I won’t be doing a Frugal Fridays next week as I’ll be spending time celebrating Christmas with my family. So I’ll take this opportunity now to wish you all a very Blessed and Merry Christmas! Successes and Blessings: I sewed 12 more cloth napkins, similar to those pictured above. So far I have almost 30 and they’ve all been made out of sheets and pillow cases from a box of linens that I was given about two years ago. I claimed $1.75 in grocery rebates through the Checkout 51 app on my phone. I bought 20 lbs of oranges at .37 cents per pound, 16 lbs of Jonagold apples (my favorite!!!) at .74 cents per pound, 12 lbs of onions at .26 cents per pound, and 10 lbs of white potatoes at .17 cents per pound. All of these with the exception of the apples were from Aldi. The apples were from Wegmans. This past September I started keeping a price book (to be discussed in the next installment of my Saving on Groceries Series). I plan to track these prices and next year be prepared to purchase larger quantities, Lord willing. I canned 6 quarts of oranges from the oranges that I bought on sale, and 7 pints of cranberry apple jam using the apples bought on sale this month and cranberries purchased for .99 cents/lbs in November. This was the first time I’ve canned oranges, and it took about 2 1/2 large oranges to fill each quart jar. This was my first time canning with Tattler reusable canning lids. I only had 1 jar […]
Archives for December 2014
18 Uses for Orange Peels
I was able to find oranges on sale this week for .37 cents per pound, which was really exciting. Especially because they were actually *good* oranges. Do you ever buy oranges, only to bite into them and they have absolutely no flavor or are totally dry? Such a bummer. These are good, though. So we have an abundance of orange peels, and I just hate to throw anything away, so I thought I’d write a post about all the ways you can use orange peels. (Note: When you’re planning to use orange peels for cooking or medicinally, organic is always best). 1. Orange peels can easily be dehydrated and saved for later use. You can dehydrate them in a dehydrator, in the oven or even just out on a cookie sheet. Alternately, you could freeze them so that you’ll have some available for orange zest the next time a recipe calls for it. The zest can also be ground into a powder to be added to any recipe that calls for orange zest. 2. Candied orange peel is also an option for your baking needs. Dipped in chocolate, it makes a delicious snack all on its own. 3. Like many fruits, oranges, and specifically the peel, contain a lot of nutrients, flavanones, antioxidants, and enzymes that can help your body perform better. This website talks about how orange peels are especially beneficial during times of respiratory issues. It works as a histamine and has irritation reducing properties, making it a fantastic addition to your medicine cabinet during cold and flu season, as well as allergy season. Consider adding some dried, frozen, ground, or fresh […]
Frugal Fridays #7
I’m rounding the corner to my third trimester, and I’m really feeling it lately! The aches and pains and exhaustion. This pregnancy has gone by super fast. I’ve never been able to say that before. All of my other pregnancies I felt like they draaaaaaaggged on for-ev-ER (said like the kid from The Sandlot). I’ve heard from other moms of larger families, that the more kids you have, the faster your pregnancies tend to go because you’re just too busy to really even think about it. But hey, I’ll take it. I just can’t believe we’ll be meeting this little guy in about 13 weeks or so! As I get more and more tired toward the end of the pregnancy, I usually tend to let myself relax a little more and not be so “whole hog” on frugality ( if we can afford a little wiggle room, that is). However, with my husband’s hours being cut at work, and with Christmas and several (10!!!) family birthdays coming up in the next 3-4 months (big, big family), not to mention a few big ticket baby items that we need to replace before baby is born (we need a new carseat since the last one got moldy out in the garage), I’ll really need to try to keep it up as much as possible. We do keep things very simple, but even if we just spend $5 per birthday, and doing as much homemade as possible, it really adds up with such a large family. Oh, and our boys need new beds sometime fairly soon. The beds they have were second hand and have undergone a lot […]
Thrifty Ways to Enjoy the Holidays With Your Family
Times are tight for people, especially during the holidays. We are currently faced with a “lull” in my husband’s work. He gets paid hourly, and his company has been cutting back everyone’s hours because there isn’t enough work. It’s tough and it can sometimes be easy to start feeling anxious…not knowing if he’ll have more hours cut again next week. It’s during these times that I really focus on God, especially when those fears start to creep in. And besides, it’s really fitting to simplify life during Advent. Our Lord and Savior was born in a stable…with animals, and no running water, and in seemingly desperate conditions. Conditions that would send any expectant mother into a tizzy of fear and anxiety. From the moment He was born, He was faced with adversity. He is our strength. He is our peace. And I am determined to lean on Him through these tough times. Not only that, but to thank Him for these tough times because they bring us closer, make us stronger, and more faithful. It’s no coincidence that scripture abounds with verses on fear and anxiety. And that is exactly where I go, because I can’t think of any better place. But humble means doesn’t mean that we can’t partake in celebrating in and preparing our hearts for Christmas. If anything, it kind of liberates us in a way. There’s no pressure to go “all out,” because, frankly, it’s just not an option. But as I look back on our 8 years of marriage, I can truly say that the years when we spent more and did more were so much LESS fulfilling. The […]
Uses for White Vinegar
So many people responded well to the post I wrote, titled, “25 Everyday Uses for Hydrogen Peroxide.” So I thought I’d do another post on uses for white distilled vinegar. I think there’s really something to be said for being able to make use of basic, household items for most things, rather than having to purchase umpteen different products that only serve one or two purposes. You save money (’nuff said), because you’re not purchasing multiple different products. Your cabinets stay organized, because there aren’t as many bottles in your cleaner cabinet. Most of these household products that I use for multiple purposes, including hydrogen peroxide and vinegar, are safer alternatives to the chemicals typically sold in stores. That means a couple of things with regards to kiddos: You can train your children to work alongside you doing household chores and feel confident that they are using materials that are safe for them to come in contact with. You don’t have to be a nervous wreck if you accidentally leave the cleaner bottle out on the counter and see your toddler reach for it. You know they’re safe. So, here are some of the ways that I use White Distilled Vinegar in my household (I buy it 2 gallons at a time from Sam’s Club because we use so much of it!): I use it in my cloth diaper laundry when we get an ammonia build up. The only time we’ve ever had rash issues with cloth diapers was because of ammonia build up. A few glugs of white vinegar in a soak cycle neutralizes the ammonia, and my little one’s skin stays happy. […]
Frugal Fridays #6
I’m a little late getting this posted today- I’ve got 4 sick kiddos at the moment, so it’s going to be short and sweet. Side note: There was a point in my day a couple of days ago where I felt like I wasn’t doing enough. I felt like I should be doing *more.* I’d just finished reading a blog post from a fellow mom blogger whom I admire, and sometimes I have a tendency to let my imagination run a little wild. I imagined for a moment that her house was perfectly clean, that she (unlike me) was NOT still in her pajamas at 2pm, that her husband got to come home to a wife who was put together and maybe even had her hair and make-up done, and that she smiled joyously while driving her kids around to activities rather than sometimes being totally exhausted and overwhelmed by it like me. The crazy thing is that I had dinner cooking, bread rising, yogurt culturing, and the 6th load of laundry for the day going at this moment … not to mention the school lessons and parenting I’d done that day, and I was STILL knocking myself down. How nuts is that? I really had to stop for a moment and redirect my heart. Sometimes I think we mothers are our own biggest drag. If you ever have moments like that, or if you’re having one today, I wanted to share a scripture verse that I turn my mind to during those times. Successes: I made 2 loaves of bread. 1 batch each of crockpot yogurt and pumpkin maple walnut granola. We […]
Saving on Groceries, Part 3
Part 1: Cooking from scratch and buying in bulk Part 2: Farmer’s Markets and Buying in Season Part 3: Grow your own Growing a garden has become a *huge* part of how I save money on my family’s grocery bill. But it hasn’t always been that way. I could hardly keep an African violet alive on my windowsill until two years ago. It’s been a process of making mistakes and learning from them. Like the time I put in a big 15ftx15ft garden. Right under a big maple tree. Didn’t grow much that year! haha! But it taught me to pay attention to the sun patterns in my yard, and hopefully pick a better spot next time. Or the time I started a compost pile…right under my living room window. Talk about smell! It was an earthy, compost-y smell that I was *mostly* okay with, but I definitely got some strange looks when we had company over. But being willing to make those silly mistakes has brought me to a point where I can now grow enough food to significantly supplement my family’s diet with healthy, homegrown, organic produce. Organic, heirloom fruits and veggies, that would likely be outside of our budget range if it weren’t coming from our own yard. Not only does that feel pretty darn good, but it’s a huge relief, knowing that we can provide for ourselves during the growing season, and can/freeze our excess produce for times of the year when we can’t be growing outside. We may not be able to raise any of our proteins !yet!, but I can whip up a mean meatless meal without ever […]
