Increasing “badassity” with a bicycle

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I’m often late to the party and my recent love of bikes is no exception. Last December, when perusing Mr. Money Mustache for the first time (and by perusing, I mean devouring article after article when I should have been getting work done), I finally got it through my thick skull that I needed to be biking more. MMM is an ardent biking evangelist and this particular site is what inspired us to completely eliminate debt by the end of the year (which we are still on track to do, yay!) and just generally lit a fire under my butt to change how we live.

I’m a reluctant surburbanite, and when I’m whining lamenting the fact that I don’t live in a more central urban area, a lot of what I’m whining about is the lack of walkability or bikeability of the neighborhoods outside of the city.  Suburbs are designed for the car and as a result, most people drive everywhere. Its kind of a given that you hop in your car anytime you have to do something and truthfully I had never given much thought to trying to use my bike to run errands and y’know, get places. I’m ashamed to say that my bike sat in the garage for several years without so much as  a sidelong glance from me. This, despite the fact that our first home was within spitting distance of grocery stores, coffee shops and restaurants. Our second house was far from anything we needed to get to, which was one of the reasons we decided to move.

After reading about curing my clown-like car habit and  getting rich with bikes, which both made me sheepish about my previous habits, I read this article about getting your groceries by bike and I knew I had to make a change. For funsies, I decided to look on Google maps and check out how close my house is to the places I usually go and, facepalm, virtually everything I need is within a bikeable, if not walkeable distance. I felt like an idiot. As someone who aspires to minimize my footprint on the earth, I’ve been stomping all over it with my excessive car habits.

What the hell have I been doing driving around all the time the last two years?!

I promptly went on kijiji and got myself a used bike trailer for $50. It being December and the coldest winter in like, 20 years, I did pretty much nothing about it until spring. I am still a bit fairweather about all of this after all.  The first nice Saturday this spring I had Jay tune-up my bike, hitched up my bike trailer and set off (somewhat unsteadily) to the grocery store. I took a nice quiet route and stuck to the sidewalks because I’m chicken and people text too much while they drive. I pulled up to the store and smugly smirked at the suckers trying to find parking spots in the frightening labrynth of a parking lot, locked up my bike and got my groceries. Advantage number 43897567 of biking to get groceries is that I couldn’t fit my kids in the trailer along with the food so I got to leave them at home, which left me in blissful peace to do my shopping. Fifteen minutes home and I felt awesome. I was sold.

Since then, I’ve had high points and low points, but I really am trying to use my bike as much as I can. Every week the kids and I bike to the park and the community centre to go swimming. I get groceries with the bike quite frequently. We went on a family bike ride to a local shop to get my mom her mother's day gift. Next week, I plan to go to Costco with my bike, which is a longer ride and the trailer will be much heavier. Check out THIS guy who is the winner of life for getting his Costco shopping done by bike with a real trailer.  If I have errands to do and I feel like I need to use my car, I’m trying to add the errands onto trips I already have to take, like driving to and from work.

Biking makes me so happy. Beyond all of the obvious financial and environmental benefits, I feel so blissful when I’m actually riding that I think I’d do it even if those other reasons didn’t exist. Truly, I feel like a dog with its head out of a car window when I’m zipping down the street. I love that I’m getting exercise and setting a good example for my kids, and heck, the neighbors too.

If you’re interested in the benefits of biking, check out this awesome infographic from mint.com about the benefits of riding your bike. And consider dusting off your bike, or getting one off kijiji, and see what you can do in your neighborhood by bike. You might be surprised how often you can walk or bike to things you’ve always just driven to out of habit.

I don’t want that

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I’ve felt subtle shift in how I view making purchases in the last few years but even more so in the last few months, since embarking on a journey to blow up our debt.
Just the simple act of asking myself a few questions: “do I really need this?” “how much is there left in the home/grocery/clothing budget for this month?” “Is this exactly what I’m looking for or am I just looking to buy something?” has really made an impact not just on how much I spend but on how much I want to spend.
I don’t really want to buy anything anymore. This is very strange for me.
I was recently in a store I love that was having a70% off sale. Much to my surprise, I didn’t want to buy anything. The prices were amazing, the clothing was lovely as always, there was a lot of things I liked. I just didn’t want any of it.
So weird.
I’ve been chewing over this for the last week or so. In the past, just driving up to the store would have made my heart beat faster and I would have felt excited. I would have swept through the store, accumulating a huge pile of things to try on and would have had a hard time convincing myself to leave any or all of it behind. I would have had a totally distorted idea of what I needed. So this experience was a real shift for me.
Its made me realize how much this money saving and simplicity journey has impacted my motivations and values as well as my choices. I’m not restricting myself consciously from buying things anymore – I’ve just started intuitively turning away from buying stuff all of the time. Its really quite refreshing, if unfamiliar.
It will be interesting to see how this evolves over time, especially when our debt is paid off and our disposable income increases by several hundred dollars a month. Will I go back to wanting to buy all the time or is this the new me?

Prepping for spring

I don’t think anyone who knows us well would accuse us of being organized. Oh, how I long for clean and minimal spaces where everything has a place and people could drop by unannounced without causing rising waves of panic in my throat. But that just isn’t us.

As a result, this suburban homesteading thing can be…interesting. Choosing to live a life focused more on getting back to the land and rekindling lost skills and less on convenience means, quite frankly, there’s more shit to do. When you have two lazy people whose home often resembles a fraternity by the end of the week (even with me working part-time), giving them more shit to do can be a recipe for disaster.

We’ve had a few summers in our home now and we’ve learned some lessons, many of which would elicit a “duh” from most people given that they’re kind of common sense:

- We need to have our house in decent shape before gardening season gets to be in full swing.

- We need to have a solid plan for our gardens including layout, function,  and what’s going to be harvested when.

- We need to start seeds earlier than last year. Or the year before. (Or the year before that…etc)

- We need to have a plan for preserving any abundance of food so as to avoid piles of tomatoes on the counter with no purpose or place to go, like last year.

- For that matter, we should probably plant less tomatoes.

We’re gearing up for seed starting in the next week or so which means I’m spending the interim time trying to take care of some nagging jobs around the house.  Cleaning cobwebs and nasty baseboards, purging closets, toys and make-up cases mean that once garden season hits, I’ll be able to focus on the outside without the inside going to heck. Wishful thinking perhaps but I’m telling myself this is the year we get it together.

Really. I mean it this time.

“That’s Just Psycho” : On Being a Hippie Weirdo In the ‘Burbs

Sometimes I forget that we’re a bit “different” than a lot of folks in our immediate community. We don’t have cable, so we aren’t exposed to a lot of advertising. Some of our friends share a bit of our weirdness and those that don’t are used to us by now. Our families will sometimes ask questions, and our neighbors did double-takes last summer when we turned our front lawn into a garden, but overall I don’t often feel like the way we live is that far outside of the “norm”.

Don’t get me wrong, we are by no means cutting-edge in our approach to life. Our commitment to environmentalism, simplicity, frugality and breaking free of consumerism is deep and true, but in practice we are still refining things and finding our own way. We are relatively new to this urban/suburban homesteading thing.  There are far “greener” families than ours, that’s for sure. 

So I was really surprised a few weeks ago, when at a housewarming party for a work colleague, another colleague referred to me making my own yogurt as “psycho”. I don’t think she meant the comment to be terribly negative, but I found it odd that such a thing would be considered all that weird. The next week at the office, I overhead a group of women talking about it: “Did you know Kathryn makes her own yogurt?!” “Really? WHY?” “I could never do that”.

Last week my oldest son didn’t eat his school lunches. As it turns out, one of the other children told him his quinoa burger looked “weird” and “gross” and wondered why he didn’t have a “normal” lunch. Never mind that my son had been scarfing down the quinoa burgers like they were chocolate while helping me pack the lunch. He wanted a “normal” lunch too, which he informed me was things like chicken nuggets (store-bought), cheese strings, yogurt tubes and the like. He’s only 4. I thought I had more time until this stuff came up.

Last summer we put a garden in on the vacant lot next to us, with permission from the owners. You would have been forgiven for thinking we were planting pot, if you’d gone by the neighbors reactions. People looped around the street twice in their cars, slowing down to stare. People stopped us and asked us about what in the heck we were doing. Did we own this land now? Why would we put a garden in there? Does this mean anyone was allowed to eat the food ? People dumped their garbage in the garden. The by-law office was called because we used wood chips as mulch and someone didn’t like the looks of that. We were a bit flabbergasted – it wasn’t a meth lab for goodness sake, how can a garden be so controversial?

I’m not trying to sound self-righteous. We are by no means a family of eco-warriors, although we do aspire to be. We’re a two car family (for now) and we make many choices that are less than ideal from an environmental perspective. And while I do understand that some of the things we value and ds are not, shall we say, mainstream, its a little bit strange and isolating to feel so different from my peers. Moreover, I really worry about our kids feeling different as they get older. I believe in what we're doing, wholeheartedly. I truly feel that the only way we're going to make an impact on climate change is to stop trying to make everything convenient and easy, and rather re-learn some "old" skills like frugality, gardening, and cooking and most of all, learn to consume less. Its going to take a radical shift in values but its the kind of change that's actually achieved in small steps in our day-to-day lives with those little choices, like whether to bike or drive to the library or whether to make some yogurt at home or buy a 12-pack of disposable little containers of it.

Its a journey not a destination, and I don't think anyone should be criticized for whether they are on that journey. While I do think we are all going to have to change whether we like it or not because, lets face it, our current levels of consumption are completely unsustainable, we'll all have to find our own way in our own time. I'm in a much different place today than I was three or four years ago and I'd like to find a way to use my experiences as examples to my peers, so that growing much of one's own food on a suburban lot while working and raising young children doesn't seem totally impossible. I've spent a lot of my life trying not to be different or weird or anywhere outside of the norm. Its a silly and ultimately futile exercise anyway. Perhaps now is the time to just accept that as a family we do march to a different beat and that's ok. Hopefully we'll get some folks to join us along the way.

Blowing up debt

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Its our dirty little secret. We were each in debt when we met; some school debt, some stupid consumer debt. I went back to school a few years later and we added some more student loans to the mix. We made foolish decisions, spent above our means, and didn’t treat our existing debt as an emergency. And so, despite two good incomes and not a lot to show for it, J and I have carried debt for our entire relationship. Almost ten years.

Over the last few years, we’ve made better decisions. We sold the monster home and began to buy into the concepts of minimalism, simplicity, and frugality. We got better, but not quite good enough. While we were making progress, the debt was lingering and it was starting to feel like a crushing weight in our lives. We knew that we should be able to live comfortably on our incomes and we knew the debt was preventing this.
Sometime in December, I found Mr. Money Mustache gave myself a good, solid facepunch. I realized how ridiculous we had been with our money and that we needed to blow up our debt. NOW. After devouring all the articles on that blog in a matter of a few days, I was ready to do battle. We are going to be debt-free in 2014.

Here’s how :
1. I made a list of our debts, their interest rates, current monthly payments. 
2. I added up our total debt amount and divided by 12 to give a rough estimate of the amount of money necessary for debt repayment each month in order to have the debt gone within one year.
3. I completely re-jigged our current budget using this tool by the awesome Gail Vaz-Oxlade. And by re-jigged, I mean I slashed and burned that baby. Grocery budget was cut in half. Other categories by 2/3 or more. I showed no mercy.  I was inspired by reading how little Mr. Money Mustache and his family live on and live well.
4. I automated EVERYTHING. We set up several no-fee accounts in addition to our existing chequing account: Vacation, Spending, Emergency/Contingency Fund, and two TFSAs. Every pay day pre-determined amounts go to each account. We only have our spending account linked up to our debit card. We are avoiding using our credit card right now entirely.
5. I signed up for Mint.com to track our spending and manage our budget. It categorizes everything from all accounts and means we don’t have to use cash-only like other budgets, which we aren’t fond of. It’s a great way to get quick overview of our finances.
6. Pre-set amounts also automatically transfer onto each debt. We are taking the approach of paying off one debt at a time, so we are putting most of our debt repayment budget onto the credit card for now, and smaller payments onto the other debts. Once the credit card is paid off that money will go onto the next debt on the list, my student loan.

We’ve been following this plan since January and its going quite well ,although not without its challenges. We’ll be sneaking in just under the wire in February because we overspent in the first half of the month. These first few months are bound to be filled with some growing pains, but I’m confident we’ll learn better spending patterns as we go along.

I’ll keep posting more debt repayment updates over the next several months. As it stands, we’ll be debt-free by the end of the summer. I can’t tell you how happy that will make me/us. Having our financial house in order is important for building resiliency, which is something I’ve been thinking a lot about lately. More on that later.

So many seed trays, so little time

Its been a busy few weeks (for Jay), planting all the seeds in seed trays and storing them

in small greenhouses. One sits in our family room and the other, more recently, on our

deck. R has been so excited to help his dad plant and water them and gives us daily

updates on their progress. Gardening with children is so much fun.

 

We are fortunate to live beside a very nice lot that’s owned by the developer who built

the homes in our subdivision. On a whim, Jay decided to ask permission to put in a garden

this summer and the developer agreed. And so we’re lucky enough to be growing food this

summer not only in our yard, but in this lot at well. I’m sure the neighborhood is wondering

what the heck is going on as Jay continues to spread out hay and woodchips, dividing the

lot into garden beds. Our biggest concern is that the lot seems to be the lunchtime hangout

for the kids from the local high school and we’re hoping not to find destroyed plants or

cigarette butts in our plants.

 

This year, we’ve decided to plant based on what we eat the most. Which means lots and

lots of kale and berries, as well as cucumber, tomatoes, herbs and squash, peppers,

watermelon, pumpkin, cabbage, currants, onions and gooseberries.

 

I can’t wait to take a basket out into the garden and gather our food for dinner

We can do better

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The recent building collapse in Bangladesh has received massive media attention and I'm sure I'm not the only one sheepishly looking around my closet, wondering if I'm contributing to the problem. As we've made an effort around here to be more mindful with our food choices, use natural cleaners whenever possible, and focus on handmade gifts rather than mass-produced ones, we've also had it in the back of our heads that sustainable clothing needs to be a priority as well. Tragedies like this one only confirm what most of us already know but don't want to confront - the vast majority of our clothes and shoes were made in factories just like the one in Bangladesh.

I've heard and read comments suggesting that boycotting companies that use sweatshops and factories with poor working conditions, low pay and unscrupulous business practice is the only recourse. Trying to find an alternative, however, is daunting and certainly not to be found in your local mall. Others say that boycotting companies such as Joe Fresh and H&M will just result in a loss of jobs for the workers and bring even greater economic difficulty to countries like Bangladesh. I can understand that perspective, but  money talks and I don't know what other act of protest will really speak to these companies.

If we really dig deep, I think its obvious that the problem lies with us. It comes down to consumption. We in the west are hell-bent on having an abundance of clothing and we like it cheap. We want to buy more every season so that we always feel in fashion. We have a very distorted idea of "need". We are so disconnected from the source of our clothing (much like our food) that we push back those feelings of unease when we see an item was made in Bangladesh, India, or other countries that employ sweatshop labor. We throw up our hands and ask what choice do we have? Where are we supposed to buy affordable, fair trade clothing without looking like a bunch of dirty hippies? I'm not excusing myself - I've been a part of the problem for many years. I like my cheap dresses and cute shoes as much as the next girl.

Maybe its the extra sensitivity I seem to possess since having kids - every story like this seems to pull me in emotionally more than it would have in the past, as I imagine mothers losing their children, kids  without parents, families living in deplorable conditions. I don't know what makes it feel different this time, but I'm really pissed off . I'm sick of ignoring the elephant in my closet. And rather than focusing on what I'm not going to do, I've decided to focus on what I can do. 

What I can do is choose to support, as much as possible, companies and stores that make a strong effort towards producing high quality, sustainable products while treating their employees fairly. I'm under no illusion that these choices will make me a "perfect" consumer but small steps are important. If everyone just made a few different choices, I think a strong message would be sent to these clothing companies.

Here are a few links to companies I have or plan to support in the future:

Global Girlfriend - I just discovered this site and I'm madly in love already. Each item was made by women in developing countries and fair traded. Moreover, a portion of each purchase goes to a seed fund and micro-loan program for women in the developing world. The items are beautiful and well-priced.

People Tree - I was so excited to find this site because many fair trade or "eco" clothing items have a less than office-appropriate look about them. One cannot live in yoga pants and t-shirts alone, although I wish I could. People Tree has some really cute dresses, skirts and tops that would be perfect for work.

MEC - Its not just for rock climbing! I love MEC for kids clothes and outerwear. I also have a few pairs of yoga pants that stack up well against my Lulus. MEC also sells Patagonia products, which rate very well on the Good Guide (see below!)

And check out the Good Guide if you're wondering how your favourite company or product stacks up. The ratings are based on criteria of health, environment and social issues.

But never forget that we don't have to live this way. We don't have to buy endlessly just because we're told to. We don't need closets and dressers stuffed full of clothing we'll likely never wear or be sick of next season. We can choose instead to buy mindfully, own less, love what we own and feel good about our choices. 

Vote with your dollar and your conscience.