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 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!

Comments

[linden_matryoshka]

Hi Everybody,
I have some questions... Are you sensitive to the... er... er... imprint ( for the lack of a better term) of a previous owner on a garment in thrift shops? Do you prefer natural fabers (wool, cotton, silk)?
Are you bothered by poor quality (e.g., bad stitching)? If your answer is yes how do you reconcile these preferences with your frugal inclanations?

[claire_58]

1)The worst "imprint" on thrift store clothing is often the chemical smell from laundry soaps and dryer sheets. Hanging them out in the sun and wind is the best way to get rid of those odours. I like to air everything for a while even if is doesn't stink. Once it's aired it goes into the wash.
2)I've only ever been interested in natural fibres. The tactile sensation of clothing is really important to me. Natural fibres are also easier to "clear" of both chemical and energetic imprints. BTW don't forget linen. It's wonderful and it seems to be more abundant these days.
3)I'm always looking for quality brands, well made, and lightly used clothing. It's not thrifty to buy stuff that is going to fall apart or is nearing the end of it's useful life.

You didn't ask but I will just say that I try not to buy anything that I will have to alter and I'm pretty picky about doing repairs. Somethings are worth it but you've got to ask yourself: do I want a project or do I want an outfit?

[teresa_from_hershey]

If I like the garment and it fits (I don't need more projects), I buy it.
Once home, it gets tossed in the wash with the rest of the laundry. It gets line-dried like everything else.

I don't sweat it.
I'm paying thrift shop prices instead of department store prices!

[(Anonymous)]

Yes, I am bothered by poor quality. Sometimes very high quality items are available used, however, and I do consider those.

Yes, previous woners' vibes on things are a thing. Intention and plus clapping around them helps, in my experience. Sunlight. Beethoven music. There's a space clearing expert named Karen Kingston who will sell you some special bells, too. You ring them around the object and the imprints break up and disappear.

Sometimes objects have too much icky energy in them, I can't stand it. Flea markets and most consignment shops give me the willies.

I find that, when I come upon something for sale, a lot of its vibe depends on the character of the seller and the care he's taken in presenting the object for sale.

[(Anonymous)]

Yes. And I thrift pretty much all my clothes.

I line dry everything, and that pretty much takes care of any weird previous-owner vibes.

I'm really sensitive to perfumes, and synthetic fibers can cling to those much longer than natural fibers-- like through as many as three or four washes for the worst ones. I have given up and thrown out a couple of things after they still smelled. Somebody thought that was a nice floral scent. Not my cup of tea though.

clothing quality, fiber... one thing I have done, is always check the dresses, not just my size but all the sizes, just scan down the rack looking for good fabrics. It is not hard to take an awkward wrong-size dress down to a very nice skirt, depending on the pattern. At that point, the stitching is less important, and you can just home in on the fabric.

You do occasionally find something truly high quality that'll last a while. Those are worth looking for-- I especially keep an eye out for good shoes. You won't always find exactly the thing you need, but often you can make it work. But then, yeah, I fill in the gaps with cheaper things that aren't going to last. Not perfect, but on my budget I can't afford to buy quality new, so anything I buy new is going to be lousy quality anyway. May as well buy it secondhand and not pay a lot for it, or give my money to the disposable fashion industry.

[jenniferkobernik]

I add a little Chinese Wash to the laundry and line dry. Sometimes I’ll also soak or wash with salt or vinegar in the water depending on the dye and fabric. This takes care of most of the etheric gunk I’ve encountered. Sometimes I can’t defeat the chemical fragrances even after multiple washes and line dryings, though. I might try leaving it on the line through a rain storm or, if it really smells to obnoxious, re-gift or donate it. I’ve found that location really matters for finding high-quality items and natural fibers. When I lived in Montana, I could find lots of decent wool, but it’s almost non-existent in Texas thrift stores. I can find lots of nice men’s cotton work shirts in relatively well-off agricultural areas, but not in cities, but I can sometimes find wool suiting in cities but rarely rural areas, etc. So if I am traveling, I try to hit the thrift shops even if that doesn’t seem like much of a priority. High-quality and durable natural fiber clothing for women is really hard, unfortunately. If you can sew, it’s relatively easy to find large amounts of attractive cotton fabric in the form of sheets, tablecloths, and even curtains, but garment-making is a whole other kettle of fish.

[linden_matryoshka]

Thank you for all your thoughtful replies—many useful suggestions! The one problem I still have is using used wool clothing, so I've resurrected my teenage hobby — knitting. I just went to Michael's and got myself a pair of knitting needles and a couple of skeins of wool. I've started to re-train myself with a simple project - a scarf. Boy... last time I knitted a scarf was for my boyfriend's 19th birthday, but surprisingly, my fingers remembered. The quality wool is much easier to find as yarn than as a sweater.

[(Anonymous)]

Well, as I have said on another thread in the past, I use good clothing outlet stores whenever I can. I have a good source of casual and dress shirts at a local outlet store in my city, and that is how I supply my needs in that regard.

Unfortunately, I (like JMG) tend to have non-standard hips, so I have to either get my trousers custom-made, or have a lot of alterations done. Sometimes, you are just stuck with it!

Michael Martin

Pumpkin Flowers Soup

[open_space]

I don't know how widely available this variety of pumpkin is, but if you have or know one that has one that looks like the pictures below you can make a range of things with it and one of them is soup with the flowers which don't have the bulb that will become the pumpkins but just a stem instead.

For a soup for 2-4 people you need:

- 10-12 flowers, just the petals. Cut the bottom, remove the pistil and then cut them in strips an inch or two thick.
- A small piece of onion (less than a quarter onion)
- A clove of garlic pealed
- One Roma tomato chopped
- Tender pumpkins or similar, diced. The tender ones are bright green. The one on the right in the picture above is close to better being left become a full pumpkin.
- Other vegetables you can add are carrot, corn kernels, celery or potatoes

Fry the onion and garlic until aromatic with a drizzle of olive oil in a large pot for a minute or two.

Once ready and carefully add 2 liters of water (or 1.5 if you like thicker soup). Add the chopped tender pumpkins (and other vegetables) until a little before tender. Add salt to taste.

Once the vegetables are ready add the flowers last and cook for 10-15 minutes more in mid-low, simmering.

Pennsylvania Dutch Crooknecks

[(Anonymous)]

On the topic of squashes, I grew Pennsylvania Dutch Crookneck squash this year. They look like a butternut amd get much, much bigger. Each squash I harvested was around 5lbs at a minimum with many getting up to 10lbs in size. I grew them from seeds saved by a friend of mine. They are easy to grow and store really well for months making them a great garden choice for frugality with growing space.

Re: Pumpkin Flowers Soup

[open_space]

I should probably mention, given a friend's advice, that I should remind people that eating pumpkin flowers is a thing in Mexico, not something this crazy guy is experimenting with, and that we really plant them for the flower more than the fruit. It's really good! And it gives you new flowers every morning.

We mostly eat it as a filling for quesadillas, but can be used for: soups, creams or a burger topping (with caramelized onions).

Wall Art for Cheap

[kylec]

I am staring down the barrel of a move, and decided I want to have nice art in my new place for the first time in my life. But I don't have a fine art budget. My solution looks to be giclee prints. This is a process by which an image from a jpg or png file is printed out in very high quality color on a very nice piece of paper. If you're really cheap, you can skip giclee and print with whatever you can stomach.

These aren't super cheap, but they're cheaper than buying art. Even a very large 20x30 print can be had for about $60 in giclee, and much cheaper if you do it in a different medium, or a smaller size.

The next problem was the frame. A new frame with a simple cardboard backing and a glass is significantly more than the print. So I went to the local thrift stores and snagged whatever terrible art was in a decent-looking frame. I ended up getting three nice frames with backing and glass, the smallest of which was 11x14 and the largest 21x28, for a total of about $15.

What about the art? A number of museums have high-resolution files available for free download.

Rijks Museum: https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/rijksstudio
Library of Congress: https://www.loc.gov/free-to-use/
The Met: https://www.metmuseum.org/about-the-met/policies-and-documents/open-access
National Gallery of Art: https://www.nga.gov/collection-search-result.html?sortOrder=DEFAULT&artobj_downloadable=Image_download_available&pageNumber=1&lastFacet=artobj_downloadable
Audubon Birds of America: https://www.audubon.org/birds-of-america

Per my tastes, I downloaded a lot of Dutch masters and Audubon birds. I had one print done to test this method. Some guy named Rembrandt painted a picture that I thought would make a lovely depiction of Ceridwen even though it's supposedly the Prophetess Anna. The print quality using a site called Mpix and giclee on matte paper was incredible. I don't know if I'll be able to pass it off as a forgery at the auction house, but it's plenty good for me, and way better than the hokey contemporary art I could otherwise afford. I'll be doing more according to budget and wall space.

https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/SK-A-3066

Re: Wall Art for Cheap

[mistyfriday]

Thank you for this tip and the links.

I recommend using shutterfly for prints. They have better photo enhancement tools and produce more vibrant prints than any of the other online print shop I've used and they offer a wide selection of mediums and sizes.

For the budget minded it's hard to beat a wall collage of 8x10 prints in dollar store frames.

Costco partnered with shutterfly when they shutdown their in-house print service. Costco members get 51% off list price, but if shutterfly has a better advertised sale price you must remove your Costco membership number from your account in order to receive the better price.

Re: Wall Art for Cheap

[kallianeira]

Kyle,

This post has just threatened to blow my entire frugal way of life... yes these prints are cheap, but what if one spends one's entire budget, nay, savings, on them?

Ignorance was uncomfortable but this is a terrible itch.

Thanks all the same!

- iridescent scintillating elver

Re: Wall Art for Cheap

[randomactsofkarmasc]

Re: Thrift shop frames...

I have had good success with rehabilitating some gift shop frames. If you spray paint the frame, you can then use a water soluble paint and get a contrasting color in the carvings (if your frame has those) and then top it with clear coat of spray paint so the water soluble doesn't come off. (I did a frame with copper spray paint and then some teal water color, to make it look verdigris in places.)

Also, you can paint matting! So if you get a frame and the matting doesn't match, paint it. We have a hobby store called Michaels. They have craft paints (water soluble) in a bazillion colors for about $4 a little bottle.

It's leaf season again! That means free soil amendments.

[teresa_from_hershey]

I don't throw away leaves. They're valuable soil amendments.

When we bought our 1/4 property in Hershey in July of 2001, the soil was hardpacked clay. The previous owners left me with a few struggling shrubs, many as badly placed as possible (completely blocking windows), a Japanese maple, and a Douglas Fir. The grass was mostly dead. I had no topsoil.

As I learned my way around Hershey and faced my vacant lot, I considered soil improvements and leaves. We had none, because we had no trees and most of the shrubs were poorly placed cedars which we had to cut down.

But the neighbors had leaves. I had a lawn cart. I had kids old enough to help. We began collecting ALL the leaves we could get, first from our street, and then from our neighborhood. Hershey is one of those places where you rake leaves to the curb and the township sucks them up with a truck/vacuum, hauls them to the recycling center, and composts them. Township residents are allowed to haul as much mulch and compost home as they can carry.

We skipped that intermediary step and went straight for the leaves. I heaped leaves everywhere I wanted a vegetable bed or a flower bed. Over the years, my soil gradually improved.

Did I worry about possible chemicals in those leaves? No, I did not, because my neighborhood is old, and my soil is laced through with God knows what. It was more important to build top soil.

I also began scavenging for big brown Kraft bags of leaves. Other neighborhoods in Central PA don't use leaf-sucking trucks. They want homeowners to bag leaves for later pick up. I learned you can stuff a dozen of those giant bags into a Ford Focus. Keep gloves and tarp handy so you can protect your hands and your upholstery.

Over decades of taking bags of leaves from along the curb, I have never been asked by anyone what I was doing, including state troopers driving by.

Does trash come in those bags along with the leaves? You bet it does. I pick out the beer cans for recycling, Otherwise, if it's organic, it will rot. Sticks get broken up into mulch, potting soil fills in low spots in the yard, bulbs and dying plants get planted.

My top soil now ranges from an inch to a foot deep, depending on where in the yard I am. I have birds, small critters, innumerable insects. Plants grow instead of struggling. I have fireflies (the larvae NEED leaf litter).

I transformed my yard with free leaves.
You can do this too. It takes time, a strong back, and effort, but it's free.

Re: It's leaf season again! That means free soil amendments.

[claire_58]

We put another 6 bags of leaves out onto the garden just now. We have a neighbour who calls us whenever they have leaves and, since we've been picking up their leaves for a few years now, they're careful not to mix any other yard waste in to the bags.
My husband dries out the big kraft paper leaf bags in his workshop, folds them up and returns them for reuse.

Microgreens

[(Anonymous)]

It seems like every seed company is pushing this idea, with special pkts. of seeds and their own special equipment available right here for a pretty penny plus shipping. And then you have to buy potting soil.

Can anyone here tell me about microgreens? Worth the trouble and expense? Now, I would love to have a source of fresh green in the depths of winter, but what I have seen in the seed catalogues looks like a lot of extra expense, plus waste of potting soil. What are your experiences with microgreens?

Re: Microgreens

[(Anonymous)]

They are fine, great even... but sprouts are easier for me.
Do a couple of batches of sprouts and micro greens and find out what works best for you. Your kitchen setup and light level will likely determine this. You probably do not need to purchase anything except some seeds. You can just decant the water out of a clear jar for the sprouts, and you can make a suitable soil medium for the greens.

Blackest of Black heresies

[degringolade]

As much as this will probably cause nausea and revulsion, I have switched to using margarine in baking cookies.

There is a considerable amount of argument about which is healthier butter or margarine. My feeling is that neither of them are entirely good for you. But if you want to have cookies which are the most affordable sweets, then you are probably going to want to use margarine.

A pound of butter here in the Pacific Northwest is going for six bucks. A pound of margarine is going for a dollar and a half.

Making making a batch of oatmeal cookies (my personal favorite) cost $0.75 for the margarine and three bucks for the butter.

Re: Blackest of Black heresies

[teresa_from_hershey]

One reason for using margarine or -- gasp! -- butter-flavored Crisco (or shortening in general) is how cookies spread.

Butter has some water in it; not much but there is some.
Make the recipe with butter and make it with margarine or shortening and you'll see a difference in how much the cookies spread on the cookie sheet.

Flour can make a difference too.

Solar ovens and clotheslines

[claire_58]

I love that you've got solar ovens two weeks in a row. Solar ovens are one of the two most practical and accessible ways to use solar power. The other is the clothesline. Winter is settling in here on the wet overcast coast and I'm mostly drying indoors now but hanging clothes indoors is thrifty on 2 counts. First is the energy savings but the second is often overlooked: Clothes that are tumble dried wear out faster.

Re: Solar ovens and clotheslines

[ecosophia]

Partly I'm still gloating over finding a top-quality solar oven so cheap at my local thrift store, but you're right -- those are way up there on the list of good solar uses. Clotheslines are another -- low tech, high return on investment.

Alternatives to cell phone culture

[(Anonymous)]

Looking for advice and anecdotes here.

I've developed a bit of a reputation as 'that guy who still uses a flip phone' and it's interesting how warmly people respond when they learn this about me. I have never purchased a phone because everybody and their grandmother has an old one buried in a drawer somewhere that they are happy to part with when they learn of my habit.

I've even acquired a couple of old smart phones that way, though I've been leery of putting a working SIM card in any of them, as I think (perhaps not rationally) that smartphones are a slipperier slope to technological dependence/addiction, as well as an invitation to be spied on by government agencies.

Now that my most recent flip phone is showing signs of preparing to give up the ghost, I have a choice of five (that's right five) gifted phones, both smart and dumb, which I keep in a box for times like these.

But it occurred to me to wonder whether I might not venture someday to step down from the cellular rung of the ladder entirely and use a landline or something even more shockingly old-fashioned. I know people who live like that. Just wondering out loud if anyone else has experience living without a phone, or without a phone that fits in their pocket.

Dylan

Re: Alternatives to cell phone culture

[ecosophia]

That would be me. I've never owned or used a pocket phone of any kind; my phone is a land line. My late wife had a cell phone she used solely to respond to two-factor verification on a couple of places; it's still plugged in, over in a corner, until I either close out the last of those places or figure out how to go to some way around that, but that one site is the only use it gets.

Since I've never owned or used a cell phone otherwise, it's quite easy for me. There are certain websites et al. I can't interact with, but too bad for them! There were a few restaurants for a while that went to having the menu online only, with one of those whatsits that you scan with your phone to get access to it; I simply went elsewhere, and they've all dropped that habit, so I may not have been the only one.

My friends all know that I'm weird -- no TV, no car, no cell phone -- but they know I check my email and my land line for messages regularly and it's no problem. The kind of person who wants to text all his friends about what he had for lunch and get an answer back in fifteen minutes probably isn't someone I want as a friend anyway.

So I don't notice a problem. Your mileage may vary, of course.

Holiday spending

[michele7]

As major gifting holidays approach, take time to rethink gifts and gifting. A few years ago, our family decided to stop giving each other gifts. We come together to eat and make merry, but don't feel the need to give gifts. Our kids were adults and the hubby and I didn't need to add anything to our home. When our first grandchild came, we opened a savings account for him and deposited a nice chunk of change for the whole year. We have done that for each grandchild. This saves us from the consumer trap and doesn't add unwanted items to someone's home. Still, as the Mom and Grandmother, I reserve the right to slip my children some cash here and there for special treats. Cash is always a nice gift. ;-)

If you like to give gifts, I remember my youngest child's first grade teacher tell me how she handled holiday gifts. Each child got 3 items...one book, one toy and one hobby item.

Re: Holiday spending

[teresa_from_hershey]

The answer to someone questioning your three gifts policy is

"Jesus got three gifts. Why do you think you need more?"

No-spending November update

[jenniferkobernik]

No-spending November (which I discussed in the last FF post) is going well!

My only real temptation toward discretionary spending has been JMG’s book on Geomancy. I’ve been thinking that I could use a divination system that’s a bit more straightforward, as my Ogham readings on some particular subjects recently seem to leave me lost in the sauce, and I’ve seen geomancy mentioned on Magic Monday as a pragmatic and straightforward method. I read the Kindle sample and to my surprise am very drawn to it, but I am forcing myself to wait for December to purchase it. In the meantime I am catching up on my work with Eliphas Levi’s book (which I had rather let slip) and working my way through a few other books that I “had to have” but haven’t yet finished. Sigh.

On the subject of books: JMG, you’ve discussed in both your fiction and non-fiction the tendency of libraries to purge all the old books from their collections, and I hadn’t experienced much of it at our local library, but then I went looking for children’s books for our daughter, and good grief! You can’t even get Mother Goose! There are a few beloved older chapter books (like Anne of Green Gables), but mostly it’s all very recent picture books that sound like they were written by AI (that probably comes across a bit nutty, but truly it’s as if there’s no narrative and the pages and sentences don’t seem to really go together), mostly illustrated with oddly ugly and jarring cartoonish pictures. It’s awful.

[claire_58]

A couple of the conversations here got me thinking about where I save and where I spend. I'd love to hear from others about how you make your choices, about where you choose to spend, and about where and how you compensate when you are less frugal than you could be.

I posted some of my reflections on my own page. If you're interested you can find "Where Do You Splurge?" here: https://claire-58.dreamwidth.org/8517.html

garden seeds for 2025

[(Anonymous)]

The seed companies are now beginning to put up their 2025 offerings and many varieties are selling out already. Two of the less expensive cccccccompanies are Victory Seeds and Pinetree Seeds, with sold out notices on almost every page. This might not be a good year to wait till after New Years to get in your new seed. Sold out this early in the season can mean that the supplier has not yet sent seed for certain varieties, but I can't help remembering the run on seedhouses during the pandemic. It looks to me like plenty of people might be quietly hunkering down for the duration. Mary Bennet

Re: garden seeds for 2025

[slclaire]

Thanks for the heads-up! The Fedco seed catalog should arrive in the next few weeks; I'll see how their supplies are and order anything I need ASAP.

Butter

[(Anonymous)]

is on sale, $3.49 lb., limit 6, at Aldis this week. I saw it @ $5. lb. at a different grocery store a week ago. You all do know butter can be frozen without ill or odd effects?