What are your frugal and sustainable tips and tricks?

[Sally PB]

Pockets... is it because we're supposed to want to wear dkin tight pants to show off our curves, and anything in the pocket would ruin the look?

Let me tell ya, designers... Your head is in a very dark place.

Clomp, clomp. Getting down off my soapbox!

 

[ChicksnMore]

I like skirts, the full sweep and below the knees type, they're so comfortable. I don't wear pants anymore except when we get unusually cold weather, then leggings or sweatpants are acceptable.

On the topic of useless designs, I refuse to wear skirts (or sweatpants) that don't have in-seam pockets. And patch pockets are useless. I want to be able to carry a few items with me, like a wallet and phone, without having to keep track of a purse. I found some skirts with pockets online, the local stores don't carry anything for full-figured older women.

I'm the same way on skirts. Give me a skirt or a dress any day over pants and I like them long too. It's easier to get big roomy pockets on them too. I've built chicken coops and climbed roofs in them... they're comfy!

 

[fuzzi]

I'm the same way on skirts. Give me a skirt or a dress any day over pants and I like them long too. It's easier to get big roomy pockets on them too. I've built chicken coops and climbed roofs in them... they're comfy!

And cool in the summer.

I wear kneesocks in the winter, which makes them usually warm enough.

 

[ChicksnMore]

And cool in the summer.

I wear kneesocks in the winter, which makes them usually warm enough.

And the loose fabric keeps mosquitoes off your legs better then light weight pants. Where I am too hot for jeans except in winter

 

[gtaus]

Once a month I attend a Senior Citizens' cooking class. The last 2 months we have made deserts that require a 9-10 inch round thick walled deep dish. You can't use a regular thin walled pie tin. I don't have one of those thick walled dishes, so I kept looking every week at our local charity church Thrift Store. Well, yesterday I found a perfectly good used Pyrex ~10-inch round deep dish with a lid and paid only $2.00 for the set! As close as I can tell, an off-brand set of this type starts at about $30 on Amazon.

Here is what it looks like...

The set I bought has an "8" stamped on the bottom so I am assuming it is 8 cups, or 2 quarts in size.

I washed it up really good and made a mixed berry custard desert. I served it with vanilla ice cream after our evening supper. Dear Wife really loved it. Already got my $2.00 worth out of that set.

It's nice to buy quality cooking wares at a Thrift Store at rummage sale prices. It took me 2 months to finally one, but that is OK with me. Sometimes being frugal means knowing you might have to wait for a good deal to show up.

Even better, perhaps, is that I was able to pick up a 10 foot wide deck umbrella for free! It has no rips or tears in it. Here is a picture of the umbrella on our deck table, opened up for the first time, stretching out the wrinkles....

That umbrella is a heavy duty one with a tilt head. Locally, they cost over $100 new in the box. So that was good find for me. By the time Dear Wife got home, she looked out on the deck and asked where I had been keeping the umbrella. She really liked it. So, I told her I got if for free at the church Thrift Store and she was all the more excited about it.

We actually have a smaller deck umbrella and not as well built. I keep that in the house in a box and we only take it out when we have company. Otherwise, I am afraid the wind would rip it apart. It's just not built to be left outside all the time like this heavy duty free umbrella I just picked up.

 

[igorsMistress]

Pockets... is it because we're supposed to want to wear dkin tight pants to show off our curves, and anything in the pocket would ruin the look?

Let me tell ya, designers... Your head is in a very dark place.

Clomp, clomp. Getting down off my soapbox!

I’m with you Sally. Although I’ve found bike and yoga shorts with side pockets that are pretty awesome.

 

[igorsMistress]

Here’s my most recent tip…don’t do anything project wise unless you really think it through. Saves money, time and effort. Cuz when you change your mind later and have to redo it, it will cost more money, time and effort.

Case in point, my garden. While I will reuse all the materials we have, I will have to make some additional purchases and spend a good amount of time making changes.

 

[gtaus]

Here’s my most recent tip…don’t do anything project wise unless you really think it through. Saves money, time and effort. Cuz when you change your mind later and have to redo it, it will cost more money, time and effort.

My approach is quite different. I like to come up with some ideas, build a proof-of-concept working model out of inexpensive material. test it out in real life, and then maybe rebuild it with better quality materials with the new improvements.

I agree with thinking through a project up to a reasonable point, but until I actually put a model to the test in real life, sometimes you just don't know how it will work. Then, I can see what needs to be changed to make a better version 2.0. That works for me on new idea projects.

If you are lucky, you might find some ideas that have been around for 50 years, or more, and then it's just easier to accept what have been proven to work. I don't have to reinvent the wheel.

I spent over a year looking at many, many, chicken coop designs before I built one. I really like it, however, there are things that I would change now that I have lived with it for 4+ years. Mostly small changes, but things that I would build in differently based on now knowing my needs.

For example, I made a drop-down panel in the back of the chicken coop to clean out the old bedding. I load the old bedding up into my wagons and haul it into the chicken run for composting. A more efficient system, for me, would have been to make a drop-down panel directly into the chicken run. At the time I built my chicken coop, I had no idea that I would later convert my entire chicken run into a composting system. My original idea was to haul off the old bedding and dump it into my pallet wood compost bins.

Case in point, my garden. While I will reuse all the materials we have, I will have to make some additional purchases and spend a good amount of time making changes.

It would be good to know examples of what you are talking about. What have you found you wasted money on?

 

[igorsMistress]

My approach is quite different. I like to come up with some ideas, build a proof-of-concept working model out of inexpensive material. test it out in real life, and then maybe rebuild it with better quality materials with the new improvements.

I agree with thinking through a project up to a reasonable point, but until I actually put a model to the test in real life, sometimes you just don't know how it will work. Then, I can see what needs to be changed to make a better version 2.0. That works for me on new idea projects.

If you are lucky, you might find some ideas that have been around for 50 years, or more, and then it's just easier to accept what have been proven to work. I don't have to reinvent the wheel.

I spent over a year looking at many, many, chicken coop designs before I built one. I really like it, however, there are things that I would change now that I have lived with it for 4+ years. Mostly small changes, but things that I would build in differently based on now knowing my needs.

For example, I made a drop-down panel in the back of the chicken coop to clean out the old bedding. I load the old bedding up into my wagons and haul it into the chicken run for composting. A more efficient system, for me, would have been to make a drop-down panel directly into the chicken run. At the time I built my chicken coop, I had no idea that I would later convert my entire chicken run into a composting system. My original idea was to haul off the old bedding and dump it into my pallet wood compost bins.



It would be good to know examples of what you are talking about. What have you found you wasted money on?

It’s mostly about where I put things and then to avoid more effort, trying to work around it.

I have a garden area fenced off that I used cinderblocks as the base, then we built the fence on top of them and filled the base with dirt. It’s against a block wall to the North that divides my yard from the neighbor. It was really dumb. We need trees in front of that wall because it reflects a lot of heat in summer, the garden isn’t big enough to accommodate. Also need a tree at the western edge of the garden for late afternoon shade. I planted fruit trees in the wrong spot really, and they all died this year from the heat. Not surprised, even the native plants are at deaths door, even saguaros. I know that our summers get brutally hot, but I planted fruit trees anyway, more than once, and they don’t get any afternoon shade. Should have waited for the shade trees to get bigger, should have planted more shade trees than I did, and been more realistic about what trees to plant for fruit. Apricots and plums are great, but we eat more of other fruits which would have been a better choice. That’s $120 wasted on trees, plus the watering and fertilizing and etc. Also, each has its own wood framed bed with blocks around to keep the chickens from digging and the soil and all that.

Now I’m going to spend more time and effort, and more money, to fix it all. I purchased metal raised beds because plastic is dead in a summer or two. I can use the garden soil in the beds so that’s not a total loss, just need some amendments. The cinderblocks I’m going to reuse for beds for the artichokes and they come in handy around here so they aren’t a total loss either. Some of the lumber is crummy, but we’ll find a way to use it, and the fencing is fine so that can be reused also. It’s not a total loss, more of a time wasted thing, but my time is as valuable as my money.

 

[Sally PB]

Here’s my most recent tip…don’t do anything project wise unless you really think it through. Saves money, time and effort. Cuz when you change your mind later and have to redo it, it will cost more money, time and effort.

My approach is quite different. I like to come up with some ideas, build a proof-of-concept working model out of inexpensive material. test it out in real life, and then maybe rebuild it with better quality materials with the new improvements.

Both are good tips.

I dive in on small projects, especially those made of wood. Using "used" 2x4 chunks or pieces of plywood, figuring out I don't know what I'm doing, wrecking a 16" piece of 2x4, saving it for something that needs 14" and starting over.

Stuff that costs $$$, gotta spend the time up front.