Saving Cash - So We Can Help Those In Need

I started this blog originally because of my interest in Africa, and my current work training African Union peace-keepers in West Africa. In the weeks and months that followed, the blog took a turn towards the world of frugality. Has it strayed from its initial mission? A bit maybe, but not entirely.

If you have read the blog from the beginning, you know that my husband and I moved to Senegal in 1997 as newlyweds for two years. Luckily, a chance meeting in a Paris airport introduced me to the amazing job I have now. I have been fortunate to return often to Senegal, where I usually have an afternoon to spend with two of my Senegalese friends, Ngone and Marie (pictured here on Goree Island).

Marie just called me two weeks ago. She hasn't had any full-time work in years, and in the last ten years, she's only had a few short-term jobs. Ecstatic, she was calling to let me know that she had been hired as a full-time housekeeper and cook for a Spanish man who works in the fishing industry. In a country where unemployment rates are around 50%, this was wonderful news. I have been helping the family financially over the last few years, as her eldest daughter is attempting to continue studies at a sort of private business school in Dakar. Her daughter's success at school and gainful employment in the future are like their social security, their retirement, their 401K.

Now that Marie has a job, she's searching for a job for our friend Ngone. Ngone lives with her husband's extended family where the cooking is done outside in the courtyard, they all share a common living room, and each family has private space in their 12x12 foot bedroom. It's not really a house; it's more like an enclosed compound which surrounds an open, common courtyard. Life is very hard for her. Her husband had been laid off for several months, and her 2-year old daughter died last October after being sick for a month. Their income is about $30 a month, which isn't even always enough to buy rice, an essential grain staple in their diet. Her dream is to save enough money to open her own small business someday.

These two friends opened up their hearts and homes to me and my family. One is Catholic and one is Muslim, but together we are family.

All that money I've been saving lately is maybe more like reimbursement for the Senegalese business school registration I paid in the fall, the three month's worth of rice that I sent to pay the local merchant who had given my friend rice on credit, or the money I have provided for childhood vaccinations for their children. We never earmarked the recent $2000 we saved for projects such as retirement funds, college education for the kids, or that 3-6 month's of living costs we're supposed to have on hand. Maybe somehow that money has been spent charitably along the way already, and that's something I don't mind.

If you want to give some money charitably this year, you could consider these organizations below. When I’m training the African Union soldiers, I actually pretend to be employees of these organizations in place like Darfur, Congo, or Cote d’Ivoire. I do role-plays with soldiers, to give them a chance to role-play various scenarios they’ll encounter when doing their peace-keeping.

CARE - Emergency relief, tackle the underlying causes of poverty, emphasis on women to promote social change

Medecins Sans Frontieres - (MSF) Doctors Without Borders - Emergency medical assistance to populations in danger

UN World Food Programme - (UNWFP) Fight against global hunger, save lives in refugee crises, improve nutrition and quality of life

Saving Cash on Black Friday

I know this is the day to save cash while you spend it. If you can wake up early, and get out of your turkey coma, you too can be among the many Americans waiting in line to enter stores before the sun comes up. What time did you leave to go shopping? Did you get any great deals? What did you buy? Please write and tell me, so the readers of my blog have something to read! I didn't do ANY holiday shopping today. In fact, I didn't spend a penny.

My husband did go out to buy a tire for the car, since the spare was in use from a recent unrecoverable flat. Unfortunately, the tires for that car are quite expensive. After a bit of shopping around via phone, he find one for $10 less than he thought he'd spend. And the service to change the tire was included.

We also filled up our diesel car here in Pennsylvania, and saved about 40 cents per gallon.

Next he went to Wegman's in Pennsylvania, a great grocery chain which has amazing prices. We stocked up on lots of beef and pork, paying anywhere from $2 - $4 less per pound than we typically see in the DC area stores. Our freezer is still largely empty since our two weeks of spending no money so we have plenty of room! Yea!

My big project today was humanitarian, rather than economic. A high school friend, Kelly Deardorff-Palumbo who owns Salon Halo in Mechanicsburg has heard over the years about my Senegalese friends, and offered to sell handmade African handicrafts in her store to benefit my friend Ngone. Today we created a price list, and she display handmade necklaces, wooden carvings, fabric bags, and a variety of other items in her shop. 100% of the proceeds will go to Ngone. She is trying hard to save money to become a co-owner of a beauty shop with another woman in Dakar, Senegal. Although she is struggling to buy even basic staples like rice for her family, she still holds the hope of owning her own business and contributing meaningfully to the family's finances.

I give thanks that my family is secure, and that people like Kelly are willing to help out people whom they have never even met. I hope everyone had a very nice Thanksgiving yesterday.

Day 9 - Getting creative, Looking for more Ideas

First, I was listening to radio station WTOP in the DC area this morning, when I caught the tail end of some frugal living news story. I checked out their website, and they have some good stories to read at http://www.wtop.com/?nid=765&sid=1418799. I'll be checking those out as I have more time this week.

The Washington Post also had an interesting article in the Heath/Wellness section today. Free ways to work out... Apparently Lululemon, a clothing store, offers free yoga classes. Cool! www.lululemon.com. I know there's one at Tyson's Corner mall; if I could ever get out for a long enough period of time without kids in tow, I might give it a go! And there's a woman's-only walk/run group that gives you a free shirt if you attend 4 times before Christmas, and all kinds of extra goodies - www.potomacriverrunning.com. I might just go check that out some evening. There's another place in DC that offers free yoga classes to give back to the community. Sounds good to me! Karma. What goes around comes around, eventually! I think that's the way our friends, family, and neighborhood work as well.

Now we are running out of some items and need to figure out what we'll do. Sugar is getting low, which I need for making my homemade bread, which is a current necessity with my special diet. But I could probably substitute honey, so I think we can make do a bit longer. Or we could try one of my impulse purchases a few months ago - agave nectar - which I had read is a good sweetener subsititute for sugar. So I guess we're ok there.

Olive oil! We don't have much left. This is a crucial staple in our household. We make our fried eggs (and my boring 3-egg white omelettes) in it, we use it in our daily vinaigrettes, we sautee veggies in it. This is our liquid gold. Because I can't eat any dairy or soy now, I'm even drizzling olive oil on my homemade bread. I don't think drizzling canola oil would have the same effect! But we do have other oils on hand, so I tried a peanut oil for my vinaigrette, and it was different, but tasty. I think we can survive this one, but it will be tough!

Gas. My husband and I traded cars on Monday, so he could use my Toyota for his longer commutes, leaving me with the nearly-empty Beetle. This morning, the empty warning light came on. It's a long uphill walk to my son's pre-school, a walk which would probably take well over an hour with a little guy. He rides his scooter and two-wheeler well, but the hill is very long and steep. It would be dangerous in either direction. We can probably do one more roundtrip in the car, but I'm not really sure we should try to eke out many more miles than that. I probably have 1/2 gallon in the shed for the lawn mower, but that does sound a bit extreme. We will have to ponder this dilemma. We may have to give in to buying a gallon or two of gas to make it through to the end of the 2 weeks.

But... I am actually looking around the house for things to sell, so we can justify the purchase of gas or anything else that comes up. I found a few things that we could put on Craig's List - one is a great Le Creuset Square Grill Pan that retails at $150. I'm sure I didn't pay that much for it, but I think I can still sell it at a bargain for someone else, and still make some good money. I love the piece, but the only purpose it serves us is taking up room in the cupboard. We much prefer to use the grill outside or broil in the oven, so it's something we have only used once. Wish me luck!

As I look for items to sell on Craig's List, I am also gathering various Senegalese products I have on hand that a friend of mine plans to sell in her shop. Together, we'll donate the proceeds to my struggling friend in Dakar who is trying to save money to open her own shop in Senegal. I might try to get a picture up on the blog so you all can see what's we're working on.

I guess that's about all for now. I found some free coupons for our local frozen custard shop, so the kids and I are going to walk over so they can indulge in a kiddie cone. Then we'll head over to the library to drop off last week's borrowed videos, so we don't get any late fees! That's the last thing we need now!

Day 2: Frugal Living?

Taking a vow to stop spending money for two weeks when our home is already so full of food, clothes, toys, and other amenities almost seems ridiculous, when I know that people like my Senegalese friend Ngoné are truly struggling for survival. Ngoné goes to the local market to buy cooking oil as needed, maybe a cup at a time. If she needs tomato paste for a meal, she'll purchase only the few tablespoons she needs, rather than a full can. Daily visits to the market help her to ration her money, while in the here in the US, daily visits to the grocery store seem to result in impulse buys, simply adding more to the already well-stocked cupboards and pantries at home.

Sure, I know there is something to be said for African way of shopping – you can't buy much if you have nowhere to put the food, nowhere to refrigerate perishable goods. They must be bought and promptly eaten. There's also something to be said for European-style shopping, going to various specialty stores (the butcher, the fish shop, the fruit and vegetable market, the bakery, etc) to get the freshest food daily. And while this style of shopping might be more time-consuming, I think that compared to those who go to the giant supermarkets in the USA, the shoppers are less tempted to "impulse-buying." I've done my shopping all three ways – in African markets, American supermarkets, and from store-to-store in Europe. I think I always spend the most in a grocery store, and the quality is usually inferior to the other options.

How does my friend Ngoné survive in Senegal with her husband earning about $30/month??? According to the CIA World Factbook (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/sg.html#Econ) the average Senegalese GDP in 2007 was $1700. Her husband is earning MUCH less than that! (It was $45,800 in the USA, by comparison.) I imagine Ngoné probably counts among the 54% living below the poverty line, and I know she is in the 48% who are unemployed. She has been seeking a job outside of the home for years and years now. It really is hard for me to justify expenditures sometimes, when I know how much other people struggle in this world. Living frugally for two weeks will hopefully be a daily reminder of how good we have it.

The finer points of laundry and other troubles finding a “bonne”

When we lived in Senegal, we were pretty much expected to hire someone to cook and clean for us. I was pretty uncomfortable with the proposition. Many wealthy Senegalese families had someone who would do the cooking, someone else to do the laundry, another nanny, a gardener, a guard who would watch outside the tall walls surrounding the house property all night long, and possibly a driver. As American newlyweds in our mid-20s, it was sort of hard to imagine even taking on a part of that sort of lifestyle. After all, I was going to Senegal to study francophone African literature at the Université Chiekh Anta Diop in Dakar as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar. My scholarship was generous, but in my role as a goodwill ambassador of sorts, I had trouble with the idea of having "household help." But it seemed expected, so we got our first "femme de ménage" or housekeeper, who would also cook lunches for us.

She was a relative to one of the housekeepers of the Rotarian we stayed with for our first few weeks in Dakar. It was difficult. The bathroom of our rented apartment needed quite a bit of deep-down cleaning before we were anxious to have company over. Not that we had anyone to invite over, but still, you can imagine that we wanted a clean bathroom. The windows in our apartment were jalousied louvers, so they never completely closed, letting breezes as well as sand and dust drift into our place. Unlike most homes we had seen, we had a rare "commodity" of wall-to-wall carpet. What that meant though, was additional work trying to sweep it clean on a daily basis with little straw brooms.

Laundry had to be washed by hand in big plastic basins on the balcony or in the "washroom" which was a little room of sorts for hand-washing laundry. Sure, I had hand-washed delicate clothes myself back in the States. Pretty much I would swish the clothes around in some water and gentle detergent, and then I would rinse until the water ran clear. I was laughed out of the laundry room in Senegal because of my light-handed technique. There was a special "Senegalese" way of doing it, which involved getting a special squoooooshing noise with each movement. Without the squooooosh, our "bonne" (maid) didn't think I was getting the clothes clean. I imagine I seemed as unskilled as a 2-year old Senegalese girl might be, not at all like an older girl or young woman skilled in the squooshing noise technique!

Wet laundry would be hung to dry on the line on our balcony, and usually would be dry by the next day. Unfortunately, extra work was then required. All clothes had to be ironed. Why? Certainly not because we wanted all of our clothes pressed into crisp, clean lines, though we did become accustomed to the look fairly quickly. We really did it to avoid getting mango fly worms. That is, we wanted to avoid having mango fly worms burrow into our skin due to the un-killed eggs in our line-dried clothes. Ugh. This is what the guide books said. Everyone in Senegal seemed to wear neatly pressed clothes. So to iron was to avoid worms in our skin. You see, the flies would land on the wet clothes and lay their eggs. The warmth from a person's body would help them hatch, and then the little new-born flies would burrow into their new human source. Ironing would kill any eggs, and make the clothes safe to wear. As our maid was asking for the supplies she needed to do her job, she asked us for charcoal. Charcoal? We had no Weber grill; in fact we had a gas stove with a gas bottle attached, so we didn't see how we could possibly need charcoal. She told us the charcoal was for the iron. The iron? Yes, we had a cast-iron iron, heavier than an old-fashioned doorstop, and to heat up, our maid had to put hot charcoal into the opening. Every now and then we would see the results of a random spark on some delicate clothing, but that was pretty unusual. And it wasn't until years later that I worried I might have mango fly worms… Ah yes, that's a story for another blog post…

We never did get used to telling our first housekeeper what we expected of her, because she always seemed to scowl at our requests. She stuck her tongue out to point at things she was talking about. (To me, that seemed like a 2-year old thing to do.) After several uncomfortable and frustrating weeks, we fired her. It was a huge relief to be on our own. But after the need to dust the tables daily, to broom sweep the wall-to-wall carpet, clean the bathrooms, go shopping at the open air markets for food, washing the laundry by hand, and ironing, oh and making lunch, I really wouldn't have any time left to pursue my studies, the reason I was in Dakar.

American friends learned that a cousin of their housekeeper was looking for a job, and we ended up hiring a wonderful woman, Marie. She worked for us until we left Senegal, and we are still in touch today. In fact, I will be seeing her in less than a week when I go back to Senegal for work next Friday. Who would have ever guessed that our housekeeper, who was so professional, respectful, and a bit shy would be a lifelong friend? And our other close friend, Ngone, we met first when she knocked on our door, asking if we needed a housekeeper. By then, we were happy with Marie, but that's also how we started a slow friendship with the entrepreneurial woman who worked in the sandwich shop on the first floor of our building.

Back to present-day: I have to go clean the bathroom now, plan the grocery shopping list, and put more laundry in the washing machine. At least I don't have to make the squooshing noise to get my laundry done!

The Price of Rice

I recently called two friends from Senegal to let them know I'll be coming to town soon. I thought I'd share a little bit about my one friend, Ngone.

My one friend, Ngone, happily reported that her husband is back to work. He earns about $30/month working at a hotel in the capital city. It's not nearly enough money for them to live well, but with the extended family they live with, everyone pulls their resources. A few months ago when her husband was out of work, she called with an urgent need for money to pay for rice that is so crucial and a staple for their everyday life. You may remember that there were world-wide riots and protests when the price of rice greatly increased recently. A store-owner had given my friend's family several huge bags on credit, but it came to a point where they were getting desperate. I offered to send her some money, which I did via Western Union, but before I could do that, she asked me to call the store owner to explain that I was going to help her out. It was a very interesting conversation since the man spoke no French, and my Wolof skills are very weak and basic. I managed to say something like this in wolof, "Ngone is my good friend. I live in the United States. I am going money Senegal. I am going money Ngone. Ngone is my good friend." Not the greatest telephone exchange, but I think it assured him that she really did have someone in the United States who would be helping her out. I am looking forward to being able to see her, even if only briefly, to see how she is really doing.