Not Too Proud For Messed Up Cake

by Katy on October 24, 2010 · 10 comments

Today’s post will be pretty short. I’m actually stealing a moment during my 15-year-old son’s birthday party. It’s a casual party, with just a handful of friends, a lot of snacks and an excursion over to an old-timey arcade. (They have Skee-Ball!)

As easy as this sounds, I ended up making the cake not one, not two, but three times! The first batch of homemade chocolate cupcakes turned out all collapsed in the center, which I attributed to undercooking them. (I was preparing a meal for nine people at the time, so my mind was elsewhere.) The second batch was a cake, not cupcakes as I no longer had enough paper liners. This cake also collapsed and refused to budge from the pan, and then came out in pieces. At this point I realized that my oh so brag worth organic, fair trade unbleached sugar was not to be used for baking! So this morning I went out into the rain and bought a can’t screw it up cake mix.

Luckily, the assembled masses devoured last night’s mess up cupcakes, and I’m saving the ugly but still tasty cake for the party guests. (seriously, they are 15 and 14-year-old boys not Martha Stewart!)

Anyway, gotta go!

Katy Wolk-Stanley

“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without”

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Can a Two Career Family of Four Get by with Just One Car?

by Katy on October 23, 2010 · 46 comments

My husband and I are just starting a conversation about going from two cars down to one. And frankly, this makes me nervous. It’s not that our neighborhood isn’t walkable, or that Portland, Oregon doesn’t have great public transportation, but it still seems slightly undoable. However, I do get a free public transportation pass through my workplace.

We currently drive a 2005 Honda Odyssey mini-van and a 1997 Subaru Outback.

The Honda Odyssey is great because it seats eight people and can fit an enormous amount of stuff in the back. It’s also super comfortable and trouble free. And I don’t know about your kids, but my kids do better on car trips when they have a little elbow room. We’ve owned this car since it was brand new and it has 36,500 miles on it. The safety ratings on this car are the best of any mini-van, (which is why we bought it) and it has a gas saving feature where it goes from six to three cylinders when it hits a cruising speed. This package came with leather seats and a built in DVD player. Because the car is so freakin’ big, it has a number of dings and scratches which I need to get taken care of. I have a bad back and driving this car feels like steering a Lazy-Boy through town.

The Subaru Outback just hit 100,000 miles and appears to still be going strong. It seats five people, has cloth seats and smells a little funny on the inside. (My husband thinks a homeless person spent the night in it while he was at work last year.) It’s a four wheel drive, which when we need it comes in very handy. This car may have a few dings and scratches, but because it’s an older car we don’t freak out about it as much. Driving this car feels scratchy.

My husband and I both work, and our sons both play soccer. My husband has biked to work in the past, but he dislocated his elbow a couple years ago biking over a railroad track and hasn’t enjoyed cycle commuting since. His work hours are erratic, and often have him not coming home until 8:00 P.M. or leaving for work at 2:30 A.M. My workplace is too far to cycle, although I could take the bus. However, I would have to catch the 5:54 A.M. bus. Right now, I drive to work and leave at 6:35 A.M., so I suppose it’s not that big of a difference.

I wonder how we would get the kids to their two different soccer practices, which run concurrently. I wonder what we do if I wanted to take the kids to the beach or to Mt. Hood for a weekend.

Our high school age son takes public transportation back and forth to school, which is free. Our middle school age son takes a district school bus. Although, he has to picked up two days a week when he stays after school for Japanese tutoring.

I am aware of options such as Zipcar, which allow you to borrow a car without paying for insurance or gas. There is one parked a couple blocks away, so this would actually be a decent plan B.

With all these thoughts swimming around in my head, I took the bus yesterday to pick up a few staples at Trader Joes. I ended up waiting awhile for the bus to come, but I had a good book in hand. Of course, I chose this experiment during daylight hours on a bright and sunny afternoon.

I think we are going to spend a month pretending we have only one car and see how it goes. It will either be much easier or much harder than we anticipate.

Has your family figured out how to get by with a single car? Please share your ideas in the comments section below.

Katy Wolk-Stanley

“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without”

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Okay, Your Turn. Who Are You?

by Katy on October 22, 2010 · 160 comments

The role of a blogger is unique. I write an almost daily personal essay, which while not exactly soul baring, still opens my life up to thousands of strangers. You all know that I’m a Portland, Oregon labor and delivery nurse, parent to 12 and 15-year-old sons, frugality geek, green living enthusiast and large house/simple living wannabe.

There are of course areas of my life that I do not write about. I am deliberately vague about my husband and sons, and try not to share my bad moods, which are inevitable. Truth be told, I probably share too much about some areas of my life, and not enough about others.

But here’s the thing, I want to know about you.

Are you male or female, do you live in the U.S., and if so what area? Do you have a blog, kids, chickens? Are you frugal, how about green? Are you a hip twenty-something or a seasoned sixty-something? A hundred things in your house, or a hundred things on your coffee table? Do you read The Non-Consumer Advocate regularly, or are you a first time visitor? Did you come to frugality out of choice or unexpected life changes? You get my drift.

Please share your stories in the comments section. If you read this blog but never comment, today is your day. It’s time to turn the table around and let you share your life.

Katy Wolk-Stanley

“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without”

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“Keeping Chickens with Ashley English” — a Winner, Plus Some Fan-Clucking-Tastic Reader Comments

by Katy on October 21, 2010 · 3 comments

Congratulations to Sue Smith, whose comment was randomly chosen to win her an autographed copy of Keeping Chickens with Ashley English: All You Need to Know to Care for a Happy, Healthy Flock. In all, 85 readers wrote their dreamy poultry plans in the comments section. Not bad, considering what a niche interest chickens are.

Thank you to everyone who entered this week’s giveaway, you are the best mother-cluckers (and fathers) a blogger could hope for. Click here to read all the fan-cluckin’-tasic comments. Cluck.

Katy Wolk-Stanley

“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without”

Sue Smith:

“We have 6 laying hens at our B&B here in Kona Hawaii, and they are a kick! At the present time, Goldy is setting on 12 beautiful blue eggs trying to hatch them. She sneaked into the shrubs near the spa and laid her eggs one by one until she got the urge to incubate them. We finally found out where she was when we trimmed the plants. Not sure how long it will be for the chicks, but it takes 21 days to hatch from the time she stays on the nest continuously.

We also have 2 Rhode Island Reds, Penny and Sparkle, 1 black feral hen, Coffee, and 2 Auracana mix hens Bluta and Jenny. 2 lay big brown eggs, one lays a dark olive green egg, 2 lay white eggs, and Goldy is our blue egg layer.

I have many stories about my chickens, and we have a lot of fun with them.

Aloha, Sue”

Ellen:

“I had a pet chicken when I was a child that I raised from a chick. Her name was Chickenelli and she was tame and I loved her. Then one day “she” started crowing at four in the morning. I lived in surburban Miami and she had to go. It was the saddest day of my life up until that time. I’ve always dreamed of having a chicken again and would love to win an autographed copy of the book.”

Maggie O:

“This reminds me of a joke… So a chicken walks into the library, goes up to the Librarian and says “book…book…book.” I can’t remember the entire punchline, but it’s something about her friend the frog saying “read-it…read-it…read-it.” Anyway, I’ve read-it and I’d like my own copy of the book…book…book, please! Thanks for the opportunity.” :)

Jessica Wolk-Stanley:

“I have no chickens, but our coolest friends do.
Some of the eggs come in such pretty colors too.
Urban homesteading is a fun way to have your own zoo.”

Amber:

“Ashley English is one of my reasons for swallowing all my fears and getting chickens! We bought 3 laying hens who’d not had a happy home, and now they are all feathered and fat and happy and so funny to watch! They lay big, beautiful brown eggs, each one a day! I love my biddies, and hope to free-range them one day…but there’s wandering dogs and hawks here… *sigh*”

Penelope:

“Well since you mention chickens, I woke up like I’d been pushed off the bed this morning at 3:23 am. I’d been dreaming about chickens and that I’d found half my flock torn apart by raccoons, piles of feathers, odd limbs. It was really horrible. Then I thought about my real flock. Half of them sleep safely tucked away in the fancy new coop we just built for them but the other half refuses to go in for the night. Instead they roost in a pine tree. They get up too high for me to have any chance of catching them but I know that one night a raccoon will discover their secret and my dream will become reality.”

Andrea:

“Neat! My husband is building a barn/garage (barage) this winter, which means we’ll finally have somewhere to keep chickens (my mother-in-law dropped some teenage chickens–not even cute little chicks–at our house one Easter morning a few years ago and suggested that we keep them in the basement when we took them back). We get our eggs from a nearby farm, but it would be nice to just walk outside to get them.”

Eric Gottlieb:

“I live in midtown Memphis and have been thinking about getting chickens for several years. A bunch of my friends have them now. I’m hoping to take the plunge soon. I’d love to see my flock scratching around in my compost pile.”

Molly on Money:

“I’m a huge backyard chicken enthusiast. I go for some of the crazier looking breeds that aren’t the best layers but I love to look at them. This year I took the big leap to chicken farming poultry. For someone who had hardly every cut into a piece of raw poultry it was definitely a learning curve (a very gross learning curve).”

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Things vs. Experiences

by Katy on October 20, 2010 · 15 comments

The following is a reprint of a previously published post. Enjoy!

Shoptimism

Last Sunday’s Parade Magazine included an article titled, “Why Shopping is Good Again” by Lee Eisenberg. I set the insert magazine aside, thinking the information included in such an ad based publication would certainly be an interesting read.

It turns out that Eisenberg has a book to be published next week called, “Shoptimism: Why the American Consumer Will Keep On Buying No Matter What,” so the article actually was more than the that silly recession is behind us, please buy our advertiser’s products that I had expected.

One part of the article that struck me as quite insightful was the subject of how experiences differ from things:

“Over the past decade, social psychologists have conducted numerous studies that find we’re happiest when, instead of shelling out for stuff, we spend money on things that provide social and personal engagement.

Shared experiences, researchers find over and over again, offer greater value than material buys.Pleasant memories don’t fade in the wash or go out of fashion. Just think back on that family trip out West. Sure, everyone returned home with assorted souvenirs that proved you were actually there. But now, what do you remember as the most meaningful part of the trip? Maybe it was the look you saw on your kids’ faces, their eyes wide as saucers, as they peered into infinite chasms that offered up a spectacle beyond anything they’d experienced before—including, even, the first time they fired up their PlayStation.”

My mother’s birthday was last week, and instead of buying her more stuff, I took her out on the town to see a play with dessert afterwards. We started this tradition a few years back when a showing of Sing-Along Sound of Music was in town and I decided that I had found the perfect gift for her. Not only would we get to spend a child-free evening together, (a rarity at the time, as my kids were still small) but the combination of singing and making smart-ass remarks at the screen was right up her alley.  My instinct was right on the money, and we still laugh about how fun that night was.

My mother already owns a lifetime of possessions and there’s nothing I can buy her that she doesn’t already have. Nothing.

I would suggest that you consider the things vs. experiences issue when making your gift giving choices for this year’s holiday season. Not only are you providing an experiential gift, but are not contributing to the excessive clutter that so many of us struggle with. Plus there’s none of that pesky packaging!

Have you received or given experience gifts such as theater or movie tickets; massages or homemade gift certificates in the past? Please share your stories in the comments section below.

Katy Wolk-Stanley

“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”

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Order

by Katy on October 19, 2010 · 21 comments

I am not a naturally ordered person. I come from a family where we actually made fun of  the notion of “A place for everything and everything in its place.” Keeping an organized home is a struggle for me, and as much as I find solace and satisfaction in order, it’s a forced habit.

I brought home a huge zucchini from work last week that no one seemed to be laying claim to, and finally got around to shredding it last night. (Thank you, Cuisinart!) I decided the freeze them in one cup portions. The result was so pleasing to the eye, that I have yet to remove the frozen zucchini castles from their formation.

This got me thinking about other organization that have snuck into my life. My first inclination was to share photos of my my underwear drawer, which is organized within an inch of its life. (This is thanks to the Ikea drawer organizers I got from my sister last year, which I have added to with help from the Ikea seconds department.) However, I decided that there is no one out there in cyberland who wants to see my decidedly non-sexy underwear, organized or otherwise!

I suppose my inspiration is the Things Organized Neatly blog, which features, well . . . things organized neatly. It’s an odd concept, yet like a mini-mind vacation all at once. Ahh . . . . Nothing out of place, everything so very perfect. A glass of perfectly chilled water in a Mountain Dew world.

I walked around my house and chose a few things to photograph to illustrate my own attempt at organization. Zucchini, former junk drawers and a clothesline of paired drying socks all made the cut. My husband’s bedside table? Maybe later.

I don’t know what it is, but there’s something very soothing about looking at ordered objects, even if they’re not my own. Perhaps it’s the calm in the storm, or simply that semblance of control in an otherwise chaotic world.

Frozen one cup portions of shredded zucchini. They will be transferred to a Ziploc bag, but for now they enjoy their formation.

Paired socks dry on the clothesline, easy to match up when it's time for removal. Their shadow pleases me.


Tape, paperclips, glue and rubber bands. Batteries, chargers, drawer knobs and printer ink. They each enjoy their own little bin.

Are you finding yourself drawn to a more organized life? Are you following simple living blogs such as Rowdy Kittens, Zen Habits or Simpler Living? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Katy Wolk-Stanley

“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without”

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Monday Giveaway — “Keeping Chickens with Ashley English”

by Katy on October 18, 2010 · 86 comments

Another week has started, which for us Non-Consumers means it’s time for another Monday Giveaway. This week’s selection is Keeping Chickens with Ashley English: All You Need to Know to Care for a Happy, Healthy Flock. This is a fantastic book, even if you’re not a backyard poultry enthusiast. It’s got delicious looking egg recipes and would make the perfect gift for the chicken chica in your life.

This beautifully crafted book is the second in English’s Homemade Living series, (the first was Canning and Preserving) and is published by the generous people over at Lark Books. There are also books on Keeping Bees and Homemade Dairy, which are scheduled for publication March of 2011. Ms. English also writes the blog Small Measure, which is a wonderful chronicle of her projects and thoughts.

Last week’s giveaway of English’s Canning and Preserving book was extremely popular, and I expect this week’s will be as well.

To enter to win an autographed copy of this book, write something about chickens or eggs in the comments section below. And no, I don’t have a preference for which came first. 😉

I will randomly choose a winner on Wednesday, October 18th at midnight. Please enter just once, U.S. residents only.

Katy Wolk-Stanley

“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without”

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No Heat Challenge 2010

by Katy on October 17, 2010 · 52 comments

I’ve been hemming and hawing over how I will handle this year’s No Heat Challenge. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have a moment of regret from last year’s challenge. (Or for that matter, the year before.) We waited until after November 1st to start firing up the furnace, and then we kept the house at 63° during the day when the kids were at home, and 57° at night and when the kids were at school. Cozy lap blankets were available for watching TV, goofing around on the internet and generalized snuggling.

We just received our gas bill for the month of September, which was a credit for $5.34. (Our furnace, stove and hot water heater are all natural gas.) My husband and I use the Equal Pay plan, which computes our therm usage from the prior year and divides it by eleven. (This way we’re not hit with huge gas bills over the winter and hardly anything during the summer.) So in September, we either have to pay for any extra gas usage or get a credit for overpaying. Our credit last year was much higher, but we’re now comparing two different No Heat Challenge years, so It’s pretty great to get a credit. Especially considering that our older son now showers twice a day and often for up to 45 minutes at a time!

The reason why I’m unsure how to progress with this year’s challenge is because we have welcomed a Japanese exchange teacher into our home for the next six months, and I feel bad subjecting him to extremes of temperature. It’s still fairly warm in Portland, Oregon, but the chill is definitely creeping in. I made sure to provide a really warm blanket for our guest, (thank you Mom!) as well as a set of flannel sheets. I set up a small space heater in his room, and instructed him on its use. We don’t have a traditional Japanese heated toilet seat, although I suppose I could save up my Swagbucks to buy one.

I am going to abstain from blanket statements (har-har) as to how we’ll handle this year’s furnace abstinence, but I’m sure we’ll find a happy medium that meets all of our needs.

Are you planning on participating in this year’s No Heat Challenge? Will you throw on a sweater instead of a furnace switch? Will you snuggle under a blanket instead of heating your entire house? Please share your stories and thoughts to the comments section below.

Katy Wolk-Stanley

“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without”

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House Lust

by Katy on October 16, 2010 · 12 comments

I’m currently in the middle of listening to an audio book of House Lust: America’s Obsessions with Our Homes, by Daniel McGinn. This is not a book recommended by anyone in particular, but simply something I pulled off the shelf at my friendly neighborhood ♥library♥. I am absolutely loving this book, and feel that it was written for me as a simple living wannabe, old house aficionado, recovering HGTV addict, chronic remodeler and book superfan. (Yeah, I know, I’m one screwed up broad.) Sadly, I can’t quote from the book, as it’s in spoken form. (However, I have put the actual book on hold at the library, so this is soon to change.)

The author makes many fine points throughout the book, one of which is how what may initially seem new and exciting, will normalize with time. My example of this is my dining room curtain. When we bought our house in 1996, our next door neighbor ran an illegal scrap metal business out of his side yard. To say it was a less than idyllic vista would be an understatement. Our goal for the curtains was something that would block the view, yet still let some light through. The budget solution was a super cheap curtain rod from my mother’s basement, paired with Goodwill sheers that my mother hemmed to the right length. Not particularly attractive, but functional. I was happy.

Fast forward 14 years and the neighbors have long since moved on, replaced by the loveliest retired couple, (hi Nancy, hi Beau!) but the utilitarian curtains are still in place. The curtain rod gets a little bent, (which I periodically unbend) but the window span is ten feet across, so it needs to be replaced by a serious piece of apparatus.

I am no longer happy with the curtain. I feel that it does not live up to my sophisticated design sense. (Don’t worry, I’m making fun of myself here.) I am no longer happy to just have a curtain. I have normalized the initial excitement of simply having a curtain. I look at blogs such as Modern Thrifter, (my fave new blog!) and see how the author has fashioned the perfect curtain solution for her daughter’s room, and I lust over the curtain rod, which has a center support which looks like the perfect solution to my super wide window issue.

And I over-thinking here? Of course I am, but that doesn’t mean that what once gave me satisfaction isn’t now grating on my nerves.

This phenomenon of normalizing what was once exciting is not exclusive to house related issues, as the thrill of many new purchases is that they are, well, new. And you and I both know how long that lasts.

I highly recommend this book, and feel it’s a good match with the content here on The Non-Consumer Advocate. You’ll be hearing more about it in the near future.

Katy Wolk-Stanley

“Use it up, wear it out make it do or do without”

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Fabulous Frugal Finds — Glamour Edition

by Katy on October 15, 2010 · 17 comments

The following is part of an occasional series where readers send in stories and photos of their Fabulous Frugal Finds. It’s really fun to see other people’s great scores, and it’s great to share them with The Non-Consumer Advocate community. Click HERE to read the rest of of F.F.F’s., and please send me your stories and photos for future columns.

Katy Wolk-Stanley

“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without”

My Fabulous Frugal Find

It’s Homecoming season.  You know what that means.  Expensive dresses for our teenage girls, right?  Not necessarily!

My fabulous frugal find is a Homecoming dress for my daughter, a junior in high school.  Look at the first picture, which girl do you think is wearing an $8 dress found on sale at Goodwill?

Click on photo for better detail.

While some of my daughter’s friends drive BMWs and brand new Jeep Cherokees (handed down or bought by parents), she drives a 2001 VW Passat that she helped pay for herself.  The same range occurs in this group of girls’ dresses.  Some girls paid $150.00 or more for theirs and some girls got them on the clearance rack for $25.00.

Last year, I was able to find my daughter a homecoming dress for free.  It was on clearance at JC Penney for $9.99 and I had a $10.00 off anything coupon.  While the dress was cute, it wasn’t near the quality of the dress we found at Goodwill.  And that’s part of the point here.  The picture below is of my daughter in her $8.00 dress.  It looks like it was made for her.  The fit and quality of the fabrics is so much nicer than the majority of the dresses that her friends wore.  And, it fits so nicely with Katy’s “buy nothing new” philosophy.

And we have our first Non-Consumer Advocate homecoming queen!

We actually found this dress in June, along with another dress that she’ll wear to Winter Formal.  And that’s another point.  You can’t go to Goodwill looking for something specific exactly when you need it.  Chances are, you’re not going to find it.  We had heard about a “boutique” Goodwill store in a nice part of town and decided to check it out.

We weren’t looking for semi-formal dresses, we just went to see what it was like.  It was a much easier store to shop, simply because there was less merchandise.  Because we found two beautiful dresses that had tag colors that were 40% off that day, we decided to buy both of them.  So come February, when the rest of her friends are running around trying to find their Winter Formal dresses, she’ll already be set.

Now, if we can just find a Fabulously Frugal Prom dress!


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