Frugal February -last post

We have company coming and will need extra snacks.  I am trying to use up pantry ingredients.
So,  I made a small batch of homemade buttercream frosting and spread in on a 1/2 of graham crackers for homemade cookie sandwiches- they are delicious and one of my dad's favorites.

Made a new recipe with melted white chocolate chips, pretzels, craisins and pecans.
Sweet N Salty snack Mix

there was 1 1/2 very ripe banana in the banana bowl,  my banana recipe calls for more but I used what I had and baked the banana bread recipe into 15 muffins,  they are fine even with less banana

we had this meatless entree last night, it is really good but next time, I am going to double the veggies to 8 cups.

Easy Noodle Stir Fry

Grocery Budget for February- had $101 left over

Gas Budget- we use a prepaid Walmart card and I don't know how it happened but we had $160 left out of the $200 we budget every month.  It has been so cold and we have stayed home a lot,  but I am wondering if we bought gas a time or two and it didn't get subtracted..... who knows.  I have been keeping records of some things but not that

Not frugal things

Husbands eye surgeries- thankfully his work insurance will cover most of it but it is a new calendar year and we had to pay the deductible.  But he is doing great and can see so much better even with just one eye done so far.  We are thinking his future eye glass prescriptions may be less expensive than his previous very strong and complicated prescription.  

My splurge

I have tried all kinds of things to get my fingernails to be strong and grow but nothing has worked.

So on Saturday,  I got my first ever fake nails and and polish at a salon.  I got short ones as I still want to sew and type and still need to do housework.  

I am very happy with them,  not a break or chip even after a week!  

fake nails are not thrifty and I know about the health questions,  but on this issue,  I plan to just go

with pretty nails, which I have never had before, and enjoy them. 

Joining up with 

Finances on Friday

She has done great in February, only buying dairy and using her pantry and freezer to keep her family of  6 fed. 

Frugal February- homemade sandwich buns

Linking to Friday Finances at Renaissance
I like to make bread and am trying to make 100% of our bread in 2014 at home.  Except for a tiny free loaf of Sicilian bread we got last week from a new food truck business,  we have had only homebaked bread.

We like loaves of bread but they do get dry really fast so for sandwiches, we prefer homemade buns.  They seem to stay soft and less crumbley for a lot longer than sliced bread.

This is how I make them......
I mix and knead the dough in a bread machine.  It can also be mixed in a heavy mixer or by hand.
Then I take it out after the kneading is done and let it rise in a big oiled bowl.   In this picture, that is 2 batches of dough.  As soon as the first batch is ready, I put the dough in a big bowl and start a second batch. 

Let the dough rise until it is doubled or more in size. 

Then roll out the dough on a floured surface- maybe 1/2 -3/4 inches thick.  This just depends on how thick you like your sandwich buns.
I have 2 round cutters,  I think the bigger one is 4 inches and the other one  is a bit less than 3 inches. 

Cut out the buns and put them on baking sheets. 
I use well-seasoned stone ware. 
if you bake them on a plain metal cookie sheet,  you will need to grease the sheet or those buns will stick while baking. 

Let the buns rise for about 1/2 an hour and then bake.  No matter the recipe,  I bake mine at 375 degrees and check after 15 minutes.  Sometimes they take just a few more minutes to get golden brown.

Let the buns cool- you can put them on a cooling rack if your prefer.  I don't usually but sometimes I do. 

When cool, each bun gets sliced with a bread knife.  I slice almost all the way but leave about 1/2 inch unsliced.  That way,  you can still open them up but the tops and bottoms don't get separated.

 Bag up the buns and freeze the ones that won't be eaten in a day or two.

When you need bread,  just take out however many you need.  They thaw quickly. 

This works for small households like we are now.  When we have company and when our children were younger,  fresh homebaked bread was eaten way too fast to even think about freezing it.

I think most any  bread recipe that is good as a loaf can also be rolled out and baked as good sandwich buns.

Here is how I make them with fresh ground whole wheat.

My Grandparents Bread recipe when I first blogged about it

they used this recipe to make loaves of bread as well as lots of buns for sandwiches

Grandpa's Bread2 cups warm water
1 package yeast
1 t salt
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup oil - they used Wesson or Crisco oil - I used melted butter
about 6 cups of flour - they used all-purpose flour, I used 2 cups of whole wheat and 4 cups of unbleached
dissolve the yeast and sugar in the warm water. Then stir in the salt, oil and most of the flour. Mix well, then knead until you have a smooth dough. They kneaded it all by hand, I let my Kitchenaid mixer do most of the work or I would make a 1/2 recipe at a time let the bread machine do the kneading.
Let dough rise in an oiled bowl, covered with a clean kitchen towel, until at least double in size.
Punch down. Divide in 2. Shape into loaves and place in greased bread pans.
Let rise again, until at least double.
Bake at 375 for 35-45 minutes. 

Our current favorite bun recipe

1 C water

1 egg well beaten

2 T butter

2 T sugar

3 T dry milk

1 t salt

3 1/4 cup all purpose flour

1 1/2 t yeast

add all to the breadmaker bowl in this order and set on knead cycle- check midway through mixing as you may need  to add 2-3 T more flour. 

This Honey Oatmeal Bread at AllRecipes.com also makes delicious buns but I have not been baking it for a few months as our youngest grandchild really likes homemade bread but he can't have honey until after his first birthday. 

Where we live,  flour is cheapest at Aldi.  Yeast is cheapest at Sams.  It comes in a twin pack of vacuum packed 1 pound bags.  I keep the yeast in the freezer, the opened one gets pour in a jar with a tight lid.  It keeps in freezer for a long time too and will still be active way past that date they put on the packages. 

So,  go bake some buns when you have time.  They are delicious and easy and your family will be so happy.  And you will spend much less on homemade buns than what store buns would cost. 

Frugal February - day 17

Good Monday morning to you all

My house is in need of some cleaning this morning and I am working on that. 

It is warming up so I planted cherry tomato and flower seeds in the egg shells I've been saving.

The pigs and elephants are from Dollar Tree. They have tiny solar panels on their backs and when they are in sunshine, the pigs flap their wings and the elephants flap their ears. Dollar Tree makes them for some holidays. Last sping, their were dancing daisies and in the fall, their were scarecrows.

They are silly and make everyone smile when they see them wiggling.

The egg shells are just in old egg cartons on a thrift store tray to catch the water that spills. 

Part of my housework today is laundry. For 2 reasons, I am hanging some of the laundry to dry, either on a drying rack or in hangers in doorways.

It is cheaper (very little electricity used)

Our air is so dry right now, I hope as the clothes dry that it will moisturize the air.

We have an outdoor clothesline  but the wind is gusting to 40 mph today- so indoor drying is best right now.  

Before I air dry, I add liquid fabric softener to the final wash rinse and then the clothes get fluffed in the electric clothes dryer for 10 minutes. Even air dried, our laundry is soft and wrinkle free this way. 

Frugal February and thrift store Saturday

One thrift store visit this morning---

The Valentine stickers were 90% off so just 5 cents for both sheets.

My husband liked the $2 crystal frame.

The wood plaque was $1 and was something I was looking for so I can make a version of a Pinterest pin.

Remember last week I bought all that Farberware for a song? 

I thought this big covered skillet was Farberware, but when I washed it and saw the marks, it is really that waterless cookware that used to be so popular. It is also very expensive. When I looked last week on EBay, there were a numbers of listings for waterless cookware but only one cover 12.5 inch skillet. And it was $299!  I have shopped at thrift stores and yard sales for a long time but this is the best deal I have ever come across. 

I am cooking in it for the first time tonight and it cooks so nicely too.

My husband is having eye surgery soon and he had a prescription for Vigamox eye drops. With his insurance, at CVS, his cost $20.

A relative just came down with a corneal ulcer, from wearing contact lenses too long. That relative also got a prescription for the same Vigamox and filled it at a locally owned drug store. That relative has a different employer but the same medical insurance.  Unfortunately, that prescription cost $110. 

The prescriptions were filled 9 days apart. 

Needless to say, that relative will be going to CVS is future prescriptions are needed. 

Frugal tip- pharmacies are not all the same. Ask others, call about prices, asked for generics- hopefully you won't pay $90 more the same tiny bottle of eye drops.

Frugal February day 13 - the nut house

My husbands coworker, David,  had a very good pecan harvest,  he gave us some pecans and we also picked up a lot of pecans on halves at his orchard. I don't know how many pounds are already in our freezer, but lots, and there is going to be more.  Back in the fall
My husband cracked and picked all of ours out the old fashioned way, with hand crackers and a metal pick.

David had more pecans mechanically "cracked and blown"   The pecans are not ready to eat after that process but a lot of the shell has been removed.  He wants them picked out all the way and my husband is doing it for him, on thirds. David will get 2/3s of this batch and we will get 1/3.

This is what the cracked and blown pecans look like- there is very little shell left in. 

David brought us a big storage tub with 2 trash bags full of pecans. 

My husband has already cleaned half of them,  I think it yielded 6 gallon bags - each bag is almost 4 pounds of pecans, from just half of them. 

These pecans would be especially delicious in pecan pie but we are trying to not eat that many calories. 

We do like to snack on nuts so I tried roasting a few from the freezer. I stirred them in just a little melted butter and salt, then baked them at 350 for about 8 minutes. I think they taste really good. 

For portion control and convenience, I used a 1/4 measuring cup and divided them into small dishes. 

I expect some of our pecans will end up in pecan pies or chocolate chip cookies but for everyday eating, we will enjoy eating our pecans roasted and in small portions. 

My frugal tip- everyone isn't friends with a pecan grower but everyone knows busy people. If you are willing to do odd jobs, I think there are plenty of opportunities to do similar things, 

Frugal February- day 11

I pack this little cooler for my husband before he goes to work. It is pretty much the same thing every day -

2 servings of fruit

1 serving of nuts

1 string cheese

A sandwich on a homemade bun with a few chips and pickles

Coffee and a bottle of water, an ice pack and a cloth napkin

This keeps him fed for lunch and breaks.

I like these Ziploc 3 compartment containers as they keep the sandwich and chips from getting squashed. 

The nuts are in a reused baby food container. 

I try not to use many sandwich bags -they only cost 2 cents at Aldi though.

All of his coworkers but 1 buy their breakfast and lunch at nearby fast food restaurants everyday. Those coworkers also complain about being broke too. They think my husband is spoiled because I pack his lunch too.  Silly men! 

Packing a lunch like this is not really any trouble, it just takes a little planning. 

When I was younger and living at home, I packed my dad's lunch pail. He did not care what was in it, he was just happy if I would fix it. He liked fruit and homemade cookies and crackers spread with peanut butter. I remember one time that we needed to buy groceries and all I could come up with for dad's entree was a stale hotdog bun with cheese and pickles. When he got home from work, he told me it was a delicious sandwich. 

When I was just a baby, my dad and his uncle worked at a petroleum refinery in west Texas.  All the men took lunches.  One man, a real creature of habit, always had the exact same lunch- a bologna sandwich, a banana and a Hershey bar. The men at this plant were jokesters, especially Uncle Jesse. One day, he convinced all the men to bring that same lunch and to eat it at the same time as the creature of habit man. Dad said all the men had a great time doing it but the guy did not realize he was being pranked until all the men were eating Hershey bars at the same time. 

The contents of my husband's cooler costs less than $2. 

If he ate fastfood, I am sure it would cost at least $10-$15 every day.

Frugal February day 8- sewing and thrift stores

The first quilt of 2014 is finished. It was made with all scraps except for the batting and of course the thread. I bought the batting and thread on sale and with a coupon at Joann's. They have great sales.

I had the quilt spread out in the living room and my son is here, trying it out.

I wanted a dark backing for it and used these 2 fabrics, neither was big enough so I pieced them together.

I thought it be fun to make 12 quilts in 2014 but realistically, I am shooting to make 6.  So 5 more quilts in almost 11 months, maybe!

Sewing is especially thrifty if you end up with gift fabric. 

With the cold front here, I have pretty much stayed home all week.  This morning, we did a couple errands and I went to a thrift store while my husband went by the bicycle store.

The kitchen things were all 1/2 price. All this stainless steel Farberware was $16.  There is a huge covered skillet, a small skillet, a double boiler, a steamer, 3 1 quart saucepans and a 4 quart stock pot. My daughter wants new saucepans and was going to buy some today. I think I got all the saucepans she could need. I am keeping the big skillet and maybe the steamer.

I always look at the children's clothes. All of these were $6.75

This little blanket was $1. Two of my grandsons live on a farm. This farm theme fabric is so cute, I think they will like it.

My town has 5 nice thrift stores but they do price things differently. I like to shop at the one with low priced children's clothes.  I "like" them on Facebook and knew from a post this morning that their kitchen stuff was half price so when I saw the cookware, I knew it was a very good deal. 

Frugal February -day 7- Pretty up the trash cans

The trash cans have been bugging me. We had several plain white plastic ones that we keep lined with white trash bags, but they just looked messy the way the bag hangs around the top and plain white plastic is just blah....

After - 4 pretty trash cans that don't make me frown when I look at them.

So, I got out  the Mod Podge, recycled brown shipping paper and some decorative quilt print paper. 

That trash can below, under the sink, is how they all started out.

The quilt paper is from a bargain thrift store purchase years ago, it had lots of paper in it and I've used it for several projects and to wrap gifts.

After I decopaged them all. I sewed big garters to camouflage and hold the trash bags in place.

These 2 are in the breakfast room. One is for ordinary trash, the other is for recycles. 

The birds were cut with a Cricut.

This one is the play room.  I actually decopaged this can a few years ago but it never looked quite as pretty as I wanted it too.  It really needed the garter at the top.

The crazy quilt one is for the master bathroom,

The garters are just long strips of fabric, about 2.5 times as long as the top circumference of each can. I sewed them right sides together and left both ends of the tube open to turn it right side out. Then I sewed a 1 inch casing down the center and added the elastic to fit the can. Then just secure the elastic and finish sewing the end seam. 

The small cans ruffles are 3 inches wide finished, 4 inches for the bigger cans. 

Frugal February -day 6 - do stuff yourself

Just like in so many parts of the USA, it is very cold and snowy. No grands here today so I got started on laundry and kitchen chores first thing. Then I worked on this quilt, hoping to finish it today. It just needs all the tying finished and the binding sewn down by machine.

 I 

I did about 1/3 of the tying, then I thought I would go outside and sweep the sidewalks and clean off the driveway. Like I said, it is really cold, 12 degrees which is really cold for Oklahoma but I was bundled up. The fresh air felt good as I got the job done.

Then, I was getting a different broom from the garage and noticed my vehicle had a little water under it even though it has not been driven in days. I park right in front of the hot water heater and I knew right away that if the hot water heater is leaking, it is usually ruined from a rusted out bottom.

So I texted my husband and then tried to turn off the gas and water supply. 

The gas was easy but I could not find the water shut off. So, I did an internet search and found out. The shut off is way on top, in the very back. 

So I trudged out to our little storage building and got the big ladder.

But even with the ladder, I could barely reach the shutoff and could not get it to turn. 

Thankfully our tall neighbor came home for lunch just then and he came over and turned the valve. 

In the meantime. My husband and handyman extrodinaire son had been texting. They asked me for photos of the heater and they will both be taking off work this afternoon to come home and replace that 14 year old hot water heater. 

It should be a piece of cake for them, as they just changed out another one for our daughter. 

My husband and son both say changing a hot water heater is easy.  We are all pretty willing to try to make or fix or do most anything around the house. We are usually successful and I know it is has saved us lots of money.  

In the meantime, while I am waiting for my 2 handymen, I brought that tall ladder in the house and cleaned the living room ceiling fan. I use an old pillow case, a trick I also learned on the Internet and it is a great one. Just open up the pillow case and slip it over each blade and gently rub the case over the blade,  all the dust and dirt will come off and be contained in the pillowcase. 

I hope I can finish up my quilt while they work on that heater. 

 

 

 

 

I love these little guys but I am really glad neither of them were here today so I could discover that water leak before serious damage was done. 

9 month old JJ

 

 

18 month old Braeden

Frugal February day 4- how we watch TV

Linking to FOF @ renaissance

We cut the cable tv cord just about the same time we ditched our traditional contact cell phones.
I think it was the summer of 2009 and cancelling both of them meant we had $160 less bills on contract to pay every month.  We do not regret it at all.

First for TV,  we live in flat Oklahoma and my husband put an old timey looking antenna on our roof.  When the TV broadcast switched over to digital just about that same time,  it meant we could pick up lots of channels with our antenna.  They have a great picture too.
We got all the networks from Oklahoma City and some of the networks from Tulsa.
Most of the networks broadcast on more than one feed. Like our PBS station broadcasts 4 feeds and they are 13.1, 13.2, 13.3 and 13.4.  One of them is childrens programing 24 hours a day.  My favorite is called Create.tv- it is great PBS hobby shows on cooking, art, travel, carpentry.

Beside the antenna,  we have Amazon Prime and can watch quite a few things through it.  Right now,  it is $79 and also gives us free shipping on most anything we order from Amazon.

The last way we get our shows is through Roku boxes and especially with an add on called  PlayOn 
Playon runs through a computer and then through your Roku.  I am not sure exactly how it all works,  my husband set it up,  but is says on the Playon site that it is very easy to set.  It is also quite affordable.  We got a lifetime membership for $49 5 years ago and have certainly got our money's worth on it.

With Playon,  there are so many shows to watch- from new current episodes to old classics, to sports reruns to foreign shows.  We like to watch Top Chef and Project Runway.  My husband and sons just laugh and cackle when they watch Food Networks CutThroat Kitchen.
My favorite things to watch is BBC episodes like all 4 seasons of The Great British BakeOff,  The Great British Sewing Bee and Kirstie Alsop's Handmade Home.

There are very few shows that we have not been able to find on Playon.


About sports,  most of the sports we like are broadcast on regular networks like our local CBS and FOX.
But if someone in your home is an ESPN junkie,  cutting the cord probably won't keep them happy.  There are quite a few ESPN shows and past sporting events on demand on Playon and Roku but watching reruns of sports is just weird, if you ask me.

You can see here where I posted about Roku- it is my most viewed post ever.  

When you first start a show on Playon or Roku, it does take a few seconds for it to download. The speed is determined by how fast your own internet runs.

This is a scene for the British Bakeoff. The picture quality is great. 

About internet, you will need good internet to play shows likes this. 2 of our Roku boxes are hard wired to our modem, 1 works on wifi,  both methods work fine. 

I think cutting the cord is great way to  save money and simplify your life. If you have questions, I will try to answer in the comments. 

Yes, it does cost money to get a Roku, Playon subscription and maybe an antenna, but they are one-time expenses. Unlike a cable or satellite bill that comes every month.  

Frugal February Day 3- thread spider

Update- my mom and Debbie both commented that they use this method and learned it quite a while ago. It is called Enders and Leaders.  They sent the names of websites that feature it with some especially good tutorials. Both of these are excellent quilt sites too!  Thank you Mom and Debbie
Quiltville
Lollyquiltz

This tip will save sewing thread. It also means the bobbin has to be filled less often, the seam ends are neater and there will be fewer threads to snip off when the the project is finished.

I think I learned this tip from an episode of Fons and Porter quilting show on PBS. I looked on their website to see if their was a tutorial and to link back to them but I could not find it on their site. 

Chain sewing is a great way to accomplish the same result but every project is not a candidate for chain sewing,  so here is how to sew with a thread spider. 

You just need a small scrap of fabric, folded to make a double layer.

When you start a new seam, first sew over the scrap of fabric, then put your fabric pieces right up to the scrap and just sew as usual. Clip off the scrap before you get to the end of your seam and then sew right back onto the scrap at the end of the seam,  you will still need to back stitch your project if your project requires it.

After the same scrap has been used for a few seam start and stops, it kind of looks a spider with all the lines of sewing on it.

Below are 2 doll legs, 

The one on the right is sewn the traditional way - see the long threads that will need to be clipped and how when you start sewing a narrow seam, sometimes it bunches up a bit.

With a thread spider, that bunching did not ever happen for me.

The leg on the left was started and stopped with the thread spider and I think the seams look neater the little bit of scrap thread  ended up on the spider. 

On my sewing machine, I must pull out a pretty long amount of top and bottom thread when I start a new seam or else when the machine starts, the top thread pulls out and I have to re thread the machine. Using the thread spider means I can spend more time sewing and less time threading my sewing machine too. 

This tip is new to me and I've been sewing, golly, 45 years or so! 

Do the rest of you seamstresses know this tip already? or is it kind of new?

Frugal February day 2

My first kitchen action this morning was to use some more of that bargain cream from Aldi and I made a batch of freezer biscuits multiplied by 5. I used my old Tupperware fix and mix bowl and 5 recipes was just about the right fill for that bowl. 

Cooking breakfast at home is not difficult, especially if you have some freezer biscuits to bake.

Breakfast at home is much thriftier than eating out.m

That's our breakfast. I like my egg on top of a biscuit half.  My husband had 2 biscuits.

We are not hard working farmers and this is all the breakfast we need. 

It was delicious!

I use this recipe for freezer biscuits. I do it just like the recipe but I bake them after they are frozen and I don't brush them with additional butter before baking. 

 King Arthur Cream Biscuits for the freezer recipe

I've blogged a number of times about my deals at CVS and this week was another good one.

I spent last weeks ECBs and $6.75 for all this.  I am very thankful to have a good store like CVS near my home where I can get such good deals on things we use.

Oh, and I earned a $10 ECB for next week.

I've noticed similar good deals at other stores on online deal sites.  My advice is to pick a store close to you that you like to shop at, read up on their deals at a site like MoneysavingMom.com and focus your coupon shopping there. 

Update on our furnace - the repairman came Saturday evening, he cleaned off the temperature probe and it has been working ever since. He said the cleaning could make the probe last 5 more years or we could replace it to be sure it would keep working. We asked him to get a new one and he will come back next week and replace that probe. 

So,  I will be happy to pay for the new part and service calls. I don't think it will be a jaw-dropping amount though. 

We are very thankful to have heat. Our forecast is downright cold!

Frugal February

My brother brought me a big stack of recent coupon supplements. He also saves his Boxtops for Education for my grandchildrens school.

My Aldi had pints of heavy cream, that are close to their date, for 49 cents. I plan on making freezer biscuits with some and I used one to make this delicious Creamy Tomato soup, she said the leftovers freeze well so I put the extra in serving size containers in the freezer.

Creamy tomato soup

Grandson Gavin will be 5 tomorrow! He spent most of today with us and he really had fun playing with this gift from his Aunt, a Stomp Rocket. His uncles had a lot of fun with it too, maybe even more than Gavin.  It would be a great gift for boys of all ages. It is pretty simple, it has an air bag that you stomp, and the harder you stomp, the higher the rockets go.

Stomp Rockets

And now we are waiting on the heating repair man. The furnace comes on but just for a few seconds and shuts back off within heating the house. Hopefully he can fix it tonight, if not we will be sleeping in the living room with the gas fireplace burning. 

It may be an especially good thing I planned to be especially frugal in February.