Kitchen Table Finances

A little pain and suffering is good for all of us

debbie z — Thu, 08 May 2008 03:29:00 GMT

With the price of gas heading for $4 a gallon many are screaming that this is unfair. How dare the price go up like this! Revenge is called for, and we need to organize, boycott and vent. But this is not a sudden surprise, not if you've paid ANY attention to history. So far I've not seen lines like we saw in the 70's. And no ration cards like in the 40's.

But what most people cannot seem to understand is that these high prices are actually the key to finding a solution. When gas is cheap, only the few who are frugal in everything care about conserving. Let the price get painful, suddenly everyone seems to be willing to at least listen to ideas for reducing how much they use. And inventors are trying to find the next great thing that will make the inventor rich and create a whole new world again.

In my area, it is not unusual for each person in the family to commute 30-45 miles EACH WAY to arrive at work. That is 60-90 miles per person per day. No one gave a thought to it back when gas was cheap. But now many folks are willing to at least think about making some changes, suddenly they see a burden where before they never gave that commute a thought.

Some will sell that 8-11 mpg too-large truck, van, SUV and replace it with something that they used fuel efficiency as a yardstick when chosing the replacement. I know from personal experience that I seemed to be a lonely only at weighing fuel use when I bought a new vehicle back in 2001. My small SUV got 27-29 mpg back when everyone was asking me why I even cared about how the mpg worked out, I was considered odd to even include that in my criteria. Now I'm very glad I did. That SUV still gets about 22-24 after 165k miles. That's a lot of gas I did not have to buy compared to the average SUV back then.

When gas hits $7 a gallon, I may be willing to move closer to work. I may trade my very inexpensive place to live for something more expensive that is 15 miles closer. I have a feeling I will not be alone, gas prices may make urban homes suddenly become more valued and make the prices go up. So that old neighborhood may suddenly become the next hot place to live if it means no need to fill a car up 3 times a week.

Gas at $7 per gallon, that would roughly be another doubling of the current price of gas. And many will scream that they cannot afford to have a life with gas that high. But I was buying gas at about $1.85 a gallon about 18 months ago. So if gas doubled in another 18 months there is your $7 gas. What if it doubled again after that? At some point, it will suddenly make sense to switch to something other than gas to power cars. There will be a price where the economics will kick in and some wise inventor or businessperson will see a way to sell everyone a ?? and we will leave behind the idea that is not working and move to the new thing. We did it when we left the horse and buggy behind. It can happen again.

For myself, I'm carefully watching the newest innovations in solar. I can see putting some money into making my house energy independent - it makes a LOT of sense to me. And thanks to being frugal in a thousand small ways everyday, I can afford to spend some money to get a 20 year reward that pays me back slowly. And who knows, maybe someday that same system may power my replacement for a car. If 1 in every 5 homes had such a system, it might mean no need for high pollution energy generation.

But I don't want to either miss the chance or fall for a scam. But I am watching, someday soon there will be a new innovation and there will be vast changes - again. I was recently told that it looks like in about 2 years a solar rennovation costing $5,000 might cover 80% of your home's power needs for the next 20 years. When I get proof of that, I'll consider it money well spent to install and use it. And I'll have control over my access to power for my home.

Some thoughts on being prepared to garden

debbie z — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 04:02:00 GMT

Now that spring is arriving, many folks are looking at the idea of a garden. If you have never had any type of garden then start small. You have to keep up the weeding and critter control to get enough of a harvest to justify the effort. You can garden with about $20 worth of hand tools and a few pots, add to your stuff as you need it.

I tend to think in terms of what do I LIKE TO EAT? You will not suddenly develop a liking for stuff you've never tasted. So plant and tend what you like. I love homegrown tomatoes, yellow squash and onions and will happily eat them either plain or fancied up in various recipes. So those are what I plant in my little space I have the time to tend. And wait to plant until about 3 days AFTER the usual last frost date (and check the weather channels 10 day outlook!) and you will avoid all kinds of trouble dealing with frosts and chill.

When I needed to shade some windows and walls to prevent high power bills caused by using the AC I planted climbing beans on the trellis made from the frame of an old mattress. Even something ugly is nice when covered in a green plant. You can find out if a mattress company in your area will let you have the metal frame for a dollar or two. Or trash pick one. Those beans provided several meals and lowered the electric bill by about 10% by absorbing the hot sun and creating a cool shaded place beside the house wall.

When you plant, remember that the critters love nice vegies too. If you plant where you walk everyday on the way in and out of your house that will tend to help scare away critters. And some things like tomatoes you can pick as the are ripening so the birds miss out on the ripe ones. Try hanging red Christmas balls on the tomato vine before you have tomatoes, birds will try to eat them and give up. You may need to put up netting and a small fence to protect your food.

If you live in town, check out Lowes etc and ask about "broken bags" of peat, manure, topsoil etc. You can often get a 40# bag that is missing just a tiny bit for half price. If you invest in big pots or planters remember that you will be able to re-use them for many years. You can grow almost anything in a pot as long as you put in good dirt, water it, have drainage so the plant won't drown and it gets enough sun each day. A packet of seed can plant 2 years worth of garden spots.

A point or two to think about: A rain barrel can let you water your food plants even if there is a watering ban. You just open the downspout and put the barrel under it and you can link barrels together. You can also mix food plants in with your landscaping. You can put potatoes or strawberries in as ground cover, bean plants as vines on trellises, berry bushes in as foundation plants and fruit or nut trees out in the yard as part of the landscaping and for shade. A point to keep in mind is that you should consider the waste a tree will leave before you plant it near doors or windows.

An apple tree may produce 300 lbs of apples in a 2-3 week period. You cannot leave them on the ground unless you like bees, flies, wasps etc around you, and the mess can get slimy if you don't keep it picked up and can really stink and get tracked into the house. A pecan tree on the other hand causes no mess that is nasty, but it does attract squirrels and in a high wind the nuts falling can sound like you are under attack and the tree gets BIG. You can can, freeze etc or pick and barter your fruits and nuts. And some apple/pear etc are varieties that are good keepers that will hold in a cool, dark room for 3 months. But there is a deep satisfaction to walking around your home and picking your snacks and eating them sun warmed and totally ripe. You cannot buy anything that tastes that good - to ship it they have to pick before it's ripe.

Wasted Work - Are you guilty?

debbie z — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 03:51:00 GMT

When I was growing up, the elders around me often forgot I was there and talked freely about "adult matters". No need to worry, back then adults did not discuss things that were R or X rated even with each other, but they were often brutally honest and blunt about what they saw as the reasons why certain folks were "never going to amount to much". As I've gotten older, I can see that they often had more than one excellent point and I want to share with everyone some of those points that are now "policitically incorrect" but still true....

You would often hear the saying "a bad wife (homemaker) can throw it out the window with a spoon faster than he can haul it in the front door with full wheelbarrows". What they meant was that the tiny little automatic habits you have can either keep you going or sink your ship. A little waste in almost everything you do adds up to huge costs as the bad habits keep being repeated without thought over and over. A wasteful household consumes more of everything, and that everything costs money! And making that money costs you time which is your LIFE. Why squander it on stuff, every human is worth more than that.

One example no one likes to have pointed out is that your time at home is NOT worth what you are paid at the office! If it was, no one could afford to sleep 8 hours - they would be trying to get by with no more than 4 and paying horrid prices healthwise later. When you are at home you need to switch your focus from quantity done poorly to some done well and try to plan out as much wasted work as possible.

If by mowing your own yard you can save $250 every month at 2 mows a month then study what is stopping you. Is there too much yard? Is there a problem with the equipment hindering instead of helping? Should you look at replacing high care items with stuff that can safely be ignored in terms of constant care? Why are you stuck with the hassle and is it REALLY worth it - could you dump some of it?

Many folks have found that replacing lawn in hard to mow or tend areas with ground covers is a win/win deal after the 2nd or 3rd year. Yes, it may cost you $100+ to convert an area you took 45 minutes to mow to a never mow or mow 1 or 2 times a year set up but you get back 45 minutes of your LIFE every time you don't have to do that chore. And the life/time savings keep repeating forever or until you move away. Your time is better spent with those you love (2 legged or 4 legged) than in keeping up high maintainance stuff that will never love you back and just stresses you out.

Taking care of your "stuff" is another win/win idea. Example - Look at your furniture in the kitchen. Lets say you have a table, 5 chairs and a baker's rack that are not permanently attached in place. Every day you have to move it all so you can sweep and clean. And the fabric seats get really nasty and are hard to clean. What if you put wheels under the table and chairs? How much repeated work every day would that save you? - 10 minutes every day X 365 days X 10 years starts to be some meaningful time. How about changing to a no care fabric that wipes clean?

Would you keep the area cleaner if it was easier? Could another person give you meaningful help if it were suddenly possible for a 7 year old to sweep and do it right since they don't have to pick up and move the chairs? If you keep dirt more picked up in the kitchen, the rooms that are next on the path through the house will stay cleaner too, since there will be less to get tracked everywhere. And it's the DIRT that damages the flooring, damages furniture and rugs, stains the painted areas, causes 90% of the work and just looks bad and makes you feel like it is hopeless and you can't win. Damage eventually will cost money to repair - why not avoid as much of that type of expense as possible?

Look at your clothes - how often have you looked down AFTER you spilled something that cannot be washed out and were mad at yourself for ruining a good item of clothing? Maybe even - GASP! a brand new item. Make it a habit to change out of clothes suitable for church/work etc as soon as you come home. Put on those clothes you SAID you were "saving for cleaning/yardwork". You are a lot more likely to actually DO some of that dirty work and chores if you can dive right in without worrying about messing up your clothes. And your clothes will last longer. And one $30 item per person per month not needing to be replaced means money left in your pocket. And do treat stains, sew back loose buttons, catch up drooping hems etc. A stitch in time saves a lot more than nine.

Model this behavior for your kids and you'll spend less on their clothes and stuff too. When I was a child, my grandparents set the example in this type of stuff and the whole family followed along 99% of the time. And by simply explaining that when I forgot and ruined something that this meant that due to the need to pay to replace it there was no money for X made the lesson stick.

The joys of a pantry -when you have a system

Debbie Z. — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 04:22:00 GMT

I still embrace the simple pantry system my Grandmother taught me 30 years ago. I can not even begin to calculate how much money, time and hassle it has saved me. The concept is simple: Look at what you USE and build up a stockpile of all of those items that you can. Learn when it is a good deal at the normal price, a great deal at a reduced sale price or a KILLER deal when they decide to get rid of the item. Killer deals come along very seldom, but they are the most satisfying to scoop up. I love it when the company changes the label or size etc and the grocer decides that they need it to go away immediately and mark it down below their cost - even better if you also have coupons.

I keep a 6 month to 5 year supply of such items. When you only need to go to your storage area instead of the store you save money three times plus tons of your time. First, you bought the item on sale, not at full price. It never seems to be on sale when you have run out and need it now. Second, you saved the cost of going to get it such as gas, busfare, wear and tear on car, etc. But third, you never saw the impulse items because you did not set foot in the store. That can be a huge savings! Companies spend millions learning how to shut down your intelligent side and get you to pick up and buy items you did not know you wanted until you saw them. It is a game you can only win if you limit their chances at you.

You can stash supplies from lightbulbs to canned goods to bagged rice to TP to toothpaste and pasta. And the items can be stored anywhere that they are protected from the damaging effects of heat, cold, water etc. Which means anywhere in the living space at your home. Just avoid storing scented non-foods like laundry products, health & beauty etc in the same area as food items. Just about any item found on a store shelf can be stored at your house, but only use the space for high use items. If one box of laundry soap lasts you 3 months, having a 10 year supply is wasteful since it may break down or you may find you no longer like that item the best because you found something that works better long before it gets used up.

What I do is set up shelves like the grocer has and figure out how much I use this item. I use a lot of tuna, canned tuna keeps for 2+ years. Since I use at least a can a week 52 cans is about a year's supply. I don't plan to buy that much, I usually have about 25 cans on hand but if I found it at a great price I know about how much would add a year's supply to my stock. I have found it for 25 cents per can when the store decided to stop carrying one brand, needless to say at that point I gleefully stocked up! And don't forget to share your frugal bounty with those who have little or nothing, one of the soul satisfying things about my pantry is hearing about a need and being able to meet it and help someone out.

Hello Everyone

Debbie Z. — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 05:22:00 GMT

My name is Debbie Z and I have joined the Dollar Stretcher community today with a new blog - Kitchen Table Finances. I hope to share with others the incredible gift I was given by the older members of my family who taught me how to be frugal and watch my spending when the "norm" was to be a spender and not think about how to make stuff and money last longer. I strayed from their ways for a while in college and afterward, but I came back to my senses when I got out on my own and had to pay my own way!

In our family, at the kitchen table was where lessons of every type were taught and sometimes driven home by a comment of "You were told that would happen if you.., so now what are you going to do to fix this mess?". Hopefully some of those little tips and tricks of a different way of seeing the world can help others as much as they helped me. My Grands (grandparents) all lived until I was a young adult or until I was nearly 40 so I received lots of life lessons in the little things that very quietly let you pile up the savings in all the monies you are not forced to spend.

So to share a few things as examples:

My Grands were horrified at the thought of making a special trip for anything. We kept a fully stocked food and supply pantry. And you put EVERYTHING on a shopping list so you would not forget to buy it while you were in town. Your neighbors and friends did likewise, so if you needed something the odds were high you could borrow one and buy them a replacement when you shopped again. You can still do this today.

An unusual way to save is to never buy any vehicle that is the color of the road or the shadows if you can avoid it. If you already own one like this, make it a constant habit to always drive with your headlights on so others will see you. You can replace a lot of extra headlights for what one wreck caused by someone who did not see you and hit your car would cost you. Never use the so called parking lights - they cannot be seen well enough to let someone avoid hitting you.

Never just destroy anything out of idleness, I have watched so many people sit and tear up something that they later had to repair or replace. Isn't it easier to just not tear it up to start with? Even paperclips, sheets of paper, and pencils are useless once mangled and cost money and effort to replace. And someone with "monkey fingers" who picks at loose wallpaper, flaking paint, loose buttons, a seam coming unravelled etc means that the item often now requires time consuming repair and you may have it out of service for days or weeks until it is repaired. And most people today may not know how to repair something that has gone from a tiny problem to the whole item being messed up so they have to buy another.