Yours, Mine, and Uncle Jed's Journey

My older son and I recently read Uncle Jed's Barbershop. I had gotten it at a garage sale this summer for 50 cents, twice my usual kid's book cutoff of a quarter, because it looked like an interesting story. And it was definitely worth that extra twenty five cents, especially during this "year of goals".

The story appears to have been written by Uncle Jed's niece. It starts in the 1920's and Uncle Jed has a dream to own a barber shop. But "nobody believed him. We lived in the south and were poor. Most people were sharecroppers, and people didn't have dreams like that."

But Uncle Jed continues traveling around the county to give haircuts, often taking eggs or vegetables or a promise to pay later from people who were short on cash and he saved every penny he could. Then his niece, the author, was sick and couldn't get an operation until $300 was paid up front and "my Daddy didn't have that kind of money." Uncle Jed said nothing was going to happen to his Sarah Jean and paid the money.

This was a financial setback, but many years later, he finally had three thousand dollars in the bank. Then came the Great Depression and a neighbor knocked on the door to tell Uncle Jed the bank was broke and his money was gone.

"Uncle Jed just stood there a long time before he said anything. Then he told Mr. Walters that even though he was disappointed, he would just have to start all over again."

He eventually opened his own barbershop on his seventy-ninth birthday.

"It had everything, just like he said it would - big comfortable chairs, four cutting stations, the floors so clean, they sparkled. On opening day, people came from all over the country. They were Ol' Uncle Jed's customers. He had walked to see them for so many years. That day they all came to see him.

I believe he cut hair all night and all the next day and the next night and the day after that! That man was so glad to have that shop, he didn't need any sleep.

Uncle Jed died not long after that, and I think he died a happy man. You see, he had made his dream come true even when nobody else believed in him.

He taught me to dream, too."

Reading the story made me think of my own journey this year, and the importance of savoring it and of disregarding those voices in my head that sometimes say discouraging things or the sense of urgency to "get it done" or "when I achieve this milestone, THEN I'm going to really feel I've accomplished something." Most of Uncle Jed's life was the journey, not the finishing up.

When Greg and I were on vacation awhile back, we had a lovely time, but were stranded overnight at an airport. My dear hubby is NOT a good one for waiting and his anxiety to get back was palpable. I bought a magnet at the airport giftstore that is now on the fridge to remember that the downtime in the airport wasn't "bad time" to be gotten through so the "good time" could begin. It reads:

Happiness is a journey, not a destination. Souza
For a long time it seemed to me that life was about to begin-real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be gotten through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles WERE my life. This perspective has helped me see there is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way. So treasure every moment you have and remember that time waits for no one.

I'm working to get there - to treasure each moment. Wishing you a happy journey - not just a happy destination. Eileen

$20.05 for that dewy summer face in winter - a cheap daily spa?

In the summer, I get some decent color in my face and have something of a "rosy glow" naturally.

Come winter, my pale, colorless skin starts to show a lot of imperfections, not the least of which is skin so dry it sometimes flakes off around my mouth - how appetizing for anyone I'm lunching with;-).

If you are 20 and have naturally dewy skin, you probably don't need to read these tips. If you're in some lovely, moist tropical climate and don't deal with five sunless months of furnace heat blasting your face in your house and car, you can skip this.;-) But for anyone else from Canada to the Upper Peninsula and past your first two decades of life, here are some ideas you might enjoy.

Yesterday, I had some time due to an appointment, and brought with me a stack of magazines from my free magazine exchange to skim. I was really happy with the following ideas, all from the May 2009 edition of More.

1. Moisturize in layers -

For maximum plumping, follow your regular lotion with a heavy cream or facial oil. "On really bad beauty days, I put on oil and wait an hour before looking in the mirror," admits makeup artist Bobbi Brown.

For this, I stopped at Walmart yesterday and bought Noah's Naturals anti-aging Gel Serum for $8.57. It should last most of the winter. I slathered it on last night and lo and behold, my face was much less dry looking and more moist looking this morning! But if you have really oily skin, this may not be such a good idea.

2. Put on two layers of moisturizer.

Apply one before the foundation, then pat on a second, very light coat over your makeup. "This gives your skin a dewy finish and an extra dose of hydration." says Audrey Kunin, MD, a dermatologist from Kansas City.

I'd never heard of doing this OVER foundation, but I tried it last night since I was going to a friend's place, and braving 50 degree weather to get there, and sure enough, it did help keep my skin looking moist. I use the equate version of Oil of Olay. An aside, Oil of Olay products are some of the best buys in lotions because they are every bit as good as many of the far more expensive brands at least according to several magazine articles I've come across. Now as they advertise in those magazines, I don't know exactly how disinterested those comparisons are, but I'm pretty sure I read the same thing in the book, "Don't go to the makeup/skincare counter without me". I forget the exact title, but the author had done an independent assessment of a lot of beauty products. And one other tip from a magazine, never bother to buy a moisturizer that doesn't also contain sunscreen.

I don't have the receipt of the moisturizer, but I'm pretty sure it is about $5.58, so I will round up to $6.00.

3. Go Golden - Use Bronzer

"Skin loses pigment and radiance as you age so either switch to a foundation with a warmer hint, add a drop of liquid bronzer to your favorite foundation, or make bronzing powder part of your makeup regimen," says Sandy Linter, a consulting makeup artist for Lancome.

And I did see the power of bronzer once demonstrated on a cruise ship. My husband and I took a winter cruise one year and they had a free makeup session. What it turned out to consist of was three beauty consultants slathering on bronzer to many pale-skinned midwestern vacationers escaping winter's January chill to Mexico. And I must say, in each case, it did seem to bring some warmth to those faces. So I figured, what the heck, let's try it for the winter. Much cheaper and way better for the skin than a tanning bed. The bronzer I got had a blush on the opposite side of the compact, which is also said to brighten not-so-radiant skin when put on the apples of the cheeks. Cost for bronzer/blusher compact $11.48.

Used sparingly, these products should get me to the first gentle, welcome April showers. May you glow with radiance, both internal and via Physicians Formula, all winter long;-).

Nightly Roundup - Day 358

Good day. We've hit a milestone now to be in the 350's. Hope you're all seeing your baby steps giving you some momentum toward your goals.

Marriage - Check;-).

Kids - I played lots of flag football, not really my sport, but was a good sport;-).

Book - Spent another 20 minutes looking at the next set of questions and did a bit more brainstorming. This is the sample book proposal from "From Book Idea to Bestseller."

>The Book page 1
The Market page 8
The Author page 10
Book Contents page 12
Brief Chapter Summaries page 13
Sample Chapter page 35

The three questions to again focus my/your pitch are:

1. Who will buy it?
2. What other books has the audience bought in the past? My list would include The Tightwad Gazette, The Millionaire Next Door, Your Money or Your Life, Die Broke, and the Wealthy Barber for starters. Maybe some Elaine St. James?
3. Why will the audience buy your book instead of the competitors' books? A good question indeed;-).

Business. Set the timer for 20 minutes. Contacted the New York Company that had made the sample frog light. I was told they discontinued that line because the bulbs were not replaceable. I just figured that was a fluke, but then saw a few other random motion lights on ebay, also called moving picture lamps,and contacted the sellers, but in both cases, the seller didn't know if the bulbs could be changed in those either. That would seem and easy problem to fix.

Garden - Got in three more shrubs and put down several bags of leaves dropped off by a neighbor over the weekend as mulch.

FI - Will just have to count about 10 pages in the book, Think and Grow Rich.

Health/Beauty- Took a few old magazines and in about 10 minutes, culled out three good skin/makeup tips and will post them tomorrow.

Spirit/Catchall - Will be heading over to a friend's apartment tonight to give some moral support and share a cup of tea.

Magazines, Dreams, Libraries;-)

I'm going over to a friend's apartment tonight to share a cup of tea and give some emotional support. My friend is going through a tough time, but I'm hoping along with looking at the past (we all need to just cry it out at times), we can spend a bit of time looking forward and starting a dream board.

Along with some homemade goodies, I'm bringing over some poster board and a bunch of magazines that I got for free at our local library. If you don't have a magazine exchange at your library yet, offer to start one. All it takes is three or four bins or boxes and people drop off and pick out whatever they like. It is a huge help environmentally as the same magazine may go through twenty people as it keeps getting used and put back into the bin. Sometimes pages are missing, but that still leaves lots of helpful info, all for free.

At our magazine exchange, I recently picked up Cosmo, Country Gardens, Country Living, House Beautiful, More, and Harper's Bazaar from this month's edition to two years ago. If I subscribed to all these, I would be out at least $150 annually and have more clutter than my house needs.

When you decide to start your dream board (pictures representing all your dreams), you can get a huge stack and go to it. A picture is said to be worth a thousand words, so if a new baby is one of your dearest dreams, get the cutest picture Huggies ever produced, cut it out and paste it up. If you hope to publish your book this year, find an ad for a bestseller, carefully trim around the "Best Seller" headline, and insert your name for the author's.

It's is a wonderful and mostly free way to really focus on what your dreams and goals are. Then you just thumbtack this dream board to the wall and look at it often, imagining all those dreams have come true. I've done this for over ten years with great success and have my current dream board up in my bedroom where I see it every night when I go to sleep and every morning when I wake up.

A side note, some studies have shown that women can get mildly depressed after seeing an issue of Vogue or other fashion magazine. Both the model shots and the ads, the purpose of which is to convince you you're not quite up to par unless you purchase XYZ, can be a bit daunting. And if you find yourself feeling worthless after perusing Cosmo, even knowing all those poor stick models are airbrushed beyond reality, that it is highly unlikely any of us have ever seen in person anyone faintly resembling the Brooke Shields that appeared on the cover of MORE, and that you really are awesome and beautiful as you are, then probably best to avoid those for a bit;-).

Maybe start with the annual Star cover story that pays some big money to stalking paparazzi to get shots of models and stars without their makeup, no wigs or hairpieces, and with all their flaws for the world to see when they just needed to sneak out for a quick run to Walgreens. And be glad no one is likely behind the shrubs at your local drugstore when you need a two a.m. bottle of baby Tylenol, catching on Kodak, you at your most shabby;-).

So if you have time this week or next, white poster board at Walmart is 58 cents, magazines can be had for free, a bit of glue and a whole new, even better than ever, you emerging soon;-). Best wishes. Eileen

Days 360 & 359

It's now 10:10 p.m. and I am just getting back from a rather long drive so I'll keep this short and double up the weekend days as there was a lot of overlap and I didn't get done as much as I'd hoped.

Marriage - check! Greg got entire weekend to watch football with his brothers without the gang here - and of course, Iowa's victory was icing on the cake;-).

Kids - Lots of awesome time with Grandma and Grandpa!

Book- Brainstormed about 10 minutes to answer the list of questions about why my book will be different from others, how it will help people, what my goals are.

Business - Showed my folks my whole night light idea and gave them the full on pitch - to a rather lukewarm reception - but no discouragement here - remember what they say about prophets in their hometowns;-).

Garden - Got seven shrubs in the ground Saturday morning before we left, just as the first snowflakes began to fall.

Spirit/catchall - Lots of good time with my parents.

Health/beauty - Walked about four miles with Mom's new rescue Cocker Spaniel.

F.I. - Drove around for about an hour with my dad looking at some of his rental properties and just hearing his thoughts on finance. His investments are completely different than Greg's and mine (he's heavily into commercial real estate, but has the construction background, equipment, and contacts to do everything himself) while his daughter and son-in-law prefer to send our investment money to Vanguard. But you can't be around someone like him and not pick up some good finance thoughts.

Write Down Those Creative Ideas or Risk Dimming Your Creativity.

I just drove in from IL and this sleepy driver is going to have to keep it short. But I did come across a very interesting idea this weekend that I wanted to share with you in the hopes some of you might want to take this easy five day challenge.

On the way to and from my parents, I listened to part of an audio tape called "The Einstein Factor" by Win Wenger Ph.D. It has been very interesting.

One concept the book stresses is that we have oodles and oodles of creative ideas and observations that never get to see the light of day. The author claims we each get between 30 and 50 innovative ideas whether a business idea, an invention, a book idea, an artistic impulse, etc. each day. But we don't take the time to record these ideas and over time, in the simplest sense, our creativity itself becomes dimmed because we don't focus or acknowledge it. There is feedback loop problem. But if we reverse this and pay attention to those impulses, by the simple rule that whatever we give our attention to increases, so will our creativity.

He notes that all the great geniuses and inventors were notorious "scribbles" often leaving behind thousands of notebooks full of thoughts when they pass away. And as I was driving to see my dad and mom, this held special interest. My dad, who is an extremely successful businessman, despite not graduating from high school (he later got a GED in the army) ALWAYS had a legal pad handy in his free time. Growing up, I can remember coming out to the back porch many a night and seeing him with an Old Style beer on the patio table and a page filled with incomprehensible numbers and drawings. And during those years he has built several successful businesses. On this last trip, I saw a stack of about ten of these blank legal pads that Mom must have gotten as a bundle deal at Staples, waiting to be filled with Dad's scribbles.

Thus I have seen for myself the value of noting down all those ideas even if only a small percentage come to fruition.

Mr. Winger's challenge is to write down between 30 and 50 random ideas or creative impulses for five days, keeping pen and paper with you the entire time. He insists at the end of five days, your creativity will be soaring and you'll be amazed at the powers of your own mind.

Sounds like a fun and easy, not to mention cheap experiment. Feel free to join in starting tomorrow. Goodnight all! Eileen

P.S. Committed Recycler - I just stopped over at your blog and saw your business idea for the purses made from recycled fabrics, with the pins, etc. What a GREAT idea! Wishing you lots of success!

Day 360 - Off to grandma and grandpa's for the weekend.

Will report back Sunday night. Good wishes to all for a great weekend! Eileen

Nightly Roundup - Day 361

Marriage - Check - date night - had a wonderful time! And thanks for agreeing to Cajun food sweetie!

Kids - Kirk had no school today so we made it a special outting day which included meeting Greg downtown, a trip to the military museum (he is currently obsessed with WWII), out to lunch (working on some of those table manners - in truth my kids eat like monkeys at times), then met with a friend and her son for the children's museum. So lots of good time together, albeit NOT a cheap day.

Book - Spent about 10 minutes and found the next list of questions in the book From Book Idea to Bestseller and will work on them during the weekend. For any of you also working on a book:

1. What needs does my book address?
2. Who, specifically, needs what I am offering?
3. Does my book solve a problem?
4. For whom does my book solve a problem?
5. Can I write a one-sentence sales pitch for my book that makes its benefits or solutions clear to editors, agents, and readers?
6. Have I organized my ideas into a program from which readers will gain tangible benefits?

Business- Found the company that produced the sample moving frog light in New York and found a phone number, but will need to call Monday. Did spend 15 minutes brainstorming for ideas for what the lamp could have for various age groups. Listed here for my reference.

planets, dinosaurs, alphabet, numbers, multiplication tables, presidents, shapes, Spanish, French, German - basic nouns or verbs with pictures, famous women in history, land forms, shapes of states, parts of atoms, types of rocks, types of birds, types of asteroids, invertebrates, parts of the body, fractions, volcanoes, public service workers - police, firefighters, nurses, historical time lines (westward expansion, Civil War, Revolutionary War, Incas, Mayans, Aztecs), nutrition, parts of the cell, parts of the brain, mini-pictorial biographies or Lincoln or Washington, parts of the atom, weather patterns, sports, mammals, various nursery rhymes, Monet's or Renoir's mini-paintings, parts of plants).

Garden - Will go through garden diary to check what plans I wrote this past spring about buying any bulbs.

Health/beauty - Did seven minutes of yoga and three minutes of walking about with a book on my head.

Spirit-catchall - Posted about eight inspirational posters at a thrift store (I think they were old school posters) and posted then along our upstairs hall as I figured I can't feed my mind too much positive thinking during this year.

F.I. Started reading an interesting book called "Think and Grow Rich Action Pack" purchased for $1.50 at the same thrift store as the posters. It is based on the original book written in the 1920's by Napoleon Hill.

No Spend Days and The Gifts of Time and Creativity!

Something I used to do to great success and am looking forward to restarting is to have four no spend days each week. I've found when I set aside three or four days with the commitment not to spend a single cent, I give myself two gifts. First is the gift of time - no driving time to a store, no parking time, no shopping time, no waiting in line time, no ATM stop for cash time, no getting back out to my car and driving home time and all that added up tends to be significant.

The second gift is the gift of creativity born from necessity. Since I don't draw, paint, play a musical instrument, dance or sing, I find my frugality is a lovely builder of ingenuity or inventiveness.

First off, when I make myself keep a running list for a week or so before spending, I usually manage to get all the errands packed into one day. As a result, I plan my route and am MUCH more efficient with my time. And as I've had a week to plan the list, I'm much less likely to forget something that really is needed. If I didn't notice we were running low on toilet paper Monday, likely by Wednesday, this has caught my or Greg's notice;-).

And on that day of shopping, if I've paid cash and spent the time needed for a $23 oil change with the early bird discount, then spent $98 at the grocery store and $68 at Walmart, $38 to fill up with gas, and $12 for a haircut at Cost Cutters, I find my old habits of browsing at a thrift or book store for "fun" sounds so insane in the moment, that I tend to drive home, unpack all this stuff, and be glad it's at least four days before I can spend money again.

In addition, necessity really is the mother of invention. I ran out of eggs long ago and did an internet search which taught me I could substitute a 1/4 cup of applesauce (which costs less than half the price of an organic egg). I've not had a birthday card or birthday gift on the day needed and used my nicest stationary to write a letter in lieu of a card and baked applesauce bread as a present. I've wanted a new outfit for a special event, then looked through INSTYLE magazine until I saw an idea that used some of what I already had. All of these brought me quite a bit of fun and cost far less in time and money than traditional shopping.

So I've cleared the weekend of spending and tonight filled up with gas and packed snacks as we're going to my parents. This will be my send off weekend to get back into four no spend days a week (made easier by being able to mooch food and supplies off mom and dad;-).

If it works with your schedule to try this for a few weeks, you might find it very helpful. And just when you're sure you MUST break your promise and run to the store, remember your great-grandma probably made it to a store once a month and she's looking down at you encouragingly, saying, "Honey, do you REALLY need that??;-).

Eileen
P.S. This picture, which I treasure, is of my husband Greg's maternal grandma as an infant, being held by her mom, with her grandma to her left, her great-grandma in the lower left corner and her great-great Grandma seated just below her. Two days after the photo was taken, the great-great Grandma died.

Nightly Roundup - Day 362

Marriage - Check;-)

Kids - Fun time throwing rocks into the pond during the rain - mom there mentally AND physically.

Business - Did about 30 minutes today more of general research to create the business plan to then eventually meet with a mentor. Decided to focus on Leapfrog as an educational toy provider and get more info on the market. Went to SEC.gov to look up their company name. Then clicked on Leapfrog Enterprises and did a "filing type" search for a 10-k, which they must file each year as a publicly traded company. So if you're starting a company, this is a good place to gather the inside scoop. On the business plan:

Major Players - according to report are Leapfrog - Mattel via its Fisher Price Brand; Hasbro via Playskool division; and Vtech holdings.
Problems - Competitors introducing similar products soon after they are created at Leapfrog, often for a cheaper price due to materials, sources, labor, etc.
Principal methods of competition in the educational toy realm - performance, features, quality, brand recognition, price, and learning content,
Limits- 60 percent of gross sales depend on just three retailers, Walmart, Toys R Us, Target - and if any of these runs into significant problems, there will be big problems for Leapfrog.
Customers - Our customers generally fit into one of the following categories:
● Retailers that resell our products to consumers in the United States and some international regions;

● Distributors that purchase our products for resale to retailers, generally internationally;

● Direct consumers who purchase our products via our website, www.LeapFrog.com;

● U.S. schools and school districts that purchase our products for use in their classrooms either through education market resellers or directly, through our website, www.LeapFrog.com. (But I couldn't find the breakdown of which customers are responsible for what percentage of sales).
Problem - Declining sales and profits

.

At this point I'm not sure how all this will fit into my business plan, but it gives me a bit more of a feel for the industry. What happened to the good old, "Build a better mousetrap and they'll be beating down your door????"

Book - Talk about overlap. I spent about 15 minutes reading the first chapter of From Book Idea to Bestseller. The seven rules of book publishing are now supposedly:

1. Compete for readers.
2. Think in terms of product.
3. Act like a promoter.
4. Develop and package the project.
5. Design your proposal for a committee decision.
6. Understand the changing landscape of book publishing.
7. Turn the chains and superstores into allies.

Did Jane Austen have any idea how good she had it??

Garden - Brought in more annuals.

Health/beauty - Fun here. I dusted off my old Billy Banks Tai Bo videos that I hadn't used since I was pregnant with Kirk and blew off some steam kickboxing. All that book and business stuff seemed a bit overwhelming and there's nothing like Billy's positive style and a few well placed chops to work off some anxiety. The kids wanted to be part of the action, so I let them work on some kicks too.

Spirit/catchall - Had a lovely chat with one of my best friends on the phone today. We were college roommates and she now lives in New Mexico so we don't get to see each other as often as I'd like. But when we do talk, we connect again in about 2 seconds. Thanks Emelia!

FI - Am trying to work my schedule to only spend money one or two days a week. I've done this in the past to great effect as it forces you to put off buying and often you decide the day you finally shop you don't even want or need half the stuff you would have gotten on impulse purchases. But this isn't always easy to do. Will try to schedule at least four NO BUY days next week.

Flow and The Problems of Closets

I've been listening to a book tape called "Into the Genius Zone" that I picked up at a library sale some time ago. It is a series of taped interviews with various people in the areas of creativity, music, wealth, education, and others.

The main idea behind the series is that when we get into "flow state" we tap into deeper resources of our unconscious. In flow our focus becomes much more pointed and we are able to accelerate learning and achieve mastery of material more quickly.

One section was from Dennis Stevenson, who ran the Money Workshop for several years. In his interview, he kept referring to money as simple flow and that certain things block that flow. His theory was if you have emotional blocks (lots of anger, unresolved issues with family/friends, etc) or mental blocks (lots of undone projects, piles of unaddressed bills, or lots of clutter in your home) that these things also block the flow of wealth.

I was interested in the case examples he gave of people who got their lives in order, such as organizing their finances, coming to a resolution with an old grievance, or simply cleaning out their basements and closets, and suddenly finding they had a lot more energy and creativity to deal with wealth building concepts. His theory, if I caught it right, was that these things you're not addressing, zap your energy and take mental/physical energy away that could otherwise be spent getting in flow.

If you walked into my house, for the most part you would think it was a tidy house. But should you have cause to go into the closets or the lower level of the basement or the garage, you would quickly revise that opinion;-). And I sort of get what he's saying. I have so many things I'm excited to accomplish this year, but certainly know there is a lot of clutter in those three areas that needs to be dealt with. And in some way, it does seem to drain energy every time I open a closet door or go down into the basement and find myself facing a mountain of clutter.

So, endeavor number nine is to clear out the last remaining disorganized areas of my home a bit at a time and see if indeed this does speed up flow.

Have any of you found something similar in your lives?

Eileen

Nightly Roundup - Day 363

Crazy sort of grocery store, car wash, play date, zoo, Walmart, thrift store day.

Marriage - Check. (Decided we didn't need to be so detailed here for the day when the "Would you bring up the winter clothes?" is replaced with "There is a great Playboy bunny costume on sale at the temporary Halloween store at the mall and you would look just great in that........";-)

Kids - Did the zoo, the playground and a play date. Check!

Book - Note list above regarding running around all day, so blog entry and a paperback book called "From Book Idea to Bestseller" purchased for only a dollar by this optimistic blogger;-)

Business - See above note once again, but I did find this really interesting nightlight at the same thrift store as the book. Though you can't see from the still photo, it has a frog that loops around slowly, with words like Hip Hop. But the idea is intriguing. It looks fairly cheaply made with just a band of some sort of plastic material and if it was slowly revolving around naming the planets or the dinosaur groups, that could be moving closer to my idea. Will look up the manufacturer tomorrow.

Garden - Home Depot shrubs at $3.36 each - a great selection - and almost enough to finish most of the border to the south.

Health/beauty - Got in my eight glasses of water today and stocked up on more fruits than usual when shopping.

Spirit-friends-catchall - Made plans to meet with three of my friends whose friendship goes back to fourth grade sleepovers for the book signing at the library of our hometown for the one who is now a published author - how cool is that! We will then proceed to Pizza Hut, where we spent many an adolescent hour.

FI - Got the Quicken program as our Money program is about to go off and started to install it. Though we had a lot of problems with data transfer and supposedly they are coming out with something new in a few weeks to make that easier.

Saving some money next spring and bringing some cheer for February.

Frost is just around the corner here in WI and it's time to start bringing in the geraniums and other annuals. Here geraniums can be as much as $4.00 each in the spring, and I've found I can easily overwinter them in a sunny window. They drop a few leaves when they hit the furnace-heated air, but settle in nicely, need very little water and usually send out a bloom or two around February, just when I'm starved for some garden color. Then in spring, I start to fertilize and they perk up beautifully to go outside come May.

I've had some success overwintering impatients, mostly just for fun as a six pack is usually only $1.29 or so and they don't seem to perk up very well the second year. This year, I'm overwinting some others just to see what works. I've got some begonias, some salvias (a GORGEOUS dark blue), and some pink polka dot plant.

If any of you have had good success with overwintering plants other than geraniums, do tell your secrets. Also, I have a book on plant propagation that assured me geraniums were easy to propagate, just take a stem cutting, stick it in perlite or another well drained medium, water, and wait. I've tried this for over four years and have yet to make any new geraniums. The first year I had visions of creating five hundred or so "free" geraniums to edge gardens and put in overflowing garden pots, but this has come to zip. So again, if you've happened to be successful at this, do tell, please! I've gotten spider plant and some easy houseplants to root this way and would so like to double my geranium number by next spring.

Best wishes! Eileen

Nightly Roundup - Day 364

1. Marriage - Greg made this easy again just asking that I round up all the winter gear in the basement and bring it up as the weekend is supposed to get quite chilly. (And he does just seem to enjoy being asked - and did ask me if he could return the favor in some way. I asked him to consider baby number three;-). Maybe not quite a quid pro quo for finding his Hawkeyes scarf.....)
2. Kids - Read one short chapter in the mindful parenting book and managed to be in the moment for at least a decent portion of time while I played blocks with the kids today.
3. Book - Blog entries are about it. Need to follow up more with how to write to a publisher.
4. Business - Gave a shot to answering question #1 on my due diligence. This was done with about 20 minutes set aside for a Google search. I doubt this is of much interest unless you're also thinking of a kids product for your business idea, but I'm putting it here to refer back to. And I did learn a whole new term, edutainment, referring to the overlap of entertainment and education that goes way back including many poems and stories and blocks with numbers and letters and animals printed on the sides. The article also touched on start up costs and talked about the story behind ThinkFun, a husband and wife puzzle company started in their basement all of which was educational (no pun intended;)).

Kids’ Educational Toys and Games
The Toy Industry Association estimates that the traditional toy industry (which doesn’t include electronics such as video games and handheld electronic games) is worth an estimated $22 billion in annual sales, with nearly half those sales being generated during the holidays (see “Toy Story” on page 1.4 for a breakdown of popular toy categories). Educational games like Cranium have enjoyed huge mass appeal. In the eight years since its inception, this board game, together with its sibling titles, has sold more than 15 million games in 10 languages and 30 countries. Educational toys like the LeapFrog learning laptops have also been popular. Industry observers believe that educational toys’ mass-market appeal will only continue to grow, as parents continue to search for meaningful enrichment activities for their children.

From Entreprenuer Magazine

5. Garden - Rainy day here, but I did pot up some annuals in case a freeze comes soon to wipe them out.

6. Health/beauty - As crazy as it may sound, I set the timer for three minutes and walked around with a book on my head. My posture, never great, needs some work. My doctor once mentioned during a discussion about breast reduction surgery that it looked like having such heavy breasts had affected my posture. Need to get better about throwing those shoulders back, head held high....

7. Spirit - catchall - Did pretty much stay in the moment with the kids during their playtime.

8. F.I. - No tossed food for the day!

Hope you're all doing well. Only 363 more days to go!

Our $3.12 Dinner for Three and What the World Eats.

My friend Kalpana and I did the 5k literacy walk this past weekend and were talking about American diets. She is from India, and while not a vegetarian, grew up eating a mostly plant based diet. She said during her childhood, the street corners had fresh fruit and vegetable stands rather than what is now becoming popular, McDonalds and pizza places.

Today she sent me a link that was fascinating. It is from the book called Hungry Planet. In it, husband and wife, photographer Peter Menzel and writer Faith D'Aluisio set out to find how globalization, migration and rising affluence are affecting the diets of communities around the globe


The link below is to a Time Magazine article that excerpted pictures of various families from around the globe along with a typical week of groceries. The span in prices is nothing short of astounding, from Germany at $500 a week to a Breidjing camp at $1.23 a week.

The differences between the amounts of fresh produce and the amounts of packaged goods is also striking. Here is the link to the Time article.
http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1626519_1373764,00.html

Our dinner tonight was $3.12 for three (Greg had a work dinner). To put that in some context, a family in Bhutan will spend $5.03 a WEEK on groceries. Our dinner costs break down as follows.

Two veggie brats - kids split one and I ate one. $1.00
Frozen corn is 19 cents per cup and we ate 1 1/2 cups or about .29
1/2 a package of .37 Mac and cheese roughly .20 (though as I type I realize I didn't include the cost of the added milk - we don't add butter to it).
1/2 a large can of unsweetened peaches was .77
2 potatoes, split between us at .36
Two glasses of juice .50 (still guessing on this until the next grocery run).

Total dinner for three $3.12.

Hoping to start moving to the recommended five servings of fruits and vegetables daily.

Starting a business, day 364.;-)

Hope all of you who are joining me in starting a business this year are ready to hit the pavement;-).

My idea is a sort of educational nightlight. I got a light box at a thrift store about three years ago when my dad had back surgery and had asked to see the x-rays. The doctors let him bring them home, but he and my mom had a hard time seeing them, even holding them up to a sunny window. So when I saw this for $6, it was sold before my hot little hand could pick it up. It helped my parents and then sat in their basement until mom asked me to take it home or donate it.

As I was looking at it, it reminded me of a beautiful museum I had once gone to where they had pictures of the universe, back lit in a sort of light box like this. And when I saw those, I remember thinking how cool it would be to have one in our bedroom to study the cosmos as I went to bed.

Later, in one of my 1000 self help books I was reading how it is important what the last image you see before sleep is because your subconscious sort adopts this. That's why some (my husband excluded) avoid television right before bed;-).

I've also been using educational posters for quite some time in my older son's room and I thought how it would be kind of cool to have the one of the map of the United States lit from behind as a sort of educational nightlight.

So I start today with my thrift store light box, which you will see has one of my class overheads on it to give you a sense of what it looks like and a fun road ahead.

And I have my first list of "Due Diligence" questions to answer. Apparently, before getting a mentor, it is a good idea to have at least some sort of rough business plan.

My dear hubby forwarded me a set of 20 or so questions to start chewing on. They would be applicable to almost any business, so feel free to dig in;-). Here are the first six.

1. What is the size of the market in the U.S.?
2. Who are the major buyers? (gov't, consumers, military, etc.)
3. Who are the major producers?
4. What is the market share of the major producers?
5. What is the cost to produce the item?
6. Who are the closest competitors using alternative technologies.

And thus, clueless, I begin. Good wishes and thanks for the question set Greg.

Eileen

Finding new sources - A one time investment of time with very good dividends.

I was talking to my dad yesterday about his new hobby, farming. He bought a used combine at an auction and is learning the ins and outs of its upkeep. Recently he needed a new switch for something and the dealership sold it to him for $125. He thought that was outrageous and called around and found the same switch sold in a generic form for $65 two towns over.

He called the dealership back to see if he could return the $125 switch, but was told if he had broken the plastic packaging (which he had), they could no longer return it for a refund from the manufacturer, thus they could not refund my dad.

But the good news is, a bit of sleuthing has resulted in two new sources for future engine parts. There is the generic parts place and now a second one as well. Dad asked a few of the other older farmers in the area for ideas and was told there is a farm equipment junk yard about 30 miles away. Going forward then, this time spent looking for cheaper sources will pay dividends for many years to come with each engine repair.

I've also had this experience. When my husband made partner at his firm, we lost our employee status and thus insurance. We chose to go with a high deductible insurance as we are all pretty healthy. We use Golden Rule (A United Healthcare Company) and have seen our payments go from $365 to $413 to $476 as of August and are now exploring other high deductible options.

Since our deductible is so high, $10,000, it has behooved us to shop around for general medical care. Last winter I was pretty sure I had strep throat. A doctor's visit is around $130 for us. Walgreens now has a take care clinic and I was able to meet with a nurse for a $65 visit fee, then get my test for $15. Similarly, I thought my son had an ear infection, and we had the nurse check that. This is a cost comparison from the Walgreens site.

At Take Care Clinics, patients can receive access to high-quality, affordable care for basic health care services at significant savings from that of an emergency department or urgent care center. A 2008 study published in Health Affairs shows the following:

Treatment Option Average Cost of Medical Care per Episode
Emergency Department $356
Doctor's Office $127
Urgent Care $124
Take Care Clinic $65

In addition, while some immunizations are covered under our insurance, our doctor's office charges a $40 "holding" fee when administering shots. Parents are not able to hold their kids (I think this may be for insurance reasons) so a nurse has to come in.

A bit of detective work on my part led me to our county health department which offers the exact same immunizations for free and lets the parent hold the child, which both the kids and I strongly preferred.

And a few hours going through the phone book one day last year allowed me to identify all 20 or so of the thrift stores in the area and visit them when I was doing errands. I was able to find cheaper sources for many purchases. The best by far is a place called "Dig and Save" where all the donations are jumbled onto huge tables and there is a flat fee of 25 cents per pound for most items. I see many of the Amish and others come in vans to stock up on what they need and the thought that all these items are being used and staying out of landfills makes my heart sing.

In addition to the jumble tables, they have electronics of every sort for $1 to $3. I've gotten my two bread makers, two crock pots, and waffle iron for less than $5 for all and have used them for several years now. I got two of the crock pots because I don't particularly like to cook, chop vegetables, etc. and if the spirit is willing, I just make two big casseroles and consider most of the cooking done for the week. The bread makers are used for gift giving as I'll make a special applesauce walnut bread to give away for birthdays and other holidays.

For the most part then, it is a one-time investment of time as you're not shopping all over for every item, but identifying the best source and sticking with it. I haven't done a "new source" search for some time and this is a good reminder to myself to do so.

Happy sleuthing! Eileen

Nightly update - only 364 more to go;-)

So the goals are set, hopefully some of you are joining in spirit or letter. I will tackle each of these at least a tiny bit each day for the year. This nightly update is just to keep myself honest. I'm not sure how much help it will be to others. The only times I won't update are when I'm at my parents' computer free household.

1. Make my already happy marriage even stronger. I called my husband today to ask if there was anything I could do today to make his life easier or better in any way. And I told him he would be getting 364 more such calls. His answer made this one rather easy. He just wanted to be able to come home and eat dinner tonight and chat. Usually he's met at the door with kids anxious to play football, a wife asking among other things if he's put salt in the water softener lately, a pile of mail, and often leftovers that need to be reheated if he's running late.

2. Enjoy my kids more, be there in the moment with them, and nurture their individual development. Tonight that meant watching part of a video on Patton (from a PBS special) as my older son is way into WWII, moving on from the French Revolution and knights. I took my younger son to toss rocks into a pond even though I was running late as I know this is one of his favorite activities.

3. Get my book published. Much of the material in the posts here on my blog will hopefully be reworked into a book format so I consider each day's posting a step in the right direction. I also emailed a friend who is a published author for tips on selling a book idea to a publisher.

4. Have my business producing a profitable product. In these early stages it's an educational nightlight of sorts. I tracked down a mentor program here in WI that has retired executives and entreprenuers who will help you look at a business idea. I plan to set up a meeting for next week once I go through some basic business plan questions.

5. Spiritual/friend/extended family/community - sort of a catchall here. Just to be a better person and to laugh more and to help others more. Oddly enough, I found myself laughing rather hard at Patton's post WWII speech. An aside, this is the fourth of a set of PBS videos that I got for a song (50 cents) that Kirk and I have watched. What is really interesting is how many of these great generals died within a very short time of the war ending. It make me think of Viktor Frankl's book, Man's Search for Meaning. In it he discusses his experiences as a concentration camp survivor and his theory that those who survived the horrors often had a big goal, a dream, a duty that they had not yet accomplished and this kept them alive. And I wondered if these great generals fell in to that camp and that once they had seen America safely to the other side, they were ready to go on?

6. FI - make big strides toward. Today, looked at options as our Money program is about to no longer be available. Posted on a forum for advice and Quicken got good reviews.

7. Finish Main Garden - By this I mean the great wilderness that still exists of two of the four sides of the acre of gardens. The five acres of woods will remain wild, but I would like a more polished, groomed (if a cottage garden can so be) in the back yard area. Today I planted my bargain $4.99 clearance lilac bush along the lot line.

8. Health/beauty. Would like to be healthier, a bit more stylish, and put more of an effort into my daily appearance. One goal is to eat five servings of fruits and vegetables each day and I made some strides today dumping in an entire packet of frozen peas into the tuna casserole and having unsweetened peaches for dessert. Probably more level of detail than any other person could ever want to know, but as I say, this section is just to keep myself honest;-).

So 364 more updates and hopefully a better person to emerge 364 days from now;-).

Eileen

The Costs of Disorganization and Savings of Garage Sales.

My little guy Kai is just starting to outgrow some of his 2T clothes, so I dragged up the bin marked 3T out of the basement to see what we had.

In it were some things that had survived his older brother's 3T stage and things I'd picked up at garage sales through the year.

As I unpacked one after another, after another shirts, shorts, pants, etc. I realized my lack of organization here had cost money. If I'd taken time to go through last year, before I started stocking up on 3T, I would have had a better sense what I needed rather than having as it turns out:

27 pairs of pants
23 pairs of shorts
45 shirts (summer and winter)
1 winter vest
1 fall/spring jacket.

Once I got to 15 pairs of pants, that should have been enough. The other 12 pairs, purchased at about $1 each or $12.00, was pure waste.

The weather is really only warm enough for shorts here in WI for a brief time. Ten pairs, maybe 12, would have been plenty. So the eleven others, purchased at .50 each on average, or $5.50, was unnecessary.

As my kids are tough on shirts, and I'm not the best laundress, I think we could easily use 35 shirts total to cover the four seasons. So that leaves about 10, mostly purchased at .25 to .50 each, or $5.00 on the high side of clothes we didn't need.

Now for the good part. That $22.00 in overspending, which would maybe buy one new kids Gap sweater, will likely be mostly recovered at my own garage sale this coming spring and help the environment as yet another little boy puts on the duds for his third year of life.

Thus getting the kids clothes at garage sales really does offer a great value. And if you can set aside one weekend day for a big city-wide sale or subdivision sale, you'll be that much further ahead in gas and time costs than tracking down things at individual sales. I've also been seeing people sell entire kids wardrobes on Craigslist as they don't want to have a garage sale but no longer need their daughter's 0-12 month clothes. This would also be convenient from a cost and timing standpoint.

So, note to self, make a list for the 4T and 6T bins now shoved in a basement corner and prepare a bit better for the upcoming year. Best wishes! Eileen

Heidi Klum Coming Through Your Basement Door....

No, I'm not freelancing for Playboy, though I'm guessing this title would sell a lot of magazines;-).

I saw Heidi Klum interviewed on television and one of her quotes really struck home as I have decided come what may, I'm starting my business this year.

Heidi Klum is one of the highest paid models in the world. And while she was obviously blessed with beauty, you don't tend to become that successful in any field without a certain amount of self-motivation.

In the interview, she talked briefly about being terrified at her first Victoria's Secret Runway Show. Prior to being hired, she was asked if she had a lot of runway experience. She answered in the affirmative, fudging a bit, and began training at home, practicing and pretending until she did in fact have the ability to "do runway."

Later, when asked about her drive, she's also published a book and now produces her own television show, she responded that she had been in a lot of situations where one person thought she was great for a campaign and another simply said no and she's learned to keep at it, keep going to the person who makes the decisions.

I always believe if you knock on the front door and no one answers, you go to the basement door or climb up a tree and see if you can get in that way.

As she was talking, it occured to me that the same has been true in my life, albeit far from the glamorous field of modeling.

When Greg and I moved to Wisconsin, I sent out my resumes and waited for the teaching jobs to roll in. Not a call, not an email, nada. Then I took the harder step of calling the four schools I was interested in, only to get a terse, "We're not hiring right now, we'll keep your resume on file."

My small town Midwest childhood did not really feed my inner New Yorker very well, but I knew I needed to step it up in the assertiveness department. So I went through about 50 interview questions from various books and polished my "self-commercial." Then I had Greg tape me in a mock interview (they taught us to do this in law school and it is VERY enlightening, though not always easy to watch).

Afterwards, I tracked down the decision makers in the four schools. In two cases they were deans or directors and in two, they were the heads of their departments.

I called (so NOT, NOT, NOT wanting to make those calls) and spoke directly to the person I needed to and asked if I could come in for an "informational interview." I stressed that I understood they were not currently hiring, but eventually they would have openings and it might be helpful to both of us if we got a chance to meet for twenty minutes or so.

All four agreed, a few begrudgingly, and I came with my dog and pony show and in two of the cases, walked out of the room with a job, and in the other two, was hired within about a month.

In one situation, I was told there were no law classes at the moment, but did I feel qualified to teach a Labor Relations Class? I was honest that it was not my first area of expertise (a massive understatement), but that I would give it my all and do a good job with the class. I got the okay and then went home sweating bullets as I looked through the materials. SO out of my area.

I got on the phone and contacted a lawyer who fights unions and got him to agree to come into class to talk about the issues he faces regularly. After that, I went through the yellow pages, contacted a union, and got a union representative to agree to come in and talk about union issues from that point of view. And I worked, and studied, and read, and found current events in the field through Google searches and all in all, it was a good class.

Now I'm getting ready to start the first steps of my own company and need to channel my inner Heidi Klum. An oft quoted figure is that 50 percent of businesses fail their first year. So as we start this October to October challenge, those of you starting a new business with me, remember that if no one answers the front door, or the basement door, you may need to be prepared to climb that tree. So get your ladders ready, and we will do it!

Eileen

Tossed food - Not doing as well as we thought.

I hadn't done an actual calculation of tossed food since we did one in September, but felt based on a visual assessment, we had improved quite a bit.

But tonight I started the second week of keeping track and I was surprised at the amount once again being thrown out.

Here's what tonight's refrigerator clean out came up with.

Cauliflower - the pre-cut, prewashed bag type that I paid extra for as I thought I'd be more apt to snack on it already prepped that way than reach for say, Nestle dark chocolate chilled Raisinets. Well nary a Raisinet has found its way to the compost pile, but the entire $2.39 bag of cruciferous veggies is a goner.

Watermelon- ate half, saved the rest - mistake. $1 tossed.

Zucchini - Free from my aunt Carol's garden. Sorry.

Pear - guessing this about .40

Pizza slice - RARELY tossed in this pizza crazy household. Just got lost in the back of the fridge. Pizza is about $9 for a medium size. This is maybe 1/10 of the pizza? so I'm going to put it at .90.

So the first total came in at $4.69.

Then I used the leftover sad looking salvageable vegetables to make a crock pot soup tonight, and came across a bag of carrots dated back in August. Add $2.00 to the total.

Sunday - Day one $6.69 into the trash.

$2.25 Breakfast and a $27.70 Lunch - The costs of eating out.....

Breakfast this morning was closing in on our goal of $2.00 per meal for the family. The cost breakdown was as follows:

Whole wheat waffles and orange juice breakfast.
Whole wheat blend waffle mix: .42 per cup - used 2 1/2 cups = 1.05
Organic milk: .37 per cup - used 2 1/2 cups = .93
Organic eggs .29 each used one egg = .29
Unsweetened applesauce - 1/4 cup can replace an egg, cup is .36, used 1/4 cup = .09
Olive oil - used 6 tablespoons - have no idea on cost, will check next time I purchase a bottle - guessing = .50
All fruit Apricot Jam - .21 per tbsp - used 3 tbsp = .63
Orange juice 4 cups - need to find cost on this, guessing at .25 each = 1.00

So to make 14 waffles and have four cups of orange juice was $4.49. We ate 7 waffles and froze 7, so breakfast was $2.25 for the family. Not bad!

Then I walked a 5k for a literacy fund raiser with a friend and treated her to lunch. The cost of our delicious Mediterranean meal with tip was $20. Meanwhile, Greg took the boys to church and traded a promise of McDonalds for good behavior. They met the standard apparently as they got lunch at $7.70 (while I'm a vegetarian and only cook vegetarian meals at home, both the kids and my husband often eat meat when we eat out.) Thus lunch costs totaled $27.70 or TEN TIMES the cost of eating in this morning. I did get a lovely lunch and a nice visit with my friend Kalpana and that itself has value, but it reinforces the power of sheer numbers in making "informed" decisions.

Good wishes for a good night! I'm off to walk the dog. Eileen

Walk this way to an easy $881 in retirement savings.

I recently brought my husband's Bostonian dress shoes in to have them re-healed and get new half soles. They were already official bargain shoes as new, the shoes would have cost $129.99, but on ebay I found them used, like new, for $29.99 which included shipping.

Eventually the soles in these shoes wore out and I called around to find a place that would resole them. Prices varied and $44 at Cecil's Shoe Repair was the lowest. If we had gone out and bought a new pair, it would have been another $129.99.

The savings on these simple two steps is $185.99 verses buying two new pairs of shoes. At 41, and assuming a typical retirement age of 65, that will grow at 6.5% interest to $881 in retirement savings, with no extra work on our part.

Now you might question why I didn't simply get a second set off ebay as the cost was even lower than resoling. The answer is two-fold. Finding used, but like new at that cost in my husband's size requires some luck. In addition, I try to be sensitive to the environment. The idea of reuse, repair, recycle is gaining ground across the board. Even the Patagonia company is now requesting its customers resole rather than rebuy when possible.

While resoling might not seem like the obvious choice, given that it sometimes approaches the cost of a new pair, there are other reasons to consider resoling shoes. Once a customer thinks about the natural resources used to create a new pair of shoes, shipping those shoes across the ocean, and then the landfill space required to dispose of the old shoes, they might decide that repairing is one way to lessen their impact on the environment. Not to mention the fact that customers current shoes are already broken in.

http://www.nationaloutdoors.net/dont-throw-your-shoes-away-resole-them

And when the shoes are in too sad of condition to resole, I still donate them. The article titled "10 Things You Can Do To Recycle More", states:

8. Shoes- Be sure to recycle even your “so-last-season” flip-flops! There are a couple of options for recycling shoes in Minnesota. Goodwill stores sends shoes that are “too worn” to textile and shoe recyclers. Wipers Recycling in Maplewood recycles shoes into biodegradeable oil spill clean up kits.

. http://www.recyclemoreminnesota.org/why/10things

Thus a high quality pair of shoes, especially if you can get them used, is going to be easier not only on your pocketbook but the earth. And those ladies lusting after Manolo Blahniks are really pretty green at heart;-).

Eileen

A recent haul from the town dump;-)

Lots of gardeners dig out both perennials and annuals in the fall and bring them to our town compost pile. And I try to swing by whenever I'm in the area to haul home some new treasures.

Not surprisingly, weekends offer the best choices as many people spade on Saturday and then dump on Sunday.

This recent recovery mission resulted in five large clumps of day lilies. The leaves look very slender so I'm thinking they are not the common orange type. Most of the leaves had been cut off and at first glance, one might just see a clump of dirt. But many years of gardening means I have reached an early on unimaginable state of being able to look at the roots of most plants and pretty quickly identify the more common ones. I'll be excited to see what those clumps produce next July in my back garden.

I also snagged about 15 fairly large hosta, the common type with white edges. I already have a LOT of this, but they are so forgiving and so hardy and do such a great job brightening up a really shady spot, that I can always find spots to tuck in more. And I may, energy permitting, divide them into individual pips to trade through the plant exchange on Gardenweb.

Finally, this is the time many are tossing their geraniums and other annuals. I've had great luck keeping geraniums through the winter on a sunny window sill and then just putting them back outside in spring. They tend to drop leaves when they acclimate to the dry, furnace heated air, but recover and when they start sending out a few blooms mid-February, they are worth their weight in gold to a garden starved gardenista.

You may look at the picture of my van and ask, "Doesn't that stuff sometimes smell?" And the answer is yes, granted, true, affirmative, aye, you bet! This is what separates the obsessed from those who simply go to the plant nursery on the weekends, buy some tidy perennials that are actually potted and bring along a few sheets of newspapers just in case dirt spills.

The interior of my mini-van includes numerous old french fries wedged under the seats where Brandi can't reach them, dog hair that begins floating everywhere when a window goes down, dirt from various hauls that has made it into every crack and crevice, and accompanying this is a distinct malodor. As a result, I'm rarely asked to drive, even among friends and family.

So if your vehicle is not the spick-and-span type, you don't have especially high-strung olfactory senses, and you've got some garden spaces to fill, get yourself down to the town compost pile this weekend. It's the ultimate in recycling....

Happy hunting! Eileen

Our $2.57 lunch - pros and cons.

Still working on that list of 15 $2.00 meals. Today's lunch was scrambled eggs and toast. Here's the breakdown.

Organic eggs $3.49 per dozen - scrambled 6 so 1.74 in eggs.
Added 1/3 cup of organic milk. Milk costs .37 per cup, so .12 for a 1/3 cup
Whole wheat toast - .125 per slice so .50 in toast
Jelly - Fruit only - $3.49 for the jar, we used a tablespoon -Greg passed on jelly so .21 there.

Lunch costs $2.57.

Pros - fairly healthy, getting close to the $2.00 range.

Cons - I just saw Greg making himself a mammoth bowl of cottage cheese and pineapple chunks - may need to up the portion sizes for the big guy;-).

Anyone out there with great, easy, healthy, kid friendly two dollar range vegetarian meals???

Off to a two hour birthday party Kirk was invited to at an outdoor park on this chilly, overcast, wet Saturday.....can you guess I lost a coin toss to Greg?;-)

Saving $24,000 this year on groceries - slow going thus far.

I keep coming back to the fact that for every $100 we can shave off our monthly expenses, we can reduce the number we need to reach financial independence by $24,000 at a five percent withdrawal rate or $40,000 at a safer three percent withdrawal rate.

That's a strong incentive to look at the fat in our monthly spending and one area we still have a lot of waste is food.

I'm happy to report since my daily tabulations of the actual dollar value of our tossed food for a week in August, we have greatly reduced the amount we're throwing out. I plan to do another assessment week in October to get a more exact number, but I can see it's a lot less than it was.

Nonetheless, I read about some of these food challenges on various forums and am amazed at how little some people are spending on food. My goal for the month is to come up with ten nutritious meals that would feed our family at a total cost of $2 per meal.

I figure if I could build up a repertoire of 15 or 20 such meals, we would vastly decrease the amount we spend now and at the same time, probably eat even healthier.

So tonight I started and kept track of the costs. Here's the result. We didn't make the $2 cut-off, but it was an interesting experiment.

Spinach pasta and unsweetened applesauce was the meal. I made enough to serve four though my older son took one look and insisted he was only going to eat the applesauce (the PTA school movie night is tonight and they are offering free popcorn so I'm not too worried he'll go hungry). My husband, who came home too late to eat dinner with us, took one bite, then got some Romano and cheddar cheese and started doctoring it up, throwing off my calculations a bit. But the cook takes no offence;-).

Whole wheat pasta, $1.99 for the box, we used about 1/5 or roughly 40 cents.

2 boxes of spinach (frozen) $2.38

1/2 of one thirty cent onion .15

Feta cheese $1.48 for roughly a cup size container. I used one teaspoon to sprinkle on mine and one on Greg's. There are 48 teaspoons in a cup, so two teaspoons of Feta cheese ran about 6 cents.

Unsweetened applesauce is $1.99 a jar and has eleven 1/2 cup servings. We easily went through two cups (mostly Kirk) so .72 cents total.

Drinks were water and left over iced tea from a Panera Bread outting earlier in the week.

So the entire meal (not include Greg's doctoring) was $3.71 for four of us or 93 cents each. I won't call this a huge success as Kirk loathed it and I ended up hungry for a bowl of cereal later in the evening, but it's a start. And there's one left-over serving for lunch tomorrow.

I also want to acknowledge that we're blessed to be able to do this as an experiment. Greg and I, several years back, helped out at a food kitchen where there were easily a hundred people, many parents with small children, who might have gone hungry without the extra help that organization offers. I read in Nickel and Dimed (on NOT getting by in America) by Barbara Ehrenreich that often minimum wage workers who have an unexpected setback such as health problems and expenses, family crisis, job loss, etc. lose their homes and then live in shelters or out of cars.

All the things people with homes take for granted such as refrigerators, cupboard space to store bulk goods, stoves, microwaves, pots and pans, all the things that in fact make it possible to eat healthy and cheaply, are often not available to the mom or dad with two children trying to make it after some unexpected reversal.

Those of us having a snack in our own kitchens tonight, not far from a well stocked refrigerator, with loved ones, pets, or a good book at hand are the lucky ones indeed.

Eileen

No more dithering - 365 days full steam ahead - starting next Monday. Join me????

August 18, 2009, I wrote a post about this issue of going for the gusto or staying with a simpler life. I've been turning the thought over and over in my mind and it's now October. I'm tired of dithering and have resolved to go for it, full steam ahead, on those projects and ideas spinning about my head.

I'm going to take a few hours this weekend and type up a list of ten or so goals (some I've already started such as this blog), and then try to make progress, even if it's ten minutes, on each of those, each day. And I'm so excited to see where I will be October 5, 2010.

If a year from now, I find this new pace isn't for me, I'll just scale back and retool. But how fun to go for it, give it my all, for the next 12 months and just see what life hands back.

I would LOVE for any of you to join me. You can either post here or just start a blog of your own. There are so many great blog sites that are incredibly easy to use. If it's the right time in your life for it, tackle those dreams you've been keeping on the back burner and just commit to spend a wee bit of time each day on them, just until October 5, 2010. Not worrying about the end product, just enjoying the moments of creation. Maybe in the end it's not just what we produce, but what we become in the process.


In The Magic of Thinking Big, David Schwartz writes, "Excellent ideas are not enough. An only fair idea acted upon, and developed, is 100 percent better than a terrific idea that dies because it isn't followed up."


Maybe it's a book, a business, a dollar amount you want invested in a Vanguard mutual fund (and you think you might even be willing to work a second job to get there as long as it's only for one year), making two new friends, writing and singing a song for youtube (even if only your friends and family ever view it), learning to bake exotic desserts, speaking French or Spanish, getting to a goal weight(remember it took Edison over 700 tries to get the light bulb right, so if you're starting your fiftieth attempt to exercise, you're still going in the right direction and you WILL eventually make it), traveling to Italy (and being willing to go one year without buying new clothes to fund it), running a 5k, volunteering at a literacy center or women's shelter, running for a public office, training your dog to fetch, creating closer ties in your family or community, planting a garden or ??????????

So.......Judy, Canadian Artist, Dottie, Nay, Sib, Jill, Karen, Frances, Jess, My own dear wonderful Greg, eggbounder, Hayden, Stephanie, Daryl, barteringblog, Anonymous (each of you), Antoinette in Okinawa and Vixen from Britain, what do you think; is it a the right time for you?? Ready for one whirl-wind year??

If so, make your list, get a big piece of poster for your dream board, and meet back on Monday!

Best wishes!!!! Eileen

Furnace is out - fingers too icy to type tonight;-)

It was a crazy, busy day. I have four fun post ideas spinning about in my mind but I am very, very tired, and we have no heat tonight - service person arriving in the morning.

I was lucky to attend an amazing conference this morning which was the first venture capital forum exclusively for women-led life science companies. These women, who were all ranges of ages and backgrounds were breaking ground in an amazing array of companies. You had to sit there thinking "Women Rock!" And it made me think a bit of this song by Lee Ann Womack.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTQfERb9HVk

Best wishes to all for a goodnight! Eileen