WendyMcElroy.com

I am avoiding the most common advice on frugality on the assumption that most people who pursue this lifestyle already know they should cook meals for themselves rather than eat out or they should cook from scratch whenever practical, etc. For me, some of the most effective measures in controlling my own "wealth" and so controlling my own life have been tiny and less discussed innovations in how I approach daily life. To some people, these innovations may seem bothersome which means they shouldn't adopt these approaches as habits. The entire point of frugality is to make living more enjoyable by simplifying it and bringing it under immediate personal control. If it becomes a burden and reduces the quality of life, then it is not frugality but a false economy.

Day Two: I have a white board the size of a standard piece of paper which is attached by magnets to the front of my fridge. I received it for free from a company during a promotion. It is the sort of board from which writing can be erased by rubbing the ink off with a wet kleenex and so the content can constantly change. (And, yes, I also got a supply of the pens for free during the promotion but they are easily available on the cheap.)

The purpose of the white board is to record the revolving perishables that are in the fridge and should be used in the next few days. Most people throw out a significant percentage of all food they buy, which is the same as throwing out money. They also throw out the time and effort it took to choose and purchase the food. All this waste is needless and avoidable.

How does it work? I keep a list of which vegetables are in the crisper and I wipe the notation off when I use them. I note down the meatloaf, roasted chicken or whatever meal I've prepared whenever I put the leftovers away. Every day I give Brad a selection of options for lunch or dinner. Sometimes the selection is "whatever you want" from a well-stocked pantry...especially when he has specific cravings such as for pasta or Mexican. But usually the options reflect what is in the fridge and what should be used in the next few days. For example, if I roasted a chicken yesterday, then lunch today might be a choice between chicken sandwiches, a chicken and cheese omelet, a salad featuring chicken chunks, etc. There are always several types of meal-makings in the fridge which I peddle. Yes, I am a food pusher and Brad is an addict.

The bottom line: next to no food in our house is thrown out. Almost everything is used.

From USA Today: Launching nationwide, myRA offers free way to save for retirement [Ed: bottom line...the retirement plan is to invest in Treasury bonds and so is a way to divert personal savings into government hands. Run. Run far, run fast.]

Brad and I are embarking on a financial adventure of independence by radically reducing our expenses, which radically reduces the need to work for a paycheck. We can labor "for the love of it," And, as workaholics, I don't expect either of us will spend less time working...we will simply be much happier as we do so.

I call the adventure "My Frugal Year" but I know it will be a lifestyle choice for the rest of our lives. I want to share our experiences and, perhaps, turn the daily experiment into a book on November 4, 2016. Because I am zealous about financial privacy, however, I will be describing specific actions I take without giving details of our expenses or income.

Day One: We have accumulated many storage units for jewel cases which once held about 100 blank CDs and so are about 10 inches tall. They are similar to the one pictured below.

I hate throwing things out when I suspect they can be repurposed at next to no expense. But what to do with empty storage containers? Aha! I stumbled on a website that explains how to convert the containers to mini terrariums that are a good size in which to grow herbs. First, you snip off the center spindle that once held the CDs. Then you fill a small pot with a layer of gravel, a layer good soil, sprinkle with the desired seeds, such as parsley, and a bit of water. Put the pot on top of the base, return the lid, place everything in a windowsill...and wait for the fresh herbs to emerge in your kitchen.

Nothing tastes as good as fresh herbs, with coriander being my favorite, but they are very expensive in Canada and often cost as much as the meat I use in a recipe. With my kitchen windowsill filled with terrariums, I will have fresh herbs all year round for almost nothing. I already had the pots, the soil, and the gravel (from our driveway). I recently purchased a large batch and variety of seeds, which included a goodly number of herbs along with instructions on how to harvest future seeds from them. I will intentionally let plants go to seed whenever I need to replenish my supply and do so for free.

From MIT Technology Review: Data Mining Reveals the Extent of China’s Ghost Cities [Ed: so much for the efficiency of government planned expansion.]

From the Organic Prepper: The Top 50 Non-Food Stockpile Necessities

From Forbes: 'Dark Money' Funds To Promote Global Warming Alarmism Dwarf Warming 'Denier' Research

From the Free Thought Project: State Law Makes it a Felony to Touch a Police Officer Even Off-Duty and Out of Uniform [Ed: Oklahoma]

From NBC Connected: Police to Take Valuables from Unlocked Cars to Stop Break-Ins

From the Guardian: Indonesia is burning. So why is the world looking away?

From Agrimoney: Early 2016 to bring 'wave' of crop selling, says Bunge CEO. [Ed: that will be a time to stock up.]

From Politico: Koch brothers: We're 'failures' at changing America

From Bloomberg: China's Economy Is Worse Than You Think

From Politico: Clinton Foundation spinoff won’t refile tax returns. [Ed: the Clintons seem to get away with anything and everything.

From the Calgary Herald:Investment flooding out of Canada at fastest pace in developed world

From Smashing Magazine: Why Static Website Generators Are The Next Big Thing

From Washington Post: Which of the 11 American Nations Do You Live In?

From the Toronto Star: 'Stunning' Move Made on Keystone Pipeline Request

From Portland Tribune: Guardian Shield: Beaverton's superhero [Ed: a bit of vigilante justice. A sign of police incompetence.]

From the Free Beacon: Deep-Pocketed Donors Behind Campus Anti-Koch Movement

From the Daily Mail: First of 750 migrants arrive in tiny German village with a population of just 102

From the Wall Street Journal: "Ten of the 23 innovative health-insurance plans known as co-ops—established with $2.4 billion in ObamaCare loans—will be out of business by the end of 2015 because of weak balance sheets."

From Reason: San Francisco Wanted Info on Gun Owners. This Gun Shop Refused. High Bridge Arms, founded in the mid-1950s by Olympic shooter Bob Chow, shuts down rather than give local police its customer list.

From CBS News: In year 3, many hit with Obamacare sticker shock

From the Irish Times: Ireland plans to decriminalise the possession of small amounts of drugs, including heroin, cocaine and cannabis

From Wil Sheaton: Seven Things I Did To Reboot My Life [Ed: I particularly like "get better sleep."]

From Mises.org: Pew: Homicide Rates Cut in Half Over Past 20 Years (While New Gun Ownership Soared)

From the Economist: Is a New Species Taking Over North America?

From Bloomberg: Bernie Sanders Takes on Clinton Welfare Legacy as He Woos Iowa Unions

From Le Monde diplomatique: Putin’s Syrian bet

From the Business Insider: American culture is experiencing 4 seismic changes that are terrifying consumer companies

From the Russian Insider: As Merkel Crumbles Berlin Turns To Moscow

From Huffpost Politics: A Prosecutor's Guide To Not Prosecuting A Cop Who Killed Someone

From NASA.gov: NASA Study: Mass Gains of Antarctic Ice Sheet Greater than Losses

From Wired: A Photoblog of People Who Live Off the Grid [Ed: hat tip to Strike the Root.]

From WorldNetDaily: U.N. planning court to judge U.S. for 'climate justice'

From NBC News: 'Sheer Stupidity': U.S. Spent $43M on This Gas Station But Can't Explain Why

Hat tip to Brian for sending along this photo. Thanks Big Guy.

Brad here. This paragraph from Ken White at Popehat articulates a view that I share, but haven't been so able to concisely express:



Yes, it's really 11 days old, but I just read it today, so that makes it the "quote of the day" for me.

From International Business Times: Europe Just Made a Big Decision About Snowden. EU parliament calls on member states to grant him protection

From FEE: How to Steal $75,000 from the Poor in One Day’s Work. Traffic Court Is a Tax-Collection Scheme Masked as Justice

From the Christian Science Monitor: How the Koch brothers and the super-rich are buying their way out of criticism

From Dances with Bears: THE SELLING OF TRUST — HOW RUSSIA’S LONGEST AND LARGEST BANK FRAUD HAS BEEN COVERED UP AS IT PASSED FROM ONE OWNER TO ANOTHER, STARTING WITH MIKHAIL KHODORKOVSKY AND ENDING WITH RUBEN AGANBEGYAN, ALEXANDER MAMUT, ET AL.

From Cato: A Million Homes Taken Since Kelo

From Forbes: Credit Suisse Wealth Report: There Are More Poor People In America Than China

From Slate: Crime Lab Scandals Just Keep Getting Worse: How many people are in jail based on faked data?

From Esquire: The Senate's New 'Give the NSA All Your Private Info' Bill Would Make George Orwell Blush

From Breitbart: Sen. Paul continues to filibuster the unlimited debt limit increase.

From Cato: Why Is Washington the Policeman of the South China Sea? And a related story from the BBC: US jets intercept Russian warplanes off Korean peninsula

From Townhall: Newspaper Blames "Designer Error" For Calling OSU Homecoming Parade Deaths "Shootings"

From Breaking All the Rules: Undeniable Social Security Demographics

From Mish: EU Rules Bitcoin is a Currency, US Says Bitcoin is a Commodity; Which Side is Correct? What About Gold and BitGold?

From the Guardian: Captagon: The amphetamine fueling Syria's war

From WorldNetDaily: China oil-buying spree dims Obama's hope for climate accord

From Zero Hedge: Hundreds of refugees 'mysteriously disappear' Local German authorities clueless where they are

From CNS News: Detroit Public Schools: 93% Not Proficient in Reading; 96% Not Proficient in Math And a related story from Associated Press: Math, reading scores slip for nation's school kids

From Nature: DNA Evidence Is More Fallible Than People Think

From the Guardian: Rand Paul too busy to vote against (or possibly for!) CISA bill. [Ed: he has been outspokenly against the bill.]

From the Guardian: When we ban begging we take away the first amendment rights of the poor

From Mish: Winter Scramble; Refugees Will Freeze to Death Warns Juncker; Tony Blair Apologizes for Creation of ISIS [Ed: apology NOT accepted, asshole.]

From Der Spiegel: The End of the German Fairytale

From TechDirt: Senate Passes CISA, The Surveillance Bill Masquerading As A Cybersecurity Bill; Here's Who Sold Out Your Privacy

From Vox: 2 political scientists have found the secret to partisanship, and it’s deeply depressing. [Ed: interesting but I am not sure of its accuracy.]

From the Guardian: 15-Year-Old Boy Arrested in British Telecom Cyberattack. Data breach put 4 million customers of TalkTalk at risk

From CNN: The lucrative business of crowds for hire

From DNA Info: Fundraiser for hero dog that ran into burning building to rescue family member. [Ed: hat tip to Gordon. Heartening story.]

From Activist Post: U.S. Claims $5 Billion Intelligence System “Offline” At Time of Afghan Hospital Bombing [Ed: so...the defense to a charge of being a murderer is the claim of being an incompetent idiot?]

From Politico: Everything you need to know about tonight’s GOP debate

From CNS: Boehner-Obama Spending Deals Have Increased Debt $3,970,023,503,348.07 [Ed: $33,832.64 for every household in the United States.]

From the Onion: I Am Fun by Hillary Clinton

From Activist Post: Pentagon’s 2016 Defense Budget: $1.6 Billion for a Proxy Army Against Russia. [Ed: hat tip to the excellent Strike the Root]