reuse
Video of a free, pesticide free fruit fly trap
http://www.youtube.com/user/thewheatguy Re-use, recycle and rethink…the three R's of homesteading and stretching dollars! This video is the re-use of the flimsy plastic produce bags to make a fruit fly catcher. No chemicals and no pecticides. The items used are free or would be trash. Enjoy!…(read more)
Home-made conditioner for hair
Okay, this might sound weird, but it really works to keep your hair soft. It's vinegar… regular old vinegar (white, red wine, apple cider) diluted 1:4 with warm water. You just pour a bit of it over your head then rinse it out after shampooing and it leaves your hair really really really soft. And it's not a "my hair is coated with synthetic smelling polymers" kind of soft — it's soft like petting a (soft) goat or cat kind of soft.
This is my first batch — I used apple cider vinegar and added a few drops of lemon essential oil. It smells like vinegar when you put it on, but after rinsing it out, there's no smell. I'm going to try white vinegar next.
I'm working on some home-made shampoo, too, but the first batch came out too thick — it works great, but it's a paste, not a liquid, so I'm going to change some proportions on my next batch before I post the recipe here.
(Free) birthday organizer
I've been looking everywhere for a birthday book, aka perpetual calendar, which is a book where you write down people's birthdays by month. I'd seen one online that I was going to order (for $9.99 plus shipping), but their only shipping method was UPS, which doesn't work for me.
I found myself at CVS today and they had those free little Hallmark calendars at the register. I picked one up and realized — aha! — there's no need for the calendar to be undated! So I took one of these cute and slim little calendars and will write down all the birthdates of my friends, and their increasing numbers of offspring (very hard to keep track of), and can tuck it into my little day planner. What a nice solution — especially because it was free to me.
Tightening My Belt
Last week, on our monthly Target trip, my daughter and I ran into an unexpected problem – almost everything we were looking for was missing. Generic diapers and wipes were not on the shelf and the loss leaders we hoped to snare were nowhere to be found either. I found an associate and asked her to run to the back and grab us some diapers (we were almost out at home) but she politely told me it wasn’t a stocking issue. “It’s the economy, ma’am. We just can’t keep these things in stock.” Looking around, I realized she must be right. Name brand diapers were neatly stacked and cute but costly knick knacks crowded the shelves. Fortunately, another local store had our diapers in stock but their supplies were low too. In these troubling times, people are figuring out what a lot of us already knew – every little bit counts.
But reading the paper and surfing blogs, I sometimes get frustrated at the advice and tips I see to help hard working families like mine save money. I don’t have a cable subscription to cancel and my grocery budget, for our family of four (big, hearty) eaters is less then $200. No expensive hobbies or elaborate vacations to scale back or cancel. Just an ordinary, middle class income, average consumer debt, and a true conviction that frugal living helps my family - and my world - to thrive. As we enter a new year that presents exciting new developments and difficult challenges for all of us, I really wanted to reflect on small changes that I could make to help my family save even more. I hope these tips are helpful to anyone who is looking to scale back even further and I would love the comment section to be filled with suggestions from like minded individuals!
- Reevaluate my “needs”: This week, I didn’t buy juice. Even though one of my favorite brands was “stock up” at the local supermarket, I realized that we just didn’t need it. Our water filter provides us with endless cold, fresh water and that is good enough for me, at least for now. Sure, I only saved about $5 this week but I transferred that into my savings account and the savings of approximately $260 a year is nothing to sneeze at.
- Waste not, want not: One of the problems associated with my desire to stock up on good bargains is waste. A pound of apples for a dollar is no steal when over half the bag spoils! I’ve begun to take stock of what gets eaten in our house and what gets tossed into the trash. Although we consume a minimal amount of meat, I try to freeze realistic portions so when I defrost something, there is enough for a meal (with some lunchtime leftovers) and nothing else. From now on, Friday is Fridge Clean Out Day (Saturday is my grocery shopping day; perhaps another day would work for you). I’m going to attempt to fashion all of Friday’s meals from food that would otherwise spoil or expire before being consumed. This saves money, resources, and will flex my culinary imagination!
- No more planning to fail: I’m only human and I forget things all the time. Without fail, the day I forget the diaper bag is the day my daughter has digestive gymnastics and not only needs a fresh diaper but a new change of clothes. Now that she is older, we cannot leave the house without bags of snacks (the girl loves variety), a sippy cup, a lovie, a book… the list goes on and on. I just fashioned an “Oh, Shoot!” bag that I popped into the backseat of my car to help me if and when I find myself in a pinch. Depending on the ages and needs of your children (or yourself), yours might include different items but this is what I packed in mine:
- Diapers, wipes, cream, and an old, clean towel to use as an impromptu changing area
- Ziplocs of non-perishable snacks (crackers, pretzel sticks, dried fruit)
- Sealed water bottle (child and adult sized)
- Empty sippy cup
- 2 stuffed animals
- 3 age appropriate books
- Headache medication (if I forget the diaper bag, I’m not having a good day)
- 2 full changes of clothing (weather appropriate)
This bag cost me nothing to assemble as I had all of the products in my home and used a reusable tote for packing. Even if I only use it once or twice, it will save my time, money and aggravation knowing that I have my emergency tools on hand.
- Reduce by reusing: This year, I’m giving up paper products altogether (okay, I’m still going to by toilet paper – I’m not that frugal!) in an effort to save money and the environment. Although I don’t usually like to spend to save, I purchased cloth napkins for use during meals and have cut up some of Maggie’s more stained and lived in onesies, as well as some old bath towels to reduce our dependence on paper towels. I’m all about changing my life to reduce my consumption of material goods, as well as saving some pennies in the long run, so once my stash of paper products is done, it is not going to be replaced.
Off the top of my head, those are the newest ways I’m saving money in 2009. My husband was laid off in October (hence the blogging hiatus – I’m working brutal hours) and has yet to find a job so, now more then ever, I am committed to saving aggressively and intelligently. I recently took a wonderful, relaxing week off from work and look forward to posting regularly on topics that I feel passionately about and am excited about what this year has to offer all of us! I invite you to stop by again soon, as I'm very excited about some upcoming posts and topics that I look forward to exploring with all of you.
Happy New Year!
One woman’s trash is some man’s treasure
I've been furiously de-cluttering my house in order to ring in 2009 in a clean and tidy house. The area I left until last was my icky (some say creepy) basement. It's dirty (half dirt/half cement floor), dark, dusty, and dank. I have some cans of paint and tools stored down there, but mostly it has been a place where I've tossed empty boxes (from ebaying mostly) and avoided at all possible costs.
This November, however, I got a new furnace (boy has it helped in oil conservation — I've gone from burning more than a tank a month to about 1/2 a tank a month). So that event spurred the total clean up. I posted ads on Craigslist and Freecycle for the boxes and packing materials and had people take a lot of them. Then the guys who took out the boiler cleaned up the dirt and hauled that and the rest of the empty boxes away for recycling.
I still had a couple of barrels' worth of debris, a whole lot of scrap lumber, miscellaneous odds and ends that I haven't used in seven years (beach umbrella, motor oil, electrical bits and bobs), and a bunch of copper piping. I know that copper has some value, so I posted an ad on Craigslist to see if I could find someone who would clean the rest of the junk out of my basement in exchange for the copper piping. I had a bunch of responses, and went with a very nice (and strong) gent who hauled EVERYTHING out, saying he knew someone who would buy whatever I had to dispose of.
So, the old saw, "one man's trash is another man's treasure" holds true here. If you have stuff that you think is of no value, don't put it in the landfill as the first response — there may indeed be someone out there who would like to take it off your hands at no cost to you….. even if it's a pile of dirt!
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