Archive for February, 2007
February 27th, 2007 - HEL money, update 2
February’s totals:
FusionCash: $25
Amazon: $29
Deal Barbie Pays: $37
Rebate: $1
Total: $92
Running total: $288
Concurrently with bringing a bit extra in, we are also focusing on keeping our household and grocery spending in check:
Groceries: $122
Household*: $21 [and this is where all the extras for the month went. We’re not doing well here.]
*Household spending includes tp, paper towels, soap, shampoo, laundry detergent, diapers, wipes, maintenance (like plumbers, furnace checkup, and electricians), gardening supplies, yard supplies, printer supplies, and miscellanaeous–basically anything that doesn’t fit anywhere else or that we can’t account for. Some of it is rare–like printer supplies. Some of it is expensive and frequent, like diapers. (Cannot WAIT for her to be toilet trained.)
February 13th, 2007 - Now that’s a seed collection
Eric shared a great story about a new seed collection in Norway. And I was impressed by the number of selections Seed Savers offers!
February 13th, 2007 - Latest food-fad
So does this count as genetically modified food or is it okay to eat: Latest food-fad — ’space potatoes’ - CNN.com.
Sounds interesting at least. I’d probably try them. Couldn’t be worse than the Grapple we tried (which, while unusual wasn’t nearly as good as it sounded).
February 13th, 2007 - Bits and pieces
It’s much less interesting to write about my frugal/simple life in the winter time. There’s no garden produce, no pretty flowers, no garage sale finds…. Instead, there’s a lot of curling up in front of the TV, tons of books (reading about crazy people climbing Mt. Everest lately), and walking in bitter cold.
That’s something interesting, I suppose. I’m very proud that I have continued to walk to work even in the cold the last few weeks. Even on Saturday for testing, when it would be easy to drive (no parking fees), I still walked! I know it’s been colder than ever because for the first time since I’ve been walking to work (IE, since 1999), tissues in my pocket and food in backpack have frozen by the time I get to my office. Now that’s cold around here! (And I won’t be carrying anymore chocolate until it warms up a bit.) It was supposed to be up to 19 above yesterday. Heat wave! (Although I wish I were in NY. Think of all that snow! woohoo!!!!!)
Over the weekend, Maggie and I did some baking. On Friday, Maggie helped me make granola! She LOVED it. Except when we were done. That was a heartbreak to her. On Sunday, we made an oyster cracker snack. Again, she loved it except when she had to get down from the stool to get the oil out, and then again to check on a recipe, and then when we were done. She helped measure, poured everything into the pans, and then stirred things up. She’s very good at the latter one. She needs help with pouring, however. Her aim leaves something to be desired! And she loves washing her hands, so cleaning up before and after was pretty easy. She also likes using the dishcloth to wipe the table and counters.
And this weekend, for the first time, she helped hang laundry. She put all of my socks up–and it was her idea, not mine! She “helped” with a few larger clothing items, too. Last night, she noticed her pile of clothes that I had forgotten to put away (I usually fold when she’s sleeping), and without prompting, she picked them up and put them away! The problem is that only two clothing shelves are in her reach. Perhaps we need a new method now. Well, she doesn’t really sort very well yet. Maybe just put the socks down low where she can reach them would be good enough.
February 6th, 2007 - Inexpensive birthday gifts for kids
It’s my kid sister’s birthday Saturday. It took some thought and asking others for suggestions to come up with an inexpensive gift idea, but I managed to do it for free! She’s getting a small collection of dress up clothes. I went through the box I’m saving for Maggie and found enough items to give away. I guess they weren’t really free, as some of them had been purchased earlier. But they were bought for Maggie, and I know at least 4 of the items were free or part of a “fill a bag for $1″ sales.
It seemed the perfect idea after our Christmas gift was hit. I found a funky old orange handbag and filled it with cheap costume jewelry from garage sales. She still loves putting all the stuff on. I thought dress up clothes would be a nice addition to it. (Includes a dress, two adult shirts that will be like dresses on her, 2 belts, a narrow scarf with leopards, and a funky green hat (modeled by Maggie).)
And the card: a “drawing” by Maggie. Cost: also free! We’ve discovered the birthday card that everyone will receive for the next who knows how many years. Grandparents, uncles, cousins, aunts. They all will adore it!
Thank goodness the gift was free, because shipping wasn’t: $7.20! Aaack. I had to go to the credit union because I’d only brought $6, figuring that was plenty–it was all the ones I had or else I would have brought even less. Next year, I’ll gather the girls’ birthday gifts sooner and send them along with the Christmas gifts. Had I known earlier, I also could have used parcel post to save a bit. (Rheanna’s birthday is Saturday, which I only learned last Saturday. She’s turning 4, but only became my SIL last November, so I have a good excuse for not knowing her birthday in advance. In fact, I didn’t even think of it until early December, after I’d send the Christmas gifts. Her sister’s birthday is the end of January, so it works out nicely for mailing everything together.) Now I just have to come up with ideas for holidays and birthdays before summer garage sales so I can buy inexpensively again.
February 2nd, 2007 - Doll for Maggie
Earlier this week, I decided it was time to buy Maggie a nice soft doll, preferably organic and handmade, with clothing whe can take on/off. She currently has a cheap, vinyl doll bought for potty training (it wets). I just hate it due to the cheap and vinyl parts. Of course, a few months ago when people were asking for gift ideas, I didn’t think of this. And, until Lavendar (or Violet, as Eric calls her because he keeps forgetting which shade of purple I named her LOL), I didn’t realize Maggie was ready to play with dolls. (She’d been uninterested in other ones before.) But with Lavendar, she pretends to feed her, carries her, takes her clothes off, asks me to put her clothes on, etc.
I found the most gorgeous, delightful handmade dolls. At the bottom, if you choose to look at the instock store, you can see some other sizes, all of which have a lovely set of pictures with them. The only problem is the myriad of options. LOL But that’s also part of the delight.
So, Michael, ask me about the doll in a few months and if she adores it, this is a birthday/holiday gift idea for you and our parents! See, she could always do with a bigger one or once she’s 3, she could get a jointed doll, or the 6″ doll in the Moses basket is awfully cute as are the fairy dolls.
Cost: Yes, the doll is $50. But as someone on my Sustainable Urban Living listserve said, if you only buy your children a few toys a year, $50 is in the budget. Although in this case, it’s in my personal spending money budget. We are not currently buying toys for Maggie since she doesn’t truly NEED them, and certainly not at $50, even if gorgeous, handmade, and with wool from the lady’s own sheep. That’s why it’s nice to have personal spending money. I can buy this carefree.
February 2nd, 2007 - HEL money, update 1b
Now that it’s the end of the month, here’s the final tally
January
Motley Fool credit card reward: $6
Mattel stock dividend: $7.80
BP credit card reward: $25
Amazon Marketplace: $48
Anchor Bank: $40
Testing: $60 [updated]
Memolink reward: $10
Total: $196.80 [updated]
Which is a really good thing, because we blew the household budget. With these additions and not paying the plumber bill next Feb, we had $10 left (the Memolink reward which came right at the end of the month).
Update: I have no idea where I came up with $10. Even before I found out that I’d neglected to put the $60 from testing into the household category in the budget, we had over $40 left. We ended up $103 under budget.