The Grassroots Living Thread

I bought my wife an automatic bread maker a few years back. I use it the bread comes out awesome... she uses it, well not so much. I don't know what she does but it always comes out like wood.

We are frequent visitors to Salvation Army and Habitat for Humanity stores. HfH can have some great deals on nice appliances. When Mrs. Plushbottom remodels her house, quite often the old stuff winds up there, and looks damn good.

Another thing I just started doing was I found some pretty kick ass recipes for spicy bean soup that you make in a crock pot. I'll make a crock pot full on sunday and eat it all week. Lunch for a week for less than $10.

No cable - Hulu and others provide my entertainment

Turn off heat during the day in winter - usually don't use heat unless the temperature in the room drops below 60. (Helps that I live on the 5th floor, so ambient heat helps.) I like cold weather, so doesn't bother me as much.

Open windows in summer - lots of trees and gets a fresh breeze. Rarely see temperatures over 70.

Eat out only one a week.

Cars are all paid for, sure I get E36 M3 from everyone for driving 15+ year old cars. But, atleast I am not knee deep in debt with a bling ride.

Cell phone is a family share plan with my parents/brother, I pay $0 on it and its a very basic phone/service.

My only debt is 18k for college, credit cards are paid off each month. I can subsist on what I make as a grad student. Each month I have a spreadsheet for where each dollar got spent and what the next month looks like.

Has anyone else bought food from this group?

http://www.angelfoodministries.com/

If not check out the web site, and find out if they have a distribution in your area. Its not welfare, and there is no real limitations on it at all. We used to buy from them almost every month, but for some reason not lately. Because of this thread, I will get back on that asap.
The only food we ever got from them that wasn't acually really good was a bacon wrapped fillet. It was rather chewey, but that was the worst. The rest is really good.

If anyone has any tips on getting the "swombo" to do little things like turn off a berkelying light switch, any one of them will do, or not make the rugrats 5x's the amount of food they will actually eat, then watch it be used as grenades, then stuck to everything till dad gets home to clean it up, that would be helpfull also! Thanks Paul

Does anyone grow their own food? Specifically vegitarians, like you, Hess.

We keep thinking about it, but have no real space. But I remember when I was a kid, we had a big food garden in our back yard- and seed is pretty cheap, relative to what it makes. You can do composting for cheap, and supplament that with city based compost, too.

Some of the stuff lends well to different preservation types, too- fruits can be made into jams and jellies (and wine, depending), veggies can be canned or processed into sauces, etc. And of course, there's always freezing.

But the best of the best potato and corn were the ones we dug up or picked fresh.

Also, I saw a little think on "Victory Garden" where you pair up crops at the same time in the same space- for instance peas and corn. They grow well together, and the peas are done well before the corn casts a hard shadow on them....

Anyway, just a thought. Growing Strawberries can save $5/week if you eat enough of them.

Eric

John Brown wrote: I bought my wife an automatic bread maker a few years back. I use it the bread comes out awesome... she uses it, well not so much. I don't know what she does but it always comes out like wood.

That's because cooking is an art but baking is a science. There's an element of precision involved. Otherwise, certain important ratios get out of kilter and the net result is wood-like.

Great stuff in this thread but nobody mentioned the substantial discount most power companies give for power usage between about 10:00pm to 7:00am. Our appliances have timers on them so dish washing and clothes washing happen at 3:00am. Only the fridge runs during the day.

We're lucky to have Armenian markets all over Glendale offering locally grown (CA and Baja, Mex) produce for about 33 percent of the chain store price. They also get great prices on dried beans and pasta. The only reason we go to the chain markets are cereal, milk, toothpaste, and Tylenol.

My wife shops in consignment stores and we both own cars in plentiful supply at the local Pick-A-Part. I bought my current ride for the price of two parking tickets ($130) from a woman who bought a newer car and had to jockey the old one around her neighborhood all the time to avoid parking tickets. It takes a little more work to live cheaply but it pays in the long run.

alfadriver wrote: Does anyone grow their own food? Specifically vegitarians, like you, Hess. We keep thinking about it, but have no real space.

I have a very small rear garden - about the size of a car park space. About 1/2 has been turned into a patio by the previous owner, the rest is taken over by the 'decorative' plants. So, it's small.

I tend to grow some vegetables that I like and that are much better fresh. All of them are grown in pots that I shove around the patio. I had plenty of tomatoes this year, plus I almost drowned in rocket salad. Couple of pots of shallots worked out well, too. Oh, and some herbs, too.

Regular lettuce was a flop, as were peppers and cucumbers - I guess the pots were too small.

I'd definitely have a vegetable garden again if we end up with another house with a garden. My wife loves picking up fresh vegetables and fresh herbs from the garden, too.

Hey Jerry, I graduated from Glendale High, there, homie, y0.

alphadriver, I've had a garden in the past, (distant past), but haven't for maybe 20 years. It's hard to have a garden when you work 500 hours a month and your one day off you have to replace whatever fell off the 220D. That was my life for a while, and we got out of the habit.

Some bread machines are more sensitive than others. We had a Sanyo, I think, that would take just about whatever you put in it and make good bread. All the others we've had are pretty sensitive to the water amount, down to adjusting for the moisture content of the flour. Different batches of flour might require a different amount of water, by as little as a tablespoon +/-. Always use the same measuring cup and fill it to exactly the same mark. Adjust from there. If the top falls in, back out 1 tablespoon of water, for example. If it doesn't rise enough, add a tablespoon and/or some more oil.

Here's something I learned from the internet (an off-grid living forum) and it works for me personally.

During warm weather seasons (i'd estimate if the temp outside is 60F or warmer...) I crank the water heater down to pilot-light-only. For someone like me who doesn't need a hot shower, it works great. The pilot light gives off enough heat to warm up the water to a comfortable temperature for a shower. The pilot light is running all the time anyway. I only take one shower a day, typically...so the "recharge time" is not an issue. And if it's hot enough out that I need to take more than one shower, I'm barely using any "hot" water anyway...

That said, I don't replace tank-type water heaters. I use tankless gas units and they work well.

If you have a basement and need a dehumidifier, set the humidistat to "constant" and run it on a timer so it will only run during off-peak electric hours. Adjust the timer if it feels too wet or dry. It's 90% as effective (if not more in my case) and will save a bucket-load off your electric bill.

Dr. Hess wrote: alphadriver, I've had a garden in the past, (distant past), but haven't for maybe 20 years. It's hard to have a garden when you work 500 hours a month and your one day off you have to replace whatever fell off the 220D. That was my life for a while, and we got out of the habit.

That's kind of the reason my wife isn't exactly encouraging me to do it, either. Spend enough time under the Alfas to really do a good gardening job. and I still have not harvested any grapes that I am growing. Maybe I'll do it this year.

Still- for those who have time/space- seeds are cheap. And if you learn how to harvest seeds, even cheaper. I like the idea of container growing BHT, we've got a lot of those lying around, maybe I'll give some of those a shot.

Eric

When I was a kid, my Dad would plant a full acre as his garden. He had a high stress job, and this was his outlet. He grew a lot of corn, cucumbers, tomatoes, swiss chard, radishes, and more. That garden fed us well. Best corn and tomatoes I've ever had. Many a dinner was just a tomatoe salad and fresh boilin' ears. Had a next door neighbor once that grew zucchinis , and always gave us a bunch. Good stuff. We have not been very successful here with gardening. Herbs are about the only success.

I did get my wife a HF green house for Christmas, using the GRM 20% off coupon, of course. Part of the problem we have where we are is that the deer, 'coon, 'possum, squirrels, fox, birds and who knows what else mean that any outside garden has little chance of growing to harvest. That and I only have a small amount of actual dirt, the rest being rocks.

Average winter nights our thermostat is set to 64, really really cold ones might send us up to 66.

My 1200sf McKidRockMansion could use better windows and doors but the walls and cieling are pretty well insulated.

Why rent when you can buy a trailer? Look for a sturdy older 14x70 mobile home and buy it for $5-10K, pay it off and when you have an extra 30K saved from your GRM lifestyling sell the KidRockCondo to someone else for $5-10K and couple that dough with your savings into a real house.

It's been a while since I've shopped cars, but IIRC, small pick up's usually had very low insurance costs- is that the same?

While not exactly fun cars, a cheap to own car seems to be a 4 cyl Ranger or the like, right?

But at least there is a magazine that does events if you can spare $150/mo for the vehicle.

E-

One of the things that saved me a ton of cash was VOIP. My family and friends are distributed all over and my phone bills were $150+ every month. Reduced to $24.99 with no issues in 5 years. Obviously this assumes broadband and there is a cost there - but atleast for me/work that was unavoidable anyway.

Also... if you have multiple vehicles make sure you call the insurance company and list them all as less than 5k miles/yr. Its good for a nice chunk of savings over the default.

The girl friend and I are actually in the process of starting a garden at the new house. We have a very large yard and are dividing up some areas for growing various things. We will have one large garden plot that will include corn and the like. We have another area where we will be growing water melons, a box for herbs and the like. We have also discussed putting in a fruit tree or two as well.

Our property has its own well that is fairly decent though I may get the house on city water this spring and save the well for the yard and garden. We also plan on collecting rain water for water purposes as well.

We live in a community where the two largest industries are farming and logging. Lumber prices have taken a E36 M3 so there are tons of out of work loggers willing to go up and cut wood on the cheap. Great for keeping the house warm and while we have a gas fireplace in living room I'm thinking of putting a wood stove back in (use to have one there). There is also a fairly decent farmers market and always good fruit and veggies available. We also have ability to buy beef directly from some rancher friends, normally buy it by the half and it lasts over a year.

I want to live not just exist so my efforts are more feeble.

I buy good house brands and brand names for others - the taste of the food is more important than price.

I buy Blue Bell ice cream. It's great and it still comes in half gallon containers so it's not really any more expensive than house brands. With that said Walmart's house brand is pretty dang good. Better than all but Blue Bell.

We cook a lot but we do it well so it's usually not any cheaper than eating out.

Wastage is a big problem with cooking yourself. You buy fresh food for meals and then schedules get changed and you can't cook and by the time you can the food's gone bad.

When I eat out I never eat Pizza unless it's from a buffet. The local Mama Rose's Taco house has a taco meal for $3.33 every Tuesday and my wife and I share one. We simply can't eat as much as we used to so we share most meals.

I have a burger place I like where they are good enough I don't mind spending $5 for a burger.

We combine several trips in town in to one.

Costco and Walmart have some fabulous house brands. Walmarts chunky style soups beat Campbells any day of the week. Costco house brands of food and everything else are always at the top of the list in Consumer Reports and I've found them to be equal to or better than most of the brands on the shelves - and they are less expensive.

Sam's house brands aren't nearly as good as Costcos and besides Sam's parking slots are much narrower so your car is more likely to get dinged.

Costco bakery items are also moister and tastier than Sams.

Both Sams and Costco have super cheap hot dog or pizza meals for $1.50 - $2.50 DRINK INCLUDED. So anytime I'm heading near there I'll eat there. At that price I'll even eat a hot dog and try not to think about things like pig eye lids that are in them.

cwh wrote: We are frequent visitors to Salvation Army and Habitat for Humanity stores. HfH can have some great deals on nice appliances. When Mrs. Plushbottom remodels her house, quite often the old stuff winds up there, and looks damn good.

I have noticed that thrift stores are much busier and more cleaned out these days. Prices seem to have been shooting up recently too, darn economy ruining all the good deals.

Thanks to all on this thread.
I have little to give but have taken a lot!

I was away from the computer all day. You all have been very busy on this topic.

Planning and shopping are my keys. Remember only 298 shopping days till Christmas! Ever have a garage sale Christmas? Should have seen the look on the sister-in-laws face when she opened her $5 antique cast iron bird feeder.

You would also be amazed at the free, new stuff you can get. Light bulbs, air filters, oil, spark plugs, etc.

Check locally for garden exchanges! My nephew started one in his neighborhood and they meet every so often to discuss who needs help, where to find canning supplies, butchers, all that stuff.

I get by with a little help from my friends too!

Tonight I used my friends chainsaw (I paid $41.00 for a tune and sharp), brothers truck and strong back, neighbor wants the big wood so him and his boys used my $20 garage sale chipper that THEY did a tune up on.

Don't get caught in the buying or selling in a hurry game. We all know "motivated seller" usually means cheap Being a motivated buyer is usually expensive too.

Bruce

I am making more money than I ever have, and I am spending more than I ever have...and that is the way I like it! life will be cheaper when the Supra is done...that thing is costing me lots of moneys.

Carguy pretty much nailed it for me. Other than we have different tastes in ice cream, I prefer Breyers.

Where I save money is interest.

Car payments. BTDT and it will never happen again. All of our cars have 150K+ miles on them and are over 10 years old. They won't be replaced until they die horribly deaths. If the wife needs one for a long trip we rent one for $10-$15 a day. It's a lot cheaper than a car payment. The next ones will be bought with cash.

Credit Cards. BTDT once and it will never happen again. The only payment I have is a small house payment. I don't even have a credit card. I run my business on cash as well. With a little planning the interest will come to you rather than from you.

Not having payments due at the end of the month also helps me sleep at night. It's amazing how free you really are when you don't have debit hanging over your head.

I just sold my pimp cup

seriously..

Make your assets greater than your liabilities... Anything that doesn't put money(directly) into your pocket is a liability.