It has been almost 10 years since the first Frugal Vegan zine made its debut on the indie zine-scene. I never anticipated this zine to catapult me to where I am now, with this blog. But I do remember why the zine became successful:

When I created this first zine (The Frugal Vegan: Harvest & Winter Survival Guide) , I did it out of pure joy and interest. I had just moved to this province, didn’t have much cash and people here had no clue what a vegan was. I felt that it was important to put everything I discovered as well as all the information I acquired and read, into a fun publication to help others like me live a healthy “green” vegan life on a dime. To be honest, I didn’t care if the zine became overly successful, my only goal was to help a few other people be vegan and frugal while having fun doing it.

I also made the zine anti-copyright to get the information out there. I am one who believes that information and education should be free, always. I wanted people to photocopy it and give it to friends. I also told Microcosm Publishing not to pay me, to just photocopy the zine and sell it to get it out there. I was just thrilled that they picked my zine to sell, as I later heard that Microcosm rejects most zine submissions!

I was also told by an intern at Microcosm that my zine flew off the shelves like crazy for quite some time. And about 3 years later, I started getting royalty cheques from them, which I was not expecting. This zine and my other zines are still being sold at Microcosm, I owe them everything for this.

My goal wasn’t to earn a living with it. Nor is it my goal to make a million bucks with this blog. As I’ve said before, I’ve been approached by several advertising companies over the past 3 years and have refused all but one. I only have one paid ad on here (aside from FV Sponsors who pay me $5 a year)  but I know the company and agree with what they are doing.

So where am I going with this?

My life & I have changed A LOT since I first published The Frugal Vegan Zine and even since I first started this blog over 3 years ago. I still consider myself an alternative radical with a non-mainstream lifestyle but I no longer look the part and some of my activities and interests have changed. I also have different tastes and needs.

I want to stay true to The Frugal Vegan blog by still giving you (hopefully) thought provoking articles, great recipes and some cool DIY project ideas.

But I digress. The thing is, my idea of frugality is much different now than it was 10 years ago, even 3 years ago.

Sure, I still look for bargains and sales. I occasionally use coupons. I shop at thrift stores for designer finds. I get my hair cut at the hair school or an inexpensive salon. I travel on a dime. Frugality is relative.

I no longer make a lot of my own stuff anymore: I used to make laundry detergent, my own face products & perfumes, I cooked & baked a lot more….

I also have a higher standard for certain things now, but I still don’t know if it’s my age that is bringing this sudden persona out, or my upbringing which I tried to suffocate for a long time. I just don’t want to hide my “other” side from all of you anymore, even though I think some people will be annoyed with it. I do see the way some alternative/indie people look at me now, and it makes me sad. I think they see me as a sell-out.

Since emerging from my depression not too long ago, I’ve been feeling amazingly calm, happy and way more myself. But who I am now, is not necessarily what some of you might expect. I’ve always had friends who were rebels, progressive thinkers, intelligent, not mainstream and fought “the system”, if you know what I mean. They are still like that. I have a rebel-indie side (sometimes referred to as my hippie side), and another side which I tried to suffocate for a very long time which contradicts the rebel-indie side.

Let me explain:

I was raised in an upper class environment. I had everything and more at my disposal. Life was easy for me growing up. I even went to a teen birthday party once, wearing a gown and hopping into a Lamborghini we had rented with a driver, to attend the party at the country club. Yep, that shit is real, it doesn’t just happen on Gossip Girl.

That kind of nonsense makes people lose sight of reality though. And I didn’t want to lose perspective as to how things truly were out there in the real world, because I certainly wasn’t living in it myself. So I always tried to surround myself with normal people because I didn’t like many of the other people raised in the same kind of environment I was raised in. I thought most of those spoiled rich kids were assholes and had no sense of reality. They also had a sense of entitlement and a chip on their shoulders. Ugh.

I even talked my parents out of sending me to private/boarding school because I told them I wanted to be around normal kids and they agreed. So off to public school I went and stayed. I really needed to get out of that scene, as I felt that it was toxic for many obvious reasons.

Luckily, my parents believed in hard work, no free handouts and snobbery was frowned upon in our home. They were also minimalists. I started working at 13 for my own pocket money. So none of this negative stuff I am saying about the upper class lifestyle, has anything to do with my parents. They are/were classy people with taste and very down to earth. It is because of them, that I didn’t turn into a total snooty asshole.

But like some of us who grew up in that environment,  I felt that it was best that I leave it all that behind and pave my own way without assistance. I’ve been to food banks, had crappy apartments with no plumbing and I had no money at times. But I never ran home for help, it was the last thing I wanted. I always got myself out of jams because I was taught independence early on, thankfully.

Many have told me that I live my life the way I do since I will always have a “back-up”, if things go horribly wrong for me. Truth is, I’ll never know if that’s true or not. And these days, nothing is secure anyway. No one can rely on anything.

So what does this all mean?

It seems as though I am inching my way back a little bit to what feels somewhat familiar. And this is where my struggle starts.

I struggle as to what to write sometimes. A few years ago, it was all clear. Now, it isn’t anymore.

Thing is, my financial situation is better now as I am no longer in dire straights. Although I am far from being a millionaire, my partner and I are not struggling anymore, like we had been for several years. But frugality is still practiced in our home, just on a different level than before.

So if you suddenly hate me now because of where I came from and where my life is going, there isn’t much I can do to stop you. I still want to be a voice for frugal indie radicals out there (because that is me too).  I also want to start sharing some other things with you in hopes that you won’t see me in a negative light.

So here’s hoping you’ll keep reading, even though some posts might be a little different and more mature now. Maybe it’s my age (42) that brought about this change. But perhaps, it’s all that I learning and growing I’ve done in the past 10 years.

THANKS FOR READING AND HOPE YOU KEEP READING.

Here is a soup I plan to make this week.  The recipe comes from Food.com.

Since there are only two of us, I will make half of the soup and keep the other half of my asparagus for other dishes. mmmmmmmm . I kept the original recipe below but will be making some changes to it. (see my comments in bold-italics)

Here we go!

CREAM OF ASPARAGUS SOUP

Looks like we are going to be spending the entire summer here now, so I figured that I may as well start finding some things I enjoy doing, aside from perusing the thrift stores.

Of course, there is my weekend farmer’s market trip which is always fun and interesting! As I mentioned before, Airbnb is in full swing right now and I am booked for most of this month and half of June already. Some of my guests like to chat, some don’t, but so far everyone has been great as per usual.

Since acquiring my IPhone 4, I have been taking a lot more photos and I would like to share a few of them with you. This weekend is a “buy local” weekend and tons of cool events are going on.

Here is the pictorial presentation of my daY:

Screen Printing

More Industrial Screen Printing

Local Greens..yum!

Art School Students Set up a PhotoBooth today! This is me!

Canvas Butterfly Shoes I bought from a Market

Local Fair Trade Organic Coffee (Pour-Over) - FREE!

I will attempt to keep my two blogs going, host travelers and also try being a little less introverted while living here. Wish me luck!

HOW ARE YOU SPENDING YOUR SATURDAY?

Here’s the thing: My partner is not having a great time at work these days. As you know, we were supposed to be moved by now but all sorts of things are going on at head office and I guess morale is very low at the company all across the country right now. It’s a long story. What better way to fix morale at the office than to bring homemade goodies!? I’ve done this before and it works, at least temporarily. So I made a batch of these.

Here is the recipe which comes from Food.com (though I adapted it) – You can add 1/2 cup of chocolate chips to this! (I did) Who doesn’t want chocolate, right?

Applesauce Oatmeal Muffins

 

Muffins

• 1 1/2 cups oats ( quick or old-fashioned)
• 1 1/4 cups flour
• 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup unsweetened applesauce (I used homemade)
• 1/2 cup soy milk
• 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 Tbsp ground flax mixed with 3 Tbsp hot water (let sit 5mins)

Topping

• 1/4 cup oats ( quick or old-fashioned)
• 1 tablespoon firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon margarine, melted

Directions

1. Heat oven to 400.
2. Line 12 medium muffin tins with paper cups(optional)(spray muffin tin with cooking spray w/o paper cups).
3. Combine oats, flour, cinnamon, baking powder and baking soda.
4. Add applesauce, milk, brown sugar, oil and flax mixture.
5. Mix just until dry ingredients are moistened.
6. Fill muffin cups almost full.

Applesauce Oatmeal Muffins w/ Chocolate Chips

 

2. Uptown Soap Company NYC Vegan Body Cream - I LOVE this body cream. Handmade in NYC, reusable or recyclable glass packaging and incredibly lovely package design. Pure delight for just $16. Yum! I have the Sugar Lily seen below.

Uptown Soap Company NYC

Uptown Soap Company NYC

 

3. Kibio Mineral SPF 50 Face Sunscreen – I just bought this. It is the only mineral sunscreen on the market right now. No chemicals, no parabens and organic! For a sunscreen, I don’t find this very oily either and it has a slight tint to it which is great. – $22 (available @ Shopper’s Drug Mart in Canada)

4. Soap Nuts

I talked about these not long ago but I’ve been using them in my dishwasher and for my laundry. Not only do they save me cash, but you do not require ANY fabric softener when using them. Great for people with sensitivities. LOVE. – $13 (~108 loads)

5. PaddyWax Bordeaux, Fig & Vetiver Soy Candle - $16

The soy wax is poured into a recycled wine bottle. Amazing. Need I say more?

 

 WHAT ARE YOUR FAVOURITE ECO BUDGET FRIENDLY PRODUCTS LATELY?

 

 

Essentially what I am looking for from this budget tracking, are some purchase patterns and ways to cut down on them.

COFFEE BUDGET

As you know, I spend a lot of time writing in cafes during the day. I knew this was a rather large monthly expense for me. Surprisingly, I spent less than I thought I had. However, I still decided to cut my April total by $40. I was in the habit of drinking espressos, as I prefer them over brewed coffee. But I will have to make due with brewed for now. I will be purchasing coffee cards at the two places I frequent the most, and then have another $10 set aside for other places. I will be purchasing the cards tomorrow and use them till they are empty. If I run out of cash before the end of the month, I will stop going to cafes! This will be a great exercise in discipline.

RESTAURANT BUDGET

Another big expense that I’ve noticed, was the amount we spent on restaurants and eating out. My partner and I eat out once a week so we can reconnect and talk. This is important to us and I don’t want to cut down on that part. But for the rest of the week we/I will need to make some changes. The money we spent on restaurants was way over what I think is reasonable. That being said, I know we both had a rough month and we’ve been going out more to decompress. But this month will be better!

PURCHASES BUDGET

This category is for anything we purchase, whether it be for the home or personal use. Surprisingly, I did very well but I know this is due to the fact that I had to write everything down last month. I was afraid to buy things sometimes because I knew I had to write it down and it wouldn’t look good on paper…just saying! So this budget tracking exercise actually made me NOT purchase things this month. The only thing I will do, is limit my spending at thrift stores. I go there almost weekly to pick up pieces for myself and the consignment shop.

GROCERIES BUDGET

Good quality food is very important to me. I know I can spend half of what I do now if I purchase different kinds of foods. But I won’t do it. I used to do that and it’s ok to do when things are really tough financially but we can afford to buy better now. We only purchase local or organic produce and most of the foods we buy are organic as well. Obviously, this does cost more but we’ve noticed that we feel even better than we did before when we upped the quality of our food. We also buy less and waste less. I decided to set a budget for groceries but not cut it by much. Although I know it’s not particularly low, I know it’s worth the money. Good food = Good health!

GAS/TRANSPORTATION

We spent $188 on gas last month. Usually our gas budget is $100/month but obviously with gas prices on the rise, it’s tough to control. When the prices went up, we actually changed our routine. On weekends, we run errands on one day only and generally stay close to home the other day. We have one car (thankfully!) which my partner uses to go to work (less than 10Km away) and I walk and use public transportation to get around. Not much we can do to reduce gas costs though our country-thrift-store road trips (60km away) might have to be less frequent! We used to go every 2 weeks but now, just once a month.

SET MONTHLY BILLS BUDGET

I was very surprised with the other information I saw. Our monthly bills are very low, which is nice. We have a lot of energy efficient appliances, electronics and lights as well as excellent water savers for our showers. There isn’t much we can do to lower our bills as they are very low already. I believe we’ve done the best we can with this. I don’t think I can beat $60/month for our power bill for a 2400Square foot house! Not bad right? And we don’t have cable. The ONLY set monthly expenses we have are as follows: Mortgage, Insurance, Power, Water, Phone/Internet.

CONCLUSION

Thankfully after doing all these calculations, I discovered that we do not live beyond our means, but I already knew that. Phew! But we can definitely do better and have more money in our pockets starting this month.

This was an eye opening exercise and I will keep doing it for a few months.

DO YOU HAVE A BUDGET? IF SO, WHICH APP OR PROGRAM DO YOU USE?

Here is the description for ROOMARAMA:

Roomorama was founded on the principle that there is more to travel than visiting a checklist of tourist attractions.

As two young executives caught between professional obligations and perpetual wanderlust, Jia En Teo and Federico Folcia would rent their New York apartments to a few friendly folks with a similar desire to live like locals. The proceeds in turn would subsidize their travel needs. That simple and effective method became a habit. But using classifieds to advertise their apartment -the most accessible platform at the time- took too much effort and, more alarmingly, involved too many risks: hundreds of responses to sift through; overlapping and contradictory requests; dubious, non-secure methods of payment and worst of all, no-shows.

Jia En and Federico quickly identified the demand for a service that handled short-term rental transactions quickly, easily and securely. Roomorama.com was launched in January 2009 and has since been a leader in the development of online rental communities.

This is still a story in the making. Be part of it – check-in with Roomorama when you next want to check out a city, and give us feedback on how we can improve our services to make you feel at home.

***

It’s easy to sign up and doesn’t cost you a penny to do so. Have an extra couch, bed, room or house to rent? Try listing on Roomarama.

If you sign up for their newsletter, you get $10 off your first booking if you travel! No need to be a host, just a guest!

WILL YOU BE RENTING OUT YOUR SPACE TO TRAVELERS THIS SUMMER?

The bag I purchased was $13. If I wash my clothes in cold water, I can use them about 6 times for regular loads. If I do this, I get 108 laundry loads out of my bag of soap nuts. 108 loads for $13? Not bad! And with soap nuts, you don’t even need fabric softener!

This works out to be 0.12 per dishwasher or laundry load. WOW.

You know what’s even better?
There are so many more things you can do with soap nuts from making shampoo to window cleaner! HERE is a list of recipes.

If you missed my post where I mentioned Soap Nuts, click HERE. (#2 on the list)

HOW DO YOU USE YOUR SOAP NUTS?

This is how it works:

You sign up for free on TerraCycle. When you have collected enough cereal bags, you print out a shipping label, place it on the box or package and send it to them. You’ll receive 2 points per bag sent. 1000 points are worth $10. This money can be donated to the charity of your choice. When you set up your account, you also choose a charity which you would like to donate this money to.

If you ARE a charity, this is a perfect way to collect donations from people!

These bags are upcycled and turned into useful items to help schools or organizations.  Check it out.

I’ll be buying my cereal in bags. Can’t wait. If anyone has a charity in Canada they’d like me to donate this money to, please email me. WOuld love to hear your suggestions.

WILL YOU BE USING TERRACYCLE?

NOTE: I accidentally misspelled the company’s URL in the credits.(sorry,  just tired and busy today!)

Here is the website for Lip Labz: Http://www.liplabz.com