Avivah Werner

Category: Intentional Spending

  • Sleeping arrangements when camping

    People always seem to wonder where everyone sleeps when we go camping.  In a family our size, it’s an understandable question. 🙂

    We always take two tents.  This time, we felt very luxurious because we borrowed a very large tent from friends that had a divider down the center, making it two ‘rooms’.  The three oldest boys slept in one room, the three girls and the toddler in the other.  (He usually sleeps in the boys’ room when we’re at home, so the girls wanted to give their brothers a break.)

    The smaller tent, 8 x8, was for my husband, me, and the baby.  When we first went camping as a family about six years ago, we had five children and our youngest was a year old.  We didn’t think packing a crib was necessary, but after a night of her screaming because she couldn’t settle down in new circumstances, we learned our lesson.  The port-a-crib comes with us on every trip now, and it makes keeping babies on a regular sleeping schedule a breeze.  My husband and I each have camping cots (the older kids get camping pads on the ground under their sleeping bags), which makes it more comfy for us.  We had plenty of room in our tent, and the kids had plenty of room in theirs.  Having a separate tent to put the baby and toddler in was nice, so they didn’t interfere with each other’s naptimes. 

    The tents are pretty compact when they’re packed up, but the sleeping bags and pillows take up a good amount of space in the van.  We have a certain amount of basic equipment that we own, but borrow other things – it seems wasteful to buy camping supplies that we only use for a few days a year, and then have them taking up space the other 361 days of the year. 

    Avivah

  • About our camping trip

    We got back from our camping trip late Friday afternoon – it was fantastic!  Everyone had an amazing time and would have loved it if we had stayed for longer – much, much longer. 🙂 

    Several people have asked me what we do when we go camping.  We keep things very simple – my goal isn’t to entertain my kids, but to be with them.  We don’t go to commercialized campgrounds that have lots of extra activities, game rooms, etc, because that’s not the environment we want.  We also choose to go off season or midweek so we have the entire campground to ourselves; the privacy makes it much nicer. 

    Firstly, we unpack all our supplies – the kids set up the tents and sleeping bags, pull out the camp chairs, and put their backpacks of clothing in their sleeping areas, while my husband and I organize the food area and just generally oversee things.  As soon as we finished getting things set up, everyone was hot and the kids asked if they could cool off with a swim at the beach, which was just a few minutes from the campsite.  It was especially nice this time since they remembered where everything was from three years ago, and kept saying, “Oh, I remember that!  Oh, I saw that last time!”  It added something nice to being there. 

    The beach was empty, and the water on the cold side, so it was just our family.  I waded in and after watching tiny fish nibbling at my toes when I stood in one place more than a minute or two, sat on the beach to watch the kids.  They stayed in for a while and had lots of fun.  Finally I called everyone out, and we went back to our site. 

    Everyone got dressed in dry clothes, then started collecting firewood and building a campfire.  That take a while, and is always a fun part of the experience.  We made dinner on the camp stove, and after eating, everyone sat around the fire and listened to me read from our read aloud.  Then we sang songs for a while, and finally everyone got to bed around 11 pm. 

    There’s something about sleeping outside that causes everyone to sleep soundly.  Even the baby slept through the night two of the three nights, which he doesn’t usually do.  What I love most about camping is the atmosphere of the forest, the inner quiet and serenity that fills you.  Camping allows you to temporarily halt the daily rush and just enjoy being.   It allows you to breathe deeply, get away from all the noise, and slow down enough to hear the quiet of the forest, and the quiet inside of you. 

    The first person up in the mornings gets to build the morning campfire, and I buy packets of hot cocoa for our trips (I don’t buy this during the year so it’s special for our trip).  They warm up with the cocoa and packets of instant oatmeal (something else I don’t usually buy).  At least one or two children are usually busy collecting firewood to keep the fire going during this time.

    The cooking and clean up is part of the camping experience, and that takes time before and after each meal.  The time for activities is between breakfast and lunch, then between lunch and dinner – they did fishing, hiking, swimming and sunning at the beach, and boating.  Since each of those activities filled an entire morning or afternoon, and could easily be repeated from one day to another without it getting boring, they were busy all day long, every day we were there.  

    This was the first year that we were able to let the kids explore and do things on their own.  In the past, my husband has planned hikes or swims with them, but the payoff of the years of doing it with them is that now they are very competent and can do these things independently.  Sometimes we joined them for part of their activities, sometimes for all, sometimes not at all.  When the two little ones (25 mo. and 8.5 mo) were napping, I took advantage of the quiet of the campsite, where I spent time reading inspirational literature, did some journalling, and had time for reflection. 

    One of the afternoons, my husband took several of the younger kids boating, while the older three fished, and I stayed with the sleeping baby.  When he woke up, I strapped him into the baby backpack and hiked two or three miles around the lake.  Hiking backpacks are a great invention.  The baby enjoyed hanging out and watching everything, and I enjoyed the exercise and the time by myself. 

    On the last day, the toddler wanted to go with his older siblings, but they were taking a hike that would have been too long for him.  Though I kept him busy so he wouldn’t see them leave, he saw them from a distance several minutes later and tried to run through the forest to get to them.  He stopped and excitedly called to me, “I found a river!”  He found a beautiful little stream, and we sat together on the grassy bank next to it for 20 minutes before he wanted to move again.  The sound of the water bubbling over the rocks was so calming.  Then I let him play in the stream, which was only a few inches deep – he threw pebbles in the water, climbed up and down the bank, and played for another 1.5 hours until it was time to go back.  My husband joined me with the baby after about a half hour, so we had some quiet time watching the 2 yo play. 

    Camping to me isn’t exciting – it’s more about being deeply fulfilling.  My kids all have this same feeling.  That’s not to say they don’t have fun – they absolutely love it and have a great time all day long.  What I mean is that it’s not exciting like an amusement park.  It’s not a vacation filled with artificial thrills or manmade activities.  It’s time spent doing concrete things with each other, and it feels meaningful and significant. 

    Avivah

  • It’s that time of year again – camping time!

    It’s time for our annual camping trip!!  We were supposed to leave for our trip last week, but decided the day before we left to push it off for another week.  The forecast was for cold and rainy weather all week, and the forecasters were actually right (they aren’t always, you know!).  So far the weather for this week is looking much more suitable for camping – it is gorgeous out today.

    Last year we went to West Virginia, but we didn’t want the long drive this year, and wanted to stay closer to home.  This year we’re returning to a campground we went to three years ago, that we all mark as our best trip yet. 

    We went before the main camping season started, and it was very quiet.  There is a lake with a section for a beach, and another section that they two older boys spent fishing in for hours at a time together.  We hiked around, picked wild garlic that we later that night cooked with our meal, and just generally had a wonderfully relaxing time.  It’s only a little over an hour from home, which makes it more appealing, as well! 

     The last two times we came back from a trip, we found an unwanted cat ‘package’ on the bed – our cat showed his displeasure at having been left by defecating on the bed, something he’s never done before.  So this time my mother is going to stay here at our home for a few days, instead of just popping in and out and feeding him.  He actually likes her more than me. 

    So today and tomorrow are our preparation days.  We’re planning to borrow a canoe to take with us, so we can enjoy the swimming, fishing, and now, boating on the lake.  My 13 year old daughter is an excellent canoer, who canoed the Delaware river last year with her camp.  I also really enjoy canoeing, but haven’t done much of it for years – the last time I canoed was with my husband when our oldest was three months old.  (And since he’s almost 15 now, it’s clearly been a very long time!)

    The four middle kids (11, 9, 7, 5) are outside right now pitching the tent to make sure all the parts are there.  We’re borrowing a 10 x 14 tent from a friend that has a divider to make it two rooms, and will probably take our 8 x 8 foot tent as well.  If we do that, it will be very spacious sleeping accomodations for everyone.  We have the menus all planned out, and I just need to pick up a few items to finish off the food shopping for the trip.  We’ll probably pick up the canoe tomorrow, and I’ll let my husband figure out how to securely attach it to the rooftop of the van without a roof rack.

    I’m off to a plant exchange; I’ll let you know how that goes when I get back. 🙂

    Avivah

  • Maximizing your food dollars – discount grocery stores

    Has everyone else noticed how food prices have been skyrocketing in the last few months?  I’m very concerned for the general public, knowing that many of those who were already feeling stretched to the max won’t be able to stretch any further. 

    To stay within the food budget of a year ago seems almost impossible without sacrificing quality or quantity, but I’ve found it doable by making discount grocery stores part of my regular shopping.  Discount grocery stores vary in terms of quality and pricing, but the general idea is they sell the overstocks or slightly damaged groceries that supermarkets aren’t allowed to sell.  Things like: the outer box rips but the inner box is intact, an expiration date that is almost here, packaging in a foreign language, or excess inventory that a store had to get rid of to make room for new inventory are all reasons that these perfectly good foods get passed on.   I couldn’t find a single one in my state, but I kept searching, knowing there had to be something relatively near by, and over time have found several of them in a neighboring state.  Yes, I do have to drive  over 1.5 hours to get there, but I only do it every 6 – 8 weeks, and the savings more than justify the time and gas spent. 

    To give you a sense of what I was able to buy for the month, here’s a list of what I bought today, from several stores.  You can see that some of the prices are super, and some are just okay, but it made for a very full van coming home:

    – 57 quarts of plain yogurt (organic) – 50 cents each

    – 100 lb potatoes – $24

    – 40 lb yams – $13.50

    – 30 lb onions – $6

    – 50 lb apples – $15

    – 20 lb bananas – .19 lb

    – 30 lb rolled oats – .59 lb

    – 15 lb quick oats – .59 lb

    – approx 25 lb beans – .29 lb

    – 34 dozen eggs – bought 28 dozen for 1.49, found them for a bit less at the next store

    – 30 lb ricotta cheese – 3 lb container each 1.99

    – 3 lb. whipped cream cheese – 8 oz container each .50

    – 12 lb butter – 1.49 lb

    – 10 lb sugar (because I didn’t know if I’d be able to get sucanat) – 1.99/5 lb

    – 25 lb raw sugar (this was as close to sucanat as I could find) – .79 lb

    – 12 lb honey – $30

    – 4 lb baking yeast – 3.25 ea 2 lb package

    – 25 lg. cans of tomato products (sauce, paste, diced, whole/peeled) – 3/$1

    – 20 cans green beans – .29 ea

    – 4 lb baby carrots (for lunching on while out shopping) – .99 ea, 5 lb carrots – 1.99

    – 8 lb frozen mixed veg – 2.25 for 2 lb bag

    – 5 lb frozen corn – 2.99 for 2.5 lb bag

    – 6 boxes herbal tea – .99 ea

    Then there were all the odds and ends – some packaged cocoa and instant oatmeal for our camping trip next week, orange juice concentrate, spices, pie filling, coconut milk, ketchup, baking soda, vaccum packed salmon (for my lunch while we were out today) etc.  Some of these things were regular prices, nothing to get excited about, but most of them were significantly less than the average grocery.  All of this came to a total of $345, and leaves me with $170 for the rest of the month.  That will be enough to buy a case of chicken, and make two trips to the veggie store on alternating weeks to keep us supplied.  I also need to pick up a 20 lb. bag of brown rice; I’m out and forgot to get some today. 

    I also bought 16 gallons of raw milk, and 50 lb of hard white wheat (talk about pricey 🙁 ), for which I budget an extra $25 a month (I spend $515 monthly for regular groceries, and the extra $25 brings the monthly total to $540).  I realized that wheat prices were jumping fast about six months ago, well before the media was covering it- it’s very obvious when you buy in bulk the way I do.  I spoke to those doing the ordering for the couple of places I bought the wheat to understand what was going and leading to the price increases, which was my first inkling that this isn’t a short term situation.  (The big supermarkets were artificially holding down prices for a while, so the general public didn’t start to feel it until recently.)  A year ago, when I first started buying wheat berries, a 50 pound bag of wheat was $12.  Several months ago, it was up to $18, and today, it was $30.  That is serious inflation.  Fortunately for me, I decided to limit the kids’ gluten intake for health reasons, which means that I use much less flour than I did previously, so it doesn’t impact me as much as it would have.  Then again, all the other grains that I buy instead are even more expensive than wheat, so maybe it’s not so fortunate, after all! 

    When I shop, I purposely buy more than what I’ll need for the month.  I don’t know what will be on sale next month, and I stock up when the prices are right.  So it may look like we have lots less variety than we do, because I don’t buy every ingredient I need each month.  Remember my pantry principle post?  I’m always buying to fill my pantry, and then my menus are based on what I have.  For example, I bought over 40 pounds of buckwheat last month, so I still have plenty of that on hand;  I also got 15 pounds of sliced almonds when they were on sale for 1.49 a pound (at the same discount store today, they were 4.59 lb), and have plenty of that left.  So I wouldn’t need to buy more of those things.

    I often hesitate to share the specifics of what I do, because I’ve had the experience of someone implying that I was lying about what I spend, or just negating the value of anything I’ve said by telling me, “We don’t have prices like that around here.”  To which my response is, we don’t have prices like that around here either.  Don’t assume I’m so lucky to live in a cheap state.  I’m not, and I don’t.  You have to look for good deals, and know prices so well that when you see something, you can snap it up right away when you have the opportunity.  But just because you have to look beyond your average supermarket (where I also often get great deals) doesn’t mean that the deals can’t be found!  I spend half of what a frugal similarly sized family spends (and a 1/4 of what the unfrugal spend :)) because of the various strategies that I use, not by walking into a supermarket and buying what strikes my fancy that day. 

    You probably also noticed that I don’t buy lots of processed foods.  I buy ingredients, not prepared food, and cook our meals from scratch.  Discount stores are filled mostly with foods I wouldn’t eat even if they were free, because they are so unhealthy. 

    Hope some of this long post gives you some hope for getting your food costs under control!

    Avivah

  • This month’s pantry challenge is over!

    Almost two weeks ago when I challenged myself to use the food we had in the house without spending any money outside of my allotted food budget, I had a little less than $3.40 remaining in my food budget to get us through without compromising the quantity of nutritional quality of our meals, plus my in-house groceries were much less varied than usual.  But we did it, with 51 cents remaining!! 

    My oldest son kept commenting on how well we were eating while spending so little; it really didn’t feel like deprivation.  It just took more creativity to plan meals with different ingredients than I was used to working with.  Actually, our meals were nicer because they were planned out in advance, versus some weeks when I take it day by day and it isn’t as organized. 

    We did get some unexpected assistance from outside sources, though we would have managed fine without it.  One source was a friend of my husband who works in a supermarket – he asked him if he wanted several loaves of whole grain bread, so my husband said, sure, why not.  It seems that once a week, there is a pickup for whatever packaged bread hasn’t been sold in a week from all the stores in the area, and the bread truck driver offered to give it to this friend of my husband, who couldn’t use it but figured with our size family, we could.  So we got twelve loaves of excellent quality bread, in an assortment of flavors.  This friend has been working there for years, and had this opportunity every week for all that time, and never thought of it until now.  And today he had the chance again, and forgot about it until it was too late.  Isn’t it amazing that this particular week was the one that he happened to think about it?  This made lunchtimes very simple for the last week.  Of course, I had the ingredients to bake the bread myself,  which is what I was planning, but it was nice that I didn’t have to.

    To finish off the last meal of the challenge (tonight’s dinner), we had a couple of pizza pies.  My mother in law volunteered for a community social event last night, and though eight pies were ordered for the kids at the event to eat from the local pizza store, they were virtually untouched.  So the volunteers afterwards split them up amongst themselves and took them home.  My mother in law thought the kids would appreciate them (she was right!) and brought them over today.  Wasn’t that timely?  She didn’t even know about my pantry challenge!

    I always start the new food budget of the month on the 15th, which is tomorrow, and I have to be honest and say I’m really, really looking forward to stocking up.  I’m not comfortable watching my food reserves in the house go down.  I haven’t increased my food budget in quite some time, so with the recent surge in grocery costs, I’ve had to be even more careful to squeeze out a lot of value when I buy groceries.  I’m trying to not only buy appropriate amounts for our monthly needs, but to simultaneously build up our reserves.   I’m enjoying the challenge, though there are times like this month that I feel like it’s one step forward, one step back.  Overall, though, I look at it as a challenge to be enjoyed, and I’m looking forward to finding some wonderful deals tomorrow!

    Avivah

  • Free copy of Magic School Bus book

     I found out about this offer (and ordered it) and thought some other moms would appreciate hearing about it.  The EPA is giving away free copies of The Magic School Bus Gets Cleaned Up. 

    Call the EPA National Service Center for Environmental Publications at 1-800-490-9198 to order, or order online.

    If you order online, it just takes a couple of minutes, but can be a little tricky.  Here’s what you do: after clicking on the above link, enter “Magic School Bus” in the search field.  Then click on the shopping cart icon on the far right for the first item in the list.  Finally, click on “Select All”, then “Order Publications” to get to the form to enter your mailing address.

    Enjoy!

    Avivah

  • Making your own baby food

    Several months ago, I was in the infant section of Target with my then 12 year old daughter, when a harried looking young mother stopped me and asked hopefully, “Do you have a baby or know anything about babies?”  I told her that I did have a baby (didn’t mention that I’d had eight, though!). 

    She wanted help selecting the right baby food, and I had to regretfully tell her that I wasn’t the right person to do that, as I made baby food for our babies.  And it wasn’t much of a process, since I just mashed up the suitable veggies that we were eating and gave it to the baby. 

    She couldn’t believe it – “You mean you can do that?!?  Just mash up some of your own food and give it to him??”  And then she gave me sample foods she made and I told her which would be appropriate to give her baby.  But I think the idea was too novel or too threatening for her, since when I walked by a half hour later on my way to check out, she was still there, looking at the labels on jars of baby food. 

    My daughter was surprised and amused that a grown woman would be so astonished by something as simple as giving your baby food that you make.  As obvious at it seems to many of us, for those who believe that the experts know best, it makes sense that a parent would trust the food manufacturer’s ability to make the food that would nurture their baby more than themselves.  Definitely misplaced trust, but still, it’s understandable.

    I’m remembering this story today, since this week, we started giving our current baby solids.  Most of my kids started eating when they were about six months old, but this baby hasn’t shown any interest until very recently (he’ll be eight months in a few days). 

    I start off with something like baked yams or butternut squash.  That has a soft consistency and pleasant flavor, so it’s always seemed to me to be a natural first food – you don’t have to do anything more but spoon it into their tiny mouths!  As they get older, I introduce more foods, and purposely don’t mash it perfectly – it’s good for them to get used to eating food with texture. Sometimes babies who are used to pureed foods balk when there are little lumps since they aren’t used to anything but a very smooth feeling in their mouths. 

    Today I whizzed up some cooked carrots in the blender with a very small amount of cooked brown rice – it’s so quick and simple to do this – (maybe three minutes total?), and it easily made over three cups that I put into the fridge for Donny (that’s the baby).  I usually don’t use a blender; I hardly remember doing it in the past.  But rice is tough to chew when you’re toothless. 🙂  Actually, I reminded myself afterwards that I shouldn’t have used the rice for him yet.  It’s good to limit grains for infants, even of low allergenic/easy to digest grains like rice and millet, until they’re at least a year old.  Babies aren’t able to effectively break down grains. 

    You can also add some good quality fat to their veggies, which helps the vitamins be assimilated.  I use coconut oil, butter, or rendered animal fat.  Delish!

    Making your own baby food means that you know what goes into the food, where it came from, and how it was prepared.  You don’t add lots of artificial ingredients to make it stable for store shelves, or kill all of the beneficial vitamins in the processing.  It’s quick, it’s easy, and it saves you the time and in driving to and from the store to pick up those ridiculous little jars of baby food.

    Avivah

  • Baskin Robbins – 31 cent scoops

    After I finished my last post, I thought that in case some of you enjoy ice cream, too, and didn’t know about the Ben and Jerry’s special, I could pass some helpful info on. 

    On Weds., April 30 – that’s later today (I’m posting after midnight so to me it still feels like Tuesday :)), Baskin Robbins will have scoops of ice cream for 31 cents each.  Not quite as good as free, but still lots of fun!

    We did this last year, and the kids enjoyed it.  A big part of why they can enjoy something like this so much is because we only do it once a year – otherwise, on the rare occasions I buy it, it’s from the supermarket in the gallon containers.  I’ve found that when something is a new or unusual experience, the kids get a lot more enjoyment out of it than they would if it were a regular occurence.

    Back to last year.  Because it was so cheap, I told the kids they could each get two scoops (being the big spender that I am :)).  As we were halfway through the line, a woman approached me and told me she wanted to pay for the ice cream for our family and asked how many scoops we wanted to get.  The store was packed and I don’t know what made her choose us out of the crowd (maybe because we were a noticeably large family?), but though I felt uncomfortable to have someone pay for us, she insisted.  She told me to tell the cashier when we got to the front that it was paid for. Which it was.  Wasn’t that sweet?

    It reminds me of something a friend told me today – she was driving on a highway and the person ahead of her paid her toll, so when she got there, she was told it was taken care of.  It wasn’t the monetary value of it as much as the thought that someone cared enough to do it which made the difference.

    It gives me a pause when I think how little both of those opportunities cost and how much good feeling they spread.  How much does it take for you to put a smile on someone’s face?  Could you buy an extra scoop when you go out and share it with someone who isn’t expecting it? 

    Random acts of kindness can light up someone’s day!

    Avivah

  • Free ice cream and fun together

    Today has been a busy and super nice day! 

    I started the day by taking my two oldest sons downtown with me to pick up some pallets that I want to dissemble to use for garden boxes.  While they were lugging them around, I enjoyed a chat with the woman I got them from.  Don’t you find that you have a chance to have nice interactions with the people you meet here and there?  I do!  I really enjoy speaking with people and getting to know them a bit. 

    We ended up talking about life stuff – stress management, quality of life choices, family – and several times she mentioned how happy I seemed.  I’ve already told you my secret to being happy – staying aware of the subtle and not so subtle things to appreciate in my day.  Her comment that it’s rare to meet someone like me was a sad reminder for me that being happy with who you are and what your life is like isn’t a popular approach. 

    I had to rush home to be at a meeting (got there exactly on time, to the minute), and then as soon as it was over rushed back to pick up the kids for a trip that I organized for our homeschool group.  What a fun trip it was!  The kids had a blast together, and the moms had fun talking while the kids were happily occupied. 

    After almost three hours hanging out together, some of us walked together to Ben and Jerry’s to enjoy a free scoop of ice cream (today was their yearly complimentary scoop day) – it was just a few blocks from where we had our trip, though I had no idea about the ice cream when I originally planned the trip.  Nice how that worked out! 

    Then the kids enjoyed their ice cream by the harbor, watching the boats and seagulls as they ate.  Have you ever noticed how calming and peaceful being around water is? 

    We got home, and a couple of kids started taking apart the pallets that we got earlier in the day.  One started mowing the yard, and another trimming the bushes.  While they were doing that, I was doing some yard work, and discovered a bunch of worms helping to improve the quality of my soil.  🙂  Three of my younger kids really enjoyed watching them and digging for them.  Then I remembered some recent online reading I did about red wriggler worms being the perfect composting worms – I don’t know if these are officially red wrigglers, but they’re reddish and they’re wriggling, so I suggested the kids collect them in a large container with dirt and some fresh matter for them to eat.  I’ll call that ‘science’ for the day.  🙂

    Avivah

  • How to cheaply renovate your kitchen

    I thought some of you might be interested in the rough figures of the cost breakdown for the kitchen renovation.  I have all the records and receipts, but I’m just going to do this off the top of my head for the sake of speed.  🙂

    Cabinets, gas cooktop, stainless steel hood, double oven, double stainless steel sink – $750 (cabinets are solid wood, custom purchased ten years earlier by the seller for $20,000 – still in excellent condition since they were used by an 87 year old and his wife – I posted about how I was able to buy these so cheaply from the private seller)

    Uhaul to bring cabinets home – $90

    Countertops – the first set, from building materials re-use center – $30 (24 feet total, brand new, 50% off that day)

    Uhaul to bring countertops home since we had all the kids with us – $65

    More countertops we bought at Home Depot when we burned the first one right after installing, which matched the first set – $150

    Electrician to do wiring for electric oven (we had gas) – $300

    Tiles – a) four boxes of ceramic tile from building materials re-use store – brand new – $50

    b) polished onyx mosaic for tiling- $70 (I think it was about $8 per square foot, and we were able to cut the mesh to get three rows of trim per sf – much nicer than anything Home Depot had, and much cheaper)- wholesale tile supply store

    Lighting – two 4 foot fluorescent fixtures from Home Depot – about $60, with bulbs

    That was the bulk of the expenses – then there were lots of little things, like paint ($35), stain ($6), paint roller covers ($6), screws, ducts ($20), base cove molding ($2), thinset ($20).  There are other little things but this is where I’m too lazy to look it all up right now, so I’ll just say another $100 for anything I might not be  thinking of right now, which is definitely much more than what was spent (it was probably closer to $20).  We bought a hammer drill and a jigsaw – let’s say $100 for both, though we ended up having to return the jigsaw since it didn’t work properly, so it was really just $50. 

    Instead of buying new wood when we needed some, we used the extra trim that the cabinet set came with to fill in , for example, creating a bracket from a decorative piece that had been previously used to frame the window.  We borrowed the tile cutter from a friend so we didn’t need to rent or buy that.  We had grout and paint rollers left over from when we did the bathroom in the summer. 

    I feel like I have to publicly say how amazing my husband has been about doing this.  (He doesn’t read my blog so this isn’t for him; it’s for me to express gratitude.)  He has a long work week and not much time at home.  When he is home, it’s for a couple hours here and there, except for his day off, which being Friday, isn’t a restful kind of day.  (Some of you might particularly appreciate the challenges in renovating a kitchen on Fridays, for all of the family members. :))  He really needs some downtime, which he gave up to do all this work on the kitchen, just because he knew it would make it nicer and more workable for me.  He would (initially) have been quite happy to have left it as it was.  That’s love.  🙂

    Getting back to the cost – you can see that I didn’t buy most of the main materials new, or even if they were new, didn’t get them from typical retail stores.  As a result, I was able to pay much less for supplies.  I did have a couple of expensive mistakes, specifically regarding those countertops.  The first one was when I had to pay for a Uhaul to bring them home (I can’t tell you how ridiculous I felt to pay for a 14 foot moving truck to transport two countertops – we should have gone home, dropped off the kids, and gone back to pick it up with the van empty); the second was when I used the wrong countertop for where the cooktop was.  If I had used the countertop without the backsplash for that area to start with, I wouldn’t have burnt it and wouldn’t have spent another $150 on new counters.  That would have saved $200.  If I hadn’t wanted a double wall oven, we could have saved several hundred dollars by keeping a gas oven in place because we wouldn’t have needed an electrician.  If we had done that, we could have done the kitchen for under $1500.  Even so, we’re satisfied with the final cost.  :))

    Avivah