The long blog catch-up

So, yes, hello February. Like the groundhog, I'm coming out of our hole.

I think this is the longest blog hiatus I've ever taken in...fifteen years. (We started here in February 2005.) Although I don't have a 9 to 5 job, I do work at this and that, and the this and that seemed to wipe out blogging for the last while. 

I finished my Adult Ed courses early in December.

Then (aside from making cookies and stuff), I spent most of December working on a book project.

The current "other man" in my life is Pompey, as in Plutarch's Life Of. He's one of the few characters to earn a whole two terms of study in Charlotte Mason's schools (most just get one). Writing study notes for Pompey is like eating a foot-long sub instead of my usual six-inch. (We're Canadians. We still do not order subs in metric. Why's that?)

And then there has been thrift-store volunteering, books to read, places to go, and winter things. Not much snow shovelling here, though...at our former Treehouse, the driveway was a team effort and could take hours (depending on how much the city plow had added to nature's abundant gifts). Our townhouse has snow-clearing services, but occasionally you do want to clear off your space yourself.

Mr. Fixit and I have visited a few more antique markets and thrift stores around town than we usually do. This is partly so he can scout out electronics to fix, but also just for the fun of it, looking for household things, sometimes music or books. Or clothes. 

One day we went to an antiques place that had a vintage booth, and I left with a cowlneck sweater.

Purse from the Salvation Army store.

Artwork from Value Village.

Sweater and pants from the MCC store.

This white sweater is going to get a post of its own.

So what's new with you?

Keeping it green and cheerful on Black Friday

The best place to shop on Black Friday? The MCC thrift store, after a morning of sorting books. No special deals, but buying thrift means giving things a second chance; and, at this store, each purchase also supports Mennonite Central Committee programs.

Plus nobody was pushing me around or fighting for carts.

For under $10, I found a real-deal pashmina scarf in my favourite colour; a pottery soup mug; and a copy of Surprised by Laughter: The Comic World of C.S. Lewis. Yes, in spite of what Roald Dahl's Matilda said, Lewis was "sustained by joy and humour," to quote the dust jacket.

These other two items were bought earlier in the week. The sewing book (with unused patterns!) is for me.

And the plastic Tardis cookie jar, with lights and sound effects, is an early present for Mr. Fixit.

Who needs malls when you can travel through space and time?

Thrifted finds

For Mr. Fixit: two 1957 handyman magazines.

For Ponytails: cookbooks she was looking for.

For Mama Squirrel: a black lacy sweater in a floral pattern. I generally don't wear black, so it's an experiment.

A pashmina scarf, in berry red and blue-grey. The photo is not doing it justice at all; it's more grey than purple..

The belt that should have gone with last week's paisley dress. I was very surprised to see it hanging with the belts.

(Here's the dress)

A book about retro fashions. (To go with the paisley dress.)

Free is a nice price: use what you're signed up for

Sometimes we are entitled to more perks and benefits than we're using. Our apartment building has amenities such as an exercise room and a sauna. Your public library might have online subscriptions to databases or to language-learning tools that you thought you couldn't access. There might be something in the income tax laws where you live that allows you to (legally) deduct something you didn't know about. Or your automobile association card might offer special deals at restaurants or shoe stores (we've used both).

This week we realized that, because I'm currently registered at a university, and have an Office 365 student mailbox, we could also download a much newer version of Microsoft Word, an upgrade we badly needed. Free for subscribers, straight to the computer, just like that: one very big wow, and thank you Mr. Fixit for making that work. If you have someone in your house with a student email account, check it out.

Frugal fix: The Tri-light Zone

We have several lamps that were made to take tri-light bulbs. They can be clicked to low, medium, or high intensity. Two problems with this: tri-light bulbs are now hard to find and expensive, and a couple of those lamps needed repairs. The switch on our china lamp had suddenly stopped working, and one of the others turned out to be doing dangerous things inside its workings.

So Mr. Fixit took them apart and reconfigured them to take standard bulbs. He says that the biggest problem with fixing lamps these days is that you can only get certain types of innards, and they're not all compatible with older parts. But he has been doing these sorts of repairs for a long time, so he knows what's safe to mix and match.

The china lamp has a new on-switch spliced into the cord.

And the bedroom lamp is no longer coming on without warning.

Moral of the story: stay safe and make sure your electricals are up to date.

Frugal Finds and Fixes: All You Really Need

Fixing: Mr. Fixit is fixing a vintage electric watch. It was apparently never used, but it doesn't run, so he's doing some diagnostics to find out why. Making it work may be a lost cause; the little mechanism that moves the balance wheel is jammed, and the watch is so small that it's "brain surgery on a beaver"; but it was worth a try.

Frugal: We closed out our storage unit, to save the cost of the rent. The Christmas tree and some decorations went to the thrift store; the rest of the decorations, we were able to fit into a bin in our apartment storage room/pantry. Everything else was also assimilated into our space here. To make a bit of extra space, we have been digitizing old snapshots; and it turned out that we had doubles or triples of many of them (from the good old days when you sent your photos off to be processed).

Economical, if not frugal: The common-area barbecues at our building are now stored for the season. Mr. Fixit did a little searching, and found out that we're allowed to have a small electric grill on the balcony. So we bought one. It doesn't look much bigger than a waffle iron, but it's enough to cook a couple of burgers or some chicken. It's also easy to clean and store, which is good (I wouldn't like to be dumping ashes off the balcony).

More frugal than the alternatives: I wanted to bake some egg-free, dairy-free cupcakes, but most of the recipes I found called for alternative milks and egg replacers, none of which I had. Even our favourite Small Chocolate Cake calls for an egg, and I'm not sure it would work to leave it out. Then I found this vinegar-oil version (like Wacky Cake), and made a panful of those. Ignore the occasional negative reviews there: I just followed the recipe, and they turned out fine.

Fun: Lydia was playing around with Duolingo, so I got a free account and started brushing up old languages.

Frugal: I had been looking at thrift stores for a pair of flat shoes, with no success. I need something with a lot of toe, so ballet flats don't work. Last weekend, we found ourselves near a shoe outlet and decided to look there. Someone pointed us to the back of the store, where the last-pairs and other oddments were priced even lower than the rest. Miraculously, there was one pair, in a colour and size and style I liked. I showed them to an offspring, who said "um hmm, Sensible Shoes." But they do look better on, and they're comfortable.

Frugal: In the past couple of weeks, I have thrifted a shirt, a dressy dress, a belt, a card-making kit, some notepaper, and an animal-print scarf. I'm looking for a farmhouse-style tiered tray, for a holiday decoration, but haven't found one yet.

Fun: So, you want to know why I've been hanging out at the thrift store so much? I have been sorting books there, two mornings a week, and I usually take a quick look around the store before I leave. Notice that I have not been buying books.

The finer things in life: The children at church on Sunday were asked what things people need most to live. The five-year-old said clothes, food, air. The three-year-old said "salad dressing."

And that's it for this round.

Wednesday Hodgepodge: A recipe for contentment

1. When you think about your future what do you fear most? Hope for the most?

"He that is down needs fear no fall,
He that is low no pride;
He that is humble ever shall
Have God to be his guide.

I am content with what I have,
Little be it or much;
And, Lord, contentment still I crave,
Because thou savest such.

Fulness to such a burden is
That go on pilgrimage:
Here little, and hereafter bliss,
Is best from age to age."

~~ John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress (Part II)

2. September is National Chicken Month. How often is chicken on the menu at your house? What's a favorite dish made with chicken? What's something you're a 'chicken' about doing or trying?

We used to have chicken quite often, but lately it's been expensive. Sometimes Mr. Fixit buys a whole small chicken and we do it in the slow cooker, with a little seasoning or maybe barbecue sauce. Lydia had a friend here for dinner on the weekend and I made Ten Napkins Sticky Chicken, something we hadn't had for a long time but that everybody likes.

You could say I am a chicken when it comes to climbing high things or going too close to the edge. Like on apartment balconies, ahem. I prefer to admire the view from inside.

3. What are three things you don't own but wish you did?

That's an interesting question. Here's Mr. Fixit's list:

"A garage with a hoist, and a 1969 Nikko amplifier."

Here's my list:

My Samsung tablet is going to need replacing soon, so that's on my wish list.

If I ever take another more-than-overnight trip, I would like to have one of the newer-style bags with a handle and wheels.

But honestly...there isn't much else. When I went to Toronto last week, I had half an hour to stroll through the big-name stores we don't have here, before heading to the subway station under the mall. When I was younger, going to that mall with my parents was a rare and special treat. Even when I lived in the city as a student, I enjoyed browsing through the shops full of things I couldn't afford.  This time, I left there thinking, "I'm glad I already like my own things." (And that wasn't just because I was heading to the Tiny Wardrobe Tour.)

4. Would you rather be a jack of all trades or a master of one? Elaborate.  If you answered one, which one?

Mr. Fixit says "Master of electronics." Which I think he is already, but he's also handy at other things.

Me...I'm not sure how to answer that. Definitely not all trades, maybe good at a couple.

5. Ketchup or mustard? On what?

Ketchup: mixed with brown sugar, baked under Leanne Ely's Upside-Down Meatloaf.

Mustard: on Oktoberfest sausage on a bun.

6.  Insert your own random thought here.

I just finished re-reading Little Women, the first part. (Like The Pilgrim's Progress, there's a lot of argument over whether you include the second part in the general title.) It wasn't a book I loved when I was growing up, although I think I did plow dutifully through it once, along with Eight Cousins and Jack and Jill. I was more of an Anne fan. This time through, I was looking for different things; and I was surprised at a few details that don't usually make it into filmed versions. The long serious conversations, mostly. The mailbox in their back yard--Alcott seemed to love that kind of detail, and there was a similar setup in Jack and Jill, where they sent "things" (we are not given all the details) in a basket across a clothesline. I also liked the picnic with their British counterparts, where every character contributes the next part of an ad-libbed story. It was a clever way for her to reinforce each one's traits and point of view.  Again, it's the sort of scene that comes up in Jack and Jill (a lengthy play-by-play of their debating society meeting and then a dramatic performance), and in An Old-Fashioned Girl (a detailed description of the conversations at a young working women's lunch). Conversations and long descriptions of what games they played or who did what on stage are the sort of thing abridgers like to axe...too long, don't move the plot...but I think they sometimes show the author at her most relaxed, and they give us some unintended but genuine "peeps" into what people of the time did and thought--when they weren't trying to be too high-minded.

Linked from The Wednesday Hodgepodge at From This Side of the Pond.

Mr. Fixit's birthday present

Recycled iron owl made in India, sold at Ten Thousand Villages.

Old meets new (photos)

Over the weekend, Mr. Fixit cleaned out some records, sold the small cabinet that held them, and moved this 1940's Sparton console radio into the living room.

This photo is Mr. Fixit's "man cave," five years ago; the radio has been in the corner there (under the Three Stooges poster) for at least that long. Console or floor-model radios aren't something Mr. Fixit usually handles; they're not a big seller these days, and they're hard to move around (and ship). This was one he just liked and didn't worry about re-selling.

But it was time to polish it up and give it new life upstairs.

This old radio is more compatible with new technology than you'd think. It has an input on the back that can connect with a smartphone. Ponytails came over on the weekend and said she had heard a song she thought Mr. Fixit would like. He plugged her phone into the input and played the music through the radio.

Saturday thrifting: we found a mixer

At the thrift shop this afternoon, Mr. Fixit found us a stand mixer, one of the last generation made in the U.S. before production went overseas. It has two glass bowls, and all its beaters and dough hooks. Our hand mixer is twenty-five years old, so it's  time for a replacement. And a stand mixer with a dough hook could also replace our bread machine, if or when that's needed.

A plum-purple purse for me (the photo makes it look darker than it is). An extra, not a need, but a nice extra.

Something else that's better than this snapshot makes it look: a big scarf, a Linnea-in-Monet's-Garden mix of purple and green and all those things. I saw it by accident when I was helping Mr. Fixit carry the mixer parts from the back of the store. My justification is that if I ever get tired of wearing it, it would make a great table scarf.

The thing I was really after and did need: a lightweight denim-type shirt. 

So, a more-than-expectedly successful thrifting trip.

From the archives: Money Habits and Promises

First posted April 2006

LRJohnson's Savings Blog posted about Habits, Habits (original link goes somewhere else now). She points out:

"I did not start buying oatmeal at the same time that I stopped buying pre-made cartons of juice. Powdered milk came into my life at a different time than the concept of having a max price I’d pay for an item. (For me that’s an In My Head Price Book.) I didn’t start putting leftovers in salsa tub Tupperware at the same time I decided to buy generic or store brand for everything. TVP and bulghur and beans entered my life at different times. But all of these thrifty skills and habits accumulated, over the years, to become a low grocery bill. I incorporate a new habit every now and then, and add it to the routine."

And so on.

The Squirrels can identify with this. We have often had people ask exactly how we have managed to stay out of debt, have Mama Squirrel stay home with the Squirrelings, etc.; and it is often difficult to answer; or, to be more exact, any honest answer makes it sound more difficult than it has been. At the time we got married, we agreed to keep a running journal of our joint budget and expenses for the year, and to stick as close as possible to the amounts we had agreed on for things like clothes and groceries. We also treated Mama Squirrel's rather paltry wages as extra money but not something to be counted on--which was a good thing, because the Squirrelings started coming along very soon after that. 

Like LRJohnson, we acquired different habits of saving at different times--or changed them as we went along. There are things we do better now than we did fifteen twenty-five years ago--those are the habits we've learned. Some things we figured out ourselves or from reading; I think some of the rest are ideas we picked up from watching what our parents and other relatives did. We might not have acted on them until we got married, but they were absorbed!

Some of the habits don't seem money-related; they just involve taking care of things so that they don't have to be replaced as fast or cleaned as often. (We rarely eat meals or have drinks in the car; we don't wear shoes in the house.) We buy store brand groceries, eat leftovers, pass down clothes, go to yard sales, and use/wear/drive things until they won't work/fit/run anymore. (And we try to replace parts before tossing things--that's getting harder to do all the time, though. Most things now are made to be tossed, not fixed, and the parts cost more than the original gizmo.) There are other things we stopped doing...at one time I attempted to keep Mr. Fixit's work socks darned, but his workboots kept putting so many holes into them that I gave up. And anyway, he no longer wears workboots.

But there's one other factor that comes into it for us. Along with habits, we needed faithfulness--and we had to be committed to that from the start. Before we knew each other, and even during the year that we dated, we each had different spending patterns than we did post-wedding. We went out for more meals (and fancier ones), we bought more new clothes, we just seemed to go through more cash in general. But somehow, along with the promises we made to be faithful to each other in other ways, we both came into marriage with a feeling of "this money we have now takes care of both of us--so we have to be responsible to each other with it." No spending sprees, no "I worked for this so I should have more of it", no demands for things that the budget wouldn't allow (brand new furniture or vacation cruises), no tossing the toothpaste tube before we'd squished the last squish. I don't know that we ever even sat down and spelled all that out (definitely not the toothpaste part); it was just understood. We also knew that we weren't accountable only to each other: we were responsible to God for what he'd entrusted us with.

And that--as much as frugal habits--is what's kept us solvent.

Everybody needs one

You can find the pattern here. I added rice for some ballast.

Mr. Fixit's Retro Birthday Party

 Front hall--throwback toys.

 Special person, special plate.

Everybody needs a souvenir.

What's up around here?

In Treehouse news:

If you hadn't gathered this already, I have been working on a book, both the writing and the rest of it. It's the rest of it that feels like I've taken on a full-time job, but I think the worst is over. I promise to let you know more about it soon.

Mr. Fixit expanded the local side of his antiques business, so it's been interesting seeing how that's working out. We have been watching DVDs of Ironside (the original series) and The Number One Ladies' Detective Agency.

The Apprentice has had a successful financial internship, except for breaking her foot last week. She's the only Squirreling so far to actually break a bone. Anyway, it looks like she will be staying on there for awhile.

Ponytails is almost done high school, and she just got hired for a food-related job that she is happy about. Tonight is her last school choir concert.

Lydia is battling dandelion allergies, catching up on Churchill, and planning a belated birthday party. She is hoping to do some volunteering over the summer.

Things going on around the Treehouse

What is up around here? Besides spring coming?

Today was the local homeschool conference. Some years I have done workshops, but this year I was just an attendee. It is a good chance to see friends and get a look at how the world of homeschooling is going. Lydia went with me this year for the first time. She got lots of freebie pens and things, and found a purple Bible she liked for half price.

Mr. Fixit has been busy working on his fixing and selling. Did you know there are still people out there who like CB radios?

The Apprentice has been busy working out of town, but she will be here for Easter, next weekend.

I have not been writing as much here lately because I've been working on an off-blog writing project. I can't say much about it yet but when it's got more shape to it I'll let you know.

Frugal Finds and Fixes for February

We went to a fill-a-bag sale this morning. Lydia found a dress, two wallets, a bracelet, a necktie for crafting, two cups and saucers, and a pair of pink shoes that will fit her friend who has smaller feet.

 Mama Squirrel found a book, a plate with a chip that's mostly in the back, straw paper plate holders, and an angel candleholder.

In other news: Lydia won a sweater in an online giveaway. She found two pairs of $50 jeans at the mall for $10 each, and a nice sweater for $6. Mr. Fixit scored a couple of radios for half price from an antiques market vendor who was closing shop. (If you don't read here often, that's what Mr. Fixit does, restoring vintage electronics and clocks.)

The furnace started making irritable noises, but Mr. Fixit was able to pacify it with the fix the heating guy showed him last time.

This week is 99 Cent Deals at Food Basics, so we bought a few extras and good deals there. Sweet potatoes, oranges, and apples are 99 cents a pound (it's catchier than saying $2.18 a kilogram).

I froze hot cereal in muffin tins, and ate those porridge hockey pucks for several breakfasts.

That's all I can think of...February is a short month.

Treehouse, Friday morning (photo post)

Bean soup in the slow cooker

Mr. Fixit at work

Collections and treasures.

All photos by Mama Squirrel.  Copyright 2014 Dewey's Treehouse.

In which we get a blogger award

The Duchess of Burgundy Carrots has given us a Very Inspiring Blogger Award.  Thank you!

The rules of acceptance involve making a list of things that you, whoever you are, might not know about me (Mama Squirrel, since I take on most of the blogging duties at the Treehouse).  I did something like that a few years ago, but here are a few different ones.

1.  You know how when you take a babysitting class you have to take a doll or a teddy along for practice? Our first (and only) prenatal instructor asked us to bring a doll, but since we didn't have any visible children yet, we didn't own any suitable toys.  So I sewed a big stuffed baby and we used him/her to practice burping and diapering.  I don't remember if he/she ever got a name...we were having trouble just deciding on names for real babies.

2.  I have a dress that I bought when Mr. Fixit and I were dating. It still fits, and I would like to wear it once in awhile (if only for fun), but it was missing a gold-coloured button, and there were no extras inside or as decoration that I could swipe.  Today I was going through the button bag, hoping that maybe I had just dropped that missing one in with the others.  I came up with one that was close in size and even had a gold rim, but the centre of it was a sort of yellow enamel. About ten seconds after Ponytails said "Marker?," I thought of the metallic Sharpies that appeared in my Christmas stocking.  With that bit of gold markering, and switching the position of the new one to the very bottom, it's no longer obvious that there's been a "button hack"; and I can wear the dress again. (The photo makes it look like the second-from-the-bottom is different, but it's just the lighting.)

3. If you ask me to pick something from Tim Horton's, nutritional thoughts and messiness aside, I would probably pick a Dutchie.  I spent the first formative years of my squirrelhood around the corner from an early Tim's, and Dutchies are a hangover from those times.

I am going to pass on re-passing the award, not because I don't know any good bloggers but because some of them have already gotten similar awards and the rest are busy getting ready for school and other things.  But thank you again to the Carrot Duchy.