Frugal Friday

[ecosophia]

Welcome back to Frugal Friday!  This is a weekly forum post to encourage people to share tips on saving money, especially but not only by doing stuff yourself. A new post will be going up every Friday, and will remain active until the next one goes up. Contributions will be moderated, of course, and I have some simple rules to offer, which may change as we proceed.

Rule #1:  this is a place for polite, friendly conversations about how to save money in difficult times. It's not a place to post news, views, rants, or emotional outbursts about the reasons why the times are difficult and saving money is necessary. Nor is it a place to use a money saving tip to smuggle in news, views, etc.  I have a delete button and I'm not afraid to use it.

Rule #2:  this is not a place for you to sell goods or services, period. Here again, I have a delete button and I'm not afraid to use it.

Rule #3:  please keep it to one tip per person per week. Data dumps are tedious for me to moderate and also for readers to use. If you have lots of tips, great -- post one per week. This is an ongoing project. If you want to comment on someone else's tip, that's welcome, but again, don't use that as an excuse to post a second, unrelated tip of your own.

Rule #4:  please keep your contributions reasonably short -- say, 500 words or less. If you have something longer to say, please post it elsewhere -- a free Dreamwidth account is one option -- and simply put a link here. Teal deer comments won't be put through.

Rule #5:  please give your tip a heading that explains briefly what it's about.  Homemade Chicken Soup, Garden Containers, Cheap Attic Insulation, and Vinegar Cleans Windows are good examples of headings. That way people can find the things that are relevant for them. If you don't put a heading on your tip it will be deleted.

Rule #6: don't post anything that would amount to advocating criminal activity. Any such suggestions will not be put through.

With that said, have at it!

Comments

Bringing what to dinner?

[(Anonymous)]

The norm tends to be when you visit someone for dinner or in general to bring something, more often than not I see this drives people to stores to buy a bottle of wine or some other type of dessert, which is all well and good but it can really add up.

Finding a unique gift or go to homemade item to bring I feel is a better way to go about this when there is the possibility.

Over the past few years I have practiced making bread and people are always incredibly impressed with a few nicely cut lines across the top of a fresh sourdough. I thoroughly enjoy making bread much more than I do shopping and it is a seriously useful skill. Even with some nice presentation I have worked it out that each loaf costs between $2-3 to make and has a much bigger impact.

If not bread, then I would definitely recommend finding something you like to make that people will appreciate for these settings, a decent bottle of wine will cost over 10x as much as those loaves of bread and might even end up in a chain of regifting anyways!

A somewhat interesting article...

[not_gandalf]

This appeared in the "Pocket" feature of my web browser. It seems just a bit dismissive, but it was still interesting.

https://www.businessinsider.com/off-grid-homesteading-community-riverbed-ranch-utah-doomsday-prepper-survivalist-2024-1?utm_source=pocket-newtab-en-us

Warm Things

[mindwinds]

We have long had cloth bags filled with rice that we heat for cold winter nights - my daughters when they were young dubbed them "Warm Things". Our only surviving warm thing needs replacing (it smells like burned rice when we heat it now). Fortuitously, I have a kitchen apron that has also reached the end of its lifespan. I've cut out the two large pockets, and now all I have to do is fill them with rice and sew up the tops. Since my sewing skills are in their infancy, that's pretty handy.

Our new warm things are going to have nice jaunty stripes!

Squirrelly Jen

[(Anonymous)]

I hope everyone is cozy as can be if you are experiencing any snowfall. I'm happy it is snowing. Though I will accept the coming of the "winter rain season" (already here in so many ways) I still like a good snow.

To share: As mentioned on the other blog, I was inspired by this video of a man in North Carolina living what I call a Tao Home Funk lifestyle:

These are from Peter Santenello's great channel where he explores the diverse array of cultures and places within in America.

Tao Home Funk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LEoW81mUXU&t=3s

Peter has done some really other cool off grid stories (and a number on the Amish). Of course, Titus is a favorite of mine, because he lives in the same part of Kentucky, Casey County, where my grandpa on my moms side was from (Liberty, KY). It's also where some of my moms ashes are buried in a small cemetery where there is something of a family plot, so I do feel a strong connection to that area.

This is pretty much Down Home Funk too, with an Amish twist, though Titus isn't a member of the Amish church.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LEoW81mUXU&t=3s

The other Titus videos are well worth watching, and are finding a strong resonance among Christians. Titus is building a church down there. I may stop by to meet him, because I do want to go see my moms headstone in Liberty again. I haven't been there since we buried her ashes in 2009.

This guy from Santenello;s channel lives in a converted van and in a houseboat that has been moved to land somewhere in Utah. I'd call his style Nomadic Desert Funk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soviEjUiLGQ

He has several other "off grid" videos with people, but I haven't seen/listened to them all yet.

To ask: What brand of ductwork insulation do people recommend to use? I have my water heater and water pipes insulated, but thought it would be good to do my ductwork as well. There are many different products available. Thank you!

Justin Patrick Moore

Redundancy helps

[artsmith]

One of the things that has been most helpful in making periods of low income less frightening has been putting back up plans in place for things you really really need in order to survive.
As an example, my electric bicycle broke before Christmas and this is how I get to my clients and earn a living. It was in for repairs waiting for spare parts on a slow boat from Asia, which took a month.
I have a manual back up bike which is lightweight and as mechanically simple as possible. Unfortunately, a couple of the wheel spokes broke and it was also out of commission for a couple of days so I used my third back up bike and managed to carry on working. I have collected these bikes over a number of years when I had the money.
Obviously you can take back up plans too far as you still need to check and maintain anything extra you pull out of storage but taking the time to inventory what is essential, and have workarounds if they fail, takes some of the panic away when you lose access to what you depend on.

Upgrading fall clothes to winter clothes

[(Anonymous)]

If you don't have any winter shoes to hand and don't want to spend money on them, you can upgrade your fall shoes so that they keep you warm enough in winter too. Buy thermal insoles and put them in your shoes. Also put on a second pair of socks. Unfortunately, this does not work with all shoes as the additional material takes up space in the shoe.

To upgrade your fall jacket, you can simply buy a wide rain jacket and put it on over it. These are usually much cheaper than a winter jacket or if you already have one in your wardrobe.

ExecutedByGandhi

Lowest effective amount

[hearthculture]

We cook a fall/winter dish called colcannon - which traditionally is mashed potatoes with boiled cabbage and lots of butter added. Our version involves frying bacon, crumbling the bacon and sautéing cabbage in the grease, then adding grease, cabbage, bacon crumbles, and a bunch of butter into mashed potatoes. This is decadent and delicious and a big hit at gatherings, and cheaper than grilling for everyone... ... annnnd... bacon and extra butter take it away from it's peasant food roots and over double it's cost.

So, I'm reducing the amounts to see what the minimum is to maintain enjoyment. We used to put a pound of bacon and two cups of butter (into a huge pot to feed 8-12 people.) A quarter pound of bacon and one cup of butter still adds a lot of flavor. No complaints, and significantly lower cost.

My lemon blueberry scones are still good with half the blueberries and one lemon zested instead of two. How little parmesan is needed to improve the flavor of pasta. In this period of abundance, it's been easy to add large amounts of what used to be valuable ingredients that were subtly and gently used. In moments of resolve, I imagine I can do without these at all, yet with discipline these ingredients can be stored and used purposefully to add significantly to a meal.

This applies to all recipes and I've noticed it start to spiral out to other things as well.

Green Wizards?

[(Anonymous)]

Need to ask, is Green Wizards defunct?

Re: Lowest effective amount

[prayergardens]

Good topic!

I'll offer up a Polish version of colcannon I learned from a former neighbor. Saute cabbage and onions with the fat of your choice (butter or bacon) but then mix with egg noodles instead of potatoes. Delicious!

Just as you mentioned a small amount of parmesan on Italian dishes, I tend to sprinkle a small amount of seeds on finished dishes and finds it perks it up: fennel seeds on Italian food, caraway seeds on German foods, nigella and pepitas on Mexican food. I find nutritional yeast to be an ok substitute for a sprinkle of cheese when a recipe calls for it on top. It's cheap and stores a long time so I keep it with the beans and rice.

I think pro chefs also do the trick of drizzling the fat on at the end as a topper on some dishes so it's right on your taste buds in the moment, not hidden in the dish. Smaller amount but bigger impact.

Check your receipt BEFORE you leave the store

[teresa_from_hershey]

This sounds so basic: check over your receipt to see if any mistakes were made by the cashier BEFORE you leave the store.

But people, including my mother, don't do this.
I guarantee you'll forget or the store will give you trouble when you return two weeks later.

How do you know if the amount is correct? Or close to correct?

This is where your shopping list comes in.
As I shop, I keep a running total of my final price. I round up or down to the nearest whole dollar and I'm fairly accurate. This also helps fix the price of an item in my head.

As the cashier rings up the items, I watch the register. If I know something out of the ordinary, like a raincheck item, is coming up, I warn the cashier.

Once I've paid, I go over my receipt, making sure my discounts were taken.
If there's a discrepancy (and sometimes it's on my end), it's off to the service desk. I'm polite. I point out wrong signs on the shelf. I've got my shopping cart of groceries right there so they can be rescanned if necessary.

Sometimes, the discrepancy is a nickel. Other times, it's more.
The last visit, the cashier mis-rung my raincheck AND some cheese didn't ring up at half price. That meant $17 back at the service desk.

Always check your receipts and address discrepancies on the spot!

Old shoes for Winter

[(Anonymous)]

Old shoes that cannot be used outside (even with holes) may be usable inside home during Winter, and they are specially great if you can clean them and wear them at bed, for sleeping to keep your feet warm.

Re: Bringing what to dinner?

[claire_58]

The sourdough produced by our local wood-fired bakery is now more than $8CAD.

Re: Warm Things

[(Anonymous)]

We use them in the summer as well, by throwing them in the freezer in the morning. At night, we take them to bed and have "air conditioning" under the sheet!

shewhoholdstensions

Re: Bringing what to dinner?

[methylethyl]

For a couple of years we had some interesting fruiting shrubs in our yard, and put up a lot of small jars of jam and jelly-- about half of them went as hostess gifts and were much appreciated.

Re: Check your receipt BEFORE you leave the store

[(Anonymous)]

Absolutely! Also, I hate to say this, but you want to get yourself on camera with receipt in your hand. I stand at the end of the counter, out of the way of next customer and next transaction, and review the receipt as you said, and then put it away in an easily accessible place. Have you noticed how much information is on those receipts? I take mine home and tear them up after recording the purchase.

Keep off line track of spending.

[(Anonymous)]

I have found it helpful to keep a small notebook of ATM card spending, transaction by transaction. That way I have a good idea how much I can spend when I leave the house.

Mary Bennett

Re: Lowest effective amount

[hearthculture]

Interesting about the polish version, will have to try that. I also appreciate the ideas about seeds, and fat drizzling (that is something I've done but not with this new thread of thought in mind, will be interesting how it could transform some more mundane and affordable meals.)

Re: Lowest effective amount

[(Anonymous)]

Yes! I've done this for both cost and health reasons. Most recently, my Mom who had moderate Alzheimers stopped eating any vegetables and had a serious sweet tooth. I went looking for a good coleslaw recipe to try to entice her. I found a recipe she would eat and then slowly made changes (reducing the sugar and oil and substituting celery seed instead of poppy seed) to make the dressing both cheaper and healthier.

Re: Redundancy helps

[daveotn]

Obviously you can take backups too far, but with something like a bike the backup works in a number of complementary ways: you can use them yourself if needed, you can sell them, or you can loan them out in exchange for other favors down the road. When I was doing more small engine repair, I'd often have a few lawn mowers or weedwhackers in the garage going through multiple steps in this cycle.

Re: Warm Things

[(Anonymous)]

Cherry pits also work for filling. Zap bag in microwave.

Re: Green Wizards?

[(Anonymous)]

The website is not per se, but activity is very sparse.

Re: Redundancy helps

[(Anonymous)]

Hello artsmith, this is so important, very smart. Mostly I drive, use public transport, and walk. I'm not big on biking, however, I keep two bikes with front baskets, plus an attachable bike trailer that can also be used as a (nonbike) push-cart/stroller. I figure, if all else fails, I can always carry groceries home in the trailer/ push-cart-- whether by bike or by foot.

My spouse complains about the 2 bikes and the trailer taking up room in the garage, since I rarely bike, but I told him I consider the bikes and trailer to be transport insurance. I may not use them often, but if the day comes when I need them, if we don't have them, we'll be up the proverbial shale creek with no paddle.

I would have thought that was a bit paranoid but not after what's happened since 2020. Things can get crazy fast. Or not.

Just as with multiple modes of transport, I also always have more than one way to cook. But that would be another post.

Re: Check your receipt BEFORE you leave the store

[michele7]

Our local Publix grocery store will give you the item free if it rings up wrong. I've managed to get lucky when someone doesn't enter sale prices into the system. Know your store policies.

Re: Old shoes for Winter

[slclaire]

I wear socks to bed when the weather is cool enough to wear socks - the same socks I've worn all day. Most nights I wake up once or twice. When I wake up and my feet are warm, I take the socks off.

I can't fall asleep if my feet are cold. Wearing socks to bed warms my feet up much faster than they would otherwise, so I fall asleep more quickly.

Re: Green Wizards?

[(Anonymous)]

It is still there and just a few of us are posting. There more people post, there more "there" it is, so use it and it isnt defunct.

But, my worry is what has happened to Dave T., because I have nt heard fro him there in quite a while, and it is his web site. Hopefully , he will sort his stuff out and [ost in the future

In the meantime, the site is there, it works just fine, and the more of us that use it the better it will be