Wishing For Pine Needles

Flour Sack Friday: Snack Foods

One thing that I truly cannot stand to buy at the grocery store is high-priced, nutrition-less junk food.  For one, I am not a huge snacker myself, so bags of chips and boxes of crackers really do not appeal to me.  And if, say, a bag of Doritos is $4 and I have $100 to spend on groceries, that bag of Doritos is taking up 4% of my grocery budget for the week.  (I think not!)  I would much rather spend that $4 on something that adds nutritional value to our diet.

Occasionally, if I have a great coupon or there is a hefty sale, I will buy a couple bags of chips.  But even then, this is not a type of food I like to "stock up" on.  They just generally aren't very good for us! 

But because my kids do like snacks and because I'm not a complete stick in the mud, I try to have a variety of healthy things on hand to munch on.  These are typically cheese, yogurt, fruit, vegetables and dip, and applesauce.  But for those times when we just want something crunchy, our new frugal favorite is......

 

Popcorn!

Easy to make, easy to pack, and fairly healthy.

And about as inexpensive as you can get.  I can buy a 1 lb. bag of kernels for $1.99.  This works out to be 12¢ per ounce.  We make 1/2 cup at a time (4 ounces) so we get 3 quarts of fresh popcorn for about 48¢!  

 

Also, popcorn can be dressed up quite nicely.  Caramel corn and kettle corn are two of our less-healthy favorites :)

As we head into school lunch-packing season, I will be on the look-out for more healthy and inexpensive snack foods ideas to vary it up a little.  So.....

What kinds of healthy snacks do you like to have around???

 

Flour Sack Friday: Line-Dry Laundry

Lately, I have been inspired to try something different around here.  (When I say "around here," I mean around this neighborhood that happens to have a rather stuffy "no clothesline" rule.) 

But guess what?  We're line-drying our laundry anyway!

We've gotten around this pesky little HOA rule by simply using our deck and camping chairs.

At first, the thought of lying out each and every piece of our laundry seemed incredibly time-consuming as opposed to throwing it all in the dryer.  But now, with my daughters at work by my side, I have come to enjoy this process of thoughtfully hanging the clothes that keep us warm and dry, and that we are blessed to have.

I've found statistics that the cost of operating an electric clothes dryer is approximately $130-$150 per year for family of 5...soon to be 6!  While this doesn't seem like an exorbitant amount of money in one whole year, it does add up.  Just think....we spend about $3000 per twenty years of dryer use. 

Although this endeavor is experimental for us, I'm pleased to say that it's going quite well.  I love the fresh outdoor smell on our clothes and the awesome stain-removal power of the sun.  Our next step?  Researching indoor air-drying for when the weather turns cold and investing in some drying racks!

Flour Sack Friday - Frugal Garden Fixes

Now that I'm getting back into the swing of regular posts, I thought today would be the perfect day to bring back Flour Sack Fridays!

And, hear me now, they will be coming back in full force.  In fact, in many coming posts to this blog the emphasis will be placed on our efforts to live as intentionally frugal as possible.  This concept has always been in our family in various ways, shapes, and forms, but now we plan to "step it up a notch!"

There are lots of good reasons for this (one being that we will soon have another sweet mouth to feed) and the other is that it can be just plain more fun and interesting to live this kind of life!  I have found that I am always at my most inspired and creative when we have set goals, both financial and lifestyle, that we're working toward.

So, without further ado,  our humble little vegetable garden will be launching the new and improved Flour Sack Friday!

My four little tomato plants are doing quite well.  (Yay!)  The bed rails were sawed and laid by yours truly from an old board I found in the garage.  Our stakes were generously provided by the many pine trees that live (rent-free) in our backyard. 

I spent about $8 on the four plants.

We returned from our vacation only to find our little pepper and cucumber bed overrun with grass.  I was not too surprised, since this is the first year we've planted in this bed.  I was contemplating getting some garden plastic at the hardware store to kill the grass, when my neighbor suggested using newspaper and rocks.  It's what her grandmother used to do, she said.

And do you know what?  It's worked like a charm.  The cucumbers are lovely but the peppers, sadly, are not.  But even if I get  four peppers out of them, it will still pay for the $6 I spent on the plants!

I spent $6 on the cucumbers, and I can already feel in my blood that we will get a fabulous return on our cucumber investment.

And the basil?  Well...there is nothing spectacularly frugal about this one....I just thought it was a very nice picture of basil. :)  (We did buy it from a fundraiser, though, if that counts!)

All in all, I am pleased to predict that our little harvest will be quite bountiful for just about $20!

Flour Sack Friday - Gym-less

Despite the fact that we cancelled our gym membership a year ago, I still manage to get a few (indoor) weekly workouts.  And I couldn't ask for a more economical, fun-for-all, cozy, clean spot in which to do them!

So, where is this magical place?

Grandma's house!  All the free snacks and drinks we want and a nice, hot shower at the end.  (I don't think too many of us here are missing the gym....especially this boy!)

Happy Weekend to You!

 

Flour Sack Friday - A Stroke of Blog Giveaway Good Fortune

If you happen to enjoy the blog world as much as I do, I'm sure you've noticed the occasional "giveaway."  Maybe you've entered one or two before, or just maybe you've even won something.  ( If you're not as familiar with blog-world, a "giveaway" is nothing more than a contest created by the writer of a blog, who will give away something to a randomly-selected reader who leaves a comment.)

Before Christmas I noticed a giveaway at this little blog.  The owners of this blog also own Imagine Childhood which is a lovely on-line store full of different educational and hand-on products for kids.  Truth be told, it's not a blog I visit often.  But because it was Christmas and because I am drawn to the things in their store, I found myself clicking right on over there.  

To enter this giveaway,  I was required to leave a comment about how I would spend $100 at Imagine Childhood.  If I won, they would send me what I wished for!  Easy enough.  I've had my eye on these beautiful stuffed animals for a while now.  So I quickly chose an animal for each of my kiddos, typed them in the comment box and pushed enter. 

Hundreds of comments.

What are the odds?

Well, apparently, on this day, the odds were in my favor!  Because these beauties were delivered to my front door a week later, completely and wonderfully free!  (And just in time for Christmas!)

 I hope this encourages you to visit a few of the many wonderful blogs out there and enter those giveaways!  It's a great way to support bloggers and an easy way to come by some unique and often handmade items for free.  Wishing  you a stroke of blog giveaway good fortune!

Happy Weekend!

Flour Sack Friday - Around Town

The Cincinnati Art Museum....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Family First Saturdays

(Completely Free and Completely Fantastic!)

Flour Sack Friday - the Art of the Barter

Barter.  To trade goods or services without the exchange of money.

This sounds like a smart thing to do in this topsy-turvy economy.  But doesn't it seem that, even when the dollars flow freely, bartering is a wise and resourceful thing to do anyway? 

(It sure is a lot of fun!)

My first intentional barter involved a certain chair that you may remember.

 
Along with the much-appreciated (and much needed!) help of my mother-in-law,  I made this slipcover for a friend's irregular-shaped, very sentimental, red-velvet chair.  It just so happens that this sweet friend, who I've known for just about my entire life, has developed her own photography business and does fantastic work!  So in return for the slipcover, we got PICTURES!

 

 

I just love how they turned out and appreciate how hard my friend worked to capture the candid essence of our family.  Check out more from our session here at her blog!

Do any of you have any good bartering stories?

Happy Weekend!

Flour Sack Friday - Merry Making

Around here, we are pretty good at making merry for next to nothing....

 

 

 

There are many ways to create traditions around the holidays without spending a fortune.  Most towns, churches, city centers, parks, community centers, and schools offer fun and free events for the entire family. Take a moment to glance through the newspaper or look on-line to find these activities in your area.  You'll be set!

 

 

 

 

And when it comes to crafting, remember....kids are very easy to please!  A little glitter, some pipe cleaners, felt, googly eyes, glue, and construction paper will go a long way on a cozy, winter afternoon.  Although it can be nice to have an organized craft or a gift-making day, the very best crafting times in our house happen when I get the craft bin down and let my kids go hog-wild.  It's one of the best ways I know to let my kids be completley themselves and to create what they want without any helpful suggestions from me.  ahem.  (And it truly is delightful and sometimes laugh-out-loud funny to see what they come up with...)

 

Many warm (and affordable) merry making wishes to you!

 

Flour Sack Friday - My New-Found Lumberjack

I have finally succommed to a realization that I have battled for many years.  In order for our living expenses to go down, then so must our thermostat.  This was no fun at all until it dawned on me that this also meant more fires! 

I am a sucker for fires.  There is nothing more quaint, cozy, warm and just plain perfect than a cackling, hot fire on a cold winter's night.  I love the sounds it makes, the smell of the wood burning, and how my clothes have that just-out-the-dryer warmth when I am near it.  Anyone with me?

In years past, our fireplace was just a novelty....something fun we'd do on Christmas Eve or snow days.  For one, firewood is expensive.  We could justify picking up a bundle at the grocery store as a treat, but  $5-6 dollars for a small bundle is never something we'd pay for on a regular basis.  We had once looked into having a small truckload delivered from a farmer's market, which is a better investment, but it still seemed like a frivoulous way to spend money.  After all, to us fires were a luxury.

Until now.  Now our thermostat is low.  (Did I say low?)  We need fires.  Really.

So it couldn't have been better timing for my dad and Dan to chop down a dead tree in our yard.  All of the sudden we had lots of firewood!  This was exciting, except for it was all still  in the form of one big, dead tree.

 

 

So that's when my brave husband decided he would chop it.  All.  Now, he is not what one would call the "lumber-jacking" type.  But he took on this project head-on and before we knew it, in one afternoon, we had a whole deck full of neatly-stacked, freshly-chopped firewood.   I was completely proud of him.

  

(And maybe, just maybe, he was a little proud himself!)

 

Happy weekend to you!  Here's to free firewood!

 

 

Flour Sack Friday - Crafting with Scraps

One thing that we never seem to run out of around here are scraps.  Of fabric, that is.  I find it very hard to throw them away after finishing a project, espcially when I have a crew of young crafters who always seem to find something interesting to do with them.

On this day, it was a needle book.

Rylen chose the project from the Klutz Book of Simple Sewing.  This is a great book for beginners.  It has several easy-to-understand sewing projects that are actually written to do completely by hand.  (But to save time, we often use the machine.)  We found our copy at a used book store, but I belive a new copy comes with a handy collection of notions and thread that would get a young crafter off to a very good start.

Rylen chose some wool felt from the scrap basket and a coordinating ribbon for the tie.  She followed the instructions and completed the pattern almost entirely by herself - I helped her only with the sewing machine.  We to sew a decorative stitch around the edges instead of the recommened running stitch...well, why not?!

 

This project was perfect for a quick lesson in cutting around a pattern, pinning and basic machine stiching.  It only took about 45 minutes from start to finish!

After the needle book was complete, Rylen still thought it needed a finishing touch.  So out came the button tin.  I think she was right, don't you?

Not only was this an entirely free craft, it was also a great way to spend some time with this girl who just keeps getting bigger and busier by the minute.  This, of course, is always priceless!