April Cheapchievments - A Look Back

There were the high$ and there were the low$.

And I’m going to tell you about the lows.  I don’t want to think about the highs (birthday month, ouch).

1.  Dyed my husband’s black Dockers. I have written about this before, and it’s a great way to save money on “work” clothes.  They look so crisp when they’re done, too.

2.  Solar cooked most days I could. April weather here in Texas is very touchy.  On the days when it wasn’t it raining, it was very cloudy.  On the few sunny days, though, I made some yummy stuff - a roast chicken, a chocolate cake, and meatloaf among other things.  I even made two loaves of bread.  That one needs a little work, but I think I’m onto something there.  C’mon Sun!

3.  Read my way through the 1970’s. As I mentioned before, my brother gave me the Mother Earth News 1970-2008 Archives for my birthday.  So far I’ve read the first 10 years, and I have learned so much! This is going to be an extremely useful weapon in my Frugal arsenal.  Like maybe a TANK! With the help of MEN, I will rollover all obstacles to living a more simple, Frugal life.  (Well, that’s the idea anyway).

4.  Populated my backyard with 4 rainbarrels. Over the course of the month, I bought two additional rainbarrels to join the two I bought early in the month.  This brings my backyard rain-saving capacity to over 200 gallons.

5.  Watered with the H2O in the rainbarrels. Thursday was sprinkler day.  (Because of the drought, my city is on water restriction and we’re only allowed to water on Monday’s and Thursday’s.  I think that’s a great idea, so I don’t mind).  But it’s been raining a lot lately, though not for the past couple of days.  So I turned the sprinklers off, and watered my houseplants and entire vegetable garden with the contents of one waterbarrel.  Actually I think it took about 1/2 a water barrel, which is 25 or-so gallons, which is very interesting to know.

6.  Number 3,  Number 4,  and Number 5 (above) get me thinking. Now I want to see how far I can go with using the “waste” water from my house to water grass, housplants, and veggie garden.  Some of this is kind of “duh” - like, duh, I just started tossing my pooches left-over drinking water onto the backyard grass before I refill the waterbowls.  That’s easy,  because their waterbowls are right inside the back door.  I should have been doing this for years.  Some of this is more complicated (and MEN inspired) - like how do I get the rinse water from my washing machine to my veggie garden? Hmmm.  I’m working on that one.

7.  Number 3 inspires me to Get-Back-to-the-Land. Well, maybe.  Land in many parts of Texas is relatively cheap.  My husband and I decided we are going to begin the process of looking around.  We’re thinking about 10 acres with a small, liveable habitation of some sort on the land (nothing fancy).  Within 100 miles of our “everyday” house.  And cheap, of course.  Looking for this elusive Shagri-La makes for a fun, cheap outing, too. And that’s what we’re doing today.

I don’t know how this will work out, because every once in a while I get the urge to do this, and then I go out into the country and see all that “country” and chicken out.  But this time, I might be more serious because it turns out that my new next-door neighbors have a penchant for playing their Journey’s Greatest Hits cd for hours and hours and hours.  Yep.  You guessed it - they just installed outdoor speakers.   I mean,  I love me some Journey, too, but how many times can one woman hear “Open Arms” and maintain her calm equilibrium?  About two, that’s how many

Actually, I have more Cheapchievments to tell you about, but I wrote them on the back of an old envelope that I left on my bedside table.  (Ok, I don’t really have a bedside table, I have a wooden TV tray I use for a bedside table, because I am too cheap to buy that teeny, but strangely expensive piece of furniture). But it’s early, and I don’t want to go in there and wake my hubby up, so this list is sort off the top of my head, and sort of what I remember from my list.

Happy Birthday to my Bro! Yay! I hope you have a great day, even though you probably have to work. Keep an eye out, your present is on the way.

My brother helps me greatly on my Frugal journey.  He’s helped me move lots of times, he kept my various old cars alive when I couldn’t afford a mechanic, and he’s got a generous streak about 10 million miles wide (MEN rules!).  And he’s fun to have conversations with about things many people think are wacky (like solar cooking - he does that, too).  That’s just a TASTE of all the nice things he’s done for me.  Thanks, Bro, I appreciate it.