An explorer in the world

I haven’t been blogging recently, partly because I’ve been suffering from a bit of writer’s block, and partly because I’ve been busy - not just too busy to blog, but also too busy to do many of the traditional frugal activities that I frequently blog about. But the busyness has been good. I’ve been busy at work, but with a variety of interesting activities - giving and attending skills building workshops and trainings, preparing for conferences, organizing a staff retreat, finishing up a social marketing campaign. And in my spare time, I’ve been out having dinners and discussions with friends, attending lectures and community workshops and spending time with family.  I’ve taken some steps towards completing my annual fun goals list. I’ve started climbing again, I went to see a band play that had a big cult following around here but was completely new to me, and I’ve started planning my Hawaii trip. I also have some tentative plans shaping up for New Years which might include several of my “outdoorsy” goals. And I’ve been participating in activities that aren’t on the list, but which would certainly qualify as new and interesting.  When I think back to how difficult my last year was, I recognize now that I’m feeling back in the game, that is the game of enjoying life and feeling alive again.

I don’t often write about my job, but I want to write about it tonight. I work for an AIDS Service Organization, running a program for HIV positive people that provides skills to improve overall health, foster community engagement and facilitate involvement in HIV prevention efforts. I’ve learned so much from the participants in this program.  As a former social researcher, with an educational background in social justice, I really thought I knew the world, but I didn’t. I can’t believe how much I feel awakened by learning about other peoples’ perspectives and life experiences. What it’s like to live with HIV, and the variety of experiences within that category. What it’s like to live with stigma. What it’s like to have an addiction. What it’s like to lose your children. What it’s like to live on the streets. What it’s like to be gay. What it’s like to live with homophobia. What it’s like to be discriminated against at the hospital, or at work, or by the government, or by your family, or by all of the above. Broadening my depth and breadth of knowing the world has been such a fulfilling experience.  It’s a real awakening, and I’m grateful to the people who have shared their experiences with me. I always wanted to work in this field because I thought it would help me make a difference. But I think it’s made me a better person.

What could we want more than just to know our world? I want to be an explorer in life. That’s why I studied Sociology, because I found the world around me fascinating. Its quirks and strangeness intrigued me and I found the eccentricities of every day social life endearing. I adored the mysteries and curiosities of social life and wished to know it better.  How lucky I am, then, that in the past year of this work, I have learned so very, very much.

So this is a note to say, unequivocally, that life is not about the acquisition of stuff. It is not even about the acquisition of knowledge. It is about exploration, adventure, understanding. It is about learning, growing, being touched by other people, discovering a richness to life, learning about compassion.  At this moment, I don’t care if my world view is different from the mainstream. I don’t care if I haven’t passed the milestones of marriage, children, home ownership, or a corporate ladder.  I’m learning about the world, the people in it, and what it means to be human.  What could be better than that?

Another “double rainbow”

Today I rushed out to my balcony to check out another beautiful, complete, double rainbow. I had to hold myself back from gushing, lest I get confused with double rainbow man.

It was so pretty, I had to share.  As I was watching, I noticed people walking to their cars or walking outside, their eyes focused on the pavement, completely missing the incredible things the sky was doing at that moment.  Truly, beauty is all around us, but it’s so easy to miss. It was just a reminder to awaken to what’s already here - to pay attention to the sky, the air, everything that surrounds us. We over-complicate our perfect world.  I don’t want to walk through this world asleep. I want to be awake, alert, and open to the miracles that every day life offers.

Butternut Squash and Caramelized Onion Pizza

This pizza is mouth-wateringly good! It is a must try. Unfortunately I have no pictures to share, as my only major light source in my condo died today, so there is not near enough light to take an adequate pictures of this scrumptious, crispy pizza. Take my word for it that it looks, smells, and tastes delicious.

To make this, you will need the ingredients for the dough (flour, salt, yeast, oil, water).  For the toppings, you will need one butternut squash, two onions, a little mozzarella or parmesan cheese, kosher salt, black pepper and olive oil.

Directions:

To make the crust, follow the instructions for the best ever pizza dough recipe at “A Peek Inside the Fishbowl.” This thin crust recipe is better than any of the others I’ve recommended before. I love a super thin, crunchy crust, so if you feel the same, you will have to try this recipe.  The key, I think, is not to add any sugar.  If you do add sugar, you will end up with a very different product.

For the toppings:

Roast a butternut squash, whole, on a baking tray at about 350 degrees. Use a fork to prick the skin to let steam escape. Keep it in the oven for at least 45 minutes, and turn it just once.  When you think it’s done, the skin should be blistering a bit, and you should be able to stick a fork into the squash easily.

In the meantime, caramelize your onions in a sauce pan with olive oil and a sprinkling of kosher salt. It will take at least 30 minutes, perhaps longer, at a very low heat to get the onions just right.

Remove from oven, slice once down the middle, and scoop out the seeds/stringy part.  Peel it using a kitchen peeler (if it’s done, the skin should be soft enough that you can almost peel it off with your fingers.)  Cut into very thin slices so you end up with half-moon shapes.

When your pizza crust is ready, dress with extra-virgin olive oil.  You could also try a garlic puree.  I found the simple olive oil to be very nice.

Lay a single layer of the squash slices on the pizza and then add the caramelized onions.  Sprinkle a generous pinch of kosher salt and black pepper, and top with a little shredded cheese. I used mozzarella but I think parmesan would be lovely also.  But whatever you use, don’t overdo it.  Let the taste of the squash and onions shine through. A light layer is perfect.

Bake for 12 minutes at 450, and then broil for another 2.  I also added 2 extra minutes of cooking time off the sheet pan, directly on the rack, in order to let the bottom of the crust crisp up. So tasty!

My top 10 “fun goals” for the year ahead

Last year at the start of September I wrote a post called, A New Season. Having just re-read it now, I remember once again how much has changed in the last year. Things are much easier now. That time of the year was so difficult for me, but I tried really hard to stay focused on what was good in my life and take advantage of everything around me that could bring me joy or nourishment.  I think that being creative helped me a lot - I was continually finding creative solutions to meet my needs on a ridiculously strict budget, but I was also applying creative thinking to my life, to identify different career paths and create different kinds of opportunities for myself.

I’ve worked hard this year and it has recently occurred to me that I have achieved pretty much everything I was working towards - I have a wonderful job, a cute and comfortable but affordable apartment, financial stability, and I feel that I have further integrated into my community. Rather than reaching towards the next big goal, I want to simply enjoy where I am at the moment, appreciate what I have worked for, and have fun. To me, having fun means to meet new people, try different things, laugh more often and simply enjoy life; I want to enjoy being single, healthy, and secure and take advantage of the opportunities that this affords me.  So I drafted some “fun goals” for the year. Many of them have to do with physical fitness as I am slightly fearful of winter and want to avoid the winter blahs by being active and taking advantage of fun winter sports, rather than hiding indoors.

So, here are my new goals for the year.  Because I believe goals need to be flexible (since circumstances and moods change,) any of these goals can be replaced by a similar goal if necessary.

1. Visit Hawaii
2. Go dog sledding
3. Go rockclimbing outdoors (currently I only climb indoors and my participation in this sport has been sporadic; come winter I want to climb more frequently and purchase the proper equipment so that next spring/summer I am confident and capable to do outdoor climbing.)
4. Investigate at least 5 bands that are new to me and see them perform live
5. Go snow-shoeing
6. Create a scavenger hunt with friends
7. Build a miniature wunderkammer (ideally I would love to build a cabinet of scientific curiosities but my budget isn’t built for it at the moment, so I might consider building a collection of curiosities documenting my travels and experiences.)
8. Go cross-country skiing
9. Explore a city that I’ve never been to before
10. Submit at least one proposal/article to a yoga magazine

On Friday a friend of mine joined me in spending the night gaming with people who were basically complete strangers. I’m not sure how to quantify that kind of random opportunity-taking, the kind of spirit that says, “why not?” and is whimsical enough to play games with people you don’t know, but I want to do even more of that kind of thing as well.

I’ve spent my life setting goals. Most of them have never materialized (if so I would already be married, have a phD, and be writing social policy in Ottawa or or New York City for the United Nations right now.) I’ve had ridiculously high standards for myself in the past and sometimes I’m skeptical of goal setting because it can overpower mindfulness, awareness and gratitude. But at the same time, I see how setting fun goals for me right now might be a great way to focus my attention on having more fun, and bringing adventure into my life again.

Do you have goals for the year ahead and do they involve having fun?

Saver Queen is two years old!

It’s my two year blogiversary!

Thank you to the kind readers who have supported me in my journey with your kind comments and your creative participation in these discussions on frugality, simplicity and sustainability.  I’ve appreciated so much the thoughtful words that you all have shared with me throughout the last two years.

My writing has taken me in a different place than originally anticipated. When I first started writing the blog, I thought I would be giving money saving tips to people struggling to live on a low income or trying to get out of debt. The blog morphed into so much more than that. It became a place for me to develop my own personal philosophy on what life is all about and on what makes me happy. It’s become much more personal.  It’s been a bit scary; my approach to life goes against the grain, or at least is in sharp contrast to the consumer-driven messages that proliferate in so many areas of our society, and I’ve at times been weary of what outsiders might think.  But I’ve slowly admitted to more and more friends and family members that I write this blog. For the first year or more I kept it a secret, not wanting to be stigmatized for my frugal practices.  As my writing has become more of who I am, and as I’ve seen an interest in the blog from people of various backgrounds, I’ve gradually developed more confidence in sharing my words with people beyond the niche frugal online subculture, the nest in which most of my readers reside.

I’ve ventured more and more into the practice of mindfulness, and I appreciate that I have so many readers who also share my passion for living mindfully in the present.  Many financial blogs out there tend to focus on more utilitarian or practical subjects, but mine has meandered into more abstract territory.  I’ve written a lot about mindfulness. In fact, I’ve added a new category called Mindfulness, to make these posts easier to find.

I get the feeling that my consistent readers share in the belief that at the root of the discussion around frugality is a conversation about what is important in life, and how to cultivate and nurture those things that are so important to us.  My readers seem to reiterate time and time again, that it is their families, their animals, the natural world around them, and simple habits or pleasures, that make life a joy to live.

There have been many conversations about the benefits of living simply. I’ve always maintained that a simple life can be a joyous one.  I’ve never said that money is sinful, or that rich people are unhappy or evil, or that money is irrelevant, because I don’t believe any of that.  I believe that money can provide choices and opportunities and freedoms.  I want to have money in my life, like all of us do.  What I have attempted to show in this blog instead, is that no matter where we are in life - whether we are rich, poor, alone or in good company, sick, healthy, content or restless, there is always, always, goodness to be found.  This journey in the last two years has been about seeking that goodness out, despite hardship and heart-break.  To ask, what good is in my world today? What beauty can be discovered?  Is there mystery, joy, excitement, pleasure to be found in this very day, this very moment?  The answer is always yes.

We spend a lot of time wanting, hoping, wishing, planning, setting goals.  A lot of those wants and wishes and goals have to do with money. In the blog, I try not to dismiss goal setting or planning or even wanting, but rather I attempt to place the attention back on today, back on the opportunity that presents itself for a rich, full life, with whatever we have today, whatever life has thrown at us, whatever money is in our pockets.

I also believe, like my readers, that frugality and environmental sustainability go hand in hand. I believe that conscious attention, placed on one’s habits and routines, can initiate more gentle, less harmful, ways of living.  Frugality is a perspective that values the earth by discouraging waste and honouring all resources as though they are precious.

How does one create a sustainable, joyous, frugal life? I believe that community-building is part of the process. I believe being creative is part of that process. I believe that being resourceful, re-purposing, DIY, bartering, and engaging with community organizations is all part of that process. Equally, gratitude is part of that process. And so is love.

Thank you, my readers! I look forward to continuing this journey with you.

Thrifted silver

I’ve been meaning to write a short post on thrifting for silver. Lately I’ve been thrifting for more silver and brass items and polishing them at home. They are easy to overlook at the thriftstore, because the items are so tarnished and dirty. But if you polish them, up, you can end up with some really pretty pieces at a great price. Try to look beyond the item’s original condition and consider what it would look like with a little TLC.  Just avoid any serious damage - if the item has really coroded or become green, it’s too far gone.

I’ve bought a number of vintage and modern silver pieces recently, my favourite being a set of bracelets.

Here’s the before picture (the one on the left has been partially cleaned, the rest are in their original state):

And the after:

Admittedly, these bracelets are probably just silver plated. They have no markings, and as Rick Harrison from Pawn Stars explains in the clip below, that probably means that they are not real silver. But I don’t mind, because the bracelets look stunning! I purchased this set of five bracelets for $2.99.

I’ve also purchased a beautiful silver plated tray for my candles for $2.99, an antique silver owl-shaped salt cellar for 50¢, and brass egg-shaped salt and pepper shakers for $1.

Here are some tips on how to identify real silver:

As a side note, Pawn Stars is a great show for lovers of antiques, collectibles and memorabilia and for people who like to thrift in general, because in addition to historical insight, the show provides useful information on how to identify quality and identify fakes and reproductions.

How I spent my summer staycation

Thought I’d deliver a quick update on how the staycation went. In short, while there are both pros and cons for staying home on your vacation, I’d have to say that I’m really glad for the choice I’ve made. Looking back that everything that has happened in the past, well, couple of years of my life, suffice it to say that I have been very, very busy. In the last 3 years, I finished my Master’s Degree,  moved four times, changed jobs three times (more if you count some smaller projects I worked on) traveled quite a bit and went through some very trying times in my personal life to say the least.  So a vacation that focused on rest and relaxation instead of the excitement and adventure (and stress) of traveling to an exotic locale was actually quite timely.

Instead of jet-setting, I enjoyed my low key, environmentally-friendly vacation - and I say environmentally friendly because I did not get on an airplane (the most carbon-heavy thing you can do) and the furthest destination I drove to was less than 150km away. Most of the time I cooked local foods and ate at restaurants that also featured local products.

I didn’t take many pictures, as I’d planned. This was mostly because, well, I got lazy. And getting lazy is exactly what you’re supposed to do on vacation.

Here are a few things I did:

Spent time with my parents and other family members

Went shopping in Stratford

Enjoyed meals with friends

Went to the beach

Went to the Arboretum (many times) where I went for long walks in the trees, sat and watched the different species of hummingbirds suck nectar from the flowers and enjoyed other wildlife as well

Fixed up my bike and went for a ride

Walked through the local bog

Arose at 5:30 am (on my birthday) for an early morning walk to enjoy the nature

Read books - a few times I actually stayed in my pajamas until noon or later, reading in my favourite chair

Treated myself to my favourite lunch at With the Grain in Guelph

Went thrifting and went shopping in the mall

Made homemade pizza dough, baked bread and roasted tomatoes

Borrowed some movies from the library that I’ve been meaning to watch for years but had never gotten around to

Watched my favourite shows on my laptop (episodes of Pawn Stars,  American Pickers and Top Chef - no surprise, I’m sure, that I love all of these shows)

Went to Wild Water Kingdom with friends

Ate at some fantastic restaurants

Went stargazing

Every morning was able to leisurely drink coffee on the balcony (or my parents’ balcony) which is one of my favourite things to do

I actually returned to work feeling refreshed, and - gasp - happy to be back at work! What a concept.

Even for travel junkies like myself, I would recommend a staycation at least once in a while. It truly helps to decompress and refocus yourself. I believe there is a certain wisdom that can be found in simple moments and that we don’t always have to fill up our lives with constant stimulation. Sometimes staying home in your pajamas reading a really great book is all you really need to fill your soul.

A few snapshots taken from my iphone (nothing fancy)

Enjoying my beautiful oleander tree on the balcony

The buffet rendered me too full to sample the sweets at this delicious vegetarian Indian restaurant

“The Church” restaurant in Stratford is the best! I had my birthday lunch here.

Dusk at my uncle’s place on the lake. Thanks to the quality of the photo, you can’t tell that this is actually a double rainbow.

Playing with a friends’ tiny but rambunctious orange kitten. So cute!

Would you consider staying home for your vacation some time?

A letter to Amy Dacyczyn fans

I have often said how lucky I am to have such loyal, kind readers. I don’t get the kind of comments a lot of other bloggers are destined to face for baring their souls on the internet. Other frugal bloggers I know have had their parenting skills challenged, their weight mocked, their relationships criticized. I know most bloggers, at one point or another, encounter comments that reveal shameless ignorance and even hate.  I’ve seen none of this.

It’s kind of laughable that the most heat that this blog has generated has been on a few incredibly benign topics.

Two notable posts that got some people hot and bothered include the following:

1. The question of whether or not to use old, wet coffee grinds to remove cellulite. In a post titled, “What not to do with used coffee grounds,” I drew my own frugal line in the sand when I mocked the idea of scrubbing my bum with soggy coffee grinds in the shower.  Honestly, the post was meant to be humorous, and most of my readers laughed along with me, or shyly admitted that they had tried it and that it wasn’t so bad.  But a few new readers accused me of being “too pessimistic” and “too ignorant.”

2. My post titled “Jamie Oliver v/s Amy Dacyczyn: Finding a frugal balance in the search for foodie fulfillment” was met with appreciation by my regular readers, but some loyal Amy Dacyczyn fans got a little pissed off.  And I’ve really wanted to follow up on this post because, although I got some positive comments on this one, I also had a number of Amy Dacyczyn fans complain, and so I wanted to clarify. or re-emphasize, what this post was really all about.

So here goes.

First of all, it’s great seeing so many Amy Dacyczyn fans out there. I’m a fan of hers too! Amy Dacyczyn inspired me in many ways. I became inspired to make my own granola, my own pizza dough and bread, and lots of other things. Amy Dacyczyn could be credited in inspiring me to write my most recent post on community engagement, as she was an advocate for community building through sharing, borrowing, and bartering with friends and neighbours, and she was a tremendous advocate of thrift store and garage sale shopping.

My reason for writing that post on finding foodie fulfillment was not to rag on Amy Dacyczyn; in fact, the reason why I mentioned her at all was only because something she said that I disagreed with became a catalyst for a post on a point that had very little to do with her.  When I read about her leftover strategy (continually dump all dinner leftovers into one plastic bucket, keep it in the freezer, and make a soup out of it when the bucket is full), I thought about how much better we can do with leftovers.

This comment irked me, not because I think Amy Dacyczyn is a bad person or even a bad cook, but because my blog is about bursting the myths that are often associated with frugality.

The myths include:

1. People who are poor necessarily have to have poor diets

2. People who are poor must eat a lot of convenience foods

3. People who are poor might be able to eat nutritious food, but they will have to sacrifice taste and quality in doing so

I have aimed to bust open myth number one for the nearly two years I’ve been writing this blog, and I busted myth number two when I wrote “the high cost of low brow foods” - which is my favourite blog post to date.

In the Amy Dacyczyn post, I aimed to bust open myth number three.  My central thesis of this post was:

1. Eating food that tastes good and that is healthy, delicious, interesting, and adds new dimensions to the palate can significantly increase a person’s quality of life, and although it is difficult, this can be accomplished even on a very low budget.

2. Imagination is key in this process. If we are creative, if we give thought to what we have and the multitude of different options and opportunities that our resources provide us with (in this case, leftover scraps) then we can end up with a life that feels abundant and meals that appeal to our senses.

3. Eating food that is delicious is not by extension wasteful; there are ways of preserving leftovers for the benefit of taste and quality that can enhance one’s dinnertime options.

(And in this specific post, I’m simply suggesting that perhaps instead of throwing weeks’ worth of leftovers into the same pot, why not freeze them separately so that they can be then used in the best way possible, for different soups, stews, casseroles, or other dishes that best complement the ingredients and give the cook the most options.)

If you’d like examples on how to reduce waste that don’t include the leftover bucket, see “Reducing waste and Eating well for less” and “What are you wasting?”

Ultimately, creativity is key. For some people, they are happy to eat food as long as it is nutritious and cheap. In this case, the leftover bucket may work for you. But for those of you who love to cook, who love food, who want to honour food and extract maximum enjoyment from it, just know that there are options.

For the last two years, I have been aiming to emphasize that frugality does not have to be equated with deprivation. After all, the subtitle of my blog is, “loving the frugal life.”  My approach in this blog is to demonstrate my own journey towards finding a life that is meaningful, abundant, and joyful.  Great food can be a part of that joy.

Making way for community engagement in an ownership society

I hate the phrase, “we live in a society,” but truly, most of us reading this blog live in a society that encourages ownership and discourages community engagement. We are told that ownership is a sign of success, and typically we compete with each other to see who is the most successful - who has the most stuff.  But those of us who can’t afford to own everything we want are actually blessed with a tremendous opportunity to become more engaged in our own communities.

My approach to life is to work hard at achievements that are important to me and to realize goals and dreams that are close to my heart.  But at a certain point, growing up means realizing that you can’t have everything that you want - at least not, as Gail Vaz-Oxlade says, at the same time.  And at that point, life becomes about learning how to be happy with exactly what you have.

A vibrant community offers opportunities to find happiness without owning everything you want. If you can’t afford a pet, you can volunteer at an animal shelter or offer to walk dogs or take care of the animals that belong to your friends, colleagues and nieghbours. If you can’t afford to buy new books, dvds, cds, the public library has an abundance to share. If you can’t afford to own a swimming pool, the YMCA and community recreation centres offers access to swimming pools for next to nothing. If you can’t afford to own your own car, then car shares are an easy way to gain temporary access to wheels.  If you can’t afford a house but long for a vegetable garden, you can pay as little as $30 a season for access to a huge vegetable plot at a nearby organic farm (Ignatius farm in Guelph offers this).  If, similarly, you wish for a flower garden, the Guelph Arboretum offers a space where you can sit quietly and enjoy flowers, birds and butterflies at no cost.  Parks, of course, also offer many BBQ areas and places for napping under trees or in the sun - easy and free substitutes for a patio, backyard lawn or cottage.  Most people would assume that you have to sacrifice privacy, but in my experience, these spaces are underused.

There are so many opportunities, when living in a community, to find what you need, no matter how much money you’ve got. The added bonus, though, is that when you become involved in the sharing of land and objects, you begin to feel a part of a community. You build relationships with other people. At Ignatius farm, for instance, they offer support to their gardeners and have pot-lucks and social events. The library has many free events happening, including movie showings, book clubs and craft workshops. You meet other people in your community and you support those who are working hard to bring people together.

Sharing, borrowing and renting are underrated. There is an unwritten assumption that your stuff has value, that what you own can be considered an investment. The truth is that most things we own are environmental and economic liabilities, not assets, and they add less to our lives than we  have imagined.

But regardless if we have money or we don’t, at a certain point we need to find ways of making ourselves happy in the moment. And if you don’t have everything you want, there are always ways to compromise, and to find satisfaction in the art of community engagement.

Update: If you want to read more on this subject, check out “A Transumer Manifesto” on Shareable, an interesting post discussing some similar concepts. I just discovered this thanks to World Changing Canada .

The mini-staycation

For the civic holiday, I was lucky enough to have my sister come to Guelph for an extended stay.  Originally we had planned to go to Prince Edward County, but then changed our minds and decided to have kind of a “staycation” instead. Yes, this is in addition to my real vacation-staycation which is commencing this Friday.

This weekend was, I think, what real long weekends should be.  Sometimes, lengthy conversations on a balcony with a bottle of wine, or staying in your pajamas all day can be perfect staycation activities, and we did a little of this. But we also did some exploring.

Noteworthy discoveries included The Arboretum.

I could not believe that this remarkable source of beauty has existed right under my nose - a 5 minute drive away - without me knowing about it. There are luscious gardens of every type and beautiful nature trails. The collection of dwarf trees made me feel like I was in Alice in Wonderland. The Japanese garden would be a perfect place for meditating, and the butterfly garden and natural bird bathing area would be an ideal spot for sitting and simply taking in nature. It was stunning and practically deserted!

Other fun trips included St. Jacobs - the market as well as the antiques warehouse. I was well acquainted with the market but never knew the antiques market was so good.  Hundreds of booths, each with their own style, and the items were always well laid-out and displayed.  My kind of antiquing!

We ate really, really well.  Amongst the delicious dishes we prepared included a feast of local produce and meats - steaks, corn, mushrooms, amazing cheeses. My favourites included my sister’s caramelized onion dip, and a ratatouille made with all sorts of fresh, local vegetables. Oh yes, and plenty of local beers and wines.

One thing we did to enhance the free, relaxed feeling of being on vacation was pool our money into a single “vacation fund” so we could freely spend without worrying about who bought what. As a result, we were able to just draw money out of the vacation fund without worrying or thinking about it , and that made it even more fun. It’s a tip I’d strongly recommend.

Staying at home meant that we didn’t have to spend time driving, and we eat and drink as much as we wanted!

There is so much amazing food, natural beauty and fun discoveries to be made right in our own cities and towns.  What did you get up to this long weekend?