Frugal Friday

[ecosophia]

Welcome back to Frugal Friday! In honor, so to speak, of the wildly inflated price of eggs, this month will be Egg Meme Month on Frugal Friday. Yes, you may consider this encouragement to get your own henhouse up and running!

Aside from that, 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

2-liter bottle terrariums

[adara9]

Good afternoon, JMG, I was starting to wonder if we should worry about not hearing from you today. Everything ok? Why mildly flustered?

In service of actually providing a tip: I've taken to reusing my empty 2L seltzer bottles as mini-greenhouses / terraria. I cut them in half around the equator, put in a layer of pebbles, then a deeper layer of potting soil, then the seeds I'm in the mood to sprout. Spritz with water, pop the top back on, and wait. (Re-spritz with water if things dry out, but that's rarely more often than once every 1-2 weeks.)

I've tried some old chamomile, mint, lavender, and echinacea. The chamomile LOVES it, the lavender is tentatively growing, and the others haven't sprouted.

Friends...

[michele7]

Decades ago, I had a friend who was part of a women's group. All these women had one thing in common, their husbands had the same nationality. At first the group comfortably met, sharing the highs and lows of living in a foreign country. Then one woman started to express displeasure with her husband. She separated from him and regaled the women's group with all his wrongdoings. Then every meeting was about how all men were bad and the country they were living in was bad. This spread like a cancer in the women's group. Another member divorced and then another member. My friend who witnessed all of this finally had to leave the women's group because she found herself becoming disgruntled with her husband. She realized that spending time with these unhappy women was making her feel unhappy about things that normally didn't bother her. What does this have to do with frugality? Divorce can be a messy and expensive endeavor. I'm not saying that divorce can never be justified. Keep in mind that misery loves company. Pick your friends carefully.

Our four cats don't see the vet

[teresa_from_hershey]

Last week, someone mentioned a book about pet health care and someone else mentioned the heavy vaccination schedule and how it can lead to tumors or death in your pets.

I've owned cats (they'd beg to differ) most of my life.
We currently have four.

When we acquired this set (one dumpster kitten and three young adults from two different Petsmarts), we decided that they weren't going to the vet.

We no longer have a dog and haven't for several years. This is critical because even if your kitties are strictly indoors, your dog brings in fleas, ticks, and everything else.

Thus, strictly indoor kitties who came into our house clean. Dimitri, our dumpster kitten saw the vet, got dewormed and defleaed, and so forth and then three weeks later, we got Lulu, Madeline, and Sasha.

They eat Iams dry food and split two cans every day of Friskies.
We decided that, even though we'd stuck to dry food in the past, canned food probably had nutrients that meat-flavored sawdust did not.

So, no flea poison, no tick poison, no vaccines (because there's no exposure), four litterboxes (which we clean faithfully), and a good diet.

Four years later, they're all bright-eyed, active, and healthy.

I've met a few other people who admit they do the same if their cats are strictly indoors AND there are no dogs.

What do you do?

Heating food without a microwave oven

[(Anonymous)]

Without a microwave oven, what is the best way to reheat leftover food? Stuff like pizza, pasta, dumplings, soups, burritos, hamburgers, etc...

Microwaving lefttovers

[(Anonymous)]

Hello,
I don't own a microwave either. When I reheat left over pizza, I do it stove top in my cast iron skillet. I cook everything in this skillet, in the oven or on stove-top except for tomato sauce and fish. So, all my left overs get heated up in my skillet. For tomato sauce based meals or fish, I still heat by stove top in a non stick frying pan, but not my cast iron.

Happy Heating :-)

Soliciting advice on chicken goo

[(Anonymous)]

I'd like to throw out a question. Last week JMG talked about how to scoop extra fat out of chicken soup and render it into cooking fat (the how wasn't exactly clear, but I never make chicken soup anyway). I recently was advised to cook chicken thighs in a slow-cooker. For frozen thighs you put a little water in the bottom, cook 6 hours on high, then shred off the meat and save the bones for stock.

There was far more liquid in the pan after cooking than before. It seemed oily, but not like liquid fat, more like a fatty broth that stayed liquid even when it was not hot enough to really burn fingers. But, when it had cooled fully, it became gelatinous at room temperature. I didn't know what to do with this substance so I [save your judgement here] threw it away. But there must be something to do with it. I don't know if what runs out of the chicken is mostly water (dilute and freeze as broth?) or mostly fat (render somehow to get the fat out?). Suggestions??

Chickens

[(Anonymous)]

I'm feeling that meme pretty hard right now, since I own chickens and give away the eggcess to friends. The only catch is that we're also experiencing a laying hen shortage!

One more pitch for the value of generosity in living a frugal life. A large part of living frugally is cooperating with others. Share with others when you have too much, and you'll find a lot more people willing to help when you don't have enough. Of course, exercise some discretion on who the 'others' are; people who boast about free-riding on others will also free-ride you if you let them. But cooperating and being generous with people of good will is a big part of living frugally.

DIY furniture by Enzo Mari

[(Anonymous)]

For my first Frugal Friday post, I thought I would share a resource for making furniture.

The Italian designer Enzo Mari once wrote a book of furniture designs were made entirely of wooden boards and 2x4 beams found in most hardware stores, and joined only with screws and nails. This seems a bit common now, but it was Enzo Mari who was one of the earliest to have pioneered and advertised this style of furniture.
If anyone wanted to get started with woodworking, but was unready for anything requiring joinery skills or tools fancier than a saw, hammer and nails, I would suggest that this book is a decent place to start.
I would warn though that not all of his designs are equal in style. His designs for the wardrobe and table are his best, but his bed designs seem a bit off to me, though style intriguing.

https://www.rootsimple.com/2020/12/enzo-maris-autoprogettazione/

https://self-assembly.org/sedia-1-chair/

J.L.Mc12

The Difference Between Stock and Broth

[(Anonymous)]

Well ... it's actually a pretty fine line, really.

From a commercial point of view, broth is a flavoured liquid that may contain some severely thinned-out stock, a lot of flavouring additives (some natural, some chemical) and is often high in salt(s). The so-called commercial stocks that have popped up recently are not much different (I've chilled them -- they don't contain much gelatin).

From a culinary point of view, broth is considered to be a simmered liquid flavoured from meat and veggies. Stock -- also sometimes called bone broth (just to confuse the issue) -- is a simmered liquid made from bones (preferably joints) and veggies. Stock tends to be richer in gelatin than broth.

Of course, that's where you hit the fine line in defining the difference. A simmered liquid made from both meat and bones could be a highly flavourful stock or a very rich broth.

In the end, it is relatively immaterial, as homemade stock or broth is so much more flavourful and good for you than most of the commercial products out there. Slow cookers make it so much easier to prepare stock too. There is no risk of scorching and less attendance is needed, although you may need to add water at some point during the simmering process.

When I make it, I portion it to meal-sizes and freeze it in freezer-grade Ziploc bags, removing as much air as possible and laying it flat (on a baking sheet until frozen) to maximize storage space. You could also use freezer jars (leaving enough head room for expansion) or, if you have a pressure canner, seal them up in canning jars and store at room temperature instead.

Caldathras

Brain dump of frugality tips

[(Anonymous)]

I think number 1 should be: Take care of your body!

Health
- Eat real food - this is a tricky one with frugality, but important for long term frugality, diabetes and other diseases are more expensive ultimately. Minimize sugar.
- Get plenty of exercise.
- Stay flexible to avoid injury. Practice good posture, and figure out what this means. Do yoga, joint exercises (I did and still do "knees over toes" after a knee injury), etc. Avoid sitting for long periods. I play fiddle and have focused on how to play without hurting myself - i.e. focused on minimizing tension.
- Don't consume stuff that's bad for you. I don't know for certain how bad these things are in themselves, but they cost money usually they or the products they come in have some kind of negative health impact, and I at least don't need them: sugar, caffeine, nicotine, alcohol, cannabis, any other drugs basically.
- Ruthlessly avoid unnecessary medication or medical interventions. I had doctors try to sell me on optional surgeries (nose surgery to fix deviated septum, and jaw surgery to 'correct' overbite) when I was younger which I'm glad I rejected even though I was not super confident about it at the time. The problems these surgeries were to correct were fixable without surgery. Similarly, doctors have several times suggested antibiotics to me when not truly necessary, or people have offered me painkillers for things like headaches that I could survive without them. I have never regretted not taking these things. Since those times, we've collectively learned much more about the harmful effects of antibiotics and painkillers like tylenol, ibuprofen etc.
- Figure out sleep - I had sleep apnea most of my life, I'd sleep 9 hours and feel tired still when I woke up and want an afternoon nap. Using a nose dilator and mouth tape I've been able to fix my nose breathing and now I can sleep 7.5 hours and wake well rested. It seems almost everyone I know has sleep apnea to some degree. CPAP machines can be great, but aren't necessarily cheap. I borrowed one once but didn't like it and now I don't need it.
- Ditch the glasses if you don't really need them. This only will apply to a few people but is very interesting to me. I had prescription glasses in my early 20s. I quit wearing them and started spending more time outside. Three years after this, my vision improved significantly to where I can see things in sharp detail, and it's been five years now with these better eyes, they still seem to be improving even. I haven't been to an eye doctor in 10 years. That's money saved. No guarantee this will happen for anyone in particular but it worked in my case. Obviously if you really need glasses to drive, wear the glasses to drive etc. But some people like me have glasses when they're not really necessary and I might not be the only one whose eyes could heal/improve on their own.
- Take care of your teeth! Brush and floss. Use natural tooth powder. Do not eat sugar. Rinse the mouth immediately after eating fruit or other sugary or acidic things. I know it's partly luck but not entirely so - that I had some cavities in my teens and early 20s, and I had a few cavities beginning to form around 10 years ago, but since then dentists have not found any cavities - i.e. the cavities that were starting to form must have unformed. !

Food
- Don't eat out if you don't have to. 99% of restaurant food has poor quality ingredients and is way more expensive. Bring healthy snacks in the car, and/or learn to go without food for a while so you're never stuck and forced to eat stuff you don't want to eat.
- Don't store vegetables or mushrooms in plastic containers or bags, they will go bad fast. Fresh food needs airflow to keep from spoiling.
- Store food unsealed - airflow is important for slowing down spoilage. If food is slowly drying out it will keep longer than food that is moist but sealed up.
- If food is going to go bad because it's been stored too long fresh, cook it - this resets the spoilage countdown. If you cook food thoroughly every 24 hours even without a fridge, it will never spoil. (Eventually it won't be appetizing but it's still food and safe to eat.) This is easy with soup, a little trickier with other things but still doable. If you have a fridge you can store food in it for ~4 days, then cook it to reset the clock and store it another 4 days. (If you haven't eaten it for some reason..) With these tips to prevent spoilage I almost never throw out food.

Technology
- Don't use subscription media services. Once upon a time I had amazon prime and netflix. That was around $25 a month I was spending. It's been 8+ years since I paid for a subscription like that, which is.. $2400 + compound interest in my bank account now. As an alternative to spotify I have a phone with an sd card and all my music in mp3s on it, which I can listen to with or without internet connection.
- Use an ad blocker. Firefox is better than chrome for this, other browsers like Brave might be even better I don't know. No idea how much this has saved by keeping me from seeing ads.
- Avoid or block social media feeds. These can trigger FOMO of things that cost money, and also of course include lots of ads. I don't have the strongest willpower so I use apps and firefox extensions to block social media feeds and also block those horrible short videos that are everywhere now.

Hygiene
- Don't use soap or shampoo. I use soap for cleaning my hands, and dish soap for washing dishes, that's it. I quit using shampoo in my hair 10 years ago, and after a month or two my hair smell stabilized, it doesn't smell like flowers, it smells like hair, but isn't bad. I could make it smell like flowers with essential oil or something else natural. Using just water on my body seems to be plenty to keep me clean and have healthy skin that doesn't smell bad. I use vinegar in the armpits when I need to kill a bad smell - it works instantly and the vinegar smell goes away after a half hour. When I used body soaps and shampoos I always stunk except right after a shower, and often had skin irritation and rashes. Now, I never have itchy / rashy / stinky skin. I simply wash in cold water every day, and once in a while take a hot shower or bath.
- Don't get a haircut. I used to get a $15 haircut every three months, until I quit ten years ago. I keep my hair tied in a knot and brush it out every few weeks which takes 15 minutes. This is $600 + compound interest in the bank now.
- Quit shaving. I used to have an electric shaver, I stopped using it 10 years ago and just have a beard. Once in a while I trim the unruly hairs with scissors, and I cut back the mustache every week or two which just takes a minute.

Clothing
- Use wool clothing as much as possible. Wool resists smelling bad much better than anything else. I do laundry once every month or two. I wear a cotton t shirt under my wool sweaters in winter, and change the t shirt and wash it, but the wool I very rarely wash. Wool underwear, at least as a man, can go weeks without smelling bad, particularly if you just rotate it. It wicks moisture so it doesn't stay wet from sweat. I spend an average of maybe $30 a year on wool underwear but save a lot on not having to do laundry.
- Any time I am in a thrift store I do a quick check for any wool sweaters, or jeans in my size. It takes some practice to learn to rapidly identify wool by look and feel in contrast to cotton, acrylic, etc. But once learned I can find the one wool shirt in a rack of 100 shirts in a minute, and it's often priced like everything else because the thrift store doesn't know better.


There are endless more aspects to living a rich, frugal life, to do with relationships, community, diy-ing things, choosing what kind of work to do, hobbies, etc, that deserve thought. These are just some of the very simple generic tips on things I've done in my day to day life that are less typical but have saved me lots of money and thus time that I have spent with loved ones and doing things I love.

Sewing Machine needles on sale

[(Anonymous)]

at Wawak in NYC today and tomorrow. Wawak is a mostly online company which sells sewing supplies of good quality at low prices. I understand shipping cost is prohibitive to Alaska, but for us lower 48ers, it is a good value.

A you tube sewist with years experience in the upscale garment making industry gives it as her opinion that you DO NOT have to discard machine needles after three garments, so long as the needles are not nicked or bent. Another reason to sew slowly and baste, not pin. It is much quicker to baste and sew slowly than to have to pick out a crooked seam and redo. Mary Bennett