Frugal Fakers

I'm so sick of picking up books by rich people who think they are going green and frugal if they retire early, live off their investments, sell their Manhattan apartment and live in there second home in the country. 
Please! Give me a break.
"We sold our boat...what a sacrifice!" Blah blah blah.
Done venting.
J

Goodwill deals

Went to Goodwill today to help the little girls re-stock their dress-up bag.  We found a long belly-dancing scarf ($1.99) and two clip-on ties in pink and lavender  ($.99 each)  for when they want to be Prince Charming instead of Cinderella.  The ties were there because apparently a local tuxedo rental store brought in a huge amount of stuff -- tuxedos, vests, ties, shoes, etc.  So, if someone local needs a tux, they had better head on down to Goodwill and try some on. 
Also realized while I was there that everything I have on with the exception of socks and underwear is from Goodwill.  And, I am SUCH a fashion plate. 

Using Cash

I decided to put the credit cards in a drawer and just use cash in preparation for my January "austerity" measures when I will try to really keep track of my spending and budget closely.  Tonight, due to some craziness with the girls recital schedule, I took them to Subway for a quick dinner.  And, guess what, I didn't have enough money.  So, I guess the first rule of just carrying cash is to actually have more than $8 in your wallet.  Here's where the joys of small town living come in.  The manager told me to just sit down and eat and come back and pay later.  I did...after I got over being mortified. 

Clothing Exchange

Last week, I went to a women's clothing exchange.  A few of us brought clothes that we did not want anymore and spread them all over an empty room in a friend's basement.  Then, we picked through and picked out clothes for ourselves.  It was fun and free.  I got new cargo pants in exchange for some Size 2 jeans that fit me once every 6 months or so when my weight is low enough for them.  I can fit my long johns under my new cargo pants too which seems to be very important this winter.  I picked up a few other things -- a sweater, long sleeved shirt and a cute little yellow camisole.  I still love having something new to wear, but it is great to do it this way -- no impact, no money, nothing to the landfill.
I hope someone out there is looking great in those Size 2s.

Living 12 by 12

Just read this inspiring book on living "12 by 12" meaning the house, not the size of your master bath...
Here's the author, William Power's blog:  
http://williampowersbooks.com/blog/
Enjoy.

Continuing with my Thanksgiving week long feast

Today I got my pumpkin quota filled.  I had a pumpkin apple soup.  It also had butternut squash and veggie broth.  Unfortunately, I can't take credit for it myself or provide the recipe, because I just bought a cup at my local food co-op.  I think it still counts though.  For Thanksgiving we are just planning on mashed potatoes, stuffing with lentils, and slow cooker applesauce.  Simone also wants cranberry chutney so we may make that too and have some Thanksgiving and make some Indian food later that weekend to have it a second time.  Oh, and pecan pie for dessert.  I guess I'm still missing turkey, but I'm not a big turkey fan anyway.  I may forgo that altogether.
Hmmm, what else are we missing?

Spreading Out The Thanksgiving Feast

I love Thanksgiving.  Well, I love to eat in general.  But, I like all the Thanksgiving dishes, side dishes, and desserts.  Unfortunately, I seem to have been the only one in my family that loves it enough to actually cook it.  So, over the years I have worked really hard to produce a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner.  The girls pick at it.  We have tons of leftovers and well to be honest I end up kind of pissed.  So, it is time to get over it.  Newly single, I don't even have my spouse to at least appreciate the food. 
So, I am spreading out some of my favorite parts of Thanksgiving over the next week or so.  Last night, we had sweet potato coconut curry.  It satisfied my sweet potato requirement for Thanksgiving and it was easy to make.  Here's the recipe:
2 sweet potatoes cubed
1 can light coconut milk
1 cup frozen peas
1 cup vegetable broth
1 Tablespoon green curry paste
1 Tablespoon oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
Saute sweet potatoes in oil for a few minutes, add vegetable broth and cook until almost tender.  Add peas, coconut milk, curry paste and salt.  Heat through.  Serve over rice, rice noodles or as a soup.
A great way to get my sweet potato fix early, eliminate that dish from the Thanksgiving repetoire, take advantage of sweet potatoes on sale and get rid of that whole nasty, whipped sweet potatoes with marshmallow thing. 

Thanksgiving Fun for Kids

This is one of my favorite Thanksgiving activities -- an orange pomander.

I remember making one for my Great Aunt Doris, keeper of the turkey, when I was a kid.  Last year we made a few and just kept them around the house to make it smell like yummy winter holidays.  Pomanders are fragrant mixtures of spices and fruit.  Historically, pomanders were fragrant spices kept inside a metal or ceramic ball.  These were worn on a chain around the neck or waist to ward off bad smells and disease.  The most common in the U.S. today, the orange pomander, is very simple and smells absolutely delicious for weeks.  Though, I would not recommend wearing it and would not suggest it would ward off disease (but who knows).  However, it is cheery and easy to make with kids of different ages!  

To make your orange pomander, you will need:

·        An orange

·        ½ cup of whole cloves

·        24 inches of ribbon

·        a poker (a nail, a skewer, a pencil, etcetera)

·        a thimble (optional)

Directions:

·        Wash your orange to remove any fruit wax

·        Mark a line around your orange as if to cut it into quarters

·        Poke holes about ¼ inch deep into the orange either randomly or in a pattern

o   Do small sections at a time.

o   Keep the holes close enough together so that the cloves will almost touch when inserted stem side down into the holes.

o   Do not poke holes into the lines you made – this area is for the ribbon.

o   If you have very young children, you can do the poking for them.  Older children, of course, can design their own and make the holes themselves.

·        Push cloves into the holes stem side down

o   This leaves the sharper parts out so you may want to use a thimble to keep your fingers from getting sore.

o   Any child old enough not to consume or stick cloves up their nose can push the cloves into the orange.

·        Wrap the ribbon around the orange both ways, tie in a knot at the top then make a loop and tie a second knot if you’d like to hang your pomander, or a bow if you’re going to set it on the table.

Orange pomanders take time to dry so if you’re going to try to give one of these away for an upcoming holiday make it a couple of weeks earlier than the holiday itself.  The orange will turn brown and kind of appear to be rotting – it is NOT rotting.  The oil from the cloves spreads throughout the peel making it brownish orange.  The entire orange will eventually dry and become very light weight.

Selling at UI Womensworks

Hello to all my local friends...
Yesterday I debuted my food microbusiness at Womensworks and I had a great time and got great feedback.  I also nearly sold out of soup mixes and seriously lowered my stock of baking mixes.  I will be back today at the UI Student Union Building ballroom for another day of selling.  If you would like to try my sustainable-local-organic mixes stop by.  I'll be sampling out Comfort Cornbread, Turkish Mocha Brownies and Red Lentil Curry today.  Yum. Yum.  And, in keeping with the blog -- the prices are reasonable, I think, at $5 per mix. 

Below is a blurb about the new business.

At Fast Foodie, LLC in Moscow, Idaho, I strive to use the best and most sustainable ingredients to prepare mixes like no other.  Organic and local contributions to these mixes are common.  In a region rich with wheat varieties, lentils, and local small-scale organic agriculture as well as wild-crafted ingredients from the Inland Northwest, it is a pleasure to bring out the best in these ingredients through delicious, wholesome and quickly prepared soups and baked good mixes.  10% of my profits are donated to the following charitable organizations: Safe Passage in Guatemala City, Sojourner’s Alliance in Moscow, Idaho and Village Bicycle Project in Boise, Idaho. 

 See you there!

 

On Peckers and Oatmeal

I am sitting in our sun room looking out on the chicken yard and enjoying watching the young hens scratch through the leftover oatmeal I put out for them.  It reminded me to write that although backyard chickens are a source of entertainment and fresh eggs, they are not very economical.  Once you build or buy a coop, put up a fence, by chicken food, a chicken watering dish and a pair of boots to walk amongst the chicken droppings, you would have to have chickens for about 100 years to have their eggs pay off.  Maybe if you start with a fence, you might be able to make the math work.  The non-monetary value of backyard chickens is great though.  Just last week my two young daughters, Indigo and Antonia, were in the chicken yard (with their boots on) picking up and playing with the chickens.  I was moving firewood back and forth from the barn to the side porch for easier access.  As I walked back and forth, I overheard the girls talking.  Indigo said "Look, Tonia, this one has bumps on its pecker."  Antonia replied "This one has bumps on its pecker too."  Preoccupied, I kept loading wood without processing this much.  I walked by again and heard Indigo say "This one has a yellow pecker." I stopped, thinking "Wait. What?"  I went over to the side of the fence to observe.  Antonia looked up at me "Look Mommy, this one has a black pecker and that one has a yellow one."  I said "You're right, Antonia, but let's call those beaks."
That incident alone may be worth the price of the fence.

Book selling

I am a book hoarder.  I love books.  I love to read.  I love to have them covering my many bookshelves.  It has taken a long time to decrease my consumption of books.  I learned to love the library.  That sounds silly, but I used to want to have the books I read on MY shelf.  Anyway, I'm over that.  Now, I'm even over keeping my accumulation.  There are a few ways to get rid of books and make a little money. 

First, become a seller on Amazon.  It is very easy.  You just go to the Amazon site (www.amazon.com for those of you who have been living in a cave for the past decade) and click on set up a seller account.  Amazon lists your books, takes the money, charges a standard fee for your shipping ($3.99) and notifies you if one of your books sells.  They even create an invoice and address label for you to print and send.  I made anywhere from $12.00 to $2.00 on books and I usually made .50 to .25 on shipping.  Not a lot of money, but it pays you to decrease your stuff-load. 

The other way to sell books is to take them to second hand bookstores or even mixed new/used bookstores. Some places ask that you make an appointment or come on particular days.  Other bookstores allow people to come in at any time.  For one local store in town, I know I can drop off a box of books and the owner will credit my account -- but that is because I live in a small town and can just trust the owner.  I also go to Hastings bookstore sometimes to sell books.  Yesterday I took 6 books to Hastings and got a $6.50 credit.  Not so great of a return, but these particular books had been listed on my Amazon account and weren't selling anyway. 

The final tip I have on book selling is that stores will always give you more money in store credit than in cash.  So, if you are a book junkie like me, it is best to take the credit and know that you will use it later. 

Happy off line ready!

To phone or not to phone

I know that if you are ten years younger than me or more, you have already figured this out.  But, I'll go ahead and display my techno-simpleton thought process for you anyway.  For the past 4 years I have had a cell phone and a land line, as well as wireless internet in the house.  Gradually, I have moved from using the land line to using the cell.  I don't talk on the phone much in general and never exceed my minutes.  I email or facebook instead.  My extended family lives on the East coast and I live in the Pacific time zone making evening phone calls difficult.  And my three girls sometimes make phone calls any other time of day difficult as well!  So, I canceled my land line and long distance services.  It will save me $24 for the land line and $3 base charge for the long distance service (+ whatever minutes I used each month).  So, that doesn't sound like very much but it adds up to $324 per year.  I can think of better things to do with $324 than having a phone sit on the kitchen counter that I don't need.  For example I could spend the money renting a cabin for a weekend, or paying for more ballet for the girls, or paying for holiday gifts, or 4 massages, or 108 lattes, or spending a night in the closest big city -- Seattle.  I need to keep reviewing my bills so I can find more $324 savings to enjoy!
 

Not so glam farm life

My wonderful friend Kate runs a small organic farm, makes incredible soap, raises two children with her husband Brad and is my go-to straight-talking therapist/girl friend. Tonight we worked in her shop to get ready for the Farmer's Market tomorrow morning.  Actually, I think I got in the way a lot and slowed her down but it was fun.  I labeled soap and lip balm (some of it upside-down) while we girl-talked.  Kate can smack some sense into me -- in a nice way.  I was sure I needed to start a business right now selling locally-made products.  Kate was not so sure...and she was right.  At about 10:00 tonight, Kate went outside the shop and we realized how cold it had gotten.  I guess that hard frost is coming tonight.  She realized that the garlic braids she made today and all of the season's onions were hanging in her huge barn.  After we got the garlic braids back into the soap shop building, we went back for the onions.  They were hanging high up in the rafters of the barn.  Kate got her ladder out and handed down bunches of big, beautiful onions.  She pushed them in a cart back to the shop and we put those inside.  While we were doing this, I realized if I had not been there Kate would have been out in her barn at 10:00 on a freezing October night doing this herself,  I can't believe how much work her small farm takes.  (Her husband manages another organic farm for Washington State University.)  We joked a little about how glamorous and rewarding farm life is.  I know Kate wouldn't trade her small farm existence and artisan soap making, but people should also understand how much work she and other small farmers do.  The financial rewards are small.  The work is difficult.  Organic and micro-agriculture have become so popular, I am not sure people really realize what life is like for the farmers. 
Tomorrow's market will be cold and I don't know that Kate will make much money there.  I wish I could pay her for all the valuable lessons she shares with me -- like what it is like to freeze and climb ladders multiple times for properly cured onions.  I hope she charges extra tomorrow for those and that everyone in Moscow buys some.  She deserves it.

Harvest

We had our first light frost this week and while I know that weather and climate are not the same (see this funny Second City video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5nNbPWYHOA ), our first frosts in the last two years have been later than in the previous eight that I've lived in Idaho.  Tomatoes in October!

The first frost represents the final push for harvesting, consuming and preserving food for the winter and early spring.  This fall the girls and I picked 77 pounds of apples at a U-pick orchard.  Yum!  We have eaten lots of slow cooker applesauce (10 cups peeled sliced apples, 2 T. cinnamon, 1/4 cup honey: cook on low for 4-6 hours. Stir and eat warm!) and I have dried about 3 pounds of apples (I mean three pounds dried -- probably 30 pounds of apples).  I also dried zucchini for soup, onions for soups and sauces and made jams and jellies.  I like dehydrating as a food storage method.  The food takes little space and no maintenance.  I don't have to run an extra freezer all winter or stand over a steaming canner in the summer.  In the summer I dry outside on screens in the sun, at this time of year I use a dehydrator or my convection oven set at 140 degrees F.  It warms up the kitchen a bit on cool days and it is very little work once things are diced up.

This weekend I need to make some tomatillo salsa, eat it fresh and that will probably be the end of our garden produce except a couple of pumpkins.  

It will be a little sad to lose the garden to a harder frost that must be coming soon but also nice to get my kitchen back from canning jars and the hum of the dehydrator.  I guess it is no wonder I posted last about buying a little convenience food.  I have been peeling, cooking and drying constantly for the past few weeks! 

I know I'll enjoy all this preserved produced during our usually long cold winter here.  It will be nice to have a reminder of the garden and orchard harvests, eat well and cheaply and gear up for next spring.

Explanation of Sustainability and the Convenience Nemesis

I show this video to my students at the University of Idaho.  It is a very straightforward explanation of our unsustainable consumer culture.  Thought I would share it with everyone:
www.storyofstuff.org

As I find myself falling off the smart consumerism wagon once in a while, this video serves as a good reminder of why we buy (and buy and buy).  I think my biggest nemesis is convenience.  This week and last, I bought the girls snack packs of food for our snack drawer and lunches just out of fatigue.  I know it makes no economic sense to buy little bags of goldfish crackers or little cups of applesauce. And, I know that it is way too much packaging. I do it any way to avoid the 10 extra minutes it would take me to put things in small bags or to dish out a bowl of applesauce.  The work, spend, worry about money cycle has taken hold of me lately.  It's time to sit back a little and re-evaluate.

Wool craft table

Just a quick update to tell everyone that I will be selling my wool felted creations -- hats, pins, toys etc -- at the Moscow Food Coop on Sunday, October 10th from 2:00 to 7:00 pm.  Stop by and see me!
Julia
You can see some hat samples at www.woolia.etsy.com! Or check out Indigo in her fab wool hat at the bottom of the blog.

Frugal Healthful Food

It is almost the end of September and I still have money left in my food envelope so I have nearly made it through the month on $600.  It wasn't too hard really.  Eating out declined sharply for us.  I had much less coffee out.  I packed cheap lunches -- a la pbj for everyone.  I still bought organic milk (with the Organic Valley coupon).  I did make more conscious choices to have less expensive dinners.  The kids seem to prefer a light dinner of bread, cheese, and fruit anyway.  We took advantage of the u-pick apple farm and bought 42 pounds of apples at 35 cents/pound.  They were deeelicious and provided many side dishes -- apple sauce in the crockpot, fried apples with breakfast, apple pie, dried apples, and apple fruit leather and of course just apples.

Here are some general tips on eating green and healthy on a budget:
1) Don't buy organic junk food.  If you are going to eat chips, just eat chips and don't waste your money.
2) Eating out is the most expensive.  If you can substitute ready made healthy food for eating out you save.  If you can substitute a mix for ready made, you save.  If you can substitute home made for a mix you save.  You have to decide where you are on the financial food chain for that particular meal. 
3) Buy organic staples in bulk: rice, beans, flour, pasta, coffee (this is a staple, isn't it?). 
4) Some more processed foods are no longer more expensive than totally unprocessed.  For example, shredded cheese is nearly the same as block cheese for many brands now.  Shredded cheese saves me a little time, effort and a dish or two. 
5) Eat simply -- 3 or 4 ingredients in a meal can suffice. 
6) Consider cooking less -- have hummus, veggies and pita wedges for dinner.  Frittata and fruit.  Goat cheese, slices tomatoes and crostini.  These meals are complete, simple to make and simple to clean up.  I pile everything on one big plate in the center of the table and everyone takes as much as they want.

There are many great recipes out there to try but if you'd like to make your own staples, I would suggest starting with bread and yogurt.  Here's a great yogurt website:  http://biology.clc.uc.edu/fankhauser/cheese/yogurt_making/YOGURT2000.htm .  A loaf of whole grain organic bread usually costs me about 50 cents to make.  Organic home made yogurt costs about $1.25 per quart. 

My etsy site -- wooly, green, and frugal!

I love creating these wool hats.  I've also been making wool toys, hair accessories and pins.  I hope to get them all up on-line soon. 
Check out my etsy site: 
http://www.etsy.com/shop/woolia

The Danger of Dogma

Sometimes I think it would be easier to be dogmatic -- I've tried this.  I will not shop at Walmart, ever.  I will not buy a single new thing for a year.  I will only eat things that come without packaging.  But, I actually have a life.  And while I am inspired by people like Colin Beavin (No Impact Man http://noimpactman.typepad.com/) or Christopher and Kerri at the Dollar a Day Diet Project  (http://onedollardietproject.wordpress.com/about/), I think their projects are limited in their application for others.  (Colin Beavin has a wife with a high paying job. Christopher and Kerri are vegans and without children.) So, this is all my excuse for not following to the letter, my desire to buy nothing new.  I've done really well and bought very little new.  However, I'm also in the middle of transforming my home to a micro-farm, working at the university, raising three kids and transitioning out of a failed marriage.  So, last week when the opportunity arose to buy a pre-cut chicken coop that we could assemble ourselves in about an hour.  I bought it.  It's lovely, done and in the backyard.  My daughters and I put it together with very little stress.  It came from Portland, Oregon which is at least in the region.  And, it accomplished a major goal at my household with a minimum of stress! This weekend I also bought a metal waterer and feeder that I can attach mason jars to -- and 4 chicks at the Fair. 

Maybe it is a cop-out  on my part, but I think it is really a friendly, karmic reminder not to be so dogmatic.  Last year, Richard, a friend and activist in the Transition Communities initiative, told me that people who want to be totally self-sufficient are just control freaks.  He was right (and had been told that himself when he got on the self-sufficiency dogma bandwagon.) 

In our efforts to obtain a better way of sustainable or green or green frugal living, we can't lose sight of the goal of making our lives and the planet better.  Also, we can't forget that we do need each other and that community is a good thing.  So, it's ok to buy something we need that's made well or that we cannot do ourselves or even that we might hate doing. Bread baking, carpentry, canning, sewing, wood chopping, car repair can't or at least don't have to be everybody's thing.  We can work together to make our communities strong and economies stable without being so dogmatic. 

So that's my take on Green, Frugal, Sane Family Living for this week. 

coupons

I look through the coupons in the paper when they come out but rarely find anything that we actually would purchase normally.  I have started to discover internet coupons from manufacturers.  Since organic milk is one of the most expensive things that I buy, I looked up Organic Valley coupons.  It was pretty simple and I'll save $1 on a gallon of milk.
Visit: http://www.organicvalley.coop/coupons/

Make your own playdough

Yesterday, the little girls (Indigo and Antonia) wanted new playdough so we made a batch.  It's so easy and it does not smell toxic like store bought playdough.

Playdough Recipe
3 cups white flour
1/2 cup salt
1 and 1/2 cups water
food coloring
essential oil drops

Mix with mixer/bread dough hook.

I put a few drops of food coloring in and let the girls knead it in.  Unfortunately, Antonia secreted away the food coloring and spilled pink dye all over the wood floor in a spot that the sealant is thin.  This stain may be there a while!

Ouch! I blew my budget!

Well, I did so well this week that I decided it would be ok to go see a friend (our former nanny) in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho and take her out to dinner.  We drove up in the afternoon and went to the restaurant her boyfriend, Sam, works at as a cook.  It was a nice afternoon and a great dinner.  I ordered the special dish that Sam has created -- a Huckleberry marinaded skirt steak.  The girls ordered mac and cheese and pasta -- very exciting.  Finally the bill came and it was $75, another $15 for the tip and I am over budget for the week.  At $600/month or about $150/week, that dinner is going to cause some serious rice and bean dinners for a while.  It was fun and I am glad we went, but I need to live like a frugal person and that was not it!   

I did have about $60 left in the budget for the week so it leaves me with about $120 for next week. We can live on that.  All in all, I can't do that very often but I'd say it was worth it to take the girls up to see Kristin and treat her to dinner.

So far, so good

OK, so I'm only 1 and 1/2 days into my pledge to spend less on food and to buy nothing new.  But, so far, so good.  Yesterday I bought eggs and milk at the local food co-op.  It was all I needed and I want to stick with organic on the dairy and animal products so I spend about $10 on the two items.  After the first day of school, Simone and I shared a snack at the co-op too.  We split a Zevia soda and a french bread stick ($1.35).  Today I needed cereal (my late night snack addiction), broccoli and bagels.  We went to the discount grocery called Winco.  We also bought carrots for the horses we visit at the University farm.  (Does that count as a food purchase if we feed it to the horses?)  I bought the big bag of bran flakes for the same price I would have paid for the small box (2 lbs vs. 13 oz) so that was a good deal.  Bagels are .38/each at this grocery and they make them there.  At Einstein's on campus they are about $1.10.  Anyway, we're well within our budget so far.   Got out of Winco for less than $10.  I also found myself looking at all the things I might have spent money on without my pledge.  Little things that seem so harmless and then add up later.

The little girls and I went to Goodwill and bought a new alarm clock for me.  I broke the old one somehow.  $1.99.  Now if I could just get the girls not to expect to always get a toy or book at Goodwill I'l do even better.  But, each girl got a small toy for .49 -- a Barbie and a small doll house.  I've begun to consider Goodwill a kind of lending program.  I buy cheap and take toys and books back regularly.  It's not a bad way to do things, I guess.

It's sunny today and I don't work on Tuesdays so it's time to get the laundry going and out on the clothesline. 

Bran flakes, laundry, Goodwill...it's an exciting life I lead!

Changing my spending habits

As of tomorrow, September 1st, I am planning to decrease my consumerism in two ways. 
(1) I'll limit my monthy family food budget to $600.

(2) I will only buy second-hand products for all but a few things (or make my own) -- girls' shoes, underwear, socks, and ballet tights are the only things I'll exempt.

My food budget has hovered around $900/month for the past few years -- this includes coffee and eating out.  $600/ month may seem like a lot but it comes down to $5/day per family member.  So, one latte and I've only got $2 left to feed myself for the day. 

As for second hand goods, I have access to Goodwill, Salvation Army and two consignment shops in the area.  I am amazed what people give away.  Last week, I got a coffee pot for $5 at Goodwill.  I got a rice steamer there earlier in the summer for a few dollars after mine died an untimely death.  It was a new one, but one handle was broken. Much of my clothing already comes from these stores, but I do occasionally splurge on new clothes or shoes.  It helps to wear a smaller size at Goodwill.  My theory is that people buy new clothes when they lose weight then give them away when they gain weight.   My 10-year-old likes shopping Goodwill because she has artistic taste in clothes and she doesn't need to look like an Old Navy/Gap cookie cutter kid.  (Although, she wouldn't say no to Old Navy either.)

I plan to continue my experiment through 2010.  I am most concerned about the food budget but I've learned that making things at home is much cheaper than anything processed.  For example, a loaf of the plainest organic whole wheat bread at our co-op is $3.99 but I can make the same loaf for 50 cents.  I'm sure we won't starve.  I can make yogurt from milk and cheese from yogurt relatively cheaply.  Organic milk has gotten so expensive though that I'm not sure I can afford that.

Tomorrow we'll begin. 

Heading toward the challenge

September will begin a more frugal period for my family.  Our family structure has changed and my income will drop rather drastically.  Today, I think, was my last latte.  I have been paring down a bit to get ready for the changes that are coming, but it will still be a challenge.  I am going to try to decrease our food spending from about $900 for 5 people to $600/month for the three kids and myself. 

I'll also try to add to my earnings through small things.  I already teach 3 courses but I need to bring in more money.  I am happy to use my creativity to do that.  I have begun selling off my old books on Amazon -- sold two today and made about $14.  I have been a book hoarder so it is good to diminish my stash a bit.   I am working on my needle felted hats.  They are a nice quiet activity that I can do in the evening and I love creating them.  I've signed up at the winter indoor market to sell my gourmet dry mixes under my business name "Fast Foodie." 

I hope this gets us through the winter and spring.  I need to plant a bigger garden next spring and take better care of it.  We had a terrible growing season in Idaho this year.  It was a short, cold summer.  With a chance of frost anytime after Labor Day, we could harvest very little from the garden.

Tonight, we did have potatoes, onions and parsley from the garden.  Yesterday we had zucchini fritters for dinner (shredded zucchini, eggs, cheese, onion) and zucchini chocolate chip cookies (trust me they are good!).  But, the tomatoes remain green, the onions are the size of golf balls, the corn is only 3 feet high, the pumpkins didn't fruit and there are only a few lonely peppers on the pepper plants.  How sad, my worst gardening year ever. All the gardeners and farmers I know talk about what a bad year it has been and it reminds me how little we rely on local food systems.  If local foods were a necessity, we would all be in for a long, hungry winter here.  The large farms in this area grow wheat, dry peas and lentils so I suppose we wouldn't starve.  But, we would all be fighting over the end of season onions, kale, carrots and tomatoes. 

At any rate, if your garden was more abundant this year and you need some zucchini recipes here are the two I mentioned above:

Zucchini Fritters
2 cups shredded zucchini
3 eggs beaten
1/2 cup cheddar cheese
1/4 tsp salt
cracked pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients together.  Fry in olive oil like pancakes on a griddle.  Serve with brown rice and/or tomato sauce.

Zucchini Chocolate Chip Cookies
2 sticks butter
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
Blend above ingredients.
Add:
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (aka white wheat flour)
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
Mix with wet ingredients.

Add:
1 cup zucchini
1 cup chocolate chips.

Bake at 350 from 35 minutes in a greased 9X11 pan  for bar cookies or place spoonfuls on cookie sheets and bake 10 minutes.

Free food

The girls went with some friends today to pick blackberries along some old railroad tracks in the countryside.  The berries are abundant this year, and it seems as the economy gets worse everyone is happy to get them.  A pint sells for $3, so the girls' small yield is worth about $12.  But, free food is free food -- especially free, pesticide-free, wild-gathered food.  The picking and nearby farm provided free entertainment.  Our friends took the girls and provided a little downtime for me and my sprained ankle. 

I also dried tomatoes and made some sauce for the freezer with some cull tomatoes from my friend Kate's farm.  Cull tomatoes (or other food) is too mis-shapen, too small or too blemished to sell.  With a knife and a pot or a knife and a dehydrator, cull tomatoes are just fine though. 

Thursday I made crab apple jelly from our friend Kelly and Russel's house and farm.  Of course jelly is mostly sugar and that wasn't free but it was still fun to use the crab apples.  I dried some in the dehydrator too and I think they will make a nice substitute from cranberries.  They have a sweet, tart flavor. 

Next week I need to check and see if the plums growing wild in a neighborhood alley are ripe yet.  If I can hobble around well enough by then.

About Julia and the Green Frugal Family

I am the mother of four children -- 3 still at home.  Our three youngest are 10 and 4 years old.  (There are two of the latter.)  We have a mix of biological and adopted children.  I have an education both in natural resources and in health care.  I work as a lecturer at a state university.

My environmental values are strong and I try to live a simple, sustainable life with my family.  After a year in Central America for my spouse's work, we came back to the US financial crisis, growing concern about global climate change and more and more financially struggling families.

 My first reaction was to abandon some of our more expensive green practices like buying organic food.  But, I just didn't feel good about eating or feeding my family some of the conventionally grown over-processed foods on the grocery store shelves.  My second reaction was to spend a lot of time worrying about our bank account.  That didn't do much good either.  So, here is my third step -- to marshal all my financial and family resources and figure out what is the best mix of ecological, social and economic sustainability for a green frugal family and to pass that information on to you along the way.

Green Frugal Blogger

I think I was 'green' before it was the new black and frugal before it was trendy, but I have never been a blogger before.  So, on that count, I am behind the times.  In this blog, I'll share information about my family's attempts to live both sustainably and frugally.  We always have our ups and downs.  Gardens that won't grow in the cold weather, cycling trips that work well and walking plans altered due to a sprained ankle.  Perhaps the sprained ankle is the reason I am getting around to posting this blog.  It is late August but it is kind of hard to can peaches on crutches. 

I hope you enjoy the information and please send me feedback!
Julia