This spring and summer we've been working on refining our gardens a bit. Over the years, I've planted lots of "pass alongs" from friends and coworkers, some of whom have moved on to other parts of life or the world, who've brought me starts and splits from their perennial gardens. After several years of doing this, we finally have some flower and herb beds that are starting to look lush and established.
Of course, as with anything around the house, there's room for improvement and we're always wanting to tweak something. I have a few plants that I want to move, namely some forsythia that's gotten too big for it's spot and splitting some herbs. We were gifted two hydrangea plants from a family funeral that I'll plant in the shaded garden behind the house. I seem to need to split the hostas about every two years, so it's time to do that again. And we need to add some more mulch to the beds along the edge of the driveway.
We're almost there with our hardscaping, which is so nice. Those "bones" help a lot and it's something we wish we'd paid to have someone do up front, rather than doing it piecemeal as we have. Oh well, hindsight... We've got a few more stepping stones to add out back and we need to get a new load of gravel for the driveway. We're hoping to save some cash on that by having it done by the same guy who will bring it in for our gravel road and combining the jobs. The patio under the front deck will be finished after we finally finish the basement apartment, starting with gravel and then we'll add the stepping stones.
We've saved some cash already this season by hiring a friend to bring in a load of leaf mulch from the landfill. It's been a great way to revive our flower garden and was so much cheaper than buying the mulch and paying someone to spread it. (Now that we have a little one, we're finding that it's more of a time vs. money issue than it used to be for us.) We might get another load spread in the fall for the other beds, maybe of hardwood mulch that will compost over the winter. Many local areas do municipal composting like this, and it's a great free gardening resource.
Continuing to compost has really helped us out too. Not only does it cut down on stinky trash, but we estimate that it saves us about $75 a year because we're not having to purchase bagged compost for veggie beds or container plantings.
Once we get the gutters cleaned out, we'll compost that leaf litter and install our rain barrel. This will help us water the flower beds with captured rain water, rather than using precious ground water from our well. We may need to wait until after the patio and driveway have their gravel in to do this, but it will be nice to finally use this. And it was gifted to us by a gardening friend, so it was free!
We're really enjoying using our fresh herbs this year. We made an herb butter for the turkey we roasted last week and regularly use the lemon balm and mint in tea and baking. The sage and oregano are wonderful additions to rice, and along with a handful of green peas and chopped pecans make a fabulous pilaf from plain jane white rice.
How are you using your garden lately? Has it become a frugal hobby for you, saving you cash on your herbs and veggies? Do you love your fresh cut flowers or watching those gifted plants from friends bloom each year? I'd love to hear from you!
Tuesday, May 20, 2014
Friday, May 2, 2014
May Menu Plan
Can you believe it's May already?! Wow, April flew by...at least for us, especially with spring break and Easter in there. And now we're in the midst of planning for graduations, Mother's Day, and rapidly approaching the end of school. So, to the May menu plan...
First, we need to inventory the fridge, freezer, and pantry. I know we already bulked up on rice, beans, and pasta last month, so those will be some staples around which the meals will be planned. We also still have a turkey in the freezer that we bought on sale at Thanksgiving that we'll cook this month. That will provide much more than a week's worth of meals by the time we make soup, enchiladas, quesadillas, turkey tetrazinni, etc. We're also now getting our free, free-range eggs from friends who have chickens (we often trade baked goods for eggs), so we can plan lots of egg based meals like quiche or breakfast for dinner.
We'll plan produce around what's available on sale at the local grocery store, but the farmer's market also opens this weekend (yay!), so we'll see what we can snag there too. Our CSA begins in June, so it will be really nice once we've got that rolling in, but until then, we'll rely on our local sources. Little man loves his fruit, so we have to have at least bananas or dried fruit around for him (and we enjoy it too).
Breakfasts: sticky buns (these are the. best. ever.), lemon poppy seed muffins (love these because I can make them w/ pantry staples), cappuccino chip muffins (from a library cookbook--uses leftover coffee), egg and cheese sandwiches, toast and jam, whole wheat banana nut muffins (from Joy of Cooking--they are Wubba's favorite), oatmeal with dried fruit and nuts
Lunches: leftovers, fillers: pasta salad, yogurt, muffins
Dinners: turkey enchiladas (I riff on this recipe a bit--obviously since turkey is in no way vegan-- but the avocado cream sauce is to die for), turkey soup with rice or barley, turkey and rice casserole with broccoli, turkey quesadillas, turkey sloppy joes, beans and rice with cheese, dinner salad with salmon and hard boiled eggs, loaded baked potatoes, whole wheat pancakes with fruit, pesto lasagna, veggie stir-fry over noodles or rice
Snacks: oatmeal chocolate chip cookies (we like this recipe but often substitute chopped nuts for the craisins or other chocolate for the white chocolate), popcorn, homemade popsicles (they're great made with overripe fruit and yogurt or leftover coffee and evaporated milk), cheese and crackers
We've got a few special things to make this month for graduation parties, which I'll post about later (don't want to ruin any surprises). We'll also probably end up with a few free meals or potlucks with friends and family, which help to stretch the budget too. We should be able to do all our regular meals plus the special things without going over our $100 grocery budget.
So, what's your spring menu plan like? I'd love to hear any frugal recipes you'd like to share! Here's to living green and saving green in the kitchen, even for special days!
First, we need to inventory the fridge, freezer, and pantry. I know we already bulked up on rice, beans, and pasta last month, so those will be some staples around which the meals will be planned. We also still have a turkey in the freezer that we bought on sale at Thanksgiving that we'll cook this month. That will provide much more than a week's worth of meals by the time we make soup, enchiladas, quesadillas, turkey tetrazinni, etc. We're also now getting our free, free-range eggs from friends who have chickens (we often trade baked goods for eggs), so we can plan lots of egg based meals like quiche or breakfast for dinner.
We'll plan produce around what's available on sale at the local grocery store, but the farmer's market also opens this weekend (yay!), so we'll see what we can snag there too. Our CSA begins in June, so it will be really nice once we've got that rolling in, but until then, we'll rely on our local sources. Little man loves his fruit, so we have to have at least bananas or dried fruit around for him (and we enjoy it too).
Breakfasts: sticky buns (these are the. best. ever.), lemon poppy seed muffins (love these because I can make them w/ pantry staples), cappuccino chip muffins (from a library cookbook--uses leftover coffee), egg and cheese sandwiches, toast and jam, whole wheat banana nut muffins (from Joy of Cooking--they are Wubba's favorite), oatmeal with dried fruit and nuts
Lunches: leftovers, fillers: pasta salad, yogurt, muffins
Dinners: turkey enchiladas (I riff on this recipe a bit--obviously since turkey is in no way vegan-- but the avocado cream sauce is to die for), turkey soup with rice or barley, turkey and rice casserole with broccoli, turkey quesadillas, turkey sloppy joes, beans and rice with cheese, dinner salad with salmon and hard boiled eggs, loaded baked potatoes, whole wheat pancakes with fruit, pesto lasagna, veggie stir-fry over noodles or rice
Snacks: oatmeal chocolate chip cookies (we like this recipe but often substitute chopped nuts for the craisins or other chocolate for the white chocolate), popcorn, homemade popsicles (they're great made with overripe fruit and yogurt or leftover coffee and evaporated milk), cheese and crackers
We've got a few special things to make this month for graduation parties, which I'll post about later (don't want to ruin any surprises). We'll also probably end up with a few free meals or potlucks with friends and family, which help to stretch the budget too. We should be able to do all our regular meals plus the special things without going over our $100 grocery budget.
So, what's your spring menu plan like? I'd love to hear any frugal recipes you'd like to share! Here's to living green and saving green in the kitchen, even for special days!
Friday, April 11, 2014
(Re)use it or lose it
By now you know that we are all about repurposing items around our home. Not only is this green because it keeps it out of the waste stream, but it often keeps us from having to purchase something new. This means that there's more money in our savings account. Here are a few things that we've repurposed recently.
Spray bottle: Rather than purchasing one for our homemade shower cleaner, we repurposed one from some laundry stain remover we had used up. This has been great! We use it daily, and it's held up well. When you repurpose bottles like this, it's important to relabel them clearly so that everyone in the house knows what they're now used for.
Mason jars: We use mason jars (or large spaghetti sauce jars) for storing all kinds of items. They're great for storing grains in the fridge that we don't use as often, and we use them for storing brown sugar, dried beans, and other pantry staples. I'm really digging the old vintage blue glass ones right now, so I'd love to find a few of those at garage sales or thrift stores. They make pretty casual summer time flower vases too.
Plastic food containers: We often repurpose plastic sour cream containers and the like for lots of things. They are great containers for holding water for painting projects. The larger ones also make good containers for holding paint if you're painting trim in your house. We also use them to start seeds for the garden, by poking holes in the bottom for drainage. Lately, though, we've found that our little one loves the small ones. He's got a drawer in the kitchen dedicated to his kitchen things, and these are perfect for him to throw around and play with, and it saves our regular ones from getting as beat up.
Paper bags: We rarely use paper towels, but when we finally ran out of a roll this week, I used a piece of a brown paper bag to drain bacon on. It worked great, and it saved a trip to the store for a roll of paper towels. The larger ones also make fun gift wrap if you cut them apart, and of course you can use smaller ones for lunch sacks.
Rubber bands: We save our rubber bands from produce. These get used to seal all sorts of things, but they also make a good makeshift child lock if you have a kid who doesn't yank too hard on the cabinet doors.
Produce bags: The plastic bags from produce purchases get reused in our home for storing our homemade bread. We used to purchase bread bags, but we've started using these instead because they're free and generally pretty clean. Usually we can reuse them a few times before they get a hole in them and have to be tossed.
What about you? Anything you reuse that others might toss? I'd love to hear from you!
Spray bottle: Rather than purchasing one for our homemade shower cleaner, we repurposed one from some laundry stain remover we had used up. This has been great! We use it daily, and it's held up well. When you repurpose bottles like this, it's important to relabel them clearly so that everyone in the house knows what they're now used for.
Mason jars: We use mason jars (or large spaghetti sauce jars) for storing all kinds of items. They're great for storing grains in the fridge that we don't use as often, and we use them for storing brown sugar, dried beans, and other pantry staples. I'm really digging the old vintage blue glass ones right now, so I'd love to find a few of those at garage sales or thrift stores. They make pretty casual summer time flower vases too.
Plastic food containers: We often repurpose plastic sour cream containers and the like for lots of things. They are great containers for holding water for painting projects. The larger ones also make good containers for holding paint if you're painting trim in your house. We also use them to start seeds for the garden, by poking holes in the bottom for drainage. Lately, though, we've found that our little one loves the small ones. He's got a drawer in the kitchen dedicated to his kitchen things, and these are perfect for him to throw around and play with, and it saves our regular ones from getting as beat up.
Paper bags: We rarely use paper towels, but when we finally ran out of a roll this week, I used a piece of a brown paper bag to drain bacon on. It worked great, and it saved a trip to the store for a roll of paper towels. The larger ones also make fun gift wrap if you cut them apart, and of course you can use smaller ones for lunch sacks.
Rubber bands: We save our rubber bands from produce. These get used to seal all sorts of things, but they also make a good makeshift child lock if you have a kid who doesn't yank too hard on the cabinet doors.
Produce bags: The plastic bags from produce purchases get reused in our home for storing our homemade bread. We used to purchase bread bags, but we've started using these instead because they're free and generally pretty clean. Usually we can reuse them a few times before they get a hole in them and have to be tossed.
What about you? Anything you reuse that others might toss? I'd love to hear from you!
Friday, March 14, 2014
Frugal Accomplishments this week, and a recipe
This week, I feel like we've done really well with living frugally. Here's how it's played out:
Grocery shopping on Sunday was only sale, coupon, and need items. (Well, ok, I did splurge on a $1.99 box of clearance junk cereal for me. I'd been craving some for about two months.) We stocked up on cabbage, which is on sale around St. Paddy's Day, and keeps in the fridge for several weeks. I also found some bell peppers on the discount produce rack at 3/$2.50, which is really good for grocery store prices around here. It's hard to find them for less than $1.00/pepper.
We were also given some eggs and cheese by my mom, which was a nice treat. Now I probably won't have to buy either until the end of the month. When I got to school on Monday, I found the conference table covered with leftover concessions items, including a whole box of bananas. The items were available to anyone for a donation of their choice, so I took a whole bag of bananas and a few other snack/breakfast items for the week for a small donation that fit our budget. The bananas were mostly frozen for later use in bread and muffins. Of course we used our reusable shopping bags, which we got a five cent credit for at one store.
Made a crockpot of cabbage, tomato, and ground beef soup. I usually make this with ground sausage, but all we had was the beef. It was a great way to stretch a half pound of meat, and we love cabbage in soup. We supplement the protein by adding beans, this time pintos. But usually, I prefer red kidney beans. (I'm listing the "recipe" below.) This lasted us for lunches all week, and dinner on Tuesday night. By cooking it in the crockpot, it means we used a fraction of the energy of the stove top.
Made enchiladas with more pintos, turkey from the freezer, half of a sale pepper, onion, and cheese and flour tortillas. (Most of these were bought on sale or with a coupon.) I used store bought enchilada sauce. This made enough for dinners and lunches to fill out the week.
Benny made a loaf of whole wheat bread in the bread machine. This was great with soup and for toast for breakfasts. We also made muffins early in the week using raspberries we had in the freezer from the summer, which we picked for free from a friend.
We were a one car family this week, since the Jetta was in the shop again, and found it really worked for us, especially since I carpool to work We're slowly thinking that perhaps we could do this full time. We'll continue to evaluate and see.
We didn't eat out, buy anything extra, or splurge (aside from my cereal) this week. We went ahead and scheduled all our bills for the rest of the month, so they're all set to be paid.
Made a birthday card instead of buying one. Made a loaf of banana bread as a gift for a friend. Found a coupon code for a photo book for a birthday gift, so it's much less expensive than we originally thought, but still a very thoughtful gift.
Found the code for our tablet and realized that we still have a week before the warranty runs out. This is great since the touch screen junked out earlier this week. Benny's taking care of the details; we're hoping to get a replacement.
We sold about $70 worth of stuff on eBay, so we're that much closer to cleaning out and having our CSA money. Yay!
What about you? What were your frugal accomplishments this week? How are you living and saving green?
Cabbage, Sausage, and Tomato Soup:
1/2 head cabbage, chopped into about 1 inch pieces
1/2 lb ground sausage or beef, browned
1 small onion, chopped
1 24 oz can diced tomatoes
1 15 oz can kidney beans or 2 c homemade
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp garlic salt or minced garlic
generous tsp of ground pepper
fennel seeds if not using sausage
Combine all ingredients except beans in crockpot. Cook on low for 8 hours. Add beans about 4 hours into cooking time. Serve with homemade bread or saltine crackers.
Grocery shopping on Sunday was only sale, coupon, and need items. (Well, ok, I did splurge on a $1.99 box of clearance junk cereal for me. I'd been craving some for about two months.) We stocked up on cabbage, which is on sale around St. Paddy's Day, and keeps in the fridge for several weeks. I also found some bell peppers on the discount produce rack at 3/$2.50, which is really good for grocery store prices around here. It's hard to find them for less than $1.00/pepper.
We were also given some eggs and cheese by my mom, which was a nice treat. Now I probably won't have to buy either until the end of the month. When I got to school on Monday, I found the conference table covered with leftover concessions items, including a whole box of bananas. The items were available to anyone for a donation of their choice, so I took a whole bag of bananas and a few other snack/breakfast items for the week for a small donation that fit our budget. The bananas were mostly frozen for later use in bread and muffins. Of course we used our reusable shopping bags, which we got a five cent credit for at one store.
Made a crockpot of cabbage, tomato, and ground beef soup. I usually make this with ground sausage, but all we had was the beef. It was a great way to stretch a half pound of meat, and we love cabbage in soup. We supplement the protein by adding beans, this time pintos. But usually, I prefer red kidney beans. (I'm listing the "recipe" below.) This lasted us for lunches all week, and dinner on Tuesday night. By cooking it in the crockpot, it means we used a fraction of the energy of the stove top.
Made enchiladas with more pintos, turkey from the freezer, half of a sale pepper, onion, and cheese and flour tortillas. (Most of these were bought on sale or with a coupon.) I used store bought enchilada sauce. This made enough for dinners and lunches to fill out the week.
Benny made a loaf of whole wheat bread in the bread machine. This was great with soup and for toast for breakfasts. We also made muffins early in the week using raspberries we had in the freezer from the summer, which we picked for free from a friend.
We were a one car family this week, since the Jetta was in the shop again, and found it really worked for us, especially since I carpool to work We're slowly thinking that perhaps we could do this full time. We'll continue to evaluate and see.
We didn't eat out, buy anything extra, or splurge (aside from my cereal) this week. We went ahead and scheduled all our bills for the rest of the month, so they're all set to be paid.
Made a birthday card instead of buying one. Made a loaf of banana bread as a gift for a friend. Found a coupon code for a photo book for a birthday gift, so it's much less expensive than we originally thought, but still a very thoughtful gift.
Found the code for our tablet and realized that we still have a week before the warranty runs out. This is great since the touch screen junked out earlier this week. Benny's taking care of the details; we're hoping to get a replacement.
We sold about $70 worth of stuff on eBay, so we're that much closer to cleaning out and having our CSA money. Yay!
What about you? What were your frugal accomplishments this week? How are you living and saving green?
Cabbage, Sausage, and Tomato Soup:
1/2 head cabbage, chopped into about 1 inch pieces
1/2 lb ground sausage or beef, browned
1 small onion, chopped
1 24 oz can diced tomatoes
1 15 oz can kidney beans or 2 c homemade
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp garlic salt or minced garlic
generous tsp of ground pepper
fennel seeds if not using sausage
Combine all ingredients except beans in crockpot. Cook on low for 8 hours. Add beans about 4 hours into cooking time. Serve with homemade bread or saltine crackers.
Thursday, March 6, 2014
$100 a month grocery budget update
When we transitioned to basically a one income household, we tightened our belts a bit and committed to a $100 a month grocery budget. We knew this would be tight, but we were committed to it in order to make our other savings goals a reality.
So, now that we're about eight months in, we can definitely say that it's tight, but do-able for us. We've been diligent about keeping grocery receipts and entering them into our budgeting spreadsheet, so we know where we stand. There have been a few months that we went over budget, like around the holidays, but there are also months where we were significantly under budget. January was one of those where we tried to eat from the pantry, freezer, and use gift cards to purchase food (such as Panera cards for a dozen bagels for breakfast for a week instead of one lunch out). We came in under budget for January by $40, which was awesome considering it was really six weeks since the December paycheck that came in before the holiday break. But on average, we're sticking to our budget, and it's allowing us to continue saving for retirement and for emergencies.
How are making it work? We've decreased our "extra" spending, so there are no more chips, crackers, store-bought cookies, or convenience items like frozen pizzas, in our pantry or fridge. Our snack food of choice is now popcorn popped in our air popper. Any beverage other than milk or water is not something we purchase. We have been given some juice by friends and some beer and wine around the holidays, which have been nice treats for family pizza nights and dates. Pricey dairy products like cheese, sour cream, and yogurt are carefully portioned out to last. So, when I purchase a bulk package of mozzarella cheese for pizzas, I know that it needs to make eight pizzas, and we make it stretch for that. Yogurt is only something I purchase for 15 cents a carton or less, so by carefully matching coupons and sales, I can get a few cartons a month. I'm also contemplating making our own yogurt in the crock pot, which will make organic yogurt a lot more accessible to us and not as cost prohibitive.
Keeping pantry staples on hand is important too. By having powdered milk, flour, sugar, flax seed meal, yeast, and corn meal, I can always whip up bread or corn bread, even if I don't have the eggs. (You can substitute one tablespoon of flax seed meal and three tablespoons of water for one egg and get most recipes to come out just fine, and they even have more omegas than some eggs do.) We always have canned tomato sauce, canned diced tomatoes, and lots of dried beans of various types. This way, we can always come up with a soup, chili, or sloppy joe recipe from the pantry.
We also try to be very intentional about meal planning, and because of that, grocery list planning. Going to the grocery store once a week, if that, cuts down on the opportunity for impulse spending. If we can go two weeks, so much the better.
We've found that eating this way can be a challenge, but it's also forced us to be more creative. We've found a fabulous lentil sloppy joe recipe that we might not have otherwise found. We love our new recipe for lemon poppy seed muffins and recently found one for coffee chocolate chip muffins that both make great week day breakfasts. We've had some great pizzas and stir fries with whatever we have on hand in the freezer. By adding barley, rice, or pasta to soups, we get more nutritional content and can stretch the stock and veggies a bit further.
How are your budget challenges going? Do they force you to be more creative? Any creative meals you've come up with just cooking from the pantry and freezer? I'd love to hear from you!
So, now that we're about eight months in, we can definitely say that it's tight, but do-able for us. We've been diligent about keeping grocery receipts and entering them into our budgeting spreadsheet, so we know where we stand. There have been a few months that we went over budget, like around the holidays, but there are also months where we were significantly under budget. January was one of those where we tried to eat from the pantry, freezer, and use gift cards to purchase food (such as Panera cards for a dozen bagels for breakfast for a week instead of one lunch out). We came in under budget for January by $40, which was awesome considering it was really six weeks since the December paycheck that came in before the holiday break. But on average, we're sticking to our budget, and it's allowing us to continue saving for retirement and for emergencies.
How are making it work? We've decreased our "extra" spending, so there are no more chips, crackers, store-bought cookies, or convenience items like frozen pizzas, in our pantry or fridge. Our snack food of choice is now popcorn popped in our air popper. Any beverage other than milk or water is not something we purchase. We have been given some juice by friends and some beer and wine around the holidays, which have been nice treats for family pizza nights and dates. Pricey dairy products like cheese, sour cream, and yogurt are carefully portioned out to last. So, when I purchase a bulk package of mozzarella cheese for pizzas, I know that it needs to make eight pizzas, and we make it stretch for that. Yogurt is only something I purchase for 15 cents a carton or less, so by carefully matching coupons and sales, I can get a few cartons a month. I'm also contemplating making our own yogurt in the crock pot, which will make organic yogurt a lot more accessible to us and not as cost prohibitive.
Keeping pantry staples on hand is important too. By having powdered milk, flour, sugar, flax seed meal, yeast, and corn meal, I can always whip up bread or corn bread, even if I don't have the eggs. (You can substitute one tablespoon of flax seed meal and three tablespoons of water for one egg and get most recipes to come out just fine, and they even have more omegas than some eggs do.) We always have canned tomato sauce, canned diced tomatoes, and lots of dried beans of various types. This way, we can always come up with a soup, chili, or sloppy joe recipe from the pantry.
We also try to be very intentional about meal planning, and because of that, grocery list planning. Going to the grocery store once a week, if that, cuts down on the opportunity for impulse spending. If we can go two weeks, so much the better.
We've found that eating this way can be a challenge, but it's also forced us to be more creative. We've found a fabulous lentil sloppy joe recipe that we might not have otherwise found. We love our new recipe for lemon poppy seed muffins and recently found one for coffee chocolate chip muffins that both make great week day breakfasts. We've had some great pizzas and stir fries with whatever we have on hand in the freezer. By adding barley, rice, or pasta to soups, we get more nutritional content and can stretch the stock and veggies a bit further.
How are your budget challenges going? Do they force you to be more creative? Any creative meals you've come up with just cooking from the pantry and freezer? I'd love to hear from you!
Tuesday, March 4, 2014
Cleaning Green
Since having our little one, we've definitely streamlined our cleaning (not the we loved doing it so much that we spent hours on it before!). We're in the process of implementing a cleaning schedule, including the diaper washing rotation, and have found that incredibly helpful. It is super nice that Benny's home and can do some of the cleaning during the day, so that we aren't doing it all in the evenings or on the weekends.
Perhaps the most pivotal thing we've done is to really streamline cleaning the bathrooms. I've never minded cleaning the counters or toilets, but I LOATHE cleaning the shower. I always liked the idea of the shower sprays that keep a clean shower clean, but I hated the chemicals in them and knowing that they were going into the air and water each time they got sprayed. And I know it'd stay cleaner if I dried it after each use, but I had trouble remembering to do that in the morning rush.
But now, I have a solution, literally. And it is so. simple. One repurposed spray bottle. One cup of white vinegar. One cup of dish washing soap (I used Seventh Generation Lemongrass and Clementine). That's it! I heated the dish soap in the microwave a little to have it mix better with the vinegar, and you shake the bottle prior to each use. Using this has majorly cut down on our time cleaning; no more scrubbing on hands and knees with homemade cleaner or Borax. Now, you have to start with a clean shower, so that might be the challenge, but man is it worth it!
So, now we can literally clean the bathroom in 10 minutes on a weekend morning while the muffins bake for breakfast. (Of course that doesn't include the deep cleaning of blinds, windows, etc., but a quick once over sure does help!) And I love that it's totally green and low cost.
What about you? Have you done anything to streamline your cleaning routine? I'm on the hunt for a homemade stain remover to get tomato stains out of a little one's favorite shirt... any ideas? Here's to living and saving green!
Perhaps the most pivotal thing we've done is to really streamline cleaning the bathrooms. I've never minded cleaning the counters or toilets, but I LOATHE cleaning the shower. I always liked the idea of the shower sprays that keep a clean shower clean, but I hated the chemicals in them and knowing that they were going into the air and water each time they got sprayed. And I know it'd stay cleaner if I dried it after each use, but I had trouble remembering to do that in the morning rush.
But now, I have a solution, literally. And it is so. simple. One repurposed spray bottle. One cup of white vinegar. One cup of dish washing soap (I used Seventh Generation Lemongrass and Clementine). That's it! I heated the dish soap in the microwave a little to have it mix better with the vinegar, and you shake the bottle prior to each use. Using this has majorly cut down on our time cleaning; no more scrubbing on hands and knees with homemade cleaner or Borax. Now, you have to start with a clean shower, so that might be the challenge, but man is it worth it!
So, now we can literally clean the bathroom in 10 minutes on a weekend morning while the muffins bake for breakfast. (Of course that doesn't include the deep cleaning of blinds, windows, etc., but a quick once over sure does help!) And I love that it's totally green and low cost.
What about you? Have you done anything to streamline your cleaning routine? I'm on the hunt for a homemade stain remover to get tomato stains out of a little one's favorite shirt... any ideas? Here's to living and saving green!
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
Cash from Junk: Paying for our CSA share
It's no secret that we love our CSA share. The farm we work with, Creek Song, is fabulous and always provides great produce. It's wonderful that it's all organic and it is always super fresh and great for our family. This year, we decided that we wanted to purchase a full share so that we could can and freeze some of the extra produce to use in soups, stews, and stir fries throughout the winter.
However, the $500 share fee wasn't in our $100/month grocery budget and we didn't want to use our savings to pay for the CSA. So, we had to come up with a way to pay for the share that wouldn't dip into our savings. Enter: Raygan's closet, or more accurately, the junk we've stored in his closet. It has become abundantly clear over the past few months that our little guy is growing and will need the closet space sooner than later, which meant our junk had to go. Since we're giving up about 800+ square feet of our basement and upstairs for rental income, this space is now out for storage. So, we evaluated... did we really need the junk? How much of it had we actually used in the past year or so? If we hadn't, we sorted it... keep (mostly if we saw that it had reasonable future use), donate (if we saw that it didn't have substantial cash value), or Ebay (if we thought we could sell it for $20 or more online).
Slowly, we've weeded through a box at a time, mostly in evenings after dinner and on snow days. We found more than we thought that we could sell, including old phones, crocheted items, maternity and baby items, gifts from students, and some old Mary Kay inventory. We tried to set a goal of posting 3-5 items a week. This meant that we weren't overwhelmed with trips to the PO and that it was easy to post items during Raygan's naptime. It's worked out that we've been able to make our regular weekly trip to the PO and take items to mail then, so it hasn't been any extra fuel cost added to the budget. We're still fine tuning the shipping costs, but all told, by the end of this month, we're sure we'll have our $500 CSA fee, if not a little more to put into our savings.
It's so nice to know that we've turned our junk into some cash for our food for the summer. And we love the bonus of having the extra space in Raygan's closet. (Built in shelving there soon, anyone?!) Plus, it's great knowing that none of our junk went to the landfill, but it's either getting repurposed in our home or finding a new life in someone else's home.
Have you had success selling on Ebay or some other site? What closets have you been cleaning out? I'd love to hear how you're living and saving green!
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