I haven’t posted in a few days as I had guests.
Everyday this month, I have continued to heat the house via the wood stove. Fueling the wood stove with my property’s own wood, I figured that the wood stove saves me over $1800 each calendar year.
My guests were amazed at my cooking on the wood stove. They all wanted to try their hand cooking on the wood stove. We/I made most of our breakfasts on the woodstove. This next week, I am going to try to expand my wood stove cooking to some lunch and dinner items.
I have used the wood ash from the wood stove for its ice melt quality as we have had several inches of snow in the last few days. I amazed at how good the ash works as an ice melt. Using the wood ash for ice melt saves me at least $200 each calendar year.
My guests brought lots of food and we enjoyed cooking from scratch every day. After they left, I have so much more food as my freezer and refrigerator is full of leftovers. I started a stew full of the veggies and added some leftover steak. I am heating it up on the wood stove. Yummy!
This afternoon, I went to an essential oils class. I picked up some more information on cleaners. In the last couple months, I started to stockpile essential oils and just added them to my inventory list. I am very unsure about useage though as to calculate my inventory in months.
This challenge has really made me aware of a few shortfalls in certain areas, including spices, baking supplies, and essential oils. With the money I have saved on continuing to cook from scratch and bounty left by my guests, I have added to my inventory in these areas.