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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Also, you can watch my latest Youtube vlog below:

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

-Bethany

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

​Til next time,
​-Bethany

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

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

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

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

-Bethany

Hi everyone! I am back to regular blogging again. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves during the holidays, and now I'm excited to be starting a fresh new year. While I love setting goals for a new year, it's just as fun to look over goals from last year and see what you ended up finishing (or starting!). It's so rewarding to see the results of a job well done.

Today I'd like to share some things I accomplished over the last year. Just to be fair, I never accomplish all that I set out to. But if I do finish or keep up with half of my goals, then that is still more than I would have accomplished with no goals at all.

1. My first full year of parenting. I don't set goals for our daughter, but I do set goals for myself as a parent. There were wins and fails over the last year. I not-so-faithfully tried to do baby sign language. Princess is almost 16 months old, and she uses one of the three signs we worked on. At this point she's almost talking (and as funny as it sounds, I can differentiate between which grunts are "help me, I'm stuck" and which ones are "where's my sippy cup"), so the sign language is pretty pointless.  Cloth diapers were a success. Elimination communication was not a success. I got tired of rushing her to the potty for "dry runs", and didn't even save money because we were already using cloth diapers. At this point we're less than a year away from potty training, so again, I feel like EC is a bit pointless for my lifestyle. In other news, I reached a personal goal of breastfeeding her past one year, and we also read through nine volumes of Arthur Maxwell's The Bible Story over the course of nine months. I taught her to drink water from a cup (shot glass) at nine months, but otherwise Montessori weaning didn't really work for us. Like baby sign language and EC, I don't see the point of a parent spending so much time to "teach" a skill that the child will easily learn a little later on. I want to spend my time on activities that will benefit my kid (or let's be honest—myself) in a long term way, not just for a couple of months. Some of my parenting experiments have worked, some haven't, but it has been a very fun (and I would say, successful) ride so far.

​2. I wrote and published another book, and almost doubled my author earnings from 2017. My ongoing goal is to publish one quality book per year. It takes time and dedication to get a book from idea to publication, so this is an accomplishment that I'm very proud of.

3. I kept honeybees for the first time. This one was kind of a failure (read all about it here), but I did learn a lot and get some hands-on experience. 

4. I ran a profitable roadside strawberry stand. This took a relentless amount of work—far more than I had imagined—but with some improvements, I hope the workload in 2019 will be lighter.

5. I began bullet journaling. I started doing this in May, and I believe it has been a huge help to my household management. I don't believe I would have finished as many small projects or been able to stick with a good weekly schedule without my bullet journal.

6. I started playing duets with my beginner piano students. After a few years of doing lessons, I can see where I've made mistakes and what areas need improvement. Every month I take some money and try to invest it back into the "business". Usually this takes the form of prizes, but one month I bought a companion book to our beginner book (Teaching Little Fingers to Play). I think playing duets with the kids really helped their timing and also their motivation. I felt more in tune with what they were practicing as well. Sometimes we teachers can get in the habit of passively listening to a student's work, giving it a thumbs up or thumbs down, and then collecting the fee at the end of class. That's not good teaching. I feel like working on duets made me a far better teacher.

*****

I feel like those are some of the bigger long-term accomplishments of last year. Of course, there are always little accomplishments that happen every week or month, that I like to record on the "Frugal Accomplishments This Week" post. For example, I made my very first gingerbread house from scratch this year. I read more books and listened to more audiobooks than I can remember. I grew several new plants in the garden, and one of my orchids rebloomed for the first time ever! These are small things, but to me they can be the highlight of a week or month. Those little things are still worth celebrating and recording, in my opinion.


I hope your 2019 is off to a good start!

Til next time,
-Bethany

​Ah, finally. A quiet moment around here.

Early Thursday morning, we got back from our trip to Guatemala. It was a lot of fun! There is more I'd like to write about that trip, but I am going to save it for another post. Because... we returned smack-dab in the middle of Christmas season!

In the past, I had far more time to made decorations and gifts from scratch. This year my Christmas activities were limited, but I was still able to do some frugal things.


Decorations

​We strung up some lights in the house for decorations, and put up a tree. I put cuttings from the tree into different vases and jars; one each for the kitchen table, bathroom, and bedroom. Ideally I'll make an actual table arrangement before Christmas rolls around... we'll see.

​I also made some decorative pillow covers with drop cloth. These were a struggle for me. Not because I can't sew, but because I don't have a sewing room anymore (thanks to.... baby junk) and our toddler is constantly getting into my projects. Of course there are a million other things I want to do during nap time, so the pillow cases literally took weeks to complete. The workmanship could be better, but really? it was a stretch just to get them finished.

I love the idea of reusable, useful holiday decorations. Instead of buying a bunch of plastic knick-knacks to set out on display, I'd like to use table linens, hand towels, pot holders, and other fabric items to decorate for Christmas (and other holidays). A pillow cover, for example, takes up far less storage space than a piece of artwork or table centerpiece. The linens don't even need to be specifically "Christmas" themed; red fabrics can be used for Christmas, Valentine's Day, the Fourth of July, etc. Green can be Christmas, St. Patrick's Day, etc.

Other ideas for multipurpose decorations are food or consumables like soap, candles, etc. Last year I went to Bath and Body Works' semi-annual sale in January and got two bottles of very nice hand soap. Of course, the soap was Christmas-themed, but I used it all year round anyway. This year I think I'll save a bottle or two especially for the holiday season, or even for some gifts. Soap doesn't really "expire" until it's several years old.

Ideally, I'd make a few strategic changes to my menu plan to make our regular dinners a little more festive. Since this holiday season was cut short by vacation, I'm only doing special recipes for parties, not meals at home. I guess there's always next year!


Gifts

​Hubs and I are pretty frugal, but we don't like to cheap out on gifts. If there is something a family member needs or really wants, we don't have a problem spending more money on that thing. That being said, sometimes it's "just not your year". If someone on my list doesn't give me any ideas, and I don't find "the perfect thing" for him, he will probably get something edible or useful, but not very expensive. My first priority is matching a good gift with the recipient, not spending a certain amount of money. 

Finding a good gift is not easy. Some people are very picky about what clothes they wear or what kitchen tools they buy, for example. And just because someone likes fishing does not mean they'll read a book about fishing, because many folks are not readers. Just because someone likes to eat strawberries does not mean they'll want a strawberry decor item for their kitchen. I'll bet over half of all Christmas gifts do not last a year before being donated, thrown away or banished to a closet somewhere, never to be used. I'm willing to spend a little more for a gift that is guaranteed to be used. If in doubt, spend less. Don't waste money on junk that will end up in someone's former sewing room. We generally exchange gifts with family; I try to stick with a $10-$20 per person budget, but sometimes it's more and oftentimes it's less. For white elephant gifts and small gifts for friends, I try to spend less than $5.00 per gift. Cookie plates, for example, often cost less than $2.00 each; sometimes less than a dollar.

Shopping for your kids: Research shows that most gift spending goes toward children, with the "average" parent spending almost $500.00 per child. Whoa! What a great opportunity to save. Kids under 10 are often not picky at all about what kind of toys they play with, so why are we spending so much money? Kids under three, as the saying goes, "would rather play with the packaging than the toy".  Expensive gifts are often bought because it makes the parent feel good. I've spent far more on our daughter than I ever imagined I would. 

That being said, I want to give our little girl good gifts. I don't want it to all be cheap, plastic junk. Instead of just buying her something at the store, Hubs and I chose to make her Christmas gifts this year. It was more sentimental for us—not to mention cheaper. Hubs made her a little wooden chair. He found the plans online and made a prototype out of scrap lumber. The first chair was a bit too wide, so he modified the plan somewhat and built a second chair out of scrap lumber. The second chair was perfect! I think we will probably stain it at some point.

​For my gift, I wanted something that 1) inspired creative play, 2) had the "collectible" factor (like dolls or Barbies, where you just keep adding to the toy collection year after year), 3) made with natural materials to last a long time, and 4) something generally affordable. As in, not American Girl dolls. What I came up with was peg dolls. Very similar to the Fisher Price "Little People" I grew up playing with, peg dolls are small wooden pegs, painted with clothing and facial features. The 1" dolls I bought were way too small for our toddler, so I ordered 2" ones for $10.00 on Amazon. Then I went to Walmart and bought some cheap acrylic paints for $0.50 per bottle; a ten pack of colors, plus an additional skin tone color. Some of the online tutorials warned against buying cheap paints because it would require multiple layers to get a good color. That turned out to be true, but I was able to buy twice as many colors for the same amount of money. Note: I thought I was saving money by purchasing a multi-pack of paints, but I wasn't. If I were to do the project all over again, I would buy individual bottles of only my favorite colors. I also bought a can of acrylic gloss finish for the dolls.

The total cost for this project was about $25.00. Each blank wood doll costs $0.50, but the paints will hopefully last for many dolls and other projects. I'd estimate the cost per finished doll at around $0.60. It took me between 30 and 60 minutes per doll (I did them all at the same time, for several evenings in a row). I only used 12 of the dolls for her Christmas present, which brings the total cost to around $7.20. I know they will last for years, plus they have the added benefit of being more or less gender-neutral. The options for customization are virtually limitless. I can see myself painting cowboys and Indians, presidents, peasants, pilgrims and all sorts of other characters. Hopefully the little figurines will not only be fun to play with, but useful as a teaching tool as well.

Food

Boy, do I love Christmas food... especially the desserts and snacks. All that junk made with cereal and marshmallows, pretzels, chocolate and peanut butter. Chex mix, puppy chow, corn flake wreaths, haystacks, buckeyes, I love it all. Except peanut brittle, but I don't know anyone who likes peanut brittle.

Thankfully, food is one of the more affordable aspects of Christmas. For our first party, I made puppy chow with a $1.50 bag of cereal, one cup of chocolate chips, a half cup of peanut butter and a few cups of powdered sugar. The total cost was less than $3.00. My recipe made enough chow to fill the bowl to overflowing and have some extra to keep at home. For the second party, I took another bag of cereal ($1.00, on sale) and mixed it with butter and marshmallows to make rice crispy treats. Again we came home with delicious leftovers, so the recipe did double duty! Total cost for that was less than $2.00. I will most likely be bringing vegetables and possibly more Christmas-y snacks to the four remaining parties. Estimated cost: $5.00 per party or less.


Other Stuff

There are a lot of other things you can do for Christmas that are free or inexpensive. We are going Christmas caroling this week with friends. We'll probably be watching at least one Christmas movie on Netflix or some other streaming service. You can also find free Christmas movies at your library, or rent them. Our local video store has weekly rentals for $1.00, and they are always giving out coupons of some sort as well. I am hoping this year to make a gingerbread house, which costs just a few dollars and doubles as a dessert and decoration. You can also celebrate the Christian side of Christmas by doing an advent calendar or wreath, or reading aloud the story of Jesus' birth. There is no way one family can do all things "Christmas" in one year! The 2018 holiday season was kind of short for us, but I'm always banking ideas for next year.

Til next time,
-Bethany

​I quit doing monthly hobby farm updates because... well, there's not much to report on from month to month. But I thought I'd at least do an end-of-the-year recap.

Chickens

My last duck died earlier this year, so all I have left is chickens. Thanks to predators and old age, by October my flock was whittled down to 11 birds; 9 hens, 2 roosters. I bought three more pullets from a local 4Her. Those should begin laying in a couple of months.

I've got to say this: it's very nice not having ducks. As much as I loved to watch them swim and play in their pond, it was annoying having to empty and refill the kiddie pool of water every two or three days. The chicken water stays clean for much longer now. Unlike the ducks, they don't need an entire kiddie pool, so I can transport fresh water in a five-gallon bucket. Speaking of which:

I broke down and bought a heated water bucket this year. It was $30.00 on sale at a local farm store. The bucket is thermostatically controlled so it only runs when needed, plus it requires very little energy. Hubs was concerned that an additional heating element would not be worth the added electricity costs, but after reading the label on the bucket, he changed his mind. The heated bucket will reduce the amount of water I have to carry this winter, and also make chores easier for others when we are away.

I also splurged and bought the chickens some "real" bedding; a bale of pine shavings. I had been using sawdust from Hubs' shop, but since he got a sawdust-sucker (sorry, I don't know what it's actually called) it's more complicated to get the bedding when I need it. The bale of pine shavings was far easier to carry than wheelbarrows full of sawdust, plus less messy, and it looks so nice in the coop. For $5.00, I think it was a pretty good purchase.

I grew some oat grass fodder for the hens last week, for the first time. It was very easy and cheap. When we get back from our trip, I'm going to set up a system for doing the fodder. I know, I know... I say that every year. But really, I think I will do it.

I tried using the waterglass technique for preserving eggs, instead of selling the extra like I normally do. The waterglassing was a failure. A third of the eggs were well preserved, but the other two thirds developed "smells" over the months in storage. The good eggs were only good for baking, not scrambling. After starting this project, I read that waterglassing is not ideal for fertilized eggs, plus over time the solution weakens the shells and makes them more susceptible to breakage. One broken egg in the bucket, and all of the rest will develop smells. Somehow, flies got into my egg bucket and started laying their own eggs, which developed into maggots. Disgusting! I won't be doing this preservation method again, unless the eggs are unfertilized and there are only a few to preserve. Also, I wouldn't preserve spring eggs for winter; only fall eggs.


Bees

Unfortunately, my beehive this year was not a success. I did not harvest any honey, and yellow jackets invaded the hive without me realizing it, until it was too late. I made quite a few mistakes along the way, but I also got the hang of doing routine hive checks, using the smoker, etc. I'm slightly less terrified of bees than I was a year ago.

​I thought that after I started working with the bees, my fear of them would go away. It definitely did not. About halfway through the summer, they plastered their entire hive with propolis, a sticky, gooey substance made of tree sap (I actually saw them collecting the pine sap one night... it was very interesting!). I dropped an entire frame one day while checking the bees, which definitely made them mad. After that I just felt like a terrible beekeeper, and it was like pulling my own teeth to go out there. Everything was covered in propolis and burr comb and a huge hassle to get into. I stopped checking the lower deep, for fear of crushing the queen, who I hadn't seen in weeks. When I went out to check the supers for honey, I thought the bees were moving slower, acting almost drowsy. The supers were entirely empty, though there was still capped honey in the upper deep. In September, I noticed a few yellow jackets crawling around the hive. Just a week or two later, there were more yellow jackets than there were guard bees. That was pretty much the end of my bees. In October there was a very small population of honey bees still in the hive, but I doubt there is enough to make it through winter.

I would like to try the bee project again. I'll order another package of bees, and maybe build another small hive just in case my old one is bad. I would love this project to be a success, but it didn't happen this year.

​Strawberries

The other new project for 2018 was selling strawberries. I planted my strawberry field in 2017, but this was our first year of harvesting and selling berries. It went okay. I really should have got a babysitter for our daughter during picking season. The deer ravaged my plants and they only produced half of what they should have. By the end of June I was about to go crazy, and the darn plants still needed weeding. I took July off of strawberry farming (a mistake) and made up for it tenfold by weeding the berries almost every day for the next two months. 

Financially, the strawberry project more than paid for itself. I made $500.00 net profit, when all was said and done. Next year I will not have as many costs, and hopefully will harvest more berries and thus, earn more money like I had expected to do this year.

​Garden

I didn't realize how much the strawberry patch would interfere with my gardening time. I also didn't realize how many BEES would be swarming around my raised beds and how much that would bother me. The bees actually scared me away from weeding and harvesting, which cut my garden yield. Next year I will plant the bee-friendly herbs and flowers farther away from the garden.

For spending almost no time in the garden, I got a decent yield. Chinese long beans were a smashing success. Beets were a success. The heirloom tomatoes I planted were beautiful, but not very good for canning and didn't produce much for all of the space they took up. Peppers were a fail (I think it was the hot weather?). All throughout the summer I had sprinkler and hose problems. I did actually grow some watermelon, which was a first for me!! Sweet corn patch was a fail. Pumpkin and acorn squash was a fail.

​One success for the garden this year was an extended lettuce harvest. We invested $40.00 into a plastic greenhouse panel and used it to make two cold frames. The first cold frame had pepper plants in it, which froze right away. The second frame had lettuce in it, and the lettuce is still growing in early December! We save about $2.00 per week by not buying lettuce, plus my lettuce is organic (in which case, the savings are probably even more). We've already saved $16.00, so the second frame has almost paid for itself.


Re-evaluating Profit and Loss

Ultimately, I think the hobby farm balance was a loss. I sunk $600.00 or more into bee supplies, a couple hundred dollars into chicken feed. I think I spent about $100.00 on garden supplies (greenhouse panel, seeds, bulbs, landscape fabric). The strawberry profits probably covered chicken costs, but that's it.


I've spent the last several years trying to make my hobby farm earn an income, or at least pay for itself. I've had goats, chickens, ducks, a sheep, a farmers market stand, a farm stand, and and Etsy shop. Trying to make each project pay for itself was very difficult. Some projects just aren't very economical. Bees and chickens, for example, are definitely "hobby" projects. Milk goats and strawberries, on the other hand, can easily support themselves plus bring a profit.

The most efficient way to get your hobby farm to pay for itself is to have a cash crop (or "cow", if you will) and use that to pay for your other unprofitable projects. Even so, I've discovered my hobby farm is much less about earning money than it is about providing good quality food for my family, learning new things and getting outside. I also want to keep the hobby farm going so our daughter can reap the benefits of gardening and learning animal husbandry.

Looking Forward

Next year, I'm going to make the hobby farm my "local food fund". Any profits from the strawberry patch will either be put back into the farm (paying for chicken feed, beekeeping supplies, etc.) or spent on food from other local farms. This will technically increase our food budget (hopefully, anyway). It will allow me to contribute to the local economy not just by consuming, but also by producing. 

At this point, I don't have any new projects planned. My goals are to 1) double profits on the strawberries, 2) get some kind of honey harvest, 3) extend the garden growing season and 4) keep my chickens happy and healthy. I'm excited to see how much I can do with the farm in 2019!  

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Until next time,
-Bethany

Method 3: Cloth Diapers

When Baby was two months old, I started experimenting with different cloth diaper types. Since she was a heavy wetter, I felt like cotton prefolds didn't work very well, and kept her skin wet all of the time. I decided to buy Alva pocket diapers for the majority of my stash. The single microfiber insert that each diaper came with was not enough to keep her dry for long, so I backed it up with another bamboo-covered microfiber insert. (Note: I didn't realize that the bamboo inserts were not 100% bamboo. I wouldn't recommend buying these, as they don't clean very well and aren't worth the $2.00 per insert.)

This system worked very well for a long time. Eventually I tried using hemp inserts to back up the microfiber, instead of "bamboo". The hemp worked so well that I used it for "night time diapers". I had a rotation of four black and white diapers designated especially for overnights. These were stuffed with one microfiber insert on top, and a hemp one on the bottom. A few months later, I had to start adding a "bamboo" insert between the hemp and microfiber for extra absorbency.

The hemp inserts are something I would recommend to every cloth diapering mama. The clean well, last a long time and hold a LOT of moisture. They also hold their value well if you want to resell. The only drawbacks to hemp are that it takes an ETERNITY to air dry (two or three days) and it costs a little more up front ($3.50 or more per insert). Hemp inserts can be used with pockets, prefolds and covers, or even all-in-one diapers, so they're very versatile.

Our cloth diapering game changed—for the worse—when Baby started eating solid foods. I had a harder time keeping diaper rash at bay. Our water pressure wasn't good enough for an effective sprayer, so I had to dunk and swish all of our pocket diapers (I did figure out a better way to do this... read on). It took me about 10 minutes from start to finish. I had to use rubber gloves, a spatula, and four or five flushes to get all of the poop out of the creases in the elastic leg holes.

At this point, the weather warmed up and I started drying our cloth diaper things outdoors instead of indoors. Some of the PUL started to deteriorate or even delaminate on our diapers because of too much sun exposure. I then moved the pocket shells back inside to dry, while only drying the inserts outdoors (our house is terribly humid in the summer, so it's almost impossible for inserts to dry indoors during that time). I read somewhere that warm water is bad for diaper elastics, so I started washing in cold water only. This is when our real problems started.

Diaper rash problems went from bad to worse. One day Baby even had an ammonia burn, and I said, "This has to stop!" I put her back into disposable diapers for a week while I stripped all of her diapers. I thought maybe the buildup was caused by using cheap Xtra detergent, so I switched to Tide. The diapers definitely smelled better, but the "bamboo" inserts still had a faint ammonia smell to them. I did a little more research and started washing in warm water again. I haven't had stink issues since switching back to warm water, so I think the cold water wash is what caused build up in our diapers.

During this time, I re-evaluated how I "did" cloth diapering, and even if it was worth continuing. Baby was starting to pee out of her nighttime diapers, and there was not room to stuff four inserts into one pocket shell. The four black and white night time diapers were cracked and delaminating at this point anyway, so I decided to put her in disposable diapers at night. I sold the "bamboo" microfiber inserts on Ebay and bought flour sack towels ($0.78 each) at Walmart to replace them. The flour sack towels clean better, dry faster and are far more economical. The only downside is the absorbency (which is just okay) and the fact that they are a bit thicker than other inserts. Lastly, I bought a fleece throw blanket for a couple dollars and cut it up into very large liners. This, too, was a good idea. The liners are large enough to catch ALL of the poop, so I only have to swish-and-dunk a flat liner instead of trying to flick poop out of elastic creases with a spatula. It only takes a few minutes now to clean out a diaper, plus the fleece helps keep diaper rash at bay. I have hardly used any rash cream since adding a large fleece liner to every diaper.

The final challenge I had with cloth diapering was finding clothes that fit and looked okay on Baby. I tried leg warmers (the didn't stay up), Maxaloones (special homemade cloth diaper pants) and onesie extenders. Finally, I discovered that the best combination is a onesie or shirt (based on baby's age—if onesie, it may help to use an extender) and a pair of leggings several sizes above what she'd wear with a disposable diaper. For example, right now Baby is wearing an 18 mos. size shirt with 3T leggings. You can either roll up pant legs that are too long, or fold them under and sew to keep them in place (but keep the length intact so baby can wear the pants for as long as possible). Dresses are also fabulous, since they cover the big butt in a cute way.

After a year of using cloth diapers, I would say there are five things worth buying: 1) Alva pocket diapers, 2) Thirsties or other hemp inserts, 3) flour sack towels, 4) a cheap fleece blanket, cut into large liners, and 5) a couple good all-in-one diapers to keep in the diaper bag, or for going out of the house. The all-in-ones typically don't look as "fluffy" as other types of diapers. They do take longer to dry, which is why I wouldn't want a whole stash of them (not to mention the fact that they're expensive).

Another thing worth saying about cloth diapers: if the diapers stink, leak, or you hate them, it's not a good diaper system for you. Don't settle for diapers that don't work, or a laundry routine that takes more time than it's worth. When you do find a system that works, tally up ALL of the costs (laundry soap, using the dryer, disposable liners, extra accessories) and compare them with the cost of disposable diapers.

Method 4: Cheap Disposable Diapers

When I looked into diapering options for our baby, I wrote off cheap diapers like "Parent's Choice" (Walmart's store brand) completely. I knew a few moms who didn't like them, plus I read some articles online about how they leaked or fell apart and weren't worth the money. As frugal as I am, I never even tried the cheap diapers on our baby until she was nine or ten months old.

I bought Parent's Choice diapers when I was stripping our cloth diapers and wanted her in disposables 24/7 for a while. Some of the horror stories were true: the diapers did seep through when left on overnight, plus the "stuffing" shifted when they got too full. They were, indeed, cheap diapers.

But you know what? A cheapo diaper costs $0.13, and the "cheap" Luvs diapers cost $0.20 each. That's a measurable difference over the course of two or three years. I decided that, for the small amount of time that Baby is in disposables (at night, and sometimes when we're out of the house), I can deal with a flimsy diaper.

Here is a tip for cheapo diaper users: buy yourself a few water-resistant cloth diaper covers, and use them over top of the disposables. This will save your nice baby outfits from blowouts, and prevent overnight seepage from soaking your baby's bed sheet and pajamas. The covers cost as little as $5.00 each. For $10.00 or $15.00, you can make those Parent's Choice diapers FAR more effective poop-holders than their expensive brand-name counterparts! I used our old, spent night time pocket diaper shells as covers. They were free, and they are a great insurance policy for blowouts.

In addition to buying cheapo diapers and adding a cover, you can also use coupons to get better quality disposable diapers at the same price. I've done this a couple of times, but there's no way I could have found 2-3 years' worth of disposable diapers that way. Many couponing moms start building diaper stockpiles before their baby is even conceived. I'm not up to that.


Conclusion: Do The Cheapest Thing That Works for You

When we had the ammonia issue with our cloth diapers, I re-evaluated my diapering decisions from an economic point of view, comparing our current diapering situation (using pocket diapers, washing in Tide) with just buying Parent's Choice disposables. Using Tide detergent bought on sale, it cost me about $0.07 per diaper to launder the cloth, plus time to line dry and re-stuff (about a minute per diaper). The disposable diapers cost $0.13 each, plus time to take out the trash (so, possibly extra trash bags) and shop for the diapers. 

I was only saving $0.05 per diaper* by using cloth; so, about $0.35 per day. I had to ask myself if it was worth saving $0.75 for every load of cloth diaper laundry. I came to the conclusion that since I don't mind doing laundry, and I already have the diapers, I will continue to use cloth. Additional note: I started replacing 1/3 of the Tide detergent with cheaper Xtra detergent, which helped increase the savings. In time, I may switch back to Xtra entirely. 

To bring this article full-circle, I'd like to remind you that the cheapest diapering method of all is to not use diapers. At our current rate of use, I'm still spending about $0.36 per day on laundry detergent for our cloth diapers, which adds up to $10.80 per month. The sooner you potty train, the better! During this next year of diapering, I want to keep that in mind as a goal to work toward.

Til next time,
-Bethany

*At this point, our cloth diapers begin to leak after 2.5 hours of use. The disposables, used with a cover, can easily last for five hours without needing to be changed. That means that I need to use two cloth diapers ($0.12- $0.14 cost for laundry detergent) for every one disposable ($0.13 cost). Technically, if I chose to change our baby less than every five hours, I wouldn't be saving any money with cloth diapers.

It's up to the parent how long they wait to change a diaper. I prefer to change every 3-4 hours or sooner.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I think that's about all for today! 

Til next time,
-Bethany 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-Bethany