Frugal First Friday

[ecosophia]

Welcome to Frugal First Friday! This is a monthly 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 on the first Friday of each month, and will remain active until the next one goes up. Contributions will be moderated, of course. 

There has been talk about releasing these posts in print format.  In case that turns out to be worth pursuing, please note: if you comment on this or any future Frugal First Friday post, you are giving permission for that comment to be included in print or other editions. This means, for those of you into the legalese, that by posting something in the comment thread you are granting me non-exclusive reprint rights to your comment, and permitting me to transfer those to a publisher or other venue. Your contribution will have your name or internet handle attached, your choice. 

I also have some simple rules to offer, which may change further as we proceed. One change from the earlier frame is that if you produce goods or services yourself, and would like to let readers know about them, you may post one (1) (yes, just one) comment per month letting people know, with a link to your website or other contact info. The other rules ought to be familiar by now. 

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:  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 #3: don't post anything that would amount to advocating criminal activity. Any such suggestions will not be put through.

Rule #4: 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! 

Comments

Be Prepperish (?)

[degringolade]

This morning I pulled out a 1 kg block of garbanzo tempeh (with garlic, onion, red pepper flakes and black sesame seeds out of the jerry-rigged "incubator" that I use (an old crock pot with an external thermal controller).

Cost for the kg was the cost of one pound of beans and spices. Since I buy in bulk at the local restaurant supply store, the cost of the beans was a buck. You can do a lot with tempeh and most of its preparation is waiting around for mold to grow (usually takes about two days in the "incubator".

Buying tempeh in the store is prohibitively expensive, cheapest I can find for chickpea tempeh is just shy of $11.00/lb. My one-kilo batch, even with overcharging for spices is around $0.75/lb

I think that part of frugality will be the degradation of the "cold-chain" which allows us very high quality and yummy protein (thank you cows) so my guess is that the cost will continue to go up and there will need to be a protein replacement. Tempeh is in no way as good as what it is replacing, but it is still good. I would heartily recommend that you spend some time learning the super easy tech involved.

If there is a modicum of interest here, I would be willing to put together a detailed post over at my place.

Re: Be Prepperish (?)

[slclaire]

Please do put together a detailed post! I'd like to know how to make tempeh.

Re: Be Prepperish (?)

[kotodamaca]

I'm definitely interested in hearing more.

Re: Be Prepperish (?)

[ecosophia]

Mark me down as also interested. I've had excellent results making my own natto at home, and so the thought of adding another fermented bean dish to my repertoire seems prudent -- not to mention tasty.

Skills Reminder

[michele7]

Not long ago on a Magic Monday post, someone asked our host for advice. This person had a good chunk of money and wanted to know what to do with it. My guess is he wanted the "my crystal ball says invest in Acme Magic Additives" kind of answer, but JMG replied with "pay any debts and invest in skills". Lately, my YouTube feed has been popping up videos of folks talking about building up skills as a game plan to fight a worsening economy. The interesting theme is "your skills cannot be taken away from you". My hubby and I have been improving our food growing skills. We are working on increasing our germination rate and adding flowers into our veg beds to battle pests. I would encourage everyone to work on a new skill or improve something you are already good at. Our host has often mentioned divination as a good future skill.

Re: Skills Reminder

[ecosophia]

The future belongs to those who have side gigs. In my repeated experience, learning new skills isn't just fun and practical -- though of course it's both of these -- but also highly lucrative. I've talked about divination because so many occultists used that to get through the Great Depression, but there are many other options!