Archive for May, 2007

May 30th, 2007 - Make your own canvas bag

As Michael noted in a comment, you can make your own canvas bags, as his friend Mike did: canvas bag directions. (I strongly encourage you to read the entire post. You can skip the sewing directions if you aren’t interested. The cool part is what they did with all the bags they made. Go Mike! Okay, I think need to Bloglines* his blog finally. Don’t know why I haven’t before.)

(By the way, other readers, I’m hoping for the funniest wedding party at my brother’s wedding. Check out the names: bride: Ann Marie. Groom: Michael. Bridesmaid: AnnMarie. (these three are already set) Best man and groomsmen: could both Michael as well (not sure on these, but my brother does have a best friend named Michael [the above Mike] and Ann Marie’s brother’s name is also Michael). All we need is a matron/maid of honor named AnnMarie. Unfortunately, Ann Marie’s sister’s name is something other than Ann Marie and she’s already been made MOH. LOL. Yes, family get togethers will be confusing! It’s already had to figure out which AnnMarie/Ann Marie we’re talking about. I sometimes have a hard time talking to my daughter about Ann Marie because it’s just plain weird to use my first name with her even though I’m talking about someone else. LOL)

* If you read a lot of blogs and don’t use Bloglines or another RSS reader, you are really missing out. You subscribe via Bloglines to the blogs you like to read, and it keeps track of new (and updated) posts for you. I just go to my Bloglines account each day, and I see a list of everything that’s been posted since I last looked. Even better: You can mark posts to be saved. So all those yummy recipes from FrugalVeggieMama I want to make someday? Saved in Bloglines! All those great posts from MoneyDummer? Saved in Bloglines. You can organize them into folders; I made one for favorites so that I see them at the top of the list!

Posted in General | 2 Comments »

May 30th, 2007 - HEL money, update 5

May’s totals:

Chase rewards: $25
AutoVantage: $15
Testing: $52
DealBarbiePays: $200
Rebates: $1

Total: $293
Running total: $1038

Concurrently with bringing a bit extra in, we are also focusing on keeping our household and grocery spending in check.

Groceries: $3
Household: $0 (last month wasn’t as great as I thought, either. Found a $43 charge on a little used credit card that I’d not noticed so it went on this month. We also spent over $110 on bark mulch for the yard. And $60 to temporarily fix the lawnmower. On the good side, the full fix costs $125. Eric was willing to just get it fixed good enough, meaning no more electric start. We’ve had to have it serviced most springs, and we’re tired of that. We might buy a new one at the end of the season sales.)

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May 29th, 2007 - Planet-hunters find bonanza of new solar systems - CNN.com

Planet-hunters find bonanza of new solar systems - CNN.com This has absolutely nothing to do with the topic of this blog. But sometimes, I just have to share exciting news with others. I love science fiction stories and if the dreams of childhood actually came true in my lifetime that we discover/make contact with another species out there…….

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May 29th, 2007 - Confession time

Ooops, I forgot about something else I bought. A week ago, I went with Ruth to a Pampered Chef party, hosted by a lady I also knew. I told myself before going that I was not going to buy anything. I did. Four things. Two we need, silicone spatulas and I kept myself to one skinny and one regular. We have some, but they broke quickly and while we still use them, it’s not real pleasant to do so–I always wonder if another piece will break off into the food. Or with the skinny one, it’s not very easy to actually scrape inside the bottle. The other two weren’t needed. One’s a handy tool for holding onto things like onions and tomatoes while slicing them. I’ve done just fine with my hands, but this will be safer and easier. The other is a set of 6 1-cup prep bowls. They are glass at least. But have plastic lids. I’ve been wanting something like this for a while but making do with other things already around the house. Which I probably could have continued with. On the other hand, perhaps I will get rid of some of the plastic bowls I’ve used which would be a good thing.

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May 29th, 2007 - Cloth bags

I’ve long been a fan of cloth bags. One of my problems, however, was remembering to bring them along. I didn’t want to store them in the car, as I use them to take things from the house to work or in the car. A couple weeks ago, when I saw a cheap bag at a garage sale, I had an inspiration: If I had a few more bags, I could store some permanently in the car! That day, I found two for 35 cents total and I’ll keep my eye out for more. They have been in the car since, and have already saved us two bags at the store. I think I should sawp for one of the larger ones I’ve had for a while, however, as neither one will hold very much.

I’m going to keep my eye out for more cheap ones. I can’t believe I didn’t think of this sooner!

Oh, and Eric said that while he doesn’t like these bags in general (the type you carry on one shoulder), he’d willingly use his backpack. Unfortunately, on that trip, we came up with too long of a list to use it. But it’s another great idea.

Did I mention that our second-hand grocery store, The Bargain Bin, is moving? It will be about SIX BLOCKS AWAY! Woohoo! We’ll probably actually make the weekly trip I’d always wanted, and we’ll walk or bike. We almost went yesterday, until I told Eric (it was his idea) that while we could walk over there, we’d have to walk right back as they aren’t opening till Friday. So we have a date for Friday after work. (I never know how to describe this place succinctly. It sells stuff grocery stores would otherwise toss: dented, labels ripped off, boxes torn open, out of date, spilled on, etc. Some is great, some isn’t. We get cheap pasta, great deals on powdered milk (rarely in), good price on Campbell’s soup (Eric’s preferred brand) and tuna, etc.

Posted in General, Food | 4 Comments »

May 26th, 2007 - Recent purchases

Speaking of 90% reduction….it’s a little weird to write of things we’ve bought recently, but actually most of them fit right in:

Cotton shower curtain: While not organic, it is unbleached (went with the natural color, although a hydrogen-peroxide bleached white is available) and grown without chemicals. Pretty close to organic. And the store I bought it from is in Madison! I’d hoped to skip the shipping and buy in person, but I wasn’t able to go to Madison for the last meeting I had there. It was lovely to get rid of the old, mildewed, too long vinyl shower curtain liner. I wasn’t as excited to lose the old, ripped vinyl curtain, however, as we’ve loved the design since we bought it for this house: A “photo” of dolphins, fish, coral, etc. But it had ripped out half the holes, and the repairs with clear duct tape only lasted so long, too. I personally paid for half, figuring a nice vinyl curtain and liner would have run about $25. It does come VERY large and the first wash shrinks it quite a bit. I couldn’t believe it actually would, but it fits perfectly! As they say, it doesn’t billow, it’s soft and dries easily. It’s so much easier to wash, too, as I can put it in with the rest of my lights once a month, and it doesn’t drip up the stairs to re-hang like the vinyl would!
cloth pantyliner: I’ve thought about this off and on, and a discussion on Emme’s Urban Sustainable list made me finally commit to trying it out. I ordered a sample from a place that had a good review (I’ll post later my own review and links). They are expensive, and maybe I could make my own, but imagine the savings I could have! Actually, my savings won’t be all that great until I replace tampons, which I will try as well (sea sponges), as I use the cheapest, largest box of pantyliners.
two-wheeled wheelbarrow: The cheap one-wheel we had just wasn’t doing it. For one, it tipped so easily that I couldn’t put much into it. For two, the crossbar, which had no bolts or screws, fell out at least once per use. So we spent nearly $90 on a new one. Couldn’t get it in metal, so the barrow part is plastic, but I guess at the larger size it makes sense weight-wise. We love it already–it’s so much easier to haul the wood chips. Which means we get more yard work done more easily.
snowblower: not necessary, in my opinion, and not much to do with the 90%. But it is something we’ve talked about since we bought the house. I do enjoy snow shoveling, but not as much as I used it. Going out before the hike to work just isn’t the thrill it was the first few years when I had a lot less to do! (Not to mention the physical issues I now have like sciatica that simply make it more difficult to do.) We did buy it on an end-of-season sale, and we got one that fits our needs rather than getting the next higher model, which had some nice but unnecessary features. Eric looks forward to doing our neighbors’ sidewalks a few times, as they have taken care of ours in past winters. Oh, and we bought an Ariens, which is made up in Kaukauna.
stuff at garage sales today: Nothing too exciting. I went to about 10 sales, and most were a bust. Oh, 90%-wise, I decided to be careful about driving all over town and restricted myself to the north side plus one really good one on the south side. I ended up with a second one there that was good, and it wasn’t out of the way at all. While I like sale-ing, I’m concerned about the miles I end up driving around each Saturday. If I go out to just one section of town and only spend 2 hours, I will be just as happy–sometimes happier–and use less gas. I made on completely unnecessary purchase. For $2, I got a brand-new-looking mini muffin tin. Like I make muffins all the time! Or desserts! Totally an impulse buy. Now I have to make something in it to justify it…. My other purchases were clothing for Maggie and a kitchen timer. I put it in the living room for time outs. It’s an old fashioned analog one, woohoo!

Posted in General, garage sales and thrift stores, 90 percent | 2 Comments »

May 24th, 2007 - Water features

My dear, dear brother, when one doesn’t know what one wants to put into one’s garden but only knows that one would like something with water, the phrase “water feature” is completely appropriate. I do not, in fact, want a fountain. I wouldn’t mind a small waterfall but do not know if we have the room. It might just be a tiny pond with a circulating pump. Hence, a water feature–the exact features of which to be declared in the future, if declared at all.

And yes, I do still want you to visit!

(See Michael’s comment)

Posted in General | 1 Comment »

May 23rd, 2007 - FLower garden in!

Our new flower garden is in! We spent the evening after dinner (about 2 hours) bringing in mulch, putting up a little fence (to keep the dogs out), sprinkling wildflower seed, planting the two plants, and watering it. Oh, also mulched beside the garage. And Maggie spent most of the time playing with her slide, or as she says, “Whee!” As in “Emma whee? Emma whee?” when trying to convince the dog to try it out. The deaf dog no less.

We’re now expanding our ideas and thinking about a water feature (right next to the house, so possible to run electric and water lines to it) and a stone bench. However, we realized this whole would require getting the electricity out the garage fixed first, or else undoing a lot of work when we get that done. Not sure if we can afford that next spring or not. (We were told when we bought the house that the line was out of code and should be replaced before the thing rusts through. We’ve ignored the problem so far….)

We hope to finish mulching this evening. We should have bought only 2 cubic yards as we have at least one yard left and we do NOT need that much! Maybe there will be higher paths in the garden….

Posted in Garden | 2 Comments »

May 22nd, 2007 - Carbon offset for 90% reduction?

This month, my church is participating in an “alternative way to church” to encourage the greening of our lives. Since I cannot bike, walk, or carpool to church (50 mile round trip, with a toddler), I decided to buy carbon offsets for my drive. I actually purchased them for the entire year! I chose to use The Carbon Fund because it’s a non-profit (and is a 503C charity!). Using their calculator, I estimated that if I go every week, it cost about $17 to offset the drive all year (I don’t go every week, but sometimes I end up going twice for other events). I was quite surprised that it was so low–I originally was just going to offset for the month, but figured I may as well do the whole year at this cost.

Unfortunately, the project is state-wide, and there are no provisions for being counted as participating if you offset instead. But maybe my idea will be passed on to the organizers next year!

I’m not sure how to account for this offset in my 90% reduction calculation. I looked back at yesterday’s data, and I’m not sure how I figured it. Today, I’m coming up with 100 gallons per person per year. I think I used numbers from Quicken at home and here I’m just using a generic 6000 miles instead (which is more, actually, than we drove in the past 6 months). Anyway, if I actually went to church every weekend, that would be 2600 miles over a year! Maybe I do go less often? Anyway, I offset once a week, so we can count that anyway. So, if I offset our usage to 3400 miles, at 3 people, that’s about 57 gallons per person per year or 11.4% of the average.

Unfortunately, it’s no longer winter and we tend to run more errands in the spring/summer (things like garden supplies!) and I don’t mind driving after dinner anymore (since it’s still light out), plus I go garage saling almost every Saturday. I will try to cut down on that, since I don’t really need a ton of stuff anyway….

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May 22nd, 2007 - The garden is green!

I was originally thinking about posting this Saturday, but I didn’t spend much time online and forgot about it. At that point, the relevance of the subject is that we mulched the entire garden! It’s green with grass clippings! Friday, our mower was finally finished and Eric mowed the front and collected the clippings for me. That covered most of the beds except the areas that hadn’t yet been planted (pole beans, peppers, and tomatoes, or two total beds). Then he decided to go ahead and do the whole back, since it was supposed to rain Saturday. He didn’t collect that, but I ended up raking most of it Saturday morning. That was enough to cover the remaining beds, a little bit out front around the rhubarb and pansies (which aren’t growing yet), and fill in areas mulched before just with weeds.

Now, the title also refers to the number of things growing! Just a few things were popping up when I mulched, but Saturday evening’s rain helped immensely. I have coming up: all the beans (except those just planted), zuchini, corn (not much, but a couple), walking stick cabbage, rutabagas, sunflowers (again, not many), nasturtiums, peas, greens, potato, cucumbers, and zinnias. Not yet growing are all the herbs, gourds, other flowers, Yugoslavian finger fruit, and ground cherries.

On Saturday, Maggie and I went to the Paine plant sale with Ruth and her Little Sister. Maggie bought my Mother’s Day gift, a Lead Plant!!!! When I saw that common name, I HAD to have that as my gift from her this year, since the last of the lead abatement work finished Friday. LOL I got a nepeta, or cat mint, for Shmi’s memorial plant. And I bought one lavendar, as I am not holding out hope of the seeds germinating anymore. The next day, Ruth gave me a cutting of the chocolate mint plant she bought, as well as some regular mint from her garden. I planted all but the lead plant, which will go in the new wildflower garden.

Speaking of which, the rocks are all picked!!!! I finished yesterday. I took the day off as Eric had a mid day doctor’s appointment. I’m so glad I had a beautiful day to work outside. It would have been mulched and planted, except we chose to put in the bean teepee, instead. So now the entire veggie garden is planted. We’ll mulch the new bed tonight instead. Bought wildflower seeds yesterday for it (on sale!) and I’ll have the lead plant and a daisy to put in as well.

One cool thing about all the garden work is the great exercise. For instance, in picking rocks, I did weight lifting when carrying the bucket around front to dump the rocks under the porch. It was especially nice because on Thursday I finally saw my doctor about my knee and leg pain. She said that it probably was injured back at the beginning of the semester when I was raring to go with the new personal traininer and overdid it. Then, since I kept excercising, albeit at a reduced level, I didn’t give the muscles time to heal. So she said I could do any exercising over in Albee (except Pilates, and skip anything on my knees) until a physical therapist gave the okay. I was so disappointed as I’ve been so proud of keeping up the schedule. :( I have a PT appointment tomorrow. I’m hoping they will give me some exercises I can do there in the weight and conditioning center so that I keep up the habit. Plus, it means less driving if I don’t have to go to them 1-2x per week (it’s 5 miles away, I think, and I can’t bike it and the bus is a long trip).

I’m almost disappointed that the garden work is almost done. I’ll have to start going to walks and bike rides after work/in the evening for excercise again. Which will actually be nice because I can go for walks with Maggie again. I’ve been too busy with the yard work to want to bother with walks.

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May 22nd, 2007 - Garbage update

Garbage
* the average American generates about 4.5 lbs of garbage PER PERSON, PER DAY.
* A 90% reduction would mean .45 lbs of garbage PER PERSON, PER DAY.
* Us: 0.8-1# per person per day, or about 22% of average

I updated yesterday’s averages after weighing 2 weeks’ garbage this morning. We had about 48# in the container, which included bags from pet food (only in about once every 6 weeks), some materials from construction (not a lot, but some), and the container itself. I weighed the morning’s litterbox findings, for an average of 1/2# per day. I estimate the same for dog poop, but I’m not when Eric last scooped, so not sure if any was in there or not. (Why would the 10x bigger dogs have the same weight in poop as the cats? A number of reasons: a) Cats’ includes litter weight. b) Cats’ includes pee. c) we don’t always get all the dog poop. and d) I’m not sure I actually want to weigh a dog poop. Maybe I will…..)

I should weigh a couple more times to get an average. But I’m pretty delighted to see it at 22%. I knew it was less since we put out so little garbage, are consciencious about recycling, compost food waste, and don’t buy a lot of processed foods or junk products.

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May 20th, 2007 - 90% reduction?

Emme at Simple Living is trying to reduce her emissions by 90% in the coming year. When I first read the rules, I didn’t believe I could get anywhere near that kind of reduction. I even commented to that effect. But today, after reading her stats (first link above), I decided I should at least figure out my current stats. The info below is taken from her post, but with my family’s averages and comments. I encourage you to try the same exercise. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I’m already far below average in a few places. And that encourages me to actually try to join in and reduce further. Maybe I’ll shoot for an overall 50% reduction or even 75%, even though I can’t reach 90 across the board. As Emme says, Remember this is 90% below the average American - not 90% below where we are now!

(Garbage amount updated Tuesday. Also updated %ages because I realized sometimes I said % below average and sometimes % of average! I’m shooting for 10% of average, so I made sure that’s listed.)

Gasoline.

* Average American: usage is 500 gallons PER PERSON, PER YEAR.
* 90% reduction: would be 50 gallons PER PERSON, PER YEAR.
* Us: 84 gallons per person per year, 16.8% of average (only counting this year, which has no long trips yet)

That’s far better than expected. I originally looked at it personally, and do not know how I’d cut my usage since I go to church 3-4 times a month, which is a 50-mile round trip. But I forgot that usually two of us go!

Electricity.

* Average US usage: is 11,000 kwh PER HOUSEHOLD, PER YEAR, or about 900 kwh PER HOUSEHOLD PER MONTH.
* 90% reduction: would mean using 1,100 PER HOUSEHOLD, PER YEAR or 90 kwh PER HOUSEHOLD PER MONTH
* Us: average 722 kwh per month. So, we are about 20% below average. Or 80% of average.

Natural Gas + Wood Energy

* US Average Natural Gas usage is 1000 therms PER HOUSEHOLD, PER YEAR.
* A 90% reduction would mean a reduction to 100 therms PER HOUSEHOLD PER YEAR
* Us: ave 33 therms/month which is 60% below average. Wow. I didn’t do the math right in my head and though we were nearly average. (Hey! Math majors don’t use numbers after calculus!) That’s 40% of average.

It is unrealistic for us to go 90% below average here as we live in the north. We refuse to freeze during the winter…. 100 therms/year wouldn’t keep us in heat more than 2 months and we need heat for 6 months of the year. We already keep the heat to 68 during the day (7am-7pm since we have kid and Dad at home all day) and 55-61 during the evening/night/early morning (I get up at 5am). For health reasons, I don’t think we can put the heat any lower. We had hoped that our new windows would keep the house warmer, but that didn’t show up this winter. :( Maybe it will keep it cooler this summer (electric AC).

I doubt we can go that low due to the dogs and cats (two of each, poop is heavy. We keep it low by feeding very high quality food where we can, but there’s only so much you can do here). I have not ever weighed our garbage but should one of these days. I know we are far less than average, but not how much. We generally put out 1.5 32-gallon containers (not packed heavy) every 2 weeks. (After first writing, I updated with averages after weighing 2 weeks’ garbage.)

Water.

* The Average American uses 100 Gallons of water PER PERSON, PER DAY.
* A 90% reduction would mean 10 gallons PER PERSON, PER DAY.
* Us: 39-49 gallons per person per day. 392 cubic feet/month, which is 2932 gallons per month (7.48 g/cubic feet[updated–wrong number originally listed]) which is approx. 49 gallons per person per day (not counting Maggie; if I count her as half a person (she doesn’t use the toilet, for instance, but she does use water for cooking, cleaning, clothing, etc.), it’s 39 gallons/day). So we are at about 50% of average.

This would be REALLY hard for us to cut down. This number doesn’t even include the water I use at work (at least 5 gallons between drinking water and the washroom I’m sure). We can’t do the skip-a-flush routine, although I did so as a kid. We do launder only when it’s full if possible. We have a front-loader. We use a dishwasher (said to use less water, especially versus our dish washer’s preferred hand method) and only rinse really messy foods. I use water sparingly when washing up and don’t let it run when not needed. We take showers or baths only when needed. Relatedly, we use hot water rarely.

However, due to thinking about this, I did turn off the water while soaping up yesterday. I think I can only do this during the summertime, however. But I’ll try to do it more often. Every little bit will help.

Consumer Goods.

* The average American spends 10K PER HOUSEHOLD, PER YEAR on consumer goods
* 90% 1k per year (new) Used goods are 10% (used from garage sale is 10%) Used from Goodwill, Church Sale, etc does not count against.
* Us: $6400/year, or 64% of average

This is another toughy. I know we spend less than the average person, but still spend a lot. If I’d done The Compact this would be easier to cut down on. I don’t know how I’d figure this one out. I could do it since I track in Quicken, but it would take a lot of work as I’d have to sort out thrift stores/garage sales, look at a bunch of different categories, etc. But a very basic estimate is $533/month for all of us, not counting the recent home renovations. (This included all budget categories that are typically spent at stores, not counting groceries as that’s food below.) Acck, my first estimate was that we were ABOVE average which I found really hard to believe. Then I realized that I’d included all the pet spending, which is mostly medical and food bills, so I took all of those out. At $1600 for the first 5 months of the year, that puts us over average if counted. Yes, we could cut our spending a lot if we got rid of our pets. But that’s not happening and I do not believe is an appropriate response if you can afford to have pets and truly enjoy them. I just have to remember they are a very expensive hobby!

Food.

* Local should be 70% of diet
* Bulk allotted 25% of diet
* non-local/Processed 5%
* Us: ???

We buy little local food, except in the summertime. Except milk. That’s pretty local ’round here!

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May 16th, 2007 - A question answered!

I’ve long wished to buy some borax and some washing soda, but couldn’t find them at my local Target or grocery stores. I recently found a neat little blog called Home Ec 101 that features questions from readers. Since they suggest the use of these two products, too, I decided to ask for advice! And I was answered: Borax and washing soda and where to find it all, oh my!. Unfortunately, my local KMart turned into a Sears, but I will check that first. Then, probably on to Amazon!

Wait, one of the comments suggest a local hardward store. Next, onto Kitz and Pfeil!

Posted in General | 2 Comments »

May 15th, 2007 - Female pilots reached for the stars - CNN.com

I’m so proud of my university (where I work). This past Saturday, we awarded 13 honorary doctorates during commencement: Female pilots reached for the stars. I got to hear 8 of them on a panel presentation the day before. I wish I had known about them back in junior high when I wanted to be an astronaut. (The dream faded after a couple years. I was under the impression–mistaken I believe now–that you had to be a pilot in the armed services. I decided I was a concientious objector so that was out; now I know that with my inner ear trouble and poor eyesight I would never have qualified to fly anyway. I’m not sure if it was true then, but it is now that you don’t have to be, only to pilot the shuttle I believe. All sorts of researchers go as well. Oh well! Maybe I’ll still get to Mars someday….)

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May 14th, 2007 - Not quite as easy as expected…

The flower garden isn’t there yet. Turns out removing landscaping rocks is harder than we thought! My first session with them really discouraged me. But now that over 1/3rd is done, I don’t feel as discouraged. I’m doing it all by hand (plus a mattock) in 15-30 minutes sessions. That nets me enough rocks in the bucket that I can still carry it–any more and I wouldn’t be able to. It’s about 6″ in the 5-gallon bucket! Next year, we hope to make it into a raised bed with pretty rock walls. I’d love to do that now–and the rocks are on sale–but the cost of the rocks and dirt (around 45 cubic feet, I guess)–is too much after all the other money I’ve spent on the garden and yard this year already!

We forgot about the bean poles, so they didn’t get put in. I also forgot about my herb seeds. So those things still have to be planted. The lawnmower didn’t get fixed so we still have to mow. We have to wait for the garage to be painted (and the rocks picked out) to finish the mulching. And of course, the nice weather of last week is past and we’re to have rain off and on this week.

Oh well.

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May 11th, 2007 - Been busy in the garden!

Some of the things we’ve done in the last ten days include

* planting three apple trees
* planting 95% of the garden seeds, only the bean teepee is left as we have to buy some poles for it
* planting one thing in the herb garden (I can’t figure out exactly what I want to do so have really delayed working on it. ack)
* mulched the garden paths (had 3 cubic yards of bark mulch delivered. Cool! Next year when I can’t remember how much we bought, maybe I’ll remember to look in here. I wonder if I wrote about it last year. Never thought of check. Silly me–that’s a good part of why I write this: So I can look back and see what I’ve done or read in the past. Not much good if I don’t even remember to look!)
* picked up pinecones
* removed a tree from a bush (I think that’s the last one in the yard!)
* weeded under the tree and lilac bush so we could mulch there (and we began that last night, too)
* moved branches out of the way of the garage painters (although where I put them meants they could reach one little corner that should have been painted. I’ll have to do it some other year as I’m not moving them a third time!)
* installed my garden sprinkler
* Freecycled the basketball hoop (okay, not really garden related, but it is currently in the way in the backyard so kind of counts)

Most evenings, I’ve worked a little bit after work then again after dinner. It’s been beautiful weather except last night before dinner when it was hot and humid: over 80!!! In May? But it’s cooled back off today; only supposed to be in the 60s through the weekend. No rain till Monday however.

This weekend, we hope to do more mulching, mow + mulch the beds (IF the mower gets fixed :( ), install the bean teepee, plant herbs, and work on a new flower bed. That’s Eric’s idea. We have a funny area outside the kitchen/pantry/back entry. It currently has white landscaping rocks, a few pieces of slate, and a lot of weeds. We’ve NEVER liked it and have always talked about clearing out the rocks and seeding it. But each year, we never got around to it. I love his idea for flowers instead! For this year, we’ll just put up chicken wire around it and mulch it. That will give us a year to see if the dogs will stay out of it!

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May 8th, 2007 - Buy coconut stock (as Eric says)

This is so cool. Wish coconuts grew here in Wisconsin: BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Coconut oil powers island’s cars. (Thanks to Eric for sending this to me.)

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May 1st, 2007 - HEL money, update 4 April

April’s totals:

Chase rewards: $25
E*Rewards: $25
AutoVantage: $10 (one of the trials I did through DealBarbie. When I called to cancel, they offered me another free month and sent out coupons for rebates on gas and oil changes. I hope to get another $10 rebate before the trial ends! Hope to also get money back on the oil change being done today.)
DealBarbiePays: $153.20

Total: $223
Running total: $745
New policy: If we get in over $50/month, Eric and I split the difference. This is after taxes are taken out, of course.

Concurrently with bringing a bit extra in, we are also focusing on keeping our household and grocery spending in check.

Groceries: $65
Household: $0 (wonderful as we bought diapers, wipes, and laundry detergent in bulk this month)

Another new policy: As another incentive to keep these two under budget, overages will…
1) go to the other budget area (for instance, we were -$3 in household originally)
2) $15 will go towards the snowblower
3) the rest will be split 3 ways: 1/3rd will remain for future overages, 2/3rds will either go to the date fund or to our personal spending money (to be decided each month).

This month, we did 1 & 2, the first part of 3, $7 to the date fund, and the rest is going towards the snowblower.

Confusing? Yes. But at the moment it’s working for us and is much simply in practice than it appears written out.

I’ll write about the snowblower later.

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My Adventures in Simple Living

Archive for May, 2007

May 30th, 2007 - Make your own canvas bag

May 30th, 2007 - HEL money, update 5

May 29th, 2007 - Planet-hunters find bonanza of new solar systems - CNN.com

May 29th, 2007 - Confession time

May 29th, 2007 - Cloth bags

May 26th, 2007 - Recent purchases

May 24th, 2007 - Water features

May 23rd, 2007 - FLower garden in!

May 22nd, 2007 - Carbon offset for 90% reduction?

May 22nd, 2007 - The garden is green!

May 22nd, 2007 - Garbage update

May 20th, 2007 - 90% reduction?

May 16th, 2007 - A question answered!

May 15th, 2007 - Female pilots reached for the stars - CNN.com

May 14th, 2007 - Not quite as easy as expected…

May 11th, 2007 - Been busy in the garden!

May 8th, 2007 - Buy coconut stock (as Eric says)

May 1st, 2007 - HEL money, update 4 April

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