Everything Goes in Circles

There is a reason they call it the circle of life. Everything is connected to everything else. There are so many of these loops in our lives that we don't always pay attention to them. If you are trying to live simply and have a joyful, enriching life experience, you might want to take some time to observe these cycles and see how many of them you can boost in your own Cottage Economy.

The first thing that comes to mind is keeping a few chickens and raising a little garden. Chickens and gardens do go very well together in our cottage economy, as long as they are physically separated by a good fence. For example, while most of you, living on really small plots of land, as in the city, will not be able to grow all the food for a few chickens, you can easily grow some. Collard greens are excellent and high in calcium which the chickens need in abundance to make their egg shells. Collard greens are also good for people for the same reason.

In addition the chickens will be quite happy to have any bit of weeds, vegetable peelings, and old, bug infested garden truck as you have time to toss over the fence. (Chickens love bugs and worms!) Chickens are omnivorous and opportunistic eaters. They well pretty much eat anything that doesn't get them first. I have even see a flock of chickens attack and eat a small snake. This means that if you scrape all your plates and about to go bad leftovers and feed them to the chickens, you will greatly reduce the amount of chicken feed you have to buy and of course you are sending much less garbage to the landfill. (Though of course I hope that if you don't have chickens you are putting all of your food scraps into your worm bin or compost pile.)

Then of course if you are raising red worms in your compost piles you have a perfect protein food for your chickens. In fact the combination of garden greens, plate scrapings and worms may mean that you won't need to buy food for your chickens at all.

Now take cleaning out the hen house. Deep litter is the recommended way of keeping your hens. This means putting down a deep, absorbent organic base in their house, straw, leaves, sawdust, fine wood chips, etc. This is best layed over a dirt floor or a layer of sand. Toss in some more dry, absorbent bedding each week as needed. The chickens will scratch and peck around in it, finding good things to eat. The mass of manure and straw will actually begin to decompose some and set up a beneficial bacterial culture which makes antibiotics. The chickens will pick up bits of this as they scratch around and it will help them stay healthier. This is a much better scenario, getting bits of naturally existing antibiotics than being kept in a wire cage with no access to dirt or bugs and being pumped full of antibiotics in their food just to keep them alive.

When you clean out the hen house (I usually do this about twice a year, early spring and early fall) and pile it up and wet it down you then begin another bacterial fermentation. The pile will heat up to over 200 degrees F. and in doing so will kill any weed seeds, insects and most 'bad' sorts of bacteria. (the ones that cause diseases).  Each time the pile begins to cool down you turn and water it a bit and it will heat again. When it quits heating up, it is safe to put on the garden.

Now that manure pile is composted and it will have a high nitrogen content. Perfect for growing lettuces, cabbages, collards and other leafy greens that need a lot of nitrogen. And so the cycle begins again; feeding garden greens, food scraps and earth worms to your chickens in exchange for meat and eggs on your plate.

At the same time since you now have some meat and eggs of your own and you have vegetables and fruit from your garden, you are buying less at the grocery store. Besides keeping some more money in your pocket, you are now bringing home less packaging. Food packaging is probably the biggest amount of waste going to the land fill these days. I know from experience that even when I have 5 people to feed, if we are mostly eating from our own place, my actual garbage going to the land fill is reduced to about 1 bag every two weeks.

So now take a look around and look at the systems and cycles going on in your cottage economy and see how you can tweak them to get the most benefit from them.

Don't Be A Debt Slave!

Why is it that Americans are (on average) only frugal when they are facing a big financial crisis? Then once the crisis is past they don't seem to learn from their mistakes, they just go right back to their over consuming ways. If they would continue to be a bit on the frugal side, they could avoid another financial crisis!

You must be responsible for your own security. You must provide for yourself and your family. There are many ways, large and small to do this. First, get rid of your consumer debt. As long as you have the rental place, credit cards and store charge accounts hanging over your head, you will never be financially free. These things make you a slave to your debt.

If so many millions of people had not taken on so much consumer debt then the recent financial crisis in this country could have been averted or at least would not have become such a big meltdown. If every American would pay attention to where their money goes, and live a bit more frugally, they could accumulate some savings. It has taken me a long time to get where I am, and I did it very gradually over about 10 years, paying off a lot of debt and as I was getting out of debt, when I got a little breathing room, I started putting some money in savings.

Today I continue to make a budget each month and try to stick with it. If you are deep in debt I would like to recommend two things that have really helped me a lot. How to Get Out of Debt, Stay Out of Debt, and Live Prosperously*:  by Jerrold Mundis was the amazing book that helped me out when I felt things were hopeless. I read his original edition and it has some very good advice and many helpful tips for beating the debt trap. He even tells you how to deal with creditors and how to negotiate lower payments and interest rates. This was my financial bible for about 8 years while I dug myself out from under a mountain of debt.

An important part of Jerrold's message is that things are going to be ok, at least in America there aren't any debtor's prisons. Through true life stories of ordinary people that were once deeply in debt he gives you hope. If they did it, so can you.


Then about 2 years ago I discovered YNAB; YouNeedABudget.com I had stopped paying attention to my money and had become overdrawn in two bank accounts. A few weeks later, searching for an easy budgeting tool that I could keep open on my computer, to help remind me to pay attention to my money, I found YNAB. Jesse Mecham's sound and simple financial philosophy gave me another boost towards my goal of financial freedom.

The first "rule" of YNAB is to stop living paycheck to paycheck. To accumulate enough savings so that on the first day of the month you already have all the money you need in the bank to pay all of your living expenses for the month. In practice this means that the money you earned in June becomes the basis for your budget and the money you will spend in July. Jesse calls this your 'buffer'.

Since I get paid every two weeks, regardless of the date, one or more times a year I have a month with 3 paydays. This happened the first time about 6 months after I found YNAB. I was really paying attention to my money and making a lot of progress towards my goals, but had not managed to get my buffer in place yet.  But during this 3 payday month, the first two paydays paid all of that month's expenses and then the 3rd payday became half of my buffer. In other words on the first day of the following month I already had half the money I needed to live on for the month. When the same situation rolled around a few months later I had my complete buffer in place.

The relief of having my buffer is enormous. No more running around on payday trying to get my check and get to the bank because I have to pay a bill and am in danger of something being turned off or repossessed. I love it. I don't even worry if I'm not at work on payday, I just pick up my check and go to the bank when it suites me.

And now when I have a 3 payday month I have time to think about what I want to do with the extra check that month. I am on the last of my debt, the line of credit on my house. It should be paid off about January of 2012. So I can decide if I want to make an extra payment on that bill or buy something I'd really like to have or put it towards my vacation fund. It has become a lot of fun to think about all the things I could spend a whole paycheck on!

And here's a couple of t shirts for you depending on where you are at!

DEBT SLAVE by maryhysong
Browse more Debt T-Shirts

Financially Free by maryhysong
Browse zazzle for a different t-shirt.zazzle

False Economy

To me false economy is when we do things too cheap. When we buy things from an extreme discount store where all the merchandise is made over seas with cheap labor. Well come on, why do we keep buying it? It is not only cheap, it is cheaply made. It will not last, it is going to fall apart about the first time you use it.


I don't know why so many people keep buying this junk. What a waste of time, money, resources. Better to wait a bit and save up and buy a better made, better quality product to begin with. If you think about it, there will be no antiques from this generation. It is all press board and card board. Most of this type of furniture and goods don't last even 5 years, let alone 50.

Why do you think our economy is in such bad shape? All our manufacturing jobs have gone over seas, where things are made with virtually slave labor. Help the American economy; buy American made products whenever possible, even if they are a few cents more. The job you save may be your own.

Help out a local business, buy used, vintage, antique furniture and goods. They might even cost more than a new piece, but if they are made from good solid wood, and are properly cared for, they will probably outlast you.

You could even learn to build it yourself. There are many plans and books showing you how to build things. Some are simple and easy for beginners, while others are more difficult. While not impossible for a beginner, they do take some knowledge of wood, tools and require a little more care and patience. But the satisfaction, oh that is wonderful. Who knows perhaps you will make a table or cup board or chair that is revered and cherished for generations in your family.
 

The Stillroom

The stillroom is something that has long gone out of fashion in most countries. Once it was a cool dry place where (usually) women worked. It was the place to prepare herbal tinctures and other home remedies. A place to hang cheeses to dry and cure. A place to brew beer, wine and cordials.

I love this book by Grace Firth and refer to it often. She shows you how without a  stillroom you can still have lovely stillroom treats. Home cured meats, preserves and pickles are but a few things she shares. Beer, wine, soup, stew, preserves, bread, they are all here.

I love her word pictures too of what's in her "stillroom" which is really just small scattered storage spaces around her home; the crisper drawer in the fridge, a cool corner of the cellar or a cool dark closet. Corned beef, pork and beef sausages, bacon, cheeses both fresh and aged, smoked and not. Would that she lived down the road that I could visit!

Some of you may wonder why go to the bother when you can pick up the same stuff at the market, can't you? The answer is yes, sort of. You see more and more nowadays what you buy at the store in a package is less than what you thought it was and much more about chemicals, preservatives, fillers and other additives to turn a bigger profit for the company. Some of these things we know harm our health and the rest are mighty suspicious.

Then there is the satisfaction of sitting down to eat and knowing exactly where everything on your plate came from and how it got there. To be intimately associated with the food you put in your mouth is divine. To remember planting and waiting (it seemed forever) for the carrots to sprout, then weeding and thinning them, watering them when it didn't rain, anxiously looking for the first signs they were gaining girth so you could pull some babies for dinner. There is great satisfaction in it all.

Besides, even if you are not able to raise everything you need, when you have the opportunity to acquire half a pig or a side of beef it is nice to know ways of keeping it without it taking up space in your freezer. Let alone the delight to the taste buds of something new.

And aside from all these, you will almost always save money and feed your family healthier food when you take the raw ingredients and produce the final product. Compare the price of beef jerky to the price of fresh meat (realizing of course in this instance the difference in weight is what, about 1/4?).

Two years ago I canned dozens of jars of green beans, both regular and some pickled. Of the pickled ones I had some with hot chilies added. So from my little patch of beans came several products, for very little cash outlay (since I've had my jars and canning equipment for years). Fresh beans, canned beans, Dilly Beans, Hot Dilly Beans. The list of things you can do is endless.

Well, I hope you enjoy Grace's book as much as I do.

Are you a maker or a buyer?

Now then, do you make most of your food at home or do you buy most of your food ready to eat at the market? Besides the extra expense is the way of profit to the grocery and the sales tax upon your purchase, there is of course profit to be paid to the company which produced the food in question.

By buying (or even better raising your own) raw ingredients you can greatly reduce your expenses. That 'hamburger helper' in a box is merely pasta with with seasonings. I'll bet that even if you are beginner cook you can make something that tastes at least as good and probably a great deal better.

To top it off, if you used your savings to purchase whole, organic foods, then you will greatly reduce the amount of chemicals of all sorts to which your family is exposed. It is my *personal opinion* that the great rates of cancer, arthritis, diabetes and even autism and other health problems are being caused by the chemicals in our food, air, water and soil.


Check about in any vintage, antique or even thrift shop and you will find a great many cook books. Look at the older ones, printed before 1950 or better yet, those printed before 1930, when convenience mixes and such first came on strong. In them you will find good recipes for good food made with simple ingredients.
While  you may not be a vegetarian, I do think you will enjoy some of Helen's simple, delicious and nutritious recipes.

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.