Frugal is Green A Journey

A Pretty Good Start

2012-01-01T21:03:00.000-05:00

The first day of 2012 was a pretty good one. we started with a casual morning. I chopped up left over fruit (purchased for Christmas Eve Fruit Salad) and we brought that with us to visit friends who we did not see enough of in 2011. We enjoyed Breakfast Mimosas with good company. From there I came home and made a crock pot of chili before heading out to bowling with GreenerYet's family. I spent more than I planned to. Who knew bowling cost $10 per person for shoes and two games? The last time I went bowling it was $1 per game and shoe rental was $3 (and you didn't have to rent shoes if you were wearing sneakers). But all in all in was a good time and the girls got to hang with the cousins. I would like to see more Cousin outings in this new year and I think at least once per month I am going to try to make that a reality.

When we got home the chili was just about done and Greeneryet was in the midst of a fun game with the friends he had previously made plans with.

Now sitting here I know I have some dishes to do, and maybe even a load of laundry, but I can appreciate how nice it is to have food to enjoy with friends, that created the dishes and a sink to wash those dishes in.

I need to work on 2 things this year. First, I need to plan our meals on a more consistent and complete basis. Often I come up with a main dish and then forget to contemplate sides. Now when we are talking about chili or stoup we do not necessarily need sides, but when the meal is say baked chicken, we need sides. Second, I need to make sure less food is going to waste. As it is I often buy the bargain organic produce from the co-op to make my food dollars stretch but we don't always get to it. This is not making my food dollars stretch and in some instances is costing me money.

I have been so focused on debt the last couple of years I have not been able to enjoy my life. And while focusing on debt and trying so hard to eliminate it I have added to it. This year my focus is going to be on living within my means. Once I have that under control then I can assess my ability to cut back and put more toward my debt. If I put the current $400 due toward my debt at the end of 2012 I will have paid $4800 in debt (including payments to interest). To help me work toward living within my means I am going to convert to a cash system. I will continue to pay my bills through my bank account but money for gas and groceries will come out 2x monthly (when I get paid) and I will be forced to stay within that amount.

To help balance my budget I am also planning to simplify my eating. Breakfasts will be rice/beans/quinoa/oats. Sometimes with a bit of fresh/frozen/dried fruit when available. Lunches will be rice and beans with some sort of green. When available I will take left overs for lunch. I am vowing off coffee. Since starting my new job, I am drinking way to much of it. I am going drink more tea and much more plain water. Dinners will be planned our Greeneryet and the Girls. I will probably most nights have more rice and beans and greens or a bean based soups. Eating a different dinner than the family will actually be pretty easy. The way things stand I need to get to the Dojo M/W/F at 8pm and we don't eat dinner until 7pm. I can't eat that late and get a good workout in. So I will just eat a bite earlier.

I am going to have to get creative with vegetables. We are not big on frozen or canned veg in this house so trying to keep it local and keep it interesting is going to be a challenge.

Tomorrow my focus is going to be on putting the Christmas tree away and prepping Christmas Cards. For the couple of Christmas Cards we go this year, I want to make Christmas Cards and address them. Then next year when I take out the holiday stuffs all I need to do is to personalize the card, verify the address and put a stamp on it.

After I put the holiday decor away I want to clean the entrance to the house. I need to get weather stripping for the door and apply it. Then I need to clean the walls and the floors and I can think about my next step. I was thinking this spring I would like to paint the door Purple and start on the doorway trim.

I would also like to put a little bit of time into organizing my financial paperwork and my business stuffs.

Creatively, I would like to start working on a ready made album to sell.

All in all a good start. Let's see what tomorrow brings :)

Post Holiday Wrap Up

2011-12-27T12:44:00.002-05:00

Every year post-christmas I feel like I overspent and under enjoyed the holiday. Every year I say that I will not let that happen again. This time I have a plan.

The past few years I have felt like I have lost my Christmas spirit. I have always loved Christmas and watching the joy on people's faces when they open their gifts. The problem is I have been relying on the consumer industry to provide those gifts. When shopping for friends and family I am often struck with the dilemma of feeling like I do not know what to gift them. Add to that my personal feeling that if you do not know what to get someone, then you do not know them well enough to give them a gift.

A change I am making is starting to carry around a Holiday/Gift List. This will be one of the small notebooks that I have lying around. Inside I am going to write out my list of people I feel the need to gift to, along with the gift giving occasion (B-day, Christmas, Anniversary, Wedding, Baby etc.), the date the gift should arrive by, and some thoughts on what they might like. Then I will do my best to fill that list from items I craft at home.

Part of my issue is OCD. I know the term OCD is over and mis used. The fact is I am not diagnosed as OCD, but my behavioral pattern is very much OCD. I have difficulty starting projects if I don't believe it will come out perfect. I attempt to tell myself it will work itself out and I can correct/adjust as needed but I then find myself physically unable to start the project. When a project does not turn out as envisioned it does not matter how many people tell me it a lovely, well made item I cannot bring myself to give it to someone.

Right now this is my Gift Giving List:

DH
- Valentines Day: Meal and Massage - it might seem corny, but it is something he will enjoy and it won't cost me a dime.
- Anniversary: Picnic in the Park, with a walk along the Pier and a foot soak when we return home ($0)
- December Birthday: Hand Knit Scarf and New Hat - some time ago I learned to knit (poorly) and was making people a slew of scarves. DH stated that he wanted one of his own. I started it but didn't finish it. So this meets my finished already started projects criteria, costs me nothing and gives me a gift to give him
- Christmas - We don't traditionally gift each other on the holidays, but we do fill each other's stockings. So I need to come up with some simple stocking stuffers. I have material to make him some pajama pants - so I might do that as well.

Green Teen -
- Valentines Day - GF Pancake Breakfast and a Handmade Card
- April Birthday - Something towards completing her room. Curtains, Wall Mirror, Wall Mount Desks.....
- Christmas - I have been wanting to make each girl a Quilt for some time. I thought it would be neat if hers was a Night Sky Scene on one side (maybe incorporate some of her favorite anime characters (like constellations) from old jeans, and a Tree of Life on the other side (with buttons and salvaged fabric). I would like to make her a piece of jewelry from upcycled pieces that really reflects her personality. Lastly a GIANT NUBIN to look like DOMO

Green Girl -
- Valentines Day - GF Pancake Breakfast and a Handmade Card
- November Birthday - Completion of items for her Room. Curtains, Shelves, Desk Embellishments....
- Christmas - Quilt. For her I thought something with Butterflies, and Fairies and some abstract Nature. I thought a Tree of life for her on the other side as well. Jewelry and Book all about her

MIL - I would like to start work on a Scrapbook of the girls trip out west with her 2 summers ago. I have plenty of material to work with and even if I don't finish it I feel like I can give it to her in pieces. I thought this would work for her March Birthday and Christmas Gift. For her March (need to double check that) Anniversary I am not sure what she and her DH would like. They like to spend time outside in their garden and working on the pond. I have various seeds so maybe if I can get some Apple and Pear Trees started I could gift them those.

SFIL - He is a golfer and enjoys beer and wine. I'll have to do some web searches for Golf Themed Projects. I need to get written out when his Birthday and their Anniversary is. For Christmas I would like to make them a goodie basket, containing some of my favorite holiday cookies, some canned goods from both of our gardens, etc.

FIL - What does one get the man who has everything? I try to go with the edible. The last few years I have ordered Gift Baskets of treats, I would prefer to make him my own gift basket of treats.
- April Birthday - I nice homemade card that simply says we were thinking about you.
- Anniversary - Need this date.

SMIL - She loves Loons and I would love to make her something Loon themed. Maybe a Lapquilt with loons and her family in it.
- August Birthday - Handmade Loon Card

BILJ - I don't really know much about this BIL. He is an adult, currently living in Boston. I think I will default to Handmade Card for his birthday and a Goodie Basket for Christmas.

BILB - He turned 16 this December but I still don't know much about who he is either. He play football and wrestles, he likes the Jets - so maybe a lapquilt that is Jets themed (that would work for BILJ as well) and a Goodie Gift Basket.

Mom - My parents are hard to gift for. They do a lot for me, but there isn't much they need or would like that I can afford. I would like to get all of my moms photos into an album for her.
- March Birthday - Album cover and a coupon book of photo prep time
- November Anniversary - ?
- Christmas - a Nana Album

Dad -
- January Birthday ?
- November Anniversary - ?
- Christmas - Papa Album

BFF - She is the girls Guardian should anything ever happen to us and has been a huge part of all our lives
- November Birthday -
- Christmas
- Wedding - this year or next - custom guest book (in the appropriate colors with a photo and message from every guest and even those who can't make it)

DH's Clan - I think I would like to make sure they all get a custom birthday card this year and for Christmas put together a CD of all the Photos I have taken over the year focusing on each clan.

Grammy - Homemade cards for more holidays. A photobook from all the years I have been taking pictures at family events :)

If I am missing people I can add them, but right now this looks like it.

I am planning to work holiday to holiday to get through my craft projects and put up tutorials on how to do the projects I complete as well as offer the finished projects (and customer orders) for sale. I am hoping to clean out the house and clear up some debt.

The last few years I have been so debt focused that I haven't been able to enjoy anything else. While I would love to be out of debt in the next 15 months I don't see it happening. What I do see happening in 2012 is being on budget every month.

And So It Begins....

2011-12-18T16:47:00.001-05:00

So last night before blogging I got out my steamer and I steamed the toilet. I don't think the toilet has been given a good clean in the 6+ years I have been working outside the home. It was really starting to sceeve me out. So I pulled out the steamer and steamed various parts for over an hour. The toilet is still quite gross, but it is better. So again tonight I will steam the toilet, and I will steam it until the seat falls apart or sparkles. OK I don't need it to sparkle I just want it to look clean. When the toilet is done I am going to move on to the shower. I have a long list of things to get done, but I have plenty of time to get them done in.

I had a lovely spa party today with Lemongrass Spa. They are a home party company, but I like that I know what all the ingredients are. They have a mineral makeup that my daughter is into, and the foot soak today was really truly nice.

I still need to figure out gifts for my MIL and her husband (thinking a gift card to a restaurant), my father, my FIL and his wife and my husband's teenage brother.

Still not quite feeling the holiday spirit, but I am feeling better day by day.

After publishing this post, I spent another 30 minutes using my steamer on the toilet and started on the shower, and this will be my routine until it is clean. As clean as I want to be.

2011-12-17T21:15:00.000-05:00

More often than not I have felt like 2011 is the year of the fall down the rabbit hole, every time I think I have hit the bottom and am free to start climbing out of this hole, it turns sideways and I fall some more. I have felt overwhelmed, overworked, under appreciated and even under loved. This all changed when I adjusted the way I look at things. It doesn't matter when 2011 ends, my life is up to me. Every day is a new opportunity to make changes.

I had hoped to work diligently on unfinished projects and even had plans to have some of those projects for use as gifts, However, I have found that I am quite busy and when I get home from work, after I feed the family and I get back from the dojo I am quite exhausted. Doing projects in the am isn't really possible because I am worried about waking my family.

I steamed the upstairs toilet today for about 30 minutes. It was quite gross. It is still quite gross but leaps and bounds better. So I will continued to steam the toilet and the floor about it until it is no longer gross, then I will move on to the tub and shower. When the shower is clean I plan to caulk the seams (which was not done 10 years ago when we installed the tub). I have a variety of projects around the house and plan to spend much of the winter doing those projects. It is very easy to say I don't have the time, but the truth is I spend to much time watching TV and oversleeping.

There are big changes on the horizon for my eating habits. I plan to give up gluten, dairy, eggs and a few other common food triggers. I don't know that I will give them up permanently but will give them up for much of 2012. I plan to do the plan from CLEAN for at least 60 days and then each week thereafter add back in offending foods one at a time per week to see how it makes me feel.

Lately I have been coming up blank when it comes to dinner planning. This happens to me every so often. It has to do with the fact that I don't really enjoy food. We cannot afford to not have a plan (before I go shopping). In addition I have failed to put several meals together before leaving for work. I will make more use of my crock pot (which I suspect needs replacing) and make sure to plan complete meals (with side dishes). I plan to make heavy use of beans, rice, quinoa and local vegetables. I'll plan some sort of meat for the family, but its not really high on my list. Some time ago I had done a good job substituting lentils for most things that called for ground beef, I want to get back to that.

I would like to be out of credit card debt in a years time. For that to happen it will require that I put $1000 a month more than I already do to that debt. This is not going to be an easy task. I am hopeful that cleaning out my clutter and finishing up some projects might help me with that. I am also hoping to shave some expenses.

If I can throw everything extra I have at our credit card debt and pay it off in roughly 15 months then I can use the money I use for the credit card to pay off my student loan debts. It would be nice by the time GreenTeen starts college to be truly debt free.

There are lots of little projects that I think I can pull the materials out for and keep in a travel bag so I always have something to work on.

Making my own cards is something I really want to do, so I am going to make that a priority from this point forward. I am going to try to keep track of birthdays and holidays (and have general cards around for when one sneaks up on me) and send out cards timely. This is something, by the way, I have never done.

I am also planning to convert entirely to homemade (or handcrafted - not necessarily by me). I need to keep a list of people who I gift to, and what I can gift them.

GreenTeen has asked about doing some craft shows. I thought it might be a nice Momma Me-a & Thia! thing for us 3 to do this summer. If each of us creates things (and the girls are quite talented) we should have enough to do a couple of the smaller shows and still make some money. GreenTeen makes some lovely seed bead and woven bead jewelry. GreenGirl likes to do all sorts of crafts and she is getting better with them day by day. I was thinking I might encourage her to help me make cards, gift tags, and pearler bead ornaments. She has quite the talent for making pearler bead items and I think they would translate well to ornaments and pendants.

Still Working Out The Kinks

2011-11-09T09:44:00.004-05:00

I haven't done much on my projects to be completed list, nor in the bathroom (although I did purchase light bulbs to replace the ones that were burnt out). I also haven't done much in the way of de-cluttering and simplifying my possessions. Not because it is too overwhelming, but simply because I have been busy. GreenGirl turned 10 on Monday and we had her party over the weekend.

It was the best party ever. We had it at the Dojo because that was her request. I have done the majority of the girls parties at my home, because it is more cost effective, but it drives me just a bit nuts in the preparation. I ordered Custom Book Marks from an Etsy vendor and they were terrific. Found Bead Sprite Ninja's (also on Etsy) and my friend Kira of KiraArts made Ninja Nubbins. I managed to support local and American businesses, but it cost me well more than 5x what it would have cost to buy cheap plastic trinkets. It was however worth it.

My current dilemma is finding American Made Organic Cotton Sheets. I found 1 company that has American Made Organic Cotton Sheets (many that have just American Made Cotton Sheets). A single sheet is $140. I understand why the cost is so high and I will pay it when I can afford it, but in the mean time I have resolved that when I buy something new, it must be American Made and if possible with Environmentally friendly practices. Otherwise I will resort to second hand purchases.

I would like to continue working on the bathroom, and to help I received a $5 gift card from my local hardware store which I am going to use to purchase plumber's caulk. I do however need to put an eye toward holiday time.

Currently, my thoughts are that I would like to work on that scrapbook I have been wanting to make for my MIL from the trip she took with the girls a couple of summers ago. Rather than trying to complete the whole trip I am going to focus on the first State and go from there. If nothing else this is the gift that I can keep adding to until it is complete.

I had a similar thought for my mother. She has many photographs that are in flip albums and I thought I would start by organizing them and then putting them on pages. Then she and I can sit down and journal for the pages together. The books don't have to be complete as it can always be a gift in progress.

The girls are always a bit tougher. They are getting to the ages where they want specific items. For GreenGirl I was thinking I would put together a recycled jewelry kit. She loves taking old and broken things and giving them new life, so I thought I would collect old jewelry (from thrift stores and by putting up a sign and basket at the co-op) and then put them together in a jewelry making kit for her.

GreenTeen is so much harder to shop for these days. She loves Art supplies and I will look for more art supplies. What I would love to find is a good condition old wooden easel box for her.

I have more people on my list and I am not sure what I am going to do for them, but I do know it will come from my current projects list. I have some ornament ideas on there and I might pick one and use that.

Day One and Project One.

2011-11-01T10:05:00.000-04:00

So today is day 1 of my 365 day challenge. My first project is my upstairs bathroom. Whyyou ask? Well it is simple; I think I actually have all the materials I need tofinish this project so it means I can do so with no subtractions to my budget.In addition it is the smallest room I have to work on so I will have that nicesense of accomplishment. For starters Iam going to change the light bulbs in the light fixture. Two of them have beenburnt out for some time. I do have topurchase the bulbs as I cannot use the new style bulbs that I have in thesefixtures (and as a PSA they do now make high efficiency bulbs for use inbathrooms and for use in lights with dimmers, but you have to make sure thatyou buy those specifically). If I amstill feeling up to working I thought I might steam clean the sink and the wallsurrounding it. The shower, sink and toilet all need a good cleaning and I planon using my steam cleaner for them (with some vinegar). I am sure that I will need to go over thesethree surfaces several times to get them the way I want them (and might want toconsider replacing the toilet seat at a later date). Once they are steam cleaned I need to caulkthe seams in the shower, as well as put up the trim around the outside of theshower. Then I need to repair the wall where the towel bar came down andrepaint several sections. I think I still have this paint color, if not I willhave to get a gallon of the color from the local hardware store. Once it is painted then I need to put thetowel bar back up. I also have a shelf unit that I wanted to put up, if I canlocate it. There is also trim missingfrom around the Door. I do have somedecorative tile (given to us by relatives instead of throwing it away) that Imight see if there is enough to put around the bathroom mirror. There was some talk at one point in time ofmaking the bathroom look like we were on the Ocean floor, but I don’t know thatwe want to do that anymore. However I would like to put a hanging plant in thebathroom. It would have to be something that could take the steam and didn’trequire a lot of natural light (because there are no windows in my upstairsbathroom). Once that is done, the roomis done (except the floor, at some point I want to tile it, but not in the nearfuture since I don’t have the tile). That would be a nice start. Maybe by the endof November I can have the bathroom completed.

I know right now some of you are thinking the Holidays areright around the corner shouldn’t you be working on finishing the holiday giftprojects you started? Yes, yes I should. I have a scarf I started knitting for DH but I think given the fuzzy materialI might finish it as a gift for GreenTeen. I do have Holiday Gift Projects that I want to complete, and I will beworking on those as well. But I need something that tells me everyday that I ammaking progress. Something that Greeneryet can see. I know he is a bit annoyedwith the unfinished projects (and so am I). So finishing the bathroom is almostmy Christmas gift to him.

Now relax I didn't forget about getting rid of something today, I just figured when I was in the bathroom I would find something or other to get rid of. I'll update this post tomorrow when I have completed my work in the bathroom.

2011-10-31T11:49:00.003-04:00

It is a new day for this blogger. I have been off-line as far as blogging goessince before the summer. First a bit ofcatch up as to what has been going on since then:

I was miserable at my full time job, and the best possiblething that could happen was for them to lay me off. Well on August 20^th,they did just that. Timing was a bitrough because Greeneryet suffered 2^nd degree burns to his entireleft hand and a portion of his forearm. So now I was just a tad bit worriedabout the medical bills. We had our HAS fully loaded, and in the end it wasenough. Now I have to focus on rebuilding it as my new plan has a higherdeductible. We have enough that we should be ok, but I would like to rebuild.

Greeneryet and I had always had a plan when it came to oneof us working and one of us being home. We had discussed it prior to my being laid-off. If necessary, Greeneryetwould get a part-time job to supplement our unemployment income. Fortunately,that was not necessary. On day 4 of unemployment I received a phone call abouta job lead. On day 7 I interviewed and was offered a job that started justafter the girls got back to school. Thebest part is that I really do love my new job.

Unfortunately because I was so miserable at work I was alsovery exhausted when I would get home and was very lax in my food preparationand sticking to planned meals. As a result we were well out of budget. Ourcurrent debt is $15,000 (not including the car loan, mortgage or studentloans). The good news is that card is officially expired and I did not get a replacement.

I have changed focus a bit over the past 6 months and whilethis is still a frugal blog, it is about my journey to becoming morefrugal. My girls have gone mostly glutenfree and it has been such a wonderful thing for their health. Since they are gluten intolerant they stillget some gluten on occasion, I can’t imagine dealing with Celiac’s or severegluten allergies. The one thing I wishto find is a flavorful gluten free bread that doesn’t fall apart. I know it isa tall order since it is the gluten that holds the bread together.

My posts on here are going to focus on our Gluten Freejourney and the recipes we find that we love and the ones we don’t love.

I am also embarking on a yearlong project. For the next 365I will be focusing on completing the projects I have already started. For thenext 365 I am not allowed to start any new projects, only pre-existing ones. Iwill compile my list so you can keep up with what I have to do and what I havedone. My hope is to complete these projects without blowing the budget and in ayear timeframe, but I am flexible.

My primary project that I never seem to complete is to de-clutter,so in that effort during this year long project I am also going to be gettingrid of 1 item per day. I can toss it, recycle it, up-cycle it, freecycle it ordonate it. But it does not count as gone until it is out my door. So if it isup-cycled, listed on Freecycle or Craigslist it doesn’t count as gone untilsomeone has picked it up.

I think my list of projects is going to be quite long andeven a bit daunting but if I spend a minimum of 20 minutes per day on oneproject at a time I am hopeful that by the end of my year long challenge therewill be a light at the end of the tunnel.

How about you? Anyone want to join me?

So I Took the Summer Off.... Sort Of.....

2011-08-09T12:30:00.000-04:00

I wasn't planning on not blogging all of July, but it just sort of worked out that way. First I have been super busy, nothing is getting done, so I don't know what I am super busy with, but I do know I get up in the morning and it seems like nonstop go, go, go until I crash out for the night.

My energy level is at an all time low. Every year I hit a point where I think my energy cannot get any lower so I make an appointment with my Doctor. She sends me for blood work and does not find the cause, and I learn to live with no energy. I know what the cause is, I just don't know how to fix it.

I have never in 33 years slept well. My Mums will tell you I was her best baby. Hey after a 10lb baby by c-section in the early 70's and a jaundiced/colicky second baby, a sweet, healthy quiet, always napping baby was just what she needed.

It wasn't so much that I was a good sleeper, as that I was always asleep. I slept often and long as a baby, as a toddler and even young child I was dutiful about taking my naps and going to bed on time. The problem was that any car ride also put me to sleep and I often cat napped outside of my nap time.

I rotated and still rotate through three cycles. The fall asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow and sleep all night, but wake feeling drowsy and groggy. The fall asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow and wake up frequently through out the night, falling back asleep pretty easily. The can't fall asleep to save my life night. No matter what I feel the same when I wake up. Drowsy, groggy, a bit of a headache, etc....

I clearly have a sleep cycle disturbance, now I would like to know what it is so I can address it. I have made some changes to my diet and I think an elimination diet is on my horizon, my big problem is that I cannot afford the foods on an elimination diet.

I have asked repeatedly to be recommended for a sleep study. However, like many things you cannot get the referral if you don't spend the better part of a year whining in your doctor's office, every chance you get and paying a co-pay or in my case a high deductible. I have neither the time, money or inclination to go whine to my doctor every time I don't get a good nite sleep.

The truth is for the last decade or more I have been feeling increasingly exhausted. I have seen my doctor, and felt that modern medicine had nothing to offer me. I have been tested for umpteen million things, and none of them worked. However a motivational speaker (Belinda Elsworth) has. I realized that my fatigue and stress is the result of my own mind. I have told myself that I am exhausted and stressed, so I am. From this point forward I am going to use positive self talk. I have been doing this for the past two days and while I am still tired, I do feel better.

On the kiddo front. I have taken the two of them Gluten Free with good results. GreenTeen's skin has cleared up almost completely. She has a small bit of redness around her nostrils. Her constant cough is gone, and I don't notice her sniffling near as much. I would like to try to eliminate Dairy as well but it has been difficult to eliminate gluten. Instead I am planning to over the course of the next year reduce our reliance on dairy (but I love cheese and yogurt) and be Dairy Free by the end of 2012.

The availability of good Gluten Free products in my area is limited. The evil Wegman's empire has the most (notice I don't say BEST) selection, 3-4 brands/products to choose from. Tops has little to nothing, and the co-op has an ok selection. They have one brand of GF Bread Udi's (and the girls don't like it, nor do I it is so dry it crumbles), which is rarely in stock. I found a brand of GF the girls both like Shar and I am going to inquire with the co-op about carrying it. The good news is that we have 2 GF bakeries. One is Vegan GF so it uses soy which I would prefer to avoid, but the other is just GF. The plain GF is bakery is only open Tues-Fri while I am at work. The Vegan GF is open when I am out on weekends so I will give them a try first.

So I started this post on 7/26/2011 and this is where I left it. I didn't post it (probably because I find the whole thing just a bit to whiny.) but now I am rewriting it (revisions in purple) and posting it.

I have done quite a bit of thinking over the last few days. I see much of my young self in GreenTeen and I have tried my best to nurture my good qualities, but she is a bit of a pessimist (which I am working on being less of). I want to be the person I want my girls to become. So I started this blog to get me on track with the person I want to be, and I enjoy reading the primarily upbeat blogs of others like minded bloggers. So here it is, the line in the sand once I hop over it, it is time for a new mind set. One in which I wake up everyday and remind myself that I have a really good life.

Camping - Frugal and Green?

2011-06-03T12:22:00.000-04:00

Camping can be very frugal and very green or it can be just the opposite. My family camped when I was a kid because it was cheap. We had a pop-up trailer and brought everything with us. No disposable dishes, no paper products (except tp and paper towels).

When we moved my parents sold the pop-up and we got out of the camping routine. As a mom I started camping again with my girls. I meet people all the time that surprise me.

Frugality: Find a great State or DEC Campground close to home. I like to rent unimproved (no electricity) sites within 1 hour from me. State and DEC Campgrounds tend to be 1/2 the site rental cost to a Private Camp Ground. Here State and DEC sites allow 6 people per campsite, so we camp with my parents and when GreenerYet doesn't feel up to camping GreenTeen brings a friend.

Now we have been camping for some time, and to be honest I don't remember how long it has been. I know we started just before GreenTeen learned to ride a two Wheeler and honestly I don't remember how old she was (6,7 or 8). I know she learned at Webster Camp Ground (Thank you Shy-Shy for teacher her). When GreenTeen was born we started meeting DH's Dad, Step-Mom and Brother at Steamboat Landing, Blue Mountain Lake in the Adirondacks. This was for me, not camping, as we stayed in cabins, but it made me yearn for camping memories.

A couple of years later we went camping with a group of friends. We borrowed tents and went to Letchworth State Park - which of course was full for the day. At the end of the day we found a private campground not to far from Letchworth and set up camp. I enjoyed it, so I decided to invest in a tent. I found the perfect (or so I thought tent) at the end of the season on sale.

This tent was supposed to sleep 8 (great for a family of four and stuff) with a screen porch on the front. The tent was also "dividable" into two "rooms" but hanging a tent material piece in the middle. This tent served me well for many years. Although I added a tarp to cover the ground for the screen portion. Last year the Screen tent zipper went (no big deal), then by the end of the season so had the sleeping portion zipper. I saved the foldable rods (I might be able to use them) but the rest is no longer usable. We still have the whole tent and I might attempt to replace both zippers (hey it is already ruined).

When I mentioned to my MIL that I was going to start camping she cleaned out (over the next several years) her old camping supplies. From her I inherited a coffee pot, camp stove (with stand), dishes, ropes, cards, dominoes, and other odds and ends. Then last year she cleaned out her tents. I inherited 2 boy scout backpack tents (and backpacks) in excellent (read like they had never been used condition) and the girls think it is great that they each can have their own tents) as well as a huge tent that her family of 6 kids used. My Dad put it together and water proofed it, it is a great tent.

Now to keep camping frugal and green do use reusable dishes. Yes this means you have to wash dishes (so that means bringing dish pans and eco friendly soap as well as a large pot to heat water in) but it is cheaper than constantly tossing money in the trash or fire pit. Use reusable water bottles. Most places I have camped the water is potable so we drink it. If not we bring in water in reusable 5 gallon jugs. Clean out your fridge and freezer. I have spoken to many who go shopping specifically for camping. Mums and I sit down and make a menu (based on what we both already have on hand) and we fill in as needed, but generally speaking we spend less than $30 for a family of 6 for the weekend. We freeze our meats and use them to keep the coolers cool.

We do have good quality coolers. We do not use bagged ice, but have had to purchase it on occasion when it is super hot. Generally speaking we keep the coolers out of the sun, pack frozen foods that we eat when thawed, and we use old milk jugs filled with water (leave room for ice expansion) and freeze. We can also drink this water. We typically pack 2 square coolers and when one is emptied we drink the water in the jugs. Keep your coolers well packed with ice on top (cold air falls). We also bring plenty of items that do not need to be kept cold. Breads, pb, fruits and fresh veggies, homemade chis and trail mix.

We take care of our camping supplies. Mums has a bad back so they have one of those air-matress' with a frame. We have used an air matress but lately I have been using camp mats (egg crate with water proof backing I got from my mother-in-law. I was thinking of creating bags for them (something that would roll up with them then lay out on the floor). We wash all cloth items when we get home. Sleeping bags are washed, dried and put away. Camp mats are aired out, and all clothes (worn or not are washed).

We pack well (1 bag per person, plus sleeping bag and pillow). The kids pack extra underwear and socks, then 2 long sleeve, long pants, 2 short sleeve, shorts (for a 3-4 day weekend), swim suits, old beach towel, wash cloth. We pack plain bar soap (no shampoo, for the weekend we can use bar soap on our hair), toothbrushes, and hair brushes. You can pack toothpaste or you can rinse with warm salt water in the am (and gargle) and then use a Vinegar rinse in the evening to keep your mouth clean.

We bring bikes, ladder ball, croquet, boce, cards, drawing supplies and everyone brings a book.

What I want to figure out is how to make a clothing bag stand. This would be a bag that would fit the clothes and such that we each needed and then would have a collapsible stand that would fit in an out pocket. When assemble the outer pocket would slip over the stand to keep all the stuff up off the ground without taking up much room. I'll work that out this summer with PVC (I know not really green, but lighter than metal) and if I get it to work, I'll post a tutorial.

Big Changes in Little Steps

2011-05-19T11:17:00.000-04:00

I often feel compelled to do it "right" and do it "big" which often results in an inability to do anything at all. I have always been this way. If I couldn't do it right and the way I thought it needed to be done, I simply couldn't do it.

I walk around my house feeling overwhelmed, there is a lot to do and a lot to change. I have started asking myself what my is my rush? Why do I feel like I have to do it perfect the first time? Why do I have to do it perfectly ever?

There is no expiration on living sustainably and within means. This is not some short term, get rich quick scheme. THIS IS MY LIFE. So what if my first garden doesn't produce enough to feed my family. It will be an opportunity to learn from my mistakes.

What I do know is if I don't get a garden in this year for whatever reason, I won't ever get a garden in. There will always be an excuse, a fear, something to hold me back.

If I don't start decluttering now, I am going to be a candidate for HOARDERS. Part of the changes I was talking about in the previous post is to just make some progress on my goal of living a sustainable, purpose driven life. A life that makes me happy.

Small changes daily, something that I can say yes this is a step in the right direction. This could be anything from sweeping the kitchen floor, to scrubbing the tub, starting seeds, sorting a pile of junk, taking apart a jacket that doesn't fit and making an effort to turn it into something that fits.

I have many things I would love to do, but I am afraid of failure. I need to remind myself the only failure is not trying in the first place. Everything else is experience along the path of mastery.

Ch-ch-changes!

2011-05-18T09:41:00.000-04:00

So I am planning to harvest all my dandelion roots, greens and flowers. I know the greens become more bitter once they flower, but I believe they are still "safe" to eat and still have many health benefits. I plan to blanch and freeze the greens for use in soups, casseroles and smoothies. The flowers I might make Dandelion wine, and I might not. The roots I am going to wash and roast and use to make Dandelion Chai and have Greeneryet try it as a coffee, substitute or mix in with his regular coffee. Thanks to Two Frog Home for the information to give me the nudge to do what I have been wanting to do.

I wish there was a manual tiller that I could use to till my entire front and back yards without having to use petrol. I do own a garden claw gold, but it is a ton of work and my shoulders and back wear out quite quickly. It is all a mut point currently as it has been so wet the ducks have taken cover. The soil is to thick and clumpy.

I do plan to pick up some organic potting soil this weekend and get all of my seeds started. My plan is to do all the seeds in 3 succession batches (3 weeks apart). What I don't plant I will sell. I will have some sort of garden this year and I will improve upon it for next year.

Greeneryet picked up a new dehumidifyer for the basement (our old one having broken). It was an expensive one and not what I would have picked, but I did tell him to just pick one out. His has all the bells and whistles (read extra electricity consumption) and a smaller tank than our previous one, add to that 3x times the original price and you might begin to understand why I don't generally send Greeneryet to do the shopping. Sometimes he makes a real effort (like with the entertainment computer, he specifically chose one for its "green" running features) and other times he just gets what he thinks is the top of the line model.

At any rate we have a dehumdifyer and the basement is less damp.

I see lots of changes going on around my Urban Homestead, mostly that I am determined to move forward on all fronts, one baby step at a time.

This weekend if the rain holds off, I plan to have a yard sale. I think I will have a series of them this summer, one a month until the house is cleaned out of all the junk. Then to keep up with it I will set up bins for future garage sales, as well as bins to simply donate to worthy causes. Before you donate anything read Barb's article.

More changes to come.

A Book Revew

2011-05-13T15:35:00.000-04:00

I have read many book reviews for Animal, Vegetable Miracle and after the first review thought it was a book I wanted to read. A few weeks ago when the sun was shining I ventured to that foreign place known as a public library. I looked for the card catalog, but alas they have been replaced with these ridiculous electronic card catalog systems that are useless. Search Animal Vegetable Miracle and it will find anything that has those three words somewhere in the text, but I digress.

Finally finding what I want I head underground to make my way into the light again of the second building of our central library. Yes I am fortunate to have a very, very large library at my fingertips. I thought about learning to use my affiliate links so I could put a link for all of you wanting to buy Animal Vegetable Miracle, but I would rather you explore that lost resource the public library. Who knows if you don't have a firewall or any security on your system you might even be able to browse the online card catalog from the comfort of your own home (I can't but I am told that I am the only person in the County who has ever complained of that problem and that I should shut down my firewalls to view the card catalog online).

So back to the review....

I enjoyed the idea of the book. A family contributing not just to their food source for an entire year but a chonicle of that same journey. I love the older daughter's essays and the husband's factoids. What I did not love was that the essays and factoids could be found mid paragraph. I would have preferred the occur at a natural break in the story or at the end or beginning of chapters.

Other than that Animal Vegetable Miracle had me wanted to sell my home and move to Virginia. I quickly came to my senses and realized that the point of the book was not to sell my home and move, but to make use of the space I already had and my local produce. I have to say I normally yearn for fresh local produce (because nothing tastes the same) in the Spring, but with our wet weather delaying our early crops and this book I am just about ready to gorge myself on radishes and mustard greens :)

I did however foreage my first Dandelion Salad. GreenTeen enjoyed it, but GreenerYet and GreenGirl found it to be bitter with a bit of an after taste. I later realized this was because the dandelions had already bloomed. I should have known I need to spot them before they bloom. I guess this means I can get to work on removing them from the soil and planting my garden. I like the sound of that, MY GARDEN!

I might google dandelion root coffee, with the price creeping up and the abundance of dandelions I have if I can turn the roots into something useful I am all for it. Has anyone tried? Do you know if the root will have changed in flavor because of the blooms?

Frugal Green Travel?

2011-04-28T12:41:00.000-04:00

So I travelled last week and I spent more money that I had planned on spending. Note to self always take cash on these trips and leave the card at home.

Is it possible to make this trip more frugal? How about more green?

Sure it is and it can still be enjoyable. We take this trip with my mums and she pays for the lodging so I don't have much say in this part. She likes to stay at really nice hotels with kitchenettes. I can't say I blame her, I don't want to stay in a dive with dirty sheets, but there is a middle ground.

The most frugal and green lodging is to stay with someone you know in their guest room. When there are 2 adults and 2 kids that is a bit more difficult. Regardless of what type of hotel you stay in you can be green. I ask at the front desk that no housekeeping be done while I am at the hotel (hey if I can hang and reuse my towels at home, I can do it at a hotel). I also ask that the complimentary shampoos, moisturizers and even soaps not be put in the rooms (most hotels have to toss them whether you open them or not). I bring my own toiletries including hand soap.

At times I have brought my own towels as well (1 wash cloth, 1 towel, 1 hand towel and asked that those be removed from the room before I check in so they don't have to be washed again). My reasoning for bringing my own towels is more comfort than anything else. I use simple laundry soap and very little of it, and no fabric softener. I find between the chlorine content and the laundry soap and fabric softener I don't like hotel towels and neither does my skin.

My mums logic for staying at a hotel with a kitchenette suite is that is saves money. Generally speaking you have access to real dishes (which you can wash yourself) and you can bring food with you and not have to spend $10/person to eat out. We stayed at the Homewood Suites by Hilton in Northern Virginia. The suite was nice and the kitchen was nice, but we didn't use it. Homewood Suites offers complimentary breakfast and dinner. We did pack our lunch for our two days out in DC so we didn't have to spend money or time in the cafeteria lines.

The problem with free breakfast/dinner is that it often is not what I like to eat, and its not really free. It was paid for in the increased room cost. I do like a hotel with complimentary breakfast but I didn't realize until this trip that I wasn't comfortable eating the "free" food as I had no idea of its origins.

I think for me a better option would be a bed and breakfast where I could ask questions such as where does your food come from. (Mom and Pop B&B's will generally use local produce and meats). Bringing my own is a real option and one of the reasons Mums wanted a kitchenette, but she brought a lot of prepackaged foods that again I don't normally eat. I would have preferred to seek out a farm market or farm stand once we arrived. Using tools like Google I bet I could find a couple of farm markets close to where I was staying. I plan to use this strategy next year.

This was a driving trip and a shopping trip. I would like next year to work in some thrift stores (instead of just the outlet malls). We take Mums car because it is smaller and gets better gas mileage, but the girls are running out of room. It doesn't make much sense to take my car (15 miles to the gallon), but maybe a rental is in order.

From Northern VA we hit up Hershey, PA and I get the impression from the Hershey Museum that Milton Hershey was an early pioneer of Fair Trade. When sugar became scare he purchased a sugar plantation in Cuba and created Hershey, Cuba with all the great small town benefits and charm of Hershey, PA. It appears that he wanted his workers healthy and happy and encouraged them to own their own homes, which he helped with. His factory town model was not half bad.

We stayed in another Homewood Suites in Hershey and while the astetics of the hotel were superb, the hospitality lacked something. One evening we went down for dinner (sliders and hot dogs) and 1 hour into a 2 hour dinner service there were no buns, no sliders and 6 or so dogs. People were waiting so we assumed food was coming shortly. Kitchen staff appeare a couple of times but never said anything to guests. Everyone started getting antsy. 10 minutes seemed a bit long of a wait. 30 minutes later the slider tray was refilled with meatloaf and a guest had to ask about buns for the remaining hot dogs. The girls took beans and tater tots to the room and we rounded out our meals with the food we had on hand. My issue with this is that not once in 5 or 6 visits out to the dinning room where people were obviously waiting and getting antsy did anyone say "I am sorry we have run out of sliders and we have a tray of meatloaf in the oven it should not be more than x minutes and let me go look for buns for the hot dogs." People wouldn't have stood around waiting they would have sat down or gone out to dinner.

I really like the idea of an electric vehicle (the Volt maybe) but I wonder about charging it on long car trips. I know that while its running it charges itself, but what about when you stop for the night, then what? I am not sure what my next vehicle will be. I do know that I want it to be Chevy or GM and GreenerYet wants it to be a Subaru.

Chevy/GM are more affordable than Subara although both do last and have all wheel or 4 wheel drive which is important where we live. We currently have a Tahoe and I think we could go with an SUV slightly smaller or even a cross over vehicle, but I haven't decided.

We got back Monday around 2:30 in the morning and the girls and I took the day off. We slept in and I went grocery shopping. I planned my weekly menu on what was in my freezer and pantry first (with the exception of GreenTEEN's 13th Birthday dinner - she is officially a teenager) and plan to continue to do so. I have lots of rice to use up so I am going to have it as a side with most meals for the next few weeks until its gone.

Monday night we had summer spaghetti that GreenerYet had made while we were away. I tossed it was some left over frozen sauce and cheese and baked it in the oven. GreenerYet had planned on summer spaghetti while we were away and he threw in the mini peppers so they didn't go to waste.

Tuesday night we had steak quesadilla's with coconut rice. I used the last of a beef roast from during the pantry challenge which I had frozen, the wheat tortillas I got at Abundance's freezer sale, cheese I had purchased for this purpose, rice and coconut milk from the pantry. The salsa was on hand and I did have to purchase sour cream. I also got avacados and cilantro on my shopping trip. They were in the organic bargain produce section and despite not being bright green were still tasty.

Wednesday was GreenTeen's Birthday and she requested Chicken French. I had to purchase everything for this. I would have preferred to serve it over the rice we have on hand but she asked for pasta (which is how we usually serve it) and I obliged.

Tonight was supposed to be something with beef tips and rice, but I didn't get the beef tips out so we shall see what I come up with when I get home.

"What's For Dinner?"

2011-04-12T09:27:00.000-04:00

I really, really hate that question. I MEAN I REALLY REALLY HATE THAT QUESTION!

Probably because it is almost always followed by complaints when I announce what is for dinner. I tried letting the family plan the meals, but they lacked side dishes, vegetables and failed to meet my nutritional and budgetary guidelines. It is not easy feeding a family of 4 twice a day on $100 a week.

Now the girls, GreenerYet and I all eat breakfast at home (I am switching to almost exclusively green smoothies for the spring, summer and fall), and then I pack my lunch from left overs, the girls get lunch at school and GreenerYet usually skips lunch, if he is hungry he eats toast with peanut butter. Then we all eat dinner at home. On weekends I have to add in 2 more lunches but those are just made up from what we have on hand. It gets more complicated in the summer when I am not home to assist with lunches and GreenerYet just wants to serve sandwiches and chicken nuggets.

As I was participating in Frugal by Choice, Cheap by Necessity's Pantry Challenge I realized I had some food so old I didn't know when I bought it. All I knew was I purchased it in the last decade or so (since we purchased our house). Although the challenge is over for Sara, I am still working to clean out my pantry and have a better handle on what is in my stocks.

I am fairly easy to please when it comes to a meal. I want something that has some flavor, I like vegetables and I want to be full when I am done eating. The family is a little different. They want cheesy, meaty, one dish meals....

Tonight's dinner is an attempt to further clean out my pantry. I am making a mock Mexican bake. I will be using the left over sloppy joe meat from last night (maybe 1/4 cup), with red lentils, rice, corn (I think we have a wee bit left in the freezer), Mexican style tomatoes, shredded cheddar cheese. I think I will serve with a side salad of spinach with peppers and onions with a blueberry and orange vinaigrette.

Tomorrow night will be macaroni and cheese with a spinach salad with a different vinaigrette.

Thursday night is still undecided. I think I am going to serve the girls the left over beef and coconut rice dish I made a week or so ago (it is in the freezer) and I will have split pea soup with spinach salad.

Since I am going to be gone for a week I want to eat as much of the spinach as possible. Whatever is left will be blanched and frozen for green smoothies. I'll freeze it on a cookie sheet in a thin layer so I can break it apart into usable pieces for my green smoothies.

That leaves GreenerYet without a dinner option, and I am not quite sure what to serve him. I don't think I have much left in the freezer, but maybe I have some turkey noodle soup I could serve him with a spinach salad.

Friday I am off the hook because we are leaving before dinner and stopping for dinner along the way.

I don't know that I will post much next week, but I do plan to keep track of how we greened our road trip.

So what do you do to serve healthy meals that family members like and still stick to a lean budget?

Short Ribs and Homemade BBQ Sauce

2011-04-11T10:09:00.000-04:00

So I almost forgot about the short ribs, but I remembered them around 10 in the morning so I pulled them out and let them set out all day (I know this is very bad, but my mom always used the counter method, and we all survived). The I searched the Internet for a "Honey Barbecue Sauce Recipe" and found this one at AllRecipes.com. I modified it to account for what I had on hand. I didn't have meat tenderizer (and have no clue what it is) so I put in Apple Cider Vinegar in its place. I didn't have Steak Sauce so I just skipped it. The overall verdict was that it was a bit to sweet, and it was. I would cut out the brown sugar and just use the molasses. I also think the sauce which was baked on had a better flavor than the unbaked sauce (which we put on top) and I would rather cook it all together on the stove top first.

GreenerYet and the Kids had the sauce on short ribs, however I am not a fan of short ribs, they are just to fatty for me, I had it on a piece of salmon from the freezer. Tonight we are using the last of the ground beef for sloppy joes and finishing up the salad.

Wed night will be macaroni and cheese.

Thurs will be Mexican Bake with lentils.

Friday begins my trip.

I really wanted to go to the market. The Southwedge doesn't open for a couple more weeks, so I think I will hit up the public market the first Saturday I am back. I like the fact that it really forces me to get up early. I am thinking that once the Southwedge Market opens, I will hit it up on my way (out of my way) home from work Thursday Nights and then I can get the remainder of my needs Saturday morning at the Public Market hitting up the Co-op twice a month (or less) for the sales if need be.

I am currently reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and I am really enjoying it. It is nice to see if from the perspective of a mother, father and children. I am tempted to pull up stakes and move to VA, but I could do much of what she is doing here.

I am more and more thinking I need to start the my cleanse before the kids. I can avoid gluten, dairy and eggs pretty well all on my own. The hard part will be the caffeine and candy. We will be traveling after Easter dinner and I think by GreenTween's party I will be able to safely say I will be done with Candy.

I am going to make a conscious effort to avoid gluten and dairy (with the exception of finishing up the Greek yogurt I have) from now until the girls are ready to start the challenge.

Before that I think I should give a basic health statement:

My health sucks. My lungs often feel like they are full of fluid and on fire (but according to the modern medicine I should just learn to live with it and take different medicines until its all sorted out).

PMS for me has always been pretty rough, skin break outs, oily hair, mood swings that are almost bi-polar in nature, and as of late I have been getting really angry for no good reason during my PMS.

Lack of sleep, I have never in my life slept well. My mums will tell you that I was the best child, I was never sick and I was a good sleeper. The fact is I never complained. I was always ready for bed by 7:30 at night (and that was with a mid-afternoon nap) the problem is that I was awake again by 2 in the morning. I always fell asleep in the car (no matter how short the drive) and as an adult I don't like driving because I find myself wandering while driving.

I am well overweight 210lbs as of this am.

I am generally fatigued.

I have allergies (which I didn't suffer with as a child) and near as I can figure pets (cat and dog), dust, pollen and maybe grass.

My mood could use improvement. I have been trying to fake it, but after trying to fake it my whole dang life I am just tired of faking it and I want to have enough energy to get through my day.

Menu for Next Week

2011-04-08T09:39:00.001-04:00

Last night we enjoyed dinner at my parents house. My neice was back in the hospital for a suspected blockage (she has Chrones), so my mom and dad picked up the other 3 kids from school and watched them. Turned out not to be a blockage and she was released same day. We all enjoyed a nice meal with hamburgers, mac n cheese, and salad.

The salmon was not thawed (a sign that my fridge is on the cold side) so I threw it back into the freezer. I started thinking about meals for next week.

Sat Night it will be just DH and so we are going to enjoy the lasagna he made a couple of weeks ago. He assembled it in a bread pan when he assembled the other one and did not bake it. I took it out last night to allow it to properly thaw (stone bread pan) and then we'll cook it Saturday night. We'll top it with the home made sauce that is in the freezer and put half of it away again for GreenerYet to enjoy while the girls and I are away.

Sunday I was thinking about doing the short ribs and salmon. I'm not really a big fan of short ribs and I was thinking I could come up with a maple glaze and a maple barbecue sauce to use on the two. That and GreenerYet the girls are not big fans of salmon.

Monday I really need something simple and from the crock pot so that I can run to Girl Scouts on time with GreenGirl and GreenTween and GreenerYet can eat after they get back from practice. I haven't decided but I was thinking sloppy lentils. I have 4 buns left over and a package of ground beef. We have tomato paste, I just have to find my sloppy lentil recipe (which I seem to have lost). Side salad (we have some to use up) and I need to pick up salad dressing for GreenerYet (or venture into making Ranch?)

Tuesday would be nice to have something a little more detailed as its one of the few nights we won't be rushed. Still not sure what I want to make or what I will need.

Wed is GreenTween's first track meet and GreenGirl will need to be at the Dojo so this should be another crock pot meal. Maybe something with beef tips and some corn bread or beer bread.

Thursday looks to be wide open and Friday we Mums, the girls and I leave for our Spring Break trip. I really want to empty out the stores this week so I am coming home to a nice clean pantry and freezer that I can clean and restock as I see fit.

I was thinking I would soak some more tapioca and make tapioca pudding for my mid morning snack.

Mexican Bake (ie Left Overs in Disguise)!

2011-04-07T09:35:00.001-04:00

We have been eating the same Beef Roast all week, and its been a bit of a Mexican theme. Truth is I love Mexican foods. So last night I used some more of the beef, the last of the rice, soup noodle rings, a can of tomatoes with chilies, the last of the cheddar and buffalo cheddar cheese and my homemade taco sauce. It was delicious. DH baked cornbread earlier in the day and the two paired nicely.

Now we have some left over cornbread which I am thinking of crumbling and freezing for another Mexican bake next week.

Tonight we are having Salmon and salad. The salmon is left over from Christmas (its already cooked, just needs a quick reheat with a sauce. I was thinking maple syrup.

The chest freezer is starting to look like slim pickings, and so is the pantry, but both are still fairly full. Next week I want to focus on 3 meatless meals and make sure every meal has at least 3 ingredients from my stores.

We have 3 packages of short ribs, I don't really care for short ribs (I find them to fatty). I think I'll get them all out and make them on Sunday. I figure if I trim off a good deal of the excess fat and then broil them with a homemade barbecue sauce (looking for recipes now) they should be pretty tasty. Then I'll pair them with some salad and maybe I'll buy a couple of sweet potatoes and make baked sweet potatoes.

We are definitely getting down to the last of the freezer stock and that means I can unplug it, let it thaw and drain, and then give it a good clean and leave it set for a couple of months. I like to freeze fruits and veggies more than I like to can them (I don't like the texture of canned), but if I do plant my own garden its going to be a while before I experience a glut, and I am going to experiment with cold frames to keep some greens going all winter long for salad and soups.

This weekend I am going to try to get some starter mix going. I plan to take some dirt from under the tarp and mix it with my compost in the wheel barrel and put a glass window over the top and bake it for 2 weeks, then I'll get my plant starts on the front porch and hope that leads to a successful garden.

MMmmm MMMmmm Good!

2011-04-06T09:32:00.000-04:00

Last night we enjoyed the beef and rice wraps I had planned for Monday night. They were delish. Well everyone but GreenGirl thought so, but alas she is my picky eater. Give her raw spinach and cold beans and she'll eat to the end of her days, but give her foods with flavor and depth and she simply doesn't care for them. I have plenty of beef left over from the roast for meal #3 which is the Mexican bake today. Then I believe I will have enough for some quesadillas (but not sure I'll have enough cheese) salad and soup, so it might become meat for salad on Friday with soup. I have a plan for revamping the split pea soup. I am going to run it through the food processor (the blender jar broke the other day) and then heat it with some soup, and taco seasoning (because everyone loves taco's).

That still leaves me without a meal tomorrow night. I do have a ton of odds and ends that I am hoping to put together some how..... just not sure how as of yet.

I think by the end of May I can have my freezer and pantry completely empty. DH and I are going to enjoy the Lasagna in the freezer for dinner on Saturday (the kids will be at Gramma's) and then he'll finish off the left overs from that the week the girls and I are gone.

I am setting him up to finish some of my lunch meals (trying to leave him the bigger ones and salad to go with it). We have quite a bit of meat still to use up (since I bought it not that long ago). As well as mushed apples. I plan to get out a couple of jars and bake some apple bread before I go. I thought if I made them in the mini loafs, I could freeze them and they would make a good snack while we are on the road.

What we have left is getting scarce for making meals, but if I focus on that first and build meals around it for May I can hopefully keep my budget in check and pay some extra to the debt I desire to eliminate. I will definitely be doing a new inventory and showing what we used up during this challenge and what we have added to the stores while on this challenge.

How about you? How long could you eat solely from what you have on hand? How creative would you need to be?

The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men

2011-04-05T12:27:00.000-04:00

So I got home from work late last night, it was only by about 15 minutes, but on Girl Scout nights we don't have any time to spare. So instead of making the dinner I had planned, we ate fast food. Well the kids and GreenerYet did. After the last fast food meal I had didn't sit so well I decided I could just go without, and I was fine.

Last night solidified my knowledge that on busy nights I have to put something in the crock pot, this way I don't have to mess with it.

Tonight we will have the Grilled Beef Wraps (wraps from the freezer sale at the co-op, beef from Sunday's roast, rice from the pantry which GreenerYet cooked yesterday, and sauteed onions, with cheese) served with onion rings (co-op freezer special) and salad. Maybe some Mint Chocolate Brownies for dessert.

Tonight I'll shred and portion all the meat, as I don't want to have any of it go bad in the fridge. If I portion it, I can thaw what I need as I need.

We were thinking Mexican bake tomorrow night and I think we'll stick to it. I can use the meat, some lentils, tomatoes with chilies, the sauteed onions, cheese and rice topped with cornbread.

Then we still have Thursday and Friday to contend with. If we still have meat I am tempted to turn the last of the wraps into quesadilla's and serve with soup and salad. Maybe take a couple of jars of the split pea soup and dilute with water and add some spices. Any suggestions to spice up the split pea soup?

That leaves us just Thursday night. I would love to do something vegetarian, but I don't have any beans on hand. I'll have to search the freezer and the pantry to come up with a super creative solution.

This is the last week of the official pantry challenge, but I am going to try to keep it going (or at least remain focused on using more from my freezer and pantry until I can get them both emptied out.).

Once the freezer and pantry are pretty well cleaned out, I want to give them both a good scrub. I would love to leave my freezer off for a couple of weeks or until late July, but if I find my top freezer (attached to the fridge) is over full, I will turn it back on and slowly start filling it with (hopefully) good stuff.

I am so antsy for the spring veggies and all that brings with it.

Maybe tonight I'll go through my current inventory and repost what I have left and what has been added to help me get an idea of what I might do with some of it!

The Pantry Challenge Continues

2011-04-04T12:21:00.001-04:00

This week I planned my menu around a beef roast I had in the freezer. It was about 3 and 3/4 pounds so I figured I could get 4-5 meals out of it.

Last night we enjoyed the roast with salad, corn (I chopped the scallions I got on sale from the co-op) and left over bread GreenerYet made with the food processor, and let's not forget the Smushed Apples from the freezer, warmed in the over with left over graham cracker crumbs.

Tonight I am shredding some of the roast and mixing it with rice, onions, salsa and cheese and making grilled wraps, with onion rings.

Tomorrow night I am thinking full on Mexican bake. More shredded beef and onions, with a can of tomatoes with green chilies, shredded cheese and topped with cornbread bake.

Then if all goes well the remainder will go in tacos or chili, which ever the family votes on.

Haven't really planned beyond that, I am trying a use what I have approach.

I spent less than $80 at the store this week (which given my budget that is a good thing, although higher than the challenge would like).

I am moving toward Dairy Free and Gluten Free in the house. My plans are to use up what we have without bringing anything into the house (gallons of milk being the exception) until we are ready to begin the cleanse prescribed in CLEAN.

I didn't get much done this weekend, but I wanted to. I am feeling ever more fatigued and I am hoping this cleanse will do for me what it did for Melinda. Sure I am hoping is it a much needed panacea.

I do not know if gluten and dairy are what is wrong with American health, but it seems like the majority of people who are taken off of it or limit it have improved health.

For GreenTween I am hoping it helps her skin calm down, and alleviates her current allergies (which we still don't know what they are too) as well as this cough she just can't shake and which doctors still don't have a cause for.

For GreenGirl I am hoping it is an end to her intestinal issues, headaches, fatigue and belly that just will not go away.

For me all I really want is to have energy again. Enough energy to live my life, instead of just trying to get through the day. If I get nicer skin, less pms, and lose some much needed weight whoo hoo, but all I want is more energy.

Everyone has typical symptoms of gluten intolerance. We are all bloated, we are all fatigued. Both my girls have a bit a belly bloat, GreenGirl more so than GreenTween. We are all less than ideal regular, and we are all irritable.

How about you? Anyone else done a cleanse of any sort? What was your experience. Anyone have a used copy of CLEAN they would like to part with?

In Like A Lion Out Like a Lamb

2011-03-31T07:33:00.000-04:00

There is a saying March comes in like a Lion and goes out like a Lamb, well this year it has come in like a Pride and the Pride is still here. Its SNOWING this morning. We aren't predicted to get the worst of it, east of us is going to get hit hard.

The beef dish last night was delish! Unanimous! The coconut rice was perfect and I could see making it into a breakfast dish.

I have 2 lunches left over out of the batch. We have chili tonight with the last of the beer bread, and then tomorrow night i am thinking I will make a pasta dish. (I think I have some pasta that I could beef up).

I am thinking I was to focus next week on a roast. If I make the roast for dinner, then we can enjoy it in various forms all week. Such as paninis with the onion rings I picked up at the freezer sale, Soup using up some of the pasta rings I already have (but I'll need some veggies for this), Burritos with coconut rice and using the wraps I picked up in the freezer sale, maybe with a side of corn and beans (I would have to pick up beans as all I have left is a small jar of frozen lentils and some chick peas).....

So that's where I am today.......

I am thinking ahead however. One Green Generation did a Cleanse at the beginning of the year and I am thinking about doing the same with the family once I have cleaned out the pantry. In the meantime I am going to try to not purchase products contianing gluten or dairy, since those are big on the don't list. I have a post on my thoughts surrounding America's health crisis and gluten, dairy, and artificial foods.

Split Pea Soup

2011-03-30T10:31:00.001-04:00

Some time ago I purchased Yellow Split Peas. They were local, organic and on sale at the co-op. I figured there was more to do with Split Peas than Split Pea soup. Apparently not so. I searched by ingredient and the only recipes that came up were variations of split pea soup. So last night I decided to make split pea and pumpkin soup based on what I had on hand.

About 2 lbs of soaked Yellow Split Peas

3/4 c pumpkin puree

1 whole onion

5 c of homemade chicken stock (plus enough water to cover)

I allowed these items to cook for 6 hours on low in the crock pot. The house had an interesting smell when I came home (neither good nor bad).

I put 3 ladles of the mix into the blender and it was very thick. The peas didn't seem as soft as I envisioned them to be after 6 hours in a crock pot. After playing around with it and adding salt and pepper to the sample bowl it was just OK. It was very thick and well quite frankly kinda bland. I'll finish the left overs up for my lunch in the next 3 weeks, but I doubt I'll ever make Split Pea Soup again.

On the menu tonight TRINIDAD PELAU!

Week Three of the Pantry Challenge!

2011-03-29T08:53:00.001-04:00

Last week was not the best week for me on the pantry challenge. This week after not visiting my local co-op for 3 weeks I was in withdrawal and needed a visit. So I did my shopping there. They had a freezer sale. The freezer went down that morning so everything in it was buy 1 get 1 FREE! I couldn't pass this up. My bill was $90 for the week, but I purchased Organic Flour (wheat by accident), and 10 items from the freezer section I wouldn't have normally purchased (but only paid for 5). Also GreenTween needed more Bronners Shave Lotion ($8) and replacement Preserve razor heads ($8). So all in all not a bad trip.

Sunday night GreenTween attempted a re fried Spanish omelet, it was good but it was too big to flip out of the pan and "refry". We also had company so we used 1 doz eggs (purchased 2 doz to replace them), the last of the potatoes I bought the other week, and one of the onions I bought the other week.

Monday Night was Mac N Cheese. For this I purchased evaporated milk and cheddar cheese last week and used it up along with the package of fussili in the cupboard.

Tonight is Pumpkin Split Pea Soup from this recipe however I modified it. First I used probably 2 lbs of split peas (because I have them), I used however much pumpkin puree I had left over in the fridge (probably about 3/4 c), omitted the beef, the bitters and the chili. I used about 5cups of chicken stock and then covered the whole mess with enough water to cover. We will add a dash of crushed red pepper on top for heat for those who like it hot.

It will sit in the crock pot cooking for 6 hours. Then I will puree part of it and mix it back in. Never had split pea soup before so I have nothing to compare it to. GreenerYet has had split pea soup and does not have good things to say about it, so this could be a total failure.

We will also be serving this with beer bread.

Also on the menu:
Thai Beef Tips with Coconut Rice (this is entirely from pantry stores!)
Breakfast Risotto with cherries and almonds
Chili and Left over Beer Bread (the chili is completely leftovers and the beer bread will be the other half a loaf from tonight).

I have a full week's menu at home, so I will update the post when I get home.

I have noticed that if I shop my pantry, fridge and freezer first I can probably get a smaller refrigerator when I replace my current model. I would love a fridge made in the US, so suggestions are welcome.

ITS A TRAGEDY I TELL YOU (In Three Acts)

2011-03-25T10:06:00.000-04:00

So one of our Pantry Meals was Lasagna. It was a fifty fifty kind of meal. We had the noodles, the ricotta, the spinach and some of the cheese, half the cheese was purchased, as were the roasted red peppers, the tomatoes, mushrooms and onion. We also purchased the salad mix (but for the tacos so it was kind of a left over) and the hoggie rolls turned garlic bread came out of the freezer.

GreenerYet made the lasagna in 2 bread pans (our preferential way to make them, one bread pan feeds our family of four). The second pan was frozen (not baked) for a future meal. So we took something out of the pantry, but we also put something back in the pantry (freezer).

Normally GreenTween loves lasagna and GreenGirl hates it. GreenGirl was prepared to hate the lasagna, but she loved it. She loves sauteed mushrooms, just like her dear Momma. GreenTween however hated the lasagna (umm I forget she hates mushrooms with a passion).

Act I: Scene opens with the audience walking through the front door and the lovely smells of roasted veggies, cheese and sauce. A quick peek in the oven reveals lasagna goodness. A peak in the fridge reveals the surplus meal. Tragically this meal falls short of using up my stores, and even adds to it.

Act II: Stoicly GreenerYet and TreeHugginMomma prepare for battle with the stubborn willed GreenGirl who hates lasagna. Although GreenerYet did not douse the lasagna with a ton of sauce. Very little actually and had a pan on the stove to add mores As You Like It. GreenGirl ate her salad, and bread first (nothing unusual there, I think she is destined to be a vegetarian, possible even vegan). Then it happened, with a wrinkled up nose and as much drama as a nine year old girl can muster she took her first bite, and then another, and then it was gone and she wanted seconds. Alas we had no seconds, but more salad and a mandarin orange satisfied the little angel.

Act III: GreenTween prepared to love lasagna takes a bite, only to discover it full of mushrooms. TreeHugginMomma realizes that GreenTween still doesn't like mushrooms. Tragically GreenTween and TreeHugginMomma will never share a love for all things mushrooms.

Last night for dinner we had the Organic Turkey Breast (half) from the Freezer. GreenerYet squeezed one of the Honeybells over it and some honey along with salt and pepper. It cooked up nicely, with no left overs. Add a side of mashed potatoes (using sour cream and cheese on hand) and a garden salad and we had a well rounded dinner.

Tonight we are enjoying Pizza (using fresh and left over dough), left over sauces (Alfredo and red), left over mushroom, spinach and onion saute mix, as well as a plain cheese pizza using up the shredded mozzarella.

Next week's menu promises to be more from the pantry and less from the store as I would like to head to co-op this week and stay under $50 .

Good Start Out of the Gate and Stumble Round the Bend!

2011-03-23T10:40:00.001-04:00

We did so well the first week. While no meal was made entirely out of the pantry, every meal had components from the pantry. The end of last week was our downfall. With my schedule and the play we had good intentions. I planned meals for the whole week only to realize nachos on Friday night was not feasible. So I was thinking we would bump the nachos to Saturday and make Grilled Cheese Friday Night. Well having less than 15 minutes to make and eat dinner I decided to let convenience win. We drove through McD's and ordered 2 salads, 2 shamrock shakes and a med fry for GreenTween and I (GreenerYet also did McD's for him and GreenGirl, but they stuck to the $1 menu). $17 later I realize that was quite the expensive fast food meal.

Saturday started off pretty well, but a phone call from my brother, who I hadn't seen in months threw us of course. He was free to come to GreenTween's play. He stopped over to see both girls (since GreenGirl saw the play on Friday she was headed to Gramma's for the night) and GreenTween and I had to run out the door for dinner again. This time since I had to stop at the Big W for something sweet for the after party I decided to go with their sushi packs. Same cost as McD's but I felt better about it. So we spent $40 on convenience food (which means I only saved $10 last week on the grocery budget).

Then this week I did a huge grocery shop. I let GreenerYet and the girls plan the menu (primarily because I was feeling uninspired) and we ended up with quite the list. I had hoped to make it out under $50 and I could have with just a little more determination, but I spent $71, then had to go back to the store last night (for lettuce, tomato and nutella) and spent another $20 so I am at my budget for groceries this week and saved no money.

Sunday Night we did have the nachos. We used blue corn tortilla chips purchased last week for this purpose, as well as the jar of left over chili put up for this purpose. I purchased 12 cans of tomatoes this week (because we use a lot of tomatoes) and used a can with green chili's for our nachos. I used the shredded cheddar purchased last week for nachos as well. We used jalapenos from the fridge, along with salsa and sour cream.

Monday night we enjoyed Alfredo. Linguine from the cupboard, but the half and half and cheese were purchased for this meal. Didn't have salad (meant to purchase it for the tacos and use the left overs all week) but no one complained.

Tuesday was tacos. I used the lentils (purchased and cooked last week for this purpose) with the taco sauce I made last week, along with soft and hard shells (again purchased this week for this purpose). Cheddar cheese (purchased this week) along with tomato and lettuce (purchased last night) and salsa, sour cream and jalapenos from the fridge. We are out of salsa.

Tonight we are having lasagna. We are using the noodles from the pantry, the ricotta from the fridge as well as what was purchased last week. Cheeses purchased this week, tomatoes purchased this week, mushrooms and onions purchased this week and spinach left over from last week (or the week before). We'll serve this with salad.

Tomorrow night is a roast turkey breast with mashed potatoes and salad. The turkey breast is from the freezer, but the potatoes and salad were purchased.

I am going to need to get really creative in next weeks menu plan in order to use up more from the pantry and not purchase as much at the store this week.

This is what my original pantry stock looks like, maybe tomorrow I will add items in Green that have been purchased since the start of the challenge.

On the Counter:

~~White Sugar @10lbs~~ I purchased 10lbs of sugar this week. GreenerYet has been baking quite a bit lately
Organic W Wheat Flour @10lbs
Organic Raisins - almost gone
Organic White Bread Flour @ 5lbs
Organic Corn Meal
Organic Brown Sugar -we have less than 1 c left
1 Lb Steel Cut Oats
Prunes
~~Figs~~
Dry Organic Split Peas
~~2 bags Blue Corn Chips~~
Cranberry Quick Bead Mix
Organic Sucanat
~~Organic Pumpkin Seeds~~ I tossed these. After much wondering and research if they were still good I decided to let them go and just deal with the loss (guess I could have planted them).
Organic Slivered Almonds
Powdered Sweet Cream Buttermilk
Confectioners Sugar
Flaked Coconut

Pantry:
~~1 jar roasted red peppers~~ to be used in lasagna and pizza this week
1 Qt Coconut Milk Beverage (Vanilla Flavor)
Organic Brown Rice (maybe 1/2 c)
White Rice (way to much)
Creamy PB
Crunchy PB
Prunes (yes more)
Candied Cherries
Raspberry Filing
Organic Cane Sugar
Organic Shortening
Raspberry Jello Mix
Lavazza
Nonfat Powdered Milk
~~2 Boxes Organic Linguine~~
1 Bag Organic Fusilli
2 cans Organic Coconut Milk
~~1 can Organic Tomato~~ Soup GreenTween's dinner 3/13
2 cans Organic Garbanzo Beans
chopped dates
Canned Salmon with Dill Sauce
Beer Bread - 9 Packages (I paid S&H and got it all FREE)
Olive Oil
Canola Oil
Organic Almond Oil
Organic Sesame Oil
2 1 Bag Twisty Grahams
1 Box Tri Colored Fiore
2 cans organic tomato paste
1 jar organic tomato paste
~~1 28oz can of fire roasted crushed tomatoes~~ this became taco sauce last week
Meringue Powder
Unopened 1lb Package of Yeast
4 can sweetened condensed milk
~~1 box lasagna noodles~~
1 box pasta rings
Container of Beef Bouillon Cubes
Tapioca Pearls
Large Box of Bisquick
Organic Barbara's Shredded Wheat
~~Organic Barbara's other wheat cereal~~
Honey Nut O's (nock offs)
Organic Apple Cider Vinegar
Saltine Crackers
Organic Strawberry Popcorn
Organic Yellow Popcorn
Organic Cocoa Mix

Spices Galore plus Organic Garlic

Fridge:
Flax Seeds
Jalapenos ~~(2 opened jars)~~
~~Banana Peppers~~
Organic Lemon Juice
Real Organic Maple Syrup
Other Maple Syrup Pretender
Organic Almond Butter
Jam
Organic Ketchup x2
Organic Molasses
Butter
Bread Crumbs
~~Asagio Cheese~~
Cheap Grated Parmesan
Sour Cream
~~Salsa~~
Mayo
Ricotta
Spinach
~~Pancakes~~
~~Shredded Cheddar~~
~~Cream Cheese~~
~~Munster Cheese~~ GreenerYet used this up last night for dinner
American Cheese
Shredded Mozzarella
Eggs
~~Head of Lettuce~~ dinner 3/1

Freezer:
Breakfast Sausages
Shredded Carrots
~~Cheese Sauce~~
~~Rice~~ dinner 3/14
Chicken Broth (homemade - several jars)
Hamburger Buns
Hoggie Rolls
~~Meatballs~~
Bananas
~~Tortellini Soup~~ (3 lunches worth)
~~Pizza~~ (2 lunch slices)
~~Fiesta Chicken~~ (great for Nachos)
Pizza Dough Ball (homemade)
~~Organic Half Turkey Breast~~
Basement:
12 8 Honey bells (2 used for breakfast 3/14 and 2 spoiled)
1 Spaghetti Squash

Chest Freezer
~~Grass Fed Ground Beef 3 2 lbs~~
Grass Fed Stew Beef 2 lbs
Grass Fed Roasts 3 lbs
Grass Fed Short Ribs 2lbs
Organic Whole Wheat Flour - 10lbs
Ravioli
2 Cooked Salmon Fillets
Apple Pie Mix (way too much)
beef bones for stock (2 packages)
Frozen Organic Blueberries (2 containers - I bought these at the market last year and we would eat half and freeze half)
~~Frozen Corn~~ dinner 3/14
Pumpkin Puree -2
Blackberry Pulp
Frozen Bananas

Lunches - 2 1 soups, 1 mystery

Another Success!

2011-03-18T07:09:00.000-04:00

Last Night we had sloppy joes, that GreenTween made and used the sweet potato fries and salad I purchased this week. It was a tasty meal. After dinner we started wondering what we would do for dinner tonight? So I looked at what we had, knowing we were having nachos on Friday I decided to make Enchiladas with sauce tonight. I'll use up the last of my tomatoes, but I'll have left over sauce to freeze for another meal. We'll use the fiesta chicken left overs from the freezer, the lentils I cooked on Monday and the cilantro rice we didn't use up on Monday. I have cheese and wraps (picked them up just in case this week) and I'll through it all together with a nice salad.

Then since I am using the fiesta chicken for the enchiladas instead of nachos I'll use the nacho jar of chili I set aside with some vegetarian chili (all veggies no beans no meat) I made a while back. It wasn't the biggest hit, but we decided to try using it on our nachos (to bulk up the meat portion) and it has worked well for that. This will be the last batch. Whooo Hooo. The chicken enchilladas were a hit. Best batch yet. I have left over taco sauce and 2 enchellada lunches now too!

Saturday Night is still up in the air. Normally, the girls go to my MIL's for Saturday night and she takes them to church Sunday morning. This weekend however because GreenTween has the play and my MIL has tax season to deal with we are keeping the girls with us. I haven't quite decided what I am going to serve for dinner on Saturday, but I will before the play.

This is a success because I did not break down and buy pizza and wings or take away or any thing. Instead I stayed committed to what I have on hand.

If I say on track this week I'll have $40 extra dollars in this weeks Grocery envelope to purchase the bulk kitty litter I have been wanting to purchase and $10 to put aside for Easter and GreenTween's upcoming birthday party.

I am trying to handle Easter differently this year than in past years. Each girl will have some sweets (jelly beans, chocolate filled eggs and a milk chocolate something from the local candy makers) but they love Easter Egg Granola, so I am going to make sure we have lots of that ready to go (means I will need to purchase Eggs, Peanut Butter, Sunflower and Pumpkin Seeds, Cranberries and Raisins and whatever else I decide to throw into my granola as well as a hefty serving of local honey.

In addition to the candy each girl will be getting some art supplies (nice ones, not cheapo ones, MADE IN AMERICA if I can find them) and a Yogen Fruz gift card. I picked up the Yogen Fruz gift cards as stocking stuffers and as is par for the course with me, I forgot about them. A nice little bonus for the Easter baskets. I was thinking a hair piece item as well. We shall see what I find at local craft shows between now and then.

We have a small problem. It takes about 30 minutes to make nachos, and that would leave us only 15 minutes to scarf them down before we leave to take GreenTween to opening night of her play. So we have decided to do the Nachos on Saturday (since we have more time to prep them before the play Saturday night). However that means I need to come up with something healthy. PBJ is an option despite the fact that GreenerYet used up all the creamy pb for a chocolate chip pb cookie hybrid (mmm). Tomorrow I'll post an update of what is left in my stash and what I plan for meals next week.

Last night's enchiladas were a huge hit. I have 2 lunches from left over enchiladas and we have 2 jars of taco sauce, but not a bad result for a mostly left over meal. Left over chicken fiesta soup with left over rice and left over cheese sauce. Can of tomatoes and spices turned into taco sauce, add wraps and salad and instant meal.

So Far So Good!

2011-03-16T12:27:00.002-04:00

Last night's spaghetti and meatballs were a hit. GreenTween didn't care for the Cornbread as garlic bread and it wasn't a top pick for me. This batch of cornmeal was almost like flour not grainy like I am used to, so maybe I need to switch up what I am buying. I would have loved to put the bread in the oven on a low temperature to dry it out and use it as bread crumbs on a mac n cheese or a frittata.

Oh well, we live and learn. We used up one package of linguine (you will catch me calling it spaghetti because we don't eat spaghetti, just fettuccine or linguine), the meatballs in the fridge and the left over corn bread. We added to it 3 cans of tomatoes to the mix (which I purchased this week) and 1 can of tomato paste.

I had intended to serve salad with it, but I did not get around to it and no one seemed to mind.

Tonight for dinner GreenTween will be making home made sloppy joes. The sloppy joes are entirely a clean out the pantry, I will serve them with the sweet potato fries and salad mix I purchased.

That leaves us with Thursday and Friday for dinner. I would like a simpler meal, something more vegetable based but I don't think we have the supplies this go round. I'll have to brain storm this evening after the children have gone to bed.

I soaked tapioca Sunday night and here it is Wednesday and I haven't turned it into pudding. My thought was to use the same recipe I used last time and to use less sugar (it was a bit sweet). Wonder if I can still use that tapioca, guess I am off to google......

Day 3 of Eating From my Pantry

2011-03-16T12:10:00.000-04:00

Sara over at Frugal By Choice, Cheap by Necessity posted her Week 1 update. Looks like things are going pretty well in her neck of the woods. Things are going fairly well in my neck of the woods as well. Now I find myself thinking what I am going to do when I get to the end of the challenge (or the end of my pantry stash, whichever comes first) and wondering what I will do. Will it blow my $100/week budget? I don't think so. I think it will allow me to set aside money to make bulk purchases of kitty litter, kitty food, and pastured meat (chicken, beef and bacon). I notice the largest chunk of food money if I shop at the co-op is meat. $8 for a package of chicken breasts (and that is 1 maybe 2 meals). But if I buy a larger quantity from my local sources I can save myself some money.

I am also hoping to get my garden finally going and out of the planning stages this year. I have been thinking about what I want to plant and where. I definitely want to plant tomatoes. We eat lots of tomatoes. I am hopeful that this year will yield a large enough crop for me to fire roast and can. Tomatoes are one thing I do not worry about canning because they are high acid. I probably won't season them before I can them (but I might fire roast them). In addition to tomatoes, I am thinking winter and summer squash, as well as peppers (I want to start some to grow indoors as well as out of doors). I want to container garden many herbs (this way I can bring them indoors too), and some carrots, greens, and other roots.

I think I will take up a good deal of my current land with my future garden, but I don't want to start too big. The last few weeks in this area we have had it warm up on several occasions only to have it snow shortly thereafter. I am antsy for the nice weather. I want to finish covering my property in my organic hay to combat the weeds and improve the soil. My plan is to cover every inch so that I can deal with it when I am ready and not have to deal with the neighbors complaining about the "weeds" (asters as I like to call them) while I am still in the planning process.

I good vegetable garden can help feed my family all summer, fall and into the winter.

Last nights dinner was delicious. We used a little more than a pound of grass fed beef, 8 cups or organic red chili beans, 2 cups of corn, 3 cans of tomatoes and some spices. It cooked all day in the crock pot and when it was done we poured it over left over Chinese and cilantro rice, topped it with sour cream and shredded cheddar cheese (both of which I already had on hand), and enjoyed. Because of the heavy handed addition of beans (my family loves beans - soak them before you eat them for a big difference in how they digest) we will get 3-4 meals out of this. I put aside a portion of the chili to make nachos with (yum!) and the rest I put aside for a second chili meal. GreenerYet made cornbread from the cornmeal on hand. The texture was a bit different and I haven't decided if I liked it or not yet. We do have left overs to use up and I might freeze it to go with the chili.

Tonight's meal is Spaghetti and meatballs (a favorite in our house). The meatballs were made for another meal and left overs frozen. They will be added to the 3 remaining cans of tomatoes I purchased this week and a box of linguine from the pantry. I was thinking to round out the meal I would add a salad (purchased this week) and garlic bread on hoggie rolls (from the freezer). About a 50/50 on this meal.

Breakfast was french toast. This used bread (almost the whole loaf of white bread purchased this week), eggs, milk and spices. Topped with syrup and breakfast sausage. I consider this meal a wash because I purchased eggs, milk and sausage so we could use what we had.

Breakfast sausages are a big thing in our house. I need to find a source for good breakfast sausage locally, as well as a good fake recipe (I am thinking lentils, not soy).

Lunch for me is more left over tortellini soup.

I am learning my biggest downfall is a lack of planning. I tend to plan main dishes but not sides, and part of that is because in the spring/summer months I just grab whatever looks good and is in season at the market and plan meals around that. However, as with today's lunch I find myself wishing I had also packed a small salad and a bread. Mid morning and mid-afternoon I find I like a snack as well. Something sweet in the am and something salty in the pm. Planning for these from my pantry stores should be pretty easy (but I need to plan for them).

Right now I am thinking I really like a cup of tapioca pudding in the am and maybe some popcorn in the afternoon or some roasted almonds, or chickpeas......

Clean Out the Pantry Challenge Grocery Shop 1

2011-03-14T11:16:00.002-04:00

So I wasn't sure what I was going to make with the many odds and ends in my pantry (lots of baking stuffs) but I decided to give it a go anyways. I was worried I wouldn't be able to keep my shopping below $50, but I did. I did not however buy meat and that won't be a regular occurrence.

Last night GreenerYet went out and so it was just me and the girls.

GreenGirl had her favorite sausage soup (with the frozen sausage soup in my lunch stockpile) and a grilled cheese. I had to buy bread as we were completely out and I didn't get around to making some (its on my list). I actually want to try letting it prove overnight.....

GreenTween had the can of Tomato soup from the pantry and a mozzarella grilled cheese sandwich.

I enjoyed the left over lemon chicken (well the rice was really dry - usually I reheat the rice with additional water and I skipped that step this time).

All three of us had a mini salad using the left over head of lettuce that may or may not have made it onto my inventory sheet.

Since GreenerYet was out last night I got up and made the girls breakfast. The girls are cereal (from the pantry) and fruit. Each had a honeybell from the basement (now in the fridge as I had to toss 2) and cantaloupe and grapes my MIL dropped off when she dropped of GreenGirl yesterday morning.

I have to say I was very stressed when I went to the grocery store (worried I wouldn't get everything and we wouldn't have enough for the week). To stretch my dollars I did part of my shop at Aldi's and part at the Co-op. I made it just under budget.

Aldi's Co-op

Sweet Potato Fries $1.89 Fire Roasted Tomato x6 $8.19

Burrito Shells $.99 Peppermint Tea $3.09

Breakfast Sausage $.89 White Albacore Tuna $1.99

Gal of 2% Milk $1.69 Baby Salad Mix $4.09

Unsalted Butter $2.19 Red Organic Beans $2.98

Ricotta Cheese $1.69 Organic Lentils $1.55

Sour Cream $.99 Paper Towels $1.79

Rye Bread $1.49 Bag Refund -$.10

Yogurt Raisins x2 $2.98 Tax $.14

Fair Trade Coffee $3.99

Large Eggs x2 $2.38

Eng Muffins $.99

White Bread $.79

Wheat Bread $.99

Tax $.24

Total: $24.18 $23.72

Grand Total: $47.90 and if I throw in the Q-tips I bought at the Family Dollar because I forgot them on my list I am just a hair over $50.

Not bad.

Now I didn't buy cat food, which I should need for another 3 weeks (so I am taking and setting aside $10 toward the next bulk bag) and I didn't buy kitty litter. I am hoping to get my coupon for a free bag in this week mails. That way I can buy the bulk bag of cat litter and be set into that cycle to go forward.

Today's meal: Chili

Grass fed ground beef from the freezer

Red Chili Beans (organic bulk) - purchased this week

3 cans of tomatoes - purchased this week

Corn from the freezer

Corn bread from the pantry staples on hand

I might just survive this month. Now to think about planting a garden to help decrease the food budget burden. If only the snow would melt and not come back the next day.

Preparing to Clean Out the Pantry

2011-03-11T19:01:00.002-05:00

Sarah over at Frugal by Choice, Cheap by Necessity asked those of use participating in her Challenge to consider inventorying our supplies. Since the idea is to make 3 meals a week with supplies we already had on hand this is a nice way to know what you have. I find I often don't use what I have, because I don't know what I have so here goes:

On the Counter:
White Sugar @10lbs
Organic W Wheat Flour @10lbs
Organic Raisins
Organic White Bread Flour @ 5lbs
Organic Corn Meal
Organic Brown Sugar
1 Lb Steel Cut Oats
Prunes
Figs
Dry Organic Split Peas
2 bags Blue Corn Chips
Cranberry Quick Bead Mix
Organic Sucanat
~~Organic Pumpkin Seeds~~ I tossed these. After much wondering and research if they were still good I decided to let them go and just deal with the loss (guess I could have planted them).
Organic Slivered Almonds
Powdered Sweet Cream Buttermilk
Confectioners Sugar
Flaked Coconut

Pantry:
1 jar roasted red peppers
1 Qt Coconut Milk Beverage (Vanilla Flavor)
Organic Brown Rice (maybe 1/2 c)
White Rice (way to much)
Creamy PB
Crunchy PB
Prunes (yes more)
Candied Cherries
Raspberry Filing
Organic Cane Sugar
Organic Shortening
Raspberry Jello Mix
Lavazza
Nonfat Powdered Milk
2 Boxes Organic Linguine
1 Bag Organic Fusilli
2 cans Organic Coconut Milk
~~1 can Organic Tomato Soup~~ GreenTween's dinner 3/13
2 cans Organic Garbanzo Beans
chopped dates
Canned Salmon with Dill Sauce
Beer Bread - 9 Packages (I paid S&H and got it all FREE)
Olive Oil
Canola Oil
Organic Almond Oil
Organic Sesame Oil
2 Bags Twisty Grahams
1 Box Tri Colored Fiore
2 cans organic tomato paste
1 jar organic tomato paste
1 28oz can of fire roasted crushed tomatoes
Meringue Powder
Unopened 1lb Package of Yeast
4 can sweetened condensed milk
1 box lasagna noodles
1 box pasta rings
Container of Beef Bouillon Cubes
Tapioca Pearls
Large Box of Bisquick
Organic Barbara's Shredded Wheat
Organic Barbara's other wheat cereal
Honey Nut O's (nock offs)
Organic Apple Cider Vinegar
Saltine Crackers
Organic Strawberry Popcorn
Organic Yellow Popcorn
Organic Cocoa Mix

Spices Galore plus Organic Garlic

Fridge:
Flax Seeds
Jalapenos (2 opened jars)
Banana Peppers
Organic Lemon Juice
Real Organic Maple Syrup
Other Maple Syrup Pretender
Organic Almond Butter
Jam
Organic Ketchup x2
Organic Molasses
Butter
Bread Crumbs
Asagio Cheese
Cheap Grated Parmesan
Sour Cream
Salsa
Mayo
Ricotta
Spinach
Pancakes
Shredded Cheddar
Cream Cheese
~~Munster Cheese~~ GreenerYet used this up last night for dinner
American Cheese
Shredded Mozzarella
Eggs
~~Head of Lettuce~~ dinner 3/13

Freezer:
Breakfast Sausages
Shredded Carrots
Cheese Sauce
~~Rice~~ dinner 3/14
Chicken Broth (homemade - several jars)
Hamburger Buns
Hoggie Rolls
Meatballs
Bananas
Tortellini Soup (3 lunches worth)
Pizza (2 lunch slices)
Fiesta Chicken (great for Nachos)
Pizza Dough Ball (homemade)
Organic Half Turkey Breast

Basement:
12 8 Honey bells (2 used for breakfast 3/14 and 2 spoiled)
1 Spaghetti Squash

Chest Freezer
Grass Fed Ground Beef 3 2 lbs
Grass Fed Stew Beef 2 lbs
Grass Fed Roasts 3 lbs
Grass Fed Short Ribs 2lbs
Organic Whole Wheat Flour - 10lbs
Ravioli
2 Cooked Salmon Fillets
Apple Pie Mix (way too much)
beef bones for stock (2 packages)
Frozen Organic Blueberries (2 containers - I bought these at the market last year and we would eat half and freeze half)
~~Frozen Corn~~ dinner 3/14
Pumpkin Puree -2
Blackberry Pulp
Frozen Bananas
Lunches - 2 1 soups, 1 mystery

So that is about it. Add to the Fridge the left over Chinese (used up 3/13 for GreenGirl's Lunch and my dinner) I bought, yep I spent money I didn't have today. I have given up my debit card. I tend to use it when I shouldn't. I'll be checking my budget tonight to see what damage I have done. Updated, because my washer repair cost almost exactly what he quoted us (yes I have him saved in my contacts as our new repair guy) I am able to put the extra from savings in to cover the damage I have done. The problem is looking like I will be nearly $300 short in April (and that is before Easter and GreenTween's Birthday). Looks like its time to list more stuff on Ebay and start praying for nice weekends to hold a garage sale. NO MORE SPENDING.

Items crossed out in blue where used up by the end of the day 3/14

Adjusting to MY New Normal

2011-03-10T11:55:00.000-05:00

Well we are just about 2 weeks into being broke as a spoke. It has taken some adjustment, but I think I might just survive this. I do however, want to do more than just survive, I want to thrive.

I thought I was going to be in some serious trouble last week. I had promised to make a Happy Retirement Cake for a co-worker and a friend. However both of my girls were coughing, hacking and sneezing. Not an environment I was comfortable baking for my family in, let alone for a bunch of co-workers. Certainly making a cake from scratch is less costly than buying one, but I was in a pickle. I had committed to doing the cake and I was not comfortable saying I was too broke to buy a cake.

I purchased a cake for $15 at the local grocery store, it was well received. Top that off with having to do laundry at my mother’s (our washer door seal ripped almost a month ago, but it’s a $300 parts and labor repair) and my desire to not be a leach. I purchased pizza and wings for myself, the girls and my parents. Damage $32. That meant I had already spent $47 of my food budget (nearly half). I made a decision to shop at Aldi’s this week as opposed to the co-op. Given the items on the list (white sugar for GreenerYet and a couple of other items I like to get at Aldi’s) a decided based on available funds to do a quick shop at Aldi’s. I was successful getting everything on the list and a few additional items for just $53.

The only issue I found was that I did not plan a menu ahead of time. This too was ok, it forced me to shop my pantry. One of my off the list purchases was dry tortellini to have on hand for a quick meal of tortellini soup. Since Monday was a busy day with work and then a girly activity for the girls and I had a ½ a loaf of beer bread to use up, I made my tortellini into soup. I also purchased spinach which was not on the list and added that to the soup. I wished I had a jar of frozen beans, but I didn’t so we did without those.

Given the tight finances of the month I think I will finish my month out shopping at Aldi’s. I am hopeful that I can find some extra money in the budget for seed starting (mostly I need soil to start in, as my soil is all still frozen). I had also hoped to save $10 per week and shop on only $90/week to put some money aside for Easter and GreenTween’s 13th Birthday.

Then I found a BLOG challenge, and I am joining. The idea is to feed your family (or self) at least 3 meals per week out of the pantry. Those meals can be breakfast, lunch or dinner. The second part of the challenge is to spend $50 or less on food. I think I can manage to spend $50 or less on food while shopping the pantry and keep my non-food purchases to less than $20 (giving me $10 to put aside for bulk cat supply purchases and for Easter/Birthday plans). Hop on over to Frugal By Choice, Cheap By Necessity to check it out.

I then found this additional challenge on My Frugal Fun Life and I think I want to add that to my current challenge. I think for the next 100 days I can commit to the mini real food challenges, as much of what I have left in my pantry is pretty straight forward.

I will be reassessing my budget this weekend (and every weekend) to keep me on track.

Baking

2011-03-01T12:12:00.000-05:00

I have decided to clean out my fridge, freezer and pantry. I would like to use everything up and use a new system to track what (and when) I have. As a result I am combing through my pantry and looking to use up its contents.

This past Sunday the girls and I made a Pumpkin Bread mix and from scratch Tapioca pudding. We burnt the pudding, but it still tastes good.

I had to keep in mind when I was surfing through the pantry that what I made had to fit with what I had. For example I have a cranberry orange bread mix that I do want to make but it takes 3 eggs and that was a bit much for me. The pumpkin bread mix used only 1 egg and the pudding used 3 eggs and powdered milk.

I purchased powdered milk some time back thinking it would handy to use in baking (since I had to drink it as a kid and no matter what they tell you, you can taste the difference) but then I forgot about it. So I mixed some up and made the pudding with it. I am not a fan of powdered milk for drinking purposes, so I was worried it would have an off flavor, but other than the burnt sugar (which is pretty good) I don't taste anything different from when my mums used to make this recipe.

I would like to come up with my own bread mixes so I can make things that I know for certain what is in them. To that end I am going to be computerizing my nearly 6 full cookbooks and all the recipes I find. I don't intend to put every recipe into the computer. I intend to start combing through my recipes (loose ones first) and making them with whatever adjustments I need.

If the family likes the recipe I will keep playing with it until its mine, and then it will be added to my electronic database. At the end of the year, I'll print out the recipes and put them in a binder, then I can periodically update the binder.

This will allow me to get rid of the extra scraps of paper and organize recipes so they are easier to use. Once I have tackled all the loose papers I will start looking at my cookbooks. If I find I am looking for a particular recipe I am going to see if I have it in my collection or cookbooks, if I don't then I'll search the Internet. I don't plan to print any of the recipes from the Internet until I have made them mine and they have been added to the recipe collection on my computer.

Do you like to bake? Do you have any tricks to keeping recipes organized? How about how to keep baking within the budget and still use good ingredients?

Success At Last!

2011-02-27T15:13:00.001-05:00

I did my first grocery shop with no money to spare in the budget. I allotted myself $60 for all the groceries as well as cat food and cat litter. I have done some checking. I like to get my cat food and litter at the co-op but they are nearly 2x as expensive at the co-op and I can't buy the bulk bags I like there. Right now I can't buy the bulk bags because it would be a $70 outlay that I don't have, but in time I plan to set aside $70 so I can buy the 5 lb cat food bag and the 40lb litter bag, and then put aside enough money each week so that I can buy them out of the normal funds when they run out. I bought the same size cat food bag I normally by for $9.99 at a Big Box Pet Store (instead of the usual $16.95, $14.95 if I have a coupon) and the same size litter bag for $9.99 (instead of the $15 at the Co-op).

Now at first blush it doesn't seem to be 2x as expensive at the co-op as at the big box store and on this run I saved $10 but had to drive an extra 15 miles which is about $4.40 in gas and 40 minutes in time so maybe a wash) but when I get the funds set aside to purchase the 5lb bag for $35 and the 40 lb bag for $35 it is a huge savings (almost half).

Then I headed to the co-op with my very small list. I resisted temptation and really looked at products before I purchased them. I left my coupons at home which at first I thought was stupid of me, but I didn't purchase anything that I had a coupon for, and I probably would have (because they were also on sale) if I had had the coupons with me.

I made it out of the two shops spending only $66, which is $6 over, but I had that covered. Not bad and certainly not $20-$30 over like I have been in the past. We shall see what next week holds.

It looks like all the bills for this month are paid and that I am going to squeak by, however I have a line entry that I don't recognize and for the life of me can't figure out what it is. It looks like in my chicken scratch its $50 ALS or maybe ACS, but neither of those make any sense to me. At any rate I wrote it out for a reason and I am going to set it aside until I can confirm I did not forget something or I remember what it is for. I really wish it was ringing a bell right now. And just like that after I published this post I remembered it was a $50 check donation to the American Cancer Society I made before realizing I was broke. So now all is well and I am ready to start a new month, broke but looking up.

Now on to money outside the budget. In the near future I need to find about $100 outside of the budget.. $70 to get ahead on the cat supplies, and $35 for the girls to get hair cuts. I am hoping for some bites on my Craigslist postings. I don't need all $100 at once (and yes I know it is in fact $105) but I would like to find my way to it soon.

I am going to have to start focusing on GreenTween's 13th Birthday for which I have no funds.

Being Broke Is My Salvation!

2011-02-26T18:37:00.000-05:00

Maybe, maybe not. We shall see!

Barb over at cleaninguptheclutter commented on my last post that she would recommend that I put some of the money I am throwing at my debt aside in an emergency fund.

She is not wrong, it is a great idea. The problem is that for me, it doesn't work. Being broke does work. Granted its only been 2 days, but I have already been forced to change some ingrained habits. Our menu for Friday was supposed to be Enchiladas, I forgot that I used up the tortillas. When I realized I didn't have the tortillas, I thought I could try my hand at making them.

Then we had another big snow (about 12" in a day) and I was exhausted by the time I got home from work. So I didn't want to make tortillas. Normally, I would have ordered a pizza (yes I really have made the pizza guy drive in the snowstorms I don't want to go out in, sad I know), or driven to the store and bought subs. Now even if I drove to the store and picked up Tortillas and Cheese (yep I used up the cheese earlier in the week without thinking about it) it would have meant spending money I didn't have.

Instead I used the already thawed grass fed ground beef to make hamburgers and served with the last of the apples and carrots.

If we have an emergency, like say our broken washing machine (yep that is what put us over the edge) then I would reduce my debt payments (which is currently at 3x my minimum) to half while I put the money aside to repair the broken item. The only item this won't work with is our furnace in the winter (which is almost over, and I am rapping on wood right now, since the furnace is old and has seen better days).

Sure I am a bit more stressed about being able to pay for everything, but I am less stressed than when I was careening out of control toward a black hole.

For me if I have money in savings I think of it as a cushion, money to spend, and so it gets spent. Instead I need to change my ways and then I can think about putting money aside in a savings account for an emergency fund. I know I am walking a tight rope, but for me it might just be the best situation.

I could probably be diagnosed as ADD, which means that I can't focus on something unless I am under a deadline or it happens to be what has caught my present attention. Having an emergency fund has made it so there is no urgency to keeping my spending in check. Am I aware of the problem, yes.

The first step in any recovery program is always acknowledging that you have a problem. Accepting the problem for what it is. The second step is finding the triggers and learning to avoid or ignore them.

For the time being not having an emergency fund forces me to live within my means.

That being said my retirement is covered (so long as I get my debt under control), and we do have an HSA so medical emergencies are covered.

I have had many temptations these past two days, but knowing I simply don't have the money and its not going to appear out of thin air has helped me to say no.

Rock Bottom

2011-02-24T21:29:00.000-05:00

Some people would say that when you hit rock bottom you have only one way to go, up. I however would say that you can also go sideways. That is the point I am at, I can go up or I can go sideways.

A year and a half ago when I started this blog I was worried that I was on the brink of a personal economic collapse. Today I really am.

I took a bit of a blogging hiatus, because I was feeling the winter doldrums and I felt like all of my posts would be whiny.

Despite the fact that I have $15,000.00 in consumer debt, and no money in savings I am feeling as if I am in a better situation. For a while I have said I wanted to go to a cash basis, but I have made excuses and not done so. As a result I have been able to continue on the path I was on, pretending to make changes.

Now more than ever I need to have a clear budget and stick to it, otherwise I am going to drown in the debt I created.

In the upcoming months GreenTween will become GreenTeen (13) and I will be planning her birthday with no extra funds for same. I'll get into that in a later post.

I would love to post my March proposed budget here, but I can't figure out how to insert a table. If anyone knows feel free to let me know, thanks.

My March budget is pretty tight, allowing me to make a total of $320 in payments to my debt (which is more than the minimum. I would however fall short if I didn't have a 5th paycheck in March, and technically its not a free paycheck, out of that 5th paycheck not only do I make up my shortfall, but I also need to pay for that weeks groceries and violin payments. I think where I fell short before was if a paycheck was at the end of the month I counted it as extra, but in fact I need to use the money to pay for food and such for that week.

So from now on I am going to try to stretch the last paycheck of each month by cleaning out my pantry and attempting not to purchase much more than Dairy, fresh veggies, and cat food/litter if needed.

I know that now is not the time to be so strapped that a single small emergency could put me under, but I have no other choice. Gas prices are predicted to climb to $4/gallon and $5/gallon in the next 2 years.

To help offset the rising gas cost, I plan to use my bike more. It is supposed to snow this evening, but I am going to get my bike out this weekend and check the air pressure, and grease the chain. Cold or not, once the snow and ice is gone I plan to begin riding again. It finds me $7 a week more in my paycheck.

In addition I am going to put in some extra hours at work for as long as they will allow it. I am also continuing to list items on Craigslist and I am gearing up for a blow out of a garage sale.

This past weekend despite being sick I gave my office a full empty and clean out. I ended up finding $49 (which helped with the extra groceries for this week with the girls home from school).

I am committed to shopping at the co-op so I can remain committed to buying local/organic items, but if I find myself short I will be shopping for the basics at Aldi's.

I am going to a cash basis for the groceries, in that I am going to withdraw the $100 I have to spend each week on groceries and leave my debit card at home. I will need to bring my calculator to make sure I don't go over, but I know I can do it.

I am hoping to spend less than $100 each week, without depriving my family so I can sock a little bit extra away for GreenTween's birthday celebration, but that is a whole different post.

Sell By Date 1/10/2011

2011-01-13T11:46:00.001-05:00

One would think that if a product has a Sell By (not use by) date of 1/10/11 it would still be ok on 1/12/11, right?

So yesterday GreenerYet makes us all cheesy scramblers (mmmmmm), but GreenTween says "my milk tastes sour" I look up from across the table I can see its curdled. I toss it and the other half of the half gallon (so 1/4 of a gallon). I open the unopened quart of Cherry yogurt (yogurt Sell By Dates are just an indicator, by the nature of yogurt) and it looks funny and smells off. So I push a spoon into it and realize, yep its gone bad too. I open the quart of Lemon Yogurt. No funny look, no funny smell, hurray! Yogurt for GreenGirl!

I get home from work and got pour GreenGirl her milk (my girls drink different milk, one drinks whole and one low fat, since we have to buy 2 gallons a week anyways I allow this). Right off the bat I know it smells off. I take a swig and pour 1/2 of that gallon down the drain.

As you can imagine I'm none to happy with my milk man right now. So I get up to make my breakfast smoothie (I have really been enjoying those of late) and open the lemon yogurt, thinking lemon, blueberry pomegranate spinach sounds yummy. Only to find the lemon yogurt has gone off too....

Now I thought it could be my fridge so I checked my thermometers in the fridge and freezer and both are actually slightly colder than required. So its not that.

In 2 days I poured 3/4 of a gallon of milk and 2 quarts of yogurt down the drain which equates to nearly $15.

I have been iffy on sticking with my "local" milk man because everything comes in plastic, the milk, the butter and the yogurt (I even offered to buy the correct glass containers, but they don't have the set up). Then well he's just not reliable. Sometimes he is at the public market in the winter and sometimes he isn't. If I buy his products from the Co-op I pay $1-$2 more per item.

I like the idea of supporting local, but I can't afford to pour milk down the drain and this is the second time this happened.

So I am once again looking at my options. There is Byrne Dairy which uses "local" dairy farms and doesn't ultra heat treat. The farmers Promise not to use Artificial Hormones and the milk comes in glass jars. This is a thinly veiled attempt to make them look better than they are. In other words Byrne Dairy asks for a pledge but they are not going to test the milk themselves.

My other option is Organic Valley - which also uses "local" dairy farms. The milk comes in waxed cardboard (don't know what its environmental impact is compared to plastic, and its certainly not as good as reusable glass), but its all "organic".

I think Byrne Dairy is cheaper than Organic Valley, but honestly I am not sure, OV always has coupons out. So I will be comparing this week at the co-op. I just wish I had other options.

Another Weekend Wasted!

2011-01-11T12:24:00.000-05:00

So of my 11 THINGS TO DO THIS WEEKEND I managed to accomplish only #10. Now a weekend where there is nothing done, nothing accomplished does not have to be considered a wasted weekend. After all, we all need a little down time. However the last two weekends have not been downtime for me, as I am just as exhausted as I was before the weekends.

I did enjoy finishing A Lion Among Men, the third book in the series by Gregory Maguire. I think I will have to head over to the local library to find out what other books of his they have. I read Wicked and Son of A Witch and enjoyed both. I do hope he continues in this series as there is still room for one more book.

Among his other books that I have read are: Confessions of an Ugly StepSister which I really enjoyed, it was a grittier story, which felt more like the Cinderella (Ashenputtel) I was familiar with. I also read Lost, which I was anticipating to be a spring board from Hansel and Gretel but found it to spring from A Christmas Carol's Scrooge. I didn't enjoy Lost the way I did the other books, but it kept me engaged enough to want to finish the book. I am thinking my next selection will be Mirror, Mirror. I am hoping it will be a gritty tale springing from Snow White much the way Confessions was.

While I do have an Amazon account I don't know how to build link so I get credit for them. What I had done here is simply added in links to Amazon for the titles I have referenced. I don't think I make any money if you click through or if you purchase, but just in case I do, you have been forewarned.

What I have realized about my fatigue is that it is a symptom on many things. Poor diet (which I am in the process of fixing. The last two mornings I have been enjoying smoothies with spinach), lack of good sleep (no doubt resulting from my stress over finances and the current state of my cluttered home) and simply being overwhelmed.

I look at the task at hand and it seems hopeless. I have to move forward or stay where I am forever. So I have decided to add an 11 minute declutter to my day, everyday. I think it might be a great way to end my day. We shall see how it goes today.

11 Things to DO This Weekend

2011-01-07T11:39:00.000-05:00

Since I realized I did so little last weekend, I want to make the most of this weekend here are my 11 tasks for the weekend :

1. 11 minute organization x11: Setting the timer for 11 minutes I will work on an organization project and repeat 11 times.

2. 11 business building phone calls

3. 11 pages in a book. I am determined to see my goal of writing a book come to life so I will write 11 pages this weekend.

4. Check in on the Budget and see what I am financially at the Start of 2011

5. Set up my 2011 Stats on the Blog

6. Bake Bread

7. Photo Organization

8. Start a Sock Monster

9. Upcycled Craft

10. Pleasure Reading

11. Educational Reading

So let's see how this weekend goes. What are your weekend plans?

On a side note I like to reuse glass jars. Salsa jars (wide mouth) are perfect for freezing lunch portions and I don't have to put it in the fridge at work (which gross is an understatement of). However I find that many of my repurposed jars are sticky on the outside. Any tips for getting the sticky off?

When choosing between two evils....

2011-01-05T10:22:00.000-05:00

What does one do?

So I have done some more homework on KitchenAid. Yes the machines are still assembled in the United States. I no longer like the term manufactured, because most items are not in fact manufactured in the United States. All the parts are made elsewhere, shipped to a plant and assembled in the United States. Apparently, its cheaper to ship parts than whole items (in addition to getting to claim that you still manufacture the item in the United States).

KitchenAid uses parts from around the world, and there are quite a few complaints about the machines no longer lasting or being of the quality that they once were (and there customer service certainly isn't what it once was). From what I uncovered many machines that were manufactured in the United States in the 60's and 70's like my Mum's model are still in good use today. However, the newer models are made with cheaper, thiner parts and increasingly more plastic.

Lastly, KitchenAid is now a Whirlpool brand. Whirlpool used to be a name that meant quality, but they went down hill fast. They are also not a company who I care to support.

I also did some homework on Cuisineart. I was dissappointed to find that they were manufactured in CHINA. If you have read my blog for any length of time you will know I prefer not to purchase items made in china.

I have read comments and heard from Kitchenaid owners who love their Kitchenaid, and I was thinking that it might be worth purchasing a new Kitchenaid. BUT WAIT! I want to know if my old Kitchenaid is repairable. That is what I wrote to the company before the holidays about. That is what it took them 20 days to not answer, and ultimately send me a form email that was not at all helpful.

So what do I do? Do I sell my mixer for scrap (so that it doesn't all end up in a landfill)? Do I purchase a new mixer? If so do I get a Kitchenaid? Or do I get a Cuisineart. Neither fit into my moral holdings. Do I have another option?

Of course I do. I could not have a stand mixer at all, after all I rarely use it (only to whip cream and do holiday baking and all those recipes could be made by hand...). But alas GreenerYet does use the mixer oftenish. He likes to make cookies (when the whim strikes) and brownies (and I do love from scratch brownies)....so now I am back to my original question?

What is a Girl to Do?

Is there a quality stand mixer still made in the United States?

KitchenAid v. CusineArt

2011-01-04T12:16:00.000-05:00

My 5 year old Kitchen Aid heavy duty stand mixer recently kicked the bucket. I contacted Kitchen Customer Service by email asking where in my area I could get the machine repaired. Being somewhat greenish these days I would prefer to fix what I have than buy new. 20 days later Customer Service responded not with a location of a qualified repair place (or that there isn't a qualified repair place) but simply a form email asking for the serial and model on my machine.

We missed the entire holiday baking season as a result of my machine's untimely death, but the truth is we haven't liked the machine since we got it. It had an on/of problem (you know when you turn it off and it springs back on- lots of fun with liquids). It never quite mixed the ingredients all the way. We would pour off the top only to find more than an inch of unmixed ingredients in the bottom. If I have to manually mix, why did I get out the heavier than a dead body mixer?

We had these problems right from the start, so now you are all wondering why we didn't just return it for a refund or replacement? The answer is that we were living in my MIL's townhouse (a house sitting arrangement that didn't quite work out as planned) when we bought the mixer, using a 40% off coupon from our registry. There was no place to put the mixer and my MIL already had a mixer. We bought the mixer in anticipation of having our own home. We bought a Kitchen Aid because my mother had a Kitchen Aid that was older than I was (and that is the mixer we are borrowing until we decide what to do). People who know Kitchen Aid know that what I am describing is an anomaly.

However, it is a headache I don't wish to deal with. I don't want to purchase a new Kitchen Aid only to find out we got another "bad" mixer. My mums upgraded her mixer to the same model (2 years later) that we purchased because she loved the large bowl and more powerful motor. She loves her model and has had no problems. She can't mix small amounts of whipped cream (as the beater doesn't reach close enough to the bottom to do the job (which is my clue that the issues we have are design flaws and possibly not corrected). But she doesn't have to remix her doughs and batters.

So GreenerYet and I were discussing the issue. He fell in love with the 7 quart Cuisinart Stand Mixer. We have a Cuisinart Food Processor that is 2 or 3 years old and gets quite a bit of use. We are happy with it. We received our food processor as a gift, when my Mums purchased a Cuisinart Blender Food Processor Combo. We needed a new blender and she loved hers and the bonus food processor was nice. So when asked what we wanted for Christmas I let my MIL know we needed a new blender and the Cuisinart combo model like my mums would be my top pick. She purchased us a super duty Food Processor.

Right about now your thinking, get to the point! So here's the point. I purchased a Cuisinart because my mother had had hers for 2 years and loved it. Hers recently died. I think she had it for 5 or so years. That is not a lot of time, but it was a fairly inexpensive model and a reasonable amount of time for what she paid. Sure it would be great if companies still built machines that would last one's lifetime, but who does that anymore?

So for those of you who have Cuisinart (the giant mixer in particular) what do you love about it, and how old is it?

For those of you who have Kitchen Aids (again the larger bowl model) what do you love about it and how old is it?

Weekend Mini Assessment

2011-01-03T10:42:00.000-05:00

I found it tedious to carry around a large notebook to track all my time. I will be making a smaller one this week so I can track my time.

What I did learn from this first weekend in 2011 is that I have a lot of missed opportunities. I like to call it a missed opportunity rather than wasted time.

I wasn't feeling all that great going into the weekend. I woke up 12/31 with the starting of a sinus pressure headache (Thanks to the warmer than average temps in the 50s and the rain moving in) and it only got worse as the day went on.

I woke up 1.1.2011 without a headache, but feeling the worse for ware, the way I do after one of these headaches. I don't call them migraines because I have not been diagnosed but they are brutal. Pressure, pain, sensitivity to noise, light and odors, resulting in nausea and often actual vomiting. Leaving me feeling totally wiped out the next day.

So I slept in on New Year's Day. A missed opportunity to get things done early in the day. Slowly I got rolling in my day, and picked the Girls up from my Mums, but I was stilling feeling quite wiped out. I refused to take a nap. I made them lunch, and then GreenGirl and I headed out for a walk (in between water works). I lamented that it was so warm out (50 degrees) but raining, because I didn't want to work outside. If it hadn't been raining I would have spent the majority of the day outside.

January 2, 2011 I still wasn't feeling up to par and slept in yet again. Another missed opportunity to rise early and take advantage of all the boundless energy I have in the am. I did manage to make it outside (in the much colder weather 30 degrees) to do more work on the side bed, I added another 3 feet or so of hay, as well as more hay in the back yard.

I spent about 2 hours outside, until my bum started freezing and I felt the need to go curl up with a cup of hot cocoa. I did enjoy being out of doors and making progress on my yard.

Up next is to measure out the property line on the north side of the lot and put hay along it. I plan to put a 1 foot wide wild flower bed, and then to fill the interior front and rear lawns will well planned edible beds. Eventually, even the flowers in my side beds will be edible, but one thing at a time.

I could have done more this weekend, sorting, listing, purging, but I just needed to take time for me.

There is always next weekend.

Making Extra Cash!

2011-01-02T16:18:00.000-05:00

When I first started this blog I had dreams (OK delusions of grandeur) that someone would read this blog and recognize my writing talent and thereby pay me (advance) to write a novel. I have at least a 1/2 dozen of them knocking around in my head.

I had dreams of large readership, because everyone would want to know what I had to say. Adsense checks paying at least one bill, and freebies to review.

So I started my blog and I used Adsense. What I learned was this generated little income, and I didn't have any control over the ads on my blog, so I took it off.

No I really didn't have grandiose ideas when I started this blog, but yes they were there at the back of my mind.

Digitally I have little faith in making money online. I do like Swagbucks. I have added the tool bar and have one person searching under me. So in the last year I earned $35 Amazon Gift Cards for doing my everyday searching. I used the Amazon Cards this past December to purchase GreenGirl a Didj battery pack (so we could stop buying batteries all the time for it) and to buy 2 used books from localish (one was Jersey and one downstate NY) book sellers. I intend to use all of this years gift cards to purchase more used books, and I have a long list. If your interested you can find a link in my sidebar that lets you sign up under me.

I have an Amazon Affiliate Account, but to be honest I don't know how to build the links and I don't have the time for it.

So my blog isn't going to make me money, but that doesn't mean it can't help me save money. The ideas I have gotten from readers have saved me money. The ideas I have gotten from other blogs have saved me money and inspired me.

So its January 2 and I am hoping to bring in an extra $1000 this month. That breaks down to $250 a week. So I better get cracking on this weeks $250. I have a Daybed I am selling, as well as some other fabulous items I have listed on CL and hopefully that comes through.

In addition the woman who purchased $60 in scrapbook supplies (via CL listing) has asked if I would like to attend her open house and sell my remaining inventory. So long as I can make it I plan to be there and sell it all off at good prices.

I do have to get back to listing items in order to make money on them.

I am planning to get rid of 11 things a week in 2011. Those items will either be listed on CL, donated to VOA, or trashed/recycled...

How do you make extra money?

1.1.11

2011-01-01T17:54:00.000-05:00

January is going to be a month of assessments. Assessing where my money is going, where my time is going and how my house is set up. January will not be a month for change, although having to account for every penny and every minute will no doubt cause some simple changes.

Wishing Everyone a Happy Healthy New Year!

I am hoping to find myself some extra time. I already know I have time to spare. I woke up late this morning (mornings are going to a good source of time for me), and I have been quite tired all of today, unfortunately not from partying last night.

Yesterday evening the girls headed to my moms to hang with cousins while GreenerYet and I enjoyed a quiet evening in. I woke up yesterday with the touch of a sinus pressure headache. The result of weather going from 10 degrees to 40 degrees. Don't get me wrong this warm weather we are having is nice, but it does cause headaches for me.

I was really hoping to grab a nap and ward off the headache, but time simply didn't permit it. Instead I worsened the impending headache by wandering into a retail establishment. Because GreenGirl now has her own room (in the girls old playroom) and because my office is the sleeping porch off GreenGirl's room, I want to put up insulated curtains to cut the heat loss. I don't really have anything that would work from here, so I was figuring on spending the money on curtains. I have a coupon for JCPenny and I was thinking it would be short work of acquiring curtains. WRONG!

Did you all know that the last weekend of the physical year is a bad weekend to be in a retail establishment? I did once upon a time, but not having paid attention to retail establishments these last couple of years, I had forgotten.

Many shelves were bare, It took me a while to figure out how to find curtains. They have all these displays set up and some of the curtains behind the displays. Several of the ones I wanted were online order only (and I wanted them then). We found one and settled on it. What I couldn't figure out was the width of the panels. The package only told about the length. Having spent more than 30 minutes in the department without being approached by or seeing a sole working for JCP I took 2 panels (hoping they would be wide enough) to the check out, waited in line and when it was my turn 15 minutes later I asked the clerk if she could tell me how wide the panels were. "That's a commission department, they have that sort of information." So is that a no? A bit confused and out of patience for people and retail establishments I set the curtains down on the counter and said, "well this is a no commission transaction, since no one helped me for the 30 minutes I was in the department and since you are unable to assist me, I'll get me curtains elsewhere." Truthfully I'll probably order them online.

Then walking out to the parking lot, some old lady was so busy looking for the nearest parking lot she failed to see anything else around her. She nearly ran me and the kids over. I left the mall with a vow to not return to the mall even once in 2011. There has to be a better way.

I dropped the kids at my moms and headed home. GreenerYet and I enjoyed a nice dinner of left overs. We opened a bottle of blush wine (a gift) and watched Gladiator. After Gladiator we realized it was only 9pm and we needed to make it another 3 hours. As the time wore on my headache worsened and I began to fill sick to my stomach. Not wanting to start 2011 out vomitting, I decided to get some sleep at 11:30. I woke up this am at 8:30 (not getting out of bed until 9am) feeling tired, and still a bit of a headache.

The snow is all but melted and its warm outside. Funny how people think heating the home to 60 degrees isn't enough but when the outside weather moves from 10 degrees to 50 degrees how many people abandon jackets and state how warm it is outside.

It rained most of the day, so I am hoping to spread some more hay on the side yard tomorrow, and maybe even mark out the opposite side boundary and put down hay as well.

Since about 1:30 this afternoon, when I returned home with my Girls I have been wasting the day away. I simply don't feel like doing much. I recognize that this is time better spent elsewhere, but sometimes we just need down time.

ReUse

2010-12-30T10:38:00.000-05:00

ReUsing things is both a problem and a solution for me. As my daughters separate out their rooms, they are almost done and GreenGirl is excited to be sleeping in her own room soon. Sunday hopefully. My father is coming over and helping me to install some shelves and think out a closet. The room GreenGirl took over does not have a closet.

As the girls both cleaned out rooms they were brutal (a bit to brutal. Some items have been rescued to be packed away for them). I know have tons of empty containers. I don't want to toss them, they are fabric and plastic. In compromise I will put them away in my office (and use them to sort my office out) until my garage sale in Spring. If the girls haven't used them by then, they will go. If in the mean time the girls need a bin for this or that, they will come out and be given new life.

Once they are gone, nothing new will be purchased for storage, it will have to be re purposed from what we already have on hand (cardboard boxes, painted or wrapped in fabric?).

I have a tendency to save everything with an intention to reuse or re purpose it somehow, but I can't continue to do that.

I am putting into place a system that I will have 2 weeks to reuse/re purpose an item. If I don't reuse or re purpose the item within that time frame it will be recycled if appropriate, or put into the garage sale bins.

In addition to the garage sale bins I am setting up Goodwill bins. There is a new VOA just blocks from me and I plan to take all the good quality boots, shoes and winter stuffs over to them this weekend.

Partially because by the time I have a garage sale in the spring I will have plenty to put out and sell, and partially because I think they will get use if they go over now. We always have tons of shoes at the garage sale so I don't think getting rid of some to VOA is going to be an issue.

I will not allow ReUse to prevent me from declutter. There is a reason the slogan is Reduce, ReUse, and then Recycle. Its important first and foremost for use to Reduce the amount of packaging, plastic and items we purchase. Then what we do purchase we should try to reuse all parts of it, and when it is no longer useful, then we should Recycle it if at all possible.

Reduce, ReUse, Recycle

2010-12-29T11:41:00.000-05:00

That is the new theme for 2011 for me. I am starting a few days early. The girls have divided up bedrooms and have decided to Reduce their belongings. I am going through their cast offs to see if there is anything that can be reused, and what can be recylced. A majority of the items are headed for a garage sale. I am looking forward to the first nice (sunny) day in Spring that I can set up my tent and tables and get rid of my clutter.

There is an event on January 8th, supposedly the world's largest indoor garage sale (and gun show). I am thinking about getting a space. It will depend on the cost. If the cost is more than say $20 its not worth it as I will be competing with hundreds of other garage sale stations that might have similar items at lower prices....

As a result of the girls separating rooms I have a computer to sell, a daybed, books, toys and miscellaneous stuffs, along with my decluttering efforts.

I did receive a response from KitchenAid, 20 days after I contacted them by email, and after the holiday baking season is over, asking me for more information, my serial and model number. Normally I would understand these questions, but since what I asked for was a repair shop in my area this is unnecessary information. I will never again purchase a KitchenAid product. It was a headache from the start. Not what I expected from KitchenAid. I currently have my moms 33+ year old kitchen aid that is working just fine. Its on loan so I will have to figure out its replacement soon.

Our crappy model is going to the metal scrap pile. Its quite heavy and I hope to net some money off scrapping it. I am hoping to make it to the scrap yard with all my junk metal in the next few weeks. By the end of January for sure. Reduce....

I have a bunch of old windows we took out over a year ago now, that I am giving to a local artist who uses old windows as canvas. I love the pieces I have seen and plan to purchase some of his smaller sculptures as next years tree ornaments. Recycle...

Still need to call the city and get rid of all three of our large bins and request new blue boxes.

I also have a large lot of books that I might place on Amazon Marketplace. I just have to make sure I am not going to lose money in the deal.

A New Year!

2010-12-27T09:50:00.000-05:00

Yes I know this post is several days early, however for me the New Year always starts after the close of the Holidays. This year its early. We had Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and missed Day After Christmas Dinner (the girls and DH were sick), and we won't be traveling downstate to visit GreenerYet's father and step mom this year. So the Holidays are effectively over for us, and I am ready to begin on the new year.

This year's theme is Reduce, ReUse, and Recycle.

Not just the traditional incarnation of the slogan, but I intend to apply it to all aspects of my life.

I plan to Reduce: my debt, my clutter, my wasted time, and my stress

I plan to ReUse as much of the clutter and my wasted time to craft upcylced arts and crafts that I can give as gifts or sell at craft fairs (using the funds to further reduce my debt and thereby my stress)

I plan to Recycle - all that I cannot use, that can be Recycled will be recycled.

Come spring when the snow melts I will contact the City and have them remove all 3 of the ugly large trash containers they have provided for this house. I have one smaller one which will work just fine for us. We rarely fill 1 container a month, with the exception of when we are doing repair work or when I am weeding out the garden. There are certain things I don't want to compost. But these can all be dealt with in their time. In addition I am going to request 4 recycling boxes. 1 for cans and other metals, 1 for paper and cardboard, 1 for glass, and the final for plastics.

It is my goal to eliminate my consumer debt (leaving me only with my mortgage and loan payment). This is not an easy goal. First I will need to reduce my expenses as best I can, without causing my family to moan and groan. To do that I am going to have to get creative.

I plan to go room by room making each room more energy efficient, without spending more money. I plan to use what I have and can get my hands on to make each room energy efficient.

I also plan to test our heat settings. I have read in a few different places that dropping the heat two low may in fact cost more money when the heat is turned up.

For 2 weeks at a time I will monitor the daily high and low temperatures as well as the overnight temperatures. I will take a base line reading. Then for 2 weeks I will keep the temperature at 60 degrees at night, and 63 during the day. The next 2 weeks I will drop it down to 58 and then to 56. That will take us into mid February and the temperatures will start warming up again. I will use this information for the following year to adjust our Freeze Your Buns Off Challenge Temperatures so we are in fact saving money and energy.

In addition to hopefully keeping our heating costs in check I will be reducing our food costs. I plan to change my eating habits quite drastically. I am going to pull everything from the chest freezer in the basement and put it on the porch in boxes (I will keep an eye on the temperatures to make sure the temperatures don't rise above freezing during the day) and turn the freezer off.

Then I plan to make as many meals from the freezer goods and what I have on hand as I can. I have begun involving the girls and DH in the menu planning and hope to begin teaching GreenTween about shopping and budgeting.

For my breakfasts and lunches they will consist of inexpensive protein sources. For the time being I have 2 large containers of yogurt (1 black cherry and 1 lemon) which I plan to use for meals, as well as steel cut oats, some almonds, and some dried fruits. Lunches will be left overs until they are gone, and then consist of rice, beans and spinach. I will eat what the family eats for dinner (limiting my refined carbs in the evening and skipping the meat portion, I'll sub beans). I am hoping by doing this that I can continue to shop with my local milk man $20/week and then at the Co-op buying organic produce and food items $40/week. That puts me at $60/week for groceries. I still need $20/week for pet supplies and another $15/week for meats ($10/week to buy 25lbs of pastured beef every 8-10 weeks and $5 for supplemental meats). This is a slim budget and for it to work is going to take creativity.

I know baking bread is a cost effective way to have organic bread, and I do plan to get back into baking bread on the weekends. In the summer I would like to look at some solar oven options.

I will spend much of the first 6 months of the year evaluating and adjusting my budget, cutting where I can, and adding where I need to, so that I can finally live on a budget.

To pay down my consumer debt I will need to come up with additional money each month. I am going to continue listing items on CL until spring, but as soon as the weather allows I will set up my large tent and begin having weekend garage sales (anything that goes out for the sale is not allowed to come back into the house after the sale). I figure if I am up at 5am, I can set up from 5am -9am and then have the sale until 4pm. I can be working on garden beds outside from 9-4 and get two things done at once.

It is my hope that I can turn items into upcycled crafts as I come across them and then list them on CL for immediate sale or put them in a craft fair or two over the spring/summer into fall/winter.

This is ambitious and only a partial list of what I hope to accomplish. To achieve this I first need to accomplish better time management....

Where Are You Christmas?

2010-12-26T21:13:00.000-05:00

The last few years I really haven't enjoyed Christmas. This year was no different. No matter how much I try to slow down and enjoy the season I can only seem to see what is missing.

I loved Christmas as a child and young adult and truthfully in the last decade my love of Christmas has been waning. I have tried to put my finger on it...

Was it the lack of money? I do love finding the perfect gift for people, but I can gift without money if I simply had the time.

Was it the lack of time? Well I still waste a large amount of time watching television shows and napping when I could be being productive.

What is it that I loved about Christmas?

I loved baking cookies. Many different kinds. With simple instructions, simple ingredients and simple frosting.

I loved spending time with friends and family.

I loved the twinkle of the Christmas Tree.

We don't have a real tree, I can't tolerate one. Every year I find that I can tolerate one less thing in this world and my allergies seem to keep growing. I have my theories on the why and will be working on that over the course of the next year. I do have a fake tree, and it is a really nice fake tree, but its just not the same. I even have some lovely pine smelling candles, but its still not the same.

I haven't "had the time" to bake cookies the last couple of years, and I have had a long list of things to make and do that never seem to get done.

The truth is Christmas is the culmination of the year and it always seems like I am falling short. So with another Christmas behind us, I am beginning a new.

Christmas 2011 will be a debt free christmas. I have plans to make many items for Chrismas next year.

1. Goodie baskets with Peppermint Bark (I will be posting an idea I am borrowing from the Stocking Stuffer Swap), Cinnamon Starlight Cookies, Lebkuchens, Pinksters, Peppermint Popcorn, and some Peppermint Hot Cocoa mix.

To that end I will be testing recipes all year long. I will be making all my cookie recipes (hopefully one or two a week) in partial batches. I plan to divide all batches in 1/2. Then I want to evaluate each one, freeze several of the cookies and see how long they can freeze and still have optimal flavor. I also plan to pair down my cookie recipes and get rid of any cookies that are just so so, or that my family doesn't care for. I am questing for the utlimate sugar cookie recipe and will toss all others. Then I can set up a staple of Chrismas cookies (maybe 6 - 1 recipe a week from Thanksgiving to Christmas) and a 7th recipe that can vary from all the other recipes I like but don't need to make each year.

2. I want to learn to felt Christmas Slippers. I just read a post on Make it Do about felted Christmas Slippers and I am hoping to learn to do this next year. As well as making some warm cozy pants for all of us. A few years ago I received quite a bit of fuzzy fabric to make GreenerYet pajama pants (I even have a pattern) and I think I am going to evaluate if I have enough fabric to make everyone in the house a pair for next year).

3. GreenTween needs a new bathrobe. The one I made her and GreenGirl a few years ago with the guideance of my MIL she has outgrown. GreenGirl can take GreenTweens, so I am going to keep my eye out for the perfect fabric and see if I can lengthen the pattern for GreenTween.

4. Ornaments. I want to come up with an ornament each year for GreenerYet's whole family and my parents and friend as well. Something new each year, but that people look forward to getting.

5. No longer gifting with friends. We don't generally gift with our friends anymore, but they gift to the girls and I want to work with the girls to help them make meaningful gifts for those special people in our lives. They painted ornaments, made candles and soaps this year for many family and friends and it was sweet. In addition GreenTween made some clothespin people (Princesses for V and Firemen for Z) she wanted to do more, but we ran out of time.

6. I would like to make quilts for both girls this year, and I have some ideas on what and how... now I just need to work out the details.

I want to give my parents and GreenerYet's mom Garden Gifts. Seeds from my garden that I will get to this spring, along with reuseable seed markers (haven't quite worked this part out yet), gloves, and a carryall.

I have lots of projects I would like to do, and I accept that this is all ambitious. To get even a small bit of it done is going to take commitment, time management and ongoing dedication.

This next year of my life is going to be about Reduse, ReUse and Recycle in many ways. More an that tomorrow. I hop

One Day At A Time

2010-12-16T10:48:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I had 2 ladies stop by to pick up some of the Creative Memories scrapbook items I listed on Craigslist. I sold 3 Power Pallet Packs for $20 each (Retail was $39) and I sold an old album cover for $10. This gives me $70 cash for this weeks groceries, and cash is what I am going to use.

In addition I am using some holiday gift cash to purchase my bulk of meat for Christmas dinner and for the winter. 2 25lb boxes. Last year I ordered 1 50lb box which had more cuts of meat in it, but we didn't use a lot of the cuts and I made substitutions for all of the steaks. I did the math and it would be less expensive to get the 25lb box which doesn't contain steaks, so that is what we are going to do :).

My plan is to take the first $70 per week that I bring in on CL (until I have completely cleaned out the house) and then anything over that amount put directly toward payment of my highest debt.

In addition I paid off one of my debts today. $560 on a Home Depot card using the no interest if paid in full in 12 months. More use of holiday gifted cash.

My Goal for today is to sort into boxes all of my Christmas gifts and to make a list of what I still need. After the Holiday Breakfast and my daughters' school tomorrow, I am hoping the weather cooperates and they can ski, so that I can finish off the Christmas Shopping. I will head to a local strip mall that is featuring Holiday Shopping with local crafters Th, Fri and Sat through Christmas. In addition I want to hit up my local market and the public market Holiday event. Hopefully by the end of the weekend I will be all done with my holiday shopping :)

Today is the First Day of the Rest of My Life

2010-12-15T11:57:00.000-05:00

I know this is one of those phrases that is over used and often redundant. Yesterday was my 33rd Birthday, so today is the first day of my 33rd year of life.

We have been having a bit of snow out this way. 4 days of it last week and again this week beginning Monday Night and still going today. I headed out yesterday early to grab GreenTween cash because she had an away meet followed by dinner out and alas I had no cash. It took me over an hour to drive to the bank 2 blocks from my house.

Yes there was snow on the road (maybe 3-5 inches) and it was darn cold so I doubt salt would help, but my car could handle it, for everyone who does not drive a car equipped for this weather stay home or wait 2 hours and then go into work, hey you had a 2 hour commute so you would have been in at the same time anyway.

So I decided not to send the girls to school and to stay home myself. (GreenTween's meet was cancelled because the team they were competing against and at had a snow day). We decided after I had breakfast to put the tree up.

I have not been feeling festive this year, which is a surprise because I love Christmas, and not the gift giving, but the tree decorating, the holiday movies, the baking, the family time. I believe that my lack of festivity stems from the over commercialization of the holiday itself. I felt like I didn't have enough time to do it all. But why do I think I needed to do it all?

I don't.

We cleaned the tree corner and decorated the tree. Because this is the first Christmas for the kittens (they are not yet 1 year old) I was worried about what they might do to the tree (climb it, chew on it.....) so we opted only to put soft and unbreakable ornaments on the tree. This meant that 90% of our ornaments had to stay off the tree. It took less time than usual and there was no stress. It made me realize I have way to many ornaments. Some are special and other are not. I am going to clean out my ornaments (I did some last year) with a heavy hand this year. Unless it has meaning its going. And until my girls are grown and in their own homes we are going to rely on using their ornaments, plus a handful of special ornaments for GreenerYet and I.

After the tree we made lunch and watched a Holiday Movie. I spent the rest of the afternoon putting finishing touches on my Stocking Stuffer Swap contribution.

I mailed them out priority yesterday so I won't post my tutorial until after Christmas. If I had mailed them out on time I could have saved myself half the cost of mailing, but this is what is referred to as the "stupid tax."

I mailed them out late because I wasn't happy with them. I was excited to do the stocking stuffer swap when I signed up and had a ton of ideas swirling around. Then the doubt and fear began creeping in. Just because it was something I liked didn't mean other people would like it. Then I started receiving items from participants so on the ball they sent them out early. And they were really good and I started to doubt myself.

I had one craft done and ready to mail on time, but I started to doubt myself and with my OCD it made it impossible to send out.

What I realized yesterday while putting finishing touches on my craft was that I need more of an artistic outlet. So what I am going to focus on for the next year of my life is giving myself time to be artistic and permission to fail. I would have liked if the popper (intended to be a recipe card holder) was weighted. I thought about weighting it (with a river rock) but I wasn't sure it would work and was worried about shipping and damage in shipping. When I completed the popper it became apparent it would be better if it were weighted. Lesson learned. I will make them again and this time I will weight them.

What I loved about this was that I was able to use only supplies I already had on hand. I used postcards (the kind you buy at Staples and print on them with the computer), Scrapbooking papers and stickers I had on hand. Toilet paper tubes, wrapping paper, buttons, bells and gift wrap I already had. It felt nice to use things I already had and it really pushed me to work on my upcycling plans.

There are many things I would do differently if I do something like this next year, but I learned something valuable about myself. Something that is going to shape the rest of my life.

I have to start somewhere and it will grow from there.

Used Book Marketplaces from Amazon and Barnes and Nobles

2010-12-10T12:12:00.000-05:00

$3.99 PER BOOK SHIPPING CHARGE! ARE YOU KIDDING ME!

So let's start at the beginning I have been searching the local used book stores for some time for the following books:
Sew Me Love Me
Stupid Sock Creatures
Stray Sock Sewing
Stray Sock Sewing Too
MY DIY: The Styling Girl's Guide to DIY Projects
Last Minute Fabric Gifts

I have had no luck finding these books at a local used book store. Although recently I took over 100 great condition children's books to Houghton Books in the hopes of (a) cleaning out my closet and (b) trading/selling them for cash toward the above books and The Gift of the Magi Holiday books for my girls. When I go there I was informed they are an NFP and only take books as a donation. I had already schlepped the books there and didn't want to deal with them anymore, so in the hopes of improving my Karma I donated the books. They offered me a receipt for my taxes, but we have no liabilities to offset with such a donation.

While there I looked through the Holiday Books and the Craft Books. I did not find what I was looking for. I did however enjoy being in the shop. While browsing a woman who is a volunteer came into the store to do some shopping. She bought one of the items I brought in on the spot.

So I hit up one more used book store, and while I didn't find the above I did find a copy of Hans Christian Anderson GreenTween is going to flip for come Christmas day. So I turned to Amazon. Looking in the used books for sellers near me. I found two in my state. One had 4 of the books I was looking for. The prices were awesome and the books were used. Yeah!

Then I went to check out and I get a message, that my books probably won't ship until late next week possibly not being here for Christmas. Since 5 out of 7 books are coming from NY state I was willing to take my chances. Only to go to the check out and see a really high total. The shipping charges were as much as the books. You see with Amazon its $3.99 per book even if you buy multiples from one seller. So it would be the same cost to purchase them new from Amazon with Free Shipping and guaranteed to be here before Christmas....

So thinking I head to Barnes and Nobles to check them out. Same sellers on Barnes and Nobles (even same Seller Names....). And low and behold its the same $3.99 per book charge for Sellers.

So what's a girl to do? Well, I contacted the 2 NY sellers in the hopes of brokering a deal outside the Marketplaces, and I am off to Ebay next. Anyone reading have these books they want to sell....?

Holiday Crafting

2010-12-09T09:29:00.000-05:00

Even though I intended to start earlier, I didn't. There are a couple of items that will have to wait until next year, but that is OK. I want to do them right, not rush through them.

GreenTween has been working on a gift for her little cousins. They are twins (3.5).

For the boy she is making clothespin fireman, and we want to make a portable firehouse with fire engine for the Clothespin Firefighters. I googled and found some ideas for the fire house and fire truck. None of the tutorials had step by step pictures so we will try to do one as we complete the project.

For the girl she is making clothespin princesses. She plans to make clothes for all the clothespin people - this will be fun. We are going to make a portable castle out of boxes and such. I found a good tutorial, but it isn't quite what we are looking for so we will adjust it to our needs and make a picture tutorial for it.

Then for GreenerYet's family gathering we have two of the boy cousins to gift. They are both into Thomas the Train. So I am going to attempt to make Thomas Pillow Buddies. I am not one to sew, but I would like to learn. I have sketched out a pattern. I am going to use newsprint to make a pattern I can see if it works. Then I am going to apply the pattern to scrap fabric. If it works I can apply it to good fabric, from a local fabric shop (not a big box store). If it doesn't work it will be to the local small toy store for Thomas or Train toys for the boys.

Then I still need to figure out gifts for my mother, mother in law, father, step-father in law, father in law, step-mother-in-law, GreenerYet's brothers....

The brothers are huge Jets fans and I thought it would fun for the girls to make them Jets No Sew Fleece blankets, no such luck I can't find the fabric anywhere, its all on back order.

For my mom I was thinking about making Garden Markers. Cute little signs that can be customized for what she plants. The girls might enjoy doing this with me.

I could do the same for my mother in law.

For my Mother in Laws husband I don't have the first clue.

Weatherizing in WNY

2010-12-08T09:24:00.000-05:00

It is that time of year again. I should have begun weatherizing in October but I had so much on my plate. Now the snow is here and I have to cut my energy consumption.

First and foremost is the windows. We have put plastic up in past years and I want to do it again this year. The difference is that I want to take panels of foam board insulation (left over from insulating the upstairs porch a few years ago) and put pieces in each lower sash (preferable covered in wrapping paper that I like rather than looking at the pepto pinkness) and then put the plastic over it.

Heavier Window Covers. I was given heavy purple curtains that will fit the girls windows. I want to put those up behind their current window covering (double insulate). I can accomplish this with eye hooks and heavy gauge wire or a dowel. Other windows I want to put up fleece window coverings. Thing the soft blankets at the store with the natural rod pocket from the fold over. The issue I have with this is I have been looking for these at the Thrift Stores and I haven't found any. I don't want to purchase them new (they are easily $20 and more importantly they are toxic) so I might just begin sewing my own quilted heavy window coverings for each room (a great way to use up my fabric stash).

Then I need to sew draft stoppers for the doors. The kind that slide under the door with a sack on either side. I would need 2 of these.

Then there is the matter of the fireplace. We do not have a flue balloon. Since we don't use the fireplace (it needs a new chimney liner) I am going to make my own flu balloon. I will use an old plastic grocery bag (yep years of reusable bags and I still end up with a ton of these) fill it with newspaper and stuff it up into the flu. I will tie a string to it so that I remember its there. I am also thinking about cutting a piece of foam insulation board to attach to the back of the Fireplace cover.

We have a hall closet and the closet isn't insulated. So I am thinking of cutting a piece of foam insulation to fit the door and putting that on it as well. Then there is the alcove to the outside porch door. Its very cold. It would be wise to hang a heavy curtain in front of the alcove keeping more heat in.

I am also going to caulk and plastic the basement windows. They are old and they leak. I plan to replace them when money allows, but right now this is my best solution.

When my front door is closed you can see the light outside so I need to apply weather stripping around it. This is the only product I need to purchase to winterize my home. This is something I plan to work on (after all the holiday crafting) so in January and February. The good news is once its done, I can just store the stuff in the warmer months and have it ready to go for next year.

Let it Snow...

2010-12-07T14:03:00.000-05:00

Its been snowing here for 2 days now. Lots of people are complaining, but me I love the snow. I love being outside and playing in it. I love sledding and my girls love skiing. I like coming in from the cold and my 60 degree house feeling toasty warm. I love wrapping up in a blanket on the couch with a mug of real hot chocolate (milk warmed on the stove with chocolate and Cinnamon melted in it) and watching a fire crackle and snow fall.

Now I don't drive in it much. I take the bus to and from work, and while yes this means trudging through the cold and wet and sidewalks yet to be cleared for the 2 blocks to my stop, I don't mind. I have boots, a coat, a pair of woolen mittens, a scarf and a hat. I would have to put all these things and more on to clear my driveway, and clean off the car. Instead I get my gear on and walk to my bus stop just like normal. The bus arrives warm and toasty and drops me in front of my office.

When I do drive in this weather I own a gas guzzling 4 wheel drive vehicle, so I have no worries (and yes I know 4 wheel drive means nothing on black ice). I tend to take my errands and running around when there is less traditional traffic in the winter because the idiocy of other drivers in the snow amazes me.

I was hoping the girls and GreenerYet would head out to ski this weekend and I could drag out and set up the tree, then bake some cookies, and get started on some holiday projects. Now the skiing and tree part might get done, but the cookies part is absolutely not happening.

DH pulled the mixer out yesterday to bake banana bread (I got 3 lbs of bananas for $.50 and they are overripe), he measured out the dry ingredients and turned the mixer on..... nothing happened. He was not happy. I was not happy when I got home.

We paid nearly $400 for a large capacity Kitchen Aide mixer 10 years ago when we got married. Now some of you are thinking 10 years is pretty good. And if it wasn't a Kitchen Aide you would be correct. We bought a Kitchen Aide because my mother had the same white Kitchen Aide all my life (all be it a smaller bowl). The mixer was 20+ years old when I bought mine. She still has this mixer, but she liked our larger bowl so she upgraded and uses that one primarily.

Here's the rub. We bought the mixer as part of a sale on our Wedding Registry. We had the opportunity to take 20% off anything on our registry after we got married. We selected the mixer even though we didn't need it just yet. We were living in a fully furnished town house at the time. So the mixer was put in the storage bed room until we moved into our home 1 year later. When we did take it out of the box and started using it we had problems.

First the speed control would pull forward (accelerating the mixing speed) and sometimes (9 out of 10 times) when you turn it off it would pop back to speed 3. We checked on the warranty. We were past the warranty by a few weeks. Getting it to a repair shop was a huge hassle so we dealt with it.

Then we both noticed that it didn't really mix the stuff on the bottom, whether it was dry ingredients like flour or wet or mixed, like butter and sugar. So we always have to stop the machine. Take the bowl off and manually mix it from the bottom then put it back on the machine and mix some more (a PITA). I asked my mums if she was having the same similar issues. She said no. Our conclusion is that we got a bad machine.

Ten years of use on a bad machine isn't bad, but I just can't justify spending another $500 on a machine that may or may not work. I have contacted Kitchen Aide to see if there is anyone in my area that can look and see if its repairable. If not I will be going to the old fashioned method of mixing (which means many a recipe will have to be dropped because I cannot physically handle whipping items, my arms ache like they are about to fall off for days afterwards).

GreenerYet did quite a bit of baking, I can't see him doing the same without a mixer, but we shall see..

I have all the ingredients for everyone's favorite cookies (its like a butter sugar cookie with crushed candy canes in the middle). The recipe originally called for triangles, but I make them as stars, I'll post the recipe and let you know how these turn out by hand.

The issue I see is combining the butter and sugar. The house isn't warm enough for the butter to soften so perhaps for this recipe I will warm the house or a room in the house up enough for the butter to soften so I can combine it with the sugar for this recipe by hand.

I have been thinking about my blog for a while now and I am going to reveal some changes in the New Year that will make my blog easier for me to keep up with while still keeping me accountable.

Feeling Thankful

2010-11-23T09:02:00.001-05:00

I was feeling quite low yesterday, the grey, dark weather isn't helping. Nor is the feeling of an impending holiday. I used to love holidays, but I now am almost Scrooge when it comes to the holidays. Its not about the money, its about the time. The time I don't have to do the things I want to do. Each year races by faster and faster and I get farther from where I want to be.

I feel like we don't have any meaningful traditions or that we are scrapping all of them in favor of doing more. So this year I am being conscious of slowing down. Maybe I can't get it all done, and that is OK with me. I am going to take my time and enjoy this holiday.

I want to bake holiday cookies (we'll start with recipes that we have the ingredients on hand and then move on to the ones I can fit in my shopping budget without depriving my family). I want to make holiday gifts. I still don't know what I am going to do for everyone, because I am late in starting, but I am going to figure it out and go from there.

My GOAL for 2011 is to SLOW DOWN, TO SPEND MORE TIME ON WHAT MATTERS TO ME, and TO GET OUT OF CREDIT CARD DEBT. YEP ALL $15,000.00 (I added to the debt recently).

That means that I need to put more than $1000 a month to debt and since I don't have that much coming in, I am going to have to get creative. Really creative.

I am going to continue to list things on Craigslist. I won't deal with Ebay or any of those sites. Sure I might get more money for my stuff, but then I have to ship it and most importantly I have to deal with PayPal, and I refuse to deal with PayPal. I have lots of clutter that other people might want. As I sort and list on CL I will prep boxes for one last blow out garage sale. The plan will be to get rid of it all. One day, super low prices.

Yesterday I turned my $35 in Swagbucks gift cards into a charger for GreenGirl's Didj. This will probably be her last year using the Didj, but I am hoping she'll get back into it once she can always use it. It eats batteries like you wouldn't believe.

I need to get back to menu planning, and I need to get creative. I am going to go through my recipes and cookbooks. I want to try new recipes and tweak them for what I have on hand and can afford, as well as get rid of the clutter. If I like a recipe I am going to type it into the computer. When I get through all my recipes I'll have a nice electronic catalog of recipes (that I will also print and put in a single binder) that I can add to as I find new recipes.

I have to stop spending beyond my means, I simply cannot do it anymore. I am going to the envelope system. On Fridays I will take out cash for food and other things (on the budget). All the bills will be paid electronically. I am not going to carry my debit or any charge cards (I am destroying them all) and if I haven't enough cash then I will go without.

Feeling Blue and a Reality Check

2010-11-22T10:32:00.000-05:00

I am feeling a bit stressed, a bit overwhelmed, a bit blue, a bit whiny today. Actually, I have been feeling this way for a while, more often than not I feel blue and overwhelmed.

Part of the reason I started this blog was to simplify my life and live according to my values. Part of the reason was to eliminate debt. Part of the reason was that for me it seemed like everyone else writing green and frugal blogs were retired, had no kids or were stay at home moms. While they all had good ideas, non of them really seemed to keep pace with my life.

This blog was supposed to be my accountability tool. It seems to me like I am failing or lacking in follow through, but the reality of it is that I take on too much.

Last year I was supposed to be done with Girl Scouts as I was asked by the local counsel to step down as a leader (after all people who are honest about the organizations warts are not welcome there) and the other moms were to step up. Here I am in the middle of the cookie sale trying to figure out who owes what and do we have the right number of left over cookies and what are we going to do at the next meeting?

Let me just rant about Girl Scouts for a moment. It is really and truly in practice is against everything I believe in. In our area everything revolves around the COOKIES. Highly processed food item that is made with questionable materials. This is the second year in a row that the company has voluntarily recalled a cookie for on off smell or taste. Now mind you its not harmful but its an off taste/smell. Secondly the prizes are cheap made in China prizes. Twice now prizes have been pulled and or replaced for safety issues.

Now Girl Scouts in concept is perfectly in line with my values:

I will do my best to be:

Honest and Fair

Friendly and Helpful

Considerate and Caring

Courageous and Strong, and

Responsible for what I say and Do

And to

Respect myself and others

Respect authority,

Use resources wisely,

make this world a better place and to

be a sister to every girl scout.

Some of the badges even focus on recycling and preservation. So how does an organization get so far from its roots? Its not GSUSA, it is the people who work at the local level. Not the volunteers who are doing their best, but the people who are getting paid, that are forgetting to :

be Honest and Fair

Considerate and Caring

Respect others

Use Resources wisely and

make this world a better place.

Now, keep in mind its not the moms or the girls who asked me to stop being the leader, it was local counsel representatives who decided that because I had the nerve to choose a bank which was most convenient for the troop (who needed to make weekly deposits) and not most convenient for the Service Unit Finance Consultant who needed to visit the bank once, to set up the account, and a second time should the troop have "issues" or dissolve, and because I had the audacity to ask to see the Finance Consultants Service Unit Finance Report, which was turned into counsel, but no matter how many times people asked about it, was never shared within the Service Unit.

To be Honest and Fair, I sent an email to the parents in my troop when I was asked to step down venting my frustrations and telling them I had been asked to step down. I shouldn't have sent such a venting email, but I was frustrated from 3 years of ramming my head against a brick wall.

According to counsel representatives I am combative and mean. I am combative because I ask questions, and mean because I am not afraid to speak my mind.

According to counsel representatives I did not support Service Unit Events (despite the fact that I planned 1 of the 3 Service Unit Events of last year and it was cancelled days before the event by other Service Unit Volunteers after the Service Unit Meeting concluded and I left. The other 2 events, 1 was cancelled days before the event because of health concerns - the girls were supposed to carol at a local senior center and the H1N1 virus scare was in effect). The other was geared toward the girls in my troops (ages) it was a skating party for the girls in my troop and a dance club party for the older girls (none of which were in my troop). It was a 45 minute drive on a Friday night and more expensive than skating locally, my girls decided they didn't want to participate.

Wow, this started as a rant about being blue and turned into a Girl Scout Rant. My eldest has earned her Bronze Star and she wants to continue on, but I don't know that I want to continue on.

I know that the badge work is great for the girls and very divers, and the concept that Girl Scouts was built on is exactly what I want to teach my girls, but I don't think that local counsel representatives are the kind of people I want making decisions about my daugthers' Girl Scout experience.

I feel better now. I know I will not be involved in cookies next year, and my daughters won't sell them, and knowing that makes me feel much better.

I am also working with an up and coming Theatre group to help them get their corporate sponsors necessary to put on a production of Alice in Wonderland.

Then I have my regular job, my mother's job and well my job to take care of myself.

I am just feeling overwhelmed. I am hoping some time outside in today's mild weather will help me some.

So Waht Do We Call It and What Do We Do With It?

2010-11-12T12:30:00.000-05:00

Before I get to the question that is the topic of this post, I would like to say:

First, we did eat in front of the TV again last night, but I didn't find the meal satisfying so its back to the table for me and the girls.

Second, I was really tempted last night not to wash the dishes (after all I am still working a full time job and GreenerYet is working a part-time (at best) gig) but I decided to wash them anyways and I felt better when it was done.

Now on to the post topic. GreenTween made a yeast in Science Class to learn about the life cycle of yeast. They took dry yeast, milk, sugar and flour. They were told to knead it and burp it (let the air out) 2x a day and every 5 days to feed it. According to GreenTween she needs to feed it milk (room temp), flour and sugar each week.

If anyone with more baking and live yeast experience can tell me what to call this mixture (its not truly sourdough, is it?) and what we can make with it, we would appreciate that.

Secondly does she need to add milk, flour and sugar every 5 days? and lastly do I then have to wait 5 days before we can use it?

Oh and just an aside, her yeast produced as well or better than her classmates and we keep the house at 55 at night and 63 during the day. She wrapped her bag in a towel and keeps it in a bowl with a lid (to keep the cats out). I would like to move it to a glass container, but she is convinced we can't do that......

Washing Dishes After Dinner!

2010-11-11T11:01:00.000-05:00

I grew up washing the dinner dishes immediately after dinner. I have to say I like the dishes done before I go to bed, but I don't want to rush from the table to the sink.

This week while GreenerYet has been working nights on an upcoming production of Its A Wonderful Life, the girls and I have been enjoying some much needed us time. We have eaten left overs every night, and eaten at the table. GreenerYet likes to eat in front of the tv and I don't so much care for it.

The girls and I have talked about their day and reconnected. I have also done the dishes (which also includes breakfast and lunch dishes because GreenYet believes it is wasteful to wash a partial load of dishes, and if we had a dishwasher I would agree, but we can control the amount of water and the amount of soap, but I digress) after dinner. I don't jump up from the table to wash them, but they have been done before I head to bed. That and a clean first floor have done wonderful things for my mood.

I plan to do a good cleaning this weekend, just to make sure I am keeping up with things. We haven't quite gotten into the crafting routine yet, but its coming.

This evening I have to close out a show, visit with a friend before she heads to Florida for a week, I hope all is ok with her father, do some paperwork for the household and my business and I would like to get one box of items sorted.

I didn't list anything on CL last night (because GreenerYet had my laptop), but I have gotten lots of inquiries on my postings. I am hopeful I will be able to turn some of this clutter into cash and pay down some debt (maybe all of it). My goal is to bolster my account (so I have enough to pay this months bills) as well as to pay down 2 credit cards before the close of the year. Both are under $500 in value, so I am looking to sell $1300 in clutter to make it out alive this year.

I am also seriously considering putting all of my debt into a HELOC. I have been against it for some time, but the interest savings is significant and can mean the difference between staying afloat/paying off the debt in the next 3 years and drowning in debt. I have truly avoided it because doing so requires GreenerYet's approval and then I would have to come clean about all the debt. I am to the point that I realize yes, I really do have to tell him all about it, or we will never get out of this gerbil wheel.

An Evening with My Girls!

2010-11-10T09:52:00.000-05:00

NotSoGreen is currently working on Lighting and Sounds for an upcoming professional holiday production of Its A Wonderful Life! He is really enjoying it, but he is having to work evenings. Monday and yesterday I got home from work and he left for his gig. Monday was Scouts so it wasn't such a big deal, but last night was some much needed girl time.

The girls and I sat down at the dinner table and enjoyed each other's conversations. I had planned to do some crafting, which I didn't get to, but I did get many an item listed on CL (and one item is currently pretty hot, lots of people asking about it, makes me wonder if I should take it to a Gold Dealer tonight just to see).

Tonight I pulled out left over Winter Pasta, some left over Italian Sausage and I will make a quick pasta sauce to add to the Winter Pasta to bulk it up for dinner.

After dinner and homework the girls and I will start some paper crafting. I plan to cut all the magazines into strips so I can start rolling them in beads and try a new technique I found on the Internet.

I also want to get my business sorted into a portable office (also known as a file box) hopefully making it easier for me to run my business.

A Clean First Floor!

2010-11-09T10:52:00.000-05:00

ALMOST! So I cleaned the first floor for GreenGirl's Mad Science Birthday Party (which I overspent on, and I know I shouldn't have...)

I did a pretty good job of it too. The Living Room is completely cleaned (although I might need to do some superficial dusting this weekend. The Dinning Room is 95% clean (need to dust most everything and sort the hutch shelf from its junk. The Kitchen is clean. The downstairs bathroom which is just an empty room (no plumbing and no fixtures) has a ton of stuff to be sorted through. Prepping for the party took precedence over the stash busting. I am hoping to get back to it this week, especially since it looks like GreenerYet is going to be gone all week in the evenings. He has a temporary Lighting and Sound Gig and he is just as giddy as a school girl.

So I am hoping to be able to pull out the long table and just work on crafting every night for about an hour after I put GreenGirl to Bed, maybe GreenTween can join me with the crafting and we can reconnect. Lately we have been drifting further and further apart. She isn't the same girl I used to know. I know she is becoming a teen and she is finding herself and I want her to do that, but I also want to be kept in the loop.

Tonight the plan is:

Dinner - left over chicken and 2x baked potatoes for the girls and me!

Business Phone Calls - I have to make some calls to my jewelry customers

Crafting - I am thinking paper beading, because I have some catalogs I want to get rid of and a new technique I want to try out, that or I will start making my window inserts. Cardboard, newspaper and fancy paper to fit into the lower window pane to help insulate the house and cut down on cold air.

Craigslist - I have a bunch of Sterling Silver and Costume Jewelry I never wear that I want to list. I figure if I give myself 20 minutes a night I should have it all listed in no time. I took a ton of pictures this past weekend and I think that might be a good routine. Take pictures of the objects on the weekend and put them on the shelves in the sorting room, the spend 20 minutes a night loading the pictures and typing up descriptions.

My goal is to keep the first floor in the condition its in (and weed out the sorting room) so that I can put the tree and holiday decorations up this year without stress.

Stashbusting!

2010-11-03T09:53:00.000-04:00

I often read about month long stash busting challenges. I do not consider myself crafty. Truth be told I am a bit of a hoarder. So for the foreseeable future I will be stash busting. I must do something creative with my stash (hoard) or supplies daily in an effort to ~~reduce, minimize~~, get rid of it without the guilt.

I will post pictures and tutorials in case anyone wants to try their hand at what I do under the Upcycled Tab. I will also list the finished projects for sale (here and on CL) and then what doesn't sell will go into a trunk (or box, maybe to be an upcycled project of its own) for use in gifting.

This is not for the next month or even two months. If I stash bust daily from now until this time next year, I might find my way out of my clutter (without the guilt). I will still be listing many items directly on CL and not using them (the unopened new packages of Creative Memories supplies, even the ones I had plans for, when I get to those projects I can always find something to use then, but so long as I have so much clutter that I can barely breathe I certainly won't do anything).

I have seen some clever ideas around the WEB and I think I am going to focus on the upcoming winter holidays for now (as I think they will have more appeal to me, and maybe put me more in the Holiday Spirit) and after the Winter Holidays I will look to the next holiday and focus on that so I am ahead of the game. If some particular material strikes me I will not be held to any theme or holiday, I will make that which the item calls to me to make.

I was once once a creative sole. I wrote, I sketched, I painted, and I sang. In those days I can recall being happy and losing my creative outlet has been very bad for me. I need the creative side of me (although she is small and not considerably talented, I never did it to make money, I did it to express the inner me).

So have you stashes of items you want to use one way or the other? Wanna join me? Sorry I don't know how to program banners or buttons so I don't have anything fancy to post, but if your interested join me in the comments. I will call mine TreeHugginMomma's Trash to Treasure Stash Buster (I know its a long name), feel free to name yours as you will. Let's be creative and productive together.

Thankful Tuesday!

2010-11-02T09:11:00.000-04:00

I woke up this am feeling a little blue, a carryover from last night. So I decided as part of my new beginnings to focus on the positive, not the negative. Outside its a bit chilly (but I do so love this kind of weather) the perfect excuse to curl up with a warm cup and a good book under a heavy blanket.

The leaves are beautiful colors today. The sky is clear. My children are healthy. I have a job. I have a roof over my head. All in all I am a very fortunate woman.

What are you Thankful for?

November is All About New Beginnings!

2010-11-01T09:54:00.000-04:00

It is a new month. November and December can be very busy months in my home (3 birthdays, 2 family holidays, out of town guests and travelling, etc.).

I woke up this morning and only snoozed for 30 minutes (its been an hour lately) and my goal is to get back on my regular schedule by the end of this month. In addition to getting up early, I put dinner in the crock pot (with directions for DH to add a thing or two through out the day (beans and corn still frozen in containers). I did some work from home, thanks to my remote connection.

I am determined to wake up every day this month and remind myself that this month is all about New Beginnings.

I want to clear out my clutter

I want to spend more quality time with my kids

1 want to work on handcrafted gifts for Christmas

I want to bake with my girls for the Holidays

I want to start prepping dinners at night so I can just pop them in the crockpot in the am

I want to get my budget under control

Full Freezer to the Rescue

2010-10-28T10:49:00.000-04:00

No not the reader who often gives me helpful advice, but my own full freezer. Yesterday Morning I grabbed 3 chicken breasts out of the freezer and dumped them one on top of the other into a container to thaw. I know I should have gotten them out the night before or laid them out flat. At any rate, when I got home from work they weren't thawed. Luckily we weren't eating until GreenTween got home from her V-ball game, and away game, so around 7:30pm. That was 2 hours.

In the fridge I had rice (which I cooked for dinner on Monday, but it wasn't done before we had to eat and run to Scouts), corn that I had pulled from the freezer for a bread I wanted to make, but hadn't yet, black beans in the freezer (cooked and ready to go), shredded cheese, banana peppers, salsa and sour cream. OK so its a full fridge to the rescue.

I put the rice in the bottom of the pan, threw the chicken, then corn, then salsa, then beans, then cheese and banana peppers on top. Covered with aluminum foil and baked for 2 hours at 350 degrees. All was cooked and yummy. (The chicken was a little more tough than I like, but we usually fillet and pound the breast before cooking and I really think that was the difference).

Nice to be able to use what I had and not have to resort to eating out. Tonight however is a different story (since its another game night). We are going to have subs from the sub shop tonight!

Thinking Forward to the Holidays to make my life easier!

2010-10-26T11:36:00.001-04:00

GreenGirl's 9th Birthday is fast approaching, so I will be working on bits and pieces of her party nightly for the next 10 days. I am planning to devote 1 hour a night to it. Tonight, is the invitations which I had planned to do over the weekend.

I was checking my reading list this morning and I found THIS! I have never participated in a swap and I am not the most crafty person, but I am excited. Now to decide what to do:

Paper Craft Jewelry, or kits with detailed instructions (I am thinking of making these for all the Girls in S's class this Holiday and the some of the younger female cousins in DH's family)

Salt Dough Ornaments, or kits with detailed instructions ( a good thought for the male cousins and the bit older cousins)

Pillow Frames, small pillows to hold a picture (another good idea for DH's family gathering)

Clothespin People, or kits with detailed instructions (can be for boys or girls and GreenTween is excited to make these for family members).

Waxed Leaf Note Cards on Homemade paper (a good gift for the older family members).

If you participated (and you are all welcome to participate) what would you send and what would you like to receive?

Housekeeping Thoughts

2010-10-19T09:31:00.001-04:00

My post yesterday was quite frantic, and I received responses addressing some potential issues. Rather than posting many long responses, I thought I would simply do a post.

Dea-chan had some awesome suggestions, and is correct in many of them. If I start making it a habit to prep meals in the evening and putting them away prepared in the fridge I can either pop them in the crock pot in the am with little fuss, or the oven when I get home from work. In addition I can assemble many premade meals. The biggest issue I have right now is my lack of dishes. As the budget allows and as I find glass casserole dishes at the Thrift stores I will be adding them to my line up.

Dea-chan also suggested that I have a chat with NotSoGreen about the division of labor, and sadly that is like ramming my head against a brick wall. I was a stay at home parent for 7 years. During that time I cooked the meals, did the laundry and hosted Saturday night dinners for my friends nearly every week. The dishes sadly did not get done as often as they should have, but it was the one thing I couldn't do while watching my 2 children, 1 of whom was extremely clingy. When the tables flipped and we traded roles I thought he would finally acknowledge how hard I had worked those 7 years. Instead I heard that I did a sub par job of parenting and housekeeping, that it was easier when the kids were little, and that while I work outside the home my job isn't physically demanding like his job was. In his mind he is doing as much, nay even more than I did as a SAHM and as a Working Mom.

In his mind it is my choice to be involved in the girls school, their girl scout troop, and my second job. And he is correct. I choose to be involved in my kids school and girl scout troop because if I wasn't some of the things they have the opportunity to do would not exist. I choose to have a second job so that I don't have to file bankruptcy.

I am going to take her up on the suggestion that the girls do the dishes. Right now GreenTween is in the midst of Volleyball and her days are long, but GreenGirl could do the dishes during the week and GreenTween could do them on the weekend. When V-ball is over they could alternate. While they are in the kitchen doing the dishes I could do dinner prep for the next meal.

FullFreezer commented about a dry erase board. I have wanted to put one on the front of the fridge for a while. I want the flat kind that is magnetic and I just can't find what I am looking for. I have tried listing out meals for the week, but unless I get the ingredients out DH won't make dinner. He is an excellent cook, when he feels like cooking. I have a 50/50 shot of coming home to dinner ready and prepared (if I have left out the ingredients and told him what dinner was supposed to be) or coming home to "I didn't feel like cooking" "I didn't feel like whatever was planned for dinner", etc.

I don't know why when I don't get ingredients out for dinner he is unable to make a decision and put together a dinner of his own.

The bottom line is that our life has been this way for 14 years, and its not likely to change now. I can only change me and my habits, not him. I do like the suggestions of prepping meals the night before or on the weekend and I know that if I just get into this habit over the long haul I will save myself time, its just getting enough energy to do this in the evening or on the weekend.

Thanks for the advice, not throwing in the towel just yet.

I want out of my Gerbil Wheel!

2010-10-18T10:08:00.000-04:00

Sometimes it feels like I am forever running in circles. I rush through the week at work to get to the weekend and on the weekends I am rushed to get in all that I can't do during the week. There has to be a better way. I am exhausted and at my breaking point.

I soaked lentils last night with the intent to make a zucchini and lentil sausage dish for my family for dinner today. It was intended to go in the crock pot. That of course didn't happen this morning because as usual I was rushed to get things done (this morning it was taking 20 minutes to sweep up cat litter and the dust on the stairs. Sometimes I feel like I am the only person who ever picks anything up.

Dinner tonight is instead going to be some sort of cheesy pasta dish. I hope DH didn't use both boxes of linguine the other day when he made Chicken French. I read a recipe this morning on the blogsphere for Sun dried Tomato pasta. It sounded good and easy. While the water is boiling I can chop up the sun dried tomatoes (which I have on hand) and the scallions (fresh from my mother in laws garden), and I was thinking ribbon thin spinach or chard (the spinach is older and the chard was picked yesterday in my MILs garden). I have a recipe for the spinach and turnip and beet greens that are getting just a bit wilty, so I think I will go with the chard. I will toss the tomatoes in for the last minute or so of boiling water (to soften them up) then drain everything, add a dash of EVOO and the scallions, chard and Parmesan. Plate and serve.

If I have enough time, I might make the savory mini muffins (as a bread because I am too lazy to deal with the whole mini muffin concept) and add that to the dish. We shall see what time I get home from work, and if DH was feeling well enough to clean the house.

Lentils will get rinsed and put in the crock pot tonight with the sausage spices, and some liquid (I don't currently have any chicken broth which would be ideal) and cooked overnight on low. Then I will probably cool them for use in the casserole tomorrow?

That would mean 2 vegetarian meals in a row and possibly 2 more this week. Hey I can live with it? Can They?

TreeHugginMomma's Terrible, Horrible, Aweful No Good Day!

2010-10-15T10:50:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was that day. The day I kept asking myself how could this day get any worse? Each time it kept getting worse. Start day at work with a major computer glitch that lost all of my previous days work (yep all had to be redone). Next up the Health Insurance meeting where the Broker Company rep out and out lied to us. "You are so lucky to be locking in in December because if you had locked in in January you would have seen at least a 30% rate increase." Do these people really think we are that stupid? The rate increase we are so lucky to lock into was more than 30%. I already lose an entire paycheck to my Health Insurance, now I am looking at losing almost 2. Suddenly working is becoming less and less worth it.

Then I get home and my camera won't work. I just charged the battery the night before and it wasn't working. I was worried that I was going to be out a camera.

Most important in this story is that I was unwilling to let this get me down. NotSoGreen was making one of my favorite meals and if nothing else today is Friday and it has to be better than yesterday. Dinner was delicious. I finagled my camera into letting my upload a couple of pictures (but I do need a new battery) and I got on with my life.

I have been tracking my spending under Dollars and Cents and I am doing OK, there is still room for improvement. I am off to interview a new bank and a new credit union tomorrow am, and get all of my debts rolled into one tidy payment due at month's end, which I plan to make weekly payments to so as not to feel the pinch and in the hopes of paying if off sooner. I have calculated that if I get a preferable interest rate I can keep my payment the same and pay the sum off in 3 years, but instead I am going to set it for 4 years and give myself some wiggle room with the goal being to pay it off in less than 2 years. :)

When the debt is gone I can apply that same payment to savings and actually have money set aside for a new to me car, an emergency and possibly leaving this full time job, that I no longer enjoy.

With a Little Help From the Blogsphere!

2010-10-14T11:06:00.002-04:00

So I have some root veggies in my fridge. I bought them last Saturday with good intentions, but I didn't get to them. I have beets, parsnips and turnips. I am thinking of turning the Parsnips into Sticks (think French Fries but with Parsnips), but I would love some good ideas for the remainder (including left over parsnips). I think the issue I am having with root veggies, is that I don't like them boiled. I do like them in soups, but otherwise I would like them to be slow roasted in the oven, and I don't have an hour to wait for dinner.

Don't want them to go to waste, and would love some ideas.....

Updated: Just found this Recipe for Greens, and since I have turnip and beet greens as well as spinach I am going to give this a go as well.... again I am going to attempt to make ahead, then freeze and reheat later in the week. Since I don't think my greens will hold out until Sunday - but maybe...

Further Updated, the utility company third party contractor has been doing some repairs on the street in front of our home, the sidewalk and the end of our driveway. While digging they dug up the water line. So we were without water for several hours. NotSoGreen wasn't able to get the dishes done before dinner, so I didn't make the zuchini or spinach gratins, but I will put both together this weekend and freeze for later use. :)

Happy Homemaker!

2010-10-12T11:23:00.000-04:00

I had a long weekend this past weekend. We were quite busy on Saturday (market, violin lessons, jewelry show, followed by Locks of Love benefit), so busy that I didn't get home until 10pm on Saturday and didn't get my hair cut for Locks (I am scheduled to do it first thing tomorrow am).

Sunday was peaceful. We stayed home most of the day (had to run GreenTween to youth group and I did the shopping). I spent most of Sunday sorting, photographing and listing on Craigslist. I did dispose of outdated paperwork, and recycled some card board and other items. Within 24 hours of listing maybe 30 items I had responses. 1 lots was even picked up yesterday. I plan to add that to my CL Success page this evening (if I have time before I nod off). I have someone coming for another item today and some inquiries on other items as well.

Monday was perfect. It was a bit chilly in the house and not wanting to turn the heat back on, I decided to bake. Now when I read Sara's post about Pear Bread over at her Blog My Frugal Fun Life I wished I had pears to make this lovely bread. Then I realized I may not have pears but I still have nearly 2/3 a bushel of apples. NotSoGreen has made applesauce (and frozen 2/3 of it), so I decided to make Apple Bread using the recipe Sara found HERE. I made some changes though. I used entirely whole wheat flour (as I always do), and then since I had heard one could swap oil for apple sauce, I did that as well. I also added 2 cut up apples (since to me the apples were small) It baked up lovely (and smelled nice too!). I will be posting a picture later.

I waited most of the day to try a slice, and it was still warm when I did. The bread was a bit dense but not dry. I really enjoyed it, and I ate it without butter. I was worried about this because it seemed a bit dry (so I might increase the apple sauce next time, and it was quite a sticky batter).

Then I found this recipe for make ahead pie filling to freeze, I decided to give it a go as well. The recipe seemed a little light on the apples for me, but then again I make my apple pies in a Pampered Chef Deep Dish Baker and I load them to the top. The changes I would make if using this recipe again. I would reduce the water to 8 cups. I did reduce the sugar (and used Sucanat) to 3 cups. I also didn't add the Nutmeg as I prefer to add it when I am ready to bake the pie. The sauce was thick and delicious and I would love to know how I could do that without Corn Starch. I would probably reduce the sugar another full cup as it was still quite sweet. In addition I sliced up over 30 apples (maybe mine are just super small) for a total of 25 cups of apple slices.

I still have apples left, not sure what I will make with them next. Then I oven baked all the apple slices for the remainder of the day at 200. They are a yummy and good for you snack.

I made my favorite simple soup in the crock pot: start with chicken stock (I used homemade) chop up 3 or 4 small potatoes (more if you want them) add white beans and Italian sausage. Allow to cook all day. Right before serving add 3/4 heavy cream and lots of spinach or other greens. Let the greens just barely wilt. Top with grated Parmesan and serve.

I loved being home for the long weekend, and while I didn't get everything done on my to do list, I could see myself once again a Happy Homemaker, now if there was a way to pay my bills without going to work...

Long Weekend Long List

2010-10-08T09:56:00.000-04:00

So here in the States many of us are looking at a long weekend for the Columbus Day holiday. I am one of those people. However with any long weekend comes a long to do list, especially when the weather is predicted to be so nice.

For starters I have what is scheduled:

Sat (early am, 6amish) - Public Market
10am - 11:30 Violin Lessons (both girls)
1:30-4:30 Benefit Jewelry show
5-9pm Benefit for Locks for Love for which I am getting my hair chopped. I promise some before and after photos (its a free haircut for me, and $10 hair cuts for each of my girls)

9:30ish - drop girls off to MIL and pick up wine bottles for garden project.

Sun:
Sort clothes to take to Plato's Closet then consignment shop along with trip to Plato's and Consignment Shop
Build a Jello cell with GreenTween (its a school project due on Tues)

Mon: GS trip to Stokoe Farms (this is not yet definite)

In addition to what is scheduled I need to:

Go to new Credit Union and inquire about accounts (not happy with current credit union which managed to tie up a large cash deposit for 10 business days and then close an account after I ordered a new debit card and checks on it causing me to lose a direct deposit and have to track it down and have a paper check issued)

Do some work in the yard

Double Dig and begin lasagna mulch method for Spring beds (I might even draw a layout)

Clear out some clutter, and list some items on CL.

Do a budget check and see if I am going to stay afloat this month.

Clean house (air it out before we get locked in)

I also want to spend some time sorting crafting supplies so the girls and I can begin on projects for the holidays. I have several in my brain that I need to jot down.

In addition I want to craft my new to-do list. I want to take a sheet of poster board and cover it with the clear plastic laminate product. Then I can use this like a giant erase board. I can create my own monthly calendar and we can put it on the fridge (using magnets). This way I can list the things that need to get done each day and maybe this way I can also ask for some help from my family.

Recycling is Not the Answer!

2010-10-07T09:42:00.001-04:00

I know I have blogged on this before, but as I look out on my front porch and see all my plastics, I feel guilty. The symbol for recycling is in fact the symbol for a movement in sustainability. Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. Its not a coincidence that the words are in that order. Our first priority should be reducing. Why does everything have to be shrink wrapped, bubble wrapped and in a box with 60 zip ties? I try not to buy products with extra packaging, but I can't always avoid it.

My biggest problem right now is my milk. It comes in #2 plastic containers. I buy 2-3 gallons a week. Yes they are recycleable but as you will find out in The Story of Stuff recycling plastics and other materials create noxious gases and may be as harmful to the environment as making the plastic in the first place. I have asked my milk man if I can get my milk in glass containers (I even researched on line to find glass gallon milk jugs and was willing to buy a 3 week supply) but he doesn't have the facilities for glass containers, so if NYS found out they would fine him.

Why can't I as the consumer take responsibility for my actions? I don't trust the FDA or any other government program to protect me and my food, as they have shown how piss poor a job they do, but what do we expect when those running these govenment oversight agencies are in fact former big wigs of the companies they are supposed to be overseeing? If you haven't checked out Food Inc check it out.

I was raw milk in glass containers, from cows not fed corn. Is that really too much to ask? If I want to purchase raw milk on my own shoulders be it. If I fail to check out the farm before I make my decision and regularly thereafter, if I or my children get sick, then it is my fault, and the fault of the farmer for poor practices, not the government's resposibility to keep me "safe". Government agencies are not interested in keeping us "safe" they are interested in keeping big business happy. So what makes big business happy is naturally what keeps us safe.

So back to my 2-3 gallon milk jugs a week. We do reuse them somewhat, to freeze our ice for making homemade ice cream, and then we recycle them. Wouldn't it be nice if I could just have 6 or so glass milk jugs that I reused and when they broke or were no longer useable, I recycled them?

Can I reuse Milk Jugs in other ways? Sure there was an article in Family Fun Magazine (owned, I believe bu DISNEY) to reuse a milk jug into a sandwich carrier. I guess its an ok use for the left over plastic, but ultimately its destined for the recycling plant or the landfill, and I am not sure I want to encourage people to be using the plastic (although "food grade" and "safe" as determined by the government oversight agencies) for use with foods.

I would like to reduce the amount of waste we produce, so for the next few months I am going to take a careful look and track what we compost, recycle, reuse and last of all trash. I will also track what I reduce, by simply not purchasing items or extra packaging.

Food Safety Hits Home!

2010-10-06T10:57:00.000-04:00

Last night I made cherry cider chicken (organic free range - $11.50 for 3 breasts) and mashed potatoes. The chicken shrank up more than I was expecting so I skipped the chicken and was ready to indulge in some mashed potatoes. I love mashed potatoes. The girls and I were a couple of bites in when NotSoGreen takes his first bite, and immediately spits it back out. He had a piece of glass, no larger than the tip of my finger in his potatoes. I immediately scooped up everyone's plates and dumped them in the garbage. I was taking no chances with my family.

Then I checked the glass lids for the two pans I used for damage, no such luck. I asked NotSoGreen if he had broken any glass in the kitchen recently, no such luck.

We bought the potatoes from a Mennonite farmer (not organic, but they use no commercial methods on their farm). I used butter and cream in the potatoes. The glass could have come from the potatoes, the cream or the butter. It was such a small piece of glass. Fortunately no one was hurt, but it scares me. It scares me to think that GreenGirl and GreenTween who were scarfing down potatoes (3 or 4 bites each) probably wouldn't have found it.

It upsets me that I had to throw an entire meal away. And then I had to figure out what to serve and I had nothing ready or go to to serve. NotSoGreen made Ramen noodles with some celery and carrots (he and the kids like it this way). But I realized I need to up my pantry so I have ready to go meals in case of an emergency.

I was baffled for the majority of the evening trying to figure out where the glass came from. I would feel better if I had a definitive answer. Should I throw out the half and half? Should I throw out the butter? Should I toss all the rest of the potatoes?

Halloween Handled

2010-10-05T09:26:00.002-04:00

Well, I was correct my girls had asked their Grandmother (a master with the sewing machine) to help them with their Halloween costumes. She encouraged them to pick colors and patterns that they could wear again at Christmas, so I don't have to worry about a thing for Halloween. Well other than to get to work on my upcycled holiday decor for my ebook.

Yesterday was day 1 of my 100 days challenge. I started with getting rid of some of the clutter. I didn't get to work on my holiday gifts, list an item on CL or do anything upcycled, but I did throw out at least 25 pieces of paper.

Today I plan to list a necklace on CL that I no longer wear, but is still in style that I am hoping to sell for a little bit of cash. Its a pretty brown leather multi strand cord with changeable silver and tiger's eye pendants. I think I should be able to sell it for $10.

I also plan to set up a mobile office. I need to sort papers into action files. I am behind on my scrap booking (but I am hoping to use the cold winter days to catch up on that) and I was thinking if I just sorted everything into action files, I could then pull the file and work on it. If something is simple I can just take the necessary action then and there. For example I have a piece of jewelry that has a lifetime warranty that GreenTween broke the clasp on, so I found the receipt and the original box and I have it with me today at work to mail it back to have it repaired. Nice to have that done.

I think for my upcycled crafting today I am going to focus on fabric. I am going to spend 20 minutes cutting fabric out of sample books so I can put it away and not have to deal with the bulk of the sample book. I might start a Box, but I like to design the boxes based on the recipient, and without knowing who that will be, I don't know if I will have the proper motivation, but we shall see.

I am also starting a box for the sophomore sale. Every year the sophomores at my daughters' school hold a secret Santa sale. The proceeds benefit a local children's group and the kids at the school have the opportunity to purchase some items for their family. I was thinking that all top notch stuffies could go in that box. I have a couple that need a quick stitch or two, but I can work on that rather quickly. Then once the box is full a simple trip over to the school will make it all disappear and for a good cause.

Oh and on the Birthday Party front, I posted on my local Freecycle that I was looking for Chemistry supplies and I had a response with some items. I will get out to pick those up next week. Just keeping my eyes open and I hope to have everything I need for the party.

Budgetless Birthday and Holidays?

2010-10-04T09:50:00.000-04:00

Can it be done? I am in a bit of a financial pickle. I am the closest to losing my battle to keep my head above water and falling under my debt that I have ever been. Yet it seems like nothing has changed. I had been paying down debt, and being frugal. So what happened?

What happened was that I counted my chickens before they hatched. I was getting comfortable in my debt reduction and losing track. I was tired and I got lazy. Failure to plan led to last minute high dollar purchases that were not in my budget.

Is my budget the way I want to live the rest of my life? No it certainly is not. Once I pay ~~down~~ off my debt, I plan to start putting that same money toward a nest egg, and adding a couple of categories to my budget, but I am not there yet.

I am tired of feeling like I am just treading water waiting for the fatigue to overcome me and slip beneath the constantly crashing waves. I want to get out of debt and get on with my life. To do that I have to take what I have as income, pay my non-negotiable bills (mortgage, car payment, credit card debts, insurances, phone bill, energy bill, water bill, etc.) then with what is left over I have to pay the negotiable (food, entertainment, clothing, car costs, etc.). I have come up with a couple of ways to make some extra money, reduce my clutter and regain my sanity. Now I have to put them into practice.

The next big event horizon is Halloween and GreenGirl's Birthday party followed closely by Thanksgiving and Christmas. If I am not careful any one or all of them together could capsize my sinking ship.

What I want to know is, is it possible to have any of the above celebrations without spending extra money?

Let's start with Halloween. Halloween requires costumes. With some creativity and a sewing machine, I believe we can craft any costume the girls would like. As for decorations, I am not big on them, but I do have some that I use from year to year. I would like to work on some recycled art decor that I can use for my e-book to be released for next year's festivities. That leaves me with pumpkins.

My mother in law grew pumpkins this year, so we will be heading over there to pick our carvers. We have a single, very tiny, pumpkin from a volunteer plant.

Now on to the candy. Really we don't need to have candy handy. We don't stay home. We don't get trick or treaters. We can't afford it. Our kids do trick or treat, but not so much for the candy, for my girls its about the costumes. Getting dressed up and seeing everyone elses costumes. GreenTween has been talking to Gramma about her costume, so I have to check in on that, I think they may be making it together.

Next is GreenGirl's Birthday Party. She wants to have a Mad Science Party. To do this the way I would like, would require quite the outlay. My thought was invisible ink invitations (can be done with lemon juice, a staple in my house) rolled up in test tubes (wonder if I can get these on Freecycle and if they would be safe to use....), then for the party itself I wanted each child to get a lab coat (old men's shirts at the thrift shop -with their initials sewn on -from old fabric), and a pair of safety goggles. GreenGirl and I were going to make Rock Candy Lollipops and give them the recipe and tools to make more of their own.

Then for the actual entertainment, I thought we could play with everyday household elements, vinegar and baking soda, cabbage water, tonic and soda pop and mentos (there is obviously some cost here. But I can purchase off brand soda and tonic). Then I wanted to make quick sand and silly putty with the kids.

I was thinking we could get the kids beakers to drink out of (these would have to be brand new and might amount to an expense I can't afford), and find some old science equipment to set up with colored liquids in them.

As for party foods, I was planning to keep it really simple. Cake (maybe cupcakes), ice cream -homemade with "slime" and Mad Science Punch. Then some simple snackings like cereal mix, and fruit....

Already GreenGirl's Party is sounding like its going to cost me $100+.

Followed closely by Thanksgiving (and I would really like to have a natural turkey - which will easily cost me $60) the rest of the food is pretty inexpensive as I will use local in season root veggies, and pumpkins to make the rest of the meal.

Then of course there is Christmas and the expectation that we will gift to everyone under the sun. So I am scaling way back and asking my friends to do the same. I am asking those who insist on gifting to the girls to do so without spending any money and I am going to see if I can pull off my gifting without spending any money.

The plan?

The plan is to get into good habbits. The best way to do that, is simply to do something for 100 days. So for the next 100 days no matter what I will:

1. List 1 Item on Craigslist

2. Remove 1 item of clutter from my home

3. Upcycle 1 item

4. Spend 20 minutes on one homemade holiday gift

That's it. Its simple. It should not take me more than 1 hour a day. I think for the best results I should do part of it in the am (Craigslist listing and clutter removal) and part in the pm, upcycle and holiday gift work.

That is where I am at. Feel free to share your ideas for frugal birthdays, holidays and getting out of debt.

Up next, what my October budget looks like (and its scary)

NotSoGreen!

2010-09-30T13:49:00.000-04:00

I read and deleted a comment aimed at tearing my husband down. The author of this comment does not know my husband or our situation, all they have are the snipits of life that I vent on, on this blog. I started this blog because while NotSoGreen can be supportive of my green efforts (he did after all buy a low energy computer and television) he doesn't always understand them.

He may not do much that I am aware of during the day when he is home (although lately the dishes have been getting done before I get home from work) and I have seen some laundry progress, it is our choice to have one parent at home. The easy answer is that while the girls are in school he can work, but the fact is that from June 1-Sept1 the girls are out of school, in addition to days off and vacation weeks.

NotSoGreen worked for 7 years while I stayed home with my girls. Now I work. Would I like him to be more on board with our budget? Yes. But I would have had to have been honest with him about our budget. I was young and I was foolish. I knew I loved him with all my heart, but I was always afraid that if things got difficult or he had to make sacrafices I would lose him.

He did not put me $13k+ in debt, I did. That was the point of my post. Not to blame NotSoGreen but to accept responsibility.

Would I like him to go out and get a part time job? Sure if the cost of same didn't negate his efforts. There are a couple of places he could work that he could walk to (let's not forget we live in the NE and get some aweful snow), but those places are not the kinds of places he wants to work, and I don't blame him. No one should have to work and be miserable. The part time jobs that would be worth his time and effort and allow him summers off would be waiting tables (which he did before GreenTween was born), but then he would be waiting tables in the evening and he and I would see less of each other.

I can make my finances right, because I took responsibility. Some day I will tell him how much money I owe (owed) and how I got there, but right now, I just don't have the strength for it.

So I am back to not spending outside my budget for the month of October. I don't have a line item for costumes and halloween, so I am just going to have to get creative. In addition I really want to get rolling on decluttering through Craigslist and use those funds to pay down my debt. If I could eliminate just $5k before Christmas my New Year would be bright.

I can't start anything new until after Homecoming on Saturday, but after that I am putting a ban on volunteering. I will not volunteer for another event for an entire year. And after this Scout year is over, I am going to be done with that as well. I can support my girl's desire to be in scouts in other ways, I just have to start putting me and mine first and foremost.

Its going to be a long hard winter, I can feel it in my bones, but I will come out the other side, ready for spring and ready for my own reawakening.

To annonymous, I didn't publish your comment because it was not kind to my husband, and I love him dearly, this isn't about tearing him down, its about me discovering what I need to do to fix my situation. I would never tell my husband to shape up or ship out, because that is not how relationships work. If I told him to shape up or ship out I would expect any self respecting human being to ship out.

In Which I Pull My Head Out of the Sand, Take Responsibility and Get Back on Track!

2010-09-27T11:25:00.000-04:00

It is certainly easy to say that the reason I am $13,546.61 in commercial debt is because NotSoGreen has impulsive shopping habbits. But that is not the truth. 10 years ago I could have separated our checking accounts and told him that we didn't have the money to buy x. But I didn't. I let him spend money however he wanted to (I was afraid I would lose him if I didn't) and then I would get into a vicious cycle of depression solved by a little retail therapy. I would get upset that I was working so hard to pinch pennies and save, save, save while he did whatever he wanted. So I would spend money I didn't have on my girls.

The truth is I took responsibility for our finances (for better or worse) and as such it was my responsibility to tell him that we didn't have the money he wanted to spend. Now 13 years later I am paying for my mistakes.

I can and will get out of this debt, and I will do so, by being honest with myself.

Last week my mother purchase 10 doz ears of corn from a local farmer for $10. She gave me 5 doz. I have spent a little time this week peeling boiling and cooling the corn. Last night I took 2 doz ears off the cobs and froze the kernals. Now I have the remaining 3 doz ears to do tonight.

I made homemade bread last night. First time in a long time. I don't like to bake bread in the summer as it can be so hot, so for next summer I am going to build my own solar oven, and bake my breads in that. It has to be portable, so it can go wherever I do, so I don't have an excuse to not use it. I am toying with building a solar dehydrator so I can make sun dried tomatoes and dehydrate several fruits and veggies.

I have 2 very large zuchini's from my mother in laws garden. I was thinking about slicing them up adding some onion, garlic and canned tomatoes (but I am out of canned tomatoes) so instead I am going to grate them and freeze them for use in sauces, casseroles, and even baked goods.

I am going to renew my efforts to spend less on my groceries and still purchase items organic and local.

As an effort to greatly trim my food budget I will be eating lots of soaked oats for breakfast (we have a decent supply, but even when these run out they are fairly cheap to buy organic and local) and lentil based dishes for lunches. I really enjoy lentils and find them versatile so this is good with me. Dinners will be based around NotSoGreen and the Girls food preferences, with the side dish being vegetarian. I plan to not eat much meat this winter and stick to the more vegetarian meals with eggs, beans and nuts for protein.

Soup season is upon us and I think making a nice big crockpot of soup or chili on Sunday and jaring up the rest for my lunches is a pretty good idea.

I still haven't done the sour dough starter and it may now be too cold to do so. I don't plan to turn the heat on any time soon, but when DH gets cold he will turn the heat on. When that happens I am going to reset the thermostat so that its on for him, but not as high as he tends to set it. Hopefully this compromise will keep us out of trouble.

We are looking at a 7% increase in our energy bills this winter, so I am going to get creative on heating and insulating the house. I am going to be seweing some draft blockers for the doors, and I am going to be using some old thrift store blankets to help insulate windows. I have seen some plans for solar window boxes (to heat the house) and I am going to try my hand at one of those, if it makes a difference then I will consider more and hopefully reap the solar benefits. The biggest drawback on those for us is the lack of sun in the winter and the over shadowing of neighboring houses.

New Plan!

2010-09-19T20:04:00.000-04:00

So the old plan isn't working. I need to convert to a cash system. Using my debit card, while convenient allows me to over spend. So I need to convert to cash. My thoughts was that I would try to earn my grocery money on Craigslist. I have lots of new and like new crap to get rid of in the process of reclaiming my home. Its getting to be the Holiday Season, which is when people like to shop CL for all sorts of great deals. My hope is to earn a minimum of $80 a week to use for my grocrey money. Then to use said cash for my grocery money and not take it out of my bank account. I want to use my bank account for bills that I can pay by debit or direct withdrawal without really going over my budget. I can pay my Mortgage, Student loans, Auto/Home Insurance, Phone/Cable, Gas and Electric and Water bills this way. If I am paying my Grocery bill from CL money then I am less likely to go over my budget. Now to get cracking on listing on CL. I was doing it a while back and doing pretty well, but then I slacked off (oh yeah the computer crashed and I lost my photo software.....) so now back at it.

Maybe I can kill 2 birds with one stone..... we shall see....

Next Week's Menu and Today's Grocery List

2010-09-03T08:23:00.000-04:00

So I am headed off for a weekend of camping, for which I don't have to worry one thing about the menu.

My grocery list has on it (all before menu planning):
Onion
Honey (enough to get through the week as I prefer to buy it local at the co-op or market)
Vinegar (since someone left the top of my large white vinegar jug and now I am not comfortable with using it for anything except cleaning)
Ground Cinamon
Milk
cat food
Tomato paste (even though we have 2 cans of it DH thinks I should get more, see how he doesn't get this budget thing?)
Ground Beef (even though nothin on the menu yet so we don't even know if we need ground beef). No I don't write the grocery list, instead I edit it. So now off to do my quick check of what stapples we need....

Our stock piles are pretty low. We have some chard, and eggplant, some brocolli and some patty pan squash that need to be used up. I was thinking I should blanch the chard and freeze it (as well as the brocolli) but its already 83 degrees in the house. If the veggies are still viable when I get back on Monday (early Tues I will blanch and freeze what I am not going to use in Tues' dinner).

The high temperatures are keeping things pretty hard to work with. We don't have air conditioning and the house is pretty hot when I come home. The grill is out unless I buy another tank of gas, which isn't currently in our budget.

On this weeks menu:

Capri Salad - (requires mozzerella, salad, and tomatoes) maybe some HB eggs
Sloppy Joes with Corn on the Cob sounds nice (need ground beef and buns)
Pulled Pork Sandwiches with Cucumber slices or some other cold sliced vegie, since we'll already have an 8 pack of buns (need BBQ sauce)
Summer Spaghetti is looking to be a good option. Maybe I will soak some white beans to add to mine (need white beans, spaghetti and basil)
Breakfast for dinner is also an option (I think we will have everything for this)
Egg Salad and Tuna Salad Sandwiches with sliced veggies

I won't plan breakfast because it will be:
eggs
breakfast sandwhiches
Smoothies
cereal
Pancakes
Waffles
etc.

Lunched for the girls will be taken care of by the school Wed-Friday so I only need to have enough on hand to feed them Tues lunch. Monday lunch will be camping left overs picnic style.

So to the above list I am adding:
Bread
carrots
salad fixings
mozzerrella
tomatoes
buns
BBQ sauce
Sushi Rice?
Rice Wine?
Nori Sheets
Pickled Ginger
Spaghetti
Basil
Tomatoes
I am planning to shop both my parents and paul's mom's garden first and then the store. I think most stores will be closed on Labor day, so if I don't shop today, I won't be able to shop until Tues. I think I will compromise and get the items I need for camping this weekend:
Water
Eng Muffins
White Hots
as well as
Buns and BBQ sauce (this way I can make pulled pork sandwiches using the left over pork loin I have when I get home on Monday, if the I don't feel up to making a veggie pasta.

September's Budget

2010-09-02T09:08:00.000-04:00

Income from JOB: $400/week take home x5 pay periods in Sept = $2000
DH's Settlement Funds: $1000/month
Total Income: $3000

Groceries (currently this does not include non-food items) : $60/week x 5 weeks = $300
Non-Food Groceries (Litter, Cat Food, Soaps, etc.): $40/month
Transportation: $110 - broken down below
                        $10 - bus fare (5 days this month that I could ride the bus instead of bike)
                        $60 - 1 tank of gas for the car
                        $40 - maintenance for the car (oil change etc.)
Kids Clothing/Misc: $50
Gift Giving: $50
Gas and Electric: $150 (will be higher in the colder months)
Mortgage: $400
Real Estate Taxes: $275
Home Owners Ins.: $70
Water Bill: $20
Car Payment: $250
Car Insurance: $60
Girl Tuition Payment: $200
Private Student Loan: $100
Federal Student Loan: $128
Bank Loan #1: $76
Bank Loan #2: $252
Credit Card C: $20
Credit Card D: $200
Home Improvement Store: $50
Girl's Violin Lessons: $40/week x 4 = $160
Phone and Internet: $55
Total: $3,016

So according to these calculations (and I am sure I will discover I forgot something). I need to scrounge an extra $16 this month just to stay in budget.

So what do you think. Is this reasonable? Is it doable?

What Does September Hold?

2010-09-01T10:54:00.000-04:00

I have been gone for a long while. Most of August. August was not pretty for me. As a matter of fact I pulled out the emergency credit card (yep knew I should have destroyed it when it came in....). I am further in debt, just how far I have yet to calculate. I will calculate it on the sidebar when I am feeling strong enough.

I was to busy and under planned for all of the summer. I don't like menu plans. I would eat cold plates (also known as cleaning out the fridge) every night or forgoe dinner entirely. In an attempt to get back on track I am starting a NO SPEND CHALLENGE! The Challenge is not to spend outside my budget for the remainder of the year. Yes its going to be tough, but the alternative is divorce and bankrupcty. I will be sharing my budget in a later post, and the budget is in fact more than I bring in, so part of the budget is going to include making up the shortfall. I will do this by getting a move on the decluttering and using Craigslist and the front lawn (as long as the weather holds out).

My name is Tree and I have a problem. I can't stick to a budget, and I don't like to plan meals.

Lets start with menu planning. My big issue is that I have simple food requirements. Food doesn't have to be spectacular, as a matter of fact I am just as happy with a bowl of beans and rice as a fancy meal. What I do like for fancy meals, my kids and husband don't tend to like.

I am going to look at month long dinner menu planning, and involve both DH and the Girls. I am going to ask them each to come up with 3 dinner ideas per month, and that will give me 9 meals to pull from (it will also help me figure out what it is they like to eat). What I really need to find is a dry erase board (the kind that sticks to the fridge- I have been looking but haven't found one as of yet) to list all the meal ideas and check them off as we use them.

I also need to do a complete inventory before I go to the store since no one can tell me when they have used up or almost used up any item (including kitty litter and cat food).

I am planning on revamping my food shopping routine. I would like to go to the Co-op 1x per month (on shareholder days and get the items I need, have coupons for and are on sale). The co-op recently changed its sale policy from a monthly sale to a 2 week sale, but unless there is something spectacular on sale in the second half of the month and I have coupons, I am going to try to pass up a second trip to the store.

I would like to go to the Market (going to have to head back to the Public Market until next spring) for Milk and fresh local veggies once every other week. This will require that I buy 4 gallons of milk at a time, costing us $18/week just for milk, but I think we can do it.

Other changes. I tend not to plan for many expenses such as when the kids need new shoes, or when they have birthday parties to go to. So I am going to add two lines to my budget and fund those envelopes, yes I am going to an envelope system, until they have $100 in them.

This post is already pretty long so I will post my budget tomorrow. When I post my budget I am looking for honest opinions on the workability of my budget and ways I can save more.

Thanks blogsphere for the support and help, I won't get through this without you.

Home Jewelry Parties

2010-08-09T15:25:00.000-04:00

What do you all think about home jewelry parties? For the most part the jewelry is made cheaply overseas, and I can't find locally made jewelry (that I can afford). So what's a girl to do?

The local jewelry makers are charging a premium because they lack business, and if the premium was affordable I would pay it, but $200 for a beaded necklace is out of my price range.

So what do you think about them? They certainly aren't green or sustainable, but does the fact that they create a local job make a difference?

On Building a Community

2010-08-09T09:46:00.000-04:00

You know that saying.... Good Fences Make Good Neighbors.... so I really, really think its true. I have been living in my community for 10 years now, and I am really trying to build a communty. I say hello to everyone when I am out walking, I mow the neighbors lawns when I have the time and am doing mine. Some time ago (6 years or so) I got new neighbors. When the moved in the complained about the dilapidated fence and large Beechnut Tree and the weeds and trees between the two houses.

Just as a reminder we live on a city lot.

Now the dilapidated fence was on our to do list, but we didn't want to remove it until we had the money to replace it. It doesn't help that the neighbor before them installed an unpermitted fence and pushed our fence over causing much damage. The tree, was a large and overbearing tree, but I didn't mind it when the girls were little. I provided shade for the house (keeping it naturally cool) and the playset in the back yard. I did however plan to remove the tree as it took up 75% of our back yard so I could garden. We had the opportunity to have the tree removed as a gift, so we had it removed. They left a large stump, which they were to come back and grind. Not 2 days after the tree had been removed did they start complaining about the ugly stump in my back yard. Several month later the stump was ground and we were left with much ground tree (which I planned to use to mulch the garden and flower beds).

Soon thereafter the complaining about the tree remains began, and more on the fence and the weeds. About a year ago a windstorm took down the fence, and we haven't been able to replace it. I was reported to NET this summer for overgrown weeds so I have been working diligently to remove them.

Now a couple of weekends ago I started putting in my haybales for my raised bed organic garden. Saturday I was out side putting in a second bale (its slow going with not using power tools, doing it myself and all the tree roots I am dealing with) and the neighbor came out.

You know hay molds. Yes it does, it also decomposes and creates lovely compost. Well when your husband took down the fence he said he was going to replace it. Yes when the wind blew the fence over and we removed the remnants we did intend to replace it, but we haven't done so yet. Well I am going to put a fence up. Great, make sure you apply for a permit, and have the property surveyed and staked. I am going to have to insist that the fence be the code allowance off the property line. I did have a survey when I bought my house and my line is from that tree, to that driveway right along this fence. Now what I wanted to say was BULLS*&^, because the tree is less than 6 years old, its a volunteer and could not have been there when the house was surveyed but what I said instead was, well then we are in disagreement and you will have to get it surveyed and staked before you can put a fence up. This fence which is mine, is on my property and accordingly off the property line 6" that means that your fence will need to be 12" from my fence.

Don't you have someone that can do this for you? No I like working in the yard, besides my husband's back prevents him from being much help. Is that why he doesn't work? No he doesn't work because we believe in one of us being home with the children. Well can't you hire someone to do this for you? No, I don't believe in paying people to do what I am capable of doing myself. Well its awefully hard work and it would be easier for a man to do it? Hey I wasn't raised that way. We women pull our own weight and don't hand off a job because its hard work or heavy lifting. I know my limitations and ask for help when I need it but I don't judge myself incapable because I am a woman. I didn't mean that, but I am not capable of doing these things anymore, I'm 74 and I had 2 heart attacks, so I just can't. Well I'm 32 and I can.

The entire time we "chatted" I was working on cutting back volunteer trees that I had left along long enough to truly establish. Now truth be told it would be nice if I had lots of help with my garden project, but the fact is if I don't do it myself or have complete control over it, I will never eat the veggies that come out of it. Its an OCD thing and I cannot ignore it or get over it. But how is it any of her business?

I am so tired of these neighbors, she also informed me that the corner neighbor (behind her and I) had their posts on her property and she could make them move them. Now I didn't argue with her, but the fact is, if they are, they are a permanent and known structure and she bought the house subject to them being there and cannot demand that they be removed (they hold up the neighbors carport) but I don't believe that they are on her property. I believe her property runs with the utlitity pole like mine (which means he is well within his property line for the pillars).

She is a grumpy old neighbor and I just want her out of my hair. I am considering extending yet another olive branch. I am willing to allow her to continue the fence from my fence all the way down the property (which is 6 inches on my property) at her cost if she wants to put in the same fence as exists (a 3' chain link). If she wants to put in a 6' pressure treated canker sore she will have to put it 6" inside her property and duplicate the section that my fence already covers.