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.

Whistle While You Work

There seems to have been a sudden shift in the subject matter on here. That’s because there has been a sudden shift in us.

I talk a lot about saving money now , saving on electricity, going off-grid(on some things, not everything!) J

I’m going to repeat myself here and say we were well on our way to being debt free by the time Charlie turned 35. Then the business derailed us, or rather, we allowed ( taking ownership here), the business to distract us from that goal. Along with making wants into needs, placing them on credit cards for instant gratification. This didn’t happen yesterday. It happened several years ago and we’ve been coasting ever since. In denial I suppose or disappointed in ourselves for being so close to the finish line and then detouring and never crossing it.

We know the tricks of tightwadding. It isn’t something we have to relearn. Once you’ve done it you will always have the know-how. What we lacked was motivation.

Slowly over the past few months, seeds were planted in our minds. We did not make resolutions , although we did sit down together as a family and discussed goals we would like to accomplish this year. The change just happened to coincide with the beginning of the new year. A large part, truth be told, probably being that the first two months are always constant bills. Everything falls due at once. Those once-a-year costs attack January and February with a vengeance. .

For us it is the following:

Property taxes
Membership for insurance
Safety deposit box fee
Life insurance premium
Auto insurance premium
House insurance premium
Annual vaccinations for the critters
Termite station inspections
Income tax prep fee
Along with hospital bills still pending from Charlie’s allergic reaction
Lab fees associated with it as well.
Plus the regular monthly bills, mortgage, utilities, cell phone bill, etc.

They say fear is a great motivator, well I’m here to say that so is disgust. Disgust is what I’m feeling. I’m tired of paying “the man“. Granted that some of those bills will never waiver. We can’t eliminate them all. But if we paid off our house and credit card bills, then that money could be saved. We are lucky to have paid off our shop. Both our vehicles are paid for as is the boat. But there is still work to be done. And a nest egg to build. We are tired of working for the money and ready to make the money work for us! We have gotten serious about it once more.

A few things that we are doing to work toward our goal:

We are burning wood instead of using the gas wall heater. We do use the one back in our bedroom to knock the chill off before bed on the coldest of nights and then turning it back down before hopping in bed. A warm comforter helps as does a snuggle buddy. J Zach’s room is upstairs so all the heat naturally goes up there. We actually have to worry about his room getting too warm. Luckily he is cold natured. J

I’m making everything form scratch that I possibly can. Chuck provides the meat for the freezer. And we buy lots of beans and rice. Stocking up when things are on sale helps too. Drinking water or kool-aid at supper. (We have given up tea. Charlie can only have the decaffeinated and it’s three dollars a box and for some reason decaf never goes on sale. If I can find it at the discount store I buy it but otherwise it’s water at supper.)

Not using paper products in the kitchen keeps expenses down too. And it isn’t any more work. I’m washing dishtowels anyway, might as well toss in cloth napkins.

I only wash when I have a full load now. I line dry all the clothes. Having the wood stove helps with this. I can wash and dry four loads of clothes in one day. The wood heat draws the moisture right out. In the winter this allows me to put them away the same day just like those using electric dryers. In the summer time they go on the outside lines.

I have been using a rain barrel to help fill up my washing machine on the initial fill up. The rinse comes directly from the meter as always.

Turning off lights during the day. I only turn on the lights when we are in school or I need one while cooking. I also unplug anything that isn’t being used and has a light. For instance the coffee pot and my cell charger. I also unplug the tv and dvd player. Anything that has a remote is never truly off, it’s on standby and drawing energy. Ka-ching! Ka-ching!

I’ve started making half of the dog and cat food. I still buy dry food but I use dried out bread, corn bread, and/or biscuits, then a layer of dry food, then I drizzle homemade water and flour gravy, seasoned with beef bouillon and liquid smoke, over the top of it all. The gravy tastes great! I’m using up the beef bouillon instead of tossing it, Charlie can’t have it anymore due to his allergy to beef. Big Dog, Bowie, loves this concoction. He even eats the new dry food I bought that he didn’t like. The cat prefers her dry food plain and her gravy on the side. Buddy is a little more picky. He gets a light sprinkle of cheese on his( he loves cheese and it adds extra calcium although this might be a problem in older dogs as they sometimes become lactose intolerant and should limit milk products. At any age dogs should have limited milk products. It’s hard on their digestive tracts- as told to me by our vet.)

We will once again be having a garden this year. ( I missed it last year. I missed a lot of things last year.) We will also be firing up the boat to restock our fish in the freezer. Once our blackberry bushes start bearing we will have homemade jelly.

We’ve implemented a “twenty dollar a month for groceries act” as a guideline. It isn’t set in stone so don’t freak out on me. We are mainly able to do this because we have food storage to supplement, plus his harvesting our meat during the season.

The twenty dollars a month puts things into perspective. For example, I’m willing to drink water at supper as opposed to $3-a-box tea so I can buy our $3-a-pack toilet paper. Priorities are a wonderful things, am I right about it? Ha!

It’s quality time together cutting wood. It’s playing board games instead of being scattered about the house playing on computers or watching tv alone. It’s eating stove popped popcorn that tastes better than microwave popcorn.

I’m not going to lie, it isn’t always fun. It means more work for all of us, but not so much that it isn’t worth it.

And in every work that he began in the service of the house of God, and in the law, and in the commandments, to seek his God, he did it with all his heart, and prospered. 2 Chron. 31:21

"God is a kind Father. He sets us all in the places where He wishes us to be employed; and that employment is truly our Father’s business’. He chooses work for every creature which will be delightful to them, if they do it simply and humbly. He gives us always strength enough, and sense enough, for what He wants us to do; if we either tire ourselves or puzzle ourselves, it is our own fault. And we may always be sure, whatever we are doing, that we cannot be pleasing Him, if we are not happy ourselves."- J. Ruskin

Have a great day!

Motivated and moving forward in 2012!

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!

To Be or Not To Be Green, That Is the Question

My sis-in-law, Heather, gave me a book at Christmas about “going green”. As she handed it to me she said it sounded like me. I was skeptical. For one, I don’t like the term “green”. I think it’s over used. It’s become a fad. Companies over use the word to market their wares and use that slogan to sell it under false pretenses. Sort of like when foods boast “no trans fat” on the front of the package in an attempt to sound healthy; they are hoping you don’t notice that it’s 6,000 calories per teaspoon. (Stepping down slowly now……as not to tip that soapbox.)

I decided to give the book a try. And not long into the book I realized this girl knows what she’s talking about. She hooked me when she warned of companies green washing you; using the slogan to save the planets resources but not really doing so. (one smart cookie)

Further into the book I caught myself saying, “I already do that.”, “I have that product” , and thinking I'm doing ok at this but then came the words“I never knew that.”

There is a lot about carbon dioxide emissions in there that I never realized before. For instance, I learned that burning natural gas releases around 320 pounds of CO2 annually. And that the average American is responsible for about 22 tons of emissions per year. I always thought industrial giants were the culprits but as it turns out personal activity accounts for more than 30 percent of all emissions in the United States.

Wow!

I would like to say that all our trash cut back, composting, and cutting out paper products in the kitchen is purely honorable but mainly it’s for selfish reasons. One reason being, I want to save money and the less we use that has to be tossed the less has to be bought and replaced. Meaning more money staying in the house than leaving it. Especially when it’s leaving for convenience items like paper towels or paper plates. Sadly, the bigger reason for our switch is just pure laziness. In my old age I don’t want to have to run to the store when I suddenly discover we are out of milk. Now I can just mix up more powdered milk. Or if we are out of paper towels I can just reach for a dish towel or cloth napkins. The homemade cloth pads are such a convenience; no taking stock constantly to keep from running out or , heaven forbid, being caught unaware.

Granted, in my laziness I’m saving three milk jugs a week from ending up in the landfill, that just happens to be a plus in my favor.

I’m learning more areas where I can make do and use what I have on hand for convenience and to recycle at the same time.

I love these scrubbies.

They are cheap and really useful in the kitchen.

I recently ran out because I forgot to pick up another package of them while at the store.

I was in need of a scrubbie but was too lazy to run to the dollar store to pick up more just for that particular cleaning job.

I looked around and remembered a crochet project of dishtowels using left over yarn and plastic bags for the centers to use for scrubbing dishes. I had plenty of plastic bags so I crocheted up about five scrubbies in just a few minutes sans the yarn. I didn’t need them to be pretty just useful. I made them in varying sizes to see what would work best for me.

They ended up working great and can actually be cleaned out better than my store bought versions. Food particles aren’t trapped in it as easily and that means better sanitation.

I’ve used them for washing dishes in the kitchen and made a few for the bathroom to use in scrubbing the vanity and shower. I’ll never go back to the store bought again.

I used to save plastic bags to use as garbage bags but because we generate less garbage now and compost more, bags were coming out our ears around the house. I’ve since made up several balls of plarn to make more scrubbies out of and even made an outside door mat.
　

I admire those that are trying to remove their carbon footprint and if everyone would just change one habit it would greatly improve things for future generations. If dinosaurs had used plastic water bottles we’d all be digging up prehistoric relics in our backyards today. Those things don’t’ break down. They’ll tell a lot about us in millenniums to come. You’ve heard of the iron age well we will be known as the plastic age. And the proof will still be here to prove it.

Just food for thought.

　
If you would like to read more about going green and learn more ways of reducing carbon dioxide emissions the book is entitled: Green Chic- Saving the Earth in Style. by Christie Matheson. 

Disclosure: I received no compensation for reference to this book.  All opinions are my own.

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!

It Shrunk

Leaving the sawmill with kindling.

Stacked up nice and neat.

It looked like a whole lot more in the back of the truck.

( By the way, this is my 300th post.  Thanks for making that possible.  I wish we could celebrate with a give away but Gray Days just isn't big enough yet.  Maybe in the near future.)

Mud Room

Lots of things going on around here lately and the blog has suffered. It was one of the first things to be put on the back burner and I apologize. Hopefully things will settle down once we get this mud room finished. 

Here are some pics of the progress.

(Not only will this be a mud room but it also houses the wood stove.)

I'll post pics of the inside after we get the shelves  up and things in their proper places. 

Have a great day!!

Sustainable Laundry Thoughts

I have been contemplating alternatives to the washing machine lately.  We've been kidding about getting a wringer washer.  Only kidding because finding one that is in decent shape is next to impossible.  I noticed an article on a bicycle powered washing machine and that piqued my interest more than a little bit.  Exercising while getting your clothes clean?  I mean that is multitasking at it's greatest!

We had a front loading washer and it used very little water but used more electricity.  We then went back to the top loader and immediately the change was noted on the water bill.  They do take less time and electricity to run but waste more water. 

I thought maybe if I had a rain barrel I could use buckets of it to start the wash cycle then it would fill up to rinse off the meter as normal.  That would at least cut my city water usage in half. 

Just tossing ideas around right now but I happened upon the article below that I thought was interesting.  I had heard of using the plunger method before but never had anyone give the results of such a process.  It will be nice to see how well this works and what problems they come up against and the solutions they find to solve them. 

To read the article click below:
Going Sustainable With Laundry

Again just thinking of ways to be more self sustaining in the event I have to be.  Don't get me wrong I love convenience but I don't want to get to the point that I rely on it and panic without it.

 Oh well, there is always the stump and laundry paddle to fall back on.  One man stated that there wasn't a stain anywhere that could stand up to his grandma and her paddle! 

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!