I haven’t read a large quantity of the post apocalyptic books hat have been written in the last 20 years. For the most part they seem to involve lots of struggles between groups of humans for dominance. And that’s just not enjoyable for me, my idea of survival situations is problem solving usually cooperative. Until […]
I’ve been slowly examining all my purchasing decisions…and something that rattles around in my head every time I walk into a grocery store is Malcom Gladwell’s TED talk On Spaghetti Sauce, where he describes in detail the exact moment in the universe where we went from having a hand full of products different from each […]
When I looked for a house, I specifically wanted SOME growing room. This yard is very small and I was a bit worried, there was a lot of trees and shade and the previous owner love putting plants in the ground, but didn’t understand plants or landscaping. I spread all the heavy lifting out over […]
Over the last 10 years I have sculpted a lifestyle which fools my ego into thinking that my thrift based decisions are actually electives. I try incorporate many disciplines: frugality, minimalism, homesteading, low impact, decluttering, preparedness, recycling, scratch cooking, repairing, gardening, etc. AS we know, my life can get complicated all on its own, so […]
The fallout from my post defending Dollar store shopping showed me once again that people only read or hear what they want to hear. A post about allocation of funds was misread as a post about the comparitive pricing. I was also not very surprised at the responses that assumed I was advocating buying items […]
Among the skills I wished everyone should learn when they are young, are knitting socks and baking bread. It sounds like I am trying to promote a chop wood carry water ethos by recommending those basic skills, but that’s not my reasoning. These are real world tasks that incorporate many disciplines, one can immediately SEE […]
Regardless of what contrived articles you are reading in the media. Straightup comparisons between Dollar Stores and any other type of shop does not hold any weight. Dollar stores aren’t SUPPOSED to be a one stop shopping source. They aren’t SUPPOSED to supplant traditional grocery stores or department stores. They are there to offer items […]
After studying my own consumption for a while now, I went down a lot of rabbit holes. Like everyone else I started with decluttering and striving for minimalism and eliminating as many one time use items from my life. Including buying reusable bags, containers for storage and portability etc etc.. I have probably have been […]
This year I was a little worse than normal, I have gone down an anti-consumption rabbit hole with Foolishkitchen and an inquiry into why people buy NEW things when they are so many used items which still function perfectly well. I think it was just an excuse not to feel guilty about my trips to […]
At the end of each year I look at my purchase history on Amazon and Ebay to see what NEW items I have bought. Those are really the only sites I shop on….. booksites don’t count; buying books is like food and yarn, it doesn’t count. Every year fewer and fewer NEW things enter my […]
