Happiness List

by Katy on May 23, 2010 · 7 comments

Cookie, om nom nom!

I have occasionally been doing a gratitude list through my Twitter account, and it has been a worthy exercise. But what I really like to do is make lists of what makes me happy. What’s the difference? Well . . . I am grateful for the health of my family members, but I am happy that dinner was completed and even cleaned up by 6:00 P.M. tonight. Sometimes the two intersect, but sometimes they are miles apart.

Today’s Happiness List

  1. The Cookie Monster cupcakes that I made for my son’s birthday party yesterday were so cute, yet were a total last minute endeavor. Huge hit. Huge!
  2. I get to watch three full hours of Lost and Lost related hype tonight. Hurley, Sun, Jack, Sawyer, Jin, Charlie, Desmond, Kate, Claire and everyone else. ♥ Lost.
  3. The arcade that I took my son’s birthday guests to let us all in for free, all eleven of us. Saved us $27.50!
  4. Found two nickels on the ground at the arcade.
  5. My neighbor brought me a beautiful rose from her garden.

Happy. What’s your five?

Katy Wolk-Stanley

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

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Link-O-Rama Mama

by Katy on May 22, 2010 · 7 comments

Photo from sh*tmykidsruined.com

It’s time again for Link-O-Rama Mama, where I lazily just link to other people’s well written and thoroughly researched articles.

Real food possible on a budget

Angela, over at Frugal Living NW has been writing a series of articles about eating “real food” on a budget. This has been interesting, as her blog primarily focuses on couponing.

Click here and here to read the first two pieces in her series.

Change your midset, unclutter your home

The Unclutterer blog ran a great interview with Pooja Gugnani, founder and owner of Organizing with You titled “Mind over Clutter.” My favorite sentence in the article? “It is easier to organize belongings than to change the way we think about buying new things.” Bingo!

Click here to read the full article.

The road to true happiness is in your closet, and no, it’s not Narnia

Gretchen Rubin, author The Happiness Project confesses to being a “zealot on the subject of closet clutter” and has converted me over to her dark side. My step-mother Lindy is currently finishing my copy of the book and has caught the bug as well. I gave her a complete tour of my newly organized closets when she was over the other night, and she was appropriately impressed. We both decided we would like to have Rubin come over and help us organize our homes. Are we groupies?

Click here to read a piece from Rubin’s Happiness Project blog about the connection between happiness and closet organization.

Kids + sharpies = funny

I have a new blog that I like to check on a daily basis. Unfortunately, it’s called sh*t my kids ruined. (I thought at first, that I shouldn’t be linking to profanity laced blogs, but then I thought of the greater good.) The blog is all photos of things that have been completely and utterly ruined by small children. It is hilarious! The lesson learned through this blog? That parents of small children should keep sharpies under lock and key! (That, plus poop is an art media.)

Click here for the hilarity!

Katy Wolk-Stanley

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

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June Food Stamp Challenge Update

by Katy on May 20, 2010 · 10 comments

The specifics for the June Food Stamp Challenge are well underway. And by “well underway,” I mean that I’ve been mulling and re-mulling it over in my head. My trusty readers have brought up great questions, and have been helping me to figure out how this idea of mine is actually going to work.

  • My family will spend the month of June only spending the average Oregon food stamp allotment for a family of four. ($294.90, but I have yet to 100% confirm this number) Any money saved will be donated to The Oregon Food Bank.
  • My sons will be in school until June 15th, so I will add $3 per day for half the month, which is how much assistence we would be getting for school lunches.
  • I do have a medium amount of stored food in my cupboards. I will try to eat this down some. Especially things like individually frozen chicken breasts, which my husband always buys when he goes to Costco. (I complain about the expense, but I secretly love knowing they’re there!) I will continue to stock up on loss leaders, which is how I have so much extra food to begin with.
  • Items that cannot be purchased using food stamps include paper products and toiletries, vitamins, hot foods and pet foods. I will get a more precise list when my schedule opens up a bit more. (I’ve been very busy this week with two family birthdays and my day job as a nurse!)
  • I am trying to find different experts who will be able to guest post and add to the conversation. People who specialize in couponing, home cooking, food waste issues, organic cooking on a budget and the like. If you are interested in doing a guest post, please shoot me an e-mail.
  • My husband and kids are already groaning about the imagined sacrifices they are soon to make. I pointed out to them that last night’s dinner would have been well within our soon-to-be tightened budget. We were eating chicken drumsticks, (88¢ per pound.) oven fries, made using a ten pound bag of potatoes, which cost $1.99; a big green salad, which included half a 79¢ avocado, some Dollar Tree feta and homemade salad dressing. The head of lettuce set me back $1.29 and yielded enough for four big salads plus sandwiches.) There were even leftover drumsticks, which served as my older son’s pre-dinner meal, (he’s 14-year-old and eats like a freakin’ horse!)
  • I am looking forward to researching and writing about alternative food sources like foreign food markets, gleaning and the like.
  • Those of you who already are living with food stamps, I hope you stick around to add your wisdom to the conversation.

Thanks to everyone who has been adding their two cents in the comments section. I think this is going to be a very eye opening experience, and look forward to sharing it with you!

Katy Wolk-Stanley

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

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Almost Frugal Interview

by Katy on May 20, 2010 · 6 comments

Click here to read an online interview with me on the “Almost Frugal” blog.

Enjoy!

Katy Wolk-Stanley

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

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Why I Don’t Have a $40,000 Kitchen

by Katy on May 19, 2010 · 27 comments

The following is a reprint of a previous post. Enjoy.

O'Keefe & Merritt Stove

I spent the better part of today immersing myself in a rare bout of deep cleaning. I swept out the fireplace and set a new fire, spiffed up the living room, scrubbed down the single bathroom in my five bedroom house, and gave the kitchen a thorough cleaning that would make an army drill sergeant weep.

Because yes, it involved getting on my hand and knees, toothbrush in hand.

I did all this while listening to the audio book of “The Worst Hard Times: The Untold Story Of Those Who Survived The Great American Dust Bowl.” A book I’m enjoying so much, I wrote about it before I’d even finished it!

Cleaning the kitchen took the longest. I also made dinner, (home-made calzones with a nice big salad.) and then cleaned up from dinner. So I spent at least three hours in the company of my kitchen today.

Let me paint a picture for you. My cupboards are plywood painted a butter yellow, the counters are dark red formica, the floors are scuffed-up fir and the appliances are white. And when the dishwasher door is open, it completely blocks entrance into the kitchen.

Not my dream kitchen — but it’s okay to not go into debt for a dream kitchen.

You know what?

I like it anyway!

We had very little money when we bought our fixer-upper house in 1996. So any improvements made were necessary and minimal. For the kitchen, we replaced the foul looking countertops, painted the cabinets, scraped up the ancient, filthy linoleum and put in windows along a back wall. (There was oddly only one small window in the entire kitchen.)

The total cost was maybe $500, because my husband did all the work.

I recently read that the average price of a kitchen remodel is $40,000! And that’s just the average, as many people spend much, much more.

That’s just messed up!

My parents bought their house for $20,000, and it was a really nice house.

My kitchen produces wonderful food. Dinners, baked goods and all kinds of delicious treats. And is somehow able to perform this feat without the presence of stainless steel or granite.

The environmental consequences of ripping out a kitchen are significant. Dumpsters get filled with landfill bound cabinets and debris. New cabinets are constructed from virgin materials and then shipped to your house. And those granite countertops? Mountains are irreversibly getting carved up and destroyed so we can have the perfect kitchen.

So if you come to my house expecting yet another freshly remodeled kitchen, you’re going to be disappointed. Because I don’t crave an all brand new kitchen, (that will look dated in a few years.) The only thing I crave is a vintage O’Keefe and Merritt stove, because they cook like nobody’s business, and it’ll never look dated.

Have you done a recent kitchen remodel? Did you make green choices, or maybe wish you had? Tell us all about it in the comments section below.

Katy Wolk-Stanley

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

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Unfocused Thinking

by Katy on May 18, 2010 · 22 comments

I had a good idea for a blog post today, which was seniors and downsizing, and how that affects other age groups. However, that would require focused thinking.

My mind is swarming with all the stuff I need to get done today, which is bizarrely large and diverse.

  • Figure out how to set up a P.E. independent study for my soon-to-be high schooler to take. Otherwise he doesn’t get to take any electives, which would suck!
  • Address issues of bullying at school for my younger son.
  • Figure out how to make an ice cream cake for my son’s birthday.
  • Buy birthday presents for my son. I gave away my best idea to my father, (acoustic guitar) which has left me somewhat lacking.
  • Plan dinner, do laundry, tidy up, etc.
  • Drop off election ballot.

I could go on and on, but I think you get the drift.

See ya’ tomorrow!

Katy Wolk-Stanley

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

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Volunteerism is Alive and Well Here At Non-Consumer Farms

by Katy on May 17, 2010 · 3 comments

I like to garden, but I especially like plants that not only thrive under my benign neglect, but also send out their little volunteer troops.

It's kind of hard to tell, but there is one monstrous bean plant that volunteered from last year, and is approximately 20 times the height of this year's crop. Cool beans!

My old next door neighbor gave me a few tiny Lady's Mantle plants, oh . . about ten years ago. They crop up everywhere, but I just dig them out and plant them in appropriate areas. They look good all spring, summer and fall. *Love* the ladies.

This Euphorbia plant appeared out of nowhere, (bird poop is my best guess) and has grown into a huge specimen. The best part is that it's actually in a place I would have chosen to plant one!

This small Euphorbia plant found its way into a flower bed and got transplanted into my parking strip, which is both shady and dry. It should do well.

The bottom of my downspout is apparently the perfect place for a cheerful pink Valerian plant. Of course, I didn't actually plant it there.

This lawn is NOT a volunteer, but I wanted to the share it anyway. It was destroyed last year after an unfortunate soccer party, so my husband and I reseeded it. We were able to "rent" a free seed spreader and roller from "Portland Nursery," where we bought a $9 bag of grass seed. Because we planted it so early in the season, we haven't had to water it once. Yay for 27 rainy days in the month of April! Notice the stone edging around my hydrangeas? They are all the leftover stones from when my sister built our stone retaining wall. Not a one was wasted.

What "Non-Consumer Advocate" outdoor photo essay would be complete without a shot of my laundry line? Today's photo features a row of soccer jerseys, as the spring season is now complete.

Thank you to all the volunteers who made this blog post possible, I couldn’t have done it without you!

Katy Wolk-Stanley

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

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June — A Food Stamp Challenge

by Katy on May 16, 2010 · 51 comments

Oregon uses a food stamp debit card, which is called the "Oregon Trail Card"

The headline in today’s Sunday Oregonian newspaper blared the headline of:

“Oregon food stamp use at record high”

Last time I paid attention, Oregon food stamp usage was already at an all time high, so this news grabbed my attention.

Oregon’s high food stamp rate gained national attention in 2007, when governor Kulongoski and his wife learned what it was like to eat for $21 apiece for a week, which was the average food stamp allotment at the time. The number of Oregonians receiving food stamps has since grown from 434,000 to 701,882, which means that nearly one in five Oregonians is facing hunger issues.

The article went on to state that “The maximum benefit for a family of four is $668 a month. The average benefit per household is $250.” This is a huge difference, as $668 is hundreds more than my family of four spends per month on food, (including eating out) yet $250 is hundreds less. (We spend approximately $450 per month on food.)

My family does not qualify for food stamps, (which I confirmed online) as my husband works full time and I work part time as an RN, which after 15 years in the same job is well compensated. We are lucky, as both of our health sector jobs are relatively secure despite the dismal Oregon economy. (10.6% at last count.)

The Oregonian’s FoodDay section ran an article titled  “Living on a limited income calls for smart choices at the market” a few months back that specifically outlined how a family of four can eat healthfully on $95.50, which was “the average weekly benefit for a family of four with young children.” (The author included the amount which would be added through WIC if the children were five or under. See details below.) This article stuck in my mind, as it was extremely practical and specific and absolutely non-gimmicky.

I want to propose a month of June food stamp challenge. The average benefit for a family of four is $250, which works out to $8.33 per day for the entire family. Because my children would qualify for reduced and free school lunches if this scenario were real, I am going to add $3 per school day for the homemade school lunches that we always pack for my 12 and 14-year-old sons. This brings the monthly total to $339.90.

I encourage all readers and fellow bloggers to take up the month of June food stamp challenge and to donate any money saved to your local food bank. I will be writing about the challenge throughout the month of June and invite you to share in my family’s experiences.

Are you in? Please add your name to the comments section below

Katy Wolk-Stanley

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

“To be eligible for food stamp benefits (now known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP), gross monthly income must be 130 percent or less of the federal poverty guidelines ($2,389 monthly for a family of four in most places), along with other factors. For our hypothetical food stamp budget for a family of four, we took the average SNAP benefit per household — $250 a month or $62.50 a week — and added $11 for each of three people receiving Women, Infants and Children (WIC) benefits, a supplementary allowance for women and young children. The grand total was $95.50 for one week.”

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Crap — It’s Birthday Gift Time Again!

by Katy on May 15, 2010 · 13 comments

How did this guy get to be twelve years old?

The birthdays in my family have a tendency to clump up all together. Logically, there would be an evenly spaced pattern of birthdays throughout the year, but that would defy the random specificity of life.

The next month brings the birthdays of my husband, (May 16th) my son, (May 19th) my step-mother and brother-in-law; (June 15th) and lastly my father (June 23rd). Whew!

Not only am I looking at a significant chunk of birthday-age, but this year marks some significant banner years of 40, 45 and 75.

So should I drive to the mall, open up my checkbook, (okay, okay. . .  debit card) and buy everyone a significant gift? No way, fellow non-consumers, I sit still and put on on my thinking cap. Because giving each birthday some concentrated thought is key to coming up with a great birthday idea, that doesn’t undo my debt reduction and savings efforts.

My husband’s 45th birthday comes first, so I have this one completely taken care of. My husband and I really love the TV show “The Office,” and I put together a theme gift, which is two “The Office” T-shirts and a packet of beet seeds.  (If you watched the show, you’d understand.) Yes, yes, I know that buying new T-shirts breaks The Compact, (buy nothing new) but I had Amazon gift cards that I earned through using SwagBucks, which meant this portion of the gift was free! (I buy so little in the way of new stuff that I feel no guilt for occasional new purchases. T-shirts are practical, and he’ll get a kick out them.) I will of course plant the beets. I may even prepare some kind of beet dish to go with his birthday dinner.

Next comes my younger son’s birthday. He’s turning twelve, which is kind of hard age for gifts. He still kind of likes toys, but he’s also into teenage guy stuff as well. I had wanted to buy him an acoustic guitar, (he already has an electric one) so put I the word out that I was looking for one. It turns out that my father had one he was willing give. This was great, but took away my main gift idea. I’ve already bought him an ocarina and a puzzle, and will shop for him on Monday or Tuesday, (at Goodwill of course!) I will be keeping an eye out for a nice hoodie and some hepcat plaid shorts, which he likes. I may also buy him a gift card to Buffalo Exchange, which sells cool second hand clothes.

I usually buy ahead of time, so I’m kind of disappointed with my relative non-readiness for my son birthday. What can I say? May 19th snuck up on me!

For my father’s 75th birthday, I’m assembling a fantastic gift, which I can’t write about here as he reads the blog. But rest assured, I will share all about it on June 24th!

I’m still unsure of what to do for my step-mother and brother-in-law, but I will start keeping a keen eye open at Goodwill for them.

Oy. It’s like this every year. I’m completely ready with some gifts and completely stymied with others.

Okay, non-consumers. I need your help with birthday ideas for my 12-year-old son. He really loves art, music and cool clothing. Please . . . .

Katy Wolk-Stanley

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

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Cheap Eats — One Hour Bread

by Katy on May 13, 2010 · 7 comments

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

Bread

I ventured out in the snow and ice on Christmas Eve to buy the fixings for a lovely Christmas dinner. I was thinking salmon with a nice big salad. (My husband drives our only snow-worthy vehicle to work, and I have to wait until he gets home to do any driving.)

Unfortunately, both the grocery stores I went to were closed, closed, closed!

I had a few moments of sheer and utter panic.

What am I going to serve? Is it too late to fake a stroke and cancel Christmas dinner?

By the time I was home, I had a plan in mind. Sure, it wasn’t going to be the elegant meal I had first envisioned, but to quote the usually meaningless platitude –everything was going to be okay.

I had most of the ingredients for a delicious chicken and black bean soup, and I would make bread from scratch to gussy up the meal. (I did have to steal half an onion from the next-door-neighbors for whom I am currently — ahem, cat-sitting. (ie : pantry raiding.)

Luckily, I have a delicious recipe for bread that takes less than an hour from thought to fruition. It’s an adaptation of a recipe from Amy Dacyczyn’s The Complete Tightwad Gazette.

Katy and Amy’s One-Hour Bread

3-4 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

2 Tablespoons dry yeast

2 Tablespoons sugar

1 Tablespoon salt

2 cups hot water (120-130 degrees)

2-4 Tablespoons of melted butter

1 Tablespoon sesame seeds or poppy seeds, (I had neither, and used corn meal.)

Mix 3 cups of the white flour and 1 cup whole wheat flour with the yeast, salt and sugar. Pour in the hot water. and stir together until thoroughly mixed. Stir in the remainder of the flour until the dough is no longer sticky.

Knead until the bread is smooth and elastic. (I use a big bowl that I can knead in so as not to make a big mess.)

Place the dough in a buttered/greased bowl for 15 minutes in a warm spot, and cover with a damp linen, (not shaggy) tea towel.

Punch down. Divide into two pieces and shape into two round loaves. (I sprinkle a small amount of cornmeal on the pan before setting them down.) Score an “X” shape on the tops of both loaves. Brush butter over the loaves and sprinkle with seeds/cornmeal.

Place bread in a cold oven at 400 degrees, with an oven-safe dish below partially filled with hot water.

Bake 40-45 minutes until the bread is a golden brown color.

Serve warm.

There you have it. Bread, fresh from the oven in less than an hour. And it makes your house smell fabulous.

I would have been happy to eat salmon, but the soup was actually perfect. A relaxing meal towards the end of a not so relaxing day.

And believe you, me — there was no food waste!

Katy Wolk-Stanley

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

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