As gravity pulls a tired tear across my face,
it caresses my cheek and stops,
trembling,
by my ear,
then softly falls.
Monday, July 28, 2008
Friday, July 25, 2008
Keeping it Green and Cheap
Those two words used together, green and cheap, may sound like an oxymoron. However, since our return at the beginning of June from our three month trip around South America, this is what my husband and I have been striving to achieve: keeping it green and cheap. We like to think that we were living a relatively green lifestyle before our adventures in the southern hemisphere. We were a two salary family then and we didn’t need to pay much attention to where we were spending our money. Monthly mortgage and bill payments were paid regularly, some money would be put aside in our mutual funds and we would gleefully discard most of our remaining cash at Whole Foods and the Farmers Markets. Yes, I admit, I did divert some of our money into supporting certain fashion and beauty stores and the remaining fraction went to buying yarn (for me), guitar lessons (for Jon) and a year of Spanish classes (preparation for the big trip). Oh, and we did enjoy dining out at Seattle’s fabulous restaurants, but that was generally saved for those real (and invented) special occasions.
Now we are endeavoring to live solely on Jon’s salary. I very gladly quit my corporate position to travel. After the big trip life for me has turned into a rather extended vacation while I ponder my next move. Since my days are full with keeping house (the spotlessly clean kitchen welcoming Jon home each day arises from a very guilty conscience: he’s working in an office while I’m enjoying gardening in the sun) it could be quite a while before I move on to my new, exciting and non-corporate career, what ever that may be! And so, in early June, our new adventure commenced in our small Seattle home; to live within our much reduced means while still adhering to our eco-standards.
Using my knowledge of Excel (I was pleasantly surprised that my office skills could help us with the realities of subsisting) I created beautiful budget spreadsheets and began recording our expenses. We were amazed to discover how much money we spend on food each month. In June our Whole Foods and Farmer’s Market shopping with the odd meal out accounted for 17% of our monthly spending. The largest chunk was of course the mortgage at 42%. Utilities came in at 4%. All our other purchases and expenses accounted for 37% of our monthly spending, which we’re also working on reducing. So yes, we could lower our food bill by shopping at Costco and Fred Meyer and eating out at McDonalds, but we’re hooked on living as organically and sustainably as possible. We contemplated buying organic food from cheaper supermarkets; however we discovered that organic food at QFC and Fred Meyer isn’t actually cheaper than PCC and Whole Foods.
Consequently we are still patronizing the same stores and instead we’re trying to transform our shopping and eating practices. We heard that shopping on the fringe of the store, avoiding the central aisles with the processed and heavily packaged foods, lowered grocery bills. Yet we always have been “edge” shoppers, only diving into the centre of the store for tea, spices, oil, vinegar, pasta, canned tomatoes and beans. We enjoy cooking and rarely buy processed foods (as I write this my husband is busy making black bean burgers in the spotlessly clean kitchen). Yet I decided to go one step further and create at home as many of those centre store purchases as possible. I have the free time! Making my own bread, pasta and muesli has been fun and it is exciting to see how much money we save. For example, bulk bought Whole Foods muesli is roughly $3/lb while my homemade muesli is about $1/lb and just as tasty. Last Monday I bought a large batch of tomatoes from the market (seconds of course) and proceeded to pack them into glass jars for the winter. I can’t wait to break one open in the middle of cold and grey December and be transported back to sunny summer days at the market. I’ve also made strawberry jam, raspberry jam, rhubarb chutney and am planning to make some blackberry jam come August when they’re free for the taking. We’ve replaced expensive deluxe nut mixes with homemade cookies and homemade bread slathered with homemade jam also makes a delicious snack! Though our forays to the center of the store have become less frequent there is no getting around our need for oil, vinegar and tea. Acting on some good advice from my mother we have stopped splurging on fancy vinegars and content ourselves with just two simple types. A friend tipped us off to PCC’s refills where we now buy peanut butter, oils and tea in bulk and though I need to do the math to figure out if and how much we’re saving I feel good because we’re cutting down on packaging (less for the trash and recycling plants). We’re also buying PCC’s milk in returnable glass bottles and next time we’re out of eggs I promise I’ll take our empty egg carton back to PCC and refill it with loose eggs from the shelf. Growing my own vegetables to supplement our weekly Farmer’s Market visits has also helped save money and my small herb garden now fulfills all our herbal requirements.
Our menu has subtly changed too. Even when we were unconcerned with cash flow we only ate meat a couple of times a week. Yet instead of buying the expensive cuts that we enjoyed back in the good days, we have resigned ourselves to organic hotdogs (which I have developed a strange passion for) and grass-fed burger meat. On veggie nights we make masses of chickpea curry, lentil stews and vegetable soups. We eat the leftovers for lunch the following day saving Jon from buying lunch out. We also scaled back on the dinners we make for friends and have discovered that a simple and well-prepared meal keeps guests just as happy as an elaborate feast. Every once in a while, for those special occasions, we treated ourselves with a nicer cut of meat or by having a picnic (changing the venue rather than the menu can also make an evening unique), but no more visits to classy restaurants for us. All in all we’ve saved a few hundred dollars so far on food this month. I think we can spend less and I’m sure there are many other tricks. It’s been interesting to watch Jon and I return to the way people used to shop, cook and eat. It is somewhat reminiscent of my youth: drinking milk from the glass bottles the milkman delivered, my parents growing and storing by canning or freezing their home-grown veggies and fruits, picking wild blackberries and other goodies and eating simple snacks such as toast or apples.
A large portion of our money vanishes into the black hole I titled in my spreadsheet as “Other Purchases and Expenses.” This is essentially everything but the mortgage, utilities and food. Unfortunately we’ve had an unlucky couple of months where this pit has been unusually deep! But you can’t avoid those months when you need to pay for an expensive repair to the car (multiple repairs in our case after it was stolen – the cost of the towing also helped to send us way over budget), the removal of a large dead tree from the garden, repair of a broken oven (too much baking of bread perhaps?) and an expensive plane ticket home to the UK to visit my parents (I know, not so green, but it’s been over a year since I lasted visited). In spite of these set-backs I’ve been cutting into our monthly “other” spending in many ways. We reserve movies from the library for free. I ride my bike almost everywhere saving on gas and keeping it green. I’m refusing to scratch that clothing store itch. I have enough clothes and it’s not necessary for me to be fashionable or smart for gardening or sharing dinner at home with Jon. Or even squeaky clean! My hair washing routine has become less frequent and consequently my beauty products are lasting much longer. We’ve been enjoying weekends in Seattle and only escape to the mountains when the hiking conditions are perfect.
We reduced our mortgage payments through refinancing and then there are the standard rules we follow to diminish our utility payments: turning off lights, turning down the heat and using less water.
Essentially we have discovered that living frugally has made our life greener. We’ve almost dropped out of the consumer market (sorry Pres. Bush) and we produce very little waste. Our shrinking ecological footprint helps me feel a little less guilty for all our flights and bus journeys in South America. I love our simple lifestyle and I find it interesting that living cheaply and greenly is very similar to how our grandmothers and grandfathers lived. Jon and I need to get better at it and take a few leaves out of their housekeeping books from the war years when fuel and food were scant.
Now we are endeavoring to live solely on Jon’s salary. I very gladly quit my corporate position to travel. After the big trip life for me has turned into a rather extended vacation while I ponder my next move. Since my days are full with keeping house (the spotlessly clean kitchen welcoming Jon home each day arises from a very guilty conscience: he’s working in an office while I’m enjoying gardening in the sun) it could be quite a while before I move on to my new, exciting and non-corporate career, what ever that may be! And so, in early June, our new adventure commenced in our small Seattle home; to live within our much reduced means while still adhering to our eco-standards.
Using my knowledge of Excel (I was pleasantly surprised that my office skills could help us with the realities of subsisting) I created beautiful budget spreadsheets and began recording our expenses. We were amazed to discover how much money we spend on food each month. In June our Whole Foods and Farmer’s Market shopping with the odd meal out accounted for 17% of our monthly spending. The largest chunk was of course the mortgage at 42%. Utilities came in at 4%. All our other purchases and expenses accounted for 37% of our monthly spending, which we’re also working on reducing. So yes, we could lower our food bill by shopping at Costco and Fred Meyer and eating out at McDonalds, but we’re hooked on living as organically and sustainably as possible. We contemplated buying organic food from cheaper supermarkets; however we discovered that organic food at QFC and Fred Meyer isn’t actually cheaper than PCC and Whole Foods.
Consequently we are still patronizing the same stores and instead we’re trying to transform our shopping and eating practices. We heard that shopping on the fringe of the store, avoiding the central aisles with the processed and heavily packaged foods, lowered grocery bills. Yet we always have been “edge” shoppers, only diving into the centre of the store for tea, spices, oil, vinegar, pasta, canned tomatoes and beans. We enjoy cooking and rarely buy processed foods (as I write this my husband is busy making black bean burgers in the spotlessly clean kitchen). Yet I decided to go one step further and create at home as many of those centre store purchases as possible. I have the free time! Making my own bread, pasta and muesli has been fun and it is exciting to see how much money we save. For example, bulk bought Whole Foods muesli is roughly $3/lb while my homemade muesli is about $1/lb and just as tasty. Last Monday I bought a large batch of tomatoes from the market (seconds of course) and proceeded to pack them into glass jars for the winter. I can’t wait to break one open in the middle of cold and grey December and be transported back to sunny summer days at the market. I’ve also made strawberry jam, raspberry jam, rhubarb chutney and am planning to make some blackberry jam come August when they’re free for the taking. We’ve replaced expensive deluxe nut mixes with homemade cookies and homemade bread slathered with homemade jam also makes a delicious snack! Though our forays to the center of the store have become less frequent there is no getting around our need for oil, vinegar and tea. Acting on some good advice from my mother we have stopped splurging on fancy vinegars and content ourselves with just two simple types. A friend tipped us off to PCC’s refills where we now buy peanut butter, oils and tea in bulk and though I need to do the math to figure out if and how much we’re saving I feel good because we’re cutting down on packaging (less for the trash and recycling plants). We’re also buying PCC’s milk in returnable glass bottles and next time we’re out of eggs I promise I’ll take our empty egg carton back to PCC and refill it with loose eggs from the shelf. Growing my own vegetables to supplement our weekly Farmer’s Market visits has also helped save money and my small herb garden now fulfills all our herbal requirements.
Our menu has subtly changed too. Even when we were unconcerned with cash flow we only ate meat a couple of times a week. Yet instead of buying the expensive cuts that we enjoyed back in the good days, we have resigned ourselves to organic hotdogs (which I have developed a strange passion for) and grass-fed burger meat. On veggie nights we make masses of chickpea curry, lentil stews and vegetable soups. We eat the leftovers for lunch the following day saving Jon from buying lunch out. We also scaled back on the dinners we make for friends and have discovered that a simple and well-prepared meal keeps guests just as happy as an elaborate feast. Every once in a while, for those special occasions, we treated ourselves with a nicer cut of meat or by having a picnic (changing the venue rather than the menu can also make an evening unique), but no more visits to classy restaurants for us. All in all we’ve saved a few hundred dollars so far on food this month. I think we can spend less and I’m sure there are many other tricks. It’s been interesting to watch Jon and I return to the way people used to shop, cook and eat. It is somewhat reminiscent of my youth: drinking milk from the glass bottles the milkman delivered, my parents growing and storing by canning or freezing their home-grown veggies and fruits, picking wild blackberries and other goodies and eating simple snacks such as toast or apples.
A large portion of our money vanishes into the black hole I titled in my spreadsheet as “Other Purchases and Expenses.” This is essentially everything but the mortgage, utilities and food. Unfortunately we’ve had an unlucky couple of months where this pit has been unusually deep! But you can’t avoid those months when you need to pay for an expensive repair to the car (multiple repairs in our case after it was stolen – the cost of the towing also helped to send us way over budget), the removal of a large dead tree from the garden, repair of a broken oven (too much baking of bread perhaps?) and an expensive plane ticket home to the UK to visit my parents (I know, not so green, but it’s been over a year since I lasted visited). In spite of these set-backs I’ve been cutting into our monthly “other” spending in many ways. We reserve movies from the library for free. I ride my bike almost everywhere saving on gas and keeping it green. I’m refusing to scratch that clothing store itch. I have enough clothes and it’s not necessary for me to be fashionable or smart for gardening or sharing dinner at home with Jon. Or even squeaky clean! My hair washing routine has become less frequent and consequently my beauty products are lasting much longer. We’ve been enjoying weekends in Seattle and only escape to the mountains when the hiking conditions are perfect.
We reduced our mortgage payments through refinancing and then there are the standard rules we follow to diminish our utility payments: turning off lights, turning down the heat and using less water.
Essentially we have discovered that living frugally has made our life greener. We’ve almost dropped out of the consumer market (sorry Pres. Bush) and we produce very little waste. Our shrinking ecological footprint helps me feel a little less guilty for all our flights and bus journeys in South America. I love our simple lifestyle and I find it interesting that living cheaply and greenly is very similar to how our grandmothers and grandfathers lived. Jon and I need to get better at it and take a few leaves out of their housekeeping books from the war years when fuel and food were scant.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Through the Window: A ballad attempt on a bus
Past ceramic bulls on terracotta rooftops,
Guarding humble families within,
Jagged peaks draped in snow and clouds,
Ride along the green horizon,
On the wayward road to Ollanta.
The three month journey
Exploring from South to North
Think of what we’ve learnt my love
Remember what we’ve seen my love
While searching for new discoveries
Along the shores of a sapphire gem, Titicaca,
The birthplace of ancient gods,
Animals skip in fright from our wheels,
Brought up short by their twisted tethers,
Panicked eyes watch us fly on.
The three month journey
Winding from South to North
Think of what we’ve learnt my love
Remember what we’ve seen my love
While pursuing our restless path
Falling off the Andes into emerald jungle,
We follow in the Incas footsteps,
Peasant farmers watch us through old eyes,
Whilst the children play with garbage,
We’re time travelling through shifting cultures.
The three month journey
Cruising from South to North
Think of what we’ve learnt my love
Remember what we’ve seen my love
While following my selfish dream
It goes on and on
Leading to the horizon
In awe, anger, love and misery
It wouldn’t be the same
If you weren’t here
You make it right my dear
A kaleidoscope of clouds sweep across the sky,
Lying on our backs watching the show,
Patagonian grass scratching our skin,
The westerly wind in cahoots with the sun,
Dries our lips and forces us to march on.
The three month journey
Racing North from the South
Think of what we’ve learnt my love
Remember what we’ve seen my love
While chasing the white Alpaca’s tail
Can you recall that relentless road of dust?
Slicing through the vultures’ desert,
Flanked with bristling cactus and black rubber,
Where we rode in tired frustration,
Unaware of the desolation’s beauty.
The three month journey
Fleeing from South to North
Think of what we’ve learnt my love
Remember what we’ve seen my love
Whilst escaping the clutches of normality
Six friends created and six friends united,
Roaming across Bolivia’s distant corner,
Sharing breathless laughter and hot tears,
As we cross the blinding seas of salt,
And linger under the starry skies.
The three month journey
A trial, a joy
Think of what we’ve learnt my love
Remember what we’ve seen my love
Listen to their blood in our veins my love.
Guarding humble families within,
Jagged peaks draped in snow and clouds,
Ride along the green horizon,
On the wayward road to Ollanta.
The three month journey
Exploring from South to North
Think of what we’ve learnt my love
Remember what we’ve seen my love
While searching for new discoveries
Along the shores of a sapphire gem, Titicaca,
The birthplace of ancient gods,
Animals skip in fright from our wheels,
Brought up short by their twisted tethers,
Panicked eyes watch us fly on.
The three month journey
Winding from South to North
Think of what we’ve learnt my love
Remember what we’ve seen my love
While pursuing our restless path
Falling off the Andes into emerald jungle,
We follow in the Incas footsteps,
Peasant farmers watch us through old eyes,
Whilst the children play with garbage,
We’re time travelling through shifting cultures.
The three month journey
Cruising from South to North
Think of what we’ve learnt my love
Remember what we’ve seen my love
While following my selfish dream
It goes on and on
Leading to the horizon
In awe, anger, love and misery
It wouldn’t be the same
If you weren’t here
You make it right my dear
A kaleidoscope of clouds sweep across the sky,
Lying on our backs watching the show,
Patagonian grass scratching our skin,
The westerly wind in cahoots with the sun,
Dries our lips and forces us to march on.
The three month journey
Racing North from the South
Think of what we’ve learnt my love
Remember what we’ve seen my love
While chasing the white Alpaca’s tail
Can you recall that relentless road of dust?
Slicing through the vultures’ desert,
Flanked with bristling cactus and black rubber,
Where we rode in tired frustration,
Unaware of the desolation’s beauty.
The three month journey
Fleeing from South to North
Think of what we’ve learnt my love
Remember what we’ve seen my love
Whilst escaping the clutches of normality
Six friends created and six friends united,
Roaming across Bolivia’s distant corner,
Sharing breathless laughter and hot tears,
As we cross the blinding seas of salt,
And linger under the starry skies.
The three month journey
A trial, a joy
Think of what we’ve learnt my love
Remember what we’ve seen my love
Listen to their blood in our veins my love.
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