Frugal Friday
Oct. 17th, 2025 08:56 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.
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!
What do you need versus what you think you need?
Date: 2025-10-17 06:13 pm (UTC)When we bought our house in July of 2001, the Florida Room was carpeted with old, blue indoor/outdoor carpet. It was ugly and worn. For years, Bill and I discussed what to do about the carpet. Replace it? Replace it with what? Tile? Sheet vinyl? More carpet? Some fancy poured concrete like what we saw at home shows?
There was never enough free money to do anything so we waited.
Now, 24 years later, I realized that we did do something about the now at least 40-years-old, faded, worn-out indoor/outdoor carpet.
We covered it up with salvaged indoor/outdoor rugs. Over the years, the gods of mongo and obtanium were generous and I salvaged three, decent-sized, low-pile beige-ish rugs. Along with a few salvaged welcome mats, they completely cover the ancient blue carpet other than a few, narrow margins under furniture.
The moral of the story is what do you actually need?
We needed to cover up the worn-out blue carpeting. We didn't need to replace it at great expense. Just cover it up.
Re: What do you need versus what you think you need?
Date: 2025-10-18 02:21 am (UTC)Re: What do you need versus what you think you need?
Date: 2025-10-18 02:35 pm (UTC)The greenhouse effect when it's sunny (year-round!) is remarkable.
The ancient indoor/outdoor carpet is glued directly to the concrete floor. It's in bad shape. We never move the salvaged rugs.
The salvaged rugs do make the floor softer and warmer. They also add some sound-muffling as do the drapes I hung at the support posts.
Before the drapes began disintegrating with age, I used to close them at night in the winter to slow down the heat loss. I'll have to replace them with drapes I salvaged from a pizza restaurant being demolished but I haven't had the time to pick those drapes apart and re-sew them into the correct size panels.
Re: What do you need versus what you think you need?
Date: 2025-10-19 07:11 pm (UTC)Re: What do you need versus what you think you need?
Date: 2025-10-20 07:38 pm (UTC)Re: What do you need versus what you think you need?
Date: 2025-10-20 10:34 pm (UTC)Crochet
Date: 2025-10-19 12:12 am (UTC)Using Jack-O-Lanterns: seeds and flesh
Date: 2025-10-19 01:06 am (UTC)The seeds make a tasty, fiber-full snack when roasted. Everyone making Jack-O-Lanterns just tosses them out. How many folks would be happy to save the guts in the fridge for you? Enough you might get sick of pumpkin seeds! Roasted dry and salted, they last for... well, I'm not sure. More than a month, in my experience, but I don't have a big social circle to ask for pumpkins.
Even better-- jack o' lantern pumpkins are every bit as edible as pie pumpkins. Sometimes they taste even better. Depending when your friends and relatives perform the jack-o-lantern carving, and how warm it is in your area, those carved pumpkins may still be good! Offer to pick them up Nov.1 and you'll have more pumpkin than you know what to do with. I like to roast and puree it, but note that pureed pumpkin MUST be frozen and cannot be home canned according to the USDA. Chunked pumpkin can be canned in acidic water, but the USDA probably wouldn't approve of using ex Jack-O-Lanterns. (So we won't tell them.)
One benefit of roasted, pureed Jack-O-Lantern? Sometimes those pumpkins make a much wetter puree than store-bought. (Sometimes, they're nice and dry; it varies.) A wet puree is good, because you can run it though a jam bag or cheese cloth. Take the liquid, add sugar and spice, and boil it up into a lovely Jack-O-Lantern-Jelly. (Pumpkin has pectin, but it's gels to a more honey-like consistency in my experience. Toss some crab apples in there if you need a good firm jelly. If crab apples grow where you are, you can very likely find them free for the taking.)
It doesn't take too many "decorative" pumpkins to give enough flesh and jam to last all year.
Re: Using Jack-O-Lanterns: seeds and flesh
Date: 2025-10-19 04:03 pm (UTC)I use a sturdy but very thin sawtooth knife to cut through the pumpkin, and a sawtooth-sided spoon for scraping out the stringy bits and seeds. These tools were part of a pumpkin carving kit that I bought more than a decade ago. It felt like a bit of an extravagance at the time, however, it turns out that I use the knife and spoon for many months of the year for cooking up other squashes, especially butternut squash.
Re: Using Jack-O-Lanterns: seeds and flesh
Date: 2025-10-19 04:08 pm (UTC)big slices of onion
some garlic
maybe apple chunks if I have any
maybe potatoes chunks too, if I have any
maybe sweet potatoes, too
maybe some shredded cheese, of I have any, if I don't that's OK
butter, the more the better
salt and pepper to taste
splash of balsamic vinegar (or soy sauce)
and then toss it all in a mixture of yoghurt and mustard
bake it until the pumpkin is the way you like it
to serve, sprinkle loads of fresh dill or parsely or cilantro or chopped green chives on top
Re: Using Jack-O-Lanterns: seeds and flesh
Date: 2025-10-19 05:20 pm (UTC)Carved pumpkins, if not moldy, are good food for hens, sheep and pigs. I bought a big pumpkin for $4 Canadian as a treat for my ewes. I chop it up small for them because they are pretty spoiled. Pigs will roll pumpkins around until they break and then they eat them. Big farmers used to grow fields of pumpkins and put the sheep in to eat them after the pumpkins had frozen and thawed. That made the pumpkins soft enough for the sheep to tear apart.
Pumpkins make great soup and roasted pumpkins make a lovely side dish.
Maxine
Applesauce
Date: 2025-10-19 10:55 pm (UTC)You can use apples with a damaged area if you cut and cook very soon, otherwise you will get mold inside the apple. Especially true if they fall off the tree as that causes bruising and/or small cuts you might not notice. In all cases, give the apples a good wash off with plain clean water before cutting.
If you dont have a food mill, peel the apples before cooking them. If you have a food mill of some type, just cut the apples into quarters or smaller, cutting off the core and any bruising, cut areas, coddling moth damage, etc... Put the apple pieces in a large thick bottom pot, like you use for jam making. Not a stock pot with a thin bottom as then the applesauce may stick and burn. Put some water in the pot to make steam to cook the apples and so they dont stick. Some varieties of apples need more water as they are drier apples, just keep an eye on it your first time and can add water. Some varieties of apples will fall apart when cooked like this, others keep their shape but will be done. Test those by squashing a piece up against the inside of the pot or stick with a fork or something, error on the side of softer is better if you are not sure. Keeping in mind you are going for the consistency off applesauce, not making apple butter ! Add more water if they need to cook longer.
If it is too late now or you need to do something else (like sleep) put the pot in the refrigerator until you can get to it the next day. If you are a better manager of time, go to the next step.
One of my offspring likes a chunkier applesauce, so always peels before cooking and then just mashes it all with a potato masher, and always adds powdered cinnamon. It is very good this way. You can eat it all this week or freeze some of it. Applesauce is good by itself, on latkes, on pancakes or waffles, with some meats like pork. So making a small batch is good practice even if you dont have a mill or canning equipment. If you love it, you can get equipment for next year and either way, it is a good cooking skill.
Today I used my horizontal Food Mill with its largest screen ( Similar to a Foley Food Mill, but mine has 3 screens), which used to be inexpensive but now may cost up to $50. Look up what this looks like and keep an eye out at thrift shops or garage sales. I ran the cooked apples pieces thru the mill, then brought the applesauce up to a boil in the thick bottomed pot. I put it in pint jars ( 2 cups, so 4 1/2 cup servings per jar) with 1/2 inch headspace, make sure to run a non metal utensil down the sides of the jars ( thin wooden spoon handle, small rubber spatula, or your handy canning tool you use to check headspace) to get rid of air bubbles, make sure still 1/2 inch headspace, wipe off the jar rims realy well. If using standard American 2 part lids, put on a metal lid, screw ring on 3 finger tight and put in canner. Process 20 minutes in boiling water bath canner. I ended up with 8 pint jars today, so hopefully I will have time to do another session or two of applesauce, but I also want to do some pie slices.
Re: Applesauce
Date: 2025-10-20 05:24 pm (UTC)🙂
Re: Applesauce
Date: 2025-10-21 10:02 pm (UTC)I use a vertical-axis OXO food mill, and a copper-bottom stock pot. I stir it with a steel spatula to keep it from sticking (or scrape it if it does).
Lathechuck
Re: Applesauce
Date: 2025-10-21 10:51 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2025-10-20 08:55 pm (UTC)preserving shelf stable carrots
Date: 2025-10-21 05:18 am (UTC)As far as saving money in good times (now), I just bought organic carrots for $1.25/pound to make a soup to can, so 4 pounds was $5, the fennel is maybe $2 ? So lets say $7 for 11 cans of organic soup. I made vegetable stock for it from scraps saved up in a bag in the freezer. The inner lid was .10. So $.74 plus spices and electricity per jar. This is the same size as supermarket cans and those costs about $4 for a can of organic soup. Condiments are also a big savings ! Pickled vegetables or salsas realy add up, so making pickled carrots or carrot habanero butter saves alot on groceries.
Water bath canned: (1) Pickled Carrots. There are alot of recipes for this you can look up, some are carrot sticks in a pickling brine with various types of spices. Other recipes are slices, or mixed pickles with other vegetables. A friend of mine always does carrot spears with a simple brine and whole cloves. I liked those but found the cloves got a bit strong for me in storage. You can make any of these pickled recipes and not can and keep in the refrigerator for now to learn how. (2) I realy like a recipe called "Carrot Habanero Butter" this is in the Book, The All New Ball Book of Canning and Preserving. This can be water bath canned safely, like pickles, as it has enough acid added. This is a safe, tested recipe, the acid supplied by bottled lime juice in addition to white vinegar, it has cilantro, habanero, onion, garlic, carrots. It is all cooked and blended into a paste then canned. This is used like you might a salsa, good in tacos with black beans or seafoods. I made a batch last month and since I live alone, I canned it in little 1/2 cup (4 oz)canning jars. Even though I have a refrigerator, I dont like lots of science experiments in it and also I like my canning to be able to be used if no good refrigeration is available, so in sizes that can be used up quickly, often single use.
Pressure Canning: (1)Sliced carrots; You can pressure can sliced carrots in water and have a product like you buy in the store. I find these a little bland, but they are healthy and can be used in recipes and jazzed up. The New Ball Book of Canning... mention above has a section called simple one jar vegetables, and I made the Curried Carrots a couple years ago, it is like store bought canned carrots but canned in broth with curry powder and cilantro. I was unimpressed, still kind of bland to me. Maybe their herbed or honey ginger would be better ? (2) Soup. There is one tested recipe I found for a blended carrot fennel soup and I made this tonight. It is in the canner now, but I tasted it and spiced it to my taste. So for me, this has that vegetable serving idea of canned carrots but already spiced and in a form that I like. These 2 links are the same safe, tested soup recipe that Ball Canning used to have on their web site for free with slightly different spicing. https://creativecanning.com/canning-carrot-soup/ ttps://web.archive.org/web/20210620013327/https://www.healthycanning.com/carrot-and-fennel-soup/ You should print out now if you think you might ever want to can this. I used fresh fennel and fresh carrots, salt, white pepper, lemon juice, dried ginger, dried cumin, dried thyme. Measure out the blended soup and add back water to get the correct amount ( 5 or 6 quarts of liquid) as soups lose liquid as the carrots get soft. That way you make sure it is the safe consistency and not too thick to can. I canned mine in pint ( 2 cup) jars as I live alone. This would be 2 side serving normally, but if no power, I can eat it at once.
Dried carrots: carrots can be dehydrated, and you can do this at home or buy dehydrated carrots. I do not dry these at home, but I have bought commercially dried carrots and tried them out one winter in all my usually cooking. They are great, rehydrate in a bit of water and you get the fresh carrot smell and firmness, to me much better than commercial canned carrots. Worked great in soups, stews and stir frys, a little smaller than I cut fresh, but worked well. There are no additives, just dried carrots. Azure standard carries small size of these, LDS Food storage as well as many other prepping food sellers carry #10 cans of them. 1 #10 can is ALOT of carrots, but small enough to be used up before winter is over if it is your main source of vitamin A.
Re: preserving shelf stable carrots
Date: 2025-10-24 02:16 am (UTC)