Moving on the Cheap

First off, to my readers, I apologize.
I know its bad form to start correspondence with an apology, but I feel I should just throw it out there right away so you know I haven't forgotten you. I have found that I often wonder about the blogability of a moment frequently throughout the days, yet I never actually blog about them. For that, I am sorry. Not that I want my blog to become a minute by minute update of everything that's happening in my life (there are plenty of ways to do that these days... ahem FacebookTwitterLinkedInInstagrametc...) but I still want to share my ideas with you and hear your feedback.

I haven't posted I the last few weeks because we have been moving. And I'll tell ya what, moving with a 1 year old ain't easy. Fortunately (also unfortunately) he takes long naps so I have lots of time in the house to pack\unpack (and not much time to do out-of-house errands). Besides that challenge, no matter how cheaply you try to move, it always ends up being really expensive. Here's how we did it as cheaply as possible.

We moved everything ourselves with our truck and trailer. Granted this takes a lot of time and late nights, so if you're on a strict schedule this may not work for you, but if you can swing it, the cost of gas for an in-city move is considerably less expensive than renting a truck, albeit more inconvenient. So far we have used one extra tank of gas, costing us $60.

We got free boxes and packing materials. I searched Craigslist for a day or two until I found a big enough bunch of boxes for free, with packing paper and wardrobe boxes to boot.

We enlisted friends for help. Not many people like to actually help you move, but I got several days of free childcare and we are storing a few things in a friend's extra garage. I also swapped childcare with another friend and in return she helped me clean my old apartment. Be creative when asking your friends for help.

We traded furniture we were going to sell for carpet cleaning. That worked out wonderfully, I had a futon couch and a kitchen table I was going to sell, but the family who runs the carpet cleaning business said their couch AND table had broken recently and they were looking for replacements! The original bid was $233, but after some talking and trading, my carpets got cleaned for only $75! I also sold my other couch and bought a much nicer futon for the same price, so I still have an extra bed and a couch AND its way more comfortable than the last one.

Sell off your excess. I was hoping to have this mostly done by the time we moved, but sadly I still have a mountain of stuff to sell. Since the move, I have sold 4 things netting about $40.

If you need to purchase something, shop sales. We needed storage bins for the things we're storing off site, and since it's the first of the year, storage and organization items are on really good sales. I got 14 sturdy bins for $90, about 45% off. Turns out we really did need that many! Unfortunately the curtains I needed were not on sale, so that was a whopping $150 out the window. Literally. Though in reality, because its an old house with single pane windows and its January in Montana, the curtains were a necessity. I'll probably save that much on my heating bills throughout the rest of the winter so it was really worth it.

Plan for the unexpected. I know this is a tough one, because what could possibly go wrong... Well, a flat tire on the truck (could be $400 for new tires), the previous tenant cut the pipes to the washer ($15 per trip to the laundromat), both cars needed new batteries since we no longer have covered parking ($230), none of the plugs are grounded ($15 for adapters), the aforementioned previously unnecessary curtains ($150), we got a new kitchen table since the last one didn't fit ($50), disposable diapers and wipes for convenience ($25), cleaning supplies ($15), eating out ($25ish), the list could go on, but I'll stop there.

So you can see that while moving on the cheap is possible, my advice would be to budget twice as much as you're expecting to spend because you never know. For instance, we were planning to move for about $300, and it turned out to be almost double if you don't count the replacement tires since that is bound to happen anyways.

Simple: Christmas

My family Christmases have always been pretty simple, family focused affairs. When I married my husband, it was a little more tricky. We now had two families to visit... but since everyone was pretty close, we made it work fairly easy. Then we moved to Montana which is two states away. If that wasn't enough, we had our first child on Christmas day last year. Needless to say, our Christmases have gotten quite a bit more complicated.

Oh, and did I mention my extended family lives in Florida? Yeah, I just kicked that up a notch.

This year is the first year we're trying to figure out a long-distance Christmas/birthday.

We're going home for two weeks over Christmas and New Year’s Day, so we will have plenty of time to spend with family and see some friends. Also, we're bringing our dog, just to make it that much more complicated.

Our holidays will look somewhat like this:

Christmas Eve morning/day spent with my parents. Call/Skype my family in Florida.

Christmas Eve evening spent with my husband's extended family.

Christmas Day morning spent with my in-laws.

Christmas Day dinner at 2pm with my parents and my in-laws.

Nels' birthday celebration with cake & presents after Christmas dinner.

New Year’s Eve is up for grabs, we'll wait to see what other people are doing and decide how we'd like to participate. We kicked it low-key with our friends while the babies slept in the back room. It was just my kind of celebrating.

In addition to the celebrations, I am also making and sending gifts to my extended family, making gifts for several of my friends' kids and for a few of my closest girlfriends. In all, I have 10 kid gifts, 3 gifts for friends, gifts for my parents, my in-laws, my brother and sister-in-law, my husband's sister and her husband (I just settled with sending them a baby gift since they are expecting early next year), my husbands second sister (who loves books), and a box of homemade goodies and a photo book for my Florida family. And most all of it will be homemade.

Seems complicated, right? It's getting more so every year. These are a few things I do to simplify.

I wrap all my gifts with brown package paper (I bought a large roll off Amazon for $8 three years ago and I still have enough left for this year and part of next year) and I buy one multi-pack of ribbon (for about $5) to embellish. I don't use tags, I just write who it's to on the wrapping paper with a marker. My only supplies for wrapping gifts is one roll of paper, one spool of ribbon, scissors, a marker and tape.

I use Amazon wish lists, especially for my sisters-in-law and brother. I don't get really hung up on surprising people. I know they like to get gifts, and most of the time it doesn't really matter if it's a surprise or not. Call me cruel, but I often don't buy my husband a gift. He is really hard to buy for and if I can't find something he'll really use or love, I just write him a really nice (aka sexy) card and call it good. Disclaimer: I forgot the card this year… Sorry, babe.

I make gifts for my friends' kids, mostly. This year I'm making caramel corn to give to my adult friends in a pretty canister (aka recycled formula can wrapped and tied with a bow). My best friend and I agreed to give each other an experience instead of a gift. I'd like to do this a lot more next year. We ended up making sugar cookies with her two year old while the younger babies slept. It was really fun and I felt really special being a part of her long time family tradition.

I let other people cook for me. I'm fortunate that I have two mothers willing to cook amazing dinners and I don't have to lift a finger if I don't want to. Of course I always try to help with cleanup, but even that's optional. I cooked Thanksgiving dinner last year, just because I had never before cooked a holiday dinner and it seemed the thing to do on our first major holiday away from family. I don't know what I was thinking cooking for 6 hours while 8 months pregnant and severe nerve pain in my hips. I did most of the cooking from a computer chair. It turned out delicious anyways.

And now, for the big shocking plot twist: I don't decorate my house for the holidays. I have one stocking that I bought for Nels hanging on the coat closet door, but that's it, folks. No tinsel, no lights. Not even a Christmas tree. I do kind of want to decorate, but the reality is we'll be gone for Christmas so I would just have a lot more work to do when we got home. And if I want Christmas cheer, I go to my friends' beautifully decorated houses. I have to say this is the biggest stress saver for me. It won't be this way every year, so don't fear little elves, but for now this is just the way it is going to be.

And lastly, I always remind myself why we're celebrating in the first place. If your focus is on perfectly decorating the house and perfectly wrapping the perfect gifts, you are way off the mark. Even if you settle for imperfect decorations and imperfect gifts. That is not what this holiday is about. We are celebrating the birth of the most important man in the history of history. The birth of our Savior, the beginning of the greatest story ever told. Don't lose sight of the importance of the birth of Christ. All the presents and Christmas trees and Christmas hams and Polar Expresses in the world don't add up to a single drop in the ocean of His sacrifice and love and He deserves a lot more of our attention than we give Him.

Be generous. Spend a good part of your holiday this year praising the one who gave his life for you. Make a meal for someone else's family who can't afford it, or better yet, invite them to your house to share in your bounty. There is more than enough food on most tables to serve twice the people than are in attendance.

Be radical. Give all your gifts to a family who really needs some cheer in their holiday. Spend your whole Christmas budget on people who need to witness the love of Christ on this earth in a tangible way. Remember Christ came not to call the righteous, but to save sinners (Luke 5:32).

Be in prayer. Never forget we have a direct line of communication to Jesus, anytime, anywhere. You don't even have to bow your head or close your eyes. He loves to hear us and He's always listening.

What do you do to simplify the holidays?

My quest for simpler living

Today, it begins.

All my hours of research and seeking inspiration are finally bearing fruit.

I am officially a minimalist. A rational minimalist to be exact.

I am tired of having piles of clutter around my house. I am tired of stepping over my purse and a box of random stuff to sit at my desk. I am tired of not being able to use my desk because the piles of who knows what multiply and expand and cover it edge to edge. I want to have dinner with my family or sip a cup of tea with a friend or read a good book at the kitchen table without having to clear 50 lbs of clutter. I want my bedroom to be a sanctuary of rest, not a catch-all for everything I want to keep out of my kid’s reach. I want to quit having to use and store baby gates to keep my kid away from the more cluttery parts of my house.

That's a lot to want, but as they say: minimalism is thinking big and being happy. The way I see it, I've lived 28 years, 2 months and 24 days old being someone I’m not. I didn't know it, but I've been in the closet all these years. No more.

I've always been known as a pack rat, a collector of things, a messy person. Not filthy, just messy. My mom and dad always used to joke about how I would cut up a piece of paper into miniscule bits and store them in an envelope in a bag in a box in a bigger box. And it was true. I liked my things. I liked making things; I liked keeping them in bags and boxes. My natural habitat was one so covered with things that it was generally inaccessible, unless you knew the route. It must have been some deeply rooted instinct to keep predators at bay. If they couldn't reach me, then they couldn’t hurt me.

But no more. Today, I'm setting myself free from clutter. I’m setting myself and my family free from over stuffed closets, from unusable surfaces, from weekends and late nights spent organizing stuff. This is freedom from over consumption and going over budget. I'm getting free from all the little bits and bobs of things I've stored over the years but never used. This is it; I have decided. It'll be a long road, and I've taken a few baby steps, but I have a long ways to go yet.

Would you like to come with me? If you could minimize your house, what would it look like? Where would you start?

Joseph Joseph Stacking Mixing Bowls

I found the company Joseph Joseph* a while ago on another minimalist blog (I can't remember quite which one) and fell instantly in love. Practical, colorful, minimalist kitchen tools. Heavy on the tools, light on the gadgets. I especially fell in love with the Nest 9 set, which arrived at my house today! It has a large mixing bowl with no-slip base, colander, sieve, small mixing bowl that doubles as a liquid measurement from 1 fl oz to 4 cups, set of 4 measuring cups (1 cup, 1/2 cup, 1/3 cup, 1/4 cup) and a tablespoon/teaspoon. It all stacks neatly in the large mixing bowl. Here's a picture of my new Nest 9 set next to all the stuff it replaced:

It replaced a set of 3 stacking mixing bowls with lids, 2 stainless bowls, a pyrex 2 cup measuring cup, a pyrex 4 cup measuring cup, a small sieve, a collapsible colander, my coffee scoop, a set of measuring cups and a set of measuring spoons. I stacked them up as much as possible and they still take up more than twice as much space as my new stacking set.

It is kind of hard to give away a few of these things. The stacking mixing bowls I found at a thrift store for a steal, they are awesome and vintage and I've loved them every day I've owned them. My measuring cup set is actually a set of stacking matryoshka dolls, and my measuring spoons are a cool vintage tin set I looked for for a long time until I found just the perfect ones. So why am I getting rid of things I love? Because as much as I love my things, I love not having them more. I love having more space, and dare I say, I love my Nest 9 more than I love all my old things combined.

Minimizing your belongings isn't always about getting rid of clutter you don't care about. It's also finding more efficient ways to store and use the things you do love, and sometimes that means replacing them.

Update: right after I wrote this post, I got word of a family who lost everything in a house fire so I gave my things to them. Funny how things happen like that, huh? 

What things do you love in your house? How can you make them work better for you?

*not an affiliate link

Free hand soap for life!

If you've ever been to a baby/wedding shower, graduation party, housewarming party, etc etc etc, you know there are likely to be favors given away or prizes.

You should know that I am very competitive and I love to win. And I always pick the soap prize. I win frequently enough that I have built up a stash of soaps that I use to refill my hand soap dispensers.

This year, I won a foaming hand soap pump from a baby shower! (Best prize to date.) If you haven't used one, it works just like regular hand soap pump, but it foams the soap before it spits it out into your hand. This is marvelous for a frugal household because it uses a lot less soap per pump, I'm estimating about half as much. And because I use the pretty scented soaps I get from other people, I never get bored of the smell! My dispenser is half full now, and I have 2 more bottles of soap to refill, with approximately 2 refills per bottle. That means I have plenty of soap to hold me over until the next shower season.

So, lets do a cost analysis. Soap dispenser: FREE. Soap refills: FREE. Total cost: FREE + FREE = FREE!!! I love free stuff. :)

What marvelous and ingenious ways do you save money on consumables in your house?

Wheat free, dairy free pancakes

I just made pancakes for dinner. They were delicious! I really liked the texture, they're not really fluffy, but they're really light, almost like a meringue. They aren't very big, but they are very filling and you don't get the spike-crash blood sugar like you do with regular pancakes since they aren't chock full of sugar and carbs. These would be excellent for someone on a gluten free diet, a diabetic, an elimination diet or someone who's just trying to cut calories.

I got the recipe off of Pinterest, and modified it a little. Original Source
You'll need:
2 large, ripe bananas
5 eggs
1/2 cup rolled oats, uncooked (this is the part I added, it changes the texture a little but it's optional)
Total calories: 520 for the whole batch, 110 per serving

 Plop everything in the blender until it's smooth and fry on a griddle with lots of coconut oil. I used my cast iron on medium low heat, it took about 3-4 minutes on each side to get them perfectly golden brown. They are super delicious with real maple syrup. And now, lets cost compare!

2 large bananas (from Costco, $1.39/8): $0.38
5 eggs (organic, free range from Walmart, $2.29/doz): $0.95
1/2 cup rolled oats (from my stash in the pantry): $0.01 (I had to do some guessing and rounding since I buy oatmeal in bulk)
Coconut oil (organic from bountifulbaskets.org, $15 for 1/2 gallon): $0.10

Total for the whole batch: $1.44, or 4 servings at $0.36 each. It'll be a little more once you add the syrup but since it's the real stuff I use only a tablespoon per cake, so it's only about $0.15 per 4 pancakes.

Lets compare to Bisquick:

Say we bought the 6 pound bag for $6.88. There are 68 (40) ounce servings in the bag. That makes the cost of the mix $0.10 per serving. Add a cup of milk ($0.21 at $3.39/gallon) and two eggs ($0.38 at $2.29/dozen) and you're paying $0.69 per serving, or about double.

So, if you are on any kind of restrictive diet and don't eat 20 pancakes in one sitting, these are very filling and surprisingly affordable.

Update: I did make several batches to have some for later, but they didn't store very well. I ended up with a big mass of smushed pancakes so they were harder to reheat and much less beautiful coming out than going in. I would recommend freezing them individually on a baking sheet then putting them together in a container once frozen.

Perfect Homemade Breadcrumbs

Folks, I just figured out the BEST solution to getting perfect homemade breadcrumbs...

Perfect Homemade Breadcrumbs

Tada! Beautiful, isn’t it?

No? Well, just wait till we number crunch...It’ll look like pure gold then.

What’s the secret to my alchemy, you ask?

.

You'll need:

• Food processor or blender (I have a small smoothie maker I use)
• Dried bread (any amount)
• This tea strainer (the large tea infuser from World Market) or one like it
• 2 cup Pyrex measuring cup
• Storage container (I used a quart mason jar)

First, collect all your ancient bread heels and stale buns. Mine are collected throughout the month in a gallon ziploc in the freezer. Then I go to work once the bag is full. This time I had a little extra because I discovered a few stray hotdog buns had gone stale. All together, this came to 22 pieces of bread.

Put all the bread on a baking sheet. The bread can even be placed straight on the rack if you want but I put them on a pan to minimize the mess in my oven. Bake the bread at 350ish till it looks thoroughly dried out. I bake mine until they are slightly brown on the edges and crack easily when broken in half.

After letting the bread pieces cool a bit, break them up and put them into your blender or food processor. Because I have a small blender, I break mine up into pieces with sides no longer than one inch. They process faster this way and don't get stuck. Once blended, put the bottom portion of the tea strainer over the top of a 2 cup Pyrex measuring cup and sift the crumbs like so:

A sieve might work too, but mine has a double layer of mesh and doesn't let enough through. If I wanted bread powder, not bread crumbs, I would use my sieve.

Sift out all the big bits and return them to the blender. Continue until all bread has been processed.

Voila! Perfect breadcrumbs.

My 22 pieces of bread nearly filled up a quart mason jar.

And this method is made even cheaper since I get all my bread at the Franz outlet bakery up the road. Today I got 10 loaves of organic bread and 2 bags of ginger snaps for $12.38.

And now for the best part: the Math! If every loaf cost a dollar, and there's 18 slices (including the heels) in each loaf, that's $0.05 per slice. My jar held 20 slices of bread (the two hotdog buns were from a package that was given to me for free, so I'm not including them in this calculation). So the whole quart of crumbs cost me $1.00 and about 20 minutes of time. Not too shabby.

If you look at this from another perspective, for every 10 loaves of bread you buy, you're throwing $1.00 worth of bread in the trash if you don't use your heels. And that's if you get your bread for a dollar a loaf. If you pay the standard $2-$4 a loaf, then you're throwing away $1 every 3-5 loaves.

Kinda shocking.

So, give this a try! Save money… you know you want to.