3. Made lice treatment for my goats with olive oil and tea tree oil. So far it seems to be helping. And no, goat lice is NOT transferable to humans. :)

4. Gave Hubs a haircut.

5. Did farm chores for a neighbor, and in return they gave us some sausage. Yum! 

6. Sold nine dozen eggs. Last week one of my goals was to list my chicken eggs on Craigslist, but before I did that I put a post out to my Facebook friends. Whoa! I sold almost ALL of the eggs I had, found at least two weekly customers and a bi-weekly customer. 

7. Finished up the apron I've been working on! It was quite an adventure working with a 70-year-old pattern, which will be a post in itself, most likely.

8. Mended a shirt for Hubs.

9. Started basil seeds. Because I've started SO many seeds, it's hard to keep track of when I planted them. This makes it hard to know when the things should sprout. From now on I'm not only going to write the name of the seed and date I planted it, but also the estimated date(s) of germination. This will make things much less confusing for me. 

I've also noticed new growth on my avocado and lime trees, and have sprouted two new exotic seeds. One is a Tomarillo, or tree tomato, I believe. The other is one of six seeds that I found in my backpack, from who knows where. I think it is some kind of mimosa, because the leaves fold up at night.

Goals for Next Week:
1. Start new apron.
2. Make one batch of soap.
3. Organize sewing room.

Looking forward to another week of frugality!
​-Bethany

Recently I've started selling some of our unneeded books on Amazon. This is one of my "winter" activities. I still have a month or so before pop can collecting season, so until then I'll be selling on Amazon to earn a few bucks here and there. And really, I do mean a couple bucks! Here are some numbers from the last three books I've sold:

Book #1: $4.20 price + $3.99 shipping = $8.19 buyer cost.
$8.19 - ($2.79 fees + $3.72 shipping) = $1.68 total profit.

Book #2: $9.80 price + $3.99 shipping = $13.79 buyer cost.
$13.79 - ($3.81 fees + $2.79 shipping) = $7.19 total profit.

Book #3: $4.75 price + $3.99 shipping = $8.74 buyer cost.
$8.74 - ($3.05 fees + $2.79 shipping) = $2.90 total profit.

What I love about Amazon is that it's so easy. And fast. It involves gathering up books you don't want, "listing" them on Amazon (which takes about 30 seconds), and when/if they sell, printing out postage and popping them in the mail. You could list dozens of books in an hour, and it takes about 15 minutes of work per book after they sell, from printing the postage to walking out to the mailbox. 

Before I give you my procedure for picking books to sell, let's talk about Amazon fees and shipping.

Amazon Fee Structure
Every book you sell on Amazon will cost $2.34 right off the bat, thanks to their variable closing fee ($1.35) and per item fee ($0.99) if you're not a member. Of course, I'm not a member because that costs $39.99 per month. On top of the $2.34, Amazon charges another 15% of your listing price.

Shipping
Maybe it's just me, but I feel like shipping costs have gotten higher, and Amazon's fixed shipping price has stayed the same. Media mail is only a little less than regular priority mail, and to ship a small book cost me $2.79. The large one cost $3.72 to ship- only $0.27 less than the buyer was charged. 

In addition to shipping fees, don't forget about the cost of driving to the post office to ship a book that weighs over 13 oz.

Amazon or Ebay?
I love selling on Amazon because it is so easy. I don't have to take pictures of the book or spend time writing out a listing for it. However, I think we can all agree that $1.68 profit is kind of measly. 

For the the larger books, or those under $5, I think Ebay would be worth a shot. Ebay's fees are only $0.30 insertion fee plus 10% of the final value. You can charge the buyer whatever you want for shipping. If I would have sold books #1 and #3 on Ebay, I would have made more money.

Book #1: $4.20 - ($0.30 insertion + $0.42 percentage) = $3.42 [a 97% raise from Amazon]
Book #3: $4.75 - ($0.30 insertion + $0.48 percentage) = $3.97 [a 37% raise from Amazon]

Ebay is wonderful for selling books in lots. One time I sold a three-pack of Joel Salatin books on Ebay for more than they were worth on Amazon separately. If the book doesn't sell on Ebay, you are only out your time.

Is It Worth It to Sell Books Online?
If it takes me 30 minutes to list, package and mail a book, how much am I earning per hour? Remember, I would consider $4.00/hr. to be a qualifying wage for me. Yours may be more or less.

Book #1: $3.36/hr.
Book #2: $14.38/hr.
Book #3: $5.80/hr.

Tips Before You Sell
To avoid selling book #1, keep the following in mind.

1. Don't sell books worth less than $2.50. Any book worth less than $2.50 will NOT make a profit on Amazon, and books in the $2.50-$5.00 range will make a minuscule profit.

2. Choose small or paperback books. Books over 13 oz. require a trip to the post office. Amazon charges the buyer $3.99 for shipping regardless of how much it ACTUALLY costs to ship the book, so every penny that you can save on shipping is yours to keep.

3. Sell niche non-fiction books. In most cases, fiction books are not worth enough money to sell used. I enjoy reading homesteading/gardening/DIY books, so that is what I know the value of. I've also had great luck selling books from small Christian publishers.

4. Sell new books. As a book gets older, the value almost always goes down, unless it is a very niche book (see above).

5. Sell books you will only use once. In December I bought a Panama Lonely Planet book for our trip. Since we won't be returning to Panama before the information in the book is outdated, I resold it after we came back. Even though the value of the book went down during that time, after selling fees I was still able to recoup 42% of the cost.

6. Don't sell "old classics". Books like Who Moved My Cheese or Great Expectations have been republished umpteen million times and there are truckloads of copies plastered all over the planet. Though best sellers are typically good reads, they don't have a lot of resale value.

What do you think about selling used books online?

One of my experiments last year was growing chili peppers. I found that it was relatively easy. I started some old pepper seeds (probably 5+ years old) using this method, and then planted the starts in my garden. The seeds took a while to germinate and a while to grow, so this year I'm starting them a little early, in February.

After putting them in the ground, the pepper plants needed little else besides the occasional weeding and watering. After the peppers turned red, I picked them and strung them on a piece of thread to dry. Make sure your drying area is well-ventilated and warm. 

Preserving & Processing
After the peppers are dry, you can pulverize them in a food processer. This year I will be using my Vitamix Dry container to make the chili powder.

To process, I crack off the top of each pepper and pulverize it. Below is what a food-processer ground chili powder looks like. Nowadays I process dried herbs with a Vitamix blender dry container. You could probably use a mortar and pestle as well.

Don't forget to save some of those seeds to start indoors! I'll be starting mine in the next week or so, toward the end of February.

Happy chili-growing!
​-Bethany

Frugal Accomplishments: Third Week of February
1. On Sunday we went to Tractor Supply Co. for some goat feed. All of their Christmas stuff, including Carhartt-type outerwear, was 50% off. There are still some great bargains there for any of you local people! I decided to buy two amaryllis kits at $2.50 each. After we left the store, I checked inside the boxes and one of the bulbs was completely rotted away. We went back and replaced it with a live bulb.

So now I have a little amaryllis rehab center in operation. After they flower, I'll put the plants outside. In August or September I'll stop watering them to encourage dormancy, and then after a few months I'll be able to plant them and have fresh flowers in the winter.

I love fresh flowers, but during the winter they can get expensive. Forcing bulbs is a fantastic way to get around the expense. Not only can you get cheap fresh flowers, but you can use them over and over and over again.

2. It was uncommonly warm this week, so I convinced Hubs to take a walk with me. We picked up over $9.00 worth of cans and bottles to recycle (that's five grocery bags full!).

3. Made laundry soap.

4. Sold four dozen eggs.

5. Made yogurt.

6. Cooked up a large ham and cut the rest into chunks to freeze for pizza toppings, soup add-ins, etc. I also rendered the fat for later use, and we'll have the broth this week with soup.

7. I didn't finish my apron, but I did work on it quite a bit. A majority of it is done, so I'll probably be able to finish it this week. I'll be putting on the pocket, some trim and buttons/buttonholes.

Goals For This Week:
1. Finish apron.
2. Start chili pepper seeds and basil seeds.
3. Post ad for eggs on Craigslist.

Best wishes for an amazing week!
​-Bethany

Hello folks! I know about every other homemaking blog out there has a laundry detergent tutorial, but I thought I'd do my own anyway. It is so cheap and easy to make, and for the two of us, a five-gallon pail lasts a LONG time.

Homemade Laundry Soap

½ cup borax
1 cup washing soda
5-6 oz. soap, grated
3 gallons water
5-gallon bucket with a lid

Instructions:
1. Measure out the borax and washing soda. I would recommend storing these items in a glass or otherwise air-tight container, because in a humid area it might cake up, dry out and be impossible to measure.

2. Grate the soap. A lot of recipes call for the use of Fels-Naptha, which is a wonderful soap. However, Hubs and I don't need stain-removing power in our laundry soap (I just use a spray-on stain remover when necessary), and $3 per bar makes it less frugal than just using regular soap. In the picture below, I used free hotel soap and some homemade soap chunks. I used a Kitchen Aid grating attachment to grate the soap. This is a LOT easier than making soap shavings by hand, and a lot faster, too.

3. Add 1 quart of water to the soap, and bring to a boil. This will dissolve the soap shavings.

Make sure you're using a large pot... otherwise it might boil over!

4. Put the rest of the water in your five-gallon bucket. At this point, most recipes tell you to put the borax, washing soda and soap water in the bucket, and stir to dissolve the soda and borax. Because my soda was clumpy (thanks, humidity), I thought it would be better to dissolve it in the hot, soapy water, and THEN pour everything into the bucket.

6. Pour everything into the five-gallon bucket, and mix well.

I chose to top off the bucket with water, in order to get more soap out of the recipe.

7. Let the soap sit overnight before using. The next morning, it should have a gel-like consistency. Mine usually turns out a little watery (probably because I use normal soap, and/or add more water), but still works great. I keep a normal laundry detergent cap in the bucket for measuring. For large loads I use two caps-full, and for small loads I only use one cap-full.

If you look closely at the paper, you'll see that childcare is costing this family $1100 per month. Food is also costing a whopping $592 for two adults and two small children (remember, Hubs and I eat for under $100 per month). Transportation is costing $681 per month; at least $250 could be saved there by getting rid of a second car. Those savings- childcare, food, and one less car- are equal to $20,904/yr. Add 25% income tax to that wage ($5226), and these extra expenses are taking up over half of the family's income.

This paper never even addressed the possibility that maybe Mom could stay home. It is getting to the point in this country where people think a stay-at-home spouse is a luxury, when sometimes it may be a financial necessity. In the case above, Mom can't really afford to work.

Time To Yourself
I've also talked to many stay-at-home moms who worked outside the home between marriage and kids. Some expressed regret that they continued to work after getting married, even though they didn't have to. Most people think that you must have kids in order to quit your job, and that's not true. The time between marriage and kids is special because you can be supported financially, but still have no school or work obligations and therefore plenty of time to do whatever you want. This likely hasn't happened since you were four years old, and won't happen again until you are middle aged. This season can be used to reach non-monetary goals like restoring health and fitness, learning new skills or even getting a small business off the ground. 

Time For Others
Another opportunity that opens for housewives or SAHMs is the chance to volunteer, or work for free. Oftentimes volunteer work can be more fulfilling or interesting than working a paid job. If it weren't, why would people do it? 

More importantly, not having a job gives me time for my husband when he needs me. If he needs someone to help him run the forklift or unload the truck, I am there. When he wants someone to talk to, I am there. When he comes home for dinner, I am there with a smile and a kiss to greet him. We work so much better as a team than we would alone.

Happy homemaking,
-Bethany

I've decided for the next couple months to do a weekly "frugal accomplishments" post, as I've seen some other bloggers do. At the end of the post I'll list some of my goals for this week as well. Sometimes I unintentionally put off doing things week after week, just because I forget to do it. I think writing a few goals down on my blog will help me remember.

Frugal Accomplishments: Second Week of February

1. For Valentine's Day breakfast, I made strawberry shortcake with frozen sliced strawberries from the garden. Because I used free strawberries and cut the recipe in half for the two of us, it only cost about a dollar to make.

2. Hubs bought me a dozen roses this week! They didn't come with greenery, so I used a technique I learned in flower school to arrange the flowers in a round bouquet before putting them in a vase.  

3. We stopped at Goodwill and I found a white tablecloth (shown above) for $3. I'm hoping to use this tablecloth for Easter, Valentine's Day and other special occasions.

4. Started some seeds that were on my February gardening list. For the echinacea seeds below, I used a glass bread pan covered with plastic wrap to keep the moisture in. I used a permanent marker to write the seed type and date on top, in order to keep better track of the different seeds.

5. Hubs built a bigger goat stand for my Pygora goats from free scrap lumber. This will come in handy when we have to shear the goats and do hoof trimming.

6. I used some coupons to get a free bottle of salad dressing and bag of blueberry bagels.

7. Started to make an apron from some pretty fabric I bought at a garage sale years ago. I'm using a 1940's pattern that came in my pattern treasure box from last spring. We bought the bias trim at Joann's, and Hubs pulled up a coupon on his phone to get 20% off my entire order. When I'm done, I'll probably sell the apron if I don't love it too much. :)

8. My mother-in-law gave me some seed catalogs to look through, and guess what I found! "Specialty Greens", purslane and a lambsquarter-look-alike! I don't have to buy seeds to grow these!

9. Sold a book we didn't need on Amazon.

10. Wrapped a gift with free brown kraft paper and tulle that I bought at a garage sale.

Goals for next week:
1. Plant more seeds on my February gardening list.
2. Arrange pictures on the living room wall.
3. Finish blue apron.

Hello, peeps! In honor of Valentine's Day, I thought I'd post a recipe on how to make chocolate truffles. These are actually pretty simple to make, and fun to try different flavor combinations with. There are three different recipes I use depending on whether I have milk chocolate, dark chocolate or white chocolate chips. These recipes are adopted and simplified from the excellent book, Making Artisan Chocolates, by Andrew Garrison Shotts. The ingredients differ, but the general instructions to each recipe remain the same.

Instructions:
Cut butter up into 1/4"-1/2" cubes and set aside to let soften a bit. Measure chips and pour into a bowl. A cereal bowl is usually big enough.

Heat the cream and any flavoring ingredients (I've used tea bags, mint leaves, even hibiscus flowers) to a rolling boil. I used a few saffron threads in the picture below. It doesn't really matter how much flavoring you put in if you are going to remove it from the cream after boiling anyway, though more leaves will create a stronger flavor. If you are going to add pepper or some other powdered spice, however, I would say less is more. You can always add more powdered spice to the finished ganache if it isn't strong enough.

Once the cream has reached a rolling boil, remove flavoring ingredients and immediately pour the cream over the chocolate chips. Let it sit for two minutes, stirring occasionally. The hardest part about making truffles is getting all of the chips to melt before the cream cools down.

When the chips and cream have cooled to 95 degrees F, add the butter. If the mixture has cooled below 95 degrees by the time two minutes is up, gently reheat it on the stove back up to 95 degrees. Then add the butter.

Quickly stir the butter in with a fork until it is thoroughly melted and mixed. This is called an "emulsion". If the butter isn't thoroughly mixed in, it will separate and the ganache will break. When the butter is mixed in, the ganache should be silky and smooth. 

After the butter is mixed in, you will have to let the ganache sit until it is hard enough to roll into a ball. Books and recipes that I've tried suggest that this takes a couple hours, but for me it usually takes a whole day. I let the ganache sit covered overnight, and then the next afternoon I can roll it into balls and dip into cocoa powder, melted chocolate, crushed nuts or other toppings. For the pictures I used peanut butter powder because the color matched, but I don't recommend a white chocolate/peanut butter flavor combination. :p

The total cost for a batch of truffles is about $2.75. If you make 20 truffles, it leaves the cost per truffle at about $0.15. This is pretty reasonable compared to store bought truffles. More than that though, I think truffle-making is a fun and frugal way to celebrate Valentine's Day or any other special day. It is so much fun to create personalized flavors. Truffle ganache can also be used in filled chocolates or for cake decorating. It's a great recipe to have on hand and makes a good gift for someone special in your life. :)

Happy truffle making!
​-Bethany

It's that time of year again... I'm committing to read the books I already have, and not buy more! Won't you join me? The rules are 1) no buying books for more than $1 (for those with clutter issues, preferably don't buy any), 2) post a review on Goodreads, and 3) donate or sell the book when you're done. My goal for the past year was to read one book per month.

2015 Results
I'll admit, I didn't adhere strictly to this goal in 2015. I posted eight reviews. I read the eight books plus a few more, which I didn't get around to reviewing. Those reviews will be coming! I also ended up buying about three new (used) books and one Kindle ebook in 2015. So, not a perfect record but I think it was okay.

2016 Books Read
A lot of my reading happens during the winter months. Surprise! This year I've already finished two books, and I'm posting a review for Square Foot Gardening, which I read last year. This book is a MUST MUST READ for anyone who plans to have a garden, ever. It is packed with not only square foot techniques, but also seed starting, fertilizing, composting, and individual plant care techniques and ways to extend the growing season. I just wish I would have read it sooner.

The other two books I read (mostly while on vacation) were Margin by Richard Swenson, and Bananas, by Peter Chapman. 

I received Margin as a Christmas gift, and Bananas was in our condo when we arrived in Panama. I thought about reading it, but didn't until I saw someone reading it on a bus. It must be a good book if some random person was reading it on a bus, right??

Bananas is about, as the title says, how the United Fruit Company changed the world. It was absolutely fascinating! The one tiny piece of information that I could not believe was how bananas were originally marketed and sold. There obviously was no market for bananas in the US because nobody knew what they even were. After a while, the company started "educating" the general public about bananas and marketing them as a health food, even going so far as to tell mothers that bananas could be fed to children as a meat replacement. Does this sound familiar? A bit like soybeans perhaps, or how about all of those fake "milks" on the market today that are supposedly healthier than real milk? Yes, history has relevance because it repeats itself.  

Ranting aside, Bananas was a fascinating book about fruit, politics, marketing and history. I'd give it a 7 on a scale of 1-10. Margin was a good reminder on why we should strive to have a little extra time in the schedule (probably a 6.5), and Square Foot Gardening was absolutely, postitively worth my time and $0.50 of garage sale money to read (9 out of 10). 

How did you do in your reading last year? What are you goals for this year?

Happy reading!
-Bethany

It's that time of year again, when seed catalogs start flooding the mailbox, cabin fever starts setting in and we order way too many plants and seeds. This is will be my third year of having a functional vegetable garden, and boy have I learned a lot. Last year I tried my hand at starting seeds, which was much easier than I thought. In addition to starting seeds, I've been learning what does and doesn't work with saving seeds, as well. Using seeds instead of buying plants is what makes a garden so economical.

Winter Gardening
What I'm learning more and more about gardening is that it's almost a year-round activity in order to get the best results. I've begun to start seeds now, and it's only February. The trick is to have a plan and start early. Many seeds take two or three weeks just to germinate! The Passiflora (passionflower) seeds I bought last year take a full 30 days to germinate. For those of you who are gardeners, I thought I'd share my gardening schedule for this Spring. Some of you might read my list and say, "Wow, that is a lot of stuff to do." However, most of the work will be mixing seed starter with water, poking in some seeds and covering with glass or plastic. I might do this for an hour each week from February- mid April. In April and May when I start to plant, a majority of the soil will be already prepared in lasagna raised beds. I will just have to poke a few more seeds in the soil, and in May I will transplant things I've started indoors. After that I'll mulch all of the raised beds and from there most of the work will be done. At least that's the plan! :)

My one big purchase this year was a dwarf lime tree that I bought for $21.00 on Ebay. I read a lot of good reviews of this certain variety, even from people in colder climates that bring the plant inside during the winter. It may or may not produce fruit, but I did read so many good reviews and it would be nice to grow some of my own citrus. I was a little uncertain about buying such an expensive plant on Ebay. It was shipped out right away (usually seed catalogs wait until the "proper planting time") and sat out in the cold mailbox for half a day. However, the plant was carefully wrapped (in cardboard and paper towels...) and three days later it hasn't lost its leaves yet. To my delight, the plant came with detailed instructions, both on the Dwarf Lime tree in particular, and another sheet for citrus trees in general. In addition to the planting instructions, the seller said to message him on Ebay if I ran into any problems. 

Later I was looking on Gurneys' website, and if you really want a bargain you can spend $50 on exotic plants, use their $25 gift certificate (for purchases over $50), and with shipping, be able to spend less than $15 on each plant. However, this year I only wanted to buy one exotic plant.

Less Work Than it Seems
One more thing I might add; it LOOKS like I am planting a ton of things in my garden, but I am not going to do "a row of each" like most gardeners would. I've discovered that we really only need one or two plants (about 3-5 seeds) each of things like squash, cucumber, and melons every year to produce enough for the two of us, plus some. My three hills of squash last year, for example, have provided enough for us to eat one squash per week through the month of March. Planting only a few seeds per year is how I can get away with 1) growing a lot of different plants, and 2) rarely buying seeds.

Anyone who has done a garden before knows that it is so easy to plant way more than you're capable of taking care of. In fact, most people plant a huge garden in the spring, and by the time August rolls around they have nothing but weeds to show for it. It's not because people are lazy- it's because doing a garden like that is simply unsustainable!!! I've found that using the square-foot gardening method, in conjunction with lasagna composting in raised beds, cuts down on SO MUCH work. You can read about how I did this in some of my previous garden updates. Growing all of my own plants (as opposed to buying them at a garden center or nursery) makes gardening almost free, and that small cost for a couple packets of seeds and seed starter can be easily offset by selling a few plants or some extra garden produce.

Wishing you all the best in your gardening efforts this year!
-Bethany 

P.S. I highly, highly recommend the book Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholemew. It covers a lot of different aspects of gardening and how to make gardening fun, easy, and NOT overwhelming.