A day of bargain foraging

Have you ever heard of people foraging for wild foods to save money? Well Thursday was a day for foraging out bargains at thrift stores. I was supposed to be picking up garden supplies. Both garden centers we went to were closed.



Anyway, I did find a couple of good bargains. We went to 6 different thrift stores. My brother is looking for inside doors for his house. I wasn't looking for anything in particular. I bought some books for $1 each. These are for my daughter.







At one store I found 5 t-shirts I can use for making some sport bras..... or whatever. I got sticker shock when I was told these were $3.50 each. I bought them anyway because they were cheaper than buying new fabric. These shirts look like they've never been worn or washed. I will wash them before using. The shirts are XL size which is about one yard of usable fabric. New fabric is about 6.99 a yard at Hancock.

I was really shocked and disappointed to see the extremely high prices in the thrift stores. I know they are trying to make a profit for the charity but this stuff is given to them free. Don't they know there would be more sales if the stuff were priced lower? While in one store I spotted a small stock pot I thought I would buy. It was priced at $38. What?! That's like paying for a new one. I put it back. While standing nearby I watched as 6 different people picked up the pot, looked at the price, shook their heads, and put it back.

We did stop at two Hancock stores while out. I bought elastic and a small piece of lace at the first one.

Then bought more elastic at the second one. This may seem like a lot of elastic but I have a lot of projects planned that need elastic. Little girl undies and Na Na sport bras need elastic. PJs need elastic. Little girl pant outfits need elastic. There are lots of places where it's needed. Strange but I didn't see craft stuff in any of the thrift stores. No yarns or fabrics or anything like that. Maybe I wasn't looking in the right areas.

Sometimes I have a hard time figuring out which blog to put a post like this. I decided to put this one here because it has more relevance to living frugal than it does a daily routine even though it could have been either. One of the things a frugal person does is "think ahead to the future" and plan for it. Elastic was a future need because I know I will be using it in lots of places. With my finances being much less these days and prices of things getting higher every day, it felt right to buy several yards now.

There are some (my SIL included) who only buy what is needed for the current project. That's simply a different way of living frugal. Both ways will save money if worked right. She has the advantage of their car so she can go when she wants. I don't own a car so I must plan for that. Hmm... that's called having a stash isn't it? I now have a stash of elastic. When I'm ready to start a little girl sewing project I already have what I need.

It starts with a plan

Almost 40 years ago I had a plan. My plan started (in the thinking stage) about 10 years before I bought my house. I bought this house for two reasons. One, it was all I could afford at the time. Two, it had the right features for a fairly self-sufficient life.

I wanted to prove to everyone that I could live "almost" self sufficient right in the middle of downtown Louisville. I would tell others about my plan and all they would do is smile and shake their heads. No one (that I knew) believed it possible. But..... I knew it was possible and I planned to prove it!

The basis of my self sufficient in the city life would start with a garden. Saving money on food is the easiest place to start a plan like this. The money saved on food would be invested in other things to make life more self sufficient. Now days the way I wanted to live is called "living green". Back then it was called "frugal" or "penny pinching" or "crazy".


Over the years my plan sort of fell to the wayside as my quilting career took over my life. The more demand for my quilting service, the less time I had for working on my plan. Now that I'm semi-retired from quilting I asked my brother to help me get started with my plan once again. I want to see at least a part of my plan working before I get too old. He's not going to do much other than talk things out with me or take me to purchase things for the plan. He's the one with a car.





This is a book I bought way back when I bought this house. It was supposed to be the start of my plan for self-sufficient living in the city. The guy who wrote this book had a show on PBS each week. It was all about "easy" gardening in a very small space. I was hooked from the very first show.













Not long ago, out of curiosity, I did an internet search to see if this guy was still around. To my amazement he is.... and has a new book out to boot. Well, you guessed it, I bought the new version. I bought the videos too. Here is the Square Foot Gardening site if you want to take a look.

Let me explain, I get no benefit from promoting this book or his system. I simply believe it's the best thing to happen to gardening..... EVER. If you think gardening is too much work or takes up too much space..... then you need to read the book. I bought the whole set of DVDs too. I really didn't need those but I bought them for memory sake. The only one that's really useful for anyone today is the newest DVD. It's the one explaining the system. The others are copies of the old PBS shows. I bought those so I could remember the old days again. Yes, I know, a foolish way to spend money but it's nice sometimes.

So let me explain a little about Mel's way of gardening. It's done in square feet instead of in long rows. You don't need any gardening tools at all except a small pair of kids scissors, and a large spoon or a small trowel. No you don't need shovels and rakes and tools of that sort. You don't dig the ground. You build up instead of digging down.

You use very little water. Watering is done with a cup rather than dragging out a hose.

Weeds are almost non existent. The weeds that do pop up now and then can be simply pulled with two fingers. There's no hoeing or looking at a nightmare batch of weeds in late July or early August. The dirt is so loose that the weeds can't resist you pulling them.

You don't put a lot of time into this system either. A few minutes a week is all it takes to maintain it. Think about it. How hard can it be to tend to one square foot at a time? 5 minutes? Even planting one square foot shouldn't take any more time than that. If you have 8 square feet.... that's only 40 minutes a week.

You plant only what you need.... not a long, long row of things. As Mel says, why would anyone want 30 or 40 heads of lettuce or 100 radishes ripe all at once? Can you eat that many at one time? Even the person who plans to garden, so they can preserve it, doesn't need everything to ripen all at one time. When several bushels of tomatoes and cucumbers and beans and peppers get ripe all at the same time it makes the canning or freezing a "chore" rather than a pleasure. It's better to have things ripen in manageable batches so you don't feel like a kitchen slave. It's better to have enough tomatoes for one batch (a canner full) to ripen together and the next batch a few days later don't you think?

Mel does sell products on his site but he also tells you what to buy for do-it-yourself too. All you really need to buy is the book. If you are a visual person then buy the one new dvd too. Hmm... I forgot to say that Mel explains the square foot gardening for anyone interested in selling produce as a business too. Can't remember the name of that book though.

Over the next few weeks I'm finally going to have the garden I've always wanted. Even if you don't plan to garden now.... come back now and then to see how mine is doing. It may give you some ideas for the future.

On the design wall

This is on my design wall for a few days. Of course they are not in the final spot of the top. For now all I'm doing is getting the blocks sized to fill the space. Yes, they are sideways. It's the only way I could do my design wall and view it completely. The design wall is behind my machine which means it would be hidden if turned the other way.

Today I'm spending time with my brother. This time it's not for talking about things he has on his mind. Today is for me. He's going to go with me as I get things for my garden. We may stop at some thrift stores as well as garden centers. Right now all I'm really looking for is bags of compost, peat moss, and seeds. We may look through some thrift stores to see if I can find some interesting books or get some tools.

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Tomorrow is the day my SIL wants to go grocery shopping. That means I'll get little quilting done for the next 4 days. All necessary things and at the same time frustrating. Some how I've got to get my "mind" into a slower quilting pace. I've spent so many years working 12 hours a day for 6 and 7 days a week that I feel lost when I'm not racing to finish quilts. Slowing down is what I want to do.... now if only I can convince my mind to slow down too.

It won't be long now?

Surely it won't be long before my daughter gets a house of her own? I question it because there are any number of things that can go wrong before the big moving day. I really think she's found her house. She has several to look at but she keeps talking about one in particular. It's not in the area I had hoped she would move although this house has all the features she wants. We will know more after this weekend.

I don't think I showed you this. It's the pod with the furniture of the lady who moved into the new house next door.... on the other side of my house. It irritated me that they put the pod only one and a half feet from the side of my house without asking me if it was ok. Then the guys moving her in walked back and forth through my yard carrying her furniture and stuff.... again without asking. The pod stayed there for about a week while she unpacked and walked back and forth through my yard.

Well finally it was moved yesterday. The truck pulled up and the guy unloaded this thing. Traffic had to wait on him.

He hooked the pod up with these chains.

Lifted it off the ground and back into the street. Breaking off a few branches of the trees along the street as he did. Then it was loaded onto his truck and disappeared. Finally gone!

I think the next major thing I need to think about is a fence around my front yard. I can see already there's going to be problems with the new neighbor using it for her own ideas.

Ok Anita, enough complaining. I did help my SIL get her last quilt finished for the baby shower. I also finished my undies and the tiny PJs.

I know I will miss my daughter and Ladybug a lot when they move and at the same time I'm anxious to get my normal routines back. My whole work and personal schedules are out of whack because I do things around their schedule instead of my own. I can't get much accomplished because I have to start working much later, then just when I get into a grove, they arrive home and everything comes to a sudden halt.

I look at my cardboard furniture and sigh. I look at the spot where I want to put in a small garden and sigh. I look at my stack of PIGs and UFOs and sigh. I look at my helpful hints blog and sigh. So many things had to be put on hold for awhile. It's definitely worth it though. Just knowing my daughter will have a house of her own and Ladybug will have space for sleepovers and backyard toys is well worth putting my schedules aside for awhile. Don't you think?

Aren't these cute?

Instead of playing on the internet this morning I started making the gift for my grand niece's baby shower this coming weekend. It takes just as much time to make tiny PJs as it does adult size. I should be able to finish these tomorrow after my SIL leaves. She's coming back to finish another baby quilt. If you are looking for ways bust your stash, making cotton PJs is good.



I've also been working on these. 9 more undies. I need to sew up the sides and they will be done.

I hadn't intended to make undies. I had drafted a pattern for a sport bra and then started searching for fabric large enough to make a bra or two. None of the scraps were large enough to cut out full pieces. I'll have to do more searching through scraps or sew some pieces together before cutting out the patterns. I saw several pieces just large enough for the undies so I cut them out and started making them.

After I got the undies nearly finished I realized there are enough scraps left that are large enough to make little girl undies. Ladybug is doing really well with the potty training. Maybe I can get her some made in time for when she's graduated out of pull ups. I'll have to draft a pattern and give it a try.

I have three tops here waiting to be quilted. One is waiting on the backing, one is waiting on the owner to bring me a design to stitch on it, and the third is waiting on the batting to arrive. That's why I've been sewing clothes instead of quilting.

My daughter may have found a house. She has an appointment Friday evening to walk through it. Looking at the internet pictures it seems like a really nice house with all the features she wants. I only hope there isn't some major problems which aren't visible in photos.

I think I'll go back a do some more sewing for awhile before Ladybug and Mommie get home.

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