We made it in the LA Times!

After 10 years of work we finally made it in a big paper!

Check it out!

I just had to share this "moment". :-)

Tawra

Fixing Clay Soil

I wrote how we have horrible clay soil here. It literally took us over 30 minutes to dig one hole for a small 5 gallon tree! It's like digging in rock. Well we got several great suggestions! I have done some of this in a small scale over the years. Mostly just laying down newspaper with wood chips, compost, leaves and grass but these are some great ideas so I thought I would pass them along.
Thanks everyone! Tawra

Clay soil + scraps of drywall that you get for free from a nearby construction job, + grass clippings which your neighbors put out for the trash, = nice topsoil next spring, all for free.
Drywall you see is a mixture of gypsum and lime, a little paper of the faces, but all natural stuff that will not hurt anything. You should keep it wet while it is decomposing.
(I asked, how he did it. Tawra)
Whatever is convenient for you, the drywall gets wet over a winter and will decompose by next summer, if there is grass clippings in there it helps too, maybe a few kitchen scraps.
Lime and gypsum, is about 95% of the drywall, paper is the other 5%, all natural stuff.
I guess if you bust it up with a shovel it might decompose faster.

I learned this when I had to do a quick cleanup job after the drywall crew left a mess of scrap in my house, I just opened a window and tossed it out the window, planning to pick it up the next day..............well of course the next day it rained........and then it snowed.......
and by the time I got back to it next spring, it was almost all gone into the former clay soil.

I never could figure people spending so much money on fertilizer and water for their show place lawns, and then throw the clippings out in bags on garbage day. If you let the bags sit for a month or so, the clippings rot inside the bags, and really make good compost -- if you slice them open in front of the roto tiller.

Amazing what people toss out on garbage day. Cash, antique coins, jewelry, very expensive stereos from 30 years ago, a person can support themselves fairly well, and tax free too! Soon I might figure out how to start selling stuff on eBay!
Doug


We too have a have clay like soil here. Have you ever done something called Lasagna gardening? Do a google search, that's how I found it. It really does help build up the soil over a years time...without a whole lot of EXTRA work. Good luck to you with your gardening efforts. Roxie

Clay Dirt!
I hope I can help you. You wrote and told that
you have a lot of clay dirt. So do I, we live
here in Tennessee on top of a mountain and there
is very little topsoil and a lot of clay dirt.
Five years ago in the spring I went all out and
planted everything that I could find. I also so
used compost, humus and topsoil to improve the
dirt. It worked great on the larger plants that
needed larger holes. The smaller plants did
badly. I called a good friend of mine that
simply explained to me, that all I did with the
small holes was make inground clay pots.
(Duh!) The water had no were to go. I know now
that when I plant small plants I need to still
dig larger and wider hole, so that the water can
get away from the roots. I hope this will help
you this spring. Happy Gardening!!!
P.S. Love your web site.
Sincerely Trena

What I Learned from an Electric Bill

What I Learned from an Electric Bill
The Dollar Stretcher
by Gary Foreman
gary@stretcher.com

Sometimes finding out where your money is going proves to be an interesting journey. I remember a time years ago when I wanted to reduce our electric bill. It was summertime in Florida. I put the family on notice that we were going to reduce our consumption of electricity. And we did. Lights went off. Thermostats went up. My wife and kids were helpful.

The next month our bill came and it was down substantially! We had won! Of course, being a bit of a fanatic, I decided that we'd really attack our bill the following month. So I got even more aggressive in finding ways to cut power usage. This time my family began to grumble a little. And, they probably had a point. August in Florida is no time to see how little you need the air conditioner!

Finally the electric bill arrived. I was about to be vindicated! But, wait...what's this? The bill was almost as high as it was two months ago before we started all the energy saving moves. How could that be?

It took a little tracking but I figured it out by looking at old bills and doing a little detective work. In past summers there was always one month were our bill was lower than normal. And the following month always had higher than typical usage.

It wasn't until the following summer that I finally realized what happened. I just happened to be home when the meter reader came through our neighborhood. To my surprise they didn't visit every house. I can't be absolutely sure, but it appeared that in the summer they'd skip some houses and enter an estimate of usage for that house. They'd purposely guess low so that the homeowner wouldn't complain. Then the next month they'd read the meter and the electric company would get what they were due.

It was just a coincidence that the first month of my savings plan happened to coincide with the month that our meter wasn't read and a low estimate was used to calculate our bill. Ultimately we did find a way to reduce our bill. Our air conditioner was 12 years old. And even though it cooled, it wasn't that efficient. So we replaced it with a more energy efficient model.

Why do I tell this story? Because it demonstrates a lot about achieving financial goals. And, the many ways that you can sabotage your own efforts. So let's see what we can learn.

Are you sure that you know what you know? Sounds strange. It should. But the question is important. You're basing your decisions on certain assumptions. Are those assumptions true? In my case I assumed that the electric bill represented the amount of electricity we used the prior month.

Turns out that wasn't always true. At least not during the two months that I counted on. So I really didn't know what I thought that I knew. It pays to examine about your assumptions. Test them if possible. It's foolish to build anything on a shaky foundation.

Enlist your family to work with you. It's easier to accomplish a goal as a team. Because I made reducing the electric bill my personal mission, my family felt that their efforts were unnecessary. In fact, by nagging I probably pushed them into hoping that I'd fail.

Instead I could have asked them to help analyze the problem and set the goal. That would have made them partners in the solution. Not only would I have gotten help reaching my goals, but I would have created a teachable moment.

Look for trends, not quick flashes. Trends tell you a lot more about what's going on. They usually indicate an underlying, ongoing situation. If your bill goes up (or down) month after month, you know that whatever is causing it isn't likely to just disappear.

I went for the flash of two electric bills. One high and the other low. I would have been better off with a goal of reducing the bill by 15% over a 6 month period. I could have avoided using bad information to make a decision. And, any change in the way our family consumed electricity would have been much more likely to become permanent.

Sometimes you find answers in unusual places. I expected that turning down lights and adjusting the thermostat was the solution to lower bills. Then I thought it was the meter reader! Turns out that ultimately the answer was a new air conditioner. Don't be afraid to go where the leads take you.

Be prepared for mid-course corrections. It's easy to go in a straight line. Pretty much anyone can do that. But, if you're heading in the wrong direction you won't reach your goal. You'll need to adjust your course.

There's nothing surprising about that. If you take a driving vacation every so often you look at a map. You may find it necessary to change your route. That's just what we do with financial goals. We need to continue to collect information. And, then to take appropriate action based on what we've learned. New information led me to a couple of course corrections in my search for lower electric bills.

We finally did get a lower bill. A combination of turning off lights and a new air conditioner did the trick. It took us awhile, but that's ok. Not only did we reduce expenses, we learned a lot in the process!
______________

Gary Foreman is the editor of The Dollar Stretcher.com website and ezines. You'll find thousands of articles to help you stretch your day and your dollar. Visit today!

Cleaning forclousures

I am often asked how Mike got his part time job cleaning up dumpy foreclosures.
Our loan officer told us about it. Basically you just need to call realtors and loan officers and see if they have any foreclosures that need to be cleaned up and that you would be interested in doing it.

Tawra

BTW, after many requests Mike charges about $50 a hour. He bids on the price per house but that's what it averages out to.

Look all year.

One way to save a ton on Halloween costumes is to look all year. I found this one for David last year in the summer. He wanted to wear it for his birthday party so we let him and then he also used it for Halloween. I paid $1 for it at a yard sale.

Tawra

Cute kid picture.

I just had to throw in a cute kid picture. This was the first day of school. They were so excited. BJ and Elly went the first day and then David joined them the next week. BTW, BJ's outfit cost righ around $1.50. Not bad! Tawra

A day in the life.

We are having fun taking pictures now that I've finally figured out how to do it.

Here's one of Mike faithfully hauling compost for the new trees and lilac bushes. Our poor wheelbarrow sure gets a work out! This one we got at a yard sale for $20 but use it constantly!!

Of course I had to put in a "cute kid" picture of David watering my lilacs.













And I always get asked "How do you do it all when your sick? Well, I don't. This what I looked like at the end of the planting day and I didn't do any of the work! LOL We are trying to get some stumps burned on the yard so we don't have to mow around them. This one is going slow but sure!

Tawra

Oh Yum!

This is from Gwen. Thanks for sharing!! Tawra

Just passing on a recipe: I had a bag of
cinnamon donuts left over from a church gathering
that I didn't want to go stale on me. I recalled
that there was a can of apple pie filling in my
cabinet. I greased a dish with butter then
layered with donuts cut in fourths, poured a
little melted butter over that layer, added the
pie filling,another donut layer then a little
more butter. Heated in oven until bubbly. Pretty
good.

Great Grandma's Lilacs are happy!

After we got the compost Mike planted our new fruit trees and Great Grandma's lilac bush.

The lilac bush has a long history with us. Great Grandma gave a start to my mom 20 years ago. Well, mom has a black thumb! She could not get that thing to grow at all! After about 10 years it was probably 2 ft. high.

Well, after we got sick she had a friend's son mow the yard for us. One day he mowed it down! Believe it or not the next year it came up again.

Well, she moved that thing to Idaho when we all moved there and the silly thing still wouldn't grow! So I took it with us when we came back to Kansas and have had it in this pot since 2000! I have been nursing the silly thing along for all these years and almost killed it twice myself.

Well, last week we got it in the ground FOR GOOD and it is so happy! After only 7 days it already has new shoots on it! We divided it into 7 pieces to start a new hedge so I can see it off the back patio.



It's great to finally be settled some place after moving 13 times!!! I know I'm settled when the lilac bush is finally in the ground! :-) Even though I was really sick that day, I just had to take a picture with it!

Tawra

Gotta love Compost!

We went to the compost place the other day. Wow, I was in compost heaven!

I can't wait to get all of my plants in the ground. I was sick that day so Mike and the kids were so kind and picked up a load for me!




We don't have a pick-up so we put it in the back of the station wagon. LOL, I will haul anything in the back of my car! :-)
Tawra

Cleaning Off Paint

When we moved into this house. It was all freshly painted. That was wonderful. The bad part was when you pulled the curtains back they had painted some of the window trim too.

This drives me nuts! I hate to see paint on the trim. They always had the curtains down do they probably never saw it and it probably didn't bother them.





I love to have the curtains open and looking at it everyday was driving me nuts! :-)







Well, it was a very simple and easy fix.

I just wet a green scrub pad with water and scrubbed away! It was gone.







It took a little bit of elbow grease but not much and
each one was done in less than 5 minutes! Yeah!!

Tawra

Grandma Saved the Day.

Elly had been wanting to take gymnastics for a couple of years. Well this year we were going to give her gymnastics lessons for her birthday in January.

Well, 2 days before her birthday we caught her lying and so we told her that we were going to give that to her but since we can't trust her she is going to get something else. We told her that if she didn't lie then in the summer we would give her lessons. This has been a re-occurring problem with her so we had to do something drastic.

Well, we told Mike's mom that she would be getting lessons for her birthday so she got her a gymnastics suit.

With the move and everything we weren't able to get her into gymnastics until last week. In the mean time she had out grown the one she got for her birthday.

I have been watching at yard sales and the thrift store for a new outfit and just couldn't find one. I was feeling kind of bad because this did mean so much to her but I just hate paying $15 for an outfit she will wear a few months when I can get an almost brand new one for $1!

So I told she would have to wait and she was fine with that but I did still feel a little guilty that I couldn't find one for her. Well, Mike's mom sent a huge box of clothes that she had found at yard sales and thrift stores for the kids on the day of Elly's first class. Would you believe there was a gymnastics suit in it!!





God has such wonderful timing!!

Tawra

It's finally feeling like home.

Well, I got the fall decorations out! They look great even if I do say so myself! :-)

I made two new arrangements and am really glad how they turned out!

I love the fact that I can see them out the window from the dining room table.

I also have a scarecrow hanging by the front door. Those are fake pumpkins sitting by the arrangements.

I only spent $10 decorating the front of the house. Not a bad deal! Most of the stuff was from garage sales.

We are really starting to like it here. It's almost like a dream come true! I have always wanted to live out in the country and this is pretty close! It's great being close to the city but have the peace of quite of living out of town.

Mom and I worked for 6 hours yesterday trying to get the living room together. We finally got it! We even hung some pictures. It was hard to arrange and not perfect but it does look much better.

It's funny people say the kids don't care what stuff looks like. They are wrong! Kids care a lot. The kids were so excited to see the living room so nice and neat. They just love it! Clutter makes everyone cranky! I am inspired to keep going on the rest of the house now! :-)

Tawra

Always Ask!

I know I keep saying it over and over but always ask!

I have been collecting some "mostly dead but not dead yet" plants at Lowe's on clearance. Usually I'm a pretty good "reviver of plants" person but I had about 8 plants die on me.

Even though were only $1 each that was still $8. Well, Lowe's has a one year guarantee on plants. If they don't live, bring back your receipt and they will give you a refund. I didn't know if this applied to clearance plants so I asked.

They took back my clearance plants!! I couldn't believe it! Of course, I turned around and bought some more but they were on the mostly alive side of life so I'm sure they will do well! :-)

Tawra

Mike left town today.

His grandmother died last month and they are having a memorial service in Wisconsin for her.

The rest of us didn't go because the kids never knew her and we would have spent 4 days in the car to be 2 days there.

One good thing. He got to use our "new luggage" I got at an estate sale for $17! It's in excellent shape! I was so excited to find it. Our old luggage I got before I went to Europe the first time in 1986!! It's pretty tattered so I was glad to get a new set!

Here it is. Not bad for $17! Yes, that's our "shipping department" in the background. The office is in the master bedroom right now. :-)



Tawra

Head Lice Remedy Offer!

Hey Tawra!

The Back-to-School No Lice promotion starts Monday, Sept. 10 and will run through the rest of Sept.

Customers will receive over $80 worth of Free Bonus Gifts with their purchases. You can see all the giveaway goodies here:
supermomshealthandwellness.com


~Erica

Patio Furniture

I got my patio furniture painted. It's just like my grandmother's. I don't know why but I always liked it. It took 1 can of spray paint for each piece. I paid $20 for the set at a garage sale so for $25 I got me a patio set!

Now I need to just get some gardens out there so I can enjoy them while I sit on it and drink my tea!









This is the before. It was pretty rusty and the paint was falling off.




This is after. All nice and new. :-)


Tawra

I don't get it.

How are you supposed to get off sugar when you feel like this?



Augh!







Elly took these of me the other day as I was laying prostrate on the recliner. This was one of my finer CFS moments. I just wanted to strangle that doctor. It is so hard to fight off the urge to eat carbs when you have no energy and will do anything you can to get some, including eating a bunch of junk! Oh well, I will forge on.

Tawra

Good news.

We got an unexpected check yesterday for $579! They were still charging us insurance for our old house so they sent the refund. Yeah!! We are going to put it toward the septic tank. Only $7,600 left until it's paid off!

We started digging in the front garden and discovered that when they put the addition on they brought in clay soil! Augh! But we then found out that they compost place is only 2 miles from our house and it's free!!! So I am going to be filling up the back of the station wagon with a lot of compost the next few weeks! LOL

Tawra

P.S. Hey Colorado Cousins! I know you're watching us. Love, The Queen hehehe

My table is done!

Well I finished my table. I used Minwax poly and stain in one. I sanded it with BJ's help and then I put on 4 coats. In between each coat I let it dry 24 hours because it was really humid here. The I lightly sanded it with 400 sandpaper and wiped with tack cloth. We let it sit for 3 days until we used it too.

It looks so good that now the chairs look bad! LOL I'm not sure I have the energy to do the chairs. (See the above picture taken on the last day of the table refinishing)

The only thing was David had a metal world globe ball that broke in half. He proceeded to take and scrape it on the new table corner!! Augh!!! I keep telling myself that it's a sin to kill your kids! hehehe. It's not horrible but it's just the idea that I went to all that trouble and it was scratched up in the first week. Oh well.

Here are the before and after pictures!


Tawra

Back to School Sale!

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EVAC bag.

I've read that your husband is working on this video and I thought I'd pass along a little tip -

We had an old duffle bag that we were going to throw away. Instead I use it as my "EVAC" bag. In it I have copies of all documentation we may need (i.e., insurances, deed, car titles, passports, and account and telephone numbers for bank, credit cards, elec. co., telephone and other utilities). Some things are paper copies and others have been scanned onto a password protected computer disk (in case info falls into the wrong hands!) I also have emergency first aid, money, map of the State, discs which I have scanned all my important photos on, dog vet records and micro chip ID and other important items. I put everything that I would want to grab if I had 15 minutes to get out of my house. We keep this in the front hall closet, way in the back out of view (for obvious reasons!) on top of our emergency water supply. Now I can be out of my house and know that I have everything vital in 5 minutes.

The very best of luck to your husband on this project - it is a very, very important endeavor and more people need to be made aware of the seriousness of being prepared. Bless him.

Susan M.

Reading, MA

Reader Tips

These are from my friend Gary at the dollar stretcher.

Scratch Off Winner

I love to buy scratch-off lottery tickets, so I put an envelope in my room, and every day that I do not buy a ticket, I put $2 in the envelope. When this adds up to $100 or more I either apply it to my debt or put it in my savings account.
Mike M. in Greenwich, CT



Natural Syrups

How many times do you drain canned fruit and toss the liquids? Why not make flavored syrup for pancakes, French toast and waffles? Just add sugar, boil to make a syrup and store it until needed in the refrigerator. When draining blueberries to make blueberry muffins, save that liquid. Add a little sugar and boil, and you have blueberry syrup! We like to heat these syrups just before pouring them on our breakfast.
Dean H. in Illinois


Second Language Learning

Learning a language doesn't need to be inconvenient and it can be free! You can find some great free language tools on the Web, including free podcasts in many languages. There are interactive tools for vocabulary learning, flash card programs for learning new alphabets, and quizzes to test your grammar. Many schools and textbooks have additional resources freely available. Free membership at language exchange sites allows you to find language partners. You can chat, speak over skype, email each other and correct each other's language. Email groups also offer support and feedback. Some online teachers offer their services for free. There is much less of a need to attend a local class at an inconvenient time for a large fee when all these services are available on the Internet!
Kym


For the Ladies

Instead of purchasing special cream or soap for shaving your legs, just use the extra suds from shampooing your hair. It's quick and effective, and you get a "two-for-one" on the money spent for the shampoo.
Shelly in Tulsa, Oklahoma


My Choice

I buy plain yogurt by the quart and add my own fruit. I buy fresh fruit in season, and canned and frozen fruit on sale. I divvy up the fruit into small plastic containers (enough for several servings). Then I refrigerate one container and freeze the rest. This way, I get variety, and nothing goes bad before I can eat it. There is less sugar, and it's cheaper to boot.
Donna T. in Staten Island, NY


Slightly Used

If you are in the market for living room furniture, appliances, or even a big screen TV, seek out a rent-to-own store. Often, these items are rented a short period of time and are sold at less than half the original purchase price! My sister bought a refrigerator for $400 that was originally $1200. It had been rented out one time for one week. It was spotless when she got it home.
Gloria


Meat Loafettes

Instead of making a meatloaf, I make up my usual meatloaf recipe and put the mixture in muffin tins, filling each about 2/3 full. I can then freeze and place them into resealable bags to cook later or cook them now and then freeze for reheating later as needed. I find I can make my meatloaf last longer this way as I only pull out as much as I need and don't "guilt" myself into eating the remainder so as to not waste it.
LuAnn G.


Hard Water Deposits

I have hard water buildup on showerheads, sink faucets, etc. I tie a resealable bag that is filled with vinegar around the showerhead. It not only removes the hard water buildup, but also unclogs the showerhead holes.
JP


Inexpensive Entertainment

We came up with a fun, delicious and inexpensive way to entertain. We hosted a Homemade Pizza Party. We made homemade pizza dough with our bread maker in advance and refrigerated it and then prepared all the pizza ingredients (sausage, hamburger, cheese, olives, mushrooms, sauce, etc.) ahead of time. Everything was set out on the counter.

When everyone arrived, we gave everyone a pizza pan (yes, we made do with cookie sheets, jelly roll pans, anything that would hold a pizza crust) and everyone rolled out their own pizza and put on the toppings. We took turns baking them (three at a time).

While the pizzas were baking, we ate salad. Some of the guests had never made their own pizza before and it ended up being a very entertaining evening!

The bonus? We had fabulous pizza at a price we could afford, and we had great fun!
Colleen M.

Another Idea.

Mike was filming some stuff at home this weekend for his emergency preparedness video. One thing he said is to make a copy of your driver licence and keep them in your shelter or have them close to put them in your glove compartment if you need to leave in a hurry. Then if you get separated from your purse or wallet you may have a backup. Another idea is to give it out trustworthy out of state relatives to keep for you.

He said when Greensburg was blown away last May that people had a hard time proving they lived there to get assistance. After driving through this summer and see an entire town blown away I could why you would need assistance and also why you would need proof that you lived there.

Tawra