Frugality versus Ethics

I am holding a lot of ideas about how I want to live in my head all at once.  Sometimes, they are contradictory.  Or at least they seem as if they are.

When I read blogs, articles, and books about whole, organic, local, sustainably raised foods, I get inspired.  I vow to see where our cow lived, or only buy produce from the farmer's market, or get organic, local milk.

Then, I start reading about frugality, and I get inspired again.  I think about shopping with coupons, dollar deals at the supermarket, buying food just before it goes off.

Right now, I'm stuck in the limbo zone between the two.  In one respect, I've got it all figured out.  In another, I have yet to set down priorities.

What We Do Right

In order to make our food maximally organic, local, and sustainable, we are growing and foraging our own food.  I know that our potatoes are organic because I didn't put anything on them.  I know they're local because they're 30 feet from my stove.  I know they're sustainable because *B* puts a lot of work into making sure the soil is fertile and the beds are well rotated.  And for the native perennial foods that we've planted, they're very happy with and grown for the soil and water conditions of the area.

When we forage, it's in our little town.  We choose places that we know aren't sprayed with weed killer.  And since they're wild, there's no pesticide on them.  They were there before us, and they'll be there after we're gone since we go through great lengths to try not to disturb the ground around the plants and leave enough for other wildlife and future propagation.

What I Need to Decide
It's our staple foods that are causing me the most problem.  Things like bulk beans, wheat, sugar, and meats are tossed between finding the best deal and finding ethically raised products.  As of right now, we buy a cow with my family every year from a lady who works with my mom.  The cow lives in her backyard.  While it's grain finished for the last two weeks of its life (which we wouldn't like), it lives in a pasture, and has access to both grain and grass, rather than being force-fed grain.  The meat is $1.85 per pound carcass weight.  That's not too terrible when you look at it.

We bought a pig last spring from a local farmer dedicated to raising organic, free range, happy, and healthy animals.  The pig was $3.85 per pound carcass weight.  That is significantly more expensive than beef for us - it was $1000 for a whole pig.  But the pig lived as it was intended, munching on acorns and such in a grove of trees.  We know that for a fact since we had to walk by the surviving pigs when we picked up our order.

But let's take black beans.  There are SO many options.  Bulk for a good price from who-knows-where.  Bulk organic for double the price from who-knows-where.  Grow them yourself and only eat a pound of beans a year.  In this case, I can't seem to find a local farmer (organic or non-organic) that grows these beans.

So as of right this moment, until I change my mind, my priorities go as this:

• Organic, local, and free! (foraging)
• Organic, local, and inexpensive (usually seconds - produce going off)
• Local and inexpensive
• Organic and local
• Local
• Organic and inexpensive
• Organic
• Non-organic, non-local, and inexpensive

What do you look for in your food supply?

Foraging Gems

Now that we're into July, raspberries should be coming into season in our neck of the woods.  *B* and I kept talking about going out and foraging for berries and some more sumac, but nothing was coming of it.  Thursday, it was "do or die" day.  

*B* cut about six cones of sumac from the side of the road on his way home from work.  That makes 6 cups of sumac-ade, or can be reduced down to make a lemon juice-like substitute.  We're looking into how to best store them for the next couple of months, whether it's dried as a cone or in liquid form.  There's a great stand of sumac that I want to cut, but it's off an exit ramp, and I'm nervous about taking Miss F there.  It might be a project for a day when she's home with *B*.  I could probably gather 20 or more cones just from that one stand.

We went for a walk in a local park where *B* had seen some berries a few days ago.  As soon as we drove in, we started spotting the raspberry bushes.  Most of them were unripe, which is great news.  It's better to be early for berry season than late.

Unripe raspberries

As we walked the trail, we saw tons of raspberries, but we started seeing blackberries as well.  Many were good sized ones, like you'd get from the grocery store!  We probably walked around the park for two hours, but by the end, we had a ton of berries:  2 cups of blackberries and 6 cups of raspberries.  And that's not counting the ones Miss F ate (we forgot to pack her a snack and it was dinner time).

 

I figure that 8 cups of berries at $4 per half pint (going rate at our organic market) yielded us $32 worth of free berries.  That's the equivalent of paying ourselves $16 an hour to have a walk outdoors as a family!

Navigating the Choppy Financial Waters of Insurance

As I thought about this post, all I could think of was the beginning of Monty Python's The Meaning of Life:



*B*'s parents bought him a used car when he graduated from college.  They've been making payments on it as well as paying the insurance since then.  They just paid it off, so now it is our responsibility to start paying insurance, which is more than reasonable.  I got a quote from the insurance agent that my parents have used since I was a very young child.

But something told me to shop around.  I learned that another insurance company cost less than half what I pay for the exact same coverage.  I'd actually save money after having added his car.

Which got me thinking about life insurance.  This same agent had talked me into buying whole life insurance when I was 20 years old.  Everything I've read has said this is the worst type of insurance to have.  It's very profit heavy for the agents while very light on benefits for the consumer.

So now I'm stuck between loyalty to a company that I've done business with for over ten years and saving money.  I was really conflicted until I realized this:  the money I save was roughly equivalent to two months salary for me.  TWO months.  Do I really want to work at night, missing my husband and daughter, out of loyalty to a guy that I see no more than once a year?  I feel guilty that I'm going to sever that relationship, but sometimes you put your big girl pants on and do what needs to be done for your family.

The Most Delicious (and Free!) Summer Drink

When talking about foraging a few months ago, my aunt had mentioned a red cone that can be made into a strawberry lemonade-like drink.  She didn't remember what it was called, but it didn't take long for us to figure out.  Staghorn sumac (not poison sumac) is native to the US and produces red cones of berries in the summer.  There are tons of these trees on the side of highways near my house, but I was always leery of stopping on a busy roadway, especially with Miss F.  But I was thrilled today when I noticed a sumac during my outdoor exercise class.  I took Miss F back after class, and we cut two cones to try this experimental brew.

I put these two cones in about four cups of cold water and mushed the berries up a bit with my fingers.  The berries are hairy, and you need to get the flavoring off of them.  I let them sit for about an hour, and *B* strained off the lovely pink juice.

The juice is very sour.  Even *B*, who no longer uses sweetener in his drinks, had to add some maple syrup.  But with sweetener, a little extra water, and a bunch of ice, this is a fantastic and refreshing summer drink.  This lovely little concoction costs only 6 cents per glass or less depending on sweetener.

Tomorrow evening, when *B* is home with Miss F, I will be stopping on the side of the road to cut as many cones as I can.  The extract will be stored and used as a lemon substitute.  A local and frugal source of citric acid - who can ask for any better?!

Project Updates

I've got quite a few projects running, as detailed in the list on the right hand side of the blog.  This is a quick update on their progress.

July - No Groceries (starting 7/7)
Since this is new, it's obviously going quite alright.

June - No Air Conditioners (except baby)
We've done very well on this count.  There was one day since we've started that we've used another air conditioner at home.  Miss F's birthday party was held at our home, and we put in a second air conditioner just for that day.  While I didn't think we needed it at first, I realized we had an 87 year old man and two very pregnant women amongst a house full of people who needed relief from the nearly 90 degree heat.

May - No Microwave
Our microwave is still stowed in a cabinet after two months.  We've used microwaves at other people's houses, but I don't miss mine anymore at all.  We will be giving it to my grandmother, who is moving in with my mom this fall.

April - No Clothes Dryer
Like the microwaves, we've used clothes dryers when not at home.  For example, at the lake, we did not have access to a clothes line.  Miss F's diapers never would have dried at the townhouse without a line.  But we've stuck with this one even though it is very time consuming.  It's been made especially difficult because we've had a very wet summer.  I would like to get a drying rack to keep inside for wet and cold days once we can afford it.

April - No 'Poo or Antiperspirant
This is my favorite project.  I will admit that I catch myself getting a smug sort of satisfaction from this one.  I haven't used any shampoo of any kind (other than baking soda) since April 1st.  I love that I don't have to clip coupons, run out to the store when I run out, or stock pile chemicals.  I will never go back to that old way of life.

March - No Artificial Sweeteners
This project is hard, but I feel it is worthwhile.  Every now and then, I crave a diet soda.  But it's becoming less and less frequent.  I feel healthier, I have seen changes in my weight loss (though it is a bit slow), and I spend less money since I drink more water.

A Month Without Groceries

A few months ago, my future sister-in-law (*A*) suggested that we get together over the July 4th holiday.  She knew someone who had a townhome at a lake in the mountains.  We didn't discuss cost or anything, but we were thrilled to go.  *B* missed our river trip last week, and I thought this would be a very nice vacation for our family.

Well, in that time, our budget became very constrained.  *A* had already paid for everyone, and I couldn't leave her in a lurch.  There was no one to take our place.  We explained our situation, and gave her everything we could afford at the moment (1/3 of our cost).  Except for $20 worth of groceries purchased there, we brought all our food with us.  Gas was still expensive, and we were almost down to the light before we even left the lake.  While everyone else went to lunch today, we had to gracefully bow out of it so that we could afford gas.  And really it wasn't as hard to do that as I thought it would be.  Rather than getting a little gas and some fast food or gas station food, we slathered peanut butter and jelly on leftover hot dog rolls and gassed up as much as we could.

When *B* and I were driving home on that three hour trip, we talked about our financial situation. Rather than despairing, we saw it as an opportunity to do something great.  Another project, another experiment. 

So here it is:

We're going to avoid the grocery store for a whole month.  This project has an exception - we will visit the farmer's market every Wednesday (as we already do).  This will supply us with eggs, fruits, and vegetables that we don't already grow ourselves.  We have a fair amount of beans, rice, grains, and canned veggies stored in our pantry.  We also have a fair amount of frozen food like ham slices, turkey wings, thighs, and legs, kale, snap peas, soup, and commercial frozen veggies.

So today is day 1.  I'm happy to report that we've bought no groceries, have a menu plan for the week, and we're doing just fine.

 Click to see our weekly menu plan

Contentment

The river trip this weekend was very relaxing and gave me a chance to think a lot about my life.  My mother took care of Miss F during the six hour trip down the river.  I kayaked down the river without flipping in Compton's rapids (a big deal considering they sent me to the ER three years ago).

A large part of the times, I was floating along side *B*'s parents or my brother and his friends.  But the other part of the time, I just got to take in the surroundings, breathe the fresh air, and just be by myself.

I enjoyed the beauty of the river and felt a pang of envy as I thought about how amazing it could be to live in the area.

But it was later that night in the campsite that I really felt contentment start to set in.  One of the girls on the trip stepped in poison ivy at our lunch stop.  Her lower leg was red and itchy.  No one had calamine lotion, and she was complaining about the pain and itching.  I popped up, spotted some plantain, and told her to chew (or rather pound due to the mud on the ground) the leaves into a paste and apply it.  I knew it worked on bug bites, but I wasn't sure about poison ivy.  Sure enough, she reported that it didn't itch anymore!

I was happy to be able to help, and I enjoyed the surprised looks I got from the "adults" of the group - 50 years old and better.  They had no idea such a ubiquitous plant did anything other than grow.  It was just a weed to them.  Rather than relying on plants for cures, we've been relying solely on pills for over fifty years.

As the trip went on, I found myself talking a lot about my knowledge of plants.  From dock to treat nettle stings to chicory as a coffee substitute, I was able to hold forth on a variety of medicinal and edible plants.  I was spotting stands of sumac trees and looking to find ripe berry clusters.  We're looking forward to making tea of those berries in the next month or so.

I realized on my way home, that I'm actually making measurable progress in my goal of being able to identify many common plants and their usefulness.  I want to be that old woman (one day, not yet) who can go out to her garden to pluck a cure for what ails you.  I want to be able to go out and forage a little snack from my surroundings.  As our garden grows into the garden of our daydreams and my knowledge base grows, I feel more and more at ease with the life I'm carving out.