Because I haven’t yet managed to find any more sources of income we’re still trying to cut the weekly budget to make up for my still impending loss of a job. What amazes me is how well we’ve managed to do. Six months ago we took out $240 each week to cover food, gas and sundries. We’ve been cutting back for a while but now we’re down $180 a week. Despite the rising costs of food and gas we’re doing quite well. In fact I often find that I have more money in my pocket at the end of the week than I did when we were taking out more cash.
Last week I had enough left over at the end of the week to take Maura out to lunch on Friday, which she had off from school. We went to Windy City Eats, our favorite local hot dog stand. The hot dogs are Chicago style and the best I’ve had for a long time, served with a smile and no ketchup. Lunch there always makes Maura’s day and the prices are very reasonable. [Local readers in search of a good hot dog can find Windy City Eats at 407 Middle Street, Weymouth, MA and on the web at www.windycityeats.com.]
I suspect the reason we’ve been doing so well is that we’ve been paying attention to what we spend our money on. We’ve been saving money on our food bills by buying meat in larger amounts when it’s cheap and eating more vegetarian meals. I’m still driving as little as possible and once my current job ends I’ll be taking even fewer trips.
There is one disclaimer on our weekly spending numbers. They do not include the cost of most of our vegetables. We get those from a CSA and pay for them in advance so they don’t come out of the weekly budget. We paid $130 for eight weeks of fresh, mostly locally grown produce. The quality is better than what we’d buy in the supermarket and we support local farmers. We’re still spending less than $200 a week. We were getting our vegetables from a CSA six months ago, too, so the amount we've cut from our budget is real.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
A Walk in the Blue Hills
Our good run of weekend weather continued this weekend. We celebrated with a hike in the Blue Hills. We parked our car near the park headquarters and hiked between there and Great Blue Hill, hiking in a loop that included both branches of the rugged Skyline Trail. The weather was perfect, cool enough to be comfortable but warm enough to hike in a T-shirt once we got going. There were lots of people on the trails, not a surprise in the well-travelled Blue Hills. We were joined on our hike by our friend Andrew Tittler and his children. His youngest rode on her daddy’s back but Maura and his oldest child hike well enough on their own.
Though the weather was perfect it was not the most enjoyable hike I’ve ever been on. Maura can be a great hiking companion but on this occasion she was not on her best behavior. Maura is like any other child. Some days she’s a blessing and a joy to be around. On other days she is selectively deaf and won’t hear a word you say to her over her own whining. Sunday was one of the later days. She asked for a drink of water about every five minutes and had to be told so many times not to climb over rocks that weren’t on the trail that I lost my temper and yelled at her. I don’t like to do that. Needless to say we saw little wildlife, though with many other hikers on the trail we weren't likely to see anything shy.
Perhaps it was just a bad day for Maura or perhaps it was that she was hiking with another child. Maura usually goes out in the woods with just her parents. It must be easier to listen to us when no one is competing for her attention.
Fortunately Maura is usually a pleasure to be around. We’ve enjoyed many hikes together and I expect we’ll enjoy many more. Maura’s spring break starts on Friday so we’ll have plenty of time for adventures together and with her with her grandparents, who will be visiting. I’m looking forward to it.
Though the weather was perfect it was not the most enjoyable hike I’ve ever been on. Maura can be a great hiking companion but on this occasion she was not on her best behavior. Maura is like any other child. Some days she’s a blessing and a joy to be around. On other days she is selectively deaf and won’t hear a word you say to her over her own whining. Sunday was one of the later days. She asked for a drink of water about every five minutes and had to be told so many times not to climb over rocks that weren’t on the trail that I lost my temper and yelled at her. I don’t like to do that. Needless to say we saw little wildlife, though with many other hikers on the trail we weren't likely to see anything shy.
Perhaps it was just a bad day for Maura or perhaps it was that she was hiking with another child. Maura usually goes out in the woods with just her parents. It must be easier to listen to us when no one is competing for her attention.
Fortunately Maura is usually a pleasure to be around. We’ve enjoyed many hikes together and I expect we’ll enjoy many more. Maura’s spring break starts on Friday so we’ll have plenty of time for adventures together and with her with her grandparents, who will be visiting. I’m looking forward to it.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
The First Hike of the Season
Last Sunday afternoon we finally had the set of favorable circumstances I had been hoping for since the beginning of March. The weather was fair, everyone was healthy and we had no plans for our afternoon. We packed the expedition bag with binoculars and guidebook, filled our water bottles, put on our boots and headed for the woods.
Our destination was Wampatuck State Park, in the nearby town of Hingham. Our objective was to scout for likely southern bog lemming habitat that Maura and I might revisit later on the Great Lemming Hunt. We didn’t find any place that seemed very promising, though there were a few spots we might visit again.
Despite not finding lemmings we had a wonderful hike and saw plenty of wildlife considering that Wampatuck is heavily traveled and hardly a pristine wilderness. From World War I until after World War II it was part of an ammunition depot where the Navy stored ammunition for large guns and the park is crisscrossed with roads from that time, some crumbling, some well maintained and popular with bicyclists. Between the roads are footpaths and bridle paths that cross the hummocky terrain. Most of the park land is gently rolling hills with swampy valleys between. In places there are open ponds. Everything is covered with brushy, second growth forest and there are occasional old buildings, stone walls and rusting chainlink fences.
The forest attracts many animals as well as people. Even in the early spring there are animals to be seen and heard. Along one sunny stretch of bridle path we spotted a pair of brown and yellow morning cloak butterflies. Further along on our hike we encountered a vernal pool filled with wood frogs. They could barely be seen in the shallow water through our binoculars but they could be clearly heard. They sounded more like a flock of ducks than a pond full of frogs. As we climbed up a bank to get closer to the pool of frogs we startled a barred owl and spotted it as it flew to a perch in a tree a bit further away from the annoying people. We weren’t sure what we’d seen, only that it was a large reddish-brown bird flying away but when it called “who-cooks-for-you” we knew what it was and we spotted it through our binoculars watching us from its perch.
We walked perhaps two miles on our expedition, hiking at an easy pace with many stops. I could have happily kept going, and I think Jennifer felt the same but Maura wasn't in the mood for a long hike so we headed for home. On another day we'll revisit the most likely spots to look for evidence of lemmings. This may be a year of frequent hikes. Everyone in the family enjoys them and hiking in local woodlands is an inexpensive pastime.
Our destination was Wampatuck State Park, in the nearby town of Hingham. Our objective was to scout for likely southern bog lemming habitat that Maura and I might revisit later on the Great Lemming Hunt. We didn’t find any place that seemed very promising, though there were a few spots we might visit again.
Despite not finding lemmings we had a wonderful hike and saw plenty of wildlife considering that Wampatuck is heavily traveled and hardly a pristine wilderness. From World War I until after World War II it was part of an ammunition depot where the Navy stored ammunition for large guns and the park is crisscrossed with roads from that time, some crumbling, some well maintained and popular with bicyclists. Between the roads are footpaths and bridle paths that cross the hummocky terrain. Most of the park land is gently rolling hills with swampy valleys between. In places there are open ponds. Everything is covered with brushy, second growth forest and there are occasional old buildings, stone walls and rusting chainlink fences.
The forest attracts many animals as well as people. Even in the early spring there are animals to be seen and heard. Along one sunny stretch of bridle path we spotted a pair of brown and yellow morning cloak butterflies. Further along on our hike we encountered a vernal pool filled with wood frogs. They could barely be seen in the shallow water through our binoculars but they could be clearly heard. They sounded more like a flock of ducks than a pond full of frogs. As we climbed up a bank to get closer to the pool of frogs we startled a barred owl and spotted it as it flew to a perch in a tree a bit further away from the annoying people. We weren’t sure what we’d seen, only that it was a large reddish-brown bird flying away but when it called “who-cooks-for-you” we knew what it was and we spotted it through our binoculars watching us from its perch.
We walked perhaps two miles on our expedition, hiking at an easy pace with many stops. I could have happily kept going, and I think Jennifer felt the same but Maura wasn't in the mood for a long hike so we headed for home. On another day we'll revisit the most likely spots to look for evidence of lemmings. This may be a year of frequent hikes. Everyone in the family enjoys them and hiking in local woodlands is an inexpensive pastime.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Adventures in Frugality, Part 2: Challenges
There never was an adventure without challenges. Trouble, danger and fear are part of adventure. With nothing to be overcome an adventure becomes merely a journey, and it’s likely to be a tedious one. It is challenges that bring excitement. They stretch us beyond our limits and force us to learn and to grow.
I’m feeling very challenged these days. The prospect of losing my job is frightening. I’ve had it for nine and a half years and, even though I have little love for it, its loss will be wrenching. The rhythms of my life that have been built around my job are comfortable from familiarity even if they are sometimes irksome. It will be hard finding the new patterns that I will need to succeed in my life going forward.
Money is an issue, of course. I’ll have to give up some things I enjoy. So will Jennifer and so will Maura. I hate having to tell her that she can’t have something or do something because we don’t have the money for it, but I know she understands. We’ve never been rich so Maura is used to not getting everything she wants. It is just as well. If she had had all she wanted before she would take it harder now that she certainly can’t.
I’ve come to see the upcoming loss of my job as more of an opportunity than a disaster. My job in retail bookselling has been a side job for years. I hung onto it for the money while I spent more effort on other, more important things. The trouble was that it took too much mental energy and distracted me from what I needed to do, which was to write and to sell my writing. I’m not going to be unemployed. I may, unfortunately, be unpaid. My hope is that my time working without payment will be brief.
I’m feeling very challenged these days. The prospect of losing my job is frightening. I’ve had it for nine and a half years and, even though I have little love for it, its loss will be wrenching. The rhythms of my life that have been built around my job are comfortable from familiarity even if they are sometimes irksome. It will be hard finding the new patterns that I will need to succeed in my life going forward.
Money is an issue, of course. I’ll have to give up some things I enjoy. So will Jennifer and so will Maura. I hate having to tell her that she can’t have something or do something because we don’t have the money for it, but I know she understands. We’ve never been rich so Maura is used to not getting everything she wants. It is just as well. If she had had all she wanted before she would take it harder now that she certainly can’t.
I’ve come to see the upcoming loss of my job as more of an opportunity than a disaster. My job in retail bookselling has been a side job for years. I hung onto it for the money while I spent more effort on other, more important things. The trouble was that it took too much mental energy and distracted me from what I needed to do, which was to write and to sell my writing. I’m not going to be unemployed. I may, unfortunately, be unpaid. My hope is that my time working without payment will be brief.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Adventures in Frugality, Part 1
Recently I learned that I will soon be losing my job. It wasn’t a good job. I won’t miss the work much. I will miss the people I’ve been working with, some of them for more than nine years. I’ll miss the money too. Even though I haven’t been well paid, selling books has contributed to our household needs.
I’m confident that in time the money issues will work themselves out. I’ll sell some of my work or I’ll find another job. In the meantime my goal is to spend as little money as possible, to stretch what we have as far as possible. I intend to have a good time while I’m doing it. It’s time for adventures in frugality.
For a start, I plan on driving the car less. Gas is expensive these days and likely to get more expensive. I can’t afford to burn any if I can avoid it. I’ve started walking Maura to school again now that the snow has melted off of the sidewalks. The mornings are brisk but if the weather is clear the walks are still enjoyable. The birds are singing in the trees and the first flowers of spring are blooming. I also walk to the library often. I can use the exercise; the library is often a good place to work and its services are still free.
The dinner table is another place we’ll be enjoying frugality. I’m trying to find ways to make inexpensive meals that please my family. No one in our house is a vegetarian but no one is a determined carnivore either. Meatless meals have always been among our favorites and I plan on making more of them. Made from scratch, they should be healthy and cheap. The challenge is to be creative enough that no one gets bored. I have plenty of time for cooking most days and I enjoy being creative in the kitchen.
I also don’t want to waste anything I can use. We already make homemade stock out of our vegetable scraps and bones. In the past leftovers often went to waste but I’m going to try harder to make sure edible leftovers get eaten and scrap paper gets used again before it gets recycled.
Our need to be thrifty will probably keep us close to home this year but Maura and I are still planning some adventures that will start as soon as the weather allows. For a school project on animals Maura researched lemmings this year. One of the things she learned was that the Southern Bog Lemming lives right here in Massachusetts. We’re planning on being amateur naturalists and searching them out in their natural habitat. While we’re at it we’ll get to know some of the other animals and plants that inhabit our local bogs and fens. I’ll write more about hunting for lemmings when we’ve made our first expedition. With luck we’ll find them close to home but I expect it may be a project that takes a good part of the summer.
I’m confident that in time the money issues will work themselves out. I’ll sell some of my work or I’ll find another job. In the meantime my goal is to spend as little money as possible, to stretch what we have as far as possible. I intend to have a good time while I’m doing it. It’s time for adventures in frugality.
For a start, I plan on driving the car less. Gas is expensive these days and likely to get more expensive. I can’t afford to burn any if I can avoid it. I’ve started walking Maura to school again now that the snow has melted off of the sidewalks. The mornings are brisk but if the weather is clear the walks are still enjoyable. The birds are singing in the trees and the first flowers of spring are blooming. I also walk to the library often. I can use the exercise; the library is often a good place to work and its services are still free.
The dinner table is another place we’ll be enjoying frugality. I’m trying to find ways to make inexpensive meals that please my family. No one in our house is a vegetarian but no one is a determined carnivore either. Meatless meals have always been among our favorites and I plan on making more of them. Made from scratch, they should be healthy and cheap. The challenge is to be creative enough that no one gets bored. I have plenty of time for cooking most days and I enjoy being creative in the kitchen.
I also don’t want to waste anything I can use. We already make homemade stock out of our vegetable scraps and bones. In the past leftovers often went to waste but I’m going to try harder to make sure edible leftovers get eaten and scrap paper gets used again before it gets recycled.
Our need to be thrifty will probably keep us close to home this year but Maura and I are still planning some adventures that will start as soon as the weather allows. For a school project on animals Maura researched lemmings this year. One of the things she learned was that the Southern Bog Lemming lives right here in Massachusetts. We’re planning on being amateur naturalists and searching them out in their natural habitat. While we’re at it we’ll get to know some of the other animals and plants that inhabit our local bogs and fens. I’ll write more about hunting for lemmings when we’ve made our first expedition. With luck we’ll find them close to home but I expect it may be a project that takes a good part of the summer.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Wii, Wii, Wii (and mostly stay home)
Maura and I haven’t been traveling much of late, even over the Christmas holiday. We did a bit of shopping one day and on Christmas Day we visited with friends. We also went to the movies twice. It’s one of our Christmas traditions. We saw Tangled on the day before Christmas and Tron Legacy the Monday after. Both were thoroughly appreciated, but not very far from home. There were no visits to museums or other attractions.
We’d planned some, at least a trip to the Science Museum in Boston, but early in the week after Christmas the weather was lousy (a blizzard hit during the night on Sunday) and then Maura came down with a fever so we wanted her to get plenty of rest and we didn’t want to expose too many other people to something that might be contagious. A call to the pediatrician convinced her mother and I that the fever wasn’t very serious and it was gone by New Year’s Day but it kept us at home for most of Maura’s vacation.
During the days Maura felt fine so we all played together at home. There were new Christmas gifts to play and play with. The gift that kept Maura busiest and given lots of fun to the whole family was the Wii game system that Maura’s grandma and grandpa gave her for Christmas. All three of us in the Ellett home have been spending much of our free time in front of the TV waving around the Wii remote.
I’m a bit worried that the Wii might aggravate Maura’s tendency to spend all of her time in front of the TV but provided we can keep that under control the Wii is a good game system for Maura, and me for that matter, to be playing on. We don’t have Wii Fit, which is designed for exercise, but many of the games we do have are active enough. They’re best played standing up and some of them can get your heart racing. Many of them are fun for the whole family to play together, so unlike the games we play on our computer, and many other video games, they are not isolating. On the whole I think playing on the Wii is healthy in moderation and it’s certainly fun. I’m not planning on making Maura stop (and I’ll play now and again myself). Next time Maura has a break, though, I hope the weather and our health give us a chance to get out and do something outside the house. If we never leave home I might have reason to worry.
We’d planned some, at least a trip to the Science Museum in Boston, but early in the week after Christmas the weather was lousy (a blizzard hit during the night on Sunday) and then Maura came down with a fever so we wanted her to get plenty of rest and we didn’t want to expose too many other people to something that might be contagious. A call to the pediatrician convinced her mother and I that the fever wasn’t very serious and it was gone by New Year’s Day but it kept us at home for most of Maura’s vacation.
During the days Maura felt fine so we all played together at home. There were new Christmas gifts to play and play with. The gift that kept Maura busiest and given lots of fun to the whole family was the Wii game system that Maura’s grandma and grandpa gave her for Christmas. All three of us in the Ellett home have been spending much of our free time in front of the TV waving around the Wii remote.
I’m a bit worried that the Wii might aggravate Maura’s tendency to spend all of her time in front of the TV but provided we can keep that under control the Wii is a good game system for Maura, and me for that matter, to be playing on. We don’t have Wii Fit, which is designed for exercise, but many of the games we do have are active enough. They’re best played standing up and some of them can get your heart racing. Many of them are fun for the whole family to play together, so unlike the games we play on our computer, and many other video games, they are not isolating. On the whole I think playing on the Wii is healthy in moderation and it’s certainly fun. I’m not planning on making Maura stop (and I’ll play now and again myself). Next time Maura has a break, though, I hope the weather and our health give us a chance to get out and do something outside the house. If we never leave home I might have reason to worry.
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Election Day Zoo
Last Tuesday was Election Day and it was a zoo—the Franklin Park Zoo, to be precise. After I had completed some necessary morning chores and cast my ballot I took Maura to the zoo. She has Election Day off every year because Weymouth uses the public schools as polling places and closes them for the day for the safety of students and the convenience of voters. The school closure does nothing for the convenience of parents but because I work evenings it was an opportunity for me to spend some quality time with my daughter.
We got to the zoo around 11:30 and spent three hours there. We had the place almost to ourselves, which surprised me. Weymouth is not the only town that closes its schools on Election Day but almost no one thought to visit the zoo besides us. Perhaps it was the weather. It was one of the chilliest days we’ve had so far this year. It wasn’t too bad to enjoy the zoo, however. It was dry, sunny most of the day, and not very windy. It was plenty comfortable outside if you were bundled up. Many of the zoo’s best exhibits are indoors anyway.
The best exhibit at the Franklin Park Zoo is probably the tropical forest exhibit which is indoors out of the weather. The zoo’s troop of gorillas lives there. Maura’s favorites ringed tailed lemurs live there too, as do free flying birds and many other fascinating animals. We spent over an hour exploring the exhibit. One thing that left me curious was the mice running around the bottom of the fruit bat enclosure. They didn’t trouble the fruit bats but I was left wondering whether the zoo has a mouse problem or if it was simply convenient to keep snake food in with the fruit bats. No signs mentioned the mice so I doubt they were intended to be on display.
The rest of our trip to the zoo was also enjoyable. We heard the lion roar, which we never have before, and we saw the prairie dogs popping in and out of their holes, which is always fun. At Franklin Farm a friendly zoo staffer introduced Maura to the animals and she got to pet the horse and feed the goats.
Our visit to the zoo was educational as well as entertaining. Zoo New England, which runs the Franklin Park Zoo, takes its educational responsibilities very seriously and signage gives a wealth of information about the animals and their habitats as well as about conservation. Maura is curious and smart so she didn’t need any prompting from me to read the signs. Watching her paying attention and learning was a big part of what made the afternoon enjoyable for me. I hope she never loses that curiosity and can still enjoy a visit to the zoo when she’s grown up, even if she doesn’t bring her own kids along. I think the chances of that are probably pretty good.
We got to the zoo around 11:30 and spent three hours there. We had the place almost to ourselves, which surprised me. Weymouth is not the only town that closes its schools on Election Day but almost no one thought to visit the zoo besides us. Perhaps it was the weather. It was one of the chilliest days we’ve had so far this year. It wasn’t too bad to enjoy the zoo, however. It was dry, sunny most of the day, and not very windy. It was plenty comfortable outside if you were bundled up. Many of the zoo’s best exhibits are indoors anyway.
The best exhibit at the Franklin Park Zoo is probably the tropical forest exhibit which is indoors out of the weather. The zoo’s troop of gorillas lives there. Maura’s favorites ringed tailed lemurs live there too, as do free flying birds and many other fascinating animals. We spent over an hour exploring the exhibit. One thing that left me curious was the mice running around the bottom of the fruit bat enclosure. They didn’t trouble the fruit bats but I was left wondering whether the zoo has a mouse problem or if it was simply convenient to keep snake food in with the fruit bats. No signs mentioned the mice so I doubt they were intended to be on display.
The rest of our trip to the zoo was also enjoyable. We heard the lion roar, which we never have before, and we saw the prairie dogs popping in and out of their holes, which is always fun. At Franklin Farm a friendly zoo staffer introduced Maura to the animals and she got to pet the horse and feed the goats.
Our visit to the zoo was educational as well as entertaining. Zoo New England, which runs the Franklin Park Zoo, takes its educational responsibilities very seriously and signage gives a wealth of information about the animals and their habitats as well as about conservation. Maura is curious and smart so she didn’t need any prompting from me to read the signs. Watching her paying attention and learning was a big part of what made the afternoon enjoyable for me. I hope she never loses that curiosity and can still enjoy a visit to the zoo when she’s grown up, even if she doesn’t bring her own kids along. I think the chances of that are probably pretty good.
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