Self-sufficiency satisfaction

One of my personal goals is be increasingly self-sufficient. My love of gardening is more than growing my own organic produce, but also a source of food that is not heavily dependent on petroleum. This year, I discovered I like making freezer jam for my own consumption and to give as gifts. While I do use a bread machine, I love my loaves of honey wheat bread produced on demand. Each of these things brings me closer to my ideal of food self-sufficiency.

In fact, one of my friends asked how much a loaf of my honey wheat bread costs me. Using my most recent prices (September-October 2008), I calculated the ingredient costs to be $0.80 for a 1 pound loaf. That is certainly less than most purchased loaves and freshly baked with near instant gratification (well, after 3 hours with my bread machine).

However, my independent streak does affect my bottom line and involves more than food. In my efforts at self-sufficiency, I have taken on replacing a headlight on my car. Removing the burned-out bulb as not as easy as I thought, but I felt quite accomplished to have replaced the bulb myself. While having someone else change the bulb would have reduced my frustration, having successfully completed the task myself means I saved some money (only the cost of the bulb and not of labor) and gained some pride in a new skill.

I have many projects on my long list of good intentions. Being a homeowner of a 30+ year old home that had been rented for a time, I have replaced damaged standard standard outlets in the house. However, I also installed a GFCI outlet in the garage since it is a place that gets wet (both rain and melted snow). Again, just the cost of the outlet (~$15) and my time for a new undamaged GFCI outlet I can use.

To add to my growing space around the suburban lot, I scavenged wood boards, had my dad cut some of them to length and screwed them all together to construct three raised garden beds for another 80 square feet of growing space in 2009. I plan on growing another fruit (a bed of black raspberries) and expanding the number of vegetable crops I can grow

I have much to learn and do including repairing outdoor electrical extension cords. (My dad fixed my not-so-little oopsie with the extension cord.) I just purchased a greenhouse to get a jump start on my garden for 2009, a definite learning experience, and Christmas gave me a food mill to nearly complete my own water-bath canning setup (just lacking a jar holder).

I am excited about all that I can accomplish as well as what I can add to my skill set. Figuring out what I can do myself and being able to build something useful or grow something for future consumption means I am that much closer to being self-sufficient. And I like the satisfaction I feel about completing such endeavors.

DIY savings!

In the midst of the paper waste and multiple gifts of the Christmas celebration, my sister revived her iPod mini. Like me, the younger of my two sisters listens to her MP3s old style. Instead of the flash drives present in the cute little iPod nano or iPod shuffle, the iPod mini, the nano's precursor, used a hard drive. Unfortunately, my sister noticed she would get about 15 minutes of battery life before the iPod shut down stating it was out of juice. Knowing about her predicament (an older PowerBook G4 that did not work with the newer generation iPods), I found replacement batteries on eBay for her iPod model, so she asked me to buy it for her as she did not want to sign up for an eBay account.

A few days later, I received the battery I purchased and drove it to our parent's house over the Christmas holiday. With some instructions on the web and the provided screwdrivers and battery, my sister proceeded to swap out the old battery for the new one in less than 15 minutes. By paying $6.50 for a new battery and a small time investment, my sister was able to revive her iPod mini. This meant she did not have to buy a replacement iPod (equivalent model is $150) nor did she trash an item that just needed one component replaced. While I may envy those beautiful iPod Touches, I will follow my sister's path and replace the battery before I trash my cute pink iPod mini.

I am proud of my sister for being frugal and keeping e-waste out of the garbage stream. Spending under 5% of the cost of new to get her well-loved iPod mini into working condition was a great investment of her time. Have you kept an electronic item out of the landfill?