Hi everyone! I hope you had a fun, productive week. We are preparing for a road trip, so several of my frugal things are related to that. Note: this post contains affiliate links.

1. Groceries: we did end up breaking our no-spend month. On Saturday I spent $10.08 on some snacks for our road trip. So that was a bummer! But we were still able to save almost $120.00 on food this month.

2. Cooking: Again, I spent the week making varied meals to use up our leftovers. Like a random can of sardines. We still have a ways to go in order to completely clean out the fridge, freezer and pantry. But I've very satisfied with what I accomplished in January.

3. Sewing: I finally finished (well... almost, kind of) our toddler's car seat poncho! Basically the poncho is a wearable blanket. I lined hers with green fleece, used drop cloth for the outer layer, and put faux fur around the hood. I almost quit the project after making just the lining. "She looks like a hobbit!" I told my husband, while practically dying of laughter. "I'll just buy some girly fabric and make a new one," I said. He said no, he liked the "hobbit" look! So I stuck with that theme. There is still one poncho element left to add—and an alteration I'd like to make—but it's fully functional now, as-is. I spent a few dollars on the section of drop cloth that I used, but other than that all of the fabric and supplies were free.

I also made two zippered cloth toiletry bags for our upcoming road trip. I made a larger one for myself, and a smaller one for Princess. They aren't perfect, but they were free! I used some old jeans and a Goodwill-bound baby jacket for fabric and notions. Did you know a cheap zipper at Walmart costs almost $2.00? That's crazy! It took about 15 minutes to get the zipper out of our free jacket, so I think that was time well spent. Before I made the pouches, I looked at Walmart for some cheap toiletry bags. I could find any for less than $4.00, so I decided to just go ahead and make some. I added a hanging loop on each bag for easier storage.

4. Gardening: I bought some more seeds this week at Home Depot. So far, I've spent $18.00 on seeds. Now all that I have left to buy are some seedlings, later on in May. I'm hoping to keep garden costs under $30.00 this year.

5. Reading: I've really enjoyed the amount of reading I've been able to do this month. While this isn't "frugal" right away, I believe that the information in books gives a high return for the cost. I buy books at thrift stores and garage sales, or get them from the library for free. This spring I signed up for a subscription reading service called Scribd. After I finished the three-month free trial, I decided to join. It costs $9.00 per month, but my subscription covers an unlimited number of ebooks, audio books and PDF files. I can easily burn through several audio books and an ebook or two per month, plus it is helpful to have almost any book I want on hand for reference. Not only that, but my husband and I share an account, so he can read and listen to different books on his phone. In January alone I listened to two books on potty training, two books on French culture and started one biography. I read one book on my phone and referenced at least five others. We are going to download a destination-related audio book before we hit the road later this week. The audio books in particular are so valuable to me, because I can "read" while I work on other things. Scribd is one subscription service that I think is 100% worth the money. Would you pay $2.00 or less for someone to read you an entire book while you did other things? I would! I learn so many valuable, profitable, money-saving things from books. And while you can get audio books from the library, the selection is limited and many of them are still on CDs. I used to order ebooks from the library; it's just a pain to try to get the files from the CD to your phone, etc. If you don't have $9.00 to spend every month on subscription audio, I would recommend downloading the free OverDrive app. You need a library card, and I believe there is a limit on how many books you can have "checked out" at one time, but it is free!

I think that's all for this week. I hope you've all had a fruitful, productive January!

-Bethany

​It's cold here in Michigan... negative fifteen degrees as I write this! On days like this, I'm especially thankful to be a homemaker cooped up in our little nest all day. We've had a fairly mild winter so far, but I think it's finally turned cold. I spent a lot of the last week reading, writing and happily working on indoor projects.

1. Groceries: Again, we didn't spend any money on groceries. Only 10 more days until we can go shopping again! I'm making a list of "necessities" as we run out of them; cream, sour cream, carrots, eggs, red meat, etc. as we run out. There are still plenty of things in the pantry and freezer that need to be used up.

2. Cooking: I made cheese from some prepared powdered milk that was nearing expiration. I also made some new recipes to use up ingredients that I had on hand. I learned how to make microwave mac 'n' cheese in the Instant Pot (hint: you do it just like you would for regular pasta. Add 1 cup water for every 4 oz. pasta, then cook on "Manual" for four minutes). I made an apple pie for the first time in several years, and got to try out my $10.00 apple peeler. It worked great! Of course three or four of the 20 apples I peeled broke in half while peeling/coring, but I think that was user error. It's probably been at least 15 years since I used an apple peeler; something no household should be without! In addition to making a pie for fresh eating, I also froze some "pie apples" and made little mini-pies and froze them. I used my Williams Sonoma mini pie mold to make the smaller pies. At first I thought the pie mold was a piece of junk, but then again... I think it was user error. My last couple of pies turned out pretty nice-looking. Lastly, I made applesauce with the peelings and ate it for lunch. 

3. Sewing: I am working on a car seat poncho for Baby. Like all of my other projects, this one seems to be taking an eternity to finish. Right now we're using it as-is... unhemmed.

4. Chicken/bird feed: I used some fat drippings, bird seed and a dab of peanut butter to make suet cakes. So far, neither the birds nor chickens are showing interest. Then again, the birds haven't shown interest in the bird feeder I just filled, either.

5. Learned new baby signs. I started doing a couple of sign language motions with Princess when she was six months old. I never saw any response from her until well after a year old, and then she only made ONE of the three signs. I thought maybe sign language wasn't worth the effort, since she had started saying real words ("bye bye", "hi there", "uh-oh", etc.). Imagine my surprise, several weeks ago, when she picked up the sign for "potty" in just a few hours! Since then I've been making more of an effort to teach her signs like "sleep", "help", and "more". My hope is that the signs will be an alternative to whining and throwing a fit when I don't know what she wants. 

6. I ordered seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds (four packets for $10.00) and started some sweet potato slips. The slips are from sweet potatoes I grew last year. I have plenty of seeds left from last year (and years before that) that I will use for this year's garden. 

Also, you can watch my latest Youtube vlog below:

​I think that's about it, folks! I hope you all had a frugal week. Stay warm!

-Bethany

We are officially one half way through our zero-spend month of cooking!

1. Groceries: We didn't buy any groceries. I did salvage some packaged food that was headed for the dumpster. I also harvested lettuce from our cold frame, and collected eggs from our chickens. I also shelled some almonds from Christmas.   

2. Cooking: I cooked a turkey this week, and made broth. I used powdered milk from the pantry to make milk for cereal. You can watch a clip of my turkey process on this week's Youtube vlog:​

In order to cut costs, I am attempting to start some of my own seedlings this year; heirloom tomatoes, peppers, sweet potatoes, cucumbers and some herb and flower seeds. I'll be purchasing five seed packets from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds ($15.00), five seed packets from Walmart ($10.00 or less), and five plants (mostly herbs—$15.00) from a nursery. That sounds like a lot of money to spend on a garden, but I will use the seeds for several years, and the herb plants are perennials. The "vegetable" garden will also produce fresh herbs, fruit and flowers, and those things increase the value of my garden significantly.

I've planned the following beds: 1) culinary herbs, 2) flowers, 3) medicinal herbs 4) mints and tea herbs, 5) long beans, 6) sweet potatoes, 7) peppers, 8) tomatoes, 9 &10) cold frames and 11 & 12) open beds for any miscellaneous plants. During the warmer months I'm going to replace the greenhouse lid with a chicken-wire climbing frame to hold cucumbers. Hopefully the vining plants will provide shade for the lettuce and keep it from bolting.

Instead of using grass clippings for mulch, I will (again) use landscape fabric for the transplants, and old strawberry straw for the seeded items. This will reduce the amount of time needed to gather mulch. I have a LOT of straw on the strawberry patch right now, so I'll be able to use that for mulching even the flowers, bulbs and raspberries.

I made a general calendar of when each gardening task should be done. For example, I know that raccoons, Japanese beetles and blister beetles all come out at a certain time. I've made a note to purchase and/or set traps before those months, in order to reduce time spent picking off bugs, as well as lost crops. 

I plan on putting in an hour of strawberry weeding time every day. It may take less than an hour every day, but I'm planning an hour just to be safe. The trick is to do it consistently, and not wait for a once-a-month weeding marathon (which is what I did last year... big mistake). I hope that by keeping up a strong deer fence, that the strawberries will be able to overpower the weeds this year. ​

So, that is about it! I hope your week was full of frugal accomplishments. :)

​Til next time,
​-Bethany

1. Shopping: I've decided that January is going to be a no-spend month for groceries. We have a ton of food in the freezer, pantry and fridge that needs to be eaten. Not only that, but redistributing January's grocery money throughout the year will increase the future budget from $130.00 per month to $140.83. I will be doing Youtube updates on the no-spend month, so you can find more details about what we've been doing there.

2. Cooking: Mostly, I've been trying to use up excess food/ingredients left over from the holidays. I made several green smoothies. I also salvaged carrots, celery, and other items that were beginning to go bad in the fridge.

3. Organization: I spent $30.00 on plastic storage bins for our storage room. It wasn't technically "frugal"; as in, I spent money on the boxes. However, being organized is frugal because it prevents waste. Having my tools and supplies better organized will mean that I buy less doubles and lose fewer items. I bought large, medium and small containers, and used them to sort out tools and supplies for various projects. For example, I put all of the paper craft items in one box, soap items in another, etc. In the past I've just kept these items in old cardboard boxes. While that system worked, it looked "junky" wasn't pest-proof. I'm not sure why I didn't buy matching boxes sooner. I love the way they look, plus they actually stack well. The boxes make things easier to move around.

That's all, folks! I look forward to reporting more frugal accomplishments next week.

-Bethany

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I did a few new things this year that I'm excited to share with you.

1. Food: I brought croissants and mixed vegetables to my family's Thanksgiving celebration. I made the croissants from scratch for a cost of $2.25. The recipe is very similar to puff pastry, but far easier to make. I got it from this book.

​For Hubs' side of the family, I made the turkey and put together a cheese tray. His parents were out of the country, so it was just the adult kids and grandchildren. I used my regular recipe for turkey (add 2 c. liquid to turkey, cook 13 minutes for every pound of bird at 350F, baste every 45 min.), but this time I tried adding some kale and fruit to the turkey for garnish. It turned out wonderfully! The best part is, this week I have a bunch of kale left for soup! I also made stock with the carcass. We have some goat cheese left from the cheese tray, and cranberry sauce that I'll make into a dessert later this week. For me, the week after Thanksgiving is almost as fun, because I have so many novel ingredients to cook with.

​At Kroger I bought 6 lbs. of butter for $2.00 per pound, plus ground beef for $2.00 per pound. I normally buy 27% fat beef at Walmart for the same price, but Kroger had 20% fat available for $2.00 per pound, which was an even better deal.

2. Clothing: I put together Baby's Thanksgiving outfit for free—the socks were from a garage sale free box, and the shirt and pants I got from the "sharing corner" hosted by a local church (where you can donate a bunch of stuff, and then look through everyone else's donated stuff to take home). I thought this was a real accomplishment, because I am not an "outfit" person at all. 

My sister-in-law gave us six garbage bags full of toddler clothing to look though. And that was just the stuff she didn't keep! I had so much fun going through the clothes. There were sizes 18 mos., 2T, 3T, and 4T, plus accessories like tights, shoes and hair bows. I already had some clothes for Baby in 2T and 3T, but now I can keep the best of what we have and get rid of the styles I really don't like, or that aren't practical. Over the weekend I listened to the audiobook, Lessons from Madam Chic by Jennifer Scott. The author promotes the idea of a "10 item wardrobe". When sorting through the baby clothes, I tried to keep pieces that would all match with each other, and that would look good with Baby's skin tone and eyes. I'd love to do a 10 item wardrobe for myself, too, at some point.

3. Decluttering: I threw away or donated a bunch of items. During bath time I've been reading Zero Waste Home by Bea Johnson. Inspired, I sorted through my kitchen gadgets and tossed broken items and put unneeded, gently used items in a box for Goodwill. I also put seasonal items in storage. We have a relatively small kitchen, but I think having fewer items just makes it easier and faster to get things done. It also helps me actually use the things I have.

In the bathroom, I also tossed old lotions, cosmetics, and put unneeded items in the Goodwill box. Several years ago I bought a hair straightener. I used to use it quite a bit when I had bangs, but that was four years ago, and I haven't used it since. I also moved medical items into the medicine cabinet in another room, to free up storage space in the bathroom. Getting rid of unneeded or unused items always makes me feel better about our home. I think it's important to re-evaluate possessions every so often as our lives or lifestyles gradually change.

4. Black Friday: For the last few months, I've been making a "Black Friday" list of things to buy, either for Christmas or just everyday use. On Thanksgiving I also looked through all of the store ads to see if there was anything we "needed". I only found two things, and one was a Christmas present. The other was a 20-piece Pyrex set with four different sizes of round containers. I spent $20.00 on the set, which normally retails for $40.00. I've been wanting to replace my plastic storage containers with glass for a while now, and this was the perfect chance to do so!

When I got home, I threw away all of my old (free) freezer boxes. I moved the plastic Rubbermaid storage boxes from their prominent place in our kitchen to our pantry, where I'm using them as mouse-proof storage for dry beans, pasta, etc. The round Pyrex containers are SO, so nice. I can bake or cook the food in it (in the Instant Pot, no less!), serve food in it, and when we're done eating, and store the food in it! The smallest containers are the perfect size for Baby. Today she was napping during lunch, so I set aside a little container of lunch for her. When she woke up, I pulled the lid off and set the whole thing in front of her. She happily ate most of the food, and even used her fork, which is unusual! To say I'm excited about the Pyrex is probably an understatement. I would still like to get one of those casserole/carrying case combinations in the future.

In addition to the Walmart purchases, I also got one other Christmas present and some cloth diapering stuff. I was hoping to get a new car seat for Baby on sale, but the one I was waiting for never went on sale. So I ended up buying that, and some books, and some home items, at full price. Well, at least I tried!​

I believe that's all I have for you this week!

Until next time,
-Bethany

Hello everyone! I know I've been sporadic in posting for the last month or two. I'm still working on two writing projects; I had to switch publishers for my print books, so formatting The Housewife's Guide to Frugal Fruits and Vegetables has been a bit of a hassle. I've had to reformat several times and resubmit, only to do it all over again. But hopefully the next proof (arriving today!) will turn out perfect and I'll be able to move on from that project.

Second, I've been preparing for the holidays and a two-week trip we have coming up. Some of the "accomplishments" below weren't necessarily frugal (as in, they cost money), but I thought I'd share anyway. So, here goes!

1. Groceries: November and December and FANTASTIC months for grocery shopping. I've tried to stay under budget, but I don't mind spending a bit more this time of year because of all the wonderful sales. Since last month I made two stops at Kroger; I spent $33.94 the first time, and $9.97 the second time (total: $43.91). Since our monthly budget is $130.00, and we're almost halfway through the month, I think we're doing pretty good.

Between shopping sales and using coupons, I was able to get the following prices: herbal tea for $1.29 per box (bought 2), pasta for $0.42 per box (14) , cereal for $0.99 per box (5) and canned goods (corn, tomatoes and cream of mushroom soup) for $0.49 per can (22). On the second trip (see photo above) I was able to get "cream of" soup for $0.39 per can, cheese for $2.00 per pound, pasta for $0.33 per box, Chex cereal for $1.50 per box, free M&Ms, free sausage, a tube of toothpaste for $0.04 (not uncommon for Kroger, if you use coupons), and a packet of cocoa for $0.15. Unfortunately the cashier double-swiped the cocoa and I didn't notice, so my $0.15 cocoa ended up being $0.90. I guess that's what I get for not checking the receipt before leaving the store.

The Chex cereal wasn't a smashing good deal, but I needed two more participating items to make the other deals work, plus it was on my list of things to get for Christmas baking. I can also sell the Box Tops for Education on Ebay. 

2. Other shopping: I was able to get 3- and 5-packs of Handifoil pans for $1.00 per package at Kroger. I use these for meals for new moms, people who are sick, etc., so that was a great find. Normally they can be quite expensive. I also found plant food, deet-free mosquito spray and citronella candles at an extreme markdown at Walmart. I got orchid and African violet food, rose and flower food, and two different bags of all-purpose plant food; all were $1.00 per bag/bottle, except one larger bag was $2.00 and the citronella candles were about $0.63 each. I also saved $1.25 on batteries by using a coupon.

3. Ebay: I sold two items on Ebay for a profit of about $20.00 after fees and shipping.

4. Cooking and baking: I've designated Friday as baking day at our house. I don't get around to doing a new project every week, but most of the time I can. Since the last post, I made two different batches of puff pastry; one with butter and the other with animal fat. The animal fat batch turned out like pie crust, which wasn't a total waste. I froze the puff pastry dough and half of the pie crust dough to use later. I also experimented with two new cookie recipes; gingerbread cookies and "Holland Almond Wafers". Both were recipes from an old cookie cookbook that I trash-picked by the side of the road several weeks ago. The gingerbread cookies were okay. They rolled nice and were good for decorating, though the taste and texture weren't my favorite. I ended up freezing half the dough to make a gingerbread house in December. 🙂 

The almond wafers were "refrigerator cookies", which I've never had the patience to try before (you have to refrigerate the dough before baking). They reminded me of the refrigerated cookie dough that you can buy at the store, but the flavor was FAR superior and the cost lower. The almond wafers in particular were very good. They tasted a lot like windmill cookies, which are one of my favorite types of cookie. I've included some pictures below.

I've been trying to find an efficient way to cook and prep chicken thighs. You can buy them at Walmart for just $0.68/lb, all year round. With the last 10 lb. bag, I tried baking them on a cookie sheet with some spices rubbed on top. It worked great! We used two or three of the thighs for one meal right away. Then I drained the fat off into a jar to save for later. When the thighs had cooled a bit, I picked the skins off and baked them (bake insides up at 350 F until they look crispy) for a very tasty snack. I picked the meat off of the bones and filled about three quart-sized freezer bags. I used the bones to make two quarts of broth, so there was absolutely no waste! I melted the fat together with beef fat (from my cheap 10lb. roll of beef) to use like lard. From a $6.00 bag of thighs, I got about seven meals' worth of meat, two quarts of broth, cooking fat and some tasty "fried" chicken skins. I had been cooking the thighs in the Instant Pot, but it's easier to bake them and part them out all at once, only have one pan to wash, etc.

Lastly, I began a sourdough starter. I tried making sourdough bread many years ago, but it didn't work out. Recently a friend recommend the book Artisan Sourdough Made Simple by Emilie Raffa. I ordered it from the library interloan system and have been reading it. Already I can see some of the mistakes I made years ago, and perhaps why things didn't work out. I hope the new starter will work better. Sourdough bread can be cheaper to make than regular yeast bread, because you don't have to use yeast or oil.

5. Christmas and Thanksgiving prep: As mentioned before, I froze some puff pastry, pie and cookie dough. I made a lined pencil case and toiletry bag for our Operation Christmas Child shoe box, with supplies that I already had. I'll admit, the second bag looked a lot prettier than the first. I learned that it's a lot easier to make bags with slightly rounded corners so the zipper doesn't bulge at the corners.

OCC now has a "Follow Your Box" feature, where you can see where your shoe box ends up. While we were printing out the label, Hubs also read that they have a virtual "build a box" option for $25.00, where you can pick out different items, upload a photo of yourself and greeting (if you want to), and send the box from the comfort of your own home; no shopping required. Personally, I like the idea of sending a real box better, but I realized that we spent a lot more than $25.00 on our box. Next year I'm going to see if we can put together two boxes for the amount that we spent on one this year. If you set your budget at $25.00 for a box, minus the $9.00 shipping fee, that leaves $16.00 to spend on toys, personal hygiene, and school supplies. This year I adapted a list from the Prudent Homemaker website** to chose what would go in our box. Brandy is a lot more frugal than I am; she split a lot of the items (for example, bought one package of pencils and divided it between two boxes), made more of her gifts from scratch and bought things from the dollar store. We just went to Walmart and bought most of the things at full price. 

Giving, like eating out, is one area we choose not to economize on. Of course I'm always up for a deal when it comes to gifts, or getting more value for the money, but if an expensive item has more value, we don't mind spending extra money on it. For example, we bought Crayola colored pencils instead of Rose Art colored pencils for the shoe box. I feel like that is worth the money, since it is a gift and we can afford the upgrade. That being said, I could have bought the same colored pencils back in August for half the price, so... with a little planning, I think the shoe box money could go twice as far. 

I also made and ordered Christmas cards for us. Instead of printing regular Christmas cards, I just put our family photo, with a Christmas greeting, on a Vistaprint "business" postcard. These are quite a bit cheaper than regular photo cards, plus they are less expensive to mail ($0.35 for a postcard stamp, as opposed to $0.50 for a letter stamp). 

6. Cleaning and organizing: Finally, I spent some time decluttering and rearranging our home to increase efficiency. Cleaning out my spice collection, for example, allowed me to move the baking ingredients in a cabinet beneath the Kitchen Aid mixer, instead of having them on the other side of the room. I also cleaned and decluttered the sewing area, and organized half-finished projects in plastic baggies, where I could see them. I hope the time spent making these changes will help me get more done in the coming months. 

I think that's about all for today! 

Til next time,
-Bethany 

**Be sure to check the Operation Christmas Child guidelines before packing your box. Since Brandy wrote her post, the ministry has chosen not to allow things like candy or toothpaste to be sent in the boxes.

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a great week! I'm really enjoying this colder weather, as it allows me to get some inside things done.

1. Groceries: we spent WAYYYY more than the regular $20.00-$30.00 this week. I'm going to start doing my once-a-month Walmart pickup again, and set aside what money is left over for things like fresh produce, coupon items and bargain bin items. After I made such a big Walmart order, I panicked a little bit because it wouldn't leave me much leftover for upcoming Thanksgiving sales. Then I remembered... it's still technically October. Whew! 

That being said, our total spending this week was $104.06. We spent $74.64 at Walmart on boring items like chicken thighs, ground beef, cabbage and rice (among other things). We also went to a bent 'n' dent store on Saturday (I LOVE those places!) and picked up some fun baking items, spices, meat and snacks for $29.42. You can see my haul picture above.

The bent 'n' dent deals were honestly not that great; most were not much better than Walmart's regular prices. Not only that, but almost 100% of what I bought was already expired. Given that, I think I probably overpaid for most of what I bought. I'm going to cross this store off of my list of places to go. Even so, it was still a fun destination. 

Fun purchases: We also stopped at an Amish "general store". I bought two little bread pans for Baby, plus a cheap pair of baby mittens (something I haven't been able to find yet, for some reason). Lastly, I got a Pennsylvania Dutch dictionary for $10.00. I was THRILLED to bring that home! (For those who don't know, my in-laws used to be Amish.) We've been married for almost five years and I still don't know more than ten words. I'm super excited to start learning some new words.

2. Refund from Walmart: When I picked up our groceries from Walmart, they had made three substitutions, including organic carrots in place of regular carrots. An upgrade—hooray! I thought to myself. When I got home, I realized that they had replaced my 5 lb. bag of conventional carrots ($2.92) with a 2 lb. bag of organic carrots ($1.66). I didn't think that was a fair trade, so I called up Walmart and they gave me a refund. 

3. Cooking: I had to make yellow rice mix for one of our meals. Instead of making just what I needed (one recipe's worth), I quadrupled the recipe. If you already have the spices out, why not? It will save me a few minutes of time for each meal. Slowly, I am learning how to batch-cook almost everything. Throwing together a meal is a lot easier when half of the work is already done.

4. Sewing: I made a cleaning mitt for Baby, as well as some small washcloths. I put bias tape around the edges of both washcloths and mitt, and put little loops on each of the washcloths for easy hanging. I wish I would have put a loop on the mitt, but I didn't think about it.

5. Picked up cans recycle. It wasn't exactly warm last week, but we bundled up and went for a few walks anyway. They yielded a couple dollars' worth of cans, plus some free exercise. :)

I think that's all I've got to share! What were some ways that you saved money?

-Bethany

Hi there! I have some frugal accomplishments for you all.

1. Groceries: I spent $21.49 on groceries this week at our local Spartan-Nash store. We were very busy over the weekend and I knew I wouldn't have a lot of time to cook. My sister came over to babysit all day Saturday, so I bought some snack foods for her, plus convenience food for that day as well. It turned out that we didn't need the bagged and boxed meals, so I put those in the pantry for another busy day.

2. Garden: I brought in all of my sweet potatoes this week. I harvested tomatoes, beets and basil cuttings. I also weeded the giant strawberry patch. I started radish, lettuce, kale and beet seeds indoors. The kale seeds have already sprouted!

3. Recycling: Picked up cans on a walk.

4. Writing: Last Friday I sent out the final sections of my book to beta readers. Many thanks to those of you who gave and are giving feedback!! Now there are just a few small changes to make and it will be ready for a final edit. YAY! 

5. Christmas preparations: I've been trying to get a head start on Christmas preparations this year; choosing recipes, writing down gift ideas, DIYing some gifts and decorations. This week we had a family photo taken, which will be used on our Christmas card. Instead of doing ALL of the Christmas things after Thanksgiving, my goal is to do a little bit each week so there's not as much chaos during the season. Things like Christmas cards can be done far, far in advance. If I know what recipes I'll be making and what gifts I want to buy, I can watch for those things to go on sale, instead of buying them at full price last minute.

Well, I think that's about it for this week. 

Til next time,
-Bethany

​Hi everyone! We just finished up "Birthday Week" here, starting with Baby's birthday last weekend and mine this weekend. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE this time of year? Hubs took me shopping to my favorite store and out to eat at my favorite restaurant. On the way, we stopped at a cemetery and found my great-great grandparents' (our daughter's great-great-GREAT grandparents!) headstone, which I'd never seen before. Cemeteries are often so quiet; it's like touring a museum of stone artwork. The occasional stroll through a graveyard is a good reminder of how short life is and how long eternity is. Plus... they're free! And it's even more fun when you can find your relatives!

Anyhow... onto frugal accomplishments.

1. Writing: I've been spending a lot of time editing and coming up with marketing materials for my next book. 🙂 🙂 I took a rather long break from writing after Baby was born, and it feels good to have another project nearing the finish line. I'm hoping it will be published by the end of this year.  

2. Cooking: I made a pumpkin roll, cookies and chili for Baby's little birthday party. We had some other things as well that were not homemade, and I made her a tiny birthday cake. I used half a 10 lb. roll of ground beef for the chili, so I used the other 5 lbs. to make a double batch of meatloaf and freeze several pounds of cooked burger. I figure if you have to repackage and freeze the meat anyway, you might as well cook it or mix it in with other things and make it a "freezer meal".

3. FREE BOOKS! While we were on a bike ride, I stopped by the side of the road to dig through a trailer pile of free stuff. Most of the time we just come home with empty beer/soda cans, but this time I brought home nine books!!! Some of the books were in fair or poor condition, but to me a free book is a free book. "The Prize Winner's Handbook", "The Art of Italian Cooking" "The Bicentennial Cookbook" and "Everything You Want to Know About Feet" were some of my finds. I also got a little book about how to save money on groceries (which included no less than 18 hot dog recipes) and three homemaking humor books. 

My favorite finds were two vintage magazine-style books. One was a McCall's Cookie Collection book from 1965. The second was a "Learn How Book" with instructions for knitting, embroidery, crochet, and tatting from 1941. I wanted to learn crochet on my birthday, and the book provided some good tips. I have another book with crochet instructions, and I've watched various Youtube videos, but have only slightly got the hang of it. The hook and yarn are still clumsy in my hands, and my work doesn't look consistent. I think I'd benefit from having an in-person lesson.

4. Birthday: I picked up a free personal-sized pizza for my birthday. I also received some mums and an orchid as birthday gifts. Two gifts that keep on giving! My grandparents also got me a cinnamon broom—something I'd never seen before. It makes our house smell wonderful! 

5. Cloth diapers: As I mentioned a few weeks ago, we've been battling smelly diapers and diaper rash for awhile now. Rash is not uncommon when cloth diapered babies transition from exclusive breast milk to solids, but it's certainly not pleasant. I invested in some buffalo/Native American polar fleece to make larger fleece liners to use with her diapers. The other roll of fleece in the clearance bin was printed with the presidential seal... I had to chuckle to myself at the thought of using it for diaper liners. Out of respect for the current President and all that came before him, I left that roll for someone else.

In addition to adding fleece liners to the diapers, I increased the temperature of our wash water and started changing Baby more frequently; every two hours or so. While the additional changes are annoying, they do cut down on diaper rash. Unfortunately it meant I had to buy some more diapers to stretch the stash.

Since I needed some extra inserts anyway, bought a pack of flour sack towels from Walmart to try as boosters for our Alva pocket diapers. I really like them. The cotton doesn't hold stink like microfiber does, and the flats are so, so fast and easy to dry. If nothing else, the flour sack towels will give me an extra day to dry the other inserts. When we first started cloth diapering, I purchased what I thought were "bamboo" inserts at $2.00 a piece. Last week I cut one of the inserts open and discovered that they're actually three layers of microfiber sandwiched between two layers of bamboo. No wonder ALL of the inserts stank! I'm going to stop using those for a while and instead use the flour sack towels as boosters. If I can do without the "bamboo" inserts, I'll try selling them. There's no reason to keep around a bunch of additional, stink-holding microfiber inserts if I have perfectly good hemp and cotton inserts to use.

I think that's about it for the week's accomplishments! I hope you are all having a lovely September.

-Bethany

1. Groceries: we bought a block of cheese for $12.00, and a half-bushel of peaches for $18.00.

2. Cooking: I froze most of the peaches, froze some Chinese long beans, made one batch of wine from our own green grapes, plus made three pints of tomato sauce.

Hubs and I had a great conversation last week about canning. I expressed frustration at spending my two free hours every day canning tomatoes, only to save $5.00 or less. Not only that, but my tomato sauce never tastes as good as the store sauce, or even sauce I can make from tomato paste that costs $0.40 per can. I asked Hubs if he had any ideas about how I could make the sauce better without spending even more time cutting and canning tomatoes. I wondered if we should buy a Kitchen Aid Victoria strainer attachment.

“You know, I don’t really like canned food,” he said. At first, I was shocked. There was no amount of work I could do to make my canned tomato sauce perfect. I would never win the battle for a perfect sauce! “What I like about having a garden is how fresh the fruits and vegetables are, and how good they taste,” he continued.

Suddenly, I had an epiphany.

“So you don’t like canned food. Come to think of it, I actually don’t love canning," I said. "What I like is the gardening! Why don’t I work on extending the garden season instead of planting so much to freeze and can?”

A weight lifted off of my shoulders. I’m not going to throw away my canner, but for this season of life it doesn’t make sense for me to do a lot of canning, especially for low-value products like tomato sauce. Why not spend time doing something I enjoy—gardening—and create food that my husband also enjoys? Nowadays there are all sorts of ways to grow things early in the spring, late into fall and even through the winter if you are willing to invest in a hydroponics or aquaponics system. I am so excited to be shifting my focus with the garden.

3. Thrift store: I bought some things at the Volunteers of America 50% off sale. I got a wicker tray for $1.50, a water container for $0.75, a book for $0.30, baby shoes for $1.00, a bowl for $0.50, brand new muffin cup liners for $0.30, and a belt for $0.50. The water dispenser and basket tray work great for a kitchen station that I’m working on for Baby (who is quickly becoming more of a toddler and less of a baby… sniffle!).

4. Collected cans to recycle on several bike rides.

5. Rearranged my recipe cards into days of the week and months of the year, rather than in categories of “Drinks,” “Soups,” “Desserts,” etc. I hope this will help me to have a more seasonal menu plan, while not changing the basic plan much. This system is a lot like the Sidetracked Home Executives plan for cleaning, except I’ve used it for cooking instead. My goal is to find specific recipes for each month that will utilize fresh, in-season and on sale ingredients as much as possible. The rotating menu plan is something I’ve wanted to implement for a long time, but wasn’t sure how to organize it. If the note cards work as planned, I’ll refill the “weekly” tabs once a month with new recipes. Then when I go to cook each day, all of the recipes will be in one place. I’ll also be able to peek at the next day’s note cards to see if I need to thaw out any meat or start cooking anything the day before.

6. Cloth diapers: I tested our water for hardness, and it came out at an average hardness of 250. I’ve been trying to resolve ammonia stink issues that developed over the last eight months. I stripped the diapers, which seemed to help a lot but didn’t entirely take away the stink. Supposedly your wash routine is not optimal if the diapers ever have stink issues, so I want to fix the problem and not have to strip again. Stripping isn’t particularly expensive or complicated, but it’s a hassle. It cost $5.00 for the bottle of Calgon, plus at least $1.00 for disposables that I had to use while stripping.

I also spent $29.00 on five new diapers from the Alva factory in China. We had some diapers poop out (haha) due to delamination, so I wanted to buy some more. I looked into some other different diaper options, but none were as cheap as the Alvas. Plus, I like the prints and how they fit.

As I continue to do cloth diapers, I hesitate to recommend it as a frugal activity for anyone besides first-time moms. At this point, I’ve spent at least $300.00 on cloth diaper related supplies—some of which worked, some of which didn’t. Diapers, inserts, pail liners, a sprayer, gloves and a spatula, more diapers and inserts, store-bought laundry soap, stripping supplies, special cloth-friendly clothing and clothing patterns. I’ve spent hours and hours crunching numbers, checking for deals, trying to fix issues like the ammonia stink one. I save less than $30.00 per month. Every time I buy new stuff for the stash, it cuts into savings. For example, I spent all of August’s savings on new diapers. Not only that, but I’m not saving 100% of the time because I still keep a small number of disposables on hand for road trips, stripping, severe rash, etc. Now I'm looking at adding water softener to the list, which would cost about $2.00 per week. I’m not saving as near much money as I originally thought I would. 

I’m convinced that the big savings from cloth diapers come mostly from use on the second child, and subsequent children; after you’ve worked out a lot of the kinks in your system, and when you’re not burning through diapers from misuse or buying accessories willy-nilly to find what works best. That means that the key to saving money with cloth diapers is to make your diapers last as long as humanly possible, while carefully limiting the ongoing costs of laundry detergent, disposable liners, etc.

So yeah, I’m feeling a little burnt out on canning and ambivalent about our cloth diapers. But excited about other things, like fall and new gardening projects and my birthday coming up. It’s important to re-evaluate what you’re doing at regular intervals to see if it’s still a good fit. Why settle for good when there is a “best” still out there?

Til next time,
Bethany