Keeping My Motivation

Since starting our debt reduction plan this year, it has meant a few life style changes, a few more extra chores to add to the list, and a few changing of habits,  but over all it hasn't been that much of an intrusion into our daily routine.  Charlie insists it is more disrupting to my everyday life than his because, as he puts it, he still gets up, puts on clean clothes, goes to work, and comes home to dinner same as usual.  Where as the clean clothes he puts on is from water toted from the rain barrel and then hung up to dry instead of tossed in the dryer, and the meals are homemade, etc. 
I'm  saying all this not to toot my own horn but to instead show how yes, somethings have changed around here but it isn't so much extra work as it is a change of mindset. Once you get used to it they become a habit just as anything else. 
One thing I did request of Charlie was to have a weekly meeting.  I told him this would keep me motivated on those days when I just didn't want to make a white sauce for a casserole when everyone else could open a can of soup and toss in theirs.  (see, I'm not a saint, I get bitter sometimes)  I know myself well enough to tell him from the get go that- " I will lose my motivation along the way and I'm going to need your help." 

These weekly budget meetings on Wednesday nights allow us to go over the checkbook after his check has posted in the bank earlier that day.  We go over any bills to be paid that week and see how much that leaves us.  We like watching the extra grow because that extra gets sent to the credit card to knock a chunk off it.  Eventually we are going to blow it out of the water!  That being said some weeks are more exciting than others.  We always finish with the weekly grocery sale paper.  We make a list of things to stock up on and just things we need in general.  So we are in agreement before we get to the store later that week on what to buy and how much.  That way there is no debate or confusion once we get there. Lastly we go over any unplanned and planned future expenses.  For example, this spring we will have to replace the sand in our pool filter.  We knew this when we closed it last year so we have it on our expense sheet to remind us as it gets closer to time.  Since we planned for it ahead of time it shouldn't be such a blow to our budget. 

One other note is that our son, eleven, sits in these meetings with us.  I wanted him to start understanding how money works.  I wanted him to understand the inflow and outflow of it.  I also wanted him to learn from our mistakes.  He gets to see how important it is for your money to work for you and not the other way around.  This way he sees where we are, what our goals are, and what he can do to help out; like making sure to turn the TV off when he is finished watching it.  If there is any praise to be doled out like keeping his room clean for three weeks straight then that is addressed as is any requests for dinner that week.  A crude menu plan is made before ending the meeting. 

Then it's on to popcorn and a board game for Family Game Night!
(I usually end up losing to Zach, every stinking time!)

And that is about it!  That's how we do it so far and it's working for me.  I feel like I have the motivation I need to get by one week at a time.  I also hope Zach has a better understanding of what we want to accomplish now.  Our goals reach far beyond just getting out of debt but those are still a little scary for me right now and I'm not ready to voice those just yet.  But when the time comes I'll be putting them on here and sharing with you. 

Putting this all on here at the blog helps in so many ways.  It holds me accountable.  It lets me preen when I'm excited and it makes me do the crawl of shame when I have to admit I failed.  Thanks so much for listening as we try to do this. 

I hope your goals are coming to light.  I pray you find the motivation you need this week to accomplish them. 

Hope you'll stop by again......Kristi.

Moving forward in 2012.

Paperless Kitchen Progress

The paperless kitchen challenge is going great so far. Largely in part due to drastically reducing our use of paper towels last year. I’m thinking that had we not done that and went cold turkey this year, then we would be sweating a little. I got used to reaching for a hand towel last year so the no-paper-towel-thing hasn’t really bothered me.

But let me show you my top shelf in the pantry.

EEEEEK!!!!!

But there’s paper products in my paperless kitchen?!?!

Well, yes there is. And here’s why.

The paper towels are still from that ridiculously overpriced package I bought last year-October 7, 2011. The fact we still have 8 rolls left(can't see them all in the pic) is promising. I’m not going to throw away money either so they’ll sit up there until life happens and I just can’t bear to touch it with a regular towel. With three people and three pets those things happen sometimes. They’ll also be good during hunting season and processing meat. Less regular towels to sanitize. But once they’re gone, they’re gone!

The package of napkins and paper plates were purchased at Christmas. I made cinnamon rolls for the guys at my husband’s work and sent those along to be used. Come to find out, another fellow brought meatballs that day along with disposable napkins and plates so these never got opened.

The paper cups are from Charlie. He went to work sick a few weeks ago and instead of buying high priced individual orange juice cartons he purchased a half gallon and bought these cups to drink it out of. So I have what’s left in my pantry. They can be used when we have kids around or this summer when we have pool parties.

The resealable bags are from meat processing over the winter. And will be used for that next winter or over the summer/fall to store our garden produce.

The biggest problem I have had is not using paper plates. Sometimes over the course of a busy weekend it’s hard to fight the urge to grab those instead. But then I have to remind myself that it only takes a few seconds to wash a plate.

It takes twenty one days typically to make a habit and the habit is there. But sometimes so is temptation. (smile)

So what about your challenges this year? Resolutions? I hope you are succeeding in them.

“Victory belongs to the most persevering.”-Napoleon

Moving Forward in 2012!

Have a great day!

Kristi.

Watch Your Language!

Over the holidays I was discussing people going "off-grid" and my interest in learning more about it and how they are faring at it. Later, a friend wanted to know if we were going anti-government. At first, I laughed about the misconstruction but over the next few days I was still puzzled over what I had said to make them think that in the first place.

About a week later, while cooking supper, I was going back over the conversation in my mind once again.

Then bing, bang, BOOM!

Words came in a thread. I began piecing them together. Off grid, grid, coordinates, location, off, off the map, hidden, bunker, survivalist, radical, BINGO!

I was talking about going off the power grid and they were picturing off the map, as in can’t find a trace of me, hiding in a bunker with enough ammo to start a small militia! Then I did laugh, at my ignorance. It took me that long to come to that conclusion! I could see clearly in my mind's eye what I meant when talking to our friend, but conveying it was a little murky.

We aren’t environmentalists, extremists, or even greenies, though I do tend to think of myself as an accidental greenie, of sorts.

I’m not seriously going off-grid. We aren’t set up for it. We do not live in an area with constant wind, so a wind mill would be out of the question. We don’t have a creek with a constant flow of water so a water wheel wouldn’t work . But it would be so neat if it would! Could you imagine having that as a backup in a power failure instead of a gasoline powered generator? Because with a generator we would always be caught without gasoline at eleven o’clock at night. Trust me on this one.   

Actually I was interested in off-grid on a more subtle basis instead. Using a spoon to mix batter as opposed to using it’s electric counterpart. Hand kneading dough instead of using a dough paddle on a mixer or a bread machine. Little things.

Why, when it seems like a penny is all your saving,? Well a penny adds into a dollar sooner or later. You’d be surprised how much appliances pull on the meter. And this is one area I can control.

Let me give you an example on the control factor: Let’s say I go to our bank that holds the mortgage on our house, walk right up to John, our loan officer, and say, “ You know John, our house this past month has kept itself neater it seems. I only had to dust occasionally, that creaky floor board didn’t creak as much , and that leaky faucet seems to have healed itself. I’d say that deserves a reward. So how about lowering our house payment this month?”

John of course is standing there blinking at me. One blink, two blink, three…..mentally he is wondering if they changed the date of April Fool’s Day without telling him.

“Ok,” I say, “then how about waving our interest on it this month?”

Again, with the blinking. John is now pondering what fishing hole would yield the most fish this afternoon, having tuned me out after my first suggestion.

What I’m getting at here is you can’t change that mortgage payment. It’s set. As is your car loan and any other loan you have out there in the ether. They do not fluctuate. But we do have expenses that fluctuate. Variable expenses.  Namely utilizes. Anytime I can do a manual operation of a task as opposed to the electrical operation, I am saving electricity. Which translates into lower electric bills and less money going out the door.

One other reason, personal reason, for wanting a backup, is that our service isn’t what it used to be. Twice last year our power was off for over 20 hours at a stretch, that’s twice we had to restock the refrigerator for food safety. The eggs, mayo, and meats had gotten warm, had to be thrown out, and that is a waste. Most of the smaller outages happened when there was no weather factor to increase the problem, like high winds, rain, or lightening. Right before Christmas the power went off twice in the same week at the same transformer!?!  The company is no longer independently owned and things that are worn out aren’t getting replaced; they are getting patched instead. Apparently there just aren’t enough funds to get things back to the quality they used to be. Which brings me back to off-grid. Whether to have it solely as your supply or just as a back up seems to be not such a "radical" idea after all.

Have a great week!

Kristi.


PS.  Every time I think of a bunker, I picture the Teletubbies house.......

Just saying..........

Moving forward in 2012!

Now You See It, Now You Don't

What paper towel holder?

I'm ready for this challenge!

Bring it!

Ready, Set, Go!

I’m not much on resolutions. I don’t stick to them. Usually they are too broad when I make them that I don’t keep it up.

But I do love a challenge and this year I thought I’d challenge myself instead of making unrealistic resolutions.

I wanted to do something small but significant.

I wanted to do something that we are interested in. That step is important. You know, why say you’ll take up oil painting if you don’t even like to draw or you hate the smell of paint. Just saying……

So since we are trying to be more self reliant and we are trying to purchase less non necessity items, plus generating less garbage to pack our landfills, I challenge myself to be paper towel free in 2012.

I know that doesn’t sound like much.

We are already using cloth napkins and I use cloth cleaning rags, plus I use homemade cloth pads. But we still keep paper towels around for really dirty cleanups or to catch grease when frying.

I’m thinking that I can cut up old t-shirts and use those plus keep a bucket under the kitchen sink and use Dawn dish liquid to cut the grease and launder on laundry day. I’m hoping that works and I’m certainly going to give it a try. Considering the last package of paper towels I purchased cost $16.87, I’m willing to give it a big try. (Yep, you read that right. I wouldn’t have paid that but I didn’t notice until I looked at the receipt when we got home )

I’ll keep you posted on my progress; succeed or fail I’ll document it here.

I think after a good try at it, say three months. I’ll try adding another challenge or if the first one was a fail I’ll retry it for another quarter or replace it altogether with a new one.

So make a list of challenges for yourself ,they don’t have to be the same as mine, and lets try them together this new year.

Ready, set, GO!!!!!!!

　

Edited to add:

I signed up for the 23 Day Frugal Living Challenge at Frugally Sustainable. I’m number 473. It all begins on January 6, 2012. I don’t know what to expect from it but I’m excited!

One Last Look Back

In reflection…..

　

2011 was a year of firsts. The first year of mom being in the nursing home, the first Thanksgiving without her at the table, the first Christmas without her here, and the first birthday without her calling. It was a tough year for me.  I don’t want to go back and start it over. But I did learn from it. Both about others and myself. Some good and some bad; some weak and some strong. I learned that the ‘Be Aware” wasn’t just about being aware of others as I’d thought. It was also being aware of yourself and what you do to impact others. I succeeded sometimes and I failed miserably most of it. I take some small consolation that I realize where I failed in hindsight. That, at least, means I have grown to some slight degree.

On to the next……


I’m ready for the new year. I’m ready to look ahead and move forward. Last year we were aware of where we are, now lets look ahead to where we are going.

One step at a time, bit by bit, and day by day.

Moving forward in 2012!

Last Week

Some notes from last week:

Charlie saves his hinged lid Altoid mint cans and gives them to a friend at work. His son uses them to store his little collections of interesting things. This past week Charlie, Chuck to everyone else, received this thank you note.

So cute!  

And talented. Notice the Angry Birds character on the right?

Love it!

It is currently on display located on the frig.

*******************

Also had to cut more wood while we had nice weather. But it is deer season around here and tromping through the woods can be a health hazard if not careful. Too bad we forgot to drag out the flare orange. Luckily Charlie had a vest and a boggin in his truck and his chainsaw is orange. It was a very mild day and wearing the boggin got hot very quickly. So Zach took the vest and I ,with the help of a scrunchie and clips, attached the boggin to my bun and it worked out well.

 

I tried to take a pic but it’s difficult to see my trend setting hair switch! ;)

It was a beautiful day.  Hard work but beautiful.

Until next time.....Kristi.

Good Morning, Freedom!

We've tried our hand at different ventures over the years. We have called ourselves many things. Tightwads, frugalists, former spend thrifts but one thing we have never uttered....self sufficient.


Enter Mr King.

Our first small, yet major, step toward self suffiency.

Isn't Mr. King stunning?

He certainly feels freeing.

Good Morning, Freedom!

Progress

Sorry it's so long but I didn't have a script and didn't know what I would say until I said it.