Just curious who else is living super frugal

[DennisK]

Erinszoo, I've never started my own business; so I am not really qualified to give advice, but I do have a thought I would like to share. What ever you try to do, DO IT! It may not work (probably won't), but in actually getting your feet wet, you expose yourself to new possibilities that you would have never seen just sitting there thinking about it. It is a matter of exposure. For new ideas – new potentials, you need lots of exposure. Also, this may be a cliche, but what the heck …. you will probably have a lot of encounters with failure – don't let it define you. I know, it is easy for me to spout off like this - hopefully, it might inspire.

Outpost JWB has a good idea, avail yourself to every bit of help you can get. A local Food Bank might know of programs you might not even know exists. Our county has a program that assists folks to keep the heat on in their homes – yours might have something like it.
We are all rooting for you!

 

[Arielle]

So, as far as being frugal ... my husband just got fired from his job today. His boss told him he just wasn't a good fit for the company and said he hadn't done anything wrong to be fired for. I'm totally frustrated at this point. This has been a pattern for him. He gets fired for no reason. Gets another job, works it for awhile, gets fired for no reason.

What the H*** am I supposed to do? He's 56 years old. We've been married for 22 years. The longest he worked anywhere was 4 years. I can't be any more frugal than I already am without starving and selling our only vehicle, which would then make it impossible to work. I gave up my career to take care of our autistic son when he was a toddler. I still spend days dealing with his issues even though he's in college.

I am so scared ... and sad ...

BIIG HUGS>

Thanks all for the good thoughts and words of encouragement. They help. We'd love to start our own business, mainly raising turkeys, dairy goats, bee keeping, and market gardening ... but we don't have enough land to do it full scale to the point we can make money from it. We're pretty self sufficient but bills bills bills. We don't use credit cards, have a used vehicle, eat 90% of our meals at home, make our own animal feed, ... the list goes on. Nothing extra to save for a down payment for land. Shrug.

Erinszoo, I've never started my own business; so I am not really qualified to give advice, but I do have a thought I would like to share. What ever you try to do, DO IT! It may not work (probably won't), but in actually getting your feet wet, you expose yourself to new possibilities that you would have never seen just sitting there thinking about it. It is a matter of exposure. For new ideas – new potentials, you need lots of exposure. Also, this may be a cliche, but what the heck …. you will probably have a lot of encounters with failure – don't let it define you. I know, it is easy for me to spout off like this - hopefully, it might inspire.

Outpost JWB has a good idea, avail yourself to every bit of help you can get. A local Food Bank might know of programs you might not even know exists. Our county has a program that assists folks to keep the heat on in their homes – yours might have something like it.
We are all rooting for you!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[chickadoodles]

Quote: For a cup of milk I use 2-3 tbsp. of vinegar for buttermilk.

 

[chickadoodles]

Erinszoo, I am not much for business. But I know that our Government has been giving out loans like crazy to help farmers get started there might even be some kind of government grants to help you get started. I read an article yesterday on facebook that stated that studies are saying after 2033 there will not be any young farmers. I say it is the price of land making hard for folks to start their own farms!

I have some chickens and turkey, and cows we had several guests for Thanksgiving and one young lady was so excited to see my livestock she asked me if they would let her pet them? The next thing I know she is calling our farm a petting zoo! hehehhe

 

[DennisK]

For a cup of milk I use 2-3 tbsp. of vinegar for buttermilk.

Thanks Chickadoodles!

 

[lazy gardener]

when ever I cook a squash, I cut it up into manageable size pieces, and boil it in a bit of water, skin and all. Then, when cooked, I use a spoon to scoop the flesh out of the skin. save that skin, and blend it up with a bit of cooking water for the chickens. Last night, I also added the rice that stuck to the bottom of the cooking pan, and the chicken skin left over from our meal. Used that to flavor up their feed, which was heated to give them a warm meal before going to bed.

Don't throw away those squash guts. save any seeds you intend to plant, then toss the rest in the blender (raw, or cooked), seeds and all, puree into a tasty slurry for the chickens.

 

[chickadoodles]

Quote: Your welcome!

 

[erinszoo]

when ever I cook a squash, I cut it up into manageable size pieces, and boil it in a bit of water, skin and all.  Then, when cooked, I use a spoon to scoop the flesh out of the skin.  save that skin, and blend it up with a bit of cooking water for the chickens.  Last night, I also added the rice that stuck to the bottom of the cooking pan, and the chicken skin left over from our meal.  Used that to flavor up their feed, which was heated to give them a warm meal before going to bed.

Don't throw away those squash guts.  save any seeds you intend to plant, then toss the rest in the blender (raw, or cooked), seeds and all, puree into a tasty slurry for the chickens.

Are you talking winter squash? I feed winter squash guts to my chickens and goats raw. And we give them lots of pumpkin in the fall just cut up in large chunks. But they won't eat the skin, cooked or otherwise. Guess I have weird birds.

 

[erinszoo]

Making my own rabbit feed and fermenting feed for my meat ducks. We shall see how this works. Last time we fermented feed we had the best, biggest, healthiest meat chickens ever. Not sure why we quit using it.

 

[N F C]

Are you talking winter squash? I feed winter squash guts to my chickens and goats raw. And we give them lots of pumpkin in the fall just cut up in large chunks. But they won't eat the skin, cooked or otherwise. Guess I have weird birds.

And here I thought I had weird birds because they will eat an entire squash...seeds, flesh and skin! Ravenous little beasts, lol.

Our goats are pickier than the chickens...the goats will only eat the flesh.