Sparing Change

An Alternative to a Smart Strip

2013-05-15T05:00:00.000-04:00

A couple months ago, I was making a comment to my husband about how I was tired of the electric bill being so high. I had cut down the amount we use our dryer significantly, washed the majorityof our dishes by hand, lowered use of our stove in favor of a crock pot and convection oven and did not notice much of a difference in our electric bill each month. I was frustrated, and my husband came to the rescue.

Todd is a very handy man who knows how ~~frugal~~ cheap I can be. I have been talking about purchasing and installing smart strips on all of our electronic devices; however, I never pulled the trigger because I did not want to spend the money not knowing how much (if any) it would save in the long-run. On a weekday that I worked and Todd had the day off, he came up with a better plan to cut off the electricity to all of our electronic devices when not in use at a much lower cost: install a light switch at each device. The cost for supplies was less than $8 and we have these switches in 4 places around our home.

Switch for the TV, Roku and DVD Player in
the Family Room

When we are ready to watch anything on TV or a movie, we turn the switch on and go about our business. Having the light switches has not been an inconvenience at all. We also have one connected to our microwave. The microwave was glitching out and blowing the circuit for some reason for the first time in the 6 years we owned it. I really didn’t want to have to go shopping for a new microwave and shell out $200+ for a decent one. Instead, Todd installed a light switch to the microwave and whenever we use it (we use it a lot less than I thought we did!), we turn the switch on and go about our business. Since installing the switch, the microwave has not glitched out once nor has it blown the circuit breaker.

The Switch by the Microwave (can you see it?)

The real question is whether or not this has saved us any money on our electricity use.

My answer is yes! I was amazed the first month to see a $35 drop in our electric bill (during a really cold month). The second month, there was a $65 drop in the electric bill (the weather was starting to warm up a little bit, so the furnace wasn’t running as much)! Just this past week, we had another bill cut and we are under $100 for the month! The lowest electric bill we've had in this house was $77, and this past month was $99, just $22 more than our lowest electric bill.

I am anxious to see how low we can go in the summer months.

For me, lowering our electricity consumption makes the use of solar panels and wind-energy to power our home more attainable.

How do you lower the use of electricity in your home?

Celebrating 6 Years of Marriage

2013-05-08T04:00:00.000-04:00

Each year of marriage, Todd and I try to get away to experience new places and focus on one another. We have had some pretty awesome trips over the past 6 years of marriage (including our honeymoon to Seattle & Alaska!). They include:

Honeymoon: Alaskan Cruise (in-credible!)

1^st Anniversary: Gatlinburg, TN
2^nd Anniversary: Lancaster, PA
3^rd Anniversary: Washington, DC and Chesapeake Beach, MD
4^th Anniversary: Beverly, WV
5th Anniversary: Las Vegas and The Grand Canyon

This year, our big trip was to Aruba with family so we didn’t want to take another week off for our anniversary (nor did we want a big price-tag for the trip). Instead, we chose to go to Columbus, OH to visit family friends (my friend from high school and her mom: both who were integral parts of my life during my parent’s divorce) on the opening weekend of their new Bed and Breakfast. Not only did I want to support them in their new business, but I wanted to spend some time with them before they got too busy because I am confident that the Bed and Breakfast is going to be a huge success.

As with all of our trips, we try to do things as frugal as possible but also make the most of the time we have together. I am lucky to have a father who likes dogs and especially adores our dog. When I asked if he would want to take our precious pup for the long-weekend, he quickly accepted. This alone saved us $99 in the cost of taking Lana to the pet resort she enjoys going to. (We took dad and the family out to dinner as a thank you when we got back.)

On our actual anniversary (Friday, May 3^rd), we were up bright and early packing our bags and preparing the animals for their weekend without us. We dropped off the pup to my dads and made the 2 ½ hour trek to Columbus. Before we got to Columbus, we stopped off and got some lunch at one of Todd’s new-found favorite restaurants: Red Robin. After that, we headed to the Columbus Zoo. Oh how I enjoy animals; however, it saddens me that they are caged up and kept captive. Side Note: If you are ever in the Columbus area and would like to find an animal reservation, please go to The Wilds. They don’t have all of the exotic animals and monkeys, but the animals are given thousands of acres to roam and live naturally.

After walking around the zoo for nearly 5 hours, we were exhausted. It was time to check into the Bed and Breakfast and grab something to eat. We ended up eating at a really nice restaurant for half the price thanks to a Restaurant.com coupon that we bought for 30% off (a $50 certificate cost us $14!). The food was delicious, but we were pooped. When we got back to the B&B, we went straight to bed with our throbbing muscles and passed out.

The next morning, we were up bright and early to have tea and sweet rolls for breakfast before we had to head out to our Segway Tour around Columbus. Oh my goodness…this was so much fun! Naturally, after we rode around on Segways for two hours, we both wanted one of our own! We saw so many beautiful homes and historic places around Columbus, it was great!

After the Segway tour, we went to a topiary park which was so beautiful. It was one of the few things to do that was free in the area.

After the park, we decided we were exhausted. We headed back to the B&B and took a 2 ½ hour nap! For me, this isn’t a big deal because I can do that anytime, but my husband is not a big napper nor does he require much sleep, so for him to get 2 ½ hours of sleep means he was beyond exhausted. When we woke up, we got ready and headed out to dinner with my friend and her husband. It was so great to just sit and talk with them for hours.

Sunday morning, we woke up, had breakfast and went to church with my friend and her husband. After that, she surprised us with a mini photo-shoot (she is an awesome photographer) for our 6^th anniversary.

I say this every year and I will say it again: marriage is not easy.

My marriage with Todd is less than perfect with highs and lows.

We have gone through a lot together, and through it all, we still choose to work on what we have.

As a marriage counselor has told us in the past, “Plan for tomorrow…you haven’t screwed that up yet.”

When those days and weeks are really bad, we plan for tomorrow. We try to live for today but sometimes, planning for tomorrow is all that keeps us going.

I listen to the following podcasts that help me keep my marriage moving in the right direction. I highly suggest listening to them if you ever feel like you could grow in your marriage.

We had an incredible weekend that was precious in so many ways. Not only did the time with Todd strengthen our marriage, but I got to spend time with two (very) strong women who inspire me with the way they live their lives (in faith) as well as how they handle struggles in their marriages.

Battling Sickness

2013-05-01T06:23:00.000-04:00

It feels like Todd has been sick for most of 2013. Every time he gets better, within two weeks, it’s something else. To say that he has been miserable is an understatement. I am not used to being sick (I rarely get the flu or a cold; however, when I get sick, it usually ends up with me in the hospital.) or dealing with someone who is sick for what seems to be all the time. Admittedly, I am not very empathetic when someone is sick more than twice a year, which is not a good attitude to have especially toward my husband!

This past illness (a trifecta of flu, sinus infection AND spring pollen allergies), I started to think about what I could do to help Todd avoid getting sick so frequently. This is what I am going to be implementing in our family to {hopefully} cut down on the amount of times we get sick each year.**

Food

I honestly believe that we are what we eat. That being said, I am a big glob of sugar and Todd is a big vat of grease. Can you tell what foods we enjoy most? We were doing awesome last year on a Paleo-type diet. We felt great, didn’t feel deprived, and had more energy than we'd had in a long time. I think it is time to get back on the Paleo-type eating plan with more vegetables, less meat and fewer cheat days. I would also like to incorporate more juicing into our diets. To me, raw fruits and veggies are imperative to health and fighting illness.

Even though we always have fruits and vegetables in our home, I need to make them more accessible to eat when we are hungry or in a rush. For instance, right now, I have 3 head of cauliflower (Todd’s favorite vegetable to eat raw) and 2 cantaloupe. I need to prepare these items to keep in the fridge ready for those evenings when we get hungry or just need a snack. This way, we can avoid going to get ice cream (my favorite food of all time) or picking up something that we should not be eating.

Exercise

Please note that I am awful when it comes to moving my body. I need to make a habit of trying to get Todd out of the house before work or after work in the evenings, even if it’s for a short walk around the block with our precious pup. We have a basketball hoop that has yet to have a single basketball go through its net, we have two bikes, a canoe, and a lot of sticks out in the yard that need to be gathered and burned. We have plenty of opportunity to exercise…we just need to get off our butts and do it!

Side Note: We have recently decided to take a 485 mile pilgrimage between St. Jean Pied de Port (France) through Santiago de Compostela (Spain) this time next year. You can read about our journey of preparing for this trip at a new blog I've created here.

Cleanliness

I am not the best housekeeper. I need to keep up with the dusting and sweeping better than I have been. I like to see results but I feel so discouraged two days later when I see the dust starting to accumulate again. This may help with Todd’s allergies and to keep the pet dander at bay.

Essential Oils / Natural Remedies

I have been reading a lot of great information about essential oils and natural remedies. I am looking into diffusers and what the best brand of essential oils would be for our home to keep sickness away. If you have any information on essential oils or the diffuser you use, please forward it my way!

A Reliable Family Physician

With the referral from a neighbor, Todd tried a new doctor this past bought of illness and he really liked the doctor. This doctor takes the time to talk with his patients to get the full background and is not about pushing pills. Instead, he is all about natural alternatives to those medications! The older (and more educated) I become about healthcare, medicine, and how prescriptions affect us, the more I am interested in natural ways of healing and staying healthy, so this sounds like the perfect family physician for us. Todd and I have two different medical plans because we never combined our medical insurance when we married; however, this particular doctor is on both of our plans.

How do you help fight illness in your home?

**DISCLOSURE: I am by no means a doctor. If you are ill, please seek the assistance of a trained medical professional. Also, please note that Todd and I have a long way to go to being healthy. We are both overweight and though I am striving to feed my family healthier foods, getting out more to exercise and doing what we can to stay healthy, we are by no standards even close to perfecting this area in our life.

Completed Book List: April 2013

2013-04-24T07:43:00.001-04:00

One of my goals in 2013 is to read 24 books.
So far this year, I am way ahead of the game. You may be wondering what I’ve been reading, and this is the list of all the books I’ve completed the first part of this year.

Hannah Coulter by Berry Wendell

Hannah Coulter is a novel about an older woman (Hannah Coulter) who tells her story from growing up during the Great Depression, meeting her husband who was shipped off to war shortly after they were married, and her experiences raising a family on the homestead. This book made me think about our homesteading roots here in the United States and all that our ancestors lived through in the early 1900’s. A great read!

The Trouble with May Amelia by Jennifer L. Holm

May Amelia is a young teen growing up in the state of Washington with her seven brothers. A tomboy at heart, trouble always seems to find her. The book tells about the tales of this Finnish girl growing up on a homestead in the early 1900’s in an area with a majority of boys. When a business deal goes awry, her father and family blame her. This isn’t a “must read” but the book kept me entertained.

A Stolen Life by Jaycee Dugard

I am not sure why I decided to read this book: maybe my curiosity got the best of me. This book was extremely disturbing to know what Jaycee Dugard went through as an abducted 11-year old and her 18 years of life in captivity. The best part of the book is how she has chosen to live her life now that she is out of captivity and her passion to lead and to give her two daughters the best life possible even after all they have been through.

It’s All Too Much by Peter Walsh

I love this book! A must read to anyone who is attempting to get rid of the clutter in their lives once and for all.

Walden by Henry David Thoreau

The sole reason I checked this book out from the library is because an author stated it was one of her favorite books. I was curious to see what the book was about based on her recommendation. This book is a book written by Henry David Thoreau in the mid-1800’s about his life of building and maintaining a homestead and living a life of solitude and simplicity at Walden Pond. This book, though I found it difficult to read in the beginning, turned out to be a decent book. There were long stretches of the book that I had a hard time relating to or even cared to read. I wouldn’t say it’s my “favorite,” but Thoreau mentioned many things that are worth contemplating when it comes to living a simple life and several things that he stated still apply today, over 150 years later.

"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined. As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler." ~Henry David Thoreau

"A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone." ~Henry David Thoreau

Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller

I don’t really know how to describe this book. It is a refreshing book of real-life conversations and reflections of experiences the author, Donald Miller, has had with people throughout his life as well as his reflection on how he noticed God’s work in each particular situation. It is a very down-to-earth book that creates a lot of thought-provoking material on God’s hand in our lives.

Oogy by Larry Levin

Talk about a story that pulls at the heart strings! This book is about a pit bull (later learned that the breed is actually a Dogo) named Oogy. Oogy was rescued from being a bait dog in a dog-fighting raid. The story tells a tale of Oogy’s life as a mutilated puppy, how one veterinary and technician refused to give up on this seemingly happy and unaffected dog and the family who took him in and gave him the love he should have received from the very beginning. This is a wonderful story about the relationship between a man and his best friend.

To read more about Oogy (without reading the book), you can go here:

Same Kind of Different as Me by Ron Hall

Same Kind of Different as Me is a book above loving one another no matter where you’ve come from and what you’ve been through. This book is about Denver Moore, a plantation worker and runaway and his relationship with Ron Hall and his wife, a prosperous art dealer and gallery owner. How in the world did these two men meet and become friends? It would be way too easy to give away all the details, but I will tell you that this book is definitely worth reading. This book is an inspiration for me as to the type of person I strive to be and the faith I need to get there.

Nowhere But Up by Pattie Mallette

I could really relate with this book by Pattie Mallette. This book is Pattie’s story about what she went through as a child, the trouble she got into as a young adult and ending up pregnant as a teen with her son Justin (Bieber). This is an uplifting and inspiring story of true faith and resilience.

The Fair Tax Book by Neal Boortz

I try not to get into politics, but this book definitely makes me think that the way we pay taxes in America could be different (and better). The FairTax is about implementing a tax on consumption instead of tax on income. This book is a quick and interesting read in my opinion.

Beachcombers by Nancy Thayer

After reading so many non-fiction books, it was nice getting swept away with a book that is fiction. This book is about three sisters who lost their mother at varying stages in their life and all coming back home after years away from their small little island town. This book was the perfect book to read before getting ready to leave on a tropical vacation to Aruba.

We Took to the Woods by Louise Dickinson Rich

This book is written by Louise about her time in the woods without electricity or running water in the early 40’s. As a homesteader at heart, I enjoyed reading the stories she tells about people coming to visit, how they attained their food and all of the little intricacies that took place while living alone with her family in a location deep in the desolate woods. Their small town was made up of 9 people within a 25 mile radius. This is an extremely interesting story of living in the woods.

So, there you have it.
I just finished up We Took to the Woods this weed, and I'm looking forward to reading some fiction for a little while.

What are you reading right now?

Starting the Garden: 2013

2013-04-17T04:00:00.000-04:00

Puppy is pooped after her vacation at the pet resort.

When we got home from vacation last Sunday, the weather was beautiful in Northeast Ohio. It was too beautiful to sleep the day away (which is what we wanted to do considering we didn’t get home until almost 1AM Sunday morning and had been traveling since 10:30AM Saturday morning). After picking up the pup from the kennel Sunday morning, we went home and got to work on the garden.

Planning in Progress

The first thing I had to do was sort through the dozens of packets of seeds that I’ve purchased and had left over from previous years. I didn’t realize how many seeds we had! I then sorted the seeds based on what weekthey need to be planted so that over the next 4 weeks, I can slowly but surely get everything into the ground. The only seeds I was able to plant were the cold weather seeds like lettuce, strawberry and asparagus seeds.

The Attachment on the Weed Eater

Next, hubby decided to come out and help till the garden. For the past few years, we’ve wanted to get a tiller for the garden; however, we weren’t willing to pay hundreds of dollars for something we would use a couple times a year. Upon looking into renting a tiller, we found it would cost anywhere between $45-65/day. Todd learned that his weed eater has an attachment to till soil and it would cost $99.99 new! I will willing to shell out the money until Todd found a brand new one on Craigslist for $50! Cha-ching! NOW we’re in business! We’ve already used it 3 times and it works like a charm!

This year, we have decided to plant some vegetables in the flowerbed in front of our home to utilize the space we’ve got.

Future Herb Barrels

These planters used to house perennial flowers, but this year, they will be growing herbs. (I know they are really ugly right now, but I haven’t had a chance to get around and take out last year’s dead stalks.)

The "Salad Bar"

Even though this looks like an empty patch of soil, there are 5 varieties of lettuce planted in this area. This is going to (hopefully) be our “salad bar” in the next month or so. I have never had much luck with lettuce or spinach, so we will see if planting it at the proper time in the season and watering it once in a while will help.

Last year, the chickens scratched up our 2-year old asparagus plants, so this year they are going in front of the house. I decided to plant them by seed in the front corner of the house fully aware that it will take 2-3 years to start producing asparagus. I love perennials; however, patience is not my forte.

We have had a lot of rain over this past week. After a couple of days of rain, I noticed our pear trees are getting their leaves! I wonder if these 3-year old pear trees will produce any fruit for us this year or not.

Pear Tree

Our transplanted red raspberry plants are doing great. We already have many new chutes coming out of the ground and some green buds forming on the canes. Oh how I love my red raspberry plants. No matter how much I neglect them each and every year, they always return the next spring.

Red Raspberries Have Leaves Already

This past weekend, I planted over two hundred peapod seeds. We really enjoy eating peapods and I am hoping we have enough to freeze or can so that we can enjoy them throughout the year. If a couple hundred plants doesn’t do it, we may have to turn our entire front yard into a peapod field!

So far this season, that is all I am able to plant based on our last frost date of the year (which will probably be mid-May here in Northeast Ohio).

How is your garden coming along so far this season?

Back to Reality

2013-04-10T07:35:00.000-04:00

Last week, Todd and I went on a family vacation to Aruba with my mom, her husband (very much a father-figure in my life), my 3 brothers and their significant others. On most vacations we go on, I see the magnitude of consumerism that many people take part of and quite frankly, it bothers me. I won’t sugar-coat it and tell you that my family didn’t take part in the consumerism because we did. This is what Todd and I came home with:

Of these souvenirs, we purchased the change-purse (for $1) and postcards (again, $1). The t-shirt and reusable bag are from a donkey sanctuary we visited – my mom bought these items for me. The purchase of the t-shirt donates a bale of hay to the donkeys, which I love. The reusable bag is something that I have started to collect when we go on vacations because they are practical and don’t take up a lot of space.

Aruba was absolutely gorgeous.

There is no way Todd and I would have gone on our own due to the expense involved in flying there and the general cost of everything on the island; however, it was a great vacation with family. We are fortunate to have parents that are thoughtful and considerate enough to take the entire family on a dream vacation like the one we just had. We had a lot of fun, many laughs, and made a lot of memories (and I’ve got pictures to prove it!) This is the first time I’ve spent any length of time with both of my stepbrothers in the past 10 years my mom and her husband have been married and it was a blast.

Here are a few pictures from our trip:

View of Venezuela (from plane)

View of Aruba (from plane)

Blue Crabs

Sunset

Our Snorkeling Spot (we went twice - it was awesome!)

Sunken Ship From Underwater (1938)

Sunrise View from Across the Street of our house

Pool lit up at night (view from back porch)

Natural Bridge

Lighthouse

Sunset

Sunset (from sunset cruise we took the day
before we had to leave the island)

We are back to the reality of waking up to an alarm clock, taking care of the critters, going to work, and working on the homestead. Even though I could have stayed in Aruba for another few months, I am happy to be back to our “regular” life in Ohio. Bulbs are starting to emerge through the soil, there are buds forming on the fruit trees, and life is good. I wouldn’t exchange my reality for anything.

New Year Aspirations Follow-Up: Q1

2013-03-28T04:00:00.000-04:00

Below is the list of aspirations I made for myself for the New Year. I will tell you, things arent going as well as I had planned; however, I will not let that discourage me! I have to work hard in the 2nd quarter to get caught up to be able to attain my goals. I will highlight and comment only on the areas that are going well..

Faith:

::Read the 1 Year Bible

Health:

::Lose 25 lbs and be more mindful of my health

Personal:

::Read 24 books : Right now, I am on my 12th book this year! This number will stop growing when I can be outside working on the garden.
::Learn about medicinal herbs

::Minimalize wardrobe and buy new (to me) clothes that flatter by body type (Dress Your Best )

Animals:

::Do not take in any more critters! So far, a success this year. :-)

Garden:

::Learn how to save our own seeds
::Expand the garden to be able to preserve more
::Make a chicken garden to feed the chickens self-sufficiently throughout the year
::Grow herbs for medicinal purposes

Financial:

::Pay down (at least) $10,000 principal on the mortgage :
So far, we've paid over $6,000 toward the principal of our mortgage! We are well on our way!

Correlation: Limiting Clutter and Lower Spending

2013-03-25T04:00:00.000-04:00

I finally have my husband on board with de-cluttering our home and acknowledging that we have too much stuff. It took me organizing my closet and commenting on how much I love how clean and organized everything was to get my husband to join the club. He started with his closet, purging the majority of his clothes: many of them I had never even seen him wear. Next, he turned all of his clothes one way. If he wears an item, he will hang it up the other way so he can see what he does and does not wear. In other words, hubby is taking this de-cluttering idea further than me! J

After we purged and organized the contents of our bedroom closets, armoires, storage under the bed, bedside tables and dressers, we moved onto the kitchen. I woke up one morning, and Todd had all of the contents of our kitchen cupboards on the countertops and dining room table. We went through every single item, getting rid of those that were expired or items that we would not use. This took us less than 45 minutes to complete: we took on this task one morning before I left for work!

Confession: The oldest item we found in the cupboard was a box of cornbread muffin mix in a box. I have been making my own homemade cornbread for the past several years, so I never had a need to use the boxed product. The expiration date: April 2009!

Now, we are going through our home room by room, little by little, getting rid of the contents we do not use as we go. I still have a date with the Tupperware/storage container cupboard one of these weekends, but things are coming along.

I have noticed that since we have been working on our home, the natural spender in our family (my husband) has been making fewer trips to Walmart before work in the mornings. We went out for a date at the end of February and I was astonished that we went to 4 stores and spent only $9.12. That $9.12 was on items that we needed only.

I am noticing a direct correlation between de-cluttering our home, the amount of stuff we bring into our home, and the amount of money we are spending. Being the natural saver and the one who is looking to simplify our lives, I am enjoying watching this process unfold.

Saving Money: Print and Media

2013-03-21T04:00:00.000-04:00

I have written before about going to the library, but I thought it was worth mentioning again. To read the original post, you can find it here.

We take advantage of our library every single week. You can find me there picking up new release DVD’s, old DVD’s that we may have missed, movies I enjoy and want to watch again, audio books, and physical books. I don’t believe in purchasing DVD’s or books unless I know I will watch or read them more than once. This not only saves us money, but keeps stuff from accumulating around the house.

Lately, we have gotten into more resources our library has available.

Magazines

I will admit that I enjoy reading magazines from time to time. Instead of purchasing my own subscription, I get the magazines each and every month from the library. Hubby has found this resource invaluable when doing research from Consumer Reports.

Newspapers

We had a gentleman come to our door asking if we wanted to get the local paper several weeks back: We declined. We are able to check out newspapers from our town, the three larger cities around our town as well as national newspapers from our library. We are not news or newspaper type of people – we enjoy a life where the negativity stays out of our home. Some call it ignorance; however, we are unapologetic about being uninformed. If a news story interests us online, we will read it. We don’t like to be inundated with it.

Free Classes

Not only does our library offer book discussions, there are also classes to learn how to knit, use/create Google Docs, estate planning, seed-swapping and many other courses throughout the year. I am amazed at how much our library offers considering we are a town of 5,000 residents!

Our library also offers a free online program to learn how to speak different languages. I would like to learn how to speak Spanish, Italian and French one day. Maybe I will try to re-learn Spanish come winter when there is no garden work to be done.

What programs does your library offer?

Do you take advantage of them?

Reflection: Bigger Isn’t Always Better

2013-03-18T04:00:00.000-04:00

I would like to mention that if we are talking about ice cream sundaes, bigger is most definitely better (in my opinion)! However, today, I am going to talk about the size of our home.

Back before Todd and I were married, I owned an 1100 sq ft home in the city. At the time, I thought the home was perfect and I couldn’t see myself ever moving away. It was the perfect size for me as a single woman, with just one room that wasn’t used (the spare bedroom). It had a decent sized back yard and a front porch that I loved sitting on in the evenings and weekends reading a book or just watching the neighborhood kids run and play.

Then Todd moved in. Todd moved in with the contents of his 1400+ sq ft home along with my belongings. We made it work, even though the basement was full with a lot of his “stuff.” In hindsight, this 1100 sq ft house was the perfect size for us as a couple. While engaged, I dreamed of starting a family and living on a nice piece of property with a large garden and some animals, so I started looking for homes with a little bit of land (more than a quarter acre).

I found one in our price range (very inexpensive) with a half acre out in a town I had never heard of. Todd scheduled an appointment with the realtor of the home and went to go take a look while I was at work the next day. Todd, being the visionary man that he is, was able to look past the flaws of the home and saw what the home could one day be with hard work, sweat and tears. He called me and said he liked it and thought we should put an offer in on the house. The realtor put in the offer, and we were informed that the house had just been sent to auction the day before, that we would have to bid for it online. We did just that.

We ended up getting the home for less than what we were going to offer for it. But I am getting off-topic.

Back in the day, I dreamed of a larger house for Todd and me, and the pitter-patter of little feet we were hoping to have. Today, I sit in one of the 4 rooms we use most often and think about how bigger is not always better.

We have an additional 750 sq ft than we had in the house in the city. Now, instead of just one room going unused, we have 4. Oh, and did I mention how much I dislike cleaning? This is 750 more sq ft that has to be cleaned every once in a while. J It costs us more in utilities to heat and cool this home and the upkeep runs poor Todd ragged most of the year. We have one acre of land and use about a half of it for animals and gardens.

I do not regret buying this home and I still pray that one day we will hear the pitter patter of little feet running through the halls (no mom, this isn’t an announcement). I love our little town and how peaceful it is (most of the time) in our little area of the world. I even dream of starting our own business and using the rest of the land to its full potential. Until then, I am working to control my mentality that bigger (and more) is better in all aspects of my life…except for when it comes to ice cream.

Too Much Stuff

2013-03-14T04:00:00.001-04:00

"Anything you cannot relinquish when it has outlived its usefulness possesses you, and in this materialistic age a great many of us are possessed by our possessions." ~Peace Pilgrim (source)

Over the past several months, I have noticed that we have too much. It is not something I just noticed, it is something that has been nagging at me. Really, how much is enough?

I am tired of always trying to find items around the house and our home feeling cluttered. It is impossible to keep the house clean because we have to tear everything apart to find that one do-dad hubby knows he has but cannot find.

Hubby and I have decided to start purging some of our belongings. Do I really need 6 vases when I don’t believe in purchasing fresh flowers? Yes, I can clip flowers from our flower bed and put in the vase for decoration (I rarely ever do this), but I need just one small and one large vase for that. And please don’t ask me why I have 3 sets of hot rollers and use none of them.

We have 3 baker’s racks…in our living room. One is his from his old house, one is mine from my old house, and one is ours that was given to us by my mom when she moved (it’s gorgeous!). They are situated in our living room because we don’t have enough room in our dining room. I think you can tell which one we will be keeping: the one that we both think is gorgeous. I feel like when we have surfaces without clutter, it gives us permission to purchase and fill said surfaces with possessions.

Over the next several months, I will try to post before and after photos of our purging efforts. We could have one major garage sale (or several) this year with all the “stuff” we want to get rid of.

When you look around, are you happy with the amount of possessions you own? Or do you feel like I do, that it’s all too much

The Chickens Are Earning Their Keep

2013-03-11T04:00:00.001-04:00

We have been getting a consistent supply of eggs from our 7 hens since the beginning of the year. A co-worker had put dibs on fresh brown eggs since November of last year. A price was agreed upon and then we (patiently) waited for the first dozen eggs to become available.

We are finding that the new breeds of hens we have right now are not as consistent at laying eggs as our originals. Their eggs are also smaller than our original hen’s eggs. Due to a problem with a hungry red tail hawk this past winter, we lost 3 full-grown chickens in the span of a month; one of them being one of the original red sex link hens who was our best layer. Let me tell you, our red sex links lay an egg almost every single day and their eggs are huge: we are talking XL or XXL.

In January and February, we sold 5 dozen eggs to my coworker friend as well as another coworker. The proceeds from the sales are almost enough to purchase another 50 lb. bag of chicken feed. The best part is: we still have more than half a bag of food for the chickens to (hopefully) last us another month or two.

My goal for this year was to spend no more than $50 on chicken feed by supplementing their diet with mealworms, table scraps, food from the chicken garden and free food we get from friends and family that is expired. So far this year, we have purchased 1 bag of chicken food for $17.24. This is about $4 more than what we usually spend on their food, but we needed it and it wasn’t worth driving 30 additional minutes to get it from our usual supply store.

As mentioned, we still have more than half a bag of food left for the chickens. Assuming we sell another 5+ dozen eggs in the next month and a half, we will have more money from the sale than the food costs to feed the chickens. Not only that, we eat our fair share of chicken eggs throughout the week! To me, this is a win-win scenario!

Are your chickens earning their keep?

How many do you have?

Priorities

2013-03-07T04:00:00.000-05:00

The Friday before last, on my way into work, I was pondering the happenings of my morning before I left for work and felt a huge sense of guilt for most of the day.

It was a Friday that Todd had off of work and I had to go into work. We woke up at the same time to an adorable dog giving us love and affection and making us laugh. We got up and got to work de-cluttering our kitchen cabinets that have been accumulating stuff for the past 6 years we’ve owned the house (yes, we are morning people: if it didn’t get done in the morning, it wasn’t getting done!). I got online for about 10 minutes and then rushed into the shower while Todd made breakfast. We ate breakfast together, I cleaned kitty litter boxes, checked on mealworms, dried my hair, got dressed and was running around like a mad woman because I had to get out the door to “beat the bus.” (Side note: If I don’t get out the door at a certain time, it lengthens my commute by 10 minutes because apparently middle-school kids in our town are not able to walk 2 driveways down to get on the bus. *snide remark*) As I was running around, hubby started to get playful. As he pushed me onto the bed and was giving me kisses, I made the remark, “I don’t have time right now.” He let me go, I got up and ran around for another minute, gave him a kiss, told him I loved him and ran out the door.

As I was sitting behind the school bus this particular morning (damn karma), I began to realize how out of whack my priorities ~~were~~ are. I made time for everything else that morning except my husband!

I began to think about what my priorities really are and I came up with this list (in order of importance).

God

I don’t write a lot about my faith on this site, but I have faith and I believe that it should be the top priority. If you were to see what day I am on in my reading of The One Year Bible, you would be able to see that God has not been placed first and foremost in my daily life. This is no one’s fault but my own.

Husband

The next priority in my life should be my husband. It is no secret that my husband and I have had our ups and downs over the past 7 ½ years we’ve been together and this very well may be because I have not put him high enough on my priority list.

Family

Our families are very important to us and I feel like we have done a pretty good job of prioritizing our families in our lives. Yes, I would like to spend more time with my mom, my father and my nieces, but again, this is my fault for not making time on those weekends that Todd works to go and visit them.

Animals

I would be lying if I said I put Todd over our animals in the past. It has been a sore topic in our relationship from the very beginning. When our pot bellied pig, Squiggy, was alive, I would tend to spend more time with him than I did with my own husband. It sounds awful, and it really was, but that pig was not just an animal to me: He was my baby boy. I realize now how unhealthy the relationship I had with our pot bellied pig was. Even now, 2 years after his passing, I miss him so much.

Everything Else

Everything else includes everything that I consider as “me time” and cleanup around the house. Really, are they are priority? No. Nothing is pressing enough that it cant wait.

Lesson to be Learned

I need to keep this list in my mind at all times. So much of the scenario above could have been avoided by giving up that 10 minutes of computer time and allowing the animals to walk by without me having to pick them up, give them a kiss, and tell them how adorable they are. I’m not sure if you noticed, but after writing out the whole scene, I realized how truly selfish I am. I would like to turn that around to become more selfless.

I will be the first to admit that many times, my priorities are all out of order. But the only one who can fix that is me.

Giveaway: Fruit Pectin

2013-03-04T04:00:00.000-05:00

It is almost that time of year when the strawberries are starting to come in and for some of us, the gardens are being prepared for planting!

This year, I am giving away a jar of Ball Fruit Pectin (your choice of low/no-sugar, instant or classic) to 3 winners.

How to Enter:

(Please leave a comment for each entry. Example, please leave two separate comments if you like Sparing-Change on FaceBook AND follow on Twitter.)

Follow Sparing-Change’s blog (if you already follow, please leave a comment below stating so)
“Like” Sparing-Change on FaceBook
Post on your FaceBook Wall about this Giveaway
Follow Sparing-Change on Twitter
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Leave a comment below answering the following question: Have you ever canned jelly/jam before?
Leave a comment below answering the following question: What is your favorite jam/jelly?

This giveaway will end on March 10, 2013 at midnight.

The 3 winners will be contacted by email and will also be announced on FaceBook and Twitter.

My favorite (and super-simple) recipe is this Triple Berry Jam recipe.

Good luck!

A Day in the Life Of...(a Date with the Hubby!)

2013-02-28T04:00:00.000-05:00

I just love reading about how other people's days look like. I did a Day in the Life Of... back in late January, but decided to do one showing what a day on the weekend looks like with Todd.

This past Saturday, Todd and I had no other plans than to spend time with one another. This is how our Saturday, February 23rd looked like.

I would like to preface this post with the fact that Todd and I both ate 1/2 a cantaloupe (or more) each before going to bed. Needless to say, I was up at 1:30, 3:45 and 5:45 going to the bathroom! Note to self: If you are going to eat nearly a whole cantaloupe, do it before 5PM!

That being said, this is what our day looked like:

This is the last picture I took for the day because as we were finishing the movie around 8:30, I had my eyes closed and my ears plugged with my fingers so the movie wouldnt scare me, but I ended up falling asleep! Oops. Todd told me the end the next morning.

The reason I listed the amounts we spent is to document how much we spend when we go out on a "date" every month or every other month. We take pride in how little our "dates" cost. This date cost us $24.91 total for lunch, movie and ice cream!

So, there you have it. A day in the life of us when hubby doesnt have to work on a weekend, we go on a date, and we relax the rest of the time.

Recipe: Homemade Laundry Detergent (HE Washer Friendly)

2013-02-25T04:00:00.000-05:00

Yield: 10 gallons

Ingredients:

1-14.1oz. bar of Zote Soap (the pink stuff found in the laundry isle)
Water
1 cup Borax (optional)

Equipment Needed:

5 Gallon Bucket (you can get these free from the local bakery)
Stir Stick
Cheese Grater
Funnel
Cup

Instructions:

I forgot to mention: Shake well before pouring.

Zote soap usually sells for less than $2.00/14oz. bar at WalMart or Target; however, it is not available where we live (we looked at 10 different stores within a 50 mile radius of our home). That being said, I ended up purchasing 6 bars on eBay at $3.12/bar.

Price Breakdown:

What we were using before the homemade detergent:

100 loads at $7.69/jug

Price per load: $0.0769/load

Homemade Detergent:

Zote Soap: $3.12

Borax (I had on hand – I would say I used $0.50 (or less) worth)

Price for 10 gallon batch: $3.62

Price per gallon: $0.362

Number of loads per gallon: Approximately 16

Price per load: $0.023

The real question: Does it work?

I have been using this detergent solely for about a month now. I have seen absolutely no difference between the detergent we had been using and the homemade detergent. For 1/3 the price of the store-bought detergent, hubby and I both agree that the homemade is just as good (if not better) than the store-bought detergent.

My husband has a stinky, labor-intensive job that makes his clothes almost black after a full day of work. Unlike the homemade detergent I’ve made in the past, this stuff leaves his clothes clean and smelling fresh. I decided to use the borax in our detergent mainly because of how dirty his clothes get at work. Hubby recently washed several of his jackets, and before he went outside, he opened up his jacket and told me to “smell.” It smelled nice and clean – and I love it! ((Yes, I like when laundry has a scent to it. When we wash sheets and the comforter, I lay in bed and sniff for a few days before my nose gets used to the scent.))

Do you make your own laundry detergent?
What has been your experience?

Learning to Live on Half our Income

2013-02-21T04:00:00.000-05:00

This year, Todd and I are attempting to live on half of our income. We both make roughly the same amount of income each year, and we had been putting 40% of our combined income toward our savings goals for a couple of months in 2012 with no real pinch in our finances.

Since January 4^th, the first paycheck that we received, I have been surprised at how tight the extra 10% feels on our budget. We are nearly two months into this project of living on half our income and let me tell you, I commend those who live on one income! Our expenses are extremely low yet we have been feeling the pressure to stay within our goal of living off of 50% of our income this year and next.

I am learning some very valuable lessons while going through this with Todd.

His Spending Habits vs. My Spending Habits

I have known that I am the natural saver in our home; however, I didn’t realize by how much. If I had control of all the finances, I think we would be doing just fine living on half of our income; however, I would have a very unhappy husband. J So really, is it worth it?

Priorities

Every Friday when Todd gets paid, we have to set our priorities. What has to be paid this week and what can wait*? Do we have any money left over to go out or to buy items in bulk? I am having a really awful day: maybe we should just go to Subway for dinner so I don’t have to cook. Is it worth it? (The answer is no, by the way. I had to suck it up and make dinner because I didn’t want us to have to scrape by for the rest of the week just because I was having a bad day.)

*Please know that we are not behind on any of our bills. The few recurring expenses that we have are usually paid before the statement is even cut.

Plan Ahead

There are some expenses coming up just around the corner we have to start saving for. One of them is the 2 weeks off Todd gets (unpaid) during the plant shutdown each July. Usually, the employees get sent home from work early several times throughout the month due to lack of work even before the plant shuts down for those two weeks. If we neglect to plan ahead for this, it could be debilitating to our finances in July and may even make us lose momentum.

Communication is Key

We now keep a very low account balance in our checking account because half of our income is immediately transferred over to pay down the principal of our mortgage. Because of this, there is not much wiggle room in our budget. I have to keep Todd up to date at all times so that he knows when he can and cannot take a trip to WalMart or pick up the tab for lunch with his parents.

The Emergency Fund Gives Me Peace of Mind

For me, the Emergency Fund is my security blanket that even allows us to take on this project of paying off our mortgage in 2 years and living on half of our income. Without it, I’m not sure I would be brave enough to take on such a task.

We Can Get Through Anything Together

Though this new budget of ours has put a little pressure on our marriage, we know we are working toward a common goal. If we can accomplish this task of living on half our income, we know that if something where to happen with one of our incomes or if we start a family, we can make it.

We are learning very valuable lessons by taking on this project and I am enjoying it every step of the way thus far. If you are a one-income household, what advice could you share with us?

DISCLAIMER: I feel it is worth mentioning: I realize how fortunate we are to be able to bring in two incomes and have the opportunity to attempt to live on one income. This is a learning experience for us so that one day, we can live off of one income, whether that is his or mine.

Organizing the Bedroom Closet

2013-02-18T04:00:00.000-05:00

At the beginning of the year, I set a goal of finally paring down my closet after talking and thinking about it for months. I had a closet-full of clothes that I didn’t necessarily like and most of the items didn’t fit properly. I purchase a lot of my shirts from the thrift store and because I have a big bust, most of the shirts do not fit properly. (Our thrift store does not have dressing rooms.)

This is what my closet and armoire looked like January 28^th:

In my armoire, I kept a mish-mash of clothing including shirts that didn’t wrinkle (and even some that did!), jeans that I have been holding onto thinking that one day I would fit into them again, shorts I haven’t worn in over a year (because I don’t do shorts), and the bottom two drawers were pajamas I’ve accumulated over the past several years. It was pure chaos, as you can tell from the picture.

After just 20 minutes of going through my clothes, this is what my armoire looked like:

Do you see that?!? There are shelves in my armoire!

The top shelf has a few books and miscellaneous items. The middle left shelf has my comfy pants (3 pairs of black yoga capri and 1 pair of yoga pants) whereas the middle shelf right has 4 pairs of shorts, capri jeans and 3 pairs of jeans I wear often. I hesitated on purging the shorts. My reasoning: Todd and I are going on a family trip to Aruba in a month and a half and even though I don’t like wearing shorts, it is warm in Aruba! At this time, the shorts do not fit, but I am hoping that if I can lose some weight, I will be able to wear shorts on vacation. If I am not able to, then they will be donated before we leave for vacation at the end of next month.

The bottom shelf is now housing 5 pairs of pants that I wear to work. I had nothing else to put on this shelf and I am perfectly happy with that!

In the top drawer that held half of my pajama stash now contains all of my patterned short-sleeved shirts (I wear these alone as well as under cardigans in the winter). I even found two shirts I used to love (and still do) that got lost in the disarray - they are now part of my weekly rotation of work clothes. The right side of the top drawer now holds my summer pajamas which consist of two pairs of cotton shorts and a spaghetti-strap cotton nightgown.

The bottom drawer will hold two pairs of my favorite pajamas (one was in the wash this week and the other on a drying rack to dry at the time of this photo.)

The items in the closet weren’t difficult to sort through. I decided that if I hadn’t worn it in the past 6 months, I donated it. This is what was left (and a whole lot of empty hangers).

I ended up getting rid of 8 - 9 pair of shoes. Most of them were hand-me-downs or garage sale finds for less than $2. A couple of them were really pretty shoes but I had to stuff paper in the toes so that they’d fit! All of the shoes that I wear are now housed in a canvas shoe-rack organizer to the right in my closet with my knee-high boots and high-top sneakers on the floor in front. The best part of the closet is that I can now fit my laundry basket in it again!

I will admit, I was stressed out thinking about going through my closet. The project took me less than an hour to complete, and I just love that everything in my armoire and closet are items of clothing that I wear, and wear often. I have even begun switching up my wardrobe because I know exactly what I’ve got! It is like I just got done clothes shopping…without having to go to the store!

As with most things I put off, I don’t know why I waited so long to do this. It is great being able to get dressed in the morning and choose something that fits without the hassle of trying on more than one outfit.

Investing in Time Together

2013-02-14T04:00:00.000-05:00

In January, Todd and I were talking about where we would like to go and what we would like to do in 2013 as we usually do at the start of each year. One thing Todd mentioned wanting to do is go to the ClevelandMuseum of Natural History. Honestly, I didn’t even know Cleveland had a Museum of Natural History!

I was talking to one of my co-workers about Todd wanting to go to the Natural History Museum and he had mentioned that they had a blue whale exhibit going on until the end of the month. I immediately went online to see what it was all about. Low and behold, the exhibit went through January 27^th. We only had a couple more weeks to go if we wanted to see this exhibit.

I mentioned to Todd that there was also a Mayan exhibit coming to the Museum starting February that I wouldn’t mind checking out. At $12/person plus parking, Todd wanted to look into a yearly membership.

Come to find out, we can get a 1 year membership for the two of us to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History for $75. This includes unlimited visits for the two of us, 4 extra tickets if we wanted to bring guests, and 2 free parking passes. At this price, if we attend 3 exhibits, the membership pays for itself. But wait, there’s more.

In front of a true-to-life size whale heart!
It is over 6 ft tall!

As part of the membership, we can get into hundreds of othermuseums around the United States for free! This got us to thinking. We are trying to save money this year and stay close to home. We can travel all over Ohio and to Pennsylvania and see all of these cool museums and science centers for free! Not only would it be fun, it would be inexpensive (we are within driving distance to many of the locations within Ohio and Pennsylvania), and we are spending time together.

Both Todd and I share the secondary love language (if you haven’t read The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman, I highly recommend it!) of quality time. This means we feel most loved when our love language is met (his is physical touch - mine is acts of service) as well as our secondary love language is being met. We have also decided that we are investing in a membership to the Cleveland Zoo as well. This way, we can spend quality time throughout all seasons this year. I absolutely love animals and by purchasing a yearly pass to the zoo, we would only have to go twice before it pays for itself. You will most likely find us at the zoo on our 6 year wedding anniversary this year on May 3^rd!

Todd and I are complete nerds when it comes to museums and learning. Even though the budget is tight this year, we are investing in time together: Just the two of us – exploring the world (OK, Ohio and Pennsylvania…but close enough). There will probably be some mishaps along the way, but we are going to be making memories together…and I cannot wait!

What do you do to invest in your marriage? Do you have a yearly membership with your spouse to the gym, musicals, concerts or museums? Do you feel they bring you together as a couple?

Book Review: It’s All Too Much by Peter Walsh

2013-02-11T04:00:00.000-05:00

Let me just say that I could have re-written this book in its entirety because of the invaluable knowledge it provided. The author, Peter Walsh, had me pegged from Page 1 in the book titled It’s All Too Much. I believe this book is for anybody who wants to find a way to look at their belongings a little differently and start to get rid of some of their clutter.

I will be the first to admit that we have a lot of stuff in our home. We go to garage sales and flea markets as well as obtain a lot of stuff from our parents. Over the past year, I have had the feeling that its just too much. We really don’t need most of what we have and it is just taking up space (and in turn, our time, energy and resources) in our home.

I believe that this book is a must-read to anyone who is looking to dig their way out of clutter.

I will leave you with several quotes that resonated with me most throughout the book:

"Clutter prevents you from enjoying the most precious, intimate moments in life. Clutter robs you of far more than the space it occupies – it steals your life!”
"Does the stuff you own contribute to the lives they were hoping to achieve or is it getting in the way of that vision?"
"Go through every room. First, identify what you want from the space. Then, determine if the contents of the space serves that purpose."
"Does this item enhance the life you want to live?"
“When you succeed in decluttering it will be because you’ve made good life choices. And when you’re living by those choices, you’ll experience the joy, the lightness, and the freedom that come with natural order.”
"Your home is within your control. It should be the place where you escape all negative forces in the world. Your home should be the antidote to stress, not the cause."
"Clearing the clutter in your physical space will go a long way toward clearing the clutter in your mind and your relationships."
"Clutter stops us from living in the present."
"Those things we hoard for an imaginary future do little other than limit our possibilities and stunt our growth."

If any of these quotes resonate with you, I suggest picking up the book from the library and reading through it. It has me motivated to get rid of the clutter in our life!

Two Ways to Get Enough

2013-02-08T04:00:00.000-05:00

Source Credit

I found this picture online and I liked it so much that I printed it out and have it hanging on our refrigerator as a constant reminder.

Though my husband and I are definitely not minimalists by any stretch of the imagination (you should see our home: the joke is that we are maximalists!), I am definitely to a point in my life that I desire less: A lot less.

In the past, we have tried accumulating more and more stuff…and that still didn’t seem like “enough.” Over the past year, we have desired less and we definitely feel like we have more than enough.

Saving Money: Groceries

2013-02-06T04:00:00.000-05:00

I am challenging myself to lower our grocery budget by 25% in 2013. This wasn’t necessarily a New Years resolution, but a way to save money so we can pay off our mortgage in 24 months.

In the past, I set a budget of anywhere from $200-250/month for groceries depending on how much meat we needed to purchase or if we were having company over. There are just two of us, and this budget was doable without much hassle. I like to spice things up when things get comfortable so why not challenge ourselves.

Our new grocery budget for 2013 is $187.50 or $62.50/month less than what we are accustomed to. I am confident we can live off of this amount of money for our grocery budget without too much of a change in the way we eat. This is what we have done and are going to continue to do to lower our grocery budget.

Grow a Garden and Preserve its Abundance

It goes without saying that growing your own food is one way to lower the grocery budget. We have two established gardens which will require no additional expense other than planting seeds and patiently waiting for its provisions.

Starting a garden can be as expensive or as inexpensive as you make it. In years past, we put a substantial amount of money into creating our garden spaces. Luckily, it was a one-time investment and we are ready to start planting our garden(s) with no additional expense but a lot of sweat and labor.

We have a water bath canning system as well as a pressure canner (my new toy!) so I will be able to preserve whatever we are not able to eat and put it up in the pantry to eat throughout the rest of the year.

Decrease Consumption of Processed Foods

Very few items in our home are processed. We like to make our own meals from scratch and for the most part, stay away from processed foods.

Limit Grains & Dairy

Todd and I try to eat a Paleo-type diet which is gluten, dairy and sugar-free. That being said, we seldom purchase flour, rice, pasta, sugar, milk or other dairy products. We try to keep our way of eating simple so as not to require the more expensive alternatives out there such as almond/coconut milk, almond/coconut flour, agave nectar and other gluten/dairy/sugar-free items. Our meals include some form of protein and a lot of fruits and vegetables.

Buy Sale Items in Bulk and Preserve

Oh how I love a good sale. I am known to go a little overboard with sale food items: meat and produce alike. Now that I have a pressure canner, I can put those great sales on meat to good use by canning the meat for future use or to make our own heat and serve stews and soups.

When we buy from local farms (pick-your-own farms or produce stands), we try to buy enough to last us several months. There is nothing like opening a jar of strawberry jam in February which was preserved the previous year.

We purchase 3-4 bushels of deer apples a year for $3/bushel (a bushel is approximately 45 lbs) at an orchard near my father’s house. Deer apples are apples which have fallen to the ground. Some people have a problem purchasing fallen fruit; however, the majority of the fruit is perfectly fine. The damaged or bad fruit is fed to the chickens and they love it! With this fruit, I am able to make applesauce in crock pots and can enough to last us the entire year as well as give some away as gifts. I also make apple pie in a jar with these apples and it comes out perfect each and every time. You really cannot beat it for $0.07/lb which is why I will continue to purchase deer apples each fall.

Meatless Meals

Once in a while, we like to eat meatless meals such as 3 bean chili, black bean burgers, loaded baked potatoes or a large salad. Dried beans (and even canned beans) are very inexpensive to purchase versus meat and they keep our bellies full for an extended period of time.

Shop Amish Salvage/Thrift Grocery Stores

In Northeast Ohio, we have a lot of Amish. A few months back, I learned about Amish “dent and salvage” stores which are grocery stores in the heart of Amish country offering dented canned food items at a steep discount or food items coming close to their expiration dates.

Todd and I try to visit these stores once every quarter. It is incredible what can be purchased for less than $50. It is enough to stock up our pantry (and then some) for very little cost.

Beverages
Simply put, we drink a lot of water. When we have company, we try to purchase their beverage of choice: some like tea, others like Pepsi, and when there are kiddos around, we get juice or flavored water. Fruit juice is a thing of the past for us. One thing my husband is addicted to is tomato juice, which can be expensive; however, he has learned to make it himself using tomato puree from a can for a fraction of the cost.

As with everything in life, little savings (and expenses) here and there add up. We do not feel like we are depriving ourselves and we enjoy a good challenge.

Do you challenge yourself to save money where you can?

What techniques do you use to save money on groceries?

Super Bowl Feast

2013-02-04T04:00:00.000-05:00

I am not one to watch or even enjoy football. However, I know that Todd enjoys football. Todd mentioned a deal from PizzaHut that he wanted to try.

After telling him that I was going to order this Dinner Box for the Super Bowl, Todd decided it wasnt worth it. So...I was on a mission to try to make a Super Bowl meal that was comparable.

This is what I bought from the grocery store the day before:

DiGiorno Pizza - $5 (on sale), Chicken Drumticks $2.53,
and potoatoes (about $0.50 worth)

And this is what we ate for the Super Bowl:

We ate well for just a little over $8...and we had leftovers.
I love that my husband WANTS to eat in instead of going out for fast food.

Companion Planting in the Garden

2013-01-31T04:00:00.000-05:00

Source

I am a fairly new to gardening (this will be my 4^th year) and in no way do I have a green thumb. Most years, I am tickled pink that anything grows because I tend to neglect my gardens shortly after it starts producing. If I don’t see results (quickly), I get distracted and give up on the endless pulling of weeds and fostering the tender plants.

It wasn’t until last year that I had ever heard of the term “companion planting,” so I was naturally curious. With many Google searches and several books from the library, I was intrigued.

Companion planting not only enhances the soil and works to keep those pesky bugs from eating leaves and produce, but you can grow a lot more in a smaller space! I have also read that it is a good way to keep the weeds at bay (which has always been a struggle for me.) I am looking forward to planting more in less space this year. I think we will need to in order to grow allof the seeds I purchased this year!

From my research, I have found a couple of great websites that are helping me to plan my garden this year. They include:

Companion Planting InteractiveExcel Spreadsheet
This interactive spreadsheet from mysquarefootgarden.net is awesome! You can choose the vegetable you are planting and see what is bad, good, better and best to grow alongside your plant.

Companion Planting with Herbs

I am looking forward to incorporating more herbs into our garden this year for medicinal purposes as well as to dry and use for later use. This link shows where to plant the herbs based on other vegetables or flowers.

This link has an extensive list of all fruits, vegetables and herbs as well as their companion plants.

Free Garden Planning Printables

5 Dollar Dinners offers free garden-planning printables to help organize this year’s garden! I am going to be using all four of the free printables on this site! They include: The Garden Planner, The Square Foot Gardening Planner, The Container Gardening Planner and the Garden Harvest Planner.

When to Plant
In years past, I planted everything by seed all within a 2-3 week timeframe. Not only is this exhausting for me, some of my plants didnt do as well as others. I learned that this is because some plants do better when planted in the ground several weeks before the last frost versus planting them after the last forst. (Duh! Can you say cold-weather plants?)

I came across a link that shows you exactly when to plant each vegetable in your garden based on the last frost in your zone!

First, go to this website to see when the frost usually ends in your zone.
I am a Zone 5, so frost usually ends mid-April for me.

I entered May 16th into this spreadsheet and it shows me exactly when to plant each vegetable! This completely takes the guess-work out of when I need to be outside planting seeds.

My hope is that you find a few of these links as helpful as I have. May this year be the best growing season for us all!

Have you ever used the companion planting method before?

Learning to Live Without a Dryer and Dishwasher

2013-01-28T04:00:00.000-05:00

As a part of trying to conserve energy, I decided to try to live without the clothes dryer as well as the dishwasher. The first day I tried to live without these two appliances, I realized how easy they made my life. They were truly a convenience I had come to rely on. This is what I’ve learned over the past month by going without these two appliances.

Small Loads Are Best

The very first day I washed laundry, we had 3 large loads to do. I put in the first large load into the washing machine to realize all of the clothes would not fit on our 3 drying racks. So…I hung some up on the fireplace mantel and dried them extremely quick in front of the fire.

With the dishes, if I wash them as I go, it is not as overwhelming. I have been washing the dishes after breakfast, which takes about 5 minutes. I unload those dry dishes from breakfast while making dinner in the evening. When my husband cooks, he uses ~~all~~ a lot of pots and pans, and the days he cooks, I am completely overwhelmed with a stack of dishes and want to throw up my hands in defeat by loading them into the dishwasher and hit the “start” button.

Frequency Rules

With laundry, I have learned to do several (smaller) loads throughout the week instead of 2 or 3 large ones on the weekends. By doing this, we have enough room on the drying racks to allow the clothes to dry properly within 24-48 hours.

As I mentioned above with the dishes, I wash the dishes after every single meal to ensure I don’t get overwhelmed.

It Ain’t Pretty

In the beginning, we kept the drying racks in the family room and they were not very pretty to look at

every time we walked into the room. It then dawned on me that we could keep the drying racks in our spare bedroom to keep them away from cute little kitten claws (we have 3 – 5 month old kittens right now) and they are out of the way. This has been working well for us.

Patience is Key

I have to laugh at this because I have no patience whatsoever. It is so easy to hit a button and 34 minutes later you have dry clothes. Hit the “start” button on the dishwasher and 2 hours later you have clean and dry dishes.

Now, it takes anywhere from 24-48 hours for our clothes to be completely dry (I am looking forward to the warmer weather when I can hang clothes outside on the line!). I am learning to plan ahead instead of live in survival mode when it comes to dishes and laundry. To me, it feels better to have laundry done and put away every few days instead of 3 heaping baskets of clean laundry waiting to be put away once a week. It takes a little more time throughout the week, but it’s done and I don’t have to worry about it.

I joke that I would like to live the “simple life” like the Amish…without all the work. I am learning that by getting rid of just two appliances, it creates a noticeable change in work load; however, I am (surprisingly) keeping up.

I grew up with dishwashers and clothes dryers. This is what I am accustomed to. It is definitely a change in mindset to willingly go without, but I am enjoying it. Right now, I am doing this to see if we can lower our electric bill and put the savings toward our mortgage payoff; however, I would love to be able to one-day create enough electricity to power our home. Trying to reduce our energy consumption is one step closer to being independent of energy.

Do you live without a dryer or dishwasher?

What are your tips and tricks or advice for those of us just starting out in our journey of less “convenience” appliances?

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