Chatty Crafty went really well. We had seriously amazing vendors & Rob I loaded up with tons and tons of amazing stuff.

Now I'm back to the real world and concentrating full time on work. Winter is upon us, which for Rob and I means we have to do something about heating our home more efficiently. I'm sure a lot of you find yourselves in the same situation as Rob & I are in. We save save save money and don't really spend on anything other than needs. And yet everything is going out. Winter is upon us heating costs are ridiculous! We have talked about installing a wood burning stove to save some money. I think it would pay for itself this winter. When hard times find us, we need to find ourselves innovative instead of defeated. Think about how we became Americans to begin with... It wasn't easy; it was hard and people died. But the population survived. We should build a steam punk pioneer village. I will wear flannel and denim to chop wood and tiny hats and sequined dresses to attend dinner and shop at the market. We'll produce our own energy with solar panels we built ourselves, reuse our rain water, grow our own food, & be content. One day furry men on bicycles will pull our carriage made of salvaged computers. We're going to be bigger than the Amish.

If you invested a little now to cut your energy costs how much extra money would it put in your pocket? My electric and water run around $200 or more in the winter. It is stupid. My house is tiny and we turn the heat off in 2 rooms entirely. If I have the heat on from November to March that's $1000 bucks... where I could invest about half of that in a wood burning stove and have free heat every winter... $200 extra in my bank account every month... hello yes please. However, a wood burning stove was Rob's only source of heat when he lived in Blue Ridge and I'm not positive I can talk him into chopping that much wood on such short notice. When in Blue Ridge he chopped wood every day year round.

I love hearing tips for saving if anyone has them. I constantly try to cut expense & increase revenue. This year we cut out a lot of our garbage consumption. Almost everything can be recycled in Dayton now & it's as easy as dropping it off. I made a compost barrel all of our organic material goes there... extra paper and cardboard go to the recycle center. Our glass is collecting, but I think I can take it now? We have little garbage that actually makes it to the landfill. Less garbage bags & less trips to the convenience center = more $ on the bottom line. I wish I tracked our household expenses the way I track expenses for companies... It would really help determine what really works expense wise.

I'm headed home for lunch to and I think I'll get my broccoli cheddar soup started. Yum.