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Being frugal, going green & good stewardship

Are you frugal because you want to be or because you have to be?
If you didn’t have the financial strains you have now would you continue to live such a frugal life?
Hmmm.
Good questions.
I was raised frugal. I know frugal and have lived in that land forever. Sure there are days when I daydream of going to the grocery store and buying whatever I want without thought to the cost . . . . . doesn’t everyone? LOL
Of doing more than just window shopping . . . . .
But its more than just that- to me it’s a matter of stewardship. We need to be a good steward of all that God has given to us- be it money, our home, our food, our clothes- it all comes from Him. Good stewardship leads to being “green”- a term popping up everywhere- meaning being ecologically aware. Stewardship is about taking care of what you have- making it last as long as you can—which leads to a favorite phrase- Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without! That’s good stewardship!
In the past my “good stewardship” led to clutter- keeping things with the thought that someday they would be useful for something or other. Cluttering up our homes is not good stewardship. I found I needed to define it for myself and give myself permission to “pitch” some stuff. Pitching has included giving away and throwing away.
Then there is repurposing- can an object be used in a different way and continue to be effective? Such as washed out peanut butter jars for nails/screws/small objects in the workshop or a chipped dish standing on its side in the garden and a re-glued tea cup for a little bird bath. An old sheet becomes a painter’s drop cloth and the legs from an old chair become garden stakes. Empty ice cream buckets used for holding garbage for the compost bin or holding misc. art supplies and treasures.
My de-cluttering started with FlyLady and from her I made my first Home Manual (many call this a home management binder). I found that in setting daily routines I was becoming a better steward of my time and resources. In making weekly meal plans I again was becoming a better steward for time, resources and money. All good things.
To continue with our stewardship we made it a family rule that for every “thing” brought in one “thing” must go out. Buy a new pair of jeans? Out with one old pair (or repurpose a girl’s pair with holes in the knees into a nifty skirt like a dear friend of mine has done). This rule of thumb works for toys too (but alas not DVDs or CDs- although I’ve gotten rid of quite a few VHS tapes) and serves our family quite well. I will admit though that I’m not one for a one book in- one book out policy but we do enjoy utilizing our library.
So as many are ramping up to “go green”, I’m not feeling like I am that band wagon as much as I am working at practicing good stewardship. Yes the two do align rather well but I believe there is more to being a good steward than just taking care of God’s earth.

Fever?

On Flylady-

Here’s how I did Flylady- I started by spending a good deal of time perusing her website and printing oodles of stuff out. I took the basic routines and tweaked them for myself- starting by writing right on the print-outs. I marked my big family calendar with the weekly zones and referred to my zone cleaning print-outs (complete with my own notations). After a few weeks of this I decided I needed my own control journal and used the marked up print-outs to help me set it up.
I named my control journal My Home Manual- I liked the name better and now I see while traveling the Land of Blog that others have homekeeping binders or home management binders (even nicknaming them HMB!)- it has, dare I say it, become a “trend”. A good trend. To me- caring for my husband, raising my family and taking care of my home are the most important jobs I have and so I resolved to treat them as jobs and give the care and keeping the effort and dedication I would give to a “paying” job. [Let’s not forget too that the care and keeping of our family is our first and most important ministry for the Lord.]
My routines have evolved and streamlined and much of the time I don’t even have to refer to my manual. Its part Flylady, part Organized Home and ALL ME! If you google home management binder you will find a slew of stuff to help you or overwhelm you- be careful and be choosy!

Here’s a glimpse of what’s in my binder:
Amy’s Routines- Morning, Afternoon & Evening
Basic Weekly Plan (also a basic weekly plan for youth work)
Weekly Checklist
Zone Cleaning List
My Menu Plan
Monthly/Seasonal To Do’s

My Home Manual also includes- address book, desk calendar, bill paying necessities (with budget) and paperwork needed for tax purposes.

An added bonus of the Home Manual- if anything were to happen- like say, getting a nasty sinus infection and being hopped up on meds that make you “different”, my dear sweet adorable husband knows right where to go to see what needs to be done to keep on keepin’ on- like what bills to pay which week, what’s for supper and what needs prepped for breakfast and let’s not forget he can easily locate the number of the pizza parlor downtown! All kidding aside- having everything in one easy to locate location would simplify things greatly for my husband if something did indeed happen to make me unable to perform my daily duties. It’s another way to protect and safe guard my family.

Speaking on Menu Planning

Today I am working on my presentation for my MOPS [Mothers Of Preschoolers] group. We meet tomorrow morning (our group meets once a month).
Our theme is In The Kitchen and I will be discussing Menu Planning.
As you all know- this is a subject near and dear to my heart.
I will share my own menu plan plus some tips and tricks I've learned along the way.
It will be interesting to see how this group of ladies reacts and what type of discussion will follow.
Am I nervous? Not yet, but I am sure I will be come tomorrow morning.
Am I prepared? Yes, probably overly so. I've been asked to speak for about 10 minutes and I probably have more than that in my notes . . . . when one expounds on a topic they strongly believe in- they can tend to yak it to death . . . . .
Oh, and I've got hand-outs . . . . 4 copies for each lady.
Naw, I'm not going overboard . . . . .
LOL

Thanks for the advice

Offensive odor

Okay- if you have boys you will understand this.
Boy pe* smells different than girl pe*. It also seems to get in every nook and crany of the bathroom.
It seems no matter how much I scrub in there  . . . . . that odor lingers.
Others say they can't smell it- but I can.
Mothers of Boys- What do you do to combat this offensive odor?
What tips to you have to share?
Now, I understand why a friend of mine has a boys bathroom and girls bathroom at her house!

Finishing School

laundry: water, wet and waste

Well, earlier I walked into my laundry room and found the pile of laundry on the floor sopping wet. I then found out the drawer for adding detergent/fabric softener was leaking- and leaking a LOT of water.
After a lot of wiggling, jiggling and general fussing, I left Mr. Steady with his tools and dug out the manual. And upon turning to the exact page we needed, I found that the little drawer has a hidden lock mechanism. All I had to do was reach in, push it down with my finger and Viola! It came out. Ah.
Mr. Steady was happy it was that easy and readily put his tools away. He then noted that my wonderful homemade laundry detergent had clogged up the works with a couple of big lumps that didn't dissolve.
FYI for the future- make sure the detergent is in no way shape or form- clumpy. I'm not giving up my homemade detergent- no way, no how. Not only is it cheap but it smells wonderful and I believe is helping with all of Sassafras's skin irritations (exema). I think I let the last batch cook a bit too long and then it set up too thick.
Anyhoo- now that I know how to get that do-hicky out, I won't have to worry about such matters because I can now clean the entire little drawer frequently and completely.
Ah, success.

Blog cleaning

Spring Sprung or just my mind?

Grocery Prices Oh, My!

Thanks to everyone who stopped  by and shared in the grocery pricing post. If you missed out- go here and check 'em out. It seems that the prices I pay are pretty low and of course, the good stuff, like organic and farm fresh always cost more $$ but I know its worth it! We don't have a source of raw milk around here and getting farm fresh eggs is hit and miss. [I've tried to talk my parents into getting chickens but so far its a no go and we aren't allowed here in town.] I make homemade bread here on the homestead for cheaper than I can buy it but we always like to have a couple of loaves in the freezer in case I get too busy to make any and Mr. Steady seems to prefer it for sandwiches. [I think what I really need it a bread machine that makes the long loaves. Mine makes them too tall for a good sandwich. But its a great size for toast!]
I figured the grocery prices would be across the board up and down and that definitely affects the food budget. We go through roughly 3 gallons of milk a week here and I'd croak if I had to pay $5/gallon! Oh, to think what that would do to my grocery budget- no more Oreos for the boys that's for sure!
Most of our other bills are fixed here so the grocery budget is about the only thing I can adjust as needed. And I have to say that even on our lean weeks I think we eat very well. In fact, I started breaking down the cost of our weekly menus in order to show Mr. Steady that we weren't "eating high on the hog." He was quite concerned that we were eating too well and spending too much. Sometimes when we sit down to a meal he will ask me what it costs and he gets such a grin on his face when I tell him!
The downside of this is that its even harder for us to go out to eat because we tend to think about how many meals we could make at home for the one meal we're sitting down to eating out! The cost of dining out seems horribly high when we can feed our little family of 5 for the cost of one (or less than one) meal out!
I remember when we were first dating and Mr. Steady and I would go to McDonalds for supper before a movie and we'd spend less than $8 for the two of us. Now to take out our family of 5 to McDonalds costs about $25. Yikes! That's half of my grocery budget for the week.
I guess I am a cheapskate! We actually found we were hardly ever eating out after I started planning our menus. Mr. Steady asked me to figure in a Take-out Nite (or sometimes dine-out) once a month in our menu plan and now we set aside an x amount for dining-out in an envelope (hold over from when we did the envelope system). We try to make eating out a special reward/treat for the family. We ate lunch out a couple of weeks ago when we decided to "go exploring" a local city's downtown area. The kids all were behaving so well and it was lunch time so Mr. Steady thought "Why not?" The kiddos thought it was the most wonderful, exciting experience. It reminded me of how special my parents made eating out- even at a fast food restaurant- just because we didn't do it often. If we took our children out to eat once a week or so it would not be anything special; it would be the norm.
I've never really wanted to be normal.

What do you pay for Milk?

In a previous post I mentioned that I buy milk for around $2.00/gallon. I'm finding out that some shoppers pay more than that- sometimes more than double that! KimMC shared that a gallon of milk costs $5.19 where she lives in Canada! Yikes!
I just purchased milk at Meijer today on sale for $1.88. Wish I could ship it to you Kim!
So here's some normal costs for me in this area and for where I shop.
Milk $2.00
Eggs $ .98 (although I bought 4 doz. a little over a week ago for 69 cents at Aldi's but thats a bit unusual.)
Loaf of wheat bread 69 cents @ Aldi's.
Can of Cream of Mushroom (or chicken or potato) Soup 44 cents @ Aldi's.
4 pound bag of frozen boneless, skinless chicken breasts $12.88 @ Meijer (but I only purchase when it's BOGO)
Can of Chicken broth 39 cents @ Aldi's.
Shredded cheese (2 cups) $1.58 @ Walmart.
These are just a few staples- so is what I pay low or the norm? What do you pay? Share with me in my comments or write about it yourself and leave a comment letting me know where to check it out!

My Challenge today

Today is the last day of Mrs. Wilt’s Anti-procrastination challenge.
Today I have washed 3 sweaters that have been sitting on top of the washing machine for [ahem] a few weeks because I didn’t want to be bothered with the “dry flat” part. Today they are washed and drying flat- but before I could do that I had to clean off the laundry table to make room (and it hasn’t been cleaned off since November because I found a folded stack of autumn towels!).
I will be taking the slip cover off of the sofa later today to wash also. I like to try and do this once a month (unless we have spills . . . .) and I’ve procrastinated on that too!
So after a week of these challenges I have cleaned and organized my buffet- making room for homeschooling supplies, cleaned and de-cluttered by stairway and laundry table, put away a basket of laundry that had been sitting there for over a week(!), went sledding with my family (Mr. Conductor’s first time!), washed blankets and sofa covers, stored gift bags and tissue paper, cleaned out the fridge, put a dinner in the freezer and finally took all the boxes of Christmas decorations to the basement for storage! Whew! What a week!
The family has gotten into the challenge with me and we will all be chipping in to move Sassafras’s bed and do major clean up under it tomorrow (It amazes me what all can be hidden/lost in a 2 inch tall space). We then plan to tackle the girls’ closet on Thursday. Gotta keep the momentum going!
Last week, Mr. Steady got into the challenge and decided to clean out/vacuum all our huge floor registers (besides dust bunnies, bits of paper and foodie items, he also collected 4 marbles, 15 push pins, 3 plastic necklaces, 1 toy car and a few playing cards). That man is so wonderful!!!

Family Day Fun

Mrs. Wilt said, "Today, let your Anti-Procrastination Challenges deal with something we have been meaning to do with our FAMILIES- whether it be getting outside to play, reading a special book, or having a "date night" with your certain someone...you get the idea!"
We've hada great day today- getting a few things done around the homestead. But now for the fun! The snow has been falling steadily for about an hour and we will be leaving soon for my parents farm to go SLEDDING! Which I haven't done with my children in a couple of years! [Guess I've really been procrastinating! LOL]
My brother and his family will be joining us and after some sledding and tobogganing we'll all troop back into the house for some yummy homemade soup (by Gramma), homemade bread by brother/Uncle), homemade pickles (by Mr. Steady) and my latest new homemade dessert (which has turned out fantastic and I must remember to take a photo for y'all).
I am excited about the family time we will be spending together.
No anti-procrastination challenge tomorrow as it is our Sabbath Rest but I'll hopefully be joining the rest of the band wagon again on Monday to share my latest triumph against my overwhelming tendency to procrastinate!

Today's challenge

Today’s Anti-procrastination challenge isn’t as in depth as yesterday’s. Today I washed Mr. Conductor’s favorite fleece blanket. He uses it for naptime and bedtime and some times in between and never gets washed as often as I would like. Truthfully, it was beginning to smell.
I also cleaned the clutter off the stairs. We are blessed with an enclosed stairway leading to our second story (meaning we have a door we can shut!) but this also leads me to put a lot of stuff on the stairs waiting to go up and put away (Such as toys, clothes, books and more). I have a stair basket for this purpose and it’s been overflowing for over a month- so overflowing that stuff is sitting on two steps up and two steps down from the basket. So up, up and away it went today. Its amazing how much better I feel to open that door and see it all neat and tidy. I know Mr. Steady will be happy, as sometimes we get it cluttered to the point of dangerous (why is it that the kiddos can all walk by it and over it and never pick up what’s  theirs?).
So there’s my 2 big procrastinating challenges for the day and so ends my week of anti-procrastination. I hope Mrs. Wilt does this again real soon or I’ll just have to motivate myself!

Today's Challenges

Once again I am joining in Mrs. Wilt’s Anti-procrastination challenge. Today I was on a roll! First off, I had a very large gift bag full of smaller gift bags and tissue paper just sitting around since Christmas. I folded all the tissue nice and neatly and put the bags and tissue in my under bed plastic storage box. Tada- 1 item done! Then I put away the girls laundry which had been sitting in the laundry basket since Monday.
And then I tackled my BIGGEST challenge of the day- cleaning and organizing my buffet table which has become a catch of all of all manner of kids stuff. Here is my buffet- inherited from my Grandmother.

And here is what it looked like inside- YIKES! [Note: I don’t store normal buffet table items such as plates and linens and such because of always having a little person to get into it!] Lots of games and papers and a ton of stuff!

I grabbed a couple of boxes and a couple of plastic tubs that I had leftover from cleaning out the kids toys before Christmas and hauled the trash can over and dug in! I separated and tossed and purged and ended up throwing out roughly 45% of what was in there! And then I hit on an incredible idea- why don’t I store some of our school stuff in there! Each girl has their own tub of school materials (makes us mobile so that we can do school at the table or under the table or outside when warm) and I haven’t had the best place to store them each day after we are done except to put them on the table in my office. Now that the buffet is clean we can put the tubs right in the side cupboards. Leap pads, card games and puzzles went into the middle section. All nice and neat- all easily accessible for Mr. Conductor to use for school too!

Here are side by side before and after shots of the right side of the cupboard.

                 
I am so glad that Mrs. Wilt helped give me the push to get this done. The girls can't wait for Daddy to come home and show him the new system. Excuse me, while I go haul out a hefty bag of papers and such!

Anti-procrastination

The lovely Mrs. Wilt over at The Sparrows Nest has started an Anti-procrastination challenge. She is challenging us to take on at least one task a day that we have been putting off and putting off and putting off. Since I am a champion procrastinator I knew I could find a few things around here to "anti-procrastinate"!
I have been putting off cleaning out all the little containers of leftover this and that in my fridge. Today it is done. I also put a leftover casserole into a smaller container and packaged it in foil and freezer bag (including reheating instructions) and put it in the freezer. [A future meal!]
I also finally hauled the last of the Christmas decorations to the basement. I have had them all packed away for weeks and they’ve just been sitting there by the basement door waiting and waiting. They wait no longer! Ta da for me!

Homekeeping Meme- Play along!

Join the fun! Sallie at A Gracious Home wrote the following meme. If you play along, she even has a Mister Linky up to leave your link on her post.

Aprons – Y/N? If Y, what does your favorite look like?
Yes!!! I wrote about my heirloom aprons from my great grandmother here. But my most favorite apron is the one I ordered from Kitchenwears.com. It is so easy to slip off and on, big enough to cover any splatter and nice deep pockets!

Baking – Favorite thing to bake
I love to bake brownies and bread.

Clothesline – Y/N?
Oh, yes. 3 lines outside and 3 lines strung across in my laundry room. I would really like to purchase some of those old fashion pins (not the pinch kind) that I use to make dolls out of when I was little. Know where I can get any?

Donuts – Have you ever made them?
No. My brother has and it seems easy enough but I’d rather wait for when he makes a batch and invites me over for donuts, coffee and a chat!

Every day – One homemaking thing you do every day
Making beds and room pick ups.

Freezer – Do you have a separate deep freeze?
Yep. An upright energy efficient model that I just love!

Garbage Disposal – Y/N?
Yes only if you count the cat. Actually, no- we use an big ol’ ice cream bucket on the back porch. You know, if you have a garbage disposal you don’t add all those goodies to your compost!

Handbook – What is your favorite homemaking resource?
The internet and Marmee’s Treasury of Vintage Homekeeping Skills.

Ironing – Love it or hate it? Or hate it but love the results?
I wouldn’t say I hate it but I don’t love it either. I do, however, love the results. I just hate having to drag everything out and put it away again!


Junk drawer – Y/N? Where is it?
Yep and I will admit- I’ve got one in the kitchen and one in my office and one in my buffet (because it’s right next to the front door).


Kitchen – Color and decorating scheme
Color: top third of the walls- white and the bottom 2/3 is a lovely cranberry red. The decorating scheme is lighthouses- particularly Michigan lighthouses.

Love – What is your favorite part of homemaking?
The end results- the sense of accomplishment and feeling of a job well done. The sparkle, shine and yummy smell of a clean well ordered house (and then the kids get up from quiet time . . . . . and the illusion vanishes).

Mop – Y/N?
Yes. But I will readily admit it does not happen nearly as often as it should.


Nylons – Wash by hand or in the washing machine?
In the washing machine and hit the “linens and fine washables” button.

Oven – Do you use the window or open the oven to check?
Hmm. I have an oven window but I always open the door  to check!

Pizza – What do you put on yours?
I love mushrooms, bacon and sliced tomato. Also love the chicken fajita pizza from a local eatery.

Quiet – What do you do during the day when you get a quiet moment?
Read, do devotions and pray (and then sometimes I fall asleep. LOL)

Recipe card box – Y/N? What does it look like?
Yes. It’s a Longaberger basket recipe box and I absolutely LOVE it!

Style of house – What style is your house?
I’d have to say Victorian Farmhouse circa 1874.

Tablecloths and napkins – Y/N?
Yes and no. We use cloth napkins all the time but I seem to prefer a short table runner or placemats to a table cloth. Could it be because Mr. Conductor is not quite 3 and loves to tug on table cloths to see what will fall off????

Under the kitchen sink – Organized or toxic wasteland?
Organized to a certain point but I need to re-arrange as the current organization just doesn’t work for me and I’m always hunting in the back for something or other. I’ve asked Mr. Steady to build me a couple of shelves around the pipes- he gave me the raised eyebrow look . . . .

Vacuum – How many times per week?
Maiden vacuums once a week or more if needed (and it’s always needed after family movie and popcorn nite!)

Wash – How many loads of laundry do you do per week?
About 5-6 loads.

X’s – Do you keep a daily list of things to do that you cross off?
Oh my YES! That’s part of the sense of accomplishment!

Yard – Y/N? Who does what?
Yes- just under an acre in town! Mr. Steady mows and trims and does most of the necessary clipping. I tend the gardens and help out with the clipping when he lets me (If I was a barber I’d only do buzz cuts according to him!) We both stir the compost when we remember.

Zzz’s – What is your last homemaking task for the day before going to bed?
My evening routine is to set the table for breakfast, do any breakfast food prep (including my coffee maker), set out the kid’s clothes for the next day and set up/out the next day’s schooling on the dining table. I also go thru the house picking up any strays (the kids do this too before bed but usually miss a thing or two). I’ve done this for so long it’s streamlined- takes about 15 minutes. I also must mention that I check the schedule for the next day and prep things like- library bags if it’s library day, grocery list if it’s errand day and such.

Oh, this was so much fun. Won’t you join in too?

Errand Running

Mr. Conductor had a dentist appt. this morning and so we took the opportunity to go on over to Aldi’s to do some grocery shopping. There we only a couple of things I could not pick up there- either because they didn’t have it or because I could get it cheaper at the other grocery store. I was delighted to find that I spent just $43 and that included treating myself to a small bouquet of roses (cheap thrill!). I picked up a dozen large eggs for 69 cents- so I decided to get 3 dozen instead of 2. So Saturday morning breakfast will be a bit cheaper as these eggs will go along with the bacon I picked up at the Amish store’s sale for 79 cents a pound!
Maiden picked up a couple tubes of cinnamon rolls to make a monkey bread recipe she’s been wanting to try out.
Our Aldi’s is about a 30 minute drive from home so I like to make sure I have a couple of other stops to make in that area to make my trip worthwhile. The kiddos’ dentist is only about 5 minutes from Aldi’s and gas is usually cheapest at the station across the street.
We also managed to get the bulk of our schooling done today in the car! Car schooling! LOL

Saved $$

Another great reason for staying home on the homestead: I’ve actually made it 3 months without going over 3,000 miles on my car so I will be getting a normal oil change instead of back in the day when I needed one every 2 months!
Ah, the feeling of saving money!