​2. Garden: Harvested strawberries, thyme, lettuce and lavender. I am SO excited about my lavender plant finally producing blooms! I started the plant from seed last year, but it was so small that I didn't have much hope for a harvest anytime soon. This year it is full size and producing lots of blooms. I've been harvesting them every few days and drying them to make lavender sachets out of.

​Growing lavender has been one of my homestead dreams for several years now. Even though it takes more time, I've chosen to grow the lavender from seed instead of buying plants. I bought one plant last year for $4.00, and it died over the winter. This year I decided not to buy any plants and just do it the frugal way by starting from seed. Unfortunately my germination and survival rate for seedlings is not awesome, but I did manage to get three baby plants into the garden and only one of them died. If both of the other plants survive, it's an $8.00 value and that was just using the lavender seeds I had from last year.

3. Earned $60.00 picking strawberries for the neighbor lady. I won't lie; getting up at 6:00 or earlier and picking for 3+ hours each morning Monday-Friday wasn't exactly fun. BUT I wanted some experience for my own patch next year, plus I earned enough money to pay for my new strawberry plants.

Another thing I did for my strawberry patch this week was set up a sprinkler system. It cost over $40.00, but I trust it will pay for itself next year by providing an increase in berries.

4. Cooking: Cut up and froze the free onions I was given (see grocery haul). I also made cheese, yogurt and Greek yogurt, and froze some of our surplus eggs. There are several ways you can freeze eggs. I froze my yolks and whites separately, but you can also mix them together and freeze in ice cube containers (1-egg portions).

Some meals we had this week were tacos, salad, baked potatoes, salad, leftovers and more salad. We also went to a contractor's lunch at Menards and ate for free there. They were giving out free T-shirts, so I picked up a large one to re-cut into a fitted T-shirt for myself (Youtube tutorial forthcoming!). Dinners were pretty sketchy this week because we were gone every night to a local church camp meeting/ revival services. Usually when we have somewhere to go at night, Hubs tends to wait until the very last minute to come home from work and ends up skipping dinner. This happens mostly during the "busy season"- thankfully not all year long. Of course it doesn't give much incentive for me to make/eat a real meal. Instead we just had cheese and grapes or whatever grab-and-go food I could come up with.

5. On Saturday we went to one of my favorite places here in MI- Greenfield Village!! Even though it wasn't frugal, I thought I'd share anyway. For those who aren't familiar, the village is a living history museum started by Henry Ford in the 1930's (it's affiliated with the Henry Ford Museum, also in Dearborn). Below are some fuzzy pictures I took with my phone. Too bad the lighting wasn't better in some of them.

​One of the reasons I LOVE Greenfield Village (or history museums in general) is because I can collect new ideas to implement here at home. Even though I appreciate technology and modern advancements, sometimes the old-fashioned way of doing things is more economical, efficient and healthful. A lot of ideas have been lost over years and centuries. My husband took a picture of one of the Firestone Farm wooden gates so we can make a similar closure at home. We have pallet gates, so this particular closure will work well.

​One of my favorite sites at the village is Daggett Farm. It's a home from the 1740s that portrays farm life of that time. Unlike the modern system of purchasing whatever we need and paying for it with a salary, people living in pre-industrial times had to make their own stuff. The Daggett home had a garden in back that not only produced food, but also medicines, plant dyes, and other useful things from plants. Inside, there was a giant spinning wheel with some homespun yarn on display. The Daggetts weren't rich, so they owned a "junk breed" or mixed breed of sheep that would have produced meat and wool. Today we have money to buy whatever animals, medicines and food we want, but back in the day they just made do with what they had. Visiting the farm inspired me to expand my garden and look for more ways to have my little homestead provide value.

Some other sites I really enjoyed visiting were Dr. Howard's office (full of herbal and plant-based medicines!) and the Hermitage slave quarters. One of the slave cabins is just an empty building with a bench in the middle and quotes/photos on the wall, but the other cabin is furnished. Slaves from the second cabin worked within the "task system" which meant that after 8-10 hours of work they could do what they wanted. I really enjoyed seeing examples of baskets, instruments and other handcrafts.

The last of my favorite sites for this visit was the Mattox home. Even though the house itself was built in the 1880s, the interior looks like it would have during the Great Depression. The staff member there described how the Mattox family would have practiced subsistence farming and made as much of their own stuff as possible because money was tight. I thought it was interesting that the family had a vineyard out back and sold wine to make extra money. This was probably extra lucrative during the prohibition years, which overlapped a bit with the Great Depression.

So that was our fun Saturday! Like I said, our visit wasn't particularly frugal. We paid full price for tickets, bought the ride pass, and ate lunch at the historic Eagle Tavern restaurant. And bought TWO frozen custards each! Travel isn't really something we economize on, but tourists on a budget could easily save money by finding cheaper tickets, buying a membership (for large families), forgoing the ride pass and bringing a sack lunch. 

So, that was it for frugal accomplishments. As fun as our week was, I'm looking forward to some more time at home. 


Youtube Videos:
I put up three Youtube videos this week:

 Fresh Lettuce Prep & Storage 
Thursday #2: Chicken Salad Wraps (part of my Weekly Menu playlist) 
Aldi Grocery Haul: $19.94 

How was your week?
-Bethany

A while back, I put up a reader survey on my blog to see what you guys are interested in. Topics like sewing, gardening and animals were hit or miss, but you all wanted more ways to 1) save money, and 2) earn money from home. Today I'm going to share some ways that I earn extra cash without having a "real" job.

Note: First I will talk about short term ways to earn extra cash. Then we'll talk about a long term approach to extra income.

​
Short-term Cash (1 week - 3 years)

1. Sell stuff on Ebay or Amazon. Ebay is more accessible to the cash-strapped homemaker because it has lower fees and you don't have to be any kind of monthly "member" to sell. You can also sell on Amazon without being a member, but fees have become so high for non-members that it's very hard to make a dollar. You are better off having a garage sale than selling stuff on Amazon.

2. Return recyclable cans. I know this won't apply to everyone, but those of you who do live in a bottle deposit state should take advantage of it. Whenever I go on walks or bike rides, I look for recyclable cans and bottles on the side of the road. I keep a big cardboard box in our mudroom, and when that is full we take it to the store and return it. Depending on how often I walk or ride my bike, I can make between $40.00 and $80.00 per year at this. It's not a lot of money, but it's not a lot of work either.

3. Sell homemade/vintage items on Etsy. To be honest I've had more success selling vintage garage sale items on Etsy than homemade products. However, the fees are low enough that anyone can try it. 

4. Sell homemade products at farmers markets or craft shows. I've had some success selling homestead products (baked goods, soap, produce, eggs) at a weekly farmers market. If done right, I can make between $30.00- $80.00 per day after costs. The good news is that you can turn a consistent profit this way. The bad news (from my experience) is that you have to work at least one whole day out of the week (about six hours producing and another six hours selling) so your pay varies between $2.00 and $7.00 per hour.

5. Sell homemade products directly out of your house. I've had the best success doing this with eggs. Next year we are going to try a roadside strawberry stand. While we won't be selling right at our property, the stand will only be five minutes away and the cost to sell there will be free. My plan is to also take along other products (produce, eggs, etc.) and sell those at the stand as well. Without travel and booth costs of a farmers market, the profit margin and hourly pay should be MUCH higher.

6. Give private lessons. It's relatively easy to make money teaching beginning piano (or art, etc.) if you have the patience for little kids. Your skill level will have to be a little higher if you want to teach teens or adults, but I'm sure it can still be done. Hourly wage for this kind of work is often $20.00-$40.00.

7. Take on odd jobs. Some ideas include garden work, babysitting, sewing alterations, pet-sitting or anything else that folks need done. Odd jobs often pay more per hour than selling homemade products, but probably less than giving private lessons.

*****

Next week we'll talk about long term strategies for earning a supplemental income. With short term income, you're just worried about dollars in the bank. If there are more dollars in the bank, you've succeeded. With long term supplemental income, you want your hourly wage to INCREASE steadily as the years go by. "Dollars in the bank" is no longer good enough. Next week we'll talk about increasing long term supplemental income with your own home-based micro business.

​2. Garden: used free grass clippings to mulch the garden. This week I harvested strawberries, lettuce, and cilantro. I spent a lot of time out there weeding. Right now the lettuce is in full swing, so we will probably be having a LOT of salad this next week.

3. Cooking: made cheese, yogurt, Greek yogurt, butter and ice cream. It was a dairy kind of week. Most of our meals were variations on salad and leftovers (I pretty much cleaned out my leftovers stash in the freezer).

4. Clipped some coupons from newspaper ads.

5. Went to garage sales and spent $8.55. Some of the things I got were clothing for myself and kitchen items. I have a haul video with all of the specifics here.

6. Resized a t-shirt to fit myself.

7. FRUGAL FAIL: Farmers market. This week I tried selling at a Thursday night market instead of my regular Saturday morning market. I spent pretty much ALL of Thursday baking and/or selling, and ended up losing $4.75 after costs. This was my last scheduled market of the year, thank goodness. I can usually make $30.00 or $40.00 at a Saturday morning market, but the Thursday booth cost more and I sold less than half of what I normally do. It was a complete waste of a day for me. 

I am happy to be done with farmers markets for the year (most likely). I will be able to focus a lot more on my soap making, strawberry patch, writing and homemaking. 


Youtube Videos:

I put up FIVE (!) videos over the last week:

Wednesday #2: Spaghetti (our lunch meal for Wednesday)
Instant Pot: Boiled Eggs, Bone Broth and Rice (food prep in the IP)
Eat for $10 a Week: Couponing
Kroger/Couponing Grocery Haul: $12.42
Garage Sale Haul: $8.55 

Well, that's it for my frugal week!

Til next time,
-Bethany

1. Garden: harvested lettuce, strawberries, thyme and raspberry leaf from the garden. I dried the herbs in my oven to use for tea and spices. We have a gas oven, so I don't actually have to heat up the oven in order to dry herbs. The pilot light will provide enough heat. This saves money because I don't have to use the dehydrator.

2. Shopping: I went shopping at Aldi this week and spent $10.76. You can watch my haul below:

3. Sold one book on Amazon and earned $1.34. I expected the earnings to be higher since it was a $5.00 book, but alas. I need to look for another place to sell used books. Any ideas?

4. Made another Goodwill donation. If feels so good to get rid of things we don't need! I also listed some items on Ebay, so hopefully those will sell.

5. Made yogurt, Greek yogurt and cheese.

6. Line dried two loads of laundry.

7. Made a new batch of oatmeal lavender soap! I got to use my new soap mold (Bulk Apothecary) and wavy soap cutter (garage sale). Both of them made the process so much easier and faster. I also melted/rendered almost all of my fat collections into single-batch-sized blocks. "My fat collection" sounds really weird, but I save little scraps and bits of fat in the freezer. Then I melt these scraps down and use them half and half with olive oil to make goat's milk soap. If I can use free fat and free goat's milk for soap, it means my only costs are the olive oil (cheap enough at Walmart), lye and essential oils. Selling one bar of soap will pay for a whole batch (10 bars), and the rest of the profit from each batch is mine to keep. 

My previous recipe was not quite enough for the new mold, so the bars turned out short (I made them wide to compensate, though!). The ugliest bars I'll use for around the house, but the better looking bars can be sold or given as gifts.

8. Menu Planning: Some meals we had this week were spaghetti, leftover chili, fettuccine alfredo, hash, chicken salad wraps, turkey/swiss sandwiches and turkey noodle soup. If you'd like to see HOW I make some of these meals, be sure to check out my Weekly Menu playlist on Youtube. Every week I plan meals according to the same basic menu (pizza, tacos, rice, sandwiches, etc.). As seasons and sales fluctuate, I do variations on those basic meals. Currently I have Monday-Friday dinner videos up, but this week I am going to start adding lunch videos.

Normally I give a little introduction to each meal and show each ingredient, where I got it and how much it costs. These are NOT difficult meals to make. Most of them are made in my Instant Pot, but you can also use the oven, stovetop or crock pot. I use the Instant Pot because it is fast, easy, saves money on electricity/propane, and it also makes for easy cleanup.

********

YouTube Videos

I had time to edit three new videos this week. One was my grocery haul (of course) but I also did a library "haul"; a condensed book review of three books that I checked out at the library. Two of the books were good, and one of them was not. Lastly, I made a farmers market video about the stuff I sell at farmers market and how I package it. 

Aldi Haul: $10.76
Library Haul: Tidying Up & Orchids
Selling at a Farmers Market: Products & Packaging

So that's about it for my week. What were some of your frugal projects?

​2. Bought some badly-needed clothing items at the local Volunteers of America 50% off sale. VOA has a 50% off sale on the last Tuesday of every month, so I try to put off buying clothes and household items until then. I spent $6.34 on two shirts and two pairs of jeans, plus $0.30 on a book. 

3. Garden: harvested peppermint, spearmint, lemon balm, lettuce, and ONE fresh strawberry from the garden! During my massive Aldi/Walmart/VOA shopping trip, I also stopped at a local greenhouse and bought $10.31 worth of pepper and cucumber plants. I love to start seeds, but this year it just didn't happen for the peppers. The pepper plants cost $0.45 each, so I know that if each plant bears just one pepper, it will have paid for itself. I only bought four cucumber plants, and those were just $0.34 each (again, one cucumber per plant and they will pay for themselves). I should have started my cucumbers from seed, but I forgot to buy the seeds. Last year my little seedlings got eaten by bugs, so I thought it would be a good idea to start with bigger, hardy plants. At least maybe I'll get some cucumbers from them!

Some people have an all-or-nothing approach when it comes to gardening. If they can't plant a big row garden, and start all of their own seeds, then they just won't grow anything at all. I think this is very silly. Every item you grow yourself will save money over buying it at the store/farmers market. Even if you buy transplants from a nursery like I did.

In addition to the seedlings, I also planted the last of my sweet corn seeds in a pot on my porch. This is a little experiment I'm doing for the benefit of all you city folks. My lettuce has done AMAZING in the porch pot. I'm excited to see how much money there is to be saved with my sweet corn porch pot. Like I said before, gardening is not an all-or-nothing venture. Every plant you grow has the potential to save a few dollars. Even people with just a balcony can save a few dollars gardening in porch pots. 

4. Line dried three loads of laundry.

5. Butchered a rooster. It kept attacking me, so... we ate chicken this week.

5. Made cheese, yogurt and Greek yogurt.

6. Collected cans to recycle while I went on walks.

7. Used a $1.00 off coupon on our weekly date night.

8. Sold three dozen eggs.

Some meals we had this week were tacos, chicken salad, chicken soup, cheesy rice/broccoli dish with coleslaw, baked potatoes, and venison roast. And of course, leftovers. I still have a lot of the cabbage left from two weeks ago, so we will probably have coleslaw again and I might try to do something else with the cabbage. Any ideas?

*************

Youtube Videos:

I uploaded four videos this week.

Selling at a Farmers Market: My Story (first of my farmers market playlist)
DIY Milk Processing at Home
Friday: Pizza (part of my weekly menu series)
Aldi/Walmart Grocery Haul: $25.27

Well, that's all folks! How did you do this week?

​May was a great month on our little hobby farm. 

Chickens & Ducks

Ducks: All of my ducks here are doing fine. Right now we have two females and two males. I intend to butcher the male ducks this month (like I say every month...). I think one of the female ducks may have gone broody, so I've set four duck eggs under her to see if they hatch. If not... I'm out four duck eggs.

Speaking of broody... the duck eggs I gave to my brother last month have now hatched!! Our fall hatching experiment was a total bust (half of the 20 eggs were fertilized, and only two eggs hatched out of those). This spring I gave him 22 eggs to hatch. ALL of the eggs were fertilized, and 16 of them hatched!! Two died after hatching, but the rest are still growing and being happy little ducklings. They are the cutest things EVER!!!

​So, moral of the story is to always hatch duck eggs in the spring and not in the fall. Also, I think having a duck pond for my birds to mate in was a factor in getting more fertilized eggs. What I LOVE about this is that the 20 fertilized eggs were produced by only three ducks- my two females and one male. Theoretically, my brother could raise the 14 ducks, sell 11 and keep one male/two females over the winter. Unlike chickens, Pekin ducks are a truly dual-purpose bird. The females are consistent egg layers and both sexes produce a good amount of meat. Ducklings, duck eggs and duck meat are worth more than chicken (if you can find a market for them). So the success of this hatching experiment was a BIG win for both my brother and I!

Chickens: We had one chicken die this month of natural causes, and one rooster died of natural consequences. About a week ago, one of our barred rock roosters started chasing me around. Last Tuesday, while I was milking my goat, he flew up onto my back and launched a full-on attack. I decided that was going to be his last attack. That very afternoon I boiled some water in a big pot, got out my boning knife and made him supper. No rooster attacks since.

As much as I hate butchering chickens five or six at a time, doing one wasn't too bad. It took about 45 minutes from start to finish (yes, I'm really slow at it). Plus, I felt better knowing that I wouldn't be bothered at milking the next day. By butchering the non-productive rooster, I not only saved on feed, but also extracted an extra $5.00 worth of meat from my farm. This could technically go in the "income" line of my P&L (because it's money I saved on groceries) but I'm going to leave it off for now (see below about my "value" spreadsheet I'm making!).

As for egg production, the chickens are laying an average of 10 eggs per day. I'm giving them $0.66 worth of feed every day, which means my cost for a dozen eggs is $0.79. In order for the poultry to be self-supporting, I need to be selling 11 dozen eggs per month, or just over three dozen per week. In May, the chickens more than paid for themselves because I was able to sell some eggs at the farmers market. In months that I DON'T sell at market, though, I will need to bring in more out-the-door sales.  


Goats

As of May 31st, all of the goat kids are sold and happy with their new owners. I did the castration all by myself (first time ever) and it went great. CDT booster shots went great. The only complaint I have about my goat kids this year is that some of the horns grew back a little. I thought I burned them with the disbudding iron pretty hard, but apparently not hard enough. Next year I am going to do it sooner and maybe hold the iron on just a touch longer.

​Adi and Barry, the mama and papa goats, are doing great. Their pastures are almost getting TOO tall with grass, which is better than not having enough, I suppose. Now that the kids are gone, I've been milking twice a day and getting over a quart of milk per day. Because the goats are self-supporting (thanks to goat kid sales), those two gallons of milk per week are FREE to us, for however long they last.

Right now I'm making a spreadsheet to determine how many dollars worth of food I'm getting from different hobby farm items (eggs, milk, meat, produce, etc.). It's neat because I can punch in my morning "haul" and see exactly how many dollars I saved. I can also punch in how much time I spent, and then see what my hourly wage was. This is helpful because it will show me which products are most worth my time to produce, and which ones aren't.


Profit & Loss

Expenses:
Shelled corn- $20.00

Income:
Eggs- $33.00
Milk products- $25.00
Goat kid sales- $170.00
Baked goods (market)- $13.36
Fiber- $7.00
Total income: $248.36

Net profit: $228.36
Year-to-date profit: $147.85

Yay, we have actually cleared a profit for the year! I have a feeling that the rest of 2017 will not have so much income, so I am working hard to cut costs down to the bare minimum. For June, my goals are to make more goat's milk soap and also butcher the male ducks and two more roosters. I still aim to do one farmers market per month, weather and schedule permitting, and that will give a boost to the income. 


New Sources of Hobby Farm Income

Slowly, I am hoping to shift hobby farm income from farmers market to other things:

1. Soap sales (online and off)- Soap is something I enjoy doing, doesn't cost very much, and I can do a majority of the work when I have extra time. I also believe in the product and know there is a market for it. I will probably try Etsy again, and might do some Christmas or other craft shows, just to see if it's worth my time.

2. Roadside vegetable/fruit sales- for those of you who don't know, I put in 300 strawberry plants this year and next year hope to sell them at a roadside stand. Even though this venture is a lot of work, a majority is work that I can do whenever I want to. It's also family/baby friendly and there is the potential to make several thousand dollars per year doing it, which would MORE than pay for my little hobby farm. Plus, it is outdoor, physical work that will keep me in shape.

3. Online book sales. I know from experience that a well-written, interesting book can bring in at least $10.00/month in royalties, and twice that if you do a little marketing. And that's AFTER the initial launch (my launch months have brought in anywhere from $40.00 to $200.00+). I really enjoy writing/researching/projects, and again, this is something I can do in my spare time. The residual income every month is really nice, because all I have to do after the book is published is watch money come into my bank account. $10.00 per month doesn't sound like a lot, but over the lifetime of the book it really adds up. If you have several books making $10.00 or more per month, it can be a fantastic little side gig. Plus, did I mention that I love writing?

Hopefully these other pursuits will bring in more money per hour than the farmers market. I've more or less enjoyed doing markets thus far, and they are a good backup plan, but at this point I am trying to do some of the prep work and shift gears a little for 2017. I'll do one more market in June, and then after that I am going to change markets and only go weather/schedule permitting. 

Til next time,

-Bethany

Hi everyone! We had a beautiful Memorial Day weekend. Below are some of my frugal accomplishments for last week.

1. Shopping: I went shopping at Walmart this week (see haul video below). We also bought some Chex Mix to take to a potluck for $2.00. I walked up to the cash register with two bags of off-brand mix for $2.19 each, but then the cashier pointed out the brand name kind, which was on sale for $0.99 per bag. Yay! Total spending for groceries this week was $12.53.

​2. Made cheese.

3. Line dried one load of laundry. I tried for two loads, but it started raining and I had to bring the second load back in wetter than they went out. :(

4. Clipped some restaurant coupons from the local newspaper, and used some others over the weekend as well.

5. Donated some stuff to Goodwill. This was my biggest "Aha!" frugal accomplishment of the week. Of course I have donated things before, but this time Hubs and I asked for a receipt. I didn't know it, but if you itemize your tax deductions (instead of taking the standard deduction) you can write off donations of physical stuff. This is Goodwill's suggested value of different items:

Whoa! Our donation last week was mostly books, so we figured $1.00 per book. I also donated a garbage bag full of different clothing items and miscellaneous household stuff. The books alone will give us a write off of at least $75.00. If you figure a 10% tax savings (it's probably higher than that... I'm just being conservative) then my book decluttering will save us $7.50 in taxes this year. It's not a lot, but it does put a monetary value on decluttering. We can donate up to $500.00 worth of stuff without getting a special IRS form, so that is going to be my goal for this year.

Note: Most people don't itemize their tax deductions (around 75% just take standard deductions) but I thought I'd throw this little nugget out there for those of you who do. It's worth asking your accountant about if you have a mortgage, high medical expenses, or if you do a lot of charitable giving (at least that's what Youtube says! We just do what our accountant says). Hubs and I pay more in taxes than all of our other living expenses combined, so we're always on the lookout for new ways to save on that line item.

6. Collected cans to recycle while on various walks.

7. Earned $30.99 at the farmers market. 

Youtube Videos:
Due to the holiday weekend, farmers market and general busyness, I only got around to uploading three videos this week.

Walmart Haul: $10.55 (shown above)
Three FRUGAL Ways to Grow Lettuce
Eat for $10 a Week: Inside My Pantry

What were some frugal things you did this week (or weekend)?

 1. Shopping: This week was relatively no-spend when it it came to groceries. I did spend $4.95 on Sweet Baby Ray's barbecue sauce, which was on sale for $0.99 per bottle! This is one of the very FEW brand name items we buy, so I stocked up and bought enough bottles to last until the expiration date.

We also spent about $15.00 on snacks for a special trip this week. I'd consider that more "eating out" than real groceries (prevented us from eating at gas stations & restaurants!) but... just throwing it out there.

2. Line dried two loads of laundry.

3. Checked out three books from the library. Hoping to do a "library haul"/book review video when I've finished reading them. Two down, one to go.

4. Made yogurt, Greek yogurt and cheese.

5. Harvested lettuce, cilantro and asparagus from the garden. Also planted some more lettuce, onions, summer squash and flower/herb seeds in the garden. I also started pre-soaking/sprouting my sweet corn seeds to plant later this week.

6. Collected cans on various walks.

7. Saved $$ on admission tickets and parking to Cedar Point. We were scheduled to go on a group trip last week, but I delayed purchasing tickets until the last minute. I knew I wouldn't be able to go on most of the rides, but figured there would at least be shows to watch and other things to do. Good thing I didn't buy any tickets! The night before, I went to the website and found out that almost NONE of the shows would be running the next day!

We decided to still go down with the group (Hubs had offered to drive), but skip out on Cedar Point and find something else to do in the area instead. On the way into the park, Hubs went through the "bus" entrance (we had a 16-passenger van, so weren't sure which lane to take) and since we had more than ten people, parking was free! That saved $20.00 right off the bat. We dropped everyone off, then took the 30 minute drive to the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential library/museum and home. Admission was $12.00/person- MUCH less than the $52.00/person we would have spent to ride the roller coasters. We had already been to the home, but Hubs' mom was with us and it was her first time going.

After lunch, we realized that Hubs' bus parking receipt included a free park pass for the driver (you have to show your CDL at the gate, so it doesn't apply to just anyone driving a van). Hubs decided to use the ticket and ride some of the coasters, while I stayed in the van and finished my library book. Honestly, I preferred to stay in the van because it was unfortunately cold and rainy that day. :( The park kept closing down certain rides because of the weather, and lines were so long that our group averaged about one ride per hour. Hubs got two rides in, and then came back to the van soaking wet.

It was a long day, but we ended up spending less than $40.00 (museum/house & snacks) on a day that could have easily cost $150.00 had we chosen to buy park tickets and restaurant/park food.

So, note to all: if you are going to Cedar Point and taking more than 10 people, you can get FREE parking. If your driver (or someone else in your group) has a CDL, you can use the bus receipt to get that person a free ticket. 

8. Decluttered my books. Inspired by one of my library books (The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up), I decided to clean out my book collection and ended up discarding over 75 books that I've accumulated over the past 10+ years. A few were worth some money, so I listed them on Amazon. The rest were not worth selling, so I will just donate them. 

****

With the day trip and a full weekend, I only had time to upload one video on Youtube:

BeanTalk #2: Prioritize Consumer Spending

The BeanTalk series is my attempt to discuss personal finance using some mason jars and navy beans. This week I talked about what budget categories we have cut to the bare minimum, and which categories Hubs and I splurge on. These videos take a little longer because I'm not just showing people what I got at Kroger. Oftentimes I say something and then think, "Wait a minute, that's not what I'm really trying to say," so there is a LOT of editing that goes on after the fact. I'm thinking these videos might end up being once a month, rather than once a week!

How was your week? Do you find yourself more busy in the springtime like I do?

​1. Line dried two loads of laundry.

2. Collected cans to recycle on various walks this week.

3. Made cheese, yogurt, Greek yogurt, and bone broth. I also cooked the last one of our Thanksgiving sale turkeys this week. We ate some of it for dinner, and I put the rest in the freezer and made bone broth with the carcass.

4. Shopping: We went to Aldi for groceries this week. I bought mostly regular "staple" items, some of which were on sale. Later in the week we stopped at Kroger to pick up two Free Friday deals (a candy bar and specialty yogurt). When I got home, I used a $0.25 rebate on the free stuff, which brought total grocery spending down to $22.74. You can watch my Aldi haul below:

Some meals we had this week were taco soup, potato/corn chowder, hash, fajitas, chicken noodle soup, turkey/mashed potatoes and turkey wraps. And probably some leftovers... that's all I wrote down!

5. Planted strawberries and collected grass clippings to use for mulch. Harvested lettuce, cilantro and asparagus from the garden.

6. Made bag balm (udder butter... basically a salve) for my goat with ingredients that I had already on hand. A tin of the stuff costs $7.00 or so, which made homemade a real savings for my hobby farm.

7. Picked up a free tomato cage and free strawberry boxes. A nearby town had their annual "junk days" this week, so I was able to pick through some of the piles beside the street. I will use the tomato cage in my garden, and use the strawberry boxes to sell berries at the farmers market.

8. Listened to free podcasts/Youtube videos while I worked. I also read and took notes from some books I ordered from the library.

Some Youtube videos I made this week were: 

Perennials for a Cheaper, Easier Garden
Weekly Grocery Haul (see above)
Wednesday: Date Night! (part of my dinner menu series)
Groceries from the Garden (Eat for $10 a Week, part 3)
How to Make Cheese EASY

As a housewife, I realize that it is easier to "read" content by listening to Youtube videos on my phone while I do dishes. Or garden work. Or cleaning. In addition, some of the content I have on the blog (tutorials, for example) are just better conveyed in a video than a blog post.

Slowly, I am putting a lot of content from my blog onto my Youtube channel. This easier for me than taking pictures plus writing and editing a post, even though it's been a crash course in videography with cheap equipment, poor lighting and background noise. That's what it will have to be, for now! If you have any suggestions for my videos, please let me know.

Til next time,
Bethany

​Several months ago I gave an honest review on two "all natural" sugar scrubs; one from Lemongrass Spa (an MLM company) and one from Walmart (Burt's Bees). My conclusion was that I liked both scrubs, but the Lemongrass Spa one was superior.

At this point it has been six months since I bought both products. After several weeks of NOT using either scrub, I opened the Lemongrass jar and noticed that the top was crusty with sugar, and it had also started to discolor in some places.

I went to the Lemongrass website to see if the product had an expiration date (none listed on the jar). I couldn't find one, but I did find a 60-day guarantee on all of their products. Unfortunately, at this point it had been almost six months since I bought the scrub, so the guarantee was no longer valid.


My Fault, or the Company's?

One factor that may have played into its demise was a slow leak in the jar. In my original review, I noted that the "seal" on the Lemongrass jar had been broken, and it leaked oil into the bag. Now I realize that there is probably a tiny leak in the jar that is causing the oil to slowly drip out (VERY slowly... we're talking six months to notice a difference in texture). The oil and scent are what I loved about the scrub in the first place, so without it the quality is diminished. Looking back, I should have asked for a replacement as soon as I noticed oil around the unopened jar. 

Regardless of my faux pas with the leaky jar, I'm still not sure why the scrub is discoloring. It's not only discolored on top where it's crusty, but also underneath where there is still plenty of oil. This is pretty disappointing to me, because I had hoped the jar would last a very long time, as it cost $22.00.

The $13.00 Walmart/Burt's Bees scrub, on the other had, has not changed in color or consistency since the day I bought it. So at this point, I have to declare Burt's Bees the winner. If you are going to cycle through a whole $22.00 jar of scrub within two months, then Lemongrass is still the way to go. But if you're not, Walmart will give you a longer-lasting, more consistent product for less money.


Looking Forward

In my heart of hearts, I was hoping to purchase Lemongrass products (at least the scrub) again. But because of the all-natural ingredients (more "natural" than Burt's Bees), I'm guessing that their products will not last as long, and I don't want to cycle through luxury products that quickly.

$22.00 x 4 = $88.00 per year. And that is only for one product. This only confirms my view that MLM products (or any overpriced/expensive products bought on a subscription/regular basis) will suck money out of your pocket very, very quickly. It's not frugal. I was hoping to MAKE this product frugal by making it last a long time, but even that was not possible. Network marketing products are a luxury, however you look at it.

In the future, I will probably try making my own sugar scrub. I bought some phthalate-free pomegranate fragrance from Bulk Apothecary several months ago, and while not identical, it is very similar to the Lemongrass scent. The homemade scrub will probably last no longer than the Lemongrass scrub, but at least I'll be able to make it in smaller batches so the quality doesn't decline before I'm done using it. Plus it will probably be cheaper than Lemongrass AND Burt's Bees.

Have you used a multi-level marketing/direct sales/network marketing product before? Did it live up to your expectations (and the price tag)?