Just curious who else is living super frugal

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
Look up Free Cycle in your area

 

[LadyBehir]

Craigslist has a free section also.

 

[perchie.girl]

Craigslist has a free section also.

Free Cycle is a bit more extensive... https://www.freecycle.org/ its worldwide too... so you have to zero in on your particular area that you are willing to "forage" in ... LOL.

deb

 

[lazy gardener]

Thank you LG for that sentiment; but honestly, it opens my eyes to how difficult it is for families to get assistance. Too many hoops and too much humiliation. . . .

I talked with a friend and I am determined to get more folks into gardening. I live in a town were there are still front yards but about 30% of families with school age children fall in to the free or reduced lunch category. I'll tell you, I would NEVER EVER let my kids eat what is served at grammer school here. Garbage it is. Garbage. Lots of breads and starchy foods, etc. No real kitchen either. Little nutrition. I have always said, take the same amt of money for groceries to buy the typical AMerican diet foods or only buy high quality pure foods like unbreaded meats, fresh or frozen veg and fruits, that while they cost more, my kids eat LESS so the cost is the same.
Kids want to try the Lucky CHarm cereal. I have ok'd one small paper cup worth of &#*$*#*&@&@& and see what their reaction is. Otherwise the ducks will be eaingt it. lol

I hear you on that. In my town, I believe that 50% qualify. But, our program is a bit better than that. Not so heavy on the carbs. However, the next district over, their lunch program was horrid. Yes, it's humiliating to get public assistance, but look at it this way... it's only a short time, not a life style, and how many years have you paid taxes so that assistance like that can exist? It's on my bucket list to go into the low income apartment complexes and teach s.f. gardening, set every family who wants to up with a very basic 4 x 8 plot.

 

[olderoo]

Forgot about freecycle

 

[funnyfarmmom]

My phone hasnt let me post in about 2 weeks but all at once today it is lol.

So the kids are back in school. I had posted a wanted post on freecycle and a very nice lady had 4 bags full of nice name brand clothes for us. There was something in there for every one of the kids. We took her some fresh eggs and tomatoes to thank her .

I hit up goodwill and the quarter store for the rest of what was needed. I found the teenage boy we took in a Tommy Hilfiger winter coat like new for 25 cents! I was pretty proud of that find. I also found him aeropostale jeans at Goodwill and my teen daughter had a boys aeropostale shirt that she only wore once or twice and outgrew that she gave him. (Boys shirts tend to be longer and thats what she likes lol). Anyway, that boy put those aeropostale clothes on for the first day of school and went on and on about how he appreciated them so much and was so proud of his clothes. He made me cry . He also has made my other kids think about what a good life they have had. Especially when he cant believe we have towels for showers or he can have seconds at dinner. I honestly dont understand how child services did not get involved in this family years ago, but Im glad the boy recognized we could help him and reached out to us. His mother signed over guardianship to me the day before school started so I could enroll him.

Anyway, I did insist everyone get new shoes, but we found a good clearance sale and all 8 kids got a pair for under $70 total. I was able to handdown shoes from last year through thekids to where everyone wound up with decent PE shoes (here the elementary kids have to have a separate pair to keep at school for PE. So in total I spent $140 getting 8 kids back to school.

Ive been canning like a madwoman. I bought dried beans at my local discount grocery and made up batches of chili beans, baked beans, and refried beans and canned them. I have tons of tomato juice and sauce put away now. I just planted my fall beans and peas so ill have more of those to can hopefully.

Im getting a half dozen eggs a day so far. Im still feeding the meaties fermented feed. They have a pretty large area to forage in, and for 23 of them I am only going through as much feed as I am for my 13 layers that get non-fermented feed.

So I think we are doing ok for now . Hope you all are well!

 

[funnyfarmmom]

Oh I wanted to chime in on the school lunch thing. Here the breakfasts and lunches are horrible. Yesterday for breakfast our school served each child that wanted it 4 tiny minibagels, and a cup of juice. For lunch they served a bagel pizza that only had sauce and cheese, 4 carrot sticks and a small cup of grapes. We are in a weird income bracket. We make too much to get the earned income credit and while we do get a yearly tax refund, its not as much as we pay in. But we do qualify for free lunches at the school and the kids get medicaid. But if we didnt qualify for the free lunches there is no way I would pay for most of what they serve here. I figured it up once and for my kids to buy breakfast and lunch at school every day it would cost us like $132 a week. They get a decent breakfast at home because Im not sending them out the door hungry, and they check the lunch menu daily. Often we are packing a few lunches a day.

I too want to teach people to garden and be more self-sufficient! I drive through my area (very rural), I know a lot of the people out here are on foodstamps, yet I wont see a single garden for miles. Here, you can even buy vegetable seeds and plants with foodstamps yet very few do. I see all these huge yards and not one thing edible is growing. Lol my husband says Im nuts.

 

[perchie.girl]

Oh I wanted to chime in on the school lunch thing. Here the breakfasts and lunches are horrible. Yesterday for breakfast our school served each child that wanted it 4 tiny minibagels, and a cup of juice. For lunch they served a bagel pizza that only had sauce and cheese, 4 carrot sticks and a small cup of grapes. We are in a weird income bracket. We make too much to get the earned income credit and while we do get a yearly tax refund, its not as much as we pay in. But we do qualify for free lunches at the school and the kids get medicaid. But if we didnt qualify for the free lunches there is no way I would pay for most of what they serve here. I figured it up once and for my kids to buy breakfast and lunch at school every day it would cost us like $132 a week. They get a decent breakfast at home because Im not sending them out the door hungry, and they check the lunch menu daily. Often we are packing a few lunches a day.

I too want to teach people to garden and be more self-sufficient! I drive through my area (very rural), I know a lot of the people out here are on foodstamps, yet I wont see a single garden for miles. Here, you can even buy vegetable seeds and plants with foodstamps yet very few do. I see all these huge yards and not one thing edible is growing. Lol my husband says Im nuts.

You are not nuts.... What you could do is offer classes for a donation of some food for your pantry. Look up a website called Meetups... Here urban farming is getting big.... people are offering classes on Canning, and preservation, I took a canning class for making pickles... cost me ten bucks and I had to bring one mason jar... I got printed instructions and a mason jar full of pickles when we were done. and a real sense that I wanted to do this eventually.

I am sixty years old have lived in the city all my life and just bought my first pressure canner in the past month. I am sill afraid to do it though so will probably take a pressure canning class first.

deb

 

[funnyfarmmom]

Thanks Deb! I have thought about offering classes on gardening or canning or processing...I want to do it free just to help people learn how. Maybe bring your own jar like you did, but just do whatever I happen to need to do that week so Im not going out of my way and helping someone else. BUT I cant find any of the local laws on doing so. I dont want to get in trouble just trying to help.

 

[perchie.girl]

Thanks Deb! I have thought about offering classes on gardening or canning or processing...I want to do it free just to help people learn how. Maybe bring your own jar like you did, but just do whatever I happen to need to do that week so Im not going out of my way and helping someone else. BUT I cant find any of the local laws on doing so. I dont want to get in trouble just trying to help.

check out the meetup website. It may only be local I dont know....

http://www.meetup.com

Doing it for completely free is an odd thing... I would charge a nominal fee... call it an exchange of energy... canned goods for your own pantry in exchange for teaching .... especially if you are doing the work yourself with minimal hands on assistance from your students. The class I took was a single one time class... well you know making pickles is probably about the easiest thing you can do. If they cant afford a mason Jar... Charge em for it... Just the jar... and if it happens to have jam in it or pickles.... that part is free.

but the meetup website is LOADED with people who are doing very similar things and if its in your area you can sign up for one and pick their brains... LOL.

deb

edited to add: for canning They bring a jar to replace the one you have already sterilized for the process...