frugal living

Howard and I signed our income tax papers today. We’re getting a return. It is larger than I’d been anticipating. In fact it is almost 3 times larger. This was incredibly relieving, I can keep our financial ends together through May, possibly even June. Suddenly doing the accounting every week is fun again. My actual budget doesn’t change any, but my buffer is much much bigger. And hopefully Howard will now have time to take a break from heffty commercial contracts so that he can crank the schlock buffer up and do all the preparatory work for Schlock Book 1. I really want books in print because I want to have one. And I know other people want to have them. That means that the book will continue generating revenue without addtitional work put into that book. It would be nice to have sources of income that didn’t rely directly on Howard drawing until his hands fall off. T-shirts are good. Books would be better.

Today I’m also gearing up for spring clothing inventory. I’m going through everybody’s drawers trying to figure out what we have and what we’ll need during the next year or even two. That way as I hit garage sales, thrift stores, and other opportunities this summer I’ll know what to be looking for. I also need to break out my sewing machine so I can repair clothes, make over clothes, and make fabric into clothes. I scored some good fabric from a thrift store yesterday and I’m excited to make stuff from it.

I keep trying to figure out how to squeeze our expenses even smaller. Unfortunately the highest ticket items are things like medical insurance and car insurance and car payments. I can’t change those without making major priority shifts which affect the whole family. I suppose a second car is a luxury, but giving up the beetle would feel like failure to us all. And we aren’t failing. We are continueing to meet necessary expenses and will continue to do so through March. The balances in the accounts seem a little thin right now, but that is because we’re due for our next contracted payment. So, I need to stop staring at numbers and go enjoy the fact that Howard is at home.

Well I’ve just started my new year by reconfiguring my budget, paying bills, thinning out my file cabinet and assorted other book keeping activities. The process was kind of tedious, but actually enjoyable because it all provided evidence that this cartooning thing is working. The budget has very little wiggle room, but it actually seems possible that we can live on Howard’s cartooning without giving up the house or the cars or the kids activities. Right now we have contracts lined up that will pay bills through March. That’s the end of the solid ground. We have ideas about what will come after that, but nothing we can stand on yet.

We continue to live on hard work and faith and scrimping and the generosity of the Schlock fans (Some of whom were incredibly generous last month. I can’t thank those people enough if they’re reading this. Thank You!)

The point is, it’s working and I’m glad.

Last night as I reviewed the gifts due to be unveiled today I could see so very clearly what wasn’t there. No new video games for Link. Used, not new, earrings for Kiki. I was pretty sure Gleek and Patches would be happy because they are little enough to not care. I worried about the older two. I needn’t have. Once again my kids have shown me that so many parents run around buying the “Perfect brand new thing” for their kids, when the kids will be happy with something small and fun. There were lots of things not purchased that I would have loved to give because they would have lit up to recieve them, but the kids are perfectly happy without. In fact I think that they are actually being able to enjoy the few things they did get more because they aren’t over loaded with new things.

I’m very relieved and tired now. I’ve been planning this for months and I’m kind of afraid to believe that it actually worked.

I had a conversation with a friend recently where she appologized for having store bought rolls for dinner “I don’t bake like you do.” she said. First of all, the store-bought rolls needed no apology, they were really yummy. Second, I never used to bake either. Baking didn’t seem to be worth my time when Alberson’s bakery was only a few blocks from my house. In fact, cooking seemed a hardship with Wendy’s right over there. It is only since money became tight that I’ve begun baking goodies and bread on a regular basis.

It is simple economics. I can’t afford poptarts or sugary cereal or brand-name cookies or crackers. I can afford flour and salt and sugar and eggs, especially if I buy them in bulk. This shift into self-employment means lots of things that we can no longer afford to buy for the kids. I feel strongly that it is necessary for them to have visible and tangible evidence that life is better, even though money is in short supply. In essence, I bake so that we all feel lucky instead of poor.

It seems to be working so far. Apparently my kid’s lunchbox treats have become highly valuable items for barter. This makes me feel smug. I don’t mind if they trade pumpkin bread for potato chips. At least I gave them the tools they needed to get what they want. Mostly the kids eat the treats themselves and feel fortunate when they do.

When Howard left Novell at the end of September I knew that I had to get working on Christmas right away. I knew I’d need to plan ahead and make things in order to keep Christmas spending really low. I made some things, I found some things second-hand, and our neighbors donated a bunch of stuff that they cleaned out of storage. I’ve pretty much got it all in hand. Howard and I are going to be able to provide a plentiful christmas and our out-of-pocket expense is going to be right in the range of $100. That includes christmas morning, gifts to each other, christmas dinner, the whole shebang.

I would not have believed that was possible had I not actually done it. One of the reasons it was possible is that we already had some stuff on hand that we’d bought for the kids and never gotten around to giving them. We also had a gift certificate at Amazon which bought Howard and my presents for each other. But I learned that Freecycle and thrift stores are great places to get stuff if you’re patient and not picky about exact brands.

I’d tell in detail what I acquired and where, but some of the kids can read. It isn’t likely that they’d see my journal, but I’d rather be safe than sorry.

This experience has taught me that all the commercialism of Christmas is really really unnecessary. In fact all the commercialism all year round is unnecessary. We are going to have fewer, less expensive presents under the tree this year, but since the kids were actively involved in their acquisition and construction I think they’ll be happier about giving and about what they receive.

So this year I pulled off the theoretically impossible. But to my mind it was only because of resources on hand and a couple of amazing windfalls. I won’t be impressed with the accomplisment until I can do it again next year after a year’s worth of tight budgeting. The only way I can picture myself making it work is if I start squirrelling away christmas for next year as soon as this year is over. Time will tell I guess.

A few days ago I was listening to a group of women talking about cooking. They were all pretending to be embarrassed while actually boasting about what poor cooks they are and how they’ve never cooked anything from scratch. “I don’t cook, I shop!” said one. I’ve heard conversations like this one before, but my perspective is very different now. We are trying to squeeze the most out of every penny so that Howard can stay a cartoonist. This means I can’t use shopping to solve the problem of eating as I used to do. I would half-guiltily buy frozen corn dogs or chicken nuggets or even fast food rationalizing that I was simply too stressed and too busy to cook. That is a luxury I can no longer afford. To my surprise while buying raw ingredients and cooking food has used up more of my time it has reduced my level of stress. I am remembering that cooking can be a relaxing and rewarding experience. I am realizing that a working knowleged of How To Cook affords many opportunities for creativity and yumminess. And Yumminess does not have to be expensive.

This is something that I need to pass on to my children. I need to teach them to cook from scratch. That way they have a choice whether to join consumerist society or stay back-to-basics. My kids may choose to shop rather than cook, but it needs to not be because another option was never made available.

Triggered by Hawklady’s comment to my journal entry on Accounting Happiness, I’ve been musing about finding opportunities and making the most of them. I’ve been thinking alot about a character in the Lloyd Alexander book Taran Wanderer. I can’t remember the character’s name but he labeled himself as “lucky”. He and his family lived by a river. They set out nets in the river to catch anything which might float by. The character claimed that any time they had a problem the solution would come floating down the river and get caught in their nets. The title character, Taran, noted that what was really happening was that whatever the man happend to catch was put to good use.

I feel like that lately. I’m keeping a constant inventory of things we could use and a constant eye out for free solutions to problems. It is amazing what is available for little or no cost. My local branch of Freecycle.com has been wonderful for this. But I’m also looking a the resources I have here in new ways. Suddenly I’m discovering ways to repair clothing which had seemed too full of holes to be worth anything. I’m discovering the value of preventative maintinence. I’m stretching my creativity Making Do.

Most of all, I’m really enjoying this. I sometimes miss being able to walk into a store and buy brand new shiny things. But I’m discovering that I find joy in taking slightly shabby things and making them new again. I’m enjoying the challenge of fishing in the stream for things I can use. I suppose it is possible that this joy is the result of novelty, but it doesn’t feel that way. It is more the joy of finding that skills I’ve been neglecting are actually really useful. I have the joy of making things that will be useful once they are finished. (As opposed to most handicrafts where you spend bundles of money to buy the materials, hours of time to make the thing, and then have no where to put it or no one to give it to.) True handicraft is to make something you can use from items you have on hand.

Now it is time for me to get back to work. I’ve got clothes to make new.

Today was accounting day. Every Monday I gather all the reciepts and bills for the last week, then I sit down and enter all the information into Quicken and make sure all the numbers match up. This has become even more critical since Howard left Novell and we can’t afford to have money go MIA.

Today I made our first non-benefit health insurance payment. Ouch. I also had to pay off a credit card with a Barcelona hotel stay on it. Novell had already reimbursed us for this, but it was long enough ago that I’d forgotten that the money was only borrowed. With those two and assorted other bills I watched more than $3500 disappear from our accounts. The amounts left over were rather discouraging to me. I looked at the numbers trying to figure out how I was going to make the money last long enough. Finally I just got up an went upstairs where I could get away from them.

It is a good thing I did, because Howard was upstairs in the kitchen. And we ended up having a conversation which reminded me that there will be actual income arriving from commercial cartooning he is scheduled to do. In fact there is enough work currently lined up that Howard is going to have trouble doing it all. I was prepared to get stressed about that, when Howard reminded me this is a GOOD thing. People are willing to pay Howard to cartoon. They are willing to pay enough that rather than watching the money drain away over the next couple of months we will be able to at least hold steady maybe even grow the accounts.

I feel so blessed and I am incredibly grateful that having Howard home cartooning is even possible. How did we get so lucky?

Today I inventoried my children’s clothing. Not just the clothing in their drawers, but also the clothing I have in boxes waiting for one or another of them to grow into. The point of this time-consuming inventory is to generate a list of clothing I need to acquire for each child so that as they grow I already have new clothes on hand. The major advantage of this list is that it allows me to get them “new” clothes that are in fact used. Because I know what they don’t have in the next size up, I can be shopping carefully at thrift stores, second hand stores, and even yard sales.

I got this idea from a book The Tightwad Gazette III. The author of the book is able to buy all the clothes her 6 kids will need for under $50 per year. I don’t expect to be able to manage that. I don’t have the energy or inclination to chase yard sales every weekend all summer long as she does.

While generating the list I’ve discovered some interesting things about clothing supply around here. Kiki has lots of clothes. Mostly they’re donated by a slightly older cousin. Gleek has even more clothes. She has clothes from Kiki and also clothes from the cousin’s younger sister. This is alright because once Gleek has grown out of the clothes I hand them back to the cousin’s baby sister. Patches is alright on clothes, I have some from Link, some from my mom who likes buying baby clothes, and a few holes to fill. The weakest point in my clothing supply is Link. I have no clothes at all in reserve for him. He simply doesn’t have a nearby cousin who is larger than he is. Oh well.

I love the fact that my family believes in handing clothes around. It has saved all of us lots of money and stress. It isn’t just the kids either. My sisters and I trade clothes too. Only it’s a little more difficult since they moved so far away.

Anyway, the inventory is done. Now I need to summon the energy to deal with two small children in a thrift store. Not happening today. I’m too tired.