Simplicity Fail: Or When Planning Turns Into Covetousness

It all started with my renewed interest in taking homemaking seriously. During prayer time last week, I came to realize that I haven't been taking my job as a homemaker seriously. Nothing too terrible was happening, but dishes in the sink, dusty floors, and stacks of stuff randomly situated around the house became commonplace. One place of neglect were the windows in our family room/ kitchen open concept space. When we moved in there were green and purple walls. We got used to them. There were green laminate countertops. We got used to them. The previous owners took the curtains but left the rods. We got used to it. The cabinets were an odd sort of pickled cream while the appliances were white. I NEVER got used to them.  When our television broke and we bought a new one, our old coffee table became the new tv stand. Instead of replacing the dysfunctional overhead microwave we just put another one on the countertop.

Basically our most used room in the house was slowly sliding into ugliness. At first I looked at inexpensive ways to fix things--on the cheap. First up, build and paint an easy corner tv stand so we could reclaim our coffee table.

The prospect of a painted tv stand led me to wanting to paint our cabinets. I found a few tutorials and well, I was off to the races. That led me to pintrest, HGTV.com, and Houzz. My to-do list grew and grew:

• replace the microwave and dishwasher
• paint the cabinets white
• replace the laminate counters with wood--put together by me with my Kreg jig
• replace the non-functioning pendant lights with ones that shed more light
• repaint the dingy refrigerator
• replace the white knobs and pulls with brushed nickel ones
• sew purple and white curtains
• add a roller shade to the back door to cut the heat in summer
• build and paint a corner tv stand
• sew white canvas slipcovers for the sofa
• buy slipper or arm chairs so there is more seating around the tv
• build a few end tables
• buy a sisal or other neutral colored rug
• replace the black mats at the doors

Hours and hours later I had an an entire pintrest board devoted to all the new things I wanted to do to improve this space.

Then, I made the mistake of asking my husband his opinion. He loves the cabinets and even the awful green countertops. So I did what any grown woman would do in this situation: I pouted. I was stuck with an awful family open concept room! After a few hours of pouting I realized that I had fallen into that oh-so-attractive consumerist trap again. In my effort to beautify and make our space more useful, I had assumed that I had to buy and change stuff to make me happy. My happiness depended upon me getting to do what I wanted and (more importantly) buy what I wanted.

My online information gathering had morphed into online covetousness. So I've decided to take a break, clean my kitchen, put away the piles, and try to focus on one bit at a time. For now, keep things tidy and neat. I think I need to step away from the pintrest, and focus on the work rather than the dreaming for a while.

In Anticipation of Spring

It still looks like winter here in Ames; snow is on the ground and coats are a must. But after nearly nine months of waiting, I finally ordered a cargo bike to be delivered to Skunk River Cycles to be built and tuned up. It is due to arrive via FedEx Ground on Monday of next week. I figure it will take about a week for it to be assembled. That gives the snow plenty of time to melt and me plenty of time to develop my bike legs in time for Ames' Kidical Mass inaugural 2013 family ride at the end of the month.

How did you choose your bike?
Originally, when we moved to Ames, Tim and I just planned to get regular bikes and a trailer for the boys. Having gone down to a one-car family with the move to Iowa, we wanted to challenge ourselves with going car-lite. This was made even more possible by buying a house that is about a mile from pretty much everywhere we usually go: park, school, church, grocery, etc. Before you get too impressed, Ames isn't that big and everything is within about a 3-mile radius of our centrally located house.

I hemmed and hawed and read about two thousand blogs about all the various trailers and trail-a-bike systems. I was a little nervous about the trailers because our one-car garage is rather full with our one car. I also doubted that a trailer would really be useful for much longer as the boys get bigger and older.  Would it be "cool" to be in a kid trailer to go to kindergarten? Would they beat each other black and blue in the confines of a trailer?

Somewhere along my web surfing I cam across the cargo bikes and my real obsession began. I mooned over xtracycles, Madsens and Yubas. I considered the Big Dummy and even the big clunky box bikes. Since Tim and I are backpackers, we dreamed of being able to go bike camping with the boys which made the xtracycle and Yubas more attractive for their handling. Ultimately I decided to go with the Yuba...it seemed the most sturdy and simple for a novice like me. Also it seemed to be the one that more moms with lots o' kids were using in the blogosphere. I really liked the fact that it was possible for the boys to ride their own bikes and then hop on mine when they got tired. Bottom line, if it wasn't going to make towing two kids easy, I wouldn't have much time to use it.

Where did you buy your bike?
I had a choice to make: buy online and have it built locally or buy in Des Moines and purchase a tandem bike carrier to bring it home. Ultimately I decided that it was better to stick with the local folks as I figured we'd be needing lots of service and accessories through the years if we were really going to go car-lite. I cringed at not being able to buy it locally though. I have no idea if bike shops make their  margin on large or small items, but it sure would have been nicer to let some local salesperson get the commission on my purchase. Skunk River Cycles was my choice: they support a lot of the same charities we do and they have a shop cat. Oh, and they are within walking distance of our house. And I like shopping on Main Street in general. Even our closing attorney recommended them!

How much is this bike costing you?
Well, if you really want to know, go to the Yuba website and check out the prices yourself. It isn't cheap, but compared to a car or a year-long gym membership it is more than reasonable. Now you see why we saved up for nine months for this purchase. Since we've gone down to one car we've seen our gas expenses go from $400 per month to about $125--most of that being trips to the Science Museum. Our insurance has been reduced by about 75%. Obviously with less wear and tear on the Subaru, our maintenance costs are also significantly lower. If I prorate our gas, insurance and taxes on the car (excluding repairs) the Yuba Mundo will cost about the equivalent of six months of car ownership. So I figure in the course of about 2.5 years we will recoup the costs.

Now I just play the waiting game. I watch the Weather Channel and the FedEx Tracking website more often than necessary. I dream of popping boys on the back and tooling around town.

The Great Lakes of Iowa

This past weekend we decided to out drive the rainy weather and headed north to the "Iowa Great Lakes" region. If the name is confusing, no, there hasn't been a great shift in geography--Iowa doesn't border on one of the Great Lakes (Superior, Eerie, etc.). These are the Iowa Great Lakes, folks. See, it's different.

Actually despite the name confusion, this area earns its moniker as "Iowa's number one resort." Frankly, it is probably the only resort but who's quibbling? It reminds me of a midwestern Highlands, NC or Seaside, FL. Lots of big houses, lots of resorts, lots of cabin rentals. It being September we were there in the "off season" so things were relatively quiet.

We enjoyed some quiet camping by one of the lakes. Temperatures got a bit chilly—it was about 45 degrees in the morning with the bonus wind coming off the lake. Some good coffee and cocoa warmed us up quickly though.

Here's our new 6-man tent that we got for the bargain price of $100 after triple markdown and end-of-season sale. (Frugal note: September is a great time to get camping equipment on sale!)

Here's a quick shot of Xavier helping daddy tote water back from the pump a few campsites away.

Our plan is to keep camping on the weekends until the weather just doesn't allow it anymore. We love being outside and enjoying Jiffy pop around the campfire at night and singing campfire songs. Good clean family fun.

Hot Lists and Price Books

Did you all enjoy your week and a half off? Sorry about the gap in classes, folks. With my stepdaughter here for the summer I've been so busy living life that I've had little to no time to blog about it. Couponing and bargain hunting has been making its effect on my family. The boys love to play with my discarded coupons when I'm culling out the expired ones. My stepdaughter is beginning to learn more about PPU (price per unit) and just realized yesterday that the popcorn that the movies sells for $4 costs us about $.06 to make at home.

Enough chit chat, let's get down to business. Today we are going to learn about the value and use of price books. If you only do ONE thing from this series of blog posts, this is it. Back in the dark ages before marriage and kids I worked as an editor of a small women's magazine. One of the parts of my job was to keep an eye on the costs of our supplies and vendors (printers, paper, delivery service, shipping service, etc.) and every so often to comparison shop. Money saved was money earned, quite literally for me as my compensation was based in part on the profitability of each and every issue. I had elaborate spreadsheets dedicated to analyzing various business expenses and how they could change our profitability.

When I shifted gears into homemaking, making a price book made perfect sense to me. I was new to Beaumont and I had no idea which stores had the best prices. Why wouldn't I make a list of what I bought and how much it cost? So using both my receipts and flyers from grocery stores I made a new spreadsheet with the following columns:

• Category Organize your price book into whatever categories make sense to you. Mine are Baking Goods, Beauty/Grooming, Beverages, Breads, Canned Goods, Cleaning Products, Condiments, Dairy, Frozen, Meat, Pasta, Produce and Seafood.
• Item, Here you specify the item name. If it is an item you are brand loyal about, put the exact product name (i.e. Sensodyne), otherwise just put the generic name (whitening toothpaste).
• Date, Slowly you'll begin to realize that certain products go on sale about every 12 weeks and others go on sale seasonally. Having the date also lets you monitor how overall prices are increasing over time.
• Store, I have abbreviations for each store I frequent
• Quantity, List the numeral for the size or amount of what was purchased (i.e. 24)
• Unit, List the unit of measurement such as ounces, gallons, pounds, etc. If it is produce sold by the piece just put the word unit there
• Price, List the price paid without including any coupons used.
• PPU, Here you will need to do a little spreadsheet operation to divide your column of price by your column of quantity. The result is the PPU. This is what will help you easily compare the price for a 28 oz can of tomatoes to a 14 oz can.

Now instead to making a massive price book for every single item you ever might think of buying, you are going to start out slow with a Hot List Price Book. To start out you need to write down about 20 items that are staples in your household. Hint: what are you always running out of? What fills up your cart? What do you spend the most on? If Armageddon were upon us, what would you stock up on? Some items on our household's hotlist are milk, apples, bananas, apple juice, eggs, coffee, raisins, bread, whole wheat pasta, and popcorn. If you are a meat eater don't forget to add a few meats to your list. Ours includes ground beef, whole chickens, and pork chops.

A word about brand loyalty. I've said before that you will save more in the long run if you can discard most brand loyalty in the supermarket. But undoubtedly there are a few things that you just would rather go without than buy a lesser brand. For me this is Sensodyne toothpaste and Glide dental floss. Put these items on your hotlist by the brand name.

When I put together my first price book I quickly learned that I could save at least $50 a month by buying milk, eggs, coffee and popcorn at Kroger and canned goods, some produce and most meats at Market Basket. I also learned that for our family, Sam's Club didn't make any difference at all from a PPU perspective and that while some products were less expensive at Wal-mart, most weren't. That's about $600 a year in savings without even clipping a coupon. Pretty cool, right?

Homework: Make your Hotlist Pricebook.
You can make a spread sheet or you can just use a notebook and a calculator. I'm sure somewhere someone has made an app for this as well but as a cell phone Luddite I'm no help to you there. Draw up a price book sheet in whatever way works best for you. Make about five blank spaces below each of your 20 hot list items. Over the next week or so (it may be a while before I post again) fill in your price book when you go to the stores you frequent. Don't forget to include club stores and drug stores as well as supermarkets.

Coupon College: Books, Blogs, & Buddies

Welcome back, class! Do you have your coupon holding devices? How about a newspaper subscription? Great. Now let's start filling those notebooks and wallets with coupons. If you did your homework, Sunday's coupons should already be in your notebook's plastic sleeves. I got two in my paper: Red Plum and SmartSource. Also wrapped around my whole paper was a sleeve containing three cereal samples and three $1 off coupons for those cereals.

In Tuesday's mail the fliers for the three major grocery chains arrived as well. Around here sales run from Wednesday to Tuesday. I try to do most of my major shopping on Monday or Tuesday then as I will have that Sunday's coupons to incorporate into my shopping. During the week I make small fill-in trips as well. More about this in the How to Shop lesson.

Web Coupons
Even with all those coupons from the paper, you can really benefit from couponing by the oodles and oodles of them available on the web. Here are a few of my favorite places to find coupons on the web:

1. Kroger Website This is pretty much the only place you will find coupons on Kroger brand items.
   
2. Coupons.com This is sort of the large clearing house for coupons. Most web coupons piggyback on their printing software.
   
3. Smartsource.com This is the online version of the same item in the paper. It is a great resource for duplicates when you find a really good coupon in the paper.
   
4. Redplum.com Same.
   
5. MamboSprouts.com Great resource for coupons for organic or health food store items.

In addition to these mainstays, many manufacturers have coupons right on their websites. If you have a certain brand that you are insanely loyal to, it is worth it to check out their website for coupons or sign up for their newsletters or e-mail alerts for sales. I have a separate email address that I use just for this purpose.

Coupon Blogs/Websites

More than likely though you don't have the time or the inclination to visit every possible corporate website that you might possibly benefit from. That's where the coupon blogs and websites come in handy. There are thousands of these out there--baby coupons, regional sites, organic, you name it. The trick is to find two or three that are a good fit for your household.

My favorites are:

1. Coupon Mom In particular there are two tools on the site that I use each week: the coupon database and the deals by state. Go ahead and set up an account with this site (using your coupon e-mail address) because it is very useful. Look at those two tools in particular and just poke around this site. We'll get to specifics in a few lessons.
   
2. Money Saving Mom The lady who writes this blog is a SAHM who homeschools and follows a Dave Ramsey style of money management. She also spends a great deal of time collecting sales information. I have a feed to her blog and scan it once a day.
   
3. Frugal Coupon Living This is the newest feed I've added to my collection. I like that it includes sales to places like hardware stores and other retail chains.

Other Coupons/Information

Once you start looking for coupons you'll be amazed at all the places you'll find them. On the packages of food, in the grocery store aisles, in Parade or other glossy magazines. Some of the best coupons you'll get are spit out of the cash register when you check out of the grocery store. I've had coupons for $5 of free produce and $3 off eggs before.

Choosing Coupons

Now obviously you aren't going to need every single coupon you come across. When you get serious about saving money on grocery shopping one of the first things to go out the window is brand loyalty. (A few things you'll never pay for again once you start couponing and give up brand loyalty is toothpaste, deodorant, and toothbrushes.) But even then there will be coupons you just KNOW you will never use. I use the following rule of thumb when evaluating whether or not to clip/save/print a coupon:

Would I get this if it were free or nearly free? Would I keep it for myself or could I give it away to a food bank or friend?

So I'll save the Activia coupons (even though I prefer my own yogurt!) but pass on dog food items. Sometimes I'll find a coupon that I'm fairly sure I won't use but I know it is an item a friend uses regularly. I'll clip it anyway and give it to them. I strongly believe in the be nice and pay it forward principle when it comes to home economics.

Homework
Okay, so your homework for this week is to make a favorites folder on your web browser and add links to all the sites above. Subscribe to the blogs and review a few pages worth of entries. Try your hand at printing out a few coupons just to see what its like. Don't feel obligated to DO anything with these coupons just yet. You're just beginning to build your collection.

Now Enrolling: Coupon College

Over the past few years I've had several people express interest in learning some of the ways I save money on our family's grocery bill. Several others are skeptical that we can use coupons and shop sales without resorting to a high-fat diet of Chefboyardee and fruit punch for dinner each night. So in an effort to help the would-be-frugal (and I admit, squelch the naysayers) I've decided to design a step-by-step course called Coupon College.

There are tons of resources on the internet and in the public library to help you started with saving money and couponing. Why should I reinvent the wheel? I think to jumpstart the process it helps to have someone point out the good deals to you while you are also setting up your own shopping and couponing system. While you work on learning how to coupon, I'll help you right now by pointing out good local sales to you. If it took three months before you started to see any improvement at all, you'd probably give up before you got started. The fact of the matter is that this is somewhat a local proposition. Deals in Texas don't automatically appear in New Hampshire. For that matter the deals in Houston may be completely different from the deals in Beaumont. So while my friends across the country are welcome to join in (and will certainly benefit) the biggest winners in Coupon College are likely to be folks in and around Beaumont, TX. Those of you in other locales will need to use common sense to take what is useful and disregard the rest. I will be providing helpful links to articles, blogs, and databases that will help you customize your own system.

So, let's get a few of the FAQs out of the way, shall we?

Q: How much will Coupon College cost?

A: This is a personal blog--it isn't monetized in any way. I do not accept payment or products from any company and do not intend to in the future. I post for my own edification and enjoyment of helping and connecting with others. Accordingly, Coupon College is a completely free and voluntary program. There is no monetary tuition. I would ask that once you get the hang of couponing that you "pay it forward." This could mean donating extra food to a food bank, teaching your neighbor how to coupon, or just forwarding someone else the link to this series. It's up to you.

Q: Does that mean I won't need to spend any money at all do participate in Coupon College?

A: Not exactly. One of our first lessons will be on "school supplies" which will contain a list of optional but recommended tools you'll need. It is made up of really hard-to-find and expensive items like a loose leaf binder, a coupon carrier, a pair of scissors, etc. You may also wish to subscribe to the Sunday paper, which in Beaumont is just $9 per month. If you are really strapped for cash, you can always make do with some old used envelopes and your neighbor's recycled newspapers.

Q: Will there be homework?

A: Yes! You can't expect yourself to learn anything new if you aren't willing to do a little work on your own. I'm not going to wave a magic wand and automatically reduce your grocery bill by 20% each week. You should expect to spend about two hours each week on Coupon College. Some weeks it may be more, some weeks it may be less. Look at it this way: can you think of two television shows you watched last week that in retrospect you could have done without? That wasted time could have been spend being productive in Coupon College. Once you get the hang of it, couponing and shopping sales will feel like second nature like brushing your teeth before you go to bed.

Q: Will there be tests or exams?

A: Yes! From time to time you will need to "test" yourself to make sure you really do know how to implement what you are learning. You can choose to share your test results with the rest of us via the comments boxes or not. Either way, you really ought to at least keep track of your progress to keep you going. I'll be posting my progress as well by giving you our weekly budget and a report on how we did.

Q: How long is Coupon College?

A: Three months. I'll post at least once a week about a new topic and an assignment. I suggest doing things "my way" for this period. Just subscribe to this blog and you're in. Once you are done, you can decide how best to tweak your shopping system to best fit your family's needs.

Q: I'm not a SAHM, a healthfood freak, in need of saving money, etc. Why should I even consider doing this?

A: Quite simply: freedom. Even if you can spare the extra $200 each month for groceries that you would save by couponing, would you turn down $200 if someone offered it to you? Everytime you save a dollar from your household budget you buy a little bit of your freedom back. Perhaps you can use it to go on vacation, or splurge on a fancy date night once a month, or afford to eat more organic/sustainable food. Why spend money that you don't need to? And if for some unforseen reason you do find yourself tight on money one day, you will be glad to know these skills.

Okay, that's the pitch. Are you in or are you out? Leave a message in the comments or send me an e-mail if you'd like to join us. Oh, and feel free to pass a link along to a friend!

Homesewn Luxury

A few weeks ago we finally were able to buy a new box spring and mattress for our master bedroom. This was a purchase that was planned, delayed, replanned, and so on for at least two and a half years. Whenever we had the money in the budget some unforeseen expense would come up that was more urgent. Since we are a pay-as-you-go kind of family, charging what is basically a non-emergency expense was out of the question. So I waited. Sometimes with patience, other times with resentment or self-pity. The entire mattress issue became a spiritual issue for me. I spent time in prayer about it.

Fortunately when the time came we found a great mattress that was well within our budget with a little left over. It's near-double depth compared to the old mattress meant that we would need new sheets too. So I turned my online research skills from mattresses to sheets.

My husband is what some call a "hot sleeper." Not only does he feel hot at night but he heats up the bed and sheets as well thus affecting us both. I found out that our old high thread count cotton sheets may have been making things worse as the tight weave makes for softness but less breathability.

I also discovered that 100% linen sheets are the gold standard for hot sleepers. Unfortunately, they are also extraordinarily pricey. It isn't uncommon to find them on sale for about $800 for an entire set. So with a little disappointment, I went to Target and bought the lowest thread count cotton sheets I could find. They were good, but I kept fantasizing about how much better the $800 linen sheets would be.

One morning it occured to me that I could make our own sheets. While they would need to be pieced together from 60" cloth they would still be linen. I was unable to find any online instructions on how to sew your own queen-sized sheets from fabric--I suppose you have to be a little nutty like me to even want to try. So for posterity, here are my instructions and lessons learned. I'll try to add some more how-to photos in the future.

A queen flat sheets is 92x102 inches finished. In lieu of making a fitted sheet, I decided to make two oversized flat sheets, one of which can be folded with hospital corners on the bottom. That way they would be interchangable. I also needed four pillow cases, 20x32 inches finished.

I found a great online store to order the fabric from. I must have been in a fog when I ordered the fabric because I only got 8 yards when I really needed 17. Somehow I lost sight of the fact that each sheet required two three-yard lengths. Don't make my mistake!

In any case, here's the how-to for a single sheet:

Cut two lengths of cloth at 3 yards each. One will be the center panel and the other will be split down the middle to form the two side panels. Depending on the desired final width (full, queen, king) you may want to split the second piece into three panels, a side panel from each edge (you'll want to work with the selvege, believe me) and the remainer cut out from the center piece. I chose to just keep the extra width to make it easier to use as a bottom sheet and to be able to use if we ever upgrade to a king-size bed.

Prewash, line dry, and press the fabric. Then pin the raw edge of the side panel to the selvege side of the center panel. Because you are working with such an expanse of fabric, you'll want to pin carefully. Sew a 5/8 inch seam. Press flat, then press open. Trim the raw edge of the seam down to a 1/4 inch. Fold selvege edge of the seam over it and press. Sew near the edge of the selvege. This is called a flat-felled seam. It encases the raw edge and results in a sturdy flat seam similar to those you'll find on a pair of blue jeans. Repeat the same on the other side of the center panel with the second side piece making sure the flat felled seams are on the same side of the sheet.

Double fold the bottom edge of the sheet (1/4 and then 5/8 inch) and press to form an encased hem. Stitch the edge through all three layers.

Single or double fold the sides of the sheet--since they are selvege edges you don't need to worry about fraying.

Double fold the top edge of the sheet (1/4 and then 4 inches) and press to form a thick encased hem. Stitch through all three layers. This is the area where you may choose to do a decorative stitch across the top. I preferred the simpler look. These are positively monastic and deliciously so. I would refrain from hemstitching like you see on tea towels though as that basically weakens the sheet which is intended for heavy duty use. I imagine after a year or two it would tear sort of like perforated toilet paper.

Pillowcases

Pillowcases were much easier for me. Cut a 44x36 inch square--a little less than one full yard of 60 inch cloth. Fold it over width-wise to form the pillowcase shape. Stitch along the bottom and side. I did a straight stitch first and then went back over with a overedge stitch on my machine similar to an overlock/serger stitch. Basically I wanted a no-fray finish without having to turn under the seam. Then double fold the open edge of the pillowcase (1/4 and then 4 inches), press, and stitch through all three layers close to the folded edge. Again, if you are going for a decorative stitch this should be the place for it. No hemstitching though!

Here are a few things I would do differently next time...learn from my mistakes:

• Buy the correct amount of cloth in the first place! 17 yards, not 8. Doh!
  
• Don't bother with prewashing the fabric since there is a lot of wiggle room in the final dimensions. Prewashing just created a pressing and edge trimming hassle I think.


• Pin, pin, pin and pin before stitching. Yes, it's a straight stitch but as I mentioned earlier a little bit of slippage over the course of a 3-yard length makes for a huge uneven edge. While I did pin, next time I'll do it about twice as much to avoid that problem again.
  

So far, we've been sleeping on the cotton bottom sheet with the linen top sheet until I can make a second order of linen. I find that it feels so wonderful to be in linen sheets but it does take a little getting used to if you are accustomed to silkier sheets. The best adjectives I can use to describe it are "soft and crisp." Oh, and it is much much cooler but yet still cozy. Apparently linen sheets are a study in contradiction...like the phrase homesewn luxury I suppose.

Masters Degree in Homemaking

Yesterday I went grocery shopping with a good friend with the goal of helping share a little bit of my money saving techiniques. It was chaotic to say the least. I just pointed out items in the produce section that were a good bargain, tried to explain PPU comparisons, and grocery timing all while we were maneuvering two huge car/carts with two toddlers and a baby in tow. I mistakenly was trying to do too much too fast. Upon reflection later in the evening, I realized that it has taken me a while to accumulate what I know about shopping frugally.

I didn't have a job for the first six months of my married life. One month was taken up by our fantastic honeymoon in Vermont. One month was consumed by combining our households and moving to Beaumont. The remaining four months are what I refer to as my time earning my self-taught masters degree in homemaking: home finance to be exact.

I used to grocery shop willy nilly. I had no idea what things cost. Price of a bell pepper? No idea. When it would be in season and therefore cheaper. Again, no idea. Were fresh peppers more or less expensive than frozen ones? What?!

But during those easy, kid-free days of my early marriage, I tackled homemaking the way I had tackled other workplace challenges. I started out by reading. A lot. Blogs, library books, websites, coupon clubs, anything I could get my hands on. I made a price book with a spreadsheet program. I made a list of the top 30 items we buy each month and comparison shopped at three grocery stores, the dollar store, and even snuck into the Sam's Club without a membership card. I'm sure I raised a few eyebrows as I just went down the aisle with my notebook, pencil and calculator in hand. As a courtesy I bought a small item at each store (with the exception of Sam's). As my husband reminds me, I even went to the "ghetto" grocery store across town to see prices were cheaper there. For the record, I was horrified to see that they were the same or MORE expensive for the same items. I tried various methods of couponing and quickly realized that brand loyalty was a thing of the past for me. Oh, and I realized that I'll never pay full price for a craft item again thanks to coupons from Hobby Lobby and Joann's. I got familiar with the thrift stores in town and I garage-saled a lot.
Even after starting paid employment up until I had my first child, I still read and read some more about how to save money and run household finances efficiently.  

I am so greatful for that time because once kids came along, doing the hard work of getting up to speed as a homemaker was pushed to the side in favor of reading books, websites, and blogs about raising kids.

Now, I'm no expert on frugal living yet. There are ladies out there in the blogosphere that feed a family of six on $50 a week while using mostly organic foods. I'm not there yet, and perhaps I'll never be. At a certain point I have to accept that there is only so much scrounging around for deals that I'm willing to do. I love the hunt of a good bargain and a penny saved but I'm not ready to make it my sole focus. I do think that to be successful at this, you need to make it a hobby. Amy D., author of the Tightwad Gazette book series says that she only has hobbies that save money or are at least spending neutral--none of those $100 trips to Hobby Lobby for her! I have taken her advice to heart. My hobbies are more likely to be baking, sewing gifts, and vegetable gardening than the golf, shopping, and dining out in my single years.

I know a lot of people are trying to trim budgets these days. In the case of my friend, she's working towards savings for a positive financial goal. Others are thrust into frugality school by necessity such as job loss. If you have the time and interest in running a tighter ship when it comes to your household finances, I'd recommend these three guidelines:

Go slowly at your own pace. What is good for someone else might feel like extreme deprivation for your family. There are many, many ways to practice good financial stewardship as a homemaker. Most of them take time though. If you have a lot of free time, like I did in the early days of my marriage, than you will be able to make changes more quickly. But even I revert back to less frugal ways when things get hectic around here with guests in town or if Tim is away on business. Sometimes you just don't have the time and energy to find the good deals, make a meal plan around it, and cook from scratch each night. Something's gotta give. Which leads me to guideline number two...

Don't measure your sucess by comparing yourself to others. There is no way I could do what I do with our home finances if I worked a full-time or even part-time job. Homemaking is a fulltime endeavor for me so I can do things that others can't do. At the same time, I'm relatively new at this. I'm sure the real frugalistas out there could cut my spending by at least another 30% without us feeling a pinch. It's all relative and you can't enjoy your progress if you are constantly comparing yourself to others. Also, try to refrain from getting too sanctimonious about how much you save/other people "waste" on groceries/clothes/whatever. I fell into this trap at first. If being frugal is going to make you a judgemental prig, it isn't worth it.

Find enjoyment in it. Some folks love the couponing game. I'm not as crazy about it since we try not to eat as many processed foods but for those who do, a lot of money can be saved this way. I've turned scratch cooking into a source of pleasure for me and the boys. At least one day a week be bake and freeze muffins, bread, bagels, cakes, you name it. Gardening is another source of fun although we're nowhere near feeding ourselves primarily from what we grow. I LOVE finding a good closeout deal at the store or blithley walking by a false sale--that's a product labelled as if it is on sale but my price book indicates that you can get it for a much lower price at other times of the year. I LOVE passing on sale information to like-minded frugal folks.

All of this brings me back to my failed grocery store tutorial from yesterday. It was a crash course. Because we were both shopping it was hard not to compare what each of us put in the cart. And because we went at a busy time of the day with somewhat cranky and hyper kids, it wasn't the leisurly fun that grocery shopping can be at other times. I broke my own three rules! Despite all this, my friend still did fantastic and managed to cut her spending by about 15-20% on that one trip. Which I suppose should be guideline number four: just do it!

Yogurt: Set It and Forget It

I've been on a scratch cooking kick lately. The thing about cooking from scratch is that once you start doing it, it becomes progressively easier. No, really. You know that you have the basics in the house: flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, yeast, milk or milk powder, eggs, oils and butters, and spices. It means that whipping up a batch of muffins, pancakes, bagels, or cookies is just a matter or measuring out what you already have on hand. It is almost as easy as dumping a box mix in a bowl and adding egg and oil. But with scratch cooking you know exactly what you are feeding your family.

Xavier has loved to help cook since he was about 18 months old. I'll measure and he'll put things in the bowl. He "stirs" and then I stir after him. He can put paper cups in the muffin tin. He likes to watch things bake through the oven's glass door. One of the easiest ways to scratch cook is to find catch-all recipies. I have a basic bread recipie that can use honey, brown sugar, or any other kind of sweetener, as well as butter, olive oil, veggie oil or any other fat as the, well, fat in the recipie. I also have a basic muffin recipie to which I can add overripe bananas, raisins, even leftover mashed sweet potatoes. Scratch cooking is a great way to use up leftovers and boost nutrition at the same time.

A few weeks ago I found an online recipe for yogurt that didn't involve getting a yogurt maker (which just means one more one-use gadget cluttering my small kitchen) or using a heating pad (I'm a little squeamish about using non-cookware for dairy products). Instead this recipie used one of my favorite tools: the crockpot! Here's the recipie itself. I find that letting the yogurt sit a little longer than 8 hours (say 10-11) produces the best results. I put the finished product back into large and small yogurt containers I've saved from store-bought in the past. Just make sure to use a sharpie and masking tape to label the "use by" date on each container.

Now here's how you can extend the recipie even further. If you have fruit that is just this side of overripe, puree it in the blender and freeze into ice cubes. When you're heading out the door, pop a cube into a small single-serving container, fill up with yogurt, pop it in the diaper bag, and you're good to go with a snack.

Another way to extend the useful life of your yogurt, mix it at a 1:1 ratio with water and you have "buttermilk." Make pancakes, pound cake, salad dressing, veggie dip or any other recipie you have that calls for buttermilk. In the past I've always avoided them because really, who buys buttermilk? What do you do with the leftovers?

Lastly, don't forget to freeze a few cubes of yogurt (equal to 1/2 cup) for using to make your next batch of yogurt.

Thanks, Nancy!

Each Sunday, Tim and I enjoy eating brunch and watching This Week on ABC. It is a Sunday morning ritual that I have been doing since I was 11-years-old and the title of the program was This Week With David Brinkley.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi was interviewed about her views on the economy. If you click on the link and go about 45 seconds into the clip, you'll hear her say something to the effect of, "President Bush is finally coming around to recognize what any homemaker in this country could have told you several months ago."

Setting aside the debate of the state of the economy and what can or should be done about it, I want to point out how refreshing it was to hear the term "homemaker" being used in a positive and respectful tone--by one of the most powerful working women in the U.S. no less. We homemakers are typically a quiet bunch, tending to the cares and needs of our families and immediate communities. We don't practice microeconomics...we practice nanoeconomics.

For example, I can tell you without referring to reciepts or my price book that milk has increased from $3 to $4.25 per gallon in the past year. Bananas have gone from .29 to .49 per pound. Bread has gone up apporximately 25% as have eggs. These increases mean a few extra dollars go out of our grocery envelope each trip to the store. While that may not seem like a huge difference, just think about how loudly folks wail when gas prices go up .20 a gallon. Little increases on products that you use every day make a big dent in the family budget. If we are feeling the pinch, I can only imagine how tight things are getting for poor and working class families who have even less wiggle room in their finances.

So when politicians and lawmakers are debating about what to do (if anything) about the economy, I just simply ask that they take a step away from the big numbers (GDP, price of a barrel of oil, etc.) for a moment and tap into our country's nanoeconomic barometer: homemakers.

Simplicity Challenge -- Part II

It's a bit overdue but I wanted to post a follow-up to Part I of my self-imposed Simplicity Challenge to try to waste less food. I found that meal planning and pantry organization were key to this effort. I just didn't keep a lot of spare, perishable food around the house.

In January, we made pretty good progress in this area.

• I made chicken and vegetable stock with scraps and leftovers
• Almost all other leftovers were reused or repurposed with the exception of some funky lemon wedges that got shoved to the back of the fridge
• As a last resort, non-meat foods were put into our compost pile

The last bullet leads to my current Simplicity Challenge: to significantly reduce the amount of waste we send to the local landfill. I was inspired by a New Zealand television show called Wa$ted. In it a family tries to reduce their ecofootprint by reducing the amount of wasted energy and unnecessary trash sent to landfills. In a dramatic flourish, they go through the family's garbage for the past week and sort out recyclables and compostables and identify other ways to reduce the amount of garbage. It is really inspiring to see that only about 1/10 of the garbage they send to the landfill is truly unusable garbage.

Since we already cloth diaper, that is one HUGE family trash factor that we eliminate from the landfills. My frugal penchant for buying in bulk and eschewing serving sizes means that we already have less packaging than we used to. We also have a compost pile which I have varying success with. But Beaumont discontinued its curbside recycling program in 2002 for lack of participation and interest.

I decided to see how difficult it would be to self-recycle. Lo and behold there are several recycling companies here. After a few calls I found one that takes paper, cardboard and #1 and #2 plastics, and another that accepts aluminum cans. Now both companies would actually pay me for my drop offs, but our trash volume is so low, it doesn't really make much sense to go through the process of weighing it in. I mean I might pick up a nickle off the ground but I'd feel silly standing in a line to pick up a nickle.

Fortunately, both companies also have "donation bins" where the proceeds from the collected items go to local United Way charities. Both companies are also locally owned and operated so the money they generate stays here in our community.

I'm still refining our collection area and find myself hunting through the kitchen garbage can to retrieve a pizza box or cat food can that got mistakenly thrown away. Every day is an Easter Egg hunt when you're trying to get a home recycling program started I suppose.

Diapers and Potties

Judging by the number of packages of disposable diapers I received prior to Xavier's birth, I don't think most people expected us to stick with our cloth diapering goal. Once we got the hang of it, cloth diapering has actually turned out to be quite simple, economical and easy.

There are countless numbers of types and brands of cloth diapers available thanks to the internet. Since ease and cost were two of our main goals, I decided to go with the simple powerhouse of the diapering world: prefolds and covers. As Xavier began sleeping for longer periods at night, we invested in six Bumgenius pocket diapers. These have a wicking microfleece next to the babe's bottom and a super absorbant microfiber insert. I double these with some autoshop microfiber towels I bought at Target. I made some cloth wipes from a spare piece of flannel fabric I had in my stash. All in all, we've spent approximately $250 for all our diapering supplies.

The thing people ask me the most often is about the work involved. If I didn't have a washer and dryer at home, there is no way I would have stuck with this. However, every two or three days I put the diapers and covers in the laundry for a soak and double rinse cycle. About an hour later I transfer them to the dryer. Then Xavier and I fold them and put them up on the changing table.

Lately we've been using fewer diapers. I bought Xavier a little Baby Bjorn potty as a way to get him used to the concept of the toilet and quite frankly, a way to keep him out of trouble when I go to the bathroom. I started putting him on his little potty whenever I go to the bathroom and when he wakes up in the morning or from a nap. Lo and behold he's quickly caught on and pees or poops about 50% of the time he is given the opportunity. He gets a kick out of flushing and
washing his hands afterwards.

I doubt that this will lead to full blown "potty training" anytime soon, but it is so adorable to see Xavier figuring things out.

Simplicity Challenge: Part I

My Aunt Susan has generously passed along to me two books about spirituality and simplicity. One is Not Buying It by Judith Levine and the other is Nothing Left Over by Toinette Lippe. Both started out strong and I found them inspiring. However, about one third of the way through I began to find the authors' self-congratulatory tones insufferable. Maybe it is a hazard of becoming simple. Please let me know if I start to become insufferable too.



Anyway, one thing that I would like to do in 2008 is focus on one area of simplicity each month. For January, we are working on focusing on being good stewards of the food we bring into the house. Not only are we trying to avoid dietary no-nos like high fructose corn syrup, prepackaged foods, and bleached flour goods but we are also working on actually using up the food that we buy.



Like most American families, we tend to waste a good deal of the food that comes into our home. Sometimes produce that looked so tempting in the grocery store spoils while neglected in the refrigerator. Other times, we just put too much on our plates at mealtimes. I'm also guilty of passing over leftovers in favor of a newly made dish.



When I think of the fact that much of the world struggles to get the nutritious food that we toss in the waste bin, I am quite frankly embarrassed. But I really want to use this as an exercise to develop more gratitude for the abundance we've been blessed with.



So this month the goals are simple:

• Make as much use of each food item as possible. This includes using vegetable trimmings to make vegetable stock or saving them for the compost pile. Cracker and bread crumbs come free at the bottom of the bag.
  


• Use up left overs. Lunches are a great way to use up left overs. So are soups. And casseroles.
  


• Start with small portions. While we aren't really trying to lose weight here, we do find that we don't always eat as much this way and we certainly scrape less off our plates into the garbage after a meal.

I'll post a report of how we did at the end of the month. Anyone want to join in?

My first taste of compacting--carrots!

I've been thinking more and more about compacting. With the new babe on the way I'm just not ready to commit to it wholesale.

All the same, I'm intrugued by the version of the compact posted by Changing Rhythm on her blog:

Our Pledge
1. We will actively search our souls and the thoughts of God through prayer, meditation, and the wisdom texts 2. We will buy everything (barring food, medication, and health related products such as soap, toothpaste, etc.) used if at all possible 3. We will only buy a product that replaces a product we already own which has worn out 4. Anything that does not meet the previous two criteria, will require both our approval and a mandatory 2-week waiting period (to assure need and outlive the want monster) 5. We will purge our home of all unused, unwanted, or extraneous clutter 6. We will purge our lifestyle of all unwanted, unhealthy, and extraneous clutter 7. We will learn to and teach our kids to lessen our impact on the earth 8. We will be excellent stewards of the home and possessions we have 9. We will share our journey with all who wish to join us or watch us in this quest

So I've decided to dip my toe into compacting, step by step. This week is the avoidance of prepackaged foods when I can...especially if it saves money. I'm not ready to give up peanut butter (although it is the natural kind!) or jelly yet, but I have given up bagged lettuce and mini carrots.

I realized that two pounds of mini carrots are sold for $1.99 while loose carrots are $0.79 per pound. It takes about five seconds to peel a carrot and another 15 to chop it into sticks. Not bad for a 75% savings. Even if I factor in my time at $10 an hour, it still is a fantastic deal.

Next up: salad dressing. We just used the last of our Kraft Italian stash last night. I saved the bottle and hopefully will find a better/more cost effective solution. I imagine it will be healthier too!