Midgilist

It is a little known secret that at work, my nickname is Midge.  It is an inside joke because I had a vendor call me from another country and ask for “Midgin.”  Lucky for me, it was one of the sales reps that took the call and the nickname has stuck ever since. (Please note the sarcasm.)

My coworkers think I am absolutely crazy for all of the things we do in our family.  I have been told by a friend that he is creating a new term for people like me and it is called Midgilists.  What kind of person is a Midgilist?  Someone who goes above and beyond to find ways to do everyday tasks for little or no money.  He is pretty much telling me that I’m cheaper than cheap.

I asked him why he felt this way, and he fired back with about a dozen of the following things I have done over the years.  When I thought about it, I added to his list just to give you an idea what a Midgilist does:

• Raise chickens for eggs
• Raise chickens for meat
• Going no ‘poo
• Researching (and still considering) bamboo as a renewable heat source
• Research solar panels and windmills (and ways to make them ourselves for less!)
• Grow a garden
• Cut our own hair
• I touch up my roots using hydrogen peroxide (for pennies a month)
• Plant perennial fruits, vegetables and herbs
• Crochet some of my own sweaters
• Create a chicken garden to help cut the costs of chicken feed
• Breed mealworms as a food source for our chickens
• Harvest mealworm poop to fertilize the garden areas (a new infatuation of mine)
• Make homemade vanilla
• Brew our own beer/wine
• Can the overabundance of apples
• Make homemade jams
• Freeze vegetables to consume throughout the winter
• Make our own soap
• Convert our vehicle (Kia Rondo) into a mini-camper
• Do our own oil changes and car maintenance
• Home improvements using recycled materials
• Cancelling the satellite and installing an antenna instead (we get over 30 channels now, by the way!)
• Homemade laundry detergent (a new recipe for our HE )
• Homemade dishwasher detergent (another new recipe)

…and the list keeps going on and on.  Until I sat down and thought about all of these things, I completely forgot we do most of them!  We do these tasks on such a regular basis that it is second-nature to us and we don’t feel it is really out of the ordinary.

There are some people who are preppers and others are survivalists…but I’m a Midgilist and I’m OK with that.  I am proud to be thrifty and willing to put some elbow-grease into whatever we do to help save money and become self-sufficient.  There is much more we could do to improve on our Midgilism in the upcoming years.

Until then, may the Midgilists unite!

(I know there are a few of you out there. J)

This post is lined to the Farm Girl Blog Fest.