Three strategies for a greener, simpler, happier holiday

Revisiting a bustling mall makes me think about the environmental impact of holiday shopping but it also makes me think about human resources that are eaten up by excessive shopping. (And I say “excessive” because I am in no way an extremist, as you all know.) On this blog, a message I hear repeatedly from my readers is how important friends, families and pets are to our happiness and well-being.  Spending time with the people we care about is obviously a crucial component to our happiness and, without a doubt, the best frugal luxury there is.  In a busy world, time with others, and time alone, has become a valuable commodity. Wouldn’t it make more sense to spend less time shopping and more time just being?

In Amber’s post, she asks, “What green holiday traditions are you adopting?” Well, I have a few strategies to reduce environmental and financial costs, and make the holidays more meaningful and special to me:

1. Doin’ it DIY. I love making homemade gifts and homemade cards. There is nothing quite like crafting something that is tailor-made and perfectly suited to the recipient.  Seeing them actually use or consume the gift offers a particular thrill.

*homemade treats*

2. Innovative Packaging. Gifts become instantly more environmentally friendly when you package them yourself, especially when you use what you’ve already got around the house - think reusable glass mason jars, wire or wicker baskets, vintage tins, or - my favourite - “repurposed junk”. (Remember the tea box I made? You can find a tutorial I wrote on how to do it at Organizing Junkie.)

*once a tea box, now a gift box*

2. Thrift. I must admit, I owe a lot to Shopping GoLightly at The Thrifty Chicks.  This woman has opened my eyes to a whole new world.  And although I know that I’m preaching to the converted, I must just reiterate that thrift stores are not just full of fondue sets, massaging foot baths and harlequin romance novels.  You can find great vintage pieces for collectors, one-of-a-kind items and plenty of brand spanking new in-the-box items, sometimes with the tags still on.  You get to decide whether your favourite part of thrifting is that it is environmentally friendly, saving you gobs of money, supporting local charities, or providing you with the thrill of the hunt.

*a vintage find for my table - pretty, embroidered napkins*

Shopping GoLightly also reminds us that to be known and understood is the true gift - in this post, Ms. GoLightly responds to a comment I made on her blog, and reminds me (and all of us) that a gift, whether homemade, thrifted, or bought retail, means the most when it is meant to enhance a person’s authentic self:

The act of taking time to truly listen to me, observe me and truly know me is, in essence the gift, not necessarily the object. That’s the part that sets tears in my eyes. To feel, in this wide world, there is someone who has taken the time to truly know me and wants me to continue on as myself and not be swayed.

*life in the beach, last December; expectations for a different kind of year ahead*

Lessons from my purple-haired, teenaged self

I’ve been thinking a little bit lately about how much creativity I employed in my teenage fashions.  When I was a teenager I dressed in very unconventional ways.  First it was the grunge phase, inspired by Kurt Cobain.  Thrift stores and vintage consignment stores were my favourite places to find cardigan sweaters, velour shirts, torn jeans and anything strange or interesting.  Quickly this morphed into a punk phase, which sparked tremendous creativity on my part.  I never, ever, shopped at malls or traditional clothing stores.  Instead, I relied on thrift stores, hardware stores, pet stores, army surplus stores, flea markets, costume stores, and dollarstores.  Here’s what I would buy:

Thrift stores: My favourite was the discount thrift store warehouse, that charged $1 for every garbage bag you could fill with clothes.  These were the items that had been cast off from all other thrift stores.  Luckily, what was considered unfashionable by most people was perfect for a 15 year old punk.  I still remember the fake silk, avocado green, ruffled shirt my sister found.  We both thought it was David Bowie-like and fabulous for 5 cents.  Tacky old mens’ vests were perfect for decorating with patches and buttons.  Another great find was a canary yellow, big puffy Cindy Lauper-esque skirt and and old pair of police uniform pants.  Perhaps the best finds of all were old vintage t-shirts, with rare prints of Billy Idol or The Who.

Hardware stores: I made my old wallet chains using interesting types of chains that were intended for hanging lamps.  They were more fun than traditional wallet chains, and made good necklaces, too.

Pet stores: Leather collars for pets with studs on them made suitable wrist cuffs.

Army surplus stores: My favourite army jackets and combat boots were found here, but that’s not surprising.  What is surprising is that the army surplus also had a flea market like component, where I found Billy Idol sweat bands from the 80s.

Flea markets: These yielded all kinds of interesting finds - not just clothes, but things that could be repurposed into jewellery, like a great big bag of wooden beads I bought.  This was also the perfect place for finding cheap, original Star Trek memorabilia.

Costume stores: Stockings with skulls or bones on them made perfect pantyhose when paired with my Cindy Lauper skirt.  They also sold things like handcuffs, wrist cuffs and faux-leather gloves.  These were intended as costume accessories, but I wore them as real accessories.

Dollarstores: My sister and I bought children’s jewelry , like big chunky rings, plastic bracelets or necklaces, and wore them with playful irony.  Anything weird, tacky, interesting, vintage or ironic, I loved.

Obviously times have changed dramatically, and although my punk phase has forever influenced some of my musical tastes and socio-political values, I now dress in a much more conservative way.  But I find myself remembering the zest and creativity I put into a simple thing like fashion with wave of nostalgia and some degree of awe. I believe that living creatively is important, and I want to harness some of that energy and enthusiasm I had as a 15 year old, and apply it to my life today.  It’s easy to follow the herd, and it’s easy to resort to the most obvious solutions when it comes to meeting our needs for things like clothing.  It’s an easy choice to head out to a mall and participate in traditional retail activities.  But isn’t it more fun, more fulfilling, to think differently about our lives? To think differently when it comes to solving daily problems or challenges?

Only now do I realize that my unconventional approach set the stage for a fulfilling, frugal lifestyle.  I love to shop at thrift stores, consignment stores, antique stores, flea markets, Habitat for Humanity Re-Stores, and garage sales. I love doing swaps with friends and exchanging handmedowns. I love making my own gifts and cards.  I love repurposing items and I love using a “DIY” ethic to repair or modify something I already have and make it into something new.  Who would have guessed that as a punk teenager, sifting through boxes of unwanted clothing, that I would be setting the stage for financially frugal, environmentally-sound, sustainable living?  Granted that now I’m shopping for antique tea cups instead of Billy Idol memorabilia, but the essential message stays the same: employ creativity and abundance you will find!

Being content with what you’ve got

My family has been asking each another what we want for Christmas lately, and the question usually makes me reflect on how much I actually already have. When I pause to think about it, I realize that I actually want very little.  Sure, there are some restrictions that go along with living within a tight budget, but overall I live a very full, abundant life.  It’s very humbling to realize that you’re actually content with what you own and are hard pressed to think about something you want, let alone need.

I think part of the reason I’m so content with what I have is because I’m not subjected to forms of media telling me otherwise.  I don’t have television.  I don’t read fashion magazines.  And I don’t go into malls.  I don’t go out of my way to avoid them, it’s just that I don’t pass by them on my way to work or during my normal routines, so I’m simply not tempted by all the beautiful things in the store windows.  It’s funny how, without the messages from media or malls being shoved down your throat, it’s a lot easier to be content with less.

What helps you to feel content with what you have?

Savings tips from Big Bang Theory’s Sheldon

I love watching The Big Bang Theory.  I especially love this show because I just finished working at a theoretical physics institute, so I can compare the characters to people I actually know. In this episode, one of the main characters, Sheldon, a physicist with very limited social skills, gives great advice on how to get “statistically significant savings” on groceries and personal care products.

How a mystery delivery led to the best soup I’ve ever made!

A few weeks ago, I opened my door to find two cloth bags full of delicious vegetables - parsnips, carrots, rutabegas, ambercup squashes, beets, garlic, potatoes and onions.  There was also a newsletter from a local CSA (community supported agriculture) farm.  At first I thought perhaps the food was meant to be delivered to someone else in my building, but after calling the farm and checking on their website, I realized that they didn’t deliver.  Then I wondered if maybe someone was making a delivery to a neighbour and had gotten the apartment number wrong.  But with no method of contacting them, I didn’t know how to correct the mistake.  After 24 hours and no word, I thought that perhaps the vegetables were a random act of kindness.  Regardless, I decided at that point that the vegetables were mine to enjoy.  So thank you to my mystery vegetable delivery person!

I’ve made several delicious dishes with my mystery delivery, including two soups.  I first made a Carrot Parsnip Ginger soup, and I thought it was the best soup I’d ever made, until I made the Ambercup Squash soup, which trumped its deliciousness.  Both soups were absolutely spectacular, but the Ambercup Squash soup certainly triumphs over anything I’ve ever made before.  It was so good that I had three bowls in a row.  I’ve never eaten three bowls of soup at once before.

So here’s the recipe.  Unfortunately I didn’t track exactly how much spice I used, because when I cook, I just go by what feels right.  But I’ve tried to estimate.  Experiment and you’ll come to your own conclusions about what works.

image courtesy of www.beawkuchni.com

Amazing Ambercup Squash Soup

Ingredients

2 tbsp olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

1-2 large cloves garlic, minced

3 medium red potatoes, cubed

1 medium Ambercup Squash

splash of cream (optional)

4 cups homemade chicken stock

1 tbsp curry (or less for those who don’t want too much spice)

1-2 tbsp fresh ginger (minced)

1/2 tsp tumeric

1/4 tsp freshly grated whole nutmeg

1 cinnamon stick

salt & pepper to taste

Directions

Prick the skin of the squash with a fork and place, whole, on a sheet pan in the oven at 400 degrees for approximately 45 minutes. When done, skin will have begun to blister.  Remove squash from oven and slice in half.  Remove seeds with a spoon, preserving seeds if desired.  The squash should be soft enough that the flesh is easily removed and the skin peels off and flakes away.

In a large stock pot, heat olive oil over low heat; cook onion, stirring occasionally, adding a little sprinkling of salt, approximately 1/2 tsp.  Add ginger, garlic and spices and stir.  Add the chicken stock, potato and squash.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer gently, until the potato is cooked and flavours have blended together, about 1/2 hour.  Check seasoning, adding more salt or spices if desired.

Remove from heat,  let cool ever so slightly.  Remove cinnamon stick and blend in a blender in batches. Return to pot, warm and serve.  If desired, stir in a splash of cream (this is optional.)

***

This soup is incredibly nutritious and very, very cheap to make.  It’s an ideal healthy and affordable dish for fall & winter.

Thrifting delights

Above is a picture of a pretty antique class bowl that I discovered at a Salvation Army store in Guelph a few weeks ago.  The reason it caught my eye is that it is very similar to one that I already have in pale, translucent pink, which was passed down to me from my Nana.   I’m guessing this piece is from the 40s or 50s.  For now, it’s storing a small collection of jewelry that also belonged to my Nana. I paid $1.99 for this piece, but recently found the identical item on sale at an antiques store in Toronto for $10 (the same store also sold hobnail milk glass vases for $10, which pass for $1 at any thrift store.) The store was absolutely beautiful, and provided me with plenty of inspiration on how to better arrange and display my own antiques and collectibles.  However, it also made me realize that thrift store shopping really requires a great deal creativity.  Modern and trendy consignment, vintage and antiques stores often display thrift items that shoppers might otherwise easily miss.  When items are paired together, set under the proper backdrop and under flattering lighting, it’s much easier to imagine the item in your own home.  But you often pay a heftier price at such boutiques.  I prefer to use these stores for inspiration, and then dig through the racks and shelves of thrift stores to find my own treasures. Thrift store shopping requires us to think differently, and employ some imagination to figure out what could be done to enhance an object’s hidden beauty or value.  I adore this creative element so much that regular shopping has become completely uninteresting to me.  Coupled with the consideration for environmental impact, not to mention the difference in price, regular retail shopping has become a chore, whereas thrift store shopping - or should I say, hunting - remains a delight.

Calculating carbon: a frugal household is a green household

Shopping Golightly at The Thrifty Chicks encourages us to count carbon, just as we count calories. I wish I could take a literal approach to her idea. In particular, I wish there was a really good carbon footprint calculator out there that would let us track our monthly or yearly progress.  Sure, carbon footprint calculators are easily found on the internet, but most of them are too simplistic to give an accurate, complete picture.  A good many of them are only accessible to United States citizens, but even those that are applicable to Canadians are limited to calculating factors like transportation, gas, electricity and so on.  I have yet to find one that takes a variety of lifestyle choices into consideration.  Tracking progress and seeing results is such an important component to success; whether we’re talking about dieting, saving money, or putting extra hours in at work, we need to know that what we are doing is making a difference. It helps us to stay motivated.

I’m starting to wonder about what kind of inadvertent (positive) effect my frugal choices have had on the environment.  For example, I thrift instead of buying retail - in fact, during the last 6 months, I’ve only purchased three items of clothing from retail stores - the rest of my purchases have been made at thrift stores. I eat vegetarian about 80% of the time.  I usually drink coffee at home instead of buying out. I use the Garden Fresh Box program and frequently shop directly from market vendors or farms, which means that the bulk of my produce is local, and I rarely require plastic bags.  After learning a few tricks from my readers, I have reduced my electricity consumption and now air dry most of my laundry and dishes, avoiding the drying cycle in the dishwasher altogether.   After my old clunker of a car kicked the bucket, I bought a new, more efficient vehicle.  These are more obvious choices that help to reduce environmental impact - but what about waste reduction in the kitchen? My efforts to create a DIY-kitchen, with homemade foods of all kinds - including snacks, cereals, sauces, and junk food - means that I am less prone to buy ready-made food products that come a box, can, or plastic wrapping. In fact, I used to rely on a lot of pre-packaged, often individually-wrapped, wasteful products, which I now make from scratch.  What kind of impact is this having? Although it might be small, I wouldn’t doubt that the accumulation of this kind of living has got to make some kind of an impact over time.

Included in the carbon footprint calculator should be a question related to how many pets you have and what type.  I recently read in The Star that feeding a medium sized dog for one year has twice the environmental impact of driving a luxury SUV for 10,000 kilometres.  I must say that I question the research behind this finding - according to the article, the researchers “based their calculations on the amount of acreage needed to sustain the dog’s diet of 164 kilograms of meat and 95 kilograms of cereals in a year.”  But most dog food, if I’m not mistaken, does not use “meat”, it uses animal by-products. By-products include the leftover feet, necks, intestines and other “nasty bits” that are not considered usable meat.  So although it obviously takes energy to grind and process the by-products, we should not count the total amount of energy required to raise livestock.  The livestock would be raised for other purposes anyway - if we didn’t use the by-products for dog food, it would probably be thrown away.  This, I’m guessing, significantly reduces our pets’ carbon pawprints, so don’t feel too guilty about having your pet just yet.  Nevertheless, it is still another mouth to feed, and if we want to be realistic, we would want to include our pets as part of our households. So far I’ve yet to see a calculator that takes a dog or cat into account.

Which brings me to a final rant, ahem, point.  Pets are worth having. Children are worth having. I hate it when we get into these debates about whether or not we should just kill each other or off ourselves in order to save the planet. The point, I think, is that we need to rethink our values.  My frugal philosophy is to reduce waste and focus my financial resources on lifestyle choices that are consistent with my values.  Likewise, animals and families are worth fighting for - we don’t want or need to eliminate them altogether; quite the contrary.  The whole point of environmental sustainability is to keep on living, and living joyfully.  We need to sacrifice the things that matter less in order to keep the things that matter.

A frugal household, it seems, is a greener, less wasteful household.  I’d like to find a way to track just how much less wasteful it is.

On kindness, genuineness

Wondering where Saver Queen has been?  I’ve been working a short-term contract that finishes at the end of the month.  The job has required some crazy-long hours, which means I haven’t had time to blog, or really do anything else at all. So this post comes with an apology to my readers who have sent me emails and haven’t yet received a reply.

I’ve been working at a world-renowned scientific institution and have enjoyed the opportunity to meet some incredible people from all over the world. Many of these individuals have somewhat of a celebrity status, and I admire many of them.

Unfortunately, someone I admired (we’ll call him K) has really let me down.  I had K on a pedestal and thought, despite some arrogance on his part, that he was truly brilliant and was changing the world for the better.  K ended up being someone very different from who I thought he was.  He behaves astonishingly unethically.  It was extremely disappointing to watch, let alone bear the brunt of his unethical behaviour.  Even if much of his work benefits humanity, he simultaneously counteracts at least some of this progress by behaving in ways that degrade other human beings - specifically women.

I used to think I needed to impact the world in a big, big way. It was my goal to change the world.  I used to believe that small, daily transactions of kindness and good intentions were not worth as much as devoting your life to organizations that touch thousands of lives.  But I’ve slowly been coming to the conclusion that small acts of kindness do make a difference.  They are worth just as much, perhaps more, than grand gestures, because they are genuine, spontaneous, and can have impact far greater than we ever know. Likewise, if our careers are made up of nobel deeds, but we degenerate others every time we are “off stage” (both figuratively and literally in this case,) surely our net contribution to the world is badly depleted.

I may not ever have the money, or status, or fame that K has.  I may not ever reach the same number of people.  The President of the United States will probably never hear my name, let alone consult me for advice. But I will at least know that any attempts I make to change the world are from the heart. That when I meet someone new, I do my best to be kind, to honour who they are, to acknowledge them and their rights as a human being. And perhaps, even if I don’t ever accomplish anything else in my life, that is good enough.

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my readers who happen to celebrate this holiday.  I was inspired to read the post, Thank You on Gail Vaz-Oxlade’s blog today. I’ve always believed that being grateful for what you have and being cognizant of all the little ways in which we are blessed, are important steps to having a happy life.  And while I’ve often mentioned that being mindful and grateful is important for those living on a budget (because it’s too easy to feel deprived by focusing on what you don’t have,) it’s just as important for those who have everything.  After all, it’s easy for all of us to forget about how lucky we are, go on auto-pilot, and focus on everything that seems to be going wrong in our lives.

Making time to take pleasure in simple moments and focus on the abundance around us is a wonderful practice, one that has been my main focus since my break-up with my partner.  But it’s easy to diverge from this plan, the more busy we get. It’s obvious to me now that there are triggers that cause me to fall off track from being grateful and mindful.  Comparing myself to others, focusing on what other people have, and thinking about where I thought I would be (as opposed to where I am) can quickly divert my focus and change my mood.  Conversely, practicing mindfulness and gratitude make me feel present, empowered and fulfilled.  The key, I think, is not to wait until we feel that life has given us exactly what we want.  The key is to seek out beauty, kindness and moments of peace even amidst chaos, and practice gratitude for tiny instances which ordinarily go unnoticed, like our breath, the air, the fact that the sun rose and the sky didn’t fall.  A cup of coffee, a green traffic light, the sound of a friend’s voice: big or small, these little moments make up our lives.  In fact, when you start paying attention, it seems that there hundreds or even thousands of little miracles that happen every day, which may be worth some quiet celebration.

What are you grateful for today?

The Budget: A verdict

Do you have a budget? Use the jar or envelope system? Or just try to live within your means?

I’ve been using a budget very carefully for the last two months and the verdict is… I love it!  In August, I started by tabulating all my costs - writing down every single thing I bought and putting the number into a spreadsheet.  I didn’t use the “jar system” - I still used my debit and credit cards - but recorded everything I spent.  I lived as frugally as possible, and then at the end of the month, used those numbers to draw up my September budget.

Here’s how I wrote my September budget:

1. Averaged out my expected income for the next 4 months (until the new year) to give me an expected monthly salary

2. Deducted fixed costs

3. Created a budget for my variable costs.  I used categories inspired by Gail Vaz-Oxlade: food, clothing & gifts, entertainment, transportation and other.

4. Using a spreadsheet, I inputted a formula so that at the end of each column I would be able to see how much money I’ve spent in each category, as well as how much I have left to spend.  I also created a formula that would show me how much I have spent overall and how much I have left to spend in total. (This is especially helpful when you take more from a particular category.)

The budget is a big stress-reliever.  It provides a sense of control. There is an excellent article at Fighting Foreclosure - Conversations on the benefits of having a budget - which is a terrific read.  Contrary to what most people say (that budgets deprive you) I find that my budget has helped me to relax and enjoy my spending more, because I know that the items are already accounted for. It’s a bit like dieting - if you focus on all the foods you can’t eat, you’re doomed to be miserable.  But if you make a list of all the meals you could possibly enjoy using only healthful ingredients, you’ll feel as though you have an abundance of options.  A budget gives a similar feeling - it’s putting focus on the money that you do have to spend, as opposed to what you don’t have.

I recall an episode of Till Debt Do Us Part when one woman asked “do people really have time to [write down everything they spend?"] What’s funny about that comment is really how little time it takes.  When I come back from the store, I open up the spreadsheet on my computer and type in the number.  That’s it! Done!  It’s literally seconds of time for a big pay-off.  Like many things in life, it’s all about changing habits.  Writing down your expenditures as opposed to just stuffing the receipt in your pocket and forgetting about it does take some energy, but overtime it becomes natural.

Please share - do you use a budget?  What’s your system for keeping track of your spending?