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.

A confession

Yesterday I believe I failed to really express the point of what I was explaining. My point was that we throw away far too much food in America simply because of a date stamp.  At no time in our history have we ever bought so much only to throw it in the trash. The amount of food thrown away in America could possibly feed a whole other country.   Hmm.... quite possibly more than one.

Several months ago I was reading a cookbook I got from the library.  It was published right after WWll when food was really scarce and being rationed all over the world.  I can't remember the name of the book but a quote from it went like this..... "if every household in America saved the grain of just one slice of bread a day for a week, we could send enough grain to foreign countries to produce 1,000,000 loaves of  bread for starving people" which really got me thinking about how we live today.  With even more families in America today, than there were back then, the amount of grain saved would be much higher than that. 

We live by a stamp on a package rather than our own knowledge about food safety.  Yes, the date stamp is useful, but at the same time it shouldn't be our only way of knowing when food is not safe to eat.  We have lost our ability to know how long food can last, what to do with it before it goes bad, and how to buy only enough for our need. 

We (the older generations) have failed to remember how we used food in different ways until the last bit was eaten.  We have also failed to teach this knowledge to our younger generations.  When I talk about frugal meals on this blog I don't mean skimpy, full of filler meals.  I mean using and serving hearty food until it's all eaten.  Here's just one example to give you an idea of what I mean. 

The life of a loaf of bread. 

Day 1 it's served fresh with a meal. 

Day 2 it's sliced for sandwiches. 

Day 3 it's soaked in eggs and fried. 

Day 4 it's made into a soup or a pudding. 

Day 5 it's made into croutons 

Day 6 it's ground up into crumbs to coat a meat or used as a casserole topping. 

Day 7 it's last remaining crumbs are added to a new loaf of bread 

By the end of day six there should be nothing left of that loaf of bread except a few crumbs.  There are many variations for the life of a loaf of bread but you should see my meaning.  Today, instead of using bread until every crumb is gone, there are people who throw half a loaf away and buy another loaf.  Not everyone; though there are plenty who do. 

Throwing food away, like we do today, is not sustainable.  The fields are being overworked to produce ever more throw away foods.  Chemicals are put on the fields to help grow crops and the chemicals are poisoning us.  Even as I do my house clean out I'm painfully aware of the amount of food I'm giving away to charity.  I should never have bought so much food in the first place unless my intention was to donate.  The cost of food is getting higher and higher which means more of our earnings are going toward the purchase of food and less for other things. 

 Other countries are depending on our food more and more.  There are countries of starving people.  I keep wondering..... will there be a war over food someday in the future?  Not tomorrow or the next week or next year but maybe eventually?   

Up until about the time of the economic down turn of 2008 my food budget was an average of $10 a week and I ate really well.  Somewhere along my way I started spending a lot more than that and blamed it on the cost of food getting higher instead of my own failures.  What I failed to remember was how I managed to spend only ten a week and eat everyday.

True, I did buy a lot of discounted foods.  I could find much more of it back then.  These days I believe more people are taking a second look at discounted foods because of the economy.  This makes the discounted foods more scarce.  I believe if I really try, I can get back to a smaller food budget.  I don't think I can get back to $10 a week but I can surely do much better than I've been doing the last couple of years.

What I can do is make better use of the food I do purchase until there is nothing left of it.  It won't be easy for me because I hate cooking for just one.  I'm going to go back through my old cookbooks to help my senior memory remember the way we did our cooking back when I was young.   I don't want to turn this blog into a food blog either.  It's supposed to be all kinds of ways I save money.  At the same time I believe the quickest way to start saving money is in the kitchen. 

Older cookbooks have recipes for using foods we don't think of today. Someone asked about how short dated milk is used other than drinking.  Well, I can use it for gravy or in sauces.  Next I can make cottage cheese which is super simple to do.  I can make some other kinds of cheese as well, like mozzarella, and even hard cheese if I have the right supplies.  My Grandma Mama used milk to make house paint but I don't think I will go that far myself.  

Here, let me show you an example of one of my old cookbooks.  It's from 1963. 

Have a look at an example of what's inside.  Frugal cooking was the theme of the book.

Look at the bottom chapter on this page.   The recipes were "easy on the bank" which is what we call "the budget" today.

Here's another page in the book.  Notice that leftovers were used until the last bite was eaten.

The older generation (like me) has failed to teach our children the value of being thrifty, frugal, conservative, sustainable, green living, or whatever it's called these days.   Too many years we've listened to the ads telling us to buy, buy, buy, spend, spend, spend.  We've been told "there's plenty more where that came from so throw it away and you can buy more". 

I don't want to live that way anymore!  I don't believe "there's plenty more" is going to be there for us in the future.  I want to go back to a simpler life.  I want a life where the stuff I own has real meaning to me instead of the stuff owning me. 

When my generation was young we ate foods that young people of today hear about and say.... eeewww!  you really ate that?  Foods like beef tongue sandwiches, rabbit stew, fried squirrel for breakfast instead of bacon or sausage and many other foods like that.   When I was young we knew how to make our own lunch meats and hot dogs.  We made a lot of things that are considered convenience foods today. 

Ok, I could go on and on about the past but my work is not getting done with me sitting here type-talking.  I hope I've explained a little better what I was talking about yesterday.

Coupons

I watched a show last night on the learning channel (TLC) that brought back memories and at the same time left me really puzzled by the purchases.  It was a show called Extreme Couponing.  The coupon people on this show bought thousands of dollars worth of STUFF for very little money because of their coupons.  The main thing about using coupons in the show was that the store doubled the value of the coupons.  A 50 cent coupon would become a dollar.  A dollar coupon would become two dollars.  The people spent hours and hours gathering coupons, matching the coupons up to sale items, going through the store to fill up several carts, and then going through the register line.

Let me tell ya, I was one of those who could buy several hundred dollars worth of STUFF for mere pennies if I chose to do it.  I first started using coupons in the 60s when there were coupons and refunds (rebates) almost everywhere you looked and only a few people used them.  Back then the stores gave away stamps that we put into books and traded just like money for things like sheets, dishes, appliances, furniture, and just about anything.  The stamp stores had catalogs of stuff very similar to regular catalogs today. 

Back in those days there were coupons for meat, fresh fruits & veggies, milk & bread, and just about anything needed to eat healthy.  We didn't see convenience foods in the stores back then like we see them today either.  I rarely paid more than 10 cents on the dollar for anything I needed.  Often, after coming home with my goods I could mail off packaging parts and get refund checks sent to me for the items I paid only a few pennies for in the first place.  Sometimes I earned thirty or fourty dollars a week by going through other peoples trash for packages offering refunds.  Many times one package had several refunds that could be had by sending different parts.  A top for one refund, a bottom for another, a weight seal for another, and sometimes just for sending a receipt.

Heck, even the stuff I bought for pennies had free stuff inside.  There were bath towels, hand towels, and face cloths in laundry powder boxes.  Glasses and dishes came inside oatmeal and cereal boxes.   Jelly came in drinking glasses.  Free stuff was given away at gas stations too.  Fill up your tank and you got free silverware or other stuff plus they gave you stamps to put into your stamp books in the same transaction.  Gas was from 15 to 30 cents a gallon back then as well.  Oh to have those days again!  If you got the oil changed in your car you got a coin inside every can of oil.  The coins could be traded for stuff just like stamps.  

Did you know Depression Glass dishes were originally free give away items at gas stations?  They were.  I think the whole "give something free for a purchase" phase came from the original free dishes given away during the great depression.  Now those dishes are worth hundreds of dollars to a collector.  I could go on and on about the free stuff and refunds back then but I don't want to bore you any longer with my trip down memory lane.

Ok, back to the people featured on the show.  I don't know what part of the country those folks live in but what they did certainly can't be done here in Kentucky anymore.  My suspicion is that after the manufacturers see the show; those people won't be able to do their extreme shopping anymore either.  The people on the show really went way beyond what the coupons are intended to do.  One man bought 1,000 boxes of cereal which he got for a few pennies.  A Thousand boxes!  No way can one person eat that much cereal in a lifetime.  He bought 300 toothbrushes.  So how many times would he have to brush his teeth to use up all those toothbrushes?  He bought enough food stuff in one single shopping trip that it would last him 150 years or more if he lived that long.  He said he shops like that all the time.  His garage looked like walking into a mega store.

One woman said she was leaving her stockpile of groceries in her will.  Her kids would inherit it.  She bought 60 bottles of soda and almost 2 thousand dollars worth of other stuff for less than 10 dollars on her one shopping trip.  Now come on!  How many large bottles of soda can one family drink in 3 months?  That's how long it would be before the soda is on sale and coupons would come out again.  Ok, some people drink soda all day every day.  But, how long will 500 boxes of pasta and 300 jars of pasta sauce last for a family of 4?  I don't know about you but that would be way too many pasta meals for me before it gets too old to use. 

It's people, like the extreme couponers on the show, that mess the system up for the rest of us.  Back in the 80s there was a lady named Michelle Easter that went on tv and told of her extreme couponing too.  She started a magazine called Refunding Makes Cents that was filled with the latest refunds out all over the country.  People who subscribed to her magazine could trade refund forms with other people and double, triple, or quadruple the rebates they got from one package.  A package they got for free in the first place.  She messed it up for those of us who only took our fair share.  It was only a year or two later that the refund forms started disappearing because the magazine created so many extreme refunding people.  No manufacturer can continue to operate if every dollar they earn is given out in free items plus refunds too.  They would go bankrupt very quickly.

Not long ago I was challenged to live without my coupons.  I agreed to take the challenge but my neighbor continued to bring coupons to me.  I kept them even though I wasn't using them.  I have managed to live quite well without the coupons.  Well, right before my last shopping trip I decided to have a look at my coupons once more.  There are very few really good useful coupons anymore. 

Out of all those coupons, I came up with only these that were actually usable for my purchases.  The rest were for what I call junk items.  Junk items that most other people don't like either. 

After making out my shopping list and matching coupons to sale items..... I didn't use a single one of the coupons.  I found better bargains on items that didn't have coupons out.   For example the 40 cents off on yeast.  Even if it were doubled to 80 cents the store brand would still be a dollar cheaper than one with a coupon.   Stores here in my area stopped doubling and tripling coupons about two years ago.

If you find coupons that really are on products you use; then for heaven sake use some common sense when using them.  For example let's say you use one roll of toilet tissue per week. (Ok your family might use more but this is only an example, K?)   A year's supply would be 52 rolls or about 13 four roll packages.  If the coupon and sale is out every three months then you only need 3 packages to last until the next sale.  If you bought 4 packages every three months then at the end of the year you would have 16 extra rolls in your stock pile to help with any possible financial crisis.

Here's another example.  Let's say you use about one jar of pasta sauce and one box of spaghetti a month.  How many jars of pasta sauce and boxes of spaghetti would you need for a year?  (12)  The sale and coupon comes out every three months so how many do you need to purchase for a three month's supply? (3) How many extra to buy every three months for building your stockpile of emergency food?  (4) 

Ok, I do know there are people who keep up to 20 years worth of food and water in their stockpile.  That's a lot of money tied up in stockpiled foods that could be lost to a disaster.  I can't help but wonder how many of the people lost all their stockpiled food to flooding out west last year.  How many lost their stockpile of food in the fires that swept across an area a few months ago.  How many stockpiles are buried beneath the mud slides in California right now?  You understand what I'm saying?

So if you are going to use coupons and stockpile stuff..... at least buy and keep no more than you can reasonably use and no more than you can afford to loose due to a disaster.  Keep the money saved so you can replace what you need when you need it.  Use coupons wisely and buy only your fair share.

Ok let me sum this whole post up into four simple words that anyone can understand.

God doesn't like greedy!

In my opinion God does want us to have food stored away; but, only enough to last a little beyond a year's supply.  That's why he created the seasons.  In the spring food is planted and farm animals have babies.  During the summer everything grows and matures.  In the fall it's all harvested and preserved to last until the next fall season.  During the winter we start eating our stored up foods.  Spring arrives and it starts all over again. 

Even God's creatures know to store only about a year's worth of foods.  What would it look like if squirrels kept a 20 year supply of nuts in their tree house?   What would a ant hill look like if there were 20 years worth of  dead bugs saved in it?  How fat would a bear be if it stored up 20 years worth of fat for it's hibernation? 

I'm not putting down anybody's religion.  I'm just stating my own thoughts about what should be stored for the future.  If your religon teaches you to keep more that's ok.  We can agree to disagree.

Ok, blogger is acting up.  It must be telling me to stop type-talking and post already!

Powdered milk

There are basically two types of powdered milk.  There's a non-instant variety commonly used for long term storage and there's the instant variety you find in the grocery stores.  I get powdered milk from the senior commodity program and I buy powdered milk too.  Both of the types I use are instant variety.  The brands I buy at the store are for drinking and the commodity milk I use for cooking.  Why?

Well, there are two different tastes to instant powdered milk.  It's how the milk is made that makes it drinkable for me or not.  One way producers make powdered milk is by cooking it.  Milk is dripped onto a very hot barrel device which evaporates the moisture from the milk.  In effect it's cooked to remove the moisture.  It works like an ice cream maker in that it scrapes the milk off in thin sheets.  Cooking anything changes its flavor.  The other way powdered milk is made is by spraying in a vacuum chamber evaporating the milk instantly.  It has a more natural taste because nothing changes except the moisture is removed. 

If you have trouble drinking powdered milk it may be because you don't like the cooked taste of the milk.  I suggest you keep trying until you find a variety of powdered milk that suits your taste buds.  For me the commodity milk has too much of a cooked taste so I use it only in my cooking. 

I do drink powdered milk because paying from 4 to 6 dollars a gallon at the neighborhood store is a bit much for my budget.  I had to train myself to drink powdered milk.  I searched until I found one made without the cooking process.  The box does not tell you what process is used.  I added vanilla to the milk which masked the taste until I felt comfortable drinking just plain milk.  Mixing powdered milk and regular milk doesn't work if you are trying to fool someone.  Again, it's the cooked taste that sneaks in there.  First find a brand that is not cooked then try mixing them together or add some vanilla. 

Even if you just can't bring yourself to drink powdered milk, at least give it a try in your cooking. 

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. 

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.

Making sheets

Making sheets is not difficult.  All it is, is simply fabric yardage sewn together sort of like making a backing for a quilt.  Then the edges are hemmed.  I'm writing a description of how I plan to do mine for those who don't want to wait until I have the time to make mine and take photos.  It may be several days before I get the chance to finish my sheets. 



Fabric pieces cut to make bed sheets and window quilts.

Here's how I figured the size for my sheets.

I have a double size bed.  The mattress measured 54W X 74L on top.  The mattress is 10 inches tall.  I wanted a tuck under of at least 7 inches.  So let's see...... 54 plus 20 (two sides) plus 14 (two sides) comes up to 88 inches for the width.   Quilting fabric I have is 44 inches wide.  This means that two widths of fabric will be plenty for the width of my sheets.  It will be a little shy of 88" wide when finished but I can live with that.  If the fabric had been narrower than 44, I could have used a third width and cut to size. 

Now for the length.  My mattress is 74" long, plus 20" for the height of the mattress (head and foot), plus tucking in of 7" (head and foot) so this figures up to 108" for the length.  That's 3 yards.  Figuring that I need two fabric widths for the side to side measurement, I need 6 yards of fabric for one flat sheet.

Sew the two widths together down the middle.  Sew a simple hem around the outside edge and it's a sheet.  Because the sheet is long enough and wide enough to tuck under the mattress, it's also plenty large enough to be used as a top sheet.  Oh?  You want a pretty border along the top edge of your top sheet so it will match your pillow cases? 

Ok, I can simply cut the length a little less than 3 yards then cut a piece of a different fabric to sew on the end.  Just sew it on with the back side of the border fabric showing on the front side of the sheet.  This is so that when you turn the sheet down, the border faces up like the sheet does.   If you prefer to have a double sided top border, cut it wide enough to fold in half and hem along the sewn edge.  I hope that's clear.  It will make more sense if you visualize it in your mind before sewing.

Hmm... in making one sheet set and pillow cases, I can use up about 14 yards of fabric in about an hour.  If I make two sets that's 28 yards, etc.  Think about it, if you had 3 double beds being used everyday and you make 2 sets of sheets and pillow cases for each bed....   You could be using up 84 yards of fabric in a short time.  You will use even more if you have larger beds in your home.  Now that's a lot of quick stash busting don't ya think?

Storing fabric stash as sheet sets is a whole lot different than trying to store it in a quilting room.  The fabric can still be used for making quilts by simply cutting up the sheet as you would any other fabric.  OR, use the sheets as quilt backing.  It will be washed several times making it very soft in a quilt. 

I'll get my sheet sets made as soon as I can and take some photos. 

Where did the weekend go?

I had planned to get a lot done on my fair entry quilt over the weekend.  Ladybug spent Friday night and most of Saturday with me so I couldn't quilt.  Sunday, I think I'm going to get some quilting finished when...... Surprise!  My daughter hit the jackpot on peppers from the discount bin while doing her grocery shopping.  It's rare these days for us to be in the store when discount produce is put out.  Most is gone within a few minutes.

Instead of 50 cents each (on sale this week), she bought 44 peppers for 20 cents each from the discount bin.  Well they are slightly wilted in spots but are otherwise perfectly good peppers.   We use a lot of peppers in our cooking and these should be enough to last both of us for six months or longer.    So instead of quilting I found myself cutting up and flash freezing peppers before they wilted even more.

Along with preparing, freezing, drying foods, there are the messies to be cleaned up afterward.   Once again, I'm going to try finishing my fair entry quilt today.  I'm anxious to finish it because I have customer quilts waiting too. 

A me-me quilt finished

Ok, I finished the quilting on this one.  It's a me-me quilt because I kept hearing it say.... Me! Me! Quilt me next!  I should have ignored it and did something else.

I'm not happy with the quilting.  I like the design.  Not my thread choices.  The dark side of the block has stitch in the ditch so it doesn't show.  It's the light side that bothers me.

Scrappy log cabin window quilt

The more I stitched on it, the less I liked the threads.  It was too late to do anything about it.  I was not about to pick the whole thing out and re-do all the stitch in the ditch quilting.  I keep forgetting to not use dark threads on light fabric because that's what bothers me. 

Four colors of thread make the stitching design

In my mind dark thread on light fabric will look good but when finished my eyes don't like it.  That contradiction doesn't make sense to me even though that's what happens.

Dark thread on light fabric shows all stitching flaws

Dark thread on light colors of fabric show every teeny, tiny stitching flaw.  That's what really bothers me.  Seeing all the imperfections of my stitching.   This definitely will not win a ribbon in the fair.  It will make a really good window quilt though.  A constant reminder for me to stay away from dark threads on light fabrics.  At this point all I can say is.... done is good. 

The next quilt is on the machine and waiting on me.  It's going to be difficult to quilt because it has minky fabric for the backing.  If a machine quilter is not very careful, minky can become distorted while quilting it.  I do load it with the sides with the least stretch attached to the leaders.  Still, it may have too much stretch for the cotton fabric that is to be the front of the quilt.  Luckily, the owner has chosen to have a very simple panto quilting done on it.  It should make the quilting a little easier to do and prevent distortion.

Just a little thing

Way back when I was quilting 80+ hours a week, it was often the little things I couldn't get done.  Anything that might take only a few seconds to do, just didn't find their way into my schedule.  That's all changed now.  I actually have time for little things again now that my life is not consumed with quilting. 

I bought some of these from the discount table a few weeks back.  I love these little hooks but I especially like the glue part.  It won't damage anything if it's removed.  Just a little pull and you can't tell it was ever there. 

Yesterday, while cleaning the kitchen, the fact that I don't have a place for my hand towel really bugged me.  It's one of those little things that never got done.  

Well yesterday was the day I said "Today I'm going to make a place to hang a hand towel!"  Hmm... I could sew some fabric strips to the corner of all my hand towels and use a hook to hang them.  I wasn't in the mood to do any sewing.  I wanted to clean the kitchen.  So I got a clothes pin,

and made a towel holder that can be changed later if I want. 

It was a quick temporary fix.... but oh so satisfying to realize I took the time to do it.  It's far too easy for a professional quilter to tell them self "I'll do it later.... after I finish this quilt." but later doesn't seem to get here.  There is always the next quilt, and the next quilt, and the next quilt.  Before you know it there is a LOT of little things that never got done. 

If you are just starting out with your machine quilting career, take the time and learn to say no.  You'll be glad you did a few years down the road. 

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.

Choosing to be poor

You might wonder why I decided to give up my income from quilting at a time when the economy has taken a nose dive off a cliff.

So let me tell you a story to explain my feelings on the matter.

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One day a very wealthy man decided to take his son on a trip to the country so he could show the son how poor people lived.

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The two spent a couple of days living with a family on their farm. It was what many people considered very poor people.

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On the return trip home the father asked his son; "How did you like the trip?"

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"It was great Dad."

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"Did you see how the poor people can be?" the father asked.

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"Oh yeah."

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" So what did you learn from the trip?" the father asked.

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The son answered....

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I saw that we have one dog and they have four.

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We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden and they have a creek that has no end.

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We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have the stars at night.

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Our patio reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon.

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We have a small piece of land to live on and they have fields that go beyond our sight.

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We have servants to serve us but they serve others.

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We have big screen tvs and video games for entertainment but they have story telling and craft making.

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We buy our food but they grow theirs.

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We have walls around our property to protect us but they have friends to protect them.

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The boy's father was speechless. Then the boy added "Thanks Dad for showing my how really poor we are."

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This story sort of sums up how I feel. For a long time I had been complaining to my daughter that I was much happier in the days when we struggled just to have food on the table, keep a roof over our heads, and clothes on our backs. I got great satisfaction from creating things out of something others simply threw away. A bag full of clothes pulled from a dumpster was a wealth of ideas for me. What couldn't be remade (re purposed) into our clothing was made into quilts or rugs to be traded for things I could neither make nor purchase. I had a glad heart while doing it.

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Sure, there were frustrating times when the utilities got turned off for months at a time but it didn't stop us from eating or being entertained. If I couldn't use the sewing machine I stitched by hand. We lived through those times much like the pioneers did. Oil lamps gave us light and food was cooked on a grill. We pretended it was a campfire.

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I was never what you could call financially well off during my quilting career but giving up that income is a choice I gladly made. Not long ago I heard a news story about the economy creating the newly food stamp poor. Food stamp poor? Meaning that more people than ever before are being forced to resort to food stamps to survive. Another news story told of a couple experimenting to see if they could live on $1 a day for food just like the food stamp poor. The couple nearly starved because they didn't have a clue how to live on food stamps. Oh how I could teach them a thing or two! Food stamps also buy seeds. Seeds grow and make food to eat.

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I want those visiting my blog to understand.... what I write here is intended to show that survival IS possible even for the newly food stamp poor as well as those who CHOOSE to be poor. The best way to write a good blog is from experience. To write it well I want to live the way I tell others is possible.

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I'm thinking of doing an experiment of my own. Right now I'm only thinking. I'll let you know about it as soon as I work out some details and finish up the last of the quilts for this year.

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Enough for now.

Electronic envelope budgeting?

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You may know (or have heard) about using envelopes to budget? Each envelope represents a different bill or expense. You put into each one what you can afford to spend on each expense. When the money is gone you do without until next payday when the envelope is filled again. I happened to be thinking about the envelope system while standing in line at the Kroger store Friday. I've thought of a new version of the envelope system. How about using refillable gift cards instead of envelopes?

You can find these refillable cards just about everywhere now days. Even utility companies offer gift cards. I haven't tried it yet but I was told some gift cards can be refilled online using your bank card. The electronic equivalent of putting money into an envelope. A person could have one for gas, one for a department store, one for the fabric store, one or two for grocery stores.... and so forth. Then carry only the cards when shopping. Not the bank card or checkbook. To limit one's self to only purchasing what you can afford to spend.

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I sort of like this idea but I can also see problems. I should be very careful about putting money onto gift cards. Don't put money on a card that I may not use. I can't get the money off the card without spending it. For example: a shoe store card. Unless I am certain I will buy shoes at that particularly store, I may wind up loosing the money if I decide not to buy shoes at that store. Some gift cards expire in a short period of time. I would need to use the card before loosing the money.

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There are certain stores I regularly shop every other week. Kroger is only one of them. Lately I've found myself over spending my budget. It's partly because the prices have gotten higher on things I routinely buy and partly because I can't seem to resist the discount tables. A bigger part is because I've gone back to shopping every other week instead of every 4 to 6 months. I'm still buying as if I won't go to the store again for a long time.... even though I know I will.

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The more often a person goes into a store; the more money one spends (more than normal) because of the extra items you suddenly remember to buy. If you routinely buy one or two items you forgot to put on your list then it will happen each time you are in the store. Fewer trips means fewer "Oh, I need this too purchases."

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I may or may not give the gift card system a try. I have to think on it for awhile. It would be a great way to be sure I don't spend grocery money on discount bargains at a department store or thrift store or yard sale. Know what I mean? It's too easy to use cash (or a bank card) for an unintended purchase. If the money is on a grocery card I can't take it out of my wallet to use anywhere else. If there is a limited amount then I won't be spending more than I can afford.

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Some gift cards don't make sense to use in budgeting. Know what I mean? Like a utility company card. Why put the money onto a gift card then turn around and pay the utility bill with it? Just pay the utility bill directly. But for staying within budget at other places it might work?

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I've also heard that some gift cards charge a fee for using them. I'm totally against paying a fee for someone to allow me to spend my own money. If I have to pay a fee to use my own money then I'd rather use cash. No fee to use cash.

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Would anyone care to give me your thoughts about this? Plus or minus for using gift cards as an alternative to envelopes?

Frugal and diabetic?

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I was working away, planning to get a small quilt close to finished today, when I got a last minute phone call to go to a diabetic cooking class. Someone had cancelled and I took their place in a limited class.

I was hoping to learn how to put together a menu plan based on a diabetic diet but using my own frugal recipes. I know how to do a menu plan... just not how to do it for a diabetic diet. Basically what I've done for the last few years is just barely eat enough to say I'm full then stop eating. I can't say I got what I was looking for in the class. It was a good class though.

They had some great food, (at least it smelled good). I didn't eat any because I had already eaten lunch. Also, I usually won't eat other people's cooking because I don't know their sanitary conditions or habits at home. Plus, the class was held at a medical clinic. Lots of sick people in clinics these days. You know.... the h1n1 flu and other illnesses are found in clinics. I'm allergic to the flu shots so I have to be extra, extra cautious around other people during flu season.

I want to learn more about HOW the people who write diabetic recipe books come up with a serving size. There HAS to be a formula for figuring it out because all the books tell the fats, sugars, carbs, and all that stuff at the end of the recipe. I want to know how to figure out my own recipes. Not just use those in a book.

I couldn't explain to the people there what information I needed. Maybe if I put it here some of my readers will have the answer? For example: One of the things served today was a tomato soup. The person who made the soup used a quart of low fat half and half in the soup. I looked at the nutrition label on the cream. (The little box of information all products have.) It said a serving size was 2 tablespoons of the cream then gave the nutrition information based on those two tablespoons. So if a person made the soup.... using a whole quart..... how much would be the serving size of soup? Two tablespoons? Then there are the other ingredients in the soup. I didn't get a chance to read the labels of the other stuff to know what a serving size was.

You see what I'm getting at? If I create a dish based on what's in my pantry, what's on sale at the store, or picked from a garden..... how do I know how much to eat of it? I think the nutrition labels on food are a bunch of hooey. I think I'll stick with my just barely full technique..... even if I always feel hungry.

I did get some books at the class. Maybe the formula will be in there someplace? When I find some time I'll sit down and read through them.

The 30 minute meals sounds interesting. Kind of the way I plan meals already. Might be a recipe or two in there I'll use. The fast lane book is the nutrition information for many, many fast food restaurant items. The outlook book describes diabetes and the treatments. All interesting information but none look like they will supply the formula I'm looking for. Anyone know the answer? (formula)

Free green onions

Sometimes people just don't understand my tightwad ways. I baffle them. I find ways to save micro amounts of money that have other people shaking their heads. They wonder if I'm crazy or an extreme case of too tight with the funds. They question me.... why bother to do something when it's so cheap in the first place?

For example; I saw this trick on the food network a few weeks ago and I've been wanting to try it out. Green onions are usually cheap at the store. They are also easy to grow if you have a garden. But did you know that if you cut off the tops of store bought green onions and put the root part in water they will continue to grow and you can get a second batch of green onion tops from them?



I cut the tops of these to right at the top of this jar. In 2 days they have grown this much.

These two bunches of green onions cost me $1. By growing a second batch I will save myself $1. I don't know if I can get a third batch or not but I'm going to try it. In today's times the saving of one dollar is very important. My SIL asked me; What if you aren't ready to use the second batch of tops? Well duh, freeze them or dry them to use later of course.

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She baffles me sometimes as well. She's a frugal person too; but, has no desire what so ever to preserve foods beyond the next grocery shopping day. She lets the grocery be her food pantry and saves money in other ways. Why doesn't she want to preserve foods? Because she doesn't like to cook. She cooks only because it's necessary and will avoid it whenever possible. A person must like cooking in order to think about canning, freezing, or drying foods for use later.

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While her lack of desire to preserve foods may seem strange to me; my excitement about regrowing green onions is just as strange to her. We all learn to save money in our own special ways. What might seem odd to you will be exciting for someone else.

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Thank you to the new people who have started reading my blog. I hope you enjoy the things you find here. To read what I do everyday please click on the link on the side bar to see my other blog too. (called My almost daily journal)