The Instant Librarian

It’s getting colder and most of the trees are now bare on our street. The darkening days have us stocking the larder, battening down the hatches, mending stockings, etc etc.

This is good weather to share some of the enjoyable ways we’ve been saving money.

But first, here’s the 1934 Disney version of Aesop’s fable “The Grasshopper and the Ants.” This time of year always recalls this cartoon to mind for me. I sympathize with the grasshopper even as I usually feel like an ant. It’s the old Martha and Mary tension– industry and enjoyment, preparing and being present. And it also picks up on a theme I’ve been stewing over this year: the place of the artist in consumer culture. (Choose your own socioeconomic/ political subtext. For inspiration, read up.)

On my best days, I know that with a little effort and some creative thinking, I can balance work and play. Everyone, whether ant or grasshopper by nature,  should still have time and freedom to play his or her fiddle.

1.) Make your own laundry detergent.

In Portland we are blessed with many purveyors of goods for the so-called urban homesteader, like the Portland Homestead Supply store, Naomi’s, or People’s Co-op.

Do you know of other sources for the harder-to-find ingredients, like soda ash and castille soap bars? Please leave a comment.

Your laundry soap will be unscented unless you use a scented bar soap. You can choose to revel in scentlessness, or add a few drops of your favorite essential oil.

Mix and store the following ingredients in a lidded bucket or a cardboard box, and keep a smaller amount handy in a yogurt container or jar. When washing cold, be sure to blend the soap with a little hot water to dissolve first. Otherwise, you may end up with chunks of the stuff on your clothes, or streaks of the laundry soap if it has a color added (like Fels Naptha.)

Laundry Soap Recipe

1 part baking soda
1 part washing soda (soda ash, sodium carbonate)
1 part Borax
1 cake grated laundry (Fels Naptha) or castille soap

2.) Make your own shampoo and conditioner.

Thanks to my dear friend Barbara, and her discovery of Pioneer Thinking, with this recipe I will probably never again buy a bottle of shampoo. It’s not that shampoo is so terribly expensive– I often find great deals on good quality stuff at Grocery Outlet. The clincher for me has been how much healthier my hair and scalp feel.  This is a gentle, simple application that works with your natural oils. It took about a week and a half for the oils in my hair to adjust, and I just wore a headband or did some kind of updo.

Shampoo
1 Tbsp baking soda
8 oz warm water
optional drop of essential oil

Conditioner
1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
8 ox warm water
optional drop of essential oil

Blend each well and pour into separate squirt bottles. Be sure to close securely, or in warm weather, fruit flies will appear out of the woodwork and go right for the conditioner. I typically condition about once a week, finding I don’t need much more than that. I’ve halved the recipe and keep it in a smaller bottle.

3.) Make leftovers go further– and get more delicious.

Lyle and I are big oatmeal eaters. We buy a giant bag of oats at Cash N Carry and go through it like a couple of horses. Nevertheless, we have yet to become adept at measuring, and often end up with extra cooked grain that I hate to just chuck in the compost bucket.

I’ve inflicted upon Lyle many failed experiments in Old Oatmeal Cookery, but recooked oats never seem to regain their fresh-cooked appeal. I’ve attempted stove top pancakes, binding cooked oats with eggs and flour, and frying them in a pan like a pancake. Fail. Gross, eggy, burnt fail. This summer, I blended the grains into a smoothie with frozen berries, flax, and milk. I was the only one who enjoyed this beverage.

Then I checked out Lotta Jansdotter Handmade Living  from the library, and discovered the Aland Pancake, a custard-like preparation that calls for cream of wheat or pureed cooked grains. In about 25 minutes, we had the most decadent, simple little breakfast. Bells rang, angels sang, the sun parted the clouds. A voice said, You have found the key to eternal oatmeal life. I said, Lyle, calm down.

Aland Pancake

1-2 cups cooked grain (oats, rice, quinoa, all three), pureed smooth in a blender
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup -1 cup milk
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
cinnamon, nutmeg, and cardamon as preffered
optional raisins and walnuts

Heat oven to 425. Grease a little casserole dish. Beat the eggs and milk in a medium sized bowl, then add everything else. Mix well, and adjust consistency as needed. You want it relatively thin, like pancake batter. Pour into the dish, and bake for 15-20 minutes, until golden on top. Serve with butter and jam, or a simple berry compote with plain yogurt.

Lovely.

4.) Love your library!

That the miracle of the Aland Pancake should have come from a library book is no surprise. The library has always been heaven for reclusive bookworms like me. But it’s a good place for fun money-saving, too.

Ditch your Netflix account (if you haven’t already) and start working your way through the library’s collection of DVDs. I’ve found a documentary on Shape Note singing, a guide to lap-swimming, Oscar-winning dramas like Wit, foreign films, cartoons, public broadcasting profiles of great historical figures. What fun! Be the cool one who brings home the edutainment.

If you’re always in the car and still have one of those old-fashioned CD decks, think about checking out a book on tape, or brushing up on your minuets, jazz classics, and Celtic harp. Best news: if you don’t like it, at least you don’t own it.

If your library is like ours, it probably has a fantastic back-issue collection of newspapers and periodicals. Check out a stack of New Yorkers or spend a spare hour reading a lesser-known journal or newspaper.

Teach yourself Norwegian, German, Farsi, or Spanish. Language changes relatively slowly, so don’t worry if the beat-up book and CD combo was made in 1998. Check out the bulletin board and see what’s on offer in your community. There might be origami classes, knitting groups, kids’ story hour, or brown-bag lunch lectures on art and literature.

What’s going on at your library?

5.) Stay in and tune in to each other.

While we’re trying to cut back on spending and focus on what we love, we’ve been making some changes in the way we entertain ourselves. The biggest one has been cutting back on eating out– challenging because Portland has such a wealth of talented chefs, even  hiding out in tiny food carts in vacant lots.  Though it’s quite possible to eat well on $5, it all adds up.

We’ve been staying in more to cook dinner together, or with friends. You can create the expansive, time-free feeling of dining out with just a few candles and a bottle of wine. Plus, there’s no server hovering for your table, and no check to politely argue over. There is nothing as luxurious as a long dinner and great conversation, even if it’s a simple meal of soup, bread, and salad.

Still, we try to do something special every so often, too. On our last date night, we were planning to go to a museum, dinner, and a movie. We ended up at Powell’s after the museum, and bought a book on visual business-planning called The Creative Entrepreneur. After dinner, we skipped the movie and got out the art supplies instead. The book will last us far longer than a few hours in the theater, and I loved working on a creative project together.

6.) Join your community center.

I love my local ‘gym.’ What it lacks in fanciness it makes up for in character and fun.

I lift weights next to joke-cracking grandpas, swim laps alongside the water aerobicizers, change in the locker room next to the flustered mom with her joyfully naked toddler. Running on the treadmill, I can look out the window and see tiny ballerinas making their way to class. There’s a morning calisthenics group in the basketball gym with a loyal following, all of us rotating through the circuits to do push-ups, jump rope, or lift free weights. I can sign up for T’ai Ch’i, yoga, Zumba, or calligraphy.

I get so much more out of my community center membership than I did from the brandname gym I used to go to, with a lot less attitude and intimidation. No one is going to try to sell you on some new special, or make you sign form after form of small print.

If you’re lucky enough to live in a city whose community center programming hasn’t been cut, join in. Maybe even consider teaching a class.

What are your favorite ways to stretch a dollar?