Gwen's Sententia

Wrest the last charge

You know how two people can get together and start talking and other people don’t understand? Sometimes, when my husband gets together with my two sisters, they start speaking in some foreign language. It’s related to Saturday Night Live. I never watched the show. Apparently my sisters and my husband grew up with the show. They’ll say obscure things and break out into strange songs at the oddest times. And, I don’t think I’ll ever prepare broccoli in front of the three of them again. They’ll just get a can of corn instead.

Well, I missed out on the Saturday Night Live lingo, but my husband and I share some lingo that my sisters’ don’t know about. Both my husband and I played a lot of ASCII based games in high school and college. I played a lot of rogue, and he played a lot of Nethack. Conquer was another favorite of mine, and as silly as it was, I really liked worm. We still play games; although, our favorites are different. (We do play with each other, though.) My favorite is Settlers of Catan. Leon’s favorite is Kingdom of Loathing. When it comes to board games, we actually indoctrinated both sisters and their spouses into Ticket To Ride. Leon and I understand each other’s game vernacular.

Game vernacular sometimes invades everyday life. I mean, how often do you get meat and money confused? (Meat is the currency in Kingdom of Loathing.)

In NetHack, originally an ASCII-based Unix game, you battle monsters. You can pick up wands. You can use each wand a specific amount of times. Sometimes, you might get lucky and get an extra use out of a wand, and this is called “wresting the last charge.”

I was very amused the first time I saw my husband squeezing the toothpaste tube to get more toothpaste out. I had opened a new tube three days earlier, thinking the first one was way past empty. Leon managed to keep squeezing more toothpaste out of the tube, and to this day I have no idea how he manages that. Leon told me he was wresting the last charge from the toothpaste.

Wresting charges makes good sense, both environmentally and financially. Here are some other ways to wrest charges. What additional items do you have for me?

Laundry Soap/Color Bleach: After I’ve drained the container, I add a couple of capfuls of water and shake really hard. I can usually get one or two more loads.
Toothpaste: I still don’t know. I open the new one and Leon prides himself on how long he can go before using the new tube.
Lotion: When one bottle is “empty,” we take the top off of it and another lotion bottle. The “empty” one is then turned upside down and placed carefully on top of the non-empty lotion bottle. They stay like this overnight while gravity saves us money.
Fabric: I save even small scraps of fleece, because fleece doesn’t unravel. You’ll never know when you need a few square inches of orange fleece. I just used my scrap fleece last night as “ornaments” on my Christmas tree Advent calendar.

Labels: frugal, lifestyle, money, Your Money or Your Life

New addition to the house

See my house? Notice the flat, black things on the roof? Those are solar panels and I’m really excited about them.

Those little babies should supply our house with 104% of our electrical needs, save about four tons of coal each year, and make us feel all responsible.

Colorado Sunflower installed them for us, and my experience with them has been pleasant.

These solar panels are under warranty for 20-something years, will pay for themselves in less than that time, and can theoretically last for up to 60 years.

What’s more, if the federal government passes a cool energy bill sponsoring alternative energy sources, we might get a big, hefty tax deduction.

Solar panels - they’re not just for Boulderites anymore.

Labels: environment, house, money, recoverable energy, roof, solar, solar panels

Lessons on money and life style from the kids

I wasn’t big on cars and other toys when I was in my late teens and early twenties. I read a few articles of Amy Dacyczyn’s The Complete Tightwad Gazette and decided that being frugal was cool. Being frugal was the environmental thing to do to boot. Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robins’ Your Money or Your Life: Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence promoted similar ideas. Why should I go out and buy a new plastic gizmo when my current gizmo works just fine?

That was my environmental and political phase. I did lots of things that many people consider crazy. I do believe my father called me a bleeding heart when I went five years without a car. Going without a car in Boulder, Colorado isn’t a big deal. My dad cooperated with my crazy recycling bin scheme when he visited. My sisters just thought I was nuts.

I was happy. The simplified lifestyle was also my choice.

For a few years, the lifestyle was forced on me, and it sucked.

I went crazy; I bought a car and toys I didn’t need as soon as my period of forced simplicity ended. There was a short period during which I even spent more money than I had. Egads, it was like I was a different person, and the rebellion wasn’t hurting anyone but me.

I eventually found a middle ground with money, lifestyle, and spending habits. I slide up and down the spectrum though. Sometimes I buy silly things that I don’t need. Sometimes I make something things last longer than I should; however, overall, I think I’ve reached a middle ground.

I think I need to take some lessons from my children. They are really good at “Mommy, this is broken. Will you fix it for me?” There are a few stuffed toys that have more of my stitches in them than the original manufacturer’s.

The kids are also good at creating something out of “nothing.” For instance, Anna decided to make her brother a stuffed shark toy. She took one of her dad’s old (and holey) socks, stuffed it with stuffing from a dead, giant stuffed dog, sewed up the end with yarn and a yard needle, and drew gills and fins on the sock. That shark is now her brother’s favorite toy.

The kids are even starting to understand when to use gorilla glue instead of super glue.

How long can I make things last with a needle, thread, duct tape, and some gorilla glue?

Even so, I draw the line at darning socks.

Labels: environment, fun things to do with kids, lifestyle, money

Progression of chemicals

Hygiene was pretty easy as a small child. I’d take a bath, wash off the soap and shampoo, dry off, and put on my jammies. Chemicals=2. (Technically, water’s a chemical too, so the count should be 3, but I don’t want to count water.) After a few years of torture having my hair combed, my mother added the second chemical to the mix: hair detangler. She’d spray some hair detangler on my head and I’d cry less as she combed my hair. Chemicals=3.

Two chemicals isn’t that bad, but it wasn’t to last. I developed eczema and dry skin, so good lotion after a bath was a necessity. My hands were especially bad. If I didn’t apply lotion to my hands several times a day, they’d crack and bleed. Chemicals=4.

Adolescence added a few more chemicals to the mix. I started to use antiperspirant. Chemicals=5. I mentioned adolescence. Like most teenagers, I had my fair share of acne and isopropanyl jumped on the list. Chemicals=6. I also figured out about hair conditioner. Chemicals=7. However, my hair was thicker at that point and the conditioner helped, so I didn’t need the hair detangler anymore. Chemicals=7.

My sisters informed me that I had to use a special face lotion when I was in my twenties. Chemicals=8. I didn’t understand that, but my sisters are the experts on that type of thing. Well, needing face lotion coincided with not needing the acne stuff anymore. Chemicals=7.

After my sisters were confident that they had trained me to use face lotion, they decided to break me into the next step, special face soap. Chemicals=8. Why in the world isn’t body soap good enough for your face? I don’t know, but my sisters convinced me. Chemicals=8.

I stayed at a solid nine chemicals for a few years, until my two sisters and I got together and my sisters decided that we’d all go for facials. I decided that I need under eye gel, eye lotion, face serum, and eye serum. Chemicals=12. Now, in defense of this craziness which I started to get “into,” the serum feels really good on my skin and makes it so I need hardly any face lotion. Oh, I guess I can’t forget the Chapstick. Chemicals=13.

And what about those very rare occasions when I wear make-up? Well, I add face spackle, base, eye liner, mascara, and sometimes eye shadow. Chemicals=18.

So, 18 different things to “get ready.”

Maybe it’s time for another shower to clean off the 18 chemicals.

Labels: chemicals, insanity, money, toiletries

Stripes

My sister has “stripes” in her hair. I think most people call these “highlights,” but my family calls them stripes. My sister’s stripes accentuate her hair and face. She looks awesome in stripes.

She went through a few renditions of stripes, she made a few emergency trips to the hair salon to get her self-made stripes fixed. There were a few unhappy experiences for her, but she learned some important lessons about stripes.

Stripes are expensive.
Stripes are more expensive if you try to save money and make your own stripes or have your sister do your stripes.
Stripes are more expensive if you go to a cheaper hair salon than if you bite the bullet and go to the regular salon in the beginning.
Adults should have adult stripes, not teenager stripes. Adult stripes are subtle. They are thin and only slightly off your normal hair color. Teenager stripes are wide, chunky, and are a different color.

My sister finally mastered stripes after she mastered her new stripe rules.

Why, oh why, did I not choose to learn from my sister’s experience?

I wanted stripes, so I went to Super Cuts and ordered up stripes. The lady asked me if I wanted one shade lighter or the two shades lighter. I foolishly thought I wanted my stripes to be dramatic, so I said two shades lighter. She asked me if I wanted adult stripes or teenager stripes, and again I foolishly thought I wanted dramatic stripes, so I said “in between.”

Well, I think my stripes look awesome. They didn’t when I left the salon, but they sure did after I used that box of hair dye in the shower.

Labels: dye, hair, highlights, middle age, money, stripes

Lessons on money and lifestyle from the kids

I wasn’t big on cars and other toys when I was in my late teens and early twenties. I read a few articles of Amy Dacyczyn’s The Tightwad Gazette and decided that being frugal was cool. Being frugal was the environmental thing to do to boot. Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robins’ Your Money or Your Life promoted similar ideas. Why should I go out and buy a new plastic gizmo when my current gizmo works just fine?

That was my environmental and political phase. I did lots of things that many people consider crazy. I do believe my father called me a bleeding heart when I went five years without a car. Going without a car in Boulder, Colorado isn’t a big deal. My dad cooperated with my crazy recycling bin scheme when he visited. My sisters just thought I was nuts.

I was happy. The simplified lifestyle was also my choice.

For a few years, the lifestyle was forced on me, and it sucked.

I went crazy; I bought a car and toys I didn’t need as soon as my period of forced simplicity ended. There was a short period during which I even spent more money than I had. Egads, it was like I was a different person, and the rebellion wasn’t hurting anyone but me.

I eventually found a middle ground with money, lifestyle, and spending habits. I slide up and down the spectrum though. Sometimes I buy silly things that I don’t need. Sometimes I make something things last longer than I should; however, overall, I think I’ve reached a middle ground.

I think I need to take some lessons from my children. They are really good at “Mommy, this is broken. Will you fix it for me?” There are a few stuffed toys that have more of my stitches in them than the original manufacturer’s.

The kids are also good at creating something out of “nothing.” For instance, Anna decided to make her brother a stuffed shark toy. She took one of her dad’s old (and holey) socks, stuffed it with stuffing from a dead, giant stuffed dog, sewed up the end with yarn and a yard needle, and drew gills and fins on the sock. That shark is now her brother’s favorite toy.

The kids are even starting to understand when to use gorilla glue instead of super glue.

How long can I make things last with a needle, thread, duct tape, and some gorilla glue?

Even so, I draw the line at darning socks.

Labels: frugal, gizmo, lifestyle, money, simple, simplicity, tightwad, toys

Gwen's Sententia

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Friday, November 30, 2007

Wrest the last charge

Friday, May 11, 2007

New addition to the house

Monday, April 30, 2007

Lessons on money and life style from the kids

Friday, April 20, 2007

Progression of chemicals

Saturday, March 10, 2007

Stripes

Friday, December 22, 2006

Lessons on money and lifestyle from the kids