Just curious who else is living super frugal

[galanie]

Don't know if anyone in US can access this but I have been watching an amazing documentary series on BBC TV. It's called 'Wartime Farm'. IT follows a format that has been previously used that I think some people have viewed, where two archeologists and an historian recreate a time period on the farm. We have had Victorian farm and Edwardian Farm in previous series.

'Wartime Farm' is absolutely inspirational. It tells the story of how farmers got to grips with increasing their yield from providing just a few percent of the food needed in the UK before the war, to supplying the vast majority of it during the war. The hints and tips of how people scrimped here and saved there is so informative. This takes 'make do and mend' to a whole new level.

In lasts night's episode, we saw how the children were taken out of school, some really quite young, to bring in the different harvests, as man/woman power was insufficient to complete the tasks on the farm. The children were also collecting herbs which were processed into medicines. They needed honey for wounds and cleavers, that sticky weed that runs riot here, for antibiotics. This is a lesson in survival and the best part is they even had some fun along the way. Respect to those people!

I've watched every one this trio has done that I possible can. I wish we could get BBC channels here since the USA filmmakers no longer do decent history or other documentaries any more. You look for "documentaries" now and all you can find are modern environmental stuff i.e. "we're killing the planet." But goodly number of the BBS series are on Utube at least.

 

[furbabymum]

Oh, I did that too! My machine is an old Welbilt, and I was able to find a replacement on line. Give it a try - you might be able to restore your "old friend". I googled the machine's name and found a site that sold replacement parts - even for my machine. I suppose a lot of people do what we did; even to the point of creating a market for them.

Ha. That's funny. I'm glad I'm not the only one. I still have the machine so I'll have to look online and see what I can find!

 

[furbabymum]

HERE HERE !!! I've always said that people here in the states just don't know what the English endured during both the world wars! Through hardships untold they struggled on, and I am proud that my ancestors hail from "that green and pleasant land"!

I keep forgetting to mention a tip for building materials. Besides re-purposing and recycling things like shipping pallets for fences and the like, I shop the 'cull bins' at the local lumber yards. There they have scratch-n-dent sheet good (plywood, drywall), warped or split dimensional lumber, many times cut off into 4 foot lengths. It's usually priced at 51 cents a piece! I was able to build a 4 x 4 house for my meat birds for about 10 bucks.

~S

Hey now. Both my grandparents grew up on farms during the war. The U.S. had it's fair of struggles during WWII.

 

[ScottnLydia]

Hey now. Both my grandparents grew up on farms during the war. The U.S. had it's fair of struggles during WWII.

Too true, but at least we (civilians) didn't get the bejesus bombed out of us during the blitz and have to ship our children to the country to live with strangers there so they could be a little safer. We also didn't have to mine our beaches and live in constant fear of invasion. We had rationing, but not to the scale that the Brits did. They are, remember, an island, and were under seige by the Germans.

I'm not belittling anything that your grandparents, or anyone else for that matter, went through, but Google the campain of terror that Hitler put England through. The Atlantic Ocean spared us a lot just because we were out of range!

~S

 

[ScottnLydia]

Back to the living frugal subject, EYEGLASSES!

If you need them , you know how expensive they can be. I get mine from www.zennioptical.com. You need to know your prescription, and the distance between your pupils (PD measurement) which is easy to do with a friend. I got no-line tri focals, with good looking frames, and photo-chromic (darken in the sun) lenses for about $49, and a spare pair of single vision reading glasses for $9. Shipping takes about 10 days to 2 weeks and costs about 5 bucks for the whole order. If you have kids, you've GOT to check them out!

~S

 

[mickey328]

Wow, that's awesome, Scott! Will definitely have to check them out.

 

[HeatherLynn]

http://1940sexperiment.wordpress.com/ Check this out guys. Tons of war time recipes. Well worth the read.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Back to the living frugal subject, EYEGLASSES!

If you need them , you know how expensive they can be. I get mine from www.zennioptical.com. You need to know your prescription, and the distance between your pupils (PD measurement) which is easy to do with a friend. I got no-line tri focals, with good looking frames, and photo-chromic (darken in the sun) lenses for about $49, and a spare pair of single vision reading glasses for $9. Shipping takes about 10 days to 2 weeks and costs about 5 bucks for the whole order. If you have kids, you've GOT to check them out!

~S

ditto on the zennioptical- we have been using them for a few years

 

[HeatherLynn]

This is our second year of a Halloween Challege. Each child has a goal of coming up with a costume for less than $5. My kids are not easily placated so this is a huge challenge for them. My daughter is running with a theory from a radio show that witches were actually aliens, so she is in a witch costume complete with hate and brook, with an alian face mask. Its pretty freaky ( $5). My son is a Jedi. He is at 0 dollars so far and only need a bigger belt ( I can pick one up for a buck at the thrift store). I found a complete darth vader costume for my 4 year old for $3. My youngest daughter is getting a costume out of my costume drawers ( all the old costumes and all the ballet costumes I have had to buy over the years for the oldest). At most I have to buy a pair of fair wings for $2 and we are good.

The first year they resisted, this year they jumped in with enthusiasm. Well the oldest ones did. The younger ones are just glad mommy comes up with something. So grand total its going to cost roughly $11 for 4 kids costumes this year. Better than saving money is the lesson the kids are learning. Not even an argument and they had such fun doing this.

 

[galanie]

Back to the living frugal subject, EYEGLASSES!

If you need them , you know how expensive they can be.  I get mine from www.zennioptical.com.  You need to know your prescription, and the distance between your pupils (PD measurement) which is easy to do with a friend.  I got no-line tri focals, with good looking frames, and photo-chromic (darken in the sun) lenses for about $49, and a spare pair of single vision reading glasses for $9.  Shipping takes about 10 days to 2 weeks and costs about 5 bucks for the whole order.  If you have kids, you've GOT to check them out!

~S

Tell me how to do the distance between pupils. I know that sounds like "OMG can't she figure out that on her own?" but I want to know. I'm assuming you look at them and they hold a ruler up to your eyes and just measure that way?