Frugal Families Blog

What a wonderful time of year for frugal activities with the family!  I love shuffling my feet through the ankle deep leaves in our front yard.  This year the younger children have had hours of fun raking the leaves into a pile, making a nest, hiding under the leaves, and jumping in to the waist deep piles of crisp leaves.

There are oodles of fall activites!

Try a fall treasure hunt…  Make a list of items you might find in the fall.  Use your yard, or go to a park to hunt.  Some ideas for your list might be:  several different shaped leaves, nuts or pine cones, bugs, birds (I’d suggest just checking those off rather than trying to catch one ), add other items according to your area.

Rubbings…   We love to do this with leaves any time, but is especially fun in the fall.  Pick a leaf or two that isn’t too dry.  Place it on a table, lay a sheet of paper over top, peel the paper off of a crayon and lay it lengthwise across where the leaf is… rub the crayon over the leaf until you have a good impression.  Try several more in different colors and different leaves.  Ahhhh…. terrific refrigerator art work!

We love making pumpkin seeds when we carve pumpkins…   pick seeds out of the “guts” of your pumpkin after you scoop it out.   Rinse the seeds with water.  In a saucepan, cover seeds with water and bring to boil. Simmer for 10 minutes.  Drain water from seeds, in pan, melt 2 tablespoons of butter and add 2 tsp. Worcestershire, and a tsp. salt.  Stir seeds and sauce together.  Spread seeds on a greased cookie sheet and bake in a 300 degree oven about 30 minutes or until seeds become crisp.  Stir occasionally.  Cool and eat!

What are some of your favorite fall activities?!  I’ll bet there are many frugal family oriented activities in your area!

When it’s located right smack in the middle of a tourist town!  Normally, I do a lot of shopping at my local farmers markets.  And if the prices are a bit higher, sometimes, than at the grocery store, I’m fine with it, because the food is fresh and yummy, and I like supporting the local growers.

Now, last week my husband and I were “up north”.  I put that in quotes, because my Florida relatives were always amazed when I’d say we were going “up north”, because to them, Wisconsin was pretty far north already!  But we can get a few hundred miles futher north from where I live, and still be in Wisconsin…

Again, I have gone off on a tangent and need to be reeled back in!  So anyway, we were up north, and passing through one (of many) touristy towns, when I happened to see a farm market.  One of the things I usually buy up north are cranberries.  Well, they had cranberries.  For $2.69 a pound.  I haven’t checked recently, but I’m pretty sure I can beat that price back home, especially around Thanksgiving.

I was disappointed.  But as it turned out (I apologize in advance for what I am about to say; I just can’t help myself) my search for cranberries would become more fruitful!  (Sorry!)  A local grocery store had them for 99¢ per pound.  And that is a price that I cannot beat back home.  Needless to say, a huge bag of cranberries came home with me (and have already been canned as cranberry sauce).

It just occured to me that this could also be called “Buying local, part 3 - Check out the local grocery stores when taking road trips!”   You may be pleasantly surprised by the bargains you find!

     I know, I know there is no such thing as “cheap college” these days or even cheaper however I want to address the subject of the subject of text books.  Many people I know without question always by their textbook from their college book store.  It makes sense right?  It’s convenient and its right at your school…WRONG!  College book stores are looking to make a profit, it is actually cheaper to go online and order your college text books online but their are risks.  For example once I thought I ordered the text and received the study guide, you have to read the fine print and you have to trust the seller(review their seller ratings very closely), I have rarely deliberately been mislead.  Some sites that are good to use are half.com, ebay, campus books.  Recently everyone purchased a used math book from my college book store and they all paid $89.00, I paid $14.00 at half.com my book was listed as in poor condition but it was actually in very good condition.   I didn’t care too much about the condition because I was paying rock bottom anyway, I could not beat that price.  If a text book is not completely covered in writing the general shape of the book does not matter to much to me.  This is a huge savings!  Now you can not always get those kind of savings but there are a lot of deals out there that are 50% off even.  Another idea to regain some of your losses is to sell your text books on line or you can sell it to your bookstore but you most likely won’t get close to your money back but you wont’ have to deal with shipping either.   The next time you are out and about you might want to peak in to your local college bookstore to look at the prices but warning you will experience sticker shock of course sometimes it cannot be avoided the book you need is only available at the college book store that is why I try to save when I can!

This could get to be an obsession with me.  On the other hand, I’m having fun with it.

Yesterday, my husband and I took his mom to visit some relatives in the north-central part of the state.  It’s a big potato farming area, and I had hoped to purchase some locally grown potatoes.  As it turned out, I didn’t need to buy any, because my husband’s aunt gave us a 20 pound sack of potatoes as a “thank you” for bringing my mother-in-law up to visit. 

Okay, I’m not a big potato fan, but wowee, these are nothing like what I’ve seen in the store.  Because they’re not packed away in plastic bags or exposed to all the water that flies around produce sections, they aren’t wet like a lot of grocery store potatoes.  They don’t have weird spots.  They’re big, they’re firm, they’re…dirty.  Yeah, in my mind, that’s pretty neat.  I just feel like they came right from the fields to my kitchen (which they pretty much did).   They’re just super fresh.

While on the way home, we passed many, many little stands and shops.  At one, the cabbages left me speechless.  They were huge - bigger than any I’ve seen before.  They were the prettiest shade of green.  The looked nothing like what I’ve seen in the grocery store.  And, oh, yeah, they were 75¢.  Each.  You don’t find that kind of price in the grocery stores around here, even at St. Patrick’s Day.

I’m hooked.  I’m keeping a lookout whenever we go somewhere.  I can’t wait to head up north later this month - and you can bet I’ll be reporting what I find right here.

As summer winds down - oh, wait, it already did wind down, techincally it’s autumn - one of the things that I’m reflecting on are Farmers Markets.  I will miss those terribly once winter arrives!

I love farmers markets.  I love seeing all the beautiful, fresh fruits, veggies (I suppose here I should also mention fresh bakery) and craft items at our local farm market.  I love the items change with the seasons - from strawberries, rhubarb, peas and perenniels in late spring, to fresh cut flowers and the total bounty that is summer, to the pumpkins, squash, apples and autumn decorations that are out there now.

I love talking with the farmers and growers, getting to know them as the weeks go by.  You just can’t get this kind of experience from a grocery store, no matter how great that store may be.  And talk about fresh - lots of it was just picked.  Again, you can’t get that in a grocery store.

I’ve gotten great bargains there - a bushel of red, yellow, green and purple peppers for $4, last year, comes to mind.  After freezing them, I didn’t have to buy peppers for the rest of the year.  When I saw colored peppers in the store for $4.98 a pound, I just smiled and passed them by.  Made my frozen peppers taste even better, I can assure you!

This year, I haven’t spent as much time at the farmers market as I did in the past, mainly since my garden went crazy and gave us more tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers than we could eat and preserve.  We are still eating locally produced foods, but this is mainly courtesy of our garden.  Who knew there were so many ways to prepare cucumbers?  We were blessed with a huge number of ”burpless” cucumbers this year, which we ate just about every day…and you should see my shelves of home canned pickles from the other plant!  

What we couldn’t use, we gave away.  Several people told us how much they appreciated it, and how much better our cukes and tomatoes tasted than what they usually had.  Which leads me back to why I love buying locally grown produce - the freshness.  It just tastes better.  So much better!

Dd6 was invited a couple of days ago to a birthday party. Hooray!!! She is so excited and started thinking right away what she might like to give the birthday girl. My schedule has been busy this week and it is 15 minutes to the nearest store where we could choose a gift. The gift stash saves the day!!!

Throughout the year, I watch for sales and clearance for toys and other gift items that could be used for my children to give each other at holidays or for them to choose from for friends. A year ago, I bought a huge bead set for $2 online. It’s valued at $12 and looks great. Dd6 was THRILLED to choose that for her friend. Yahoo! Saved me time and gas for a trip to town AND gave her a nice gift at a low price. No guarantee we’d have found something on sale THAT good at the store!

If you don’t already have a gift stash at your house, try watching for just a few little things here & there. After Christmas sales are a great place to get a good bargain.

Good luck and have fun establishing your frugal gift stash!

     Recently I started walking two miles a day to help lower my blood pressure.  I did not run out and join a gym I didn’t even buy walking shoes.  I was given a heart rate monitor as a gift which does help me push myself harder if I need to but the reality is I have lost weight and feel better without spending any money although I might ask for new walking shoes for Christmas.  I own a couple of Walk Away The Pounds dvd’s to walk when it rains or there inclement weather but nevertheless I have lost one pants size and one shirt size not that that is extremely impressive.  I also walk at my local park around the lake it is very peaceful and quiet sometimes I think people forget to take advantage of all the free gifts our local parks have to offer(Usually our tax money is paying for it).  Our park has wonderful tennis courts, hiking trails, walking trails, fields to fly kites in, etc…  As a matter of fact just recently my husband, son and I spent the entire day running around after a kite that we purchased very inexpensively at a local discount store and we had the best fun and looking at the gorgeous fluffy clouds on such a windy day was so exhilirating.  Plus running from the kite dive bombing is pretty exciting too.

     Many people have known for years that walking and spending time outside is good for the body and good for the soul I of course had to have high blood pressure readings to put my own self on an action plan. 

     The unseen benefit beside looking better, wearing smaller clothing and have improving my health is the amazing amount of energy I have.  I am able to work full time, go to college part time and still navigate myself to baseball games and chorus performances without being tired anymore.

     The change in my life did not cost me a penny and it sure makes life look more beautiful these days plus it is as simple as a walk in the park!

     We live in a part of the country which I will admit has summer fun written all over it……however a lot of the fun we have here is that the locals here our extremely laid back and welcoming.  We meet about twice a month a group of friends at a local park for concert music and family fun.  The whole family is invited and everyone is required to bring a couple of dishes and their families main meat.  The thing I like about this kind of entertaining when the weather is nice is that their does not have to be a hostess the park is the hostess and their are bathrooms and water fountains provided.  There is plenty of play area for the children and many of the families bring bubbles, bocci, and we always bring a frisbee for our son.  Pets are invited as long as they behave!  There is something about a summer night, a grilled turkey brat, friends, music, and a cheap glass of chardonnay. 

     The last time we went my daughter who is 15 did not want to go so we let her bring a friend and they had an incredible time.  My son plays with kids from 4 to 14 and he has a great time!  I was asked last weekend to bring an appetizer and dessert.  I brought spinach dip which I made with Lipton Secrets but you could always use Knorr or even a generic brand.  Everyone raved over my dip!  For dessert I made banana bread which as a frugalite I have a ton of frozen bananas in my freezer so this too was a very simple easy frugal dish!  This was gobbled up just as quickly. 

     The next day my husband and I were like most of what we brought we had already had on hand or purchased on sale so this evening cost us about ten dollars for the five of us and lets just say there is no where else we can go out to eat for that price tag unless we are being invited over to someone else’s home.

     However for me its not just about the money where else could I hang out with my  friends where we talk a little bit, eat a little bit, dance a little bit, play a little bit.  We don’t have to worry about upsetting a waiter or waitress because we stay from 6 til 9:30.  There is no tip to calculate we just all pitch in to make it a successful evening!  Some people bring tables and huge coolers.  We always put our food out on someone’s tailgate but we bring a cooler as well.  If my son reaches in to the wrong cooler to grab out a drink no one is upset we just all share all our goodies.  The next time you want to get together with your friends think about meeting at a park and check your local area listings for summer concerts or fall events. 

I’ll admit it - I came to yardsaling late in life.  When I think back on my childhood, I don’t remember yardsales at all.  I’ll grant that they probably weren’t as common, and, of course, I lived in a much less populated area.  But even if I’d grown up in an area surrounding a big city - and if yardsales happened several to a block - I still wouldn’t have known the joys of yardsaling when I was young.  The idea of second-hand anything is a foreign concept to my dear mother.   Something pre-owned?  No way, no how!  It just wasn’t done!  I am not sure how she ended up with the second-hand aversion.  I knew it didn’t come from her father - Grandpa LOVED the dump (much to mom’s dismay).  He was forever dragging something home from there (I have an old washtub that he brought home from the dump - it’s a planter in my backyard.)  So I figured maybe Grandma was the one who poisoned Mom against preowned goods.  Not so.  A few years before she passed away, I was visiting Grandma and she pointed out that the next door neighbors were having a yardsale.  She made the comment “you can find lots of good things at rummage sales.”  A few minutes later, I was yardsaling with my 90 year old grandma.

Okay, let me steer myself back on course.  Point being, I was in my late 30’s - or was it early 40’s - when I was bitten by the yardsale bug.  It started out innocently enough.  I had a collection of 1930’s planters that had been my other grandma’s.  I wanted to add to it, and found that yardsales could yield some nifty planters for very little money.  And I reasoned that I was really antiquing, not rummaging (ingrained aversions die hard, I guess.)

But then, I started really looking around at the sales.  And realized that there were lots of other things to be had for pennies!  My first non-antiquey purchase was a beautiful, like new, wheeled suitcase for $2.  Followed by a London Fog raincoat for $3, that I still wear.  A $3 food processor soon followed.  As did many designer clothing items.  (It just cracks me up when Mom compliments me on what I’m wearing, and it came from a yardsale.)  And oh, how I wished I had yardsaled when my son was young.  When I think of what I spent buying all his clothes brand new - clothes that he seemed to wear for a week before outgrowing - someone get me a butterfly net, because I want to catch all those dollar bills that grew wings and are flying away!

There was a point, however, when I think I got a bit TOO much into yardsaling.  I started buying stuff I really didn’t need - and never used.  Hey, it was too good of a deal to turn down, right?  For awhile I belonged to a yardsale website, and everyone was posting their great finds.  I didn’t want to be left out…so I probably ended up buying even more stuff.  (I never admitted that to the other members of the site - I’m sure they would have shook their heads over my newbie yardsale fever.) 

Since I had finally identified that I was a bargain junkie, I took steps to get myself back on track.  I mean, what good was a ($4) complete set of dishes if I already had two that I didn’t use?  (I inherited them, guys, I wasn’t THAT compulsive about bargain shopping!  )  Making a list helped in a couple of ways.  I tended to stay on track and only buy what I truly needed (most of the time), and - more importantly - I actually REMEMBERED what I was looking for. 

So, at the ripe old age of 50, at the end of each winter, I start feeling like a kid waiting for summer.  Not for school to end, but for yardsales to be in full swing (I’ve found that early season yardsales tend to be higher priced - at least around here - and the yardsale-starved shoppers are willing to pay the higher prices).  This past summer, my absolute great WANT was a new-old crockpot.  I had an older one (yardsale purchased, of course) that was great, but did not have a removable crock.  I replaced it with a brand new one, only to learn that the new ones cooked at higher temperatures - and burned many a meal!  Last weekend, I found the fraternal twin to my original crockpot.  I say fraternal because, while it appeared identical in appearance, this one DID have a removable crock.  Oh, yes!  I grinned all the way home.  There’s just something so fun about a great yardsale score!

Each year we grow a fairly large garden. This year we’ve been including the kids more in the care and harvest of it. Each day, the children weed for 10 minutes. They can earn extra time on the Gamecube by weeding more. (if THAT wasn’t the BEST idea ever! ) The garden is in pretty good shape and we’ve had some fun discussions while we were out weeding together.

Right now peas, green beans, and zucchini are on. We pick and shell peas or snap beans together. I like chatting with the kids about any topic they choose while we pass the time preparing veggies to freeze or can.

One BIG plus from our garden is a definite savings in growing and canning my own produce. Another plus is the security of looking at my pantry shelves at the end of the season as they are full of beans, beets, salsa, tomatoes, applesauce and raspberries. I love knowing if we had a financial hardship, we have plenty on hand to eat.

If you’re growing a garden this year, I hope you are enjoying that next to FREE, fresh produce as much as I am this year!