Frugal Friday
Sep. 20th, 2024 10:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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 further 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 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 #4: 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!
sauerkraut
Date: 2024-09-20 07:47 pm (UTC)Anyway, anyone who has grown cabbage knows that there are huge leaves that surround the tight head. I take these large leaves (the oldest ones may be too tough} and rinse them off, and cut off the large central vein. I compost the vein but they could be put in a soup or otherwise cooked --creamed with onions is always great.
Then I make a small stack of them and roll them up like a cigar and stuff them into jars for lacto-fermentation in brine (5-6 tablespoons of non-iodized salt per quart of non chlorinated water). I usually let them go for 4 to 6 weeks and then seal the lid (they may have to be periodically burped) and put them in the cellar.
Then I have tender brightly flavoured leaves for making cabbage rolls all winter long. Simple, long lasting and good for you.
Sore Throats and Cough
Date: 2024-09-20 08:40 pm (UTC)Re: Sore Throats and Cough
Date: 2024-09-20 10:33 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2024-09-21 01:16 pm (UTC)I was going to post this on the mullein/elecampane discussion last week but time got away from me.
Re: Sore Throats and Cough
Date: 2024-09-26 06:16 pm (UTC)‘It is greatly prized as a digestive aid in Asia where it is eaten in a variety of ways - fresh or preserved, dried, salted and added to soup or meat dishes. Fermented daikon radish, or takuan, is commonly served with macrobiotic food. Tests show it to be high in lactobacilli. It is valued as a diuretic, a decongestant and a source of substances that inhibit cancer. Folk wisdom claims it rids the body of accumulated fats and is an excellent source of vit C.’
-Tamar
Marijuana Cookies For a Good Sleep
Date: 2024-09-20 08:43 pm (UTC)This might be illegal where you live in which case don't do this. I live in British Columbia, Canada and we are allowed to grow 4 marijuana plants per household. I grew 4 Island Star plants which is an unimproved variety that had been grown on the Coast here for over forty years. It is pleasant and a great outdoor plant but it will not take your head clean off at the first puff.
I grew my plants in the vegetable garden and gave them lots of organic fertilizer and compost and water. My friends taught me to nip off the tops when they were small and how to prune them. The largest and earliest plant was called Yeti because she kind of looked like that.
Plants were cut down and dried in my living room, hanging from a beam with a fan on them. Once the weed was dry, I crumbled it up on a cookie sheet and baked it in the oven at 275 for a couple of hours. Then, I put it in a slow cooker with olive oil and turned it t low an cooked it six or seven hours.
I strained out the oil and I use six tablespoons of it to cook 40 gingersnap cookies. The cookies are cut in half while they are still warm and we take a half a cookie each to help us have a deep, refreshing sleep. It helps me go to sleep and stay asleep.
I give tins of cookies away to friends and family who have trouble sleeping. One friend sounded quite desperate when she told me she couldn't possibly go back to not being able to sleep. I gave her a couple of years' worth of oil to have at home and my recipe. She is a tiny, gracile woman and only needs a quarter of a cookie.
If you can have a good sleep, everything in life is easier and more pleasant. My 87-year old mother in law is taking them too. She is very respectable and she would not try them for ages. She was dying for lack of sleep and a fried visited her and gave her a bag of marijuana gummies that helped her sleep and now she too is on the cookies.
The sort of dose that will help you sleep is out of your system by morning. I got up at six this morning and meditated for twenty minutes with a clear mind. I recommend these cookies highly. I use the Gingersnap recipe from the Joy of Cooking.
Maxine
Re: Marijuana Cookies For a Good Sleep
Date: 2024-09-20 11:02 pm (UTC)A cannabis pomade is also great for joint pain
Re: Marijuana Cookies For a Good Sleep
Date: 2024-09-21 04:53 am (UTC)It’s legal in Oregon too.
Annette
Re: Marijuana Cookies For a Good Sleep
Date: 2024-09-23 10:36 pm (UTC)Thanks for the recipe for Hypercanna! I will make a batch for my dad.
Re: Marijuana Cookies For a Good Sleep
Date: 2024-09-21 05:25 am (UTC)But, the downside is the smell, and also the oils in the salve can stain clothing. SO, this is easier to use when around the house or garden in grubby clothes were it doesnt matter that you smell like CBD cannbis
Atmospheric RIver
Re: Marijuana Cookies For a Good Sleep
Date: 2024-09-23 10:38 pm (UTC)That's a good tip on high CBD, I would want for mine to relieve pain, not get people high! I will check on the legality of purchasing seeds of high cbd and that is preferably not stained by corporate greed.
Re: Marijuana Cookies For a Good Sleep
Date: 2024-09-21 05:13 am (UTC)So, yes, if you need this medicinally, it is very frugal to grow your own.
In my area you buy started little clone plants, and then the one fussy thing is that the plants are photosensitive and I had to have them indoor briefly with a light on a timer to adjust them to daylight outdoor daylength for my location. The clones were not very expensive, the yield was high.
I would recommend using support, like hefty tomato cages, the hog wire panel 5 or 6 ft tall ones. I had 4 plants in a 48 sq ft bed, 4 ft by 12 ft. They are a bit brittle, esp since optimized for indoor growth with netting support.
I cant stand the smell, and mine were planted late, so could then not be left to dry outside as it was November. SO this was my rude surprise, that I have to have it hanging all over my house ! large branches hanging upside down, so heavy twine or thin rope from corner to corner across a few rooms. Then it had to be trimmed off of the stalks, another messy, smelly time. The buds were put into 1/2 gallon mason jars. No fans, no oven drying. Lots of space around the branches for airflow. So frugal to dry.
Some was made into oil and used in brownies or cookies, but be very very careful as dosing has to be figured out. The family member uses a special type of pipe (?) that reduces lung issues I guess. Not my thing.
There are different varieties for different health uses. 2 types were tried here, one type was for night time use, and the other could be used to reduce anxiety in the day. So that has to be considered as well.
The money savings for my family member was tremendous. I dont recall numbers on that, but something like a $15 plant start, and just getting watered when I watered the tomato plants, saved thousands on buying the medicine at a retail shop here. The real tradeoff was the time and trouble of the trimming process. So, this is very frugal, if you need this type, or any type, of medicinal plant, grow it yourself. My family member ended up with enough for, I forget, 3 years ? And a bunch fed the compost pile.
Atmospheric River
(no subject)
Date: 2024-09-21 01:41 pm (UTC)(legal where I live)
I am in the minority on this but a note of caution, I seem to be allergic to the THC in marijuana. I always get claustrophobia. It stopped me from doing it in college and I tried a cookie from a friend when it became legal and got the same reaction. Not fun. I don't know how to tell if one would have allergies in advance, no one else I know has this reaction so most people will be fine. I guess maybe try it in good weather in case you have to sleep outside that night...
I will note that I take a CBD pill sometimes to help me relax into sleep so Maxine is right about the benefits. CBD has no side effects for me. Although buying CBD isn't as fun as DIYing but the cost has come down by 50-75% since the first few months it was legal.
(no subject)
Date: 2024-09-22 05:40 am (UTC)So if someone has not been exposed (how?), I'd suggest being cautious about quantity and also not trying this alone, or with people in judgement impaired states (just as you wouldn't offer Baby peanut butter the first time when tipsy).
BoysMom
Re: Marijuana Cookies For a Good Sleep
Date: 2024-09-21 04:27 pm (UTC)Starting local share/trade networks is another step in the process of collapsing early. Community inter-dependance is more resilient than trying to do absolutely everything ourselves and producing medicine is a prime area for this to get started. For many things even small batches can yield enough to last a small household for many years.
Don't get me wrong. There are many home remedies that are well worth making ourselves. What I'm saying is: It's worth focusing our DIY efforts on things that we really like, or are easy, to do and/or on products we really want and need enough to make the effort worthwhile. There are some things that are better done at as a specialty and, though it may be less fugal, it's worth supporting someone in your neighbourhood who is willing to do them.
Edit Delete
Re: Marijuana Cookies For a Good Sleep
Date: 2024-09-21 08:29 pm (UTC)Atmospheric RIver
Re: Marijuana Cookies For a Good Sleep
Date: 2024-09-21 11:42 pm (UTC)I was off in fantasy land where we can all barter, trade, and sell informally, without the weight of the lenocracy dragging us down.
There are laws about these kind of thing here too, but since, for me, it's just another garden plant and I have only ever given it away I've never paid the slightest attention to them.
There is a company near here that produces of the topical salve for sale commercially. I imagine they've had to jump through all kinds of hoops to do business. It's good stuff. I don't know if there is enough business to support the producer or if it's one of many projects.
Re: Marijuana Cookies For a Good Sleep
Date: 2024-09-22 04:55 am (UTC)I never thought of that because I never charge for the medicines I make. I just give them away to make the world a better place. People are sometimes very confused by that. They offer to pay me and I tell then accepting money for my medicines would be against the lore.
Maxine
Re: Marijuana Cookies For a Good Sleep
Date: 2024-09-22 03:54 pm (UTC)Atmospheric River
Re: Marijuana Cookies For a Good Sleep
Date: 2024-09-22 03:59 pm (UTC)Re: Marijuana Cookies For a Good Sleep
Date: 2024-09-23 02:37 am (UTC)Re: Marijuana Cookies For a Good Sleep
Date: 2024-09-23 11:49 am (UTC)My frugal option is buying pure CBD in bulk online. If PURE--and my stock comes with a lab certificate claiming 99.9%--it's relatively uncontrolled in most places; check your local laws, but the pigs care about THC from cannabis, not CBD from 'hemp'. Wholesale beats retail, every time.
I might try growing "hemp" but my understanding is the legal strains are just as weak in CBD as THC.
Greeting Cards
Date: 2024-09-21 01:50 pm (UTC)I discovered that our local Dollar Store is carrying a 'lite' version of Hallmark brand cards for $1 each. No gold foil or embellishments but nice cards.
Re: Greeting Cards
Date: 2024-09-21 04:31 pm (UTC)Re: Greeting Cards
Date: 2024-09-21 05:23 pm (UTC)Re: Greeting Cards
Date: 2024-09-23 12:27 am (UTC)This was a personal favorite:
https://postimg.cc/nXYbj2PF
And the cost was still way under the cost of a retail card, even for a small batch.
*Ochre Harebrained Curmudgeon*
Re: Greeting Cards
Date: 2024-09-21 06:46 pm (UTC)It is easy ad fun to make little paintings or sketches on watercolour papers and then glue them onto card stock for really unique cards that cost pennies to make. There are tons of ideas on the internet and in library books.
A good one for the autumn is to do a coloured wash on some cards and let the cards dry. Then take a leaf. Turn it so the bottom of the leaf is up and rub paint on it. Then, you press the painted side down on the paper and rub to get a good print. Do the first few on scrap paper to see how it goes.
I just sent my Mother in Law a painted birthday card for her 87th birthday. One of her friends saw it and insisted she frame it. My sister has a little gallery of all the cards I ever sent her, nicely framed. They look charming and they were fun to paint.
Maxine
Re: Greeting Cards
Date: 2024-09-21 06:52 pm (UTC)Re: Greeting Cards
Date: 2024-09-21 07:04 pm (UTC)Re: Greeting Cards
Date: 2024-09-21 07:36 pm (UTC)/-Princess Cutekitten
Re: Greeting Cards
Date: 2024-09-21 09:26 pm (UTC)And don't ask me about the free little blank notepads. There's a million of those tucked in the drawers. That's on top of the ones I get now. I'll never need to buy a notepad again.
JLfromNH/Lilac Radioactive Piglet
Re: Greeting Cards
Date: 2024-09-23 01:40 pm (UTC)Foraging and Salvaging
Date: 2024-09-22 06:05 am (UTC)Check your laws!
We can also forage on public lands, again, check your laws! The elderberry trees are just loaded this fall. Like they are helping us prepare . . .
Firewood and live Christmas trees also require permits.
Our neighborhood had a stray sheep show up, and per a sheep rancher friend, there is some date after which ranged livestock are considered abandoned and legal to catch and keep. I am still searching for that regulation. It would be cruel to leave the poor wooly thing on his or her own to face the winter, after all, but for now he's happy hanging out eating our grass, and the neighbors' grass.
BoysMom
P.S. Was I clear enough on checking your laws? I mean it. Some states, what is legal game salvage here is poaching. Please, check. Fish and Game and/or BLM will have what you need to know for all those categories.
Re: Foraging and Salvaging
Date: 2024-09-22 07:51 pm (UTC)It's always a fun challenge to look around at waste streams you may have access to, and ask... is that a usable resource? My local Aldi gives away cardboard boxes. I tear them up and add them to my compost pits because I cannot ever get enough dry carbon mass in my garden. I have a deal with my back-fence neighbor, who has goats. When I weed the garden, trim the trees, pull vines off the fence, I put the weeds and trimmings over into the goat pen-- free food. She keeps a bucket hanging on our shared fence, and deposits goat manure in it for me, when she cleans the pen-- free fertilizer. The world is full of such deals, waiting to be discovered.
Re: Foraging and Salvaging
Date: 2024-09-23 02:51 am (UTC)I will keep that idea in mind: many species like fox squirrel and yellow bellied marmot are unrestricted for hunting or salvaging (nothing but pulverized to salvage on things that size). We are trying to scavage up a green house, if we can score enough old windows free or cheap. Adding May and September to our growing season reliably would be amazing. Our soil is clay, so we also know the fertility problems.
BoysMom
Re: Foraging and Salvaging
Date: 2024-09-26 10:29 pm (UTC)I don't know if this works as well in other climates-- if it is very cold maybe it takes too long to degrade. If it is clayey soil, maybe it doesn't leach as much and you might have "hot compost" issues? I have never had the opportunity to test it anywhere else. Here, we have sandy soil and tons of rain, so the number one problem is getting enough nutrients into the garden, and then preventing them leaching out too fast. So: compost everything, use tons of carbon mass. Leaves, sticks, charcoal, cardboard, whatever you can lay hands on. And if it looks like a potential critter problem, bury it, don't heap it.
The general recommendation not to compost meat is because it'll attract flies, digging animals, bad smells etc. to your compost pile. But I've never been able to have a traditional compost pile anyway-- decomp is way too fast around here so if you don't put it directly in the garden it all melts away before you can use it. So I make little pits day by day all around the garden, in a rotation... and this is a perfect setup for utilizing all sorts of things that Rodale would tell you not to compost: leftovers, rotten eggs, presents your cat brought you, fish heads, roadkill... from dust it came, and it may as well return its dust to your garden.
I'd add that this is a thing you'd want to be more careful about (leftovers particularly) if you live somewhere dry, or where salinization is a problem. Here, salt washes right out. I know that's not true everywhere.
Saving Tomato Seeds
Date: 2024-09-22 08:43 pm (UTC)We were just out dropping things off and we stopped to bring eggs to some friends. The husband came up from the garden with a basket of beautiful, many-coloured tomatoes. There was a very large orange and yellow-striped cherry tomato of good flavour. I asked and my friend had grown it from seeds she saved last year.
She let me have the three ripest cherry tomatoes and I came home and squeezed the seeds into a little jam jar with some added water. I labeled it carefully and set the jar, uncovered, on the windowsill.
Mold will develop n the surface and the mycelia will eat the sprout-inhibiting jelly off the seeds. There are other ways to save tomato seeds but I like this one as it is very little work and I end up with fluffy golden seeds that are easy to work with and have very high (like 100 percent) germination rates.
Once the seeds have sunk to the bottom of the jar and there is a good cover of mold, drain off the mold and the top of the water. Rinse the rest of the seeds in a wire sieve and set them on a plate to dry. Once they are dry, pack them away in little envelopes. Keep labeling the seeds at every stage of the process. These seeds will last for years in a cool dry place and for decades in the freezer. They make great presents.
Maxine
Re: Saving Tomato Seeds
Date: 2024-09-23 04:01 pm (UTC)She slices the tomatoes and places them on the surface of the soil in small plant pots and leaves the pots and seeds to remain dormant somewhere it won't freeze until spring. She starts watering it sometime in March and soon has had an abundance of tomato and cucumber sprouts to prick out into plant pots.
I've been growing food forever but I still find the finickier aspects of seed saving a bit daunting. This seems like a way to simplify processing those gel seeds that will work for me.
Re: Saving Tomato Seeds
Date: 2024-09-24 07:03 pm (UTC)Thanks!
Ellen in ME
Re: Saving Tomato Seeds
Date: 2024-09-25 05:05 am (UTC)Here's the youtube link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EROxPnO93Kk
Re: Saving Tomato Seeds
Date: 2024-09-23 04:09 pm (UTC)I also get about 100% germination. I usually smear some from different plant or tomatoes from each given variety.
Tomatoes usually dont cross pollinate and usually you will get the variety you think from the seeds.
So far this year I have new smears from 3 varieties, and need to get the other 4 or 5.
( I dont use paper towels for much, I go thru less than 1 roll a year. But, this method is dead simple for saving tomato seeds)
Atmospheric River
Re: Saving Tomato Seeds
Date: 2024-09-26 10:34 pm (UTC)But at home my tomatoes re-seed themselves so aggressively I have not had to plant any in years, even though we've moved house a couple of times. They come up in the flowerpots by the dozen, and I transplant them into the garden.
Tomato paste
Date: 2024-09-23 11:02 pm (UTC)The frozen tomatoes were put into a large pot with a small amount of water and cooked just enough to get the tomatoes thawed and to release their water. We then strained the cooked tomatoes through cheese cloth. This strained water is what we can as tomato water that we cook with.
We then use a Ball electric tomato strainer that does a really great job separating the skins and the seeds from the pulp and we were left with a rather thick tomato sauce, more like thin paste, that would make wonderful ketchup after you had added the spices, sugar and vinegar with very little cooking needed to thicken it. We were impress and the next time we need to make ketchup, this is what we will be doing.
There are still some more frozen tomatoes that need to be dealt with and the plan is to make that thick sauce and season it for pizza sauce.
russian book resources flibusta to shut in a few weeks
Date: 2024-09-24 06:00 pm (UTC)https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/1fobm5o/flibusta_large_resource_of_russian_ebooks_is_to/
Parion