March Resolution Review

It's hard to believe that a quarter of the year has already passed.  Time just flies for me lately!

I set some goals at the beginning of the year, so I thought I'd give a quick monthly update on my progress in March. 


Reading: 

• Goal - 18 Books and more than a year of Mother Earth News and Hobby Farm Home back issues (and yes, I've let the subscriptions to those magazines expire).
• March Progress - Read 2 books (7 books of 18 total), and 4 of the  magazines (10 magazines of 38 total). 

The books I read were:

• Jewel by Bret Lott
• The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver

Crafting:

• Goal - 12 completed projects, preferably one a month, with one being a quilted item and another being knit socks.
• March Progress - Started and completed the second toe-up knitted sock, completing the pair.  I also crocheted a couple of much needed pot holders using this pattern. ( 3 projects of 12 total)

The socks are far from perfect, but functional and very comfortable.  I love how they match, but aren't identical.  I really enjoyed knitting them and I'm sure I'll knit more in the future.

Gardening: 

• Goal - Organized planning, leading to an organized garden.
• March Progress - We finally bought a new printer and I was finally able to print pages from the garden planner I mentioned in earlier posts.  I love it; it's a very functional and attractive planner to use.
  
  We have begun planting and so far have potatoes and two new gooseberries bushes in the ground.  I transplanted 76 strawberry plants into a new pyramid, the garlic we planted last fall is coming up, as are the perennial asparagus and rhubarb.  We had big plans to continue planting early crops, but last weekend we were hit with our third mega-snowstorm in two months, so planting will have to wait a little longer.

Diet/Nutrition:

• Goal - To switch over to less harmful types of sweeteners and/or reduce sugars in our foods.  To grow more of our food in our backyard.
• March Progress - I have decided that the only way for me to do this is to just do it!  Despite the cost difference between plain granulated sugar and organic cane juice crystals, I used up the last bag of white sugar and I've vowed to eliminate it from sugar from our shopping list entirely.  I consider cane juice crystals the next step up on the sweetener hierarchy.  Not the best choice, but a better one.  We also continue to use local honey, molasses (local when possible), Sucanat and real maple syrup as sweeteners, but not with any regularity.

Fitness:

• Goal - To join a local yoga class better flexibility, balance and overall health.
• March Progress - I still haven't made any effort to find a different class, but with gardening starting up, I'm not to worried.  Gardening is great exercise!

Finances:

• Goal - To pay off our RV.
• March Progress - Shane has been working out of town a lot lately.  He's been getting both a per diem allowance (there is usually a little left over after expenses) and at least a couple of hours of overtime on almost every check lately.   That has helped me to continue to pay extra on each RV payment.  I don't think I'll reach the goal of having it completely paid off this year, but the balance will be reduced considerably.

Ready, Set, Garden!

Gardening has begun at Haphazard Homestead!

I now have a new printer and have begun using the garden planner I purchased earlier this year.  I have mapped out our garden on grid paper, but I also like mapping it on an aerial photo (this one's from Google Earth) and pasting it into a drawing program to add the ground features.  It just gives us a more realistic perspective, I think.  All the white boxes or lines are our planting areas, both raised and in-ground beds.  If they aren't labeled, they are still empty.  It should also go without saying that the beds are absolutely not-to-scale.

Shane and I have been simultaneously planning on paper and planting in soil.  So far, we have planted a largish potato patch, two new gooseberry bushes, as well as transplanting about 75 strawberry plants to a new pyramid.

While I'll try not to neglect the blog entirely, you can expect that posting will be more erratic for a while. I apologize in advance for absences that are sure to happen, and will post if/when spare moments and inspiration coincide.

February Resolution Review

Since Shane will be home and our weekend will begin tomorrow, and since the last day of February is today, I decided to write my Friday post today.

I set some goals at the beginning of the year, so I thought I'd give a quick monthly update on my progress in February. 


Reading: 

• Goal - 18 Books and more than a year of Mother Earth News and Hobby Farm Home back issues (and yes, I've let the subscriptions to those magazines expire).
• February Progress - Read 2 books (5 of 18 total), and 5 of the  magazines (6 of 38 total). 

The books I read were:

• Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan
• During the Reign of the Queen of Persia by Joan Chase

Crafting:

• Goal - 12 completed projects, preferably one a month, with one being a quilted item and another being knit socks.
• February Progress - Started and completed one toe-up knitted socks. ( 1.5 of 12 total)

I taught myself to crochet around the age of 12 or 13.  A few years later, I taught myself to knit.  I don't consider myself an accomplished knitter, and think it's more difficult than crocheting, but I usually do alright.  These socks were probably the most challenging knitting project I've tackled.  The work itself is not difficult, but just finding a pattern I could make sense of took days.  I made irreparable mistakes causing me to start over several times, but with each re-do, the quality improved.  A few nights ago I was determined to finish the sock, but come 2:00 a.m. when the yarn was about to run out, I completely forgot to consider that I needed a stretchy bind-off.  I bound off in a traditional way and couldn't get the thing over my foot.  So, I had to rework that, and now it might be too stretchy, but at least I'll be able to wear it (and learned a stretchy bind-off to boot!).

The sock isn't without flaws, by far, but it will be wearable, and I'm looking forward to finishing the pair.  What's more, now that I have a clue what I'm doing, I'll probably make more socks in the future.

My first sock!  It's in Paton Kroy washable wool
sock yarn; the colorway is Clover Colors.

Gardening: 

• Goal - Organized planning, leading to an organized garden.
• February Progress - Our printer quit working and I haven't replaced it yet, so I haven't been able to use the garden planning downloads I bought.  However, I've been planning all the same.  I know what we will be planting, in approximate quantities, and have ordered seeds.

Diet/Nutrition:

• Goal - To switch over to less harmful types of sweeteners and/or reduce sugars in our foods.  To grow more of our food in our backyard.
• February Progress - I have to admit that I haven't made any progress toward finding less harmful sweeteners since last month.

In other nutrition news, I've started making kombucha tea and tibicos soda (aka, water kefir) again after letting both go dormant for a few months at the end of last year.  Since re-establishing the habit of drinking a cup of one or the other -- or both -- daily again, I've felt a noticeable improvement in the way I feel.  To me, they are like safer, more natural energy drink and they are good for your gut.  IMO, they taste good, too.


Fitness:

• Goal - To join a local yoga class better flexibility, balance and overall health.
• February Progress - I have not found a different yoga class to join and to be honest, haven't given it much thought.

Finances:

• Goal - To pay off our RV.
• February Progress - A little.  When we first bought the RV, I padded our first two monthly payment by about $90, rounding it to the next hundred dollar amount.  For the next five months, though, I wasn't comfortable doing that.  We are in a position now that I can start paying extra again each month and even start catching up on the five months when I wasn't able to pay extra.  Every little bit helps.

Chickens On The Table - Chickens Off The Table

On the table...

The 30-Year Old Cooking Virgin's Skillet Basil Cream Chicken on Valentine's Day, Paula Deen's Southern Fried Chicken on Friday, and Deep South Dish's Chicken and Dumpling Bake Casserole on Sunday.

Paula's recipe...my kitchen...

Off the table...

The idea of keeping laying hens in our backyard.  We've been thinking about it for three years and keep putting it off, mostly because Shane has fairly frequent out-of-town work.  I'm just not willing to make a chicken commitment at this time without him home steadily.  Maybe someday, but not right now. 

January Resolution Review

I set some goals at the beginning of the year, so I thought I'd give a quick monthly update on my progress.


Reading: 

• Goal - 18 Books and more than a year of Mother Earth News and Hobby Farm Home back issues (and yes, I've let the subscriptions to those magazines expire).
• January Progress - Read 3 books (3 of 18), but just one of the  magazines (1 of 38). 

The books I read were:

• Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!: The Beatles, Beatlemania, and the Music that Changed the World by Bob Spitz
• The Asperkid's (Secret) Book of Social Rules: The Handbook of Not-So-Obvious Social Guidelines for Tweens and Teens with Asperger Syndrome by Jennifer Cook O'Toole
• The Unschooling Handbook:  How to Use the Whole World As Your Child's Classroom by Mary Griffith.

Crafting:

• Goal - 12 completed projects, preferably one a month, with one being a quilted item and another being knit socks.
• January Progress - Finished a pair of fingerless mittens. (1 of 12)

I finished these crocheted fingerless mittens.  I had started them back in the summer on a camping trip, but lost the pattern on the same trip.  Fortunately, I was able to find it online, and was able to complete the pair. 

I also knitted a small afghan/blanket for our cat Bob, who was moved from outside to our basement in December.  He likes to sleep on dirty laundry, specifically sweaters, so I decided to make him something of his own.  It isn't much to look at, but it used up some of my yarn stash, and was good knitting practice for me.


Gardening: 

• Goal - Organized planning, leading to an organized garden.
• January Progress - Did germination testing on the seeds we already have on hand.  Printed garden organizer I purchased from Northwest Edible Life and recorded seed tests and a few other things.  Read about gardening.  Thought about gardening.

Diet/Nutrition:

• Goal - To switch over to less harmful types of sweeteners and/or reduce sugars in our foods.  To grow more of our food in our backyard.
• January Progress - Shane has switched entirely to local honey as the sweetener in his coffee.  I only sweeten coffee occasionally, but when I do, I've been using Sucanat.  I have not yet found a sweetener I like in my tea other than white sugar, so I'm working on reducing the amount.  Little other progress has been made on this front.

Fitness:

• Goal - To join a local yoga class better flexibility, balance and overall health.
• January Progress - Something came up and I was unable to join.  I plan to look for another class or a different activity to meet this goal.
• I've started looking at bicycles.  I'm getting a good idea about what I want and don't want in a bike.  Basically, I'd like a big ol' cruiser bike with a big, well-padded seat, and handlebars I don't have to lean over, but with multiple speeds.  If I can't find what I want, Shane says he can (and will) Frankenstein custom build one for me. 

Finances:

• Goal - To pay off our RV.
• January Progress - None.  I have filed our tax returns already, and should be getting refunds, but those funds are earmarked for tires for Shane's truck, tires for the RV, and a large chunk of savings for next winter when holidays and bad weather shrink Shane's paycheck considerably.  Very little, if any, funds will go toward the RV balance.  On the other hand, we just completed a No Spend/Reduced Spending month and were able to save quite a bit of money to put toward savings.

October Spending Challenge - Week 2

Today ends Week 2 of Northwest Edible Life's No-Spend Month of October.  To participate, I decided to challenge myself to spend zero money going out to eat and as little as possible on food at the grocery store.  Kat requests the school's hot lunch a few times a month, so I'm including that spending as well.  I don't consider it to be groceries or a meal out, so it gets its own category.

This week of 10/6 to 10/12 was somewhat successful:

Restaurant spending:  $0
School lunch spending: $0
Grocery store spending:  $36.51 (includes sales tax)

At the store I spent quite a bit more than last week, but still a good deal less than usual.  I bought: 3 pound bag of yellow onions, 12 cans green beans, 3 bags tortilla chips, 2 loaves whole wheat bread, 2 whole "Just BARE" brand chickens, 1 lb. organic carrots, 2 heads lettuce, 1 pint sour cream, 1 pint ricotta cheese, 8 oz. block mozzarella cheese, 2 cans pumpkin.

Notes:  *Canned green beans are one of just a few veggies that I can rest assured that Kat will eat, so I stock up when they are on saled. *I make a lot of our bread from scratch, but will buy it if I'm especially busy like I was this week.  *I usually buy organic, free-range chicken from Trader Joe's for $2.49/lb, but the nearest TJ's is 15+ miles away.  I decided to try the Just BARE brand at $1.75/lb (and about 1 mile from home).  It's not organic or free-range, but from what I've read, they do follow cleaner, more humane practices than conventional poultry producers.  Anyone have any experience with this brand?

In addition, our neighbors moved away this weekend and gave us 18 eggs and 15 pounds of potatoes that they didn't have room to take with them.

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Here's what we ate this past week, most of which was already in the freezer, fridge and pantry:


Breakfasts and Lunches: 

• On both Saturday and Sunday, we ate steel cut oats and homemade toast with butter. 
• Otherwise, our breakfasts and lunches were very similar to last week's, consisting mostly of hot cereals, leftovers and/or simple sandwiches.
• Kat did not request any school lunches this week.

Suppers:  

• Saturday evening we were invited to eat at our friends' house.  We contributed homemade cookies and one of the last watermelons from our garden.
• Ham and cheese pretzel bites, green beans, lettuce salad with tomatoes and mushrooms, homemade honey mustard or ranch dressings, leftover cole slaw.
• Homemade pizzas (choice of ham and cheese or Thai chicken), lettuce salad with tomatoes and mushrooms, carrot sticks with homemade salad dressings for dip, homemade zucchini hummus, tortilla chips.
• Ham and dumplings, green beans w/bits of ham, lettuce salad with tomatoes and mushrooms,  carrot sticks with salad dressing for dip.
• 4-Cheese ravioli with homemade pasta sauce, garlic toast, salad with tomatoes and mushrooms, leftover green beans.
• Choice of homemade soup (chicken noodle or tomato bisque), fried egg sandwiches on toast, lettuce salad with tomatoes, watermelon.
• Sweet and spicy salmon burgers on homemade buns, roasted acorn squash, zucchini-tomato bake, lettuce salad.
• Pasta with tapenade, oven-dried tomatoes, mushrooms, zucchini and feta cheese; garlic toast.

Drinks and Snacks:
Drinks this week were water, coffee, iced tea, hot tea, hot chocolate, beer, and white wine punch (wine and lemonade, basically).  Snacks were dry roasted peanuts, tortilla chips with homemade salsa (both red and green), zucchini hummus, apples, homemade toffee chip cookies, and popcorn.

Zoom...

(Source)

Flying by, but too busy to stop for a post.  Shane is working out of town this week, I have lots of gardening and kitchen tasks staring me in the face, and I'm getting everything ready (from plans to clean laundry) for our trip that starts July 4.  I'll try to write a real post if I can this week. 

Good news is that I just found out we will have wi-fi at our campground, so I might be able to post some vacation photos next week as they happen.

Eating and Drinking at Camp

By now you know I like to cook and that I try to steer my family and myself away from a lot of junk foods and pre-packaged convenience foods.  But camping is supposed to be a mini-vacation, so when we camp, we loosen up on a lot of the "rules" we follow at home by buying, eating and using a lot of things we don't normal buy, eat or use at home.

I don't want to spend my entire trip cooking and washing dishes, so we allow for a few conveniences.  We use paper napkins and paper plates.  Not styrofoam, but actual biodegradable paper.  We eat hot dogs and marshmallows, and drink soda and bottled water.  We've been known to use canned soups and boxed mac-n-cheese when we camp.  These aren't the same standards I try to keep to at home.  Whatever.

This past weekend was no exception, although I would like to point out a few things that I found interesting. 

• Everything we ate, we ate at camp, meaning we didn't eat any meals out.  We usually eat at least one meal out when we camp, so I consider this a small victory.
• When we left home, in addition to beer and water, we had three 2-liter bottles of soda and a gallon of homemade iced tea.  By the time we got home, the tea was nearly gone, and we had consumed less than a bottle of the soda.  Our water was about 3/4 gone, and we didn't have any beer left.
• The homemade cookies I made didn't get touched at all until we got home|
• In the s'mores department, we still had graham crackers, marshmallows AND chocolate left over.
• On the other hand, there was only half of one of the three bags of chips left, and the french onion dip was completely gone by the end of the second day. 
• True confession time:  I just don't like s'mores.  Every camping season I try one, take a bite or two, then pass it on to Kat or Shane.  This year I tried one with dark chocolate, thinking maybe it wouldn't be so sweet.  Nope.  Still couldn't do it. 
• Thus, I've decided that my ideal s'more would be savory.  The graham crackers would be replaced with saltines, the chocolate replaced with cheese, and the marshmallow replaced with ham.  If that happened, the s'more would be my BFF.

Anyway...we did a little cooking and a lot of eating at camp.  Here are a few pics, and I'll try to post a couple of recipes to follow them up tomorrow or Thursday.

Homemade sugar cookie bars.

Friday night's supper of burgers and dogs.

Oh yes it was!

Sausage rolls for breakfast, but they tasted more like an hors d'oeuvre.

Sauteed zucchini, onion and red pepper to go with....

chunks of pork loin simmered in a slow cooker...

thickened with gravy mix...

and served over whole wheat pasta.  We ate every last bit of it.

These were good.

A breakfast casserole (thanks A.Marie), and pre-made hash brown patties.

Our friend John calls these cowboy potatoes.  Potatoes, Vidalia onions, season salt and butter...

wrapped in foil...

and grilled until tender.  Yum!

Kids and Allowance, Saving and Spending

I'm baffled why Friday's posts didn't publish as scheduled; I didn't realize it until this morning when I found I had to publish them manually.  So, today you get three from me -- the two from Friday as well as this one.

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In our home we've handle Kat's allowance like this:  She received no allowance as a pre-schooler.  When she turned 5 (the summer just before Kindergarten), we decided to give her 50¢ each week.  At age 6/Grade 1, we began giving her $1 each week.  Her allowance was raised to $2 per week when she reached age7/Grade 2, and to $3/week at age 8/Grade 3.  This pattern will continue until she turns 12/Grade 7, at which time we'll review and decide if the dollar increase is going to be enough.

In addition, with each birthday, her household responsibilities (aka, chores) increase a little.  But what is a little different compared to many families is that her allowance isn't dependent upon her doing her chores.  She is expected to do chores regardless, because she is a part of the family and we all contribute.  If she balks at doing them and/or slacks off from doing them, the consequence is that she doesn't get as much screen time (TV, computer, video games) as she'd like.

She receives her allowance regardless of whether she does her chores.  We do this because we feel that the lessons she can learn about money are more important, and we want to give her the tools to learn those lessons.  When she receives her allowance each week, we go through some counting exercises and work out several hypothetical money scenarios.  From her allowance, she is required to save 10% to put in "the big bank", which is her savings account.  She's also required to save 10% to donate to charity periodically.  Since we are not a religious family, we don't tithe, but we do contribute to charity; Kat's chosen charity at the is time is the local no-kill pet shelter.

The remaining 80% of her allowance is hers to do with as she pleases.  In the summer, she often spends her allowance at garage sales.  But this past year, she has patiently saved most of her money, along with gift money she received from family members and a bit of money she earned from having me sell a couple of her toys on eBay.  Last week, she had finally saved enough for this:

It's the Pirates of the Carribean Black Pearl Lego set!  It's a big set with 804 pieces.  We've been monitoring the price, both online and at local stores, and it has fluctuated between $75 and $100 over the last year.  About 10 days ago, I found it discounted online for $84 + $5 shipping, with no sales tax.  At the same time, in a local store it was $99 + tax (about $9).  At the time, Kat had $82 dollars to spend. 

We decided it was a "teachable moment"; the $19 she would save by ordering online was a good enough lesson, in our opinion, for us to advance her the $7 she needed to make the purchase.  We explained to her how much money she would save, how she would have to "wait for her ship to come in", how she would have to give us all the cash she had saved so we could pay for it from our account, and how she would not be getting allowance for the next three weeks in order to make up for the amount we were advancing to her.  We also gave her the option of NOT ordering and waiting until she had the amount in full, but explained that by that time, the toy would very likely not be on sale anymore.  The decision was hers, and she eagerly asked us to go ahead and order it.

It arrived late last week, and it took a couple of hours to assemble completely.  I asked her if it was worth saving and waiting for, and she said it was.  I asked her if it was everything she thought it would be, and she said it was except for the size.  It was a little smaller than she thought it would be.  I asked if she was disappointed, and she said she wasn't sad about it being smaller, just surprised.

I'm proud that she saved her own money for the Lego set.  I wish someone had encouraged this for me as a child or teen.  As it was, my siblings and I didn't receive an allowance until we were teens.  We didn't have a lot of material possessions (especially not brand new ones) nor did we didn't ask for a lot, but the things we did receive were given to us.  We didn't have to save for them.  Looking back, I think that would have been a helpful lesson for us to learn.

How do you handle allowance and chores in your home?  What about the spending and saving of allowance?  And while you're at it, tell us how you handle electronics and screen time.  Do your kids have to earn it?  I'm sure you have some great ideas, so please share.

Self-Control and the Struggle to Stay Productive

What's your Internet Achilles' heal?  For some it's Pinterest.  For others, it's on-line games.  For someone else, it might be eBay.

I don't have a problem clicking away from any of those, but I can't seem to stay away from Facebook.  It can suck the hours right out of my day.  I don't know why I have such a weakness for it.  While I do "get something out of it", especially on my Haphazard Homestead page, I don't think what I get out of it is commensurate with the time I can find myself putting into it.

Worse is that I can't seem to leave it alone on my own.  I'm not normally one who has trouble exercising willpower, but staying away from Facebook is harder for me than cutting back on sugar was last month, or giving up cigarettes cold turkey was ten years ago.  I did give FB up cold turkey a couple of years ago (really, that long ago?) and did fine, but I don't want to give it up entirely now; I think it's a usefully tool for bloggers.

What I have found that works for me is LeechBlock.  LeechBlock is a free Mozilla Add-On for those who use the Firefox browser.  I can choose what sites to block and either block them entirely, for specified periods of time each day, or specified amounts of time within a time period (for example, I can block a site for 45 minutes out of each hour), or I can set up one-time blocking as needed.  There are also tracking tools to show you what sites you spend the most time viewing and other nifty tools.

I've tried a few different scenarios.  Blocking Facebook from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. was a little too stringent, but allowing myself 10 minutes each of those hours was still too lax.  I'm currently allowing myself a half-hour in the early morning, an hour at lunchtime and a half-hour in the afternoon, plus unlimited time in the late evening and on weekends.  That gives me several large blocks of time during the day to get other things done without the Facebook distraction.

I'm sure there are other similar tools on-line for folks who don't use Firefox.  I did a very quick search of "website blocker" and came up with a few.  LeechBlock is free, and others may be as well, but I have seen some that charge a fee for the service.

I think these tools work psychologically as much as they do practically.  In addition to my laptop, we have two other computers in the house that are not blocked.  I could easily hop onto one of them to see FB while mine blocks it, but I don't.   I could also get on Internet Explorer and access it that way, but I won't do that, either.  I guess I just need a small reminder to turn away and stay on-task with other things.

I don't block any other sites at this time, but if one becomes a time-suck for me, I will add it to my list.

What about you?  Do you have a lack of will-power when it comes to certain websites, or the internet in general?  What tools do you use to make your day more productive?


Disclaimer:  I was not compensated in any way for this post.  This is simply a tool that works for me and I thought I'd share it with my readers.

To Chicken, Or Not To Chicken

Somehow I've got it in my head that we won't really be homesteading, urban or otherwise, until we get some laying hens.  Silly, I know...vegans "do" homesteading without chickens.  Still, it's just a notion of mine.

Looks like this year won't be the year we become "official" homesteaders.  We've talked it over and the time just isn't right for us to take on chickens.  Remember, it's our year to finish projects...not take on new ones. 

Maybe next year will be the year we get our hens.  Until then, I have an "egg lady" that can buy farm-fresh, free-range eggs (and honey) from.

So we won't be chickening this year.  But with luck, we'll be greenhousing, and irrigation-systeming, and maybe even solar-paneling.  Maybe we'll be homesteading after all.

Thoughts on Second-Hand Stuff

Last week I wrote about our decision to NOT replace a part on our kitchen stove.  In the comments the conversation turned to repairing instead of replacing, replacing with second-hand parts, and hanging on to what you already own.  That's where I want to pick up the conversation again today.

In the last two weeks, a couple of second-hand items have come into our home.  One was by design and the other was by chance.

After seeing our friends' Jack LaLanne Power Juicer like the one above over the holidays, learning how well it worked and how easy it was to clean, we decided we wanted one of our own.  Shortly after, Aldi stores had a similar Crofton juicer on sale for $35 plus tax -- much cheaper than a brand new LaLanne juicer.  As far as I could tell, it worked the same way.  I've bought the Crofton brand before and have always had good luck with it, so I went ahead and picked up one of the two juicers left in our local store.

But on the way home, I wasn't completely happy about my purchase.  I decided I'd look on craigslist for a used Jack LaLanne juicer.  I found several listed and three within my price range.  It took all day, but one of the people I contacted finally responded and we worked out a time for me to see the juicer the next day.  I ended up buying it for $40.

Now why would I pay more for a used item than a new one?  First of all, after sales tax, the new one was about $38, so I only spent a couple dollars more for the used one.  Second, I already knew how the used juicer worked and I knew I would like it.  Third, by buying the pre-owned juicer, I didn't create an artificial demand for more juicers to be produced.  Fourth, I may have kept it out of the landfill; if the previous owner didn't sell it, he might have just thrown it away.  And fifth, it came with no packaging for me to have to recycle or throw away.

I was much more comfortable with this purchase and took the brand new juicer back to Aldi the next time I went there for groceries.

The second item we got used was a 42" flat screen TV.  Shane's boss' neighbor was going to throw it away and asked said boss if he'd take it and put it in a job site dumpster (not sure of the ethics of that, but that's for a different post).  Boss called Shane and told him it was available, that it supposedly worked but had some color problems, and asked if we wanted it.  Shane told him sure, we'd take it.

As it turned out, it did work, but it had some screen issues.  It wouldn't work on wide-screen view, but worked ok on full-screen view.  It didn't seem to have any color issues, but it didn't have as good a picture as our current TV.  We ended up listing it on craiglist as a free item, explained it's problem, and had lots of calls from people wanting to give it a new home.  The first person who called us decided to take it.  Everybody involved was happy and the television never saw the inside of a dumpster.  At least not on our watch.

By the way, our current TV was also given to us by Shane's boss.  The boss said the color was dull and upgraded to a flat-screen a few years ago.  We were happy to get it because our old TV was really too small for our living room. The one he gave us is a rear-projection big screen model and all Shane had to do was open the cabinet and dust off the projection bulbs.  That made a big improvement, but after fiddling with the freebie flat screen last week, Shane decided it was time to clean the projection bulbs in our TV again.  Only this time, he also cleaned the mirror that reflects the projection bulbs.

The picture is unbelievable now.  I suppose it doesn't take much to impress us, but we all three sat for the longest time and marveled at the difference a good cleaning made.  I expect this TV will have to flat-out quit working before we consider replacing it.  Unless, of course, the boss decides to upgrade and give us his "old" one again. ;)

I guess the point I'm trying to make is that not all used acquisitions, whether purchases or freebies, are going to work out.  On the other hand, there are lots of reasons that justify giving a new home to second-hand stuff.

What kind of used items have you adopted lately?

Not Much To Show For It

Shane and I did a lot of work this weekend, but you can't tell by looking around the house.  Most of our work was on paper.

On Saturday, while I balanced our checkbook, paid bills, cleaned out my "bill box", cleaned out my catch basket of odds and ends (like billfold, keys, sunglasses, small notebooks, etc.), Shane spend his time poring over seed catalogs and making garden plans.  We stopped for lunch and supper, then watched a movie with Kat and then our day was over.

Yesterday, I read the Sunday paper, sorted through some recipe clippings, cleaned a kitchen drawer or two and started pulling together the documents I'll need to file our tax returns.

While I did that, Shane did more seed searching, this time online.  He spent most of the day at it, getting up a few times to stretch and take care of some laundry.

So, our work this weekend doesn't really show.  There is cat hair on the carpet, the dishes are piled on the countertop and the house is generally a cluttered mess.  I'll admit it...this bothers me.  The clutter is a nagging distraction to me.  But sometimes I just have to let it all go and dig into the paperwork, the sorting, and the other "administrative" chores that running a home requires.

The dishes and cat hair will still be there when I'm ready for it.  Of this I have no doubt.

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On a totally different note...

Some people do end up with something to show for their efforts.  In yesterday's Kansas City Star, there was a feature article in the Star Magazine section about Harry S. Truman and his financial struggles, both before and after his presidency. 

You won't see it in the online version, but in the print version of the story, the sub-headline reads:

"Mr. 'The Buck Stops Here' was known for his frugality, but he died a wealthy man.  Surprised?"

Well, I am surprised; surprised at how many people equate frugality with poverty.  One source defines frugality as "prudence in saving; the lack of wastefulness".  To me, those are more closely associated to wealth poverty.

Anyway, if you have the time and interest, read the article.  It's an interesting article, and it's fun to compare expenses and wages from the early 1950s to those of today.

Some Things Just Don't Matter

One thing we've learned about spending deliberately is that some things just aren't important enough to trade our money for. 

An example of something that isn't important enough to us to spend money on is our range.  It was made in 1991, but both the oven and stove-top burners still work great.  It's a gas stove and I love that.  But over the years, the plastic insert on the control panel has melted.  The oven vents out where the melted part is, so I suspect it's just a design flaw and not the fault of the previous owners.  It's pretty ugly and very hard to clean around those cracks and melted places. 

To replace just that part of the control panel is crazy expensive; I think it was around $80 when I looked into it a couple of years ago.  We think that's too much to pay for a part that just sits there and looks pretty.  We could buy a comparable brand new gas range for around $350, but there's nothing functionally wrong with the one we have, so there's no need to buy a new one.

So, here's how I solve the problem most days.

Guess what?  If we bought a new range, or even just the new control panel part, that often-used pot would probably still be sitting right there, hiding the control panel anyway.  Not to mention that the new part might just melt again. So what would be the point?

What about you?  Would you think things through before making this kind of purchase, or would you replace the part (or the entire range) without a second though? Do you have a "price point" where your decision changes?  For us, we'd probably buy the part if we could get it for $20 or less.  As for buying a whole new stove, we don't plan to until this one quits working.

My Return To Blogging

When I quit posting on my old blog a few months ago, I honestly didn't know if I'd come back to a blog or not. 

I began thinking of a new blog almost immediately and I toyed with the idea of making changes -- many and big -- to what I had been doing.  Still, I was enjoying my time off, so whenever blogging crossed my mind, I just brushed the idea aside.

After a while, though, I saw that one of several things I missed was the accountability that comes with blogging...or with my kind of blogging, at least.  Yes, near-daily posts had been taking up a lot of my time, but I wasn't always using the time I saved by not blogging in a productive way.  I had wanted more time for working outside, organizing my home and spending time with my family.  What I got instead was more time for Facebook and Pinterest.  Because I didn't publicly say that I was going to organize those recipe clippings or dig up the Jerusalem artichokes by Friday if it killed me, I just didn't do them.  Without a blog, who would know the difference anyway? 

It didn't take long for me to realize that I'm a lot more productive with an audience to keep me on track.  It took a little longer for me to decide that "many and big" changes weren't necessary and that a new look, new name and a slight shift in focus would do the trick.

As for my willingness to commit to a blog again, well, I'm still not 100% on board with that one.  The accountability, though, is worth enough to me to give blogging another go.

If you've been where I am, what made you decide to blog again and what keeps you going with it?