suki44883

This could be the picture for June. Just sayin...

NWGRITS

I love my crockpot. I use at least four days a week. If it weren't for meal planning and the crockpot, I'd probably be locked up at the funny farm by now.

dandylion

Another savings trick---buy older potatoes on sale (or use up ones that are about to go bad).
I make them into mashed potatoes--shape into discs (like flattened meatballs) and freeze them on a cookie sheet in the freezer. Then I store them in ziplock bags in the freezer.

Very, very convenient when you are cooking dinner in a hurry!

dandylion

jacrazz

A little off topic but i read this last week and i thought it was interesting. At the bottom there is a gallery "unusual ways to make quick money"…some pretty unconventional stuff but hey, what ever we can to for some quick cash!
How to Build an Emergency Savings Fund: 25 Ways to Make Extra Money - DailyFinance

NWGRITS

I bake my potatoes and freeze them, or make twice-baked potatoes and wrap them up for later. Also will slice them and prepare au gratin potatoes or just thaw and toss them in oil for fries or chips. If I don't get to them in time, they can always go in the potato can and be harvested a few months down the road.

That's an interesting article, jacrazz. Thanks for sharing!

dandylion

Grits---what is a "potato can"??

dandylion

NWGRITS

We have a large unused trash can filled with dirt that receives our sprouted potatoes. Every few months I can dig it up and harvest potatoes from it. We can't garden conventionally in base housing, so we have to container garden. Potatoes grow well in western Washington. They don't mind cold or wet.

BodkinVanHorn

Can I tell you, I was coming on here to ask the SAME THING!!!
I'm so happy to find so many good ideas! Thank you!
Happy Monday, Y'all!

FireSprite

I love this idea! I have no green in my thumbs but I think even I can manage something like this.

Are there other varieties of veggies that grow well in this kind of environment? (like onions, etc.?) My yard soil is awful, the ground is not fit to plant without doing a major (expensive) overhaul..... but one by one I could add things like this on my very large enclosed deck.

NWGRITS

Yes, onions are crazy easy to do on a deck. Food is so expensive on our island that I started our garden out of sheer necessity. I've always liked the occasional tomato or cucumber plant, but we went full scale green thumbs two years ago. I had corn, peas, beans, three varieties of tomatoes, cukes, sweet peppers, jalapenos, broccoli, carrots, strawberries, and pumpkins this past summer. Without our local garden center (NOT Home Depot), I never would have figured it all out.

jacrazz

Home page - EarthBox - Homegrown Vegetables Without A Garden

They are awesome!! They are pricey but I thought I saw a YouTube on how to make your own...

NWGRITS

Treated lumber, cinderblocks, or shipping pallets can all be use for a raised garden bed. We are planning on making raised beds this year, since we aren't planning on moving again for the next 2-3 years. Of course, we will probably get the beds built and then Mr. Grits will end up having his orders changed. Meaning we will have to break it all down and put grass seed over the bare spots in the yard. I've been using plastic pots, five-gallon buckets, and wooden wine boxes as planters. I told Mr. Grits he needs to go back to Sicily and bring back more wine. I love their boxes. Super sturdy and aesthetically pleasing for lettuce and herbs in my kitchen.

lillamy

I made water our drink of choice. None of my kids are big milk drinkers and real juice is pricey. Juice drinks and such things are expensive and unhealthy. I would buy fruit-flavored herbal tea at the Asian store (where tea was dirt cheap, like $3 for a box of 200 teabags) and brew that, throw some sugar in, and chill it. I told them it was Asian fruit drinks...

pixilation

I drink tea too, although I've been slacking lately and buying it premade. I need to get back to making it myself. Even premade though, it's cheaper than pop, and less caffeine. I started having blood pressure issues due to my caffeine intake, since I cut back it's back to normal.

I wish I lived on a second level apartment so I could at least have a small deck garden.

marie1960

Regardless if you live in a metropolitan area, or small town America, lots of available free health care available for women, free mammograms and pap smears are available, you just have to be a bit proactive to find these services, be it a large medical center, or your private doctor's office, your local senior center, public libraries, churches, community colleges, and universities all have listings of free available health care.

I have a friend, who does not have health insurance, she donates blood regularly, thru the Red Cross, she claims it's like a free check up at the doctor's office, they screen that blood for many medical conditions..

FeelingGreat

LaTeeDa, awesome photo!!
Coming in late on this thread, but here's my frugal hints. I've just become unemployed so am watching what I spend.
Make my own Miracle Spray and Laundry Detergent. MS is used as spray on cleaner, floor cleaner and pre-wash stain remover. Also bought a $2 pretty box and filled it with the ingredients and some cheap micro-fibre cloths as a present (along with the recipe) for a friend's birthday.
I've made Christmas pudding truffles as presents for my Mum who doesn't want any more 'stuff'.
When it gets hot here I freeze my own ice pops from juice.
I've planted lettuce, capsicum, tomatoes and herbs in containers. I've been revitalising the potting mix rather than buy new.
I'm drying out oregano and giving it as small gifts to friends.
Big discovery has been the $2 shops.
I've bought a big roll of brown paper which I use with nice recycled ribbons for presents. I write a note rather than buy cards.
Any time i need to spend I think about whether I can use something I already have and I usually come up with something. I save money and get some satisfaction.

Speaking as a single person, all the above ideas save money but don't represent a big part of my budget. Next on the list, I'm going to review insurances and car servicing which are my big ticket items. Utilities, insurance, council rates, every bill I can think of, comes out of my bank monthly so I rarely get an account that isn't in credit. When my mobile and broadband plan comes up for renewal I'm going to try for a much better deal.

DesertEyes

Good idea!! Done stickied under "Classic Reading"
http://www.soberrecovery.com/forums/...c-reading.html

Mike

Yurt

I love to buy stuff for my classroom, but I will need to throttle back as I expect that I might be living on just my income sooner or later. Instead of purchasing Thanksgiving books about the Mayflower from Amazon, I found some free interactive resources from scholastic and I just popped a batch of hardtack in the oven. Probably will be much more fun than reading about it aloud. And the cost was 3 cups of flour.

ShootingStar1

This thread has been very enlightening to me. I am sorting through how I view money, and coming up with a different twist.

Since I had enough before my recent divorce, my mental financial equation was:

time=money

If I had a financial shortfall, I would use my time to make more money. So I focused on making more time than I did on spending less because I was well paid enough to make that equation worthwhile.

That meant that, for example, buying a few extra sets of kids clothes because (a) I didn't have to do washing as often and (b) my first XH (father of my children) never returned the clothes from their visits to him, and if he did, they were dirty. So spending that money cut back on morning school day chaos of no clean clothes, and cut back laundry time. That, and many similar choices, worked for me.

Now the equation has to change. At my age, going into retirement age soon, I can't just focus on the income side of the balance sheet. At the moment, my time is not worth anywhere as much as it used to be.

I have to look at:

Money = Expenses controlled AND Income generated

It gives me more peace of mind to understand that. I like the "NO" budget as a place to start for me. If I automatically say "NO" for a while, then I have to justify to myself what the financial outcome of a purchase will be, and whether it is worth it.

Not that I didn't do this before - - I just did it in a different context because I knew I could make the money for what I needed and safeguarding my time to work was key. Now I know that I need to value both equally. It makes me feel better because if I can't earn as much, which is reasonable in retirement, I can make up for it by watch-dogging the expenses.

And since I am by nature optimistic, a very hard worker, and very focused, it points me toward figuring out how to make more money because I'd rather work hard and effectively and earn enough to have what I want. And if I have to control expenses with a vengeance for a while to get where I want to be long-term, well that is just another challenge. I like challenges. I know I can do this. I'd rather be upbeat and create the life I want than be pessimistic, forlorn, and see myself as limited and broken down into a "less-than" lifestyle.

I understand that those of you who are much younger and raising children on your own are in a less malleable situation, and I have huge admiration for all that you do to balance your own almost "unbalanceable" equations. I am also very fortunate to have the education and work history to do this, but at 63, I have very little time to set this ship afloat again. You are true heroines/heroes. I think what is most stunning about these posts is the good humor, good will, and enjoyment of making what you have the foundation of a happy and fulfilled life. That capacity and willingness to (maybe literally) take lemons and make lemonade, then have a party drinking it, is extraordinary!

This feels like freedom to me!

ShootingStar1

FireSprite

Bumping this back up to add that I forgot how much I save in samples sometimes. A lot of stores like Target, Walmart & Sam's allow you to request freebies & samples right from their website, but I also use shareyourfreebies.com a lot.

If we have short weekend trips or DD has a sleepover at a friend's those sample sizes come in handy & are a lot less messy than taking full sized products sometimes. Plus they often arrive with more coupons, lol.

I stockpiled them for a while & when we went on vacation last year I had enough shampoo, conditioner, hand lotion, laundry detergent, etc for the entire trip. Bonus that our bags got lighter & roomier (since it was all disposable) toward the end of the trip too!