Frozen skillet meals

Do you ever buy those bagged frozen skillet meals?  Or the bagged frozen crock pot meals?  I can't think of a brand name right this minute.  It's those frozen meals that say brown an amount of meat, add the package of veggies and the sauce, then cook until done.  Do you have any idea how much you are paying for a personal chef to choose the veggies for you, cut them up for you, and freeze them for you? 

Personally, I don't have a personal chef's salary in my budget so why would I want to pay for a personal chef through my grocery shopping?  Gee whiz, buying frozen skillet or crock pot meals is almost as bad as paying extra for frozen veggies with "butter" sauce.  I think I'm perfectly capable of adding a pat of butter to my veggies without the extra cost. 

I don't know about you but I like to choose my own veggies.  The frozen meals often contain way too many cheap "filler" veggies which could be something no one in the family really likes all that well.  You might find many of those filler veggies remaining on the plate after the meal is finished.  So let me ask you?  At what cost are you paying for those frozen meals?  Not the price.... the cost of paying for the convenience of a personal chef?   Wouldn't you rather spend the extra money on something fun to do instead of extra cost on groceries?

Ok, so go sharpen your veggie knife and let me show you how I make my own frozen skillet and crock pot meals.  This is just one example of my frozen meals to show you how easy it is to do your own.  I found these in the discount bin while shopping Thursday.  I like a stir fry made with smoked sausages.  It was just a stroke of luck that these are made from chicken which is better for my diet.

The first thing to do is decide whether the meal will be fried, baked, or put into a crock pot.  I could put all of the meals into plastic bags but I'm going one step farther for these.  I'm packaging these in foil just in case I want to put them in the oven.  It will depend on the amount of time I have when I decide to cook these.  

I cut the sausages into bite size pieces and divide them into portions for two meals.  Five packs of sausages make ten meals for two.  This would be for Ladybug and me or two meals for me.  The largest area I have for laying out foil is my intake table. 

I like onions in my stir fry so I cut up a bunch of those.  Might as well chop them all.  What's left can be frozen to use later in other meals.  Actually, I cut up the onions before I started preparing the meals.  Once I started putting these meals together I didn't want to stop until finished. 

Green peppers (or color peppers) just naturally go with onions in this house.  I happen to have a bunch of them already in the freezer.   I got these peppers from the discount bin back in March.  They are copped and ready to add to the meals.

I like mushrooms as well in my stir fry.  I look in the freezer but there isn't any frozen so I use canned.  Everything is divided in portions and put onto the foil.

I add a bit of soy sauce, a bit of stir fry sauce, a bit of cornstarch, and these are ready to go into the freezer.  Hmm.... I could have added some scrambled eggs or some other veggies.  I think these will be ok as it.  The only thing I'm going to add is some rice.  I look in the freezer and find the packages of rice already cooked and frozen in portions for two.  Ten packages happen to be what I had in the freezer.  Lucky again.

I roll up the foil, stick a label on it, (made from scotch tape), and put into numbered freezer bags.  Two packaged meals plus two packs of rice fit into one bag.  If I make frozen meals that someone else might be cooking, I'd put the cooking instructions inside the numbered bag.  I mean, say for example, a lady prepares these for a husband to fix while she's away at a quilting retreat or something.   Husbands (and others) don't always know what to do with something taken from the freezer so it's best to give them detailed instructions. 

The meals are all finished.  Five numbered bags which represent either ten meals for Ladybug and me or twenty meals for just me. 

Now was it that hard to put together some frozen prepared meals?    Think about this the next time you are tempted to pick up a frozen meal in a bag.  Do you want fillers or do you want only what will be eaten?  If you want to read more about my thoughts on paying for a personal chef at the grocery go read this post here. 

Hmm.... I'm sure the new readers of my blog are wondering about the numbered freezer bags.  You can read more about those in this post here.  I should have another post about how the freezer looked when full but I can't find that post.  Since the time I wrote that post, I've made a few changes to how I organize my freezer.  I'll do an updated post either today or Monday showing more details.  I think the freezer is much better organized than it was back then.

Ok, back on subject, let's say on the day I choose one of these meals for dinner, I decide not to bake it but want to put it into a crock pot.  I remove it from the foil, put into the crock pot, add a can of tomatoes and that's it.  The rice can be either added to the crock pot during the last few minutes of cooking or zapped in the microwave.  If I decide to actually fry the stir fry meal I unwrap and put into a skillet.  Get the idea?  One preparation, several options. 

Just thinking

My house is located along the flight path of airplanes leaving our airport.  I woke in the middle of the night to the sound of what sounded like a very low flying airplane going over the house.  How odd it sounded.  Either it was a very slow moving plane or there was more than one of them leaving back to back.  After getting up, I realized it was just the wind.  Really strong wind!  We had dodged the snow and ice but we were getting lots of wind.  I went back to bed hoping to  get some sleep despite the sounds.

I also had a thought on my mind and don't know where it came from.  Probably my frugal mind working over time looking for more ways to save money.  My thoughts might have something to do with what I heard on the news a few days ago..  The news story was about someone suing YUM brands over saying their Taco Bell beef was beef when it really contained lots of fillers and extenders.

Anyway, while laying there listening to the wind and doing my best to go back to sleep.....it occurred to me.... if a person buys one of those 1/3 pound fast food angus burgers and pays 5.99 for it; then that means they are paying $18 a pound for the ground beef.  Hmm... how's that for a great reason to make your own burgers at home? 

Would I even consider paying $18 a pound for ground beef at the grocery?  No way!  Would you?  I cringe just knowing I'm paying more than double the amount I paid for ground beef a couple of years ago.  I was used to getting ground beef for 99 cents a pound, or less when it was on sale, but now days the best I've been able to do is $2.49 a pound from the discount bin every now and then.

Give it some thought next time you go the fast food route..... how much beef is really in that burger?  Is the beef full of fillers and extenders?  Take a look at that $1 burger you can buy from the dollar menu.  It probably contains one ounce of ground beef plus extenders.  Well, suppose it doesn't have any fillers and extenders; you're still paying somewhere about $16 a pound for that dollar menu burger.  I don't want to pay that much money for something that will leave me feeling hungry again in about 30 minutes. 

Oh my goodness!

I've talked several times about how we should always check the amounts on our bills and what gets rug up at a cash register .  Never trust a bill or a cash register!  Always check it for accuracy.  Even a small error in the favor of those who bill us is money out of our pockets.  That's money we could use for food or shelter.  Well, sometimes the errors I find are down right ridiculous. 

Recently I read that our water bill would be going up.  I knew this was going to happen and sort of prepared myself for the rate hike.  Yet, when I got the bill I was very shocked.  I wasn't shocked by the amount of the raise.  I was shocked by how much water they claimed I was using.  It was double my normal usage.  Double in one billing cycle.  Yikes!  Now let me tell ya... there's absolutely no way I'm suddenly using double the amount of water!  Not with all the ways I've cut back. 

I call the water company and I'm told I must have a water leak someplace.  Ok, I can accept that as an answer.... for now.  I'll get a plumber to come check it out.  In the meantime, I talk with several other people who have said the same thing.  They were billed for double the amount of water than is normal.  These people have also called the water company and got the same answer.... there must be a water leak someplace.  Granted one or two people who know each other might have a water leak but all 10 of us?  Ten out of ten is pretty high odds that we all have water leaks under our houses don't ya think?

The trouble with double checking our water usage is that the meter is underground and impossible to check for accuracy by the homeowner.  Anybody know who I could file a complaint with other than the water company?  

Ok, how about a bill from a nursing home for the care of a patient who is not even in the nursing home?  Mom was in the hospital from just after Thanksgiving until after New Year's day.  The bill had charges for December.... twice.  Bills for October and November which were already paid.  AND.... billing for January.  January hadn't even arrived yet at the time I got the bill.  I got this bill on December 27th.  How can they charge for care that hasn't been given?    Hmm... it's kind of like being charged for surgery when you haven't been operated on yet.  Or paying for groceries when you haven't even filled the cart yet. 

I do know when a patient leaves the nursing home and is admitted to the hospital you must pay a fee to hold the bed.  If you don't pay the bed hold fees they can give the spot to someone else.  Which leaves the patient without a place to go back to if not paid.  It took a couple of phone calls and this was straightened out.  A computer hiccup was the cause..... or so I was told. 

Well now, moving on, we all know about the cost of groceries going up... am I right?  I know I sure do get sticker shock every time I go to the grocery these days.  From one trip to the next, I find the cost of everything has gone up.  I don't care what the tv news tells us about the economy getting better.  In my personal opinion, the economy is only getting better for big wigs and wall street, not main street.  I believe what I see with my own eyes every time I pay higher prices for groceries.  Uh, DUH!  Maybe I should change that?  Maybe I shouldn't believe my own eyes anymore. 

Let me tell you about my shopping trip yesterday.  My readers know I love to buy discount items when shopping for groceries.  There are certain discount produce items which make me as giddy as a kid on Christmas morning.  When I find bananas, oranges, onions, bell peppers and stuff like that on a produce discount table I am very happy.   I don't take it all but I do take enough to last me for awhile.  Yesterday, I had just about given up on getting fresh bell peppers, which I'm completely out of right now.  I had already been to Kroger where the price was $1 each for very small ones.  None were marked down.  I believe the cost of a pound of bell peppers is comparable to the cost of a pound of t-bone steak these days.  Don't believe me?  Maybe you will in a minute or two.

When I get to Meijer, I'm delighted as I spot bell peppers on the discount table.  I saw them from way across the room.  I rushed to get a few before everyone else spotted them too.  I quickly grabbed a couple bags of the color ones and a couple bags of the green.  I put those in my cart along with a couple bags of over ripe bananas.  Ok, are you ready for some sticker shock too?   Can you believe this? 

Yup, it says $109.59 for three reduced price bell peppers.  Isn't that about the cost of t-bone?  A very, very expensive t-bone?  Ok, how about this price tag?

Yup, the price is $62.39 for two reduced price peppers.  The price is $79.99 per pound.  Wow, talk about sticker shock!  After looking at those price tags, the hair on my head stood up, I had a look of sheer surprise, and I'm standing there shaking from the jolt I got.  I'm in the produce isle looking sort of looked like this..... (click to make the picture larger to get the full effect)

I look around to see if anyone else has as much sticker shock as I did.  Yup, I looked kind of like this too as I stand there looking around at other people who are also rather shocked. 

Trust me, I do not want this kind of sticker shock very often!  A little giggle from the produce manager and all the tags were changed.  Hmm... I wonder why she giggled instead of feeling embarrassed or saying she was sorry?  Do you think there might have been people who actually paid that price without ever checking it?  It's quite possible.  Next time I go grocery shopping I think my clothing should include a grounding wire from my waist to the floor. 

Now do you see why I tell people to always check?  Excuse me while I end this post and get a cuppa coffee.  Maybe the caffeine will calm me down a bit.  With all the shocks I've been getting lately I'm almost afraid to go near the quilting machine.  I might damage it with residual shock current coming from my hands.

Interesting site

A few days ago I got an email from someone asking if I would mind creating a link to his site on my blog.  Of course I wanted to check it out first.  I get some really strange request sometimes.  Some just don't make much sense.  I'm also always fearful of adding stuff from people I don't know. 

Well, I've decided to go ahead and tell you about this one.  This page on his site contains 50 links to interesting things to do with your family.  The links on his page take you to different places on the net.  Maybe you'll find some of them useful.  I know I sure did.

http://www.getamastersdegree.org/50-free-frugal-ideas-for-holiday-family-bonding

Dehydrating eggs

Eggs from the store have a "sell by" date on them.  It's not a "use by" date.  Eggs can be stored in the refrigerator several weeks past their sell by date.  When I think my eggs were getting close to the maximum storage time, I cook them or freeze them to extend the storage time.  You can test an egg to see if it's usable or not without opening it.  Float an egg in some water.  Fresh eggs sink.  The more an egg floats the older it is because it contains more air inside.  If it completely floats.... get rid of it immediately without cracking. 

Well ok, here's another way of extending the life of your eggs.  Dehydrate them.  I saw this on Angie's blog.  A very frugal lady who quilts.   She has a large group of followers.  You might like her site too. 

Take a dozen eggs. 

Use a whisk to mix them up like for scrambled eggs.  Do not add anything to the eggs.   I used a blender because I have one.  I used the "stir" setting for 3 seconds. 

Now scramble the eggs in a non-stick pan.  You do not want to add any oil for the cooking because eggs are already naturally oily.  That's why a non-stick pan is important.  You are cooking only to remove as much of the moisture as you can before dehydrating.  Scramble the eggs into somewhat smallish pieces to help in the drying process.

Put the eggs in a dehydrator if you have one.  If you don't, then use your oven on it's lowest setting with the door cracked open.  Watch them carefully so they don't burn in the oven.  Check every half hour or so.  You want dry but not burned.  It will probably take 4 or 6 hours in the oven.

When the eggs are dry they are quite hard and oily feeling. 

Run them through a grinder to get egg powder.  These are not the same as powdered eggs you can buy already made.  Store bought powdered eggs are made using a special industrial blower machine.  The homemade version of powdered eggs are simply used as an extender in a recipe so you don't loose the food value of the eggs.

 I believe the ratio is one tablespoon of egg powder equals one egg in a recipe.  I can't remember exactly.  Store the powdered eggs in a jar in the cabinet or a shelf ready to add to your recipes each time you cook.  My best uneducated guess is they will last a couple of months on the shelf and about 4 to 6 months in the refrigerator.  If you plan to store the eggs for longer storage then it's best to vacuum pack them.  I will use these dry eggs in combination with fresh eggs used in my cooking.  Again, it's not the same as fresh eggs but an added food value.  The eggs I dehydrated were not good for making an omelet or scrambled eggs.  I tested it and got a mix of water and grit. 

Menu planning is hard

I'm seriously not very good at menu planning.  Mostly because I just look at my freezer list, decide what needs to be used, then create a meal around it.  Lately, with the boxes of food left by the food fairies, it's even more difficult to plan a week or month of meals when I don't know what I'm gonna get.  The food left for me must be eaten too.  I also like to do what is called "planned leftovers".  In case you don't already know; that's when enough extra of something is cooked so the leftovers can be used to create another dish the next day or later in the week. 

Well, after giving this a little thought I came up with something that may help me with menu planning next year.  I won't know until October of next year if this works or not because it will take that long to develop my plan.  You may think right about now that Anita's lost it... call the men with the straight jackets.

What I have done is print off calendar pages from the internet.  Everyday (or once a week) I will write down what I had to eat each day.  I'll keep the calendar pages to be used as next year's menu plan.  I have one for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. 

If you enlarge the picture you can see that on Friday I made a pot roast with potatoes and baked loaves of bread.  The next day, Saturday, I made beef pinwheels with the leftover beef.  I also made beef flavored mashed potatoes with the left over potatoes and added carrots peas to the menu.  (need to change that on the calendar)  I had left over mashed potatoes made into potato cakes on Sunday and added sausage to the menu.  Monday the left over sausage was used to make S.O.S. to put on toast made from leftover bread I baked on Friday.  Get the idea?

When I absolutely don't want to use the leftovers for another meal; I make my own hot pockets to put into the freezer.  (read about it here)  I can pull these out and heat them up for a quick lunch or snack. 

One advantage of keeping up with this afterward menu planning is that next year I'll have a clearer list of what I would need to keep stored in my food pantry.  A year's worth of meals listed that I could use to plan my food storage stockpile.  For example; I'll be able to see how many times I made loaves of bread which will give me an indication of how many pounds of flour to have on hand.  I'll be able to see how many times I make spaghetti so I know how much ground turkey to keep in the freezer. 

Even if I don't exactly follow the menu plan sheets next year, I will at least know how many times I fix the same meals. 

One penny at a time

These days it's become quite popular to save money.  I've seen it before.  At least a couple of times in my life.  This wave of wanting to save money.  The time I remember most is during the 1960s and 1970s because that was when I was young and full of enthusiasm  for the life ahead of me.

How long will the zest for saving money last this time?  How long before people stop feeling the need to save and go back to the life of spend, spend, spend?  I'm not sure.  What's important is that it's popular again.  I'm enjoying sharing the simple little things I do to save money.  Some ideas I've abandoned over the years and now want to do again.  Some ideas are new to me because our daily lives have changed as the grey tsunami gets older. 

Whether it's saving money by thrift store purchases instead of paying new prices.

Or baking our own bread instead of stopping at the store every couple of days.

Or freezing canned biscuits so we use only what we will eat instead of the whole can.  Or even better, making our own scratch biscuits to freeze.  (I do that too.)

Or making a cooking grease strainer so that grease isn't simply used once then thrown away.  It will be used, then used again, and then used again.  When it starts to pick up odors it can be cleaned with ginger root and used again or used in other ways like maybe in a lamp as lamp oil.

Or knitting and crocheting our own dish cloths then taking apart a damaged dish cloth so a new one can be made from the saved yarn.  The yarn can be used over and over and over again until the yarn itself falls apart.

Or making our own pot holders and placements.

Or using powdered milk and making our own kool-aid to go mix.

Or using lower energy cooking appliances which also has a meal hot and waiting on us at dinner time.

Or making our own sheets and pillow cases from our fabric stash and later to be repurposed into other things like kids clothes.  The outgrown clothes can be saved and remade into other useful items like more clothes or quilts.  The old quilts, when no longer useful, can be repurposed into soft toys and other things.

Or making window quilts to keep the heat in during cold weather.  These can also be repurposed when you want to change the window quilts to go with new decor.  Hmm.... how about making house slippers or appliance covers from old window quilts?

Or saving plastic grocery bags to be used as small garbage bags or repurposed into rugs and dog leashes and house shoes.  If you cut these bags into strips for using as crochet, knitting, and braiding material it's called plarn.  Plastic yarn.

Or keeping a price book so we know when a sale price really is a sale price and not just an advertising gimmick to fool us into believing it's on sale.

Or keeping a household manager binder, with all the information we need to have handy, that saves us money and time because we aren't searching for where we stashed the information.

Or crafting cardboard furniture, or quilting, or knitting sweaters and socks, or other crafts to make our lives happier and more meaningful.

Or saving the butter wrappers to be used when the recipe calls for greasing a pan. 

It all adds up.... one penny at a time.   

I'm so glad I'm once again a part of the growing crowd of people that believe in saving by changing the way we think.  I'm no longer simply the crazy lady down the street that does weird stuff.  The internet has helped me stay in touch with like minded people.  All the thrifty things I do are not new.  These thrifty ideas have been around for generations.  From cave women, to all the generations that followed, there have been thrifty people coming up with new ways to save as well as pass on knowledge of what is already proven itself as useful.  I'm happy to be a part of passing the knowledge on to the next generation. 

Thank you, to all the followers of my 3 blogs, for being a part of my life.  I hope everyone continues to follow as I remember fogotten skills and learn newer ones.  Some things I post about will be familiar to you and hopefully some will be new ideas for you to learn.  In either case, please know that I appreciate each and everyone of you..... my internet friends.

Check the bill

It's always a good idea to check every bill you receive.  With the economy the way it is these days there are often new charges or errors costing you a big chunk of your hard earned money.  This can also be a dishonest way of getting you to pay for stuff you don't want or didn't order. 

You see this sign?  What does it say to you?  Clearly it says I'm not interested in hearing what a salesperson has to say.  I put a no solicitation sign on my door several years ago.  I periodically put a new one on the door because it fades in the sun. 

How this got started is because the cable company, the phone company, and the satellite company were knocking on my door every day, sometimes twice a day, trying to get me to sign up for new services or combined cable, internet, and phone services.  There were also church people, magazine people, and perfume people knocking on the door at least once a week.  Then the people asking for money donations of one type or another started too.  I got very tired of telling people NO, I'M NOT INTERESTED!   The sign stopped all the people knocking on my door.

On rare occasions when some sales person does knock on my door, I point to the sign and say.... I prefer to sue, can I get your name and company for my lawyer?  This usually does the trick because I'm very serious and WILL contact a lawyer if it happens again. 

For the last three or four years I've watched the Insight cable company salesmen walk by my house, spot that I don't have combined or upgrades services, start toward my door, see the sign, and get a look on their face that makes me smile.  The look is.... Darn, I thought I had one.  They turn around and walk away. 

Well, a few days ago a young man knocked on my door.  I do the routine of pointing to the sign and asking for his information.  He tells me that the sign doesn't apply to him because he isn't selling anything.  Huh?  You're not selling, then what do you want?  He tells me that he just is there to inform me that I may be loosing my cable services in a few days because Insight is going all digital.  What?  I thought back when the stations all went digital we were ok if we had cable?  He says but now Insight is going digital too.  That's why some of the channels are disappearing one by one. 

I tell the young man if that happens then I'll just have the cable turned off.  I don't watch it very often.  I can barely afford to pay for the services I do have.  He tells me there's no charge for this service, it only requires a box which is free.  Ok, I can deal with free.  I ask.... Free forever?  Yes, free forever.  During our conversation, I repeat the same question several times.  You're sure it's free forever?  Yes, it's free so you can keep getting the cable services after it goes digital.  I tell him I don't like the large boxes.  It's hugh and won't fit on my small tv.  I have enough junk in my house already, I don't need more to clutter up the house.  He tells me it's a small box and puts his hands up to indicate how small the box is.  Maybe 6 inches or so.

Ok, I agree to take the box.  He sets it up so the installation guy can come hook it up within an hour and leaves.  The installation guy gets here about half an hour later with a cable box that's hugh compared to my tv.  No where near the size I was told.  Here's what it looks like.  The box on top.  Does that look small to you?  Short maybe but not small.

Needless to say, I'm upset I was lied to.  I should have known something was wrong right then.  I tell the installation guy why I'm upset.  He's very nice and tries to explain why it's a larger box.  The smaller boxes are for secondary tvs.  The big box is first, the smaller boxes are for the other tvs in the house.  I only have one tv right now because Ladybug has the other one at her house.  I tell him I don't want a big box.  He decides to go get the salesman to explain what I misunderstood about the boxes.

Within 10 minutes I have both guys at my house telling me why it has to be the larger one.  The salesman tries to appear apologetic and that I simply misunderstood him.  He tells me.... just to show me how sorry he is about the misunderstanding, he will give me showtime movie channel FREE for one year.  I don't watch movies and tell him that.  He says.... then it won't hurt anything to have it FREE for one year.  I can take my time to decide to keep it or not.  I repeat.... I don't watch movies, that's why I haven't signed up for the movie channels already.  I can't afford to pay for what I won't use.  He says.... It's FREE for one year so give it a try. 

The box is hooked up, the guys leave.  Right away the new box starts hiccuping.  By that I mean, every few minutes the tv blinks off for three or four seconds then comes back on.  I really believe it's because there are 6 items plugged into one two plug outlet or the box is defective.  I did mention something about having that many plugs in one outlet to the installation guy and he says it will be fine.

Fast forward a few days to yesterday.  I'm already upset about the stolen bank card and identity theft leaving me with a zero bank balance.  I'm coming down with a cold and feel miserable.  I open the cable bill to see how many days I have before it has to be paid.  WHAT THE HECK?!?  My cable bill is DOUBLE what is was before!  I'm charged for digital services, I'm charged for a movie channel, I'm charged for the box, and I'm charged for the installation.  Grouchy as I am when coming down with a cold.... it's not a good thing to be on my bad side.

I call the cable company to explain how upset I am and why.  I hate a lier as much as a thief.  To me they are one and the same.  After being on hold for over half an hour, I explain the the lady on the phone what happened with the salesman and the installation guy.  I'm NOT paying for services I DID NOT order.  She transfers me to her supervisor so I can repeat everything again.  Do they not know how upsetting it is for a senior person to have to repeat themselves?  It's hard enough trying NOT to repeat myself all the time already so repeating deliberately is upsetting. 

Well, the supervisor changed the bill to be what it was before.  She removed  all the extra charges.  The box will be FREE for one year.  Yeah, like I'm gonna believe that.  After a year the box will cost two dollars a month.  She tells me they will talk to the salesman and the installer.  Both will get more training so this doesn't happen again.  Yeah, like I'm gonna believe that too. 

Dirty dishes

Thank God for dirty dishes.

My dirty dishes have a tale to tell.  While there are some folks who go hungry, I've eaten very well.  With home, health, and happiness, I shouldn't want or fuss.  For there's a stack of dirty dishes as evidence, that life's been good to me.

Old phone books

I can't remember if I ever posted how I use old phone books.  I'm pretty sure I did but I don't want to search the archives for it.  Anyway, it's good to go over some frugal ideas again for those who are new to reading my blogs. 

My neighbors save their old phone books for me.  I also get the new phone books from the porches of the empty houses on our block as soon as they are dropped there.  Ours are always covered in plastic but I like to get them before any dust or dirt can settle on the bags.

What do I use them for?  Lots of things.  If you've read my cardboard craft blog you know I use the pages to coat the furniture.  My grand daughter uses them for messies like playing with wall paper paste or home made finger paints or coloring pages. 

I use them to soak up grease from fried foods.  When I was a kid my grandmother used old Sears Roebuck catalogs to soak up grease.  We didn't have phone books in the days of a hand crank phone.  She saved the grease soaked pages to light a fire in the cook stove or the pot belly heat stove. 

   I use the pages for cleaning up spilled stuff from the floor or counters.  I clean mirrors and windows with them.  I polish things with them.  Hmm.... I use phone book pages like free paper towels.  Just about anything you use a paper towel for you can substitute phone book pages.   Phone book pages are actually quite clean except for the ink rubbing off sometimes.

I have another use for the phone book pages.  I write out my grocery list on them or use the pages like a note pad for jotting down things in a to do list.  Same thing my grandmother did with the Sears catalog.  Sometimes she wrote letters to far away family on the Sears pages.  She made her envelopes out of butcher paper.  Her grocery lists did not get thrown away after our trip to town.  My grandmother took the page to the outhouse to be used once more before getting thrown away.  We had a couple of extra Sears catalogs in the outhouse too. 

You might ask why use old phone books when note pads and paper towels are easily bought.  Well my thought is that Free is better than Cheap.  Even buying paper towels from a dollar store cheap can't beat the price of free.  Anything I absolutely don't think a phone book page should touch, I use a cloth towel.  Like wiping off Ladybug's hands and face.  I can't have ink streaks on a little face.  I use cloth. 

The way I figure it, each single phone book saves me about $60 to $80 because I don't buy paper towels to throw away.  Geeze, that's like wiping up a spill with paper money and throwing it away.  Have you noticed the cost of paper towels has gone up while the size of the rolls are getting smaller called down sizing?   Hmm... that's another subject. 

Every phone book I use also saves me a few dollars a year because I don't buy note pads.  Those $1 note pad purchases add up over time ya know?   I do keep a roll of paper towels here for guests or customers if needed.  I think I bought the one roll I have about 2 years ago. 

I'm sure I'm forgetting a use or two but I think you get the idea.

July snow cream

You've heard of making snow cream right?  Well yesterday I made some snow cream with July snow.  I know it's still June but it feels like July already.

Snow cream is basically just snow, milk, sugar, and vanilla.  Hmm.... you can't have snow cream without snow can you?  How you going to have snow cream in late June, the temperature is in the high 90s, and it's not snowing?

With a snow making machine of course.  Hee, hee, hee.  You thought these machine were only for flavored snow cone syrups didn't you?

You can even get fancy and add stuff like a can of pineapple or some chocolate syrup to make flavored July snow cream.  I made a big batch to put into the freezer.  It does get quite hard when frozen because it wants to go back to being ice.  Mine is in individual size containers.  I take one out and zap it in the microwave just enough to soften it again and it's snow cream whenever I want it.  A perfect quick substitute to buying boxed ice cream that's mostly air, fat, and sugar.  The cost is only pennies when compared to the cost of what you get from the store.  This machine did have an initial cost but has paid for itself many times over in savings by using it.

Active or passive frugality

When some people think of living frugal they think of hanging laundry, making their own soap, cooking from scratch, scrounging building materials to re-use, canning a year's worth of foods from a garden, repairing their own plumbing, or using plastic grocery bags for crafts, and stuff like that.  For busy folks this sounds like way too much work and far too much time.  Doing stuff like that is called active frugality.  It's not for everyone.

Actually, living frugally is more about what you don't do.  It's about giving up extravagance in favor of acquiring more.  Huh?  Ok, it's more like giving up the daily trip to McDonalds so you can buy a new computer.  It's about giving up a weekly trip to have your nails done so you have the money to go on a vacation.  Passive frugality is about giving up something because there is a greater goal. 

Living frugally should be a combination of both passive and active frugal things.  If you enjoy cooking then cooking from scratch will be easy to do.  But, if you cringe at the thought of picking something from the trash then why would you even consider dumpster diving?  If you love to garden but hate to sew clothes from scratch then stay with the gardening.  Leave the sewing to someone who enjoys it much more. 

Frugal living doesn't have to mean giving up your home to move into an old school bus and wear patched pants.  Frugal living is more about living the life WE want to live without the stress of keeping up with the Jones' live style.  Frugal living is a philosophy of less waste in a throw-stuff-away society. 

I do many types of crafts because I enjoy doing them.  At the same time my crafts are intended to help my budget.  If I create a rug from some scrap fabrics it's because; 1) I need a rug, 2) I don't want to pay for one, and 3) I enjoy making rugs.   True, when my kids were small, I crafted things because I had a major financial difficulty..... no money beyond rent and utilities.  No money meant I either begged for what I needed or made it myself.   I hated begging so I started crafting.  Cratfing gave me bartering power.  For example;  when I needed a refrigerator, I made a quilt and went bartering. 

As you decide on what frugality means to you... think about the stuff you already do and add to it a little at a time.  Add only what you are comfortable doing.  Get rid of the excess stuff that doesn't truly make you happy.  If carrying a high interest rate balance on a credit card causes you great stress; then why keep it?  If you are not worried about money but are concerned with the future of our planet then maybe consider giving up just one throw away item?  Later you could try something else that saves money.   

Frugal living is a life style we choose to live.  Not one that society forces on us.  Even Oprah, with all her wealth, will tell you she saves the little artificial sweetner packets from restaurants.  It's true!  I saw her tell about it on her show a long time ago. 

You see what I'm getting at?  Frugal living is..... living within your means and ignoring those who tell you to spend, spend, spend.

Window quilt update

I was playing a bit on the Internet and decided to do an Internet search on window quilts. I thought maybe I might get some ideas for designs. (Planning ahead again.) I came across this site which has great information and a free down loadable instruction manual. If you want to get really fancy, and go to the expense of the hardware, you can get it all from the Warm Company. It's a batting company. Go to "products" on the bar along the top of the page then to "warm window". There you will find some good videos to watch about making and installing window quilts.

I won't be going to the expense of all the extra hardware but I did get some good ideas for my cheaper (frugal) version.

Making window quilts

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Why make window quilts? Well, they stop the flow of warmed air over the window where it's cooled. Windows have a constant loop of warmed air being cooled. That's not a good thing to happen when the price of heating our homes is a big expense. If you're trying to cut down expenses, window quilts help. Window quilts can be made very pretty and fancy but it's not necessary.

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Actually they don't even have to be quilts, using blankets or fleece will work.... just not as well. The idea is similar to layering clothing to keep warm. The more layers, the more pockets of air that's trapped, the better the insulation against cold.

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I made these window quilts very quickly because I only have a few days to get them done and installed before my daughter and grand daughter move into my house. It's better for me to do this work while there's no furniture in the rooms. I'll work on prettier and better made ones later.

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The first thing I did was quilt some fabric. If you don't have access to a quilting machine then go to a thrift store and buy some blankets. You will be cutting them up so don't go to a lot of expense for these. Just get something that will look pretty with your decor.

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This window is 37 X 68. So that's the size I cut the quilt. There is no binding and no hem. Just a plain zig-zag around the edges. Like I said... I'm in a hurry to get these installed. We are also expecting colder weather in a few days.






Next I measured up from the bottom 24 inches and drew a straight line with a wash out marker. Why 24"? Well, that's about 1/3 the height of the window. You'll understand this measurement when you see how the quilt operates on the window.




From some of the scraps I cut myself a strip of fabric 2" by the width of the window quilt.

I pinned it along the drawn line and sewed both sides with a simple straight line close to the edges. This is going to be a rod pocket to help the quilt fold up when it's opened. That's why it's placed a short distance from the bottom of the quilt.

Next I got out some of these. As you can see, I bought them on sale. I've been gathering supplies for my window quilts for a few months. I rarely buy non-edible things that are not on sale. That's why it takes me so long to get things done. Gotta wait for the sales.

Ok, I'm missing one part for my window quilt. I needed a yard stick but I didn't have any. I had planned to go back to the fair where yardsticks are given away free. I didn't get back to the fair because of my brother being in the hospital. Oh well.... I go on a hunt through the house to see what I have that I can use. I found these. Yup, these will work.

I sew on the rod pocket and 5 rings. I spaced the rings out so they are eyeball even. No measuring. I needed one ring to be close to the edge on each side. Then I put the paint sticks into the pocket. Three is a little long but a craft knife score on one stick and I could snap it off at the right length.

So now it looks like this.

What next? Oh yes, I need some of this. Again, bought on sale a few weeks ago. I have a lot of this because I use it when making t-shirt rugs. This will become the draw strings to make the window quilts go up and down.

In order to show you how the strings are attached I left my window quilt laying on the table. I can't take pictures and do the work at the same time. This is for demonstration only. Normally, I wouldn't attach or cut any strings until I've actually put the quilt on the window. This is merely to show you the operation. I'll explain a better way of doing the strings in a minute.

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Starting with one of the outside rings, tie the string to it. Lay the string out the length of the quilt.... going toward the top.

When you get to the top go across the top....

to the corner. Then go down the other side.....

until you get to the bottom. Leave a foot or more of extra string and cut it off.

Do the same thing with all the other rings.

Eventually you will have all your strings going to the top and down the same side, like this. But, like I said, there's an easier way than this.

Now I need some of these. This is what the strings will go through on the windows. Oops, its not on sale but do I keep a supply of these in my tool box. I find all kinds of uses for them.

Now it's time to install the quilt on the window. Oops! I gotta clean the window and put plastic on it first. Eeewww! More icky stuff. Can you tell I'm way behind on spring cleaning?

Ok, icky stuff cleaned up and plastic installed on the window. Next the metal eye hooks are put at the top of the window frame. Eyeball evenly spaced. Here's a couple of pictures of how the strings will look along the top. See how the strings go up to an eye hook and over to one side? Each string goes through it's own eye hook......

and over to the one on the end. All strings go down through the same last eye hook.

On the side they look like this.

A much better way of doing the strings is to attach the window quilt first, then lay the string ball on the floor, run the string up through the outside eye hook and over to the eye hook above it's cabone ring. Then down to the sewn cabone ring and tie it. Then on the side cut the string a length longer than the window.

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How did I attach the quilt to the window? Well, personally, I used tiny 1/2 inch craft nails. I used these only because that's what I had available. I really wanted to attach the quilt to a yardstick, either glued, nailed, or another rod pocket. These are temporary and I don't care if I put tiny nail holes in my window frame. (No window frame inspector is going to get me for it.)

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Whatever method you use to attach your quilt, just be sure to leave enough room for running the strings before making it tight against the window frame. It must end up tight against the frame to prevent air flow or it won't work right.

Now for the operation of the window quilt. I needed some of these. Yup! Bought on discount sale too. Yes, I do plan months ahead of the work and start searching for just the right stuff. Sometimes I get lucky and it doesn't take months to find everything.

This is how the window quilt will operate. Just like any pull up shade. This is how it looks when open.

In order for my window quilts to be kid safe I make a series of knots in the strings. Like this. These are about 3 inches apart though it doesn't look like it in the picture. That's the reason for all the extra length of string. Knotting shortens the length.

When the quilt is in the closed position I find a height that's higher than Ladybug's reach. That's where I put the cord holder. While still in the closed position I cut the knotted strings to just about half way down the length of the window or near where the cord holder is located. I can still reach it easily. When opening the window quilt, it reaches to the cord holder.

Well there you have it. A very quick lesson on making and installing window quilts. I only have 8 more windows and an archway to get quilts installed on before the move in day. Plus all the plastic too. I have to come up with something quick since I only have 10 days to get them all done. I think I need to go thrift store shopping to find some blankets.

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Hmm.... where does one find yard sticks these days? I haven't seen them in any stores for a long time. Maybe because I haven't been looking for them.

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Oh gosh! I just realized I need to get the closet doors back in place too. The electrician is coming to install new overhead lights and a new stove hood tomorrow. I have customer quilts still to finish before Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving? Have I got everything? Ok, bad scheduling on my part. Somehow it will all get done.... I have faith.