How My No Spend Month Went

 

I thoroughly enjoyed my no spend month.  It did feel a little weird at times, but I actually found it very liberating.  For the first time in my adult life money came and nothing went out.  Having a completely no spend month forced me to really look at the things I already have and use those things, making the most of them too as I wasn't going to be able to go right out and easily replace something.

 

I learned a lot about myself, my habits as well as my perceptions of what I thought I knew and how shopping and spending has been a large part of my thrifty life.  I am a thrifty person and I do know I don't spend money like a lot of my peers, but I also know I have a lot of room for improvement.  A big thing I learned was that I don't need much to take care of myself.

 

I need far less food than I originally thought.  I'm really good at making something stretch or last and when you focus on really minimizing food waste and using up things that are already open or in use you can get really creative.  At one point I wanted to go out to our favorite Mexican restaurant for dinner, but instead I made a great beef enchilada meal from scratch using $4 worth of ingredients I already had on hand.  Not only did I have a great meal, but enough leftovers for four more meals making it only 80¢ per meal.  The portions were so large that I ended up eating half of the meal for lunch and the other half for supper which meant I ate for less than a dollar a day for five days.  Quite a bargain because that same meal at the restaurant would've been closer to $15 ( plus tip) and I may have had enough left to take home for one more meal, but definitely not four.  It was so good too.

 

Easter was another challenge for me because I wanted to give my girls something, but instead of shopping and buying them something I made some English Toffee and put it in a Rubbermaid container that they could keep once the candy was gone.  In that same vein I made a really good holiday meal using items I already had in our pantry and freezer including some of our Christmas ham I had intentionally vacuum sealed and frozen to save for our Easter dinner.  I made baked beans, macaroni & cheese and a cabbage salad to go with the ham.  I also made a coconut cream pie for our dessert.  It was a very thrifty, but an absolutely delicious meal.  No one left that table feeling deprived, that's for certain.

 

FREE offers this month

I love to cook, meal plan and shop for groceries and I managed to still do this without spending a dime.  I only went to the store once and used a gift card to make my purchases.  Along with my single shopping trip my daughter went to Albertson's and Fred Meyer to redeem a paper coupon and two digital coupons for FREE items that were offered to me through my store rewards cards.

 

Moving forward I know a completely no spend month might not be very realistic because I do have regular monthly bills to pay, however I do feel confident in continuing with very low spend months and making extremely mindful purchases in the future when I do decide to spend my money.  I'll continue to talk about my money saving adventures in my regular Monday posts.

 

I've Been Working On Some Compost

 

If you follow my other blog, then you probably already know this, but I've been working on some compost this past month.  In February I place a one gallon ice cream bucket in our kitchen to collect kitchen items, primarily coffee grounds, tea bags, banana peels and egg shells since we use up pretty much everything else in some form or fashion.  The ice cream bucket is the perfect size for the task plus it has a nice tight lid to keep smells under control and fruit flies at bay.  Once it is full I dump it in our compost bin, wash it out and start again.

 

Cardboard + any compostible kitchen waste goes into this bucket

I've always been really good at minimizing our trash and recycling whatever we can instead of absentmindedly tossing items into the garbage bin.  But now I'm on a mission to look at our recycling with new eyes and find that a lot of what has been going into our blue bin can actually go out to the compost bin instead.  Now I'm collecting all of our paper and cardboard.  I have a shredder for junk mail and personal papers that we don't want to go in the trash and all of that shredding is compostable as well.

 

Our compost bin is a simple two compartment structure that I built out of four by four fence posts and cedar fence boards.  One side is typically the receiving side while the other is the active working breakdown side.  I layer compostable items from the house with manure and bedding from our chicken coop as well as my daughter's bunny along with yard debris and other organic matter.

 

Even the paper from my shredder goes in

This will be amazing soon!

Once it is completely broken down and resembles soil I will use it in our raised garden beds as well as to add to our flower beds in the yard.  We had loads of landscape and gardening plans ahead and good organic compost is going to be a big part of what we plan to do.

 

 

My Thrifty Retirement - Week 3

 

Easter Sunday was fabulously busy for me.  I got up early and was able to get all of the food prepped and ready to go into the oven.  I made homemade macaroni and cheese with a parmesan bread crumb topping (it was a hit, no leftovers), baked beans, ham I had leftover in the freezer (vacuum sealed) from Christmas saved just for this particular meal.  I made a relish plate of olives and pickles to go with it and my daughter made deviled eggs.  I also made a coconut cream pie for dessert.  Everyone seemed to really enjoy the meal.

 

I've been working quite a bit in the backyard garden area

While I waited for my oldest daughter and her roommate to arrive for dinner I was able to get outside for a bit, soak up some sunshine and pull weeds.  I also got our garage swept out and taught my youngest how to change her wiper blades on her car.  It felt really good to get the front of our house raked and cleaned up after all the crazy wind and weather we've been having.

 

This coffeecake was a hit!

Our Easter meal combined with the leftovers from the end of the week prior kept us fed pretty much all week long.  I was able to use a lot of the Easter items, especially the ham, to make more meals.  I used sour milk along with some leftover homemade applesauce I'd saved to make a wonderful coffeecake.  I took leftover taco meat from the freezer so my daughter could make nachos one evening and the last of the ham was turned into a pizza on Friday with plenty leftover for our supper on Saturday.  Some frozen veggies and a can of pineapple chunks I had in the pantry rounded out our meals nicely.  It was a very economical week for us food wise.  We still have apples, cabbage, carrots, celery, potatoes and onions for fresh produce.

 

I embroidered this dish towel I had made last year

I love this vintage transfer - so cute!

My youngest had her first experience with a car breakdown (definitely not a thrifty week for her) that left her stranded.  I helped her out with picking her up and figuring out how to arrange a tow truck to the neighborhood mechanic.  For the most part, I let her handle the majority of the situation she found herself in and she did great.  I let her borrow my car while hers was being repaired and she thanked me by topping up my gas tank.

 

My beautiful daughter

They are both beautiful, inside and out
I am a very blessed mama!

And!  Bless her darling little heart, she didn't want me to spend anything on her for her senior prom, which was Saturday.  She borrowed a dress from her sister, wore the shoes she got at a thrift store to go with another dress she had borrowed from her sister for homecoming last fall, wore jewelry she already had and fixed her hair and makeup herself.  She is thrifty, just like her mama.

 

My mother made both versions of this dress for me
The shorter version I wore to my high school graduation

I remember when I went to the senior prom my mom, who is an excellent seamstress, made my dress from a gunne sax pattern and I wore shoes and jewelry I already had.  We did our own hair, makeup and nails then too.  I never would've thought to go to a hairdresser for that, but that was back in the days when the guys wore tuxes with ruffled shirts and velvet bow ties.

 

I made this tea towel last week from a piece of fabric and bias tape I had on hand

 

I also made this dish cloth out of part of a dish towel I had in my stash

The weather is gradually warming up here so I'm hopeful that spring is truly on its way.  I hope you are all doing well and had a great week too.  Let me know how things are going.

 

Some Of The Ways I Prepped For Retirement

 

For each of us, there are different things we find important.  For me, it is to easily and simply meet my most basic needs – food, water, shelter, clothing and warmth.  Everything else is secondary.  I’ve been seriously working toward early retirement for a while now.  At the age of 55 I had a dollar amount in mind and a plan.  Since then, I’ve been doing everything I can to get myself ready. 

 

The first thing I did was to get rid of any debt I had and at the same time save as much cash as possible.   Even though I had a 0% interest car loan I paid it off.  I paid off any little bills that were hanging around and a big medical bill that I’d been working on from previous years.  Also, I began to earmark a certain dollar amount to go into our emergency fund which I had already decided needed to be much larger than it was.  Along with that I began funding a HSA account through my employer.  I wanted to make sure that giant medical bills are a thing of the past.  Thank the Lord, I am still debt free!

 

Once my emergency funds were covered (and last year they were tested), which just happened to coincide with eliminating all of my debt, I became a serious super saver.  Every bit of extra cash I could get my mitts on ended up in my savings account.  Etsy sales, bonuses, tax refunds, stimulus payments, leftover cash at the end of the month, etc.  You name it, I saved it.

 

While saving I also began stockpiling food, household items, first aid and pet supplies that I would need to have on hand when I first retired.  Then I began to work on certain clothing items.  Shoes, socks, undergarments and a new winter coat were top priority.  To fund these purchases I worked a lot of overtime and used that extra money each payday to buy whatever I needed.

 

My overall goal was simply to cover my basic needs as best as I could and free up the need to make these purchases once my paychecks stopped.  In the process I’ve managed to set up my home so my monthly expenses are quite low and very manageable.  Now that I’ve done all of this work ahead of time I feel quite comfortable retiring early.  I am prepped and ready!

 

Use It Up, Wear It Out, Make It Do

 

In stepping back in time, I feel it prudent to take a page from the Great Depression era where many were forced to seriously evaluate their wants and needs.  Frivolity was not an option and those who successfully navigated the hard times they faced did so by making sure their resources, regardless of what they might be, were not wasted.  This was especially true when it came to fuel, food, clothing and pretty much everything else.  Families moved in with each other, often crammed into small houses or apartments and they shared everything.  Collectively they worked to provide food for their table and made every effort to stretch that food as far as possible to keep those mouths fed.  Often, they only heated one room of their homes, typically the kitchen, in order to conserve heating and cooking fuel.  Children all slept together in one bed in order to stay warm at night.  Trips to town for supplies were limited to conserve gasoline and often carried out by horse, bicycle or on foot if they lived close enough or in the city.

 

Flour and many other staples at the time came in cloth sacks and those sacks were repurposed into clothing, towels, dish cloths, diapers and even curtains.  The grocer wrapped one’s purchases in brown paper and tied it with string.  That paper was saved to be reused as was the string.  Haircuts were done at home.  Clothing was often selected from a catalog or handmade, passed down, mended, patched and taken care of in order for it to last as long as possible.  Shoes were polished regularly, oiled to protect them from the elements and taken in to the local cobbler for repair as needed.  If you couldn’t afford the cobbler you did your own repairs with whatever you had at the time that would work.

 

When something was “worn out” such as a shirt or pair of pants it was what we now refer to as “repurposed”.  Repurposing has been going on for far longer than we might imagine.  It was not uncommon for old clothes to be cut up and the best parts used to make quilts.  The not so good parts became rags and, if not good enough for rags, used to stuff a handmade doll or stuffed animal (or the cracks in the walls to keep out the drafts).  Even the cotton that came in a bottle of aspirin was saved for the first aid kit or to add into the stuffing for a toy or homemade pin cushion.

 

If you needed something you made it, built it, borrowed it or bartered for it before you purchased it.  If you couldn’t do that you went without or found something else to make do.  People were extremely resourceful.  They raised as much of their own food as possible, hunted, foraged and were no stranger to preserving, canning and drying what they could to get them through the winter.  You lived with the furnishings you already had and used crocheted doilies or a handmade needlepoint pillow to spruce it up a bit.  Times were tough but you were happy to have what you had.

 

With this in mind, and the current state of our world as we now know it, I’ve often thought of how many ways can I implement some of these same principles into my daily life.  I’ve been doing quite a few of these things over the years, but I know I can do far better.  I can look at items I have and items I think I should trash with a whole new set of eyes.  I can look at the things I think I need or things I think I want with a new set of eyes as well.  Instead of tossing something can I repurpose it?  Do I really need to buy that? Or do I already have something else that will work just as well?  Or do I even need or want it to begin with?  Share your thoughts.  Have you made changes recently due to the current state of the economy?

 

 

 

My Thrifty Retirement - Week 2

 

We had snow last Sunday morning!  Big huge flakes, but it pretty much melted right away.  Winter still wants to hold on a bit longer.  I spent my wintery day in my craft room making cards before preparing a full Mexican meal for our Sunday dinner.  It was fabulous and cost a fraction of what one entrée at a restaurant would have been.  Plus I had plenty of leftovers for more meals the first half of the week.

 

Our weather continued cold, windy, snowy, rainy, hail, you name it we had it weather wise.  Needless to say that pretty much put all of my outdoor plans and activities on hold.  In light of the situation I kept crafting until the top of the dresser I keep my sewing fabrics in was completely covered with greeting cards.  I've had an industrious past two weeks!  I put all of my cards into sets and photographed them, then got to work and started loading them into my Etsy store.  I was shocked at how much inventory I was able to add.  And I think I've really upped my game on the creativity and details I've put into these cards.

 

I'm pretty sure if I sell these I will be working for minimum wage from my very first job where I worked for someone else at the age of fourteen.  We were all excited too because they had just raised the minimum wage to $3.15 an hour.  Doubtful I will make that much this time, but I'm having a lot of fun and that is the most important thing.  If I can earn enough to pay for my hobby and find good homes for these beauties in the process then that will be a bonus!

 

A homemade egg "mcmuffin" - cost me 40¢ to make!

Between Sunday dinner and a pasta dish I pulled out of the freezer for my daughter, plus leftovers from the week before I didn't have to cook again until Thursday.  Did I end up getting tired of leftover enchiladas with all the trimmings?  Surprisingly no.  I loved every bite of it.  But had I, I could've easily frozen the extra enchiladas and eaten them later on.  I did the math on what everything cost to prepare and determined I was able to eat for five days for only 80¢ a day!  I have no complaints about that!

 

All the trash I could come up with for the week

We had no food waste and very little trash to take out this week.  I emptied all of our trash cans into one grocery bag and took it out to the wheelie bin, which ended up at the curb for the first time in a month.  It was only a quarter of the way full and we have the smallest bin available.  I was pretty pleased with the lack of trash we are contributing.

 

I used up every last bit of a tube of toothpaste before opening a new one.  I made a batch of foaming hand soap solution and topped up all of our dispensers.  I collected some more items to plant seeds in - two toilet paper tubes plus a cream carton.  I also emptied the kitchen collection bucket into our compost bin and am now working to get it filled back up.  When I refilled the shampoo and conditioner dispensers in our shower I added a little bit of water to each one and gave it a good shake to extend the product.  You can't even tell I did that.

 

I spent $0 last week bringing my total dollars spent this month so far to $0.  I will admit it does feel a little weird not to look at the grocery ads or do any shopping.  But it also feels really good knowing I don't need to either.

 

I hope you all had a fabulous week and a lovely Easter Sunday.  Let me know how your thrifty week went.

 

I've Been Practicing & Experimenting

 

Since December of last year, I’ve been doing things a little differently.  Taking a good look at the things we do, eat, have, etc. and making subtle changes to make improvements.  Slowly I’ve been making changes and trying out new ways to make things in our life more efficient.  For instance, this winter we dialed in our heating situation.  We were notified there would be a rate increase so we decided to see just how low we could keep the thermostat and still be comfortable.  It turns out we were able to stay quite comfortable with the thermostat set at 68˚ and layering up as well as wearing our slippers.  Our heat bills didn’t go down, but they didn’t go up either.

 

Time blocking is something I’ve used in the past to be more productive and efficient with projects and tasks, especially on weekends or staycations.  With retirement looming I was really concerned about my days getting away from me so I decided to implement time blocking as part of my daily life.  In order to make sure that was feasible and would work I practiced with it and after much thought and a few tweaks I was able to come up with an organizer page that I think is going to work really well for me.  I'll be doing the things I want and need to do at a comfortable pace that works for me.  More importantly, I won't waste my days.

 

Along the lines of waste, we’ve been really aware of the many ways we can be wasteful and doing a lot to curb that waste.  Overusing products is one of the easiest ways to be wasteful so we are more aware of what we use and how we use it.  Long ago we stopped buying paper towels and napkins.  We have plenty of rags for cleaning and I made a few dozen cloth napkins from fabrics I had in my stash.  We really enjoy using them and now can't imagine going back to using paper.

 

We repurpose plastic grocery bags as trash can liners and find we don’t use many as we don’t create a lot of trash.  Anything that can be recycled or composted is and what is leftover goes to the garbage bin which we only set out about once a month.  I wish they’d give discounts or charge us based on how often our bin goes to the curb, but they don’t. ☹  That’s okay.  We’ve got to keep the landfill operational.  There are a lot of trashy people around.  Hee, hee.

 

Another area we are working on his consumables.  Along with paper products I’m more mindful of plastics.  We don’t purchase paper plates and plastic cutlery, even for camping.  I wash out Ziploc bags and we reuse them.  Most of our food storage, however goes into reusable glass dishes, jars and some plastic containers.  I save cottage cheese, sour cream and other plastic containers to use for freezer containers and once we are done with them they go into the recycle bin.  We are mindful of how much toilet paper and facial tissues we use too.  I’d like to think I’d switch to handkerchiefs but I’m not quite there yet. Perhaps someday.

 

Fuel for our vehicles is a biggie and I have been working on alternatives to driving a car.  We had a set amount budgeted for fuel each month and now that gas prices are on the rise that budget doesn’t go very far.  Plus, in retirement, my plan was to lower our budget now that I no longer need to drive to work every day.  I still think my new budget is workable, however.  At least I’m going to give it a solid try.

 

There are a lot more things I’d like to work on now that I have more time available.  Water conservation, water catchment, gardening, and putting in a xeriscape landscape.  In the past I’ve been a terrible gardener and our yard hasn’t been much to write home about.  I’ve definitely struggled in this area. But I’m excited to test out different options and keep trying.  I also am very much interested in improving our recycling and doing more upcycling and repurposing.  So, a lot of different things we’ve already tried (with improvements to make too) and a lot more to try and test out as well.  Have you done any "experimenting" lately?

 

Depression Era Chocolate Cake

 

This cake is amazing and uses all ingredients you likely already have in your pantry.  No eggs, butter or milk so extremely thrifty, which is a big reason I dug this recipe out and dusted it off.  Then I wondered why I haven't made this wonderful cake more often.

 

Chocolate Cake 

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

2/3 cup sugar

1/4 cup cocoa

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 cup water or black coffee

6 Tbs. vegetable oil

1 Tbs. apple cider vinegar

1 tsp. vanilla 

In a large mixing bowl whisk dry ingredients together.  Add remaining ingredients and whisk until batter is nice and smooth.  Pour into an oiled 8" X 8" baking pan. Bake in a preheated 350° oven for 25 to 30 minutes or until top springs back at the touch.  Remove to rack and allow to cool.

 

You can eat it plain, dust it with a little powdered sugar, frost it or top it with a dollop of whipped cream.  Super easy, no fail, it’s a great cake.

 

My Thrifty Retirement - Week 1

 

My first full week of retirement began on Sunday after two days I spent taking it easy and resting.  I needed a break and told myself a three day weekend (actually the whole month of April) spent only doing what I wanted to do was the first order of business.  I spent those days in my craft room making a lot of really pretty greeting cards.  My craft room and pretty much any project I do in there is like therapy to me.  I am planning a lot of therapy to be going on for quite some time.  I challenged myself to make as many cards using only my overflowing pile of paper scraps as I could and I came up with some beauties.

 

I had pulled all of the meat from a roast chicken I had made the previous week.  We had eaten several meals from it already, including sandwiches and salads, but I wanted to make sure none of it went to waste.  After removing the meat I used half of it and the leftover gravy I had made to put over rice.  The remaining meat went into a container and into the freezer for a future meal.  The bag I keep in the freezer for veggie scraps was nearly full and had the bones of another chicken in it too.  I combined that along with this chicken carcass in my largest slow cooker, added three quarts of water and let it go for twenty four hours to make some good bone broth.

 

Potato patties with sour cream

I used up some leftover roasted potatoes and carrots by mashing them up, adding a tablespoon of flour and an egg to them and making potato patties which I fried and topped with sour cream.  They were delicious!  I also took a very ripe banana as well as some sour milk and made a loaf of banana bread with it to have for afternoon tea.  I added a small handful of pecans that I chopped up real small and used half the sugar the recipe calls for.  It was delicious!  Definitely sweet enough.

 

I washed my insulated lunch box and then mended a small spot where the stitching came loose.  Now it is all ready for a new life, just like me.  I also mended two of my dish cloths that had worn a bit thin in a couple spots.

 

On Saturday my daughter picked up our FREE offers from Albertsons and Fred Meyer this week.  We each got a jar of almond butter plus a sparkling water beverage and I had a coupon for a bottle of FREE bottle of salad dressing.  The only grocery shopping done so far has cost me absolutely nothing.

 

So far this month of April I have spent $0.  I even canceled my Amazon Prime membership so it would not renew this year.  I think I can get by without it and I'm eager to see if that is true.  I had already canceled Netflix back in December and haven't missed it at all.  We have a Roku and it works really well with loads of free options for television programs and movies.  Youtube has a ton of moves as well.  I also plan to borrow DVDs from our public library whenever I want to see something.  I have loads of free options.

 

A couple of my readers have recently purchased me" cups of coffee" to support this blog and I cannot tell you have much that has touched my heart.  Another fine friend sent me a case of mandarin orange cups for my prepper pantry.  Such a nice surprise!  I wish we could all get together for some real cups of coffee and a good chat.  You all mean so much to me.  I am so grateful.

 

Pork chop, steamed asparagus & homemade applesauce

I hope all is well in your world.  What are some of the thrifty things you've been up to lately?