This is a continuation of last week's guest post, Saving On Electricity, Part 1.

I hope that you know where your electrical meter is and are now recording daily or bi-daily readings.   Today we’ll look over an electric bill to see how much each kilowatt is costing you and establish your baseline usage.  We will also discuss different types of billing.

Cost Per Kilowatt Hour
If you have it, pull out your most recent electric bill.  If it is not available you may have to spend some time on the telephone or internet getting the information you need. 

Before doing the math, take a good look at your electric bill.  Our current energy supplier provides the following information for us on each bill.  Our last supplier did not, and we had to figure it out ourselves.  

You’ll notice at the top of this bill under “energy” each kilowatt is actually costing .092235 (round to 9 cents).  The energy cost of .09 per kilowatt is the standard rate.  For the summer months of June – September, my rate increases if I go over 600 kilowatts per month.  So if I were on the standard rate system, my goal would be to stay under 600 kwh per month.  Your company may differ, but find out!

 Because there are so many cost factors added to your electrical bill each month (system access, distribution, power plant securitization, and more) I like to look at the total of the entire bill to figure cost of kilowatt.  By the time all the charges are added the kilowatt cost is .24 per kilowatt on this bill. 
 
Time Of Use Bill

In researching different ways I could lower my electric bill, I came across Time of Use rate.  I had always heard that doing your laundry or cooking in the off times would help lower the bill.  I never understood this, because my whole life we had always had standard rate.  There were no "on and off" times.  It was a mystery to me. Was the Time of Use rate even available for our family?

I googled my electric company name with the words “Time of Use”, and was directed to just a couple paragraphs that explained the differences in each rate; standard and time of use.  The website said, “You no longer have to qualify to use time of day rate. Anyone is eligible”. I’m guessing prior to this, one had to use a certain amount of energy to qualify.  I started getting excited.

I called the company.  I told them I’d like to try the Time of Use rate.  The representative told me, based on my current usage, that it would only save us $5.00 a month.  $5.00 a month is $5.00 a month.  I told her I’d like to do it.  In winter months, October-April (long winter right? Well, it is Michigan) my kilowatt charge during on-peak times (from 11:00 am – 7:00 pm Monday – Friday, excluding holidays) would be $0.095 per kwh, and in off peak hours 7 pm-11:00 am it would be $0.08.  Yeah, you read that right; only 1 ½  cent difference between on-peak and off-peak.  But get this- during summer months, on-peak times would be $0.12 and off-peak times $0.07 per kwh. A FIVE cent difference!

Here’s the catch.  I had to sign up for one year.  If I couldn’t convert most of my usage to the off-peak times, I could end up paying more for my electric bill.  I could lose money.  But if I didn’t try it I would never know.  I said “yes” for a year. 

The representative said they would be out to change the meter – because my old meter would not work.  Bonus!  I got to have a new meter!  I know this probably would not excite you like it did me.  But did you read my thoughts during last week's post on meters?  Boy, that old meter was hard to read (left to right, lowest number except between 9 and 0 ….) and I couldn’t even ask the kids to read it for me because they never got it right, and I would end up checking it myself. 

A new digital meter would be so, so……..fancy!  When it arrived with 0000 kwh, I was beside myself with awe. How much easier could this get?  The only hard part was when it started at 0000 kwh, and it was difficult to watch it go up because it will never be 0000 again. 

A Small Misunderstanding
Not all was smooth sailing. I did end up to calling the electric company to ask about the numbers the first time we read it.  One of the kids read 040916 one day, and then 041016 the next day.  What ?!?! 100 kwh in a day?!? What was going on? I called the company in distress.  Was my meter broken already?  It was also flashing different numbers after the first number.  She had to look it up.  Then she proceeded to tell me what each flash was and how there was a number corresponding to the number being read.  Oh, gee whiz! What a relief.  We had been reading the date, not our energy usage. 

On the bill below you’ll see energy with the amount of kilowatts used on “on peak” time and “off peak” time. 

Yeah!  86% of my energy usage is now happening in the off peak times!  I can’t wait to see next month’s bill.

*The two bills pictured are on two separate properties.  One unoccupied, thus the 2 kwh per day on the standard rate bill.

Stay tuned for Part 3!

*****

Note from Bethany: What I love about using off-peak hours for electricity is that it's not a sacrifice. Changing from standard rate to Time of Use does NOT require you to use less electricity. It only requires rearranging the schedule a bit.

Frugal Electric was able to save $5.37 during the month of June, by using electricity during off-peak hours. This is a savings that will keep going month after month, with no additional effort on her part. I call it "passive savings". She made a few phone calls, figured out a system for using electricity between 7:00 pm and 11:00 am, and now the $5.00/mo. savings will happen automatically.

Contrast this "passive savings" with line drying clothes. In order to save $5.37, you would have to hang out 11 loads of laundry per month. If it takes 15 minutes per load, that means you'll end up working an extra 2.75 hours every month to save the same $5.37. 

Hello everyone! I'm a day late posting this because... we just got back from Honduras! As in, we pulled into our driveway at 1:30 a.m. this morning. Of course, I took the opportunity to sleep in, and the rest of today has consisted of me checking up on my animals, unpacking, and attempting to "catch up" with the weeding in my garden. As anyone who has gardened can testify- you're never really caught up. Especially if you don't have absolutely everything growing in a raised bed (my goal for someday).

Despite being gone for over half the week, I do have a handful of frugal accomplishments to share.

1. Sold 1 dozen eggs.

2. Sold 16 bars of soap to a retail store.

3. Thawed out the goat cream I have slowly been collecting, and made 14.7 ounces of butter. That's almost a pound!

4. Made milkweed capers. This is a new recipe I'm trying out. It is basically milkweed buds in salt and vinegar, refrigerated for a month. We'll see...

5. Made several salads with lettuce from the garden. My major frugal accomplishment this week: learning how to clean and store home grown lettuce. I've always been afraid of eating bugs in homegrown salads, thanks a bad experience when I was younger. And I've never really learned how to use garden lettuce. Last year we only used it for tacos and sandwiches. But thanks to my new processing method, I plan on eating lettuce as much as possible here on out (we have plenty that self-seeded).

New lettuce processing method:
1. Cut lettuce and bring inside.
2. Break off each leaf, checking for large bugs, and put into salad spinner.
3. When spinner is full of lettuce leaves, fill with water and let sit 5-10 minutes.
4. Drain water, then spin the lettuce to get out excess water.
5. Tear wet lettuce into pieces, fill spinner again with water.
6. Drain water and spin the lettuce to be rid of any excess moisture.

Here is how you can store lettuce for up to a week:
1. Lay out a clean dish towel.
2. Pile the lettuce in a row on the towel, as if you were going to make a taco. Leave 2-3" on the edges.
3. Fold edges on top of the lettuce.
4. Roll it up like a taco.
5. Store lettuce roll in a sealed plastic baggie, in the crisper drawer of your refrigerator.

This really works! Before we left, I forgot to dump the last of my lettuce roll. When we got back over 5 days later, it was still in the bottom of the fridge. I expected to find limp and slimy lettuce, but there was no slime whatsoever, and it had only lost a little crispness. Victory!

I am going to make washing and storing lettuce part of my weekly meal prep from now on. Hopefully the garden-fresh organically-grown lettuce will help cut our grocery bill and bring new life to my meal plan.

******
Honduras Trip
Early Thursday morning, we, along with some other people from our church, got on a plane bound for Honduras. We landed in Tegucigalpa later that day. The point of our trip was to get to know a ministry there in the city, called the Micah Project. It is a place that gives help and new life to boys who live on the streets.

Street boys commonly come from dysfunctional families, and after taking to the streets are often caught up in the gang/crime/drugs lifestyle. On Friday morning we got to meet some of the boys still on the street. Micah Project has a "street team" whose primary purpose is to build relationships with the boys and eventually offer them hope in Christ and an opportunity for education and a family at their compound (called the "Micah House").

I was a little curious as to how much I would actually be able to help on the building project, but I figured there would be some small stuff I could do. In actuality, I carried some boards, worked on digging a post hole, pounded some nails and helped pick up... probably a grand total of 45 minutes of work on a project that took five hours.

In addition to the seven of us "gringos", there were also a few Micah House staff, the builder and his helper guy, and a LOAD of Micah boys working. Hubs was a great help because he 1) knows Spanish and 2) knows construction, but those of us who knew neither had difficulty finding ways to help. For example, I couldn't understand when one of the boys said, "pass the hammer" or "move that board up a little more". So, along with the other ladies, I mostly took pictures and watched. Kind of a bummer, but with so many able bodies (there were 40-50 people helping on a 16" x 16" house) around, there was no need for me to just slow everyone down.

From Bethany: One of my friends has offered to share in her area of frugal expertise: saving on electricity. There is huge potential to save in this area, so take notes! "Frugal Electric" is a mom, so those of you with children will appreciate her take on frugality. It is easy for a single person (or even a couple) to be frugal, but much harder for a large family. I'm hoping that she will share some of her "getting your family to cooperate" tips as we move forward with this series. :) 

How to Lower Your Electric Bill

Next to your grocery bill, I believe that lowering your electric bill is the one of the  biggest frugal hacks to take advantage of.  You can immediately see results and more monthly savings by paying attention and making changes on how you use electricity in your home. Today we will talk about meters and how to gauge how much electricity you are currently using, just with your meter alone. 

My Story

Have you ever noticed your electric meter?  I didn’t for the first 15 years of my married life.  I just paid the bill for the first 10 years, and then as part of my husband’s pay, his employer paid the bill for the last five years.  Cool perk, right?  (Now, I’m not sure.  As a landlord now, I don’t think I’ll ever pay my tenant’s electrical bill. It would be too hard of an expense to control when I’m not the one using it.  I mean, you can get attention by saying “utilities free”, but I’d rather give the renter $50.00 off the price of their rent per month). 
During this time we went from two children to five children. I remember one time hubby saying that the employer said the bill was over $400.00 one month.

Then we started a business at our home and hubby no longer worked for his employer.  This business required more electrical heating in the winter and more cooling equipment in the summer. We had multiple water heaters, refrigerators and freezers.  It was a dirty business – I mean you GOT dirty doing business, requiring several showers a day for several people in the family.  The washing machine was being used constantly.  A couple years or more and we were up to nine children; eight still at home and our electric bill was $1,200.00 A MONTH! I wasn’t sure if it was the lucrative business or our increasing family, but man that bill bothered me.
I called some experts out from the local university to do an energy audit.  What did they find?  Change a couple light bulbs and put a fan type heater above an outbuilding door to help keep heat in, and think about changing some motors out in some older equipment that sometimes ran.  Basically, the audit was not as helpful as I had hoped.  I just continued to pay the bill and tried not to think about it much.  If you’re in a business that requires lots of heating and cooling equipment than you might have to do the same, but the majority of us are not.
After 10 years in business we decided to take another path, sold the business and moved.  This is where we are at today.  The move was a good time for me to challenge myself to see how low I could get our electric bill.  Recording my daily or bi-daily usage was the first place to start.  Currently our electrical bill is only $75.00 a month for a family of nine.

It Starts With Reading the Meter

To track daily use of electricity (the first step to a lower electricity bill), it helps to be able to read your meter.  This costs nothing to do, but depending on your meter it may or may not be a learning process.  Your meter is located on the outside of your home where your electrical wires come in.  There are many types of meters, but they all measure your electricity.  In some areas there are smart meters that register daily and have online capability where you can check your usage online.  Ours does not.  A representative from our power company (who we call the “meter reader”) comes out and checks our meter each month and records the total usage. 
 
Digital Meter

When butchering roosters, I normally pressure-can the legs and wings, and freeze the carcass (breast/back) to use in crock pot meals. There isn't much meat on most roosters (and some of it is tough), so it's essential that the meat fall off the bone when it is cooked. Pressure canning and crock-potting does the trick.

4. Made two loaves of bread. The recipe I use costs $0.39 per loaf to make. It's very possible to buy bread for the same amount, which is why I don't bake bread often (plus we don't eat bread often). However, homemade bread is so, so yummy and Hubs really appreciates it. Having some bread on hand, fresh or in the freezer, is kind of "crutch" for me. We've been kind of busy and my meal planning (and meal making) has fallen by the wayside. Having bread will allow me to make easy meals (sandwiches, toast & gravy, etc.). Which will save money in the long run.

5. Earned $44.36 net profit at the farmers market. This was my last week for the summer selling at the market.  I'll be going back in September, when business picks up again. I figured out last year that when produce starts coming in, people stop buying baked goods and crafts. I noticed even in the last two weeks that despite great weather, my sales came down a bit. 

6. Sold eight dozen eggs this week (four at market, four to regular customers).

7. Used my Kindle to practice Spanish. Several years ago I purchased an ebook for learning Spanish. A year later I bought a Spanish dictionary to load onto the Kindle. Then I downloaded a free Spanish Bible and book of fairy tales onto the device. If there is a word I don't know, I can just tap the word and my Spanish dictionary will tell me what it is. This is SO much easier than keeping a real dictionary on hand and having to physically look up every work I don't know.

For any Spanish students, this is a relatively cheap and easy way to practice Spanish. We're headed off to Honduras in a little while, thus my practicing. Actually being in a Spanish-speaking country is an excellent way to learn Spanish. For the last couple years Hubs and I have tried to make it down to Central America about once a year. This time it is for a mission trip, but in the past we've gone just for fun (Hubs has friends there).

Honestly, short-term mission trips with a group are an expensive way to travel. If you strategically pick an airline and destination, you can spend several weeks in a country for the same amount you would pay to do a four-day mission trip. Obviously missionary compounds want to treat their volunteers well (many have never been outside the US), so volunteers get nice US-standard flights, accommodations and food. This accounts for the extra cost.

This will by my first mission trip ever, so I'm looking forward to the experience.

8. Line-dried three loads of laundry (that's $1.50 savings, if you didn't know...).

​9. Made yogurt (that's a $4.76 savings, if you didn't know...).

I think that about covers it! 

Goals for This Week:
1. Replant carrots
2. Weed garden
3. Organize pantry
4. Organize fridge
5. Organize desk area

Today I'm going to calculate the ROI and hourly wage of using a clothesline to dry clothes. 

Potential Savings

Each clothes dryer is different, so your energy savings will probably differ from mine. In addition, the price of electricity and propane also goes up and down and differs according to region, so do your own calculations for "official" savings of line-drying as opposed to using a clothes dryer.

Here is a good online calculator to help you figure out how much money you spend per load of machine-dried clothing.

For simplicity's sake, I'm going to say that we save $0.50 per load of laundry that gets line-dried. Your yearly savings will depend on how many loads you do per week. On average, Hubs and I do about two loads of laundry every week.

1 load/wk: $0.50 ($26.00/yr)
2 loads: $1.00 ($52.00)
3 loads: $1.50 ($78.00)
4 loads: $2.00 ($104.00)
5 loads: $2.50 ($130.00)
6 loads: $3.00 ($156.00)
7 loads: $3.50 ($182.00)
8 loads: $4.00 ($208.00)
9 loads: $4.50 ($234.00)
10 loads: $5.00 ($260.00)

Hourly Wage

Obviously, the time it takes to hang out a load of pants will be much less than a load of socks. So, let's do some different calculations. I'm going to guess at how long each type of load takes to hang out.

Load of pants: $0.50 x 12 (5 minute sessions) = $6.00/hr.
Load of shirts: $0.50 x 6 (10 minute sessions) = $3.00/hr.
Load of socks & underwear: $0.50 x 3 (20 minute sessions) = $1.50/hr.

Hmm... for the most part, this activity falls below my coverline $4.00/hr. "housewife wage". That means that I'm only going to do it when I have the time, or when it's convenient (for example, when it is not raining). I know some people who hang laundry outside during the winter, but keep in mind that because of the cold, it will take even longer. Which means even less than $3.00 per hour. There's no way I'm willing to freeze for that hourly wage. So my personal yearly savings (at two loads per week) is probably less than $25.00 per year. This could be doubled if I line dried indoors, but I'm not that ambitious for a savings of only $4.00 per month.

Return On Investment

If you want to start line drying, all you will need to buy is a clothesline and clothespins. Many people already have a clothesline in their backyard, but those who don't can hang a clothesline on their porch or even indoors. I know a girl who ran a clothesline indoors almost the entire length of her double-wide trailer. The line and clothespins will last for years if you're careful, but do eventually wear out. My ROI, therefore, will be for six loads per week, over the course of five years (estimated life of the clothespins & rope).

Investment: 100 pk. of clothespins ($2.00) + clothesline rope ($10.00) = $12.00
Return: $156 per year x 5 years = $780.00

ROI: 6500%

Conclusion

​I think line drying is great for a sunny, summer day. The good news is that line drying requires no special skill. Any eight-year-old child can hang laundry. Line drying is also better for your clothes and will help them last longer.

Line drying is also a very cheap way to save a lot of money. With a $12.00 investment, you have the potential to save hundreds of dollars.

That being said, there are probably better ways to save money if you are short on time. 

Til next time,
-Bethany

Today I'm going to review a book I read a while back. It's about how introverts think and how we, as introverts, can function better in a country essentially designed for extroverts.

******

"I'm concerned about Bethany. She doesn't like playing with the other children. She tells me that there are too many people, and she just wants to go home and jump on the trampoline."

I had to laugh several years ago when I found what my kindergarten teacher wrote on my report card. I've always been an introvert, even as a young child. When I saw the school bus coming around the corner, my stomach tied itself in knots of nervousness. I remember avoiding other kids while crawling through tunnels at the Playland McDonalds. On my fourth or fifth birthday, my mom had arranged for some of my little friends and sister to surprise me with party noise makers and the Happy Birthday Song as I came downstairs for breakfast. I screamed and ran back upstairs. Yes, I've always been an introvert.

Even as an adult, I haven't grown out of introvert tendencies. I still hate calling people on the phone, making small talk, or going to a party. In fact, my introversion has been magnified by my marriage to (surprise, surprise!) an extrovert. We've had a rather easy marriage so far, but one thing that constantly causes tension is his need to get out and see people, and my need to get away from people.

We Favor Extroverts
Ironically, as I read through Quiet, Hubs and I were taking a Dale Carnegie course. This created a kind of tug-of-war on my mind as Susan Cain was telling me to "be an introvert!" and Dale Carnegie was telling me to be an extrovert. The book even opens with Mr. Carnegie's story as an example of how we think extroverts are smarter and more capable better than introverts.

Susan points out that people who talk more in a group are seen as "smart". I thought about the "smartest" people in our Carnegie class, and sure enough I realized that I, too, thought the talkers were the smartest. 

Especially in the self-help and business world, there is a great emphasis on "people skills". Introverts are seen as lazy, anti-social, and mostly... selfish. This was confirmed in our class when one of the students gave a talk about how he put down his headphones and talked to the lady sitting next to him, even though he was tired and didn't want to. "So my challenge," he concluded, "is for you to put down your headphones- especially you INTROVERTS who automatically want to put them on- and talk to someone. Because you never know who might need your encouragement at that moment." The whole class applauded loudly. I think he even might have got a standing ovation.

Lets admit it... extroverts are fun! I love extroverts, because they make me feel comfortable. They do all of the talking, they will be leaders in a group, and many times they will take responsibility over anything and everything. However, there are downsides to extroverts that people don't talk about. When they are alone, extroverts too are lazy. You wouldn't believe how much TV an extrovert is capable of watching when they're are bored with their own company. They have a hard time coming up with original ideas, and they depend on others to tell them what and how to believe (but of course they are much better at broadcasting these beliefs than introverts are!).

But Introverts are Valuable, Too
One of the things I love most about Quiet is how Susan Cain shows us the good things about introverts. She points out that master musicians only got that way by hours and hours of practice... alone. She points out that group ideas are never as good as individual ideas (the quiet people don't speak up, so basically it is the idea of the loudest person in the room). She explains why internet collaboration is far different than collaboration in person. When we introverts write something on the internet, all barriers are removed. We don't have to worry about being the fastest, wittiest, cleverest and loudest. We can share ideas without having to respond to feedback right away.

How Introverts and Extroverts Can Get Along
I think the key to introverts and extroverts living in harmony is recognizing that one is not better than the other. We complement each other. Growing up, my younger sister and I did everything together. I was the introvert, and she was the extrovert. In our teens, we were able to pull off some awesome stunts with my creativity and her people skills. Projects done individually were slightly less awesome. She didn't have any great ideas to feed off of, and I was a terrible presenter. But as we've gone our separate ways, both of us have found other introverts/extroverts to collaborate with, and have become better rounded ourselves. We should never sneeze at learning from other personality types. I've learned to talk more, and my sister has learned to read more. And we're both better for it.

Introverts & Learning
Remember the old quote, "You will be the same person in five years as you are today except for the people you meet and the books you read"? I've discovered that extroverts learn from the people they meet, and introverts learn from the books they read. It's true! Most of Hubs' opinions and beliefs come from people he knew (or knows) in person, and most of mine have come from books I've read. Of course he tries to read some books, and I try to learn by talking with people, but in general he is shaped by conversation and I am shaped by reading.

In schools, children are often graded on participation. This preference is highly biased toward extroverts, who literally learn by participation. Hubs learns out loud, by talking things out. It is easier for him to learn when he is surrounded by people. I am sure he was an ideal student in school.

I, on the other hand, have a hard time concentrating on anything when there are other people around. I can't even do dishes right when there is someone besides Hubs at my house! I must be alone in order to truly focus. This, perhaps, is why I learn so well and so easily from books, as opposed to a classroom setting.

This being said, I have only one negative thing to say about Quiet on education. While the author gives plenty of suggestions for how to help your introvert do better in school, she never tells us about the best schooling option for introverts: homeschooling. Homeschoolers get ample time alone. Because they are book learners, they get to learn from the best and brightest minds in history- not just their local high school teacher. Many moms worry about not being smart enough to homeschool, but a homeschool mom is more of a coach than a teacher. Introverts will tend to teach themselves once they get past elementary school or junior high. 

The right student in the right environment can turn out to be light-years ahead of his peers. Many students taught at home are better off academically, spiritually, emotionally, financially and yes- even socially. An introvert will never be a social butterfly, but I firmly believe that a good real-world home school education can set him or her up for a lifetime of success. Social skills are NOT just about who can talk the most or the fastest. Social skills also include kindness, empathy, generosity and wisdom.

Introverts And Spirituality

One important topic that Susan brings up is introverts in the church. In this day and age, women especially are pushed to be "leaders" (a.k.a. talkers) in church. But if we claim to be Christian and believe in the Bible, we can't ignore women like the virgin Mary and Abraham's wife, Sarah. When Mary was told she would give birth to the Messiah, she didn't blurt it out to the whole world. The Bible specifically states that she "pondered these things in her heart". Sarah was praised as having a "quiet spirit". When you think of the sisters Martha and Mary, it is clear who was the extrovert. But still, Jesus praised Mary for sitting at his feet and listening.

In the New Testament, Paul has to tell women several times to just be quiet. Stop gossiping and being busybodies... just get your work done, ladies! The virtue of a hard-working but quiet woman in the church is just so, so overlooked today. Instead of being seen as already spiritual, quiet ladies are pushed to "come out of their shell" or "share with everyone" or "be empowered". We're pushed to be involved in children's ministry or women's ministry or this or that volunteer effort, to the neglect of family and home life. While I am not necessarily against church activities, the idea that more activities- or more PEOPLE- in your life make you more spiritual is absurd.

Introvert: No Longer a Bad Word

Several weeks ago, Hubs was telling me how frustrated he was with a certain person. "That guy is such a... such an INTROVERT!" he blurted out. I reminded him that calling someone an introvert is not actually a legitimate insult. Since when has "introvert" become a bad word? Like the man at my Dale Carnegie class, Hubs and many other extroverts (and even introverts, as well) have been trained to think introversion is a handicap or something selfish. It's not!

Toward the end of the book, Cain tells the story of an engaging and popular professor, who, against all appearances, is actually an introvert. She explains that introverts have the ability to act like extroverts, if our cause is important enough to us. We ALL have the capacity to act out of our personality, if we think we need to. It takes courage and goes against nature, but no one is bound by whether they are an introvert or extrovert. As long as we have some down time to recharge, introverts can be just as social and engaging as the next person. 

During the last weeks of our Dale Carnegie class, I started hearing things like, "You're really coming out of your shell!" and "I'm impressed at how far you've come," and "You've made a lot of progress since the first week,". Progress! I thought, all smug. Really, I've just learned the art of acting!

If we have to do a bit of acting to "win friends and influence people", so be it. But let's not forsake the thoughtfulness, creativity, resourcefulness and listening ear that God gave us. The world needs it!

*****

If you are an introvert or live with someone who is, be sure to check out this excellent book at your local library. 

Happy reading!
-Bethany

It's that time again! Time for frugal accomplishments.

1. Earned a net profit of $47.06 at the farmers market this week. I also talked to a retailer about selling my soaps. I'll have to re-work my formula in order to be able to give her a wholesale price, but otherwise I think it will be a good deal.

This week was my first Saturday selling in June. Instead of waking up at 7:00 am like I had in May, I woke up at 5:30 in order to have strawberries picked and still be there before 7:00 am so I could park easily. The night before I actually loaded up the car (except the strawberries and eggs, of course) so I could pick the berries, hop in the car and go the next morning. After I got in bed, I felt myself getting nervous. What if I don't hear the alarm? What if if doesn't go off? What if I don't have time to pick all of the strawberries? Of course, being so nervous made it hard for me to get to bed. Which made me even more nervous, because the hours of sleep I had left were ticking away. Even though I was tired and needed the rest, I couldn't fall asleep!

I did end up getting to the market in time, with all of my berries, and my phone was the only thing I forgot (still plugged into the charger at home). When I arrived, only a few people were even parked, let alone set up. Even the Rhubarb Man was still getting his booth set up. Like last year, it was 8:40 before I made a sale, and that was to another vendor. My next customer came at 9:23 am- almost 1.5 hours after the market officially started. Business was markedly slower than in May, or so I felt.

2. Made napkin rings to go with my free cloth napkins. These were made by wrapping some twine string (that I found in the craft stash) around rings made from paper towel tubes. I really liked the way they turned out, especially for being completely free. The only problem: if you accidentally set something on them, they flatten out!

Because they're not too sturdy, I don't think these will be my "forever napkin rings", but they will certainly do the job until I find some real ones that I like at a garage sale or thrift shop.

3. Sold 8 dozen eggs (five at the farmers market).

4. Sold a used book on Amazon.

5. One night we were going somewhere and Hubs wanted to stop at Subway. "Hey!" I exclaimed, "I think I have a coupon for Subway!" Sure enough, I found a coupon for one $4.00 foot-long sub. So, we saved a couple dollars on food we would have bought anyway.

6. Used rebate apps to get $0.25 off a 10lb. bag of potatoes, and used $0.50 of rebates to get a green pepper for $0.18.

7. Continued to dry rose petals, peppermint, lemon balm, and chamomile for tea.

8. We opened a Vanguard brokerage account for buying mutual funds. I've had a Vanguard Roth IRA for a long time (since I was in my teens), and I really like it. If you opt to receive statements by email, there are no fees whatsoever. Hubs' retirement account costs $50.00 per year with a financial adviser, so having no fees is a big deal.

Neither of us are really stock market savvy, but Vanguard is a great place to learn. Explanations for different terms and concepts are available by clicking on the word, or offered below the article/chart. The mutual funds are easy to browse through and compare with each other. As we were looking through one possible fund to purchase, Hubs started to groan. "Oh noooo..." he pointed to the screen- "Spirit Airlines!" We like to complain about how terrible Spirit is, even though we always use them because the tickets are so cheap. I laughed.

"I guess that's the one we should get then!" I replied. "They say you are only supposed to invest in companies that you're familiar with and use regularly."

I can hear some of you now. There goes Bethany, all high and mighty talking about the stock market. It must be great to have so much money to just dump in mutual funds. The good news is that most Vanguard mutual funds only have a $3,000 minimum, with some that have $1000 or $10,000 minimums. When I was a teenager I bought one of the cheapest that they offered. Barring a medical or other crisis, I believe that any working-class American should be able to invest. Of course any debts should be paid before that happens, but most debt (credit cards, student loans, car loans, large mortgages) can really be avoided.

Frugal Doesn't Equal Poor
Frugality is what makes recycled napkin rings and the stock market show up in the same post. The blogosphere is full of "frugal" people who are just waiting to have enough money to remodel the kitchen, or buy some more fruit trees, or buy organic produce. That is NOT BEING FRUGAL!!! That is just pretending to act frugal until you can spend money again. 

There are "frugal" people out there who will spend two hours darning socks (saving perhaps a couple dollars), and then go buy Mountain Dew at the gas station. Even while reading The Tightwad Gazette, I came across four articles on what to do with juice can lids. If you are truly frugal, why are you buying canned fruit juice?? I mean, shouldn't you be drinking water? I also read about how to make a volleyball net with the plastic that connects 6-packs of pop or beer. I hope I NEVER buy enough pop to make a volleyball net out of the packaging. Just saying.

In contrast to what many frugal blogs imply ("we are frugal because we HAVE to be"... husband in the military/working minimum wage/out of work, wife at home with ten kids, paying off $500,000 in debt, saving to buy a house), eventually the truly frugal folks will start getting ahead. I look forward to having a nice kitchen, for example, but instead of having a nice kitchen as soon as we can afford it, I would rather wait until a time when the kitchen won't be a substantial percentage of our net worth.

So yeah... frugal does NOT equal poor. And frugality is not limited to making stuff out of trash (though that is always an option. LOL!). 

Goals for This Week:

Make a batch of soap.
Weed & mulch garden.
Tattoo goat kids.

Making your own yogurt is a great way to stretch those food dollars. It doesn't take special tools or skills, plus it is something healthy that you can make every week. Making yogurt is as easy as stirring and boiling water. You can read my tutorial here. 

Finding The Savings
How much money is there to be saved by making yogurt? As always, it depends on how much yogurt you go through, as well as how much you pay for milk. We tend to use about two quarts of yogurt per week, and the milk is free because I get it from my goat. At Walmart, I would pay about $2.67 per quart.

($2.67 x 2 qts = $5.34) - $0.58 (cost for a small container of yogurt to use as "starter culture) = $4.76 weekly savings for Bethany

Let's say I make theoretically make yogurt 50 weeks out of the year (exclude two weeks for vacation).

$4.76 x 50 = $238.00 yearly savings for Bethany

For the People Without Goats
I know that most people don't have access to free milk, so in that case is making yogurt still economical? Let's do the math.

$0.58 starter + ($2.00/gal. divided by 2 = $1.00) = $1.58 (divided by 2 qts. = $0.79/qt.)

$2.67 (store bought qt.) - $0.79 (homemade quart) =  $1.88 potential savings for every quart.

So, depending on how much yogurt your family goes through, you could be saving:

1 quart = $1.88/wk ($94.00/yr)
2 quarts = $3.76/wk ($188.00/yr)
3 quarts = $5.64/wk ($282.00/yr)
4 quarts = $7.52/wk ($376.00/yr)
5 quarts = $9.40/wk ($470.00/yr)
6 quarts = $11.28/wk ($564.00/yr)

Hourly Wage
It takes about 15 minutes of actual hands-on work to make yogurt. As I said before, that work involves heating milk, stirring in yogurt starter, and dumping the mixture into a yogurt container to incubate. If you don't have a yogurt maker, you will have to use the "mason jars-in-a-cooler-with-hot-water" method, which may take 30 minutes.

Hourly wage with yogurt maker (2 quarts): $3.76 x 4 (15 minute increments) = $15.04
Hourly wage without yogurt maker (2 quarts): $3.76 x 2 (30 minute increments) = $7. 52

However, keep in mind that it takes just as long to heat and cool a whole gallon of milk as it does to do a half-gallon, if you are using mason jars. With this in mind:

Hourly wage without yogurt maker (4 quarts):  $7.52 x 3 (30 minute increments) = $15.04

ROI of Making Yogurt
In my case, I got my yogurt maker and milk for free, so the only "investment" is the $0.58 yogurt starter.

$5.31 worth of yogurt = 915% ROI for Bethany

For everyone else making four quarts per week without a yogurt maker:

$0.79/qt. x 4 qts = $3.16 investment
$10.68 worth of yogurt = 338% ROI

Some Side Notes: One serving of flavored yogurt from the store contains more sugar than a chocolate chip cookie. I'm not kidding! However, this is to our advantage if we use store bought yogurt as a starter culture. I find that those 18 grams of sugar spread out over two quarts of yogurt gives just enough sweetness so that I can eat my homemade yogurt without adding sugar or honey or maple syrup. This too, saves money.

Some of you may be wondering how to use up a whole gallon of yogurt every week. Some people use yogurt to soak fresh-ground flours and grains with. We eat it for breakfast with granola or in smoothies. Yogurt can also be used as a condiment or in dips and dressings. Last night I used it as a spread on Greek-style lamb sandwiches. Speaking of Greek, you can make your own Greek yogurt by using a cheesecloth to strain out the whey. Greek yogurt can be strained even longer to make a kind of "yogurt cheese", which can be used to replace cream cheese in recipes.

Lastly, the price of milk fluctuates all the time. This is important to keep track of. If milk is $3.00 per gallon, your cost to make yogurt is going to be $1.00 per quart. If you can buy yogurt for $2.00/qt., or on sale for even cheaper, it may not be worth your time to make it. At the time of this writing, I believe it is still very much worth your time. But circumstances change, so keep an eye out. I've always wondered why Amy Dacyczyn (author of The Tightwad Gazette) recommended powdered milk when it is actually cheaper to buy real milk. Recently, while reading her books, I discovered that her cost per gallon of milk in the early 1990s was $2.19-$2.59. Earlier this year- 25 years later- you could get a gallon of milk for $1.89. Crazy!!!
​
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Til next time,
-Bethany

I guess it's not really Spring anymore... which is why I've finally gotten around to posting a garden update.

This year I doubled the size of my garden, back to the way it was in 2014. However, this time around half of the garden is planted in raised beds. This is going to help immensely.

Row Garden & Raised Beds
I also did a row garden this year, for flowers, pumpkins and sweet corn. I'm a little nervous about the row garden because o 1) I don't like to use the tiller, so 2) I have to hand weed or mulch a lot. The problem is that I don't have time to do that much weeding, and I cannot collect grass clippings fast enough to mulch the entire thing. I am only mulching the actual rows of vegetables, not the paths in between. We are tilling the paths (but only periodically, when Hubs has the time). However, when we till the paths, we end up tilling most of our mulch into the ground and thus every time we till, I am going to have to re-mulch the entire thing. And there is not enough mulch for that.

So, I have a feeling that my "market garden" or "fodder garden" (extra pumpkins, squash, peas will go to the animals) as I call it, is going to get a lot weedier than my raised beds. Which, by the way, only have to be mulched ONCE during the whole season, and never tilled. We've decided that instead of mulching the paths or laying down plastic, we'll just weed whack in between the beds. It still looks nice and clean that way.​

I am thinking of doing long, rectangular raised beds for my row crops in the coming years, and hopefully in time my entire garden will be only raised beds. It is just the initial start-up investment of building and filling the beds (free for us, but it does take some time) that forces me to do a row garden. In the next five years I want EVERYTHING- vegetables, fruits, herbs, flowers, market & fodder crops- planted in raised beds.

Seed Starting Update
Earlier this year I started seeds. Last year went pretty well in the gardening department, so I thought I had everything figured out. Silly me! I transplanted most of my seedlings outdoors in the middle of May, and life happened. I mean, MICHIGAN happened and we had a whole week of cold weather, including at least one frost. A lot of my seedlings died at this point.

1. Forced tulip bulbs- sprouted and grew leaves, but no flowers. :(

2. Chili peppers- out of 15 seedlings, I have four plants left in the raised bed.

3. Basil seeds- both plants died in the frost (even though I covered one of them).

4. Echinacea seeds- not a single seed ever germinated, even after four months.

5. Rosemary seeds- one or two seeds germinated, but both failed to grow after I transplanted them into the egg carton planters.

6. Lavender seeds- I bought two different packets of lavender, and four or five seeds germinated. Of these, only one plant survived. I ended up buying a $3.00 lavender plant at the farmers market to accompany my baby plant.

​7. Passionflower seeds- not a single one of these sprouted.

8. Radishes- I only had a few seeds, planted them in a raised bed and they did pretty well.

9. Peas- I'm guessing about 20% of my peas germinated.

10. Onions- about 30-40% of my little sets came up.

11. Lettuce- I planted some in a raised bed, but I shouldn't have. It didn't grow very well, and I have volunteer lettuce from last year coming up like weeds.

12. Fennel, dill, cilantro and chamomile- these all successfully self-seeded from last year.

13. Carrots- I planted some seeds in a raised bed, with not a single germination from what I'm aware of.

14. Broccoli- started these seeds inside and planted them in a raised bed with mulch. About half the plants died, but the rest are doing well.
​

29. Fruit: I've been trying hard to keep the raspberries and strawberries free from thistles and weeds. I noticed that the Japanese beetles lay eggs on the thistles, which may be why the bugs decimated my raspberry patch last year. This year I made sure to get ALL the thistles from the raspberry patch, and thin out smaller raspberry plants that were just taking up space (both in the raspberry row AND the strawberry rows!). These small plants I used to make tree hay for my goats this winter.

The strawberries are starting to ripen. I am hoping they will last long enough to sell both this week and next week at the farmers market. 

We had a very busy week! On Sunday we hosted a community event at our house, so I opted to not do farmers market this week (plus it was the city festival this week, and I knew that sales would be slow anyway). Nonetheless, on Saturday we still had a fundraising event to prepare for and attend that evening. It's like when I cut something out of the schedule, it gets filled right back up again!

I didn't keep very good track of my frugal accomplishments this week, but here is what I can remember.

1. Did some cheap landscaping. I used some recycled plastic from Hubs' shop, a $2.00 bag of mulch and free stones from the pasture on a weedy area by our porch. It looks SO much better!

2. Sold 5 dozen eggs.

3. Tried making no-sugar, healthy soaked granola. The recipe called for an extremely long baking time at a low temperature. Of course I wasn't going to tie up my oven for 24 hours, so I baked it at a higher temperature, which made the granola really hard. It almost hurts my mouth to eat it, so I have to let it soak (again!) in milk before taking a bite. It smells good... but looks like dog food. The taste isn't great either, but it's better than not eating granola at all. I think I might go back to my old non-soaked granola recipe, but use honey instead of sugar and coconut oil instead of canola, for a healthier version.

4. Picked strawberries, lettuce and cilantro out of the garden.

5. I took some of the strawberries to a bridal shower, and also got a free plant by winning one of the games. Baby showers and bridal showers are not my favorite things ever*, but prizes always make it better. :)

6. Made jam for the farmers market with free strawberries and rhubarb.

7. I didn't go to the market on Saturday, but I did make up some gift baskets for a silent auction. Hubs and I will be going to Honduras this summer with some people from our church, so they did a few things to try and raise money for the organization, which ministers to street boys in the city.

I helped Hubs make some wooden boxes to put the stuff in. I put a loaf of homemade bread and a jar of jam in one box. In the other box I put a bag of granola, my book, a bar of soap, lip balm and herbal oil. Lastly, I made a box of danishes. My cost for the farmers market box was about $7.00, the bread box was about $2.50, and the danishes were $2.50. By the time the silent auction was over, my stuff had earned over $78.00- a $66.00 net profit! It felt good to earn so much money for the Micah Project.

8. Lastly, I dried some rose petals to use in tea, soaps and bath stuff. A couple hours after I put them in the oven to dry, the kitchen was filled with the wonderful scent of roses. So, free rose petals AND free potpourri! 

​Goals For Next Week
My goals for the coming week are mostly market and garden related. I feel like last week was a whirlwind of activity even though we didn't do the farmers market. So... maybe the farmers market isn't such a chore, after all.

1. Make granola, cookies & pastries for the farmers market.
2. Make a batch of soap.
3. Weed and mulch garden.
4. Re-plant seeds where things have not come up yet.

Til next time,
​-Bethany