Pocket Change

How many observe Christ's birthday! How few His precepts! O 'tis easier to keep Holidays than Commandments~Benjamin Franklin

Vinegar Update

So far the vinegars aren't doing much. One jar of apple peelings is more advanced than the others, but I don't know why. One jar of grape vinegar is really gross and the other one is barely doing anything. Am pretty sure my biggest problem is that my house is too cool. So I have started to keep a rice heating pad inbetween the jars. I'll give it another couple of weeks and let you know.

God Provides

When our food budget got cut at the beginning of October, I was in panic. Stupid me, I should have known that God would have provided. I am sorry God.

My head was thinking I needed money, dollars and cents, moola, whatever you call it, in order for my family to eat.

Stupid me. I am sorry God. I will try harder to trust you.

Here is a run down on some of what He provided.

I want you to notice, no, PAY ATTENTION, to how God worked it out so well.

free pizza from the food bank

2 bottles of pop from a neighbor, leftover from his party

(so evidentally even God says pop and pizza must go together)

free knife from Sam's Club, to cut up

a WHOLE deer a friend shot and didn't need/want

(don't get your knickers in a knot about him shooting something he didn't want, it was a doe and God put it in his head that we needed it.)

pound of bacon and a huge spiral cut ham

to go with all those potatoes that were on sale

mac and cheese from the food bank

to go with the fancy bratwurst found on clearance

buckets of apples to go with anything

and a box full of food from the foodbank. The people at this food bank organize the food so can make a meal out of it all. Like tuna to go with the tuna helper, sloppy joe mix to go with the hamburger.

I could go on, but you get the picture. I love it when a menu comes together. Thank you God!

Pocket Change

Thought this was fitting for Election Day.

Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally. ~
Abraham Lincoln

Best Blogs of the Month

Found some new blogs, thought I'd share them with you. Check them out!

Canning Granny
http://canninggranny.blogspot.com/

Homestead Revival

http://www.homesteadrevival.blogspot.com/

Thrifty Texas Penny

http://www.thriftytexaspenny.com/search/label/%245.00%20dinners

Potatoes

Well, the price of potatoes finally fell, it had hit a high of $6.99 for 10 pounds! Thankfully, they were on sale this week, $1.98 for 10 pounds. So, of course, I bought 20 pounds. Now to fit them into a bunch of meals! Am thinking of:

Mashed Potatoes

Fried Potatoes

Hash Browns

Potato Yeast Rolls

Perogies filled with Mashed Potatoes (new one for me to try)

Baked Potatoes with Toppings

Cubed Potatoes in Foil (on the grill)

Potato Soup or Chowder

Potato Salad

Scalloped Potatoes

French Fries with Chili and Cheese

Latkes (another new recipe to try)

Current prices of what I consider necessary carbs for us work out to be:

potatoes 20 cents a pound

ramen noodles 18 cents each

brown rice 64 cents a pound

pasta $1 a pound

wild rice $3.54 a pound

Ok, wild rice is not necessary, but I was appalled by the price. And most of us here do not like ramen noodles, but I was surprised that they went up 6 cents since I last bought them.

Since potatoes are the cheapest this month, that's what we're eating. (I am relieved, because I have not beena fan of pasta lately.)

Am open to any cheap potato recipes if you have them!

Day 300

Today is day 300 in my 22nd year of living frugal to the extreme. I know that sounds a bit extreme in itself. Can't decide how to celebrate this remarkable milestone, but I'm sure I'll figure out something.

Maybe I'll go pick apples.

Recycled Blue Jeans

I don't know why I am fascinated with bluejeans. Is it because I went to parochial schools all my life, you know, wearing uniforms and skirts and dresses? Who knows, all I know is I consider denim a most important invention.

I love to find old jeans, usually at garage sales and such, and turn them into quilts.

Anywho, I have plans for sewing a new "pattern" this winter. It is a rag rug, although the directions I found are for a small rug, something like 24" by 36". I plan on making a much larger rug, maybe 48" by 60". It's hard to tell you exact directions because I really don't follow directions, I make them up as I go. Here is a video of what the original looks like.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIHHiHfuUZI&feature=BFa&list=SPA0D6118192E6C16D&lf=list_related

Looks easy, now I have to find the time. That's the hard part.

Washing Soda

As soon as I need to heat up the stove for something else more important (i.e. cookies, bread, roast etc.) I am going to try this baking soda-into-washing soda experiment.
http://www.ehow.com/how_5859235_make-washing-soda.html

Now, there is another site, http://candleandsoap.about.com/od/tipstricks/ht/How-To-Convert-Baking-Soda-To-Washing-Soda.htm

I usually don't trust ehow or about.com, so this truly is an experiement. Both sites vary in the directions, and how do you really know if you baked the soda long enough? It's not like it will change colors or look different. Hmmm . . . .will let you know.

Semi-Whole Wheat Bread-ABM Style

Promised you my Bread recipe a while back, so here it is. It's funny how just a little whole wheat flour makes this such a different bread than the french bread I made earlier.

1 1/4 cups water, slightly warmer than room temperature
1 TBS. butter
1 egg
2 TBS sugar
1 tsp. salt
3 cups white flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 tsp. yeast

Proof the yeast with the water and sugar for about 5 minutes. Then add everything to your breadmaker. Set on Dough cycle. After the dough cycle is complete, divide the dough in half and put each half in a greased loaf pan. Cover with clean towel and let rise until doubled (about 45 minutes.) Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Let cool and enjoy!

Odd

I find it funny how many people it takes at Wally's World to give me back 8 cents in coupon overage.

Pocket Change

When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.
~Helen Keller

Just Have to Share

I suppose everyone has their favorite blogs, websites, or what-not that they like to frequent, but I have to share mine. When I say share, I mean You-Simply-Have-To-Go-There. Now.

They are:

Clover Lane

http://www.memoriesoncloverlane.com/

Thy Hand Hath Provided

http://www.thyhandhathprovided.com/

Not in any particular order, but I find myself reading these before I even check my FB. (sorry friends and family!) I have been following them for a while and they never disappoint me with their recipes and words of wisdom. Thank you Sarah and Jane!

Ruth 2:7

And she said , I pray you, let me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves: so she came , and hath continued even from the morning until now, that she tarried a little in the house.

I am reading the book of Ruth, it seemed appropriate for all my apple picking lately. I pray that I could be strong like Ruth, and wise like Naomi. Please help me Lord!

Bagels

Thought I'd try to make bagels again, since the kids go through, like, 50 bagels a month. (No joke.)

Used the breadmaker to mix/rise the dough. The first batch I hand shaped the bagels, really poorly, the next batch I cut them out like a biscuit and then poked a hole in them and shaped just a bit.

I think they taste really nice, we like ours toasted with butter, sorry, cheap margarine, or toasted with a sausage patty in the middle. The first batch I put onion powder in the mix, but I need to add more next time, it wasn't very onion-y tasting. Same with the second batch, which I flavored with garlic salt. But I am happy with the results and most importantly, the kids gave them (and me) their approval, so I will be making these again. Yes! another cheap recipe conquered!

silly me! I forgot to post the recipe. I got it straight from Food.com

http://www.food.com/recipe/bagels-364034

$107 a Month?

Budget got cut again, our food money for the month is now $107 a month for the 6 of us. We will be heading to the food bank for sure this month! I am very grateful three of the kids are able to eat breakfast and lunch for free at school, so maybe this is do-able. As you can see, I am trying to talk myself into this. We have plenty of the following, (although I am not sure how to coordinate all of it into something edible for a whole month)

• 31 jars of spaghetti sauce


• 21 jars of peanut butter



• grape jelly

• 25 cans of refried beans



• apple butter, apple slices (frozen)



• flour and baking items like yeast, baking soda and baking powder



• eggs



• white rice (don't judge, it was really on sale)



• a variety of mushroom soup and chicken broth

There is a variety of other canned things I have, but mainly just odds and ends really. I priced out a bunch of things at Wally's World and then at our local store, so I am up to date on the current prices of most things we need, but just don't know what to buy. Other than meat, of course, which would probably just take up the whole $107 right there. Not much else to say about this.

Addiction

I was driving my daughter to work (she pays for the gas) and I interrupted her (bad momma!) to say. . . . . "Ohhhhh, look, an apple tree! Look at all those apples on the ground. I wonder. . . ."

Daughter, in her infinite teenaged wisdom,

Rolls. Her. Eyes.

I think I have an new addiction.

Is there an Apples Anonymous?

Maybe I could stop cold turkey.

I saw 2 walnut trees and a chesnut tree that seemed to need some cleaning up. . . .

Pocket Change

People do not like to think. If one thinks, one must reach conclusions. Conclusions are not always pleasant.
~Helen Keller

About Them Apples. . . .last part I promise!

I promise, this will be the last you hear about apples. Well, at least until next year!

Ended up with:

12 quart bags of frozen apple slices

apple butter

apple cake

baked apple delight

apple butter pumpkin pie

apple butter bread

apple pectin

and apple cider vinegar.

There was also alot of pieces of apples I gave the rabbits and the dog (yes, we have a weird dog, he loves fruits and vegetables more than milkbones)

And the chickens got the few rotten ones. So I am very grateful that my neighbors planted that apple tree~thank you T&E!

Semi-Homemade Wax Paper

Now this really isn't made from scratch, but with all the cereal the kids eat, I just use the plastic liners the cereal comes in for wax paper.

As you can see, I let the boxes pile up a bit too much.

Just take the liners out, shake out the last bits and crumbs (save for the chickens if you have them!) Then cut the bottom off of the bag, and then cut a straight line up the side seam.

Voila' !

Instant wax paper for no-bake cookies or what ever you use wax paper for.

Note: make sure you don't just stuff the un-cut bags somewhere, thinking you'll get to them someday. You won't have it when you need it and . . . it will only draw pantry moths. Don't ask how I know.