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By Penny, February 27, 2010 3:40 pm

I don’t typically type emotional blatherings on this webpage, but I wanted to explain why I haven’t been on in about a week.  I find my motivation for many of the things I enjoy starting to slide. However, tomorrow I will share with you things I have gotten done.

I hate my job. No, seriously. I found myself backsliding from apathy to animosity.  Here I am, squarely in bitterness land.  I don’t think I can continue to compromise my belief structure this way.  It’s demoralizing to sell out my values everyday. And for what?  A salary? Benefits? It is an abysmal waste of time to keep a job out of fear.  To quote Dolly Freed’s father, “Sure, you have security, but the slaves on the plantation didn’t starve either.”  Right now, I am supporting a system that is modeled from the Prussian model, designed to create workers and squelch any creative thought.  We are schooling our children, not educating them. The length of adolescence keeps expanding, independent of any logical thought on the matter.  Why should a parent of a college student think it’s acceptable to call a professor on the student’s behalf?  Why would a twenty five year old law school student find it acceptable to renege on a rental contract because he “found a better deal’?  Our population is largely becoming infantalized and shallow, only interested in clothing, gossip or sports.  And why?  Because we schooled them to be this way.  A shallow populace is easier to control and manipulate, whether it be employees or citizens.  Anymore, our most sucessful inventors and entrepeneurs are high school or college dropouts.  Mind you, education is one of the most important processes; however, education is not the same as schooling. In my personal experience, most of the people I know who are intelligent and introspective are not graduates of college; some did not even graduate high school.  Now, I do know people who are college graduates and have the aforementioned qualities, but I know many more college grads who are just as superficial and shallow as the “uneducated.”  Education is a lifestyle choice which has absolutely nothing to do with school. An educated person is able to self-teach or find his own teacher.  He is willing  to try things and even fail, then get back up and do it again.  Resilience is critical to education and sucess.  Really, it’s just a matter of getting up one more time than you fall down. 

All of these thoughts have been rolling around in my head for a while now. By and large, I have been rather apathetic to the body politik involved in school.  However, I have been moving towards aggression, slowly but surely.  For instance,  a student threatened a teacher with bodily harm. As is procedure, the teacher wrote up the student, assuming that the necessary steps would be taken to remove the student from school.  Nope.  The school refused to adequately or effectively punish the student.  The teacher had to go outside the school and press charges against the student.  Now, the school is targeting the teacher because he “went outside the school.”  It’s ludicrious.  Teachers’ grades are examined for failure rates, though no one bothers to look at why the students are failing, largely because they refuse to do most of the work.  Exclamations of “fuck this class” and “this class is bullshit” loud enough to disrupt the entire class will only get you one day of In school suspension, which by the way, has been reduced from being a full day to ending at 1pm, so that the administration can code the ISS as a time out instead of a full day suspension. It is so they can report to the state that the behavior problems are diminishing.  This is just the tip of the iceberg, as it were, explaining my anger which is starting to seep out of my skin. 

I am transforming from the cheerful employee to the sarcastabitch from hell.  For those of you unfamiliar with the idea of a referendum, it is a request for higher taxes from our local taxpayers in order to fund projects.  While the superintendent was pitching the referendum to the staff, because he wants us to call people to get them to vote for it, he said, “can you hear me?”  Without thinking, I replied, “unfortunately.”  Apparently, I said it loud enough to be heard four rows up from where I was sitting.  I am having a harder time containing my anger at students who absolutely refuse to work, but then apologize for their behavior and want to know why their grade is bad. They will ask for help, after having been complete assholes.  Somehow, they have been taught that you can get away with being a jerk, so long as you say “I’m sorry.” 

On Thursday, the proverbial straw fell onto this camel’s back.  I was teaching “The Speech to the Virginia Convention” by Patrick Henry, the one featuring the immortal words “give me liberty, or give me death!”  This brought about the concept of dying for honorable reasons.  Nope, nothing is worth dying for or getting hurt.  They would rather be alive under any circumstances, even slavery, because at least they would be alive. My hope for our country took a serious blow and is currently on life support.  I know that it is popular these days to say that they are “just children,” but I don’t believe that for a second.  They are from the ages of 15-20 (yes, I have some twenty year old juniors); they are adults by most generations before. I was so depressed, that I went home and did nothing. I mean, absolutely nothing. I wouldn’t even get off the couch to cook. DH asked me if I was hungry, to which I responded, “yes, but I don’t feel like doing anything about it.” My plan was to just be hungry rather than do anything.  DH had to cook dinner, which was delicious, because I felt so broken. I have gone up at least two sizes of clothes and added thirty pounds over the course of the last five months because the stress makes me want to eat or punch people in the face. Since, obviously, I can’t accost people, I eat to allevate the stress. 

I can’t do this anymore.

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By Penny, February 22, 2010 6:13 am

A decorated table for a fancy dinner at home.

Under a tight budget, people believe that they can’t go out and have fun.  Maybe the “going out” part might be impossible, but really, how much fun is “going out”? You can’t get exactly what you want, when you want it. You often have to wait in line, wait for someone to bring your food, and then wait for them to bring the check.  The food is rarely worth all the effort. The important part of going out is the company, so why not bring the company in?  Have a dinner party!

1.       Don’t be afraid to make “poor food.”  Soups, beans, stews and pastas are all delicious and budget friendly.  Most people do enjoy that kind of home cooking.  For guests, I made a ham and bean soup with fried hoe cakes and homemade peach jam.

2.       Be creative with meals. Fried eggs, scrapple, and biscuits make a lovely breakfast for dinner. Bake pizza crusts ahead of time and have the guests help with topping them.  Better yet, make each person a small crust of their own. 

3.       Ask the guests to contribute something. Majority of folks ask if they can bring something.  We’ve been conditioned to instantly say “no, of course not!”  Instead, ask them what they might like to bring that would complement your meal or what their specialty is. When people ask, they do want to bring something, they just need some direction. This weekend, I told my friend to bring vegetables to dinner.

4.       Have fun with table decorations. I’m not suggesting that you go out and buy something, but it is fun to decorate the table with something as simple as a table cloth or a vase of flowers from the garden.  Decorations can make the dinner feel special.

5.       Choose “theme” meals.  I’ve been known to make Chinese, Indian or Thai themed meals. Now, are they as good as “authentic” meals? Probably not. However, they are tasty all the same! There are about a gajillion different recipes available online. (yes, I’m aware that’s not an actual number, but I’m using hyperbole here)

6.       Your slow cooker is your friend. No, seriously, it is! There is no rule that says you have to make a labor intensive meal to impress the tar out of your friends.  Make the day less stressful on you and use a tasty slow cooker recipe. If you feel funny about serving straight from the cooker, you can put the food in a dish or bowl for the table.

7.       Choose one part of the meal to emphasize. By making one part of the meal the focal point, the rest of the meal can be fairly simple.  For instance, bake your own bread for the pasta, but don’t worry about making a complicated side dish. The meal will seem elegant and all parts will be able to stand together without competition.

We often have people over for dinner; as of late, it has been three times or more a week.  These tips are things that I do, sometimes, though the theme meals not as regularly. The meal is mostly about sharing fellowship with people you care about, not about the food.   The important thing for you to remember is that your friends are just that because they like you, not because they are after your cooking. 

Does anyone else have some suggestions for dinner parties? Favorite recipes? Tips?

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By Penny, February 12, 2010 9:47 am

This is a fifty five gallon water barrel, nearly covered by the snow!

We have gotten a lot of snow this past week and a half, an unprecedented amount, in fact. It is lovely, considering I haven’t been in school since noon last Friday and won’t return until Tuesday of next week.  Wohoo. 

I have been taking this time to get my housework in order.  Once again, I have let it slide a bit.  However, once I am done, I have plenty of posts coming your way.  To be fair, I have managed to can some goose meat, as my husband was blessed with nine snow geese the other day. And I baked some bread and made some homemade tortillas. I guess I have been a busy bee!  Expect a post on how I’m working on gardening and how I sold some text books online.

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By Penny, February 4, 2010 6:27 am

This is a repost of an article I wrote not too long after our housefire last year.

It probably sounds like a cheesy self-help title, but it isn’t any less true. While the fire was stressful and the ensuing fallout even more so, it’s interesting to see the effect of owning less. Right now, my husband and I are staying in a living room at my mother’s house. Since many of our things were destroyed or packed up by the salvage company, we don’t have much. All of our clothes fit in one singular bureau. I have three pairs of shoes, while my husband only has two pairs. I stack them neatly next to the door. It’s so easy to keep everything tidy, when I have a limited number of things to tend. I never realized it, but the over abundance of things made it difficult at our old house.

In January of last year, my grandfather had a stroke, so his house had to be sold in order to pay for his care. Because we liked the house, my husband and I purchased it in the spring. Unfortunately, all of my grandfather’s things were still in the house when we moved in. As you can imagine, we had double, sometimes triple, of everything. My mother insisted that we put the things we didn’t want in the garage so she could go through them later. Later, as it were, never came. There were plenty of things still in the house that we didn’t need but couldn’t get rid of.

When the fire ripped through the upstairs, many things were burned, but more things were destroyed by water damage. In the following week, most of our things have been packed into boxes by the cleaning crew. I’ve found that there are few things I “need.” I would suggest that you get this freedom for yourself, but without the fire, of course.

1. Limit the number of “repeat” items you need. How many different novelty mugs do you need?

2. Weed out your wardrobe. Choose a reasonable number of blouses, shirts, pants, etc. Then, go through all of your clothes. Figure out which pieces you really love, limiting yourself to your reasonable number. Get rid of the rest.

3. Ask yourself about everything you own. Do you love it? If not, are you keeping it for actual sentimental reasons or because you feel that you should? Don’t let things take space in your life out of obligation or guilt.

4. Once you’ve decided what to get rid of, take it immediately to your car. Do not pass go, do not collect $200. Take it to a local charity as soon as is feasible. If you’ve opted to have a yard sale, be warned that the stock pile is wily and may take over quickly. I find that I benefit more from the tax deduction and the mental relief.

Once the house is rebuilt and we can move back in, I have a new plan. I will go through every box and evaluate whether we really need what is in the box. Nothing will be allowed back in that is useless or unloved. Owning things means have more responsibilities to “stuff.” The less things means more freedom: the power of less.

Do you have any experience in the power of less? Do you have any purging suggestions?

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By Penny, February 3, 2010 4:26 am

Laundry Soap

1/3 bar of laundry soap ( I use a homemade soap that I barter eggs for, but Crystal from The Family Homestead sells a lovely laundry soap here  Any soap will do, though.)

½ cup borax

½ cup washing soda (NOT baking soda!)

Grate soap into a saucepan. Add soda and borax, stirring until the soap is dissolved.  Remove from heat.  Pour 4 cups hot water into the bucket.   Now add your soap mixture and stir.  Now add 1 gallon plus 6 cups of water and stir.  Let the soap sit for about 24 hours and it will gel.  You use about ½ cup per load.

Here’s the pictorial:

The directions say use a sauce pan, but I just use my stainless steel mixing bowl. I assure you, the matching ensemble was accidental.

Grate the soap. You could whirl it in a food processor, but I hate cleaning the blasted thing and would rather hand grate for just a small amount like that.

Here's all the ingredients together.

Mix the ingredients completely until the shredded soap melts.

Add water to the pan you're going to keep it in. I just use a dishpan that I keep on the dryer.

Add the soap mixture, stirring constantly

add the rest of the water, and You're done!

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By Penny, February 2, 2010 4:53 am

This month is the first month where I am carefully recording our harvest, preservation, and budget progress.  It is my hope that I will be diligent in continuing to keep accurate records.  Record keeping is an important part of pursuing and achieving goals.

For the month of January, we:

Found $90 for a snowflake to the credit card.

Canned 31 quarts and 12 pints of food.

Harvested 15 ducks and 5 geese

Butchered one deer.

Collected 182 eggs.

Corned 8lbs of venison.

Traded six dozen eggs for soap.

All told, I think we have made considerable progress in our goal of being debt-free and self-reliant.

For the month of February, we hope to start spinach and kale in our cold frame, start planning our garden, order seeds, baking snack foods instead of buying them and refinance our mortgage, to save about $100/month in mortgage payments.  I’ll keep you posted!

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By Penny, February 1, 2010 7:11 am

Finished batch of homemade laundry soap. It's part frugality, part science!

On Frugal Dad, Jason once wrote about balance and frugality, relating to things he will not do for frugality’s sake.  He specifically mentioned making laundry soap and questioned whether it was “really worth the few dollars saved.”  That protest is one that I hear often, one that irritates me.

            People assume that frugal tactics do not save them enough money for the time it takes. Generally, they compare the money they save versus their hourly wage.  This method is not accurate, as it does not take into account several factors.  First, their hourly wage is before taxes, so subtract 15-20% off of the hourly rate to get a more accurate number.  Ten dollars an hour becomes eight dollars an hour, like magic (though not the good kind!).  Secondly, there are costs that go with work, such as gas and lunches, which may cost about fifty cents an hour.  Our hourly wage is now at $7.50, a far cry from where it was.  The money saved is tax free, so its number stays the same in this comparison.  It’s important that folks really understand the math, before they say it’s not worth the time.

            Furthermore, I doubt that anyone is going to stay home and make laundry soap instead of going to work. The time spent doing frugal things would not have been used to work and make money.  Excuse the gross generalization, but the time would have most likely been spent watching television.  Television has taught us that we need to avoid work at all costs and buy products that save us time.  Time which should be used to watch more television, specifically commercials.  At any rate, unless you’re going to stay home and bake bread instead of going to the office, it’s like finding extra money. I have far more opportunities to save money on a small, daily scale than I do on buying refrigerators or negotiating on cars.  The times that I wash out a plastic baggie will eventually add up to much larger amount.

            I just loath the fact that everyone assumes that frugality is a drudgery and that I must be suffering horribly.  As a matter of fact, I happen to enjoy doing things for myself. I get a kick out of making most of my necessities myself.  Bearing that in mind though, I have to agree with Jason’s conclusion that frugality is a highly personal concept, varying from person to person.  I would never recommend frugal tactics that would save money but cause misery.

As far as the laundry soap goes, I make 64 loads worth in about 14 minutes.  It costs me $.71 per batch, while the equivalent in commercial soap, at sale prices, would be $8.95.  I save $8.24 in, for simplicity’s sake, 15 minutes which brings our “hourly rate” to a hefty $32.96/hr.  Who knew laundry soap could be so lucrative?