So guess what? There will be NO frugal accomplishments post this week! That's because I don't have any to share. I did make some meals and saved some seeds from the garden, but that's about it. Instead of an FA post, I thought I'd share a review on a book I recently finished and highly recommend.

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Last week I bought the Kindle version of Kim Brenneman's Home Management: Plain and Simple. Most of the time I prefer buying print editions because they have resale and/or lending value, but with nursing it is easiest to read on the Kindle.

Home Management is a newer, updated version of her older book, Large Family Logistics. The older book is no longer in print, which is probably why she wrote a newer version. I never read the older book, but the newer one is probably better. Having authored a book myself, I know that the week after you finish writing, you find another thing to add. So second editions are always good.


Why I Bought This Book

I stumbled across Kim's website while googling "getting things done with a baby". This post had a lot of great tips on how to make things easier with a newborn in particular. I figured if the blog was that helpful, the book would be even more so. And since Kim had nine babies herself, you'd think she knows a thing or two about getting things done with babies.

Like the older edition, this book is geared a lot toward LARGE families, not new moms like me with just one kid. About a quarter of the book is about how to have older children help with housework and taking care of the younger children. Some readers might whine about this because most housewives don't have older children to cook and clean while they nurse the baby. Or I could whine about how Kim has a dishwasher and I don't, so of course none of her kitchen advice applies to me. But again, being an author myself I know that most authors can only speak from their own experience and Kim's experience is life with a large family. Some reviewers found her systems to be "overkill", but Kim is all about squeezing more time and energy from your day. Personally I really appreciate her focus on simplicity and efficiency. I find that with a newborn demanding lots of time and attention, I don't have the option to putter around the house trying out new recipes, spending 10 minutes deciding what to wear or cleaning whenever it strikes my fancy. If I don't make the very most of the time I have, stuff just doesn't get done. Plus, why spend more time than necessary on things that you don't enjoy? (Dishes, anyone?)

Even with the emphasis on large family life, I found enough productivity gems in this book to make it easily worth the $10.00 I paid for it. When buying a book- in particular a book that will save you time or money- it only takes a few good tips to make the book pay for itself. Here is one small tip that I never thought of: at the grocery store, park your car next to the cart corral. This eliminates a lot of car seat carrying and/or leaving your baby in the car while deciding what to do with the cart after groceries are unloaded. This little tip will help me go grocery shopping by myself (something I haven't attempted yet) and free up valuable date night time. How much is that worth over the course of a year?


Are Home Management and Flylady the Same Thing?

One Amazon reviewer said the book was not worth reading because all of Kim's systems came straight out of Flylady. While some of the systems are very similar, I thought Kim's were much more doable and easy to remember. Her book went into FAR more detail on how to actually implement the systems. It is more of a simplified version of Flylady geared especially toward stay-at-home Christian moms with small children. Unlike Sink Reflections (Flylady's book), Home Management includes things like toy rotation and how to keep the toys under control. While Flylady would say "cut the clutter in the toy room", Kim gives detailed instructions on how to actually make this work. For example, no toys in bedrooms, rotate out toys, and keep toys not being used in a locked cabinet. That way kids are not constantly getting into the toys, getting bored of the toys and leaving toys all over the house (because that's where most people store toys... all over the house). In addition, she points out that toys should be intentionally bought and purged instead of just being a hodgepodge assortment of plastic stuff. Toys need to be open ended so kids don't get bored of them.

I never had to think about what to do with toys until now (and yes, Baby Girl has toys already even though she's hardly old enough to appreciate them).


Differences Between Flylady and Home Management:

1. Days of the week: Kim has Laundry Day, Kitchen Day, Office Day, Town Day, Cleaning Day, Gardening Day and the Lord's Day. Flylady has Cleaning Day, Free Day, Office Day, Town Day, Miscellaneous Day, Family Fun Day and Renew Your Spirit Day. I like Kim's arrangement of days a little better because cleaning day happens before the weekend. However because of Date Night and the sale/coupon cycle of stores in my area, I've moved town day to Wednesday instead of Thursday. Because of that, Office Day is Tuesday and Kitchen Day is Thursday. I like Kitchen Day to be Thursday because that way I have some staples prepared on Monday. In reality I do batch cooking all throughout the week via Instant Pot, so Kitchen Day is mostly "clean and organize the kitchen day". Also, my office tasks are very minimal- mostly planning the weekly shopping and possibly paying a bill or two, although I like to do that right after the bill arrives so I don't forget about it. Therefore, Office Day could also double as Kitchen Day if I don't have too much going on.

2. Zones vs. Focus Areas: Flylady has Zones and Kim has Focus Areas, which are essentially the same thing- rooms. Both Kim and Flylady rotate work on the Zones/Areas every month, one room (or group of rooms) per week. The difference is that Flylady does zone work every day, while Kim suggests doing it every day OR just making it part of cleaning day. I really like the idea of doing deep cleaning (zone) chores on cleaning day instead of spreading them out over the course of a week. That way you already have the cleaning stuff out, are dressed for cleaning, etc. This makes a little more sense for me because our house doesn't get all that dirty with just three people.

3. Routines: both Kim and Flylady have morning, evening and after meal routines. However, Kim also fills in the in-between hours with "routines" like Table Time, Quiet Time, Afternoon Chore Time, etc. I thought this was really helpful for stay-at-home or homeschooling parents in particular. She goes into detail about exactly what each age group should be doing during these "times"; even babies and toddlers. Baby Girl and I already have some "times" that we do every day- Bare Butt Time*, Animal Chores Time, and Afternoon Nap Time. I've found it so helpful to have some pillars in our schedule, even if they don't happen at exactly the same time every day. I look forward to implementing some of Kim's "times" when Baby gets older.

4. Menu planning: Flylady and Kim's menu systems are very similar. Both have you write down what you will be eating for the whole month. Both advise stocking a pantry. The difference is that Sink Reflections dedicates a whole four pages to this chapter and only covers dinner. Home Management covers breakfast, lunch AND dinner, and explains how to stack your menu plan with your different Days (Cleaning Day, Town Day, etc.). Her pantry approach is also more similar to mine (stock up on things when they're on sale) than Flylady's (buy things when you are running low). Kim also gives extra tips on meal planning/grocery shopping, like having three copies of your Basic Grocery List (pantry list): one at your desk for planning your Town Day, one in your purse to jog your memory at the grocery store, and one laminated inside the kitchen cupboard for family members to mark down anything that is running low. 

My menu planning process is very similar, but I don't plan specific meals for the entire month. Instead I pick specific meals by what I have (or rather, don't have) in the pantry that week. Our schedule is not stable enough to plan a meal weeks in advance. Goodness, there are several days each month where I have dinner thawed or even ready to eat and instead we spend the dinner hour at Menards or Home Depot and end up eating out. This is just the reality of our life with Hubs being a business owner. Planning weeks in advance could work great for someone on a more regular schedule.

I think Flylady can work for anybody, but Kim's system(s) will work far better for me in my unique situation. It may or may not work better for you.

So in a nutshell, I highly recommend Home Management: Plain and Simple. It is well worth the $10.00, especially if you have kids at home!

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*Bare Butt Time is when I leave Baby Girl's diaper off for a little bit while I do computer stuff next to her. I think this really helps prevent diaper rash, plus she seems to enjoy it. I know I would, if I had to wear a diaper 24/7!

Audible: Not What I Expected

Last month I signed up for a free Audible trial. I realized how much time it was taking me to read books, and I decided that the $15.00 per month would be worth it, if it bought me more time.

After we got back from our trip to Florida, it was time to select my first paid audio book. I wanted to get the best value for my money, so I made a wish list of titles that were over 20 hours in length. Essentially, I would be paying $0.75 per hour or less to read a book to me. I thought that was worth it.

Then, out of those books, I wrote down all of the books with a regular (actually, discounted for Audible members) price of more than $30.00. Out of these 14 books, I picked out the "top three"- that is, the three books with the most hours AND top dollar value. The best value was David McCullough's Truman, with a price of $66.11 and playback time of 54 hours. Wow! A monetary savings of $51.11, and an hourly reading rate of just $0.28.


Running Into Problems

You would think that choice would be a no-brainer, but I realized later that I didn't actually want to spend 50 hours listening to a story about President Truman. There were FREE podcasts and audiobooks that I would much rather listen to. So, I went back to my list. Still, most of the books were history books. I wondered if I could find books in any other genres to listen to.

Instead of spending another three hours browsing Audible, I went to Amazon and typed in some of my favorite keywords. Then I scrolled down the list of books, looking for those with an Audible edition. I found two, and then went to Audible to read the reviews.

One of the books, as it turns out, had a lot of good reviews, but I didn't think it was what I wanted for $15.00. The other book had a lot of good reviews as well, but many listeners said it would be better to buy the paperback, as it was in more of a workbook format. So I passed on those two books.

I spent probably another hour looking for audio books that I liked. The problem I kept running into was that the price on Audible was less than $15.00. If I was paying $15.00 per month for a subscription, it didn't make sense to buy a $14.00 book. But then again, if I DIDN'T have the subscription, my price for most of those books would go up to $20.00 or more.

So, I went back to the history books on my list. When I started looking up the Audible reviews, there was one last issue. Commenters said, "The book sounds like Siri is reading it" or "This was their worst day in the studio- ever". Finally I found a book that cost more than $15.00, sounded interesting, and had good Audible reviews. I used my credit to buy it. It only had a monetary value of $17.95, and under 20 hours of playback time, so it would not have made my first list. But, oh well.


Not Sure if I Will Continue

My first real Audible subscription purchase didn't live up to my expectations. I wanted to buy books that I were already on my reading list, but most of the paperback books on my shelf are not available in audio format. They are either too old, too niche, or too short to warrant spending my $15.00 credit on.

Instead of spending five hours on the couch reading, I spent over five hours on the computer, trying to find a suitable book to buy. This thing was supposed to SAVE time, not waste it!! For next month's purchase, I have created a few guidelines.

1) It must be something I would enjoy reading.
2) Preferably a book on my shelf right now, that I will not have time to sit down and read.
3) The book must cost more than $15.00 on Audible.

Instead of making a wish list from the high-value books, then, I am going to buy a book already on my bookshelf. I will probably end up paying around $1.00 per hour for someone to read to me, but if I can do a $5.00 per hour activity while listening to an Audible book, I'll still be "earning" $4.00 per hour.

In the long term, I think it would be more frugal to pay for paperback books and listen to FREE audio.


The Good News For Non-Members

The good news for all of you non-members of Audible is that you can find a LOT of cheap or free audio to listen to without paying $15.00 per month. Amazon Prime members have access to Audible's "channels", which often include free audio books as well as podcast-type material. Then there are also free podcasts on Stitcher and iTunes to listen to.

Lastly- and this is a hack I learned before our road trip- you can "buy" a free ebook version of older classic books on Amazon, and get the Audible version for a few dollars. I downloaded David Copperfield (Kindle version) on Amazon for free, and then bought the 36 hour Audible version for $0.95. If I had bought ONLY the Audible version, it would have cost my $15.00 credit, $2.00 with an Audible membership, or $40.00 without an Audible membership. My total cost per hour for David Copperfield, then, was under $0.03 per hour. 

If you are in the market for good, classic fiction (pre-1910's), it's easy to find, and very cheap. Non-fiction audio books are a little harder to be frugal about, but you can still find pre-1910's non-fiction on Audible for cheap, a tiny bit of modern non-fiction on Audible Channels (for Amazon Prime members), and a lot of modern non-fiction audio though free podcasts.

Obviously, if money is tight, then borrowing non-fiction through your local library is going to be the best option. Second, find a cheap used paperback version on Amazon. If the used version is still not cheap, you can still buy it, read the book, and resell it on Amazon if the value hasn't gone down too much. Usually I only buy Kindle books if they 1) are free, 2) aren't available at the library, or 3) if they cost less than $5.00. It's important to remember that Kindle books have no resale value, so you MUST get your money's worth out of reading the book. Lastly, I check if the audio book would be cheaper with the purchase of an ebook. For modern non-fiction, though, usually it is just cheaper to buy the audio book if that is what you want.

Are you an Audible member? How to you chose which books to buy and how do you get the best value?

9A couple weeks ago, I finished reading a very good book, written in 1833 by a Mr. William Cobbett. Because it's in the public domain, you can download the Kindle ebook for free here. 

Though a lot of the political issues and some of the activities mentioned in the book are outdate, the basic idea that Mr. Cobbett advocates is not: using a bit of land, skills, and hands-on labor to make the home a place of production, instead of a place only used for consumption.

He speaks of giving your children an education that consists of the following: "to labour with steadiness, with care, and with skill; to show them how to do as many useful things as possible; to teach them to do them all in the best manner; to set them an example in industry, sobriety, cleanliness, and neatness...." As a society, not only have we neglected to bring up children in such a way, but we've neglected to give ourselves the kind of education that Mr. Cobbett talks about in his book.

Some of the "skills" he mentions are brewing beer, making bread, keeping cows, keeping pigs, keeping bees and fowls, braiding straw for hats and bonnets, and a few other skills that I am probably forgetting. He goes into great detail on how to do each thing above; the detail is so great, in fact, that it was a little hard for me to understand or fully appreciate. However, I did learn some new and interesting things.

My chief interest in reading this book was to find some new goat and/or chicken feed ideas, but I got a lot more than that. Keep in mind that the advice was from the 19th century, so...

Bethany's Notes
Here are some notes I took from my Kindle:

"Every farmer will understand me when I say, that he ought to pay for nothing in money, that he can pay for in anything but money." That is, if you can barter for something or do it yourself, don't spend money on it.

Mr. Cobbett includes in the book a plan for growing cabbages and turnips (and/or rutabagas...like I said, the language is a little obsolete) to feed cows for free. In the book he lists proper varieties and planting times for each, and has done the math on how many cabbages and turnips one must plant in order to sustain the cow.

"When young, [ducks] should be fed upon barley-meal, or curds, and kept in a warm place in the night-time, and not let out early in the morning." There is a whole section devoted to duck-raising, which I've been very interested in since I got my first ducks in August.

He says of feeding chickens during the winter:
"...give them very stimulating food; barley boiled, and given them warm; curds, buck-wheat, (which, I believe, is the best thing of all except curds;) parsley and other herbs chopped fine; leeks chopped in the same way; also apples and pears chopped very fine; oats and wheat cribbled; and sometimes [the French] give them hemp-seed, and the seed of nettles; or dried nettles, harvested in summer and boiled in the winter. Some give them ordinary food, and, once a day, toasted bread sopped in wine. White cabbages chopped up are very good in winter for all sorts of poultry."

About the chicken coop: "It is good to fumigate the house frequently by burning dry herbs, juniper wood, cedar wood, or with brimstone; for nothing stands so much in need of cleanliness as a fowl-house, in order to have fine fowls and plenty of eggs."

"Fowls should be put to fat about a fortnight before they are wanted to be killed. The best food is barley-meal wetted with milk, but not wetted too much."

He says about feeding rabbits: "A variety of food is a great thing; and, surely, the fields and gardens and hedges furnish this variety! All sorts of grasses, strawberry-leaves, ivy, dandelions, the hog-weed or wild parsnip, in root, stem, and leaves."

He says about feeding goats: "In summer they picked about wherever they could find grass; and in winter they lived on cabbage-leaves, turnip-peelings, potatoe-peelings, and other things flung out of soldiers' rooms and huts." 

Of furniture: "In household goods, the warm, the strong, the durable, ought always to be kept in view. Oak tables, bedsteads and stools, chairs of oak or  of yew tree, and never a bit of miserable deal board. Things of this sort ought to last several lifetimes."

He says of the factory-culture of 1800's England: "One of the great misfortunes of England at this day is, that the land has had taken away from it those employments for its women and children which were so necessary to the well-being of the agricultural labourer. The spinning, the carding, the reeling, the knitting; these have been all taken away from the land, and given to the Lords of the Loom..."


Applying "Cottage Economy" to the 21st Century

What Mr. Cobbett is trying to say throughout the whole book is "Hey guys! Don't forget that we still have hands! We can make stuff at home, and then we don't have to pay for it. Maybe if we stop depending on the factories for sustenance and re-learn how to do some of this stuff, we can get out of poverty."

And really, I agree. In fact, one of the goals of my blog here is to give you a real-life example of what "cottage economy" looks like in our modern day. Instead of making beer, it might mean growing herbal tea. Instead of dipping rushes for light, it might mean growing miniature pumpkins for decorating. No, I probably won't be platting straw to make Hubs' hat. Probably, but that's not a guarantee.

I'm sure you've noticed that some of my "home economy" projects haven't worked out so well. Making noodles, or my first year of farmers market, for example. Some skills are as obsolete as platting straw, but others are definitely worth learning. I like saving money, but for me it is not just about the money. It's about proving that life as a homemaker is creative, productive and satisfying work. That homemakers can bring wholeness to their families by lowering stress, providing structure in the home and yes- still contributing financially, either by saving or earning.

I don't think it's being at home 24/7 and/or never working for money that makes a difference. It's having the heart of a homemaker that really counts. Some people say, "I don't have time to cook/clean/decorate/etc.", but where there's a will, there's a way. In our day and age, housewives can earn quite a bit of money from home (or even work outside the home a bit) and still be homemakers. Thank you to whoever invented dishwashers and washing machines, right?! Instead of just being a place to sleep and watch TV over microwave dinners, let's make home something memorable and financially viable. 


Last Words From Mr. Cobbett

I'll leave you all with this quotable: "...the way to make [your] daughters to be long admired, beloved and respected by their husbands, is to make them skillful, able and active in the most necessary concerns of a family." 

;)

​-Bethany

My Kindle Story

I have been a Kindle Paperwhite owner for three years. When I bought the Kindle, it was with the intention of saving money on 1) newly released books, and 2) reference books or text books. As you probably know, most ebooks on Amazon have a top price of $9.99. Oftentimes, this is cheaper than buying a paperback or hardcover version.

One of the first ebooks I bought was Cure Tooth Decay by Ramiel Nagel. At the time, I was burnt out by using the library and wanted to just buy the book. I looked all over for a cheap used copy (even on sites like Paperback Swap which I had been using to get rid of books not worth enough to sell on Amazon), but even the used copies  were only a few dollars cheaper than the list price of $26.97 (+$3.99 for shipping).

After searching the used market for a little while, I noticed that the ebook price was only $9.99. Too bad I didn't have a Kindle! I could be saving 50% on this book. What if I wanted to buy more books, and saved $10.00 or more every time I bought one? The savings alone might cover the cost of purchasing a Kindle.

A few days later, I discovered and downloaded Amazon's free desktop Kindle app. I bought the book I had been looking at, and decided that I liked reading ebooks. When I had been reading ebooks on my desktop for almost a year, I started to want a Kindle. After some research and asking around, I chose to buy the Kindle Paperwhite. It cost about $119.00 at the time.

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Was My Kindle Worth the Investment?

If I saved $10.00 for every book I bought on the Kindle, it would pay itself off after 11 books. Though I certainly purchased 11 books within a year, it's doubtful if I truly saved money by purchasing ebooks, let alone the Kindle. In 2012 I spent $99.63 on ebooks. In June of 2013 I bought the Kindle device, and spent $119.21 that year on ebooks. Woah! I realized then how easy it was to spend money on ebooks, and decided to change my book buying strategy. During the last three years I've only spent $41.62... an average of $13.87 per year on Kindle books.

Altogether, in the past four years I've spent $260.46 on ebooks (most of which I probably could have checked out at the library), in addition to the $119.00 Kindle itself. One has to wonder if spending $380.00 on non-essentials is really an investment.

The reason that I don't think Kindles are a good investment is because, after you buy them, ebooks have no value. You cannot resell an ebook. You cannot even lend it to a friend. So of the $260.46 that I spent on ebooks, I will not have a single dollar of that come back to me. You can resell the Kindle, but only at half the price you paid for it. 


A Better "Investment"

Four years later, I still enjoy using my Kindle but it is much slower than it used to be. I see now that anyone in the market for a Kindle Paperwhite can get one on Ebay for $50.00. And there is one more new development that might influence your decision to buy a Kindle.

Along with the free desktop app, Amazon offers an app for your smart phone. This apph essentially turns your phone into a Kindle; backlight, adjustable letter sizing, highlighting and all. The Kindle app also offers social media sharing, which my old Kindle Paperwhite does not (I'm not sure if the new ones have been updated). 

In addition to being completely free, the Kindle phone app allows you to take your books with you anywhere without carrying another device in your purse. And yes, I can turn the pages a lot faster on my phone than on my actual Kindle device.


How to Get the Most Out of Your Kindle

Whether you have an actual e-reader or just the phone app, there are ways to get the benefits of reading ebooks without spending $260.00 on things that have no value after you've bought them. Here are some of my favorite frugal Kindle hacks.

1. Only buy free books. Sometimes Amazon authors will run a promotion on their book and offer it for free for one day only. I have done this before as an author. Every day there are new free ebooks available. You may be able to download several high-quality books this way.

There are also hundreds of free books out there that are not high-quality, but still worth reading. Some books like this that I have bought include cook books, exercise books, or short stories.

Any book written before 1923 is in the public domain. Most public domain works are available for free on Amazon. This includes everything from great classics and technical writings to any obscure old book you might find at an antique shop. When I was a kid, we had an old book about the "Galveston Horror", a hurricane that flattened the city of Galveston, TX in 1900. Sure enough, just the other day I found the exact same book on Amazon Kindle for free. There is no reason to buy these old books and keep them around (especially if it is a one-time read) when you can get a free, legible, non-fragile and no-pages-missing copy on your phone.

Lastly, any .epub file can be loaded onto your Kindle/app and read as an ebook. These files can come from anywhere, not just the Kindle store. Recently I found some historical files from the Michigan Pioneer Society to use for some research I've been doing. Instead of spending hours in front of the computer, I simply downloaded the .epub file onto my Kindle. Now I can do my research in bed, in the car, or outside on a warm summer day.

2. Use the Kindle for its translation capabilities. You will have to purchase a Spanish (or whatever language you are learning) dictionary, but after that you can download free Spanish books to practice with. This is a whole lot easier than reading a physical Spanish book and having to look up every word you don't know in a physical Spanish dictionary.


Alternatives to Buying Ebooks

Nowadays, if there is a book I want to read that I can't find for free, I will usually get it from my local library. Most of the books I like are not stocked at our local library, but I can order them through the interloan system. For every one book I get via interloan, I try to check out two books off the shelves at our library. The most efficient way to get your reading done would be to ONLY order interloan books and not mess around with checking out books you didn't plan on reading in the first place. However, I tried that with my hometown  library several years ago and it really ticked off one of the librarians. After receiving several rude comments from her (one that I actually confronted her about), I got discouraged and just started buying books I wanted instead. 

This time around, I am really trying to have a good relationship with our local librarian. I am not sure if the interloan books are actually more work, or if the rude librarian just needed someone to blame for her disappointing life. Whatever the case, not using the library cost me literally hundreds of dollars. So I just thought I'd throw that caution out there to anyone who has just discovered the interloan system and is going crazy ordering all sorts of books. Keep the librarians happy.

If there is a newer release that the interloan library does not have, I purchase a physical copy from Amazon. Though it will probably lose some value by the time I am done with it, the book will not lose ALL of its value. I will still be able to resell it, or at least give it away to a friend.

Conclusion

Though I positioned this as an ROI article, the reality is that buying a Kindle is not an investment like one might think. Technology has developed to the point where this "investment" has become a toy for reading pleasure. A better investment is to download the Kindle app on your cell phone for free books, and to purchase physical books that actually have resale value. To be fair, I still do pay money for a select number of Kindle books every year, but those are usually very niche topic books by independent authors. Last year, for example, I purchased Early Retirement Extreme by a blogger named Jacob Lund Fisker. It was not available through the interloan system, and the Kindle book was $9.00 cheaper than the paperback, after the cost of shipping. This year I purchased an ebook when we were on vacation. I had lots of time to read, but there was not a library where we were staying, and I wanted to read the book before we left (it was about the history of banana plantations... not something that would be as interesting when I got home).

Buying books can get complicated when there are so many resources available. However, when we buy the right books from the right place (or get them for FREE from the right place), spending can be cut to almost nothing. And books sure provide a great return on an investment of almost nothing!

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.

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"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

I borrowed this book from the library (possum points for me!). Today I thought I'd share a little bit from it, as well as my commentary/thoughts on how we can translate some of the author's strategies into modern living.

How to Live Well Without a Job and Almost No Money

Possum Living is a 1978 book written by and 18-year-old girl living with her dad. As the book title suggests, it is part handbook and part hilarious commentary on "how to live well without a job and almost no money". The book includes chapters on raising & preparing food (about 1/3 of the book), housing, clothing, transportation, "law", electricity, income and daily living.

The first two chapters are an introduction to basic concepts (why you would want to quit your job and "live like a possum"), and also a breakdown of Dolly's yearly cost of living. I thought this was very impressive. Yearly expenses for Dolly and her father (their household at the time) were just under $1500 in the 1970s. Below is their yearly spending by categories. I've gone ahead and also put the totals in 2016 money in green, so you can have a better idea of how much they spent (and of course, compare your own budget to theirs!).

Dolly's "Possum" Budget:

Food: $268.89.....$1024.18
Moonshine ingredients: $98.37.... $374.66
Soap/paper products: $47.45....$180.72
Fuel oil: $161.66.... $615.72
Cooking gas: $87.01.... $331.40
Electricity: $101.24.... $385.60
Home improvement: $335.43.... $1277.57
Property taxes: $286.00... $1089.30
Clothing: $13.33.... $50.77
Luxuries: $25.05.... $95.40
Other (tools, laundry, fish hooks, etc.): $74.32... $283.06

Total: $1498.75.... $5708.40

Income
For the small amount of money that you WILL need, Dolly recommends handyman or temporary work (her dad often worked during the winter) and selling crafts. Some of the information on work is obviously outdated (for example, she says you can make more money selling crafts than selling used stuff). Nowadays there are plenty of ways to make money online and off. To make extra money, I've personally sold things on online or at farmers market/craft shows, sold eggs, done farm-sitting, house-sitting, sewing work, garden work, and taught music lessons. I think this is one part of possum living that we can do better than Dolly herself.

The Basics... FOOD!
A large chunk of the book is all about the most important thing- FOOD! Included are all sorts of unorthodox ways to put food on the table; everything from keeping rabbits and chickens in the basement to fishing and shooting pigeons on public grounds, to foraging and buying grains from animal-food elevators. As for all other groceries, Dolly says, "buy the cheapest brand and largest size of everything." And don't forget to check behind the store for produce to give to the rabbits.

​Transportation
Dolly and her dad used bicycles, their own two feet, and at one point, a horse to get around. If they really needed a vehicle, they would barter for use of a neighbor's automobile or get things delivered to their home.

Housing
The author admitted that living largely outside of the money economy would not be possible with rent as a monthly expense. Owning your home outright and doing your own repairs is the way to go.

Clothing
The book recommends buying clothing at thrift shops. Dolly says she had a sewing machine but never used it because you couldn't make clothing for as cheap as you could buy it. I think this is still generally true, but in 2016 there are so many sources of FREE clothing and fabric (hand-me-downs, garage sale free boxes, etc.) that, with a sewing machine and some skills, you would never have to buy clothing, even at thrift shops. I've also noticed that thrift shop prices ($2-3 for shirts, $5 for jeans) are comparable to off-season clearance clothing at the mall. Why buy used clothing if you can get new for the same price? But if you are whole-hog possum, why BUY clothing at all if you can get it or make it for free? Plus I think Dolly could have alleviated a lot of winter boredom (something she talked about in the book) by upcycling old clothes/fabric into new clothes for herself during the colder months.

Not In the Budget
Some things not on Dolly's list are car-related expenses, insurance of any kind, vacations, hobbies, Christmas or income tax (obviously... no income, no tax). The book explains why they chose to go without these things. For example, Dolly and her dad lived in town and were able to bike or walk/run everywhere they needed to go. They also seemed to be "homebodies" whose entertainment consisted of bird watching or reading books.

Though Dolly was opposed to taking "welfare" or government help, in today's world filing income tax could actually bring in some needed cash. For example, if someone with several kids (or other deductions) files an income return with only a little income, they'll probably get a nice chunk of money back from the government and not have to pay anything at all.

Is It Possible to Be a Possum in 2016?

Of course, as I read through the book, I thought of all kinds of things I could implement our own household economy. We COULD go whole-hog possum, but that would include having to break the law, not have insurance, etc. that personally I'm not willing to do. However, I love the idea of it- that is, freeing oneself from the money economy.

The Prerequisite: As Dolly states, the first step is owning your home free and clear. This is a major hurdle for most of us because the $50k, $100k or $200k price tag for a house seems impossible to pay off. In fact, most people buying a house take 15 or 30 years to pay it off. However, I think this is totally unnecessary. I realize that there truly are people out there who need to spend every dollar they make, but most middle-class families in America spend tens of thousands of dollars each year on frivolous "stuff". It's the little things- clothing, food, magazine subscriptions, new books, haircuts (cut, color, perm...), coffee, pets. At one point I thought about getting highlights in my hair for fun, but not only do they cost a lot... you also have to buy special shampoo for dyed hair! There are so many things in life with added costs that we don't even think about. That is why life seems to cost so much more than we anticipated.

All that being said, I think owning your own home- even as someone in their 20's- is very doable in 2016. It just requires 1) not buying more house than you can afford, and/or 2) diligent saving. I know of one newly-married couple who bought a livable house for around $10,000. How cool is that!? Yes, the house is small and they had to do some fix-up work, but they won't have the average $1000 monthly mortgage payment until they are 50 years old.

Which Radical Do You Want to Be?
After paying off your home early, there are two different "radicals" you could be.

1. Going Without a Car:
Getting around with only a bicycle and your own two feet is a fantastic option for city people. And it is actually becoming quite popular. However, I am just going to give you my own experience with biking as actual transportation and you can decide if this option is for you or not.

I tried biking to work once, when I had an office job. The distance was about eight miles both ways. The bike trail I took was awful (it was after a storm; branches down ALL over and I literally had to lift my heavy mountain bike over fallen trees). In addition to that, on the way home I had to cross a busy highway when everyone was getting out of work. This required some tricky maneuvering because Michigan drivers are NOT used to sharing the road with cyclists. Technically, I was going straight at the intersection and should have used the car lane. But what I ended up doing was pretending to look at my phone on the right side of the road, and then when no cars were coming I zoomed across.

The League of Bicyclists website has a good article here on which states are more bike-friendly. Michigan ranks somewhere in the middle. I know our local towns are trying to be more bicycle friendly (like making bike trails and bike lanes), but it's still not a socially acceptable form of transportation here. If people know you ride your bike to work, they might start giving you money or offer you a ride or try to lend you a car.

That being said, in the country I feel safe riding my bike anywhere within a 5-6 mile radius. This is mostly pleasure/pop can riding, but it has included biking to do chores for a neighbor and going to some local garage sales. This summer I'm hoping to take the back roads into our local small town to get books from the library, mail small packages, etc. But we will NOT be selling our vehicle.

2. Producing Your Own Food:

The other extreme thing you can do is produce most of your own food. And by that, I mean get all of your food for free somehow. Many people have the idea that if they raise a beef cow and can strawberry jam, they are self-sufficient. Instead of being dependent on grocery stores, they're now just dependent on the feed elevator. And there's nothing wrong with using strawberries to make jam, but you can't LIVE on jam. You have to make something you are willing to eat all year round.

This is one area I've had a lot of success in. Dolly advocates raising chickens and rabbits in the basement, but since we have 5 acres to work with, I can keep the animals outside. As of this year, my chickens can support themselves (I sell extra eggs to cover costs of feed), so they provide us with free eggs and meat. My little dairy goat supports herself as well. During the fall we try to get venison one way or another, so meat, eggs, and dairy are pretty much free.

Obviously gardening is a no-brainer if you want to spend less money on food. Last year I was able to grow most of our veggies for the year (except carrots, onions & potatoes), 90% of our fruit and some herbs and spices as well. AND I fed some of the produce to the animals. While we don't buy our grains from the feed elevator as Dolly suggests, I have made corn meal and hominy with free corn, and buy other grains in bulk. 

Dolly says, "You don't have to be weird to leave the money economy,", but people instinctively know that you're weird. In the best case scenario, you are an avid cyclist perpetually training for a marathon who LOVES gardening and hobby farming and has done fantastically well financially in order to pay the house off early. In the worst case scenario, you're a paranoid lazy bum hermit who acts homeless but really does have a home.

Health & Possum Living

The author's opinion on buying health products and services is one that I tend to agree with. She says that someone who is eating home-grown vegetables and wild or home-grown meats and using their legs for transportation is NOT going to need a lot of health care or doctor's visits. Furthermore, she makes the point that people who regularly visit the doctor or dentist tend to need those services more and more. It is kind of like taking your car in for a repair; you get one thing fixed, and another thing broken! For non-emergency health issues, it's better to not go in in the first place.

One thing I disagree with, however, is Dolly's use of moonshine as an all-purpose home remedy. If you look at her yearly spending, moonshine ingredients are 25% of food/drink spending. There are plenty of herbs that you can grow or forage for FREE and use as home remedies. These remedies will not be expensive, fattening OR intoxicating.

Bethany's Notes:

Here are some interesting random ideas I found in the book (and I'm putting here for my own future reference):

1. Alternative chicken feeds: corn, soybeans unused fishing worms, crushed rabbit bones, fish innards, crushed eggshells, bunny greens.

2. Alternative rabbit feed: corn, apples, pears, soybeans, green or dry maple leaves, weeds and grass, discarded fruit and vegetables, clover/alfalfa. In the winter, maple branches or twigs.

3. Alternative fishing baits: worms, minnows, grasshoppers, katydids, grubs, japanese beetles, grayfish, caterpillars, things found under rocks, artificial lures.

4. Gardening things to try: foraging "yellow rocket", wild ginger, purslane, wild mushrooms.

5. Grain. Buy from grain elevators; potatoes, wheat, soybeans, rolled oats... tell them it must be clean. Buy a wheat grinder to make bread, breakfast cereal. Use wheat in soup like barley. Sprout soybeans as vegetable dish. 

6. Food preservation: Dried mushrooms, herbs, pickled vegetables/herbs, canned turtle meat, catfish, carp. Store nuts, herbs, and root vegetables. Smoke cure fish or other meat... brine and smoke.

7. Sugar content of different fruits: apple 15%, apricot 13, banana 23, blackberry 11, cherry 17, grape 15-35, orange 11, peach 11, pear 15, plum 11, raspberry 13, strawberry 8, sugar beet 17. 

8. Interesting note on the grapes of wrath. misery suffered by people was caused by 1) non home ownership and 2) reliance on the money economy.

9. Alternative wood sources: cardboard/wood shipping crates, old newspapers, dead branches and trees, old wood buildings.

10. Electricity; a real bargain for the money. Don't have an electric dishwasher, clothes dryer, air conditioner, TV, or any other toys.

11. Interesting note about boarding horses; rent out a shed, use boarded horses for transportation and manure.

12. Winter is the most boring time of year if you don't have a job.

It's that time of year again... I'm committing to read the books I already have, and not buy more! Won't you join me? The rules are 1) no buying books for more than $1 (for those with clutter issues, preferably don't buy any), 2) post a review on Goodreads, and 3) donate or sell the book when you're done. My goal for the past year was to read one book per month.

2015 Results
I'll admit, I didn't adhere strictly to this goal in 2015. I posted eight reviews. I read the eight books plus a few more, which I didn't get around to reviewing. Those reviews will be coming! I also ended up buying about three new (used) books and one Kindle ebook in 2015. So, not a perfect record but I think it was okay.

2016 Books Read
A lot of my reading happens during the winter months. Surprise! This year I've already finished two books, and I'm posting a review for Square Foot Gardening, which I read last year. This book is a MUST MUST READ for anyone who plans to have a garden, ever. It is packed with not only square foot techniques, but also seed starting, fertilizing, composting, and individual plant care techniques and ways to extend the growing season. I just wish I would have read it sooner.

The other two books I read (mostly while on vacation) were Margin by Richard Swenson, and Bananas, by Peter Chapman. 

I received Margin as a Christmas gift, and Bananas was in our condo when we arrived in Panama. I thought about reading it, but didn't until I saw someone reading it on a bus. It must be a good book if some random person was reading it on a bus, right??

Bananas is about, as the title says, how the United Fruit Company changed the world. It was absolutely fascinating! The one tiny piece of information that I could not believe was how bananas were originally marketed and sold. There obviously was no market for bananas in the US because nobody knew what they even were. After a while, the company started "educating" the general public about bananas and marketing them as a health food, even going so far as to tell mothers that bananas could be fed to children as a meat replacement. Does this sound familiar? A bit like soybeans perhaps, or how about all of those fake "milks" on the market today that are supposedly healthier than real milk? Yes, history has relevance because it repeats itself.  

Ranting aside, Bananas was a fascinating book about fruit, politics, marketing and history. I'd give it a 7 on a scale of 1-10. Margin was a good reminder on why we should strive to have a little extra time in the schedule (probably a 6.5), and Square Foot Gardening was absolutely, postitively worth my time and $0.50 of garage sale money to read (9 out of 10). 

How did you do in your reading last year? What are you goals for this year?

Happy reading!
-Bethany

​From what I can tell, the last book review I posted on Goodreads was in June. Oops! According to my bookshelf reading challenge, I'm supposed to be reading one book (that I already own) every month. While I haven't posted reviews in July, August, September, and October, I've still managed to get some reading in.

However, I must admit that in July I broke down and bought a new book. It was a very unique book that I had 0% chance of finding at a garage sale. I paid $10 for the Kindle ebook, Early Retirement Extreme by Jacob Lund Fisker. You can read my review and why I didn't think I got my money's worth over at Goodreads.

In the meantime, I'll restate WHY my bookshelf-only reading challenge is a great idea, and how it is still possible to get a great education with free or cheap books.

Save $120+ Per Year
If you are a voracious reader, you probably spend a lot of money on books. Books are like your candy. When a new one comes out, you just have to have it. After I got my Kindle several years ago, I was spending about $10 a month (that's only ONE book people!) on ebooks alone, not including other used books that I bought on Amazon. It was just so easy to click and buy. It wasn't so easy to finish reading a book before I found more books that I just had to have. It came to the point where collecting books was more my hobby than actually reading them.

Now I'm at the point where I'm starting to chip away at my book collection. My goal this year was to read and then donate or sell one book per month. Out of my 263 real books and 60 Kindle books (yep, I just counted), I've been able to finish and review eight this year. Not a bad start, really. Hopefully before Christmas I'll be able to finish reading and review a couple more. If I read 12 books per year, my collection should last at least 26 years.

The Good News- More Books for Less Money
The good news is that going on a Bookshelf-Only Reading challenge (even for 26 years) is not as hard as you think. Here were my rules:

Rules:
1. No buying books on Amazon or other bookstores (high-value books found for free or very cheap at garage sales may be exceptions). A good rule for garage sale books is to not pay more than $1.
2. Try to read one book every month from your current collection.
3. Post a review on Goodreads.
4. Sell or donate the book so someone else can enjoy it.

Even if you don't shop at bookstores, there are plenty of VERY affordable books at thrift stores and garage sales. In 2015 I bought probably 15 books at garage sales, thrift stores and library book sales. In addition, I was also given some books. I also downloaded at least ten free books on to my Kindle. 

You can see that even if I NEVER buy a book from Amazon (or any bookstore) again, I won't run out of new reading material. At this rate, I'm still more a book collector than a book reader. But simply cutting out bookstores and Amazon purchases has allowed me to spend far less on this habit. It's like a coffee addict who stops going to coffee shops. He's still a coffee addict- just a richer one.

Free Books are Just As Good
After you've read so many books, you'll find out that really, there is nothing new under the sun. In almost every area except technology, information remains the same. Reading a history book from 1890 will provide almost the same story about George Washington as a history book from 1930 or 2005. Most authors and publishers are great at repackaging and marketing information. Cooking techniques, marriage advice, herbal medicine- none of it really changes. And if there is truly something new out there, it is probably available for free on the internet.

What does this mean for us? Simply that any book written in the last century is probably just as good as most written last week. And many books in the public domain (anything pre- 1923) are available online for free.