Secondhand Smarts - community works!

I haven't posted a Secondhand Smarts update for a while, but rest assured I get so many bargains from secondhand shops, TradeMe, etc, that I can hardly keep up.

An extra special nod must go to the bargains I got at last year's school fair. OK, I put in a lot of hours at the White Elephant sale where I got the goodies, but it was a great community event and raised much needed funds for the kids' school. And hundreds of people went away happy with their bargain finds!

Community and charity work can seem thankless at times, but as well as the reality of the help you're providing, you are also making connections that can sometimes reap more tangible rewards. Sometimes you need something and someone else already has exactly what you need. Like these...

Stepping out...

The boy needed some shoes. Look what I found!


Tevas. Good as new. In the right size. For a couple of dollars!

Frozen

Yeah, this attachment!

I love making frozen banana ice cream. It is pretty hard work for the S-blade on the food processor though, and we've heard that juicers and mincers do an even better job on the frozen bananas. I don't want another whole gizmo in my kitchen, but I have idly considered buying the mincer attachment for our mixer.


I almost let this amazing coincidence at the White Elephant Sale pass me by. I'd even shelved this box and moved it around a couple of times. But it wasn't until a customer said "there are bits missing from this" that we both realised it was an attachment, not a standalone machine. Just exactly what I needed for the machine we have at home, and luckily the customer didn't! $5, for an attachment retailing new for £38.


I can confirm that the banana ice cream product from the mincer is far superior - it can take the totally frozen banana chunks without strain and produce a really really cold treat instead of one that melts almost as served.

The icing on the cake

And cookies, and vegan cupcakes for the Vegan Society stall, and...

My sister's a decorating ace with all the equipment, but sometimes there's no chance to go borrowing. There were a couple of icing sets in the sale, and I knew I wanted to go home with one.

This one was pretty and compact, so it won the toss, and at $4 was quite the bargain. Especially when later at home, I found this was a collector tin retailing for $70.

Yes, there were even more bargains we got at the fair, but enough already! Secondhand is totally smart shopping.

Vegan Chocolate Crumb Brownies and 3 more frugal bread crust recipes

I love to transform food so it is appealing and doesn't go to waste.  

My family eats lots of bread, but not the ends. (Good luck with this trick to get rid of them. Let me know whether your kids are fooled.)

So we always have annoying frozen bread end collections. Here's how to use them up and enjoy it!

1. We're Bakin' Brownies!

I've totally transformed a brownie recipe so it's vegan, delicious, and uses up heaps of breadcrumbs...

• 2/3 cup nondairy milk
• 2 Tbsp nondairy margarine (opt)
• 1 tsp vanilla (opt)
• 3/4 cup cocoa powder
• 6 cups medium-fine soft bread crumbs (made in food processor, mine were quite chunky)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 3/4 cups brown sugar, packed (or 1 cup + 2Tbsp molasses + 1/8 tsp stevia)
• 1/2 cup chopped nuts or desiccated coconut (opt)
• 1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips (opt)
• 1 mashed ripe banana (opt)
• 1 tsp cinnamon (opt)
• 2 egg (replacer equivalent)

They go quickly - here's one left!

1. Preheat oven to 350 F (175 C) and (if not nonstick) spray a 8-inch square baking pan or similar (I used a round cake pan).
2. Melt nondairy milk and margarine and add sifted cocoa powder and vanilla - stir
3. In large mixing bowl, combine bread crumbs, baking powder, sugar and nuts/optional extras.
4. Stir in cocoa mixture and brown sugar; beat until combined.
5. In separate bowl, prepare egg replacer.
6. Combine with bread mixture until all ingredients are moistened. Add more nondairy milk or water if not moist enough to make smooth sticky batter (bread crumbs are hard to measure exactly).
7. Spread evenly in prepared pan. Bake 30 minutes or until done. Cool completely on wire rack.

Loved by the whole family (the brownies...and me, of course)!

2. Dipping Toasties

These are much quicker than croutons and make soup night a bit more special.

1. Preheat oven to 350 F (175 C)
2. Cut at least 2 bread ends in half for each person eating
3. Spread with your choice of:

• Marmite or other yeast spread
• Vegan margarine or olive oil
• Refried beans
• Salsa
• Vegan cheese
• Hummus
• Herb/seasoned salt sprinkle

Place on oven tray and bake until just barely brown - keep careful watch as the edges can get burned easily

Serve with soup, spread with more goodies like guacomole....yum!

3. Vegan Fruit Pudding

This frugal pudding can be made with practically whatever you've got.
 

4. Vegan Stuffing

This savoury stuffing is great for the festive season or anytime it's chilly.

Why your work is never done - it's just physics

Does it seem like no matter how hard you work to clean the house and feed everyone, it's always time to do it all over again? You're not imagining things.

You could blame the kids. Those little agents of chaos certainly mess up what you've tidied, devour what you've prepared, leave more mess than their entire body weight... But you're fighting a much bigger battle.

You cannot defy the laws of physics!

There's actually a physical law for mess. The second law of thermodynamics says the entropy (disorder) of the universe must always increase.

So the dirt is trying to take over your house. The toys on the shelves are trying to scramble themselves. The marbles simply love to roll to every corner of the room. And everything, absolutely everything wants to fall to the floor.

But humans are a complex species - we need order to exist. The only real work is our constant fight for that spot of order against this messy universe. And naturally, that is never done. Even while you are cleaning, more dust is settling.

Why bother?

You decide. Here are some abandoned houses, where nobody does what you do.

Photographer: Nathan Ross

See how important you are? You stand each day between your beloved home and natural disasters like these.

Even feeding everybody is part of the battle against impending chaos - as our bodies need fuel to renew the cells that are constantly dying. Creepy, but true. And you even have to prepare the food while it's still fresh - if you don't pay attention, the food wanders to the back of the refrigerator and forms a chaos puddle.

Thankless tasks

• Cleaning
• Organising
• Growing, gathering, and preparing food
• Teaching
• Healing
• ...

The payoff for these is not in completion, but in progress.

Work that can be defined with a beginning, middle, and end, with precise goals to be accomplished and therefore visibly finished and celebrated, is generally a modern invention with very little impact on the real world.

Woman's work?

"A man may work from sun til sun, but a woman's work is never done." This is not because men don't do real work. (No, really, they do.) But in traditional roles, women live in their workplace, and we are constantly faced with the undone work. Men's undone work is usually offsite.

What to do?

We can reduce our own chaos by reducing our belongings. But peace comes with the acceptance that undone work is universal. Literally.

And if anyone hassles you about the state of your house, you can now tell them about entropy and the second law of thermodynamics. They will never bother you again.

Ethics vs Health: Crossing the Great Vegan Divide

Photo from Farm Sanctuary

I just got my hands on a copy of The Vegan Sourcebook. It certainly earns its nickname of “The Vegan Bible” – it has a wealth of valuable information, recommendations, and history, and more than a few judgements from on high.

While presenting a vast range of reasons to be vegan, it also repeated how ethics is the strongest motivation and health the weakest, including a very memorable quote from Catherine Nimmo:

If we become vegans because we understand animals and feel great compassion for their sufferings, it is the easiest thing, and proves to be of the greatest benefit for ourselves too; but if we become vegans for health reasons, it seems full of worries based on fear, ignorance, and above all egocentric thinking.

...Read the rest as my guest blog on Josh Latham's My Vegan Cookbook. Trust me, it's worth clicking just to see the cool graphic his twin designed for this post.

Decluttering toys for a brand new year

After Christmas is the perfect time to make the New Year's Resolution of decluttering the toys. In our house, we have birthdays early in the New Year - even more motivation to make room for the new favourites.

Since I do regular toy audits, I don't have large dump piles. But my my youngest is now school-age, so there are quite a few toys that will not be missed much.

What's gone

Mr Potato Head and a puzzle or two went to a friend (always my first choice). My favourite charity shop also benefited from my constant search and seizure of tiny unloved treasures. It never stops. I try to remember my own advice on toy decluttering and the Top 10 Toys List.

A small building set went on Trademe - it's a quality set but we got lots more Lego and Brainbox for Christmas, and those are what we'll build on.

A shallow storage tray, reclaimed from wooden puzzles, became the Lego tray - much more accessible and stored under the couch.

Other bulky items on their way to another home...



The biggest win for the big picture was selling the kids' art tables.

My sister had these made and they are great. But kids grow.

It wasn't a large cash payout, but it was like the right move in those sliding number puzzles.

The student desks came downstairs into the office space with us...

The dollhouse moved into the toyroom.

Now the lounge looks one grade clearer and two grades more grownup.

Who am I kidding? I've just cleared space for bigger Lego projects!

What are your New Year decluttering goals?

Life Hack - don't read the comments

You can find anything on the internet these days. You don't have enough time to read all the expertly researched articles in your favourite hot and controversial topic. You probably go short of sleep and family time in the attempt.

But once you've finished that great article, my tip to you is to move on to the next great article on your search list. Quickly. Before you glance at the first comment. (Sorry, fellow bloggers.)

Resist the temptation to find out what other people think, to see if it matches what you think.

Articles are usually written by someone with some qualification on the topic, but if nothing else, a reputation to protect. Commenters only need a knee to jerk and a keyboard.

Typical Comments (edited for grammar and spelling)

1. Loved this article - so true! I wish everyone knew this.
2. Really interesting topic - I talk more about this on MY blog at bloglink.com.
3. That's crazy! I would never want to do this, and the government better not make me. 
   
4. Me neither, this is just wrong. Where will it end?
5. To commenters: you should do some research. Did you actually read the whole article? Also read this and this..
6. Screw your research; it's all biased from weirdos like you. How dare you imply I can't read?
7. Whoa, I don't mean to start a fight. That isn't what I said.
8. Weirdo. If you don't like it here, why don't you live somewhere else?
9. Hey, I bought some great shoes really cheap - check it out at cheepshooz.com!

Really cool stuff, if you like reality shows. But all you get is rising blood pressure, or worse, your own time-wasting argument. (You can probably guess that I know this firsthand.)

The Good Comments

They're not all bad. You might be lucky, and a super expert has cast some pearls before swine.

But such an expert will have published those pearls somewhere else, in their own carefully-written article. You'll get much better value using your search engine than searching through comments.

Any other comment addicts out there? What do you think about writing comments?

Children of the Cult

Cults are those weird groups with those brainwashed people living by bizarre and often damaging rules. 

The saddest thing is, of course, the children. They're raised within the cult and often never know that any other way is possible.

A cult:

• is a group whose beliefs or practices are abnormal or bizarre    
• is a group that tends to manipulate, exploit, and control its members
• recruits people who suffer from a some variety of deprivation.
• promotes a belief system which is utopian/idealistic, and also dualistic and bi-polar in nature. Dualistic in that they see the world in terms of two opposite poles, such as good versus evil, the saved and the fallen, the enlightened and the ignorant, etc.
• is at high risk of becoming abusive to members - in part due to members' adulation of charismatic leaders contributing to the leaders becoming corrupted by power.
• is a group or movement exhibiting a devotion to some person, idea or thing and employing unethically manipulative techniques of persuasion and control designed to advance the goals of the group's leaders to the actual detriment of members, their families, or the community.

Meet the most successful cult ever

This cult's idea is the pursuit of more money - the cult of capitalism. And you're probably a child of the cult.
"Unlike other cults that are considered outside the norm, it has claimed center stage, and its propaganda appears to be unquestioned reality."

Living in the cult

Mostly, people

• hope to live in spaces with more than one room for each person. Social skills degenerate from isolation.
• cannot afford these large spaces - they spend their entire lives working off debt to live there.
• spend their days at tasks unrelated to anything or anyone they love
• do not know the people living around them
• live near so many other people they can't make meaningful connections
• buy objects (increasing debt) trying to replace connections with people

Power in the cult

Positions of power:

• are held by very few people
• cost enormous amounts of money to achieve - creating bias and corruption
• provide the illusion of democracy while real control is held by the companies providing money

Information in the cult

Most information:

• is controlled by a few large worldwide companies
• is propaganda to perpetuate the beliefs of the cult
• is presented as quickly and simply as possible, even when important meaning is lost
• avoids any positive reference to lifestyles contradicting the cult

Communication in the cult

Mostly, people communicate

• without even seeing each other
• using machines for very quick and short messages with little content
• badly, generating much confusion and ill feeling

Leisure time in the cult

Most entertainment

•  involves buying something
•  is enjoyed alone and is physically inactive (TV, computer games...)
•  includes propaganda for the cult

Food in the cult

Mostly, people...

• cannot and don't know how to provide their own food
• never eat any truly fresh food
• do not know where their food comes from
• do not cook much
• eat lots of foods which have been processed so much that very little nutrition remains
• eat lots of foods from animals who have been horribly abused their whole lives before being killed.

The cult invests in propaganda and promotes denial about food to protect profits.

Physical health in the cult
It's risky in here...

• Heart disease is the leading cause of death
• At least half of all people are overweight
• The next generation is expected to have a shorter lifespan
• The healthcare industry is a huge financial presence. Healthcare spending is increasing faster than society can create value

Mental health in the cult

Cults foster mental disorders.

Cults promote a vision of an ideal 'new self', which members believe they can attain by following the cult teachings.

The capitalist ideal new self is a wealthy person. The reality is that few can become wealthy. Many who fail to become wealthy blame themselves or other people.

Depression, violent crime, and suicide are skyrocketing.

Families in the cult

Most mothers and fathers pay someone else to care for their young children while they spend their day earning money (and generating money for an employer).

Mothers and fathers who care for their own children instead of earning money are low status and often ridiculed.

Most mothers

• although healthy mammals, give birth in hospitals and feed their babies with inferior artificial food they have to buy.
• are told by experts that they should separate themselves from their babies for everyone's sake.
• are isolated from their family and community
• suffer guilt, confusion, and depression about caring for their babies

Most children

• are in institutional care for most of their day instead of socialising with neighbours.
• Are regularly entertained by electronic devices instead of people
• Cannot concentrate on simpler entertainment
• Are more ignorant about the world than the previous generation

(Add your own section here)

I could continue...but so can you.

Escaping a cult

I've seen movies of people rescued from cults. They look stunned and a bit scared, coming out to freedom and the bigger world around them.

They have lots to learn.

Are you ready?

More Reading

• Obama on the profit motive
• Jimmy Carter's speech on consumption
• Capitalism and alienation
• Capitalism as a purely cultic religion
  

Freedom - in living colour

I don't always get a gasp of astonishment from my husband when he gets home. (Maybe I could, but that would be promising more than I can deliver.)  But I did yesterday.

I just covered the freedom of giving.  With no more specific goal in mind than decluttering, I'm proud to report transforming another space from a Before to an After.  More Before Pictures...

Original guest bedroom, 2010

We got rid of a table from my student days, emptied junk off a great office desk and moved it in.  The bookshelves went behind the couch - but we could still reach them, sort of.

Reshuffled guest bedroom

Slowly and surely, items found better homes. The office desk went into our new office.  I released books and the little bookshelf holds kids' books in the kids' room.  A chair is now my reading sanctuary in our bedroom, and another small shelf is holding up a family dollhouse.

I looked over (from my standing desk) one day and saw what could happen if I cleaned up some stray small clutter.

And now for the happy ending...

 Not only can we reach our books again, we can sit down and read them too.


"Why didn't we do this before?" asked DH. Honey, now you know.

And I post these photo histories to show you that if I can do this with the stuff we had, anyone can.

Where are your histories waiting to happen?

Wallet minimalism and handbag sexism

My wallet and backpack featured last year on The Everyday Minimalist's Minimalist Wallet series.

That exercise showed me that I could downsize several items. But in the unstuffed wallet, the important cards get lonely and slip out of their pocket when not carefully handled.

More recently, my husband minimised his wallet from a traditional trifold to a simple bifold card wallet.  He's given that bifold to me now... so now I get to put my money where my minimalism is.

Handbag sexism

While we're on the topic of what we carry around, ponder this. Handbags are a hot feminist issue (along with women's pockets)  Women are burdened by bags full of makeup and stuff for everything that could happen to us or anyone around us.
Men have always carried wallets, heedless of their clothing profiles.  Few take even a comb along with them because their morning's grooming is good enough.

These bags bind us as much as high heels - you can't run very fast with either.

And just like any space, you start with what you actually want, and the unplanned items sneak in until you're forced into maintenance. Bigger is not better.

I don't need to carry nappies and clothes changes everywhere I go anymore.  When I do need to carry water bottles and a snack, I've downsized from the daypack featured earlier to this child-sized backpack (of course, one of my many Secondhand Smarts buys). 


So on to the shrinking wallet...



Old wallet

Trifold wallet with numerous pockets, contains:

• Cash
• NZ driver’s license
• Credit card
• Cashpoint card
• Automobile Association card
• Library card
• Supermarket points card
• Bulk store membership card
• Explorers clubday concession card (card stock)
• Health food store loyalty card (keychain size)
• Airline points card
• 2 store loyalty cards
• Food preferences card designed by my sister for giving to restaurants not familiar with the McDougall Program. Never so far used.
• Medical insurance membership card

New wallet

I kept everything I used on a weekly basis or more and the auto card for emergencies. The airline points card is new to me and still to prove itself.

I released

• 2 store loyalty cards (not local)
• Food preferences card 
• Medical insurance membership card
• Cashpoint card (credit card is dual purpose)

The rest fits pretty nicely.  I could add a little more.

Advantages

Beautiful...

As well as the obvious, it's much easier to carry in that rare creature: the women's clothing pocket!
 
Risks and downsides

There's no place to keep much cash or receipts I want to save.  I've already wasted a trip thinking I had a cheque in my wallet - and I didn't!  Then, I coudn't find the cheque for some hours afterward.

This is truly an experiment - wish me luck!

My ideal wallet would be a bifold that also has a long side pocket for bills - anyone know where I can get one? 

Eco-friendly packaging - an investment in our future

The winner!

Last year I was lucky enough to win a beautiful set of eco-friendly bamboo party ware from Friendlypak in New Zealand.  

This substantial set arrived packed in their own compostable product - popstarch.  By the faint fragrance, this is made of potato starch like their compostable trays and bowls.  I've been happily reusing this packaging in my own boxes.  

FriendlyPak specialises in compostable containers - stores and food providers can use these instead of plastic (which often goes unrecycled due to food contamination).  They even have shopping and dog waste bags!  And how cool is it that they link to The Story of Stuff on their website?

Basic scary facts on packaging waste:

• US Waste Facts  - "Every year, Americans throw away enough paper and plastic cups, forks, and spoons to circle the equator 300 times."
• European Packaging Waste  "On average every citizen in the 27 Member States EU-27 generated 164 kg of packaging waste in 2008."
• NZ Packaging Waste  "Each New Zealander throws away 83 kilograms of used packaging every year."

If we continue to ignore packaging waste, we're going to be up to our necks in it.

Packaging choices under pressure

I don't run a store.  But I could use reusable packaging like the lunch wraps from 4MyEarth.  I have already chosen waxed paper (which can even be reused for a few days) over plastic wrap for the kids' sandwiches.   I need to do some more research on reusable vs compostable. 

One New Zealand survey shows that consumers are concerned about too much packaging but feel ill-informed to act on that concern.

Another study takes a hard look at the eco-friendly claims for various types of packaging - there's lots to learn here even for those of us who might think we're already savvy.
Counting the cost

This packaging discussion finds that cost is still the biggest factor when people choose disposable packaging over more eco-friendly choices.  They also point out that as waste pressures rise, the real cost of waste disposal will motivate more consumers to choose better packaging. 

In Auckland, the Waste Management and Minimisation Plan includes charging us each time our bin is emptied instead of (as present) a flat cost each year. As a pretty good waste minimiser already, I'm a fan!

And, of course, the more we support these eco-friendly industries, the cheaper their products will be. 

Thanks!

So here is my public thank you to FriendlyPak for this prize, and also my heartfelt message to FriendlyPak, 4MyEarth and companies like them:

Thank you for providing us with genuine green consumer choices.  Thank you for developing products to support the vision of a thriving green economy.  Thank you for helping us put our money where our mouth is instead of into the same old poisonous products.

Minimalist dilemma

As a minimalist, I still had a serious decision to make. These bowls and trays are beautiful, but I already have a set of functional and attractive party bowls.  The prize bowls also needed a home.  In the rush of the holiday season, they simply sat in a stack on the downstairs sofa.

So was their home in my home or someone else's?

Stay tuned to hear all about Workout #4 in Productive New Year's Workouts, and how it all eventually worked out.

Everyone's doing it - what's your best tip to reduce your waste footprint?

• Reduce
• Avoid creating trash
• A year without spending makes less trash

Getting away from it all, or the Hotel Effect

My kids will, out of the blue, ask if we can stay in a hotel.  This is unrelated to how close to home we may be.

And often, I wish I could say yes.

Why?

With a better than average home, with all the comforts of home, why oh why would we want to stay in a hotel?  We only choose the budget ones anyway, so what's so special?

Well, what do you see when you open a hotel room door?  No problems!

Uncluttered - mostly, you just see furniture.  Invitingly made beds, clear tables, tidy sink spaces....  You can only clutter it with what you've brought, and you left most of your stuff at home.  You probably brought so little you can pack it all in less than 1/2 hour - compare that to your last house move.  Yes.  I know.

Clean - someone else cleaned this already.  It's so uncluttered that it probably didn't take long.  If you have to wash dishes, there aren't many supplied anyway - about enough for one family meal. 

Cosy - Those dishes?  You can wash them a couple of steps away from the dining table, while still chatting to the slower eaters.

Easy!

Most of us don't want to live in a hotel all the time, although I am in love with tiny houses and The Everyday Minimalist did spend some time this way.  Most of us would eventually miss something that we can only find at home - and that might simply be space and privacy.

But we can get some of the goodness of hotel living in our own homes.

Declutter!

You can't say too much about decluttering, and most of it's been said before.  Having only what you really need is the key to sanity and cleanliness in the home.

Here's just a start on decluttering tips:

• Should it stay or....?
• Outsmarting your inner hoarder
• Zen Habit's tips and more Zen Habit's tips
• Down with clutter
• And almost anything at 365 Less Things 

Work on your entrance

You won't get the "ahhhhhh" factor if you open your door into chaos.  Try it for yourself - step outside and do a grand entrance and really look!

• What's there that doesn't need to be?
• What's messy that could be organised?
• What's visible that could be hidden? 

Retreat!

After you've made a perfect entrance, choose one other space in the house to keep as your "hotel away from home."

If you can't keep the entire house sane, make sure you have this one retreat where you can relax and unwind.

And if you sell enough of your unwanted stuff, maybe you can hire a cleaner for your "hotel"!

You gotta have dreams...

Have your say...

What are your favourite tricks to make your house look professionally fabulous?

Welcome Summer! Easy frugal fatfree vegan banana ice cream

Already down a kg by now...

I couldn't resist the bargain - $3 for 8kgs of overripe bananas!  A sign as clear as a robin that warm weather is here in New Zealand.

Time to make some freezer space for banana ice cream makings.  Whoops, no more room.  Better take some of the frozen ones out and make a treat for the whole family.

Preparation

• Peel 4 ripe bananas and chop into roughly 2cm chunks
• Contain and freeze until firm (I use plastic produce bags)

Ice Cream!

I hear a juicer works really well to do this.  I use a food processor (processor blade, not slicer).

1. If frozen solid, leave bananas to sit for a few minutes
2. Separate frozen pieces and put in processor
3. Add liquid: 1/2 cup water, vegan milk, and/or another (unfrozen) ripe banana
4. Add extras: vanilla, molasses, cocoa, chocolate chips, coconut ....?
5. Process.  This is noisy!

• You may need to stop the processor and stir unmixed banana lumps in.
• You may need to add some more liquid (if you have no creamy bananas at the bottom).

Your patience will be rewarded with a smooth creamy cold treat that you'll wish you'd discovered sooner.  Surprisingly it doesn't taste much of banana - my mother is not a banana fan and still loves this.  And so does everyone else!

The banana boys

Ups and downs...

On the up side, you can now like @miniMum on Facebook.  Check out the cute wee button on the right - just above the angels.

Now you'll never have to miss the latest installment of our minimalist adventures. 

But wait!  There's more!

@miniMum will also post the best of the best links on parenting, minimalism, breastfeeding, nutrition, health, frugalism, and many more.

But I won't be selling anything.

The down side, or a learning experience...

Recently, I spoke to some of the older children at my son's school about plant-based nutrition and health.  I enjoyed it, it was great practice, and it was very well received.

Today, I accepted their invitation to the exhibit based on their individual learning experiences (of which I was a part).  It was a disappointment (if not entirely a surprise) to find that all their nutrition displays showed standard nutrition information.  Not one whiff of revolution.

I wonder what the feedback forms will tell me?