" on a food label is added, the easiest way is going to be by not eating food that comes with nutrition labels!  Hello produce aisle, farmers market, and maybe a CSA.  And of course, gardens, sprouting jars, and the like.

I doubt I can totally eliminate packaged or restaurant food (much added sugar there too) or that I want to, but as I eat up what I have and even throw out some of the worst, I'll focus on replacing it with actual produce and meat.

Living Without a Proper Kitchen: Adventures in Microwave Cookery and Office Pantry-ing.

Living without a proper kitchen and it being winter therefore DARK by the time I get home and when I leave home, I'm not cooking much at my place.
I end up cooking at work.  We have a microwave.  So I'm learning to microwave cook.  I'm not a big fan of radiating food, but one works with what one has.  I tried to avoid it for a while but that meant the only hot meals I got some weeks were when I went to a restaurant.  That is not frugal and not terribly healthy.

I am buying organic/natural soups when possible to have a bit of a pantry stock rather than buying a meal at a time.  This is helping me get back on frugal track.

I have in the pantry (meaning a file drawer and a small portion of the work fridge) at the moment:

Almond milk (they are selling it at the Dollar Store right now...good brand, nonGMO, not sugary)
Cereal (don't normally eat this but it is organic, high fiber, no added sugar, and was 99cent for 8 servings at the Grocery Outlet)
Organic peanut butter
Natural almond butter
Chia fruit spread (like jam, but made with chia seeds instead of pectin, found on cheap sale)
Protein bars for emergency food needs
A few hazelnuts and almonds
Soup, canned and boxed, mostly organic
Salsa (mostly used as salad dressing and on eggs)
Eggs
Tuna
Miso paste
Coffee (pre-ground)
Tea bags and loose tea
Bananas
Rolled oats, organic
A few spices
Oil
Vinegar
Honey
Mustard (my homemade stock because I didn't want the jars to freeze/thaw at home)
Green chilies (because they make crappy soup edible)
Bread
Fake cheese (found on sale, a rare buy)

I just finished the salad greens or I'd have that too.
Also will bring in a few zevia sodas to battle the mid-afternoon sugar cravings as needed.

So it's a serious stock of food.  I could live in the office for a couple of weeks and not lose much weight given the calorie stores.

Some meals are cold sandwiches, cereal, etc.
Main sandwiches are pbj and tuna salad which I make with my mustard instead of mayonnaise (saves buying mayonnaise and tastes better anyway).
But, I like a hot meal.  Hence eggs.  You can make OK scrambled eggs with stuff in them in the microwave.  They are a bit rubbery, but edible especially with salsa on them. I'm going to try the 2-eggs-1-banana recipe that works in a frying pan.  With the cinnamon and nutmeg from the spice stash it should be edible.

Plenty of microwaved soups.  Boring but edible.  Better when I've got an avocado to slice into them.  Those are also good in the eggs and help correct the rubbery texture.

It's fairly simple eating but not bad at all.  Other than salads and greens, I end up not eating many veggies other than things like beet soup, squash soup, and the bits in chunky soups.  I think I should work on that.  Maybe add sweet potatoes.  Or mixed veggies with a can of diced organic tomatoes and call that soup or stew...if I threw in a can of tuna it would taste awful but be very healthy.

I'm also trying to brew water kefir in the office as I have no stable-temperature area at my house for fermenting.  We'll see.  It seems to be going slowly so I'm getting impatient.

Solar cooking in the summer was one type of "limiting factor" or "learning opportunity" so I'm looking at this the same way.
I've also cooked a bit on the wood stove I use for heat and the little butane burner.  More on that anon.

Extremely Useful Things for the Makeshift Water System

So I've been thinking a bit about water.  OK.  I've been thinking a great deal about water.  Like I need a well and it's expensive and you don't know the price until it's done and in.

I'm still hauling water a gallon at a time from work and from friend's houses and from wherever I find myself.  I keep the empty gallon jugs in the car and fill up as I go.  A friend just asked if she could have a couple of gallon jugs for a raft trip and I blanched...uh...they are all in a constant rotation and in use.

There you have the first useful thing: Gallon jugs.  Bigger containers are fine too, but not as useful.  One can discretely fill a gallon.  Filling a 5 gallon is less discrete and requires a spigot and/or a hose or filling a gallon which you then dump into the bigger jug.  FYI: garden hoses are chock full of toxins that they leach into the water.  I don't want to use them for drinking water.

Here's my current system for the gallons:  Fill 2 or 3 per day during the work week.  2-3 at a time are in the freezer part of the work fridge.  These are swapped out every 2 days and taken in a transport cooler to my homestead where transfer them into the 2-3 coolers I have with chill foods in them.  The thawing gallons from the chill food coolers go into the empty transport cooler.  One often just becomes the current drinking supply.   The chilly thawing ice water is used for the final hair rinse or refreshing drink.  I also use that transport cooler and the thawing gallons to chill left overs or new foods headed to the chill coolers.  That saves my frozen gallons in the chill cooler for an extra several hours. I can usually make it 2 days, unless it's in the 90s, on one ice transport. The weekends are a challenge when it's hot.  Sometimes I will run errands in the town where I work, which is not the preferred errand town, so that I can pick up fresh frozen gallons.  Not ideal, but cheaper than a well and an electrical system.

That system brings up another extremely useful thing for this makeshift water system: a good cooler.  Right now I have 5. Only one was bought new and that was about 2 decades ago.  One is a vintage metal cooler.  It's rugged but doesn't hold cold very well so it is a transport cooler and has another task that will appear later or in another blog.  One was a cast off from a friend that I meant to use just for one trip, but it fit so well on the floor of the car and is a great size in general...a frozen gallon fits well and leaves room for a dozen eggs right on top of the gallon (this is the non-handle tall square gallon water style, not the milk jug style).  The other two are recent thrift buys because the system is better with a spare or two.

At the end of a day, if there is a partial gallon and I'm not short on drinking water, I empty the partial into a sun tea style glass jar with a spigot at the bottom.  I have a one gallon one inside the camper at the sink for hand washing and whatever.  A 2 gallon model is on the old library desk that serves as an outdoor kitchen area.  It is over a 5 gallon bucket so the drain water can be reused.

Which leads to the 5 gallon buckets...so many uses.  In the water system they are my drains and my irrigators.  Often one serving both purposes.  If there is nothing greasy or soapy in the drain bucket water (and I try to keep both out of there), it can go on the garden or compost pile.  If it's greasy or soapy it goes either down a gopher hole as gopher harassment, or into the bucket-trap for mice.

I also use buckets, these a bit smaller than 5 gallon, to haul water from the creek to the holding tank buy the garden bed.  We'll get to the tank in a moment.  The haul buckets are smaller because 1) I had them on hand and 2) easier to carry 3 gallons on each hand than 5 gallons on each hand.  They are 3 gallon buckets from the recycling center's free-bucket bin.  If people have used buckets or rubber tubs or whatever, they put them in the bin and anyone can take them and use them.  I have another bucket at the creek. I walk down to the creek, not far, yards rather than miles, use the creek bucket to fill the haul buckets.  Then up the bank and pour into the holding tank.

So...the holding tank.  This is a LARGE plastic tub I got at....the recycling center free bucket bin.  Lots of things go in there.  It holds about 10 haul buckets worth of water. It would technically hold more but the wall strength isn't there.  It's starting to break so I keep the level down.  I do haul two final buckets from the creek and just leave the water in the buckets.  For a hot week, I haul twice a week or so.  On a not-hot week, once a week will be enough for the raised bed and all the containers to stay watered.  The holding tank isn't totally necessary, but really helpful.  For one, it allows the sediment to settle out.  For another, the water warms through the day and I tend to water in the evening when the shade hits the garden.  This way the water soaks in and the plants have time to take it in before it evaporates in the morning.  The warmer water won't shock the roots.

There is another portion of the water system...warm water.  A few elements contribute to this.

Solar shower.  I have one.  It's 2 years old and I left it lying outside all winter.  Still good.  15$.  Worth it.  It says it will hold 5 gallons but then I'd have to lift 5 gallons over my head and tie it up.  That's a great deal of weight and water.  I usually have 1-2 gallons in it.  On a sunny day it heats up nicely.  On a not so sunny day I can add a tea kettle of boiling water and it's good enough.

Tea kettle...for heating water for everything including showers, tea, coffee, and dish washing...on cloudy days.

Clear 3 gallon jugs are another key element in the warm water system.  These look like the jugs one sees in office water coolers, but smaller.  I have 2 3 gallons and also have 4 of the large 5 gallon versions.  All but one of these is from the free bucket bin.  The other is from next to a dumpster at a state park.  I cleaned them with borax followed by vinegar.  The new, shiny, clean ones are drinking water storage.  The questionable ones are the warm water system.  Just fill and leave in the sun.  It gets plenty warm enough to do dishes, wash hair, fill the gap when I forgot to ready the solar show in time to heat it up.  The 3 gallon size is manageable.  the 5 gallon size is heavy and awkward which is why they ended up as long term storage rather than active use.

That's about it for the water system. It works well and other than buying gallons of water initially, often at the dollar store, to get the gallon jugs, it's free.

And Then It Rained For 2 Days and 2 Nights

And lo...she had to hang the laundry inside.

But thanks to the ability to pile crap up, the fact that most stuff is stuffed into stackable rubber tubs, AND thanks to the amazing find of a Europe style clothes horse which holds a ton of clothes in a small space, she is able to do it.

I TRIED to dry them at the laundromat.  The load was in the dryer for an HOUR and still slightly damp.  I gave up thinking "well at least the dryer I used for the sleeping bag worked."  Uh...then later I unrolled said bag and lo, it too was dampeth.

So, I put on a sweatshirt with my long jammy-pants and slept under the bag rather than in it.  I figured my body heat rising through it would help dry the damp.  The next day I was going to be in Moscow so I took it to a laundromat there and put it in a giant dryer on the "center of the sun" heat setting for 10 minutes.  That bastard was DRY then.

The laundromat in St. Maries (pronounced "Saint Mary's" not "Saint Marie's") was more expensive than those in Moscow, but I was already in St. Maries for something else so I think overall it saved money.  Normally I would not bother with a dryer.  I would hang the stuff from the start.  Since it was raining all weekend, I tried going ahead and using the dryer for most stuff...though not the bras or the spendy wool socks.   I learned about the bra thing from Hedwig starting at 33 seconds:


Also..I totally want that tooth phone...dang. I had a fake tooth put on the implant last week and I didn't get the phone add-on.

Anyway, back to laundry.  It took a good 24 hours to dry the damp jeans waistbands.  The weekend before it was nearly 100 degrees with a stiff wind (want to see the scorch marks on my back from wearing a tank top?  Pretty grim.) and my clothes were hung on the clothes horse outside.  The first items hung up were pretty well dry by the time I hung the last items. 

I spent my rainy time well.  I got called out of town on a job duty on Saturday and Sunday mooched a shower at a friend's house (Thanks Sally!!!) and did the radio show.  We had an ACTUAL astrophysicist on the air!
Sally said "astrophysicist" like 8 times and never once did this happen (53 second mark):



 Anyway, the drying laundry in the camper was a good bit of practice on tiny simple living...it can be done!  I still had the entire dinette-bed area to lounge around in which honestly is plenty of space for reading and whatnot.  I also learned that I STILL have a ton of clothes with me despite downsizing to one rubber tub, 4 cookie tins (no mice in the undies please!) and a 5 inch wide closet for clothes.  There is also a change of clothes in a suit case in the car in case of emergencies  like I spill something, and several pairs of boots/shoes in various places from work to the car to the trailer.  Of course, winter things and some things I hadn't chucked yet are in storage.

More on camper life anon.

Personal Pantry Challenge Lessons Part 1 (and an update on the Wee Clothing Experiment)

So, I've been doing a Personal Pantry Challenge.   By "personal" I just mean that I'm going it alone, not competing against anyone.

A "Pantry Challenge" is an attempt to eat what one has on hand.  Some people do NO supplementing from the grocery store.  Some people go ahead and buy fresh fruit and vegetables, or meat.  Some people eat lunch out or otherwise eat some meals/snacks elsewhere.  Some people go for extreme orthodoxy and eat ONLY WHAT IS ON HAND. 

Here's what I have been doing.

After coming back from a vacation with friends (Hi guys!), I felt a bit bloated from so much good food, and coffee and other treats.  So, I figured it would be a good time to take on a simpler eating plan for a bit.  Let things settle, you know? 

First I took an informal inventory.  I looked through the cupboards, on the shelf of home canned goods, in the fridge and in the freezer.  I had much food.  Some dehydrated, some dry goods, some home canned, a bit of store canned, some home ferments, plenty of condiments and spices, coffee, tea, and so on.  I didn't have much meat, no eggs, and no fresh fruit or vegetables.

It looked like I could do 2 weeks without much suffering if I added a bit of fresh. I could live for a couple of boring and very high fiber months if I really needed to but this is not a mission from god.

I decided on a grocery list of a dozen local pastured eggs, some greens, 2or 3 onions, and a week's worth of apples.  At the store I found that local pastured eggs were out of stock so I went with organic eggs, as large as I could get.

That was on January 6th. I managed to get out of the store with just what was on the list...and some extra rolls of toilet paper because I hadn't checked my stock on that and didn't want to have to run into a food store while not buying food.  I knew I'd get antsy to shop a bit.

As I type it is January 18th. (Probably won't get this posted for a few days though).

So far so good!  I ran out of fresh veg yesterday.  I went ahead and used up the last 1/4 of an onion and the last few carrots in a lunch frittata.  It was nice!  Overall I've eaten well and actually had some trouble keeping the calories down to a reasonable level as I ran out of fresh fruit and vegetables in the past few days.   I remembered that I had clover, alfalfa and broccoli seeds for sprouting and got a couple of jars of those going.  The first half of a batch of sprouts went on the frittata yesterday and the crunch was nice.  I'll be making a salad of them tomorrow.

I also remembered my lentils.  I had a jar of black beluga lentils for a year.  I didn't know what to do with them.  As I got ran low on other things I checked the internet and decided to do lentils and grain.  I cooked the lentils just in water and made more than needed for the recipe.  Extras went into the freezer in small containers and a few in the freezer soup container.  More on that in a moment.

The only grain I had other than flour, having eaten the last of the quinoa already, was what I thought was bulgur.  Turned out it was just cracked wheat.  I cooked it as though it was bulgur and it got a tad mushy...but was still delicious on the lentils!  I mixed the lentils into it, threw on a mixed southwestern spice that an aunt had sent me and it was delicious!  The black lentils stayed lentil shape rather than getting mushy.  True even when reheated after freezing.

I cooked up my last meat 2 days ago...a pound of local sage pork sausage.  Yum.  I had it with tomato sauce (made from home canned tomatoes, home dehydrated tomatoes, garlic from my garden, some onion, and various spices).  I had no pasta and no flour that would work for noodles (I wasn't willing to try 100% whole wheat noodles and risk wasting flour and an egg), but I did have a GIANT daikon radish that has been in the fridge since mid October.  It was growing new leaves so I figured it was not rotten.  I had checked the internet and saw that I could just blanch strips of it to use as "vegetable spaghetti" so I tried that.  It worked fine!  I used a vegie peeler to make strips, peeling away the outer skin first and using the inner bits as spaghetti.  It was good.  And super filling...and high fiber.  This has been a gassy experiment overall.

The last couple of days have featured freezer soup supplemented with dehydrated vegies.  For those not in the know, freezer soup is concocted of the remains of whatever you've eaten in the past while.  You keep a container in the freezer, I used a bowl with tin foil cover this time, and put in the little bits and bobs and ends you have left when cooking other things. I had a bit of unclarified, slightly fatty, duck stock.  On that was some bits of bok choy that didn't fit in the pan when I was making a stir fry a while back.  And the remains of the stir fry.  A few of those lentils.  The end of an onion that I didn't feel was worth chopping into an omelet or anything and yet was about to go bad so I chopped it into the freezer soup rather than throw it out. I saw some carrots in there too.  I threw in a spoonful of the sausage because sausage is always good.  When it was soup day, I fried some garlic (because a bit of fried garlic or onion or both really helps a soup), emptied the freezer soup container into the pan, added water to thin out the fatty stock quite a bit.  Then added some dehydrated mushrooms, tomatoes, and a bunch of herbs until it smelled good. It was really delicious and I ate on it for 3 meals.  I had a few corn/whole-wheat/coconut flour muffins (using up the dregs of flour around the place) which were dry and unappealing as muffins, but quite good dipped in soup.

There have been a few more creative cooking successes, and a few failures (coconut oil, honey and cocoa do NOT make good truffles no matter how pretty the picture in the magazine looks...and that was the actual recipe...it would be a decent ganache though...) but we'll leave those for another post.

The PPC (personal pantry challenge) has thus far yielded quite a few good lessons that I want to remember so I'm putting them here:

1) Putting left over soup in pint jars makes packing lunch in the morning much easier, faster, and more likely to happen.

2) Muffins are handy and cheap, but lots of calories.

3) Chia pudding!  I'd forgotten how much I like this.

4) Freezer soup is good and worth the effort.

5) Onions are crucial (the next few days will be less tasty without fresh onions).

6) Sprouts make good fresh food in the winter (and are cheap).

7) Lentils with cracked wheat is an excellent dish!

8) Lentils!  In general these are cheap and quick and when dry have an essentially infinite shelf life.  I may make "sloppy lentils" (like sloppy joes) if today's 100% rye bread works out.

9) Keeping things visible is a good option for me.  I had forgotten things in the cupboards, but knew what was on the open shelves.  Since I keep almost everything in a glass jar or metal tin (take that mice and bugs!) I may just go with open shelves in my imaginary future cabin.

10) Condiments, sauces, spices, herbs, and the like alleviate boredom.  A bit of lemon juice or nice vinegar added to the bowl will cure almost any bland soup.  A bit of kim chi really helps the scrambled eggs and in a pinch makes a salad dressing.

There are many more lessons but we'll stop there for now.

Clothing Experiment Update:  I'm still doing it and STILL no one at work has noticed.

Week 4 Wee Clothing Experiment

So here we are at week 4.  Still no comments on the fact that I'm wearing one of five fabulous sweaters to work every single day. 

In fairness to my inattentive coworkers...we've had holidays plus I took a vacation so they haven't seen much of me. 

I also noticed that since it's winter, I'm always wearing a coat when I'm headed into or out of the office.  No one actually SEES my sweaters unless I'm running upstairs to make copies or something.  So this could get to be trying.

Anyway, the assistant mail-lady commented yesterday but she's a knitter with a Dale of Norway fetish so she just commented on the sweater I was wearing.  Oh well.

Week 2 Clothing Experiment

Well, this week I got one compliment.  From someone at the library who doesn't know me.  She liked the lavender sweater. 

No one at work as noticed a thing.

The order of sweaters was:

Monday:






















Tuesday:


















 Wednesday   (Note the use of a black t-shirt as the baselayer):
 


Thursday  (changed it up with a brown turtleneck rather than last week's cream turtleneck):





Friday  (note use of brand new thrift Eddie Bauer red turtleneck.  Very Festive):


Still wish I had black jeans...must get some Rit dye and sort that out.
 This would have been a snazzier outfit with dark pants.

I may try the brown carharrts next week with the lavender sweater though the butt on the carharrts is paper thin and could blow at any moment.

But seriously folks...had I bought these new (one was "new" actually...Friday's sweater is the one that had the tags still on it) and at retail prices we're looking at $ 160 + 330 + 330 + 270 + 250 =$1260 worth of sweaters I wore this week.
I'm estimating my prices from Dale of Norway online stores, and from the tag on the Pendleton.  
How did no one say anything except the woman at the library...who is a knitter?

Next week I will try to see more people.

Another Wee Clothing Experiment

Been a long time...blah blah blah.

Anyway, I'm settled into winter digs in Moscow, ID.  Froze out of the camper in October.  More on that some other time.  Or not.

So, thanks to some crazy good thrift store finds, I'm doing a clothing experiment.

In the last 2 weeks I've found 2 amazing wool sweaters at thrift stores.  The most recent was on Sunday at the Moscow ID Goodwill Store.  A lavender and cream Dale of Norway brand cardigan with the pewter frogs.

Here's a full shot from the web:


$7.99.  It has a couple of pulled threads that need clipping but that's all.  Lovely and about $150 on ebay.  New they run $200-400 for that style and that brand.

A couple of weeks ago I found a Pendleton brand black and white button down cardigan at a different thrift store in another town.  Basically the same price.  It had the tags and spare button still on it (in fact it still does as I have yet to wear it).  The original tag price is $158.   Not bad again AND it's brand new.  And it's merino wool.  Really soft.   I don't have a photo but it's basically this without the deer:

 These two join the 3 I already own (who were formerly joined by one more but I gave that one to Fred).  The 3 I owned already are all Dale of Norway brand.  One similar to the lavender and cream one shown above with pewter clasps, but blue and white mainly.

Similar to this:




 One is a 1992 (the date is knit into the design) crew neck ski sweater in black red like this one:

 
Mine is not as busy as that one but I don't have a photo.

The final one is more modern, black and straight with a standup collar and 1/4 zip at the neck.
It's this model but a different pattern:


And I'm not as hot as that guy.  For the record the sweater in this picture is $318.

I got the sweaters I already own for 15$ each for 2 of them and I think the last one was about 10$. 
So that's $56 for 5 amazing sweaters.

Now for the experiment.  I'm going to wear one of these sweaters to work everyday until someone says something.  I can wear something else on my days off, and I can change into a field shirt if I have to go to a hazmat site or somewhere else that could result in having to wash the sweater.
Like tomorrow I need to go to the clinic and get a wound cleaned on my hand.  I don't want to bleed on a sweater so I may wear something else while I'm in the appointment.

Maybe I'll take photos in the bathroom mirror and make a look book while I do this.  I hear about the young people doing that.

I could use a few more decent turtlenecks to wear under these or mock turtlenecks.  I've only really got 3 and it's going to get to be a bit of a strain.  But, so it goes.

I'll rotate which sweater gets worn on which day.  We'll just see how long it takes.  I did it last year with 3 sweaters and it lasted a long time and no one seemed to notice/care.

This will inform my "how many clothes do I need" inquiry.

Frugal Reset

With 2 moves in 2 months, a 2 week trip home, a trip to the coast, another vacation coming up next month (I have to cram travel into about 4 months of winter due to job duties in the field season), an out of town conference or two, and perhaps random laziness....my food costs shot up.

Too much eating out.  Too much road food.  Too much prepared food.

Another factor was canning season.  Once I got back into a place with a kitchen, the apartment I have for the winter, I wanted to get some things put up for winter.  I couldn't really do that in the camper with such limited space and stove smaller than the canner.  I didn't get outdoor accomations arranged.

So, food costs shot up.  It's easy to have that happen.  When traveling, entertaining, having visitors, etc and especially when working more than 3 blocks from home now that I commute, it seems easier to just buy something for lunch or hit up the local cafe for a sandwich.

But alas, those lunches, about 2 a week on average, were costing me 10$ a shot, double that if I was treating a friend.   That adds up compared to bringing lunch.

I have made SOME effort to have lunch ready at the office.  I found cheap soups at Grocery Outlet.  When I remember to eat them I'm spending $1.50 to $4.00 per lunch (because I don't JUST have soup...a piece of fruit or meat or bread or crackers to go with completes the meal). 

So, what would I save if I cut back on the store and restaurant lunches and made more of an effort to have my lunch pre-planned and brought it in?

Turns out there's an app for that.  Actually a calculator:

Lunch savings calculator

 Even with 0% return, if I ate 20 lunches from a brown bag (or you know, from groceries etc) for an average cost of $3.00 per lunch, vs eating out and buying grab-n-go stuff at the store for an average cost of $10.00, I would save $1680.00 per year!   OK, not quite that since I don't eat 30 lunches out per month right now.  Even if it's half that, $840.00 per year, that's pretty damn good.  $70.00 per month.  Probably double my utility bill. 

 Good to know too.  These sorts of reminders help me reset the frugality meter.  Daily small choices got me the money to buy that land for cash.  It's still easy to forget how much those small things add up.

 That said, today's lunch was left over baked salmon, elk jerky, and 1/3 of a box of soup.  The soup cost $1.99 for the quart box (organic carrot ginger soup made without dairy!).  So about $0.66 for that.  The left over salmon and elk jerky were from a community dinner last night so those were basically free.  I'm also having a cup of tea so whatever one tea bag (actually, I reuse them so a fraction of one tea bag) costs.   Let's call it $0.75 for lunch today.  And it was REALLY GOOD lunch.