Just curious who else is living super frugal

[suncatcher]

Yeah, that was a year ago when he was a year old. He's a miniature llama, so that's why he's not so big. He still weighs in about 250 or so (I lost a toenail from getting stomped on by him)! I guess he has grown some since the picture was taken, I know the flock has, and there are 2 more pens in the pasture behind them now, too.

Dennis, thanks. That's one of the things about Lydia that I love. She smiles all the time! When I got hurt 30 years ago, it was bad. They got my heart started again in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. My partner went to get Lydia as they were trying to stabilize me. As I started to become conscious, I still had tube in my throat and was blind. I couldn't make out sounds or words, all I knew was pain. Then some of the fog cleared from my eyes and I saw that smile! THAT'S when I knew I was going to be O.K.

I just realized it's my anniversary, Nov 2, 1982, app. 08:07 a.m., my life ended, and began again.

~S

A beautiful story, thank you for sharing it!!! It is the little things in life that make it sweet! So many people don't "get" it, but hopefully one day they will.

edited to add Hapyy Anniversary!!!

 

[redhen]

No I don't. How do you make it? What are yogurt plops?

They are just plops of yogurt placed on the dehydrator trays ..and dried until crisp...
people are saying they're good snacks.
I loooove my dehydrator...it comes in very handy when you find good deals on veggies and fruits and you don't want to freeze things..

 

[kuntrygirl]

No I don't. How do you make it? What are yogurt plops?

They are just plops of yogurt placed on the dehydrator trays ..and dried until crisp...
people are saying they're good snacks.
I loooove my dehydrator...it comes in very handy when you find good deals on veggies and fruits and you don't want to freeze things..

WOW!!! That sounds delicious!!! Looks like I will be looking to invest in a dehydrator. Thank you for posting this. Much appreciated.

 

[LazyQ]

I get produce from a wholesale place in town to feed my pigs, It is stuff that they cannot sell, past sell by date
vacuum lost on bags blemish on tomatoes.
Most is perfectly good.
Since my Son works in town, he stops and pick it up for me and bring it down to me.
I go thru and see if any is worth saving. Here is 6 vacuum sealed nags of spinach. 3 and a half quart's of dehydrated mushrooms from 2 5 pound boxes of sliced shrooms and 9 pints of spicy tomato sauce I put up from some of the tomatoes. There are also 2 6 packs of quail I butchered. They get some of the produce along with the chickens and rabbits as well as the pigs. They "like" to share<g>. I have 25 pints of squash, and 30 pints of carrots and several quarts of veggie stock that I put up from the produce, Plus a lot of things I grew in my garden.
Pretty cheap all it took was some of my time. I already had jars and lids. I bought 28 (240) boxes of lids at Lowe's on close out for 30 cents a box.

 

[kuntrygirl]

Has anyone transitioned to the new "money saving/energy efficient light bulbs? I have bought 4 of them so far and I absolutely HATE them. There isn't enough light in my house. I purchased the ones that were equivalent to what I was using previously but it's just not the same. :/ I understand saving energy but at some point and time, one would think that it's important to see with these very dim light bulbs.

I think I"m going to stock up on my favorite 100 watt light bulbs. Those work best for me. Many stores do not carry them anymore, so when I see them, I will start buying them.

 

[HeatherLynn]

We have a huge walk in closet that stores the beginnings of our regular light bulb stash. I HATE the new bulbs and at the rate they go out I am sure they will be banned as a hazard and cost us a fortune of clean up because of the toxins in a few years. Stupid bulbs. Just turn off the dang lights. Better yet leave my bulbs alone and tell everyone to turn off their game systems. Consumes more electric than my poor normal bulbs do anyway.

 

[kuntrygirl]

We have a huge walk in closet that stores the beginnings of our regular light bulb stash. I HATE the new bulbs and at the rate they go out I am sure they will be banned as a hazard and cost us a fortune of clean up because of the toxins in a few years. Stupid bulbs. Just turn off the dang lights. Better yet leave my bulbs alone and tell everyone to turn off their game systems. Consumes more electric than my poor normal bulbs do anyway.

 

I'm glad that I am not alone in this Light Bulb Movement. So the new bulbs go out?????? Well, well, well. According to everything on the packages, they are suppose to last for YEARS! Yea, right. :/

I think I will have to prepare a closet for my light bulb stash like you.

 

[Peep_Show]

The new bulbs take some getting used to, especially with their slow "getting bright(er)" time. When we first installed them I felt like I had become one of the Mole People as everything just seemed so dark. And the quality of light is different, too, than the warm incandescent glow of filament bulbs.

BUT..... I put them in throughout our entire house and outside just as the electric company was going to raise our rates. So as our neighbors were ranting about their utility bill doubling, ours stayed pretty much the same and so I cannot complain too loudly.

 

[ScottnLydia]

We've been using them exclusively for years. Some aren't so good and burn out fast, but most have been working well for years!

As for brightness, something to look at is the 'color' of the bulb. Most of them are "soft white", which looks kind of brownish to me, and doesn't seem too bright. Then there is the "daylight" which has a lot of blue-white to it. Bright, but kind of, uh, harsh. The third 'color' is one I have only found at Home Depot, and is called "bright white". To my eyes, this is the one that best simulates incandescent light. The light is bright and warm, not too 'brown', and has good color rendition.

Get bulbs that are the equivalent of brighter incandescent than you had, (that is if you had 60 watt, get 75 watt equivalent), and I don't think you will find them dark at all.

I think it has been about 5 years now since we changed all of our light bulbs to compact flourescents, and in that time only 2 have burned out. 1 was within a week of getting it, so I was able to return it to the store.

I live in an area with extremely high electric rates, and since switching light bulbs (and christmas lights to LEDs), we have seen a substantial decrease in our bills. Enough each December alone to pay for the bulbs!

 

[HeatherLynn]

I knew frugal would bite me in the rump some day. Ok I have TONS of chickens and still have something like 9 roosters. 4 of these roos are bantam pets. You can see where this is leading. I am also down on the number of layers but I have a good 20 layers. However my husband has just told me they are taking away half of my cow barn,putting up a wall and making an additional stall for our milkers. So the half I get to keep would only house 25 chickens tops. Now this is just the sleeping area, they still have a massively huge run and then all the free range space but we are talking actual lock them in shelter. Now I want to raise meat birds too. I would like to start with a dozen and see how it goes. How much shelter would they need. I have a mesh bottom, off the ground brooder coop and a mini chicken tractor that should fit them but its not perfectly weather proof. So in the brooder coop they would be protected and safe and warm but once in the tractor they would be a tiny bit more exposed. I was just going to put them with the others but that now will not work. I do not want to spend more money on something until I know we will be doing it regular for now on. Can I make this work? or do you have some cheap solutions. Think almost free its so cheap.