Educating the Wheelers

Yesterday, I was looking out the window while Audrey and I were sifting together some flour, salt and baking powder.  We were assembling some homemade Bisquick-style mix.  Out the window, I could see the team of about 10 guys and their 6 or 7 vehicles laying down our new driveway.

I’m going to be writing a 3741 dollar check for that driveway.  I only saved about a buck by making the baking mix myself.

There’s a money cliche that people will drive 20 minutes out of their way to save 5 dollars on a 20 dollar item, but won’t do it to save 5 dollars on a 500 dollar item.  And yet five dollars is five dollars.  Yesterday felt like it could be the inverse of that cliche.  Should I have just gone outside and asked the foreman if he’d take a check for 3740 dollars instead and just pick up some store brand bisquick?

My mom called later and I asked what her thoughts were.  She pointed out that one of the reasons that we could write a 3741 dollar check instead of putting it on the credit card is because we make our own Bisquick.  Oh, that single dollar doesn’t mean too much in the scheme of things, but the mindset that drives you to do it saves money everywhere and adds up.  Additionally, it was kind of fun.  I have about 11 hours a day alone with Audrey, and that time has to be filled, preferably with something that’s remotely educational or otherwise beneficial.  If I had made the mix myself, it would have taken less than 5 minutes, instead we had about 40 minutes of pouring and sifting and fiddling with flour.  And laughing.  It’s a mess, but is a lot of fun with a two year old.

As part of my ongoing budget slash-and-burns, I’m always trying to stop purchasing more and more convenience foods. Some items make sense to purchase [too much time to duplicate for the money saved], and some do not.

Mapgirl had a post recently about surging electricity costs, and why they are likely to get even worse in the near future.

I mentioned in a comment that I have been on a slash and burn mission to reduce our electricity bill here, so even while the rates are going up, our bill has been going down. Only slightly compared to all of the cuts I’ve made, though, as I mentioned, it’s still better than a poke in the eye.

What have I done?

First: we don’t use the dryer anymore. Maybe once a month, but I can’t even remember the last time I’ve used it, so it’s now even less than that. Andrew put up three retractable clotheslines for me on the deck, under the awning, so I don’t have to worry about rain. If it’s too humid outside, I use those folding accordion-style drying racks in the house. In fact, during the winter when the heat is on, I use those up in the bedroom at night to help raise the humidity while we’re sleeping without having to power a humidifier.

Second: Minimizing heat and AC usage. I’m making judicious use of shades, windows, fans, turning the lights off, not using the oven as often [or using it first thing in the morning while it’s still cool], and dressing appropriately. And shaving the dogs when it gets hot.

Third: I’ve become a light and appliance nazi. I used to keep lights on all over the house because I am skittish and paranoid and don’t like walking into dark areas. And I like brightly lit rooms. But I’ve been slowly acclimating myself away from that. I’ve also been getting better at unplugging things that are not being used rather than keeping them in standby mode, but I could be better at this.

That’s all the low hanging fruit, but so far it’s really paid off for us. If the rates keep rising, I’ll have to start doing the slightly more difficult stuff.

I hate to waste food and have been working on more interesting ways to use things up. Take bananas. My husband is the big banana eater in the house, but won’t touch them after they start to get a little spotty.

If I don’t have much time, I just toss them as-is into the freezer, and later when I take them out, I peel them slightly defrosted with a paring knife and use them in whatever recipe. Pancakes, waffles, mashed into french toast bath, smoothies, the usual. But I get pretty sick of banana bread and muffins pretty quickly.

This is my new favorite way to use them:

Banana cookies.

2-3 ripe bananas, mashed in a bowl
1.5-2c uncooked oatmeal
1/3 cup oil
Splosh of vanilla
Handful of dried fruit, whatever you got. I like chopped dates.

Mix it all together, let it sit for awhile and soak into the oatmeal. Then drop spoonfuls onto a greased pan [mush it down, they’re better a bit thinner] and bake at 350 until done. Usually about 10 minutes or so. Can be up to 20, depending on your stove, and how thick you made them.

Love them, love them, love them. And if you can get your dried fruit cheap, fairly frugal, too!

I’m about 32 and a half weeks pregant now, so I need to get moving on getting things ready for the little guy.

I’ve been on the lookout for good deals on diapers [I decided not to switch to cloth for this guy, though I kicked it around for awhile], so I’ve got a bit of a stash already. All other diaper changing gear [wipes, cream, rags, etc], we already have plenty of since Audrey is still in pull-ups.

I haven’t ordered a Medela parts kit for my old pump yet, and I need to do that. That’s about 25 bucks. I know you can reuse the parts with yourself, but I gave my pump a thorough thrashing before Audrey could finally attach at three months, and looking at the old thing … it just doesn’t feel like even a thorough boiling and sterilization procedure is going to make it feel clean again. Oh, and I’m going to need new milk freezer bags, too. That’ll be about 17 bucks. Again, I’m paying more than I have to here, there are cheaper varieties, but these will hold up for 6 months in our deep freezer. So if we don’t need them in that time, I can donate them to the Mother’s Milk Bank, like last time.

I picked up a handful of “new” outfits for Little Guy at the thrift store in MN, practically brand new stuff for about a dollar a piece. Didn’t feel bad about that, though I’m sure I could have made do with Audrey’s unisex hand-me-downs.

The freezer is already full, but mostly with meal “parts” rather than completed meals. I’ll want to change that ratio a bit before he arrives, because I won’t want to be doing any cooking for awhile.

I think that’s really all that’s left to purchase. [I’m not counting the actual cost of the birth, etc.] Lots to do, but not lots to buy. That’s a plus.

When I got out of the shower this morning, I got quite the whiff of surprise when I was toweling my hair dry. What was that weird smell?

Aha!

The laundry was hanging on the line yesterday when we started up the grill for dinner yesterday. The towel and everything I’m wearing today smells like bbq.

I haven’t always been frugal. It’s been percolating for awhile, but the actual implementation has been gradual. Because of the slow pace, I haven’t realized really how far I’d come, and somewhat unfortunately, how that might impact some other things in my life.

Case in point, a relative of mine wants to go out to eat or go shopping with me while I’m here visiting. Multiple times a week. She has suggested a few other activities, all involving going out and spending money. Instead, I’ve suggested she come over here, let’s make some lunch, talk, whathaveyou. She has apparently had about enough of that. Heh.

For the first year after Audrey was born, one of my pre-mother friends [ironically, a woman from my birthing class, so she had a kid that was only a month older than mine] who only wanted to get together at a restaurant for lunch, as well. No great shock, we drifted and I haven’t even talked to her in almost a year. She rarely wanted to take up any of my non-restaurant suggestions.

I mean, I don’t believe in having an austere life, or never having fun or never getting out. But both of these folks were as insistent about going to a restaurant as I was resistant to it.

There are three issues for me. First, I’ve always been somewhat of a homebody, though those feelings have intensified since I became a mother, and they’ve really exploded since I’ve been pregnant again. I am wholly uninterested in being around large groups of other people, especially folks I don’t know. Second, I realize this may be a passe notion these days, but I don’t like bringing babies/toddlers/etc into adult spaces. Audrey is astonishingly well-behaved for a 2 year old, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t unpredictable and doesn’t ever fuss. Folks pay good money at most restaurants, in movie theaters and the like and I don’t understand why parents — particularly of my generation — think it’s okay to bring their kids into adult spaces where there is a reasonable expectation of not being disturbed. Finally, of course, is the cost issue. What used to seem to me a totally reasonable sum of money to spend on lunch now seems like a big waste and opportunity cost.

I’ve gradually shifted my social life to spend time with folks who are on the same page as me in this arena. On the upside, most stay at home moms with toddlers that I meet tend to not want to blow money, and tend to not want to deal with the “will they or won’t they?” stress of bringing a toddler into a restaurant. So we’ll meet at one or another’s house, and if someone gets fussy or melts down … who cares? We’re all going through the same thing.

I want a garden.

Most of our grocery bill goes to produce — fresh, frozen, or dried. Our kids will be homeschooled, so it’s an obvious project for them to help with. Our backyard is about a half acre, fenced, and there’s not a whole lot going on back there once you get past the decks and the playscape.

So why don’t I have a garden?

Odocoileus virginianus, the dreaded white-tailed deer.

Our house is on the deer superhighway right between two wooded, wild areas. There are some mornings when I’ll look out and see two dozen of them in our front or back yard. Unfortunately, our 8-10 [?] foot tall privacy fence only extends about halfway back into our backyard, it’s a 3 footer for the remaining, and they jump over that with ease.

So I can’t just slap together a nice little Square Foot Gardening square and call it a day with a little quickie experiment. Unless, of course, I want fatter and happier deer.

I don’t relish the idea of building a tall fence to enclose a garden, like all my neighbors have had to do. And I’m not sure how big I’d want to make it — I certainly don’t want to ever have to expand it once it’s up. I have too many memories of spending summers at my grandparent’s house, expanding the deer fence every year. Heh.

And then there’s the whole new-child-being-born-in-two-months thingy. I think I’ll be waiting until next year. Heh.

The only thing I hate more than clothes shopping is having to spend money on clothes.

These days, when I have to buy clothes — like, say, now, when I’m third trimester superchunk pregnant and it’s winter, while last time I was superchunk pregnant, it was nasty Texas summer — I hold off until I can head up to Minnesota to visit my parents. Not too far from their house is the very best thrift store I have ever been in, bar none. I am absolutely spoiled rotten by it now. Even Walmart feels extravagant, and other thrift stores feel really ratty and dirty in comparison.

[If you happen to live around the Twin City area, I’m referring to the “Valu Thrift Store” in Sun Ray Mall. Mondays, everything is 25% off, and holidays are 50% off.]

I picked up maternity pants and 6 long sleeve maternity shirts and sweaters for about 20 bucks. And they’re pretty nice looking.

I don’t know how they do it, why that particular thrift store is so clean and well managed and such a screaming deal on nice stuff, but I love it, and I won’t shop anywhere else.

Audrey and I will be heading up North to my parents’ house this week for three weeks of extended family fun and vacation. We do this about 3 or 4 times a year for a variety of reasons — it’s a big vacation for Andrew, who can work work uninterrupted on whatever projects he might have in the hopper; and it’s a big vacation for me, because my folks are super-helpful with EVERYTHING and Audrey loves them and I get to relax. It’s a win-win for everyone. And since we’re gone so long, Andrew will often fly up for a weekend himself to visit us visiting. Heh.

We can usually get the flights pretty cheap, so the big frugal challenge for us is how to keep Andrew well fed without breaking the bank. [In other words, no Central Market deli 5 times a week at 15 bucks a pop for lunch or dinner, as tasty as that would be.] The food budget when Audrey and I are gone is usually much higher than when all three of us are there since I can’t do the planning and cooking.

The first thing I do is start about a month beforehand scanning the circulars for loss-leader frozen pizzas and the like, and fill the freezer with tasty, easy to heat up meals for dinner. Then yesterday, I had Andrew select a handful of recipes for me to make for him that I’ll individually package for him so he can grab them on the way out the door to work. But that sort of thing will only last a week.

He came grocery shopping with me yesterday, which he doesn’t normally do, and we got a bunch of basics for building sandwiches and tacos and whatnot, so hopefully he’ll just have to pick up mostly produce and dairy for himself while I’m gone.

So, with this preparation, he should have more breathing room for “treats” while he’s on vacation without the expense of every meal being a treat, so to speak.