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.

Rule #5: don't post LLM ("AI") generated content, and don't bring up the subject unless you're running a homemade LLM program on your own homebuilt, steam-powered server farm.

With that said, have at it!

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Current Music: Jethro Tull, "Aqualung"

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From:

michele7

If you're a coffee aficionado, keep scrolling. Now, for the rest of us. Coffee has gotten more expensive. In the past when I had leftover brewed coffee, I would pop it into a mason jar, put it in the fridge to make iced coffee or Japanese coffee gelatin. Or it would go to the compost bin. Lately those haven't appealed to family members. So, l decided to re-percolate any leftover coffee the next day. We brew coffee in one of those old fashioned stove top percolators. I add yesterday's chilled coffee to the pot, top it off with cold water, adjust the amount of ground coffee and percolate. It tastes like normal fresh brewed coffee and saves us a few bucks over the long haul. For all y'all who are thinking "just don't make so much coffee", we have a Murphy's law at our house when it comes to coffee. If I brew a smaller amount, there will be that one person who wants more coffee and there isn't any. If I brew a full pot, there will be leftover coffee on most days. My hubby who drinks most of the coffee doesn't complain, so it's a win for us.

From:

mindwinds

We have a drip pot, not a percolator. I just measure any leftover coffee and put it into a cup, then make enough new to reach our intended goal into the pot, and add the old coffee back in after it's made.

We rarely have enough leftover to cool the new too much.

From:

teresa_from_hershey

As a sewist, I've accumulated plenty of sewing patterns.
I've also been gifted and acquired vintage patterns.

I don't sew enough to use them.
What do you do with vintage patterns? There's a university that takes some but ONLY if they don't already have that pattern, uncut, on file.

I've got 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s patterns, based on price and design. Some are maternity patterns. They're all for a 30/32/34 bust. Very few are larger.

I'll never use them.

If you want them and are willing to pay the media mail shipping, I'll gladly send them on to you!

Otherwise, what do you do with old patterns?
With Joanne's dead and the pattern companies bought up by some shark equity company, there may not be so many patterns in the future. Tissue patterns need big printing presses.

If you've ever made patterns, traced patterns, or tried to extrapolate directions into drafting a full-size pattern, you can appreciate Simplicity and Vogue!

From:

michele7

I'd love them! I'll happily pay for the shipping.

But...in all fairness...there are plenty of people who buy and sell vintage patterns. You might want to try to sell them on Ebay or other sites.

From:

teresa_from_hershey

No, this works for me!

I'll sort through the pile. I've got patterns from an estate sale (I had to take them to get the pinking shears) as well as others.

Do you also want the antique cross-stitching patterns?

From:

michele7

Yes!

From: (Anonymous)

i would love some too. 30 inch bust is too small for me, and no need for maternity, but 32 or 34 inch is usually the right one, maybe a few of us can share what you dont want to sell ?

I just ordered online and received a 1940s or 50s one piece bathing suit with matching skirt pattern

Atmospheric RIver

From: (Anonymous)

I believe the time will come when sewing patterns are collectible, like stamps are now. Whatever you do, I do urge you not to throw your patterns out.

Right now patterns by the Japanese designer Issei Miyaki are selling for $US100.-200. and up. Your 1940s and 50s patterns should also have significant resale value. Do you perhaps have grandchildren or other relatives who might sell them on Etsy, and who would like the extra income and experience? Patterns by designers GunneSax (Jessica McClintock), Laura Ashley, Kenzo, and Betsey Johnson among others are much in demand now. Or, you could offer the lot to a vintage pattern dealer.

From:

teresa_from_hershey

I no longer have the interest in eBaying anything, including the patterns.

I will dig through my unwanted patterns and list them by company name, number, size, and roughly grouped by age and type (kids, maternity, men's, etc.)

It will take me awhile to do this but as soon as I do, I'll list the groups at Frugal Friday.

I'll keep many patterns, especially my costumes.

I'm happy to see my unwanted ones to find a good home!

From:

little_toad

oooh, I would love some!
I've been trying to teach myself to sew over the last year or so, both as a means to save some money and as a personal protest against the current fashion industry. I dream of having a small collection of basic patterns that I can use, re-use, and modify, but getting my hands on them has been a challenge.

From:

teresa_from_hershey

I have a huge sewing library, mostly bought second-hand. Used bookshops abound with sewing books.

That said, these are the two you want:

"Reader's Digest Complete Guide to Sewing" They cover everything, with lots of pictures.

"Design It, Sew It, and Wear It: How to Make Yourself a Super Wardrobe Without Commercial Patterns" by Duane Bradley

If your library doesn't have them, preview via the Interlibrary loan before buying a copy at abebooks.com

The other way to teach yourself to sew is to visit Goodwill. Take two shirts, both of which fit reasonably well, pick them apart, and sew the sections back together but all mixed up. Shorten skirts. Take sleeves off to make vests. Because the cash outlay is tiny, it's low risk. As you get better, you start making "Altered Couture."

My other suggestion is to start with pajamas. Fit is relatively unimportant, they don't have many pieces (facings are easier than stretch neckbands), and no one outside your family will ever see you wear them.

From:

degringolade

I splurged on a fancy rice cooker a couple Lears ago. More and more I am trying to figure out how to use it for different purposes.

Mine has a slow cooker function which makes some dang fine garbanzos. If you soak the black beans, you can use the "brown rice" function to cook them perfectly. It bakes a pretty dang fine little cake. It does a bang-up job on grits.

What is really nice is that it really just sips electricity. Soaked Black beans or brown rice run around 0.35 kWh. White rice a little less. I am testing the slow cooker function now but unsealed garbanzos look to run around 0.6 kWh.

I figure that electricity supply is going to become increasingly an issue. My peak hour cost for electricity here in riot-town runs $0.44 per kWh. Granted the mid peak is only $0.17 and off peak is super cheap at $0.07, but the rapid increases in costs lately tells me that they really don't have enough power to go around all day.

From: (Anonymous)

Since a bunch of people already said they wanted the sewing patterns that Teresa from Hershey is offering, I won't pile on, but just wanted to share: there are a few places near me (Washington DC metro area) that take any kind of sewing, weaving, knitting, cross stitch, etc. supplies and resell them. One such place is called "Dabble Creative Reuse Center" in Manassas, VA and another is the "Scrap Happy Art Supply Thrift" at the BlackRock Center for the Arts in Germantown, MD. (I know, I know, I wanted to puke also at the mention of BlackRock, but the thrift for art/craft supplies is there, nonetheless). These places often let you pay what you can, or sell by volume or weight. I have found some very good deals and if you donate, you get credit for purchase in some places. If you have any craft items you want to get rid of, those places keep stuff out of the landfill and give others the chance to enjoy them. I suspect more of these types of places will pop up as we go along, so it is worth checking in your area if you craft or have craft things you want to get rid of.

From:

teresa_from_hershey

Another GREAT place that sells secondhand craft supplies is The Art of Recycle in Ephrata, PA.

They are amazing and totally worth the trip to Ephrata if you're anywhere near central PA.

Here's the website: https://artofrecycle.org/

There are others across the U.S.

From:

kayr

Salt Lake used to have one, The Clever Octopus, but I think during COVID, they tried to out do everyone else's restrictions and drove their customer base away.

From: (Anonymous)

Hello JMG,
Every Frugal Friday post beginning way back on May 16th, except for the Fourth of July post, has featured an image of a geodesic dome… so, this inquiring mind wants to know, what’s the story? 🤔

From:

ecosophia

I like geodesic domes and I've been having fun posting them. Once I run out of images, I'll be back to something else.

From:

jenniferkobernik

Have you ever built one? How did it turn out? I think they're kinda cool, but am highly skeptical of that many joins on a roof in terms of water incursion.

From:

ecosophia

Oh, they inevitably leak like sieves. They also guarantee a lot of wasted space, and have various other disadvantages which you won't get with a more sensible design -- but they're kinda cool.

From:

jenniferkobernik

Heh. Understood!

From: (Anonymous)

I got involved with domes back in the old days when Mother Earth News was still cool.I built small ones, dog-house to toolshed size and was involved with a guy that turned one into a modern, 3 bedroom house.
They're neat to look at, and the math was fun, but not very practical. They're very labor-intensive to build, with all the custom cuts needed. We had major problems with leaks at the seams, and every room had kneewalls wasting space.
Still good for greenhouses and tents where you can cover them with one large sheet of material like plastic or nylon.
I had lots of fun and learned a lot interacting with domes.

From: (Anonymous)

Oops! Forgot to add resource if you're looking to build or learn more about geodesic domes:

https://archive.org/details/domebuildershandbook/mode/1up

This is the book I used to figure it all out.

From: (Anonymous)

I finally got around to canning some last night, and I opened the 1/2 pint one to try. Mine are Comice pears, which are not used for canning. I found this little jar, I did three jars, this jar was filled last so pieces longer in the syrup. They did not fall aprt in canning, whihc is good. They are very soft after being canned, much softer than canned pears usually are. But a one jar canning I did a few years ago, they were too hard. Looking for this goldilocks point is likely why they are not generally a canning pear. But, I did like them, very smooth too, just melt in your mouth, just have to treat them gentle in serving. I used a light syrup of x cups sugar to 2x cups water as the ratio, which was good. May try and extra light syrup next.

If anyone has other hints let me know, I hav anoth set about yellow enough to do another couple jars. This is the other thing about them is not having a bunch ripe at once as the window of perfect ripeness to can is so short

SInce I already do alot of jam and applesauce, I am trying these pears as pear quarters

i could do haves tomorrow, I would like to know how long I need to have them in the pot of hot syrup before I put into jars

Atmospheric River

From: (Anonymous)

My life was busy with children and disabilities and family chaos for about 6 years and while I was doing that, my trees grew. And the blackberry.

I'm a stubborn creature and refuse to use sprays so want to sing the praise of a gift from my mother, what every girl needs in life, is a pick mattock and a pair of secateurs. Far more efficient than my most abled spade, and probably much more economic than any therapist for any deep emotional issues you might be conquering while triumphantly lugging 8m vines out from your saplings by the roots.

Also the fastest weeder in the west for garden beds you need to clear quickly. Mines getting an hour a use a day atm, also acts as a cheap gym membership. Anyway, pick mattock. Never going without one again.

From:

hippieviking

It's perhaps slightly ambiguous what you mean by pick mattock, if you are actually referring to the tool which is a cutting like head on one side (adze-like) and a pick on the other side then allow me to also suggest that you look into the pulaski. The pulaski would be a form of "cutter mattock" I suppose, it is a very common wildland firefighting tool in the US. It has a full axe head on one side and and the adze like back end for grubbing. The head is heavily made. The adze like end sharpened at a 45-ish degree angle provides the very resistant to dulling from rock strikes "grubbing" end. The axe end is sharpened at a higher angle than that of a typical axe. This provides it to be sharp enough to sever roots but makes it fairly resistant to dulling when striking directly into the ground to get at the roots. Rather than a more mattock like traditional handle the handle is a more typical axe handle like handle. Easy to replace and a bit lighter than a traditional mattock like handle which makes it easier to use for long periods.

HV

From: (Anonymous)

Hah, yes that's what I have. Cuts straight through when you hit the ground.

From: (Anonymous)

Interesting. I have both. I've used the pick mattock quite extensively over the years. (I have this thing about the noise combustion engines make and prefer hand tools.) I got the "pulaski" in some mixed auction buy, thought it was curious as it was missing the pick and set it aside somewhere. Never occurred to me that it was designed to deal with roots (I would never use a traditional axe that way). Now I wonder where I put the thing?

Caldathras

From: (Anonymous)

Here's a tip for uprooting unwanted tree saplings. If, say, a squirrel plants an acorn (or a bird drops mulberry seeds) in your garden, and it gets a year or two of growth before you notice it, it'll have a significant tap root to deal with. I drive a shovel into the ground a few inches from the trunk, then wind the trunk of the offending sapling a few turns around the shovel handle. Pulling back on the shovel handle with one hand, while keeping the saplink tightly wrapped around it, puts a tremendous amount of force on the tree, and they usually come out easily with lots of root.

Lathechuck

From: (Anonymous)

Good tip, thanks.

From: (Anonymous)

That's a great tool. I cannot swing any kind of overhead tool like this, and had the exact same thing happen in regards to years of neglect and blackberries taking over fruit trees. SO for those that cannot use these tools, just keeping the blackberries cut down to the ground has made a huge difference, the trees and happier and I am getting fruit. They are cut down by someone I hire with a metal tri-blade on his string trimmer, and I cut others off with hand clippers. SOmetimes when the ground is soft, so in spring, I will take a shovel and dig out some of the roots. They are easier to dig out with the tops cut off, and I never dig out enough, and even still just getting cut down every year is helping

Atmospheric River

From: (Anonymous)

I am focusing on sewing for my indoor crafting, quilt, home needs, clothing. I was at the senior thrift store recently and they had an adjustable dress form at a very low price, so I bought it as it should help save money with the sewing. It is modern, so more lightweight than older ones, but should last as long as I will need to sew. And the price was very low. It adjusts in the correct range for my body in all kinds of places.

Atmospheric River

From: (Anonymous)

Here in Australia, I've just learned about "Edible Exchanges", events where people meet to give away or swap home made or home grown food. Since nothing's for sale, most of the laws about food preparation don't apply. Everyone participates at their own risk.

If you're a gardener you know that your produce always ripens all at once, and brewers and cooks know that big batches are just as easy to make as little ones. Exchanging for others' wares seems like a great way for everyone to come out ahead.

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Page Summary

michele7 - Leftover coffee
teresa_from_hershey - What do you do with paper sewing patterns? Do you want vintage patterns?
degringolade - multi-use rice cookers and the stuff that powers them
(Anonymous) - Sewing Patterns and Crafting
(Anonymous) - Geodesic domes
(Anonymous) - canning pears
(Anonymous) - Pick Mattock
(Anonymous) - sewing clothing, dress form
(Anonymous) - Edible Exchanges

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