the Renaissance Housewife
  • Home
  • Topics
    • Saving >
      • Kitchen >
        • Food >
          • Recipes
      • Bath & Laundry
      • Medicine Cabinet
      • Office
      • Electricity
      • Gardening
      • Foraging
      • Animals
      • Weekly F. A.'s
      • Printables & Downloads
    • Earning
    • Investing
  • Books
  • About
    • RH Recommends
    • Newsletter & Updates
    • Travel
    • Beta Readers
    • Legal Stuff

Frugal Accomplishments Last Week

9/3/2018

8 Comments

 
Picture
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
8 Comments
Julie V
9/3/2018 08:45:47 pm

You are a busy lady with lots of responsibilities and rest is important too. So, I hope you are getting enough time to just breathe. I usually just can crushed tomatoes and add them to recipes. Making sauce is a lot of work. I don't want to waste food, so I can, dehydrate, freeze. I sometimes have to tell myself its ok to let it go if I can't get it all done. I enjoy it too.. and don't have a baby to care for at the same time. I don't know about baby laundry needs but, I use vinegar in my rinse for odor issues. I don't know if it can be used on baby diapers though. Have you asked your mom or mother-in-law or maybe other moms what they do about stinky clean diapers? I think you are doing an awesome job with all you do.

Reply
Lois Harper link
9/5/2018 03:43:33 pm

Hi! Have you used plum or paste tomatoes to make tomato sauce? Regular tomatoes are harder to make into sauce. It has been years since my kids were in diapers, and it was much simpler then. Diaper gauze that we folded ourselves, plastic pants. Diaper liners when the kids started eating more solid foods. I agree - the current designer cloth diapers are too expensive and more difficult to manage. I really enjoy reading your blog - keep up the good work and don't get too tired!

Reply
Esther Shell
9/6/2018 02:01:23 pm

I definitely agree on the tomato variety! I only use regular tomatoes for chunks that I use in soups like chili. Everything else is a Roma, or comparable paste variety (I actually prefer Amish Paste) that I run through the Victorio and cook down in no time.

Reply
Bethany
9/8/2018 07:15:05 pm

Aww, thanks Lois! I tried Roma tomatoes a couple years ago. Had some issues with blossom end rot, plus I felt like the tomatoes were very small. This year I grew heirloom tomatoes, which tasted amazing but there weren't as many tomatoes (probably a blessing, in the end).

I will definitely keep the paste tomatoes in mind for when we try canning sauce again. Thank you so much for your comment!

Reply
Esther Shell
9/6/2018 02:08:15 pm

Your water is NOT very hard, and honestly you probably don't need Calgon! Mine is at least 450ppm (I can't remember exactly what), and I do best without adding an additional softener. However, I do use Tide powder, which has *some* softeners in it. I'm also curious what you used to strip the diapers. You shouldn't have any stink after doing that - okay wait. If you're using Alva's they are probably microfiber, which is notorious for holding in smell. Anyhow, I only saw you mention Calgon when talking about stripping, but Calgon is not meant for stripping. I recommend Grovia Mighty Bubbles! We're both still super crazy about cloth diapering even now expecting our third baby. It has been very cost effective for us, even from the first child. By now I have spent about $800, which has included quite a few extras just because. But we do use prefolds (with some fitteds for Dad), which are known as one of the best money saving cloth options out there. I figured we would've spent $10/wk diapering in disposables, which would put us at over $2000 with all the years/kids we've used them!!!

Reply
Bethany
9/8/2018 09:06:54 pm

I switched to Tide this week. I'm not a brand-loyal person, but I couldn't believe how soft the diapers came out of the wash, plus they smelled better. I've wondered about the microfiber, too. I used Fluff Love's DIY stripping concoction which called for Calgon, borax and something else. I'm sure the Might Bubbles work better... I was just too cheap to buy it. Maybe that's something to remember for next time. ;)

I'm glad you've found a system that works well! I'm pretty happy with our diapers and would use them for a second child, since we already have them and I know how to use them. I'm just a tad disappointed at how little we've saved on a daily basis.

There are a lot of things I like about cloth diapers: no leaks, no blowouts, you never run out of diapers, they're cute and environmentally friendly. Those are half the reason I'm still doing cloth diapers! Consider this though: if you didn't have a baby and someone said, "I will give you a job that pays $1.00 per load of laundry and $0.50 per poop rinse"... would you do it? Something to consider.


Reply
Marybeth link
9/6/2018 08:41:27 pm

I grow San Marzano tomatoes to make sauce. They are our favorite. I freeze some for use in chili in the winter.
You have to find what works best for you and go with it. If you enjoy just the gardening then do that. Maybe in a few years when your daughter is older you will give canning another try.

Reply
Bethany
9/8/2018 07:17:20 pm

Thank you for the suggestion Marybeth! I will keep that variety in mind for later. :)

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Bethany

    Housewife, happy wife, and mama to one. :)

    Picture

    Picture
    The Housewife's Guide to Frugal Food
    How to Eat for $10.00
    ​per Week

    Picture
    The Housewife's Guide to Menu Planning
    A Weekly Menu to Save
    Time & Money
    Picture
    The Housewife's Guide to
    Frugal Fruits and Vegetables

    No Garden? No Problem!

    Watch Meals From the Bunker:

    Picture

    Check out my Youtube Channel!

    RSS Feed


    Picture
    Baby Girl's Birth Story
    Picture
    8 Cheap Ways to Eat Healthy
    Picture

    Categories

    All
    Animals
    Book Reviews
    Books
    Christmas
    Cleaning
    Clothing
    Cooking
    Couponing
    Education
    Ego
    Electricity
    Farmers Market
    Finance
    Foraging
    Frugal
    Frugal Accomplishments
    Frugality
    Garage Sales
    Gardening
    Gifts
    Grocery Budget
    Grocery Shopping
    Herbs
    History
    Hobby Farm
    Home Based Business
    Home-based Business
    Home Decorating
    Housekeeping
    Industry
    Languages
    Laundry
    Marriage
    Meal Planning
    Medicine
    Minimalist
    Network Marketing
    Organization
    Plants
    Product Reviews
    Quotes
    Recipes
    ROI
    Rv
    Sewing
    Simplicity
    Spanish
    Spending Report
    Travel

    Archives

    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    August 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014

    Full Disclosure & Disclaimer

    Picture
    Picture
    I get cash back for many online purchases including wedding gifts and Ebay stuff!

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
Photos used under Creative Commons from dasWebweib, amanessinger, thewritingreader, diakosmein