Frugal Fridays/Homemade Sausage Biscuits

We had been buying boxes of frozen sausage biscuits for my nine year old son who loves to heat these by himself in the microwave in the morning. They were easy and convenient, but a little expensive, and the ingredients where unwholesome - lots of preservatives, nitrites, etc.

So I made my own sausage biscuits from scratch to freeze, and my son likes them*.

Sausage Biscuits

Mix together into patties:

3 pounds ground pork

2 cups grits or polenta(moistened with 1 cup hot water)

1 chopped and sauteed onion

2 t. sage

1 tsp. thyme

1/2 tsp. Salt

1/2 tsp. fennel

1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp. pepper

a dash of ground cloves and nutmeg

Add a tsp. or two of milk if dry and/or an egg

Fry in oil until no pink is inside, or fry both sides and then bake for 25-30 minutes at 350 degrees just to make sure. Freeze, and when you are ready to eat - microwave for 2 minutes with the biscuits.

Biscuits

Stir together in a bowl:

2 c. flour

3 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 c. shortening, butter or oil

3/4 c. milk

Knead lightly on floured surface for 20 minutes. Roll out dough to 1/2 inch thickness, cup with floured biscuit cutter, or opening of a floured glass.

Bake on ungreased pan for 10-12 minutes. Makes about 16-18. Freeze and microwave.

* The sausage was just a very little bit dry. I'd recommend adding an egg and/or milk if you like a moister sausage. We will be trying this next time.

Click on Frugal Friday image to see more frugal tips.

Homemade Chocolate Cupcake Soap - Easy

Yesterday I made soap by rebatching Ivory soap. Although I could have made my own soap with lye, I thought I'd try working with Ivory soap first. Commercial soap is very drying because glycerin is removed to make lotions. Rebatching soap lets you add moisture back, and it's fun to add your own ingredients and shapes. I used this link for the soap recipe, but ended up combining recipes and making my own.

Chocolate Cupcake Soap:

Three bars of Ivory Soap
3/4 Cup water
5 Tablespoons olive oil
3 Tablespoons glycerin
3 Tablespoon cocoa powder
3 Tablespoon honey
1/2 cup powdered milk
3 Tablespoon cinnamon

Cut soap up into smaller pieces, place in a glass Pyrex measuring bowl, add water and cook in microwave for about 2 minutes at a time, watch closely for puffing up, stop when it does this and stir, repeat until it is creamy. Add more water and a little of the oil if too dry*.

Once it's nice and creamy, add oil and remaining ingredients, stir well, adding more water and oil if too dry. I heat it up more if it's still chunky, and stir.




Grease cupcake tins with olive oil, fill and allow to dry overnight. If they don't pop out, try to push them out by hand, or freeze them for a little bit. Mine popped out well after I spun them around in the muffin tin with my finger.

For Icing:

Cook one bar of cut up Ivory soap in a clean glass bowl in the microwave with about 1/4 cup water and 1 tablespoon of glycerin. Repeat muffin cooking instructions above. When it gets nice and creamy it's ready to frost. The frosting dries pretty quickly. I waited a few hours and it was ready for use.

I sprinked sugar on a few of the cupcakes before adding the frosting. I'm experimenting with a garden soap. The sugar adds a little abrasive for extra cleaning.

I used thrift store purchased older tins and other items for this project. I won't be cooking food with them, and I'd suggest the same.

I added the frosting today. I have the cupcake soap next to the kitchen sink, and it cleans well, but is A LOT easier on my hands than regular soap. There was no greasy residue. I like it!

Next project: liquid soap. I may get brave enough to make bar soap from scratch with lye, not just rebatch Ivory soap.

*If the soap is too dry, add more water, oil or glycerin than is stated in the recipe.

Update: Some of the natural ingredients did mold after a few months in storage. I'd not store this soap for long periods of time.

Make It From Scratch Carnival: Homemade Condensed Cream of Chicken Soup

This was so easy, and so flavorful. I used the condensed chicken soup recipe at Tammy's Recipes. I much prefer this to the canned, and will be using this recipe in the future. I think next time, I'll add mushrooms and fresh chopped onions instead of the instant minced which is all I had on hand. This recipe is so versatile, you could make any cream soup with it. It's a good recipe for leftover vegetables. I plan to cook it with some chicken tonight.

Join the carnival

Cooking Rice from Scratch, or Cooking Non-Instant Rice

Making non-instant rice is very inexpensive, and takes only 20-25 minutes on my stove top which has electric burners. You need a pot with a tight fitting lid. All you do is add two cups of water for every cup of rice. One cup of rice makes about three cups of fluffy rice, or four small sized servings. I add about a teaspoon of oil, and some seasoning. I use Adobo or garlic salt. Cook on medium heat for about five minutes until it boils up, then reduce to low for another 15 - 20 minutes. Resist the urge to peak into the pot because this makes the rice gummy, so does over cooking it, so you have to experiment with your stove settings to get it just right.


You can add a lot of interesting spices at the beginning to make seasoned rice. I've added turmeric, curry, fresh garlic cloves, chicken stock in lieu of water, you name it. It makes a really nice inexpensive accompaniment to any meal.

If it does come out a little gummy, you can mix it in with some cooked seasoned ground meat. You can't tell it's gummy this way, and then add some cooked veggies for a stir fry type meal.

Quilting with Vintage Handkerchiefs

I got a vintage hankie during my last visit to the thrift store, and I'm building a collection. A friend shared the prettiest idea for a quilt. She made butterfly patterns from the hankies, and stitched them to the front of a handmade quilt.




Butterfly Hankie Quilt

Here's some more wonderful ideas for hankie quilts


I've made small toddler quilts before, and I still have one to finish up. I might try one or two hankies on the toddler quilt.

Thrifty Remodeling, Our Home Before and After

I was sorting through some old photos when I came across a few of our home taken shortly after we had moved. That was seven years ago, not that long ago, but somehow it seems like an eternity, so much has changed. The house looks so different, and so do we...a few more pounds, a few more gray hairs! Ds was only a toddler, and I was still working full time. The house was great, but the kitchen and den were very dark and dated. Both the front and backyards were neglected. We are pretty frugal do-it-yourselfers, so we did much of the work ourselves with some help from a local carpenter and painter.

The kitchen was fairly easy to update. We had a long row of cabinets along one side of the wall, and a cubby hole area across from that where there was a refrigerator, a few cabinets, and a small counter area. We took the refrigerator out of the cubby, pulled all the cabinets out, and turned it into a kitchen office space with lots of nice storage purchased from IKEA.


Before:







After:











We moved the refrigerator to the end of the counter on the other side of the room. The cabinets were in good shape, but were very dark with heavy door knocker 70's style handles. We took all the hardware off the doors, and then sanded and painted the cabinets and doors with a white oil based paint. We replaced the hardware with a modern brushed silver. The countertop was removed and replaced with a laminate. The most expensive piece of the entire job was the countertop which came to around $800.00 installed. We kept the sink, and added a new faucet set, and light fixtures. We also took down the wallpaper and painted all the walls white. It really brightened up the entire room. We spent under $2,000 for the total kitchen remodel(not including the floors). The painter painted the kitchen, dinette area and brick fireplace at the other end of the kitchen, and den(off the end of the kitchen) white for us - lots of wood trim which he painted with oil based paint. We painted the cabinets, and reattached the doors and hardware. We really hate painting, so we used a painter for the big jobs. We also reinstalled the sink ourselves, installed a new faucet set, new lighting and IKEA shelving.

We replaced the floors with laminate which was rather expensive because we used a contractor to lay it down. It was a huge job; too much for us. The laminate flooring also extends into a dinette area, and the hall to the front door. I really love it, and I'm glad we spent the money on the floors rather than a nice countertop. The laminate is very easy to clean, and seems to be wearing well.

Off the kitchen/dinette area is an addition which was also very dark and dated. The paneling was painted white, and dh made these wall to wall utilitarian playroom shelves with sliding toy drawers lined with drop cloth. The curtains, which are wall to wall are also drop cloth artistically draped, and poufed over some unseen wire. This is the children's playroom, so it doesn't have to look fancy. Our formal living room has the good stuff. My mom says when the drapes are closed that it feels like they are in a Bedouin tent! The curtains even hang behind the shelves where there is a window, and seem to keep the room warmer in the winter.


The next challenge was the neglected landscaping. It was overgrown, and the front lawn was mostly crab grass and bald spots. We don't like using chemicals on the lawn, so for years we've used a mulching mower which has negated the need for chemicals. We've got a very healthy lawn with all the natural compost of grass, sticks and leaves. I widened the beds in the front using free mulch dropped off by a friendly local tree company, and added evergreen bushes, Azaleas, and a Japanese Cherry Tree which is still too little to see. I purchased my plants inexpensively from ebay and the National Arbor Day Foundation . We fertilize from time to time with free large bags of used coffee grounds from Starbucks. I saved money by purchasing smaller bushes...I just have to wait longer for them to fill out the beds, and look nice. That picture of the front yard is from 2004. The bushes have really gotten much bigger. I'll have to add another picture in the Spring.



Before:






After:










The backyard had spotty grass with lots of tree roots popping up everywhere. It took a few years, but we kept using the composting mower, and eventually the soil has gotten more healthy. We have quite a few oak trees, so getting anything to grow in heavy shade was tricky. We ended up making lots of mulch beds among the trees, and planting shade perennials. We used free concrete pieces from a neighbor's driveway demolition as a border, and the mulch was free from the tree company. The previous owner had a lot of perennials which needed dividing, so I got more use out of plants that were already there. I compost directly into the back beds with kitchen scraps(non-protein), and yard debris, turning it under the mulch. It's very fertile back there...lots of wonderful worms and black crumbly compost.


Before:








After:



Dappled shade is a blessing in the summer!










In 2003, the giant backyard deck was rotting out, and too expensive to repair and maintain, so we tore it out. It came with the house when we purchased it, and was probably about 15 years old. In place of a deck, we decided to make a path from the front driveway around to the back, ending with a large patio area. The least expensive way was to fill it in with gravel dust. My neighbors both had their driveways torn up, so we asked to take the concrete rocks for the path and patio. We used these large pieces to line the perimeter in the backyard(recycled brick in front yard), and to hold in the gravel. We also put down weed mat under the gravel dust, and rolled it up the inside of the concrete rock border. After we filled in the area with the dust, we trimmed back any weed mat that was showing. This was very inexpensive, and it's still holding up nicely. We had a little erosion near one gutter, but it stopped after we filled in the area with a few bags of inexpensive gravel.

Treating Cat Lice, EWWW

So we took the cat to the vet, he viewed our slide and determined the cat had sucking lice. YUCK! He said the best method for remedying the situation was a medicated shampoo. I really thought this might be a nightmare trying to give a cat a bath, but it turned out okay. Instead of using the bathtub, we used a bucket in the garage. We need to give him another bath next week, and then again in two weeks. Poor cat!

Before:
Who are your friends, Mr Dirty Cat!







During:







After:

Redemption!

He needs some
Cat Treatsnow!


I read the Merck Veterinary manual which indicated that direct contact with a host carrier is required for contracting these vile pests. Hmmm, not sure who my cat's friends are outdoors. It doesn't sound like he has very wholesome peer contact. Apparently, long haired cats are more likely to carry the lice, and our cat is not long haired. Pretty weird how he got this as I never see any other cats around our area.

100 Ways to Save Money

Updating this 2006 list....will add more soon.


These are things I've done to save money, but I'd love to find more:

1. Use compact fluorescent bulbs.

2. Keep heat at lowest temperature you can stand ,which in my case is 64 degrees.(2009 update: 58 degrees in the winter now!) Use small space heater in colder rooms.

3. Keep drapes open for solar heat in winter, draw drapes in summer.

4. Reverse ceiling fans in winter.

5. Insulate outlets.

6. Join Amazon Prime for unlimited movies, television shows, and a lending library for books(with Kindle).

7. Turn off lights in rooms you are not using.

8. Use a power strip for electronics with power lights that stay on after you turn them off. Flip them off when not in use.

9. Close off rooms not in use.

10. Use heavy insulated drapes to save on heating and air conditioning.

11. Switch to a prepaid cell phone if you normally use less than the max of your free minutes on a contract plan.

12. Buy prepaid cell minutes at discount places online like CheapPhoneCards.com  or CallingMart.com.

13. Use basic(lowest cost) hardline phone and cable services only. If internet rates are good, ditch the hardline(if cost efficient) and use free phone services like Google Voice or Skype. Ditch the cable and go online for entertainment.

14. Use a dial-up ISP and free Wi-fi at hotspots

15.Shop thrift stores, Freecycle, Craigslist, estate auctions, and yardsales for gently used items.

16. Don't use dealerships to repair and service your cars. Find a good reliable privately owned local shop.

17. Learn to do your own vehicle oil changes and routine maintenance

18. Service your car frequently to keep in in good shape...practice proactive car care, not reactionary care.

19. Drive more slowly and evenly, it saves a lot of gas.

20. Make up a monthly errand list and plan your trips using the least amount of miles...group errands in the same general vicinity. Planning saves gas.

21. Use coupons and savings programs. Check prices online, many times online deals are better than brick and mortar store deals. Triple up on deals - use online coupons through discount savings sites with a discounted gift certificate. See sidebar for discount saving sites.

22. Don't forget to use your association and union discounts.

23. Use community resources for fun and recreation.

24. Buy yearly passes to museums, zoos and other cultural centers of interest if you plan to go regularly. Sometimes going twice will be same price as a yearly membership for a family. You could break even going at least two times a year.

25. Use the library for books, music, and movies.

26. Drink water, not soda. Use a Brita gallon pitcher to make your own bottled water.

27. Buy frozen concentrated juice and water it down to last longer.

28. Cook from scratch with basic ingredients.

29. Take care of your health and teeth. Floss your teeth daily. Get regular check ups and dental cleanings. It will save on medical bills in the future.

30. Get in shape, eat well...saves on medical bills and lost wages due to illness.Free exercise alternatives to a paid gym membership.

31. Buy a car that will last 10+ years with very little maintenance. We buy the least expensive new Hondas, and they last forever. We use them until they run no more.

32. Cut your own hair...buy a used how-to book on Amazon, or purchase a Flo-be.

32. Price compare on Ebay before buying at online retail stores.

33. Replace disposable napkins and paper towels with cloth.

34. Replace Energy Star electronics and appliances.

35. Buy used appliances on Craigslist.

36. Use inexpensive multi-use cleaning products at dollar stores.

37. Use basic cleaning supplies, like a cotton string or microfiber mop, a sponge  a scrub brush, and a bucket. Use a slightly damp rag to dust, or reuse your dryer sheets as a dust cloth. Avoid cleaning supplies that require expensive replacements in exchange for convenience.

38. Keep your HVAC serviced, and change your filters regularly.

39. Buy glass bakeware with matching plastic lids - oven to refrigerator.

40. Eat leftovers before you cook another meal. Make soups or stews out of small portions or unused(overage) food in the refrigerator that would otherwise be forgotten and thrown away. You can mix many different things together for soup...it will still taste good with a little seasoning.

41. Don't buy prepared snack foods. Make your own popcorn on the stove with raw kernels. Have cheese, nuts, fruit and crudites handy for snacks. Make your own cookies and sweet breads.

42. Shop discount stores for beauty products. Family Dollar and Dollar General often have deeply discounted prices, and with coupons you can really save. Dollar stores have super deals for shampoo and toothbrush multi-packs.

43. Reconsider your need for expensive beauty products. Make your own .

44. Buy store brands and compare cost per units for best deals. Usually buying a larger quantity will save you money.

45. Buy large lots of same kind coupons on ebay, and take advantage of bigger savings. This is especially true if something is already on sale.

46. Sign up for savings programs with your grocery store.

47. Automate or pay your bills online to save on stamps, envelopes and checks.

48. Take advantage of your money back credit cards. This is only good if you know you can pay off your balance every month, otherwise you waste your savings on finance charges.

50. Buy a heavy duty vacuum which is multi-purpose. We have a Rainbow which vacuums, cleans the air, and wet vac cleans the rugs with a detergent. This saves our rugs and makes them last longer. It also cleans furniture. It last forever. Ours is ten years old and still going strong.

51. Limit going out to eat

52. Learn to sew. You can make repairs, alter clothing, and make things for the home. Quilts and curtains can be made from sheets.

54. Have a yardsale, or rent a table at the flea market, or at the next church bazaar. This is a good way to re-coup some of the money you spent on your items.

55. Recycle your metal items at a scrap yard or recycling center and get paid. We took our old gutters in and got back around $40.00 when we replaced them.

56. When you landscape or garden use drought resistant plants which do not need extra watering. Use extra mulch to keep plants moist and keep away weeds. Make a rain barrel.

57. Instead of using lawn chemicals, improve the health of your lawn by mulching instead of bagging. We use a mulching mower and never bag anything. The lawn is thick and green. Mulched materials are natural fertilizer.

58. Get used coffee grounds(free) from Starbucks to fertilize.

59. Get free mulch(chips) from tree companies.

60. Buy plants from ebay; shrubs and trees are often less expensive. Check wallyworld first though.

61. Get free trees and shrubs by joining the National Arbor Foundation for $15.00 a year.

62. Plant fruit trees and grow your own garden.

63. Buy a laser printer for cost effective printing costs.

64. Use the blank side of junk mail letters in your printer, or cut it up for scrap paper.

65. Search Pinterest for craft and home ideas that use recycled items.

66. Recycle and reuse junk mail envelopes by turning them inside out.

67. When mailing items, recycle plastic mailers and reuse packing boxes. Buy inexpensive packing tape at Dollar General or Family Dollar.

68. Sell your used books on Amazon.

69. Buy tube socks for children...they won't outgrown them as fast as socks with a heel.

70. Buy rechargeable batteries.

71. Use free learning apps for children's online entertainment.

72. Make your own entertainment center or bookshelves with pine lumber.

73. Do your own home repair and remodeling. Buy a guide at Lowes or Home Depot, or attend their free classes.

74. Be your own contractor when you do a remodeling job. It's a lot of work, but it's much less expensive if you get bids and do the hiring yourself.

75. Rehab your kitchen and bathroom cabinets by painting them and adding new hardware.

76. Use online banks as they usually have better interest rates.

77. Make your own coffee in the morning.

78. If you work outside the home, bring your own lunch from home.

79. Paint your own home.

80. Keep all your receipts and warranty information on items your purchase...you will save money if you need a replacement. Our faucet broke after 2 years, and we were able to get a free replacement with the lifetime guarantee.

81. Buy Sun brand laundry detergent in the giant pails. We have very clean clothes; it works fine. For stains I use Sun brand Oxyclean, or use a laundry booster like Borax. This brand is 50% less expensive than top name brand detergents.

82. Consider inexpensive DIY painted or stained floors rather than hard surface installations or carpeting.

83. Make your own holiday ornaments

84. Use YouTube for free movies, DIY tutorials, and children's learning videos. 

85. Take day trips instead of overnight vacations.

86. Buy store brand dishwasher detergent.

87. Shop discount eyeglasses and contact lenses online.

88. Periodically transfer your prescriptions among pharmacies using those $20.00 gift certificates for transfers. They appear in the paper or in the store circulars every so often. Ebay often has multiple coupon auctions for prescription transfers.

89. Use plastic grocery bags as garbage can liners in the bathrooms. In the kitchen, I use non-name brand liners from a dollar store. They are very inexpensive, come in large rolls, and last a long time.

90. Find religion, it's cheaper than therapy.

91. Read The Millionaire Next Door

91. Make your money work for you; save and invest at least 10% of your income. Don't let your money sit in a low interest account at a local bank.

92. Eat more poultry and beans, it's less expensive than beef. Eat more veggies, even less expensive.

93. Consider taking from nature for side tables(stump) or lamp(stick/branch light).

92. Buy furniture that lasts. Older or antique furniture can be less expensive than brand new low to moderately priced furniture. Buy hardwood furniture and look for dovetails in the drawers. Older hardwood furniture can last many lifetimes, and can always be refurbished easily with a little sanding and stain. You can't do this with furniture that is particle board or has peeling veneer.

93. Plant shade trees where you get the most searing heat in the hotter months. This is usually in the southwestern part of the house. Plant tall evergreen trees to break cold north winds.

94. Look into solar power.

95. Live with less stuff; purchase less house with more money down. Plan to pay it off early with a mortgage that has no early payment penalty.

96. Homeschool instead of private school.

97. Look into external degree programs for college, a fraction of on-campus price. Study for
CLEP tests , and potentially CLEP out of 30 hours of college credit. Get experience by interning/volunteering in order to build your resume and slide into job more quickly.

98. Use preprinted forms for wills, and other easy legal matters.

99. Research medical problems online before going to a doctor. Write up an outline of your history, problems and possible diagnosis. Believe it or not, as busy as doctors are these days, they will appreciate this. They can go down your list and address your concerns. I think it helps doctors give a better diagnosis since most doctors don't take the time to read your history! This will save on unnecessary tests and assumptions on the doctors part. If the doctor minds, get a new one. Information is power...you should know what is going on with your body.

100. Find specialists for serious medical issues. A specialist will be more efficient with a diagnosis and save you money, time, and your health.

Cell Phones and Saving Money

So we decided to cancel our Verizon cell phone service. It got really expensive, and we don't use up the 400 free minutes every month. I bought a T-Mobile prepaid phone today for $59.00 online. They are going to give me $25.00 minutes free and a $30.00 mail-in rebate. So really all I've spent is $5.00. I love doing this online, so quick and easy! I went through the T-Mobile website and got to keep my same number. They approved me via Chat which was wonderful as well.

I'm so glad to be rid of the 2 year contract and big bill every month. I compared prepaid phone services and browsed the intenet for reviews. T-Mobile seems like the best for us - no roaming or other extra fees. The best deal for minutes is the $100.00 refill card as it's .10 a minute plus a 15% bonus on refills, or something like that. The minutes roll over as long as you top them off before they expire which is one year. Everytime you buy more mintues, your year begins over. We had to pay a penalty with Verizon, but we'll break even in about 4 months if I don't use the cell much. We should be saving $25.00 or more a month with the cell phone change.

I found two places for cheaper minutes:

Phoneshark.com

cheapphonecards.com

I'd love to cut out a few other expenses. Our hard line phone service is $30.00 a month, and our cable bill is $10.00 a month. I thought about getting rabbit ears for the televisions to save on the $10.00 monthly charge, but it's hardly worth it. By 2009 it won't matter; I'll have to have cable or get nothing because television stations will no longer be transmitting analog signals. My choices after 2009 would be to buy converter boxes for all the televisions, or pay for them to reinstate my cable service. If I had HDTV sets I could get free stations, but those sets are still very pricey.

I pay $48.95 for my ISP, hard line telephone and cable. I guess that's not so bad. We'll be working on saving on the water bill; ds keeps leaving on the water in the tub. He forgets to turn the handle all the way, and sometimes it trickles for hours before I notice it!

We also seem to have mounds of laundry. Most of the clothes ds wears aren't dirty, so I need to go through them more carefully before I wash them. I'm going to have dh put up a laundry line inside the garage, so that I can line dry clothes. Someday we'll get one of those smart dryers with a moisture sensor which shuts off when the clothes are dry.

Making it On One Income

Last updated 2/7/10.

We went to one income in 2001, so I had to become very frugal. I've been off the retail grid for about five years now. We buy almost all our clothes at thrifts or yard sales for between .50 cents and $4.99 a piece. One thrift store prices their clothing at .50 cents, and another prices items from .99 cents to around $4.99. I draw the line at purchasing underwear at the thrifts, unless of course it's new in a package. I also don't buy shoes for myself at the thrift, but I have purchased like new shoes off ebay. For some reason the ebay shoes seem cleaner. I'm sure I could get toe fungus from both, so just to be safe, I spray the shoes with a disinfectant.

We work at cutting costs with food and household cleaning items as well. We shop discount stores where I buy mostly off brand/store brand items(least expensive), and I get multiple coupons from ebay for anything that is brand name. I do buy some brand name items because I'm trying to avoid trans fat, artificial ingredients, high fructose corn syrup, and other unhealthy ingredients in our food. Sometimes that requires spending a little more for convenience foods.

We cook mostly from scratch which is healthier and less expensive. I rely on the cookbook, More With less, by Doris Longacre(on my sidebar)and allrecipes ingredient search for use-it-up recipes. Our breakfasts are usually scrambled eggs, toast(homemade bread) or honey-cinnamon oatmeal from scratch. We tend to eat dinner leftovers for lunch, or just bread, cheese, and fruit. Most nights we eat simple casserole dinners.

The adults don't snack, but we buy crackers for my daughter. I'll make the children bar cookies or some sweet bread a few times a month.

We are trying to cut out the diet sodas, and just drink water. I've got a Brita filtered jug, so we don't need to buy bottled water. I drink a little orange juice in the morning. Ds likes to drink apple juice at lunch. We do go through a lot of milk with the children. Most of the powdered milk which is readily available for sale in our area is not whole milk, so we couldn't give it to the children anyway. I do use the powdered milk for cooking.


We use the super inexpensive Sun brand detergent sold in the giant plastic pails, and manage to have very clean clothes. I use a laundry booster for stains every once in a while - Sun brand oxyclean.

Dollar stores are my favorite place for household cleaning supplies, toothbrushes, and shampoo. Family Dollar and Dollar General often have good deals as well.

I like to use the thrifts for furniture, appliances when possible, and decorative items. French Country and Shabby decorating styles lend themselves well to thrifted older worn items, especially if they can be repainted or touched up.

What we can't buy we make. We copied the style of a rough wood shelf system which we purchased at Lowe's, and made an entertainment center for the children's playroom(our den). It's not beautiful, but very sturdy, and I designed rolling toy bins underneath the shelves.

We buy most of our toys, books and baby items at the thrift, yard sales, and via freecycle.com or craigslist.com.

We made do with less when it comes to electronics. We have one cell phone(pre-paid, no service contract) which we use minimally. I have a cheapy dial-up service which works fine for me. I use Juno.com and pay $8.95 a month. We have basic phone service - no call waiting or other extras. We have an economical Brother HL 5150 Laser Printer, a scanner and an inexpensive computer. We have older medium sized televisions, some very old VHS tape players for the children's tapes, and inexpensive DVD players.

I really enjoy gardening, or at least having nice landscaping. It's so hot here in the summer, and I really have limited time and money, so we designed a garden which was almost self sufficient. I planted perennials which don't need extra watering. We got rid of half the front lawn and replaced it with a curvy bed of free wood chips courtesy of a friendly tree cutting company. I planted a variety of evergreen bushes and azaleas. We did the same in the backyards which is very shady, but planted mostly native shade perennials.

Instead of store bought fertilizer, we use a mulching mower all year round, and add free coffee grounds from Starbucks. I don't bag anything, everything is returned to the earth, which rots down into natural fertilizer. I planted some fruit trees two years ago, but no fruit yet. We also have a small vegetable garden.


Some other things I do to save money:

- Make use of plastic containers to save on wrap.

- Recycle junk mail for the printer(use the blank side of letters).

- Use the city recreation centers for activities.

- Use the library.

- Purchase yearly passes for cultural and educational centers.

- Use parks and other free community resources.

- Remember to use our membership discounts, like AAA.

- Take advantage of credit card points(great deal if you pay off your entire balance every month).

- Use Mypoints, Swagbucks, and other shop/click websites to earn gift certificates and discounts.

- Limit going out to eat to once a month at an inexpensive restaurant.

- Repair things ourselves, DIY projects.

- Cut our own hair.

- Do my own pedicure and facials.

We also use cloth napkins and microfiber towels for clean ups. Microfiber towels can be purchased very inexpensively in large bags from store automotive sections.

We completed a kitchen and bath remodel shortly after moving into our home. We saved quite a bit by giving mostly a face lift to a kitchen and bathroom.


More ways we save.