The Happy Housewife's post about home farming reminded me that I haven't posted anything about our deck garden here. We're renting and didn't want to tear up the back yard (though, if we were to purchase this house and use a lot of hard work hauling landscaping stone out, we could have a massive garden - almost farm - without taking away from the kids' play area. But I digress...). So I decided to do some research on container gardening and what could be grown in a small space.
The answer is: Quite a lot! Especially when you pair container gardening with companion planting.
This is the link to my facebook album for my garden. I started most of our plants from seed indoors using little peat pellets and a grow lamp, but I did purchase some of the tomatoes, herbs and flowers. If I start earlier indoors next year, I will not have to purchase as much - if any - plants. I will save seeds from the successful plants this year for next year's planting purposes. I hope to be able to move some of the herbs indoors for winter use, dry the rest, and can quite a bit of tomatoes and peppers (possibly just prep/freeze the peppers) to help with our family's grocery budget!
Showing posts with label frugality. Show all posts
Showing posts with label frugality. Show all posts
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Adventures in kitchenworld
On Thursday, we took a family trip to Wal-Mart to get some pull-ups and an egg slicer (ours was broken in the move). While we were there, we did our normal shopping of the clearance meats. My husband found these steak medallions and wanted to try to find a recipe like something he had tried at Olive Garden. He even found a recipe right away!
Friday afternoon when he returned from work, he started reducing balsamic vinegar to make the glaze. Our house smelled like an Easter egg dying factory fire! My lungs were burning until we opened the windows and turned on the hood vent over the stove. Small price to pay considering he paid about $2.50 for the bottle of vinegar - and a bottle of the glaze was about 4 times that (for a *small* bottle).
We ended up making a lot of changes to the recipe for my celiac and to get the kids to eat it and still get some of the good stuff =) Plus my husband doesn't like green onions, sun dried tomatoes were too expensive, and we forgot the parsley. Do I sound like an allrecipes reviewer yet ;)
We used Trader Joes GF rotini noodles. We didn't have any alfredo on hand, so I made my knock-off (2 cans goat milk that we have left over from when my daughter received it through WIC, "enough" Parmesan cheese - a cup maybe?, and some garlic powder). Then we added the fresh spinach (cuz that's what we had). We knew my son would pick it out of the sauce, so I had the brilliant idea to break out the immersion blender and make it un-pick-outable!
We're still out of propane, so my husband did the medalions on the Foreman grill. Before this, he used the salt-caking technique here to make them much more tender (and they really weren't too salty at all!) It turned out to be a good thing, because they probably would have fallen through the grill outside.
The end result? The kids didn't like the balsamic glaze (we didn't think they would - we didn't put it on their bowls but let them try ours). They *loved* the "alien slime pasta" with "stinky cheese" sprinkled on top. They even ate some of the steak (they love beef, but they aren't big steak eaters).
And... it turned out BEAUTIFUL! Don't you think?
Close up...
Friday afternoon when he returned from work, he started reducing balsamic vinegar to make the glaze. Our house smelled like an Easter egg dying factory fire! My lungs were burning until we opened the windows and turned on the hood vent over the stove. Small price to pay considering he paid about $2.50 for the bottle of vinegar - and a bottle of the glaze was about 4 times that (for a *small* bottle).
We ended up making a lot of changes to the recipe for my celiac and to get the kids to eat it and still get some of the good stuff =) Plus my husband doesn't like green onions, sun dried tomatoes were too expensive, and we forgot the parsley. Do I sound like an allrecipes reviewer yet ;)
We used Trader Joes GF rotini noodles. We didn't have any alfredo on hand, so I made my knock-off (2 cans goat milk that we have left over from when my daughter received it through WIC, "enough" Parmesan cheese - a cup maybe?, and some garlic powder). Then we added the fresh spinach (cuz that's what we had). We knew my son would pick it out of the sauce, so I had the brilliant idea to break out the immersion blender and make it un-pick-outable!
We're still out of propane, so my husband did the medalions on the Foreman grill. Before this, he used the salt-caking technique here to make them much more tender (and they really weren't too salty at all!) It turned out to be a good thing, because they probably would have fallen through the grill outside.
The end result? The kids didn't like the balsamic glaze (we didn't think they would - we didn't put it on their bowls but let them try ours). They *loved* the "alien slime pasta" with "stinky cheese" sprinkled on top. They even ate some of the steak (they love beef, but they aren't big steak eaters).
And... it turned out BEAUTIFUL! Don't you think?
Close up...
Friday, October 30, 2009
Very inexpensive Christmas cards
Vistaprint.com is running a deal right now for 100 free postcards. If you're happy with their designs and just want to add your own text, your entire order will be about $6-7 (shipping to arrive in about 3 weeks).
If you want to upload your own image, that's an additional $2.49. (Tip from someone who learned the hard way - if you want to do more than one image, make a composite of your own images in photoshop or gimp or paint first - one uploaded composite image is $2.50 instead of $2.50 for EACH image. I corrected it - but it took a lot of extra time.)
You can leave the back blank, fill half of it and leave room for mailing addresses and a stamp, for fill it up all the way. If you do any of the above in black and white - it's free.
If you're sending it as a postcard, you're done. Check out and pay for shipping.
If you'd rather send it as a card, you can add 100 envelopes to your order for about $3.50 (you can get the fancy ones for $30, but that wouldn't be a budget tip from me, now would it?)
Our total for 100 postcards (7 photos on the front, our Christmas letter on the back) and envelopes - plus slow shipping: under $14.
These added to the 30 that I got through Kodak's Million Thanks $15 credit (I paid about $5 with overage and shipping) will completely cover our Christmas mailing list.
And if you're smarter than I am, you can do all this through Ebates and save just a little bit more with 6% cash back! I forgot about that until I was done loading the card... for the second time... and decided my time was worth it to skip the deal this time.
If you want to upload your own image, that's an additional $2.49. (Tip from someone who learned the hard way - if you want to do more than one image, make a composite of your own images in photoshop or gimp or paint first - one uploaded composite image is $2.50 instead of $2.50 for EACH image. I corrected it - but it took a lot of extra time.)
You can leave the back blank, fill half of it and leave room for mailing addresses and a stamp, for fill it up all the way. If you do any of the above in black and white - it's free.
If you're sending it as a postcard, you're done. Check out and pay for shipping.
If you'd rather send it as a card, you can add 100 envelopes to your order for about $3.50 (you can get the fancy ones for $30, but that wouldn't be a budget tip from me, now would it?)
Our total for 100 postcards (7 photos on the front, our Christmas letter on the back) and envelopes - plus slow shipping: under $14.
These added to the 30 that I got through Kodak's Million Thanks $15 credit (I paid about $5 with overage and shipping) will completely cover our Christmas mailing list.
And if you're smarter than I am, you can do all this through Ebates and save just a little bit more with 6% cash back! I forgot about that until I was done loading the card... for the second time... and decided my time was worth it to skip the deal this time.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Frugality starts at home
I've read a few friends' posts about making their own laundry detergent. I was thinking of getting in on the BOGO Arm & Hammer detergent at Wags this week, so I decided that if I wanted to try making my own, I needed to do that before the sale ended (to see if it was any good).
Well, I did it. I went out and got the borax and washing soda required for this recipe. I looked at the Fels Naptha, but when the label said prolonged exposure and contact with skin should be avoided because it could cause irritation... I passed on that. Besides, I already had 8 bars of Ivory at home (I planned let my kids carve boats with plastic spoons like we did in kindergarten).
Here's my breakdown:
74 ounce box of 20 Mule Team Borax - $2.98
~60 ounce box of Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda - $2.70
1 bar Ivory soap - free because I had it on hand.
There's enough Borax for 18.5 batches and washing soda for 15. Since I have 8 bars of Ivory and 8 of Dove - and a few random others - we're set for 30 gallons of laundry detergent for $5.68. That's $.31 less than I would have paid for 2, 32 load bottles of Arm & Hammer this week with sale and coupon. This is HUGE!
(If I'm being honest, I also had to purchase a 5 gallon bucket and lid for $4.88 and $1.79 respectively. I only had a lid-less 1.25 gallon ice cream bucket, but this will be reused for a *really* long time).
I followed her recipe (please click on the link - she requests that no part be reprinted) until we got to the gallon and 6 cups of water. She said that the final consistency would be something like egg drop soup, and I didn't have a bucket big enough for all that volume. So I figured I'd just add the 6 cups of water and use 1/4 cup of the detergent in the laundry instead of the 1/2 cup of diluted detergent.
So what I'm learning is that frugality comes through trial and error =) It formed something between crisco and jello-jigglers =) Then I figured that I'd just use one of our repurposed spaghetti sauce jars with a few cups of boiling water and shake the heck out of that 1/4 cup of soap and dump it into the machine. But as well as saving money, my time is valuable and should be saved as well (it took a LONG time to dissolve like that). So I bought the bigger bucket and lid, plopped the detergent jell-o mold in the bottom, broke it up and added a gallon of boiling water in 2 cup batches. And I stirred. And stirred. And stirred. It took what seemed forever, but was probably at least 30 minutes, and I got most of the clumps dissolved well enough to call it good.
And the best parts- the Ivory smell (not my favorite) is totally gone from the clothes when the wash cycle is over. Even better? IT WORKS!!!! It works and it works really, really well. Totally worth it!
So if you're interested in trying it, give it a shot. You really can use any bar of soap that you have around (or collect a few as you travel for free!) and spend about NINETEEN CENTS PER GALLON!!!!
Well, I did it. I went out and got the borax and washing soda required for this recipe. I looked at the Fels Naptha, but when the label said prolonged exposure and contact with skin should be avoided because it could cause irritation... I passed on that. Besides, I already had 8 bars of Ivory at home (I planned let my kids carve boats with plastic spoons like we did in kindergarten).
Here's my breakdown:
74 ounce box of 20 Mule Team Borax - $2.98
~60 ounce box of Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda - $2.70
1 bar Ivory soap - free because I had it on hand.
There's enough Borax for 18.5 batches and washing soda for 15. Since I have 8 bars of Ivory and 8 of Dove - and a few random others - we're set for 30 gallons of laundry detergent for $5.68. That's $.31 less than I would have paid for 2, 32 load bottles of Arm & Hammer this week with sale and coupon. This is HUGE!
(If I'm being honest, I also had to purchase a 5 gallon bucket and lid for $4.88 and $1.79 respectively. I only had a lid-less 1.25 gallon ice cream bucket, but this will be reused for a *really* long time).
I followed her recipe (please click on the link - she requests that no part be reprinted) until we got to the gallon and 6 cups of water. She said that the final consistency would be something like egg drop soup, and I didn't have a bucket big enough for all that volume. So I figured I'd just add the 6 cups of water and use 1/4 cup of the detergent in the laundry instead of the 1/2 cup of diluted detergent.
So what I'm learning is that frugality comes through trial and error =) It formed something between crisco and jello-jigglers =) Then I figured that I'd just use one of our repurposed spaghetti sauce jars with a few cups of boiling water and shake the heck out of that 1/4 cup of soap and dump it into the machine. But as well as saving money, my time is valuable and should be saved as well (it took a LONG time to dissolve like that). So I bought the bigger bucket and lid, plopped the detergent jell-o mold in the bottom, broke it up and added a gallon of boiling water in 2 cup batches. And I stirred. And stirred. And stirred. It took what seemed forever, but was probably at least 30 minutes, and I got most of the clumps dissolved well enough to call it good.
And the best parts- the Ivory smell (not my favorite) is totally gone from the clothes when the wash cycle is over. Even better? IT WORKS!!!! It works and it works really, really well. Totally worth it!
So if you're interested in trying it, give it a shot. You really can use any bar of soap that you have around (or collect a few as you travel for free!) and spend about NINETEEN CENTS PER GALLON!!!!
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