This Week...Beyond Money 08/17 - 08/23

For me, a life beyond money is making choices so that you can live the best possible life, regardless of your income level. Obviously, you have to make a living, but there are many ways to improve your quality of life without increasing your income levels and correspondingly your expenses. This regular post will be some of the ways that we improve our quality of life beyond just trying to make more money.

Gardening:
* I harvested lots of basil to use almost daily in cooking.
* I harvested a few cups of green/purple snap beans.
* I harvested a dozen or so cherry tomatoes.
* I harvested a dozen small medium-heat peppers.
* I fed the bunnies weeds and twigs.

This is after I had taken one dehydrator load of tomatoes out.
Isn't this fantastic?

Cooking/Groceries:
* Snacks have been popcorn or vegetables. I've found some great deals on baby carrots, cukes, tomatoes, etc lately. We'll often just slice up veggies, lightly salt and enjoy that with out movie.
* We found a manager's special on a decent steak for $5.40. We split half of it. The other half we saved for another meal. With the steak, I served mashed potatoes and gravy and slices of tomato with salt.
* My farmer friend royally hooked me up. I asked him about canning tomatoes because I'm not getting enough tomatoes from the garden to preserve. He said he didn't know if he would have any available but would let me know. He ended up hooking me up with a bushel of tomatoes for $20! That's $.38/lb! Not only that, but he definitely didn't give me "canners" (code phrase for the tomatoes that are too blemished to sell otherwise). These were pretty close to flawless (so far I've cut out a small bad spot from a total of three tomatoes). We've been devouring them fresh as a snack or in sandwiches. I've dehydrated 6 loads worth so far. I'll finish them in the next few days.
* I had tomato, basil (from the garden) and mayo sandwiches for lunch one day. Best lunch ever.

Food Preservation:

My setup...complete with Storm of the Century!

* I preserved about 20 pounds of tomatoes by slicing and dehydrating them. I gather my knife and cutting board, dehydrator trays and 2 large bowls. I cut out any bad spots and put them in one bowl (to go in the composter). I cut out cracked spots and cores and put them in the other bowl. I cut all of the tomatoes into even slices. If I have any weird spots that don't cut well, scraps of skin, etc, I toss into the second bowl. This bowl of scraps will be used to make soup. I slice several tomatoes, then stop and assemble them on the trays. The more you cram onto the trays, the longer it will take to dehydrate. However, I often leave the dehydrators running overnight, so this is no problem. Once they are fully dry, I store in repurposed glass jars.

Fun:
* Trucker found two coupons in the trash at his job for free small ice creams at the local fancy-ice cream spot. The ice cream would have cost $10 if we'd bought it. We tipped $1 and enjoyed our free, delicious ice cream. While we ate it, we strolled around the neighborhood. It was a perfect eveninh for it: not too hot, not too cold, perfect breeze, perfect humidity, pretty spotty clouds in the sky while the sun set. Perfect date. During the recession, we used to challenge ourselves to find inventive "Dollar Dates" when we didn't have more than a dollar to go out on. It was fun to see that all these years later, we can still have such a lovely time on a dollar date.
* A week or so ago, while Trucker and I were talking, we joked about how many months we had been married. Then we decided to figure out how many it had been. It was just shy of 100 months. We decided that we had to make a big to-do about it. We told everyone about our special anniversary. We ended up going out to dinner and a free concert at a coffee house.
* We went to see a movie at the discount theater on their $1.25 day.

Nature:
* I've enjoyed watching the clouds and sunsets while running. Perfect!

Frugality:
* I got a lot of free samples in the mail after spending an hour requesting lots online: 4 pack of meal replacement drinks (for days when I forget lunch or if we are super busy), tampons, maxi pads, stevia sweetener, lotion. These also came with coupons, some of them really good ones, so I'll use those in combination with a sale if I get the chance.
* I upgraded my phone since the old one wasn't working. I actually broke down and got a smart phone. I did this for two reasons. One: with our new business venture, I need to be able to check value/maker's marks/etc while out picking. I do not use the internet otherwise. I turn off my data so I'm not mindlessly using data. When I need to look up an item I'm thinking of popping on, I have to go turn on the data before I can search, and then turn it off after. Adding that little thought process keeps me from Facebook. Two: I want to try out one of those fun running apps. I talked with the sales guy to figure out the best phone for me. I made it perfectly clear I wanted the cheapest option and didn't need anything fancy. I ended up getting a phone on a payment plan (instead of the "free" phones I usually get) because it was $10/month cheaper than not having a payment plan on the "free" phone. So all in all, I'm paying what I used to pay for a regular phone that barely worked and only put through 1/3 of my phone calls.
* Line dried a couple loads of laundry.

The scraps from one day's preserving.

Waste Reduction:
* I saved tomato scraps to use to make tomato soup.
* Composted weird things.
* Used the last of a bottle of shower gel as bubble bath.

Work:
* I worked 2 hours overtime.
* I officially got offered a job for my farmer friend. I'm working 3 days a week helping at the farmers markets. While the farm is 1.5 hours from my house, the markets are all within a half hour's drive. They pay me for my time and gas. Sometimes I even get free produce (one day they sent me home with the last 10 cukes that would otherwise have just been composted). I make a good wage and love the work. I worked for this family when I was just out of high school, best job I've ever had. The entire family is very nice, the produce is fantastic, they are active members in the community (where I grew up). The job gives me a good work out (running all over with 50-100 pound tubs of produce) and I am learning a great deal about selling at farmers markets. When Trucker and I get our farm, I'll already have some experience in this aspect of farming.
* I worked 2 days at farmers markets this week.
* I packed my lunch every day I worked at my regular job. I always made sure (at either job) to have lots and lots of water.

Preparedness:
* Put up lots of food for winter.

Future:
* We continue to go out picking on a regular basis and restock our booth. We are noticing empty spots when we check the booth. Soon we'll get paid and get our itemized list of sold items and really know where we stand.
* I wrote some on my book.
* Trucker finished the rough draft on another book. He'll soon start the self-publication process.
* Trucker submitted an article to a website.

Health
* I ran most days, 1-1.5 miles.
* We snacked on fruit and veg instead of junk food.

How was your week?

This Week...Beyond Money 8/10 - 8/16

For me, a life beyond money is making choices so that you can live the best possible life, regardless of your income level. Obviously, you have to make a living, but there are many ways to improve your quality of life without increasing your income levels and correspondingly your expenses. This regular post will be some of the ways that we improve our quality of life beyond just trying to make more money.

Gardening:
* I weeded and thinned the garden and fed it all to the bunnies. They loved the micro carrots.
* Harvested 6 cups of green beans, 3 cups of greens, a dozen or so cherry tomatoes, basil microgreens and a few edible flowers to toss into salads.
* I picked parsley throughout the week to use in cooking.
* I harvested a lot of yard-long beans. They are so fun! And delicious. I grew them for the first time last year and expanded the number this year. They are great!

Cooking/Groceries:
* Made BLTs one afternoon. I saved 1/3 of the bacon for future meals. All of the lettuce came from the garden, the tomatoes were from the World's Longest Yard Sale ($2 for 1.5 lbs), the bread was $.50 on clearance, and the bacon was on sale for $3/lb.
* I bought a pack of mushrooms (6 oz) for $.79 at an Asian grocer. I also found some great bargains on dehydrated mushrooms and random pickles, but didn't buy any this time since I'm working at eating more from the pantry, but I now know where to go for some fun, exotic pickles on the cheap.
* At the local Whole-Foods knock off, I got: 2 avocados for $.50 each, 2 lbs of bacon ends for $8, 3 lbs of TVP for $10, and a pound of radishes for $1.
* For company, I made enchiladas using 1/2 lb of ground pork, a can of refried beans, the last of a jar of salsa, a tomato and some peppers from the garden, topped with a can of green enchilada sauce ($.49 from the salvage grocer). I used the avocados to make guacamole that I served with some on-sale tortilla chips. For dessert, I served a plum upside down cake I made with some of the $.19 plums I got at Aldi last week.
* I used the other half of the ground pork for tacos the next night.
* We had baked potatoes for dinner one evening and topped them with random items from the frig.
* I made bacon gravy and biscuits for dinner one evening.
* I made TVP loaf for dinner one night. I lost my good recipe, and the recipe I got from the internet wasn't very good. It crumbled and didn't taste as good as my old recipe. I'll keep looking for the old one. TVP loaf is really tasty (if you have the right recipe) and is very filling.

Food Preservation:
* I dehydrated tomatoes, peppers and green beans. There wasn't enough of anything for a load by itself, so I just tossed it all in one load.
* I froze 5 peaches, 3 nectarines and 6 bananas. I sliced them, then froze them on cookie sheets before packaging in freezer bags.

Fun:
* My friend and I went out for coffee together. I used my travel mug to get a discount. We drew, colored (in my fancy Anatomy Coloring book) and talked for a few hours. Then we went walking to some Asian grocers in the area.
* My sister came over for dinner one evening.
* We went kayaking with my family one day. My parents, all my sisters, and my sister's fiance met us at the lake. Dad had BOGO coupons (He pays $20/yr for a coupon book for their county and they use that for all eating out and a lot of entertainment over the year) for subs at a local shop, so lunch for the two of us was $5. They brought soda, water and chips from home and we ate at the state park. While two of my sisters and one sister's fiance went fishing, my parents, other sister, Trucker and I went kayaking around the lake for a bit to a small beach. We went swimming for a little while. While we were standing in the water and talking, a water moccasin swam up right in the middle of us! EEK! Then we got back in the kayaks and went through some canals back to where we'd parked. By this time it was dusk. As we went back, the cranes were coming in to roost. We got pretty close to a couple. It was beautiful! When we were leaving, my dad gave us a coupon from his book for BOGO at the local ice cream shop, so that cost $2.50 to get each of us a (huge) ice cream cone.

Nature:
* I got to enjoy the flowers and wildlife at a state park.

Frugality:
* I combined several errands one afternoon to reduce gas use throughout the week.
* I cut Trucker's hair for him. This is my second time doing it and I'm getting better and quicker. It took me 15 minutes and saved $13, so that's $52 bucks an hour, tax free!

Waste Reduction:
* I composted lots of weird things.
* I fed some corn silk I'd dried to the bunnies. They seemed to like it.
* Fed the bunnies weeds and garden thinnings. This saves a lot in food and reduces waste.

Work:
* I worked over 1 hour one day and a half hour another
* I packed my breakfast and lunch each day I worked.
* Trucker brought home goodies from his job that would otherwise have been thrown away.

Preparedness:
* I put up food for later.

Future:
* We continue to put more and more items into our booth. We are noticing some gaps when we go to restock, so we are making some sales. We'll get an itemized list and our first paycheck next week.

Health:
* I went running a lot.
* I've been more conscious about the calories I'm drinking. When I want to get a caloric drink, I drink a tall glass of water before I pour that drink. Then I'm not as thirsty, so I pour a lot less.
* I actually remembered to put sunscreen on before we went to the lake. I usually forget and get burned. I'm working at being better at this, especially since I'm fair skinned and my grandpa had skin cancer.

Community:
* A few of my coworkers gave me leads for getting some new inventory.
* We gave my parents most of the week's goodies from Trucker's job. That would cover a couple morning's breakfasts for them and my sisters.

How was your week?

World's Longest Yard Sale Adventure 2015

As you know, I'm a bit of a yard saling geek. So needless to say, 690 miles of yard sales, flea markets and community garage sales totally rocks my world.

No, this didn't come home
with us!

I originally heard about the sale from Erin at About.com's Frugal Living page. Trucker and I went for the first time 4 years ago, and have gone every year since. It's too fun not to!

This year, we'd planned to take a four-day trip, but then life happened. We got bumped up the list at the antique mall unexpectedly, and then moved in the weekend before the yard sales, and we were too tired for a multiple day trip. We decided we probably shouldn't go. However, we still wanted to go, as this is one of our favorite traditions. The morning of, we decided to go for just one day. We save coin every year for the yard sales and usually supplement this mad cash with some from our joint account to cover gas, food and lodging. This time, we decided to go for one day and use the coin for all of our spending. While we drove the 1.5 hours to route 127, I rolled coin. We had saved $150. We planned to stop at a bank and cash it in, but never ended up seeing one. We had to pay for everything with rolls of coin. Most people were fine with it, but next year I'll make sure I get a chance to stop at the bank to exchange the coin for singles.

The lady who sold this to me said she never could figure out
if it was a bear or a monkey. Thoughts?

In the ten minutes between when we decided to go and when we ran out the door, we scrambled to get everything ready. Trucker filled our travel mugs and thermos with coffee, cleaned out the car and tossed in all of our tote bags. I made ham sandwiches and grabbed some nectarines, baby carrots, cherry tomatoes, protein bars and apple chips for the road. We ended up only having to buy coffee on the way home.

We got off the highway halfway to 127 to go to the bank to exchange our coin (only to find that the search hadn't mentioned that this was an ATM, not a branch location...oops), and saw a yard sale and stopped. They were selling everything for fifty cents! Can't beat it!

We finally got to 127 and decided to go north instead of south like we have the last two years. WOW! What a difference it made. This part of the route was filled with yard sales. We found two towns having community yard sales and we sidetracked down side streets hitting those yard sales that don't get quite as much traffic. We got some great scores this way.

We were walking down one country road hitting yard sales and a couple offered us kittens. They were too cute for words (so cute, in fact, that I forgot to take a photo for all the cuddling). Trucker had to drag me away, but I think he was as torn as I was. Still, I'm not sure that Ray would be happy with a sibling stealing our affections.

We bought lemonade and cookies from every kid we saw who had a booth set up. I spent $2, but it was totally worth it to invest in some young entrepreneurs.

I thought this beautiful shell would
be perfect for storing jewelry or
other small items or for holding
business cards at a store.

Mainly we bought items for the booth, but got some things for us. Trucker has been needing a mitre box saw and found one for $1. He has been wanting to set up a CB radio and had almost everything he needed. He bought 6 antennas for $10 and will sell the 5 he doesn't use. I got a dress, two tote bags and a nightgown from a free box. It was really hot and I forgot a hair tie, so I bought a $.25 bandanna. I got a cute little head scarf in sea green for $.25; this goes well with the corals and cornflower blues I've been wearing lately. Trucker bought me a $.10 ring tree to help me organize my jewelry.

This photo does not do this cute dress justice.

We spent 6.5 hours yard saling and covered only 6 miles of the route! Usually we cover 30-35 miles in a day, but this part of the trail was chock full of sales. Especially when you stop for the flea markets and community yard sales, it takes a lot of time to cover a mile. In years past, we've gone south at the spot we get on and usually have to drive a bit farther between yard sales. Since we only drove six miles on the route and usually walked to multiple yard sales for each stop, we barely used any gas. That was great as it saved us a lot of money to use for yard sales!

Did anyone else hit the World's Longest this past weekend? Share your stories or scores!

This Week...Beyond Money 08/03 - 08/09

For me, a life beyond money is making choices so that you can live the best possible life, regardless of your income level. Obviously, you have to make a living, but there are many ways to improve your quality of life without increasing your income levels and correspondingly your expenses. This regular post will be some of the ways that we improve our quality of life beyond just trying to make more money.

Gardening:
* I bought another water bottle for the bunnies for $1.
*  I bought more rabbit food. The feed shop was out of all kinds except Purina and Mana-Pro (which I don't need yet since neither of the girls has gotten knocked up yet). I paid $18 for the Purina, which is $3 more than the brand I got last time. However, this store is on the way home from my job and the nearest feed store otherwise would be a good 25 miles round trip out of my way, so it would cost around $3 in gas. Total cost for the bunnies: $146.
* I continue to feed weeds to the bunnies.
* I harvested 1.5 lbs of snap beans from the garden. Am I the only one who finds stringing beans to be one of the most pleasantly satisfying food preparations? Is it because I know the beans are super fresh? Do string beans taste better than stringless? Is it a meditation thing? I'm not sure, I just know that I am always happy while stringing beans.
* I harvested 4 cups of lettuce from the garden.
* I harvested a dozen or so cherry tomatoes. Not a huge harvest, but Matt's Wild Cherry tomatoes are intensely flavored. Love it!
* I harvested edible flowers: day lilies, borage and nasturtiums.

Cooking/Groceries:
* I stopped by Aldi one evening when I was next door running another errand. I spent $18.50 for the week's groceries. I got some great deals: 2 packs of tortillas ($1.20 each), 2 loaves of bread ($.50 each), 2 10-oz containers of grape tomatoes ($.69 each, since my tomato plants are sluggish this year), 1 lb mozzarella cheese ($3), 3 packs of taco seasoning ($.35 each), 10 lb bag of potatoes ($3), 2 cucumbers ($.25 each), 2 1-lb bags of baby carrots ($.69 each), 8 plums ($.19 each), 5 nectarines ($.19 each), and 10 peaches ($.19 each). I plan to do some baking and freezing with the fruit. The cukes, grape tomatoes and carrots are for healthy snacking.
* I made fried chicken for dinner one night, simply tossed in flour and Bojangles seasoning. I served it with steamed green beans from the garden.
* I made frozen mochas using some mocha mix I'd been given with frozen bananas, yogurt, milk and topped with some whipped cream I got for $.99.
* I enjoyed adding borage flowers to water for a faint cucumber flavor.

Fun
* My friend came over for lunch one afternoon. She is vegan, so I made TVP tacos. I simply rehydrated the TVP with a packet of taco seasoning, and served with lettuce from the garden, tomatoes from the yard sales, black olives from the salvage grocery, sour cream (for me), hot sauce from the salvage grocery, and salsa from the manager's special bin at the grocery store. It was much cheaper to provide lunch for two at home compared to going out for even a cheap lunch for one.
* Trucker and I took a day to go to the World's Longest Yard Sale. We had planned on taking a four-day trip, but with moving into the booth the weekend before, we were tired and didn't have a lot of extra cash to spend. However, we had saved coin for the yard sales all year. We looked over our finances and saw that everything was fine for the month, so we decided to use the $150 we'd saved to go for one day. By only going for one day, we saved money on gas, food, drinks and hotel stay. We had a blast together, like always. We got a few items for ourselves: 6 CB radio antennas for Trucker (He has almost everything he needs to set up now; he'll use one and sell the others), a huge pottery mixing bowl in blue and white ($.50; it matches both my kitchen and another bowl I got for a bargain), a ring tree ($.10), a dress from a free box and 2 beautiful reusable totes from a free box. Everything else we purchased was for our booth. I packed lunch, snacks and drinks from home, so we only had to buy coffee once on the way home ($2 since we used our travel mugs).
* My family had been planning on going on a fishing trip together during our July vacation, but we got rained out. We took the trip this week. My parents, all three sisters, one sister's fiance and I went out for the day. We brought drinks and food from home, so we didn't purchase anything other than coffee for the 3.5 hour drive home. We carpooled and saved money on gas. It was a wonderful time. It was so nice to be able to talk and hang out with them. I caught the first fish of the boat! The fish weren't biting much for anyone, but it was still a good time. We didn't have a lot of fish at the end of the night, not enough for everyone, so we sent it all home with my sister's fiance.

Nature:
* I got to spend a whole day on a boat watching beautiful clouds and enjoying the fresh air while fishing.
* The one nice thing about having a really rainy summer is the wicked clouds. I've been loving evening runs when the sky is starting to get some color and watching the clouds as I run.

Frugality:
* I was in need of a new cell phone since mine hasn't been working properly. I discussed my options with the salesman and was able to save $120 over two years by buying my phone instead of getting a "free" phone.
* I combined three errands to one trip to save hassle and gas.
* Used swagbucks for all of my searching and filled out a few surveys to earn a little something.

Waste Reduction:
* I composted lots of weird things.
* While crafting, I set aside scraps of fabric to use in other projects.

Work:
* I worked an hour over on Monday and a half hour on Wednesday.
* I packed my lunch each day that I worked.

Future:
* My friend and I have been talking about setting up a booth selling crafts at a local festival next summer. When she came over for lunch, we spent a couple hours crafting to get ready.

Health:
* I've continued to run regularly. I timed myself one day and I did a 9-minute mile. While this isn't fantastic, I'm stoked. This is the best time I've ever had. When I started, I was doing 15 minute miles, and my best time last year was 12 minutes. I'm so excited! Not only that, but I'm able to run farther without walk breaks. I may start doing some longer runs with planned walk breaks.
* I did eat some junky foods while on the fishing trip. When I woke up the next day, I felt like I had a hangover, despite not having any alcohol and drinking lots of water/tea that day. I think my body just wasn't used to those types of foods anymore.

How was your week?

This Week...Beyond Money 7/27 -8/2

For me, a life beyond money is making choices so that you can live the best possible life, regardless of your income level. Obviously, you have to make a living, but there are many ways to improve your quality of life without increasing your income levels and correspondingly your expenses. This regular post will be some of the ways that we improve our quality of life beyond just trying to make more money.

This week's post is a little short. We moved into our booth at the antique store, so we have been working at that pretty much constantly. Some of you asked on social media for photos, and I will take some this coming week for next week's This Week post. Thanks for all the encouraging words!

Gardening:
* Continue to feed the bunnies weeds. They are growing nicely.
* I found mouse droppings in the bunny pellets bag, so I'm going to find a way to secure the bag better.
* Harvested 1 lb of green/purple snap beans. The Dean's Purple Podded poles give such a fantastic harvest compared to anything else I've ever grown. I think I'll grow them every year. I'm still getting some beans from the bush beans, although I may start culling plants that don't have flowers on them so I can get some late carrots, beets and radishes in.
* Harvested 4 cups of lettuces and nasturtium flowers.
* Harvested 5 cherry tomatoes. We made a special moment of eating the first two together.
* Harvested several jalapenos.

Cooking/Groceries:
* I wanted to make BLTs one day, but they were really just BLs. I used loads of lettuce from the garden, but I only had three cherry tomatoes. I cut them in half and put them on Trucker's sandwich and just had lettuce on mine. Soon I'll have more tomatoes, but I'm content enough with bacon. :) I saved half of the bacon to use in other meals.
* My sister came over one evening and I made pita pizzas. I used 4 pita breads ($.06 each), store-brand tomato sauce, a sweet pepper (from the manager's special cart), 3 crumbled slices of bacon, and some mozzarella from Aldi.
* I pulled some ground buffalo from the freezer and made buffalo burgers for dinner one evening. I froze one of the burgers to crumble to use later in tacos, stuffed peppers, etc.
* We spent the week working really hard at getting ready to move into our booth, so one evening I used our points to get a free pizza from Papa John's. They had sent a promo code to use 15 points for a free pizza instead of 25, so I've got half of what I need for my next freebie.

Fun:

* My uncle finished his chemotherapy on Monday, so he and his wife, Mum, Dad and I went out for dinner to celebrate. It was a wonderful time laughing and talking with some of my favorite people.
* My sister came out one evening for dinner. Afterwards, we went to the summer film festival I had tickets for. Since I'd bought a strip of tickets early in the season, our tickets only cost me $2.50 each. I brought some candy from the salvage grocery store. We saw From Here to Eternity.

Nature 
* Trucker and I went for a 2.5 mile hike at a park near us. It was a shorter hike, but there were intense hills, so we got a decent workout in. It was so beautiful.

Work:
* We packed lunches of leftovers each day we worked.
* I worked 45 minutes overtime.

Future:
* We went thrifting to get items for decorating our antique mall booth. I got more lighting, a huge basket and some linens for a couple ugly tables. I was a good girl and didn't look at items for myself. :)
* We spent most of our not-at-the-job time working on pricing items for the booth.
* On Saturday, we woke up early and hit a barn sale that only happens a couple times a year.
* After the barn sale, we ran home and loaded up the cars with all of our shelving, tables, desks, end tables, baskets and items to sell. We used our mad Tetris skills to fit almost all of it into the two Hondas. We got there and unloaded, then Trucker ran out to the hardware store to get more shelving while I started unpacking. We had worked for 2 weeks pricing items and thought we had a lot but...that booth is HUGE. It's going to take some effort to fill it up as much as we need to. Fortunately, we've still got a lot at home that we can price and bring up. As online listings expire, we will take them up to the booth instead of paying to relist online. It took us four hours of work that day. While we were leaving, we saw one of our items in someone's cart. YAY!
* While Trucker was at work Saturday night (poor thing worked a 6 day stretch with this in the middle), I stayed up late pricing lots of items. Sunday we came back with another car load and staged a bit better. When I came in, I saw that I'd sold a few more items. That was encouraging. The weekend sales weren't phenomenal, but the booth is still being filled and staged, and we were in the booth for most of the weekend. I'm sure many people walked by the booth without looking while we were there because it's awkward. We're going to work really hard to get it filled during the week so next weekend we're good to go.

Health:
* I ran a few times this week, but not as much as I wanted to. Honestly, everything was deprioritized after we signed the lease for the booth.

Setbacks:
* We're a little tight until we start making sales at the booth. We'd expected to have several months to save for security deposit and first months rent, plus time to assemble the needed staging and shelving items. Since they rushed us in, we didn't have the time to do it the easy way. We had to move some money around and had to be less picky about staging/shelving items. We didn't want to pass on this opportunity because who knew how long it would be before we could get another chance at such a great booth at this particular mall. Fortunately, we were able to make it work.

Community:
* My sister got a new pair of steel toes since she didn't like her current pair, so she gave them to me. She only wore them a few days. My previous pair was starting to fall apart a bit on the inside, so I had started looking at sales papers for a new pair. I will keep the old pair in my commuter car just in case. If you show up to work without steel toes, you get sent home and if you don't have the day available, tough luck. My dad said he keeps extras of everything he needs in his locker just in case, so I'm doing the same thing. Small step but adds a bit of job security.
* I gave part of my packed lunch to a coworker who forgot her lunch that day.

How was your week?

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The Fine Art of Line Drying

I don't know what it is, but I feel like the perfect little housewife when I line dry clothes. It's really the only chore that I absolutely, thoroughly enjoy. And why not? I get to be outside on a perfect day in the sunlight and fresh air while burning about 70 calories in a half hour. Perfect! It saves money on gas/electric if using a machine you own or the stacks of quarters needed for a pay-machine. Dryer lint is basically just your clothes shredding, so line drying helps your clothes last a little longer. There's every reason to line dry your clothes. Here are my tips and tricks for efficiently and easily line drying all of our clothes.

Buy clothespins from the dollar stores. A big pack of wooden ones costs $1 (for 36 at Dollar Tree) and lasts just as long as more expensive ones. Keep an eye out for clothespins at thrift stores too. You can really never have enough.

Don't buy the cheap rope clotheslines that the dollar store sells. They are a little cheaper, but they do not last as long as a nice, plastic encased line. Worse yet, they will start shedding and will leave fuzz all over your clothes. As it is, the price difference is negligible: $1 for a cheap line, $4-6 for a nice line. When you consider that you'll go through 2 (at least) in the first year if you leave them in the elements, whereas the nicer ones will last for years, it's a no-brainer. Plus you don't have to try to dust off the fuzz from your hubby's favorite t-shirt without him noticing.

When you hang your clothesline, stretch it as tight as possible and leave a tail when you cut off the excess. As you hang clothes, the line with stretch a little or a lot depending on the quality of the line. If you leave a tail, you can pull it tight and retie as needed.

You can use as clothespin bag to hold your pins while you work, or keep them all in a clothespin apron (basically a half apron with a giant front pocket for holding the pins). I don't have either. I have a pretty basket that I put on my patio table (right next to my line). I pin a dozen or so pins onto my shirt, grab a handful of clothes and go hang. It's not pretty, but it works until I get around to modifying one of my aprons.

If you have your choice of weather, go for a warm, low-humidity day with a good breeze. This will ensure that your clothes dry quickly. Also, windy days make for softer clothes which makes for happier families.

If the weather is uncooperative (as I write this, we've had rain 28 of the last 30 days), you can still hang dry clothes, you just have to hang them inside. Get creative with this. Hang light items from hangers on the shower rod (don't hang too many or too heavy items or it will fall). Use clothespins to hang items from a wire shelf (again, stick to lighter items) or a thin towel rod. If your wire shelf is securely fastened to the wall, you can hang some lighter items from hangers slid in between the wires. Hang items from door handles or bathrobe hooks. Hang items from the oven door handle. Drape items over the back of wooden chairs. Drape items over stairway banisters. Lay items such as sweaters or shirts flat on a table, counter or the washing machine. Or you could go conventional and get an indoor clothes drying racks. Whatever.

In my old apartment, there were hooks in the basement where we washed our laundry. We strung up a clothesline and were able to line dry regardless of the weather. This basement wasn't very musty or humid, so this worked well. Clothes took longer to dry than outside, but it was a workable option, especially in winter.

If you have a "hang dry" setting on your washer, use it. This will spin the clothes longer to get them a bit dryer before you line dry them. If you don't have the option, simply set your dryer to spin dry a second time. In fact, this is a good tip even if you use the dryer as you can run the dryer for less time.

Make allowances as necessary for family bliss. Trucker is all for my efforts to save money and act in an environmentally responsible manner. What he's not a fan of is crusty jeans, towels and socks. Fair enough. I don't want to force him to wear uncomfortable jeans and have him snap and declare that all of his clothes much be machine dried. Instead, I line dry everything, then take down the items that are very rough, and toss them in the dryer for 10 minutes. It softens them just enough to be comfortable for him, but not long enough to make much of an impact on our energy bill. I soften our towels, jeans and socks; nothing else is crunchy enough to need it.

If you have to pay for use of a dryer, the above tip won't help you, since you'd still have to pay $1.50 for the 10 minutes. Instead, wait until you have a few loads of laundry to wash. Wash all the loads at once, then separate out the items you want to dry in the machine from the ones you are okay with line drying. Usually, you can consolidate three or four loads of wash into one load for the dryer. Line dry the other 2-3 loads and you'll save $3-4.50. This was my method when we lived in an apartment with pay-appliances.

I generally sort my clothes as they come out of the wash into my large basket. I put heavy items on the bottom, then have one corner of shirts, one corner of underwear, one of socks and one of dish towels/wash cloths/rags. This makes it easier and more efficient when hanging the clothes. Also, my clothesline will hang two medium-large loads of laundry, but I usually end up washing three loads. I start by hanging the light items from the first load, then work to the heavier items. I do the same with the second load. By the time the third load is coming out of the wash, the some of the lighter items are dry and I can remove them and start hanging items from the third load. Yes, I am aware that my OCD is showing. But it works.

As you pull damp clothes from the bin, give them a good snap. This will make for softer, less-wrinkled clothes. (This tip is also good for machine drying as it prevents tangled up messes that take longer to dry).

On sunny days, turn jeans and dark clothes inside out to prevent fading. Make sure to remove dark items as soon as they are dry. For whites that need brightening, leave them out in the sun as long as you please as the sun acts as a nice, natural bleach.

On really windy days, overlap an inch of fabric from each piece over the line and put the clothespin over both layers. This will keep the clothes from blowing off onto the ground.

If you are running out of space or clothespins, you can run a row of dishcloths or other lighter items together. Overlap the corner of the two pieces and use one clothespin to hang it. You can run this as long as you'd like. This saves enough space to add a couple more items and uses one less clothespin per item. This will take a little longer to dry, but helps in a pinch. You can also hang them using just one clothespin, but I find this tugs them out of shape, so I prefer this method. If you have plenty of space and pins, use two pins per piece. Hang dishtowels with a button-closure hanger by fastening over the line. This saves space and clothespins.

Towels are draped over the line. After awhile, if I remember, I flip them around. I'm not sure if this speeds dry-time, but I do it anyway. To dry them faster, hang in a single layer horizontally, fastening with 3-4 clothespins.

I drape sheets in half across the line and fasten a few pins along the length to keep it from blowing off if it's breezy. Blankets are draped in half also, and flipped after an hour or so.

I hang socks by the cuffs. Most people have told me the proper way is by the toe, but Trucker thinks this makes the toes wear out faster. Again, family bliss. I hang them by the cuffs. You can hang pairs together if you'd like to save hands-on time, although it may increase dry time.

Underwear is hung using two pins if I am trying to dry items quickly or by one if I am running short of space and/or pins. I hang boxers by the waistband with two pins. I drape bras over the line and fasten the clasp.

I hang t-shirts and tank tops by the bottom, using 2-3 pins per piece. I button dress shirts, then use 3 clothespins, one on each side and one in the middle.

Dresses can be hung from the top using a 2-3 pins depending on the dress. I often hang them on a hanger and hang these either on the line or inside.

I hang pants/jeans by the legs. Some people hang them from the waistband saying it dries them faster. However, the weight of the waistband gently tugs the pants down, eliminating wrinkles.

When the items are dry, I bring out two baskets, 1 large and 1 small. I first take off every piece that I want to fluff in the dryer: jeans, socks and towels. I toss these into the small basket and take it all in immediately to the dryer. I toss it all in at once and set for 5-10 minutes. Then I go back out to the rest of the laundry. I take down items by type, jeans/pants first, then t-shirts/tanks, then underwear. I fold each piece as I go and place Trucker's items on one side of the large basket and mine on the other. When all other items are removed, I drape dress shirts and dresses over the top so they don't get wrinkled before I have the chance to get it on a hanger. By the time I'm done removing and folding these items, the dryer is done and I can fold those items.

Did I miss anything? Do you have any tips to share with everyone?

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This Week...Beyond Money 7/20 - 7/26

For me, a life beyond money is making choices so that you can live the best possible life, regardless of your income level. Obviously, you have to make a living, but there are many ways to improve your quality of life without increasing your income levels and correspondingly your expenses. This regular post will be some of the ways that we improve our quality of life beyond just trying to make more money.

Gardening:
* Harvested 2 cups of greens.
* Harvested 1/2 lb of snap beans-Dean's Purple podded, Blue Lake, Appaloosa and Jacob's Cattle.
* Harvested 80+ heads of garlic. Most were on the smaller side compared to last year. This was for a variety of reasons: I planted them closer than last year, the weather has been terrible, that garden bed wasn't fertilized before planting, I planted new varieties that were smaller than the variety I grew the previous year, and I bought random heads of garlic from various farmers instead of buying "growing" garlic. I'm not sure what combination of those things lead to the smaller heads (except, of course, the smaller varieties), but I still got a nice sized harvest overall. I planted 80+ heads in the same space I planted 40 in last year. Even with them being smaller, I got a larger overall harvest per square foot, so I consider it a success. Also, I planted mainly hardneck garlic and got a huge harvest of garlic scapes this year. I may space them out a bit more in the coming year, but overall I am happy.
* Continue to feed weeds to the bunnies. They get so excited when I come up with the greens. Also, all of the bunnies, including the Nurse, have gotten more comfortable with me petting them.

Cooking/Groceries:
* I made colcannon and sausages for breakfast one morning. I fried sausages in my cast iron skillet. I harvested kale and lettuce from the front-garden container, added garlic and leftover mashed potatoes with some frozen and thawed yogurt (that had a weird texture after thawing but is safe). I fried it all in a bit of bacon fat. This is one of my favorite dishes ever. It's delicious, flexible, a great way to use up leftovers and it is a great, filling meal.
* I made frozen mochas for us one day. We had some instant mocha powder that someone gave us but we never got around to using. I added some to a couple frozen bananas, some yogurt and a bit of ice with a squirt of chocolate syrup. Delicious and much healthier than frozen mochas that you can buy at a coffee house.
* I had a good day of grocery shopping. I shopped exclusively from the manager's specials. I got 8 cans of organic cat food for $.25/can, a box of Chex for $.99, over a pound of ground chicken for $1.88, 1 pound of pork for $1.40, 2 packs of pita bread for $.49/each, a loaf of pickle rye for $.39 and a loaf of baked-in-store 100% whole grain bread for $.39. I froze all except one loaf of bread.
* I made chicken tacos one evening using 1/2 of the chicken, lettuce from the garden, salsa, the last of the tortillas and plain yogurt since I had no sour cream.

Food Preservation:
* Froze another 3 dozen ears of corn. I'm set for winter!

Fun:
* Trucker and I went to see Shakespeare in the Park, put on by a local theatre troup. Free event. We brought bottles of homemade iced tea and a bucket of popcorn I made right before we left.
* I went out to lunch with a couple of friends from an old job since one of them was visiting from out of state for the weekend. I got the cheapest brunch they had ($6). I parked at a meter that had 3 hours left on it, so parking was free.
* My friend took me out for coffee one afternoon since she had a gift card. We had a great time catching up.
* A friend and I went to the summer film series showing of Young Frankenstein at a nice theatre downtown. I'd bought a strip of 10 tickets for $25 at the beginning of the season, so I treated. Cheap little outing, but we had a blast. She is also a fan of Mel Brooks, so it was perfect.

Frugality:
* I got gas at my job and saved $.30/gallon.
* I got Trucker's oil changed while he was at work one day. I had planned on going to the antique mall to talk with the manager a bit and measure our booth, so I looked up oil change services within walking distance. Then I looked up coupons online. I found that one had a coupon for $17 oil change. I dropped off the car, walked to the antique mall and by the time I was done, so was the car. That saved gas since I was able to combine trips.
* I hand washed a bunch of linens to decorate our booth and to sell. I line dried two loads of laundry.
* I line dried a few loads of laundry.

Waste Reduction:
* Curb shopped for decorating our booth.

Work:
* I worked 45 minutes overtime this week.
* We both packed lunch each day we worked.

Preparedness:
* Froze more food for the winter.

Future:

* I went out thrifting and yard saling for items for display and decoration for our booth. I needed to get some good lighting. I wanted to keep all of the lighting vintage so I could slap a price on it and keep with the overall feel. I scored big! I got a so-awful-it's-great lamp of a lady wearing a lace dress. There's a light on her head and under her dress.  At a yard sale I got a wood and milk glass lamp and 3 wall-hanging glass lights. I found two giant fruit baskets (these are the perfect size to line with the burlap coffee sacks Trucker gets for free from his job), a large basket with a handle, a three-tier wire basket with chipped white paint , and a large, flat wooden box with Japanese writing on it.
* We are spending a lot of time pricing items for our booth. One afternoon, I went to the antique mall to see approximately what others were pricing like at this location. We are racing the clock now. Less than a week til move-in! The kitchen is full of items needing to be washed on one side, and drying items on the other (on towels draped over every flat surface). The living room is full of items that are awaiting pricing or that are priced and packed into boxes. Phew.
* We curb shopped a lovely old wooden ladder. We'll put this over the top of the booth and hang items from it.

Health:
* Continue to run most days. I'm able to run farther than I imagined I would a year and a half ago. Very exciting.
* My weight has stabilized at roughly where I want to be. I would ideally like to lose another 5-10 pounds, but feel I'm at a fair weight for me. My focus is mainly on getting more fit rather than just seeing that number on the scale drop.

Community:
* My friend's friend is moving and was going to throw away some things. Instead, he offered them to my friend. I drove her over to his place to pick up the boxes and helped her move them. They gave me a pressure cooker/canner since they knew I was wanting to learn to can this year! So sweet.

How was your week?