Getting Fit On A Budget

Over this last year, we examined several issues concerning the way we lived, the way we ate, and the way we spent our money, and in doing so we have discovered changes that needed to be made in each area.  We tackled the issues one at a time and when felt like we had it in check with our new goals we would move on to the next item on the list.

Well, I'm glad to say we have gotten to the point where we can address our fitness levels. Over the last few years, life has really taken a toll on us.  Our stress level has been maxed out and we have used most of our energy just surviving day today.  Not anymore!  We are taking back our health, in the same manner, we took back our life, our food, and our money.

In order to do this, I need to lose weight and increase my strength, where Racey just needs to maintain his weight and increase his activity level.  How do we plan to do this while still living a frugal life you ask?

This is how:

• I will follow a low-calorie meal plan eating REAL food.  No diet bars or shakes, no 100 calorie packs, no frozen diet meals, just real whole food.

There are plenty of free online fitness sites that help you track your food, water, exercise, etc. They are easy to join and very user-friendly. I'm using My Fitness Pal if you want to join and be one of my buddies!

• I will cut back my carbonated drinks to 1 a day and drink more water.

• I will exercise three to five times a week.

If you have a gym membership that's great, but that doesn't fit into our frugal budget.  Plus, with only one car, I need to find things I can do here at home.  We have very nice mountain bikes we bought several years ago (when we were less broken than we are now) so Racey and I are going to start riding again.  For many years I've wanted to learn to do Yoga, but when I had the time I didn't have the money and vise versa.  Sticking with my frugal goals I found a great online yoga class that is totally free!  At this point, they have over 100 lessons available by the same teacher so I should be good for a while.  Last, but not least, I have two perfectly working feet I can walk with.  I certainly always keep frugality in mind, but I did buy a stability ball to work with as well for under $10.00.

• I will set trackable goals and make myself accountable for what I do, and take credit for things I don't do!

I have dedicated myself to an online weight-loss challenge.  I have a partner who I support through the challenge and she in return supports me.   In addition, other challenge buddies stop by your blog and comment and share things with you about how their trials and tribulations are going, which is a pretty good support if you ask me. Did I mention that's free too?

As for Racey, he is so happy to have me outside and in a good mood that any activity I come up with he is game for!

This weekend we hiked Kennesaw Mtn. (just over a mile +800 ft. elevation) on Saturday which burned 1213 calories.   Then, on Sunday, we rode our mountain bikes at Blankets Creek in Cherokee County with a calorie burn total of 1025.  All of these are frugal, free activities that don't require a paid membership to something or somewhere.  Besides, would you rather walk on a treadmill while watching TV or see the scenery in these pictures?

This weekend the weather is going to be nice again so I think we will go Geocaching (click the link to find out what Geocaching is all about) up north a little and either hike Kennesaw Mtn. again or find another trail at the bike park.  Needless to say, we will be outside enjoying life!

Hope to see you around!

Life Is Too Short

Yesterday was the two year anniversary that my children's father passed away.  I spent the day trying to keep myself and McClane busy while all along remembering the years and memories the kids shared with their dad.  McClane and I went to the cemetery so he could see and somehow connect with his dad on this day, and let me tell you that is a site that would break any mother!  McClane and I talked for awhile at the grave-site about life, death, and time, and we both left with heavy hearts.  As the day progressed I took him to his Aunts house so he could spend a few days with his dad's family and celebrate Christmas Eve with them before coming back home for Christmas.

Going through this has shown me many things, some of which I will share with you in hopes that you can learn from others life experience. The biggest impression I want to give you here is life is too short! With this in mind I encourage you to start the new year as if it was your last.  I know many of you are thinking I must be crazy, but in all honesty how do you know it's not?!?  The goal here is not to be morbid, but to begin to live your life with meaning and purpose now, not later.  A lot of us are just going through the motions trying to get to the happy place that we see as retirement, a better job, more money, a bigger house, a nicer car, etc.. I encourage you to evaluate your life and see where you are happy, as well as where you are unhappy, and begin to plot your changes for this next year.  Here are a few question to start with:

• Are you working a job that you dislike just to pay off credit debt over which you can't even remember what is was you bought to begin with?

• I've been in this situation before and I know how hopeless it can feel.  My suggestion would be to stop buying anything you can't pay cash for.  I know this is easier said than done, but realize that (I'm invoking the spirit of Dave Ramsey here) you are a slave to debt and you hold the keys to your own freedom.  Get strong and learn to tell yourself and family NO if you don't have the cash. 

• Are you so busy with extracurricular activities that you can't properly cook and care for your family?

• I know many of you have church, PTA, and volunteer commitments that you feel like you can't drop, but if this was your last year who would you want to spend it with?  Would you spend it with committee members, or with your loved ones?  Would you spend your time cooking nutritious meals your family loved to eat, making memories, and passing on the ways of life that are important to you?  Our service is important, don't get me wrong, but not more important than our families.

• Is your house and all the stuff in it eating you alive?

• Simplify, simplify, simplify!  Get rid of things that take up space and bring you no joy.  For example, ask yourself how many frying pans you really need?  What about clothing?  If you can't easily manage your closet or dresser drawers then you have too much and you need to simplify!  If you have stuff stashed in junk drawers (or more than one junk drawer at all) or closets then you don't really appreciate what's in there and it's most likely stuff you could live without, so get rid of it!  If you come across something in there that you have been looking for and do have a need for then give it a proper place to live so you know where it is when needed.

• Are your relationships stressed?

• If so, then do what you can to heal them.  Keep in mind, however, that it takes two to tango and you alone can't always make things right.  If this is the case then make peace with yourself and move on.  Don't let past regret keep you in a place of no joy.

• Is your budget, or lack of one, making financial freedom impossible?

• In this economy I know many of you are starting over due to loss of jobs, foreclosures, and bankruptcy and are living paycheck to paycheck.  We're doing the same thing here so don't feel bad.  But that reason alone is motivation enough for you to manage your limited resources to the best of your ability, and that can't be done with out a budget that you stick to.  If this is your case don't be discourage!  Work on improving your situation by learning how to spend less, and make part of spending less an effort to start making the products you use and normally spend money on.  Remember, this blog is not about doing without, but about thriving with less expense and burden. 

In general ask yourself, "Am I happy with my life?"  If not, seek out the root of the problem and do whatever it takes to correct it.  Remembering that life is too short to not make the changes needed now.  Let's honor those who have passed away by living our life to it's fullest and enjoying the simplest of pleasures.

12 Days of Christmas - Foot Scrub & Body Butter

In the spirit of Black Friday, I thought I would get a jump on the shopping for this holiday season.  Unlike most Black Friday shoppers I slept in this morning.  Once awake I took my sweet time eating a little leftover Thanksgiving dinner for breakfast.  What?  Everyone doesn't do this?!?  Then I sat at the computer and looked at all the Google news stories about crazy Black Friday shoppers and all their antics.  What some people will do for a discount!  I'm all about saving money but this is just nonsense.  To me this is a prime example of how we have transformed into a consumer society where we are literally possessed with stuff.

Now don't get me wrong here.  I love things... I love getting gifts... I love giving gifts...I have a wish list as long as my arm as well.  I'm just at a point in my life that each item causes me to think about several things, such as the following:

• Where was this made?
• Who made it? (Maybe a child or severely underpaid parent?)    
• How much fuel did it take to get this item to me here in the States?
• Could it be made here in the U.S. and, if so, why wasn't it?
• Is it made of something that could possibly add to my personal toxic load?  If you are unfamiliar with this topic you can read about it here, here, and here. 
• Will this item be around and still in good working order in 3 years, 5 years, 10 years?
• Is this a temporary gadget, and will I be wanting the new and improved one in six months?
• How long will I or my husband have to work to buy this item?

As I said I love things, I just hate what it take for me to have them.  So back to my Black Friday plan!  I will still celebrate the holiday as I talked about in a previous post, my main focus will just be on spending time with the people I care about, enjoying a good homemade meal and giving small handmade gift as a token of love.

Here is my first handmade gift of the season!

 This is for the woman who loves to pamper her feet.  The jar on the left is a powdered foot scrub, and the blue dish is a deep conditioning body butter.  The foot scrub can be made with items in your pantry.  The body butter supplies can be found at any health food store.

Hear are the steps to make this wonderful, handmade, personalized gift for someone on your gift list!

Here are the ingredients for the foot scrub:

• 1/2 cup of  cornmeal
• 1/2 cup of oatmeal
• 1/4 cup of seasalt
• 10 drops of essential oil (I used lemon because that's what I had on hand.  It gave the mixture a clean citrus smell)

First you will want to put the oats in a food processor or blender and blend into a fine powder.

Next mix the powdered oats, cornmeal, and salt.  Once all dry ingredients are mixed add essential oil for scent.  This step is optional.

I used a wide mouth decorative jelly jar that I had left over from the canning season.  If you have a canning funnel it comes in handy for more than canning.

Here are the ingredients for the body butter:

• 1 tbsp. of Coconut Oil
• 2 tbsp. of Shea Butter
• 2 tsp. of Safflower Oil
• 2 tsp. of Grapeseed Oil

Coconut oil is a solid below 76 degrees and becomes a liquid at 77 degrees.  I measured both solids and heated in microwave for 20 seconds till soft but not melted.

Once softened, place in mixer and SLOWLY add oils.  This step can take a few minutes.  You will want to increase the mixer speed as the oil is incorporated.

Your final product should look like whipped butter.

I had a old Avon jar that I found at an estate sale several years ago so I used it to hold the butter.










Remember that this is a deep conditioning body butter, so a little goes a long way.  Because of the coconut oil it will have an oily feel to it, however, if you use a small amount it will be absorbed into the skin within a few minutes.

As you can see, this gift is one that is not expensive but is a little more time consuming than just picking up a gift card.  The purpose of this post is to show you that you can give gifts and enjoy the holiday season without becoming a crazy Black Friday causality.  The focus is not money as much as the mentality of the modern gift giver. Tomorrow I will post another homemade gift, so if this one isn't up your alley, check back then and see what you think!

*Note: The foot scrub is a powder so you will want to put a little in your hand then add a small amount of water to form a paste.

Frugal Kung-Fu Part 3

 If you're reading this series then congratulations!  You've probably already done at least one or two things to improve your Frugal-Fu skills.  Think you're ready to move up the ranks of the frugally minded and really be able to say you're becoming a master of Frugal-Fu?  Meditate on today's lesson about home energy use for a while and you'll certainly be on your way.

The Household Energy Audit

If you haven’t done so, perform a household energy audit and look at simple ways you can change what you’re doing to save you money.  Even if you’re not overly concerned about the environment, you’ll be impacting that too.  There are certainly more things you can do than what’s listed here, these are just the things we’ve actually done to our home.

• Check your water heater temperature.  Many people have theirs set overly high.  Your temperature in general need not be above 165°F.  You can honestly probably be just fine with a temperature of 145°F.  You’ll use either less gas or less electricity.  Also, purchase and install a water heater insulating blanket if your water heater is in a non-environmentally controlled space in your home.  

• Clean your air ducts.  Your home will both heat and cool more efficiently using less energy, and you’ll be healthier for it by reducing the amount of dust and particles in the air in your home.  

• Get low flow shower heads if you don’t have them.  Generally a low flow shower head is considered to be anything that runs at 2.5GPM (gallons per minute) or less.  I think this is bogus.  There are great shower heads that run at 1.5GPM or less and have ‘miser’ settings you can use as well.  We have 1.5GPM heads in both of our bathrooms.  Then what I do when I take a shower is get my temperature comfortable, then I push the handle back in so it’s only producing enough flow to keep the shower from kicking back to the bathtub faucet.  Many times I’ll set it to the miser setting on top of that, especially if I’m just standing there shaving.  I’ve measured my usage by getting a gallon pitcher and measuring how long it takes to fill up.  With my method and settings I take a comfortable shower using a truly conservative 0.75GPM.  If you do the math, in a 15-20 minute shower you’ll go from using something like 60 gallons of water on an average 3GPM shower head to just over 10 gallons on a low flow head with the method I described.  Multiply the saved 50 gallons of water times the number of showers you take in a month.  At this rate, and considering one shower each day, you’ll save 1500 gallons a month.  And that’s just one person!  Consider a small family of three saving nearly 5000 gallons of water a month.  That’s certainly enough to lower your water bill.  

• Take a look at your dishwasher.  This can be an iffy option for most people.  If you’re really pressed for time on a regular basis you probably won’t have time to do all your dishes by hand.  Many dishwashers do recycle their water, but when our older dishwasher went on the fritz we didn’t bother replacing or repairing it.  We now use it to store mason jars and do our dishes by hand and though we haven’t really measured it like we have baths and showers, we feel like we’re saving water and money to use a small amount of water in the sink and a bottle of dish liquid instead of buying dishwasher detergent.  This may or may not work for you but at least consider it.

• Take a look at your washing machine.  If it’s old and your budget permits, you can get really miserly washing machines that sip the water instead of chug it.  Our older washing machine uses almost 100 gallons of water to do one load.  We don’t have the money to replace it, but we do what we can to limit how much laundry we produce such as using towels to dry off after a shower at least twice.

This is ours in the backyard

• Consider your clothes dryer.  At 220 volts, they really suck up the electricity.  So what did we do?  We bought a nice collapsible clothesline and now we hang all our laundry out to dry.  After a month of two of our dryer simply sitting there unused we just gave it away and now we don’t even own a clothes dryer.  You may not be able to go that far, but consider putting up a clothesline of some kind and at least using it when you have time and the weather is nice.  We also got a stand alone laundry rack that stays in the garage to hang the laundry on to dry in the winter when it’s 30° outside and the water in the clothes will freeze instead of drying.  

• Cooking outside as much as possible is something we do during the summer when it’s really hot out.  We have a charcoal grill as well as a propane stove we use as much as we can because around here it gets so hot in the summer the air conditioner can barely keep up.  Fire up the oven and burners and such in the kitchen and it gets just miserable.  I’ve heard many people complain about this happening in their own homes, and cooking outside is the solution.  Outdoor propane stoves with at least two burners can be had for under $50.   

• Killing the summer sun and block cold air by applying heat reflective films to your major sun windows.  There are great films out there that don’t tint or darken your light if you prefer to keep your light as well as tinted types that will give you as much or as little shade as you want.  As usual, we didn’t have money for these nice films so you know what I did?  I got flat black paint and literally painted our sliding glass doors until they were covered solid and didn’t let in a single bit of light.  Now that it’s getting to be winter I just took a razor and it all came off perfectly clean in about 15 minutes.  This may not be something you’d do, but around here                                                we get things done however we can, even if it’s a                                                little… odd

• Get some compact fluorescent or LED bulbs and install them in your most used sockets.  When they first came out, the math didn’t work when comparing cost savings to the cost to purchase the bulb, but that’s changed.  If you look there are coupons out for these types of bulbs now.  Wait for a sale, use a coupon, whatever.  Installing these throughout your home will create a situation where it costs just pennies a month to light your home.  

 

• Check the insulation in your attic and crawlspaces throughout your home.  If any of it is missing or seems old and broken down, replace it.  The cost savings here should be obvious.

• If you don’t have what’s called a ‘pro-vent’ in your attic you should certainly install one.  Lowering the extreme levels of heat in your attic will make your air conditioner run less.  We didn’t have one so we installed one at a total cost of about $200.  This was a tad pricey, but we had the labor done for us so that figure includes the cost of installation.  Regardless, the cost savings over just two summers will certainly pay for the cost of purchase and installation.

This is by no means an exhaustive list, these are just a few of the things we’ve done ourselves that have noticeably impact our recurring bills.  These tips should also be enough to get you started.  Once you’ve performed the Quality of Life Assessment recommended in the previous Frugal-Fu post and you’ve gone down the list of things suggested in the Home Energy Audit you’ll hopefully be looking at things a little differently and will have no problem finding plenty of additional steps you can take in your own home beyond the things listed here.  So pull out the ninja suit and start killing those utility bills with your mad Frugal-Fu skills!

Passing On The 'Old Ways'

Yesterday was a very busy day for me.  I woke up early and headed to the farm where I picked up 1 1/2 gallons of fresh raw milk.  Then I drove to Loganville and sold 17 Farmer's Market Baskets at our new location which is the little cottage industry I sometimes refer to.  While 17 baskets is a small haul for the amount of time and distance I have to drive to get there, I see it as a starting point.  I am personally so thankful for the benefits my family receives from the baskets that I want to pass it on.

While I was there I had the chance to pass on some of the 'old world' life skills Racey and I are passionate about.  I took the raw milk and taught the family who's home we use as the drop off point how to make butter from the cream in the raw milk.  The kids took turns shaking and laughed and played as if it were a game!  I think that's an important concept in this style of living.  You have to involve the children in the daily chores to make everything work in the long term, but it also needs to be fun so they don't really feel like it's work.  By doing this you're teaching them valuable life skills like being self sufficient and making their own products, but also a responsible work ethic.  The butter isn't going to make itself.  If you want butter then shake some cream!  Forget the tendency to just pop into some big box store and pick something up that you have no clue when or where it was made and from what.

After the butter was finished we had butter milk left and in the mindset of waste not want not, we used it to make a pan of biscuits.  Once again the children were as interested as the mother.  They pulled their chairs up to the counter and watched every single thing I did.  They insisted that the flour tasted good.  The two year old, Corbin, dipped his little fat fingers in the buttermilk and sucked it off till his mama moved the bowl!  I wish I had taken more photos, but with four little ones five and under in age, picture taking wasn't very easy.  After the biscuits were finished cooking, everyone had a hot butter biscuit as a treat.  Yes, it was a TREAT!  The family was as happy to have the hot homemade butter biscuit as if it was something special from the store.

As the last person picked up their basket, the question came up of how to you use real carrots.  I started laughing and thought she was joking at first.  I asked her, "have you never eaten carrots before?", and she replied, "yes, but they are always cut up and ready to eat."  Again I laughed and shook my head.  It's really only funny if you've ever been as modern and spoiled as this.  I have, and when I look back at all the money I wasted on pre-washed, pre-cut, ready to eat convenience foods I realize the joke was on me.  It's silly, I know, but as a society we are being dumbed down when it comes to self sufficiency.  The more knowledge they take from us the more they can make us pay just to eat and survive.  Okay, okay, I'll get down off my soapbox here... maybe ;-)

As I left, I took a fruit and veg basket to my children's grandfather who is by himself now that their grandmother passed away last November.  I hate to use the term ex-father-in-law when referring to family as I have found when you have children even if the marriage doesn't last the family connections do.  He was very grateful for the veg, and we talked about the kids and life for a little while.  When I left he seemed a little happier than when I got there.  It's somehow nice to know that just a little food and companionship cane make a difference.  I had a 1/2 gallon of raw milk that was supposed to come home with me, but knowing who I was visiting and his love of 'old style' living I left the milk with him.  He was really excited about that, and of course then the stories started about how when he was a boy that's all they drank!

I backed out of the driveway and glanced back one more time before driving off and saw him through the kitchen window drinking strait from the jar like a kid!

By the time I made it home it was dark and I had been gone for almost 12 hours.  I was welcomed into a clean house with dinner ready on the stove, and my hubby waiting for me around the fire pit.  For all the hard work it was overall a great day.

Tools of My Trade

Have you ever noticed how men tend to have tons of tools?  It seems like every new project requires a new tool until they reach 55 yrs. old or so, and by that time they have acquired every possible tool under the sun.  It's really no different for the homemaker.  We need special tools to do our job as well.  Have you ever tried to bake a bundt cake without a bundt pan, or peal an entire bushel of apples with out an Apple Peeler Corer Slicer?  I have and let me tell you it's no fun! 

This is a china cabinet I bought to display my nice dishes several years ago.  It became a display case of special items that I wanted to look at but not really touch or use except for twice a year.  As we began to down size and started cooking most everything we eat from scratch I realized how ill equipped my current set up and supplies were.  I had just enough space in the kitchen to get irritated.  Our knife collection consisted of one lonely knife who you had to strike a deal with before it would cut, and a mis-matched set of flaking non-stick cookware.  So I decided to convert my china cabinet into a working unit.  Out came all the "too nice to use" items and in went the things I used everyday, or at least once a week.

 

As you can see I have many different types of tools in here now.  On the bottom right, are two bowls with different types of flour for biscuit and bread making.  On the top shelf is the apple peeler I mentioned above and the remaining items ranging from colanders to mixing bowls to canning funnels.  I keep a small open dish of salt for easy measuring, and a ton of little things in the flatware divider in the middle.  This is now a useful piece of furniture that assist me in my daily routines.  Our kitchen is a working kitchen so the contents of this cabinet change as often as they need to.

This was not the only conversion in our kitchen.  We decided to make our kitchen table an island.  This was in the middle of the kitchen and living area so we figured it could be used to prep most everything and since we clean as we go, it would be clean and free for use at mealtime.  I placed a container I found at Goodwill in the center and filled it with hand towels, knives, and other prepping equipment.  When we sit at the table I just move the container and we have a dining room table again.

If your kitchen seems like it's not working for you, take some time to think about what you're missing that would make life easier.  If it's tools or utensils, hunt Goodwill, second hand stores, Craigslist, and especially estate sales.   If it's space, think about how you could extend your working area.   We more than doubled our 'kitchen' space by doing just a little re-arranging and re-thinking.  If you make your space work for you, it makes it much more enjoyable to work in your space!

Where is all our money going?

How do you know when something is a good deal?  Do you wait for the store to put it on sale?  Do you compare brands, prices, quantity, even different stores?  Or do you just buy what you need and hope the money last till the next pay day?  Several women I know have taken the time to put together a price journal of the items they purchase on a regular basis.  This is a working journal that changes depending on your ability to source better deals, sales and inflation.  We started keeping track of our items in February of this year. Each time I return from the store I save the receipt to log the price I paid for the item in my journal.  This helps me see what is going up and what is going down.  If something is increasing then that is an item I began to actively source somewhere else.  It also becomes an item that I keep my eye open for coupons for and sales of that item.  Sometimes I've already found the lowest price in which case I use coupons and sales to get it for a lower cost, but sometimes the price is just increasing overall. 

See Honey! I'm saving us money by buying in bulk!

Have you ever asked yourself "where is all our money going?"  You know there are no new big ticket items sitting around the house, you haven't gotten a new wardrobe lately, and, heck, you can't even remember the last time you splurged on something other than the really cushy toilet paper!  You are working the same hours, maybe even more, but still you are coming up short.  When you keep a price journal it's easy to see if the culprit is price inflation.  This information is helpful when planning or adjusting your budget.  If you see that your grocery bill has risen 15% in the last six months then you know some other expense is going to have to reduce in order to maintain the same budget. 

In our journey many things have gotten the boot.  We've disconnected our cable television, ditched our cell phones, and severely limited fast food.  These things aren't bad or evil, we simply can't afford them.  Ask yourself... Who are you trying to impress?  I honestly can't say I miss these things... they were just something I was accustomed to.  I grew up on fast food and convenience.  My mom was a young, single mom who worked a full-time job at minimum wage until she was able to move forward a little.  There was literally no time to do anything for herself.  We cleaned our own house, and Saturday was the day it was cleaned from top to bottom with no exceptions.  Quite simply, we were broke.  We ate cheap food, wore used or discounted clothes, and my mom worked her butt off just to keep things going, but somehow she did.

Maybe you're in this situation.  Maybe you're fortunate enough to have a good education and a supportive spouse. Whatever your circumstances are, keeping track of your expenditures is the only way to move forward.  That way you'll know where you stand and how you can continue to move forward.
  

Learning To Live The Old Simple Way

This path we've decided to take tends to have a spiral pattern.  By that I mean what goes around comes around.  A lot of people view life in that way already, but in this case I'm referring to trends, fads, fashion, and even knowledge. We are part of a mass movement of people who are sick and tired of all the modern conveniences that are supposed to save us time, money, and energy.  In reality all it does is rob us of our health, money, and even our sanity.  With all this modern "help" you would think we would have more time available for family, friends, healthy living, heck... even ourselves!  Instead we run around like chickens with our heads cut off!  Deep inside we know this has to stop.  We know we can't continue like this.  So what do we do to help us slow down and enjoy life?  For us, the solution was to relearn the old, simple ways of living.  What are the old ways?

Here are a few basics principals:

• Simplicity

Webster's defines simplicity as the state of being simple, uncomplicated, or uncompounded.  That's really the key to this style of living. Simple life, simple actions, and simple expectations.

• Sustainability 

We currently live by a model of total consumption of all resources whether it's a natural resource such as oil, water, and soil or a man made resource like our income.  To put it bluntly, we ALL live beyond our means in some way.  We are taught from an early age that the more you work the more you'll be able to have.  Better homes, better cars, better clothes, more food, better health care, higher education, etc.. The only problem with this is way of living is that we're using a completely unsustainable model based on limitless growth that assumes our resources are endless!  Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying we should just throw up our hands, quit our jobs and say to heck with it!  I'm saying we need to reevaluate what and who we are working for and see how we can bring it in line with a realistic, sustainable model.  The first Model T was produced in 1909 and in less than 120 years from that date we have already used more than half of the economically recoverable supply of oil for fuel, tires, and endless plastic.  This is a resource that will never come back!  It's not like a forest that can be replanted.  This example is to show how our current model of transportation and plastic manufacturing is simply not sustainable.

• Accountability 

This should be an easy one, but for some it's not.  We each have our own moral compass and know when we aren't following it.  Our spirituality is not the only thing we are accountable for.  We have a responsibility to our children, their children, and a duty to leave this world in the same if not better shape than we received it.  This applies to all areas of our life.  Imagine if things keep going as they are. What type of world will our great grandchildren inherit?  What will they eat when all the soil has been destroyed through over-use of pesticide and other petroleum based products we use for agriculture? What will they drink when all the fresh water supplies have been contaminated with toxic by-products of the industrial manufacturing process?  How many hours will they have to work to have as much as we had?  What type of government will they have?

• Purposeful living

Have you ever been to an estate sale after someone has passed away?  Racey and I work at them from time to time and they are truly sad.  You see someone that used to be a living, breathing person reduced to nothing more than the possessions they worked their entire life to get only to have them sold "garage sale style" because the family doesn't want them, can't be bothered to deal with them, or just don't have room for anymore "stuff"! 

I encourage you to step back and take a survey of your life, the people and things around you, and re-evaluate what's really important.  Think about what actually matters and what doesn't.  Then, take the things and all the stuff that doesn't make it onto the "really important" list and just get rid of it.  Jump off the hamster wheel.  Step outside of the eat-sleep-consume lifestyle and mentality and start enjoying your life in a meaningful way that won't see you reduced to a leftover yard sale after you shed your mortal coil. 

Simple Entertainment

I found the metal fire pit on Craigslist for $30.00 and we built the stone pit ourselves.  We didn't use mortar so the pit can be moved as the landscape of our backyard changes

In our house we tend to crave the simple life, even in our entertainment choices.  This doesn't mean we are fuddy duddies by far! Our neighbors have been known to knock on our front door before... Heck, they have even called the police once!  Now, I must admit, the reason for the call was because Racey was chopping wood for our outside fire pit and the neighbors considered that too loud!  Honestly I think they were mad because we didn't invite them over to enjoy our wonderful company! (Just kidding)  We have found the most simple thing can be the most enjoyable.  We love to sit outside in the fall and winter and just stare into the fire.  We almost always have some type of music playing on the iHome outside.  The kids (16, 18, and 20) float through the back yard randomly and most of the time wind up crashing our party by bringing their friends over to enjoy the fire and conversation.  Who would have thought that modern teenagers would enjoy sitting outside in the dark around a fire, listening to music of their parents choice, and having simple conversation and laughs?!?

This was taken last winter, you can see my legs are covered with a small blanket.  My son, McClane is holding our dog Woofus.

Another thing we do is turn off ALL the lights and light candles or oil lamps throughout the house. In the summer we tend to play cards or even shoot pool on a miniature pool table someone was throwing away.  In the winter we love to make a pallet out of several blankets and get all our fluffy pillows and put that in front of the fire and just sit and relax.  This gives Racey and I time to decompress from our day or week and it's amazing how easy it is to talk.  We can sit there for hours just connecting and spending time together. 

Talk about frugal entertainment, this is it!  Any budget can afford this.  I'm always on the lookout for candles at Goodwill, and we get our firewood for free off Craigslist.  The only real expense is the food and drink.  We have to eat no matter what we do so no real cost there, the only expense is if we choose to have some wine. *grin*


The next time you are craving some special time with your hubby or want to get the kids to put down their smart phone before their thumbs fall off, give this a try.  In my opinion it doesn't get much better than this!

Summers end... time to nest

Saying goodbye to summer...

As summers end starts to tease us and cooler temperatures creep into our days I get so excited!  I say that I'm truly a four seasons type of girl.  I crave the start of each season, longing to enjoy all the benefits and new experiences it can bring.  But sure enough, before its end I'm ready for it to be over and the next one to begin.

With fall on the horizon my thoughts move toward  nesting or prepping for the colder, darker months ahead.  In the "old days" this was a time for people to gather in the last food from the harvest, chop enough wood to cook and heat with, and address any clothing needs they might have for the winter.  To top it off they also had to figure out a way to store and ration the food so it would see them through till spring. And we think we have it hard living from payday to payday!  We need to get a grip.  I think as modern humans we still have this instinct to do these things.  Sure some of us have moved from chopping wood for heat to using gas or electric, and no, we don't knit our family's winter sweaters or socks anymore but we do prepare.  We change the filters in our heating units and have them serviced if needed, we have our cars and winter equipment winterized and batteries checked, we drain the gas from our lawn equipment, and we swap the skimpy clothes in the closet for the warmer, bulkier ones.  We also prepare our homes to receive us for the winter.

I usually begin as soon as the temp cools and we start getting the cool fall breeze.  I open the entire house and air it out.  To me the house is filled with stale, humid, sweaty air from the summer and I want it gone.  I want the house filled with fresh cool air from the fall winds.  During this time of the year the air has energy in it like no other time.  Its what prompts us to get busy!

Here are a few of the homesteading things I do.

• Open the house to air out
• Wash the drapes, summer bedding, pillows
• Get the heavy quilts and blankets from the attic, I washed them before storing for the summer so all they need is a good airing out on the clothes line
• Change the clothes in our closets and drawers
• Put our wind breakers and heavy coats in the coat closet, trade our flip flops and sandals for tennis shoes and boots
• General deep cleaning of the entire house
• Put out the fall decor (this is one of my favorite things on the list, the deep cleaning not so much so!)   
• I begin to think and plan for all the warm, comforting, filling foods I'm going to make for my family

What do you do to prepare?  I would love to hear from you!  Maybe you could share something from your life that would make all of our lives just a little richer!

Meal Planning

A lot of  people say they don't use a meal planner because they don't know how busy their days are going to be when they make the plan or they don't know what they want to eat till that day.  One solution I have found  for this is to just plan seven meals in no particular order.  You can have 1 or 2 nice  meals planned, 3-4 easy but nutritious meals and even give yourself a take out option if your budget can afford it.  When you plan like this you have the ability to customize your meal around your day and activities.  Just pick one that fits that days circumstances.  This also helps you save time and money when you go to the grocery store. 

• Start by making your menu for the seven days( use your meal list if you have one) see below
• Take an inventory of your pantry, refrigerator & freezer
• Buy only the ingredients necessary to create your menu items that may be missing from your pantry
• If life gets in the way and you are not able to cook one of the meals you listed on your menu just re-list it next week

For those of us who coupon I know we base our menus on whats on sale a lot of the time, but I tend to stockpile with my coupon purchases that way I have plenty to choose from when planning.

Another tip I can share that helps me is to make a list of all the meals (a.k.a. meal list) you cook in one column, and side dishes in another.  When you sit down to plan your menu just look at your meal list to help think of things to cook.  You could even let your kids pick one of their favorite meals to go on the menu that week.