Fruits of my labor

Below is a nice salad using the leaves from the Indian Broadleaf lettuce (home grown) mixed in with Red Lettuce from the store as well as some more cherry tomatoes from the garden.

3 eggplants were harvested last week...

1 eggplant going in my belly along with fresh basil and thyme from the garden.

I love being Farmer Johnson.

Progress...

...is incredible! I will post pictures hopefully by tomorrow. Things have been a bit hectic around the ranch, it always is when Cole is with his dad. I feel like I have to catch up on all of my errands and other obligations which leaves me virtually high and dry for taking pictures of the Garden of Eating and posting them.

To date, Leasa came over today and she, Cole and I got the Sunflowers in the ground. We also planted thyme, garlic, mint, strawberries and cilantro. Last weekend, Ron, AJ and I planted the eggplants, watermelon, cantaloup, corn and thinned the tomatoes. Have I mentioned the compost? I turned that sucker over today only to be greeted by the fresh aroma of earth and a nice heaping pile of dirt. It works! It really works! I figure in 2 weeks, I can spread the compost soil all over the garden.

As an important side note, I have to say that starting a compost was one of the best things I ever did. When I have to throw away old vegetables and fruits, I don't feel bad in the least, I just take it out back and let it turn into dirt and I don't feel like it is money down the drain. Did I mention that I think I'm a fucking genius? ok, ok, I didn't reinvent the wheel here, but oh my god, how much do I love making dirt!

Garden of Eating

This is before.

As you can see, I have a huge, dead backyard that needs a lot of love. We picked those children up at Home Depot. They were cheap. They work for hotdogs and ice cream bars.

This is after the weekend

Obviously a work in progress. However, we raked, weeded, tilled and watered. The hard part is done.

We are also growing herbs from seed. This excites me beyond belief. I can't wait to ask Cole to pick me some basil from the garden the next time I make spaghetti sauce.

Urban Herbs: Basil and mint sprucing up cement and a valve.

Alive...and wet

You're not really alive until you wake up at 6:00 am in the morning to water the vegetables in the garden and you attempt to the fix the nozzle on the hose without turning off the water.

Co-op!

We're planting a garden in the back yard with Ron and his kids! YEAH! We are going to have so much fresh veggies and herbs. The initial investment is going to be steep but I can't wait to eat home grown veggies from the sweat of my own brow (and that of Ron's and the kids). Plus we plan on getting all of our friends to help share in maintaining it so we can all share in the fruits of our labor.

To date, we have trimmed the huge tree, raked all the leaves and we plan on growing a compost and making beds for all of our differnt veggies. Will update with pictures soon. We have to go to home depot and get our supplies and rent a tiller to loosen up the soil. YEE-haw!! I have been dying to do this for a long time so one of my dreams is currently being realized.

Almost Spend free May

It's not completely spend free, as Cole and I just went to Walmart over the weekend because my 20 year old blow dryer decided that it had enough and we needed cat food and litter. Also, I made a promise to Cole that after spend free April, I would buy him whatever board game he wanted. He was such a super star participant of spend free April. He did not ask for anything and he went along with whatever we had to do and actually came up with some good ideas on how to save money.

So we are modifying the idea in May to necessity only May. We still have a crapload of food in the freezers and cabinets. We are going to continue along our frugal path until all of the food is gone, but will make trips to the store for necessary items, such as milk, eggs and fresh veggies.

I still love the concept of bartering, my neighbor brought me over a bag of fresh coffee because she is kicking the coffee habit for tea so I gave her all of my tea since I haven't drank tea in years. (why I had 4 boxes of tea in my pantry I'll never know)

Over in more ways than one

The Challenge is over and boy was it ever eye opening.

To begin, I learned that there is very little that we need that we don't already have. There is almost always a solution that doesn't require going to the store. I also learned that I used to spend half of my free time shopping for something, anything. Everytime I got bored at the house, I caught myself thinking, I should just go to the store...

The other thing that I found absolutely stunning is that I have so much food in my house even after a month of not bringing anything home. Towards the end of the last week, I started to notice a small dent in the pantry and in the freezers but not much of a dent. In fact, there is still so much food, Cole and I have agreed that we are going to continue our spend free month with a few exceptions. One is we will go to the grocery store for necessities such as milk, eggs and fresh fruit. But we are still going to try and refrain from solving all of our immediate problems with cash.

I really do want to get rid of the food in the pantry. I would love to use it all and then only purchase things that we really need and use frequently. Starting from scratch, a new beginning...

Speaking of new beginnings, the other result of the Challenge is that it put a spot light on the cracks in mine and Bill's relationship. I won't go so far as to say that the Challenge was the reason why we broke, I will however throw it out there that the Challenge illuminated the fundamental differences in our core values with respect to our individual relationship and attitude towards money and other important things.


If I had to do it all over again, would I? You bet I would.

One more week

One more week and we are almost there! There is still a crapload of food in the pantry and the freezer. We won't go hungry anytime soon that is for sure. And I can happily report, neither will the cat. Our nice landloard/firefighting friend brought over some vittles last week and I also gave a friend a pizza stone and in exchange, she gave the Claw her favorite bag of kibble. I wish we could do that for everything.

The more and more I think about it, I think commune living would suit me just fine. The idea of living off the land and only using what you needed and paring down your basics to true necessities sounds very appealing. Being saddled with so many wordly possessions is truly a burden. Cole and I watched the Story of Stuff http://www.storyofstuff.com/ and we were both stunned at the amount of garbage we generate. He asked me what recyling meant and of course, me being me, went into an entire technical tirade of recyling, what it means, why we should do it, why most of us don't, etc. The best part is he actually got it. He promised he will start bringing home his water bottles from school because he doesn't want to kill our planet. I love that my son is not your typical 6 year old consumer.

Par-tay (like it's 1929)

Was awesome.

We had so much fun and so much food and so much booze!! All for under 100 bones! I supplied the hardboiled eggs, hamburgers, hot dogs, mac and cheese for the kids and potato salad and everyone else brought either a food item or a beverage item and we had tons of food left over. People were able to take more food home than they brought. I'll never understand the math of potlucks...but whatever, it works and everyone was happy.

Here are a few things I did for the party that I would normally never do but saved me a shitload of money.

1) Instead of buying juices and sodas for the kids, I went super old school ghetto and bought 5 packets of Hawiian Punch at 20 cents a piece. I had 4 pitchers of punch and no one went thirsty or complained.

2) I had potatoes in the pantry that had maybe 3 more days before their little eyes started bugging out. I found a recipe online for a potato salad and whipped up one of the best potato salads ever, if I do say so myself. Well, at least, that is what Bill said. Plus I had all of the ingredients in my pantry. I also used all of the hard boiled eggs that were cracked for the egg decorating. Nothing went to waste.

3) I served beverages in large red plastic cups and sharpied everyones name on their cup. One guest, one cup. I have to say, this was probably one of the most brilliant things I have ever thought of, EVER. Not only did we not run out of cups, but people (including kids) seemed to be more responsible drinkers. How do I know? I did not have to pour out and throw away half full cups. Most of the cups I grabbed were empty because people didn't set their drink down and forget which was theirs.

4) We saved all of the plastic eggs, baskets and bags for next years party...

Easter Egg Hunting

Armed with the $100 I withdrew from the coffers in March for our post Easter Party, Cole and I ventured forth to hunt the retail sales for our discounted Easter themed supplies. I figured I would spend 30 bucks on grass, baskets, eggs, and fillers and the rest would go towards food for the party. I've gotten pretty good at sniffing out a sale and I had no doubt that throwing a party for 100 bucks for over 20 people would be a fairly easy.

First, in my defense, I had no idea just how much the recession has impacted all of us. We went to store after store looking for anything that had a bunny on it. Lets just say the real Easter Egg Hunt occured days before the actual party. I almost felt like George Bush looking for his imaginary weapons, they were no where to be found. Not one measly plastic egg, not one cheap and garish basket and not one glimmer of Easter dye could be located. I went to Target, Michaels, Walmart, Party City and Vons. Everywhere we went, we were shocked at the pastel-less landscape.

WTF? According to a sales person, they didn't stock up as much this year and they didn't restock because of the economy, they were out of Easter crap before Easter. I found my holy grail at CVS. The sale prices were not nearly as orgasmic as they were last year, (items were up to 90% off(schwing!)). Not this year, the remaining paltry items were only reduced by 50%. I took my reaming like a trooper and we set up shop in the office and went to work filling up all of the now precious easter eggs with the even more precious easter filler. We spent around $40 bones, not the best I've ever done, but certainly, by far, not the worst.

I'd like to give a nod, a middle finger and a hearty fuck you to all the greedy bastards on Wall Street for almost ruining Easter for us.

Party Animal Lite

One of the hardest things about not having disposable money is turning down all of the get-togethers and parties. We are by no means on the top 10 of party lists. In fact, you could call us party fillers. People invite us to parties because they need bodies, not because we are hot and in demand. In fact, having a kid in LA is like having the plague. No one wants yo' ass at a party, especially if you have a snot nose in tow. Add not having money and you may as well be dead. You can imagine how many parties we get invited to on a regular basis.

So we gets invited to 3 parties this weekend. We could only make it to one because frankly, we do not know how to juggle so many calling cards on our plate. We chose the one that we were invited to first because we had actually carved that date and time on the kitchen table so we wouldn't forget.

Talk about the right party to go to! Not only did we gorge ourselves on some stellar, home cooked, super fresh and healthy food, but our hostess, who read about our challenge, gave us a bag o' carbs. She is on a new diet and has cut carbs out of her diet and instead of throwing the perfectly good food away, she thought it would be better to donate the food to us! YAY! Thanks to Kelsie for being "the man" and providing us with cheese. We didn't even have to stand in line.

Week in Review

This week did not go without some hitches, in fact, you could say that some of the stitching in the fabric needed darning but overall, I believe it ended on a high note.

We are still not sure what we are going to do once we run out of cat food. Who would have thunk that kitty kibble would be so hard to procure during times of duress? I have a few aces up my sleeve so I'm not giving up yet. As god is my witness, she will never go hungry again (but the solution will not be found at the store).

The other little tear in the fabric was Bill ran out of milk, which isn't the end of the world, but he wasn't happy. Half of his quick meals that he planned for April require milk. It will be interesting to see how he works this out. Additionally, he was at a meeting in the Marina last week and he had to ask his business partner to buy him a burger...to say the least, he was NOT pleased. I have to give him a ton credit for sticking with the challenge.

For me, this week has been ok. We still have fresh stores of veggies that I am able to cook with. If I haven't mentioned this yet, we inadvertently put a double whammy on the challenge because we are trying to eat healthy as well as not spend a dime. We are both trying to shed a few pounds, but in a healthy way, not crash dieting. When we run out of the fresh stuff, it is going to be challenging to find and make stuff that won't get us all gooey in the middle again. With that said, I highly recommend onions, garlic, asparagus (good in the fridge but bad on the wallet), bell peppers, celery and eggplant. That stuff has been in the fridge since March 31 and it is still good. The celery is not as firm, but it tastes fine when chopped up and sauteed with garlic, onions and olive oil.

We also discovered that when you are jonesing for some potato chips, if you thinly slice potatoes, lightly salt them and stick them in the oven, within ten minutes, you can have some delicious and nutritious ghetto chips that will sate your craving for something crunchy, salty and greezy.

First Road Block

When I was stocking up a few weeks back, I DID consider the cat's needs, I really did. I looked in her huge 5 gallon bucket of cat food and it was 3/4 full. No problem, I thought, she will sail right through April without any worries of going hungry...

Last night, we looked in her container and we have serious doubts that she will make it by the end of next week. WTF?? I'm convinced Bill must be snacking on her kibble during the day. How does a petite cat such as ours put away that much food in that short of time? She must be a stress eater.

So, our initial thought was, guess we have to go to the store and buy her food, there is no way we are going to let her go hungry. But this morning, I woke up and changed my mind. I refuse to be beaten this early on in the month by cat food.

I would rather beg than be beaten, so, to all my friends and future friends out there, if you have an extra bag of dry cat food that you are not using, let me know, I'll be more than happy to take it off your hands or we will trade you something, a service (I cut hair, Bill mows lawns, I can cook, I'll give you a microderabrasion treatment, an article of clothing (except my dirty underwear, you underwear sniffers can look elsewhere and Bill doesn't wear any). I can weed the garden or give you a nice massage. Think about what you want and we may be able to barter. Have a movie you want? Chances are, we have it in our dvd library, speaking of libraries, I have books, maybe you want a few books? I can also offer you up my opinion on something. Most people come to me when they want the stark truth with no frosting or flowers. I'll be happy to tell you your ass looks too fat in those pants, or that your girlfriend is a nasty tramp. I just need some cat food. Or rather, my cat needs some cat food. She will be very grateful.

First weekend...

...was not terrible. We have tons of food in the fridge, I am still cooking from fresh veggies I bought on March 31 and we still have a plenty of booze in the house. No fighting over who gets the last can of Coors Light, yet.


Here are some of the activities we did this weekend that did not cost us a dime.

Cole and I participated in the Santa Anita race. I ran the 5K and he ran a 1/8 mile dash. Technically not free but because I registered in advance, but it was free in April.

Bill hung out with his Saturday Morning Old Man's Tennis Gang and played tennis.

Gave Kitty Claw a bath instead of taking her to a groomers.

Clean the house using no cleaning products except vinegar and baking soda. (I think Bill used Comet for the toilets, but I am totally ok with that because the Comet is free, plus I didn't have to clean the toilets.)

Additionally, we are learning how to replace the things we normally do, which costs bucks, with things that are free.

Go to the movies and watch I Love You, Man, instead, we watched 3 movies at home and I made homemade popcorn, old fashioned stovetop style.

Grab a quick snack on the way home from elder tennis, instead, Bill managed to live without his bag of Lays until he got home and scarfed down some free real grub.

Get a massage after the run, instead, I sat on the massager and rubbed out all of the aches.

Again, the first weekend was not bad, as we expected. We are anxiously awaiting when we run out of normal provisions and we'll have to improvise. A task, I predict, that will challenge and frustrate Bill more than me or Cole.

PS: Bill has this aversion towards food that has expired dates, even though I have shown him articles that clearly state the dates are usually arbitrary and are used more for tracking than for freshness. Especially with canned goods and even some refrigerated items such as cheese, fruits, meats. Using your senses, such as sight, smell and common are better tools than manufacturer's dates. This might be the one issue that tears a huge gaping chasm in our otherwise perfect love nest.

Lunch

I almost cried today during lunch. Ok, not really cried, but I kinda got annoyed at myself for allowing my rationed oatmeal to overflow in the microwave, wasting half of it.

I swear, if no one else was in the kitchen, I would have scooped up the spilled oatmeal right back into my bowl, but instead I almost cried. Even though it is only Day 2 of the spend free month, I already see a difference in my relationship with the things around me, especially food. Just 2 days ago, spilt oatmeal wouldn't have made a blip in my day, now I'm effing blogging about it.

First day!

Our first day of spend free April was yesterday and boy was it uneventful. It was like any other day except when we talked about going to the store and getting something, we would say, oh rats, it's spend free April, we'll just have to remember to get it next month.

This is a fool-proof method for saving money because we are both old and losing our minds. Neither one of us will remember what we needed to get by next month so we won't remember to spend money on it. Who knew Alzheimer's could be incorporated into a savings plan?

The tally for the day: $0.00

Cheating on my month?

Is it considered cheating if I am stocking up my pantry and freezer with food for our spend free April? I think maybe it is, but now that I am becoming more sales conscious, I am buying stuff on sale that I know we use.

Everyone I've asked believes stocking the pantry is not cheating, so I'm gonna go with that.

Excuse me while I go to the store and buy some more food...

The Joneses are downsizing

Have you been reading all of the blogs lately that follow the adventures of people who are eating out of dumpsters, spending a dollar a day on 3 squares, budgeting $800bones for the entire year...for a family of 4 and my favorite (because it seems the most realistic) is not spending money for an entire month.

So I started thinking about it, really thinking about my spending habits and how I could save my hard earned cashola. And after thinking about it, I realized, we can do a lot without jeopardizing our life style and infact, by doing something, we are securing our life style in a shaky and unpredictable economy.

As I alluded above, our family is going to try not spending money for the entire month of April. This is going to be tricky as I have decided to host an Easter Egg Hunt at my house the weekend after Easter. My concession on this is that I will be able to purchase the Easter accroutrements for 75% off. Last year, we hosted a group of 6 or 7 kids plus parents and it only cost me 40 bucks. This year, I have budgeted $100 dollars. My rule is I am not allowed to spend more than $100 on the Easter party.

Aside from Easter, here are the rules we have to abide by for one full month:
We will pay all of our normal monthly bills such as rent(you can breathe Masa), utilities, car payment as the project is to try and increase the quality of our life by spending less, not decrease the quality of our life by not paying our debtors. The only other thing I can think of is gasoline for the car. This is a tough one because we obviously need to get to work and we do not live close enough to our jobs to walk, jog or ride a bike. So the concession is $75 a month for the both of us on gas. So that is a total of $175 aside from our normal fixed bills that we have to pay.

No grocery shopping, we have to use all of the crap in the pantry, the fridge and freezer and the extra fridge and freezer in the garage. When we run out of stuff, we have to make do with something else. I will become a very creative chef.

No buying sundries and other household items. Again, we have to use everything in the pantries and cabinets. When we run out of our usual soaps, lotions and shampoos, we will use all of the lotions, shampoos, beauty products, soaps, etc that I have stashed away in containers that I never open.

No credit cards. No cash, no nothing.

Is it scary? Hell yes. With the few concessions list above, we will not spend a dime. Am I scared that we may run out of toilet paper? yes. but when I was a kid, I remember using magazines and newpapers. Toilet paper was not always a part of my life style. What if I run out of period pads? Yes, I will make do. coffee? make do, alcohol? it will be a dry and long month (we will be rationing and I suspect, I will be forced to hide my booze stash)

Wish us luck. We are going to need it. If it doesn't make us closer, it will at least make us not as poorer.