Week 2

Week 2! Alright we did it. We actually did it twice. I was a little worried this would be a one off and we would lose motivation to keep trying new things; but hey, we did it twice.

This week we realized we didn't actually have any household products that need replacing. Last week we needed hand soap and mouth wash... this week we aren't out of everything! Of course we have plans for the future when we have the need for stuff. I'll teach The B how to make laundry soap when we finally run out (it's been almost a year on the current batch) and I'll show him how I make his dish soap. It's just a waiting game.

Well with that tangent out of the way here is what we made this week. The B found a way to use some left over white wine we had in the fridge. We do not like wine, turns out and we just don't cook enough with it but we vow to waste not want not. He was able to find a recipe for vinegar made with left over wine and a vinegar starter! 

This goodie requires an unpasteurized vinegar starter. We need live bacteria that will eat the sugars in the wine to create a delicious fermented vinegar that we can use in cooking. This is a project you have to wait for. The baby vinegar needs to sit for a few weeks to get all delicious and usable. 

This isn't so much a recipe as it is a ratio. We found ours on Phickle.com. You want 3 tbsp of "mother vinegar" to 1 cup of wine. I like that because you just use what you have and adjust the vinegar amount as needed.

Now, obviously we have not tried it as it needs time to grow, but I will be talking about it some time soon. I'm thinking homemade vinaigrette on some lovely greens or maybe a nice tangy Asian sauce. Yum!

This week I decided to teach how to make homemade peanut butter. Yum! I love peanut butter and having it homemade always sounds better. I used The Kitchn's recipe for my batch.

2 cups (16 ounces) peanuts (unsalted and raw)
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons peanut oil
2 tablespoons honey

Set oven to 350°F and roast peanuts for 10 minutes until they are light brown and glossy with oil. Place in food processor and pulse until chopped.

Proccess for 1 minute and scrape down sides 2-3 times. Then add oil and honey and blend until smooth and creamy (or until your food processor starts to make a worrying noise). Scrape into a container and place in the fridge. Use within 3-4 weeks. 

Now, taste-wise this stuff is amazing. Texture-wise I feel like I need to do some tweaking. Our batch turned out to be pretty dry and grainy. I know this has something to do with our food processor lacking real power, but I think it may need some more oil as well. It is wonderful spread on toast and is much more fulfilling than a jar of jiffy. Will be making this again and trying new things with it.

Still not sure what to make next week but stay tuned to see what we learn!

Week 1

While on a surprise two week "vacation" from work I discovered there may be a need for us to watch our spending a little. Turns out in my line of work if you work too hard and too fast you run into the unfortunate problem of having no work left to do. However, I was determined to use this time well and make contributions even if I couldn't financially.

One of the ideas I had to bring more to the table, so to speak, was a weekly "meeting" with The B where we would get together to teach each other something. Didn't need to be extravagant, just as long as we learned something new. Of course it is in our line of living more frugally so we decided to learn how to make some household items.

I chose homemade hand soap! I almost felt like it was a cop-out because this is so incredibly easy I feel a little silly about all the times I spent $4-$5 on a fancy bottle of foamy hand soap!
I found this cool little recipe from Thankyourbody.com. I used "recipe 2" and bam: awesome hand soap! 

I found that my preferred ratio was:
2 tbsp soap
5-10 drops of Orange or Lemon essential oil
Fill rest of bottle with water.

Robin links to a very nice foaming pump style soap container, but I had an empty one available and was happy to reuse/recycle.

The B and I love the smell of this stuff. It's like rubbing a fresh fragrant orange in your hands. My hands don't feel as scummy after washing either. I have found with some commercial soaps there seems to be a layer that decides to stick around. This stuff just leaves me feeling clean!

I would note that this doesn't sud up in your hand as much as the commercial stuff. It's not any less of a cleaning agent, it just doesn't have additional chemicals to give it lots of extra bubbles.

The B brought a recipe for homemade mouthwash. Who knew that was even possible? He found a nice herbal recipe from The Dabblist. It's made in smaller batches so it's easy to keep us accountable. We can tell when it isn't be used and it helps keep us minty fresh and clean.

1/2 c. aloe vera juice
1/4 c. water
1 tsp witch hazel
1 tsp baking soda
10 drops peppermint essential oil

Combine the aloe vera juice, water, and witch hazel in a bottle. Gently add in the baking soda and add the peppermint essential oil, cover, and shake vigorously. Store in a cool, dark  area for up to 2 weeks.

We were able to find our ingredients locally at the health food store, and with how little we used we have enough for many more batches to come. This has a very distinct herbal quality and tastes nothing like commercial mouthwash. On the good side it is not nearly as intense and my mouth feels very fresh and clean after swishing it around. We've almost used it up already so another batch is in our future.

Overall this was a very fun thing to do on a Saturday morning. I like to think of it as our creation hour. Instead of consuming something, we make something new. Very fun!

During this time we also go through the weeks spending and try and see how we did. So far so good. Lots of purchases to be proud of and only a few to consider cutting out. All in all, a win!

Lets Take A Look Back

One of my favorite parts of growing up has been learning more about myself and what I hope to get out of my life. My desires and aspirations have shifted numerous times, as they do. Like many people I am looking for the meaning in life and hope for something more profound than the 9 to 5 'til I die.

I went through a mini-midlife crisis not long ago. I was miserable at my job, I came home exhausted and basically sat around doing nothing of value until it was time to go to sleep and do it again the next day. As the book Your Money or Your Life says: I wasn't making a living, I was making a dying. It was then I talked with The B and decided to head back to school.

I started working part time and going to school full time. It'd been about 6 years since I'd been in college but I did well; 4.0 in both terms I attended. However, the debt I was taking in was weighing down on my conscious. The B was about to graduate and his student loans were going to need to be paid on top of our other bills. Then when I finally finished school we'd still have my student debt to pay off. I felt as if I was taking more from the table then I was giving. So I quit my job.

Of course I did this after being offered a new job. It was completely different from what I had ever done before, but it brought a feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction. I could work full time and not feel bogged down and emotionally drained everyday. It was really what I had been looking for in a job. So I quit going to school.

The B tried to talk me out of it, but as I explained: going to school was just the means to find a job I didn't hate. I have found a job I don't hate and enjoy, so why accrue more debt? Now we have a plan to be debt free by 2017. This is what I had always wanted to accomplish: financial independence that allows us to be self sufficient with our money.

Of course getting out of debt isn't going to be the be all end all that brings us our ultimate happiness. That is always something to strive for and the job will never really be done. However, it will give us the opportunity to do more of what we want with our life. We'll save to travel, we'll buy a house, we'll continually strive to learn more with what we have. 

Our plan isn't just work more, make more money, and slowly chip away at the block of our debt. We will be more proactive by living more frugally, simply, and with more meaning. We have started tracking our money spending to see where it all really goes and if it was/is really worth it. Already we actively make decisions when we make purchases and ask ourselves if it's necessary, brings meaning or happiness, or if it'll just weigh us down with unnecessary clutter.

With this blog I hope to share some of what we learn and what we are doing to chip away at that block. Here you'll find what we teach each other, what we struggle with, and hopefully something new to try.

Thanks

The Bird and The B