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.

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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.

Friday finances

Linking to Friday Finances at Renaissance

With my homekeeping notebook, it has been simple to keep up with expenditures and things done. 

When I totaled it all up, I was so pleased to see that I had only spent 66% of the grocery budget and 20% of my spending money for January. I did most of my shopping at Aldi with a few coupon deals at Walmart and CVS.  For February, I hope to do the same or even better. 

We have 3 financial goals for 2014 and for January, all 3 have been met. 

January Frugal doings

I have baked all our bread this month, I hope to not buy any bread in 2014. I use a bread machine for most of the work but all the ingredients are just basic, wholesome pantry ingredients. Homemade bread is cheaper than store bread and tastes so much better. 

For all January, We ate all meals at home except my husband ate out lunch one day and I ate out lunch one day.

No sodas have been purchased and I am no longer consuming sodas. Yea Me!

I did our taxes online with Taxact and funded my IRA for 2013. 

All January bills, except our property taxes, were paid online I am big fan of the free billpay our credit union offers, it saves time and postage and is easy to double check. 

I am still keeping up with our freezer inventory. Today, I did a top to bottom organization of the pantry. Knowing what is in the kitchen really helps with meal planning. 

Machine sewing, I learned a new to me trick to sew on a scrap of fabric at the start and end of every seam unless you are chain stitching, to save on thread. It also saves time clipping threads and filling bobbins and buying more thread. 

This month, I've been sewing on a scrap quilt, made a Belle dress and did some alterations. 

 

I don't worry so much about earning money as I do about spending the money my husband earns wisely,  but I do have fun earning Swagbucks and have made goal there everyday.  I've also got a few ads on my blogs.  Even just a few clicks to the ads earn income ( if you ever do click on my ads, thank you!  I try to click on ads when I visit other blogs too.  Earnings are added even if the ad clicker does not buy anything but just opens the ad window)

I hope all your finances are planned out and in order too.

Babies in the 80s

I've been sorting family photos and I noticed some big differences in my 3 babies born in 1981-1984 and how baby things are done now.

In the 80s, we were to told to put our babies to sleep on their tummies, never on their backs.

No Bumpos in the 80s, babies sat in in little recliners.

Disposable diapers were a lot thicker then.  That biggest Luvs box only has 48 diapers. Now, 48 diapers take up about 1/3 of that in space.

I only had 1 ultrasound - hard to tell that is even a baby in that photo.

My grandchildren had some amazing photos in utero.

Babies happily scooted around in walkers on wheels, with no built in toys. And their older siblings pushed them around like shopping carts.

High chairs were simple metal frames that folded up just like a folding chair.

No rear facing car seats in the 80s.

No warnings against raw eggs and my children all enjoyed unbaked cookie dough.

My children with souvenir corncob pipes- I think my parents got these in Dollywood or maybe Branson. 

This is so not politically correct now.

No computer printers or photo editing then- just a hand written sign to show this son's age. 

Juice was served often and always in a Tupperware sippy cup.

No chicken pox vaccines in the 80s. My daughter had the worst case of chicken pox spots- her gum and pink nightgown were not as bright pink as all her spots that lasted 3 weeks.

These 3 little ones are all grown up- one is a lawyer, one is a school librarian and the other is a handyman extraordinaire.

 

But how did they ever survive?  

Homemade goo -Pinterest #4 for 2014

We tried this pin today - homemade slime - goo- goop, it is made from school glue, water, food coloring and 1/2 t borax. It mixes up really fast.

Pin on Pinterest

Ours was not as solid as others I read about. Maybe our glue was not as fresh as it could be.

No matter, the grandsons had a great time with this easy activity.

Gavin is almost 5 and I think this is more age appropriate for him than for 18 month Braeden,