I have a few things planned to give as Christmas gifts. All of them involve me making things -- knitted items, crocheted items, baked goods, home made wrinkle cream, and jewelry. I just hope I can get everything completed on time!
I have a few things finished already. I still need to shop for inexpensive baskets, decorative tins or buckets, or something else cute and clever to put the gifts in. I will most likely make family baskets that include a variety of items.
Brrr...the cold air is in our state and the chilly winds make for some raging headaches sometimes. Add to that the dry winter air being even drier inside the house due to heat, and you have a formula for not only headaches but bouts of bronchitis.
Last week I was experiencing both. I had a dry, hacking cough that wasn't caused by a cold or flu. I just couldn't stop coughing. To aide in relief, Son put a small pan of water on the stove and set it to simmer. In minutes, my cough abated and I could breathe more easily.
I normally keep a pan or can of water on the top of one of the heaters to add moisture back into the air at home. But for some reason, I just hadn't done it this year. Doing that one small thing can really help prevent the terrible cough due to chronic bronchitis. Now I need to find a natural migraine headache relief so I can stop suffering so much after an outing in the chilly wind of winter. Those headaches are so painful that all I want to do is sleep them off.
Sleeping so much really isn't an option.
Gas is going up again. This doesn't just affect you and your car, it affects just about every aspect of your life. When gasoline goes up, so does diesel fuel. When diesel fuel goes up, so does everything else.
That's because at some point in time, everything you see around you --in your home, in grocery stores, in the department stores, in the furniture stores, in the restaurants. What happens when diesel goes up in price? Shipping costs go up overall. Consumer prices go up. You will see the result of higher gas prices on the grocery store shelves and everywhere else that you shop.
Generally, those prices don't go back down when gas prices go down, either. Merchants tend to keep the prices, and sometimes even raise them more, even when their costs for goods are reduced. We do live in a capitalistic free enterprise system, so there's really nothing to stop them.
However, we must be even wiser with our dollars. More and more, people are turning to gardening, DIY projects, and other ways to cut spending. Are you doing this as well?
I'd love to know in comments what you are doing to reduce your spending.
Sometimes I realize that I am not taking good enough care of myself. It shows in my skin, in dark circles under my eyes, and in the way I get tired easily.
I know that if I don't take care of myself, no one else will. Still, sometimes I think that I just don't have time to treat myself well. That I don't have 5 minutes a day to take vitamins or use blackhead remover or rest the proper amount of time. I know I'm just lying to myself.
I have exactly the same amount of time as anyone else, I just don't use my time wisely. In fact, I'm often very guilty of wasting my time.
Before you gasp, admit it -- you are probably just as guilty as I am. What is a person to do? The next few posts will be dedicated to establishing a schedule that really works without expecting every moment to be filled with productivity.
I've been gone since Thanksgiving Day to visit my Mom in a town about 100 miles from where I live. Son stayed home.
Friday night he called to say the power went out. He had just finished preparing himself some food, it was about 8:30 PM, when the power went off. He's pretty resourceful, so he got the kerosene lamps filled up and used them for light. Since we have a well, no water is available when the power goes off, but I told him I had emergency water stored under my bed. We also have a couple of small propane emergency stoves, so he could use those if he got too cold.
He has an inverter in his truck if he needed to use it to charge his phone or laptop, but there would be no internet connection without taking the wireless modem and phone line out to the truck and somehow hooking it up out there. Still he did have his cell phone so he could at least communicate with others if he had to.
He told me Saturday night that the power came back on around 1 AM. I felt sorry for any of our neighbors who don't have emergency supplies on hand for food, water, and heat!
The biggest shopping season of the year begins Friday, also known as Black Friday. It's called that because this is the day when merchants are hoping that there will be enough transactions to put them in the black financially. And, the sales are abundant.
There are Doorbuster Sales everywhere, special in-store-only deals, sales that only are available during certain hours of the day, and items marked down to almost ridiculous low prices. This is also a day when many will avail themselves of the lower prices to help round out their Christmas shopping.
For some of us, though, it's been a week or more since our paychecks have been handed to us. The everyday needs have taken up a lot of our finances and we may feel the need to acquire payday advance loans in order to take advantage of the sales. Just be careful.
Using this as a tool and making sure you are going to pay back what you should, on the date promised, is very important. You are borrowing against your next paycheck, so crunch some numbers, do the math, work your budget and only borrow what you absolutely need to and what you are very confident you can repay in a timely manner.
Are you ready for the Holiday Season Kickoff? No, I don't mean football, either. I'm talking about Thanksgiving and Christmas. You can throw New Year's Eve into the mix, too, if you want.
This is typically the season when we encounter a lot of rich, fattening foods, endless shopping, and last minute dashes for a gift for someone we forgot to add to the list. It's also a season full of stress and sometimes depression.
I find the darker days bring me down a bit. It's reported that adding indoor light will help with that, but I'm such a skinflint I don't want to use the extra electricity! However, if I dedicate some time to creativity I can bring myself out of the doldrums without adding expense to my lifestyle.
I accomplish this through knitting, weaving, crocheting, painting, and jewelry making. These things bring joy to my ordinary life and I can use what I produce as gifts, reducing the amount I need to purchase. I can do some shopping online and get good deals without having to be pushed and shoved in the stores. (That really gets to me -- I hate being jostled about.)
Son has a pretty good communications system setup. He's got game machines that will go online, using our internet access. He has a phone that can go online. And he has an ipod, though I don't think it's an ipod nano. He can go online with the ipod he has, store tunes, and use applications.
I'm a bit techno-challenged when it comes to this kind of thing. He has suggested to me that I need to get an ipod so I can use the internet without lugging along my laptop. However, since I have old eyes, I find the small screens a bit difficult to read and I think I'll just stick with my laptop when I go places.
I see a lot of folks with the smaller devices, though, and they seem pretty content with them.
So, tell me what you have and what you think about these newer, smaller tools?
There is a difference. An item for the kitchen or a bathroom fixture might be clean, but it still might not be sanitized as well as clean.
Cleaning simply means the dirt has been removed. However, bacteria may still remain. I don't want bacteria lurking about on my cutting board, kitchen counter, or bathroom fixtures, ready to grow and possibly make someone sick. So, after cleaning it's a good idea to also sanitize the surfaces.
I have read many sites that recommend vinegar as a good all-purpose cleaner -- and it is. However, it does not disinfect. The food preservation qualities of vinegar (keeping food bacteria from growing in pickles and other canned foods) is not the same as killing germs and bacteria.
To kill the "bad guys" you also need bleach or some other kind of real disinfectant. Diluting 3/4 cup of bleach into a gallon of water is sufficient to kill germs on surfaces. (Be sure to spot test the surface in an inconspicuous location before using this full on.) Put some of this solution in a spray bottle to make the application of it easier. Use it on doorknobs, faucet handles, toilets, cutting boards, and other surfaces that may harbor bacteria.
Do save money by creating your own cleaning products. This is a good idea. But don't put your or your family's health at risk by not killing germs in your home.
Things are working out well as far as reducing my expenses. For one thing, my electric bill has now dropped by $30, which is pretty amazing.
Basically, to get it to drop, I've been very mindful of things being turned off...even the CFL bulbs. As low-cost as they are to operate, they aren't free to operate.
I have everything plugged into power strips so that when I leave, I can just switch off the strip and turn every item off. This includes my coffee maker, microwave oven, TV, DVD player, and surround sound system. I also make sure all chargers are unplugged. These so-called "wall warts" pull electricity even when you aren't using them if they're left plugged in.
My AC is turned off completely so that the timer and other digital functions don't pull power while it's not in use. I only use the hot water for bathing and for washing dishes. I use cold water only for rinsing dishes and for all laundry. I make sure to turn the water off when I'm brushing my teeth and between sinkfuls of dishes to be rinsed. (I am on a well so I'm trying to use less water which equals less time the pump has to run.)
We've had some really chilly days and nights lately, but I only run a space heater in the room where I am, and even then, it's turned down enough just to knock the chill out of the air. I dress in warm clothes in the house to help reduce the need for more heat, wearing socks and house shoes instead of going barefoot.
And I really mean that! Today, Son and I sorted through a lot of stuff again, getting it out of the house if it wasn't absolutely necessary. We also worked on tearing apart an old electric space heater that looks like a wood stove. I salvaged the front glass, the smoked glass behind the fake logs, the heater unit and blower, the part the turns to make the fake fire appearance, and the light bulb that reflects against the fake fire attachment.
We also salvaged the cord and switches, one of which is actually a dimmer switch. What plans do i have for this stuff? None, as yet, but I'm thinking some of these parts might prove very useful as I reduce my needs for grid-tied power and move toward wind and solar.
Recently, I got some conduit and bicycle parts from FreeCycle to add to my "junk pile" of things that may be useful during the transition. Son's old truck (motor is bad in it) has a large alternator that I can also use for my soon-to-be-built wind turbine.
Gathering these materials really is fun to do and puts feet to my dreams of going off-grid and living a simpler, more frugal lifestyle.
As I continue my off grid plans, I find I need to add up the watts I'll need to produce. This means looking at every single thing I plan to keep and seeing how many watts it consumes when operating. Only then will I know how many I'll need to generate through the batteries and inverter.
I figure heating will be the biggest watt hog unless I find a small propane heater. Space heaters and other heaters consume a great deal of electricity when operating. So, what I'm planning is tantamount to electricity diet pills -- I'm reducing the amount of power I pull so that I not only reduce my electric bill while I'm still on the grid, but I make it easier to transition to off grid power sources.
I'm probably going to have to remain tied to the grid for awhile until I've got all this worked out, but at least I'll be weaning myself off of power company dependency!
I am gathering supplies and materials to begin some off-grid projects. One of the things I'll be attempting to build is a small wind turbine for generating electricity. I'm picking up bicycle parts from a local FreeCycle member today, and some of those should prove useful in the project.
Soon, I'll purchase a generator, 3 deep cycle batteries, and an inverter to power at least part of my home. The wind turbine can be used to charge the batteries, but when there's no wind and the batteries run low, the generator can be used as a backup system.
The biggest obstacles to overcome are:
I'm just taking baby steps in this right now, but hopefully will have it all set up over the next few months.
I actually have some very definite goals for how to spend my time if I can reduce the number of hours I work.
Actually, I could do some selling at a local flea market or perhaps at a farmers market that allows hand crafted materials. Maybe by next summer, I will have enough herbs to sell at a farmers market, too.
I need to develop more raised beds (ground here is pretty rocky just a couple of inches beneath the soil) for growing herbs and some basic vegetables. I want to also plant fruit trees and grape vines. Maybe even eventually get 4 or 5 chickens and a milk goat, like I used to have.
I've been doing my homework, so to speak, on going at least partially off-grid. I'd very much like to be out from under the electric bill, but it means cutting back on some conveniences. However, since I live alone, I'm not overly concerned about them.
I already use CFL bulbs throughout my house. I don't use the electric stove that's in the kitchen but have opted for low-wattage countertop alternatives and a couple of single burner propane stoves for all my cooking needs. In fact, the single burner propane stoves actually do most of my cooking.
There are two major items that are 220v, though -- the water heater and the well pump. I can probably do a lot toward using a different water heating source, such as solar water heating for baths or just using the propane stoves for heating water for other needs. But, since I have a deep well pump, it's going to be hard to get around that obstacle. Still, if I can eliminate the need for much of the power consumption here, maybe that will be the only thing still on the grid and it shouldn't cost too much to operate.
I'm going to be installing some gutters and rain barrels so I can have water for cleaning, laundry, and bathing. Drinking water can be transported home, thus eliminating the pull on the well pump even further.
There are a lot of thoughts in my head, whirling around, as to ways I can reduce expenditures. These reductions will allow me to reduce the amount of hours I have to work at my job, giving me more time at home.
Sometime in the very near future, I'm going to have to set up my own domain again. I had 4+ domains a couple of years ago, but times got hard and I had to let them go. I was working way too many hours at my job and not making nearly enough money.
I might think about managed hosting next time around, depending on my needs.
Right now, though, I'm saving up for off-grid equipment. I am looking at a 2000 watt generator that isn't terribly high priced. I've also been studying plans for a wind power turbine I should be able to set up in my yard to help with some power. Of course, I'll also need several deep cycle batteries to store the power, once it's generated. And a place to keep all this stuff out of the weather.
Can't keep the batteries inside, of course, which means a small lean-to type of shed, probably at the back of the house, out of sight. I don't want people seeing this stuff and stealing it!
Once I get these things in place, I can get an inverter or two for running small wattage items. I'm already using CFL bulbs, so the total drain isn't high even if they are all on, which, of course, they never are. My small chest freezer doesn't use much wattage and I'm still seriously considering using a second one in place of a traditional refrigerator. (The theory is that because the cold air doesn't "fall out" when the door is opened, it runs more efficiently and for fewer hours a day.)
