The Money Thing

Belize has very colorful money. Red, brown, blue, purple, wine, black...although that is beside the point of this post. This is what a Belizean $100 looks like. (50 US)

The money thing. It is such a powerful subject, isn't it?... Daniel and I have struggled through many of his school years trying to survive on little while raising a family. It has been a challenge, but then, I consider myself to be a person who loves challenges so for the most part I have enjoyed it. I learned that life is as enjoyable as you make it, and it doesn't mean making millions of dollars. (Although I wish we were making that much.:) 

The children will be just as happy and can be happier than others, if they are encouraged to let their imagination soar with what little they have. At one point I remember that our neighbor told us many children she knew were not as creative as ours, because they are handed everything they want and thus have no need to 'create' anything. It pays, in more ways than one, to not give your children everything they ask for, no matter if it is in style and ALL the other kids have it. The contentment they can learn from having few toys will be priceless. Like a family friend once said, "We give our children everything they need, but only a little of what they want." So good!

Living with little can be fun and challenging, but what's not cool is living with debt. Unfortunately we were not able to go through all these years without making some, and we came to a conclusion recently. We are getting out of debt! Whatever it takes! The bible says he who is borrower is slave to the lender. We were tired of this slavery. When we first came to Belize we thought, good, its much easier to make a living here and we won't need to be so careful with our money. Wrong! After a year of being here, we realize it is this attitude that can keep us in debt for our whole life. We awoke. We saw things needed to change. We did. We bought the book, The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey...if you have heard of him before, then you know what we have gotten ourselves into. Sigh. It's going to be tough. Another challenge! We have learned some very valuable principles so far, and can see that sticking to them will make all the difference financially. We feel like we actually have control over where our money goes now and don't have to look back at the end of the month wondering where it flew off to. I found out about this Ramsey by reading other blogs and especially April's story, so I already knew that it required a sincere commitment.

I am becoming more creative than ever, seeing what I can do at home to save money. (I opened a new blog, Pioneer Home Recipes, where I am going to upload many more recipes yet. It will help you make most anything at home for a fraction of the price you have to pay if you purchase the same item from the store. These recipes are results of years of collecting while trying to live on less.)

Following are some few ways we make do on less: 

hanging my wash out to dry,  we have no dryer

gardening, 

not going to restaurants, (which is a hard one for us!) 

purifying water using sunlight; we have to buy drinking water, but I supplement by purifying some for use in cooking and freezing for ice.

don't drive unnecessarily (have a menu plan so shop weekly if possible; carpool) In Belize gas prices are outrageous, and even though we live only a few miles from the store, we still try to limit driving.

In the past, I have made cloth diapers from a used flannel sheet,  made baby wipes, and diaper covers.

made baby food and cereals

make almost any food from scratch

turned off the porch light at night, 

gotten rid of my maid

had a yard sale

exchanged old bulbs with new fluorescent ones
use only homemade napkins
buy no paper towels - only use old towels and sheets a t-shirts cut up

turned fridge and freezer temp down
we have no water heater, so we shower with cold water or heat the bath water for the children on the stove(no problem for this country where a cool shower is preferred...)

I wash with cold water only. 

make my own laundry detergent.

raise our own chickens

having family fun means  to:
pack a picnic, play a game, or read stories, ride a horse, go swimming, camping, go see the crops or watch a good movie

Just doing one of these things might not make much difference at all, but combined, it amounts to a lot of savings. Multiply those monthly savings by 12 months, and then 5 years, and we are surprised how much we can save!

Ways I try to make money:

(Before you get the wrong idea here, the decision to make money was all mine, not something my husband requires of me.)

Cook lunch on Mondays for a crowd of people; I enjoy this as I can now run a little 'restaurant', something I always thought would be fun. I usually have between 4-8 customers. 

Sometimes I cater for a crowd. This is so far the best way for me to make money. It means I am doing it on my own time, so I only do it when I have time for it.

Sell buttermilk to the local store.

Selling wallhangings and quilts, when I have time to make them

I have also sold kombucha, homemade wine, baked goods, and more foods that people are hungry for but that take time to make. People might ask me to make ice cream, bake a cake, or something similar. I only do it if my time and family allows me to do it;  family comes first. 

I go with the children to hubby's workplace to sell cookies, lemonade and other foods. (This is how they try to make money to pay for bible camp this year. They ended up making 67 of the 80 it cost.)

I hope to share more money saving ideas in the future. I plan to go back in time a couple years when Daniel was still in school, and show you how we lived then. Even though it was not always easy, I look back at those photos with fond memories, and am thankful for every experience we had then!

On Saving Money and Keeping House

Really, I could not figure out what to name this post. It includes the idea of saving money, organizing my home, having a yard sale, doing without a maid...I guess it all went together in this post...hope you make sense out of it!

Recently I told you about me having a yard sale. I had made a decision a while ago to organize our house, because I just realized I could not keep it organized the way I would like to; it seemed we never had enough closet space for all our things; everything cluttered so fast I could not quite keep up with it. I had read many times that in order to be less busy, one needed less stuff. I knew we had too much stuff.

I eventually had a maid to help me with keeping my house clean, because I thought I could not manage. But then. I started thinking. We are still in debt. And I think I can afford a maid? It only costs me 18 US. per day. (correction: I realized I had calculated this wrong. It's more like 15 US per day, which will change the numbers...)I had looked at the small picture, not figuring how much that money will amount to in 5 years!.. Hmmm. That is close to $8,000 Bze in 5 years.  Who can afford that anyway???  The prospect of having a yard sale really started looking good, because I realized I might ease up my time a little while organizing my home, and maybe even get rid of the maid, and who knows, maybe even make a little extra cash...

On the last day my maid was here, (before I knew  for certain I was laying her off that day), I sat down with my notebook and pen, and tried to figure out if I could make it on my own, with our children's help. I divided the work she did in one day over three days per my week, and came to the conclusion that, yes, I can do it! I can tell you it was a tremendous relief on my part to come to that decision. I told her that was the last day I had work for her, but for her it was no problem. She had other work waiting for her. 

I dove into getting ready for the sale. I started really looking forward to it, having never had a yard sale before. Because I was already in the money saving mood, I decided the children should try to sell cookies and lemonade for their upcoming Children's Bible Camp. They were so excited about it!

The yard sale day came. I was ready! I had rented the space for a small fee, but I expected to make enough to make it worthwhile. The location was prime. Unfortunately my grandfather passed away the morning of the sale, but since I had some volunteer help from my nieces I was able to leave in between. It worked out well.

Can you imagine I was happy when I counted the money at home, and found out we had made over $700 Bze? All that money for cleaning house! I was so happy that I had made this decision. It was worth all the effort and hassle.

One more thing I did to be able to organize my time was to make a homemaking binder. That is another subject I might cover some time, but for now suffice it to tell you that it has really helped me stay on track. Daniel enjoys coming home to a clean house nearly every day instead of only on 'maid day', and all that money in the new savings account from the yard sale and the savings from having no maid is a constant happy reminder that I made a few right choices. I am no longer dependent on the maid as I realized I had started to become.

I am not telling you all this to make you think I am somebody, and I know how to manage things. I am just trying to encourage you, as I have been encouraged by other bloggers. If I can save money, organize and de-clutter my home and free up some time, so can you! At one time I didn't believe I could, but then I read a post by Aunt Ruthie from Sugar Pie Farmhouse, and I took matters into my own hands and set out to do it! I have Aunt Ruthie to thank for inspiring me like she did.

Here are a few yard sale photos.

 Hi Lisa! Thanks for stopping at the sale! 

 All those nice girlie toys that my big girl had outgrown. It's almost sad to see some of them go, but I made sure that all the money that came from the things that belonged to them, they could have and do with as they pleased. I was happy when they both wanted their money put into their savings accounts. Perhaps they have learned a little about money already.

 I believe we did so well because we had quality things to sell, and most for reasonable prices. We made sure things were clean and packaged neatly. I noticed that all the little baggies of small toys that were a quarter or 50c were ALL gone at the end of the sale. Many of those small toys could have been thrown away and no one would have known the difference, but this way it all adds up. Don't take anything for granted! I had 10cents items too, and those are the things people buy.

(just to give you ideas if you want to make a sale...)

 Books sold very well. They are not as easily to come by around here so people always look out for a good deal, and they found it here.

No,  I did not sell the wallhangings and blankets, but I am not unhappy with the end result.

 Here are the little sellers. Lemonade did not sell too well, but cookies yes! 

I had them walk around with the cookies towards the end and they sold most of them. What they did'nt sell they took to daddy's work place some days later and sold there, along with some more lemonade. So far they made over half of what the camp costs them, and they are learning some very valuable lessons at the same time. AND hopefully some interactions skills as well, which are still sorely needed, them being so shy as they are. One or two more trips to the work place, and they should have done their duty for this year.

Let's have a Yard Sale!

Lately I have been delving into organizing our home and my time, and came to the conclusion that 

WE HAVE TOO MUCH STUFF!!! 

So, I decided to make a yard sale (this Saturday). After making that decision, I flew through the house, piling the sofa with things we don't really need, or have extra of (we lived in the US too long ;) and I couldn't believe how fast the pile grew. Daniel said he was behind me all the way...:) 

This is my first yard sale ever, so I am very excited about it. The children are too, as they want to sell lemonade and cookies to raise money for Bible Camp this year. 

Hope to see you there!

Baby Chicks

 What's cuter than a bunch of baby chicks...?

...A cute little boy holding a baby chick.

We slaughtered our first batch of chickens last week. (Yep, it was me that slit all those throats...)That was only 10. But it sure does feel good to have some home-grown free range chickens in the freezer. 

Last week I also went back to the Hatcheries and asked for twenty new baby chicks. She handed me the box back and asked me if it was ok if there were more like thirty. I said yes. Since these are free rejects, it is easy to loose some at first, but so far we have only lost three. I am not a person to kill off baby chicks just because there are too many, so we will try to raise all of them. I can't say I am looking forward to slaughtering day or days, but hey, it will be worth it once I have thirty home-grown free-range chickens in my freezer...or maybe I'll sell the extra and make a few dimes...

 

When I went to buy feed at the mill recently, I saw this calender that was for the taking and I couldn't resist, seeing as we are in the chicken raising business now. Cute cute.

A New Venture

When I wrote the buttermilk post, I mentioned that there might be a business opportunity for me in it. I have been giving it some more thought; can I do it above all I am doing lately? Can I keep the house clean? The children happy? My husband? I asked him about it again last night, and he encouraged me to go ahead and try it! That was the push I needed to get me started. Today I brought my very first batch of cultured buttermilk to the store to sell!

I don't know if I will sell anything; but I want to at least give it a try.  I have advertising ideas in mind if needed and have given some buttermilk with recipes away for free, hopefully to get people 'hooked' on the product.

 So, if you visit the FTC in Spanish Lookout, and see this buttermilk, you know exactly where it comes from! And, you might want to consider supporting me:) I have included two recipes on the label, so people will not be left hopeless when they purchase a bottle. 

Isn't it great to be a stay-at-home mama? Life is so full of opportunities.

Something's always brewing...

...in my pantry. Ever since I got my book, Nourishing Traditions, (which no mom should be without), I have been eager to try some of the lacto fermented drink recipes.

 

Crabboo wine, blackberry wine, noni wine (we have a noni tree on our yard) and kombucha. I like to use coffee filters for the covers. In this country there are too many little critters that try to find their way into everywhere.

 This is ginger ale.

 Kombucha. It's THE drink for this hot country. So far I have a few customers who buy this drink from me. It's the perfect substitute for sweet tea. I ferment it for a few days, then bottle it with a little dash of sugar, cap it tightly and let sit for a day or two more. This way it is as fizzy as pop. Yummy! 

 

 Belizean blackberries from a tree. They give the absolute best wine I have ever tasted. I made over a gallon.

Sauerkraut. I am getting hooked on this! We are going back to our real German roots with this stuff. In Iowa in every German restaurant you could get some. Then I wasn't impressed with it, but now that I make it myself, I love it. 

I also make yogurt about once a week which we eat with raw honey, and have a little drink of kefir (milk champagne :) now and then. Daniel and me both love the beet kvass, but it takes the children a little longer to learn to drink that one. A little sip of wine before bed, (if I'm not pregnant...) and I feel very healthy and happy.

So, why all this fermented stuff? because I want us all to have a healthy intestinal system. Parasites and yeast infections don't appreciate soured fermented foods like these, so why not eat more! Lacto fermented foods are full of enzymes, and you can't get too many of those. Enzymes help us digest food better, so it is recommended to have foods like this for every meal. I've got no problem eating a little sauerkraut every day. Or drinking some great tasting kombucha with my meal. I can't wait to try out more of Sally Fallon's recipes! Healthy eating has never been more fun.