Funny How There Are No Commercials for Borax

by Katy on September 21, 2010 · 21 comments

I made the switch over to green cleaning products a few years back, which pretty much means:

  • I mostly just wipe things down with water.
  • When I need abrasive cleaning action, I just grab the paper box of Borax and sprinkle some on the bathtub or kitchen sink. Sure, it takes a bit more elbow grease than using Ajax, but I am in dire need of increased exercise in my life, so it’s all good.

The hilarious video below was brought to my attention by my 15-year-old son, whose sense of humor has always been more that of an adult than a child.

Enjoy!

Katy Wolk-Stanley

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

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Monday Giveaway — No Impact Man Book

by Katy on September 20, 2010 · 75 comments

I am reinstating the Giveaway Monday after a week or so off. Up for grabs today is a hardback copy of Colin Beavan’s No Impact Man: The Adventures of a Guilty Liberal who Attempts to Save The Planet, and the Discoveries he Makes About Himself and Our Way of Life in the Process. This copy was purchased at Title Wave, the Multnomah county library used book store by yours truly.

To enter to win this book, write a little something in the comments section about any one thing you’re doing to decrease your impact on this lovely, lovely planet. Click here to read my kick-ass interview with Colin Beavan from last year.

I will randomly choose a winner on Wednesday, September 22nd at midnight. Please enter only once, U.S. residents only.

Good Luck!

Katy Wolk-Stanley

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

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A Well Deserved Rest

by Katy on September 18, 2010 · 1 comment

I am working all weekend and am taking a well deserved rest from blogging. See ya’ll on Monday!

Katy Wolk-Stanley

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

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Life’s Missing White Space — A Guest Post

by Katy on September 17, 2010 · 6 comments

The following is written by Leo Babauta from Zen Habits. There’s a quote in it that really resonates with me, which is:

“When our days are non-stop busy, everything is important and nothing is important.”

I’ve been taking advantage of the free time afforded by the kids being back in school to get a ton of stuff done, but as a result my days have been go, go, go. I need to take time to relax and enjoy the life I’ve worked so hard to create.

Thank you very much to Leo Babauta for sharing his column with The Non-Consumer Advocate community.

Katy Wolk-Stanley

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

‘Space is the breath of art.’ ~Frank Lloyd Wright

Post written by Leo Babauta.

I’m not a designer, but I’ve always been in love with the design concept of white space.

It’s the space in a design that isn’t filled with things — as you can tell from the design of Zen Habits and my other blog, mnmlist, it’s something I use (perhaps too) liberally.

But white space can be used in the design of our lives as well, not just the design of magazines and websites and ads. By using white space in our lives, we create space, balance, emphasis on what’s important, and a feeling of peace that we cannot achieve with a more cramped life.

Let’s look briefly at how to do this.

The principles of white space

Some of the things white space accomplishes in design:

  • greater legibility
  • feeling of luxury
  • breathing room & balance
  • more emphasis

These same concepts can translate to our lives:

  • Clarity. Instead of legibility, white space can give clarity to the things in our lives — whether they’re possessions, projects, tasks, or just things that occupy our time and attention. A nice piece of furniture is more beautiful when it’s not surrounded by clutter. A well-prepared piece of food is more tasty when it’s not smothered in sauces and piled with fries and cheese. A presentation is more effective when we don’t use Powerpoint and have only a few points to make.
  • Peace. When our lives are cramped, and our homes and workspaces are cluttered, we feel stressed. When we have fewer things on our schedule and fewer things around us, we feel peaceful.
  • Breathing room & balance. Many people talk about finding “work-life balance”, but this is very hard to do if you have no white space. Leave space between things to find the breathing room you need, and to easier achieve balance.
  • Emphasis on the important. When our days are non-stop busy, everything is important and nothing is important. But put white space between things, and those things acquire more weight, and we place more importance on each individual thing.

Achieving white space

In theory, achieving white space isn’t difficult: you remove non-essential items from your life, your workday, your surroundings, your possessions, and leave the essential items with space around them.

But of course in practice it’s a bit different, and requires experimentation, learning, practice. I’d suggest starting small, with one area of your life, and making small bits of white space. Start by identifying what’s important, and the slowly removing the non-essential things to create the white space.

Some ideas:

  • Breathe. Simply take a couple minutes between tasks, meetings, anything that you do, to breathe. After a meeting, for example, return to your desk and just sit still for a couple minutes, focusing on your breath going in and out. When you get home, pause and breathe. When you’re done with a task on the computer, close everything and breathe, before starting on the next task. This creates space between tasks and allows you to focus on each one.
  • Schedule. Don’t overschedule. Leave space on your schedule, between tasks, instead of putting things back-to-back. The space gives you time to go between tasks, to recover, to refocus, to breathe.
  • Projects. Do fewer projects at a time. Instead of juggling a bunch of projects at once, try to do one for as long as you can before switching to the next (sometimes you need to switch because you’re waiting on information or on someone else to do something). If you can, take a short break between each project — as long as you can afford.
  • Sit. Start your day with the white space of just sitting still for 10 minutes. It can be a meditation session, or simply sitting still with a cup of coffee or tea. If you like this, try putting it in the middle and end of your day as well.
  • Remove clutter. Pick a few important things on your desk, or in your home, and remove the rest. This will give you visual space and create a more peaceful atmosphere.
  • Savor. Slow down and savor everything you eat, everything you do. Breathe before you take each bite, and enjoy each bite.

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Shoe Shame, No More!

by Katy on September 16, 2010 · 19 comments

The entryway to my house is a natural disaster zone. Kicked off shoes, soccer gear, karate stuff and the debris of daily life are magnetized to this area. I really don’t want the first image that people see of my house to be a maelstrom of madness, so I have special bin for soccer gear, a special bin for karate stuff, and yes, a couple of baskets for shoes. It’s not a perfect solution, but it works alright.

But today I found the perfect shoe shelf while perusing the aisles of the Habitat Re-Store in my search for the perfect bathroom sink. And the best part is that it’s antique and has the exact same clover-style cutouts as my banister. Plus, it was ten bucks!

I’m very excited! Used stuff shopping, a fantastic bargain, a clutter solutions and supporting a great charity?!

Be still my heart.

Before. Note that there are many, many more shoes in the baskets than actually need to be there.

After. Note that I showed some restraint about how many shoes actually need to live in my entryway.

The shelf as seen from the side, which is how it will be viewed when entering the house. It is the exact same design as the banister. I am totally going to show this to the people a couple blocks away whose house is the same as ours. All tremble in fear at my almighty shopping prowess!! Oh, oops . . . was that out loud?

And yes, I found that the sinks at the Habitat Re-Store are wickedly cheap, and that tile is 50¢ per square foot. I will be going back!

Katy Wolk-Stanley

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

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The Power of an Improperly Ordered To-Do List

by Katy on September 15, 2010 · 14 comments

I run both hot and cold when it comes to to-do lists. I like the feeling I get from  accomplishing this, that and everything in between, but I also like just taking it easy and not feeling like I have to function as a personal task master. Goof around on the computer, read for a bit, maybe even nap. It’s all good.

Today was a to-do list day.

I knew I would be getting together with a friend tomorrow, so I set myself down with pencil and paper and mapped out my day. Grocery staples from Fred Meyer, scour the kitchen, write a blog post, get my hair cut, scoop the litter box? It was all there. I methodically worked my way through the list, all the while ferrying kids to school and back, assembling homemade sushi for the staggered dinners and feeling pretty damned proud of myself.

But the litter box? I would get to it after the rush of the day.

Or . . . I would end up having to strip my bed, spray it with Nature’s Miracle and wash all the bedding because a certain small feline creature released a puddle of urine the size of Lake Superior into the middle. (Although really, the covered litter box was on the ugly side of disgusting and I wouldn’t have gone into it either.) But thankfully, my mother has a extra large capacity washing machine that fit my duvet, and she was up at midnight, when I drove it over to her house.

From here on out, I’m going to start all to-do lists with “scoop the litter box.”

See? Something new to learn every day!

Katy Wolk-Stanley

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

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Frugal Tidbits

by Katy on September 14, 2010 · 5 comments

Frugality invades every aspect of my life. From what I buy, (or don’t buy) to what I read, (library books) and there’s just no escaping it. But instead of being confined by monetary limits, it’s actually quite freeing. I get to do things I couldn’t otherwise afford, and my creative juices are constantly flowing.

Here’s how I frugalized my day yesterday:

  • Sent the kids to school with home packed lunches.
  • Put two loads of laundry through the wash. The machine was a hand me down from my mother, I used cold water, handmade detergent and then hung the laundry on the clothesline.
  • When it was time to pick my son up from school, I coordinated errands into the trip.
  • I went to the library and checked out two different world atlases, since my son had to memorize 50 different countries for school.
  • Stopped into the credit union to deposit my son’s hundred dollar bill from grandma before he loses it. It can now earn interest.
  • Brought a small bin of kid clothes to the consignment shop. They bought almost everything, including a batch of hand me down button-down shirts that my kids would rather die than wear. I found a pair of Converse high tops in my younger son’s size, and was able to use store credit to buy them. I was handed $5.50 in cash from a previous drop off.
  • Took my older son out for an ice cream cone. I had a 2-for-1 coupon from an about to expire Entertainment Book that a friend gave me, and chose the child size cone, which actually a normal size. This set me back $2, which I had from the consignment shop.
  • Drove by a Goodwill so my older son could look for a ping-pong paddle, at his request. Didn’t find anything we needed, and left empty handed.
  • My husband made dinner, which was grilled lemon oregano chicken, served with heated up leftover rice and a big green salad. I buy lettuce by the head instead of bagged. I always choose the biggest specimen and then wash and cut it immediate and store it in the salad spinner, which drains off any fluid and keeps it from getting soggy. I can get at least three big salads from a single head of lettuce.
  • Drove my older son to soccer practice, and also arranged a carpool for the rest of the season.
  • Rummaged through our huge bin of writing utensils to find enough colored pencils for the boys to take to school. No reason to buy what we already have.
  • I also watched a gluttonous number of Lost episodes through Netflix. We have the minimum subscription, which allows
  • Tucked everyone into bed in their thrift store pajamas and then packed up the next day’s school/work lunches.

Today I’ll go for a $10 haircut, walk to Fred Meyer to buy loss leader milk and eggs, clean my house, (saving on a housekeeping service!) run another load of laundry, and deal with any buyers for the Hanna Andersson jammies, which I re-listed on craigslist this morning. I’ll listen to a library audio book while I putter, and maybe even put a couple wheelbarrow loads of free mulch under the treehouse in the backyard. And tomorrow, I’m getting together with my friend Sasha.

Frugality is infused into almost every aspect of my life, but that doesn’t mean I have limits. Instead, it’s just the opposite. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Katy Wolk-Stanley

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

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Bargaining — You Just Have to Ask

by Katy on September 13, 2010 · 25 comments

I don’t know if it’s because I did a lot of foreign travel before having kids or simply my love of a great deal, but I’m a big fan of bargaining. I do it at garage sales, thrift stores, foreign markets, and most recently, at the mall. At this point you may be asking:

“Whoa, back up. The Non-Consumer Advocate goes to the mall?!”

Let me preface this little story by saying that my younger son is fashion obsessed and had saved up his cat sitting money for a pair of purple Levi’s skinny jeans. We had unsuccessfully scoured the thrift stores all summer, and the constant whining about how he needed this particular pair of pants had worn me thinner than a supermodel on a hunger strike. Yesterday, he broke through my steely exterior. (He did his homework, fed the neighbor’s cats, looked up the phone number for the Lloyd Center Macy’s and handed the phone to me. I’ve said it once, and I will say it again. I am putty in his grubby little hands!)

The Macy’s store clerk confirmed that yes, they did carry purple Levi’s skinny jeans priced at $19.99, and even put a pair aside for us. This put my son into a frenzy of excitement, which propelled us across town only to find that the pair that fit my son were $29.99 not $19.99.

Big deflation of frenzy, as this purchase was 100% my son’s, (I have bought three pairs of these jeans for him at thrift stores and am done) and he only had $20.

However, by pointing out the that my son was using his own money, and that the almost identical pair was $19.99, the clerks lowered the price on the jeans my son had pinned his hopes on. We were polite, patient and friendly, which is key to successful negotiation. And my son saved $10.

Think our mall-haggling was a fluke, a one time occurrence? Nope, because we then wandered about the mall a bit more, as my daughter was looking for a specific style of sunglasses. She found these at a kiosk selling sunglasses for $12 apiece or two for $20. I told her to ask the clerk if she’d take $10, and guess what, she did!

I am very pleased that both of my kids learned a lesson in haggling yesterday. No price is written in stone, and all you have to do is ask if you want to get that lower price. They may want to go to the abhorrent mall, but they’re still their mommy’s kids. And yes, we did stop into a Goodwill afterwards, where I found a 3-hole punch pencil pouch, which was the single missing item from their school supply list.

Are you a bargaining enthusiast, or does the thought put you into a cold sweat of embarrassment? 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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What Would You Do With an Extra $100, $1000, $10,000?

by Katy on September 12, 2010 · 24 comments

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

I had the privilege of taking my aunt Anne out for breakfast today. It was her birthday, (which I had actually forgotten about) which made it all the more special. Our original plan had been to go out for dim-sum, but we ended up finding a wonderful little café not far from my house which hit the spot.

This aunt is actually only 15 years older than I am, and lived with us for a few years when I was growing up. She has always been a true inspiration to me — gleaning fabulous treasures from thrift shops and taking me and my sister to musty old used book stores when we were at our most impressionable ages. (The smell of old books still arouses an overwhelming feeling of contentment for me.)

She is smart, funny and generous beyond a fault despite never having excessive income.

Sadly, she now lives in Florida, which means that I hardly ever get to spend any time with her.

On our way back from breakfast, (plus a couple of garage sales) she started talking about what she would do if she won the lottery. I can’t actually remember what she said she would buy for herself, but she did say that she would give us each $11,000 per year. She said this is the amount one can receive annually without having to pay taxes on it.

I started to think about what I would do with an extra $44,000 annual income, (yes, she said she would give $11,000 to each of us!)

I would most definitely eradicate any and all consumer debt, but then what? Travel? Charitable giving? Cool clothes? Savings?

What would you do with an extra $100, $1000 or $10,000?

Here, I’ll start:

$100 — I would put it in savings. (There’s nothing for $100 or less that I don’t already have.)

$1,000 — I would pay off debt.

$10,000 — I would travel with my kids to somewhere like London, Japan or Greece. Perhaps somewhere sunny like Hawaii or Mexico, (which would be cheaper and allow for leftover funds.)

Okay now, your turn! Please put your answers in the comments section below.

Katy Wolk-Stanley

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

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Aspirational Spending

by Katy on September 11, 2010 · 17 comments

The idea of Aspirational Spending has been swimming around in my head lately. I re-read The Millionaire Next Door while on vacation last week, and this style of conspicuous consumption was touched upon a number of times throughout the book.

What on G-d’s green earth is Aspirational Spending?

It’s when you make expensive purchases to match the lifestyle you want to be living, instead of the life you’re actually living. You see yourself as a style maven, so you buy a closet full of expensive shoes and purses, or you see yourself as a successful business person, so you lease a brand new BMW. But in reality, you’re living paycheck-to-paycheck. (The most common vehicles driven by actual millionaires are domestic cars such as Fords and Jeeps.)

We all know people who live this way. The friend who gets her real estate agent’s license and thinks her Toyota Corolla is not high brow enough to chauffeur her clients around town. So she purchases a Lexus SUV before even making a sale. The straight out of residency doctor who buys a luxury home while still shouldering a mountain of student loans. (These are actual examples from people I know.)

Or, as the authors of The Millionaire Next Door put it:

Big hat, no cattle.

Then, I started to think about the way I live my life. I definitely want to have my belongings reflect a higher income level than is true. I want to live in a nice neighborhood, dress my family well, and furnish my home with craftsman style antiques. So I scour thrift stores to buy this stuff for pennies on the dollar.

However, the “live in a nice neighborhood” aspect pretty much backfired on us. Our fixer-upper has drained at least $100,000 from us over the years, (not counting lost income) and has kept us from putting our income and energy into quality of life, both in the present and future. If we had been willing to live in a less desirable neighborhood, we could have bought a move-in ready home that only needed cosmetic changes. Of course, we had no idea how much work this house needed, and it’s easy to look into the past and see what decisions should have been made.

Was this aspirational living on our part? Yes and no. I wasn’t trying to impress anyone, I really liked the house, and I was completely naive. The condition of the house when we first bought it would not have impressed The Clampetts.

Do you know people who subscribe to the Aspirational Living style of spending? Or I guess I could phrase that as:

How big is your hat and how many cattle are in your pasture?

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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