Taking Stock

summer squash from my garden

Well prodded by a readers comment (thanks for that, Nancy!) I am reminded I need to update a few things on this page.

This has been a terrible hot dry summer and even tho we finally got some monsoon rains, it wasn't nearly enough and my place didn't always get any even when it was raining by the bucket load just 2 miles away.

But the last few mornings have been much cooler and there is a taste of fall in the air. Fall in Arizona means wanting the heater in the morning and the cooler in the afternoon. Many summer crops, like the beans and squashes are still going strong, but I am making room where I can and seeding in the fall and winter crops. Gardening in the winter is much easier than in the summer and costs almost nothing once things get going. I've been going over my wish lists and gardening records and thinking about what I want to do next year.

The kitchen cupboards, Oct 2009

In 2009 I had a very large successful garden and did a lot of canning and pickling. This year the garden was a bit smaller and not as prolific and I have not canned much of anything. I decided this year to try and eat fresh from the garden each day, rather than do a lot of preserving. Some of the food in the picture, especially the pickles were still in the cupboard this summer. They have either been eaten or dumped as the quality deteriorates a lot after a year.

However, when the weather cools off I will probably can some jars of bean soup, potato soup, chili and chicken stock. These are great convenience foods that make life a little easier on hectic days.

The garden has been producing over 100 pounds of vegetables a month during June, July and August. With all the winter squashes September's totals could top 200, but I'll have to wait and see. 

Now I'm sure you are wanting to know a bit where I've gotten concerning the grocery budget, eh? Well I think I'm doing pretty good, actually. In July I spent $148.22 and in August I spent $149.08. In analyzing what I'm buying it breaks down into basically meat, dairy, fruit and marinated olives.

I can't do much about the dairy situation until I am able to retire from my regular job so I can once again have dairy goats. I have been finding wonderful deals on pork and stocked up a bit, but the meat category should come way down next month as I will have several ducks to put in the freezer. There may be a couple of young chickens to join them by December, depending on whether or not they are actually roosters. The marinated olives with feta are something I eat a small amount of nearly everyday; they replace regular salad dressing on my salads. I am on the look out for something similar to replace this with, as it is about $10 a pound and I usually go through three or four pounds a month. Right now I can't do much about the cost of fruit, except to stock up when ever I can when things are on sale, as the garden doesn't make much fruit yet.

In other financial areas things are going well, the line of credit on my house is nearly paid off and then I will only have my land payment and regular bills to pay. If you've joined me recently, I use a software program called YNAB or You Need A Budget. You can read about my experience with this software here. I've also written a bit about getting out of debt using YNAB here.

Now I have been spending money this summer, but not frivolously. I have been using it to set up infrastructure for the future; to make my future more independent of political and corporate situations and natural disasters. I am expanding the garden area, building up a poultry flock that will provide me with meat, eggs, and income through the sale of young birds and eggs. I am hoping next summer to be able to add pigs to the mix and or some meat goats. Which order I do things in totally depends on what falls in my lap first.

Right at the moment the poultry enterprise is running in the red, as there are a large number of young birds that won't pay for themselves until next summer. Also this is molting season for the hens and they don't lay well when they are molting. From 6 hens I'm only getting 1-3 eggs a day. But the younger girls should begin laying any time now, then I will have eggs to sell and they will begin to pay back the investment. By this time next year the poultry operation should actually be a money maker.

Nibbling Away at the Grocery Budget

Homegrown Salad

Right now I am nibbling away at my grocery budget.  I've just run some numbers and in 2011 I spent an average of $203.16 a month at the grocery store. In December, when my garden started really kicking in, I managed to only spend $119 for the month.

I am working on being more frugal with my money in general, making sure I've turned off the lights I'm not using, cooking on my airtight wood burning stove instead of using the gas or the microwave.

I've decided I want to really cut back on my grocery bill this coming year, partly by growing all of my own vegetables and some of my own fruit. (Fruit trees take several years to come into bearing, but strawberries only take 2 years to get up to speed and of course melons only take a few months)  While I won't forgo meat entirely I will probably have some meatless days each week, replacing meat with beans and other protein foods that are less costly. This months strategy is to use up the rest of the meat that is in my freezer as well as make a dent in 5 pounds of pinto beans that were given to me.

There are many ways to stretch your food dollars. I bought a large ham before Christmas on sale for .99 cents a pound. I cooked it and had several dinners & lunches of ham, sweet potato and applesauce. Then I made 2 gallons of 15 bean soup out of the leftover bits of ham and bone. Some of that is still in the freezer.

When whole chickens are on sale I try to get several. Each one makes several meals, first roasted chicken with carrots and potatoes, then either chicken and rice soup or chicken & dumplings.  When my kids were little and I either raised a lot of chickens or bought 12 or more on sale very cheap I would cut them up myself. I would save a couple whole ones for roasted chicken dinners. The rest I packaged for the freezer as boneless skinless breasts, legs & thighs for BBQ. The backs, tails, ribs, wings and necks all went into the stock pot and I would make 5 gallons of chicken broth and then can it in pints and quarts for later. I'd use the broth for gravy or as a soup starter. I think I need to start doing these kinds of things again.

So what's on your menus for this week? Tonight I've cooked a large pork roast, so pork, brown rice and salad tonight and probably tomorrow also. Tomorrow I might pull some carrots and beets to go with the  leftover roast. Maybe I'll make a pot of soup too.

This N That

Well I have been very bad! I overspent a bit on my vacation, though I will say in my defense that a great deal of it was bank fees that I hadn't counted on, first they charge for having to convert the transaction from foreign money then they charge for you for using a foreign ATM. Next time I think I will look into having the bank order the money for me ahead of time or something. The other part was not always converting Euros to USD in my head correctly.

But I had a great time in Italy and did a lot of drawing and painting and took like 3,000 photos. No I am not pulling your leg, I really did take about that many shots.

You can see a lot of my photos and some of the places I visited over on my art blog; check the archives beginning August 15th.

Since I've been home I've been working on getting the garden back in business and last week had my first harvest of beans, baby lettuce and baby beets. Photos of those are over at The Edible Garden.

I have decided to eat up a lot of the stuff in the cabinets instead of going to the grocery store.  I have some older canned goods and need to get them eaten up before they get too old. This is also stretching my money a bit so I can buy cement for the rock wall project; we have put culverts in the dry wash so we can drive over to the other side and I am building stone walls around them and along the creek banks to keep everything from washing away. Pictures of this is also on The Edible Garden.

Another thing I've been doing is writing up a storm at Squidoo and making new things over at Zazzle. One of my articles is a yummy soup that I make, Italian Potato Soup, that tastes just like Olive Gardens. I have also been making what I call the never ending pot of soup. For instance if I make a roast chicken and make chicken and rice soup out of the leftovers, when I get to the bottom of the pot I start adding more vegetables to it and maybe even a different kind of meat and just keep eating on it.  Another one I do occasionally is clean out the fridge soup. I just toss in all the leftovers that are in the refrigerator and cook them all up together. Sometimes you have to adjust the seasoning as it might be bland, but it's always good and always different and really doesn't cost anything because you weren't doing anything with those leftovers any way and they were going to go bad and end up in the compost.

How I Named This Blog 'Cottage Economy'

Some wonder why I named this blog Cottage Economy and where did that come from. Well, it comes from a book by the same title, written in 1833 by William Cobbett. Mr. Cobbett concerns himself with how poor laborers families in England and other countries can improve their lot by doing many things for themselves, by conserving their resources and in so doing give themselves a leg up.

In his introduction he gives us this definition of 'economy':

3. ECONOMY means management, and nothing more; and it is generally applied to the affairs of a house and
family, which affairs are an object of the greatest importance, whether as relating to individuals or to a nation.
A nation is made powerful and to be honoured in the world, not so much by the number of its people as by the ability and character of that people; and the ability and character of a people depend, in a great measure, upon the economy of the several families, which, all taken together, make up the nation. There never yet was, and never will be, a nation permanently great, consisting, for the greater part, of wretched and miserable families.

I love this book, so many wise things in it. It's been awhile so I'm going to re-read it. I've just discovered that you can download a free digital edition of it in quite a few different formats here.


But if you would like to own a real paper and board copy of
William Cobbett's Cottage Economy, there are several
different editions available.

Plugging the Leaks!

"It is not what we earn, but what we save, that makes us rich. It is quite as important to stop the leaks as it is to figure on big profits" Rolfe Cobleigh, Handy Farm Devices and How to Make Them, 1910

I so love that quote! You can read the book here When we take control of our lives and our finances and begin to scrutinize what will give us the best return for our time and money in every area we find those little leaks. Quite often the ailing business can be brought round with some cost cutting measures and a case of plugs. The same holds true for the family budget.

Where is your budget leaking? Remember all those dimes add up to dollars. Spend a few minutes filling a water bottle and putting it in the refrigerator, pack yourself a lunch, make your own pot of coffee. None of these takes much time to do but they will quickly plug that convenience store leak in your budget.

If you don't know how to hem your pants, patch a hole or sew on a button, don't you think it's about time you learned? These simple things can keep your clothes going a bit longer, they don't take very long to do, in fact I used to keep a basket with mending or some sort of sewing or embroidery by the couch and while the rest of the family watched the movie, I was sewing (or sometimes knitting). I was still enjoying the movie, but I don't have to have my eyes glued to the screen to follow the plot.

For some more money saving ideas check out my article at Associated Content.

Saving Money

I so so soooo love being in tune! I have procrastinated buying new shoes for several months and printer ink for a few weeks. In the meantime I got emails about sales & such and oh am I happy camper: inkgrabber.com I got an email coupon good for 20% off my order and free shipping on an order over $75 so I ordered 2 combo packs and have 8 black, and 4 each blue, red, yellow coming for only $78.38.


Then I got an email for shoebuy.com, buy anything and get $15 off any purchase over $60. Well my Sketchers usually cost around $60 so I went looking; a pair of Sketchers, usually $105, on sale for $79.95 so they only cost me $64.95 (shoebuy doesn't charge sales tax OR shipping!)

At both websites you can sign up to receive email newsletters which often have coupons or special sales that are not advertised on the website; you have to put in a special code at check out to get them. I don't buy these things very often but am really happy to get the specials when I do need to buy them!

Bit by Bit (Time Management)

Well, they say Life is what happens to you when  you are making other plans. Rather I think it's what happens when I get distracted from my goals. After more than 12 month hiatus I am working hard to get things back in shape around here. I'm still working full time, but I have managed to make all of the financial goals I've had and will become debt free around January of 2012.

A few days ago I realized that I had been majorly procrastinating in several areas. So I made up my mind that every day I would spend 15 minutes working on four areas of my life; my kitchen, my garden, decluttering the junk all over the house and my desk, paperwork and business affairs. So far I have mostly accomplished this for 10 days now (I did have a couple days where I didn't get all four done). (edit June 21, 2011 I have now been doing this for 23 days in a row and have begun another blog to chronicle this journey in living color. Come along for the ride at My Journey from CHAOS to Organized)

The result has been remarkable. The kitchen is clean and tidy which makes cooking healthy food and cleaning up after a breeze. The gardens beds are slowly appearing from under a forest of weeds and jungle of rubbish. I vow not to plant too much until I am home from vacation in September. By then things should be quite cleared up and ready to plant. My desk has slowly appeared from under piles of paperwork and filing. I had been slacking a bit about paying bills, losing them in the piles but am back on track now. And slowly boxes and piles are disappearing from the living room and studio.

I can't wait till I've kept it up for two or three months, it will be amazing. On another note, I recently refurbished a resin garden fairy and returned her to greeting duty by the front gate.

Refurbished Garden Fairy

I wrote an article with step by step photos if you'd like to read it go here: Refurbish Your Garden Art

Sometimes Making Do is Bad Economy

From Nov 11, 2009

Some recent events have me focused on doing things the right way instead of my usual slap dash and make do. I had some little hens for eggs and spent a lot of money buying some Buff Orpington chicks. The Buffs are a dual purpose heritage breed of chicken. They lay lots of brown eggs and  make nice meaty birds to eat. While not listed as endangered by the Livestock Conservancy they do need more breeders out there keeping them alive. [some older varieties of livestock have actually become extinct because people quit keeping their own farm stock]. Well 2 dogs attacks and a skunk have killed off my chickens. I have 2 left out of 20. So there went a lot of time and money down the drain as well as my future meat and eggs. [edit May 31, 2011 A few nights later another skunk got those last two. I, at least, was able to get the skunk. But these events took the wind out of my sails and in the time since I gradually let the garden and what not go. However, I am resurrecting things and coming back with renewed energy.]

What does this have to do with Cottage Economy? Just this, I made do in building my pens. I just slapped them together with just the thought of keeping the chickens IN and didn’t think about keeping other things OUT. I have learnt my lesson. In the future my animals will have secure pens and cages. In fact they are going to be living in Fort Knox. Because it certainly has not been an economy to make do.

This will mean more capital outlay in secure fencing and housing before acquiring an animal. But it will also mean that the animal will not be destroyed before it fulfills it’s destiny in my household. In the end it will add to my economy, not detract.