ecosophia | Frugal Friday

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!

Current Mood: groggy
Current Music: Philip Aaberg, "Come Back"

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From: (Anonymous)

I was reading this article this morning and thought of Frugal Friday's...

https://www.racket.news/p/one-more-wafer-thin-mint

...then I thought of the band The Minutemen (early eighties punk) and their concept of "econo"... everything they did they tried to do "econo." Of their music they said, "we jam econo"... They promoted this notion of staying with their means, they held down their day jobs while they practiced and toured and recorded on off time. They didn't try to reach a million people like the typical rock musician, but tried to reach a smaller audience where they could have an impact. They didn't pay for things on credit, had a cheap van to tour in, they stayed within the realm of what was possible to them, but stretched what was possible to them through their skill and imagination. By jamming econo they gained not just a loyal following for their jazz infused punk but managed to have a life beyond work and TV, all on a limited budget, while leaving an imprint across the indie music scene.

While they took their name from the revolutionary group, but their songs were often two minutes or less. They said it wasn't related, but their is an economy of time in their music, that mimics their economy of resources. If small can be beautiful, so can short.

I recommend the album Double Nickles on the Dime... could appeal to fans of fusion rock, and compared to other punk, its not too abrasive. One of their biggest influences was Creedence and they grew up on heavy rock from the sixties.

Continue to jam econo in music and in life.

Justin Patrick Moore

From:

open_space

Some time ago, scotlyn shared her no-knead bread recipe and after she shared a loaf with me, I have been making a lot of loaves. It is very tasty! Crusty, soft in the crumb, filling and delicious, contrary to the many extruded sponges that pass as bread in supermarkets. I can eat this plain with salted butter, as a side with soups and stews or as toast with a little olive oil in a pan for a few minutes. If there are any leftovers after a little less than a week, I make croutons.

The nice thing about this, besides that since there is no kneading involved it takes 5 minutes total, plus the oven waiting time, is that after spending a little in good flour (that's the trick!) you have delicious bread for a few months.

Here is her recipe: No knead bread

Since I love fermented stuff, the natural step for me was to make some sourdough and add it to the mix, and I did.

The steps are exactly the same, but you add 3-4 topped up tablespoons (or more) of the starter into the mix.

For a good sourdough starter, you want to start it with whole wheat flour on the first day and you want a more liquid consistency than dough. Then add white flour to feed it once or twice a day, and throw some whole wheat from time to time.

I have been liking making this with half whole wheat, half white flour for the loaf dough.

Edited Date: 2025-07-11 06:35 pm (UTC)

From:

the_arcane_archivist

The following links contains the archives (.epub, .txt, .html)

.html archive
https://mega.nz/file/1MggFDbB#xJNuL7EugzgWscnGZYhgYSxhx2QpGkcHyFM9qe25J20

.txt archive
https://mega.nz/file/BEx0yYBK#rBfoQatNfbFQq3-RBPPmjw35oFYxIyEwiszy7eMiQ3I

.epub archive
https://mega.nz/file/RUpVwSIT#M20bQ2uBf4Wt-2KNvCx6tONHLHKnRD9SqCkgRuNP6qg

From:

mistyfriday

Thank you for this.

From:

the_arcane_archivist

you're welcome

From: (Anonymous)

Hi Everyone,
The cherry harvest is under way. Yesterday I picked the sour or pie cherries. I put them in a jar with alcohol and sugar. That is how you do it. I put in 3 cups of cherries, must be sour cherries, 2 of alcohol and two of white sugar. The only thing to do after that is to shake or turn the bottle every few days to melt the sugar into syrup and mix it all together.

The cherries produced in this way have a spectacular flavour. My friend, who taught me to do this, insists the pits be left in for greater flavour. I find it works just as well with pitted cherries. You could put the pits in the jar where they will sink to the bottom and be easy to discard when the cherries are ready. They are ready when they taste like maraschino cherries.

These cherries have no artificial colours or strange preservatives in them. Only heaps of excellent flavour. Very good for making Christmas cakes. The alcohol that is left over is called cherry brandy and some of my friends swear it is the best thing they have ever tasted.
Maxine

From: (Anonymous)

What kind of alcohol do you use? 40% or 50% vodka or some other liquor?

From: (Anonymous)

40% vodka or something very similar.
Maxine

From: (Anonymous)

Proof or % ? 40% = 80 proof. Blueberry

From: (Anonymous)

Sorry 40 proof.
Maxine

From: (Anonymous)

Thank You Blueberry

From:

teresa_from_hershey

When you trash-pick and dumpster dive, you'll find Mongo. It's obvious how you reuse that framed Ansel Adams poster. You hang it on your wall. The books go on your shelf. The table goes next to your washing machine.

Obtainium is harder. That's the stuff you find that needs to be repurposed.
It's raw materials for some project.

Thus, the dead trampoline legs become new garden stakes.
Metal headboards for beds become garden edging or vine support.
Wooden pallets get burned or the wood gets remade into furniture or compost bin walls or fence posts.
The heap of bricks becomes the floor for your compost bin enclosure.

Sometimes, I've made unexpected choices. I still recall the clothing (almost new and clean!) I pulled from a heap when someone moved.

I washed everything but didn't donate it all to the thrift shop.

The red velveteen jumper and the heavy paisley skirt were exactly the right size to become a pair of cloth grocery bags; two bags from each garment. Since I make cloth bags to give away as premium swag, I'm always on the lookout for free, sturdy fabric. This was perfect. And, anyway, the local thrift shops have so much clothing that they can't use it all.

I do the same thing with abandoned drapes. That's good cloth there and very useable.

The difficulty with obtainium, besides getting lucky, is how much wonderful stuff do you store? Unless you've got outbuildings, it's quite possible to collect more raw material for future use than you'll ever use.

When you're faced with a discard heap rich with opportunity, consider your space and your spouse and choose wisely.

Can you use that obtainium?
Do you know someone you can pass it along to?

If you can't think of a use, you may have to pass it by.

What have you found and repurposed?

From: (Anonymous)

You just reminded me - I recently found a lovely vintage(?) metal fruit basket (scroll work design). It just needs a bit of cleaning/light rust removal, as apparently it had been left outside before being chucked into the trash bin. It was on top of all the trash, just begging to be picked up. It's now in the trunk of my car waiting to be retrieved - your question jogged my memory (thank you!). Also, over the years, I've found perfectly good cardboard boxes in dumpsters that have been reused for shipping.

From:

michele7

The average cost of a wedding this year is around $30,000 according to online sources. Recently I read about a depression era custom still practiced in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio called the Wedding Cookie Table. Close friends and family members each bake a batch of cookies to accompany a small wedding cake. In the case of the Great Depression, wedding cookies replaced the wedding cake. I think this is an amazing frugal wedding idea. A 3 tier wedding cake that serves 75 can cost from $250-500 according to Google. I can imagine that wedding guests might prefer to select a cookie or two instead of wedding cake. For my oldest daughter's wedding, I baked 3 different cheesecakes. My youngest daughter requested a variety of cupcakes. Both girls had back yard weddings.

I do have to admit that when I got married in 1990 in Japan, my wedding cost $24,000. It was an over the top affair orchestrated by his family as they had to show off. I'm talking lobster, sushi and steak for 130 guests, and gift bags with booze, lacquer ware and food for each guest. It was exhausting. The second time I got married in 2007 it was in a park with my children, two witnesses and a notary. After the ceremony, we went out for dinner. With the cost of the marriage license, wedding rings, some flowers, the notary fee and dinner, we spent less than $1000.

From:

ecosophia

When Sara and I got married in the summer of 1984, we had the ceremony in my dad's backyard. There was no wedding cake, no professional photographer, no caterer, and the two of us wore ordinary nice clothing. The food was mostly made by my Japanese-American stepfamily, and we asked the guests to take photos and send us copies. We were out of pocket less than $250. For years afterwards we heard from people saying that it was far and away the nicest ceremony they'd ever attended. Here's a photo:

The moral to this story? Spending money doesn't improve the experience; it simply adds stress, expense, and complexity to what is already going to be a stressful and complicated day. Simplicity is much better.

From: (Anonymous)

Great topic. I just got my daughters official wedding invite in the mail today, and I will be officiating my first wedding in a few months...

My wife and I catered our own wedding and were up late the night before making all the food in the kitchen where she worked at the time with my sister and others helping. We hired and some people to serve it, but had our friend bake the cake, she worked in a bakery, and we just had to pay for the ingredients.

DJ? No need, I got that covered. I had been DJing for a decade at that point. I used an old ipod and mix CDs I made and a friend of mines sound system... but it was
likely a very atypical collection of songs!

My dad bought the keg and other people chipped in in other ways.

Our neighbor married us. He was a skateboarder, but also ran/runs a small "home" church and agreed to keep Jesus out of it, though he did throw one in at the end. Still...

...we got a break on our honeymoon in Maine. The family doctor / acupuncturist we saw at tge tine, before they moved their permanently, had a second home in Acadia, and the rest of the time we crashed at a couple of cousins places in Portland.

We could have done it cheaper still, but we didnt go into debt and paid for everything as we went.

We jam econo.

JPM

From:

michele7

Research has found a correlation between spending more than $20,000 on a wedding to a significant increase in divorce rates. Have a simple wedding and save yourself from the expensive divorce later. ;-)

From:

open_space

And these days with all the wedding planning business, it is also a great way to get the mercantile vibes off of what is supposed to be an intimate time!

From:

threerays

Same for my wife and I - Covid spoiled our wedding plans, so we did a backyard wedding at my in-laws. We saved a lot of money which we put towards buying a home. Best decision ever.

From: (Anonymous)

That was exactly our approach. My wife and I finally tied the knot (literally, with handfasting) a few years ago. We went for the local registry office on a weekday, with our kids and some of my family, then off to a cheap restaurant. The lack of fuss and expense were such a relief, and never regretted.

Jack H.

From: (Anonymous)

My advice should be taken as anything but authoritative. (I have both 2 weddings and 2 divorces under my my belt!)

But of my two weddings, the ultimate in frugal was the one done as a potluck. About a hundred people, and most of the guests had some connection to a religious community we both belonged to.

The guests knocked themselves out and brought fantastic homemade food. This idea has its risks, for sure. You could get twenty kinds of chips and salsa or worse. But with the right group, it can work extremely well.

*Ochre Harebrained Curmudgeon*

From: (Anonymous)

We were obligated to use a church due to religion, but since we were regular attendees, they didn't charge us for it: all told, we racked up a wedding, with a rented-hall reception, for a hair under $1k, in the early aughts. I made my own dress, thrifted a pair of white silk ballet shoes, did my own hair, my inlaws baked cute snacks and sprung for a very simple layer cake, we *borrowed* potted flowers from a relative with a greenhouse and returned them after, printed our own invitations, made a donation to the choir fund for showing up and singing the service. Husband borrowed a suit. Rings not included in that tally: to this day I have no idea how much he spent on them, only that they were plain and appropriate.

We never look back and think: "Wow, we really should have spent more on our wedding" :D It was a perfectly nice wedding.

From: (Anonymous)

Hi Michele,
When my step daughter got married, I baked a three-tier wedding cake for her. I got thee sizes of springform cake pans at the thrift store, I used the chocolate Genoese cake recipe from the Joy of Cooking and she loved that cake.

The Joy has instructions on how to make a three-tier cake with internal supports. In this case, I use cut down plastic drinking straws for the internal supports and got my husband to cut a couple of thin pieces of wood into circles. I covered them with tin foil. The top two cakes sat on the wooden circles and the straws kept the whole thing from collapsing. I slapped the whole cake up with icing and stuck on sugared rose petals I had made for decoration. If the whole cake cost me $30 Canadian, I would be very surprised.

I thought I would have to make a few cakes before it came out right but the first cake was good and looked very nice.

Seven years later, I got my reward when my step daughter divorced the scheming little bitch she had married!
Maxine

From:

michele7

Maxine, I love this story! I have a wedding cake story too. Wedding cakes in Japan are huge plastic affairs with a small cut out area that a piece of cake goes into for the "cake cut". No one eats wedding cake at a Japanese wedding. I wanted the real deal, so my mom baked cake layers for me, froze them and brought a huge styrofoam box onto the plane to fly from Wisconsin to Japan. We got the cake set up at the hotel, but Mom forgot the internal supports. The hotel staff kindly gave us wooden chopsticks and they worked perfectly. Having real wedding cake at my wedding was a pleasant surprise for our guests.

From:

teresa_from_hershey

Bill and I got married in early September 1993. As a regular church goer, we were married at church and had our catered reception in the church hall (barbecue! It's North Carolina!). I paid a custom dressmaker to make my simple wedding dress; it fit perfectly and cost about the same as a nice dress from J.C. Penney's catalog. My best friend took the pictures. I made silk flower bouquets for me, my bridesmaid, the church, and corsages and boutonnieres for family and friends. We repurosed the mirror table decorations on the wall of our house.

We invited everyone with their kids and everyone had a lovely time.

At the time, I was stationed at the Charlotte Military Entrance Processing Station in the basement of the Federal Courthouse in Charlotte. While planning our wedding I also planned our Change of Command Ceremony in a very fancy building near the command. Catering, a military band, important guests, and so forth.

It was FAR more trouble than planning my wedding and I know it cost more!

From:

slclaire

My husband and I married for less than $1,500 in 1989. Almost all of that was for the reception since we married at the county courthouse on Wednesday afternoon and had the reception the following Saturday evening. We rented the large room in a city building of the city we lived in. They required us to clean the room after the reception; we hired a couple of local folks to clean and pitched in ourselves. We paid for beer and wine and allowed guests to bring ingredients for mixed drinks. We hired a local caterer for a simple, tasty dinner that was easy on the budget. We didn't have flowers and we wore nice clothes we already had. We didn't hire a photographer; some of the guests took pictures and made copies for us. Our splurge was on live music (we'd both been married before but neither of us had live music at those receptions, so we wanted live music for our reception). The music and dinner in total was about $1,000. What made our reception so much fun was our family and friends being there, and everyone told us they'd had a great time!

From:

michele7

I loved reading everyone's frugal wedding stories! For any Frugal Friday readers who may be getting married in the future, think outside the box. BBQ for a wedding, yes! Simple cake made by a loved one, yes! Thrifting your wedding clothes or wearing something you already have, yes!

Here's something that might be controversial...handed down wedding rings. I gave my first husband my great-grandmother's wedding band. (Don't worry, I got it back before the divorce.) I wear it now with the ring my second husband gave me. I plan on passing these rings on to grandchildren. I gave my youngest daughter my one carat engagement ring that came from my grandmother.

From:

teresa_from_hershey

I learned that if you say the magic words "wedding reception catering," the costs instantly rise.

If you're hosting a "family reunion with barbecue in the church hall," the cost goes down.

The caterer didn't ask and I didn't say. Everyone was happy.

From:

slclaire

I think passing on wedding rings is a great idea.

At the time my husband Mike and I got married, his father was making jewelry, and he offered to make our wedding rings for us. I gave him the gold bands from my previous engagement and wedding rings to melt down and use as part of the gold content of the new rings. From one of the jewelry supply catalogs he had on hand, we chose and bought ten 15 point diamonds, five each for my and my husband's rings. He cast the gold for the rings, with my husband's assistance, and set the diamonds in them. Jewelry stores have very high mark-ups; we got beautiful rings for a small fraction of the price we would have paid at a jewelry store, and I put the no-longer-wanted wedding and engagement rings from my first marriage to good re-use.

Edited Date: 2025-07-14 01:09 pm (UTC)

From: (Anonymous)

My almost daughter in law made the wedding cake last year for her brothers wedding. She can make very good cake. I was able to be one of the taste testers here for her trial batches. The challenge was the wedding was on the opposite ( east) coast, so she had to bake in a local family members kitchen and oven. Trying to remember, lemon cake with blackberry filling, definitely had blackberry filling.

For her and my sons wedding in a few months, it is a small wedding but catered and she is just having the caterer have a couple dessert choices. So there will be no cake cutting type thing. They had planned on getting married on this coast, in which case the wedding would have been simple and outside in the redwoods or somesuch. But, due to Mother of the Bride severe health issues, it is a smaller wedding back there. So, the wedding is being matched to the location that was available. Weekday evening, formal, sit down dinner. Interestingly, it is at the Edith Wharton Mansion, and I have listened to some of her writing ( audio recordings of the books). I probably should get one of her novels to read for the journey.

I eloped and was married at the court house, as we didnt want to wait for the wedding venue location we had reserved. This cheap wedding had no correlation to marriage length, and it was not a long marriage.

Atmospheric River

From:

kayr

After 40 years of practice, my 2nd husband and I decided to get married a couple of years ago. It was in the backyard of a friends house who officiated (she was so delighted) with just a few friends and family in attendance. The food was picnic style food, not very expensive and a good time seemed to have been had by all. Very economical.

From: (Anonymous)

Hey JMG and commentariat

Last night I came across this amazing video from the famous DIY YouTube Nighthawkinlight, which goes into detail about how to to produce “compound parabola” mirrors that can be tailored to the dimensions of the solar receiver, ensuring that the entire object has light directed evenly around it, instead of focused at a narrow point or strip as with normal parabolas.

Unfortunately, there is no transcript for the video. And so far I have not tried to find any written material on the technique Nighthawkinlight uses to generate the compound parabola, but I strongly recommend that anyone experimenting with solar heat give it a look into.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zlAI32MSsQ

J.L.Mc12

From: (Anonymous)

Hi Guys,
A lot of people have take up gardening in British Columbia Canada in the last year or two. The cost of plants has skyrocketed. I saw individual strawberry plants going for $5!

A friend gave me 8 Albion strawberry plants she found desiccated and forgotten in her greenhouse. I soaked them in a basin of water to get them going and fertilized them. They are growing well in my greenhouse and they are the number one pick for greenhouse production. Their berries are huge and sweet. I think they are the best strawberries I have ever eaten.

My plants have started to produce runners. I have made a sort of bobby pin with bent wire. I use the wire pins to anchor the runners into pots of soil. Each plant is worth $5 and I will be getting lots of them. Albions are everbearing so I will be getting some fresh strawberries until sometime in October. I may even have enough plants to give some to my very best friends.
Maxine

From: (Anonymous)

I just came across this video showing how to build a cheap heater that can be fueled with e.g. rubbing alcohol. Looks like an easy construction with affordable materials.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LV5wY-iM34

Just do as the guy in the video say and use it in a well-ventilated area.

From: (Anonymous)

Trangia stoves have been around for about a 100 years. Simple and they work but are expensive lots of cheap knock off from middle earth. We carry one when traveling in the car easy to make a cup of coffee or heat up some food. When using rubbing alcohol try to get 90%, if using 50% half of your fuel is water and your pot will be very black on the outside. Looks like a fun project. The stove we have cost less than 12 dollars several years ago. Will also take the chill off a tent. Blueberry

From:

teresa_from_hershey

Dear daughter and I just stopped at our Hanes outlet.
The store was going out of business. The cashier told us she'd come to our store (in Hershey) after closing out another one.

In her opinion, the entire chain of brick and mortar Hanes would be closed by January 2026. Stores cost too much, they can't find staff, and too many people buy online.

You can't buy bras online!

Anyway, if you've got a Hanes in your area, everything will be on sale. Our Hanes was 60% off everything. The selection is poor, but if you need underwear, and you buy it at Hanes, get it now.

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Page Summary

(Anonymous) - We Jam Econo
open_space - Scotlyn's no-knead bread, sourdough edition
the_arcane_archivist - Frugal Friday archives
(Anonymous) - Maraschino cherries
teresa_from_hershey - Obtainium or what you find along the side of the road
michele7 - Wedding costs
(Anonymous) - Improved parabolic solar collectors
(Anonymous) - High Cost of Strawberry Plants
(Anonymous) - Low cost heater
teresa_from_hershey - Hanes outlets for bras, undies, and so forth is closing

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