Finances on the Road

The number one question we are asked is, "How do you make it financially?" So, I thought I would share a little bit about The Numbers.
We've always been pretty frugal folks. We have saved a lot so that certainly has helped in this adventure keep rolling down the road - literally. We have a buffer so when little things happen - such as putting gas in the diesel engine and giving us a $1200 repair bill, we aren't stuck for a month eating rice and beans. In all reality, our costs now are actually less than when we were living in the house.
First things first - we had to start with a budget. Planning out all our details including those fixed costs of our insurance and medical bills from home as well as the more variable costs such as gas and campground fees. Great budgeting tools can be found at Dave Ramsey.com He has revolutionized many lives - ours included, and is one reason we are where we are today.

We started with a budget of a little under a $100 a day. We later took out our house and car insurance and prepaid them separately. So, you're thinking, "Oh my gosh, what in the world can you do on $100 a day?" You'd be surprised really. Personal preference really comes in here though.

 I started out by saying we're pretty frugal. Well, no matter how hard we'd love to get amazing gas mileage, there is a limit to how much we can get when pulling the trailer. 12 mpg is fabulous. There are, however, many variables to the cost of the fuel that we put in the tank. We downloaded Gas Buddy to the cell phone and you'd be surprised at the difference in costs in one town (we start looking when we know we're going to want to fill up within the next hour). Now if your tank only holds 10 gallons of fuel, it might not be worth it to chase down a 5 cents savings. Our tank holds 30 gallons and if we can find a savings of 5 or 10 cents (or yesterdays whopper of TWENTY cents), we'll drive a little ways to get the savings. At $3.80 a gallon, that can be over $20. savings.

And speaking of the cost per gallon, the costs have varied greatly by region. The west coast being the most expensive and California topping there. When we started our trip we were paying $4.40 a gallon! We had budgeted only $4. We knew we couldn't stay there for long with the costs of one of our major expenses being 10% higher than what we were expecting. That said, much of the midwest even that out quickly with desiel costs around $3.50 a gallon. More recently, in the south and south-east, it's been around $3.65 - 3.85. We call the "leftovers" play money!

Food. We have to have it. It's a staple of life and at the same time, we're concerned with what we are eating as much as it's costs. There have been days where we've spent our entire daily budget on meat at the farmer's market, but we know that with the higher quality, we'll use a lot less. I'm still using coupons but with a tiny "pantry", there isn't room to get a lot when things go on sale. I have done some things though that have saved...things like baking our own bread. Healthy, no chemical preservatives and about half the cost of a "good" loaf of bread. Making our own shampoo and conditioner. While not food, those things can really add up and making our own costs literally cents and is healthier for us and the environment! See my article on Make your own shampoo. As for the meals, we try not to eat out much, but when we do, we're trying to choose a little higher quality. Homemade meals are simple and affordable. I'm working on keeping our food costs under $15 a day (this includes personal care and paper items too).

Housing. Well, we've got the camper and while not fancy, it's paid for. I have to check my attitude sometimes when we pull into campgrounds with big, fancy fivers (the nickname for 5th wheel trailers) with three and four slide outs and gorgeous ammenities and remind myself that ours keeps us just as warm and dry as the fancy ones. And we aren't spending the big bucks every month on a payment. So our costs here are completely related to campground fees.  We've paid nothing and spent the night in a Walmart parking lot. Actually a lot of those up north when we started and gas prices were so high and the night time temps were OK. We've spend close to $50 a night just outside of Gettysburg (that was a VERY rare treat at a great campground). Here's the thing though: campground fees include utilities 90% of the time. Water, sewer and even electric. Sometimes they'll include cable TV and internet as well! Typically though, we were saving money by using our Passport America campground membership, where we pay half price and are looking at campgrounds to be in the $20 range average.
We just recently though found out about Thousand Trails. They were having a sale on their memberships and the campground that we were staying at was not only one of their properties, they offered us to apply what we paid in our "rent". How could we pass that deal up? Nope, couldn't. We paid $449 for the southeast membership and they refunded the entire amount as we had paid that (and a little more) for the space rental! For that annual fee you get 30 days of free camping. After that, within the one year's time, you can camp in any of their campgrounds for $3 a night. Yes, you read that right: THREE dollars per night. Here's the catch: if you stay at any one property for more than 4 days, you have to wait a week before you can come back or use another property. Not a big deal - we've still got our PA membership as well as Good Sam if we can't find anything else. And really, it's already paid for itself at the first campground. Anything extra is just more savings for more fun things. Like Disneyworld.

And that brings us to entertainment. We have budgeted about $20 a day for entertainment. There are many free things to do as well. We bought a family membership to the Pacific Science Center just before we left. We now use it all across the country through their reciprocating program and see all sorts of amazing (and some pricey) science centers and museums where ever we go.  We also bought an annual pass for the National Parks. While some are free, others have entrance passes for adults and others for kids too. The great thing about the parks too, is that they offer these amazing Junior Rangers programs. It gets the kids (and parents) involved in exploring and finding out more information about the park. All for free. Not sure that's a good use of tax dollars, but that's for another day. We do love the program and use it with the boys.  The budgeted money is accumulated for things Disneyworld (ouch!), NASCAR tickets, movies and other special events. We're still close to many towns so we'll also try to find Blockbuster or Redbox for some quiet family time. We'll also browse through the movie selection when we stop at Walmarts and see if there is anything family friendly out there. We've got quite a selection going from their $5 box!

As you can see, when I said we live frugally, we really do mean it. Sure there are days we'd love to have more gadgets and fancier housing, but in the end, we have to be content with where we are and what we have. And keep saving for the next farm...

It's Bread Time!

Last week I told you about how I had started back again making our own bread, but don't think I told you why.

Bread is one of those staples of life. No matter how old the book, you will find references to it. It can be life giving. It can also give us comfort and familiarity. On the other side, it can cost a small fortune for the good stuff and taste like chemicals on the cheap side. And that is what happened to me. Although, I will say, it wasn't cheap, but gosh, it tasted absolutely terrible! I could taste the chemical they use in the production. YUK! That was the last loaf of bread I bought.

So, in researching for my bread recipe, I did find a couple website and recipes who claimed "easy", "fast" and "no-knead" for a bread recipe. I ended up with a variation of my own that has been working so well, I seem be going through making a batch a day.

Before you go saying something like, "well, she's got plenty of time to do that", well, yes I have time, but no, I don't need it and if you remember my post from a while back, my "kitchen" is tiny. I'll post the recipe first and then go into directions. So, here goes:

* 1 1/4 cup warm water (think bath tub warm)
* 1 teaspoon reg salt OR 3/4 Tablespoon Kosher salt (latter is my preference)
* 1 Tablespoon oil. I've been using coconut oil, but you can use anything. Healthy that is. 
* 1 Tablespoon heaping of honey (go local - it's better for you)
* 1/4 teaspoon yeast. Yep, you read that right! 1/4 of a teaspoon. That means each yeast packet that has 2 1/4 teaspoons actually makes me (and now you) 9 - NINE - loaves of bread instead of just one.
* 3 cups of flour - I used a mix of white and wheat. Sometimes more white, others more wheat, but I try to stick with a minimum of half wheat these days. More on the wheat at the end ...
That, my dear friend, is it!

Warm that water up and pour it in a bowl. Add in the oil (first and the honey will slide on out), honey, salt and 1 cup of flour and give a QUICK stir. Then add in your 1/4 teaspoon of yeast and the rest of the flour. This is what it will look like now -

Here's a better close up

Yes, that is a wooden spoon you see in there. How else did you think it was going to get mixed up? Oh that's right, I used to talk about my stand mixer a lot. Well, it was far too big for my little kitchen, so it is packed and, I'm sure, anxiously awaiting my use again. Anyway, mix it up. Yep, just that simple. This is what it will look like:

 No, it is not at all what you were thinking it would be, huh? I've made the traditional bread before and that looks all smooth and soft. This looks like a big blob. Yes, this really is how I leave it. If it is too dry, you can add a couple tablespoons of water at a time. I had to with this batch. It's OK, a little extra water will make it moist. Too dry and it's going to be too tough.

Oops, I forgot - give it a blanket before you put it to bed. I put the plastic wrap on and then a towel (if I remember):

Now is the hard part: Leave it alone for at least 10 hours, or overnight is preferred. This is not, I repeat not going to double in size. It is much too conservative and self away to have to puff itself up like the other stuff. When it's time, a sprinkle out a little flour on the cutting board and turn the dough out onto it. Like this:

Then I'll wet my hands - I know, you're thinking, "WHAT? WATER?" - but it does just fine in helping to keep the bread from going too dry from the extra flour and from sticking to my hands while I'm turning it around a bit. I will grab at the edge of the dough, and bring them in towards the center. I am NOT kneading, but rather just trying to give it some shape. Let's face it, would you want to eat something that looked like that blob above? In all, I am going to spend about 2 minutes "shaping" this loaf, that's it. Then I will put a few teaspoons of olive oil in the bottom of my bread pan and plop in the dough. If I'm feeling creative, I'll give the bread some cuts so it will expand where I want it to expand.

I'll cover it again with the plastic wrap and let it sit for about an hour or so. I've been putting mine directly into the oven with the pilot light on. It will rise in there nicely in that hour. IF you have a gas oven, make sure you take the loaf out of the oven between the pilot light stage and turning it all the way on to 400. Bake at 400 for about 15 - 20 minutes. A little more if your bread has been on the counter at room temperature. You will have this absolutely wonderful bread that you and your family will enjoy.

It does rise a bit more and this is out of the oven

If, and that is a big IF, there are leftovers, we ended up cutting them up, pouring a little butter over them and then sprinkling with parsley, garlic powder and celery salt. Forget the salad - this is a treat all in itself.

Admit it, you want to try it now

OK, I said "more on wheat at the end". Here's my thought on wheat vs white. We've been programmed to think white is softer, fluffier, tastier. On the contrary my friend! Not only does it taste better and have a better texture, it's good for you. But, I do have kids and understand the whole white/wheat controversy there, so ... with 3 cups of flour, I started with 2 3/4 cups of white and 1/4 wheat. We're up to 1 1/2 of each and sometimes I'll even just do 1 cup of white. Guess what? Yes, they do notice! They notice that their bread with a little butter and maybe a little extra honey or the amazing maple cream (that I talked about in a prior post) tastes even better with more wheat flour. They don't know it's the wheat, but they know something is different - better.

Whole wheat bread with whipped butter and honey. Oh my!

Lastly, if you think they won't eat it if they know you made it, tell it that you got it at the specialty bakery down the road. You did buy the ingredients at a store down the road with a bakery in it, right?

You will love that you are feeding your family so much better food.

And this is just the beginning ... :-)

Now, go bake and then come back and let me know what you thought.