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

About a month ago, I decided to increase our grocery budget. I wasn't really sure how much more we'd actually spend, but I wanted to see if the increased spending would equal more happiness and less cooking.


The "No Plan" Plan

Basically, every week I walked into the grocery store and just bought whatever I wanted. Of course I had a list of needed items, but in addition to that I just bought whatever looked good. Our spending went from about $30.00 per week to about $60.00 per week (average.... of course, I'm not  really keeping track besides a quick glance at the receipt). 

Like anything else, the 80/20 principle applied to this experiment. 20% of the extra spending ($6.00) accounted for a majority of the happiness and less cooking. As I mentioned a few weeks ago, store-bought bread has been great to have around. We tried some convenience meals (canned, frozen, boxed). Some were okay, but I've decided that sandwiches are easier, faster and tastier than expensive packaged food. As far as happiness goes, I've enjoyed making a few new meals, like fish tacos. What made the fish tacos possible was a $0.69 mango, and fish. When I was on the $10.00/wk. plan, I never bought fish because it cost $3.00 per pound instead of $2.00. However, last winter I realized that cheap tilapia is actually cheaper per gram of protein than the ground beef I was buying on sale. So technically, fish is a better deal than beef. But I digress.


What Did I Spend More Money On? Was It Worth It?

What was I spending the extra $20.00+ dollars on every week? Fresh produce. Apples, bananas, more mangoes, avocados, fresh green beans. Upgrades. Even something as small as parmesan cheese (as opposed to mozzarella or cheddar) was an upgrade for us. We've also been buying more junky snack foods. And sugar.

Do you know what the most shocking thing has been about my little spending experiment? We waste so much more food than we used to.  A whole gallon of milk sat in the fridge and expired before we ever opened it. An entire bag of green beans molded while still sealed in the package. Today we finished up some grapes that were beginning to go soft. Instead of spending less time cooking and stressing about food, I'm running around trying to keep all of this produce from rotting, and then feeling guilty when it does.

Yeah, it feels good to buy whatever you want at the grocery store. But the reality is, I'm just buying more food than we need. Instead of having eggs for breakfast like I have for the past five years (with a few oatmeal variations every now and then), I'll reach for a sugary sweet apple or banana. Then the eggs pile up in the fridge, and I'm freaking out about what to do with so many eggs.

Are we eating healthier because I'm spending more money? No. I'm buying more organics, but I'm also buying a lot more sugar and snack foods. My favorite kinds of sugar cereal were on sale last week for $0.99 per box. On the $10.00/wk. plan, I might have bought three or even five boxes, and spread them out over a few months. But on the "whatever looks good" plan, I bought ten boxes. I bought them yesterday, and I already opened one box and had some with the expired milk. Then I gave some to my daughter, without the expired milk. Then I felt guilty for eating so much sugar, and worse, for feeding my kid sugar cereal. Wow, wasn't that extra spending worth it?

On top of it all, this "buying way too much food" problem has not helped me achieve my goal of eating down the pantry before we move. Instead, I have nine boxes of cereal to deal with. Nice.


More Problems Than Solutions: The Grass is NOT Greener

Picture this: me, buying organic grass-fed ground beef and way more fresh produce than we can eat before it goes bad, so I can feel better about buying a ton of junky snack foods and sugar. Spending doubles. Then picture me feasting on the junk foods and sugar, while the produce rots in the fridge. Then I'm working my tail off to salvage moldy green beans and feeling guilty for wasting food and feasting on sugar. I think that's only a slight exaggeration of what's actually going on at our house.

And that, my friends, is the myth of "if I increase our grocery budget, things will be better". I mean, they might get better, but they might also get worse. I think we will be going back to budgeted spending soon, starting with a baseline of $10.00 per person per week, and then tack I might tack on an extra $2.00-$3.00 per person to do some permanent organic upgrades and include a little variety (like mangoes) in the bargain. But for my own sanity, we need to stop this enormous shopping spree.

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:

​Hi everyone! I thought I'd pop in with an update. I'll be taking a break from Frugal Accomplishments for at least three months, but that doesn't mean we're not doing fun and/or frugal things around here. 

House Project

We started on our home renovation this week!!! We will be putting an addition on our new-to-us house. We've been thinking and planning for this project since last summer, so to see it actually started is pretty cool. First, we have to tear off part of the old part. When we planned the renovation, I told Hubs I didn't want to see the old chimney go. I don't know, there's just something cool about an old chimney, even if it's not functional. Well, we made a compromise; we're tearing the chimney down, but I'm keeping some of the bricks to make something with. I think it will probably end up being a raised bed or fire pit in the back yard.

After Hubs got the first few rows off, it pretty much fell apart. All I had to do was tap (some of) the bricks with a hammer, and they came loose. It was in pretty bad shape. I think the mortar will come off most of the blocks pretty easily.


Block Scheduling

Several weeks ago I implemented a new scheduling system that I learned about on Youtube. It's called "block scheduling". Basically, you give every hour a purpose. Then you do that thing for an hour, and when the clock strikes a new hour, you move on to the next project. Here's an example of my summer schedule:

7:00 am- Wake up
8:00 am- Free
9:00 am- Daughter awake, dressed, breakfast
10:00 am- Chicken chores/House project
11:00 am- House project/cooking
12:00 pm- Read w/daughter, Lunch
1:00 pm- Weed strawberries
2:00 pm- Daughter nap, more weeding
3:00 pm- Projects
4:00 pm- Projects
5:00 pm- Projects
6:00 pm- Dinner
7:00 pm- Wash dishes
8:00 pm- Free
9:00 pm Prepare for bed (plan tomorrow's meals and events, pick up house, set out clothes, brush teeth, etc.)
10:00 pm- Read
11:00 pm- Fall asleep

Of course we don't follow this to a T, but it gives enough structure to help me be more productive. It also helps because it keeps daily chores like laundry, cooking and cleaning "contained" to certain hours. For example, I try to do a whole day's cooking, if possible, before lunch. When that hour is up, it's up and I move on to other things. There is always more cooking I can do, always more cleaning. During the summer, though, I really need to stay focused on outdoor projects. If the strawberry patch or garden gets out of hand, it's a nightmare to deal with. By doing at least an hour's work in the garden/strawberry patch, I can keep that functional. The same goes for household tasks like laundry and dishes. 

Another thing I did was make a "Do Not Do" list for summer. You guys know I love projects, and my interests are all over the map. Sometimes I just have to tell myself "no". No knitting or sewing during the summer. No extensive research projects or reading. No excessive blogging (which is why you're getting mostly pictures now). No working on book projects. No extra cooking from scratch or decluttering. Spending more money on food has really helped pare down housework during this busy season, as well as using the clothes dryer and disposable diapers. It's not necessarily frugal, but it's only for a few months. Once we're settled into the new house, I look forward to having more regular, garden-variety frugal accomplishments again.


But I Broke My Own Rules

I broke my own "no excessive reading" rule this week, though. I ordered a rare book from the library, and it came!!! It's a collection of annotated Civil War letters written by a soldier who lived down the road from us. The author/compiler really did her research, and the back of the book has family sheets and extensive indexes so you can figure out who's who and even what happened to them after the war. I already knew who several of the people were from my own research, but reading the letters answered some questions I had, and really gave me an idea of what the culture in our area was like. If I could pick a super power, it would be time travel... and this is the next best thing.

​The book was more or less self-published in the 1980's, so you can't buy it anywhere (unless, perhaps you found it at an estate sale or something). Thank God for our library interloan system!!! To have the letters all cleaned up, typed out and annotated is like a dream come true. There are more letters from our community that I'd love to get my hands on, but they're buried in the archives at CMU. I would love to get those cleaned up and typed out as well, or even photographed and put on the internet so at least they're easily accessible for research.

Anyhow, so that was probably the highlight of my week.


Amazon Alexa

We had new internet installed at our house, and the company was doing a promotion. They gave us a free Amazon Echo Dot. I know, I know, these devices spy on you and listen to your every word in order to sell you more stuff (or so the conspiracy theorists say). But I installed ours, and found out that it can read my Kindle books aloud!!!! That means it can turn all of my free Kindle ebooks into (albeit low-quality) audio books that I can listen to while doing projects, cooking or cleaning. That means I can do excessive "reading" without sacrificing productivity! 


Garage Sales

Hey, so there was something frugal this week after all! I went to some garage sales and bought a few things... mostly for Princess. But I also got a book for myself:

​And you all know how much I love books.

Til next time,
-Bethany

I hope you all had a wonderful Resurrection Day!
-Bethany

​Below is a video I made with special announcement:

Yesterday, we stopped at the grocery store. I bought two hams for $0.77 per pound. They didn't have any of the cottage cheese left that was on sale for $0.89/lb., so I got a rain check. But you know what else we bought? A full-priced pound of summer sausage, for $5.00. Guilt-free!

I know the video above was a long one, so if you didn't watch it, here's the gist: I won't be recording our grocery spending on the blog anymore. In short, it's because I don't want to be tied to the $10.00 per week budget. Of course I'll still be sharing grocery savings, but I want to have the freedom of buying full-priced food without compromising honesty and integrity here on the blog (that is, leading you to believe we're on a strict budget, when we're not). The video has more whys and wherefores, if you're curious.

So, here's to celebrating the transition from "extreme" frugality, to just regular frugality! It's been a fun five years. Now, let's talk about what impact this has had on our finances and what it can do for you.


How Much Did The $10.00/week Plan Actually Save Us?

As I mentioned in the video, I was spending about $50.00 per week, or about $2,600 per year for the two of us. I came to marriage with a lot of skills, though (cooking from scratch, canning, etc.), and with experience shopping on a budget. Our personal savings over the past five years was about $1500 per year, or a total of $7500. Since it took a little while to whittle down to $20.00 from that original $50.00, let's call it an even $7000.00.

Looking back, $1500.00 per year doesn't sound like much. But you have to keep in mind that our transition was from "frugal" to "extremely frugal". Saving money is kind of like losing weight. A woman who weighs 200 pounds and loses 50 is going to look dramatically different. A 150 lb. woman who loses 15 pounds is still going to benefit, but not as much.


Is It For You? How to Calculate Potential Savings

Is the $10.00 per week budget for you? Let's count the savings and see if it's worth doing, even for a short amount of time. Tip: You can adjust the actual number to the cost of living in your state. This can range from $10.00 for cheaper states, to $20.00 for the most expensive states, like Alaska and Hawaii.

1. Determine goal budget. (Example: $10.00 per person, per week.)
2. Multiply goal budget by the number of people in your family, to determine weekly budget. (Example: $10.00 x 2 = $20.00.)
3. Multiply weekly budget by 52 to determine yearly projected spending. (Example: $20.00 x 52 = $1040.)
4. Multiply current monthly spending by 12 to determine average yearly spending. (Example: $50.00 x 12 = $2600.)
5. Subtract the first total from the second. (Example: $2600 = $1040 = $1560.)

And that, my friends, is how much you could save by switching to an "extreme" grocery shopping (or not shopping... lol!) protocol. 


Is Extreme Frugality Worth It?

1. Yes: Think about how much money you could save by dramatically reducing your grocery spending (most folks could easily do 50% like I did). Over the course of five years, many people I know could buy a house with the extra money they spend on groceries! Ask yourself if the grass-fed beef is benefiting you as much as getting into a home of your own (or buying better shoes, more books, donating to charity, etc.). I think even a short-term stint of extreme frugality would benefit most of us, in more ways than a fatter bank account. Frugality teaches us to be creative and thankful. Extreme frugality even more so.

2. No: I wouldn't trade home ownership for a lifetime of grass-fed beef, but some aspects of extreme frugality aren't beneficial long-term. Decades of eating conventional, cheap foods (especially highly-processed ones) can be problematic for many people. It concerns me that so many children are starting out life with weight problems, bees are dying, hormones everywhere are being disrupted. These are things we need to consider before committing to a lifetime of cheap food. 

3. Maybe: There is a difference between long-term and short-term frugality. Everyone can do short-term frugality, but not everyone likes it. Long-term (or lifetime) frugality is only possible if you enjoy it. That means it will look different for everyone. Some people are okay with a lifetime of thrifted clothes, but not okay driving beater cars forever. Other people are happy to give up restaurants, but not travel. One housewife loves to cook, and another one would rather use coupons to buy prepared food. As time goes on and we get ahead financially, we can all embrace and benefit from our favorite forms of frugality forever, and ditch our least favorite parts. Isn't that good news?

So, I guess that's my tidbit for the week! I'm really looking forward to sharing new projects and frugal endeavors with you in the coming weeks and months. 

Til next time,
​-Bethany

​Well, I warned you all that we might get busy around here, and I'm excited to see the spring starting to show her face! Of course all Michiganders know that it takes two or three months for her to stop playing peekaboo and actually stick around (by which time you call it "summer", not spring), but we are excited nonetheless.

​
Basket Liners

I made two basket liners in anticipation for our garden harvest. I used to think basket liners were tacky and outdated, but if you're actually using the basket, it makes cleanup so much easier. Instead of having random seeds and bits of dirt stuck in between the cracks, you just remove the liner, dump it out and throw the whole thing (the liner, that is... not the basket) in the washer.

​The big basket is for our regular everyday garden harvests; rhubarb, asparagus, lettuce, radishes, etc. The smaller basket is for herbs and to use as a backup harvest basket. 

It was more of a pain than I thought it would be to make the liners. I had to draft a pattern, finish the edges for durability, etc. Since the liners were custom made to fit the baskets, I probably won't be able to use them with other baskets (but I'll try). Before I invest more time into making basket liners, I'll make sure the baskets are sturdy and will last for years. Many of the baskets I have now are already on their last leg. So that's something to keep in mind if you, too, are thinking about making a liner for your harvest basket.

​
Honey Harvest

I'm not the best beekeeper. Actually, I'm a pretty rotten beekeeper, but it turns out that even rotten beekeepers have their rewards.

I cracked open the old hive on Saturday and this is what I found:

​If any of you can help diagnose the problem, that would be great! I contacted the people who I bought the bees through, and they suggested that the queen probably died. Obviously, all of the other bees died as well. But before they died—bless their hearts—they left me some honey.

I was able to harvest almost a whole gallon of honey!! I'm super excited about that, since one of my goals this year was to eat healthier (raw local honey is so good for you!). Not only that, but I wasn't expecting any harvest. Now I have honey AND beeswax to work with.

Even though beekeeping won't work for me this year, I plan on trying it again during a less busy season. I'll be keeping the equipment and hopefully reusing everything. Another bright point is that I found a free way to harvest the honey, without the use of an extractor. I used this tutorial. Hubs made the wood piece with some scrap lumber, and I made the bag out of cheesecloth that I already had.

Even though the value of my little harvest doesn't nearly cover the cost of equipment, it really encouraged me to keep on trying. Beekeeping is something I've wanted to do for years, and I was so happy to have the opportunity to try it out in 2018. Now that I know the ropes (or at least, a lot of what NOT to do), I hope next time will be more successful.

I think that's all for now!
-Bethany

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