The First Harvest/Spice Rack Project Scrapped/$ Totals Update.

So, silly me thought my broccoli heads would get as big as they do when purchased at the market. Silly, silly me. Therefore, I'm a little way late on harvesting them. I managed to salvage one and a half of them, and will try to keep the plants going for the "side shoots" I keep reading about.

Trying to make the most of my oops, I chopped off a couple of the broccoli leaves, and added them into my salad mix. I had intended to cook them up like "greens", but found their raw taste to be more than acceptable.

I'm proud of my first harvest. It felt really good to eat food that I had grown. I did have a moment of "But I don't really WANT to eat a salad tonight", but that was quickly changed when thought of the food that I created, being wasted. I have a problem with wasting food. I buy good/healthy food, and end up throwing part of it in the trash. My hope is, this garden will assist me with being more mindful of eating the food I produce or purchase before it spoils. Looks yummy? It was! Didn't realize I made a smiley face with the strawberries and chicken until I looked at these pictures. Hehe.

I'm kind of peeved my wild strawberries (or are they something else?) are growing ridiculously well in my yard, and the animals leave them alone completely, whereas they were eating mine in my topsy-turvy prior to moving it to the front porch.

Speaking of my yard I finally mowed the back yard for the first time this year. I've been paying someone to cut the front. I'm tired of trying to deal with my horrible hill. This cheap chick thinks the $15 to have the entire front yard cut, is completely worth it. I cut the backyard this past Friday. If the weather cooperates, I will likely tackle the Neighbors weed overgrowth on our shared fence. GRRRR.

I'm a little tardy in posting this entry. The harvest was last Thursday, the grass cutting was Friday, and the spice rack was Saturday. The spice rack project I've been talking about has come to a screeching halt. Sigh. Here's a pic of it as it hung in the cubby underneath the basement stairs.

And here's all the stuff I took out of the little drawers. Need to sort this stuff and put it with the other miscellaneous home improvement type things.

Once I had the thing off the wall, I figured out a few things. There's no back. Ok. That one isn't all that big of a deal. The shelves the drawers are sitting on...they don't all the way back to where the wall is. There's at least a 2" gap. AND the unit itself, is about an inch and a half wider than is ideal for the location I wanted to hang it in my kitchen. Yes, It will fit, but it will mess with my need for symmetry. THIS will be a problem. So. I've decided I'll draw up some plans and see if I can figure out the miter saw, and just make one that suits my needs better. I may even break out the router and make it all fancy! One benefit of this exercise is, the unit is no longer on the wall, therefore I will not be banging my shoulder, etc. into it when getting boxes out of the cubby area. It's where I keep all my empty USPS boxes for my eBay sales. I may possibly post a rant about some tw@t on eBay leaving me negative feedback last week. Totally uncalled for. I'll wait to see if it resolves itself first.

Lets see...what else. Oh yeah. A financial challenge update. Credit card is sitting at $170.34 (that's including the pending $40 I spent on dinner at PFChangs last night, with a girlfriend from school. I splurged on an $8 drink, and it was darn tasty!). I have about a 1/4 tank of gas left from my last fill up (5/14), and will probably top off the tank when I leave work today. Bringing me to my goal of $200 or less spent on the credit card this month. Cash, I'm not doing so hot on the cash. I have $9 and some change left for the rest of the month, and $4.46 on a Visa gift card. Again, this is do able if I stay out of stores.

Stores! What a freak'n rip off. Stupid me put the beater for my Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer in the dishwasher and of course it ate the coating off of it, so it is worthless to me now. I went to Kohl's after dinner last night to see how much a replacement beater would cost me...$36! Arrrggghhh. I couldn't bring myself to do it. I have cash in my PayPal, and this is exactly the kind of thing I try to use it for (if not paying off bills). So, this morning, I purchased a replacement beater THAT IS COATED so I can actually put it in the dishwasher. I should get it next week.

Dishwasher. I know, sounds like I'm wasting energy/money, right? Probably, but I've also recently been reminded that the gaskets and seals, etc will dry rot (?? other term?) if I don't use it occasionally. So I've taken to running it every 2 weeks or so. I hate doing the dishes, so this is working out quite well for me :)

I got an expense check from when I was away for work at the end of last month, and used 2/3rds of it on restocking my groceries. I don't know how to record that in the budget, since it was reimbursing me for mileage and food that I charged, that I wouldn't have if I were home. Anyway, I shouldn't have to go shopping again until the end of next month. I'm trying to make sure I cook at least 2x a week, and use up the food I have in the house. I got tons of vegetables, meat, fruit, and a few snacks for lunch. All for less than $80. I love Aldi! Even if I were to add this into my charge budget (though I paid through my debit card) I'd still be under March's $300 challenge. Sigh. Maybe $200 is too much to try to stay under? Meh, some of this months charges are for parking for that conference, at the beginning of the month. Double sigh. Just need a "regular" month, to see if I can meet the challenge.

My 2 Cents...

2 Cents, or even a penny. Everything is going towards debt these days. I am using eBay, baking, and side work for friends as a way to supplement my income without getting a second job. In March, I gave myself a spending limit. I started the month with $100 cash, and challenged myself not to spend more than $300 in credit card charges. I am very proud to say, I met that challenge (was $2 over on the credit card, CLOSE ENOUGH!).

April. April felt like I did nothing but hemorrhage money :( I'm embarrassed to say how much was spent (last months credit card balance was paid off today), but will say that a little more than half of it was spent on a conference and test that will help me find a new job in the near future. But for someone as cheap as I am trying to be in 2012, it still stings a little when looking at the credit card statement.

It is the middle of May, and I had intended to write this post at the beginning of the month. This month's goal is $100 cash and only $200 in credit card spending. That's including my gas. It's currently around $45 to fill up my tank.

As of this morning, I have $42 cash in my purse, a $10 winning scratch-off ticket, and $4.46 left on a Visa gift card available for spending for the rest of May. Thankfully, I have only charged $95 on the credit card so far (1/2 was parking for the conference at the beginning of the month, and one fill up of gas). The house is stocked with food, TP, kitty litter and anything else I might venture into a store to purchase. If I can manage to stay out of the supermarket and drive thru's for the next two weeks, I have every faith that I'll be able to stay under my spending limits for the month.

All of this penny pinching IS worth it. I think I already posted about paying off my car in March (8? months early). I'm ecstatic to say...

I paid my student loan off on May 12.

Waaaahooooooooiiiieeee! This means, my only outstanding debt is now my mortgage. Any and all extra money will now be thrown towards it, and my savings account. I already have a pretty sizable liquid savings account (Not including the 401K. That's probably the only amount I won't actually share a specific dollar figure.), but for me, it's not enough. Lets say it's around 2/3rds of a years salary (I make OK money, nothing spectacular). My first savings goal is to increase it to a full years salary in the next two years, then, 2 years salary in the 5 after that. I think, extra money will be divided at 75% towards mortgage and 25% into savings. Since I can't rely on actually MAKING any extra money each month, I have to do my best to keep the credit card charges to a minimum. That way, there's extra $ built into my actual budget each month.

eBay sales haven't been all that spectacular this month or last. Last month I only sold $121 worth of items, and this month, I'm only at $36 so far (but that's only 4 items). I do have 29 more "No insertion fee" listings for the month, and will spend most of tomorrow night listing some new items, and re-listing some of the higher priced old listings.

The community yard sale is at the beginning of June. I have pretty high hopes of getting rid of a bunch of the smaller items I have previously listed on eBay. Last year, all I sold was "smalls". My Hoarder friend will also be bringing some of her items over for sale and will keep me company. I don't expect to make a bunch of money at the yard sale. I think $50 would make me happy this year. I don't have a lot of things to sell, since I've unloaded most of it already on eBay! Every penny gets me closer to meeting my goals.

Strawberries!

I am so freak'n excited about my garden! It's the first year I've tried to have one. I started one this year, as an exercise in being more frugal with my food costs, and hopefully to encourage me to eat less processed foods.

I went on a home improvement store date with my father at the end of March. He's the only person I know locally who has had a vegetable garden. I remember picking fresh salad fixings every night as a 6 year old. I bought a bunch of different plants, and another bunch of seeds (which I haven't planted yet :(, but I'm going to blame that on the fact that I'm still collecting soda bottles to make a vertical garden in a shoe rack!)

In the garden (with any luck) there will be: Tomatoes, Green and Red Peppers, Cauliflower, Broccoli, Onion, Lettuce, Squash, Dill, Cilantro, Cucumber, Honeydew Melon, Strawberries and a host of other goodies escaping my mind at the moment.

This first set of pics is the veggies as they were first planted, at the end of March/beginning of April.

And as they looked at the middle of April.

Here's everything at the end of April.

And finally, the middle of May.

Some plants are doing better than others, but overall, I'm pretty happy with how things are going so far. The 'maters and strawberries need to be moved to hang from my front porch. They're too close to the ground, and some lucky animal has been eating my precious berries :(

I started writing this post almost two weeks ago, and I STILL haven't got any of my seeds started. I do have all the soda bottles collected, cut and placed in the shoe rack. I don't know what my problem is with filling them with dirt and shoving a seed inside. Actually, some of it is the fact it's been raining so much these past 2 weeks. The potting soil is either wet from the rain, or it IS actually raining on the days I have the time to plant. THIS WEEK!

The Right Tools for the Job

It has taken me almost an entire week, but I've checked off all of my non-project items from the 'To Do' list. It should have happened last night, but shopping got in the way. I hate shopping for clothes, but somehow, I LOVE shopping for tools. I want to buy ALL of them. Having a workshop full of every tool imaginable sounds like a FANTASTIC idea to me. Seriously. I picture myself doing all kinds of things with these imaginary tools, and ending up with the coolest house ever! Have I mentioned I'm terrified of my circular saw? Yeah. I keep it in the house for the men folk to use. I'd like to keep all my limbs.


I didn't see the point in paying full price for the tools I needed, so I went to the pawn shop and bought a miter saw. I've been talking myself out of it for a few months now. I need it for a picture frame project I have dancing around in my mind. I also wanted to purchase a palm sander while I was there for the spice rack project I have planned, but the guy didn't want to work with me on the price even after I showed him his sticker price was only $3 less than Lowes. He came down some, but we were still too far apart.


The pawn shop was nice enough to let me know they had used the saw just yesterday and it needed a blade, so I actually ended up going to Lowes to purchase one, but OMFG $60 for a 12" blade?!?!?!? I don't think so! The nice lady at Lowes told me Harbor Freight was just a block down the street and they should have something cheaper...and they did. I picked up a new blade for about $30. I'll have to figure out how to install it tomorrow.


Back to the To Do list. I downloaded an app to my phone earlier in the week, typed in my list (I previously kept it in a Word doc), and have been steadily checking things off ever since. It's called "Pro Do" by Othelle Soft. I really like it because you can do subtasks. On my paper To Do list, I had everything arranged by room, and the tasks I needed to complete in that room, so this app is working out pretty well for me. The other thing I really like is, it records the day and time you entered the item on the list, so when you click the check-box the length of time the item on your list is displayed below it.


I think my goal for tomorrow is to refinish what will become my spice rack. That's where the sander comes into play. I purchased a brand new one at Lowes, for less than the cost of the one at the Pawn Shop. I don't think I have the energy to try and figure out how to replace the saw blade just yet.


Next weekends project will be adding some shelving to one wall of my closet, and painting the inside of the closet to match my bedroom, and the shelves white. I totally lucked out and was able to take some wood home from work on Friday. I'm very thankful for that, because I don't have to purchase it now (was actually on my To Do list). 


The week without TV has been surprisingly nice, and I haven't missed it nearly as much as I thought I was going to. I bought a Roku box a few months ago, in anticipation of cutting the cord from cable (my cable bill is currently more than my gas and electric bill!). This coming week's challenge is to see if I can survive on just what's on the Roku/Netflix and seeing how many of my shows can be found on the internet. 


I would consider trying to go another week without TV at all, but I have some organization type projects that are going to take a LONG time (Scanning the remainder of my old photographs) and digitizing all my old cassette tapes (I bought the converter on eBay late last year). Thankfully all of my CDs are already ripped to MP3. I will be catching up on my shows while I do this mindless scanning after work, probably every day this week.

It's like eBay wants me to be debt free!

I've been a seller on eBay for over 10 years now. I would say 95% of what I sold falls into the costume/garb category. Some creations of my own, some I purchased for myself and have since grown tired of, some items purchased with the pure intention of reselling them on eBay.

As my student loan finally came due, I renewed my selling efforts. I can't stand debt. Since November, it has been my mission in life to pay off my two outstanding debts (other than my mortgage). I paid off my car 6 months early, at the beginning of March. This month has required some financial investments in my future (Exam fee, conference fee, and a few other larger than I'd like charges), and as a result, has pushed back paying off my student loan. Luckily, it isn't a large sum, but I still want it gone. My goal is to have it completely paid off within the next two months.

eBay was super fantastic to me in November and December, offering multiple special "List for Free", or "1 cent Listing" days. Otherwise, I have been taking advantage of the "No insertion fees" on your first 50 listings, each month. As stated, garb has been what I've primarily sold. With being in school practically non stop for the last 5 1/2 years, I haven't had much time for sewing. Well...that, and the fact that I can't figure out the bobbin on my sewing machine, and I've seized something on my previous 2 sewing machines because I didn't oil them. Who knew?

This post inspired me. How I paid off $15,000 in 9 months selling my 'stuff' on eBay I see eBay, coupled with some other income generating efforts (on top of my actual salary), as a fantastic tool in erasing my little bit of outstanding debt, doing things I like, without having to get a "real" second job. I don't really have many big ticket items, but every $20, or heck, even $1 helps my bottom line.

Because I have a little (ha!) touch of OCD, I, of course, had to find a way to organize everything I am trying to sell on eBay. I wanted to give away a cheap bookcase I've had for about 10 years, but the person who said they wanted it, never made arragements to get it, so it has become my eBay staging area. I walked around the house and thought to myself...do I love this item? Do I use it? Do I have a use for it? Is there a negative memory/emotion attached to it? I pretty much cleared out anything that didn't make me feel good or help me lead the life I want for 2012 and beyond. It is a big help that I really can't stand clutter. I only allow this bookshelf to be messy because I don't spend any time in my basement.

I considered cropping the picture, but then you wouldn't be able to see the two dead sewing machines on top of the beer fridge (which actually holds no beer, but a bunch of wine and liquor). This picture was taken at the beginning of March. I see many items that have already sold. More items have been added, listed, and sold, as I continue to purge the main house of its clutter.  Having everything in one place, makes it easier to take advantage of eBay's free listing days. They don't like to give a lot of advance notice.

I have found, people will buy practically ANYTHING on eBay. Really! Here are a few items that have sold this year. I wish I still had the pictures of the blank cassette tapes, answering machine tapes, and other truly random things I sold at the end of 2011.

These mugs were purchased for 80 cents each at my favorite thrift store. I sold the lot of them for $10.50.

When I helped clear out my Grandmothers house, I rescued this barbecue set. The pair sold for 99 cents.

Ahhh. Once upon a time, I thought I would try Weight Watchers (I lost about 10 lbs). I never used the dining out guides. WW is wonderful to get you thinking about what you are putting in your body. I scanned the Welcome-Week 6 guides previously to give to someone, so it's not like I can't still do the program if I wanted to. This item sold for $19.99.

It is my goal to make at least $250 each month from selling my "stuff" on eBay. Once I have a better handle on said "stuff" (and a few more projects off the To Do list), I will start sewing again (garb to sell on eBay, and maybe a few new bodices for myself)...here's a little look at the fabric I need to use up...The china hutch, and everything on top of it is pretty much ALL fabric. But...that's it. All together, and actually sorted by what I intend to do with it. Bodices, Skirts, Shirts, and Cloaks/Capes.

Oh, hey! Look, there is ANOTHER sewing machine. That's the one I have to figure out the bobbin tension. Sigh.

Provident: What's in a Name?

What's in a name? What's it mean? Provident, according to webster.com means the following:

Definition of PROVIDENT

1: making provision for the future : prudent

2: frugal, saving

I feel like I am doing both, thus the choice of Provident for both my name, and blog. Couldn't very well choose "I'm a cheap chick" now could I? Of course I could, but I think Passionately Provident has a slightly better ring to it. 


This blog is started with many intentions. This week, I've challenged myself to going a full 7 days without turning on the television. As I write this entry, it's 6:28pm Wednesday. So far, so good. Why am I fasting TV? A couple reasons. I was told a few months ago, that sometimes you/I may want to pray with intention (I think that's what it was called), meaning give up something, kind of to show God you mean it? I don't think I've gone an entire week, well...ever, without watching any TV at all. I'm interested in seeing if I can actually do it.


I'm an avid list maker. Of course, I have a 'To Do' List, which is generally updated every Friday before I leave work, with the thought, "This weekend I WILL mark XYZ off the list". I'm not saying that I don't get things done, and off the list, but there are a few things that have been lingering for WAY longer than I'd like. Some, because they're larger projects that have been lower priorities. My thought behind no TV for the week, is to see if I can get a bunch of things marked off the list, because I'm using TV time for something more productive. I was inspired by MSP, when he indicated he hadn't caught up on GRIMM because there was so much to do around the house. So there, MSP. This blog is dedicated to you. Showing off my homemaking skills again. Yes, I am.


Why the blog? Maybe if I put in writing, for a wider audience to see, I will have more incentive and accountability to complete some of my tasks. Plus, I really miss writing. 


Why Provident? Because, I am planning for the future. Looking at my HOUSE now, you wouldn't know I actually have a degree in Interior Design. Not in the least. I have been making strides in turning my HOUSE into a HOME, since completing my THIRD Degree in the Summer of 2011. It's time to be creative, and do some problem solving, outside of the educational arena. 


But, I'm still cheap. There are plenty of things, already in my house, left from previous owners that can be turned, frugally, into what I think will be show pieces. By choosing to be thifty in my homemaking, it will help me achieve my ultimate goal...paying off my house before I have one foot in the grave.