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I have never been a technology fan, but it has come in handy for genealogy research and typing up Word documents. Lately, I have become more and more agitated by using it and having it sitting around.

I was thinking, last week, about how much more I accomplished around our home before we had cell phones, tablets and a computer. In all honesty technology frustrates me. Even my children, in their 50's, didn't grow up with computers in their school rooms.

I have so many interests and, long ago, I pieced and quilted by hand. I did crewel embroidery and so enjoyed that. It is interesting to actually go to the setting on my tablet that shows the amount of time searching and reading on the tablet. Technology can be huge time wasters, which is what started me thinking, last week, about pre all these time wasters.

I confess that I am guilty of reading too long on my tablet when I am feeling poorly. I used to read books and I prefer that actually. Books, these days, are very expensive and so few come in giant print.

I am looking forward to the findings of no technology for a month. I am currently writing books, on our genealogy, for my children, so I will need to continue on that. Life only has so many breaths; then it stops. I have researched for 45 years and have many birth certificates, death certificates, deeds, newspaper articles, etc. going back to the 1600's. I need to get the family history books done, before that last breath.????

Thank you, Donna, for another wonderful post.

I am very relieved to be done with my budget. I feel I am doing the best I can for whatever ends up happening. Now that I am not spending every minute thinking about the budget, I've been free to relax and think about and do other things, like my mending. I finished my pants-into-shorts and made two blouses into a dress. I took my lightweight sweatpants and wanted to reinforce the seat so they would last longer, and found a small hole, so I got to them just in time. :) I am now working on two worn dresses that I am turning into a blouse each. I wasted so much money buying new clothes before I learned how to remake old ones into other kinds of clothing! I think it's very 1930's to do this. :) 

I got an email from our local bird society at the beginning of this year sounding panicked at the loss of birds we've been experiencing here. That's what made me start feeding the birds this year. One of the seeds from the birdseed planted itself and grew into a lovely sunflower in the garden. We harvested the seed head and put it seedside-up on the patio for the birds to eat. I wish I could grow all of my own birdseed, but at least I can grow a few more sunflowers from the seed next year. The birds decided to help me out with affording feeding them and planted a pokeweed in my garden. Pokeweed has berries that are nutritious for birds and wildlife and can even be eaten by them dried in the winter when the plant has died back, according to the internet. They planted it conveniently in a less used part of the garden. Pokeweed is a perennial. I don't know if feeding birds is a particularly 1930's thing to do, but they are an inexpensive joy to have around. 

I would love to see your menu plan, Grandma Donna.

I would like to take the October break too, to help me decide where the internet fits into our old-fashioned life. I would hate to be without the inspiration and knowledge of this blog and forum, so there's a place for the internet, but how much and how to? The October break should help answer those questions. 

One day back in August it was still too hot to go outside much, and the next day the nights cooled off and the days got nice. But I'm suspicious of this early fall, and I've been cutting off melons on the vines in the garden to make sure the remaining ones ripen in case the weather gets cooler. 

I was born in 1943 and the small town where I lived in Southern Iowa was not much changed from the 1930s until the 1950s.  The stores stayed open on Saturday evenings and the farmers came to town to trade.  The sidewalks were full of people standing and visiting.  During the summer months there was a band concert.  All of that went away when TV arrived in the mid-1950s.

The town also had a movie theatre and TV also ended that.  Movies were a very important part of life in the 1930s and 1940s.  During the war years, the newsreels were everything to citizens because everyone had someone family or friend serving in the military.

We used non-electric machines for the 10 years I worked at my first job.  No correction fluid so you had to attempt to erase errors without messing up the paper.   No copy machines so carbon paper was needed to make a file copy.  For big projects we had a duplicator which required typing a dummy, attaching it to the drum and then running copies which was a very stinky process.  Shorthand instead of Dictaphones.  I'm sure our machines were newer than 1930 but the process where I worked in 1960s was much the same.  

No air-conditioning so summer evenings were spent on the front porches and under shade trees.   Lucky people had a screened sleeping porch AND shade trees.   

In our community almost everyone went to one of the three churches on Sundays.  The men wore long-sleeved white shirts, ties and suits, the ladies wore nice dresses with nylons and both men and women wore hats.  The funeral home provided cardboard fans which got a lot of use.  Again, from pictures and my grandparents' stories not much was changed from the 1930s.

In small towns almost everyone physically able had a big vegetable garden and the women canned the produce preparing for winter.  Most kept chickens and some a cow.  My grandparents had a shed at the back of their lot and kept a cow.  The neighbors hired someone to take the cows out after morning milking to graze the roadside ditches during the day, bringing them back for evening milking.

Farms were smaller and there were many more of them, so farm population was significant in Iowa.  Most farms still used horses.  Big steam engine threshing machines would move from farm to farm to do threshing.  Neighbors would gather at each farm to help with the work, and the women would produce mountains of food to feed the workers.  Hay was stacked instead of bailed.   

Most farms were fairly self-sufficient foodwise.  Coffee, flour, spices and sugar were purchased.  Pork, beef, lamb, and chicken were all home raised and processed.   Meat was canned or cured as deep freezers did not exist.  All had a family milk cow, so all milk products were homegrown.  Refrigeration would have been a spring box or a cave.  The original house (before tornado) where I now live had a cistern with a door in the side and a spring in the basement that I assume had been used for refrigeration.  Cooking and heating were wood or coal depending on whether your farm had timber or not.  

Back in the 1930s hardly anyone locked their doors another thing that continued until the 1950s.  Socializing was in homes, churches or lodges not restaurants.  My grandmother that lived on a farm said the neighboring women would gather regularly for an afternoon of visiting.  They might give their group a "club" name and have a small program along with refreshments.  The women of the Depression also listened to the Homemaker radio programs out of Shenandoah, Iowa.  Many small towns had their own baseball team and would play against neighboring towns.  

Children had chores but also lots of imagination making up games and roaming fairly freely with no fears.  In town there was the library and Saturday matinee movies and city park.  Churches had youth groups.  My mother told me that movies were not approved for Sundays but her father let them go on Sunday evenings if they had gone to Sunday School, Church and youth fellowship. 

It was a time when grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins typically lived close by.    Families would visit from the country or even further away on Sunday afternoons.  

Neither of my grandmothers ever learned to drive a car.  My town grandmother would call a grocery order into the store and grandfather would either pick up the order or the store would deliver.  It was quite usual to charge groceries and pay once a month.  

where do you get the nice tea towels? Likely you have had them for ages, but if you have any leads, let me know. I miss old fashioned tea towels. They are so useful in the kitchen!

I am so sad for my grandchildren who are missing out on so much because of technology. Very few things can win against it

I often feel a pull to back off technology use around the Autumn Equinox, and this year is no different.  I’d love to join in and reduce/eliminate screens as much as I can in October.  For me, attempting a more 1930s lifestyle while my family doesn’t, I have to focus my efforts on myself and the time I am in control of for myself.  I can choose to use my phone mostly for phone calls only, but I will text with my young adult children as that is how they communicate.  Just today my youngest checked in with me while helping a friend through a terrible situation — sometimes you need your mom to bolster you up while you bolster up another person.

Luckily, one show we were watching (Return to the Frontier — which we greatly enjoyed despite some obvious issues) just ended, and the other has 3 episodes remaining.  I usually take a break from TV in the fall as much as my family allows, lol.  But in December we watch Christmas movies and specials; my son makes a schedule for us that typically runs from mid-December through Epiphany.  Like others, I considered these types of things to be like going to the movies or listening to radio programs.  My husband and I listened to old radio programs in the 1980s and then again when we had children we would listen to them on satellite radio with our children.

I think even if I am only fully eliminating screens during the day time, I will see a big increase in my available time.

We’re settling into the rhythm of more food production at home.  I’ve baked bread weekly for a couple of months now, and I’ve made soy milk at home for a month.  I bought and shredded 16# of cheese, very gladly using my non-1930s food processor to do the grating and storing it in my very non-1930s deep freezer.  As we do the work we talk about how people used to do food production at home versus buying so many ultra processed convenience foods.  It feels good to bring down our food spending this way, and to know what goes into our food.

We finished August spending $134 under the SNAP benefit level I set for us as a household of three adults (the SNAP amount for our state is lower than the USDA Thrifty and Low Cost plans).  While some categories are reset every month, I’ll be carrying the grocery category forward as I work toward rebuilding my food storage.  We did so much stocking up in August I think we will be able to reduce the grocery budget in time.

Grandma Donna wrote,

Lori B, I bought mine from Amazon several years ago.  I like the narrow double stripe.  I just looked and the ones that I bought and they are no longer available, I checked the specifications on the ones that I purchased.  So do a search for, 100% Cotton Kitchen Towels - Classic Herringbone Tea Towels 2 ply.  There are some look- a -likes, but most of them are thinner.  Find the ones that say 2 ply and also take note of the size.  Some are much too large so in my opinion I do not like anything larger than 27 x 14.  I hope this helps.

Kimberly F, you are doing very good with your grocery budget. :)

Thank you Glenda H_2, for starting off the group comments. 

Stephanie G, I will see about getting some pictures of my menu plan, I actually put them in a real restaurant menu folder and keep it in the kitchen. 

Ann W, I am so happy that you are here in the forum and willing to share so much good information with us.  You have some very good and helpful memories. 

Diana, I have the same feelings about the grandchildren and our great grands.  

I'm having trouble posting tonight.  This is my 3rd attempt. Maybe I'll rewrite my post later.  For now I will say a no tech October sounds like a fine idea. I will use the month to refine my phone use.

Just to clarify, are we taking the month off of all electronics, or do we get radio shows and going to the movies and telephones? During the Civil War, it was common to make ink from poke berries. If it's no telephone, I'd be happy to make some poke berry ink for writing my letters. :) :) There are some berries developing right now on my pokeweed. 

Ann W, I think people got together more in the past because that was their entertainment. 

Stephanie G, I’m considering what it will look like for me.  I won’t give up texting with family members because for us that’s the equivalent of writing letters or making phone calls — it connects us.  The phone is also my camera.

I plan to give up the use of the computer for almost everything I can do another way.  I’ll read paper books, paper magazines, and either find a way to read the paper newspaper for free or I’ll avoid news and find out from my husband.  I won’t be using social media or looking at blogs — Grandma Donna taking a break for the month of October will make that part of it much easier!  I’ll use cookbooks for recipes if I need them, plus my own recipe binder.  I think I have a few recipes I probably need to print out.  I’m going to give up my online puzzles even though I do enjoy them, because they are often a gateway to start scrolling the news app where I play them.  I have craft books I can consult for ideas and instructions, but will reserve the right to use YouTube if I get stuck on a stitch or a sewing technique.

By October I should have a good sense of how the solar electricity is running, so my plan is to not check the usage online on a daily basis, although I will probably check it once a week.  I will continue to do my budget online.  I will also use the Costco app to look up grocery prices when I am planning shopping, so I know what to purchase at which stores.

I do use a headset and my phone for white noise music, and I’ll still do that because I want to sleep!  I am weird in that I can’t sleep if I can hear someone breathing — sometimes my own breathing will keep me awake.  Ear plugs alone aren’t enough.  I’ll also use my phone if I need directions somewhere, because that is less expensive than trying to find maps or a street guide, which could be out of date as Thomas no longer makes one for my area — the last one I see printed was 2009.

My family isn’t going to give up their TV watching, whether that’s sports, movies, TV shows, etc.  The nice things is we naturally slow down around mid September anyway, although they watch all of the playoff games for their team.  Often this time of year they choose a series I’m not interested in, because I really get tired of watching TV every night and don’t like the manufacture interest in a TV series just to have something to watch.  But I will join them to watch a movie on the TV occasionally and will consider it going to the cinema.  And if they call me in to watch a final inning, I’ll liken it to listening to the ball game

I rarely use our desktop. I prefer to use my phone. But I've mentioned to my husband I want to get a dumb phone that only calls & text. October would be perfect to pretend my phone is a dumb phone. 

I'm basically envisioning not using the internet for the whole month either phone or desktop. 

Then I wonder I have no maps and no yellow pages and no newspapers. How do I get information on locations or stores or events?

I can read the newspaper at the library; but honestly it's not really a great source of information any more. Most stores & restaurants & event venues only advertise online.

I've dug out my old digital cameras and will now see if I can find the cords to download pictures to the computer. (I know that's not 1930s! But I'm not missing pictures of my grandson!)

I rarely watch tv or listen to the radio.  I think my goal is not to eventually live without electronics/  the computer but to relegate it to a spot in my life like the TV and radio. Use it like any other convenience in the home on occasion when no other way is available. 

I remember the day CNN was broadcasting the fall of the Berlin Wall. I hadn't watched any tv for several years. Someone called me to tell me it was on live. Because of the historical significance I watched tv that day. I would like to get my internet usage to that point--a useful tool that's not dominating in my home.

I do have 3 blogs not including this one that I read almost daily for current events and spiritual guidance.  Not sure what I will do about those. I could go to the library once or twice a week to read them online. 

Grandma Donna wrote,

For those that are going to do the October down time, or part of the down time, think of what they did not have in the early 1930s.  Just from my memories of being old enough to remember the times we had one telephone that was a party line and radio. Our first television did not come to our house until the mid 1950s. The sounds in the house were the ticking of the clock being awakened by the smell of breakfast cooking.  The sounds of morning kitchen noises. So I have to imaging being the mother in the kitchen.  

It will be about priorities and hopefully the end result of this study is getting back control of our home without distractions of "modern" electronics.

In the 1930s they did have radio and they had radio soap operas and radio shows such as mysteries and music.  However, they could not turn on the radio at just any time, the radio did not air all day and night as it did in modern times.  They also went to the movies.  

The newspaper was in the hands of Father, he would go out and get the morning newspaper and read it early in the morning, mother would read the paper and look for ads after chores were done.  In the 1930s, it depended on if you got a daily or weekly paper and in some larger cities there was a morning and afternoon paper. 

As far as phone calls in the 1930s, if one did have a phone, people made shorter calls out of respect for the switchboard operator that placed your call and the need for line space for other calls.  

During the 1930s they still used switchboard operators and the move started to party lines where the phone would ring a certain ring to indicate it was your call and then it was still respectful to have a short call as others would need the line for calls. There were some that listened in on calls and another reason to have an in person conversation.  

In an emergency those that did not have a telephone would go to a neighbor that did have one or use a pay phone if there was one where they lived.  Phones were used for necessity, some placed grocery orders, but it was pick up the phone, make the call, verbally place the order and then hang up. There was no visual stimulation. 

The 1930s ads were different than the 1940s ads because in many areas the stores were still the separate markets and the supermarkets were still to come.  Larger cities such as New York, were starting to get supermarkets. 

It is difficult to let go of our modern devices, and we do not have the old ways to substitute, but I hope that October helps to break the electronic addictions that many of us have, including myself,  because we can learn to use the modern devices "when needed" instead of constant and bring back our creativity and ability to do our work without the stimulation of noise and visual so once again we can become present. 

Grandma Donna, it’s like you have been reading my mind (that must be scary- sorry).  Just yesterday I got my husband and I tracfones. Though you can now get internet on them, we aren’t even setting that up. Also, in order to text, we have to press the number key a certain number of times to get the right letter- so we can text if needed but it will be very inconvenient. Also we are only sharing the numbers with certain people.  We will have to keep our regular phones for work but hopefully will be able to leave them at the desk unless we are working.   I grew up with a party line and remember getting in trouble for talking too long.  We were on a ranch so even though I’m not as old as some here, we weren’t quite as modern as most.  We had a little B&W television that we were only allowed to touch on Saturday mornings.  I am trying to remember if we even had a radio. I know we did by the time I was in middle school but again we (kids) weren’t allowed to touch it.  I would very much enjoy not having electronics. I’m not necessarily doing the study but might at least see how little I can use them. I just have the phone and laptop here at the house so should be able to hide them pretty easily, and we have no TV or games. 
A quick funny: how many have seen the Jeff Foxworthy bit about having three channels as a kid and saying, “Oh no!  The president’s on.”  (Because it would be on all three channels) 
@Ann W. I enjoyed reading your post. 

Lees al een hele tijd uw fantastische berichten. Mijn dank voor alle moeite. Bemerk dat het leven ook voor mij te snel gaat en probeer zoveel mogelijk oude gewoontes te behouden. We delen een krantenabbonnement met de buren. Krijgen elke week papieren reclamefolders in de brievenbus. Ook een gratis weekkrantje met plaatselijk nieuws. Zelf kijk ik geen televisie. Lees brei en haak veel in de avonduren. Heb geen rijbewijs, dus doe ik al mijn boodschappen op de fiets. Winkels zijn altijd dichtbij in mijn land. We hebben een bushalte voor de deur. Een busrit naar het ziekenhuis gaat binnen het uur. Senioren krijgen 35% korting. We bezoeken onze kinderen en vrienden met de auto. Mijn man rijdt dan. Onze jongste zoon en zijn vrouw wonen iets op meer dan een uur rijden. De anderen allemaal dichterbij.

Bak mijn eigen brood, maak jam en kan groente, vlees en honing langs de weg kopen bij boerderijen. Gebruik zomin mogelijk apparaten. Alleen een keukenmachine om deeg te kneden, een oven, een stofzuiger, een naaimachine en een wasmachine. De was hang ik buiten op aan een lijn. Of binnen aan een rekje. Dat is heel normaal in dit land. Heb geen wasdroger. Maak mijn eigen schoonmaakmiddel met azijn en citroen.  Boeken staan hier en daar in houten hokjes langs de weg. Deze mag je gratis meenemen. Wanneer ik ze gelezen heb zet ik ze in een ander hokje terug of breng ze naar de kringloop. Daar koop ik eigenlijk het meeste wat ik in huis nodig heb. Bijvoorbeeld borden met bloemetjes decor, kopjes en keukendoeken. Naai van lappen stof ook wel kussenhoezen of keukengordijnen. We ontbijten aan het tafeltje van mijn oma dat nog uit de oorlog komt. Ook haar strijkplank gebruik ik.  Ben blij dat de herfst weer begonnen is. Zomers worden steeds warmer. Wel goed voor de tomaten lol! We hebben een hele kleine tuin. Te klein om veel te verbouwen maar naast tomaten hebben we sla, kruiden en groene boontjes. Alles in bakken en emmers. 

Voor nu genoeg info, groeten uit Holland

Thank you for the clarification, and that's a good reminder about radio being limited then. I've looked up the radio shows in 1932, and there weren't a lot of them. 

To feel like I'm in the past, this is what I've decided to do. 

I will use the phone, but I won't text, except with one person who is going through a hard time right now and likes the contact of texting throughout the day. I will only respond to them but not initiate texts. 

Movies were something you went out to in the past. We don't have a theater here so to go out to the movies, I would have to drive a farther distance than I want to and pay more money than I want to pay! So I have decided no movies, no television at all.

The library was something you went to too, to choose your books. For October, I won't order any books online. I will go into the library and choose from what is on the shelves. 

I will do "mail order" online on my phone because some products I use are only available online. 

I've decided to use audiobooks from the library since Talking Books came out in 1932 for the sight-impaired. I can pretend that Grandma lives with us and doesn't see well so we can all enjoy listening to her Talking Books. :) The reason I want to do that is that I want to limit my choices. I don't have a way to recreate 1932 radio, and I think it would be too much of a temptation to use modern things trying to recreate radio on my phone. So I will only use the audiobooks available at my library instead of "radio." That way I still have something to listen to while I mend or iron. 

I was born in the 1956, so I remember a small black and white television, but it was the radio that was playing the news every morning when I got up.  We had a local station and the local radio host who read the news and introduced the music also gave us unintentional entertainment as well.  He didn't know how to pronounce some words, so, for instance, he pronounced "ewe" as "ee-wee"  when giving the farm reports.  

I grew up in farming country and lived on a farm for a while.  Even in the 1970's we were on a party line with 10 other families.  This meant that we had no phone available to us most of the time.  My dad got kicked in the head by our horse and my mother, who didn't drive, could not get the phone free to call for help - some kids were using it and kept promising they would get off, but kept talking for about 20 more minutes, even after she said it was an emergency.  After he thankfully recovered, my dad fired off a letter to our congressman, and private lines were finally installed. 

As a kid we didn't have air conditioning, and it was sometimes too hot to sleep.  We had a small screened porch and we would sleep on cots on the porch some nights, with box fans running on us.  Our kitchen had a big fan that fit into the raised window and had reversible flow.  When my mother was cooking on hot days, she switched it to pull the hot air outside.  On some summer evenings, we would use my grandfather's hand-cranked ice cream churn to make ice cream or would split open a chilled watermelon at the picnic table outside in the cooler evening air with extended family.  (My own current ice cream churn is from the 1920's)  In winter, our coal-fired furnace cooled off at night, so we slept under a lot of blankets and my dad would brave the cold air very early, going outside and down below, where the furnace was, to get it hot again for us. 

I still work, and I use a computer, a computer-connected phone and copiers all week, so I can't give up computers.  I am trying to give up social media, and mostly have, but my children post occasional photos or funny messages that I like to see, so I haven't given them up completely.

It's hard to try to do otherwise - my newspaper comes online, my bills mostly come online, my appointments are made online, I get notices from my church online - I don't see how I can manage without a computer, but life was a lot simpler without it, I agree.  To the extent I can now, I am trying to simplify.  Some of it will get easier when I retire next year.  I will miss the posts in October, but I will join in, to the extent that I can.

I enjoy reading here and the blog too.  I always learn so much.  I was very ignorant about social security and all that until the past post last month.  Now I am looking ahead.  We will still have a few minors in the household when dh reaches that age so he has decided to work as long as he can.  We have 12 kids and 8 are grown and married and there are four left at home these days. We have been married for 38 years now.

G Donna, where do you buy those journals on your desk?  I would like to find two for bills and groceries to keep track of myself.

I would also love to see the two week menu plan.  I am working so hard to tweak ours to be less ingredient involved and trying to go less to the store but I am failing.  It has been a struggle lately with having a house full of people with differing food allergies.  But I am determined to do it.  I already grind my wheat to make bread and that seems to be taking away one allergen purchase for us. 

I remember staying at my grandparents at their farm in the 60s. It was what people call minimalist now. My grandfather bought the land in 1918. 

I remember the party line which fascinated me. There was a small tv in the corner of the front room. Not a lot of furniture but then it was a small house with no hallway but rooms which opened into each other.

When I imagine the 30s I think of their home even though it was built in 1942 with black market supplies. There wasn't extra. My mother grew up with one doll.

When we visited we spent most of our time outside playing. 

I remember when I was about 4 years old we got a B&W TV.  We were so excited to have it.  It was just me and my parents and we would sit at a folding card table and eat TV dinners while we watched TV.  We didn't run the TV that much.  We had a party line for the phone.  There was no AC so in the summer time we sat on the front porch and the kids would come over and we would play kick ball in our front yard.  Sometimes we would all have jars from home (everything came in a glass jar) and we would catch lighting bugs.  For a big treat we would walk 3 blocks to the drug store and they made limeades at the counter.  Do they even make limeades any more.  That was real summer treat.

Screen time has always been a concern for us.  When our children were small we limited TV time.  Computers came into use when my oldest son was in high school.  He and his friends found a way to get around the game blocking technology at school which shows he was good at technology, but also doing something he was not suppose to do.  We didn't have a computer at home then.

Now a days screen time is a lot more than TV.  I do think it is not good for the brain to just watch screens not matter what type, but it is not all bad.  My husband had knee replacement surgery and he ended up with complications which after a week at home he was back in the hospital for 4 nights.  I appreciated all the thinking of you and prayer messages I got.  It was a rough few days and knowing so many people wanted to keep us in their prayers was very comforting.  

Also my cousin and I were both very bad sleepers and when I would wake up during the night and couldn't get back to sleep I would connect the computer and send an email and say are you awake and often the message would come back yes.  Sometimes we would "talk" until one of us got too tired or we would play a word game.  My cousin has passed and I treasure those memories.

We have a farm and like a lot of businesses there are taxes and liscenes that need to be paid to the state and the last bill from the state said to pay on line.  Our state income taxes need to be paid on line.  I don't know what you do if you don't have a device that will do that.  Have someone do it for you?  I wouldn't want to use the computer at the library for something like that.

So for October I will try to regulate my time on line.  No mindless scrolling being number 1.  I don't give my cell phone number to a lot of people so not too many people text me, mostly family and a few close friends and I like it that way.  After all Christmas is coming up soon and need to finish up some Christmas presents.

I look forward to seeing the carrot cake recipe.  

I'm trying an experiment today. I'm making Grandma Donna's egg custard pie, and the experiment is that I steeped some peach leaves in the milk mixture. Tomorrow I will find out if it flavored the filling. 

An online connection is a necessary part of life now, but I'm not usually spending too much time looking at my tax bills online. :) I do spend a lot of time online looking for books to read before putting them on hold at the library. That's why I am choosing to only get books the library has available on the shelves in October. The hard part will be after October, when the temptation to search for books will be back. I'm going to try to think of a way around that. 

This October challenge has really made me think. I would love to have a no online at all month just to see what that would be like. It would mean looking over my supplies and making sure I don't have to "mail order" anything in October. Consumer Cellular is offering a no data phone for only $19 right now. Maybe I should get it. The one I have now was a gift and it won't work without a data connection. 

Stephanie G -- I have put books on hold at the library too, although I put them on hold for the bookmobile and when the bookmobile will be in my area they bring them and I can check them out there.  The check out time at the bookmobile is 4 weeks and can renew them.  If you can check out enough books for a month or so and keep renewing them that might be a way to have enough for October.

I don't know too much about cell phones.  We have poor internet connect in our area so we stay with Verizon because it mostly works some days better than others, but in our area you go with what you can connect to.

It will be interesting to see if the peach leaves with flavor the milk.

CindyD W, that's a good idea. Thank you. :) 

I'm not sure after all if I will change my phone. My son's desktop computer stopped working this afternoon and I realized I didn't have new computers or even computer repair in my budget! At least a phone gets a reliable internet signal. 

Stephanie G. Connection is a big thing.  I was thinking last night that my computer is getting old and even if the computer is still working at some point it will not get updates and will need to be replaced.  I was thinking I should set a little away each month for new computer.

Grandma Donna wrote,

Christina A, I use the brown ledger book for my main budget, another I keep up all medical payments, co-pays, deductibles paid, and anything I feel like we need to note. 

I started one for groceries but decided to use a regular spiral notebook because I will use the grocery book up faster because I am entering item by item so I can keep up with price changes, the ledgers are a bit pricy.  

I have an office supply savings fund for printer ink and paper and for a new ledger when needed because the ledgers have gone up in price.  The brown ledger book is a Staples 217679 Black and burgundy Ledger book 11 & 3/4 " by 7 & 1/2 " and I buy them on Amazon or Ebay depending on who has them for less money at the time.  The green ones cost more than the Staples book. 

The green ones are Boorum & Pease 66 account journal ruled 150 page 12 & 1/8 x 7 & 5/8, they are the old military style books and have gone up in price also.  They also make a 300 page book.

When I am working on a new budget or new most anything I use inexpensive regular school notebooks to work out the budget and then when I have it all figured out I will start using the good ledgers. I like them because of my eyesight and I can write larger in these books and it keeps everything tidy. 

Charles uses them for keeping data as he journals many things.  He uses one for the check book and the current ledger (checkbook) he is using now he started in 2017 and he is on page 107 of 160 pages.  It is getting rather worn but still holding up good.  That one is the green Boorum & Pease book. 

When looking at the ledgers, make sure to get the right kind for what you want because they have ledgers and journals and depends which you are wanting to do. One has only lines like a notebook and the other has the two columns to the right to enter figures.   I hope this helps. Donna

If you have a landline, it is a good idea to have an older non-electric phone for use when there is a power outage.  I have one connected in my basement.  I have a flip phone Tracfone $19,99 every three months.  I do not turn it on unless my landline is not functional and keep it in my purse as an emergency phone.  No one has the number.  When I was in high school, we were on a nine-party line with around 20 teenagers plus parents which made getting a free line practically a miracle.  

I was talking to a 94-year-old neighbor today about the 1930's.  On radio she remembers her mother listening to many different soap operas that were 15-minute programs.  Also, Fibber Magee and Molly and The Shadow Knows.  She was not allowed to go to movies because her parents considered them too worldly.  We were also talking about the grocery stores which were two aisles with a meat counter at the back.  These stores supplied everything our mothers needed for meal prep.

One of the things I've been doing for a while now is limiting the variety of foods I buy and prepare.  I got married in 1960 and the supermarkets of that time had a much broader selection that the small stores of the 1930-40's but still much less than today's stores.  I could not afford to buy much in 1960, so my meals reflected my childhood more than modern (1960 version) meals.  

I got rid of DISH shortly after my dh passed 10 years ago.  I realized that "news" was propaganda not news so what was the point.  Also, I found the entertainment programming was mostly offensive.  Now days I watch PBS on Saturday for Lawrence Welk and a couple mystery shows and Thursday for Father Brown but that's it.  My dd's put other stuff on for me including Net flex, but once I got out of the habit, I no longer have any interest in trying to find something worth watching.  Oh, I watch the high school girls state basketball tournament in March.  I do spend too much time on the Internet and am going to attempt to limit that during October.  Maybe if I succeed, I will find I'm not so interested afterwards.  Mostly I follow several vlogs that interest me, and a news related forum.

Johanna L, it was interesting to read your experiences in the Netherlands.  Living in a small town in Europe for a year, I appreciated the convenience of having everything, including the farmer’s market within walking distance, and public transportation being so convenient.  I had no need for a car.  I, too, make all our bread, jams, and also yogurt.  We have a small lot in a small city but have a yard that we have transformed into a fruit and vegetable garden.  It’s great that you can also grow some of your own food.  You have inspired me to get out my fabric scrap box and see what I have to work with.

My grandmother was a telephone operator for her community during the depression.  It was the sole income for the family.  Their family lived in the back of the telephone office.  My mother remembers her mother counting pennies saved in an old coffee jar on the kitchen table.  I still have the jar.  At the time, my grandfather was unemployed but worked on his parents’ farm.  I’m sure they were able to eke out a reasonable life.  My dad, who grew up in the same community, said my mother was the only girl who came to school with shoes on.

Eventually, my grandfather bought my great great grandfather’s (his grandfather’s) farm, which helped their family immensely.  They were able to have a large garden, chickens and a cow.  My grandfather added to their income by repairing machinery in the small blacksmith’s shop on the property, as well as farming about fifty acres.  People also paid him to bring his bailer around, farm to farm to bail hay for the animals.

Even when I was a child, there was an operator, using a switchboard to connect everyone making a phone call in their community.  I can remember my grandmother calling the operator by name and politely requesting that she be connected to another party.  The phone was an old fashioned, wall hung affair, with two bells at the top, and separate speaker and listening parts.  We called it “the owl,” because it resembled an owl with the two big “owl eye” bells at the top and the protruding speaking piece.  Grandma had to crank the phone to get through to the switchboard.

All laundry was done with a ringer washer and hung outside to dry.  A talented seamstress, Grandma could look at a dress in a shop window and recreate it at home with her treadle sewing machine.  By the 1950’s, when I was around, the local mercantile had individual rental lockers to keep things frozen.  Grandma would buy a share of beef and keep it frozen there.  Interestingly, Grandma was not sorry to leave the old ways behind.  It was a lot of hard work for her.  She thoroughly enjoyed the comforts of electricity, modern appliances and indoor plumbing.  She loved the independence of being able to drive an automobile.  However, I think she would be astonished and disheartened at the fast pace of life now.  

A special thanks to Grandma Donna for your blog and everyone for your comments.  I always learn so much from you.

Stephanie G, I’m not going to change my phone (I’ve been considering the Light Phone 3) because my phone works fine at 3 years old.  I think it’s up to me to figure out how not to spend so much time on it!

My husband and I have been discussing our tech devices and what might need to be replaced in the next few years after he retires.  We think we will get at least another 2 years from our phones.  One things we are tracking is software and security updates.  My husband says once a device can’t get security updates it isn’t safe to use connected to the internet because hackers WILL exploit those devices and potentially get sensitive data, although the device will still work for offline tasks.  I checked and his laptop will stop receiving security updates in 2027 (it will be 10 years old then), so after that we’ll share my laptop, which we replaced it last January at 10 years old — we’ve had very good luck with MacBooks.  We also have an 8 year old Mac desktop that is in great shape.  I typically get the best computer I can afford in the hopes it will have some longevity.  Our tablets are 4 years old and should be fully supported for another couple of years and even after that should get security updates for the next 6 years.  I do have an older tablet that we plan to make a digital photo frame as it is too old for security updates.  We have three e-readers, two of which are 10 years old and one of which is 2 years old (I have two because the newer one has warm light and was a gift).  They have fewer security risks as they don’t have internet browsers or any stored financial information such as credit card numbers.  We leave them in airplane mode except when downloading books.  So hopefully they will be usable for a very long time.  We don’t use them much now, but I think they are really great for accessibility as people get older and need larger fonts or don’t have the strength to hold up a heavy book.  I’d rather read paper books, but it isn’t always an option — some books our library only has available digitally

We both have smart watches and I’m not sure about those.  My husband has had his from the first release and loves it.  I could do without mine except it monitors various health metrics and my primary doctor uses various data from it, such as the part that checks for sleep apnea doctor, atrial fibrillation, blood oxygen levels for my asthma, etc.   Another doctor uses my heart rate data to keep an eye on my autoimmune flares and anemia.  In particular I was happy to have the data on sleep apnea, so I didn’t need to do a sleep study.  I can also see that I am twice as active this year as I was last year, because I am feeling much better.

I can certainly understand taking a break from technology.   I have never been a TV person, not even as a kid.  I lived my younger years with my grands and they rarely watched TV.  I drive in silence.  Now, I enjoy Adam 12 with my breakfast!!  My tech is merely a tool.  I use it to reserve library books and to find things/ locations.  I also watch 2 classes per week to help with my church ministry.  But I'm not a scroller or game player.  I often joke that I control my phone, it doesn't control me!!  Screens have never been my thing.  I like reading and art/crafting.  And quiet!!!   So I see no need to limit myself.  It would only serve to make my life more annoying hahahaha.  

Ann W, I envy your landline telephone!  Where I live true landlines have been discontinued, any “home” phone is still internet based.

We’re fans of Fibber McGee and Molly, and also Our Miss Brooks and many other old radio comedies.  I don’t enjoy the mysteries as much, but the rest of the family does.  I do like old Dragnet shows, and sometimes Johnny Dollar.  Sometimes we get lucky and hear an old Gunsmoke, from before it was a TV series, or a Lux Radio Theatre.

In town we have a little “market” which is mostly a coffee shop with snacks and grab and go foods.  It was built as a small neighborhood grocery store and later used as one of the first locations of what it now a large regional supermarket chain in our area, and it’s tiny!  There’s room for one aisle, and the foods around the perimeter and the counter, which now serves to take order and make coffee drinks behind.

I have 2 school-aged children in public schools, so Internet is essential in order to keep abreast of their assignments, grades, and teacher communication. 

My kids just saw a segment on NBC Nightly News where an 8 year old in Maine received a landline instead of a cell phone for her birthday. Now, this girl has inspired about 20 of her classmates to also have landlines! My kids thought that was so cool!

I love TV, but I often watch the channels on my antenna or programming on the Roku channel. I adore watching Columbo, Murder, She Wrote, and sitcoms like The Jeffersons. Nothing is funnier than Redd Foxx in Sanford and Son!

I also love watching PBS on the antenna. I tend to like their news segments better than cable news, and I love when they show British mysteries like Father Brown and Sister Boniface. And the old cooking shows on PBS are gold!

TV aside, I rely on my library for all reading materials. Personally, I don't find the value in buying books since I'm so picky. I return books all the time that I try and wind up not reading. 

Kimberly F, we got rid of our laptops when the security updates no longer applied. Busted up the drives and recycled them. Your husband is absolutely right about them. My son has a gaming desktop. He was finally able to get it working but he told me I should get a computer repair fund started for when he can no longer fix it. That shows how the 1930s have taken over his thinking. He knows he has to try and fix it himself first. :) I really don't want to buy another computer. I told my son he will have to buy his next one himself. That means he'll have to get some kind of job. :) It would probably be at least $2,000 to replace the one he has now. My husband and I use phones. Fire TV has internet capability. The internet on it is in the silk app. 

I only wish I had enough willpower to just stop using my phone so much! Instead I'll have to do as you said and figure out a way to not use it. I really think it's going to come down to me getting rid of my phone, at least for awhile until I've instituted new replacement behaviors. I'm eager to see what October will teach me. 

Thank you for such a thoughtful post GDonna and I can totally understand the need to drop away from technology for October but do know that wouldn’t work entirely for me as we no longer have a landline and do need to keep in touch with family & friends etc. So I will  use my phone as just that, a phone with no internet connection so definitely no mindless scrolling!

I will allow myself 30 minutes per day on my tablet to check emails and do my online banking, I like to check this regularly so that I can flag up any fraudulent activity. You can set screen time limits on my device so once the daily amount is done it’s gone until the next day.

The only soap we follow is the Archers, a long running radio programme that follows characters in an English country village which has been broadcasting since the 1950’s so is a bit of an institution here in the UK. We also have a new series of All Creatures Great and Small starting soon so I’m definitely not missing that :)

For me it’s a fine balance between using technology for ease and not allowing it to dominate your life, I never read books online as I prefer the feel of a real book and have a group of friends that share these around.

I look forward to seeing that meal plan along with the carrot cake recipe which sounded delicious

As many have said, I really really enjoy your blog, Grandma Donna, and the forum discussions. I have experimented with going low-tech in the past and the hardest part for me is always that I’m doing it alone. My family and friends aren’t “into” history or preparedness or simple living, etc. so they don’t “play along” with me ;) I love writing and receiving letters but most people don’t do that anymore. Not even over email! 

I would like to spend more time reading and crafting, instead of on YouTube or Reddit like I currently do, so I’ll have to think of some swaps and limits. These devices and platforms are incredibly convenient, enticing, and fairly ubiquitous so I try not to give myself a hard time about it. I soothe and humor myself by remembering that if headphones and portable devices were available in previous generations, they would’ve used them, too! Thinking of someone like Ma Ingalls listening to a podcast while churning butter always makes me giggle.

For some reason this newest post from Gr.Donna did not send me an alert via email. I only found it because I kept thinking a new one should have posted.

I do love the idea of a tech free month but....I have so many things that I have to pay online because they only take online payments i.e. taxes, utilities and insurances. I dislike it but it is the way these days.

I do limit my screen time, and this time of year with canning and preserving it is not hard to do. It's the dark, cold months of winter that get to me.

I have changed most of the recipes and meals I eat to back to the 1930's as it seems easier and cheaper. When the family was at home it was all about exploring recipes and broadening our eating preferences but now I only cook for me and sometimes I just don't want to get too involved in "fancy" recipes. I just want to have simple nutritious meals.

I started a list of things for me to do during the cold dark winter days, I think if I have a list/schedule it will help me to be more present and give me a sense of purpose. I have a bad case of seasonal affective disorder and really do not want to take a prescription for it if I am able to find another way to deal with it.  I do have a light for it but it only helps so much.

Joyce C, I have terrible seasonal affective disorder! I start dreading the winter in fall! But last winter I got some new light bulbs that really helped, and I'm hopeful this year won't be so bad. They're from healthlighting.com. I just switched to the healthlighting bulbs from the lightbulbs I had. I do the same as you and plan my winter activities ahead of time. I also make sure the house is really cleaned in fall because my energy level gets so low in winter. My family helps keep the house in order for me in winter because a messy house would depress me terribly. I make sure the windows are washed regularly in fall and winter. My circadian rhythm would get all messed up in winter, and I couldn't keep normal sleeping hours, but the new lightbulbs restored me to a more normal sleeping schedule in winter. To me, the light feels nourishing. We don't have the bulbs everywhere, just my bedroom, bathroom, and one floor lamp and a table lamp in the living room. That seems to be enough for me. I wish you well this winter. I know it can be really tough. 

Stephanie G, I think one reason I use my computer and phone is to connect with like-minded people.  I don’t know truly frugal people in real life who keep a budget, cook and bake from scratch, hang clothes to dry, embrace eco-friendly practices, etc.  I had one friend a long time ago who did approach some of the same things from the environmental side of it, but she moved away and she wasn’t frugal at all.  Only here and perhaps on the Non Consumer Advocate blog will I see mending and darning clothing championed and a comment about darning underwear!

All of the information can be a great tool for saving money, but there is always the potential for time spent researching to turn into time spent scrolling.  I did it again this afternoon.  On the days I have medication infused I get very tired and don’t even feel like holding and reading a book, or knitting, or anything like that.  I just want something mindless to help me pass the time until I feel better.

I went to the library today to search out a book I read years ago "The Dirty Thirties" by William H. Hull, M.A.  The copyright is 1989 and the library copy is the fourth printing.  

This book is individual stories of the Depression.  If you want to try to understand what life was like, how people felt, and how they coped, this book will answer that.  The sections are Country Life, The Schools, Family Life, In Order to Live, Dirt and Dust, Fighting Heat or Cold, The Light Side and Amalgam.  

I've read it twice over the years and intend to sit down and read it again.  The stories are from 147 people from 21 different states who lived through those terrible years.  There are a few pictures.    

Melissa, thank you for sharing the NBC news anrticle about the mom in Maine who got her young daughter a landline for her birthday instead of a cellphone! I’m sure the benefits are the same whether it’s a wired VOIP line, that is, doesn’t have to be a POTS line.

A while ago I read a delightful essay of a family who values having their children answer the landline, 
https://hearthandfield.com/grounded-by-the-landline/

It describes the possibilities of practicing courtesies and learning to think “on your feet”.

 I have noticed an increase in people assuming you have caller ID and this not identifying themselves and or leaving a number when they leave a message!

My husband has recently rediscovered the joys of chatting with his brother and a friend on our (VOIP) line. Much easier to hold the hand piece and no worries about battery life!   

Jennifer C

I much prefer to use our landline, also. It is so much easier to hold than a cell phone. We have cell phones, also, which I detest, but they are useful for texting our children daily and receiving pictures from their world travels. 

Our cell phone bill is $105 per month, while our landline bill is $29 per month and we have four phones we can pick up to answer in various rooms. Landline phones help with the budget and allow a person to have a phone to call family and friends or contact the appropriate people in case of an emergency.

When you avoid technology it takes a bit of training for family and friends.

When my daughter deleted her Facebook account she missed out on a number of social events because many of her friends didn't bother to contact her any other way. Now the friends who cared enough know to call or text or email their invitations. 

I'm thinking of trying some sort of "intermittent fasting" approach myself, such as no phone or internet before noon.  Or maybe even no internet before 5:00 PM.  In that case I would still answer calls during the day, but wouldn't spend time reading news and blogs, uploading to iNat, watching YouTube videos about scythes (went down quite a rabbit hole with that yesterday!) listening to audiobooks on my phone, et cetera, until evening, but then I could have at it.

Jennifer - Thanks for the link about landline phones. I still have a landline and don't use a cellphone to communicate at all. I purchased the Straight Talk Home Phone device for approximately $60, and the monthly phone service costs $15. You don't need to have internet service for this. I set mine up so that both phones in the pictures ring. I can see who is calling on the first phone, and then I can talk on the rotary phone. With the first phone, I have handsets in different rooms so I can answer the phone more conveniently.

Thank you for this post!

I am really looking forward to the carrot cake recipe!!

I'd like to say that I whole-heartedly agree that the olden days are better. I have been trying to live in an old-fashioned way as best I can for a long time. I wish there were more like-minded people.

 I'm sitting here with a family member who's in the hospital.

All I can say I'm not giving up modern medical care!

For me I think the kind of life I want to live is real. I want to touch it. Not virtually through devices. For me I want the cellphone or computer to be like another tool or appliance and not my companion.

Margaret P., 

I'm sorry to hear that a member of your family is in the hospital.  I hope everything turns out okay.

And yes, I don't think any of us would willingly give up modern medicine - especially not for our loved ones.

thanks Tea!

I didn't mean to imply anyone would of course. But that's certainly all that's on my mind right now. 

I know I've read quite a few ariticles lately criticizing medical care and I've had some bad encounters but my experience this time is that the staff here have been great. So many are very kind & patient. 

Johanna, I enjoyed your comment even though I cannot speak Dutch. But it reminds me of visiting the Netherlands in 1999. I stayed with friends in the towns of Kampen, and I think, and Voorthuizen and Hilversum. Such a beautiful country!!

So, I was inspired by Grandma Donna and others in the forum to get a real ledger book and work on my budget. I wanted to try the cash envelope method but too much of my purchasing is done online these days to make that system really work for me. I feel like the ledger will allow me to keep up with what amounts I have available in which categories, even if all of my money is lumped together in my checking account.

That being said, Oh my goodness...I had no idea how much I was spending on groceries and random online shopping orders until I did a 4 month audit and calculated my averages. OUCH! I could be saving so much more money and putting it towards preparedness, savings, and paying down debt. I was doing all three of those things during the 4 months I audited but I spent so much darn money on eating out or impulsive online orders, too – it all seems so wasteful now that I'm looking back at my purchases. So many times while I punched numbers into my calculator tonight, I would say to myself, "No way, did you really spend that much money on THAT?" If only I could go back in time...

Needless to say, I'm very excited for my ledger book to arrive this week and to get down to business! I'm so fortunate to have a job and low living expenses for the time being so I am committed to no longer taking these blessings for granted while I have them. Wow wow wow, it is just scary how easy it was for me to swipe a card (or really just click "Checkout") without considering the financial tradeoffs I was making. Thank you all for giving me the push I needed to be more deliberate with my spending and lifestyle just by sharing your stories.

The way I handle credit card purchases in my ledger is to enter the expense when I order or purchase the items.  When I write the check for the credit card, the amounts charged are already in the ledger, so I don't enter it anywhere other than in the checkbook.  

For instance, when I go to Walmart and buy household items, personal items, clothing and groceries, I separate into various categories and enter on the ledger pages appropriately.  The full credit card payment is already accounted for, so no additional entry is needed.

I always pay my credit card balance off 100% each month.  If you don't pay the entire balance, you need a category for interest.