Pioneer Project Archives - Page 4 of 5

5 tips for better bartering

March 7, 2014 by Jana 5 Comments

Bartering has long been a part of good personal finance practices. If you’re low on funds, why not trade for goods and services? You’re getting what you need and, in return, you’re providing someone else with what they need. I think it makes perfect sense to trade haircuts for babysitting or trade music lessons for laundry services. It’s practical, saves money, and is relatively convenient (particularly if you’re trading with a neighbor). Bartering worked out well for pioneers, too, and you can see it in the way they helped each other build houses, raise barns, and plow fields. This system benefitted everyone involved, particularly as the pioneers were not often flush with cash.

Personal finance experts still recommend bartering. I completely agree with their advice and in fact, it’s something I do with a couple of friends. Having been doing it for a few months now, there are definitely some rules that, if I could go back and implement, I would. It would make the whole arrangement much smoother. And if you’re contemplating bartering, I don’t want you to make the same mistakes. To avoid them, here’s what I suggest:

Be clear. Make sure that both parties understand what you’re doing–bartering or trading one service for another good or service. It does not mean one person works for another. If the arrangement starts to favor one side, one party is putting in more work than the other or one party is not adhering to her side of the agreement, then it’s time to revisit the terms and reclarify them.
Be specific. Detail exactly what you are trading for. Detail hours, dollar value, amount or volume of services or goods, and length of bartering agreement. Both sides need to know, and agree upon, the working arrangement. The terms of the bartering should not go outside those specific terms without consent from both sides. By doing this, you avoid confusion or one side taking advantage of the other.
Be fair. This should go without saying. While fair is a subjective term, you know if an agreement is good for you or if you’re going to get screwed. When it comes to bartering, both sides should be willing to compromise to make sure that the arrangement benefits both sides equally and fairly. If you know the cost of what you’re offering and what you’re receiving, it should be easy to make the arrangement fair, so take time to do some research, too.
Get it in writing. If this is going to be a long-term bartering arrangment, put it in writing. Spell everything out in clear and specific terms and have both parties sign off on the terms. This way, there’s a document to rely on if the arrangement starts to go awry. However, if it’s just you helping a friend move in exchange for beer and pizza, there’s no need to write that down. That’s just something that (really good) friends do.
Know when it’s time to walk away. Sometimes a bartering arrangement doesn’t work out. If you’re trading for housecleaning services and the person fails to show up or does poor work or consistently breaks your belongings, then maybe it’s time to break off the agreements. Bartering might adversely affect a friendship and, depending on how important the friendship is to you, it might be better to stop the bartering to salvage the personal relationship. The arrangement just might not be convenient for you anymore. It’s fine to walk away.

Bonus tip: Never feel pressured to say yes to a bartering agreement, even if it seems like a good deal on the surface. If it makes you uncomfortable or feels wrong, say no. Bartering should be helpful and positive, not awkward and sketchy.

Bartering is a great way to build a resume or portfolio, get services or goods in exchange for a skill, other service or good, and to save money. And if it’s done carefully and with some planning, everyone wins.

Do you, or have you ever, bartered for services? How did it work out for you? What suggestions do you have?

Bring on spring! 9 ways to eliminate the winter blues

March 4, 2014 by Jana 11 Comments

My favorite book in the Little House series is The Long Winter. I love the determined and resilient spirit, as well as the resourcefulness they demonstrate throughout the story. It’s also, for me, the most realistic book in the series. Reading this one, it’s as if she forgot to make everything polished and shiny and idealistic. It showed some of the realness of their life as settlers, and I connected with that.

Living on the East Coast, this winter has certainly given me a new appreciation for everything Laura and her family went through during that long winter. Because this one feels just like that. I swear, it’s been winter since October and if I never see snow again, that’s really fine with me. I’m tired of being cold, I’m tired of wearing 97 layers when I go outside, I’m tired of gray, drab, and dreary everything, and I’m seriously tired of not knowing whether my child has to go to school or not. I would also like to be able to open my windows to air out all the sick germs that have taken up residence in my house because really, enough is enough with this sickness bullshit. Also, it’s March. Let’s move on already.

someecards.com - It's so cold I can barely stand the four minutes I'm outdoors every day.

Now that that’s off my chest, I can say that I’m officially protesting winter from here on out. Well, protesting it as much as I can. I won’t put on flip flops because I enjoy having all my toes and really, who has time for frostbite. But that doesn’t mean I can’t start bringing a little bit of spring into my life even though it’s about 20 degrees outside. Here’s how I’m doing it:

Planning my garden. From what I understand, it’s best to start some of your plants inside so I’m doing that. My family and I sat down, drafted what we’re planting, and we’ve started getting to work. We’ve been working on the compost pile all winter and now it’s time to put it into action.
Following spring training. Baseball starting up again is to spring what Memorial Day is to summer–the unofficial start. Knowing that it’s there makes everthing feel more spring-like. And getting the score updates on my phone reminds me that spring is just around the corner. (Note: this probably won’t work for you if you don’t like baseball.)
Getting rid of winter smells. That means putting away winter scented candles and bringing out the spring scented ones. Just having the different smells in the house makes a difference.
Putting away the winter decor. See you later, snowmen and winter colors. I don’t want to look at you anymore. I’m bringing out the spring colored placemats, napkins, flowers, and all the other springtime decorations. It might be cold outside but it looks like spring in my house.
Changing my nail polish. I typically wear seasonally colored nail polish. However, if I look at another dark brown or red, I might scream. Instead, I’m using my springy, pastely colors on my hands. Just changing the look is an instant mood lifter.
Creating spring menus. I love a hearty soup or a casserole as much as the next person. But adding a salad or something from the grill to my weekly menu makes it feel a little less…heavy and a lot more springy.
Analyzing winter and spring wardrobes. Working from home, I wear approximately 9 items of clothing every week. At this point, I’m getting ready to put the rest of my winter clothes away and start focusing on the spring ones. Putting away the bulky, warm clothes is a relief and makes it feel like winter is almost gone.
Looking at outdoor activities. Many places near my home are starting to put out their spring schedules. This means outdoor activities, day trips to the beach, and afternoons at the park. Starting to factor those into our weekends is taking one step towards getting rid of our severe cabin fever.
Making spring crafts. It’s fine to paint winter scenes and bake cookies for Santa. But I’m so over that. Instead, I’m starting to do spring crafts with my daughter like popsicle stick bird feeders and writing stories about going to the beach. Total mindset shift and it works to alleviate the misery of winter.

I can’t say that this winter has been completely terrible. My outdoor cat has learned to come inside, we figured out just how bad our gas and electric bills will be in our new house, and we became way more creative with our time indoors. And this is the first time in years I didn’t put on winter weight. HUGE victory there.

Those small wins aside, I’m ready for spring. Because winter can suck it.

someecards.com - May your devastating winter blues finally give way to your debilitating spring allergies

How about you? Are you starting to get ready for spring despite the still way too freezing weather?

Start living like a pioneer today, part 1

February 27, 2014 by Jana 7 Comments

Remember that old Heinz ketchup slogan “good things come to those who wait”? In case you’re not as old as I am, it was popular when ketchup was still regularly sold in glass bottles and you had to hit the 57 on the bottle in order to make the ketchup pour out without waiting until everyone else was finished eating before you started because it was so damn slow.

I think they could have simplified it by saying “be patient, asshole. The fries can wait and so can you” but perhaps that’s why I’m not in marketing.

Anyway.

Getting started on your pioneer project is just like waiting for the ketchup to come out of the bottle. It’s a slow, arduous process that makes you want to throw something. You have to exercise a tremendous amount of patience, even when you hit the 57 to make it go faster. You can’t rush it because the reward at the end is so worth it.

You do not have to shoot anything to feel more like a pioneer.

I read somewhere that it took the pioneers who traveled the Oregon Trail roughly a year to save up the money and supplies they needed to travel. A year! That’s a long time, especially when you’re waiting to move–literally–on with your life. It’s necessary, though, because you need to make sure you have everything in place to make the transition as quick and with as little pain as possible. You need to be prepared for all the emergencies and situations, and when you get there, you want to reap the rewards as soon as you can.

I’m sure that for those guys, that year moved like an eternity. Like it was never going to be the time to go. At least that’s how I felt starting this project. It took me months before I had the scope and nature of the project outlined, gathered most of the supplies I needed (I still don’t have them all), and it was the right time to start. However, unlike traveling the Oregon Trail, you don’t need to wait for the perfect time. You can start your pioneer project at any time–today, even–by doing a few of these things:

Use natural light. Don’t get me wrong. I love my electricity. I do not, however, love high electric bills. Besides, pioneers didn’t have electricity in their homes. You can practice living like a pioneer by opening blinds, curtains, window shades, or whatever you have and allowing the natural light to come into your home during the day rather than turning on the lights.
Air dry your clothes. Again, without electricity, pioneers couldn’t use washers and dryers. So they air dried their clothes. You can do this, too, by hanging a clothing line in your backyard or, if you don’t want to freak out the neighbors with your underwear, set one up in your house (preferably in a room without carpeting. That will just cause a dreadful smell). You can use a drying rack, too.
Make your own butter. Pioneers churned their own butter. I don’t really know where to get a butter churn so I went searching for more modern directions. Although I haven’t done this yet but based on the instructions I found, it doesn’t seem like it’ll be too difficult. I will not be doing it by hand, however. I will use my stand-up mixer. But if you do this and do it by hand, let me know. I’d love to hear how it went.
Bake your own bread. Pioneers also made their own bread (probably to go along with their churned butter), and they did so often. So you can spend an afternoon making some loaves of bread. If you don’t have a bread machine–I don’t–there are dozens of recipes for making bread in your oven. Or, if you’re too scared of starting with a loaf of bread, you can follow the recipe below for drop biscuits. It’s a start!
Sew something. If you’ve read a Little House book, then you know how much time the Ingalls women spent sewing things. Curtains, doll clothes, dresses, quilts, shirts…they sewed it all. Which is why learning to sew is high on my list of skills to tackle for this project. But making the aforementioned items takes a skill level I don’t have. So I’ve been practicing by making napkins, sewing ripped seams and missing buttons, and working on 9 square quilts for my daughter’s dolls. If that’s not your speed, you can always go to the craft store and pick out a cross stitch to work on.

I have 5 more suggestions that you can do to start living more like a pioneer today, so look for those next week!

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The Pioneer Kitchen Diaries: Sesame noodles with broccoli

February 24, 2014 by Jana 7 Comments

As I get deeper into this project, and the more research I do, the more I learn that there’s a pretty distinct set of pioneer values. And, as I learn more about those values (or, at the very least, create what I think are those values), the more I try to incorporate them into my daily life. Because at the end of this, I hope not only become more self-sufficient but change some of my ways of thinking.

One of the areas I’m working on a lot is food waste. Overall, my family does a decent job of not wasting food. Sure, there’s the occasional cucumber that might liquify or a container of leftover pasta sauce that sprouts some fuzzy friends or maybe a bottle of salad dressing that lives longer than it should. But for the most part, we’re good about not wasting food. When it does happen, and I have to do a major cleaning of my fridge and I throw out more food than I should, it bothers me.

That happened this past weekend. And there was absolutely no reason it should have. And now I’m on a mission to make sure it doesn’t happen again (at least in the volume it did).

Because the pioneers didn’t have the option of food waste. They had to find a use for everything they had. There was no excess to just toss into the trash. They had what they needed, used it all in some way, and that was that. To start incorporating that into my life, I’ve established three ways to put our food to use and reduce food waste in my kitchen:

Leftovers
Composting
Repurposing

Recycling is its own entity and we do recycle everything we possibly can. My tree hugging, renewable energy field working husband wouldn’t have it any other way.

As far as the list, I’ll explain each one in detail in its own post (particularly the repurposing, which I know sounds strange. But think of it along the lines of popsicle stick crafts, macaroni art, or noise makers out of dried beans), and for this post, we’re going to talk about leftovers.

My family is big into leftovers. Not only does it reduce food waste but it saves money so there’s a double bonus to them. My husband and I eat leftovers for lunch most days and if there’s a big batch of something like rice, I’ll find a way to incorporate them into another recipe. That’s what I did with pasta.

I don’t know about you, but when I make pasta, I usually wind up making enough for 87 people. As we are a family of 3, we don’t need that much. So I typically find at least 2 recipes to make with a box of pasta or I leave the leftovers in the event that my daughter refuses to eat what I cook (the rule used to be if she didn’t like it, she got pb&j but she brings that for lunch every day. So now it’s pasta). Last week, however, I wanted to do something different that adding the noodles to soup or making two dishes to accompany the pasta. So I went through my trusty recipe binder (pics are forthcoming but it needs a major overhaul first) and landed on sesame noodles.

You seriously cannot go wrong with cold noodles in a peanut butter sauce. And I had a lot of noodles.

Looks are deceiving. There's a lot of pasta in there. — Looks are deceiving. There’s a lot of pasta in there.

Then I pulled the rest of the ingredients out of the pantry.

And I mixed a few of the ingredients with the peanut butter.

photo (1) — Peanut butter, soy sauce, and broth.

Then I added the rest and it looks a little gross but looks are deceiving.

photo (3) — Pay no attention to the burner that needs to be cleaned.

When the sauce thickened a bit and was smooth, I poured the peanut buttery goodness over the noodles.

For more efficient mixing and less dishes, use the container the pasta already sits in.

Wait about 3 hours for the noodles to chill and spoon into bowl (you can also eat directly from the container. No judging). I added broccoli for some extra nutrition and flavor. And also to not waste the broccoli in the fridge.

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Anyone can be more self-sufficient

February 17, 2014 by Jana 5 Comments

“A blog designed to help you become more self-sufficient, no matter where you live”.

That’s the mission of this blog. I want, through my attempts, failures, and successes, to show that it is possible to be more self-reliant, even if you’re combating asshole homeowner’s associations, live in a tiny apartment, or a house with no suitable land for gardening. Because being self-reliant is so much more than growing your own food (which you can do pretty much anywhere, and we’ll talk about gardening a few weeks).

In fact, for the purposes of this site, being self-sufficient means you:

Use your money wisely. Frugality is an essential component of the pioneer lifestyle.
Fix what’s broken. It’s not always necessary to replace something that breaks. And if you can’t fix it, you find a way to repurpose it.
Utilize available resources. It’s amazing what we have at our disposal.
Learn to make your own stuff, and use stores more for the raw materials than the products themselves.
Practice contentment with what we have instead of coveting everything our Facebook friends claim to have.
Cook your own food. Even if you can’t grow it yourself, you can cook it yourself.
Are organized. It’s hard to practice the pioneer lifestyle if you, and your home, are a mess.
Possess the pioneer spirit of determination, dedication, and the ability to keep on keepin’ on (thanks to my friend Steph for that one)

I’m sure there are some characteristics I’m leaving out. But the point is that absolutely none of those qualities of the self-reliant are contingent upon living in a farmhouse with 76 acres of land to garden and have livestock (which, for the record, is something I have no interest in. You will never see a post on here talking about how excited I am for our new chicken coop).

If you know you possess those characteristics, you’ve won half the battle on your quest to become more pioneer life. You need that foundation before you can start practicing the skills.

But maybe the skills are where you get tripped up. You’re not sure if you can build up those skills because you don’t have the right equipment. I maintain that you can as the equipment isn’t as sophisticated as you think.

Just to be sure, I’ve come up with 5 questions you can ask yourself to decide if it’s possible:

Do I have a stove?
Do I have hands?
Do I have windows?
Can I read?
Can I get to a store or order from Amazon?

If you answered yes to at least one of those, you’re good to go. You can work on being more self-sufficient even without living on a farm in a remote part of Montana (which I think might actually be redundant). There are dozens of projects and skills you can conquer with just those few resources, and if you stick around, I’ll show you lots of them.

I’ll admit that in the world we live in, complete self-reliance isn’t entirely possible. I mean, it might be if you try hard enough, but there are some modern conveniences that I’m just not willing to give up (like electricity. I love electricity). However, it is possible to decrease dependence by trying just a little harder.

5 tips for better bartering

Bring on spring! 9 ways to eliminate the winter blues

Start living like a pioneer today, part 1

The Pioneer Kitchen Diaries: Sesame noodles with broccoli

Anyone can be more self-sufficient

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