The Basement, Oh The Basement!

The Uncluttered course is now complete. I've a few posts left to write to wrap up my experience. In short, it was a wonderful experience and I am thankful I did it. The next round is Sept 5th. I'll have a discount code for you around the end of August! I plan to take it again, (hopefully, with my mom).

But first --my crowning achievement-- the basement!

As the weeks went by, the basement just got better and better. No matter what area upstairs we were focusing on in the course, I would come down here and work. Things which had survived many past purges got taken upstairs and taken away. I am absolutely thrilled.

I started my decluttering for the course down here. And that means pictures! Before and afters! My favourite.

The view from the bottom of the stairs looking at the back wall:

From left to right: The white shelf unit held home decor items and the last of the homeschooling books. I donated them to a lovely woman who had lost a lifetime of homeschooling books and supplies in a devastating house fire last year.

With some space freed up, I put a few dishes down here from the kitchen clear out to see if we can live without them.

Those blankets are protecting our new windows for the bedrooms upstairs. We will save some money by staining, varnishing and installing them ourselves.

The pine dresser and the black shelving unit hold various scrapbooking supplies.

There's my exercise ball and underneath it, my 12"/1" miniature townhouse. I am not sure whether I will ever finish it.

To the right, out of frame is my husband's workshop. I don't touch it--or photograph it. That's totally his domain! But I am happy to say it is in relatively good shape.

To the left is the Wall o' Shelves.

Some cubbies I decluttered, others I left alone. I went through the bins of fabric and home decor. I didn't touch the memorabilia. I also left the photos alone: but I have a project in mind that once I'm done will see more than half --and dare I hope? 75%-- of those photo boxes gone.

I would like to pare down our luggage, too, but I doubt my husband would agree.

(No, the table is not longer. I turned it lengthwise to make more room for our bags of recycling (blue) and bottles and cans (clear).)

Turn left again and you're in the "game room." I did ask the boy whether we could get rid of this TV (and some of the Lego pieces) but he said, "no," even though the Xbox is now upstairs (and very infrequently played. Still, he and his father still enjoy a game from time to time.)

I made room for this piano. It's well-traveled! It belongs to my Mom. We borrowed it for years and it had pride of place in the living room while the kids took lessons. When the lessons were finished, we returned it to my Mom. A few months ago, we took it back when Emma said she wanted it in her room. No sooner did we haul it over and all the way upstairs when she declared it "too big" (it was) and she wanted it out. I doubt anyone will ever play it again but Mom is not ready to let it go (and be useful to someone else) so I'll store it here for a while.

Isn't that cozy? The picture over the piano used to be in the living room. It is one of the first things Chris and I ever bought together. I'm glad it is on disply again. That's the flooring leftover from the bathroom. We had to buy an an ginormous piece of it. 

Going through some art I had stored on top of the wall o' shelves, I came across a few pieces Ben had done when he was around four or five. I'd gone to the trouble to frame them way back when, so I decided to hang them in here with a few other pieces I found. After all, if we were going to keep it, we may as well enjoy it!

I am still struggling to put into words the uniqueness--or the difference, if you will--between this decluttering program and others I've participated in. As I went through my buckets and bins and shelves the interior monologue was something like this: "Am I using this stuff? No? Why hang on to it then? Could someone else get value from it?" And I think the difference I am seeking is right there in that last sentence. There was a whole lot of awareness for me of other people and how they may be blessed with my things. Decluttering became this huge act of giving. And so it was easy --and fun!

And then there's the laundry room:

and look at that: stuff in the donation station! I'll take that out Tuesday. I wonder if I can scrounge some more to go with it? I bet I can!

Aaaaaand, last but not least, the area beside the stairs: the painting supplies.

aaah, that's so much better!

Of course, I am under no delusion that this is it, that for once and for all, the basement is done! No. Things change. And when they do, stuff comes down here to die. So, it will get cluttered up again, I suspect. But you bet I will enjoy all this space as long as I can!

Make Ahead Meals: Bye bye Pizza Night

The Set Up

A long, long time ago, I used to plan all of our suppers for the month. This was so I could shop for all of the meat and pantry items we needed during Safeway's Customer Appreciation Day. We would get 10% off the entire grocery bill. Now it's 15% and I'm even more interested in saving money than I was then, so I sat down earlier this week and planned two weeks plus everything we needed for the Make Ahead Meals. (All of our other shopping trips will be at other grocery stores so I can compare prices.)

The Rationale

It's summer. And while I normally love to cook, I am not a fan of spending any more time than absolutely necessary near hot things--like a stove--when it's summertime.

Eating out--or, more likely in our case, ordering out is expensive. And it doesn't help my waistline, either! So, the only way to beat the heat, save time (and money) and stay mean and lean--is--you guessed it--to make meals I can re-heat quickly or throw in the crockpot.

Because I am an excessive planner, I sat down with my work schedule and figured out how many of these meals I'd actually need--and then I doubled it (sort of).

The Recipes

Lentil Butternut Squash Curry x2
Cilantro Lime Chicken x2
Slow Cooker Turkey and Black Bean Chili x2
Mediterranean Eggplant x1
Spicy Peanut Chicken x2
8 hamburger patties

We've eaten all but the Spicy Peanut Chicken before. That one is from a recipe I found in a book from the library. Any Peanut Chicken recipe would do, really, as it is essentially cooking the meal and the freezing it, just as you would left-overs. The rest of the MAMs are all assembled, frozen, and then thawed and dumped into a slow cooker. Easy peasy.

The Assembly

"I made thirty meals in four hours--and then I didn't dread dinner-time any more."
Most blogs are full of cheerful statements like this one.
Not this one.

I may never set foot in my kitchen again.

I set everything up (well, what I thought was everything) and began. I honestly expected I would be able to chop and assemble everything the same day. I had only one small problem--I needed black beans-- but I hadn't cooked them yet. And then I realised I didn't have enough spices for everything. I had to make a late night run to Walmart for paprika, chili powder, and parsley flakes. Of all the stupid things.

This shows them after they'd soaked for a couple of hours. I put them on the boil while I chopped the squash.

The squash nearly killed me. It seemed I chopped forever. And of course, I had to make dinner, too.
At the end of Day 1, I'd made only two of my recipes. Just before bed, I realised I needed to cook even more black beans.

On Day 2, I was pretty anxious to get the meat based meals out of the fridge and into the freezer. I took the beans I'd soaked overnight and started cooking them. As I had to leave for work at 5pm, I'd also planned a crock pot meal for supper with some really old chicken backs I'd found while doing my freezer inventory. Thawing and deboning those took a solid hour. So, after about three hours in the kitchen...with temperatures rising by the hour.... I'd managed to make only one of my Make Ahead Meals, the slow cooker Turkey and Black Bean Chili (which is awesome, by the way).


The third Day I was desperate to get the remaining chicken breasts and ground beef into the freezer. The Spicy peanut stir fry was time consuming, but very simple.

The burgers were messy--but also simple. Apparently, the key to homemade burgers is not to man handle the ground meat too much--and to dimple the center of each patty. My husband was quite disappointed we weren't having any for dinner that night.

Finally, finally, late today I made the Mediterranean Eggplant.

So, now I am all set for those night's when I am not home to cook--and the morning's are too rushed to make anything.

Bye bye, pizza night.


More MAM's:

New Leaf Wellness has several recipes and free batch cooking/assembly instructions.

5 Dinners 1 Hour is a batch cooking meal plan site. There are some recipes for free.

Thirty Handmade Days has quite a few original recipes. Looking forward to trying them.

Once a Month Meals is another meal plan site. All the meals are freezable, though. I tried a few of their free plans but didn't really like it. I also found the way they constructed the prep lists confusing.

Happy Money Saver Mom has many different kinds of Make Ahead Freezer meals, including some that can go into the crock pot.

Self Magazine has some really delish looking MAMs for the crockpot.

eta from the comments: Living Well Spending Less has an 11 part series, each one with five recipes made twice for freezer to crockpot cooking. I'm linking to Part 11 as it has all the previous parts linked on the page. (Thanks Marie!)

The Musical Fruit: Saving on the Grocery Bill.

Our single largest expense, by far, each month is our grocery bill. It eats up about 15% of our income--net income. That is more than we should be spending--even given the higher price of food in Canada. (source)

So, one of the first pieces of advice you get when you ask "how can I save money on my grocery bill?" is "Buy dried beans. Not canned!" But how much do you save, soaking, cooking and freezing your own?

And so, needing kidney beans and chick peas (alias garbanzo beans), I bought a two pound bag of each.

I was so excited about cooking my chick peas, I forgot to get a picture!

I asked Google how to cook them, and ever helpful, it offered me several methods. I portioned out a pound. Then, I chose to rinse them, boil them for 10 minutes on medium, change the water and then bring them back to a low simmer until they were done. (I tasted them.) I was anxious to get this done.

Then, I carefully measured them out into a pint mason jar (in the past, I figured out that a pint holds the same amount as the cans I usually buy.)

I would have preferred to freeze them in the jars, but I don't have enough.

I got 3 "cans" from one pound.

So. The bag of chickpeas cost me $3.39 at Safeway.

Assuming I'll get the equivalent of 6 "cans" of beans this way, each "can" costs $0.56 1/2

I made sure to price check the can of chickpeas I usually buy. They were $1.79 at Safeway. That seems like lot.  (I rarely, if ever, buy them at regular price, though. I usually get them on sale and stock up.)

So, my "homemade" beans are 1/3 the price.

An instant 66% savings on our grocery bill!

I wish all of it could be that simple.

Introducing Uber Frugal Month

The next step towards a more minimal, no, scratch that, a more intentional life, seems obvious to me: get a handle on our finances and get out of debt.

As well, our situation is dicey. My husband is losing his job some time this fall and, I confess, it is freaking me out not a little. There are all sorts of complications with the timing of it all, his pension (and cuts to it depending on various scenarios which we are still trying to work out) and the severance package. The fact that we are thisclose to the warehouse shutting down and no one has answers for us is maddening to say the least. One thing we can pretty much count on, unfortunately, is that it is not likely he will be employed again at anywhere near the wage he is getting now.

This is the rainy day we should have been preparing for--and we haven't. So, rather than learning to be frugal proactively, which we should have done--we are going to do it reactively.

But we are going to do it!

I am not sure what to expect.

I just wanted to put this out there so you can have a chance to join up as well, if it interests you. Every day during the month of July, starting on the first, the blogger behind Frugalwoods will be sending out prompts to encourage u to be, well, uber frugal.

We had some homework to do prior to starting. Here is mine.

Step 1: Establish your goals.

1. Why are you participating in this Challenge?

 I want to get a handle on our finances. I need some help and support to spend less.

2. What do you hope to achieve?

At the end of the month, I want a clear do-able plan for living uber-frugally until our debt is gone, no matter what our income may be.  (Yes, we did Dave Ramsey. No, we were not gazelles.) Specifically, I want to see my way clearly through Steps 4 thru 10, below.

3. What are your long term life goals?

 I still want to travel. I'd love to take hiking and biking tours in Europe, Iceland and the U.K. If I dared dream big, I'd say Thailand, too, or another equally exotic location. Dreams. Dreams are nice.

4. Where do you want to be in 10 years?

I want to be in a small house by the sea.

source

5. What about your current lifestyle might prevent those goals from coming to fruition and what can you do about it?

I think I spend money mainly for convenience and to treat myself, food-wise. I also use money to indulge my love for creating, designing, and decorating.

Step 2: Review last month’s spending.

Done. I used to track our spending. I haven't in a long time. Funny, there's a direct correlation between how much we save to how much I track. I guess it really isn't funny at all. 

Step 3: Categorize your expenses.

Fixed Mandatory Expenses. Yep. Got 'em. Surprisingly, they only make up about 20% of our income. 

Discretionary Expenses (everything else.)

Step 4: What can I eliminate entirely?

Eating out and snacks

Clothing (for a while)

Entertainment

Step 5: Embrace the art of substitution.

The idea behind this frugal step is to substitute something free for something you are paying for. So, for example, I do pay the city a certain amount to use the pool for my aquafit classes. I try to go once a week. I love aquafit. 

Step 6: Reduce spending on discretionary expenses.

I could shop for groceries at a cheaper place than Safeway, I'm sure. 

Now that I've lost a bit of weight, I'm looking into paying a little less for life insurance, perhaps.

As for our utilities, I have this little project in mind for a spot in our basement:

I am hoping the challenge can help with this step.

Step 7: Empower yourself to insource!

The idea with this one is to stop paying other peopleto do things for you. Do them yourself. So, these are the things we paid other people to do this month: 

• repair the Jeep
• make two windows to replace our bedroom windows which are failing.
• prepare food in restaurants so I (or someone else) didn't have to cook.
• repair teeth (the dentist)
• align the body (the chiropractor)
• cut hair 
• teach me what to wear, and how to declutter. (two on-line courses)
• groom the dog

Hmmm, that seems like a lot all written out that way.

Step 8: Examine your habits.

Someone needs to be taking shorter showers, ahem. Again, this is an area I hope will be easier for me to see and thus do something about by the end of the challenge.

Step 9: Plan ahead.

Yes. Keeping up the meal planning and grocery shopping is de rigeur and it would be wise to add in what I plan to eat for lunch, too. I should also talk to the teenagers about this. 

We could also seriously cut down on the number of trips we make to the grocery store. We made over 25 visits to Safeway this month alone--only two were large weekly shopping trips with responsible lists. Not really sure what's going on there.

Step 10: If you do buy stuff, get it used (or cheap!)

This is an area we do not do well in, I admit. But, I have promised myself that I will go to Value Village for temporary clothes while I am losing weight. Of course, I say that, and yes, I did buy a pair of shorts there this month--but I also bought two T-shirts, a pair of capris and a dress--at a regular clothing store where people bring you alternate sizes to try on and you don't have to wait in line for a change room. sigh. Frugality is hard.

Step 11: Banish excuses.

I take it back. 

Major Lifestyle Changes

This whole section of our "homework" seems a bit premature and since this post is already too long, I'll spare you my thought processes for now. In brief:

1) Do you need to earn more?

Yes. We will.

2) Would moving help?

No. The house is paid off. We will move, eventually, and that will help substantially but that won't happen until the youngest finishes University--in about 5-6 years.

3) Should you get rid of your car (or one of your cars)? 

We would have to be pretty desperate for me to live without a car again.

4) Are you paying to work? 

No.

Conclusion

I am going to give the penultimate word to Mrs. Frugalwoods:

The crux of successful, joyful frugality is spending in service of your goals and on the things that matter most to you. By identifying what you want out of life and eliminating spending that doesn’t get you to that final destination, you will succeed.

I only wish I had started down (and stayed on!) this path long, long ago. 

We'll see what happens.