Frugal Families Blog

“It’s not having what you want. It’s wanting what you’ve got…”

Yep, Cheryl Crow inspires me!

I periodically get down on being frugal.  I want to spend.  I want new.  I want better.  I want.  Period.  I WANT.  I didn’t say NEED.  I said I WANT.  Reality is that I don’t really NEED much if anything.  We are blessed.  A roof over our heads, food on the table, and my hubby in a good job (I don’t want to say secure because nothing seems secure anymore).  We’re healthy and have more than so many.

Yet, there are still times when I want:  an updated kitchen, install hardwood flooring in the bedrooms, aa newer vehicle for my husband.   Then I get a bit down about not having the things I want.  Then I hear Cheryl, “It’s not having what you want.  It’s wanting what you’ve got…”  She  motivates me to get refocused!  It’s like that glass-half-full thing or the glass is half-empty thing.  I can dwell on how we can’t swing all of the things we want right now or focus on enjoying what we DO have right now!

Instead of thinking about what you DON’T have, think about what you DO have. What will make you want what you have more?

Yeah, we want hardwood floors in the bedrooms but in the meantime, I can make the carpeting we have look as good as it can by taking care of it and giving it a good cleaning.  I want to update the kitchen but in the meantime, cleaning up our old cabinets and taking care of our current kitchen is more important.

Sometimes it isn’t about really wanting new but needing change.  “It’s wanting what you’ve got.”  Paint, fabric and my own labor are cheap.  I liked our kitchen a lot more after we put up fresh paint and I made a new curtain for the door.  That simple change made me want my kitchen more.

I’m always amazed how moving things around can make the old seem new again.  A pretty sheet tucked in and around an old couch or chair or a beautiful hand-crocheted afghan casually throw across the cat-shredded arm of an chair can do wonders.  Updating an old couch with fresh new fabric on hand-made pillows draws the eyes away from the stain the kids created when they spilled something.

It is being honest with yourself.  I don’t go looking at homes that are for sale because I know that I’ll see something that will make me not want my own home as much.  We never intended to make this our forever home but it is what it is and we’re blessed to have our home.  There is no sense looking at other houses and thinking on how this house isn’t everything we would like.  Remember, it’s wanting what you have.  There is no sense going out looking at expensive new furniture if you know you can’t swing it right now.  It’s easier to appreciate what you have if you aren’t out looking at everything you can’t have.

So, how can you want what you already have?

I periodically review the goals I have set for our homestead.  I wrote them down in my homesteading journal around January or February of this year.  As I’ve previously stated, I was thrilled to expand our garden and preserve more of our harvest.  My marked maple trees stand ready in our newly fallen 12″ of snow to increase our sap harvest next spring.  I wanted to up the fruit production in our garden, too.  If you go back a few posts, you’ll see pictures of our gorgeous raspberry crop.

Overall, it’s been a positive year and step upward in our goals.  Another goals was to work on creating more of the boys’ Christmas presents.  I was so proud to add knitting to my repertoire of frugal skills this year!  I am an experienced crocheter but crocheting doesn’t create the beautiful socks I desired.  In addition, the ribbing of knitting is better than that of crocheting.  I took out every beginner knitting book that the library had and pulled out my Great Grams knitting needles.  I hoped and prayed that those ‘experienced’ needles would pass on some of my Gram’s knitting talent on to me. 

So, I practiced.  And practiced.  And bugged my experienced knitting friend in Texas.  THEN I decided to attempt socks.  My dear friend Debi, in Texas is a sweetheart!  She was so patient with  me, teaching me how to follow a sock pattern from a thousand miles away over the phone!  Thank goodness for unlimited minute phone packages.    In the end, I used some of my beautiful New England wool to make my first pair of socks!  They’re double knitted and will keep my feet nice and warm when I go ice fishing!

With my first pair of socks down in the books, I set my sights on Christmas presents for the fellas.  I ended up knitting 4 hats (3 for the boys and one for my dad) and two more pairs of socks for myself.  My socks are with a much finer sock yarn this time.  I can’t wait ot fid them in my Christmas stocking!  Yeah, I’m silly making my own stocking stuffers but it increases my anticipation of wearing my beautiful self-striped socks.  I’ll have to take pics for you.  I also crocheted two pairs of slippers for two of the boys and knitted a pair of piggy slippers for my middle son who totally has a thing for pigs.

The other thing I wanted to work on was my sewing.  I am a skilled quilter but sewing and following a pattern is a bit different BUT I was once again determined.  I found cute flannel on sale At JoAnn’s and ended up sewing up 3 pairs of flannel pajama bottoms for the boys.  The added benefit to making my own flannel bottoms for them is that I can custom fit the pants of my extra tall, extra scrawny body styles of my fellas.  A HUGE BENEFIT!

I’m not sure if I’ll be able to get flannel tops done for my oldest yet.  He’s the only one who wears them.  The other two prefer no tops or just t-shirts.  My oldest jokes that he’s cold-blooded.  BUT I’m not giving up now that I know I can get the bottoms done!  Step by step and before you know it, you’ve done it!

So, this might be my last review of this years homesteading goals before the year ends.  I’m eagerly looking forward to creating new goals for myself and our property in the coming year.  I have to say that writing down my goals in a homesteading journal and having that physical reminder of what I wanted to do has been very helpful and motivating.  It’s been nice sharing it with you, too.

What are your goals for your home in the new year?

I know it’s been a few weeks.  My apologies.  Thanksgiving was a busy time and it was stressful.  My dear friend, Stephanie, in Tennessee was having a hard time.  Her mother-in-law had a series of strokes and she and her husband spent the better part of that Thanksgiving week at the hospital.  It was a very hard week, emotionally and physically as we all prayed, knowing we had to accept God’s will but knowing it wouldn’t be easy.  In the end, Brian’s mom passed away.

I wanted to be there for Brian and Steph and I was able to find an awesome deal on a plane ticket to TN.  If you have some flexibility in your schedule, Travelocity’s Web Fares, can be a source of great deals! Don’t forget to look for coupon codes as well.  I was able to find the deal for Delta through Travelocity but I ended up buying through CheapOAir.com because they had online coupons and their site wasn’t experiencing trouble like Travelocity that day.

So, I flew to TN!  I have never flown alone and I haven’t flown in over 12 years (not since 9/11).  I was excited and stressed all at the same time.  LOL!  But I did it!  Stephanie was waiting there at the airport for me and seeing her smiling face brought on a torrent of joyful tears.  Stephanie and I are always thankful that the Lord saw fit to bring us together.  I was so thankful to have this time with her.

I flew in on Saturday and I got to enjoy lunch at Sonics.  I know that Sonics might be nothing for some of you but we don’t have them here in CT.  I loved watching the girl roller skate out with our order!  I tried my first cherry limeade drink.  Then we got donuts at Richie Kremes.  A small mom and pop place that makes absolutely fantastic, mouthwatering, tender donuts.  Oh man…  yeah, they’re like those Krispy Kremes BUT they made donuts like this before the big franchise came along and we don’t have a Krispy place here anymore either.  Oh and then we celebrated Brians birthday and his dad’s birthday by going to Sticky Fingers!  Yep, they only have those in TN, too.  We tried them out when we visited in April and the boys fell in love with Memphis style ribs.  If I ever move to TN, I’ll gain 15 pounds.  At least.  LOL!

Sunday was wonderful.  Steph and Brian always talk about their church in Clearwater.  My first experience in a Southern Baptist church.   What a joy and blessing to share fellowship with such a wonderful faith community.  Another wonderful blessing in my life.

Steph and I always joked about how we wished we could have a day to sit all day, drink tea, crochet and knit and watch Stargate (yeah, we’re huge fans).  Well, this was our plan for Monday, except we didn’t know that Stargate was going to be on!  I joked with Steph that the only thing that would absolutely make the day perfect was if Stargate was on and Steph checked and could not believe that it really was on!  So we sat, watched Stargate, drank sweet tea (oh man, they make it SAWEEEEET down there!) and crocheted and knitted the entire day.  We gave thanks to the Lord for blessing us with such a wonderful day together.

I know this doesn’t appear to be all about frugality but in a way it is.  First, we have no debt other than the house which allowed us the flexibility to book a plane ticket.  We have no debt because of our frugal living.   I found a tremendous deal on the ticket using online resources.  I can’t begin to tell you how priceless a day with my dear friend was.  Stephanie and I didn’t spend a penny on our dream day together but it was more valuable than any physical item we could have bought.  With these tough economic times, the same attitude can be brought to the table of many homes.  It’s not about the physical things we have but the time we get to spend together with each other.

Okay, some of these tips can apply to ANY stressful event but I’m going to focus on the upcoming big event in most households this week.

-Mashed potatoes (or other mashed things like sweet potatoes or squash) can be kept warm in a crockpot for several hours!  Make your dish ahead of time, add everything like you normally do and then place it in the crockpot on low or warm setting.  BIG time saver and frees up another burner just before you serve up the meal.

-Set the table(s) the night before if you can.  I won’t be able to set the kitchen table until just before the company arrives as it also serves as a prep area but I can set the dining room table and the other extra table that will be out the night before.  The dishes won’t run away.

-If you have boys like I do and have more than one toilet in the house than do your keep clean of the guest bathroom the night before and ban the boys from it to keep it clean!  Yeah, that’s mom of boy humor but any one of you with boys will know and appreciate this tip!

-Consider purchasing a Nesco roasting oven.  This oven is a God send!!!  I can cook a 20lb turkey in this thing!  It’s like having an extra oven that you can tuck into the bottom of closet any other time.  So many people struggle with having enough oven room because the turkey is in there forever and you can’t bake anything else.  This makes life so much easier and it can really be used year round (hmmm, perhaps that’s another post.  LOL).  Mine is a bit older and honestly, I wish I had the buffet tray that the newer ones have!  Oh the possibilities!

Nesco 4808-2589PR 18-Quart Roaster Oven with Nonstick Cookwell and Buffet Kit

-Don’t try making new things on Thanksgiving day unless you’ve already made them at least once.  Many a Thanksgiving day stresses are over new dishes that a hostess is trying for the first time.  Don’t do this to yourself!  Stick to tried and true and ultimately, less stressful.

-Don’t refuse help!  Oh my gosh, if someone is offering to make something for you, then by all means, let them!  I know, someone may not bake the apple pie just like you but your guests won’t care (unless you were the blue-winner at the county fair ). At the same time, don’t refuse help in the kitchen!  I know, too many cooks in the kitchen can be trouble but so is a host/hostess pulling out his/her hair!

-Along the lines of not refusing help, is knowing what you can prepare ahead of time.  I make all homemade bread and rolls in my home.  My guests have come to expect and love my homemade goodies and I wouldn’t disappoint them BUT I also know that I can prepare the breads the evening prior.  You can also prepare some dishes the evening before BUT not cook them off until Thanksgiving.  Pies can usually be done the night before as well.  Bread stuffing can be made the night before (don’t stuff the turkey until Thanksgiving to prevent too much possible bacterial growth/contamination and if you want to make it easy, put bread stuffing in casserole dish instead), Consider creating menus with a lot of items that can be prepped the night before.  Even if you can’t put something like scalloped potatoes together the night before, you can slice the potatoes and put them in a bowl of water for the night and then pull it all together on Thanksgiving.  Think ahead of what you can dice, slice and chop up the day before.  Every minute counts!

-Write down the menu!  This helps you remember everything AND if you have help in the kitchen, they can look over the list and see what you’re working on and what still needs attention.  Did I mention it helps you remember everything?  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve found something in the fridge I forgot to put out.  D’uh  moment!  Writing down the menu also helps you make sure you have everything you need.  Last minute trips to the store on Thanksgiving can get pricey because you often end up at a costly convenience store and they’ll inevitably NOT have what you need, leaving you to scramble for a last minute emergency substitution.  UGH!

-You are not perfect!  You are NOT perfect.  YOU ARE NOT PERFECT!  Do you get the idea?  Don’t panic if you forget something or something isn’t ‘just’ right.  You are not perfect!  If they want perfection than let them ask God to host Thanksgiving next year!  Do you best and it will all be fine.

I’ve been scoping out turkey prices.  Maybe it’s my imagination but local stores seem to have more and more low prices BUT with a minimum purchase!  I used to be able to find .29 to .39 prices without any strings attached.  This year, my best price has been .47 without any minimum purchase and you were limited to one turkey.  Like I said, a lot of other stores have had .47 to as much as .99 and there was a minimum $25 purchase on top of that.

How are the prices in your neighborhood?

Part of me wonders why the stores need to tag on the minimum purchase at all.  Part of me goes out of the way to NOT shop at the store that demands a minimum purchase in order to obtain my turkey.  I realize that offering a turkey at .47 a pound is probably a loss for the store but I also think they make it up in regular purchases made around this time of year. In addition, with so many families struggling with rising costs, being able to purchase the turkey without dr

I was going to share this site through my apple core post but it warrants it’s own post.  I honestly haven’t been following them too long but I absolutely love what they’re attempting to do and I’ve been catching up on their blog from the beginning.

Grow the Change

I’ve been humbled by their accomplishments and their commitment to living a self-sustaining lifestyle.  I really have learned so much and I’m continuously amazed by their ingenuity, creativity and determination.  They are actually going to be moving this coming spring BY BIKE, no less!

Please, check their blog out and if nothing else, the pictures of their homestead are fantastic!  I have picture envy!  LOL

When you peel and apple, cut it up and then throw away the peel and core, you’re throwing away at least three creations!  Don’t do it!  At the very minimum, consider composting them for future soil enrichment.  Find a corner of your property to throw it and other non-meat scraps so that worms and fungus will break it down into wonderful dark organic enrichment for your soil.

BUT if you really want to stretch that core and peel, then consider apple jelly and apple cider vinegar!

Even if you only eat a few apples a week, you can try these great tasting and frugal culinary delights.  Simply save your cores and peels in a single container in the freezer.  I had a small bag of cores and peels in the freezer and just finished peels and coring some more apples for an apple streusel and decided that I would make a batch of apple juice.  All I’ve done is put all of the peels and cores into a large soup pot with water to cover them.  Set it to gently simmer so that the cores and peels breakdown and you can extract all the goodness from them.  I then strain all of the cores, peels and juice through layered cheesecloth.  The peels and cores have given up all their goodness by then, so once I’ve strained them off, the remnants go into my compost pile. I’ll wash out the layered cheesecloth and look at the juice and decide if I want to filter it again.  Many times there is still a fair amount of sediment that I don’t want clouding my finished apple jelly.

To make apple jelly:

Simple buy a package of pectin from the grocer (Ball and Kerr both make pectin).  Follow the directions for apple jelly, using your filtered apple juice from your peels and cores as the liquid to make the jelly.  Follow the directions to seal the jars.  You just stretched your apple to their absolute limit!

To make apple cider vinegar:

You can read up here at the Vinegar Man.

One of my homesteading books says to do the following:

Using a very clean glass jar (like a canning jar), crock, wooden or stainless steel container.  NEVER use aluminum or chipped enamel containers to ferment in.  Fill your container with the apple juice, leaving about 1/4 to 1/2 of the container empty for further additions of any other apple juice over the next few weeks or so and for bubbling fermentation.  Cover the container with a clean cloth and tie it firmly to keep bugs and such out.  Wash and replace the cloth once a week.  Your container will be sitting for a while, you must keep it clean.  Place it in a warm place.  80 degrees Fahrenheit is good but cooler is okay, it will just take longer to work.

During the first stage of vinegar making, fermentation will make it bubbles.  If it doesn’t bubble or you want to speed up the process, add 1 tsp of yeast to the jar to get it going.  While it’s bubbling, it’s working.  When it’s done bubbling, it’s ready for the second step.

Stage 2 means that the alcohol produced during the first stage will now be converted to acid.  When the bubbling is done, siphon, dip or strain the liquid from your container to a dark colored glass, enamel, wood, stainless steel or potter container LEAVING BEHIND THE SEDIMENT.  A wide-topped container is good because the bacteria need oxygen to work.  Fill the container no more than 3/4 full.  Use a cloth cover like before and this time put in in a warm but more dark area.  Sunlight will hold back the reaction.

Hopefully, good acetic acid making bacteria will take hold and convert your alcohol to vinegar.  Watch your container to make sure it doesn’t get smelly and disgusting in which case, bad bacteria or mold has taken hold and you’ll  have to throw away your experiment.  BUT if there is good bacteria, you’ll start to see a gray film floating on top.  This is ‘mother’ and you want this!  Don’t disturb it!  The bacteria you want are living in there and it can be the quick start to further vinegar efforts!  The mother generally stays on top to work and when it’s done, will settle to the bottom.

This second stage can take anywhere from a few weeks to as long as six months.  Hopefully, you’ll get a nice mother as well as a nice vinegar from your efforts.  Save your mother by straining it off and putting it in a clean jar with a NON -METAL cover and covering it with a bit of vinegar.  You can add a piece of the mother into a new batch at the beginning of the second stage to insure good vinegar next time as well.

I’ve put up a fair amount of apple jelly already this year.  I’ve decided to try my hand at making cider vinegar.  I have made red wine vinegar in the past and got some great mother but was not vinegar-wise so to speak and didn’t take off my mother.  My vinegar got too sour so I threw the entire thing away.  Now I’m wishing for the mother but I suspect that if I caught good bacteria before that they’re probably still hanging around the kitchen.  I’ll have to update you guys in the future to let you know how my cider vinegar turned out.

By the way, you can accomplish the same things with all sorts of fruits like pears, peaches, nectarines, plums, grape hulls and whole cherries.  All of these can create the juice for jellies and vinegars.  It’s a wonderful way to stretch what you have and to use up every last bit of goodness your harvests can give you.

My oldest son has taken up fencing.  He’s been using the school’s equipment until I was sure that he was interested and was going to stick with the sport.  Being almost a year into things, I decided it was time to buy him his own equipment.  I picked out the beginner package and upon checking out, noticed that little box that said, “Enter Promotional Code”.  Bells went off in my head!!!!  I went on a search for a code before I dared clicked on!

If an online site has that little box for a promotional code, you’re almost guaranteed to find that code somewhere on the internet.  Open a new window and type in the company’s name and the words ‘promotional code’ or ‘online coupon code’ and you’ll find dozens of sites offering up various codes for you to try. Sometimes the codes have expired and the shopping site will tell you such.  Don’t hesitate to find another code and enter it.  The worse case scenario is that you’ll get that little box popping up saying the code you entered has expired.  No harm will come to you (a fear I once had LOL!)

In this case, I couldn’t find an active code and then found a message board stating that you could sign up for this fencing site’s newsletter and they would send you an instant 10% promotional code just for signing up!  The 15 or so minutes of searching saved me just about $25 on my first order.  That equates to an hourly rate of $100/hour!  NOTHING TO LAUGH AT!

This brings up another money-saving strategy.  If you frequent an online store that offers up a newsletter then sign up for it.  Many online stores offer promotional shopping codes only to their online newsletter customers.  They’ll also send you out special offers like discounted products and clearance items.

My family and I went to a neighborhood part a few weeks ago.  I was asking one of our ‘neighbors’ (I use that term loosely because we live in the country where neighbor is a relative term) who works in restaurant supply about obtaining stainless steel lasagna pans for boiling down maple sap in the spring.  He told me he could get them for me but that I should look at getting used pans through the University of CT Surplus Store.  I had NO clue what he was talking about but he quickly explained about this store.

The UCONN Surplus store is a catch all for anything surplus or used but still serviceable that the university clears about.  It’s only open one day a month right now and it’s cash only.  My husband and I went there last month and couldn’t believe what we found!

• used stainless steel and aluminum cookware and warming trays
• used computers and computer equipment
• used sports gear (clothing and some equipment)
• floor washing and waxing machine
• brand new toilets (thank goodness those were new )
• brand new cups and plates from the conference center
• used gym equipment like weight lifting equipment and step-machines
• church pews (not sure how these were surplus but there were at least 12 to snag)
• dorm-style headboard/bookcases
• desks-big, small, wooden and metal
• microscopes
• 30 plus copies of some book on criticizing poetry for only $1 each (evidently it wasn’t too popular to criticize poetry)

There was so much  there!  We also managed to find two sets of cherry wood wall-mounted coat racks with silver hooks.  We had priced something similar at the hardware store for about $35 each ($70 for both)  At the surplus store we got them for only $10 each!  That was a savings of $50!  They are now on the wall on the landing handling raincoats and such for the boys.  Somehow I think they look better, probably because they only cost $20 instead of $70!

Our haul included steak knives for our camper.  $1 each.  We found tall, slim UCONN gym pants for my middle son who is ridiculously tall and slim.  $10.  Oh and yes, I DID find those stainless steel lasagna pans.  I had priced pans online for anywhere from $36 to $138!  I wasn’t even sure if all of them were stainless steel, which I do need to handle the heat of maple sugaring.  I managed to get 2 pans there for only $10!  $5 each.

In the end, I began to wonder if all major universities have such surplus centers.  I know that some states offer up surplus stores.  It might be worth your time and a few minutes online to search out such surplus stores in your state.  I know I’ve already marked the calendar for net month’s open day.  I’m hoping for a few more pans and part of me is still wondering what I could possibly do with surplus church pews.

I was enjoying the great fall weather here in New England for an hour or so today.  In between serious website work, I went visiting a local college campus to check out their surplus store.  The store was closed but I found several fantastic shag bark hickory trees that had rained glorious amounts of nuts upon the ground.  I grabbed a cloth shopping bag and went foraging!

I don’t buy many nuts simply because my husband is deathly allergic.  I use nuts only at Christmas time for fudge and I thought I’d make my dad a batch of maple/nut ice cream topping for a present this year seeing as I have my homemade supply of maple syrup.  As I foraged for the small nuts, I was so happy that Mother Nature would supply me with my nut needs at no charge!  Picking up those nuts gave me time to ponder the other wonderful things I’ve foraged for this past year like the black berries in Vermont and blueberries in Pennsylvania (both camping trips).).

Our blackberries became blackberry syrup.  I canned it up and it will help to stretch our maple syrup supply this winter.  I already popped open one jar on pancake night and it was fantastic!  I honestly never thought that nothing but maple syrup belonged on a pancake or waffle, but I was WRONG!

The blueberries became wild blueberry jam.  If you’ve never had wild blueberries then you’re missing out.  Not that domesticated berries are bad, but the small wild version has a tartness that domestics lack.  Yes, it takes a lot of work to pick enough of those small gems to make a batch of jam, but it’s worth it!  I put up 14 half-pints of jam for this winter.

I have such a level of satisfaction when I look at the jars of syrup and jam on the pantry shelves.  I have about 20 lbs of hickory nuts for the holiday season, as well.  It feels good to know that I was able to provide for my family right from what Nature supplied.