​Hello everyone! I felt like I had a pretty good week.

1. Groceries: We spent $40.00 at Walmart this week. I bought things like tomato paste, cheese, eggs, dry beans, chicken thighs, tortillas, crackers, milk and tuna fish. I’m working on our meal plan for November, which will feature root vegetables, hardy greens (we’ll see how hardy they really are!), venison and chicken. Also probably some apples and pears. The chicken thighs were marked down $0.66 per bag, so I saved $1.32. Not bad for something that is already so cheap!

I pulled parsnips and potatoes out of the garden this week. I also made cheese from some milk that was about to expire.

2. ​Organizing: I almost finished organizing my library/office area upstairs. I went through all of my old homemaking binders and combined them into one binder. While I was sorting everything, I found some cleaning schedules that I’ll start using soon. I’ll have to do a lot more cleaning since this place is much bigger than the last one. I also made new morning, afternoon and evening schedules (more like "order of events"). I usually have to change those anyway when the weather changes, as we spend more time indoors during the winter months.

3. Toddler outing: on Thursday Hubs’ was out of town, so I decided to take Princess to a local Western store where I had a gift card I could use. I thought I might buy her some animals for her toy collection, but they didn’t have what I was looking for. We spent about 20 minutes looking at all of the merchandise; saddles, boots, hats, etc., and admiring the reindeer and longhorn mounts on the wall. I fished two quarters out of my purse and let her ride the mechanical horse. They also had a mechanical bull, but I was out of quarters. After going through the whole store, I didn’t find anything we needed. I did find some things that would make nice baby gifts, so I will save the gift card and use it for that purpose.

After that, we went to our credit union building, which was having a member appreciation day. I got to catch up with a friend who works there, plus Princess brought home a free pumpkin, lip balm, donut and balloon. The whole cost for our outing was $0.50 plus gas ($1.00 or so), and we came home with some free stuff!

4. Sewing: I finished two hand towels that I began several weeks ago. These are very easy to make with one potholder (needs a loop) and a dish towel. It wasn’t a particularly frugal project since I bought the supplies new at Walmart (about $3.00 per towel). However, I needed new hand towels and similar ones go for $6.00 or more on Amazon. So in that way, I guess it was frugal. I look forward to making more colors that I can switch out for different seasons. In the future I might make my own potholders, since the ones at Walmart are rectangles and I prefer squares with a corner loop—the video doesn't recommend it, but I like the look better—for this project. ​

5. Work on the house: I primed one of the guest bedrooms this week. 

We also bought a dryer used on Facebook Marketplace and moved our old washer over here to the new house. Right now it’s in the basement; not its final resting place, but at least now I don’t have to walk next door to do laundry! The dryer isn’t hooked up yet, so I’m using drying racks instead (so... saving $0.45 per load!). One of the drying racks is an ancient, massive one that my mother-in-law gave me. It’s so sturdy that our toddler can climb on it and it won’t break. Wonderful for drying jeans.

Lastly, we did something that wasn’t frugal: we bought new couches. We had a twice-handed-down couch set at the apartment for five years, so neither of us were sorry to hand over the cash for a new set. Hubs signed up for a credit card (that we won’t use, of course) to save over $100.00. Also, instead of buying bar stools at the store for $60.00 or more per piece, we bought similar ones online for $45.00 each. They haven't arrived yet. We have faith that they will be okay. ;)

We’ve spent a LOT of money on this new house, but I think it’s important to mention that we spent very little on the last house. All of those missed decorating opportunities got rolled into a figurative sinking fund for this place. If you spend a lot of money repainting, redecorating and refurnishing rentals, it's money you will never get back. Before we got married, I read a book that recommended newly married couples establish a decorating budget. I agree... AND, I think that budget should be as close to $0.00 as possible until you have a permanent (or, as permanent as possible) home. Save the money! It's worth it!!! Not only will you be able to purchase higher quality items later, but the $0.00 budget will encourage creativity and contentment for the time being.  

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That's about it! It's so good to feel productive again. We'll be slowly working on more house projects all winter, but the major purchases have been made and now I can begin to think about "fun" things like lamps, rugs, artwork, etc. The kitchen is very close to being "before-and-after" ready. There is one glass cabinet insert that needs to be installed, and we need to buy two glass globes (lamps??) for a light fixture. I expect to be sharing some pictures here in a week or two!!!

Til next time,
-Bethany

Hi everyone. I’m back! I’m really excited about blogging on the regular again. Things in our house still aren’t 100% buttoned up, but I’ve decided to resume a semi-normal schedule anyway. 

1. Cooking: I’ve been cooking a bit more, since my new kitchen is more convenient to use than the last one. I made several meals with side dishes (crazy!) since I’m not neurotic anymore about using (washing) as few dishes as possible. I made spaghetti sauce from scratch with tomatoes that were in the garden. I made popcorn in the air popper; something I haven’t done much, since you have to melt butter in a pan, and who wants to wash yet another pan? Especially one with butter?? I excitedly explained to Hubs how easy it was to just put the butter pan in the dishwasher. And he pointed out that we now have a microwave so I don't even have to melt butter on the stove anymore. Oh.

I also made yogurt, broth, and cookies, and froze some herbs for use this winter. All in the last week! While this wouldn’t have been a big deal in my pre-moving days, it’s a miracle now since we’re still unpacking, working on house projects, and last week we had somewhere to go almost every night. Our toddler had a heyday with all of the open boxes of stuff in every room, scattering the new “toys” here and there, which made non-remarkable accomplishments (like cooking and cleaning) even more difficult on top of an already-busy schedule. But oh! The miracle of dishwashers and an easy-to-use kitchen space.

2. Tucked away the garden for winter. Over the weekend I harvested all of the pre-frost items from my garden; things like peppers, cucumbers, beans, summer squash and tomatoes, as well as some fruit (apples, pears, and a peach) and frost-hardy things like kale, swiss chard and winter squash. I brought in all of the green tomatoes and put them in the basement to ripen. I think they would ripen better in the garage, but there is still too much moving stuff in there.

I’m so happy with how the garden turned out this year, despite my utter lack of care from June until now. Instead of trying to can and freeze a lot of things, I just picked fresh produce as it was ready. We’ve been eating fresh greens since the beginning of May, and will likely have kale, Swiss chard and spinach until at least the end of October, thanks to some plastic and two greenhouse boxes that Hubs made for me last winter. We haven’t bought much produce at all since the beginning of June—just onions, carrots, a bit of celery and bananas now and then. Below you can see a sample of all the wonderful produce we got to partake of this summer:

On top of the produce, I also harvested medicinal and culinary herbs (some of which are pictured at the top of this post). I didn't harvest many flowers this year, but that's just because we were so busy. In October we’ll be having sweet potatoes, beets, parsnips, potatoes, kale, Swiss chard, spinach and endive from the garden. I put one of the greenhouse boxes around the herb garden, so that will help extend the life of my fresh herbs. I’m crossing my fingers that there will still be some of those things available in November as well, though obviously as the colder months drag on we’ll have to dig into the freezer stash and then start buying produce. But overall, I think the “minimal canning and freezing, maximal gardening” strategy is one that I want to keep for a long time.

3. Got some stuff at one of the thrice-annual “free garage sale” events in our area. The way it works is that you donate all of your leftover stuff, and then at the event you dig through everyone else’s stuff and hope to come home with something “new”. Kind of like a clothing swap. Of course, you don’t HAVE to donate anything, but it’s a good way to get rid of unused stuff and makes the sale better for others.

Some things I got: clothing for myself and our daughter, shoes for our daughter, several books, a beautiful turkey napkin holder (below) and probably some other things I forgot.

4. The three of us went on a walk together and collected $0.50 or so worth of cans. Princess and I collected about the same amount of cans on a different walk.

That is about all I can think of, for now. Obviously there has been a lot going on around here, so I probably forgot some things. Oh well!

Until next time,
-Bethany

This week was a mixture of happy things, good old-fashioned frugal accomplishments, and "why me" moments.

​This morning I stepped into the chicken coop to see all but two of my hens slaughtered or seriously injured. After examining the surroundings, we came to the conclusion that there was likely a predator in the coop when I shut them in last night. That means that I shut the little chicken door, counted the chickens, shook down their feed, and checked for eggs in the midst of the chicken murderer.  Thankfully my siblings took three of the hens to the 4-H fair this week, so they were completely out of harm's way. I've NEVER had anything like this happen, so it was a real blow.

On top of that, I found poison ivy in my strawberry patch last week. Unfortunately, I found it by pulling it out with my bare hand, while weeding. So now I have itchies on the fingers of my right hand, my left wrist, and the right side of my neck. It could be a lot worse, but still... why me??? 

In the midst of everything I left undone last week, I did actually accomplish some things.

1. Groceries: I spent a lot of time this week cleaning out our freezer, fridge and pantry. I worked on using up eggs, milk, and fresh produce from the fridge. I also made broth from chicken bones in the freezer, and used up (almost) all of the frozen bread ends by making a french toast casserole. We did spend some money at Walmart for bread and lunchmeat for sandwiches. Ice cream was on sale at Kroger for $0.99 per tub, so we spent $4.95 on ice cream. I cooked up a bag of chicken thighs that was in the freezer, so that is not taking up space anymore. Even though I'm not as "hard core" as I used to be about our food budget, I still get a kick out of making economical meals. The casserole probably cost about $0.75, and the meal I made with the chicken thighs was pretty cheap too, at about $0.75 per plate.

Of course, Hubs ate two chicken thighs so his cost a little more. But I don't know where else where you can get two chicken thighs and a plateful of rice and veggies for $1.50. Except maybe Guatemala.

2. Gardening: I harvested beets, Swiss chard, raspberries, kale, cucumbers, basil, thyme and cilantro this week. I dried the beet leaves and powdered them to use as greens powder during the winter months. I cut some flowers from the garden and made a centerpiece for the kitchen table.

For the first time ever, I started seeds for a fall garden! I've always liked the idea of a fall garden, but in the hustle and bustle of summers past, I never managed to start one. The seeds I started indoors were lettuce, kale and endive. The endive and kale seeds have already germinated!!!

​We started the process of transferring my garden from its current spot to the new home. For now, I'm going to have just four raised beds behind our kitchen for herbs, a greenhouse box, and a few vegetables. We built two brand new beds (out of scrap lumber, of course, so.... FREE) and I moved one of the unused beds from my old garden. I filled them up by layering grass clippings and rotted chicken manure. Only one bed will be used for my fall crop, so I topped that bed off with rich dirt from the old garden. I planted spinach and radicchio seeds in half of the box. The other half will be home to the endive, lettuce and kale plants.

That being said, I'll still be using one of the greenhouse tops on my current spinach/kale/swiss chard bed. Between the old garden and the new garden, I hope to have plenty of greens to harvest this fall, along with parsnips, beets, acorn squash, green tomatoes (to ripen indoors) and some sweet potatoes.  

3. I threw out some junk that we no longer needed. I also cleaned the excess canned goods out of my pantry, which set me wayyyyyy behind on dishes. Boo. But at least the pantry is cleaner. I organized our canned goods in the new basement by month, starting with the month of October. You can read more about that below.

4. Thrifting: I bought two kid-sized cabinets at a garage sale for $5.00 each. I think in their former life they may have been a kitchen set; one piece a sink, and the other a pretend fridge. The doors sagged on one piece, but they are nice wooden Montessori-style cabinets that will look wonderful with a little TLC. I also bought three kids' books at the same sale for $0.25 each

5. Mending: I fixed a hole in a pair of Hubs' shorts.

6. Books: I found two books on Scribd (aff. link) instead of buying them (Carrots Love Tomatoes and The Complete Book of Chalk Lettering, if you're wondering). A friend loaned me her copy of Joanna Gaines' book, Homebody. I've learned a lot from all three of the books already, and I've only browsed or just started them.

So, those are my main frugal things for the week. Apart from that, I had some thoughts I wanted to share regarding food preservation. As I dumped out several jars of canned food, I kept asking myself, who let out the canning monster? When we were first married I had from a "food shortage mentality" and canned everything from chicken feet to squash. Alas, we did not starve. After homesteading for a few years now, I'm realizing that too much food is more of a hindrance than a help. 


How Much Preserved Food Do You Actually Need?

As I was organizing jars of pineapple and grape jelly, I got to thinking about how little food we actually use in any given month. It's not like we're light eaters. It's just that two adults and one child can only eat so much fruit. Especially when we have plenty of fresh fruit, here on the property, April through October. That's about seven months during which we don't have to buy fruit OR eat canned fruit. That leaves November, December, January, February and March to can, freeze or dry fruit for. As I was redistributing the pineapple to different shelves (one for each month), I asked myself, how many half-pints of pineapple will we use in November? I thought about what people normally eat in November; Thanksgiving-style meals, warm soups, pumpkin spice everything. Nope, no need for pineapple in November. What do we eat in December? Party meals, cinnamon spice, more warm soups and cornflake casseroles. I guess I might use one little jar to cook a ham. I put one jar on the December shelf and redistributed the rest between January and March.

I went through this process for all of the months. Applesauce and pumpkin are pretty much fall items, but there was so much applesauce that I put some on every shelf. I will probably be looking for different uses for the applesauce (baking or using as sweetener, for example) just to use it up. Again, though—realistically, there are so many other fruits and fruit items I'd rather eat than applesauce; many of them cheap or even free. It's not like I never use applesauce, but I think one pint per month is more than enough. And if you consider the fact that we only "need" two or three months' worth.... well, four to six pints per year is plenty, if I continue to can applesauce.

Regarding freezer foods, I discovered the same thing. In the past, I would ask myself, how many frozen strawberries will we use per month? I thought we could use about one quart per week, so I froze 11 gallon-size bags of strawberries. I figured that I would use the berries in smoothies, and four smoothies per week doesn't sound unreasonable. But think about this: do we drink cold smoothies in the winter? Or, do we want to have only strawberry smoothies during the spring, summer and autumn months? When there is fresh fruit available, you can use that and blend it with ice during the summer. All that considered, I only froze five or six quarts of strawberries this year. Over the past week I put the same amount of raspberries in the freezer. We bought a bunch of fresh blueberries last week for $2.00 per pound, but to our disappointment, they were bitter and not great for fresh eating. So I put the last of them (1 quart) in the freezer as well. 12 quarts of berries should be enough to last from November to March. Of course each family is different, but we never use as much frozen fruit as I think we will.

So, that's fruit. What about veggies? We go through a fair amount of frozen vegetables between November and March. This year, though, I'll likely have some acorn squash and kale, and a few indoor-ripened tomatoes in November. Supplemented with crazy-cheap Thanksgiving vegetables from the store, we won't need much in the freezer for that month. I'm also hoping to have some greens in March, (but we'll see). I will only have to freeze vegetables for the four remaining months; greens and a small assortment of other frozen veggies like beans or bell peppers. I'll buy onions, carrots, cabbage and other frozen vegetables at the grocery store.

And what about canned tomatoes? I think I can make our current stash of canned tomato products last at least six months. During the summer we hopefully won't need as many canned tomatoes, if I base meals around other in-season foods. Next year, I'm hoping to do a little more tomato canning, but enough for several years. 


Egg Preservation Thoughts

Eggs are another example of seasonal efficiency. We have enough eggs from March through October. It's lean in November and February, but there are still some fresh eggs. We don't have any fresh eggs in December or January, but we DO have a surplus in April, May, June and September, it seems. In the past I've tried getting the chickens to produce during the winter, and also freezing the eggs; neither of which worked very well. Last year I tried waterglassing the eggs. Overall the experiment worked, but about half of the eggs were not usable. Neither were the "good" eggs good enough for scrambled eggs; they were only good for cooking and baking. Furthermore, later on I learned that waterglassing works better for unfertilized eggs, and ours were fertilized.

As I was organizing jars in the basement, I had an idea. What if I took just a few of our September eggs and waterglassed only enough for December and January? I could separate the rooster from the hens for that one month, and then put him back in. Further, by storing the eggs in several glass pickle jars, instead of one green five-gallon bucket, there would be less chance of a single bad egg spoiling the whole batch. 

I think I might try it.

Edit: Since the chicken massacre happened, we may not have extra eggs for waterglassing. But I'm going to keep these thoughts here to reference later.

So, those are my thoughts for the week. How has your week been?

1. ​Groceries: Since last week, I put together a new grocery budget and shopping list for the summer months. I increased the amount from $130.00 per month to $160.00. I think that will give enough room for comfort without the added stress of too much food. My suspicions of last week continue to be confirmed as I keep throwing out food that has gone bad. Since last week I threw out three slices of moldy bread, two quarts of sour yogurt, four rotted potatoes and a vastly overripe avocado. I'm really looking forward to the end of this food waste. Here's the list I came up with:

On the left are "staple" items; not all of them are on the list, because we have a lot of them already.

We went to Walmart for grocery shopping. I spent just over $47.00 for monthly groceries and this week's fresh things as well. Our fridge got satisfyingly empty before we went shopping, and I found a jar of already-chopped onions before they, too, began to rot. Yay! 

2. Cooking: I salvaged several food items that were going bad. I made some cheese with more soon-to-expire milk. When we ran out of mayonnaise, I made some in the blender with an egg, canola oil, and some other ingredients we had on hand. The spinach in the garden began to bolt this week, so I harvested most of it. Then I blanched and froze it in silicone muffin cups. I'll use the frozen spinach during July and August when we won't have any. I plan on planting more spinach for the fall garden.

It felt really good to do some cooking, since I haven't done much at all in the last month or so. I thought it would be a burden that I wouldn't miss, but I guess I like cooking more than I thought I did.   

3. Gardening: I planted the rest of my garden last week. This year I'm growing tomatoes on a trellis, growing beans on a tepee/pyramid structure, and also growing lettuce and spinach underneath cucumbers and watermelon. So far, I'm excited about how things are turning out. I saved an old pair of pantyhose to use for watermelon slings and also for storing bulbs overwinter.

4. Sewing: I'm in the process of replacing diaper elastics on some cloth diapers. I moved my sewing machine over to our new house (the good part of the new house, that is) to a room with lots of natural light. I salvaged a desk from my in-laws, so now I can actually just sit down and sew, instead of standing, bending over or even sitting or kneeling on the floor. My, it makes a world of difference. I can't believe how much I've accomplished in a few hours, even while watching my daughter. I love it! Having a designated, well-lit area for the sewing machine is the best thing ever.

In addition to the diapers, I also fixed a free pair of snow pants that will fit our daughter next year.

5. House project: this is coming along well, still. We have a lot of the roof shingled already, and a skylight in the kitchen. It adds so much natural light in there! They poured cement in the garage, and my husband and brother took out the clipped gable at the end of the old part. It looks so much better!!!

​I'm starting to look at paint colors for some of the upstairs bedrooms. It is so exciting!

6. Drinking glasses: I taught our daughter how to get her own water out of a water dispenser. This saves time and hassle for me. She's outgrowing her "baby" shot glasses, so I started giving her vintage jelly jars (given to us) to drink out of. They are about the same width around, but twice as tall, so they hold a lot more water.

​7. Thrifting: I went to the thrift store this week and bought some half-off items. A laundry basket for $1.50, two pairs of jeans for $3.00 each, two cups for $0.24, a binder for $0.40, a $0.50 puzzle, and a $0.40 book. I also bought a full-priced custard dish for $0.69. I think it will make a nice heavy-bottomed "bowl" for our toddler.

Phew! I think that's about it for the week!

Til next time,
-Bethany

Hi everyone! Here are a few things I've been up to lately. I wrote most of this last week when it was raining... then our internet didn't work, thanks to the construction project. But now we're all good. :)

1. Cooking: I made a yummy mock cookie dough with chickpeas, peanut butter, and a few other ingredients. It is really good, and only costs $1.50 or so per recipe. About half the cost is the chickpeas, and a majority of the rest is in the chocolate chips (I used fancy, expensive dark chocolate). I would like to try making some other varieties (ginger snap, chocolate, etc.) as well, at some point.

2. Garden: I'm using grass clippings again to mulch some of my garden beds. The straw is fast and easy, but it's harder to arrange around tiny plants. Not only that, but the grass clippings add nutrients to the soil, while the straw doesn't, really. In the past, I've loaded up wheelbarrows full of clippings and dragged them across our 5-acre property. This year I'm only collecting it from outside the garden and only mulching three beds with it. Hopefully after this mulching, those smaller plants won't need to be weeded as often.

​Hubs' parents are downsizing (it was their home prior to the remodel), so there is still some stuff left in the house. As it slowly empties out, sometimes we find things to just keep in there, instead of them donating it or selling it. Yesterday I found a little square basket for Princess' art supplies. I cut some sheets of paper in half (one side was already printed on) for little toddler-sized papers that fit into the bottom of the basket. The other day my MIL gave me a bird book that she no longer needed. What a great surprise! It's a little pocket-sized Golden Guide. Yesterday I was able to identify an Oriole. The new house has a massive porch that will be great for bird-watching. :) 

Til next time,
-Bethany

​Hey everyone! Guess what? More rain this week. 

1. Cooking: Rhubarb is ready! I made rhubarb crisp and rhubarb muffins this week. For the muffins, I replaced all of the sugar and 2/3 of the fat with applesauce. To replace 3/4 c. sugar and 2/3 c. sour cream, I just added 1 1/3 c. of applesauce. This cut down the cost of the recipe by over $0.50, since I made the applesauce from free apples several years ago. I loved the texture of the muffins, but they could have used some real sugar on top, or maybe some honey in the batter. But overall, I thought it was a real success. Rhubarb without sugar! What an idea!  

April and May have not been as busy as I thought they would be. Several weeks ago I bought some "convenience meals"—boxed, bagged, frozen and canned stuff. One of you mentioned that the flavor is lacking in a lot of the store-bought meals. Well, you were right. I like how easy it is to take something out of the freezer and put it in the oven and have lunch or dinner ready, but we tried two different lasagnas (cheap brands) and they weren't very good. I also tried some different boxed pasta meals. Those were good, but honestly not better or easier to prepare than what I normally make. Lastly, I tried some canned ravioli. I used to like canned pasta as a kid, but not any more. Hubs was happy with most of the convenience food, but I felt like the quality—and in some cases, the convenience—just wasn't there, for the amount of money you pay.

One change I'm satisfied with is using store bought bread and canned meat. Canned meat (both home-canned and store bought) eliminates the need for thawing and cooking meat, which isn't an option for last-minute meals. Store bought bread isn't healthier and certainly doesn't taste better. However, it's not that much more expensive than homemade bread ($1.00 instead of $0.50). Not only do I avoid flouring up the kitchen every week, but the store-bought stuff is more sturdy for sandwiches and travels better.

Apart from frozen leftovers, sandwiches are the best "convenience" meal I've found so far. I can put almost anything between two slices of bread: random bits of leftover meat, or garden veggies or eggs (which are plentiful this time of year). Canned and frozen meat cost about the same, so no budget increase there, and if we buy two loaves of bread per week it only costs $1.00 more than if we made it at home. Best of all, sandwiches always taste good!

2. Gardening: I harvested lettuce, spinach and a few radishes from the garden this week. I also potted up some self-seeded delphiniums and other plants to take to my sister. For anyone wondering, delphiniums are a great investment. I started about 8 plants from seed. The plants are perennials, so they come back every year. Not only that, but they self-seed and create little plantlets! I wouldn't call them "invasive" at all, but just productive enough to have some to share. They make a beautiful cut flower for arrangements, or just to enjoy in the garden. Lastly, I repotted some houseplants that had outgrown their pots.

3. House: not much is happening with the house project. The concrete company poured the foundation, so all that is finished. Now we are just waiting for concrete to be poured in the garage floor, and we can get to work on framing! 

See that green door to the left? That opens to a bathroom that was added on to the front porch at some point. We are going to be taking out the bathroom and bringing it back to its original glory as part of the wrap-around porch. Then the porch will extend past our kitchen/dining room addition and stop where the garage starts.

4. Trees: we did plant some trees along one edge of our property. We planted six maple trees and one Kentucky coffee tree (that I sprouted from seed!). The maples were just saplings from other areas of the property. They might survive, they might not—but at least they were free! We put an old tire around each tree to protect it from weed eaters, lawn mowers and pedestrians. We still have a big pile of tires out back to dispose of, but at least some of them are being put to use. In total we planted seven trees.

I guess it was kind of a slow week here. It's one of those "hurry up and wait" situations. When the weather is nice, there are a million things to do. When the weather is bad... there are still (albeit less pressing) things to do. I spent a lot of the week cleaning, reading, catching up on laundry and making some changes around the house. 

5. Robot-proofing: I put boards along the bottom of our couch so the robot vacuum doesn't get stuck under there. If I'm not utterly exhausted, I like to pick up and run the vacuum (which is more like a sweeper) at night in the kitchen/living/dining room of our house.

6. Kid stuff: I also moved Princess' mirror up a bit so she can see herself better (I first hung it when she was still crawling). I  made family picture magnets with old Christmas cards and unused business card magnets and put them lower on the fridge where she can see them. First I used contact paper to cover the photo, then used a glue stick to attach the photo onto the magnet. I like the idea of business card magnets, but they can't hold up so much as a postcard. I got frustrated trying to keep family photos up, which is why I decided to just glue the magnets and photos together. Each business card magnet made two photo magnets: 

Hey, guess what? It rained most of the week! That means I actually have a few accomplishments to share.

1. Cooking: I cooked one of those cheap hams I bought last week. It was a shank ham, and a bear to cut up. The meat was good roasted, but it came off the bone hard because it was very fatty. It took me a long time to cut off the fat in order to get non-gristly meat. Finally I decided to cook it again in the Instant Pot, hoping for fall-off-the-bone meat. It still don't come off easily. Finally I got a good portion of the meat off and decided to just leave the rest on the bone in order to make broth. When the broth was finished cooking, the rest of that meat finally came off. So I'm pleased to announce that none of the meat was wasted—I used the broth meat in soup.

I also made yogurt this week in the Instant Pot. I have been using yogurt starter from the previous batch for several weeks now, and it's still going strong. So that's $0.25 per week or so, saved. Here's a secret: making yogurt is so easy, I feel guilty calling it an "accomplishment". It's literally dumping milk into the Instant Pot, pushing some buttons. Then when the pot beeps, you take out the inner pot and set it in a sink of cold water. Stir a couple of minutes until the temperature goes down, then add some yogurt from your last batch, stir, and put it back into the Instant Pot. Push some more buttons. The next day, the yogurt is done. So easy, and I've never had any failed yogurt this way, even with homemade starter.

2. Shopping: I know, I said I was going to stop telling you our grocery spending. But I was curious to see how much our bill would go up. Would it double? Would it triple?? Or would it spike and then gradually come back down?

For the first two weeks, we spent about double. The next week, it was less than double. Last week we still had a bunch of groceries left from Aldi, so I bought fewer groceries; carrots, onions, frozen produce, bread, tuna, etc. We even got off-brand ritz crackers, organic celery and a mango (all no-nos on a bare-bones budget), and the total came to just $28.78. So who knows? Maybe we won't end up spending much more, after all. Maybe a simple $10.00/wk. increase is all it takes to ward off boredom and have a healthier standard of eating.

3. Thrifting: I went to the Sharing Corner (basically a free neighborhood garage sale). I dropped off two garbage bags full of stuff before the sale, and brought home half a bagful of new-to-me treasures: clothes and one book for Princess, and two belts for myself. 

​4. Gardening: I planted four tomato plants, chives and Bells of Ireland (a flower) in the garden. I'm crossing my fingers that it doesn't freeze, but if it does, I still have back-up tomato plants in reserve. Earlier this year I planted radishes, lettuce, Swiss chard and spinach in one of my greenhouse beds. In another bed, I planted parsnips, beets and garlic.

​So far, the spinach is looking the best! This will be my first year growing greens (besides lettuce). I started cooking with spinach recently, adding the frozen, chopped variety into soup, casserole, pasta and smoothies. I'm even more happy to be growing it myself now; not only will I save money by not purchasing the frozen bags, but I'll have almost-free organic spinach (for those who don't know, I'm trying to avoid the Dirty Dozen. Organics are so expansive. *Sigh*).

Organic celery costs twice as much as conventional (not to mention the stalks are smaller) so I think I'll start replacing it with the almost-free spinach and other garden vegetables. One package of celery can last a long time if you only use it for mirepoix.

My garden is like my husband. Every year I fall more in love! At the beginning of 2019 I was worried about how I'd take care of the strawberries AND vegetable garden, along with all of the other stuff we have going on. Well, I'm pretty proud of myself. The strawberries are looking great! Every afternoon I get a chance, I'm out there with a spade digging up weeds. Unlike last year, the paths between the rows are fluffy with straw, so it's not so hard on my knees (we used way too much straw to cover the berries, but that's better than too little!). Since we put a fence up last year, deer have not been a problem... so far.

I also dragged a little play structure out by the patch, which keeps our daughter busy while I work. That gives me a good 20-30 minutes out there, in the morning and possibly the evening if needed. I think this year is going to be SO much better than last, even though we have all of the extra construction work going on.


House Update

And of course, this post wouldn't be complete without an update on our house project! This is where we left off last week (minus the chimney, of course):

And this is today:

1. Groceries: I bought a frozen lasagna and boxed pasta dinner at Walmart for about $7.50 total. We returned $17.30 worth of cans, so I didn't figure the grocery costs into our normal monthly budget. Since we will be very busy during the next three months, I spent time perusing Walmart's website for boxed, canned and frozen meals to see how they might fit into our regular menu. For two people, the frozen meals were most expensive at $5.00-9.00. Boxed meals were about $2.00 (but, of course, don't include meat) and canned meals (including meat) also cost about $2.00. While packaged meals aren't all that healthy OR frugal, I'll be working in the strawberry patch and on our new-to-us house and won't have as much time to spend on regular household tasks. What time I do have will probably be spent in our vegetable garden or sleeping. Last year June was exhausting for me, and that was without the house. Some disposable diapers, paper plates and already-prepared meals are a small price to pay for an extra hour or two every day during such a busy time. The premade meals, even at $2.00-8.00 each, cost the same or less than fast food, and we won't have to drive anywhere to get dinner on. 

As our budget is now, I spend about $2.00 per meal (lunch and dinner). The packaged food will probably put us a little over budget. I am hoping that I'll be able to replicate some of the store-bought meals at home though, and save money that way. Some of them are only frozen vegetables with meat and rice. "I just can't bring myself to pay $8.00 for that!" I complained to my brother, while standing in the frozen food aisle at Walmart. "I can cook some rice in the Instant Pot and dump a few cans in for a lot less than $8.00." So, that could also be a solution.

2. Cooking: I made bread in the bread machine. I'm still working on spending less time in the kitchen (while still making food from scratch, on a budget). This week I spent between 30 minutes and 60 minutes per day cooking (plus a similar amount of time washing dishes every night). Doing all of the cooking tasks at once has cut down the time, I believe, by a bit.

3. Gardening: I planted sweet potato slips and green onions in dirt (they were previously in water). I didn't get a chance to plant anything in the garden this week, but I did spend several afternoons peeling straw off of my strawberry patch. We put it on way too thick last year (we just rolled several big round bales' worth out onto the rows) so it was a real task to pick off all of the extra. The good news is that I have plenty of straw to use now.

4. Thrifting: I bought a cardigan and lightweight hoodie for myself at $1.10 each. We found a pair of jeans for Hubs that cost just $3.00 (we don't usually find his size, so that was a great deal!), a glass candlestick for $0.50, a plate for $0.30 and a square basket for $0.45. I use square baskets for organizing like items on shelves.

5. Music: I used a Prime credit to buy a classical music album for $0.09. Recently I've been trying to decide how I want to collect music for my own use, future home school use, etc. Tape and CD players are becoming more expensive and hard-to-find as people move toward digital music; not only that, but CDs are easily scratched up and then they're worthless. It's possible to listen to music for free on the internet, but Pandora doesn't let you pick the songs, and both Youtube and Pandora have commercials. Premium or subscription services don't provide enough value for the cost (commercial-free Youtube is $12.00/mo., Spotify is $10.00). I know that the music I'm looking for (generic kids' tunes, classical music, etc.) is cheap enough to just buy, but it's hard to do that when I know I can probably get it for free somewhere... if I'm willing to listen to enough commercials. But I don't want to waste brain waves on commercials. If any of you have tips on how/where to get free downloadable music, let me know!

6. Books: I ordered a book from the library interloan system.

7. Shower curtain: I replaced three broken shower curtain rings.

I think that's about it for this week. 

Til next time,
-Bethany 

Even though it's still cold out (in the 40's today), I'm getting so excited for spring.

1. Groceries: We didn't buy any groceries this week. As the warmer months draw near, I'll be shopping less and harvesting more. I'm hoping to add fruits and vegetables to the eggs I already collect from our homestead.

2. Cooking: I cooked and froze the beef I bought on sale last week. I also made cookies! Lately I've been working hard to do most of my cooking once a day. That means I'll look at the day's meals, and see if there is anything I can do to cook both meals at once. Then I try to do all of that within an hour. I set the timer and try to work like mad! Of course, I let Princess help me, so there are plenty of interruptions. Even with the interruptions, I've been keeping that batch-cooking time to around an hour. I still spend about 15 minutes per meal actually putting everything together, if it's not something I can prepare in advance.

I would say that I spent about an hour and 45 minutes, per day, this week on cooking. My goal is to get that number down to an hour (except on Wednesday, which is cooking day, and Friday afternoon, when I bake things for fun).

3. Homestead: I gathered plenty of eggs this week from our chickens. I also foraged some Kentucky Coffee Tree beans. I cleaned them, soaked them for 24 hours (this was because I tried planting some of them) and roasted the rest of the beans at 300 degrees F for three hours. I think most of the beans exploded, but only a few landed at the bottom of the oven. A majority stayed in the pan. Then I used our Vitamix dry container to grind the beans into a powder. It turned out great!

I think that's all for now. How was your week?

Til next time,
-Bethany

I love this time of year. The weather is starting to warm up, gardening and yard-sale season is near. We submitted the house blueprints for building permits this week, so that's super exciting as well!

1. Groceries: We spent 37.03 at Kroger and an unspecified amount at Walmart... I'm thinking it was around $5.00. We bought a bag of potatoes, a Reese's bar and probably something else that I don't remember. 😕 So we'll call this week's total $42.03. My goal was to spend just $90.00 in March; right now we're at $87.51. I think that calls for a spending freeze! At Kroger I got 80/20 ground beef on sale for $2.00/lb, cheese on sale for $2.00/lb., and grapes for $1.00/lb. Those were some great prices for our area, so I was happy to sacrifice the next few weeks' grocery money.

2. Cooking: I made yogurt (with starter from a previous batch), cooked a bag of chicken thighs and made broth with the bones. I also made a number of bird suet patties from ground beef fat that I saved in the freezer. Our little girl loves watching the birds eat!

3. Gardening: most of the seeds I planted last week have germinated! All of the tomato seeds were a great success. The chives have also all germinated. The hot pepper seeds, eggplant and all but one pumpkin-on-a-stick seeds have not germinated yet, but those could take at least another week. 

4. ​Crafts: I painted the rest of my mismatched jar lids. 

​5. Thrifting: I went to TWO thrift stores this week! At the first store I bought two T-shirts for myself at $0.50 each and a dress for $3.50. The dress had a small tear, but I looked up the brand website and similar dresses sell for around $100.00 each. So I thought that was a steal! I also bought a plate for $0.79 (not a great deal, but it had sentimental value), a candlestick for $0.50 and a basket for Princess' books at $1.50. The basket wasn't cheap, but square baskets never are at thrift stores. It keeps the books contained, which frees up more of my time to do fun things.

The second store was a bit higher priced, but I did find a $2.00 cardigan for Princess to wear with her (free) Easter dress. But the BEST deal was a bunch of all-in-one diapers (BumGenius Freetime) diapers for $2.00 each. I bought ALL of them! LOL! Even though we're pretty much done with cloth diapers for Princess, I hope we're not done having babies. For the next baby I had considered buying more all-in-ones (they're less work than the other kinds). Not only that, but it's nice to have extras that you can loan out or give away to others who are interested in using cloth. Some of the diapers need minor repairs, but those won't be a big deal because I'm rehabbing some of our other diapers already (see below). I can always sell the diapers if I end up not using them.

6. Sewing: I worked on replacing the elastics in some used Fuzzibunz diapers. It was a surprisingly easy project—I just had to buy the proper sized elastic, which cost less than $2.00. One of my sisters-in-law is due with her first baby this summer, and she said she was interested in using cloth. I thought it would be nice to have some that she can try out while she's here (they live out of the country) and even take home if she likes them.  

7. Toddler exercise: I brought a little plastic playhouse/gym inside for our daughter to play on when it's cold outside. I noticed that she enjoys climbing all over the furniture, so I thought the playhouse slide would be a better outlet for her energy. So far it's been great! Not only that, but it was free, left by the previous renters. 

8. Cans: I picked up over $5.00 worth of cans to recycle while on walks. This time of year, the roads are LITTERED with cans! It's like a gold mine out there! 

That's all, folks!
Til next time,
-Bethany