Recycle, Upcycle, Reuse, Organize, RePurpose!!

Did you miss me? I’ve been gone from Blog World (yes, it’s a proper name, and thus is capitalized) longer than I expected due to a) being out of town and b) dealing with a hopefully short-lived health issue. The doctor has found what’s wrong, and has prescribed a fix. Unfortunately for me the fix is almost as bad as the original trouble. But SOON I shall be back to some semblance of “normal,” a term which for me is as yet undefined since I continue to RePurpose Linda.

In addition to the above mentioned health issue, I have a sprained arm. I think I did it by overtaxing myself on the weight machines at Lifetime Fitness. So I’ve been stymied at the gym AND at home, PLUS we were out of town celebrating my father-in-law’s 85^th birthday and I didn’t stay on the WW Plan, so last week was kind of a bust, repurpose-wise. But only in the realm of my physical repurposing. Last night was WW again, but I couldn’t go. Suffice it to say that my current ailment often keeps me close to home/bathroom. Phil went (was the only guy there which made him uncomfortable) and lost another 2 lbs! I’m so proud of him.

I mentioned last week that this blog will present a multi-faceted repurposing adventure. First, the physical: losing weight and improving my overall well-being through exercise. Second, reverting to the cheapskate I was years ago when kids-at-home were aplenty and money was not. Now, I’ve spent a chunk of the last two weeks on a third facet: repurposing THINGS. This is the more conventional sense of repurposing, which is taking something that no longer serves its original purpose and re-making it into something else. Like making old T-shirts into rugs. Perhaps for profit down the road a ways. Etsy maybe?

Technically, unless it’s torn or otherwise really shabby a T-shirt can still be worn, but if it’s been given away to the Salvation Army I say it’s prime re-purpose material. First I did some research on Pinterest and Etsy, then developed a plan. My goal is to eventually re-use things around the house for the repurposing-things adventure, and since I’m married to a world-class packrat, there’s lots and lots of things around the house, particularly in our basement. But I needed a jumping-off place and decided on T-shirt rugs.

I first want to try a braided rug. Seemed like something I could do. So I needed T-shirts. I had a good number of my own, ones I wear for house cleaning or painting, but for future reference and because I wanted to get out of the house for a while I went to the Salvation Army store in Plymouth to see what their prices were like. The SA store has a perpetual 50% off sale on items with tags of a certain color, depending on the day. I went on “white tag sale day.” With 45 bazillion T-shirts to choose from it wasn’t hard to limit myself to white tags. Not knowing how many T-shirts I would need to make a rug, I bought 8 shirts in various shades of grey, blue and green, for a total of $15, averaging just under $2 per shirt,which still seems a little on the expensive side for used clothes, doesn’t it?

Then Phil and I went to the St. Vincent De Paul thrift store where we donated some old computer equipment and books and the like, and I shopped for more T-shirts. They were $1 each, and since it was “Men’s Day” at St. Vinnie we got them for another 25% off! I like these prices better than SA.

Now all I need to do is cut up the shirts and start braiding and sewing! I’ll let you know how it turns out.

I also have a Lenten project going, which is sort of a re-purposing effort – dejunking and organizing my home, starting with the kitchen. Have I mentioned that I am married to a packrat? Well I am. So when I saw this idea on Pinterest (my new love) I thought it was a perfect fit for my life right now. A) Usually have to stay close to home and B) Want to stop the piles of stuff from growing and pushing us right out of the house. And of course the real purpose of Lent is remembering the sacrifice Jesus made for us, so I purposely do not have the TV or radio on during my project time so I can concentrate fully on prayer and thanksgiving.

Each day during the 40 days of Lent, I'm tackling a different area of the house. Since Lent does not include Sundays, I have a built-in day off each week! Here’s what I’ve done so far:

Day One (Ash Wednesday): The Plan. I couldn’t go to church, so I sat at home and planned out my Lent Project.

Day Two: Paper Piles – My Mother’s stuff. I went through seven years of collected papers (medical stuff, bank statements, bills) and sorted, organized, filed and shredded for an entire day. Felt so good to have that done!

My pretty dejunked shelves!

Day Three: Paper Piles – Phil’s stuff. TEN years of collected papers, same categories. This actually took a day and a half. 

Day Four: Shelves in kitchen near Phil’s desk. I really only had half a day for this because of Day Three running over into Day Four, but it was enough.

Day Five (Yesterday): Phil’s desk. Ohmygosh. He still had floppy disks in there. And software from two computers ago. Printer cartridges from three printers ago. The list goes on. But again, feels really really good, and looks good too!

Closeup. Boxes in top right are full of cards:
thank yous, blanks, birthday, etc.

Today, Day Six, I plan to tackle the junk drawers in the kitchen. Sort, pitch, clean, organize, re-cycle, re-purpose, re-use, and consolidate into one drawer. I’ll let you know how it goes!

Lincoln Thumbs and Laundry Soap

Part of “Re-Purposing Linda,” my year-long quest for better health and fitness, was getting Phil to agree that we should join Lifetime Fitness. This wasn’t easy, because Phil is the only one bringing home the bacon these days. But just because I don’t make money doesn’t mean I can’t give a real effort toward saving money. I’m trying to cut out conveniences and luxuries, and go back to when we had 4 little kids at home and HAD to scrimp. So my re-purposing has taken on a new angle: turning myself back into a cheapskate.

Here’s the original Contract With Phil, written before we joined LF, to help ease his mind about the financial commitment. Following The Contract is another of the ideas I’m putting into action: making my own laundry soap!! I shall pinch those pennies until a permanent picture of Lincoln is embedded in my thumbs.

Contract With Phil:

For as long as we are members at Lifetime Fitness,

Ø  I will not purchase fast food (quarter pounder with cheese, I miss you)

Ø  I will not go to Starbucks

Ø  I will not get cash back at the grocery store

Ø  I will limit my lunch out with friends to once a month

Ø  I will place a complete moratorium on all Vera Bradley purchases (that was painful)

Ø  I will not buy anything over $50 without consulting you (exception: groceries)

Ø  I will not buy new clothes or shoes for myself until I have to because of weight loss and/or wear and tear (can’t be looking shabby!)

Ø  Wherever it’s feasible, I will alter clothing I already have, instead of buying new

Ø  I will go to Lifetime Fitness a minimum of 3 times a week

Ø  I will give up our Saturday breakfasts out

Ø  I will not ask to eat dinner out (but you can still suggest it, and then it’s okay)

Ø  I will not ask for Chinese food or carry-out pizza (unless I’m really exhausted)

Ø  I will not buy any more kitchen gadgets (but as gifts? Yes, I accept.)

Ø  I will not buy any more pay-per-view movies when I’m at home by myself

Ø  I will not buy any more magazines

Ø  I will not spend any more money on the kids’ apartments (but I still WANT to…)

Ø  I will never buy another vacuum cleaner

Ø  I will not buy one more stick of furniture (unless you agree it’s necessary)

Ø  I will have a yard sale in the spring (even though I hate doing yard sales)

Ø  I will not buy any new sewing gadgets even if I love them (yes, now I’m starting to whine a little)

Ø  I will not buy any new camping gear of any kind

Ø  I will continue to go to Firefly, year after year after year <sigh>

Ø  I will not buy you a Father’s Day gift, and you will not buy me a Mother’s Day gift

Ø  We will go small for birthday gifts for each other this year (unless you finally want to rip up the carpet in my sewing room and replace it with something hard and sweepable, like wood or tile)

Ø  I will not buy any home décor items or Christmas decorations

And that was just for starters. The original Contract was emailed to Phil at work so he could peruse it and mull it over before he came home. He agreed, and I’ve held to the bargain, To The Letter.

When I got involved in Pinterest, thanks to my daughters Leah and Emily, I found (or re-discovered) many ways to save money in addition to The Contract. When my kids were small, I came across Amy Dacyzn’s awesome books, The Tightwad Gazette I, II and III (sold now on Amazon in one large volume, highly recommended by ME). These books were compilations of her popular newsletters by the same name. Amy and her contributors taught me to make my own salad dressings and soups, wash out Ziploc bags and re-use them, make my own muffins and cakes from scratch rather than pay for a mix, make potato bread dough and keep it in the fridge, shop at yard sales and thrift stores, and SO much more.

Now, on Pinterest, I have a board called CheapskateMe (a double entendre, meaning both “I am a cheapskate” and “please help me be a cheapskate”). One of the “pins” I added is for making my own laundry detergent. I started there for two reasons; I hate spending all that money for laundry soap, and I hate wasting the packaging (because even if we re-cycle it, We Paid For It). I found that my pin originated with a blog called “Frugally Green,” at frugallygreen.blogspot.com. Here’s what I did, with a little help from my assistant Phil.

First, we bought a Fells Naptha laundry bar, 20 Mule Team Borax, Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda and a 2.5-gallon water/drink dispenser at Walmart. From Ikea, a funnel and a small plastic trash can to mix it all in.

I cut the Fells Naptha into 3 equal pieces, and Phil shredded one of the pieces with a box grater, like you would use for shredding cheese. I put the grated soap into a pan on the stovetop with 6 cups of hot water, stirred often, and heated it on low until the soap was melted (if you try this, don’t let it boil!). Once the soap was all dissolved, I added a half cup each of the Borax and the A&H, and Phil cooked and stirred it till it was all dissolved and thickened to almost the consistency of honey, as directed.

I poured it into a plastic trash can already holding 6 cups of hot tap water, and stirred it up. Then I added a gallon plus 6 more cups of hot tap water, stirred again, and left it set out overnight. All of this took around 12 minutes.

In the morning, as warned on the Frugally Green blog, I found a gloppy mess of glop floating on top of water. I stirred it up, and used my immersion blender to re-incorporate the glop and the water. Presto! Laundry soap! I ladled it into a funnel resting in the opening of my Walmart drink dispenser, replaced the cap and put it in the laundry room next to a little canning jar with measurements on the side. One half cup per load (or 4 liquid ounces).

Now to figure how much money we’ve saved. Hoo Boy. This took lots longer than making the soap, but I needed to convince myself it was worth the trouble (what little trouble it was).

So…

If we do 5 loads of laundry per week, and we live for another 35 years (making us 88, not unrealistic), we will have done 9100 laundry loads between now and Heaven. Holy Smokes. If we live past 88, maybe our grandkids will make our laundry soap for us. Heck, maybe they’ll do our laundry, too!

Here’s my Laundry Soap Cost Analysis:

1 bar of Fells Naptha soap was $.97 and makes 3 batches

1 box of Borax was $3.38 and makes 11 batches

1 box of A&H Superwash Soda was $3.24 and makes 19 batches

We do 4 or 5 loads of laundry a week. So in the next 35 years, that comes to 9100 loads of laundry. That’s 142 batches of laundry soap. But the math is easier if I figure on making 100 batches.

100 batches:

33.34 bars Fells Naptha = $32.34

9.1 boxes borax = $30.76

5.26 boxes A&H = $17.04

Dispenser, trash can, funnel $10

100 batches totals $90.14

1 batch $.90

1 batch = 2 gallons or so

2 gallons = 32 cups * .5 cups per load = 64 loads

.90 / 64 = 0.014, or less than a penny and a half per load.

(Without counting the $10 we spent for the re-usable items, it’s $.80 per load, and that makes it 1 ¼ pennies per load.)

So according to my superior math skills (kidding – I hate math and it hates me back, so Phil had to check my work), I finally determined that after making 100 batches, the real cost will have been less than a penny and a half per load, inflation notwithstanding.

I first used it yesterday, and I liked it! No dyes or perfumes (which make me break out in a rash, and don’t get the clothes any cleaner), no phosphates, no expensive packaging, and best of all it did a great job cleaning our laundry. I first tried it on whites, and they not only look and smell nice and clean, they might even look a little bit whiter than before!

This morning I spent some time on the Sam’s Club website, looking for a good deal on commercial laundry detergent. The best value I could find was a brand I had never heard of, called ECOS. They have 3 types, all of which come in bulky plastic bottles, are okay for High Efficiency washers and are phosphate-free. One of the ECOS types was free of dyes and perfumes: ECOS Free & Clear. An okay option price-wise, though not having used it I have no idea if it gets your clothes clean. It came in at 6 cents per load, which is still more than 4 times my home-made detergent, but far less than other commercial brands. The contest for the biggest money-guzzler seems to be a tie between “Tide with Downy” and “Drops,” each weighing in at a hefty 37 cents per load! Oh. My. Gosh.

One small aside: don’t be fooled by often meaningless claims, like “organic.” Hemlock is organic, and also lethal. Same for arsenic. Poison ivy is organic, but do you want it in your laundry detergent?

So I am now officially a double-re-purposer, and about to be a triple (see future blogs!). First Re-Purposing experiment in ultra-frugality, a big winner in my book (and on my blog). To anyone who read this far, thank you, and I mean it!! Please leave me a little comment if you will, it would make my day.

Just Keep Swimming...

Happy Valentines Day! “Give praise to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! He is the Father who gives tender love. All comfort comes from him.” 2 Corinth 1:3

First off, the all-important Weight Loss Update (imagine a drum roll…): LOSS OF ONE POINT EIGHT POUNDS!! Yay for me! It sure wasn't easy. This weight loss business takes tenacity. Planning. Strategy. Like war. “Know thine enemy!” Yes, we have switched from VALENTINES/LOVE to WAR. I just couldn’t think of a good segway. Except maybe “Make love not war” from the sixties, but I was too young to be a hippy and anyhow I don’t think it’s really apropos.

 So off we go to war. Winston Churchill said, “Never give in... never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense.  Never yield to force... never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.”  

And in this case, the enemies are many and varied.

a.      Food tastes good. Food that tastes the best seems to be the worst for me. HoHos, Fritos, big messy cheeseburgers, onion rings and donuts, to name but a few.

b.      I was raised in a home with Bill Torbert. I learned that food was not just for nourishment, it was also for attitude adjustments, celebrating, stress-relief, TV-watching, entertaining, gift-giving, and just passing time between meals.

c.      The road is long, and I am impatient. “Lord send me patience and send it to me now.”

d.      My Fibro aches and pains keep me from doing some of the things I need to do. Today, for instance, I was going to take an “Introduction to Yoga” class, and meet with my personal trainer Brooklyn at Lifetime Fitness. I can’t do either, because of painful elbows. That’s a new one, by the way. Heretofore my elbows have been some of the few places NOT hurting.

e.      There are entire days when IBS keeps me home, and not able to do much of anything.

But fear not, for my weapons against blubber and sloth are ALSO many and varied!

a.      Momentum. Once inertia is broken, just keep going. Like Dory the blue fish in Finding Nemo. “Just keep swimming, just keep swimming…”

b.      Desire. I desire to be svelte. I used to look good in clothes, and I want to again. I don’t necessarily want to be whistled at by construction workers or anything, but I never really enjoyed that in the first place. I just want to look good, and I will just as soon as that fat woman in the mirror moves to Nairobi Kenya.

c.      Pinterest! OHMYGOSH. My girls have me hooked on Pinterest, and there are some great recipes out there. There are also a billion other things to look at and spend my time on, especially on the days when I can’t do much else. So that means I’m not rooting through the cupboards hunting for a snack. Double whammy! Double edged sword in the Battle of the Bulge!

d.      Philip Edward Meier, who is on Weight Watchers with me, and has joined Lifetime Fitness so we can go swimming together and walk on side-by-side treadmills. SO romantic. Having him count points with me makes it much easier! He helps decide on the menu also, so it’s not always me having to come up with what to make for dinner.

e.      Friends and family who read my blog and leave me messages, here or on Facebook or in emails, are an awesome weapon. It means SO MUCH to have your encouragement, and to know that these words I send out into cyberspace are not being dropped into the waste basket like junk mail. Thank you thank you thank you!

f.       Best weapon: Jesus. Because “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Phil 4:13

NEVER GIVE IN!

Your Excuse is Invalid!

If I joined Weight Watchers, paid the money, attended the meetings, and did not follow the plan for a week or so, then that is a pretty solid reason for gaining 8/10 of a pound this week instead of losing. Why not follow the plan? Let’s see.

1.  Phil went out of town. I went out to dinner with friends two nights in a row; coincidentally those were the same two nights Phil was out of town. Hey, if he’s not eating at home, why should I?
2. I ordered dessert. Both times.
3. Since I knew the numbers were not there, I didn’t track my points for a few days. Coincidentally, those were the same two nights I went out to dinner and ordered desserts.
4.  Since I didn’t track my points for a few days, I just didn’t track them for a few more days. So really, I have no idea what I ate.
5.  Last week I was tested for Celiac Disease. I heard yesterday, I do not have it. But last week I went to two different stores looking for good gluten-free foods just in case, and bought a bunch of them. Like three bags full. And if you buy them, you must try them, right? Right! Some were good, some were okay, and some were yucky. Did I track these test foods in my Weight Watchers PointsPlus handy dandy online tracker? Um, no.
6. There were no Activity Points to track, due to no activity. I crashed, remember?
7. When Phil came home, we went out to dinner. Because twice in one week wasn't enough? I had a black and blue burger and onion rings. Hoo Boy. Nope, didn't track that.
8. Lastly, Superbowl happened. Chips, dip, awesome ribs, and more. 'Nuff said.

 While the above are reasons for weight gain, they are not excuses.  I do not excuse my lack of discipline. But if I don't reflect, find a reason, and make changes, I'll just whine about it and chalk it up to bad luck, instead of bad behavior. And I don't mean "bad" in the sense of "naughty," but in the sense of doing a poor job of following the plan Weight Watchers laid out for me.

Okay, so back to the drawing board (or tracking board). Tune in next week for better results. Really. Because "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Phil 4:13