Sweater Mittens Tutorial & Patterns: {Sewing}

Waiting for inspiration to bring out those lovely old sweaters you’ve been dying to use in crafting? Today’s feature fits the bill with this project from Five Green Acres Sweater Mitten Tutorial:
The patterns were given to me by a kind and generous woman in Northern Wisconsin who whips out dozens of them each year, both [...]

Also See These Tips:
Pincushion Cuff Tutorial: {Sewing}
Quilt-In-A-Day Tutorial: {Sewing}
Scrappy Armrest Pincushion Tutorial: {Sewing}

Continue reading Sweater Mittens Tutorial & Patterns: {Sewing} …

From TipNut.com.

February 22, 2010 | Filed Under Frugal Living | Leave a Comment

Crafters Medley: 27 Neat-O Projects To Make (February 2010)

Tutorial: Puffy Pouch: (As seen in picture above) What a lovely, unique little pouch to sew!
Circular Needle Clutch: Nice fabric organizer to make for circular knitting needles.
Cosmetic Bag Tutorial: Nice boxy shaped pouch to whip up for your cosmetics (or anything else you like). Also see this list of makeup bag patterns for more inspiration.
The [...]

Continue reading Crafters Medley: 27 Neat-O Projects To Make (February 2010) …

From TipNut.com.

February 20, 2010 | Filed Under Frugal Living | Leave a Comment

Yurts: Living in the Round by Becky Kemery

I know I said I would do reviews on Sundays, but this book became a part of my personal recovery, so I thought I would include it here.

Dan only checked the mail once while Daniel was in the hospital, even though he came back to town to go to work several days. In the stack of mail when we got home was this book for me to review.

My first thought was, “How silly, as if I want to read a yurt book right now.” I hadn’t read anything while in the hospital, except a few Reader’s Digest funny pages, which were really read to me by my husband. I stared at books, open in front of me several times, but I wasn’t reading anything.

I somehow started reading this. This book about yurts became an escape. It pulled me out of my sorrows, showed me my goals and got me dreaming again.

The book weaved through the history and modern applications of yurts, or round tent-like homes. Yurts have been used in many parts of Asia for millennia and the author even gave yurts credit for much of Genghis Kahn’s conquests. Now, in America, they are popping up as anything between a portable dwelling, as they were in Asia, made of modern materials, to an inspiration for modern architecture.

This book got me thinking about a lot of things. As someone interested in portable housing, yurts have an appeal to me. Modern fabric yurts can be built in a day, and taken down to be moved in a day. They can have all of the amenities of a modern home and can be heated more efficiently than a house with corners.

One thing I was most interested in was how round living impacted one’s social life. The book told about how, for many people, being in a round space allows a group to have a closeness, opening up to one another. The book took it in a spiritual direction about being in touch with the earth that didn’t suit me, but everything that it said about group gatherings in yurts seemed most applicable to my life and seemed like a setting that would be desirable to our family.

The book was well written and sucked me in an unexpected way. Most books about architectural structures don’t have you dreaming about warriors one minute and sleeping under the stars the next. The pictures were phenomenal as well.

I would recommend this book for people that are interested in energy-efficient housing, small homes (although yurt-homes can be made to be quite large), portable housing and affordable housing. This book has a lot of info and resources to look into. Even though I’m not sure we’ll go the yurt route, there was a lot of info that has inspired some new ideas in me.

TIP: If you are a blogger interested in reviewing a book, contact the publisher. Politely tell them that you blog, how many visitors you get, and that you’d be willing to do a review for your blog if they sent you the book you are interested in. I also committed to putting my review on Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com as well. This is a reader tip that works.

Continue reading Yurts: Living in the Round by Becky Kemery …

From Under $1000 Per Month.

January 27, 2010 | Filed Under Frugal Living | Leave a Comment

Foraging For Food In My Kitchen – Frugal Challenge

Refrigerator empty Some frugal challenges are born of inspiration, as the recent challenge that I joined. My friend Christine from TheMenuMom.com had a freezer and kitchen full of food to eat up and challenged her readers to join her in cleaning out their kitchen before they go shopping for food. Click here to see how Christine’s challenge began.

I took that challenge and invited my dear readers to join me. Click here to see my challenge. The response has been great. Many of us are finding that when we dig through the food we have stockpiled in our freezers, refrigerators, and pantries, especially after a holiday cooking extravaganza, we’re finding enough food to serve our family without skimping at all.

This exercise in frugality has been very useful in many ways. 1) I’m cleaning out my freezer, and 2) I’m cutting back on my grocery bill. Yes, the food in my kitchen was bought with money at one time and we did always intend to eat it, but the grocery bill still seems to be shrinking. Perhaps those impulse purchases every time I’m in the grocery store really do add up. I’ll have to watch that from now on!

As the weeks go on, I’ve only had to resort to “outside food sources”, aka the grocery store, once or twice for milk, eggs, etc. However, as of last week, even that luxury has fallen by the wayside. Our convenient run to the grocery store when we need something has been severely limited by a reduction in our family’s mode of transportation – in other words, our car broke down.

With this little chink in the armor of our plan, we have had to make certain adjustments. For instance, we actually do HAVE to eat whatever we have in the kitchen. There is no planning a menu around some ground beef and leftovers if there is no pound of ground beef. I can’t throw some chicken broth into anything to make soup if I don’t have the chicken broth. Some of the simplest meals are out the window because I don’t have those simple ingredients. I have had to rethink my entire plan this week until we get the car back from the shop.

I’ll share with you just a few meal creations that have come from necessity – not creative dishes necessarily, just filling meals.

(Note: Mind you, I didn’t plan on the car breaking down. Those darn things just tend to do that sort of thing out of the blue. So, don’t judge me too harshly when you wonder why I would let my refrigerator supplies dwindle so – down to 2 eggs and 1/2 cup of milk. I thought I could run to the store. Silly me.)

To continue; I considered that the eggs and milk would be best served to stretch as far as possible into a filling meal. That’s how they ended up in pancakes. We were fortunate to have a large supply of potatoes, so with the help of some flour and cornmeal, we created delicious potato pancakes with crispy cornmeal coating. We also have a jar of applesauce in the refrigerator which was the perfect compliment. I whipped up a very large batch of potato pancakes because I knew we could eat them again the next day in another meal.

The next day the potato pancakes did come in handy. I broke up the pancakes that were left and put them in a cast iron pan to start frying. I added a few diced pieces of leftover green pepper and onion. Once the potato pancakes were getting crispy, I added a few pieces of diced ham that was left from ham sandwiches the previous week. I stirred that all together to form a sort of hash. I always have cheese in the house so with a few sprinkles of cheese, we had a warm and filling dinner. Luckily I keep powdered milk on hand as well as some sort of chocolate, so I made chocolate milk and the family was happy and fed once again.

In the dark corner of my pantry, I retrieved a bag of beans and rice that I received as a gift awhile back. With just a few pieces of fried bacon, the last of the diced ham, and a little water, I finally transformed that gift into a nice, hot meal. Because this was really a complete meal in one pot, I decided to save any leftover vegetables I have for another meal and just find something for a beverage. The few lemons and the one orange we had left in the refrigerator would serve as a refreshing lemon-orangeade to go with our beans and rice dinner.

With my head buried deep in the freezer, I started to realize I had to grab whatever I could and let that be my muse – no matter what it was. With a good supply of turkey broth still filling most of the freezer, that’s what I grabbed first. Now, turkey broth, or any broth for that matter, shouldn’t be too difficult to turn into a meal. That is, of course, if you have access to any ingredients you want. In this case, my challenge was to thaw the turkey broth and start grabbing other items without too much thought about a recipe. Remember, I had already been in this challenge for a couple weeks so my pantry was dwindling a little. Couple this with the fact that we’ve already had our fill of turkey casseroles and turkey soups and the turkey broth didn’t seem too appealing. But, I knew it was loaded with nutrition and flavor so I had to give it a try.

What supplies could I forage? A half a big can of crushed tomatoes, some odd pieces of cheese, onions, potatoes, celery, and assorted bread. Once the turkey broth came to a boil, I turned it down to simmer and started foraging. First, I cut up some onion and celery and threw that in. Then, the addition of the crushed tomatoes. It was already taking on a Gumbo appearance… oh, yes, I do have a half a bag of frozen okra as well as some diced leftover turkey meat. With the addition of those ingredients I have a pretty tasty Gumbo that will be filling. The okra will thicken it a bit, but if not, I can always cook up some potatoes and smash them in there for a more hearty soup. I saved the cheese, bread, and potatoes for another meal.

Since I already thawed out some turkey meat, it appears that a turkey casserole was in order. I made a layered casserole using the turkey with sliced potatoes. I still had onions so I added those. And, in my pantry, ignored for months, was a can of cream of asparagus soup. Well, you never know until you try. I added that to the layered casserole. I seasoned the layers pretty heavily with paprika and the results were very tasty. The asparagus and turkey flavor combination was surprisingly good. Something I wouldn’t have know if I hadn’t been forced to try it.

Anyway, this is how the days went. Foraging in the kitchen for meals was an entertaining and educational experience. Our car will be repaired and running again tomorrow, but even when I can run to the grocery store again at will, I think this lesson has taught me something. We have resources we don’t even know we have when forced to challenge ourselves.

But, it’s also humbling to realize how many people in the world don’t even have the basic food they need and would consider even the simplest supplies a windfall. I’m sure you’ve been thinking the same thing as you go through this challenge.

Take care and I wish you luck with this frugal challenge in your own kitchen.

p.s. What sort of basic food items have you been turning to as your supplies are dwindling? Please share your thoughts with us here if you would. I’d love to hear from you.

Continue reading Foraging For Food In My Kitchen – Frugal Challenge …

From Hillbilly Housewife Blog.

January 18, 2010 | Filed Under Frugal Living | Leave a Comment

The Meatless Monday web site

It’s not just the vegetarians who eat vegetarian. There’s a growing trend toward vegetarian menus once a week as a frugal living concept.

If you’re looking for ideas for daily menus, once a week menus or even just an occasional break from the routine, the Meatless Monday web site may give some inspiration.

The breakfast menu on that web site looks pretty good.

Continue reading The Meatless Monday web site …

From Monroe on a Budget.

November 22, 2009 | Filed Under Frugal Living | Leave a Comment

The Simple Dollar Weekly Roundup: Bookshelf Edition

As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t have much of a desire to collect books. I keep a small pile of reference books around for information and inspiration, and I have a handful of books I’m sure I’ll re-read in the future. Other than that, the only books I retain are unread books.

I have a bookshelf in my office and, aside from part of the top shelf, the only books on it are unread books – ones I’ve never read. I pick them up at yard sales, from PaperBackSwap, and so forth and just pop them on there.

Whenever I read a book, I usually put it in another box that I intend to give away in the near future. About every six months or so, I give away the contents of the box, usually on PaperBackSwap.

Why am I mentioning this? A few days ago, I spent a couple of hours reorganizing this bookshelf. Rather than feeling like I was just shuffling around stuff that I wouldn’t look at again, I was excited. It made me want to shout, “Clear my schedule! I’ve got some books to read!”

Those are the kinds of possessions I want in my life. That’s not clutter, that’s joy.

Remove a Limiting Belief in About 20 Minutes Beliefs are things that should be challenged. It either reinforces and strengthens a belief or it replaces that belief with something closer to the core of who you are. Either way, that’s a win. (@ steve pavlina)

How to Be Indispensable The best way to be indispensable is to create things useful to others and pack the ideas with intelligence, loyalty, kindness, respect, discipline, pride, passion, and compassion. (@ jonathan fields)

Pay Yourself First In other words, the first thing that should come out of your paycheck is some sort of savings for the future. This is a very powerful approach, as it ensures your long term future while also teaching you to live on less. (@ get rich slowly)

Overcompensating to Change Habits “When I was studying piano, I used to practice playing scales with each hand playing in a different key. This wasn’t something I was ever likely to do in real music, but it helped push the fingerings into my subconscious.” Brilliant. There’s no better way to reinforce a habit than to focus on mastering those little specifics. (@ productivity501)

How to Speed Read Like Theodore Roosevelt These are the techniques I use when I first read a document. Quite often, I’ll follow it up with more careful, slow reading when I’m trying to understand a specific point or topic. (@ art of manliness)

How to Defeat Burnout and Stay Motivated The best way I’ve found to defeat burnout is to use a lot of milestones. I find that big goals make it hard for me to stay on task – instead, I set goals for the next few days that are in line with the big goal. (@ zen habits)

Another Case from the Clueless Files I really don’t like the type of reporting highlighted in this article. Attempting to make me sympathetic for people who made stupid mistakes, realized they were stupid, then made them again is something of a turn-off. (@ free money finance)

Continue reading The Simple Dollar Weekly Roundup: Bookshelf Edition …

From The Simple Dollar.

October 22, 2009 | Filed Under Frugal Living | Leave a Comment

Flirty and Skirty Chair Slipcovers: Tutorial

Today’s feature is from Sweet Cottage Dreams with Flirty and Skirty Slipcovers & Tutorial:
blockquote>My inspiration came from an issue of Country Living magazine. The slipcover above was designed by Raphael Designs. They have a wonderful website where you can purchase custom slipcovers, however I am doing this project on a small budget so I opted [...]