Yesterday I woke up with the worst  eye twitch ever. My right eyelid kept moving around like crazy, and if you've ever had an eye twitch, you know it's almost as annoying as hiccups can be.

I'd had the twitch for about a week, off and on. It's caused by eyestrain; mostly two things: 1) lack of sleep, and 2) too much screen time. I decided that it was time for a screen-free day. That meant no phone, no computer. 

Find More Time in Your Day

What I instantly noticed- like, before 9:00 am- is how much extra time I seemed to have. Every so often I would start walking over to the computer, then I'd turn away and have to do something else. During the morning I fed my goats, cleaned up, read a book and ate breakfast. Then I made a 2-for-1 meal- stroganoff rice for lunch, and a lamb roast, potatoes and carrots in the crock pot for dinner.

After lunch, I looked up at the clock and it was not even 1:00 pm yet. I wondered how many minutes I would have spent at the computer that morning to "look things up", had I opened another tab every time I felt like it. I probably felt this urge at least once every hour, and if I spent a conservative 15 minutes looking up a recipe, looking for podcasts, checking Facebook, checking email.... that is 25% of my morning, gone like that.

Eliminating Interruptions

Another thing my screen-free day allowed me to do was FOCUS. I realized that I've been using the internet and my phone as a kind of "break time"/procrastination after I accomplish each and every task, instead of just moving to the next thing on my to-do list.

During the afternoon, I cleaned up lunch, collected eggs, did the dishes, and read a book. Then I read a different book. And another different book. I looked up and it was only 3:00 pm. So much time left!! I remembered that I wanted to make some puff pastry for the freezer, so I did that. Then I still had time left, so I decided to mop the floor and do some other cleaning. Read some more. Hubs came in early from work because he wanted to do some errands before we went to church music practice. "Will you be ready in 45 minutes?" he asked.

"Sure." I said. "I have dinner ready if you want to eat before we go."

"Perfect!" he said. He had a couple things to do outside, then came in about 10 minutes later and we had a nice, leisurely dinner before heading into town... early.

Books Are Enough
The last thing I realized is how much I appreciate physical books and I need to be reading them more them blogs or pithy little articles shared on Facebook. What I spend much of my time doing on the internet is "looking things up", or researching. However, using Pinterest and Google for research is actually very, very time consuming.

Reading answers to goat questions on forums, for example, is very redundant and you get the same answer about 10 times over, but even though I have my answer I don't have any background information to the questions. It's like getting the answer to a math question without doing the math. If I google "what to do if my goat won't eat", I get a million answers but I haven't done the background research to discover why my goat won't eat. Yesterday I got to read a good portion of The Goatkeeper's Veterinary Book that I ordered. Now I have a better understanding of different problems that can arise (BEFORE they've happened to me!), and I'll be able to answer questions without turning to a screen for help. I feel like a better goat keeper for having read the book, but when I read goat forums I don't feel informed in the same way.

One interesting thing that happened while I was reading: I read a tidbit in one book about Eleanor Roosevelt. "I would like to read more about her life," I thought to myself. Then I remembered that I had in my possession another book with a short biography on each First Lady. After I had finished the chapter in the first book, I found my First Lady book and read about Eleanor Roosevelt there instead of turning to Wikipedia, which no doubt would have led me on several researching rabbit trails and took far more of my time.

For those of you compulsive "looker-uppers" like me, know that for the most part, books are enough. Reading books (as opposed to short, pithy articles) will give you a deeper understanding of a wide ranch of topics, and you will feel more able to deal with circumstances as they arise. 

During the time that I was earning an income, I invested in many high-quality textbook-style reference books, centered around my interests. These will be more than enough to provide a quality learning experience for me, WITHOUT the time-wasting and eye twitch that comes from spending hours on the internet trying to sort the useful from the not-useful. If you are a researcher, invest in yourself by purchasing books or borrowing from the library, and further invest in yourself by giving yourself a Screen-Free Day every once in a while in order to read those books.

Conclusion & My Challenge

Based on my findings from Screen-Free Thursday, I'll be attempting to limit my computer time to 30 minutes a day, or an hour on days that I write. I realize that being an writer, it will be difficult to limit screen time. However, it will be easy to limit internet time, and that I will for sure limit to 30 minutes. This will be more than enough to check social media, use my favorite phone apps and keep up with my two favorite blogs, every week.

To handle my unavoidable Google questions, I'll keep a piece of paper on the table and write down anything that might come up. Then during my computer time, I'll look those things up in an efficient manner, without going on rabbit trails. 
Have you tried having a Screen-Free Day? Could you really use a Screen Free-Day? I challenge you to treat yourself to one!

-Bethany

P.S. Screen time today is 48 minutes so far. Not bad for writing this whole article!

This article was inspired by a question I've had for quite a long time. I quit my job when we got married, mostly because I could, but also because I didn't think I made enough money to make it worth keeping a second car, etc. Did I make the right choice financially?

The Analysis
What we need to find out is 1) how much money I actually save being at home, versus 1) how much money I make at a job, minus taxes, transportation and other work-related costs. A lot of "wages of a stay at home mom" articles skew the figures by saying you would have to pay a chauffeur, professional cook, personal stylist, etc. I'm not trying to make some political point here, I'm just trying to honestly answer a question. If I worked outside the home, we would still buy cheap food and drive a Craigslist car, so those are my "job cost figures". On the other hand, I'm a decent gardener and pretty good cook, garage sale shopper, hair cutter, etc. These skills are reflected in our savings. I would recommend that each family do their own calculations based on their own real job costs and stay-at-home savings. Perhaps you really do need a second income, but it's smart to do the math anyway.

Extra costs to having a job:
Car: $1731.96
Food: $2938.44*
Other: $1,135.31 **
Daycare***: $7200    (***for one kid)
Taxes: $4500 (30% of income)

I figure that a housewife can easily save/earn $4 per hour (working 40 hrs/week), or $5760 per year. In order to pay for job-related expenses AND earn $4/hr. for her time, a working wife without kids would have to be making at least $13,307.42 per year.

When that same working wife has a baby that needs daycare, she must increase her earnings to $22,667.42 in order to still be making $4 per hour for her time. Every additional child will force Mom to earn an extra $10,000 in order to pay for daycare and baby costs.

Working From Home?
Recently we asked our accountant if it would make sense for me to make an extra income with our farm/homestead. "Not really," she said, "because you would be taxed based on your entire household income. You would run into the same problem you have [with Hubs' business], in that 30-40% of your $5,000-$10,000 would come out to pay taxes. It wouldn't be worth your time." My extra income might put us in a higher tax bracket, thus causing Hubs' earnings to be taxed at a higher rate. And my small earnings would be taxed at Hubs' higher rate. It doesn't make sense any way you look at it.

So for us, it makes more sense for me to stay home and continue to save money doing what I love every day. At my previous job, I was making $15,000 per year- only slightly above $4 per hour. It made financial sense for me to quit, in addition to the better lifestyle I would have without the job.

The problem with going back to work (in addition to the cost of work-related expenses and higher taxes) is that your entire frugal lifestyle starts to fall apart. Nights and weekends are spent doing basic cleaning and basic meal planning. There is no time to shop for deals, no time to go to garage sales or garden or do extra money-saving cooking. There is no time to hang laundry on the line or go for bike rides in the middle of the day, let alone time for making gifts or other more advanced frugal endeavors.

In addition to the frugality aspect falling apart, I would have to be very, very diligent with my time in order to eat healthy and find time to exercise outside of work. I wouldn't be able to do things I enjoy every day, nor would I be able to spend as much time with my husband. Instead of both of us being "off work" at 6:00 pm, I would come home from work and still have laundry, cooking and cleaning to do. My work would never stop, and it would squeeze out any time for my beloved hobbies. 

Is working away from home worth a few extra dollars? For me, absolutely not. Obviously if a lady is making $100,000 or something the family can hire someone to do cleaning and cooking and their lifestyle is not going to suffer. And there is always the option of a stay-at-home dad. But I think many times it would make more sense for a lady to quit her $15k-$30k job (that she doesn't like) if the husband is earning a lot more.

Back To the 1950's
When I say that the low-earner of the family should quit their job, I'm not advocating laziness or relying on welfare. I am advocating a return of good old-fashioned division of labor. The other day I read a "survival budget" put out by the local homeless coalition, which stated that a family of four is barely getting by on $50,000 per year. This is absolutely ridiculous and false... unless you are dealing with a non-frugal family who needs daycare because mom and dad both work. The paper never even addressed the possibility that maybe mom could stay home. It is getting to the point in this country where people think a stay-at-home spouse is a luxury, when in some cases it may be a financial necessity.

I've also talked to many stay-at-home moms who worked outside the home between marriage and kids. Some expressed regret that they continued to work after getting married, even though they didn't have to. Most people think that you have to have kids in order to quit your job, and that's not true. The time between marriage and kids is special because you can be supported financially, but still have no school or work obligations and therefore plenty of time to do whatever you want. This likely hasn't happened since you were four years old, and won't happen again until you are middle aged. This season can be used to reach non-monetary goals like restoring health and fitness, learning new skills or even getting a small business off the ground. 

********************
*This number is the difference between the USDA's cheapest meal plan for two people, and what I spend on groceries for Hubs and I. I'm assuming that a working wife/mom is super organized and can make thrifty meals on nights and weekends.
**This number includes random savings for things like shopping at garage sales, line drying clothes, and other savings. As mentioned above, I'm assuming that a working wife/mom is super organized and can manage doing her own basic laundry and cleaning on nights and weekends.

This past winter I conquered one of my math-related fears. Fitting sewing patterns had caused me many, many headaches in the past. It was something I thought I would never understand. But after Christmas I proved myself wrong and drafted my own pattern... entirely from measurements.

That's a lot of numbers! That's a lot of directions-following, a lot of steps and calculations and complications! That's not creative or artsy! I'm not that kind of person, and I hate math, so I shouldn't be able to do that. Or should I? 

The Old Me
One way I used to define myself was, "I'm not a math person." During my 10+ years of formal schooling, I loved the subjects of reading and writing, and despised the subject of math. It sometimes took hours for me to finish the problems correctly, though many of those hours were spent staring out the window wishing I were somewhere else. Algebra was the worst. By the time a test came along I had already forgotten the techniques I had learned in the weeks before. Math brought me no joy and no reward. It made me feel stupid. During these years I bought into the common polarizing lie that you are either an "art" person or a "math" person... and I was not a math person.

I am not the only lady out there who has told herself that. In fact, I know a girl who insisted that she had a "math disability". But I think it's a bad habit to shut ourselves off to potential skills. We should resist being boxed in by bad experiences and what society tells us. We need to tell ourselves the truth: I never had a reason to like math. I am afraid to try anything with numbers because of all the times I messed up in school.

A New Page
Now that I'm out of school, I'm learning that I really am a "numbers person". I love science and math in their practical applications. Math is not about memorizing methods and getting good test scores. Today math is about inches, ounces, kilometers, degrees ferenheit, and dollars. Math is tempering chocolate so it "snaps", planning a garden, using a chop saw or drafting a well-fit sewing pattern. My goodness, math is the difference between being rich or being broke.

What about you? Have you told yourself "I will never be able to do that; I am not that kind of person." We all have the ability to be math people or creative people, foodies or workaholics or people-persons or criminals to some degree. It's all in what we believe, largely influenced by what we hear from others and what we tell ourselves.  

So stop telling yourself you're not a math person.

Happy calculating!
-Bethany

I don't know about you, but I'm not really a fan of inflatables. Inflatable snowmen, inflatable Santas, reindeer and/or Christmas trees. I am also not really a fan of flashing neon Christmas lights. Tacky Christmases are just not for me.

Everyone has their own style; I get it. My style is a more subdued, classic, old-fashioned all-natural Christmas. The very first church I ever attended as a little girl was a little Methodist church down the road. Every year at Christmas the building was decorated in fresh greenery. The smell was so... Christmas-y. Not old and stale like some decorations used by other churches. Those plastic garlands- the kind that keep losing "feathers" until they look like a cat's wet tail. Now, there is a place for vintage decorations, but I really like the classiness of fresh greenery.

And why not make your own wreaths, centerpieces and garlands? Most of the materials are free, and how much fun to go tromping through the woods looking for supplies! You don't have to be a florist to make your own fresh, creative and professional-looking wreath. I made one this year with a reusable metal wreath form ($1.77 at Walmart) and some wire ($0.25 at Walmart). Walmart was selling ugly, plain little fresh wreaths for $7 each. My wreath was a fraction of the cost, but so much prettier. 

When we were in Guatemala, I watched a few Youtube videos on wreath-making. This was my favorite one, and I used the same method to make my wreath at home. It took about 30 minutes to assemble.

Before I made the wreath, I went out to the woods and found some pine trees and also picked up some pinecones, sumac berries, and hickory nuts for decoration. Then I came back up to the house and found another different evergreen tree and took some cuttings from that. When I got back, I had three different kinds of greens and some decorations for my wreath. When I got done the wreath, I made a bow out of some ribbon and added that as well. Then Hubs helped me hang it on our door outside.

Why stop at only a wreath? After I was done, I took some more greenery and made a candle centerpiece for our kitchen table. Now something like this takes a bit more skill than a wreath, but not much. Besides, flower arranging takes practice, and what better time to practice than when your "flowers" are free? 

Wine, beer, sourdough bread, cheese, sauerkraut, salami, compost... it's all got something in common. These foods use yeast, bacteria or other microorganism to start a chemical breakdown process that preserves, adds flavor, and improves the nutrition of the food. 

Before refrigeration, freezers, and canning, there was fermentation.  This was the "old school" way of preserving the harvest and every housewife knew how  to do it. The practice became less common after the invention of home canning, and with modern conveniences like freezers, there is virtually no need to know the art and science of fermentation.

In recent years, especially after Sally Fallon's book Nourishing Traditions was published, fermentation has made a comeback. It is a cheaper, healthier way to preserve than canning, and you don't need much equipment to get started. 

Fermentation & You

Perhaps you, like me, have already dabbled in fermentation. It can be a scary thing the first time you "rot" your first batch of fruit juice, milk, or vegetables. It starts to bubble and smell funny... what if it molds? It doesn't seem right to let food sit on the counter for several days. You're always supposed to keep hot food hot, and cold food cold. What about the bacteria??? Perhaps you got turned off by some pickles that started smelling like corn silage. Or maybe you tried making "cream cheese" that was strong enough to kill a horse. 

If you've tried fermenting without success, take heart and don't be afraid to try again. Every other Friday I'll be sharing some of my fermentation secrets and recipes, my discoveries, failures and successes. You might just learn a thing or two! OR perhaps you might just share a thing or two about your experiences.


Join me next time as we discuss wild yeasts, airlocks, and root vegetables. 

Happy Friday! :)

As promised, today I'm bringing you my 'new' discovery, made possible by my brother-in-law, the Mighty Hunter. I had made chicken broth and beef broth before, but had never considered bone broth from deer. If you butcher an animal yourself, you get extra perks like carcasses full of bones. Yay!

Back in the day, people didn’t have capsules and powders to keep them healthy. Everything came from plants and animals. Each part was up for grabs; leaves, fruits, seeds, nuts, bark and roots… skins, hoofs, brains, and eyeballs. These “weird” items contributed macro and micro nutrients- everything we needed for good health.

Instead of discarding our deer carcass, I saved the bones and made a nice gelatin-rich broth. Bone broth is super-super healthy for you and easy to make. It’s great for your bones and teeth, skin, hair and nails. This is how I made mine:

1.      Put bones in a big stock pot (I used my aluminum pressure canner… probably not the best but better than nothing!).

2.      Cover with water.

3.      Add some apple cider vinegar (1/4-1/2 cup). This draws out the gelatin.

4.      Also add seasonings if desired; onions, carrots, celery, red pepper flakes, ginger, garlic, salt, pepper, etc.

5.      Bring to a boil; turn heat down to simmer and let it cook for at least 10 hours- longer is better.

That’s it! When it’s done, you’ll have a pot of ugly-looking but very healthy broth, bones, and seasoning veggies. You can get three things out of this pot:

1. Broth: You can strain the liquid into a jar; that takes too long for me, so I just ladle the broth into the jars, trying to keep the bits and pieces out. When you refrigerate it, the broth will gel up and the fat will separate to the top. 

2. Fat: I skim off the fat to render and use for other purposes. Would you believe that butter costs over $1 per stick here? I think I’ll use free fat to butter my egg pan in the morning.

3. Bone meat: Meat picked off the bones will have a distinctive taste, unlike chicken or beef broth. I don't really like the taste, so I use the meat in heavily-seasoned soups and sauces.

Happy Monday!

Do you make bone broth? Have you ever eaten weird animal parts like hooves or eyes?

Let me introduce the concept of assets (investments) and liabilities (non-investments) from the excellent book, Rich Dad, Poor Dad. When you truly understand this, it will change your life.

ASSETS are purchases that make you money. When you buy an asset, that purchase earns (or saves) money for you. Assets do not continue costing you after the initial purchase. If you buy a cotton candy machine to rent out for parties, that is an asset. If you buy a chicken that lays eggs for your family, that is an asset.

LIABILITIES are purchases that cost you money. A car is not an asset- it requires money for gas, insurance, and upkeep. It quickly loses value as it ages. It is a liability. Houses, unless they are rental properties, are liabilities. A house requires money for upkeep and taxes. Unless you sell it, your house will not make you money. Boats, rugs, food, and designer purses are liabilities.

Most people spend their money on liabilities. Their only real asset is their job; this job pays for the house, car, boat, magazine subscription, china cabinet and other liabilities that are not making them money. Likewise, most housewives use their husband’s money to buy liabilities: potato chips, shoes, furniture, home décor, books, movies, magazines, gas station coffee, phones, iGadgets, craft supplies, makeup, hair care, and an extra car to drive around. Look at what you spend in a month and classify each purchase as an ASSET or a LIABILITY. Chances are, most of what you buy are liabilities. Try to limit your spending on these items, so you can put more money toward asset-type purchases.

What Should I Buy Then?

Now obviously there is not enough money in your grocery budget to purchase stocks. But what about seeds for a garden? Take some of your “eating out” money and plant a garden with it. Will you miss one meal at a restaurant? Probably not. You can grow a LOT of food for the cost of one restaurant meal.

Some “asset” purchases that housewives can make:

1. Plants. I’ve already mentioned seeds, but you can also purchase fruit and nut trees, berry brambles and grape vines, herbs, and perennial flower bulbs that bloom year after year and often reproduce themselves.
2. Animals. I’m not talking about pets here! If you live in the country, you can buy chicks that grow into meat birds or laying hens. You can buy piglets, lambs, calves, or goat kids. These baby animals will grow up. You can either butcher them for meat, or let them have even more baby animals to sell or raise.
3. Tools. It can be smart to buy tools that will save you time and money. A pressure canner, for example, allows you to can meat instead of freezing it. This can save a lot of money long-term. A good camera allows you to take high quality pictures to display items to sell online.
4. Business purchases. Say you have a small sewing business where you make and sell aprons. A bunch of fabric, then, would be an asset because it will make you money.

The man who buys businesses, mutual funds, rental properties, and other money-making purchases with his salary has a smaller home, no boat or china cabinet. Likewise, a housewife who buys assets will not buy designer shoes or repaint her kitchen every year. She will (like the Proverbs 31 woman) buy a field and plant a vineyard, or use her money to buy fabric and make things to sell.

This, my friends, is investing on a small level. When you have saved and earned enough, you can invest in bigger things like stocks and rental properties. My challenge to myself and to all of you is that we 1) ELIMINATE most of our liabilities, and 2) begin buying assets instead. Finally we can stop being slaves to our “stuff” and start making “stuff” our slaves.

Every household needs to have an income. In our house, Hubs is the major breadwinner and thus makes most of the money. Of course I make a few dollars here and there as well, but that is not my primary role.

When I was single, I was responsible for my own income, so I worked part time as a secretary. This paid for my basic needs and allowed some money for fun purchases, yet still gave me time to “do my own thing”.

As a housewife, earning is not your primary job, but it can be fun to earn some extra money if you have the time to do so. Right now Hubs and I don’t have kids, so I have a lot of extra free time. I know my free time will dwindle as children arrive, so NOW is the time to be building streams of passive income, something I will discuss in another post. Right now I make money for entertainment, not because we need it. However, I know there are families out there in a pinch that need to earn a little more. Here are some ways a housewife can earn money on the side:

1.      Freelance work: for me this would be floral design for weddings or other odd jobs. I know ladies who do photography or music lessons as a part time gig. Whatever you’re good at.

2.      Babysitting children and/or animals: this is not skilled work, and if you already have children or animals it could be an option. My mom had an in-home daycare when I was growing up.

3.      Selling stuff: this kills two birds with one stone if you already have too much stuff. Ebay, Craigslist, and Amazon are good places to start.

The best way to earn is to make money from something you enjoy and would be doing anyway. If you like quilting and coming up with new patterns, for example, it would be make sense to sell those patterns in a digital format on Etsy or some other marketplace.

Be careful about how you earn extra money… it could actually be costing you. If you have to leave home, for example, that means the cost of another car, gas, insurance and/or childcare. It might mean that you don’t have time to cook, which means buying expensive food. The house might be neglected, the husband and kids might feel neglected, and you just might end up feeling overwhelmed and stressed out. This, my friends, is not worth a few extra dollars.

As a housewife, your biggest asset to your family is the ability to save money (which is often better than earning, but I’ll discuss that later). Be sure to stay tuned next Tuesday when we discuss Money Skill #2: Saving.

This week and next week we’ll be talking about the three skills that everyone needs to succeed financially. You can get by with one or two of these skills, but if you have all three of them, you're liable to get rich! I’ll go over each skill in detail and how it relates to the housewife in upcoming posts; today I’ll just give a general overview.

Skill #1: Earning

Obviously you need to have some type of income, or you will won’t be able to buy anything… even toilet paper! Come on people- everyone needs toilet paper. It’s important that we have enough money to pay for things like food, shelter, and clothing.

Skill #2: Saving

Once you have some money coming in, be careful not to spend it all. In the United States we have no problem earning money, but MAJOR trouble with overspending. This is not just a plumber, nurse, or factory worker problem; it extends all the way into our government.

Skill #3: Investing

The last skill we’ll be focusing on is making money work for you. Each dollar you save should be a little servant, making you even more money to buy more little servants. Once you have built up some wealth, you are free to stop working for money (this is called FI, short for financial independence), start giving to charity, see the pyramids, or whatever else you want to do.

I'll kick off this series on Friday, then we'll continue next week on Monday and Wednesday. Stay tuned!

If you are a housewife and you have learned to set boundaries, you might have some extra time on your hands. I would highly encourage you to try gardening. Aside from the sunshine and exercise, you’ll also be getting food for pennies on the dollar.

Before you start gardening, determine what it is that you buy already. The goal of gardening is to stop buying fruits and vegetables, not to fill your freezer with store-bought veggies and then let the garden abundance rot on your porch.

For the freezer, we regularly buy corn, green beans, stir-fry mix, mixed vegetables, and also mixed berries. So for my garden this year I planted corn, beans, stir-fry veggies, and raspberries. I also picked wild black raspberries, and my MIL let me have some of her strawberries in exchange for picking duties.

For fresh produce, I would usually buy summer squash or zucchini, carrots, celery, 2-3 roma tomatoes, and sometimes a green pepper. I planted summer and winter squash, carrots, a few tomatoes (most rotted from the blight… L sniff), and three pepper plants.

In addition to the vegetables we would have bought anyway, I also harvested some watermelons, potatoes, and cucumbers; some of which I made into relish and pickles. From the tomatoes I salvaged, I made some spaghetti sauce, which we also would have bought anyway.

Help! I live in town!

If you don’t have a lot of space, you can always plant in containers. Strawberries, beans, peppers, and peas grow well in containers, and root vegetables like potatoes and carrots can be grown in storage tubs filled with dirt. If you have a small yard to work with, replace ornamental landscaping with useful fruiting or edible plants. Petunias and yew bushes are great, but you definitely can’t eat them!

If you don’t even have a yard, there is always the option of hydroponics, or growing plants in water. This you can do in a basement or closet. It is somewhat pricey to get started- $50 for plant nutrients, plus money for clay pebbles, a grow light, buckets or tubs, net pots, water and/or air pumps. It sounds like a lot of stuff, but you ARE essentially growing tomatoes in the basement. God did not design tomatoes to grow in basements.

Fruit: The Big Savings

If you can, grow or forage fruit. Fruit is more expensive than vegetables, but things like strawberries and raspberries are easy to grow AND make new plants on their own. It takes time to establish fruit, so get started as soon as possible. While your plants and trees are maturing, find free fruits like mulberries, wild black raspberries or wild apples. Be sure to ask before you go foraging on someone else’s property, and don’t pick things you can’t identify.