TIP Frugal Tips - 2015

[Be Well]

A few small frugal things to do.

When I cook potatoes, if with skins I scrub VERY well and cut out any bad parts. I save the water unless using in a recipe at the time, and use for the liquid in bread making. If I'm not making bread soon, I put in the freezer in quart yogurt containers. Potato water adds some nutrition and helps bread have nice crumb - not fall apart iow.

I've seen some people cut the flowerets from brocolli and discard the stems. I peel the stems and only discard the very tough ends. If peeled and diced small, they cook well and I just steam with the rest of the brocolli. With cauliflower, if it's nice and fresh, I do the same thing not just with stems, but leaves, they are good in soup or vegetable stews. Once years ago I shared an apartment with a girl from Mexico as I was fluent in Spanish at the time. When she ate lettuce, she would take the stem, slice off the old end, and peel it, and eat it. I forgot all about that until recently, and most peeled lettuce stems are edible; just another little thing that can be eaten (dipped in salad dressing?) instead of throwing away.

 

[ainitfunny]

Frugal doesn't always mean doing without, or settling for the worst quality in things.
You CAN HAVE LUXURY THINGS if you will buy them second hand. Like the $200 fly fisherman's ccustom made dip net,now being auctioned on shopgoodwill.com. (Bidding stayed at $5 for the longest time)
Yes, it's like having a Tiffany lamp, or a signed Babe Ruth baseball, a Coach purse, an iPhone, an original oil or sketch by a noted artist, a Royal Albert "Old Country Rose" tea set, or a hand made fly rod, tailored suit, expensive pocket knife or any other thing that gives us a little taste or sense of luxury. As i point out, you don't have to be rich to possess such things if you are willing to wait for them to appear second-hand for pennies on the dollar.

I buy just about everything second hand except underwear and food. i am wearing a $250 (new) LINED, waterproof, windproof, Irish wool sweater (I paid $5 for it) over a $95 second hand (new with tags ) blouse which I bought TWO blouses for $5,
And wearing NEW, $120 Propet brand diabetic leather sneakers which I paid $11 on ebay, I got $55 wrangler THINSULATE LINED jeans for $15 on ebay. I have a $100 ultra violet sterilizing wand I paid $2 for (like new in box), $200 luxury name brand queen sized virgin wool blankets I paid $2 each for, a $400 custom made dehydrator I got free, a $250 combo convection-microwave that i paid $10 for to a lady who "didn't have the counter space", i get new, unopened, unexpired exotic spices and teas that i could never afford new, foods and cleaning supplies and disposables for pennies or almost free at estate sales.

I am "considered" extremely low income by those people evaluating/rating people for such labels, BUT YOU WOULD NEVER "suspect it" to look at me and my "stuff".
I SAVED SO MUCH that it freed up my regular income to be able to SAVE UP AND buy my FIRST, FIRST CLASS, NONSTOP, AIRLINE TICKET to see my sister in Michigan last year!
You CAN have all the expensive toys and prep stuff if you judiciously BUY IT "USED". I once saw whole ROOMS FULL OF ETHAN ALLEN FURNITURE, going for $100 per $4,000 set being sold by a very determined woman who did NOT WANT TO SPEND "ONE MORE MINUTE" Looking at her new husband's "ex-wife's" choice of furniture!!!!!!! I would have instantly bought it all up for resale but I had no damned way to move it! I DID, another time, get some Ethan allen living room end tables for $8 (value $250 ea) and a Lazy -boy brand, like )new, leather recliner for $20 at another estate sale. I got my big set of Royal Albert, "Old Country Rose" (all made in England) china that way, just watching and waiting ready when opportunity knocks.

I'm not kidding when I say I can make a buck SPEND like it was a $20 or a $50.

AND DO NOT BE THE FOOL THAT DOES NOT BUY SOMETHING aT a bargain price Just because HE DOES "NOT NEED IT" , COMPLETELY FORGETTING THAT HE CAN RE-SELL IT FOR A handsome PROFIT OR TRADE IT FOR SOMETHING HE DOES NEED!! I once bought a big sealed french perfume gift set I DID NOT WANT, but which still had the $160 price tag on it, for $5 and resold it for $70.
Just last Saturday, I got an excellent Buck fixed blade, sheath knife (needs sheath pop riveted,)($38value) and a Victornox 11 blade, red, "Suisse officer's knife"($40+)(missing the replaceable $2 tweezers) for probably LESS THAN $2 for both in a box of mixed "stuff" that I was quoted $10 for everything in the box.

 

[Nightingale]

Great Thread thank you!

 

[moldy]

DH and I got a great bargin a couple weeks ago. We went to a storage place auction on a whim, and watched as a unit sold for around $100. There were 6 apartment size stoves in it. We approached the new owner and asked if he'd be interested in selling one. He didn't want any of them, and didn't really want to haul them home - so we bought all 6 for $40. At least 2 look like they've never been used. We will use the best one, save the second best for a spare, and probably sell the rest. I'm thinking we'll have our money back fairly quickly. OTOH, several units went for much more - and I think just because people couldn't actually see what was there and were willing to chance it. I suppose if you already had some kind of craigslist/ebay/online set-up going, it would be a decent way to make money.

 

[moldy]

Tip for the day: Use what you've got.

Today we cleaned and screened the poo from the chicken house. It went into the spreader and onto the garden. Then DH and I took the comb out of some old hives and are melting the beeswax for use with his reloading and my salve/soap making. Having soup tonight made with leftover ham, potatoes, and the little bit of asparagus in the garden.

 

[moldy]

I did really good today - I skipped buying a bottle of pop at work. (This is major for me!!) Resisted the urge to grab a slice of pizza on the way home, too.

This is not really a hint, just a big heads up: Our entire corporation will no longer be serving eggs (to patients or staff) as of June 8. I"m guessing due to lack of availability or cost. Also our head food gal told me I"d better not plan on turkey for Thanksgiving - it seems it is getting really scarce. So - stock up on eggs, and buy your turkey early (like now!!) if you plan on having one for November.

Also this week DH and I did an inventory. It's hard to stock up on what you need if you don't know what you have. And rotate, rotate, rotate!!

 

[Be Well]

Cheap hot weather drink - I wrote something up a few months ago or actually about a year ago... I will post it tomorrow. But in the meantime, here's what I do for staying hydrated in summer without buying juice or soda (I hate soda anyway).

I have on hand a pound each of many types of tasty herb teas - hibiscus, rosehips, lemongrass, chamomile, peppermint, oatstraw, lemon balm and I just ordered hawthorne and red clover. I make strong tea, usually mixtures, and often steep home made dried orange peel (organic only) as I use all (organic only) citrus peels one way or another. I usually dry the peels in thin strips but for tea I then grind them up in a spice grinder so the flavor will release quicker in steeping tea. Usually I make 1 quart at a time. Then when DH or I want a drink, about 1/4 jar of tea, the rest either water or water and some home canned fruit juice or even fruit and the liquid, and appropriate sweetener as needed. Sometimes I blend it up if it has chunks of fruit.

Very refreshing and can be made sweeter or not to taste, and if DH is working in the heat, I'll add a pinch of salt.

 

[moldy]

Saw a note on another thread about resurrecting this one, so here goes. In the last week, we have:

- packed lunches/breakfasts for DH while he's out of town. His company will pay a per diem, but if he doesn't use it, that's money he gets to keep. Stuff from home is cheaper and much healthier.
- traded a little excess garden produce for some egg cartons and 2 liter bottles. We don't drink that much pop, and the bottles are way handy for cider in the fall, or raw milk when I get some.
- moved the cattle to another pasture. Took most of the day, but it allows us to keep our feed strictly for winter.
- sending the lambs to a friends for them to mow her lawn. Again, saves on feed, and she saves on work.
- dehydrating sliced and shredded zucchini and herbs in my greenhouse, rather than using the excalibur. Saves on electricity.
- returned a library book on time (hey, the pennies add up!)
- using up home-canned goods and eating at home. Dinner for the 3 of us would cost over $20, even at McDonalds. I can fix something better, even leftovers are better!
- mailed bills early to avoid late fees and save making an extra trip to town.
- made curtains with some fabric I"ve had hanging out for ahem, several years. The curtain rods came from Goodwill.
- put chicken bedding on my garden for mulch.