Frugal 🛍️
I am a member of one the Facebook Frugal Living Group. It has some many interesting discussions and viewpoints on what is frugal living, and what is worthwhile and not worthwhile to spend money on. Money is after all a means to get things people desire, and the range of priorities varies a lot from human to human – even those who are trying to save money.
Some people are frugal out of necessity – they are poor with limited incomes from their jobs or lack jobs all together. Others are disabled or sick, unable to earn much. Or they live in an area with few good paying jobs. But others choose to be frugal for conservation reasons – producing less garbage and using electricity to save natural resources. Some want more money towards further purchases like owning a home or a homestead.
There is an endless discussions on the merits of being frugal versus cheap. Often it’s not clear what the difference is, though cheap is often seen as taking a short-run view on situation, underinvesting in the future and personal relationships, and taking advantage of others. Still the prudent, frugal person can’t help but look at less expensive ways of doing things, weighting things with a lower initial price, and doing the math out to see if it’s worthwhile to choose that option over the more expensive one in the future.
Myself, frugality comes from a desire to be simple and to conserve. Both so I can save and invest more money towards my future, the homestead and retirement from government work. A dollar saved today and investing, has significant potential to grow in the coming years. But also I don’t like producing a lot of garbage or wasting resources unnecessarily. At the same time, I do like my truck and traveling, and that’s something I’m much more likely to spend money on compared to using much heat and light, home internet, or driving to work whenever I can ride my bike or take a bus, no matter the minor inconveniences.
So yeah, I ran over some shit on Erie Boulevard last night and put multiple punctures in my bike tire 🚲
Yeah, it was no fucking fun putting on the spare tube into he pitch black and catching an even later local bus home but I was able to patch up that badly damaged tube with a lot of rubber cement and chunks of rubber tube and it’s holding air again and the spare is off and ready to save my ass again hopefully not soon.
I’ve been talking for six months about getting new tires for my bike, 🚴 as the nubs are totally worn off the back tire and the front tire is compeletely cracked and crumbled, with pieces missing and you can see through the tire in part down to the tube which isn’t offering much protection though the fix-a-flat saves my ass most of the time with the little leaks. Hell I don’t know how many of the leaks I patched last night weren’t serious and would have been fixed with the fix-a-flat when properly mounted but the one that made me swap the tube in the dark certainly was.
I was actually up later then usual, by the time I took the even later local bus home then had dinner and patched up the tire. I was only up until 9 PM but that’s pretty late for me when most mornings I’m up at 4:30 AM or 5 AM to read and think. 🤔 I don’t use an alarm, I’m just use to getting up at that hour, refreshed with clarity in thought. ☕ Used the last of milk this morning, had some of the coffee black. Spent much of early hour reading the remaining, The Heart of the Homestead, mostly just to get it done as I have several more books to get through before they return automatically next Friday on Hoopla. Also plan to listen to more of Raising Goats for Dummies 🐐 on the way into the office. Need to top off my bike tires, shower 🚿 and then riding in. Hopefully the patches will hold good and I’ll make it both ways without having to swap tubes like I did last night.
Honestly it wasn’t the worse thing in the world, wasn’t like I had any plans for last night beyond more pea soup, homemade bread and bed 🛏️. Maybe didn’t get as much as sleep as I often do on a cold and dark winters night but it’s a Friday and I was still up bright 🔆 and early. Sunny and mild morning to start out what should be a good day. And hell, yesterday could have been a lot worse. I saw there was a crash on the expressway. 🚘 Truth is I really hate driving, though at some point if I ever want to move out of the city that will be a necessity as cars are the best way to escape the city, though park and ride can certainly help. Assuming Trump doesn’t cut even more of the funding for the busses 🚍 so the only service is left is only the “last resort bus” to the ghetto for those who don’t have any other choice but ride the bus because their too poor to drive. Unfortunately it seems like bus service is going that way lately. Soon the one bus at day will run from Arbor Hill to the Methadone Clinic, spray painted from to wall to wall with gang symbols, and be full of scary people covered with holes from all the needles.
I think I’m done with the green pea soup 🥣 after tonight. Any leftovers I’ll freeze. It’s been good but I’ve had too much of it the last few days. Not been as gassy 😲 since I got used to it and started eating reasonable portions. Tonight I want to soak the remaining two pounds of pinto beans 🫘 I have so I can enjoy them with many meals in the coming week. People might think beans make you gassy too but when they are a staple of your diet, you build the ability to process the fiber and starch. They’re inexpensive and a good source of protein too. May need whole wheat flour already again as I’ve been baking a lot and having a lot of pancakes 🥞 lately. This morning was oatmeal and Greek yogurt with banana and mango. Good stuff too.
Tomorrow looks good early, 🌲 for the first day of regular season. I want to get to the Pine Bush to ride, get a picture of the John Wolcott sign and visit thrift shops in search of more clothes for work. 👚 Get really nice stuff thrifting, you got to sort through the crap but then again the same is true with the overpriced crap you find at the Maul, and you don’t even have to go to stinking Maul with the gangs of horney teenagers running around, shoplifting and stinking of incense and processed food. 🍟 👃 Then I need to get another plastic milk bottle 🐮 for coffee on Sunday and rest of the week and stock up on a few other groceries not that my pantry is that bare but it’s good to have everything for the week. 🛒 Need to get soap 🧼 and maybe some shredded parm cheese 🧀 for certain meals.
And maybe get through some other books before Hoopla automatically returns them. 📚 I still have 10 November borrows to use up but I’ll get them later in the morning, maybe closer to Thanksgiving for my post-holiday trip to the North Country, 🦃 and in the mean-time finding reading 📖 material on Libby. I’ve been reading a lot about homesteading lately, maybe next month I’ll study more about construction 🚧 and building shit. 🏡 I just don’t want one of those woke plastic houses with the vinyl siding and asphalt roofs, with a 5 yard dumpster picked up weekly or for that matter an always full of plastic and stinking trash burning barrel. 🛢️ Really want to get away from all that plastic crap that is promoted endlessly, along with all the processed food that all I ever see is advertising about. Shit is far worse then occasional toke or drag on a cigarette. 🚬
More Porta-Potties 🚽
It brings me immense joy and satisfaction to witness the increasing number of roadside parking areas that are now equipped with convenient porta-potties. In the past, such amenities were often scarce, leaving travelers like myself yearning for a suitable spot to answer nature’s call. However, as I have embraced a healthier eating regimen, I have noticed that the need to stop and use the restroom has become more frequent. That’s where the presence of these portable toilet facilities becomes absolutely essential.
Public toilets serve a fundamental human need by providing a clean and accessible space for individuals to relieve themselves comfortably. Although gas stations and fast food establishments have traditionally offered such facilities, expanding these conveniences to include more roadside parking areas truly enhances the travel experience. No longer do we have to hastily search for secluded spots or rely on the mercy of trees along the way for impromptu pit stops. Instead, we can now embark on our journeys with the peace of mind that adequate restroom facilities will be conveniently available.
The significance of these porta-potties cannot be overstated. They not only alleviate the discomfort and inconvenience associated with holding it in but also contribute to the overall delightfulness of traveling. By offering more opportunities for travelers to take a break and attend to nature’s call, these facilities promote safe driving practices and ensure that our physical well-being is upheld during our adventures.
So, next time you hit the road, keep an eye out for these indispensable rest stops. Embrace the gratefulness that washes over you as you no longer have to resort to searching for remote sections of road or rely on the sporadic availability of gas stations and fast food places. The inclusion of porta-potties in roadside parking areas not only facilitates your healthier eating habits but also enhances your overall journey, making it a more pleasant and memorable experience. Happy travels!
Like a cauldron of hazardous chemicals 🛢️
I was watching this fairly suburban-looking, I’d argue high consumption household, generating lots of paper and plastic trash, out in the country in rural Ohio where they are allowed to burn ordinary household trash. While it seems like they got backed up on trash burning chores, I was struck by how much trash this girl was tossing into the fire.
I don’t get upset with throwing a little bit of plastic into a fire or burning it with the trash, especially common throw-away plastics like Number 1, 2 and 5 resins. While there is inevitably some plasticizers, colors, and chemicals that are toxic, most modern trash isn’t the toxic soup it once was in the 1970s and 1980s both due to government regulation and voluntary changes by the paper and plastics industry. It’s not say you should stand downwind of a burning barrel and breathe in the smoke, but it’s also not nuclear waste that is typically part of household trash.
When you burn your household trash, you are in many ways dependent on weather conditions. It really can’t be pouring rain, your burn barrel can’t be full of snow, or things too bone dry. Without weekly trash pick up or regular trash burns, things can, as the video notes really get backed up. I know over the years when I don’t get to the transfer station or have fires up in the woods, I can end up with multiple bags to burn, even after compacting the trash down and separating out things like cans, and sometimes paper and plasitc for recycling.
That said, there is an alternative to burning or hauling off all this trash – it’s to make a lot less of it. Some packaging in our modern world is inevitable, but the frugal shopper buys in bulk, gets raw ingredients and natural products that only come with their skin for composting. Plastics and paper recycling is fine, but I’m not convinced that it’s much better at all for the environment then burning it on the rural homestead. It does make an excellent fire starter, especially if you keep paper separated out and dry, and compost the organics. That said, some heavier plastics like old extremely boots, if you can’t reuse them probably are best disposed of through the urban landfill system or maybe the farm dump if you have a lot of land.
Also I’m not convinced that burn barrel is the best way to incinerate and dispose of packaging on the homestead or farm. It’s not to say I’m against burning, indeed it’s a powerful tool for waste disposal on small scale. But burn barrels smolder and stink, they encourage people to mix in wet organics with wet paper, maximize hazardous byproducts of poor combustion. Almost any kind of homemade incinerator would be better then a burn barrel, especially with forced air and accelerant like lighter fluid and uesd motor oil to get it started. Or even a fire pit with lots of wood scraps to get a roaring fire, to quickly break down the chemicals in the paper and plastic. Trash fires need not stink when burning ordinary packaging if done right.
I’m all for burning as a waste disposal solution on rural homesteads. I don’t see it as a great evil. But I think it’s best done after minimizing and composting wastes, keeping paper dry and reusing whatever is possible and only burning as a last resort. Not using a stinking, smoldering burn barrel as part of an essentially suburban consumption pattern, which otherwise would be replaced by weekly garbage pickup to a distant landfill.
I am too attracted to shiny objects
And disappointed when they don’t work. I know everybody starts at the basics, and builds up from there. But I like shinny objects much too much.
I’ve just been trying to figure out how to link and use big modern C++ libraries using cmake and visual studio. When the truth is I should be mastering C code and automake and VIM. That’s what the work computers have on them, and it’s simpler, probably faster and more reliable.
But at the same time I don’t want to reinvent the wheel and I want to do useful and interesting projects for myself and not another boring hello world project. R is great, but I want to program a real language, namely C. Yet, I find myself incredibly frustrated with broken build environments.
Big fan of pinto beans 🫘
Pinto beans are one of the most inexpensive forms of beans you get in bulk at Walmart and other grocery stores. I usually get the 4-lb bag and split it into cookings ont he stove. While it does use electricity to simmer down the beans for a couple hours, pinto beans aren’t just incredibly delicious with some maple syrup or salt, cooked with eggs or fried with onions, they remarkably healthy source of protein and fiber.
Specifically, Google Gemani notes the following health benefits to a diet rich in pinto beans:
Rich in Protein and Fiber: Pinto beans provide a significant amount of plant-based protein
d dietary fiber, making them excellent for vegetarians and vegans, aiding in digestion, promoting a healthy gut, and supporting weight management.
Nutrient-Dense: They are a good source of essential nutrients, including folate, thiamin, magnesium, potassium, iron, and copper, all of which play crucial roles in energy production, immune function, and muscle and nerve health.
Antioxidants: Pinto beans contain beneficial phytonutrients, such as flavonoids and polyphenols, which act as antioxidants and can help protect the body’s cells from damage.
Supports Heart Health: The soluble fiber and potassium in pinto beans can help lower cholesterol levels and maintain healthy blood pressure, contributing to better cardiovascular health.
Helps Control Blood Sugar: The fiber content in pinto beans also helps to stabilize blood sugar levels, which is beneficial for managing diabetes.