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.

$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.

Day 104: Book of the Week

Got to spend a little time in the big book store this week, all by my lonesome, while I was waiting to pick up someone from school. I surfed thru some cookbooks and home preserving books, looking for some ideas for my solar dehydrator I will be building. Didn't find much new information (why don't books have more pictures? It's much easier to quick look at the picture of the dehydrator than read thru a bunch of technical stuff and then realize it's not what you wanted.)

Anywhoo, found an interesting book, called Possum Living by Dolly Freed. In a nutshell, it's written by a non-schooled teenager many years ago, who was living with her father, who didn't like to work. She tells of how they lived without money,which means living without modern amenities. I skimmed thru most of it, getting some ideas to tuck back into my brain for later. The girl somehow even got the book published all by herself. Many years later, someone found a copy of the book and had it re-published and even found the original author who wrote a closing for the re-published book. Turns out, the girl ended up working for NASA, without having a college degree. or even an high school diploma. Very interesting.

( If you do find a copy of Possum Living, I want you to know I did skip over the plans for the moonshine still. Hehe!)

I'll Just Die. . part 2

My boys think trash bags are a necessity. I think all the plastic grocery bags we accumulate should be used as trash bags. I wonder who will win? I did find a great coupon this week for trash bags. I think I will use it. But only if the total cost comes to $0. I am trying to compromise.

Day 1

Happy New Year to all!

What a way to start out the new year. Had another post planned for my first day of the new year, but went to work last night and found that my hours had been cut again. Soooooo, wow, I get a whole ten hours a week. The good news is that I get 6 days off in a row, so I can work on this new blog! My whole paycheck will go straight into the water and sewer bills, so I guess my first plan of attack will be on reducing our water consumption. There are six of us, so that's alot of showering and clothes to wash. Here is my attack plan:

• reduce shower times. If left up to the youngest, that would involve a wet washcloth run across the face (at the moment, she is soaking the grime off in the tub, whilst screaming she is done, after a whole 2 minutes) We do have a flow reducing shower head. What is the time limit on a shower? 10 minutes? 8 minutes? I do know a 25 minute shower is in the past. Now I need to find a easy to set timer for everyone to use.


• reducing the number of dishes washed. I am seriously thinking of using really cheap paper plates. (I got some on sale yesterday, 100 ct. for $1.57. ) Also limiting everyone to one glass a day. We do not have a working dishwasher. (Ok, ok, I am the working dish-washer.)
  
• reduce the amount of laundry washed. Has anyone used a fabric refresher, like Febreeze, on jeans? If the kids wear the jeans to school, they really aren't getting them dirt dirty, so could I Febreeze them? (the clothes, not the kids. Wait, would it work on kids also?)


• reducing the amount of bath towels washed. I mean really, if you use a clean towel on your clean, showered body, isn't the towel still clean? Maybe I will embroider everyone's initials on a personal towel and let them use it for what? 5 days? A whole week? before washing it again?


• use the rain barrel and get another one. Can't really use the rain barrel much in the winter, but I do use it all summer. I rarely use house water on my garden. I wonder if the chickens and rabbits will drink the rain water. I mean, I know they will drink it, but will they still be healthy? Rain off the roof shingles hmmm. . .

Am keeping an open mind to any other new ideas on saving water. Got a few more on the back burner, but the burner isn't on cuz I'm saving electricity also.

I'll Just DIE If I Don't Have. . . .

I hear this all the time from my teenagers, "Oh, Mom, I'll just DIE if I don't have (insert whatever here)." But how often have I heard this same thing from adults? Maybe they are too "mature" to say "DIE," but how about saying "NEED?" You stop at the gas station and buy a overpriced soda-pop because you NEED something to drink. You buy a box of baby wipes so you can wipe off high chairs, car seats, sticky fingers, tabletops, grocery cart handles, etc, because you NEED the convenience of throwing the wipe away after using it?


Every family is different, but we all breathe the same air so to speak, so will I really keel over and die if I don't drink a soda? Will I be buried tomorrow because I had to wash an extra washcloth instead of throwing away a baby wipe?


What item can I do away with this week? Or if I can't totally do away with it, can I use less of it?


to be continued. . . .