At Last the Power Bill Is Down!

During the winter, I often pay well over 100$ for electricity (forced air electric heat in a nearly 40 year old trailer).  I expected a bigger drop in May, but alas and alack, it did not come.  Down quite a bit, but not to summer levels.  The furnace was off, but I was using the oven to cook and finding things to cook in there so I could mooch the heat off the oven.  It was still frosting over night into June.  Also...sometimes a space heater was necessary.

The June bill from the city just came and my electric is FINALLY down to about 35$.  That's pretty minimal.  I'm going to try to get it under $30 for July and August.  That would be awesome.  We also get this little bar graph now showing how the usage compares to the the past 12 months.  Big drop in electric usage.  My water usage is level because it isn't actual use, just the levels they bill at...the lowest level is well over 3 times my usual monthly use and costs about $14.50.  Cripes.  Then there is 40$ of sewer bond.  43$ of sewer and something for garbage pick up (which I hardly use because of my whole reduce-reuse-recycle system and the 2 composting systems).   So, if I can get a bill UNDER 150$ for my non-phone utilities, I'm pretty excited.

Major steps to be taken to conserve electric this summer:
1) Shut off the hot water heater if I'm gone for more than 24 hours.  It heats back up in like 45 minutes and the bill drops.  People tell me it's cheaper to just keep it hot but I have not found that to be the case.

2) Eat mostly uncooked foods (I don't want to say "raw" because I'm not a "raw foodist").  Lunch was salad with 3 or 4 kinds of lettuce (THANKS CSA!), side of chips and hummus, and possibly a green worm for protein but I'm pretending that was just a pea in the salad.  There were actual peas in the salad and I did wash it so if it WAS a worm, it was a clean worm.  Maybe even a ceviche worm since I washed the lettuce in vinegar water.

3) Avoid opening the fridge and just standing there.

4) Do something about that gap in the fridge insulation thingy.

5) Shorter showers.  No more meditating until the hot water is gone.  With the chlorine filter on the shower I can't use one of those on/off shower heads.  Those cause too much back pressure and blow out the 35$ filters in about a week.  Normally the filters last a year or more.  So, shorter showers and probably washing hair in the sink rather than in the shower.

6) Become devout about cooling the place overnight and closing up at just before sun-up.  This is a bit rough but then I think about all the Muslims who get up at dawn to pray, AND they are in Ramadan this month so they really have to get up in time to eat and drink for the day.   Getting up and shutting a few windows and taking out a couple of fans, then hitting the sack again is nothing and I get a big pay off.  Today I walked home for lunch in over 90 degree heat (I walked very very slowly so I wouldn't need another shower) but it was not quite 70 inside the trailer.  WOO!  The laundry I left on the line this morning had shrunk in the heat! (not really but if the pants are tight I'm using that excuse)

I think those are my major steps for the summer.

I'm already:
1) Keeping the water heater at 120
2) Using a hotpot rather than the stove when just heating water
3) Unplugging appliances and electronics when not in use (sometimes via a circuit breaker) including the stove.  For the stove I flip the breaker as this is much much easier than emptying the bottom of the cupboard and prying the plug out.
4) Hanging laundry to dry (haven't owned a dryer in nearly 9 years)
5) Washing in cold water most of the time.  Once in a while I use warm water to help get the residual soap out of the clothes.
6) Keeping frozen water bottles in the freezer to help stabilize the temperature
7) Keeping drapes/curtains shut during the day

Who The HELL is BITING my CARROTS!!!

I've been thinning the carrots in my garden so those remaining will hopefully grow bigger but ...
(insert dramatic music)

Oh wait...I can insert dramatic music:



Some bastard* has been BITING my goddamn carrots!  Not eating significant portions, just taking a bite and moving on.

I didn't take a photo because I was too ticked off.


The garden is a raised bed so someone must be coming over the edge and tunneling through.  I thought perhaps I'd put in a bunch of cayenne pepper, but that will hurt the worms too...don't want to hurt the worms.  They help things along.  They've seemed to leave the radishes alone.  I've harvested several of those and all were fine.

Any ideas for mystery-tunneling-carrot-biter-control methods?

Waste Through Pour Menuing

OK, I made up that last word.  But seriously people...put the main ingredients on the menu and I won't be wasting so much money.

I had a working lunch today at a restaurant.  I carefully looked for a reasonable dairy-free and cost effective option.  We had to pay for our own lunches.  So, I got some basic burger with a side salad and a vinaigrette.   The salad comes not just TOPPED with grated parmesan, but bottomed with it as well.  There was cheese laced throughout.  What the hell?   I hadn't said "no cheese on the salad" because this was a GARDEN salad and I have never picked a head of cheese in my garden.  Also, I've had it before WITH NO FREAKING CHEESE.  I was really pretty pissed.  Probably too much so.  I tried for a second to pick the cheese off, but there was no hope.  It was everywhere.  If it weren't allergy season I'd cheat a bit but not right now in pollen central when I need to mow the lawn.  Dairy gives me sinus infections and makes my allergies much worse.  So it wasn't like I'd die.  But really, I was already going to waste the bun, and the money spent no the bun, because it was fried in butter and then apparently re-buttered.  I knew that so I pull the burger off the bun immediately.    Without the salad, it meant that I got to eat a naked burger with 2 slices of tomato, 4 pickles, and some ketchup.   Not really worth 9 bucks. 

I have sent an email to the restaurant, via one of my aliases, that it would be nice to know when there are common allergens like dairy on things where they aren't expected...say "garden" salad.   I realize I'm too pissed off about this.  More than it deserves.  It's just that I don't understand when cheese became a default ingredient in everything.   I've had it show up on club sandwiches when it was not listed in the ingredients.  If it ever appears on a BLT I will not be responsible for my actions.

Woohoo Craigslist!

I don't know if I've blogged about how much I hate mowing lawns.  Probably.   Here's a short review:
I hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate mowing lawns.  I don't get it.   Why cultivate something that you cut, fertilized, cut, water, cut....etc.  Anyway, there you have it.

And yet...as a renter, that's part of the deal.  I have a reel mower like this:











Actually, that might even be the right brand.  I've had it for 15 years and maybe use it 5 times a year.  

The current lawn generally gets too tall in the spring to make any progress with that type of mower and I have to hire it done:  40$ (and the person may or may not show).  I hate that.
Sometimes, like say this year, the landlord concedes defeat and hits it with his riding lawn mower.   He did that last weekend.  The damn lawn already needs mowed again!   It hasn't even rained.

So, in the quest to be a decent tenant I've been scanning craigslist.  Once upon a time I had use of an electric mower and liked it better than gas.  1) quieter  2) no fumes 3) works good enough.   So I thought perhaps I could try that again.

Sure enough, there was an ad for this mower:


It retails for about 240$ to 260$.   Slightly used on craigslist:   $40.
And it came with a heavy gauge cord (which you need unless you want to start fires all the time......hmmmm......no, burning grass off just makes it grow better).


Good deal.   I may try to mow a bit tonight to keep ahead of the stupid lawn.  I'm sure I'll fall behind again but I think getting a more effective mower shows good faith on my part.

Movies worth owning

I was listening to the radio (remember that?  like TV but without pictures and it comes through the airwaves for free...unless you're one of the schmucks who pays for it) and heard a show where film makers talked about movies they can watch over and over.

I have many of those.  Some I own and some I don't.  When I do own them it's usually because I got the flick as a gift or from a thrift store.  I can't remember the last time I paid full price.  There are a few that I check out from the library over and over.

Here are a few favorites:

Escanaba in da Moonlight.  Very funny take on hunting camp in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  I own a thrift store VHS copy that is dying slowly.

Kitchen Stories.  A scandanavian film about anthropologists studying the kitchen habits of Norwegian farmers.  Very amusing in a slow depressing way.  Library checkout...repeated.

Grey Gardens.  The ORIGINAL documentary NOT that HBO tripe with Drew Barrymore (who is a fine person as far as I know but that movie should not have been made and adds nothing to the story).  Got the DVD set as a gift.

Kinky Boots.  Cute story of a shoe factory in England that struggles to stay open and keep its staff employed.  I own it.  Don't remember if it was a gift or thrift.

My Name Is Joe.  The story of a scot getting sober and trying to stay that way against some serious odds.
I bought a VHS off the internets used...it's very hard to find this movie and I love it.

There are more but I'll stop now.

Paying Off That Mortgage

This post, on The Dollar Stretcher (excellent website for thrifty types), does a better job than I have in explaining why I think it's pretty much a good idea for almost everyone to pay off their mortgages.

http://www.stretcher.com/stories/04/04apr12c.cfm#.UWQynKw86So

The tax write off is not enough motivation since you only get 25-30% of your interest money back.  In the long run, paying off early, even just over paying a bit each month, can save you more than 25-30% of that interest.  

And think about what you could do with that money WITHOUT a mortgage payment.   Save it.  Pay off other debt.  Improve you health insurance.  Travel.  Buy better food.  Quit your job in a huff.   Avoid losing your house if you lose your job.   Less debt means you are less of a wage-slave.


So, that sort of logic is why I'm saving saving saving and hope to buy my next home without a mortgage.  If I pay cash, I'll save a TON on interest.  I already did that by paying cash for the car.  My interest cost was exactly $0.00.   Nice.

According to an online interest calculator, if I'd gotten a 4 year loan at 5% interest I would have paid nearly $2000.00 in interest.  Instead, that money is in the bank.  I also paid no loan fees or costs. 

I should look back at my old mortgage papers and see what my closing costs were.  I know the interest, if I paid the loan off in the 30 years with no over payments or pre-payments, would have been pretty much 2 times the cost of the house...yikes. 

End of today's rant.

The King is Dead...

Sad news today.  I'm not sure if it's frugal or not but I wanted to comment on it.

Roger Ebert just died.   The film critic and author.

His writing had gotten much more interesting since he'd lost the ability to speak a few years back.  He wrote about how he was left out of conversations even when he had a computer that could produce speech.  By the time he typed in what he wanted to say, the conversation had moved on.  He seems to have also had more time to think.  Some of his reviews and columns were much more philosophical than in the past.

He'd recruited and mentored a crop of new film critics.  They'd been doing most of the reviews since he broke a hip a few weeks ago.  He announced that the break was not related to cancer.  Alas, it was.  And now he's gone.

I agreed with most of his reviews, though not all.  And his website has been a great resource for finding great old, and new, movies as well as figuring out what was coming out on DVD.  I hope "they" keep the website going, whomever "they" happen to be.

I checked his site each week to see what was coming out that I might want to see.   I also read his cookbook, and got a library to buy a copy.   That was pretty thrifty...making soup in a rice cooker.

He'll be missed. 

Ebertfest, his film festival in Illinois will start soon.  I'd always wanted to go.  I wonder if that will continue.  He chose the films himself.  They were often not "new" but always overlooked gems that didn't get enough screen time in regular theaters.   One of the main films this year is Days of Heaven.   It's been a favorite of mine for years and years.   It think it's the first time I realized how important cinematography is, not just plot and dialogue.  Also, how quiet a movie can be.  It's wonderful.  I think I'll watch in in memory of Roger.