Our Homemade Year

My progress so far this February

2009-02-10T11:31:00.002-05:00

[Shannon] This month has been going good so far. I went to the goodwill a few times to try and find a baking stone and ironing board but never found either so I had to buy those things new. I use the baking stone daily and the ironing board at least a couple of times a week so I am really glad I bought them. Its so nice to actually think about it before I buy something.

I had an interesting experience going to the Goodwill Outlet. I've been going to resale shops my whole life but I have never been to a Goodwill Outlet before and let me say it is a whole different experience. First, everything there is sold by weight(!) not quantity or what brand it is or anything like that, just weight (except books which are .50 or $1.00). Next, everything comes out in huge bins that a person rolls out from the back room. Finally, everyone in the place swarms the bin and clothes fly everywhere. After that everyone hovers around pretending to sort through old bins while they wait to swarm the next bin. It reminded me of a feeding frenzy I once watched on Discovery Channel with sharks. Needless to say, it was a very intense shopping experience!

[JAIMIE] The Satisfaction of Buying Things I Actually USE

2009-02-08T17:06:00.006-05:00

As I've been reflecting on this project, I've been thinking about all the times I bought something and didn't use it--all the times, back when I had money, that I went to Target for "one or two things".

To begin with, most likely these one or two things were things I could have gotten at a drugstore or grocery store within walking distance. I realize this now that I am at home in the dead of winter with two small children and no car--if you live in a thriving urban or even suburban area, there are ways to get almost anything you need. And none of them involve driving to Target, pushing around a huge red plastic shopping cart through aisle after aisle of things you don't need, past endcap after endcap of marked down seasonal items, and of course, into the dollar bins, just in case there's something cute.

I remember distinctly many times going to Target or a similar place and coming home with bags of stuff. In part because I didn't intend to buy these items, in part because I didn't need them, and in part because they often really weren't all that functional anyway, they sat unused. I can even remember more than one time just forgetting I had bought something altogether and finding it in a bag months later. That seems so disgusting to me now!

This is sticking out to me at the moment as I'm thinking about the five or six things I bought last month and how often they are used.

Sled: $6.00, used almost every day since we bought it
Breadmaker: $15.00, used almost every day since we bought it, sometimes twice a day
Husband's boots: $115.00. Yikes, very expensive, but for various reasons we had to order them online. It is often dangerously cold here, and part of his daily commute around town is on foot, so it was worth it. And of course, they are used every day.
Felt for felt board: $6.00, used quite often. This has been a fun work in progress.
Clearance clothes from Old Navy: Some have been worn, some are still in the laundry, some are for this summer. I've got mixed feelings about these since they are not handmade, local, reused, etc., but they were very economical. I'm attempting to make some clothes for my family, but I'm not going to be able to fully supply us with wardrobes.

My point in this is that I find it hugely satisfying to see that we have actually been using the things we bought. I have no guilt or annoyance at random dollar bin crap laying around waiting for a use.

[JAIMIE] January's Report

2009-02-06T14:16:00.003-05:00

Here's how I did in January:

I made five unnecessary purchases. They were, in order:

1. Ordered pizza in the beginning of the month.
2. Ordered pizza in the middle of the month.
3. Ordered pizza at the end of the month.
4. Went to dinner in Burlington (the $15 early bird special)
5. Spent $6.00 on felt at Michaels to make a felt board.

I think we can see where my problem lies! I still feel like I did pretty well. I made almost no non-food purchases. The only things I can think of are baby tylenol, a prescription, my husband's boots, a sled, and some clearance clothes at Old Navy (seven items for me and the girls for $19.00).

Here are my goals for February:

1. Get some "backup" meals in the freezer for the days that I'm exhausted and the kids are crazy. Not having something easy around for those situations was the cause of at least 2 out of those 3 pizzas.

2. Organize my time well enough to squeeze crafty time in every day.

3. Make stuff to decorate the house that I'm FINALLY starting to get in order after moving in August.

[JAIMIE] Yikes, Let's get better at posting

2009-02-06T14:01:00.004-05:00

I know we're both super busy, and that makes posting hard, but let's make an effort to do it. It helps me feel like I'm accountable, so I'm going to try to post five times a week.

I've been doing some more bulk buying. I went with my downstairs neighbor to Burlington for the day last Saturday, and we went to the lovely City Market/Onion River Co-op. Their bulk section is great--I was able to get grains, spices, baking powder, yeast (both active and nutritional), etc. You name it, they had it. I bought dried beans for the first time in my life. Yes, I realize I'm a little slow on this, but I just never really thought of using them before since I didn't really know how to cook. I made chili with them the other night and it was really yummy. I'm now a dried bean convert, and I know they are cheaper and healthier, which is great.

While we were in Burlington, we also went to Cheese Traders, which is a discount store that sells cheese and other foods. They have several varieties of Cabot cheese that they sell the ends of for $2.99/pound. For me, this is the deal of the century since a pound of gross store-brand cheese in Montreal is about $6.00/pound. So I stocked up on that as well.

In non-food news, I've been crafty. I'm knitting my 2 1/2 year old a basket for her blocks from old leftover yarn, and I'm almost finished. I'm about to start knitting a hat for my baby and sewing some stuff for my husband. Sadly, my sewing machine is stuck in reverse, so I have to get that figured out, and hopefully I can fix it for free.

Finally, I wanted to say something about my current "free" obsession--glass jars! I save almost every glass jar from food. After taking off the label and running them through the dishwasher, I use them to store everything--bulk foods, art supplies, etc. They're so much cuter than plastic storage containers, they're not made of yucky plastic, and they don't stain or get gross. My only problem now is that I'm literally unable to put a single one in the recycling because it feels wasteful, so I have glass jars coming out of my ears.

Busy, Busy

2009-01-29T15:59:00.002-05:00

As usual I got caught up in the day to day of three kiddos, laundry, soccer, etc. and neglected Our Homemade Year. I'm back now though and have been working hard and discovering so many wonderful benefits to this lifestyle change. This month we managed to spend about 1/3 of what we normally do just by making conscious choices about our impact on the earth and what we already have available to fit our needs for free. We also went to a wonderful store called www.scrapaction.org and my kids had a blast. We spent 4 dollars total on a bunch of used school/office supplies. That store is amazing. My 7 year old has been working on making a robot and SCRAP had just what he needed.

I haven't been using my cloth wipes lately though, my 1 year old is really, really squirmy and hates getting his diapers changed so its tough to wet them down and do the whole process. When I did, I just put warm water on the wipe and sprayed that booty spray from California Baby on the wipe. I had bought it when my 4 year old was a baby and had a rash. I still use the spray for rashes but am using disposable wipes at the moment.

We have been buying in bulk though, I'd really like to find a buyers club to join since most of my buying in bulk occurs at Costco or the bulk bins at Whole Foods or Fred Meyer. I think I will have to put some research into that...

I have to admit that while I am really, really happy about saving money it hasn't exactly been the smoothest transition from consumer to frugal, earth conscious, crafty, genuinely happy momma. I had grown used to the feeling of fulfillment that comes with needing something and then going to the store and purchasing it, or seeing something cool and then finding and buying it. I think it satified some sort of hunter-gatherer instincts buried deep in my brain. I guess what I am saying is that is still is really hard to walk in a store or go online and not feel an urge to buy, buy, buy but its getting much easier and the benefits are priceless.

[JAIMIE] Comments, a Question

2009-01-23T15:06:00.007-05:00

Comments:

I think it sounds like you're doing great. That's wonderful that you found some stuff at the Goodwill. The first time I shopped at the Salvation Army for my 2 1/2 year old, I thought it was totally liberating. I hadn't really shopped there in years, not really since college when I was looking for bargains but also for cool vintage finds (which I'm still on the hunt for). But when I saw that I could spend $19 and come home with a pile of nice clothes and several great kids' books, I was hooked. I have a list of things we need and I cannot make (like snowpants), and I'm hoping to go next week. I'll let you know how it goes.

One thing that's really helping my budget is buying in bulk. I don't know if you've ever bought your spices in bulk, but it's the deal of the century. We have this great middle eastern grocery called Akhavan where I buy bulk nuts, spices, etc. For example, I just got some cinnamon from there. It's in a thin plastic bag, and it's enough to fill about 2 1/2 spice jars. And it was a whopping 66 cents! I have jars at home that I refill to make it easier to use them since the plastic bags are not very user-friendly.

Question:

What can I do to make my cloth wipes more eco-friendly? In general, they are very economical and eco-friendly. I cut them from leftover flannel I've had in my fabric stash, and I wash them right along with my cloth diapers. I made my own wipe solution by mixing a tiny bit of organic liquid baby soap with water and shaking it up in a little spray bottle. So every time I use them, I wet one and then spray it with the solution. My issue is that I turn on the water and run it enough to wet the wipe every single time. This seems like a colossal use of water that I wouldn't be doing if I were using disposable wipes. What do you think I can do? How did you do it when you were using cloth wipes?

[SHANNON] Some good some bad

2009-01-22T13:15:00.003-05:00

So as I am sitting here waiting for the furnace repairman I have some time to reflect on some of my success I have had at our project so far and some of my major slip-ups. I think I will start with success first since that makes me feel better:

First, I have done some research and completely changed my shopping habits. I used to shop at some mega corporate chain stores for most of my groceries and realized that I was running all around to a bunch of stores and wasting all of my time and money trying to get good deals and then forgetting things and having to run back out again all resulting in me spending way too much and feeling like there had to be a better way, well there is! I found http://organicstoyou.org , they deliver organic fruits and veggies every week. After my experience at the grocery stores and farmer's markets I found the prices at organics to you to be really reasonable. So I am going to combine that with the online grocery shopping pickup service from www.newseasonsmarket.com with the hopes that this saves valuable time and all that extra money I was spending on the items that I didn't need but picked up because were on sale or just looked good. I will still have to do a monthly run to Costco to get some of our bulk items because for our family of five even bulk food goes fast!

My second success was getting 2 good pairs of soccer shorts for my 7 year old at goodwill for 4 dollars each.

So onto my failures, I was invited to a last minute birthday party and ended up just stopping at Fred Meyer and getting a toy for it because I was in the middle of ten things that day and was just too lazy to really stop and try and figure out what would be a great homemade solution, I am determined to try harder next time and not give in to my laziness. I learned how to knit too, so that should help with future handmade gifts. My other mess up kind of thing is that I somehow lost my sewing machine sometime in the haze of many moves to new houses and now I am going to have to buy one if I hope to really repurpose things I already have or create some homemade gifts. I think I might try for a used one but its really going to be all about price so I will have to see whats out there.

[JAIMIE] Oops

2009-01-21T22:13:00.003-05:00

I made my first mistake today. I bought a loaf of bread! I knew I was doing it, too. It wasn't an auto-pilot purchase that I realized later. I needed bread, was exhausted, and had just made bread the day before that fell victim to voracious snacking. It was at least from a local bakery around the corner. But it was still an unnecessary purchase.

Overall, however, I'm doing quite well. I did buy a non-food item on Monday--a sled. A sled is a necessity when you are out and about in the winter in Montreal with small children and no car. I bought it at the pharmacy down the street for $5.99. I have already used it so much--pulling my child to and from the grocery store on Monday, to and from a meeting down the street on Tuesday, and to the library today.

I did check to see if I could get one used on craigslist, but they were all expensive and far away. I did find one handmade...for $250. It was beautiful, wood, custom-made, and totally out of the question. So $5.99 from the pharmacy it is.

One thing that is going to be extremely difficult for me is to stop buying books. I've always loved libraries, but I've also always loved buying books. Today's library trip was very fruitful, and if it continues this way, I'll be in good shape. I got books for the kiddos, CD's for the kiddos, and two of the books from my Amazon wish list. Now the real challenge will be returning the items to the library in time to avoid paying fees.

[JAIMIE] Success!

2009-01-18T22:49:00.005-05:00

I did it! I made the colored pencil roll. I waited until the last minute, of course, starting it this morning at breakfast time. I faced every obstacle (bobbin ran out of thread, top thread that I used to wind new bobbin ran out while I was winding bobbin, machine started going haywire, I checked email and discovered the party started at 2:30 instead of 3:30, etc.)

But I finished it in time. I filled it with colored pencils and wrapped it, along with a little notebook, in some blue tissue paper we had. Total cost today: zero dollars. Just the expenditure of time.

Here it is:

I have to admit that I came pretty close to not making it. Last night I had chosen the fabric but was too tired to get started. As I was falling asleep, I thought "wellll...I could just go to the bookstore in the morning since I might not have enough time to sew. I can just do handmade gifts starting AFTER this gift." But I had willpower!

Tomorrow is grocery shopping day. Wish me luck on that endeavor.

[JAIMIE] Project!

2009-01-17T14:39:00.007-05:00

You know about my affinity for projects. I love them. The more, the merrier. I've gotten my 2 1/2 year old obsessed, too. She follows me around all day saying "Mama, can we do a project?" "Let's do a project!" and my favorite, "I can't go pee on the potty right now because I'm doing a project!"

So I'm trying to make things in our house a little cuter, and I started with this chalkboard:

We keep this in the dining room, and we use it almost every day for drawing, writing lists, and writing notes to daddy. I bought it several months ago at a very, very evil store that shall not be named, lest I have to admit that I gave my money to such a monstrous entity. This chalkboard is ugly. The frame is made of plywood (probably filled with formaldehyde that is slowly killing us) covered in some sort of contact paper type thing with fake wood grain:

There are few things on earth I hate more than fake wood. So I wanted to make this thing cuter. Pre-2009 project, this would have been the perfect reason to go to the craft store. I would have bundled up the kids, and we would have bought paints/paper for this project, plus some extra stuff for future projects, and maybe a cute piece of fabric, maybe something from the clearance bin. And probably a snack on the way home.

But it's 2009, and I can't do that. So I searched for what we had at home. And guess what? One of the many things that we got into at some point and then quickly abandoned was painting. Not kid painting, but grown ups (pre-kids). So I had all this leftover paint, and there were some tubes of acrylic that were perfect for the project. The 2 1/2 year old and I chose a deep purple, and here's how it came out:

It actually looks more black than purple. My husband thinks it looks like "the goth chalkboard," but I think it looks way better than it did before. I actually kind of like it. And I'm beyond thrilled that I no longer have to look at fake wood.

And my total expense for this project? Zero dollars!

I also saved something else here: time. I didn't waste my time driving to the store, getting kids strapped on/in the cart, and then walking around a store full of advertising, followed by packing kids back up again and driving home.

[JAIMIE] La Maison Verte

2009-01-16T13:38:00.003-05:00

I like your phrase "buying on demand." That's exactly what I am accustomed to doing, and you are right that it's a very hard habit to break!. Today we went to this great co-op in Montreal called La Maison Verte ("The Green House"). I seriously love this place. They sell every kind of all natural cleaner, much of which you can buy in bulk. We bring our own containers, they weigh them, and then we fill them up with all the cleaning goodies we need. They also sell everything you need to make your own cleaners in bulk, fair trade coffee (plus it has a coffee shop), shampoo/conditioner/etc. (some in bulk), composting toilets, recycled art, etc. It's a great place.

Anyway, when we were there today, I glanced at the magazines and saw one about homeschooling/unschooling that looked really cool. And I walked over and was a millimeter away from grabbing it. Like it was nothing. Like I completely forgot that I just set up this blog yesterday and spent all day thinking about the project. It's like when I buy things, I'm on some crazy autopilot. See item. Like item. Buy item.

It took me a second, and then I finally remembered--I can't buy this magazine, and in reality, I don't need it. I'm in the middle of reading a ton of books already, and I have the internet and the library for everything I need for free.

As far as the birthday party this weekend goes--I did decide to make the colored pencil roll! So I will let you know how it goes. My own kiddo loves the one I made her for Christmas, but she is the isolated freak child who has never seen a kid's TV show and has only ever had three battery-operated toys in her life. I'm not sure she's a good barometer of what kids will like. I'm also not sure if I'm setting her up for a life of dorkiness, but that's a worry for another time.

[SHANNON] How to change

2009-01-16T12:29:00.003-05:00

I am finding it tough to break out of my habits of buying on demand. Usually when there is a birthday party I pack up the kiddos and head to target the day before and have them pick out something for the birthday boy or girl, we head home, wrap it, make a card and call it a day. I always liked this setup because the kids liked picking something out and there was always a gift receipt just in case the recipient didn't like the gift or already had the item.

Now I am in this new land of really taking the time to think about what I am buying and giving and its a little scary. As Jaimie was saying, I am scared the the little boy or girl will look at my homemade/recycled gift with disappointment. We have a few birthday parties coming up and I am trying to figure out if I can make something that will both be age appropriate and something the kids will enjoy. Wish me luck!

[JAIMIE] My first homemade dilemma of the year: a birthday gift

2009-01-15T16:50:00.006-05:00

I've made it through the first fifteen days of the month without buying any non-food items aside from infant tylenol, winter boots for my husband (a necessity when you've just moved from California to Montreal), and a used breadmaker from Craigslist for $15, which has given me the new ability to make all of our bread products. The first two weeks were easy.

Now I face my first dilemma: a birthday present for our four year old neighbor. This doesn't seem like a dilemma, right? I can easily handmake many things for this boy. But it feels like a dilemma to me. I don't want to be a bad gift-giver. Personally, I love handmade gifts--both giving them and receiving them. But does a four year old boy like them? Or is the anticipation of opening the wrapping going to be followed by a sigh of disappointment as our gift gets dropped to the floor in favor of something shiny, plastic, and loud? I really want to make a gift, but I want the recipient to like it. Otherwise it doesn't really feel like much of a gift.

I'm thinking of making the colored pencil/crayon roll from The Creative Family. I have everything I need to sew it, plus tons of brand-new colored pencils and notebooks (and cute ones, I might add).

Do I do it? Help me out here; I need to start it tonight in order to finish by Sunday night.

[JAIMIE] A Homemade 2009

2009-01-15T16:44:00.004-05:00

We are two stay-at-home moms who are attempting to stretch the limits of our budgets in order to be with our munchkins as long as possible. We have vowed to make 2009 our "homemade year," during which we will follow the rules listed in the sidebar. What will happen if we make it through the year? I hope it will last much longer, a lifestyle shift actually, which is more likely to happen if we make it through the 365 days of this challenge. Let the journey begin!