The Minimum Wager

I bought an avacado to make sushi, but sushi making the way I do it can take up to two hours (I tend to make big batches).  And I've been busy/lazy.  I noticed my avacado was starting to get soft in the fridge, so I went through my other leftovers to try to put together an on the fly recipe.

Guacamole is the easiest thing to do with an avocado, and there are a thousand variations. I had some imitation crab meat leftover (about six leg-style pieces), and about two tablespoons of hummus left.

I mashed the avocado with fork (instant, if bland guacamole), added a 1/2 tbsp of lemon juice, minced the imitation crab, and stirred in the hummus. Then I seasoned it generously with pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder. Everything had been in the fridge, so I popped it into the microwave (partially covered) for 30 secs, stirred, then popped it in for another 45 sec.

It turned out really good, and it was pretty quick and easy. Someone had given us a bag of Tostito Scoops, so I filled the little corn chip shells with my guacamole mixture. They would make nice party appetizers, but I just ate them for dinner.

The thrifty tip here is to keep tabs on what food you have and take steps so it doesn't go to waste. If you don't have every ingredient for a particular recipe, it's ok to experiment a little.


P.S. Given feedback, I'll make the new edition a separate file, but there will probably be some "free download" days. If/when that happens, I'll announce them on this blog as well as my general writing blog.

I knew when I wrote this book it should be updated with a new edition every 5 years or so, and with Healthcare reform coming in full force in 2014, I think the end of 2013 is a good time to say goodbye to the first one.  Anyway, it will still be available until the next time I need to pay the listing fee.  (I'll get back to you with the date.  I think it might be August.)  Much of the information in the book is timeless, but the second edition will have at least one additional chapter "Health and Medicine" (or some variation on that theme).  And I'll update a lot of little details and examples to make the book more current.

Ideally, the book would be off the market entirely for a little over a year, and second edition will be available at the end of 2014.  Realistically, it's too early to set dates.

I'm wondering if I should take advantage of the digital age, and instead of making a seperate listing for Kindle, just update the existing listing, which means those of you who have already bought Kindle copies, would get the update for free.

My only hesitation is someone might get miffed to find their book edition swapped out on them.  Thoughts?

P.S. I've tagged most of the entries now.  Should be easier to find relevant posts.

P.P.S. Leg has stopped tingling.  Still not conclusively sure what caused it, but I've been trying to exercise a little more, not sit so long, and keep the laptop off my lap.

I'm fascinated by the idea of microhouses, and at 128 ft. this one is definitely tiny.  But a good layout makes a huge difference.

Article: http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2013/03/28/tiny-house-for-sale-arkansas/?icid=maing-grid7%7Cmain5%7Cdl12%7Csec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D291403#photoID-5776117

It's listed $22,900 and sitting on a acre of land.  Has all the basic necessities (bathroom, kitchen, bed, table, even a little storage).  Places like this make it viable for minimum wagers to own property.  Now whether the property is a good investment is a decision that must be made on an individual basis.

But I am fascinated by the idea of the one person house.

I've done these reminders the last few years, so why not this one?  I hope everyone is well.  By now, you should have gotten every form you need for your taxes and hopefully you filed them together for easy access.  If you've already filed your taxes this year, good job.  If you've been delaying, it's time to get to it and at the very least get your forms filled out and the numbers crunched before Easter.  If you get a return, this will help you get it faster.  If you owe money, this will give you more time to figure out how much you need to scrape together.

I know I've been kind of perky about tax time in previous years, and I don't really mind the forms too much.  (Doesn't hurt the EIC means I usually get a refund.)  But my AGI was under $4000 this past year, and much of that went to insurance.  Ouch.  I'm doing okay, basically trading organizing and babysitting for my room and board right now.  Picked up a carpooler from my nephew's new school to help out with gas.  On the upside, the PoD side of my business has slowly been growing, and I'm nearing the finish line with my first novel.

This is my new blog to announce writing related things: http://kayiscah.livejournal.com/
It may be after Easter before you see much in the way of actual posts.  I'm sick this weekend and busy with MTAC next weekend.

On the personal side, my grandfather died peacefully in his sleep at the age of 91.  So it was kind of a relaxed funeral because he was ready to go.  The family's been reshuffling rooms and belongings while my dad is wrapping up the financial matters that must be dealt with when someone passes.  My other grandmother sold her house and moved in with my aunt, so half her household belongs are down in our basement.  I'm planning a massive yardsale/semi-estate sale for next month.

It's important to be actively involved in your own health.  There are many things your doctor can do and will know that you can't and won't, but doctor's are not omniscient, so it's good to arm yourself with information and get to know your own body.

I love WebMD for helping me figure out if I need to see a doctor, but I managed to stump that particular website this time.

My left leg has recently developed a dent and started tingling (no other symptoms).  It tingled like this once a few years ago (without the dent), and I realized my cell phone was culprit.  I've been careful not to carry my phone directly on my body since then, so that didn't explain things this time.

My first attempt at online research pulled up nothing, probably because I was using the word "recess" instead of "dent" or "indent".  After a week or so I decided to make an appointment with my doctor "just in case".  The woman scheduling the appointment asked if it was like an "indent", which gave me the word I needed for my google search.

Apparently this is a "new" but not unheard of condition.  It seems some leg "dent"s are cause by repeatedly leaning against a certain counter.  However that didn't fit my case.  There is a newly discovered/studied condition called Lipoatrophia Semicirularis which appears most often in office workers (one site said also in a disproportionate number of young women).  I thought my lack of exercise recently might be the culprit (still possible), but many people who had regular exercise routines and of various weight sizes were experiencing the same strange symptom.

The current theory is that Lipoatrophia Semicirularis (fancy way of saying the fat deflated strangely in your leg) is caused by low level electromagnetic and electrostatics fields, like from a computer.  The dents in many of these people's legs seemed to match the line of shielding their desk would give them from such fields.  The good news is that changes to the environment or leaving the environment, cleared up most of the cases.  So it may be as simple as not sitting my laptop on my lap so often.  (I'd been doing this a lot recently for writing.)

I wanted to share the story, because it seems to be uncommon but not rare and many people on the message boards said it was new to their doctors.

There are other and more serious conditions that can effect your fat layer, but this is one of those things that you could experiment with on your own to see if electronic equipment may be the culprit.  I'll still be keeping my appointment with my doctor to be on the safe side, but at least now I feel like I can talk to them more intelligently about what might be going on.

P.S. Just to be clear I advocate educating yourself, not jumping to conclusions.  Some home remedies are very safe to try to see if they solve the problem, others should be approached more cautiously.

Update: My doctor agreed we should keep an eye on it but did not seem overly concerned, since I wasn't showing the symptoms that would indicate a serious condition.  She suggested stretching.

It's hard to say exactly what the cause is... I later noticed my leg does hit my chair arm when I sit a certain way, so repeated pressure may be a factor after all.  Regardless, I've spent less time at the computer and more exercising...still probably not as much exercise as I should get, but the leg does seem to be improving.

I had intended this as a New Years post full of surviving the Mayan Apocalpyse jokes but couldn't get myself to sit down and write it. So here's the meat, a little belated...

The most important epiphany I ever had was that it is easier to learn from other people's mistakes so I didn't have to make them myself.

Yes, everyone makes mistakes, and it's better if we learn from them.  But you can't learn much from the same old mistakes.  I'd like to challenge you for 2013 and the years beyond, to not make the same mistakes made over and over by society, your family, or yourself. Break a cycle and go make a new mistake.

I'm not suggesting you do anything knowing that it's a bad idea or likely to cause trouble. That's not independence or exploration; that's just dumb. But when we try new things and pursue new goals, we will undoubtedly make some mistakes along the way. Knowing this, go forward boldly and let them come. Be careful and wary but do not be fearful of mistakes. They will happen, and some of the best discoveries come about through accident.


So at the end of 2012 and start of 2013 I had another epiphany, that it's time for me to go make some new mistakes. I have enjoyed writing this blog and may come back to it when I have something worthwhile to say. But the whole point of a simplified budgeting approach is that it's simpler, and there's only so much to say about it.

I'm in a point in my life where it's more starving artist financials and family economics than proper single-focused minimum wage budgeting, so I don't feel like I have lots of great, real life examples to pull from like I did when I started.

I will leave the blog up and try to properly tag all the posts, so info on the various topics is easy to find. I would like to do some videos on this eventually, but I need to tighten up my video skills and get a better camera before I'm going to be happy with the quality of them.


I'm glad my co-author and I wrote the book. I think it's a good book and hope it will continue to help people. However my first love and where I want my career to focus is on novels. I've been working hard the past few months to get my novel Seventh Night fit for public eyes. It's getting there, and I'm excited about it.

I will come back and post here when I have something worth sharing. But I realized it's a struggle for me to write blog posts on regular basis because my heart is in my fiction and song writing.

Thank you for reading.  Now, let's go out and make some new mistakes.

I'm proud of my mom.  She is sticking to her diet and has lost quite a bit of weight.  While we're all happy to see her healthier, this means a lot of her wardrobe no longer fits.  She's still on the road to her ideal weight, so while she needs clothes for now, there's a good chance in another year or so they won't fit too well either.  After watching her spend $25 on a single pair of jeans, I decided it would be a good idea to drag her to Grand Opening of the new Goodwill with me.

My mom's not a thrift store shopper.  Her tastes are not extravagent, but she's doesn't enjoy shopping and thrift stores can take a little extra effort.  By the end of the trip she was getting a little burnt out, but we found her two pairs of pants for $4.25, so it was a fruitful trip.  I had even more success in the kids section.

I decided to include a photo of what I found for my nephew at Goodwill this week.  Everything in the photo (5 pairs of pants, a sweater, sports coat, and dess shirt with vest) cost $19.92 total.  These were at normal Goodwill prices and took advantage of none of the other markdowns they offer on a regular basis.  As to whether a 4 year old actually needs a sports coat...well, humor me...it's Christmas, and there's only so many dress up options for little boys.  But the pants are definitely a necessity and the sweater is practical.

This being a singles blog, I'll give an example of how much kids clothes cost.  The brown pants on the far right still have the Circo sticker on them, obviously never worn.  Brand new at Target you would expect to pay $10 to $15 for the same pair.  You can find servicable kids clothes for $5 per shirt or pants, but they tend to be sweat pants and Ts which don't fit his school dress code.  Jeans for toddlers can easily run $20.  But even if we low end and say these could have been gotten for $10 a piece, that's $80 vs. $19.92...over a $60 difference.  ($15 is a more realistic average, which would bring the difference up to $120, making a $100 difference.)  As he's likely to outgrow these in a few months and we'll have to go through this process again, that difference compounds significantly.

So I think it's pretty clear there a financial advantages to thrift store shopping.  But let's address the other objections I've heard, which can be summed up to quality, wear, and convenience.

I admit thrift stores can be all over the map quality wise.  I've seen name brands of every material and thread count lumped together on the same rack.  You can find never worn brand new clothes, and you may also spot some that slipped through any quality checks and are threadbare and ratty.  And yes it is a little frustrating not to be able to grab a size up or size down when a pair you like doesn't fit quite right.

Here's a few tips to reducing your stress and disappointment at thrift stores:

1. Just accept that items are sold as is.

2. If you don't like anything about the item move on to another.

3. Don't get too married to a size or number.  Clothing sizes and styles have changed over the years, so an 8 on one pair of pants may fit like a 10 on another.  Also things often make the clearance rack for being mislabeled, so don't be afraid to eye ball something to guess if it fits.  A sense of realism helps, but so does a sense of adventure.

4. If you have time, skim other sections (like check the large and small sizes even if you're a medium).  Thrift store shoppers have a bad habit of sticking clothes back in random places, and this allows some jems to get temporarily lost.

5. Examine all sides and seams before purchase.  While I can't speak for all thrift stores, I believe clothes at Goodwill are cleaned before they're hung for sale, which means any stains are probably permanent.

6. Try stuff on.  With my nephew I took a gamble on everything but the sports coat, but he's 4...and having him try on 5 pairs of pants in a row borders on cruel and unusual. (Besides, most of the kids pants are adjustable, and we can get credit for trading these in at the kids consignment shop if they still don't fit him.)  But things that look fine on the rack often fall short when actually tried on.  Thrift stores are far less return friendly, so better to try it before you buy.

7. Be realistic about the time/energy you have to fix imperfections.  I have once or twice bought pants that were too long or items with minor imperfections with the thought that I could get them hemmed or fixed...and that can work out well if you actually do it.  I also have clothes that sat so long on my mom's to do pile, that they no longer fit by the time she got around to doing the hemming.  (My fault not hers.)  This may not even cross your mind as an option, but creative/crafty types often take on more projects than they can actually handle.

Wish I could take credit for this, but no, just something clever and share worthy that crossed my path.  My sister's friend had a limited Christmas budget this year, so she gifted us with these cute little goodies.  This looks to be a fairly simple project even if you're not crafty.  The candy is held together with clear tape and ribbons.

The "sled" base is made from two candy canes taped in place on either side of a funsized Kit Kat bar (suspect a Reese's Cup would work well here too.)  Two Hersey mini-bars make up the second layer with a miniature candy bar (Snickers in this case) on top...these are also secured with clear tape.  Ribbon tied around just like on a package, with a Hersey kissed attached with a rolled piece of tape (like you would use for a bow) on the bottom.

Now the cost for this project could add up if you have none of the materials on hand, though I'd guess even paying full price materials would average around 50 to 75 cents per candy sled... however, this may be a great way to use up scrap ribbon and leftover Halloween candy.  Also a good way to handle groups you'd like to gift with an "I'm thinking of you" treat.

I'm ambivalent about the fiscal cliff.  If healthcare reform remains, then taxes were going to have to go up somehow.  That much is unavoidable.  I will be surprised if some sort of compromise isn't reached, because we've seen this sort of thing before, and there's a lot of pressure on both sides to come to an agreement.

I think we should be watchful.  Whatever happens, we need to know about it and try to adjust accordingly.  But I think it's far too early to panic.

Not too worried about the Mayan Calendar running out on December 21st either, but I do think it's a good excuse to throw an "End of the World" party.

My current plan involves at least one rendition of REM's "It's the End of the World as We Know It", leaning towards "It's a Wonderful Life" as the movie choice (2012 was just so bad), maybe do a reading from "Apocolypse Wow!" just to remind us all we thought the world was ending back in 2000.

Anyone else have some great "End of the World Party" plans/ideas they'd like to share?

Mm, Christmas is coming too.  I'm going to go back and make sure my Christmas related posts are tagged under holidays.  I've been dry this year on gift ideas.  Did my mom's Chrstimas shopping for her, got a lot of DVDs and gift cards.  For my own shopping, actually considering giving the extended family socks...fun Christmas themed socks...but socks, not my banner year for gift ideas.  I did luck out at Best Buy and scored some Death Note Revisited DVDs for $3.99, so my siblings at least dodged the sock bullet.

As for NaNoWriMo, I finished my rewrite and have a team of beta testers reading over the novel now.  I also have a prequel serial called "The Girl With No Name" up on fiction press which is free to read and updates with more regularity than this blog.

This may be my last post for the year...maybe (you guys have learned I'm not good at staying away when I think I will).  I need to reorganize a lot of things in my business and personal life and just enjoy the Christmas Season.

So Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, lovely Kwanzaa or whatever else you're celebrating this year. 

Be generous but wise, and accept generosity with grace.

I haven't had time to read through this (working hard on NaNoWriMo still), but the title is pretty intriguing.  The Debt Resistors' Operations Manual

An organization called Strike Debt! which seems to be linked to the Occupy Wallstreet movement, has put together a free book/pdf outlining ways to resist or free yourself from debt.  And thus the control of the 1%.

I'm never a big fan of the us vs. them attitude on any level, but I am fan of educating people about debt and moving away from a debt based economy.  So I thought this might be worth checking out.

Not an endorsement, but I'd like to hear what people think of this. Did you get any good ideas from the manual?  Or is skippable?