or not. I priced the baseboard trim at our local hardware store. The exact same trim at our local store was a whopping $0.04 more expensive per foot. Maybe it's me, but that's not worth driving to the next town! So I bought 24 feet. And the paint was the SAME. So, a local hardware store has the same prices, but the Home Depot has all the fluff. Martha Stewart paint instead of paint. Eco-friendly cedar instead of cedar. It's all in the marketing, and consumers are suckers. Hence the consuming.
I am pretty happy that I got to do the distributisty thing for the house projects and buy local. I even got paint that is from the Northwest. I'm not sure how "from" that Northwest it is, but I want to say Tacoma or something. I could drive to the plant! Not that I want to, but I could.
I still haven't gone for a real grocery trip, but my peas are coming in, so we may do stir fry all week! Who knows! We'll see what this week brings!
Monday, July 30, 2012
Saturday, July 21, 2012
Well....
as far as packing lunches go, there weren't a lot of options where I live. Deli meat? Chain supermarket. Juices? Same. emergency run to the store for cat litter? Again, chain supermarket. The only things I could find at our little locally-owned grocery was snacks, at about twice the price, and some fruits and veggies.
I didn't do a lot actual grocery shopping, because I knew we would be at day camp all week. This weekend I have been shopping for our church's VBS, and that hasn't worked out for shopping locally or stretching the dollars. Our local Goodwill had one item on the list, and Joann's Fabric had some. But neither fit the bill of locally owned and operated. It may involve a trip out of town. This is an issue that happens frequently where we live on the Olympic Peninsula. It seems that the local stores take pride in not providing what locals want or need. And it is summer, so almost all business is aimed at the tourists.
We are also hoping to do a few home improvements this summer. Smaller projects like painting and replacing trim. The trim I like is available at Home Depot in another town at less than $2.00 a foot. The paint is also at Home Depot at $25 a gallon. We have local hardware/lumber stores, but they tend to lean towards builder's items. Which would be handy if I was building. I may keep checking, just in case. And again cost becomes an issue. With a family of 6, there's only so much room in the budget for "projects" of any variety, so the savings at Home Depot gets put in the grocery budget. Of course, the decision may be made by summer gas prices!
One of the things that strikes me about Distributism, in a deep and buried kind of way, is there seems to be an element of quality versus quantity. Having one amazingly beautiful, well-made item, is worth ten cheap, mass-produced of the same thing. Trying to convince my family of this is a bit difficult, as the youngest doesn't believe there is such a thing as "too many Legos" and the girls are, well, clothes horses. The oldest has learned this lesson through trial and error with camping supplies, so he is pretty on board with this little experiment. He is admittedly trying to upgrade ALL of his camping supplies through this. We'll see if it works.
I didn't do a lot actual grocery shopping, because I knew we would be at day camp all week. This weekend I have been shopping for our church's VBS, and that hasn't worked out for shopping locally or stretching the dollars. Our local Goodwill had one item on the list, and Joann's Fabric had some. But neither fit the bill of locally owned and operated. It may involve a trip out of town. This is an issue that happens frequently where we live on the Olympic Peninsula. It seems that the local stores take pride in not providing what locals want or need. And it is summer, so almost all business is aimed at the tourists.
We are also hoping to do a few home improvements this summer. Smaller projects like painting and replacing trim. The trim I like is available at Home Depot in another town at less than $2.00 a foot. The paint is also at Home Depot at $25 a gallon. We have local hardware/lumber stores, but they tend to lean towards builder's items. Which would be handy if I was building. I may keep checking, just in case. And again cost becomes an issue. With a family of 6, there's only so much room in the budget for "projects" of any variety, so the savings at Home Depot gets put in the grocery budget. Of course, the decision may be made by summer gas prices!
One of the things that strikes me about Distributism, in a deep and buried kind of way, is there seems to be an element of quality versus quantity. Having one amazingly beautiful, well-made item, is worth ten cheap, mass-produced of the same thing. Trying to convince my family of this is a bit difficult, as the youngest doesn't believe there is such a thing as "too many Legos" and the girls are, well, clothes horses. The oldest has learned this lesson through trial and error with camping supplies, so he is pretty on board with this little experiment. He is admittedly trying to upgrade ALL of his camping supplies through this. We'll see if it works.
Monday, July 16, 2012
Here's the thing...
In all my thoughts regarding the economy, "social justice," whether Unions are good or bad, which candidate do I want to vote for, how do I make my money go further, how much is milk this week, etc, I have yet to find anything enjoyable or challenging to DO. I have opinions, some of which change regularly as new information has come to light. Some are pretty concrete. But I haven't found anything that makes my job as a wife and mother easier.
To boycott or not. To coupon clip or not. It's all pretty much not part of what makes me love what I do. My kids not arguing about dinner, my husband being happy to come home, my home being livable, and yes, pretty. That's really all I want at the end of the day. But in the constant go-go-go-ness that is life, I want to scream stop!! Stand still! Be quiet and just enjoy it!!!
In my internet surfing I came across a funny word. I didn't think it was a word. And I married a human dictionary! The word was "distributism". Huh, I thought, well, GK was cool with it, and even my youngest loves GK so I should check it out. And I did. And it is a funny word. But as a funny word it has some great, simple ideas attached to it. I think. That's what this blog is about. Is distributism doable? Not in an economictheory sense, but in a grocery list, keep the house clean and the kids clothed sense. There are tons of articles about the theory, and comparing and contrasting Distributism with Capitalism, Socialism, etc.
If you want to read more about the economic theory of Distributism, check out The Distributist Review. The authors seem to be pretty good about responding to questions and comments in the comboxes. I'll leave the theorizing to them.
To boycott or not. To coupon clip or not. It's all pretty much not part of what makes me love what I do. My kids not arguing about dinner, my husband being happy to come home, my home being livable, and yes, pretty. That's really all I want at the end of the day. But in the constant go-go-go-ness that is life, I want to scream stop!! Stand still! Be quiet and just enjoy it!!!
In my internet surfing I came across a funny word. I didn't think it was a word. And I married a human dictionary! The word was "distributism". Huh, I thought, well, GK was cool with it, and even my youngest loves GK so I should check it out. And I did. And it is a funny word. But as a funny word it has some great, simple ideas attached to it. I think. That's what this blog is about. Is distributism doable? Not in an economictheory sense, but in a grocery list, keep the house clean and the kids clothed sense. There are tons of articles about the theory, and comparing and contrasting Distributism with Capitalism, Socialism, etc.
If you want to read more about the economic theory of Distributism, check out The Distributist Review. The authors seem to be pretty good about responding to questions and comments in the comboxes. I'll leave the theorizing to them.
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