Homemade Dye and Ink

Today the family went to a local museum and ds went through an interactive Jamestown exhibit. This was our second time through, and it's loosely themed on the television show Survivor. You get a bead board and make life choices about 17th century living(first landing). It was fun, and the children learn quite a bit about what was needed to survive in the New World. At the end you add up your beds, and based on your score, you find out if you survived or not. Some of the questions were based on what was needed for making everyday objects.

Easy Fun School had some interesting links for homemade dyes and inks made in Colonial times(and before).

Coffee Dye

Cranberry Dye

Homemade Ink from Berries

Homemade Ink from Nuts

Marigold Dye

Mustard Dye

Purple Cabbage Dye

Spinach Dye

Tea Dye

Walnut Shell Dye

Fun and frugal.

Printable Grocery Price Book

Here is a nice printable page for creating a price book to track grocery prices. My husband made something similar himself with excel, and we use it every time we shop. This has helped us keep a lid on expenses, and ensure we are finding bargains.

In addition, we shop with this list that has many of the ingredients needed for cooking with the More-With-Less Cookbook. It keeps our grocery store trips short, and inexpensive. We are less likely to impulse shop with a list. As an added benefit, it has helped with waste. We are able to take an inventory before we shop, and use things up before buying more.

I've mentioned this before, but we are still using the Allrecipes.com ingredients search when trying to find recipes to use up specific ingredients. What a budget saver this has been! It also helps with meal boredom...sometimes we get tired of the same meals. Allrecipes.com has helped us mix it up, as well as use it up.

See more tips at Frugal Fridays.

Make a Quilt From Your Old Clothes

Debbie over at Homemaking Dreams made a quilt from her son's jeans and other clothing items. Do click on the picture(on her blog) and take a closer look, it's so nicely done.

She has linked the free pattern and tutorial. The pattern is called Gentleman's Quarters. My grandmother had handmade quilts on all the guest beds at her home, and they were very similar to this pattern. It brings back pleasant memories seeing this particular pattern.