Posted on 07/24/2009 3:37:21 AM PDT by nw_arizona_granny
Weekly Roundup - Living On Nothing Edition Category: Roundups | Comments(15)
Did you hear about the guy that lives on nothing? No seriously, he lives on zero dollars a day. Meet Daniel Suelo, who lives in a cave outside Moab, Utah. Suelo has no mortgage, no car payment, no debt of any kind. He also has no home, no car, no television, and absolutely no “creature comforts.” But he does have a lot of creatures, as in the mice and bugs that scurry about the cave floor he’s called home for the last three years.
To us, Suelo probably sounds a little extreme. Actually, he probably sounds very extreme. After all, I suspect most of you reading this are doing so under the protection of some sort of man-made shelter, and with some amount of money on your person, and probably a few needs for money, too. And who doesn’t need money unless they have completely unplugged from the grid? Still, it’s an amusing story about a guy who rejects all forms of consumerism as we know it.
The Frugal Roundup
How to Brew Your Own Beer and Maybe Save Some Money. A fantastic introduction to home brewing, something I’ve never done myself, but always been interested in trying. (@Generation X Finance)
Contentment: A Great Financial Principle. If I had to name one required emotion for living a frugal lifestyle it would be contentment. Once you are content with your belongings and your lot in life you can ignore forces attempting to separate you from your money. (@Personal Finance by the Book)
Use Energy Star Appliances to Save On Utility Costs. I enjoyed this post because it included actual numbers, and actual total savings, from someone who upgraded to new, energy star appliances. (@The Digerati Life)
Over-Saving for Retirement? Is it possible to “over-save” for retirement? Yes, I think so. At some point I like the idea of putting some money aside in taxable investments outside of retirement funds, to be accessed prior to traditional retirement age. (@The Simple Dollar)
40 Things to Teach My Kids Before They Leave Home. A great list of both practical and philosophical lessons to teach your kids before they reach the age where they know everything. I think that now happens around 13 years-old. (@My Supercharged Life)
Index Fund Investing Overview. If you are looking for a place to invest with high diversification and relatively low fees (for broader index funds with low turnover), index funds are a great place to start. (@Money Smart Life)
5 Reasons To Line Dry Your Laundry. My wife and I may soon be installing a clothesline in our backyard. In many neighborhoods they are frowned upon - one of the reasons I don’t like living in a neighborhood. I digress. One of our neighbors recently put up a clothesline, and we might just follow his lead. (@Simple Mom)
A Few Others I Enjoyed
* 4 Quick Tips for Getting Out of a Rut * Young and Cash Rich * Embracing Simple Style * First Trading Experience With OptionsHouse * The Exponential Power of Delayed Consumption * How Much Emergency Fund is Enough? * 50 Questions that Will Free Your Mind * Save Money On Car Insurance
>>>Slightly off subject but not really:
Do any Freepers know of any places that sell actual restaurant food to the public? <<<
Not off subject in the least!
Look in the phone book under Wholesale Grocery or Restaurant Supply. One large one is SYSCO which has branches in all states. Our local (well, 60 miles away) is open to the public on certain days.
(No, no comments about all that breading on that nice chicken meat either, since I have been known to partake of them too.)
>>>i think we call that guerilla gardening/orchard land. <<<
LOL we may all be doing that with the legislation 0bammy has in the pipeline - like H.R. 2749
Glad you are getting things ‘buzzing’ with the bees soon.
The way things sound down there, you won’t have to worry about the washes for right now... Hope you get some nice GENTILE showers in the meantime.
Good to see you back online.
Geesh, can’t get brain engaged tonight...
Not only caned = canned
but now gentile = gentle
OK, no smart comments either.
Hope the bee links were helpful.
Thank you, but most of all, thanks for not making fun of my McNugget addiction!<<<
Show me a person that does not have an addiction of some kind, and I will show you a very sad person.
LOL, we do not talk about the fact that after years of not allowing catsup on my table, I found myself using the Safeway house brand of Ranch Dressing, on every thing......
Hey, it is good and even my cats like it.
When I mentioned it, my son was quick to point out the fact that I was using it like catsup.......so I quit and food is so boring.
My son has no trouble getting his dad to try new stuff because they like various spices, sauces and stuff I would rather not have junking up my food.<<<
LOL, I have to vote with your son, I like the spicy food and can’t cook without lots of herbs.
But that is ok, and what makes our country so great, we all do it a little different.
No, Phoenix is not the small town that you once knew, it is so big and busy and very dangerous.
A friend’s grandson, was killed, attempting to keep his car from being hijacked......Sad for he was a bright and kind young man, very special.
If I had to move today, Cedar City, Utah would get another looking at and maybe East Texas, or the hills of Tennessee.
I too, stored lots of beans and rice, but also attempted to add a few things like Jello and the fruits.
All of us would eat better, if we were dedicated to fixing it and not to eating it.....
All that bending over a campfire, will keep you thin.....
“...our family, our coworkers just look at us.
“Come with us to the Tea Party...
My husband and I went to the Joliet/New Lenox Tea Party yesterday, then went to my mom’s for family gathering. My sister and her family were all there. We tried to show them the pictures we took from the morning, no one was really too interested. My mom made some comment to me something along the lines of if I got arrested and called her to help me out, she might just say to stay in jail. I told her these were not protests like the hippies/anti-war crowd from the past. I tried to explain it was like going to a Labor Day parade, only instead of people filing past, everyone was gathered together. It was a patriotic, pro-America rally. My niece did ask me what it was about, but very cautiously. I don’t get it either, TAC.
>>>Come with us to the Tea Party...<<<
Well, it looks like Delaware is going en mass to the Sept. 12th 9-12 gathering in DC - There are 15 buses from downstate and one car-pool convoy that I know of, and there are probably more. Additionally there are a bunch of buses going from Eastern Shore of Maryland too.
Since I would become a casualty if I stood all day in DC, I am going on a stealth mission to try to corner our Congressman (publicly)... He ALWAYS goes to the Nanticoke Indian POWOW. My plan is to collar him there! Message ready!
Glad you are getting out to your Tea Parties on the Left Coast! Need support there too! (Oy Vey, do we ever!)
Lord, that sounds like a lot of real work! I bet it is delicious. Thanks for the explanation.
We like to travel Texas and Utah in particular. Utah is so clean and the scenery breathtaking. Last year we stopped in St. George for several days, the older part, and that was very interesting. A really pretty small town. We toured the Mormon visitors center and planned on going to mass at the beautiful Catholic church but left too early for that. I am afraid the west is closing up faster than we would like but that is why we drive through Texas every so often. Still lots of open space there and it just feels western! I have heard that Crossville and Cookville, Tenn are considered good retirement areas. That is certainly a beautiful area also.
>>>Lord, that sounds like a lot of real work! I bet it is delicious.<<<
Sounds lots harder than it is... I’ve done 9 batches so far, and will probably do one more before tomatoes are mostly done. If you combine it with routine tasks, you just get everyone who walks by to give it a stir, the actual canning only takes about an hour and a half (12 quarts - with a rectangular Amish Canner).
Well, I just made one of my infrequent trips to the grocery store (needed cinnamon and more sugar for applesauce - yes I have my stash which I will use and replace it with what I bought).
WOW prices have really jumped in the last 6 or 7 weeks. Particularly the produce and meat prices!
I couldn’t resist going through all the fresh items - things like tomatoes @ 1.89/lb., butternut squash @ $1.79/lb., potatoes @ $3.29/5 lb. bag, steaks and roasts start @3.79 and go up to $9.89/lb. ground beef @$2.49/lb (for 70/30).... UNBELIEVABLE!
Tell me about it! I really know my prices and focus my shopping at those shops that save me the dinero! Costs have just skyrocketed in the past few months... "No inflation here!" according to the messiah's folks, Oh Yeah? Tell that to my billfold!
Even the warehouse outfits like Sam's Club, and Costco have pinched my wallet... I am buying in bulk on everything I snag, makes no difference in this economy!
"Since I would become a casualty if I stood all day in DC, I am going on a stealth mission to try to corner our Congressman (publicly)... He ALWAYS goes to the Nanticoke Indian POWOW. My plan is to collar him there! Message ready!
Didn't know you were Tribal DW! Or do you mean that that is where you know you can bushwack him? LOL! BTW, the Tribe here is sure cutting back on their expenditures... the casino is doing well... yet they are really tightening up the belt! Giving them credit for the foresight!
That way when you send out those bread recipes I can copy them directly from the "Posts to you" page without having to go to the thread for them. BTW, my poor microsoft Word program is telling me I have 90 pages with over 100,000 words worth of bread recipes alone you have sent me!
Finally got to spend the holiday weekend camping at Moosehead Lake. The state has made wonderful rustic campsites in many places along the lake. Outhouses, fire rings and picnic tables right on the very edge of the lake. Not many people take advantage of these sites nowadays as they have fancy RVs and need electricity to be comfortable. Well, these two very old people had a wonderful time, sleeping in the back of our vehicle, cooking over a campfire, thinking of you granny, and how much you would enjoy being there. Saw 30 young loons all in one flock?, covey? group? Never saw more than 3-4 together at one time before. There were 6 larger loons in another group. On the unimproved road returning to civilization, we had a cow moose jump out of a bog just inches away from our vehicle and saunter down the road at his leisure despite hubby honking his horn at her. Also encountered a red coyote in the road. Never saw a red one before.
Wneighbor, I did reply to the beekeeping threads as we kept bees for many, many years. Very interesting creatures. Docile and easy to handle if approached correctly. Too bad that diseases have decimated the hives around here.
>>>Didn’t know you were Tribal DW!<<<
LOL - Well, sort of... Son of HONORARY Chief War Horse of the Nanticoke Tribe... (Bestowed by Chief Clark in the 70’s - Commemorative picture of that ceremony hangs in the Nanticoke Museum)
However, I have been visited by tribal elders who have explained to me that as such, I have a special duty and trust to uphold.
Guess it is a family tradition... Original ancestor here was called into court for assisting and aiding the Indians during a time of hardship. (1642) Case was dismissed!
Oh yes, I plan to be in disguise (Old Fogy - older than dirt as I tell daughter)- ambush mode! Bushwack!
>>>>...” it was one of the few things that was a law in our house, “no sandwiches for dinner.”<<<<
I received that same ultimatum from Lloyd. LOL Since he is gone at lunch time at least 3 or 4 days a week I get my sandwich/reading/relaxing fix on those days.
>>>as I recall the wild grapes grew in the washes of Texas.<<<
Yes ma’am, they do. I haven’t found any on the land close by me, but they are so easy to get going. I am fond of jelly made from the wild mustang grapes and those take off really well when you transplant in the wild.
I have also got seedlings of apple and lemon trees started from store bought fruit last year. Have several peach seeds that I am going to chill and try to get started as soon as I get the extra time. Got the seeds spread all over 3 houses right now. Gotta get them in the same location then I can pay attention to the.
That’s my biggest challenge right now. Too many parts of things are in different houses in different towns. LOL
>>>>Hope you get some nice GENTILE showers in the meantime.<<<<
I am getting one of those nice “gentile” showers here this morning. I was headed over to the old house to turn the soaker hose on the garden today but we have nice slow “gentle” showers so I can sit and relax.
The weather has cooled down just a tad - most days are high 90’s instead of triple digits. This is the 2nd day of slow showers we’ve had in a week and my tomatoes that I nursed through the heat of July and August are FULL of blossoms again!!! YEA!!! I am hoping to have another ginormous crop of tomatoes, peppers and squash in about a month. Don’t think the cuke vines are healthy enough to put out anything else but I haven’t pulled them cause I should at least have enough for salads.
The legislation proposed was part of the rational in purchasing the particular home that we did. We don’t have what we planned - but we’ve got this hodgepodge of gubmint land that’s hard to get to around us. Mostly grown over with cedars and scrub oak. First thing is that it’s going to be easy for me to just set my “orchard” trees over in that area. It’s wet enough that I should not have to water. (springs from the limestone) And it’s rough enough and thick enough and far enough out of the way that nobody would pick it as a hiking/recreational area. I just have to keep encouraging the natural growth of things to keep it unaccessible.
>>>>Finally got to spend the holiday weekend camping at Moosehead Lake. <<<<<
I have heard stories of camping at Moosehead Lake from Lloyd. That is a place he brings up with fondness from his younger years and after your description I should love to camp there if we ever manage to make it to Maine at the right time of year. Your kind of camping is my kind of camping too.
I am anxious to get my bees! The 3 things I have on my priority list for this fall are bees, asparagus bed and starting peach trees. I will do other things too but certainly don’t have time for all my plans. Those 3 items are the top of the importance list. I do not want to live here any longer than I must without those things.
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