Thrift

Sustainable Food Budget Challenge

Posted on April 1, 2009 by Anisa

susbudgetHow many times have you thought about eating organic and locally grown food, only to convince yourself it’s too expensive?  Or maybe you do eat locally and organically grown food, and try to convert your friends, but you can’t seem to get them to believe it’s something they can afford. 

For the month of April, The Crunchy Chicken is issuing the Sustainable Food Budget Challenge. 

I hear so many times, from many friends that “they just can’t afford to eat natural/organic.”  This way of thinking really discourages me.  Rick and I have a very tight grocery budget.  We do not spend our whole paycheck at Whole Foods, nor do we think anyone should.  Yes, our grocery shopping is supplemented with our garden and hunting, but those things aren’t free either, and take lots of work.  Not counting the garden, the CSA, and hunting, we spend between $60-100/week on groceries during the winter, and only $30-60/week during the summer.  I will calculate out the cost of meat, as well as garden & CSA veggies to add into that later, to give you an accurate reflection of what we truly spend per month to eat locally, organic, sustainable food. 

But first, the details on the challenge:  The idea here is to feed yourself and your family on sustainable food sources while staying within a set, tight budget (more on this below).   So what is “sustainable food?”   To me, it is food that has the least impact on the environment, while having the most impact on your health.  Locally grown organic veggies are at the very tip top of this list.  For example, a tomato from your garden, grown without fertilizers or pesticides, using grey water or a drip system, has a very low impact on the environment (no fossil fuels were used to get it to you!) and you get all the health benefits of an organic tomato.

So besides a garden, where do you find this stuff?  Start at the farmer’s market, food co-op, U-pick farm stands and local food stores.  Then move  on to the grocery chains and big-box last.  Local food store will often carry more locally grown food then the bigger chains and big-box stores.  And, usually at cheaper prices.  You will need to weigh the benefits of buying locally (but maybe not organic) versus buying organic produce flown half-way around the world to your local Wal-Mart.   Crunchy Chicken has a follow up post here about what sustainable means as well.  This is a helpful clarification since many of us live in areas where the farmer’s markets aren’t yet open. 

Crunchy Chicken raises the question: “is it possible…?” as well as lays out the rules for the challenge:

So, the question remains… is it possible to eat an organic or sustainably grown diet on a budget? A few years ago, there was the argument that those individuals who received food assistance from the government didn’t receive enough money to be able to afford healthy food. Some took it further and argued that poor Americans really were excluded from being able to eat sustainably strictly because of the higher costs. There are a number of factors at play here, the majority of which have to do with food availability such as the fact that not many supermarkets remain in some inner city areas and it’s difficult to travel out to the suburbs to shop at stores that sell the kinds of foods we are talking about here.

But, for the rest of us, can it be done? For those of us who live in areas where ample farmers markets, farms and grocery stores selling sustainably grown food exist, is it affordable?

I’d like to challenge us all to see if we can eat sustainably using the Food Stamp Allotment Program guidelines. It will take a lot of careful planning, but the end result is that we can save a lot of money on our food budget by trying to spend within this framework for a month.

Challenge Guidelines
So, here’s the skinny. Based on the following allotment chart, you are to stick to the corresponding amount for food for the month of April. The challenge is that you must buy according to the following guidelines (from Locavores). Do not include non-food items or home grown items into your budget, but do include seeds and plants which produce food for the household to eat. Make sure you include all the food costs from eating out, trips to coffee shops, etc.

 

These are fairly loose rules, but the goal is to buy sustainably grown food:

1. If not LOCALLY PRODUCED, then Organic.
2. If not ORGANIC, then Family farm.
3. If not FAMILY FARM, then Local business.
4. If not a LOCAL BUSINESS, then Terroir: purchase foods famous for the region they are grown in.
5. Hit the farmers market before the supermarket.

 

Household Maximum Monthly Allotment Chart:
1 person – $176
2 people – $323
3 people – $463
4 people – $588
5 people – $698
6 people – $838
7 people – $926
8 people – $1,058
Each additional person – $132
 

Here is the break down of where Rick and I are starting from, as well as a receipt info from today’s shopping trip on April 1st. 

Today I spent $84.51 at Sunflower Farmers Market (a local grocery chain) for food items for the week.  We plan on having Buttermilk Baked Chicken, Mediterranean Salad, Homemade pizzas, Elk chili, Chicken Satay, Mediterranean Chicken Packets, and Broccoli Tomato Stromboli’s this week.  The chicken I bought at the store was not organic or local (normally I buy organic chicken only once a month from Costco, where it is cheaper), but I refuse to pay $16.00 for one Rosie chicken (read the Omnivore’s Dilemma by Pollan and you will too!).  I bought salami from who-knows-where, and I’m certain it’s not organic either, but it was the only kind they had.  Nearly all the produce I bought, as well as the beans and flour were organic, though not local.  But the eggs and milk were Colorado proud, and hormone free.  The bread was both local and organic. 

The pizzas will have pork sausage, the cost of which is approx. $1.97.  We bought a whole local 4-H hog last fall for less than two bucks a pound.  The elk meat for the chili was given to us by a relative, harvested in Kremmling, CO.  Rick has not gotten an elk yet, but he’s applied for many a license, so the cost of that, to be fair would have been… well, whatever the heck $39 for a license plus the fuel cost to get to Kremmling, and the cost of one .306 bullet; divided by how ever many hundred pounds of meat an elk gives us… for one pound.  I’ll be extra  generous and say it was a $1.00.  Rick’s family processes their own meat, so that would have been free (just costs time, anyway).  We will also be using some frozen tomatoes left over from the farm last summer.  I am not going to figure out the cost of two or three tomatoes, but if we weren’t using those I would have bought a big can of Muier Glen Organic tomatoes for about $2.29, those in the freezer probably didn’t cost half that, but to be generous and fair again, we’ll say they were half: $1.15.

So, for this week:
-Grocery Store – mixed: $84.51
-Pork – local and sustainable: $1.97
-Elk – local and sustainable: $1.00
-Tomatoes – local and sustainable: $1.15
Total: $88.63

If we keep on track with this amount for the month, we’ll spend about $356 on groceries.  This is below the amount allotted for a family of three, and WAY below the amount allotted for a family of four (which we qualify as, since I’m pregnant) for Food Stamps.  Not too bad. Let’s see if we can pull it off! 

This month will bring a couple of exciting opportunities for us though as well.  Like the pick your own asparagus at the farm in a couple of weeks.  I can’t wait.  Look for more info on CSA’s in tomorrow’s Thrifty Thursday tip.  A lot of the produce we use (though, none planned for this week, besides those tomatoes) comes from there, and I will have cost breakdowns for that.

My goal for the challenge is to see just HOW sustainbly we can eat, for the least amount possible.  I have a feeling Rick will like this challenge.  He’s always complaining about the grocery bill! 

What about you?  Do you think you can do the challenge?  And if you’re already eating well on a budget, do you think you can stretch it further?  Will you join us???  Leave me a comment below with thoughts, questions, ideas, etc.!

Categories: CSA, Food, Garden, Recommended Reading, Sustainability, Thrift, Urban Homesteading | 3 Comments

Thrifty Thursday: What is a Home Garden Worth?

Posted on March 26, 2009 by Anisa

garden-worth

This Thrifty Thursday marks the beginning of one of my favorite money saving techniques: GARDENING!  I received this awesome write up from my March 2009 Kitchen Gardeners International newsletter by Roger Doiron. 

KGI is a non-profit that “empower individuals, families, and communities to achieve greater levels of food self-reliance through the promotion of kitchen gardening, home-cooking, and sustainable local food systems.”  I got connected with them when I signed the Eat The View petition asking the Obama’s to plant a victory garden on the White House lawn (and our petition was as success!  The Obama’s are going to plant 55 varieties of organic veggies!  WooHoo!)!

What’s a home garden worth? With the global economy spiraling downward and Mother Nature preparing to reach upward, it’s a good question to ask and a good time to ask it.

There isn’t one right answer, of course, but I’ll give you mine: $2149.15. Last year, my wife Jacqueline suggested to me that we calculate the total value of the produce coming out of our garden over the course of the growing season. Initially, the thought of doing that was about as appealing to me as a recreational root canal. I remember replying something like: “OK, so let me get this right: in addition to raising three busy boys, managing two careers, volunteering in a school garden, and growing most of our own produce, you’re proposing that we weigh every item that comes out of our garden, write it down in a log book, and spend a few leisurely evenings doing math?” Jacqueline, an economics major in college and a native French speaker, answered with a simple “oui” and so the project began.

There was a lot of work involved, mostly for Jacqueline, but as with gardening itself, it was work with a purpose. It didn’t take long for our log book to start filling up with dates and figures. Although we started eating our first garden salads in late April, we only began recording our harvests as of May 10th, starting first with greens and asparagus. Our last weighable harvest was two weeks ago in the form of a final cutting of Belgian endives forced from roots in our basement.

By the time we had finished weighing it all, we had grown 834 pounds and over six months worth of organic food (we’re still eating our own winter squash, onions, garlic, and frozen items like strawberries, green beans, and pesto cubes). Once we had the weights of the 35 main crops we grew, we then calculated what it would have cost us to buy the same items using three different sets of prices: conventional grocery store, farmers’ market and organic grocery store (Whole Foods, in our case). The total value came to $2196.50, $2431.15, and $2548.93 respectively. For the other economics majors and number crunchers among you, you can see our crunchy, raw data here.

There are things we didn’t include like the wild dandelion greens which we reaped but did not sow, the six or so carving pumpkins which we ultimately fed to our compost pile, and the countless snacks of strawberries, beans, peas, and tomatoes that never made it as far as our kitchen scale. There were also things we forgot to weigh like several pounds of grapes which turned into about 12 jars of jam. As with any growing season, there were hits and misses. The heaviest and most valuable crop was our tomatoes (158 lb/72 kg for a total value of $524). In terms of misses, our apple tree decided to take the year off and very few of our onions started from seed made it requiring me to buy some onion plants.

On the cost side, we had $130 for seeds and supplies, $12 for a soil test, and exceptional costs of $100 for some locally-made organic compost we bought for our “This Lawn is Your Lawn” frontyard garden (normally, we meet most of our soil fertility needs through our own composting). I don’t have a scientific calculation for water costs, but we don’t need to water much and, when we do, water is relatively cheap in Maine. Also, I mulch my beds pretty heavily to keep moisture in and weeds down.  Let’s say $40 in water.  So, if we consider that our out-of-pocket costs were $282 and the total value generated was $2431, that means we had a return on investment of 862%. The cost of our labor is not included because we enjoy gardening and the physical work involved. If I am to include my labor costs, I feel I should also include the gym membership fees, country club dues, or doctors’ bills I didn’t have.

If you really want to play around with the data, you can calculate how much a home garden like ours produces on a per acre basis. If you use the $2400 figure and consider that our garden is roughly 1/25th of an acre, it means that home gardens like ours can gross $60,000/acre. You can also calculate it on a square foot basis which in our case works out to be roughly $1.50/ft2. That would mean that a smaller garden of say 400ft2 would produce $600 of produce. Keep in mind that these are averages and that certain crops are more profitable and space efficient than others. A small garden planted primarily with salad greens and trellised tomatoes, for example, is going to produce more economic value per square foot more than one planted with potatoes and squash. We plant a bit of everything because that’s the way we like to garden and eat.

Clearly, this data is just for one family (of five), one yard (.3 acre), one garden (roughly 1600 square feet), and one climate (Maine, zone 5b/6), but it gives you some sense of what’s possible. If you consider that there are about 90 million households in the US that have some sort of yard, factor in the thousands of new community and school gardens we could be planting, this really could add up. Our savings allowed us to do different things including investing in some weatherization work for our house last fall that is making us a greener household in another way. Some might ask what this would mean for farmers to have more people growing their own food. The local farmers I know welcome it because they correctly believe that the more people discover what fresh, real food tastes like, the more they’ll want to taste. In our case, part of our savings helped us to buy better quality, sustainably-raised meat from a local CSA farmer.

The economics of home gardening may not be enough to convince President Obama or UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown to plant new gardens at the White House or 10 Downing Street, but the healthy savings their citizens could be making and then reinvesting in their local economies could.

In the end, it might come down to the language we use. Instead of saying “Honey, I’m going out to the garden to turn the compost pile”, perhaps we should say “Honey, I’m going outside to do a ‘green job’ and work on our ‘organic stimulus package.’”  I bet that would get the attention of a few economists, not mention a few psychologists.

Happy, healthy March
Roger Doiron

PS: Garden writers and bloggers: feel free to republish the text and photo above with a link back to KGI.  Thanks.

I loved the idea of seeing what a home garden is actually worth.  I think Rick and I may track our garden’s value this year!  Our garden is  around 560-600 square feet, not counting the strip along the driveway (maybe another 160-200 sf?).  And we use all that space pretty efficiently, though there’s always room for improvement.  We manage to squeeze more and more in each year, and this year should be no exception. 

If you’re thinking of planting your own garden, but not sure how to do it, there are some good websites with free garden planning out there.  Check out BHG.com and almanac.com, two of my favorites. 

Can’t wait to get into the “dirt” of gardening in this month’s Thrifty Thursdays!

See what ideas are growing with Tracy, Crystal & Katie Jean this week too!

Categories: Garden, Thrift | 4 Comments

Thrifty Thursday: Green Cleaners/Kitchen Staples Part 2

Posted on March 19, 2009 by Anisa

Cleaning toolsThis week’s Thrifty Thursday tip is focused on another kitchen staple:  Baking Soda.

I can clean almost everything in my home with baking soda, vinegar or lemon juice.  Baking soda is a great thing to add to laundry, clean the oven or scrub the sink with.  Here are a few of the many uses:

In laundry:

  • Use to clean and deorderize laundry.  I use about 1/4 to 1/2 cup in the washing machine to give my detergent a boost, or to get the stink out of my cloth diapers.   I’ve also washed lightly soiled clothes with just baking soda when I’ve run out of detergent.
  • For really stinky stuff, use it as a presoak.  Usually I do this in hot water with 1/2 cup or more, depending on the load size.
  • Apply a paste of equal amounts baking soda & water to stains to help break down grease. 
  • Use in the rinse cycle as a fabric softener.

Other cleaning tasks:

  • Deodorizing the refrigerator and freezer.
  • Cleaning the stove top, range or oven:  make a paste of 3 parts warm water to one part baking soda.  It will not scratch surfaces.  Other places to use it: counter tops, sinks, inside the refrigerator…. the list goes on.
  • Mix it with a mild dish washing liquid (like Ivory) until you have a thick paste to make a good bathroom cleaner. 

My laundry cupboardBaking soda can be bought in bulk at a store like Costco or Sam’s.  It’s so inexpensive!  Just don’t use it to with vinegar at the same time or they will cancel each other out.  The exception to this is to clean your kitchen sink drain:  put baking soda down the drain, followed by some white vinegar.  Quickly plug the sink and let sit.  This is like the volcano you made in grade school science class.  🙂  It will help remove any built up gunk in there. 

Another handy kitchen staple to have on hand is that mild dish washing liquid.  It can be used in a variety of ways as well, and combined with other things to make effective cleaners.  Eliminating the need for all the chemicals.  🙂

A great book on how to clean anything and every thing in your home is Martha Stewart’s Homekeeping Handbook.  She has lots of green and mild alternatives and always recommends starting witht the mildest before moving on to the harsher methods of cleaning.

What are some of your favorite ways to clean green?  Do you love a specific brand or tool?  Is there a kitchen staple that you use to clean with?

Categories: Recommended Reading, Thrift | 2 Comments

Thrifty Thursday: Green Cleaners/Kitchen Staples

Posted on March 12, 2009 by Anisa

A lot of people think that your home is not truly clean unless you can smell the Lysol (or what have you).  Unfortunately, those pine-fresh fumes are harmful not just to you, your family and your pets, but to the environment as well.  Fortunately there are a lot more “green” alternatives on the market now a-days.  And they are more effective now then they have been in the past.  But I wanted to talk about some great, safe, effective cleaners you probably already have in your home. 

Cleaning with kitchen staples is not only affordable and green, it is very effective.  And it keeps your home from smelling like a hospital or hotel (or a mop bucket).  Lemon juice and distilled white vinegar are two very effective, totally safe alternatives to bleach (and dozens of other cleaners). 

I mix equal parts white vinegar and water to clean glass and mirrors.  I use it in the rinse cycle of my washing machine (it cuts grease, whitens fabric and softens water, making it rinse cleaner).  It cleans floors and eliminates soap scum. 

Lemon juice removes stains and whitens fabric as well.  It disinfects counter tops and removes odors, and can even remove mineral deposits on your faucets or the stains in your coffee pot.

Here are a few recipes for general house hold use:

  • For glass & mirror cleaner, mix equal parts distilled white vinegar and water in a spray bottle.  Clean with a lint free (or microfiber) cloth.  This solution can also be used to clean wood floors finished with polyurethane (not water-based finishes) and, of course, tile. 
  • To remove soap scum, use that same sprayer bottle and simply spray on and wipe off.  It may be helpful to leave the vinegar solution to set for a few minutes and/or use a plastic brislte brush to remove stubborn spots. 
  • I also use this mixture to clean my counter tops in the kitchen.  Even after cooking chicken.
  • For mineral deposits, apply a paper towel soaked in either white vinegar or lemon juice to the area and let sit for at least an hour.  Wipe away residue. 
  • Run a pot of clear water mixed with either lemon juice or white vinegar through your coffee pot.  Rinse well, and run with just water (so your next pot of coffee doesn’t have a vinegar/lemon taste).
  • To disinfect used toys (or, say if your son poops in the tub and then you have to clean all his bath toys), mix 1/4 – 1/2 cup white vinegar with hot water in the tub (enough water to cover the toys).  Let soak, and the scrub with a cloth or a brush.  Rinse and let dry. 

For laundry:

  • To whiten with lemon on the stove top, fill a pot with water and a few slices of fresh lemon.  Bring to a boil.  Turn off heat, add linens, and let soak for up to an hour.  Launder as usual.  This is great for socks and “pit-stained” white shirts.  As well as for linens, white napkins, etc. 
  • For tough stains on whites (I used this to whiten my Fuzzi Bunz inserts before I sold them), apply lemon juice to the stain and let sit for a few minutes before washing.
  • Add 1/8 to 1/2 cup of white vinegar to the first rinse cycle.  You will be surprised at it’s whitening power.  Note:  Do NOT use this with bleach!
  • For extra brightening, dry your whites out in the sunlight to take advantage of nature’s own bleaching agent.  Also this conserves energy and is free!

When you look at all the different cleaning products these two kitchen staples replace, you really are saving a lot of money.  Window/glass cleaner, tub & tile cleaner, counter top cleaner, bleach, stain remover, tile floor cleaner, wood floor cleaner….  the list goes on.  Once you start using these safe alternatives, you will find more and more uses for them. 

Next week, the many many uses of baking soda.  As the saying goes, everything old is new again.  Our great grandmothers cleaned this way.  🙂

Read what Tracy, Katie Jean, Crystal & Genny are blogging about today.

Categories: Thrift, Urban Homesteading | 3 Comments

Thrifty Thursday: “Optional” Coverage & Microfiber Miracle

Posted on March 5, 2009 by Anisa

Pic from Google Image searchThis Thursday tip is actually a double, since last week’s post was “donated” to the Romp.  So first up is the last of my Bills & Budgets tips: “Optional” Car Insurance Coverage.

If you live in Colorado, back in November or December you might have received a letter from your insurance company regarding the new car insurance law requiring a minimum of $5000 in medical payments coverage (MPC).  The way the law was written, this coverage was automatically added to all insurance policies on January 1, 2009 unless you signed and returned a rejection form to prevent this coverage from being added to your policy.  What does it cover?  Do you need it? 

The MPC covers medical bills in case of an accident regardless of who is at fault.  It’s relatively inexpensive (talk to your insurance agent), but you you might have the same coverage in your health insurance policy.  This means you should weigh carefully whether to accept or reject this coverage.  It takes some investigating if you don’t have your policy paperwork handy, but once you review your health insurance policy and what the MPC covers, you might find you don’t need the new MPC after all. 

Keep in mind that this was added automatically to your policy unless you rejected it in writing (and why I put “optional” in quotation marks).  If you didn’t do it before, you might want to check and see if you really need it or not.  If you are adequately insured through your healthcare company (lol), you could save yourself some dough on your car insurance. 

On the other hand, if you don’t have health insurance, this could be a relatively inexpensive way of insuring the health/safety of yourself and those in your car.  It even covers pedestrians and bicyclists if they are hit by a car.  A little food for thought, I guess.

My microfiber cloths and my swifferSecond for this Thrifty Thursday is the Microfiber Miracle!  This is not the first TT tip I’ve written involving microfiber, but it is one of my favorite cleaning tools. 

Microfiber is great.  It’s super absorbent (it’s in my kids’ diapers for goodness sake), reusable, machine washable, and leaves windows & mirrors streak free (see my TT post in December).  But my favorite use for it is cleaning my floors. 

I swiffer with it.  I have several microfiber cloths and a couple are just the right size to fit on my Swiffer. Our house has all hard surface flooring.  Wood in the living/dining room and bedrooms, and tile in the kitchen and bath.  I didn’t own a Swiffer for a long time because it seemed like a big waste to me.  I mean, I loved the concept of picking up dust and hair on my hard floors (which is very important in a house with a 60 pound lab/velociraptor mix), but the cloths were so expensive! 

Then one day I realized microfiber does an excellent job of collecting hair and dust.  And I can wash it and reuse it! 

A 16 count box of dry Swiffer cloths at CVS Pharmacy is $5.39.  On Amazon.com, you can get three boxes of them (32 count each) for $22.49 plus $5.90 shipping.  That’s 30-34 cents a cloth.  All one time use.  The wet cloths are $8.79 for 24 at CVS and $22.49 + 5.90 for shipping at Amazon for three 24 packs.  That’s 37-39 cents for each one time use cloth. 

And who knows how many cloths I’d need to cover all the floor space in my house?? 

The bright green cloths I use were a gift and came from The Pampered Chef.  I don’t think they have this set anymore, but they sell a cranberry colored cloth for $8.50 plus tax and shipping.  On Amazon, there is a set of two cloths that would fit perfectly on the head of a Swiffer for only $5.99 plus $5.14 for shipping, and they look pretty similar to the smaller of the two green cloths I have (even the same color!).  Amazon says these cloths can be washed and reused up to 300 times each. 

So that price break down is: $5.99+$5.14=$11.13, $11.13/600 (since there are two cloths)=  $0.019  –LESS than two cents per use!  AND, I shake my cloth out after I do one room and then put it back on and move to the next room.  So one cloth can do my whole house (sometimes more than once) before I need to wash it.  And if I want them wet, well, that’s easy to make happen with little to no cost.  Plus, you can probably find similar cloths at a local store and save yourself the shipping, making it even more thrifty. 

This doesn’t even take into account the fact that you are not throwing hundreds of one time use Swiffer cloths needlessly into the landfill.  So, using microfiber instead, you are making a “green” choice when you clean your floors!

There are probably thousands of uses for the microfiber miracle.  I just wanted to share my favorite!  For the majority of March, I wanted to give a few Green Cleaning tips since I think we can all feel spring coming on!

See what Tracy, Katie Jean and Genny are saving on this week.

Categories: Thrift | 2 Comments

Thrifty Thursday: Saving — Good for Your Health & Saves Time Too

Posted on February 19, 2009 by Anisa

juliana-savyThis week’s Thrifty Thursday tip (or tips rather) come from my long-time, good friend Juliana Gingerich.  Juliana has worked in the banking/finance industry for many years and is considered a financial expert.  I asked Juliana to share some of her expertise here on Thrifty Thursday.  While we’ve talked about some of these (like planning meals), Juliana shares some refreshing money saving tips that we can all apply!

 

Saving Money — Good for Your Health and it Saves you Time Too
We tend to live in reaction to life instead of planning ahead. Being proactive and organized is really the key to saving money.

1) Save on your grocery bill
• Plan your menu for the week ahead and buy only groceries for that week. That way you don’t waste any food-especially produce. Pick a meal to make every second day so that you eat leftovers the following day.
• Create a coupon file that you keep by your purse and have a slot for each of the stores you frequent and a slot for manufacture and miscellaneous coupons.
• Make a food budget and a receipt envelope for food receipts; after each trip to the store write at the bottom of the receipt how much is left for the rest of the week

2) Buy a car you can afford
• While advertisers and our consumer driven culture would probably disagree, I believe buying with cash is the way to go-with the exception of real estate and purchasing a new business. Your assets should work for you or be “income producing” if possible, and although cars can be fun-they are usually the worst “investment” you could make. That being said, we need cars to get from A to B and we need them to be in working condition. Buying a car with cash and saving the car payment you would have used allows you to buy the car you really want later without going in to debt.

3) Create an eating-out budget
• Having a plan and sticking to it- will save you TONS of money! If you don’t believe me, make an envelope labeled “eating out” and put all the receipts from eating-out including all coffee’s and drinks for a whole year—it will be in the THOUSANDS! Instead of wasting money on food that makes you feel crappy anyway -try planning ahead and always carry drinks and snacks for you and your kids (if you have any).

4) Plan out your week in advance
• Group errands together by geographic location so you save on gas.
• Planning ahead always minimizes stress and waste.
• Set out the things you will need for the day the night before.
• If you are married discuss with your spouse what he or she is doing that week so you can run errands for each other and to ensure you are both not going to the same places and not knowing it.

5) Join trading, bartering or discount buying and selling programs
There are thousands of choices, but I listed a few websites below:
• Freecycle http://www.freecycle.org
• Craigslist www.craigslist.com
• eBay www.ebay.com
• Consignment stores http://www.consignmentshops.com/

6) Before you buy something big-stop, think and clean!
• Cleaning our houses, organizing our stuff and de-cluttering reminds us of how much stuff we already have and what a hassle it is to take care of it all. We can buy many things we already have just because we are unorganized and misplaced it.
• Deep clean your house and try to find something to donate or sell; it will remind you of how much stuff you already have and what a responsibility it is to take care of it.

7) Service yourself, your car and your home regularly
• Make a schedule and put it in your daily planner (assuming you have one 🙂 ) to get your car, home and yourself serviced
• Changing your oil is around $30 instead of $3,000 for a new engine
• Getting a physical is a $25 co-pay (if you have insurance) instead of a costly surgery
• Clean out your filters: vacuums, water, heating, fridge, stove etc…it will save you the cost of replacing one of them

Written by Juliana Gingerich-retired Financial Advisor
“If you want to feel rich, just count the things you have that money can’t buy”

A retired financial advisor, and former vice president of Simsbury bank in Connecticut, Juliana is now a stay at home mom to 19 month old Savannah.  She and her husband, Jason lead the Dynamic Marriage class for their church in Granby, CT as well as help with financial counseling in their ministries.  Additionally, Juliana is on the cusp of starting her own web-based life coaching business.  You can find Juliana on Facebook, or her newly created blog: http://fullcirclejg.wordpress.com/

Categories: Thrift | 1 Comment

Freeze Yer Buns

Posted on February 13, 2009 by Anisa

freezeyerbunsYesterday, I joined the Freeze Yer Buns challenge put out by Crunchy Chicken.

This challenge is to lower the thermostat, don your socks and sweaters and save a little energy (and money!).  Read all about the challenge by clicking on the graphic in this post or following this link: Freeze Yer Buns! 

For us, we normally have the thermostat set at 65 during the day and 60 at night. But I’m kind of a wimp, and here all day in this drafty old house, so I usually crank it up to 67 or 68 during the day. After reading some of the responses of the people already doing the challenge, I realized what a wimp I’ve been (I’m mean, I AM a Colorado native after all… suck it up, girl!).  So I dropped it down to 64 yesterday. My goal is to get it a little lower over the next few weeks and see what kind of money it saves us!

Crunchy Chicken shared this quote by one of our presidents.  Does anyone know who said it?  What were the circumstances?  Why would he issue such a challenge, and did we the people listen? 

“I again ask every American to lower the thermostat settings in all homes and buildings to no more than 65 degrees during the daytime and to a much lower setting at night. This single step, if carried out by all our people, can eliminate half the current shortage of natural gas and put thousands of Americans back to work.

I have turned the thermostat down in the White House and have ordered it reduced in all Government buildings. And I ask everyone in the country to cooperate so that no one will have to go without crucial heat.

Finally, I must say to you quite frankly that this is not a temporary request for conservation. Our energy problems will not be over next year or the year after. Further sacrifices in addition to lowering thermostats may well be necessary. But I believe this country is tough enough and strong enough to meet that challenge. And I ask all Americans to cooperate in minimizing the adverse effect on the lives of our people.” 

So… can you take the challenge? Feel free to join here or on the Crunchy Chicken blog.  Just post a comment with your guess about the presidential quote (no cheating!!) and where you are going to set the thermostat in your home.  I plan to check up with all of you, and to share our progress in the next few months since the challenge goes until April.

And, for a little more incentive,  posters on my blog to guess that quote correctly (and commit to the challenge) will get entered into a drawing for some winter woolies in the mail from me!

*Oops!  I forgot to set a deadline for entering the drawing!  The drawing will end at 10am MST on Wednesday, February 18th!  See, I told you all that I was new at this give-away thing! *

Categories: Recommended Reading, Sustainability, Thrift, Urban Homesteading | 9 Comments

Thrifty Thursday: Cheap Eats & Community Events

Posted on February 12, 2009 by Anisa

Henry - Feb 2007

So today, I’m deviating a little bit from the Bills and Budgets theme I’ve been doing this month in honor of Valentine’s Day!  My post today will be about Cheap Dates!  This can still be filed under the entertainment/eating out budget, I guess (if you have a budget for those!) so maybe it still fits in with the original theme?? 

*note: sorry for the bad quality of the picture.  It’s a page from my scrapbook featuring a picture of Henry and really cute vintage cowboy valentine’s day paper.  🙂

Rick and I got married on February 22nd (SIX years ago!!), and we went and got our marriage licence from the county on Valentine’s Day that year.  That was all we did, all we could afford to do, since all of our money at the time was going to the wedding the next weekend.   Since that time though, we have come up with a few more ways to have a fun date without shelling out a ton of cash, Valentine’s Day or not. 

A fun, inexpensive date can be as close as your local community, recreation or city center.  Our city sponsors concerts all throughout the year (in the summer they are often outdoors) that are usually free or nearly free.  There are also plays and sometimes even a ballet.  The local senior center here in Englewood also shows movies for $1 and sells popcorn for only 25 cents.  Of course, they aren’t showing what’s currently in the theater, but it’s still a night out with your honey! 

Additionally, look for local/community museums.  They are usually free or very low cost as well.  Like the Littleton Historical Museum.  It’s free, and during the summer they have real animals (a pair of oxen!) as well as volunteers in period costume working the farm and blacksmith shop there and answering all kinds of questions to visitors.  And you can bring a picnic lunch! 

For the outdoor inclined (like most of us here in Colorado), you can step outside by checking out the different nature centers in your county and the surrounding counties as well.  There are often guided moonlit hikes, star mapping, snowshoeing/cross country skiing treks, and a lot more.  One center I know of is hosting a nature hike followed by an activity called The Mating Game (based on the 70’s game show The Dating Game) this Saturday!  Lots of these centers have email/snail mail newsletters that they send out regularly so you can keep up to date on their events.  Usually the events are free or have a minimal cost. 

*On a separate note, nature centers have tons of great activities for kiddos during the day.  They are usually broken up by age and a lot of fun!

One way we like to save money when going out to eat is splitting a meal.  Meals at most restaurants are so big, that really, if you share you’ll both still be full.  Especially if you get an appetizer or dessert!  We’ve often split a burger at Red Robin and been totally stuffed! 

We will also go to inexpensive places and find the most secluded corner we can to make it special for the two of us.  We love going to Wahoos Fish Taco.  It’s cheap but tasty (and healthy) and we can make it special. 

Once, my parents and their best friends had a particularly lean February.  For Valentine’s Day the wives took their husbands out for a romantic dinner at…  Taco Bell.  Unbeknown to the guys, the women had brought their own white table cloth, vase with flowers, cloth napkins, the works.  They sent the husbands off to order and quickly set it all up.  The guys returned with tacos in hand to their own romantic dinner, complete with candle sticks and funny stares from the other passing customers and employees.  🙂  Mind you, they had to get a baby sitter for the five (between both families) of us kids.  So they made a night of it.  And it makes a great memory, one which they still laugh about.

My creative cohorts have posted some other Thrifty ideas to share (in the recent past some good cheap/free babysitting ideas and other fun date ideas).  Be sure to check their blogs again this week for more:  Katie Jean, Tracy & Genny.

One last thing… if you are tempted to skip the sitter and make your Valentine’s (or any other night out) a family affair, check out these deals.

KIDS EAT FREE! (or nearly free)
(Note that the below are from a list I acquired last year, and I did not verify if they are still offered – so you should probably call ahead to verify)

Sunday:
• LoDos – $1.99
• Lansdowne Arms – after 4 pm
• La Mesa Mexican Restaurant
• Sunset Grill
• Jose Pepper’s Authentic Mexican Food
• Chartroose Caboose
• Big D’s BBQ (Parker)

Monday:
• Brothers BBQ
• Buffalo Wild Wings – $0.99 – 5-8 pm
• C.B. & Potts
• CiCi’s Pizza
• Chartroose Caboose – after 5pm
• Cinzetti’s – 5-9 pm
• Fuddruckers – $0.99 – 5-9 pm
• Gunther Toody’s
• Rio Grande
• TGI Fridays
• Big D’s BBQ (Parker)
• Bono’s BBQ

Tuesday:
• 3 Margaritas
• Bennigans
• Black Eyed Pea – after 5pm
• Brothers BBQ
• Champps
• Chick-Fil-A
• Cinzetti’s – 5-9 pm
• Denny’s – 4-10pm
• Fazolli’s – $0.99 – 5-8pm
• Fuddruckers – $0.99 – 5-9 pm
• Lone Star Steakhouse
• Perkins
• Pizza Street
• Planet Subs – after 4pm
• Ponderosa Steak House – after 4pm
• Salty Iguana Mexican Restaurant
• Big D’s BBQ (Parker)
• Treo (& ½ price hamburgers)

Wednesday:
• Applebees – $0.99
• Old Chicago
• Rainforest Café – after 5pm
• Zarda BBQ
• Big D’s BBQ (Parker)

Thursday:
• Buffalo Wild Wings
• C.B. & Potts – $1.00
• Big D’s BBQ (Parker)

Saturday:
• Lone Star Steakhouse – 11 – 4pm
• LoDo’s – $1.99

EVERYDAY KIDS EAT FREE:
• IHOP – $0.99 – 3-9pm
• O’Charley’s Restaurant
• Old Spaghetti Factory (with coupon from Kids Pages Magazine)

A couple of useful links:
http://colorado-for-free.com (thanks to Rach for this one)
Littleton Historical Museum
Lookout Mountain Nature Center

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