A Month of Scratch Cooking

 July I did an experiment...or as Gramma would have called it...did nothing at all.

Nowadays cooking everything I ate from scratch ingredients myself for an entire month is not the norm.

By "ingredients" I mean no premixes (no "cake mix" "pancake mix" etc)flavored coffee, bag-o-salad,  prepped veggies from the store...whole veg and fruit YES, cut veg and fruit NO.

There were 2 exception meals.  I was invited to join friends in a meal made my a visitor from out of state.  They actually made almost everything from ingredients!  I had a few store bought pickles and some pimento stuffed olives.  The main dishes were bean soup from dry beans and chili with meat.  I had quite a bit of chili.  It was great!  I skipped the crackers and bread.

Fortunately I like making mustard so I had that as a condiment.  Along with all the flavored vinegars I make.  I needed to buy some kombucha from the folks who supply me with kombucha vinegar for free.  SO...I re-brewed the kombucha with berries and mango skins.  It re-fermented and we called it good. 

The other exception meal was a pre-committed meal at a work event my department was hosting.  It would be odd to cater a meal and refuse to eat it!  We catered in bbq pork sliders, raw veggies with dip (they were cut and I ate them but I skipped the "ranch"...I hate "ranch" so that was an easy miss).  We also had some coleslaw and another salad.  No pastries or cookies which was a choice by someone else, though I validate it in general.  The sliders were good! 

I definitely appreciated the meals I didn't cook and clean up from more than usual.

It was easy.  I just needed to think through the next day at some point of an evening.  If I had a field day coming up,  I made sure I had a "grab n go" option ready for the morning.  Mostly this was nuts and whole fruit or clean whole veg.   A few times it was boiled eggs and salad in one of my thrifted tiffins (those metal multi-tiered lunch carriers popular in India).  It gets lots of use and even more this month!  One person traveling with me was so impressed he kept asking about the tiffin.  I had a spare, also thrifted, that I use very little so I gave it to him the next day. 

Salad in a mason jar with nuts and chia seeds for protein is another good option.

I've been doing my own salad dressings for years so that's easy.  Just throw vinegar and oil and whatever herbs/spices are handy, bit of fresh ground pepper.  A dollop of my homemade mustard if I'm feeling fancy.  I'm not much on sweetening them.  All about the savory salads.

Once the serviceberries were coming on, a handful of those went in pretty much everything. 

I am growing greens so actually went the whole month just eating my own greens.  The bugs destroyed all but one kind this week so greens options are getting a bit thin.  

For meat/eggs....lots of my friend's free range eggs that she lets me "u-pick" without washing or refrigerating.  I ran out late last week and got a bit creative over the weekend.  At work we had canned a goat and no one seemed to want it so I've been eating up the goat meat to free up the jars.  We also got free salmon at work and I took one, cleaned it and am keeping it in the work freezer (a tiny one).  I took a piece home now and then to thaw and cook.

I have a fishing license and could have made more use of that or any use, if things got thin.  I also have good sources of frozen, local free range meat at a couple of farmers markets.

On days I was home, or going to be home in the late afternoon rather than not until late evening, I set up my simple solar cooker so lunch or dinner would be ready.  Even used it for late morning coffee sometimes but that's normal.  A new favorite meal is solar cooked quinoa and lentils with dried tomato and some herbs and a handful of service berries.  When it is done cooking, I thrown on vinegar, oil, pepper and a bit of salt.

Normally I don't add salt because any food not prepped at home is incredibly SALTY which bloats me up like a tic,  My sodium intake was consistently low to the point that on hot sweaty days, I actually included some salt to compensate.

Another result: I saved a boatload of money!  Came in at about half my usual food spend, which is groceries and all meals out and coffee out. So that helps.  I've cut back on meals out, coffee out is rare now, but I do buy pre-made bread at farmers markets and etc.

One factor in the low food bill is that my serviceberry bushes were bonkers so I ate a TON and have 7 or 8 quarts in kombucha vinegar to keep for the off season.  Critters were eating the free potatoes I planted so I harvested those and ate them.  Then all the canning at work resulted in quite a bit of free protein.  I have had coffee in stock and got a gift of another pound of coffee so didn't need to even buy coffee beans.

Still...what I did buy is clearly cheaper than prepared food.  For example, today I restocked with some ingredients, keep the habits going, and spent:  20$ for 4doz eggs and 8.50$ for a weeks worth of veggies.  

I expect another 30$ this week to stock up my coffee, grains, and dry beans/lentils because those are all pretty tapped out. 

I learned that having nuts on hand keeps me from running to the store for fieldwork lunches when I have low supplies of grab-n-go food.   Nuts or seeds and an apple or orange can get me through a day.

There is likely more but I'm supposed to be focused on a webinar...

What If.... Preppers/Savers on the Youtubes Sometimes Lack Creativity and Experience

 OK, rando rant a bit because I'm kind of a dick.

On the youtubes, the thrifty people I follow are doing this "What if" type thing. Fine.  

Things like "What if you only had a half a bag of rice, 3oz lentils, and moldy cheese, and you don't get paid for a week and the money is gone...how would you stretch the food and what would you make?"

Mornings with Granny is best at this because I suspect she's been poor for reals.

I was poor once upon a time and now I'm too lazy/cheap/frugal to run in to town when I am lacking an ingredient.

ANYWAY...recently, the ones I watch are "prepping" or stocking up for power outages.  Turns out rice is a bad idea without power.  Um...like the electric stove or any of the 2 dozen counter top plug in appliances are the only ways to cook???

JEEZ people!  One vlogger was talking, this morning, about a power out where they had no way to heat water or cook food. She has other videos where they grill food outside.  Does the propane tank and/or charcoal not work when the electricity is out???

Also, candles under an upturned can with holes cut in the can-sides makes a tiny stove.   So does a can of crisco with a wick (which can be a bit of dry wood, twisted fabric, wooden skewers, taper candle jammed in a hole, or almost any cooking oil/fat you have around).  PEOPLE!!! Electricity is not the only power.  

What about a solar cooker?  Or the dashboard of your car in mid day?  Heat water with those mid day and then put it in a thermos, or even just wrap up the container of hot water with whatever.  That reflective dealy in the windshield works well.  ALSO coolers keep things warm.  They are don't just keep things cool.   Then you can heat that warmish water for washing or whatever.

Also...rice, pasta, grains can be soaked for a while, brought to the boil, poured into a thermos or the pan wrapped up and they will cook much faster with very little heat, e.g. over a candle or crisco heater.

Grills hold pots as well as naked slabs of meat. You can even bake bread, cake, whatever on there.

ALL YOU NEED TO COOK IS A HEAT SOURCE.  

Other tips for power-outage cookery:

Think about the size and power of your heat source.  Boiling a cup of water over a candle will take a while.   Boiling a cup of water on the grill is wasting heat...boil up the big pan of water (tea kettle, anyone?) and store the excess because maybe it will still be warm later.   Overnight oats/soaked-rice for 4 is too much to bring to a boil over a candle.  Not too much on a grill or in a solar cooker.  

Frying is faster.  Small bits cook faster.  You can fry on a grill.  Put the frying pan (cast iron is the best option) on the grill.  Add fat and whatever.  Cook.  Don't wander off.

Grill outside.  Want to bring some of that heat inside?  Heat up clay plant pots and bring them inside in metal buckets, set them on things that won't burn like bricks or the hearth.  You want get super warm, but you'll be busy and a bit warmer and NOT die of carbon monoxide. 

Butane burners are great, I use them all the time.  But the butane runs out pretty fast if you start with cold water and want to boil it up.  Hence lots of preheating on the woodstove and storing the water hot in thermoses (thermosi?  thermopodi?)...insulated containers!

Things to do now:

Make a "hay box" for your favorite pasta/rice pan.  NOT the insta pot.  Don't be an idiot.  The pan that you can put on the grill, stove, woodstove, etc.  Best if it has small handles but just use what you have.  Find a box, card board, wood, or a metal milk crate, that fits the pan with several inches to spare on all sides.   Line your box with wool blankets or old sweaters if you have it, or hay (hence the name), straw, cardboard, or even metallic bubble wrap. Make sure there is an inch of cardboard or wood or no-flammable at cooking temps fabric between any plasticky crap or fabric and the pan. Make the lining fit tight around the pan.   When the time comes, heat the pan up, like on that grill, and when the food is boiling hard, put the pan in the box (which of course you insulted on the bottom and sides and top) and close it up.  If you can heat up a rock or plant pot ahead of time and put that in the box while you finish boiling up the food, that will preheat the box and make it work better.

Don't have a box?  Make a bean hole in the ground and preheat it like in the olden days.  I will let you google that.

You can boil things mid-day in the solar cooker and transfer to the hay box or bean hole or thermos.

When using a thermos, preheating is best.

These all work like slow cookers.   Pasta will get mushy fast, whole rye berries hold up super well as do wheat berries, oat groats, and barley.   Quinoa is an excellent option as well.

If I am putting meat in, I prefer it to be fully cooked first, either fried up (sliced thin it fries faster/less fuel) or precanned by me or an industrial canning service.

If using a thermos for soup or flavored grains/pasta, you'll want to not use that for coffee or tea water later.  No matter what they say, the flavors linger. I have tested glass, plastic, and stainless steel lined thermoses and all retain that stank.  It's fine in the next cooked item, but not great in my coffee.  

To make the thermos cooking work: invest in a good bottle brush and good funnels.  I use a big canning funnel for the wide mouth thermoses and a skinny funnel for the insulated bottle type thermoses.  

The water you use to preheat a thermos is fine to use in the next batch of soup, to drink, to give to pets who usually enjoy the vague food stank, or to soak tomorrow's grains.  

These practices always save fuel/money/pollution/resources to why not be practicing now??

Rant complete...for now.

Power Outage...but NOT at my place

 So I'm driving home, as one does when work is over AND the power keeps going on and off at the office.

The power was back on in the town where I work, but then, everything was dark.  A car was off the road and a tree or two down.  Of course, it's 5pm and pitch dark because we are having a wind storm with a bit of rain.  Clouds.  No moon or stars.  Then I notice, also only like one lighted window per house along the road, the occassional porch light, probably solar.

It took me a bit, but then I figured out the power was out.  Possibly due to the downed trees or car jammed against a power pole (brand new power pole....busted in half).

At my house, the solar panels are still up (knocking on wood now) and I have as much power as I ever do after a cloudy day.

My life didn't change. 

This makes me smirk.   All the preppers with crap in their giant a$$ freezers are now finding a bit crap in their pants.  I keep shelf stable things that can freeze and thaw a few times (dry beans, dry yeast, flour, pasta in jars).  With the wind there won't be a fire in my stove tonight, but it's still 50 degs outside so it's not a problem.  Sometimes it gets down to freezing in here on a windy night, but still, I might need to take a couple of frozen eggs and make pancakes instead of scrambled eggs.

Those with frozen meat and fridges are hoping that the massive power outage is over soon, or it freezes hard (well, those who realize they can put things outside if it's cold enough want it to freeze.  Those with pellet stoves or electric heat are not that much for it),

Yesterday it was windy, but also sunny enough that I ran a little space heater most of the day when I was inside so my toes were warm.  I didn't really need it, but, why not?  The batteries were full and everything past that isn't stored up anyway.

So, there you go.  Solar wins again.

Some of My New/Recycled Thrifty Ninja Moves

 I've blogged about my uber thrifty...like to the point they may be pointless...habits in the past.  Things like giving up shampoo.   Which of course worked out well and IS worth it to me.  Make your own choices.

Watching some thrifty/frugal food youtubers and other cheapskate vloggers, I can see how far I've come/gone.

E.g.  Watching grocery hauls where people buy selzer water.   First I think "wow, that's a ton of plastic...more plastic than food" that they come home with, in their reusable bag!

Even the 2nd harvest I'm getting has less plastic packaging.   Clearly I do not shop like a normal human.

Anyway, here are some ninja moves I've developed thrifty-wise:

1) Groceries

Grocery list is in general terms, rarely specifics.

I write "grain" meaning any type of grain, flour or starch. I can work with rice, flour, corn flower, wheat berries, etc.  Whatever is on sale.  It's a starchy for a meal that is shelf stable and dry.

I also put "veg X2" for 2 types of veggies.  Whatever is cheap.  Varies by season and you never know what's in the discount veggie bin.

Same with fruit.  I put about how much or if I would like multiple types.  I can generally get discounted bananas at 25cents a pound at a local store.  They are not bagged, just starting to show spots which is fine  Freeze some and use some right away for banana eggs.

I haven't bought meat in a store in recent memory so that's not on the list anymore.  It could pop up again in the future in which case it will be whatever is cheap.  I eat plenty of meat.  I get it in other ways.

For spices/herbs I may be specific and always buy in bulk or from the deeply discounted rack or large bags from an international food store.  Working on remembering to harvest more of my own.  Right now I could use a poultry mix or some sage.   But, no hurry.

I do like canned tomato products but right now am out and am getting used to not having them.  When I do put them on the list it says "tinned tomato".  Paste, diced, whole, sauce.   As long as it is low sodium (health issue), and just tomatoes not sugar and tomatoes or overly seasoned in a strange way, I will get it.  I can usually get things for 39cents or less for a 14.5oz can.  I'm all for dried tomatoes and will can my own when I have a kitchen again.  

I use the occasional bouillon cube, though there is only one brand I have found locally that is low sodium AND tastes decent.  I only buy it when I find it on supersale or for a buck or less on the discount rack.  8 cubes of 2 servings each per box.  I used my last one recently, last cube, and so if I see it when I'm back in a store, I might get it.

For non-food things, I'm doing better at shopping in my own storage.  I recently brought the shirts from the back of the hanging storage to the front.  It looks like I have 5 new shirts.  All are of course from thrift and I have had them for ages, I just haven't worn them for months.  I think I have 10 button down long sleeve shirts and 1 thick sweater in the shed right now and I wasn't even wearing most of the shirts.  I wear a t-shirt or shell under the button downs and a longsleeve t under the sweater.  I also have 3 sweatshirts, 2 are fine for work if we're doing fieldwork that day.   Those are in heavy rotation.  I keep 3 button downs at the office for meetings (even zoom meetings) that come up on fieldwork days, or after a tragic coffee spill.  Wear one for an hour and hang it back up.  They get washed about 2x per season.

2) Laundry:  I bought more undies at the start of 'rona in case I needed to quarantine.  I had enough to go a week or 10 days between laundry trips.  Now I have enough to go 2 weeks.  Since laundry is the main reason for going to town on the weekend, having more undies, hence fewer laundry trips, saved in multiple ways.   1) 5$ gas every other week at current rates.  2) if I'm not going in town, I don't run other errands and don't hit thrift stores where something on the list might be available.  Things fall off the list if you wait long enough.  Either I find something else that works, or figure out I don't really need the item.  3) I do 3 loads of laundry every 2 weeks instead of 2 loads every week.  I use the bigger machines, and find by delaying a week, I only add one more load.   I go ahead and wear my weekend work pants (Carhartts from thrift usually) for an extra weekend so no extras there.  1 or 2 more pairs of work jeans in the winter, possibly more in the summer when I'm sweaty, and some long johns, undies, sox, kitchen towels and gym towels, some t-shirts and long sleeve shirts only adds one load.  Interesting.  Might keep up with the 2 week laundry system after 'rona.

Not going to town for laundry weekly, and people being idiots, made me stretch my grocery trips out to every 2weeks after the farmers market closed for the season.  Pantry/no-spend grocery challenges have stretched that out even more.  As I type this it has been 42 days since I've set foot in a grocery store or paid for food in anyway. I've GOTTEN food....eggs from the chickens, 2nd harvest left overs, bread with a gift card, gifts, and shared it out, but haven't gone to a store or otherwise paid out of pocket for any.  Not even a restaurant.

The 2 weeks between laundry/town trips was also a good time to wean myself off of fancy coffee.  I would buy one per week for about 2 - 4$.  Not much by many people's standards, but a unnecessary cost to me.  I get good beans to grind from the discount grocery store, and use the old ones at work, and drink up the tea I have rather than have 3 or 4 cups of coffee.   I have a hand grinder so I also have to preplan my coffee.   This saves the drive through cost AND the idling the car costs while sitting in the drive through. 

3) Woodstove cookery.  It's not a "cookstove" but you know...cooking is just food + heat.  So it works.  I have taken to roasting things inside the fire box.  Not while it's BLAZING and over heating, when it's all died down a bit and is coals.  Push the coals to the back.   Set a whole pumpkin or squash or onion toward the front, by the door.   Close the door.  Wait.  Every now and then, open the door and spin the squash/pumpkin/onion around a bit.  Cook all sides.   You don't have to get the seeds out of the squash/pumpkin before cooking.  I do poke a hole or two so it won't blow up in there.  Once it feels pretty soft and before it's totally charred, take it out in a pan.  Peel the skin off, cut off the top.  Scoop out seeds and guts.  I put the seeds in a bowl of water to clean up and save some to plant and roast the rest on top of the stove.   The first time I did an onion, I wrapped it in foil.  This seemed messy and the outside of the onion was still charred.  Now, I just don't peel them at all.  Set an onion in the firebox.  Spin it around now and then to get a new side toward the coals.   Remove when it feels soft.  It's a bit sticky.  I peel off the charred bits, mostly it's the papery skin that chars.  I wasn't eating that anyway. That takes the ashes with it.   Then, I stab it with a fork (because it's hot) and dice it up a bit.  Throw it in soup, on rice, or with pasta.  EXCELLENT caramelized (if you burn it a bit, call it caramelized) or sweated onion.   Great soup without frying an onion in a small space.  I assume I could do garlic in there as well but I've been boiling that in the soups. That's been working well.

On top of the stove I can bake...usually burning the bottom because it's hard to control.  Put a small pan of muffins or cake or biscuits on a trivet (I use a real trivet or a few jar rings that are beyond using on canning jars any more)  Put a BIG roaster upside down over the whole thing.  Or...a small soup pan fits over my little cake pan which makes a nice chocolate wacky cake (the one with no eggs).

4) Soaking pasta is my new thing.   If you soak it, even cheap spaghetti, for a couple of hours before throwing it in hot soup (using it for noodle soup this week) or bring the soak pan up to a boil, it's done fast.   When the wood stove is going I don't have to worry about saving fuel so much, but there isn't a ton of room on top of the stove.  If I'm making a sauce or soup, that's pretty much all the space.  MIGHT get the little cake pan on there for a side of biscuit type bread or bannock or cake.  If I want pasta, much easier to presoak it off the heat, then throw it in the hot soup.  Ready in about 2-3 min.  Taste for done-itude.

5) Back to thermos cooking.  I've done it in the past but with being home a lot since March 2020, I'm doing it more.

Thermos pasta.  Fill thermos with boiling water.  Put the top on.  Let it sit about 5 min.  Measure pasta that will take up about half the interior space of the thermos.   Boil more water.  Pour out the first boiling thermos water (I use it for doing dishes or something) which was to pre-heat the thermos.  Put in the pasta.  Fill up to the bottom of the cap with water.   Close TIGHTLY.   Rotate it around a bit to help separate the noodles.  Do that now and then for the next 10-15 min.  It's not very picky about timing.  I use a thermos with a pour top so I open that a bit and pour out the water (good for soup or rehydrating dried veggies for a side dish or soup).   Put the pasta on a plate.  Eat.

Thermos rice and thermos rice with lentils have also worked well.  Use LESS rice than half the interior size of the thermos.  Takes a bit of trial and error.  Set the thermos on its side and rotate it now and then.  This takes a couple of hours usually.   Sometimes you might want to reheat it to eat, or reheat and put back in if it's not done.   White rice cooks faster but also goes to mush easily.

Presoaked wheatberries cooked up in a thermos very nicely.  I preheated the thermos as above.   Boiled the berries in water in the appropriate proportions for about 5 min, then put in the thermos and rolled it around now and then for a couple of hours.  Great texture.  I ate half with dinner with some oil and spices and saved the rest as breakfast with some jam stirred in like it was oatmeal.   It is almost impossible to overcook whole grain berries.   

6) Shop in the storage.

Before I go to the store, I often (not always, I'm not a monster) check the current stock.  Since March 2020 it's been safer to be in the storage unit than the store so doing more of it.    For groceries, check the pantry/stored food stock BEFORE making a list.  Figure out what can be made with what's on hand.  I often take out what would be good to eat up first and put that on the visible shelf at home or the office.   E.g. If I get too much fruit, focus on eating that.   Often, turns out I don't need anything and can skip a store trip.

For other stores (hardware, thrift, clothes) checked stored stuff.  I have a back stock of sox an pants bought at thrift in 2019.   It was a good year for wool sox and cotton-no-stretch jeans.   Rather than getting something new, wear those.  No one gives a crap what I wear.  Sometimes I find hardware bits and bobs in the tool storage so don't have to buy then.   If there is something I do need, I hit thrift first if it looks safe to go in the store.   Some things I can't get at thrift. like butane for the tiny non-woodstove.   I've started ordering that in bulk rather than getting cans a few at a time.  It costs more upfront but hasn't seemed to increase overall consumption.  We'll see in spring when I don't have the woodstove going.  With being home so much, I may be using it up faster.

7) Use up what others are throwing out or I have in stock but don't super like.   

There is AWFUL coffee at work.  In a nice can. Or rather there was.  I drank it up.   It is B.A.D.  And it is G.O.N.E.   Now I have a nice 3lb coffee can to turn into a chicken feeder by filling it with chicken food.  Or to use as whatever.  And, it's gone.   Stretched my decent coffee supply about 3 weeks by drinking it up and now the decent coffee tastes really good.

I found some instant espresso powder in the back of my home pantry shelf (2 or 3 shelves in a book case by the "kitchen" which is a table).  It's not horrible.  Especially if you put a bit of baking cocoa with it.  Then it's actually decent.  I have another serving or two.  It wasn't getting fresher.  Might was well drink it up.

I famously don't care for peaches.  Mushy.   Canned peaches from 2nd Harvest are less awful because they are underripe and have some texture other than mush.  They come packed in pear juice, unsweetened.  Nothing wrong with them.  I drink the juice and eat the peaches with breakfast at work.  I'm generating a lot of empty cans which I hope to turn into a solar collector like this:

I could heat a solar dehydrator or the chicken coop or a tiny greenhouse   We'll see.  For now I get to spend my time cutting the bottoms out of cans.

8) Candle nubbin candles.

I like candles.  They fix the light from too many LEDs (the head lamp or flashlight or solar light I use for general and task lighting).    I also use a little candle heater.

Cans that have an integral bottom, not a welded or crimped on bottom, think salmon cans, make good containers for candle nubbin candles.  So does the "CAN-dle" that I got at thrift a few years ago.  It's a low flattish can that had a 3 wick candle in it for emergency heat and it fits in my candle heater (which does not heat the whole wee shed no matter what idiot youtubers say.  It's more candle than heater).  When I get candles, thrift or gift almost never new, burn them.  There is usually some candle nubbin left that didn't burn.  I store that in a tin or bag.   When the CAN-dle is used up, or mostly, or I have a good appropriate can, I put a bunch of nubbins in it, melt it on the woodstove...carefully.  Not when it is SUPER HOT more when it's died way way down.  Take it off...carefully.  Let it cool.  Right before it is totally set, I jam in a few dollar store birthday candles (40 for 1$) or smallish candles from thrift or gifts.  I found wicks at thrift once and found that letting the candle nubbin candle totally cool, then drilling a hole about wick size worked really well.   These don't burn perfectly, are usually a hideous color but they give light and I don't have to throw out the nubbins.

For those thinking of gifting me...think unscented!  They don't attract bugs AND they mix better in the nubbins.  Adding vanilla to bayberry to "wet forest" does not make for a nice smelling candle.  More like someone over ate cookies and pooped under a tree.

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.

101 Money Saving Ideas: Numbers 42-59

To review:  Totally bogarting this series idea from Centsible Living with Money Mom on the youtubes.  She's awesome!  Watch her.

42 A dollar a pound, all year round.  This was part of hint #32 and I want to expand on it again because it really works. It's a food purchasing GOAL but not a hard line. So, what can you get this week at the local grocery stores for 1$/lb or less?  USUALLY potatoes, onions and bananas are available year round so those can be staples. All are flexible.  E.g. my favorite soup is potatoes and an onion.  About 4 medium to large potatoes and 1 medium to large onion.  Dice them up, add 4-5 cups of water.  Boil until tender. Eat.  It's super good when sick or tired or sick and tired (so basically every day for me since I find my fellow humans exhausting).  Change it up with spices, a diced boiled egg, drop a raw beaten egg in there and bring to the boil while stirring to make potato egg drop soup.  A bit of lemon juice, lime juice or vinegar in your bowl just before you eat it will make this incredibly delicious.  Mexican spices, Italian, whatever you have, poultry seasoning you can never seem to use up, a knob of ginger diced up ...ANYTHING is good in here.  Maybe not sugar but who knows.
The left overs turn into mashed potatoes eventually.

What else is 1$/lb or less this week?
24oz loaf of bread for 99cents...that's under 1$/lb
Pasta is right at 1$/lb and as a dried product, cooked up it is even a better savings.
Remember that principle with dried beans too if you have a way to cook them!  1lb of dry beans will make 2-4 lbs of cooked.  Canned beans are often 1$/lb but not nearly as good a deal as the dried.  If you don't have good cooking facilities, canned are the better deal.
Frozen veggies, 99cents/lb
2 jumbo cantaloupes for 5$...WEIGH them.  You're bound to find a couple that are 2.5lbs or more making them 1$/lb or less.  I'm almost ready to start carrying a little hanging scale and old onion bag so I can weigh at the Grocery Outlet and etc where fruit and veg is all by the piece or bag.
You may notice I left out all sugary drinks.  Those are never a deal even at under 1$/lb because they are not nutritious.  But if you must drink them (and sometimes I must), then pay less.
You probably won't find coffee and spices this low so techniques on those later in the list (probably)

43  No Plastic Days.  Just TRY to spend money without acquiring plastic!  You may not spend at all or you may spend less.  Be mindful of packaging and of the plastic coated receipt paper!   Once in a while I shop online but that is just acquiring the plastic later.  Also, usually can't check mail on a "no plastic day" because of those damn little windows in the envelopes.  Those CAN just be open without plastic like they used to be or your address could be on the envelope...like the old days.  If only.  I spend time when watching a movie or youtubes tearing those damn things out so I can burn or recycle the envelope  Aggravating.

44  Write a letter.  Sure, the stamp costs you something, but it takes up time you might be spending or online shopping, and you get ZERO targeted ads based on handwritten letters.  Your emails, facebooks, texts and cell phone calls are scanned and you get targeted ads.  If you manage to turn off the snooping on your own email/phone, etc, likely the person on the receiving end did not.  And you get targeted ads.  Try even talking by someone's smart phone. I like to say things like "Nutterbutter ice cream sandwich" or "artisan" and watch the ads roll in next time I'm on the internet.  Creepy man.  Targeted ads are more effective, that's why they do them.  So get targeted for things you don't use, at least. And at best, avoid being targeted.   People also love getting letters. 

45  Review your insurance(s).  I try to do this once a year or so and see if there are savings, if a rate deal has been dropped (e.g. I need to take another cheap defensive driving course in order to get money off my car insurance).  Call the insurance agency, not just email and online.  Get someone on the phone.  It shocks them.  They might drop it a few dollars.  Maybe get some easy online quotes and see if you can get something cheaper.

46  Can you consolidate some of your items/tasks/bills and save $$?  You never know.  A few years back I reorganized, culled and consolidated 2 storage units into 1 slightly larger than the previous "big" unit (heh heh) which save 50$/month.  I'm going to try another cull to see if I can minimize it again and maybe get down a size again...though I like the location.  But you say...why have a storage unit?  Get rid of that sh*t! Well, yes, ideally (see #47) I would do that.  But alas, living in 135sq feet and wanting my furniture for the house being built as we type, I have it in storage.  I am a genetic hoarder so have to downsize in phases.  That's what works for me,

47  Get rid of crap in storage units.  This saves you the storage costs.  If you are lucky, you can sell some of your crap and/or share it out to people who will appreciate and use it.  In #46 I get defensive about why I am keeping my crap in storage.  And another thing...about a 5'x5' portion, 11' tall, of the storage is "live" storage where I keep things like off season clothes, extra food storage containers, a gift bin so I can buy gifts when they are on sale.  The stuff outside that goes through periodic culls.  I'm working on it.  #genetichoarder!

48  Drink Tap Water.  Guess what is in those bottles and gallons of water you buy...TAP WATER.  Maybe it's spring water and maybe it comes from somewhere with "springs" in the name.  Much of the time it's tap water.  It's EXPENSIVE.  Drink tap water.  I bring tap water from work to my house because I haven't bothered to get the well tested (house! HA!  I flatter the shed sometimes).  It's not hard.  You fill about 1 gallon a day and bring it home for drinking and cooking.  Live on the streets?  Well, then you have bigger issues.  Chlorine in your water?  Air it out a bit or get a filter pitcher AT A THRIFT STORE.  I also generally found the filters, still packaged, at thrift stores.  Also, lots of people drink chlorine water.  Maybe work with your town if you don't want it in there.
So, how much is it to drink bottled water which is total BS on so many levels....at least refill the goddamn bottle.
1 qt of bottled water is about $1.50, maybe a buck.  I get a gallon of distilled (for the solar batteries) for a dollar or so.  We'll be nice and say 1$/day for buying bottled water.   Cost of municipal tap water per gallon?  $0.002  on average.  That's 2 onehundredths of a cent per gallon for well water?  I spent 19,000 or so on the well and solar to run it (but the solar does more).  I use about 500gallons a week in the summer when watering the garden.  Less in the winter or rainy season.  So, let's call it 250gallons a week...250/7 = 35/day.   I've used the well for 5 years and 6 months or so... 19000/5.5years = $3555 per year/365 9.45/day cost for 35 gallons.  9.45/35 =   $0.27per gallon!!! Already cheaper than buying water!! Woot woot!   It gets cheaper every time I use it.  I don't waste it to drive down the cost. I 'm very frugal with my water usage.  Aquafers are precious resources and one does not save money by wasting water.

49  Change clothes when you get home.  I hate doing this but I try.  Right now it's so HOT that I change into thin pants and tissue thin shirts before working around the property after work. Easier to wash those.  I keep "work pants" hanging on a hook all year round.  Those get washed less and are sacrificial pants.  They are meant to be worn out and stained and grubbed up.  Changing out of "office worthy" pants and shirts saves those.  It means I've been wearing the same jeans to work for years and my office shirts last for years too.  Boring, but cheap! 

50  The clothes/fabric use chain.  When clothes DO wear out and are not shareable, tradeable, donateable, then what?  For me, they get torn into rags.  Seams on jeans and the waste band are usually strong even after the fabric rots.  I use them to tie up stuff in the garden.  Since I wear 100% cotton most of the time, or 100% wool/linen/natural if at all possible, these things decompose into the soil eventually rather than being there as plastic bits forever (functionally forever...who knows when that sh*t goes away?).   The main body of the clothes get used as wash clothes or reusable rags until they are so bad they become a 1 use rag to be trashed.  These are good for engine oil checking.  Or for wiping up greasy spills and then being used to start fires (in the woodstove...not just random locations).  Elastic off bras and undies has various uses as well...tie up tomatoes etc.  But, has to be gathered up as it won't decompose in a reasonable amount of time.  I keep a bag on a shelf near the other cleaning products for clothes that need to be rags now.  I fish in there for what I need when I run out of wash clothes, or am crafting, or need to start a fire and paper isn't cutting it to get the kindling going.

51  Do something while you stare at the TV/Computer/Whatever.  Watching a movie or show or random youtubes?  Do something.  Lately I've been folding boxes for mustard samples. You probably don't need to do that, but maybe you have mending or you like to knit.  I like to darn socks while I watch a movie or listen to a book.  Don't have any that need darning right now but I do need mustard sample boxes.  In fact, I'm blogging this during a work webinar.  Maybe I shouldn't but the webinar has repetitive bits so when something is being repeated, I type.  Then tune back in when it's new info.

52  Sell something you like to make/do.  This is new to me, but I'm testing it out.  I like to make mustard so I started selling it.  I'm tracking the money to see if the cost/benefit works out in my favor. It takes time and space, 2 things I don't have lots of to spare.  But, I like doing it.  And so far the mustard is selling at a local farmers market.  I'm just above break-even right now and had to do a price adjustment so we'll see.  Some people cook meals for those without time or space, others do sewing alterations, manual labor, or whatever.  It doesn't hurt and might be worth a try.

53  Keep Long Term Goals In Mind.  These would be financial related mostly.  Like I want to retire some day.  Every day I spend half what I earn, I earn a day of NOT WORKING because I have that amount of money saved (hopefully with interest) to pay for that day of retirement.  This is above and beyond my retirement fund and Social Security.  Another goal is having a house, garden and land the way I want.  I hasn't been super cheap getting toward that and compromises have and continue to be made, but if I keep going the way I'm going, I will get there debt free.  When I was trying to buy land I had a cost per square foot so before I spent $$ on something, I figured out how many square feet of land I could buy instead.  It wasn't totally accurate but it helped keep the spending down.

54  Gratitude moments.  I take a moment now and then when I get discouraged with the thrift and just want a giant expensive meal out or a 7$ iced coffee on a no spend day.  I use that moment to think through things in my personal life that I am grateful for.  Many of them end up having to do with being debt free and having my spending mostly under control.  Like I'm always grateful for being debt free.  A bad day at work is less bad when you know you COULD stomp out in a huff and not come back and still not lose your home.  So far that has meant I did not have to stomp out because I had a better perspective on things.  It keeps me on track.

55  Everything is a choice.  You are not a victim of your debt, your costs, your job, people/charities begging you for money, any loans you've given.  Everything you've done, including inhaling, was a choice.  So, move on.  Make a new choice.  Choose to pay the debt off.  Choose to forgive the loans you handed out unwisely or to openly ask for the money back or to sue the bastards.  Do it.  Choose to learn boundaries and enforce them with money.

56  Free Fruit!  Nice segue.  Or not.  Fruit is getting ripe right now.  Time to put the apple picker in the car and the eyes peeled for random fruit trees along the road, in people's yards, in parks.  Always ask if the tree looks like someone owns it or in a town park.  And be mindful of pesticide and herbicides that might be on them.  People spit pits out windows for generations so lots of apples and pears along highways, old RR beds, trails.  Many are delicious.  Some are crap.  Taste them if you feel comfortable.  If it looks like the area has been sprayed (lots of dead veg and/or few bugs) then I pass it up.  But often I pick them.  You get pesticides on grocery fruit too.  Wash it.  Make your own choices (see #55).  A friend has a cherry tree and calls people to pick each year.  I go and I share out the fruit and eat some.  Spent yesterday evening picking serviceberries (which are late this year) and eating them.  Some went into vinegar which will preserve them and flavor the vinegar.  I'll get more for several evenings in a row here.  Other berries are getting ripe.  Pick them.  When someone offers you their home grown fruit say yes, and thank you and enjoy and share something back sometime.

57  Free meat!  I help a friend butcher chickens and ducks and will help her butcher whatever comes up next.  I learn something and always get a bit of free meat with the new skills.  Sometimes I invest in meat with her, like when she bought ducks so grow and butcher.  I paid in for some of the ducks and helped with the meat production.  That wasn't free, but was cheap.  Some people grab roadkill. I haven't yet, but I'm all for it and someday hope to run across a fresh kill when I have my knife and something to put it in.

58  Free veg!  It's zucchini time here.  When someone asks if I want some, I say yes and take it.  Fry it, eat it raw, dry it, bake it, put it in soup.  It's good food.  Eat it.  If you have a freezer, shred it and freeze it.  Drying is my favorite because it becomes differently delicious in soups later.  Also just eating it as dried chips is good.  Don't forget mushrooms and other wild food you can gather beyond the berries noted above.  I know mushrooms aren't really veg but I didn't want to do another entry on this.  Enough already.

59  Grow some flavor.  A pot of herbs or an herb garden, some onions, garlic, peppers, or other flavory things in the garden or a pot will help with all that free zucchini.  And with flavoring that potato soup or other cheap food soups.  Herbs and spices are expensive, buy some seeds or learn to start them from cutting.  I hear you can root bits of basil from plant cuttings.  Maybe.  I have thyme, chives, tarragon, oregano, fennel, horseradish, radishes, 2 types of sage...no 3 types of sage, garlic, walking onions, sorrel (wild and garden), and probably more that I'm not thinking of.   Those all really help when I am grabbing a handful of greens to fry up or make salad.  Grab the herbs or garlic tops or an onion leaf (are the green things on onions leaves?  Blades?)  Anyway, it's cheap and healthy.  I have so much thyme I can dry it for the winter and have tasty soup all year. 

TOO Many Puns So It's Just Blog Post about the Build Project

Things have been moving FAST.

The plumbing (owner permit...a.k.a ME).  I buggered it up the first time.  Slammed through another day with new help and MUCH more knowledge thanks to the friends who helped me through the first draft and passed the inspection 49 hours after the "fail". I got a green sticker on a random pipe sticking out of the ground.    I also ended up with 2 big boxes of unused bits and pieces to return to 3 or 4 different hardware stores.  As soon as I have slept a bit, I will get on that.

The first two assistants taught me a TON!  Thanks Jyl and Snuff!  For reals.
The final one...I told him that since it passed I would think of him every time I took a dump.  He was flattered.

So, the hole was filled and tamped. Gravel...tamping, more gravel...more tamping...lather, rinse, repeat.

Got the permit Thursday morning at about 8:30 AM and by 5pm Friday, 90% of the rebar is in.  The builder had a question about a detail (rebar drawn as though floating in the air...hard to pour concrete
on that and keep it in place).  So, he added some more rebar, had me take a picture and send it to his boss (aka Mrs Builderman) and hopefully the engineer will OK the slight modification.

At one point, the Mr Builderman said, "I tend to overbuild things."  Yep.  They should put that on the sign.

This morning 3 people showed up, 2 barely know me!!! And helped me rough in the pex tubes that will distribute heat in the slab in the imaginary magical solar future.  We'll see....
I'm sleeping on it and then in the morning I will go back and start tying them more definitively to the rebar.  The helpers (no names...well, they have names but I don't like to name names) were SUPER good.  None of us had done it but we watched the how-to video.  I watched it on a loop for a couple of hours and took notes because I am me. 
Anyway, here we are:

And the tubes.   I will neaten them up a bit.  I may have help tomorrow morning for that.

I will try to fish out some plumbing pictures too.  Perhaps one of the EPIC plumbers crack on the last assistant.  Cripes!!! It reminded me of the "credit card" joke my sister told me once.

You can admire the beautiful green "right to poop" sticker on the vertical black post.

The builder labor guys complimented me on having all the plumbing in one spot.  YA!!  AND interior wall.  The shortest heat tube goes through the kitchen and bath areas on either side of that.  Kitchen faces south.  The roll of tubing on the left of the picture is where the manifold will be.  It ends up under the kitchen counter.  I had wanted it in the bathroom but at 4'10" wide, with a 2'6" door...and a water supply pipe (that might actually be in the kitchen???  was supposed to be in the bathroom but the wall is 2" thick max so things have floated back and forth around it.  I don't really care...drill a hole and voila...water supply and most incoming water plumbing back in the bathroom), it was too crowded. So I remembered I didn't have to put this near the hot water heater.  If I put solar units on the south 2nd story wall or porch roof, I'll want that thing on the south wall anyway.  And it sorted out the tubing plan.   

I must have done a dozen tubing lay outs.  All of which would have worked and none of which we ultimately used.  Bits of each.  The boards are where walls will be more or less.  It struck me last night on layout 3001 that I had TOO MANY TUBES going through the bathroom if the main manifold is in there.  I'd be melting the toilet wax ring all damn winter.   That is apparently a thing based on the BIG RED LETTER WARNINGS in the installation manual.   Moving the manifold simplified the layout and limited the number of tubes that had to cross each other.  

Turning also turned (HA) out to be the biggest installation challenge.  So, at the suggestion of EG, a super friend and helper, we went the long way on the north living room and south/east living dining area.  BINGO.  Saved tubing and labor and it was easier to get into the vestibule where the solar batteries will live.

I thought to switch the supply/return path on the north loop so the sleeping area will get the water after the living area.  I like a chilly bedroom.  

Now I'm wondering if I could hook up inground tubes through the landscape around the house but deep in the ground and chill the floor in the summer.  

One helper (Hi C!!) suggested that this heated floor will be excellent for passing out drunk so I need to start drinking ASAP.

Cousin-in-law BG (not a real relative...no Norwegian has that status) had already suggested drinking when the first plumbing inspection was a fail and there was 2 days to hit the next inspection.  I may consider it next week.  The concrete pour will either happen or not happen.  Either way, I will be stressed out.  

In better news...my hair is suddenly down to my belt!  And NO I did not switch to high-waisted pants.  Since I am the shortest waisted person in the west, I'm sticking with the low waisted ones.  I keep the hair braided pretty much all the time so I hadn't noticed it got longer.  

SP and JH let me mooch a shower today and I went for the hair. My head was encased in a hard cap made of dust and scalp grease welded to hair.  Like adobe...hairdobe?  I can't imagine what it did to their drain.  But hey, if they need a new drainpipe run, I not only know how, I have enough plumbing parts in the car and on the porch to do it.  

Thank you to one and all who have helped, visited, encouraged and brought sustenance and expertise (except the Norwegians)

More anon.  

Self-Reliance: Solar System

I went with solar to run the well.

There IS a power line crossing part of my property, and yet it would mean paying to set poles and run line to the homesite or well head or somewhere to get hooked in to that.  It was going to be  extremely expensive.  And then I'd be paying a monthly bill.

So, I skipped it.  As I plan the real cabin to live in properly, I'm planning to stick with stand-alone solar.  Not grid tie.  Grid tie here means paying to set those poles and hook up, and then having a more expensive solar system to avoid feed back and meter it and etc.  So, skip it.  I might get more panels.

Right now the system is 2 panels (I forget the size, but biggish, not crappy little ones), 8 batteries, a 24volt system into the inverter which runs the well and has an outlet on it.  There is also a charge controller, The panels are on a pole that can turn and tilt them.

I have learned that I should have gotten a 220/240V well pump, or a DC well pump, or a special one that can run on any power (220, 110, DC, whatever).  I got a 110.  Oh well.  We can't get it all right the first time.   It draws much amperage especially at start up so one scraped wire dropping volts meant it didn't work right for about a year until I found the right solar guys to figure out the issue.  That wire will be replaced when the real cabin goes in and the solar is moved and that portion will need to be re-wired. 

IF I wanted a fridge and washing machine and freezer and to live like someone on the grid, the solar would be too expensive or too high maintenance for me.  I will have lights, a bathroom fan, a few outlets, the well.  That's about it.  I may get a couple more panels to keep the charge up and I'm exploring microhydro and microwind for the not-so-sunny times, but that will probably end with exploration.

I'm not "self-sufficient" with the solar since someone built the panels and other components and I don't do my own wiring etc. I am self-reliant in that with this system in place, I am currently fulffilling most of my electrical needs.  I did bring the electric weed whacker and battery to work today to charge, but that was because I didn't want to leave the charger unattended, and yet I want to weed whack tonight while it's cool out.  I COULD have charged it at home.

Having the solar run the well pump, even the poorly chosen pump, is pretty darn self reliant.  The whole well/water system is pretty cool but I guess that's another post so I will save it.

Here is a picture of the solar panels and the well pump controller (power thingy) stuck on a post by the spigot.

Self-reliance: Reference Library

1) Reference library.  I can find stuff out without a smartphone or even the interwebs!!!! OMG.  I'm rocking it 1990s style.
 


First: REMEMBER TO CHECK BOOKS OUT OF THE LIBRARY BEFORE YOU DECIDE WHETHER TO ADD THEM TO YOUR HOME REFERENCE LIBRARY.  

I didn't do this every time, but lots of times.  Once I decide I want something, like the Tightwad Gazette, I then start keeping an eye out at the free book bin at the Moscow, Idaho, recycling center, yard sales, and thrift stores.  If something is 25cents, I may get it and then feel free to donate it to a thrift store or little free library or the free book bin if it's not quite what I want.



Here are a few book types in the library:

--Budget/Thrift/Frugality manuals
        My favorites are The Complete Tightwad Gazette (from a thrift store) by Amy Dacyczyn, The Ultimate Cheapskate's Guide to True Riches by Jeff Yeager, various olde tyme housekeeping and thrift books from the recycling center free book bin or 25cents or less at thrift and yard sales.  I try to cull these every year or two.





--Cookbooks (real ones) and recipes
         Old cookbooks are better for me in general.  Ones where the recipes start with flour, milk, eggs, rather than "a box of cake mix."  Others might like something else.  The classic Better Homes and Gardens cookbook with guides on roasting meats, making bread and cakes from scratch, how to cut up a whole chicken, etc, is a great place to start.  I got two excellent reference cookbooks from a friend (Hi Jon!) who got them at thrift.  Debra Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone and Cooking Under Pressure by Lorna Sass.  Both have guides to cooking many many vegetables.  I use these as guides once I've learned how to deal with a meat or veg product.  I also check out cookbooks from the library and copy out the recipes I like.  A collection of recipes from family, friends, and events needs culling right now, but often serves as inspiration.  I also have a couple of solar cooking cookbooks that I found in the free book bin at the recycling center.
         Food preservation books on fermenting, canning, dehydrating and root cellaring are also in there.

--First Aid and Home Healthcare References
       I found both at thrift stores.  The first aid manual is an scouting one.  The healthcare is based on nutrition and herbs that probably grow in the garden.          

--Basic carpentry how-to
       This mostly lets me know that something is beyond my skills, but good to have.

--Various low cost and energy efficient housing design books (Alex Wade is my hero!!!!)
       These were and are used for planning my "real" house that I hope to have built eventually.


--Beekeeping book (Thanks Hilch and the girls!!!  Great gift)
         This one is a nice basic reference.  There are tons out there so I don't know if it is the best but it is very good.   I am on the look out for an old version of The ABC and XYZ of Bee Culture partly as useful reference and partly for the history of beekeeping.


--Dictionary.  Actually 2.
          One basic new one and one vest pocket type from 1906!  Both found at thrift for about 25cents. 

--Manuals for my appliances, tools, systems, etc
        These come in SO HANDY when something breaks or I get the question "what is the model number?" or "when did you buy that?" from a repair person.  Write the purchase date, or at least year, on the cover and store them either all together in a good sturdy box, or in a protective bag/cover and on the wall right by the appliance/tool/system.

--Plant/Animal Identification guides
        I have wild plants (medicinal, food, and otherwise), wildlife, birds, and would like a good mushroom guide.  I also have free e-books on weeds and local native plants.   I may print them out so I don't have to turn on the computer to find the info.



--Gardening/Orchard guides
         From the free book bin at recycling, I got the Sunset Western Garden Book from the 1970s.  Excellent!  I recently found a newer hardcover version at a thrift store for very cheap.  Currently deciding which to keep and which to put in a "tiny library" for someone else to have.  I also have a second gardening techniques book that is similar and may cull down to just one or the other.  I have an old copy of the Square Foot Garden, Let it Rot (composting), and a set of handouts on various plants from gardening classes.  I keep the notes from the garden/farm classes I attend in a hardcover notebook (that I got at a thrift store), so these notes are all together and I can find them.


--Repair and Maintenance and Hack guides.
      I haven't settled on the ones I like, but these are books on how to refinish furniture, fix household items, mend clothes, and the like.  An old housewife's guide from the 1800s has been extremely useful and was a gift from my gramma years ago.  I found a new general fix it guide at thrift that is being auditioned.

--Guide to my garden/orchard
     This is one I am putting together myself.  I haven't settled on a format but I'm thinking one page for each type of tree/shrub/cane-berry to record when/where I got it, when/where it was planted, and how it is doing.   I'll put in notes on annuals in another section or another notebook.


I switch out books now and then.

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.

Fresh, Local, Seasonal...AND TINY!!!

I like tiny things.  Tiny games stuck to the ends of writing implements.  Tiny versions of watches, dice, office supplies, notebooks, appliances...living arrangements...

Imagine my delight when I found ALL of this at the week Plummer, Idaho Farmers Market:

 Bantam chicken eggs!  I had a 4 egg omelette this morning with baby beet greens.  I didn't think to take a picture of the baby beet greens, but trust me...tiny and hilarious.
I may have to boil a few of them just so I can make tiny deviled eggs.  AND I wish wish wish I had some rye bread to make tiny toad in a hole....I may look for a rye roll or any small roll at the Moscow farmers market just so I can do that.  I need MORE TINY EGGS.  The week before the same vendor sold me some of her regular chicken eggs and those are so huge I thought every one of them must have a double yolk.  For the record, none of them did.














 TINY PLUMS!!!! I have been just sucking these down like candy.  They are the size of tart cherries.  About half the size of Rainier cherries.  And super sweet.  Every pit is sacred.  They are in a jar, open jar, by my desk drying out. Cut AND delicious.  What more is there in life?














Those are PEARS!  Super sweet candy-like pears.  I think they might be Sekel pears.  I'm not sure.  I will take either a pear or a picture of the pear to the local tree nursery and say "I MUST HAVE THIS IN TREE FORM".  A few years ago I made pears, giant ones, dipped in dark chocolate.  Just take a whole fresh pear.  Wash it and maker sure it is totally dry.  Melt some dark chocolate.  Dip the butt end of the pear in said chocolate and set on wax paper (I had the wax paper over a muffin tin so the pears could sit in the muffin divots) to cool and harden.  You can also set them on some crushed nuts for extra flavor.  Anyway, for some reason it is the perfect food.  I'm thinking if I don't eat all of these first, I will dip them in chocolate and have tiny chocolate pears.  I could transport them in an egg carton.
 Of course I'm saving the seeds, though I doubt they will come true.  Worth a shot though just to see if the tiny-feature comes through in the next generation.

Right now I'm mooching a shower and couch space from friends (THANK YOU) and stealing their wifi while they are gone.  As much as I love my wee cabin (imagine my delight at eating tiny food in my tiny shed), I needed a SHOWER.  The gym where I usually shower is closed for a week and it's been chilly and cloudy so the solar shower is on the fritz. 

8 Years No 'Poo Update

Well, so far so good.  I'm still "no 'poo" and still using the baking soda scrub with apple cider vinegar rinse.

This is slightly difficult to maintain when traveling, especially outside the US where I may not know the local word for either product.  In those cases I've used a good scrubbing of my scalp under hot water, followed by a rinse with whatever acid I can get (any light colored vinegar or lemon juice diluted in water), and a cold finishing rinse.  Works well.

A few times I've been traveling in the US and too busy/harried/tired to get to a store after a flight to get vinegar and baking soda, or I forgot.  In that case if I've got no acid source (batteries are NOT an option...or I would have stolen them out of the remote at a variety of hotels), I do a conditioner only job.  Just we the hair good, scrub the scalp with fingers to get up the 'druff and larger crud.  Then glop on lots of conditioner and work it through well.  Then rinse. Keep rinsing.  Still rinsing.  Always rinsing.  Finally, a cold water rinse.  It works OK but there is some itchy scalp from the chemically product my head is no longer used to and it doesn't last as long as the baking soda/ACV method on my hair.

It's been pretty easy doing this off-grid in the summer.   A jug of water in the sun for the day is plenty hot enough to wash hair at night.  For the cold water rinse...the ice water melting in the frozen jug in the cooler that's always there does the trick.  well!

Winter off-grid with no home shower has been tougher.  When I travel the first thing I do upon arrival at a hotel, if I drove, is get out the baking soda and ACV and have at it.  Then again before I leave at least a rinse with vinegar and cold water.  I've conditioner-onlied at the gym (where I shower most of the time) but it takes a while and one doesn't want to hog the public shower.  I've also gone to a friends' house and bogarted a shower and hair wash. 

It's nearly warm enough to go back to the outside washing which is my favorite now.  Uses the least water and I throw the used water on the shrubbery so it's not wasted.

As for the hair.  Still nice.  Most days when I've washed my hair it's too slick to stay in a pony tail so that's about the only day it's down.  People often compliment it.  There are broken bits here and there, but there always were and they correspond to where my pony tail holder hits (yes, it's metal free, but my hair is thin and wispy compared to most), where my glasses hit, or some other mechanical breakage source.  I don't think I can blame the no 'poo.

And pretty non-greasy even if I have to go 10 days without a wash.  I do go to the gym and lift weights and get sweaty so it isn't that I'm just keeping it clean.  There IS less dust in the winter around here so that does help keep the hair less grimy.  Anyway, as long as I brush it well with a boar bristle brush a time or two a day, I can get away with 10 days without a wash.  I'd rather wash more often.

Bit More Solar Cookery and a Laundry Drying Triumph

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


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

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














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

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

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

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














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

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

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

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

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


And finally...my laundry triumph:














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