Archive for June, 2007

June 29th, 2007 - HEL money update 6 (June)

June’s totals:

Chase rewards: $25
Testing: $124
DealBarbiePays: $128
Rebates: $2
Amazon: $14

Total: $293
Running total: $1331

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

Groceries: $88
Household: $55

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June 29th, 2007 - East Central Wisconsin apple orchards

Woohoo! I found the WI Apple Grower’s website, and they have a list of the East Central Wisconsin apple orchards. Now to remember this next fall. On the other hand, I did love the ones I got at Schroeders so maybe it doesn’t matter anyway….

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June 28th, 2007 - More on the AC

I should have been more specific. We actually have two AC units. The one we turned on and I’d like to replace is the outside permanently attached AC. We also have a window unit that we put in out bedroom each summer. That one hasn’t been used yet.

Frankly, I’d like to get rid of it, too. I’ve recently learned about portable units. What I hate about installed ones is that you completely lose use of the window until you take it out. Since it’s so big and bulky, we only do that at the end of the season. But a portable one is easily taken out and moved to another room (the main point of it). Read about it in the paper just yesterday. I wonder what they cost (the newspaper column actually lists manufacturers, but the online one doesn’t).

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June 27th, 2007 - We used the AC

Yesterday was the second day of really hot, humid weather. It was even hot in the morning, which is rare. I was not surprised to come home and find the AC on. Had it at 78-80 (programmable thermostats are great, but we use ours a lot to adjust just a little bit up and down depending on comfort) and turned it off when Eric went to bed. It hadn’t cooled off a lot by morning, at least not inside. But it’s definitely cooler today, and I suspect the windows are back open.

We used about 84% more electricity having the AC on for half the day. I’ve known that it was a lower efficiency one and now that I’m tracking things, I’m interested in a new one. Will watch how much it uses and compare prices out of season to see if it’s worth getting a new one. Maybe a new, larger one would also cool the upstairs?

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June 27th, 2007 - One local summer

I’ve had a number of local meals over the past couple weeks that I forgot to write about. Mostly, salads with greens and other veggies (peas, onions, radishes) from the garden and the farmer’s market. This week, I’ve also added bleu cheese which is oh so yummy.

Lunch today is chicken salad (like tuna salad), with the local organic chicken I cooked this weekend. Indeed, there’s no lemon flavor to it, but it is nice and moist. I would definitely buy another one.

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June 25th, 2007 - Biking to local food

Saturday morning, the family biked over to the farmer’s market. It’s the longest bike ride we’ve done together, and one of my longest ever rides. Basically, I ride the mile to the grocery store and that’s been it. This was probably 2 miles away. I know, realllly far. It was a nice ride; going along with Eric made me feel more comfortable on some busier streets and intersections and I’d be willing to do this alone, and even go farther! We bought greens, bleu cheese, more greens since we always run out, fresh strawberries (they are gone already), and egg rolls. We love the fresh made Hmong egg rolls, but they are an expensive meal: $10/12 rolls which is only one meal for us three.

I forgot all week (due to being so very busy and not getting home till 5 or later) about the local organic chicken I bought there the prior week. Luckily, since our fridge is so cold, there was still ice on it when I pulled it out Saturday. I cooked it in the crockpot, seasoned just with salt and pepper and one lemon (squeezed the juice out then put it into the cavity). Cooked it for about 7 hours till it was 180 inside the breast. It was falling off the bones when done! Got 1 cup of stock (concentrated), bones for more stock, 4c of little pieces to turn into chicken salad (or to put on top of green salads), and 4 larger pieces of breast meat for eating larger portions.

If we can afford it in the grocery budget, I’ll see if we can buy a dozen to have one a month. They are a bit heavy for carrying home on the bike trailer; may have to bring my basket or backpack.

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June 18th, 2007 - No AC yet

Sorry for not posting much lately. Usually, summer is pretty quiet and I have plenty of time for everything I do. But this summer, I’m co-teaching two courses and preparing for them took a LOT of time plus actually teaching them takes time as well. It’s on top of my full time job. We have a shortened summer semester so it feels like twice s much work to teach a course than during the school year. One class meets every morning, 4 hours, this week, and the other one meets Tuesday evenings for 3 hours. Plus both of them are hybrid and half the course contact hours are online. So that’s at least another 3 hours online each week. And it’s a research methods course, with an 18-36 page paper due at the end that we have to grade! Not to mention commenting on the various drafts during the next month. Since I haven’t taken a RM course for 10 years and have never taught it before, there’s a lot of prep work on my part.

Frugally speaking, the work on this course will lead to my teaching this course on my own in the future, perhaps once a year. The extra money will be welcome for extra pocket money and projects around the house. This summer’s money will pay for the snowblower and for the trip (and necessities) for Michael and Ann Marie’s wedding (gas alone will cost over $600 we figure, tolls another $100 (not counting any on the way to/from parents to MA), $200 for someone to house/petsit, $500 for suit and dress (already got Maggie’s at a garage sale cheap but she’ll need dress shoes and a sweater still), hotels, food, spending money, etc. It really adds up.). And we’re going to give ourselves $50 each spending money, as this is taking away a lot of my time with Maggie so Eric has to do things like work 8-7 on Tuesdays and I never see her except when she’s sleeping, etc.

Anyway, on to the topic of this post: we haven’t turned on the AC yet. It’s been in the high 80s this week and normally, the AC would have been on weeks ago. But once we got started, pulling in breezes with our new windows, being able to make it one more day w/o it, Eric got excited and wanted to see if we could last until July. It’s like our wintertime trying to make it till November w/o turning on the heat (and we live in WI, remember, so this isn’t easy!). Over the weekend, we bought 4 small box fans to help out on this quest. Couldn’t find what we really wanted: We have one old fan Eric’s had for decades that is as large as the window opening and has a thermostat on it (it modifies the fan speed depending on the temperature). The only thing with thermostats was a short and wide window fan that cost over $30 and can only be used in a window. So we got cheap ($13 each) fans with just a 3-speed control at Fleet Farm. Oh, what a difference it has made. 1) Maggie always woke up from naps and in the morning drenched in sweat. She hasn’t since the fan’s been in her room. 2) We put two in the den (computer room) which has cooled off that room as well as given the person sitting there a breeze, and it’s just barely enough to waft into the living room as well and help there. This morning, after turning it on, the temp in the LR dropped one degree in under an hour. The extra fan is for the guest room, although we are currently using it in our room as it’s quieter than the old one. We have to decide if we prefer the thermostat or the quiet.

And as to how hot it’s been, even at night? I HATE having fans blow on me. Usually, the fan i nthe bedroom isn’t turned on till Eric goes to bed so as to not bother me much. The last two nights, I had it turned on when I went to bed! And I wanted it turned towards the bed.

The fans do not seem to have changed our daily usage of electricty or only slightly. I’ve been writing down our daily numbers each morning so that I can compare things like leaving the computer on all night or what a difference the AC will make.

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June 13th, 2007 - No peaches this year

For the last two years, we’ve bought peaches in bulk from Tree-Ripe Citrus which trucks them directly from the growers to WI (6 blocks from our house is one stop). Maggie’s absolute most favorite food is peaches. She’s had a freezer container of them almost every single week all year. Mom and I have enjoyed dried peaches in the winter. I had plans to buy 50% more this year and make peach nectar, too.

And due to the freeze, Tree-Ripe has canceled their peach season. I’m heartbroken.

And I need to find something else to fill our freezer for the winter. Unless I buy them at the store. But Tree-Ripes were so very good I don’t know if I’ll find the same quality. They really were tree ripened. Some fruit has to be eaten immediately. I had to process most of them within a week. The last time I bought at a store, they were mostly hard (at least if buying in bulk boxes). Will need to figure out the price per pound I’ve paid before and see if it’s worth buying them regular. I guess if I find a sale….

Re 90% food reduction: While not local, the peaches are in bulk and shipped and sold in a way that reduces energy.

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June 12th, 2007 - Glass containers

I felt bad about the glass prep bowls I bought at a Pampered Chef party. I don’t feel bad anymore! They are glass containers, which means I can use them instead of plastic! (and we all know the evils of plastic, right?) I’ve brought them to work almost every day since they were washed–applesauce, salad dressing, custard. They’re a perfect size for a bunch of lunch things.

The only drawback is that while they are 1-cup measures, you can’t store 1 cup of food in them. 3/4s is more like it if you want to put the lid on.

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June 2nd, 2007 - Electric reduction

I just signed up for 8 blocks, or 800 KWh, of renewable energy each month. It only costs $1/block now; the last time I checked (years ago) it was about $5. By using renewable energy, I can count my electric usage at 25% of the actual KWh. This reduces our electric usage to 20% of average! Woohoo!