Just this week, Husband told me the water rates in this fair Midwestern "city of fountains" is going up and that we should try to use less water. Whether it's a money thing or a conservation thing, that is always something I can get behind.
I hate hate hate it when someone suggests "turning off the tap when I brush my teeth" as a way to save water. Duh, dummy. I actually read this suggestion from a celebrity in a magazine recently. Um, yeah, the rest of us did that 25 years ago. Also? You're rich and famous. I feel like you should try harder than that.
So here are the other, less conspicuous ways Husband and I are saving water now:
1. Cutting Husband's hair. We cut off 8-9 inches of Husband's white man 'fro--buzzed it right off. (He's going to try to sell it. I'll let you know if he's successful.) That will really cut down on shower time. As for my hair, re: short v. long, I feel like it's a wash (pun intended). When I have short hair, wash/condition time is faster and I use less shampoo/conditioner. But I use a blow drier, straightener, and product, too. When I have long hair, I usually don't even bother to blow dry it, especially in the summer.
2. Recycling. We don't have a grey water system going on, but we have a dehumidifier in the basement that runs a lot. Rather than dumping the water down the drain, we have started to use it to water plants and flowers.
3. Making our own rain barrel thing. We used to have the big oil tanks in our basement because the house used to be heated with oil. Husband and FIL got the tanks out of the tank room and sealed it, painted it, and built great storage shelves. We now have an awesome storage room/storm shelter. But enough bragging, we also ended up with two huge tanks sitting in our back yard. One went to the scrap place (it didn't really make us any money if you count the time spent cutting it open, washing it out, and transporting it to the scrap yard). The other is getting turned into a rain barrel. Husband is going to put a gutter on one side of the detached garage that will drain into the old oil tank. It already has a spigot on it so it will be great for filling up buckets to water the back garden beds.
4. Not running the rinse cycle on the dishwasher. Husband used to do this and it drove me crazy. He's stopped, thanks to the rate increase.
5. Low flow shower heads and aerators in the sinks. You don't even notice you're using less water.
6. Also those other duh, dummy ways of saving water. Full loads of laundry, not washing a small cycle as a large cycle, etc. Also, a lot of times I'll use pasta water to make the pasta sauce or the water from steamed vegetables in the garden. Just a lot of little things. I'm sure there are lots of others I overlook from time to time, but we try.
7. I'm trying to figure out how to wash my hair less. I used to wash/condition it every time I took a shower and if I run in the evenings or push mow the yard, that's two showers a day. I've cut out the 2nd wash of the day bit, but I could probably do more than that...
Here are some things I'm interested in if we ever manage to add a bathroom to the basement or redo the upstairs bathroom:
1. Dual-flush toilets. Not the low-flow toilets because you just end up flushing them extra times. Dual flush lets you choose how much flush you need: a lot or a little. That's all I have to say about that.
2. The kind of shower where one knob controls the hot/cold on/off. Right now we have a knob for cold and a knob for hot. This makes navy showers very difficult--so difficult I don't even try. (With one knob, I'm really good at navy showers. I even used to catch the water coming out of the tub spigot while the water was warming to the right temp and reuse it for plants.)
Things I feel that Husband would never agree to:
1. Full-on gray water recycling.
2. One of those sinks that empties into the toilet tank and then you use your sink water to flush the toilet. They delight the hippie in me.
Times that we are huge water wasters:
1. Step-daughter likes to open her backyard "water park" once a summer and have her cousins over and fill every trash can, bucket, pool, water balloon, slip & slide, sprinkler and make a general mud slick of our back yard. But you're only a kid once, right? And it's a lot more fun than going to the real water park. It delights the suburbanite in me.
Things I don't want to give up ever:
1. An occasional long hot bath. It's cheaper than therapy, dude.
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
The Penny Savers
You know what will keep you in a frugal mindset long after one of your cars' oil leaks has been fixed? (And by "fixed" I don't mean "fixed" I mean "ignored" because it isn't that bad and it will cost too much to fix it.) Owing taxes.
So you have to pay taxes on unemployment. Maybe this is evident to all the rest of you, but I've never been on unemployment nor can I see the logic of paying taxes on government benefits. (Do you have to pay Social Security on your Social Security benefits? Seriously, do you?) Apparently taxes used to be withheld from your unemployment. But they don't do that anymore. (Government jobs still have taxes withheld, how is unemployment so much trickier now?) Had I been told about all of this, I could have had extra withheld from my paycheck. However, I wasn't. So now, not only do we have to pay income taxes on unemployment, we have to pay a penalty because we owe taxes. Since we're already living on the cheap, we can cover this as long as we delay a major purchase or two. (C'mon washer & dryer, you gotta keep it together for another 6-12 months!)
I noticed this morning all the penny-saving things we've done this week, some of which I've never blogged about before.
1. You know when you use your bar of soap down to the point where it's just a bunch of little pieces? I save those pieces. I cut the leg off a clean but runned pair of tights. I keep in it the shower, hanging over my wash-cloth bar and stuff those little pieces in the tights every time I end up with just the broken bits. Then when there are enough broken bits, voila--soap on a rope. I've been doing this for probably over a year and I've maybe saved myself buying a couple bars of soap. So, yeah, we're talking pennies.
2. Husband likes candles--especially if they smell like vanilla. When you buy the candles in the jars, you usually end up with a bunch of wax left over in the corner. A year or so ago, we bought some cheap wicks from the craft store. Then when we're left with wax and no wick in a candle jar, we put it in a pan of boiling water to melt it. Then we pour it into a leftover emptied out jar with a new wick and, voila--new candle.
3. Sunday morning I used all the coffee creamer. I put it on the grocery store list but then I realized: I have powdered milk in the freezer (for making bread in my bread maker) and cocoa powder, sugar, and orange extract in the pantry. I rinsed out the old coffee creamer bottle and poured all those things in with some water and, voila--orange mocha creamer.
While I realize the savings on these things is minimal, I've really been digging on the idea of using what I have to try to delay buying more stuff, especially when two of the three things are unnecessary. (I'm sure everyone appreciates that I use soap.) It's a double-win because the less money I spend now, the less money I'll have to scramble to find when April rolls around and the more stuff I use up, the less stuff we have cluttering up our house.
What are your penny-saver ideas? We always need suggestions.
So you have to pay taxes on unemployment. Maybe this is evident to all the rest of you, but I've never been on unemployment nor can I see the logic of paying taxes on government benefits. (Do you have to pay Social Security on your Social Security benefits? Seriously, do you?) Apparently taxes used to be withheld from your unemployment. But they don't do that anymore. (Government jobs still have taxes withheld, how is unemployment so much trickier now?) Had I been told about all of this, I could have had extra withheld from my paycheck. However, I wasn't. So now, not only do we have to pay income taxes on unemployment, we have to pay a penalty because we owe taxes. Since we're already living on the cheap, we can cover this as long as we delay a major purchase or two. (C'mon washer & dryer, you gotta keep it together for another 6-12 months!)
I noticed this morning all the penny-saving things we've done this week, some of which I've never blogged about before.
1. You know when you use your bar of soap down to the point where it's just a bunch of little pieces? I save those pieces. I cut the leg off a clean but runned pair of tights. I keep in it the shower, hanging over my wash-cloth bar and stuff those little pieces in the tights every time I end up with just the broken bits. Then when there are enough broken bits, voila--soap on a rope. I've been doing this for probably over a year and I've maybe saved myself buying a couple bars of soap. So, yeah, we're talking pennies.
2. Husband likes candles--especially if they smell like vanilla. When you buy the candles in the jars, you usually end up with a bunch of wax left over in the corner. A year or so ago, we bought some cheap wicks from the craft store. Then when we're left with wax and no wick in a candle jar, we put it in a pan of boiling water to melt it. Then we pour it into a leftover emptied out jar with a new wick and, voila--new candle.
3. Sunday morning I used all the coffee creamer. I put it on the grocery store list but then I realized: I have powdered milk in the freezer (for making bread in my bread maker) and cocoa powder, sugar, and orange extract in the pantry. I rinsed out the old coffee creamer bottle and poured all those things in with some water and, voila--orange mocha creamer.
While I realize the savings on these things is minimal, I've really been digging on the idea of using what I have to try to delay buying more stuff, especially when two of the three things are unnecessary. (I'm sure everyone appreciates that I use soap.) It's a double-win because the less money I spend now, the less money I'll have to scramble to find when April rolls around and the more stuff I use up, the less stuff we have cluttering up our house.
What are your penny-saver ideas? We always need suggestions.
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Cheap Eats
I've been obsessed this week with reducing my food costs. Two cars leaking oil will go a long way to get you back in the frugal mindset.
Sidebar: I've also been long obsessed with the idea of the "Food Stamp Challenge" where you try to live for a week/month on a "food stamp budget." Some websites say the average amount a person may receive on food stamps is $3/day. Other places, I've seen $4.50/person/day. At any rate, according to my credit card's online pie chart, I spent between those two amounts at the grocery store during all of last year.
So in the interest of spending less at the grocery store this week, I've been trying to adopt a "use it up" mindset when it comes to my refrigerator and pantry. This week was pretty successful.
Breakfast: I had oatmeal, peanut butter and added 1/2 banana ($0.39/lb) for a cheap-o breakfast.
Lunch: I had imitation crab meat in the freezer, cooked some frozen edamame, an avocado, lettuce and added brown rice ($0.98/lb bag) and cucumber ($0.88). I mixed a dressing out of things I had: miso, wasabi & sesame oil. While not really cheap, the only thing I had to buy was the rice. After this was gone I just ate leftovers.
Dinner: My supposed-to-stretch-all-week Tuna Noodle Casserole (Had: tuna, noodles, milk, flour. Bought: cream cheese $1.69 and milk which we always have on hand anyway.) turned into a family Sunday dinner with the addition of the in-laws. I still had a couple days of leftovers. I also made Fried Rice with Chicken (everything leftover...rice bought (and cooked) for California Roll Salad, chicken & veg in the freezer, egg in fridge), and Easy Red Beans & Rice (used up the last remaining cooked rice, canned red beans & spices in the pantry, salsa in the fridge, faux meat crumbles in the freezer.)
For snacks, I had apples, cottage cheese and bought baby carrots for $0.98/bag.
In all, I spent $44.54 at the grocery store this week stocking up on staples, buying what I needed for my planned dinners (California Roll Salad, PB&B Oatmeal & Tuna Noodle Casserole), getting stuff for my step-daughter (her dad needs something quick and easy to make for her on our hectic Monday nights and I'll shamelessly feed her almost anything to get her out of bed in the morning. Plus she will only take certain vegetables in her lunch: cucumber, red pepper, or carrots. I bought 2 of the 3 this week, just to be sure.), stocking up on spaghetti sauce (on sale with a coupon for buying 3), and buying the stuff I need to cook enchiladas for Sunday dinner next week. That's puts me under $3/person/day mark for this week, too.
Sidebar: I've also been long obsessed with the idea of the "Food Stamp Challenge" where you try to live for a week/month on a "food stamp budget." Some websites say the average amount a person may receive on food stamps is $3/day. Other places, I've seen $4.50/person/day. At any rate, according to my credit card's online pie chart, I spent between those two amounts at the grocery store during all of last year.
So in the interest of spending less at the grocery store this week, I've been trying to adopt a "use it up" mindset when it comes to my refrigerator and pantry. This week was pretty successful.
Breakfast: I had oatmeal, peanut butter and added 1/2 banana ($0.39/lb) for a cheap-o breakfast.
Lunch: I had imitation crab meat in the freezer, cooked some frozen edamame, an avocado, lettuce and added brown rice ($0.98/lb bag) and cucumber ($0.88). I mixed a dressing out of things I had: miso, wasabi & sesame oil. While not really cheap, the only thing I had to buy was the rice. After this was gone I just ate leftovers.
Dinner: My supposed-to-stretch-all-week Tuna Noodle Casserole (Had: tuna, noodles, milk, flour. Bought: cream cheese $1.69 and milk which we always have on hand anyway.) turned into a family Sunday dinner with the addition of the in-laws. I still had a couple days of leftovers. I also made Fried Rice with Chicken (everything leftover...rice bought (and cooked) for California Roll Salad, chicken & veg in the freezer, egg in fridge), and Easy Red Beans & Rice (used up the last remaining cooked rice, canned red beans & spices in the pantry, salsa in the fridge, faux meat crumbles in the freezer.)
For snacks, I had apples, cottage cheese and bought baby carrots for $0.98/bag.
In all, I spent $44.54 at the grocery store this week stocking up on staples, buying what I needed for my planned dinners (California Roll Salad, PB&B Oatmeal & Tuna Noodle Casserole), getting stuff for my step-daughter (her dad needs something quick and easy to make for her on our hectic Monday nights and I'll shamelessly feed her almost anything to get her out of bed in the morning. Plus she will only take certain vegetables in her lunch: cucumber, red pepper, or carrots. I bought 2 of the 3 this week, just to be sure.), stocking up on spaghetti sauce (on sale with a coupon for buying 3), and buying the stuff I need to cook enchiladas for Sunday dinner next week. That's puts me under $3/person/day mark for this week, too.
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Look, I Changed That ^
You know why? Because f' it, that's why. But, not really...except sometimes.
It is late fall and here in the middle-west that means shorter days, longer nights, colder temperatures, changing routines. Raking up the bags and bags and bags of leaves is a chore to be savored because, until it snows, you're not really going to love doing anything outside. So I'm getting ready to coop myself back up in the indoors. Boo!
But it also means lots of time to think in the dark. Boo! Reminders of long-forgotten goals begin to haunt the edges of my mind. Projects like this blog start to tap me on the shoulder. Which isn't a bad thing as I like this blog and blogging in it. I just also like to ignore it and watch Real Housewives. Alas, I've decided I can't afford cable and Bravo doesn't put all the episodes online.
So here's the thing. Husband has been out of work now for OVER a year. We passed the 1-year mark on Guy Fawkes Day. And what I've been thinking about since then is how much we've been able to afford--not about what I can't afford. (Oh, to be sure, there is plenty we can't afford...but it is also not things I need or even want.)
Check it. This year:
I've been to Savannah to see wonderful, awesome friends. I went to D.C. with my husband and crammed as much museum-ing into a few days as possible. We got a new hot water heater, a couple new windows and a couple new doors for home improvement. I've been able to make it possible for the red-headed step-child to continue going to private school and gymnastics. I've become much better at yoga and joined a book club and otherwise had a great time with great friends and family.
We're doing great, still scrimping, yet trying to spend smartly (except when we don't). We're lucky we still have one job and we've made it this far. And we can afford it, after all.
It is late fall and here in the middle-west that means shorter days, longer nights, colder temperatures, changing routines. Raking up the bags and bags and bags of leaves is a chore to be savored because, until it snows, you're not really going to love doing anything outside. So I'm getting ready to coop myself back up in the indoors. Boo!
But it also means lots of time to think in the dark. Boo! Reminders of long-forgotten goals begin to haunt the edges of my mind. Projects like this blog start to tap me on the shoulder. Which isn't a bad thing as I like this blog and blogging in it. I just also like to ignore it and watch Real Housewives. Alas, I've decided I can't afford cable and Bravo doesn't put all the episodes online.
So here's the thing. Husband has been out of work now for OVER a year. We passed the 1-year mark on Guy Fawkes Day. And what I've been thinking about since then is how much we've been able to afford--not about what I can't afford. (Oh, to be sure, there is plenty we can't afford...but it is also not things I need or even want.)
Check it. This year:
I've been to Savannah to see wonderful, awesome friends. I went to D.C. with my husband and crammed as much museum-ing into a few days as possible. We got a new hot water heater, a couple new windows and a couple new doors for home improvement. I've been able to make it possible for the red-headed step-child to continue going to private school and gymnastics. I've become much better at yoga and joined a book club and otherwise had a great time with great friends and family.
We're doing great, still scrimping, yet trying to spend smartly (except when we don't). We're lucky we still have one job and we've made it this far. And we can afford it, after all.
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Wedded Bliss
Yesterday was our two-year anniversary. If you're playing along at home, the traditional gift for the second year is cotton. Perfect, since we needed new sheets. I can't guess how old our current sheet sets are. One fitted sheet has an ever-growing hole, while the other set is a those t-shirt sheets which cause me to sweat like Heidi Fleiss in a synagogue.
When we went to buy the sheets at Target (5% savings with our Target card!), we found a comforter we both liked--no small feat in itself--on sale. I wasn't sure and asked Husband, "Do you want to be stuck with this in our bedroom every day for five years?" He looked at me like I was a crazy person and replied, "It's $22. For that price, we can get something new in a couple years and put it in a garage sale if we get tired of it."
Indulge in a modest splurge. Of course, he was right. It's a pretty comforter and a pleasant change to see every day. And talk about an inexpensive anniversary gift! But there is a part of me that feels a little guilty--mostly because I feel like we indulge too many modest splurges. Husband and I are wired differently when it comes to this concept. To him, everything is "only $x," whereas I always think "if you didn't spend that $x a week you'd have $x*52 after a year." It's a delicate balance between being a killjoy and ending up with less money than you started the month with. And I don't always make the right decision--I'm still not 100% convinced that we made the right decision this time, but I will take comfort in my nice new comforter. Besides the countdown in on to cinch up my belt starting in October.
I also made spaghetti sauce to freeze yesterday. It could've been almost free sauce since my folks have been heaping tomatoes from their garden on me since mid-summer. I had stacks of tomatoes from the Hen House Growers Alliance CSA and from my parents' visit this weekend. The tomatoes from the CSA (They were hydroponic hot house tomatoes. You know the kind that seem really good in the spring but are poor imitations after a summer's worth of vine-ripened goodness. My brother calls these cardboard tomatoes.) cost about $4.00 so I ended up with a Ragu sized jar of tomato sauce that cost a little over $4. Not at all cheap when you compare it to the the sale price of a jar of Ragu. But it is worth it knowing that I didn't end up composting $4 worth of tomatoes that I would have left until all the *good* tomatoes were gone and the cardboard tomatoes went rotten on the counter. Plus it was easy and made the house smell pretty darn good for the evening.
Spaghetti Sauce
A bunch of tomatoes: 5-6 big cardboard tomatoes and 4-5 small garden tomatoes
4-5 cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced
Olive oil
Italian herbs, salt, pepper, onion powder
Cook the garlic in the oil. Peel the tomatoes and add them and the seasoning. Cook until the tomatoes break down and are mushy. This filled up a Ragu jar that I saved and washed out. I put in in the refrigerator overnight and pureed it in the blender the next evening. (I waited mostly because the blender was getting clean in the running dishwasher.) Then I put it back in the jar and put it in the freezer.
When we went to buy the sheets at Target (5% savings with our Target card!), we found a comforter we both liked--no small feat in itself--on sale. I wasn't sure and asked Husband, "Do you want to be stuck with this in our bedroom every day for five years?" He looked at me like I was a crazy person and replied, "It's $22. For that price, we can get something new in a couple years and put it in a garage sale if we get tired of it."
Indulge in a modest splurge. Of course, he was right. It's a pretty comforter and a pleasant change to see every day. And talk about an inexpensive anniversary gift! But there is a part of me that feels a little guilty--mostly because I feel like we indulge too many modest splurges. Husband and I are wired differently when it comes to this concept. To him, everything is "only $x," whereas I always think "if you didn't spend that $x a week you'd have $x*52 after a year." It's a delicate balance between being a killjoy and ending up with less money than you started the month with. And I don't always make the right decision--I'm still not 100% convinced that we made the right decision this time, but I will take comfort in my nice new comforter. Besides the countdown in on to cinch up my belt starting in October.
I also made spaghetti sauce to freeze yesterday. It could've been almost free sauce since my folks have been heaping tomatoes from their garden on me since mid-summer. I had stacks of tomatoes from the Hen House Growers Alliance CSA and from my parents' visit this weekend. The tomatoes from the CSA (They were hydroponic hot house tomatoes. You know the kind that seem really good in the spring but are poor imitations after a summer's worth of vine-ripened goodness. My brother calls these cardboard tomatoes.) cost about $4.00 so I ended up with a Ragu sized jar of tomato sauce that cost a little over $4. Not at all cheap when you compare it to the the sale price of a jar of Ragu. But it is worth it knowing that I didn't end up composting $4 worth of tomatoes that I would have left until all the *good* tomatoes were gone and the cardboard tomatoes went rotten on the counter. Plus it was easy and made the house smell pretty darn good for the evening.
Spaghetti Sauce
A bunch of tomatoes: 5-6 big cardboard tomatoes and 4-5 small garden tomatoes
4-5 cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced
Olive oil
Italian herbs, salt, pepper, onion powder
Cook the garlic in the oil. Peel the tomatoes and add them and the seasoning. Cook until the tomatoes break down and are mushy. This filled up a Ragu jar that I saved and washed out. I put in in the refrigerator overnight and pureed it in the blender the next evening. (I waited mostly because the blender was getting clean in the running dishwasher.) Then I put it back in the jar and put it in the freezer.
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