Just curious who else is living super frugal

[seamsewnice]

kuntry girl, some very interesting shopping ideas. Just add when you ask for a rain check ask for the limit as you always have about 30 days to collect. Often I will ask for 20 if I can as you don't have to buy them all at once when you go back they will usually let you pick them up for a month or so. If it is truly a good deal and you use that item alot it really saves.

 

[justbugged]

Quote:
If you buy a sewing machine you should have it serviced by a professional. It often makes a huge difference in how well the machine will work. There is nothing more frustrating than trying to make a sewing machine work if it is out of wack, even if it's just a little bit wacked. If someone that doesn't know what the tension is supposed to do, and they play with it. It will drive you crazy trying to make the machine sew properly.

 

[justbugged]

Quote:
I have found the key to good biscuits is handle the dough as little as possible. I tend to make drop biscuits more than rolled but when I make rolled I don't actually roll them out. I get the dough onto a floured surface and gently, with my hands, form it into the needed thickness and size and cut out my biscuits. This I have found keeps them light and fluffy. The more you make them the better they get and make sure to experiment some with herbs, cheeses, amounts of salt and such. Recently I have started adding whole wheat flour in with the white flour, tastes so much better. If you do this then you need to add extra baking powder. My recipe calls for 2 cups flour and 1 tablespoon of baking powder, when adding whole wheat flour I change the total baking powder to 1 1/2 tablespoons. Hope this is helpful.

If you lived closer I could help you with the sewing issue. Good luck on finding a good sewing at a good price.

I make biscuits with chipotle peppers and sharp cheddar cheese. They are so yummy. I found the recipe in a Bon Appetite magazine a few years back. I get requests from the kids for them.

 

[Rathbone]

My Goodness, how I enjoy this thread!!!

 

[kuntrygirl]

Quote:
Thank you. Good information about asking for more for the rain check.

 

[BasicallyHeather]

I haven't had a chance to read the entire thread yet, (67 pages! awesome!) but wanted to throw in my tips. I am a 35 year old stay at home mom of five who has health issues (lupus), and my husband's income is not extravagant. Although we qualify for various government aid programs, such as free and reduced lunch and disability income, we made a personal choice as a family to be as self-sufficient and frugal as possible and not take any form of government aid. It has been a challenge, but very, very rewarding to know that we can do very well through hard work and going without many unnecessary material things. Our society does a fantastic job of brainwashing us into believing that everything should be easy, instant, and expendable; as a result, we've become helpless and dependent. Anyway, I won't get any further up on my soapbox. Ha!

The first thing that I want to share is that not only is it possible to feed a family (even a large family) cheaply, but it is possible to feed them *well*! Better, even, than how most American families eat today. This involves cutting out a lot of processed and pre-packaged foods that are not only unhealthy, but expensive. Translation: you actually have to cook! I bake a lot of bread, rolls, and biscuits. I bake all of our desserts. My freezer is full of all kinds of flour rather than pizza rolls and frozen Steuffers meals. I also cook a lot of whole birds, like turkeys and roasting chickens, which turn into open faced sandwiches the next day, and soup the day after that. Same with hams. Although buying ham might be more expensive up front, if you break it down into how many meals you get out of it per person, it's much more cost effective. We will be raising our own pigs for the first time next spring, so it will be even better tasting and cheaper! We grow food seasonally and buy very little produce. There are many, many books available on growing your own veggies on small properties, or even only in containers...so space is definitely not an issue or an excuse for not growing your own.

The second thing I want to share is that I make my own cleaning products and I don't use paper towels. Even for cleaning the potties (and we have three bathrooms in our house...ugh!). My all-purpose cleaning spray goes into an old spray bottle and consists of water, white vinegar, peroxide, a few drops of tea tree oil, and a squirt of Doc Bronner's soap. Doc Bronner's can be expensive (14 bucks a bottle), but one bottle has lasted me three years and a lot of cleaning! I use a mix of baking soda and peroxide to clean potties. Nothing gets rid of pee smell better than this. I have four sons, so I know... sigh. For the cleaning I use rags made out of towels that have seen better days, and even old t-shirts. I keep a bucket of clean rags in my utility closet and grab a pile when I am doing the rounds. I have saved quite a bit by switching from paper towels

Anyway, these are my two "biggies" that have made a huge impact on my family. Thanks for bearing with my giant wall of text!

 

[Rathbone]

Quote:

Hear, Hear!
Also thank you for the baking soda and peroxide tip for cleaning the toilet. I also have sons - apparently with very bad eyesight. I will be trying your cleaning solution (I hadn't thought of using peroxide).

On a seperate note: I am currently using NO paper products. I am thinking about perhaps going to the thrift stores and asking if they sell old holey t-shirts by the bag....something I might be able to use as rags. We don't seem to be ruining clothes fast enough to keep up with our need for rags.

 

[ChickenAlgebra]

Quote:

Hear, Hear!
Also thank you for the baking soda and peroxide tip for cleaning the toilet. I also have sons - apparently with very bad eyesight. I will be trying your cleaning solution (I hadn't thought of using peroxide).

On a seperate note: I am currently using NO paper products. I am thinking about perhaps going to the thrift stores and asking if they sell old holey t-shirts by the bag....something I might be able to use as rags. We don't seem to be ruining clothes fast enough to keep up with our need for rags.

Cloth diaper services will sell rag bags and they are AWESOME. I've gotten a 50 lb bag of "rag" diapers for $10 before. These are totally clean and sanitized, they just have holes or a little frayed or a few pills, things like that.

With boys, sigh. Even with good eyesight, pee gets everywhere. I got nasty. Either you sit to pee or you clean the bathroom after using it to MY standards. Fixed that problem.

 

[Totalcolour]

"Watching gas traps bubble on the wine buckets"

And it occurred to me, I haven't shared this with all you guys! Yup, we love wine! Some years ago, in another life I was married to a winemaker and developed a taste for the stuff.

About 12 years ago, present hubby and I decided that we should cut spending and make our own wine. So, we joined a club and started to do it. Our first year, we got 6 blue ribbons and a BEST OF SHOW in the 1999 US Amateur Wine Making Competition in L.A.

This year, we bought a case of nectarines and a case of peaches from the farmers market (got a bulk price - wish we grew our own). Froze the fruit, thawed it (more on why freeze/thaw later), diluted it, added sugar, some acid, some sulfite (good reason for that too) and a 99cent packet of yeast. Put a lid on the bucket with a gas trap (keeps the flies out and lets the gas out as it ferments) and it's bubbling nicely. It may just be ready for a bottle at Christmas, and at under 2 bucks a bottle, not shabby!

For all you folks who grow their own fruit, you could make this for under 50 cents a bottle I think.

So far, we have made all these different kinds of wine (but not at the same time)
Orange
Pear/Cranberry
Rhubarb
Pineapple
Peach
Plum
Fig (figs a gift from brother in law)
Watermelon (gift from supermarket)
Nectarine
Apricot
Apple (sparkling)
Strawberry Mead (honey wine)
Blueberry
Rose Petal Mead
Blood Orange
Parsnip (yes, even vegetables make good wine - this tasted a bit like chardonnay)
Kiwi (this was one I didn't really care for though)
Elderberry (gift from a friend)

Oh, we even made some Cabernet and some Zinfandel one year (grape wines!)

It's really nice when we have friends over, to be able to open some wine and say we made it ourselves - and for those nonbelievers, some fruit wines really cannot be distinguished from "Grape" wine.

If anyone is interested, I wold be happy to share information on how to do this, "cheaply" and without poisoning yourselves

 

[Totalcolour]

Oh, forgot to mention, this amount of fruit is enough for 5 gallons on Peach and 5 gallons of nectarine wine.

Got to have a decent peach wine to go with that tasty home grown cockerel ya know!