Friday’s Frugal Five

Happy belated St. Patrick’s Day to Ya! I haven’t had a proper corned beef dinner in years. Perhaps after the MMGC is done I’ll plan one for April.

Here is Friday’s Frugal Five: Again, I straight up stole the frugal five from Katy at Non Consumer Advocate…

Did some bartering with a friend, I love bartering, especially when both parties are excited and pleased with the outcome. I bartered a few items around the house that were collecting dust for me, but things my friend could get great use out of…. she bartered about 30lbs of grass fed beef. SO EXCITED!!! As far as red meat we are predominately a venison household, but I can’t wait for some awesome burgers on the grill this summer! Now, I need to figure out what to do with the beef heart she threw in, but don’t worry, I’ll figure out something that is magically delicious.
Balanced my cash envelopes and returned one of my milk jugs which netted me $2, but I purchased $7.50 in fresh dairy, so now my balance is $4.50 which I’m not gonna lie is causing me a bit of anxiety. Next week I will have 3 milk jugs to return and that will net me $6 and will bump me back up to $10.50 Woo Hoo living high on that hog!
Took and inventory of the pantry to determine what we need to focus on in the gardens this year. Green beans for sure. Always need tomatoes, and I think I’m gonna try putting up peas and carrots this year. And yes, that did remind me of Forest, Forest Gump. Like peas and carrots….. All my seeds should arrive in the next few days and I’ve already got my soil and recycled toilet paper and paper towel rolls ready.
Used up the last of the squeezed, flattened, rolled and clipped toothpaste tube last night. I think I actually heard it moaning from all the squeezing and twisting. I always get a warm frugal feeling when I do that, I mean why waste it?
Also snagged an antique shelf unit in the barter process, which is so pretty that I hope to get it set up in the kitchen / dinning / pantry area this weekend…. I have no idea where it’s going to go yet, but I’ll love it I know that.

It occurred to me that I haven’t been including my most proud frugal activity in my weekly Friday Frugal Five. Quitting smoking! April 23rd is the Z Man’s 1 year smoke free anniversary and I have been smoke free since January 4th. This is not only saving us money, but saving our life…. you know provided we don’t get hit by a bus or something. 🙂

How was your frugal week?

Till Next Time,

Lori

Butter

Butter – the everlasting delight of the gourmand, the faithful ally of the culinary arts, the constant symbol of good living.

Through time and across the globe, butter has had a sacred quality. From the ancient Fertile Crescent to the present day, butter has symbolized the powerful, life giving and sacred, the good, the happy, the healthy and pure. It has sustained lives, cultures and civilizations for millennia.

Butter is a culinary treasure as old as King Tut’s tomb. “She brought forth butter in a lordly dish” (Judges 5:25). A jug of wine, a loaf of bread – and butter!

From – Butter Through The Ages.

About a month ago my Mother called and was so excited that she had just made homemade butter and how easy and good it was. I’m sure the ease of it was most of the amazement and surely reminded her of being the very young child witnessing the butter being made. Making butter back then was not an easy process, not unlike so many of the other great things that take time and effort to accomplish. Butter is one of the GREATS!

Fast forward 100 years to imagine me standing in the dairy section at the grocery store needing butter. How things have changed…. But as I was standing there I remembered Mother’s conversation and decided to make my butter. While I wish we did, we in fact do not have a milk cow or goats on our homestead, so my choice for cream (and milk) is Homestead Creamery. I feel it’s the best choice for us and also I believe you get what you pay for.

Being on a tight grocery budget this month, some would wonder why I didn’t just buy the 99¢ fake, yellow, plastic, artificially flavored stuff, and well, that is why… As Michael Pollan says “we are what we eat, and what we eat, eats”

The question I asked myself in the grocery store was, do I spend $6 on butter and $3 on the milk that I wanted, or do I spend $6 on cream to make butter which would also net me some sweet cream milk after making the butter. I chose the cream.

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Making butter is as easy as can be, however I will advise not to over fill the food processor as it will leak out all over the counter, making a huge mess. Yes, that happened.

All you do is pour the cream into the food processor and process for about 5 minutes then separate the butter from the buttermilk.

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The buttermilk can be refrigerated for later use. Then you want to rinse your butter with ice cold water to help preserve it. Pour ice cold water over the butter and press with a rubber spatula to extract as much of the liquid as possible. I saved the water I used to rinse the butter and added a little dry milk to it and then added it to the buttermilk I extracted from the cream. What I ended up with was a full quart of sweet cream milk that I can use in other recipes or just drink.

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I was so excited about the butter that I had to make something to spread it on. I made some butternut banana muffins and some cornbread. Those muffins with fresh homemade butter are out of this world good. One of those Y-U-M moments. And a glass of sweet cream buttermilk and cornbread… the only thing missing is a front porch swing and a breezy summer evening.

This was a fun experiment and I’m glad I did it. While it didn’t take me hours to hand churn my butter, it did give me a little nostalgic feeling of living back in the day when things seemed better. I’ll keep making our butter because the best part of it was the taste, so fresh and clean, which is the ultimate reason for doing it.

As for MMGC, if you’re keeping track, I’m now down to $10 to last me the rest of the month. YIKES! But, we have some great butter and pure maple syrup.

Pancakes anyone 🙂

Till Next Time,

Lori

Quit Smoking Tips and The Pickle Jar

It was about 4 years ago when I tried to quit smoking. I tried and I failed. Then a year or so later I tried to quit smoking again, and again I failed. I’ve even blogged about it. Over the past 4 years I’ve tried and failed at quitting many times. I’ve used the patch, I’ve chewed the gum, I’ve tried cold turkey, I tried and tried and tried and failed every time.

It’s probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I wish I had listened to my father when he said “don’t ever start and you wont have to stop”

It is true, you have to want to quit and I remember someone saying that to me years ago after one of my failed attempts. It pissed me off. What did she know, she didn’t smoke, so she didn’t know how hard it is to quit. But, she was right. There is a lot of truth to what she said. You have to want it more than wanting to smoke. To the point that you are just really sick of smoking. Just sick and tired of the smoke, the smell and the expense (how stupid is that). Just flat out sick and tired of it! Every smoker I know “wants to quit” But it takes more than that because the pull is so strong, and the mind will play tricks on you, and the whole thing is a struggle. Look up side effects of quitting smoking, the shit is real and it’s not easy!

Anyway….. I got off on a little tangent there, sorry…. I had gotten to the point where I was enjoying lighting a cigarette and taking the first couple pulls and then it seemed like the cigarette smoked me. I had become sick of smoking. But it was the habit of smoking that was hard to quit. I honestly did not think my car would start without lighting a cigarette. Have a glass of wine, light a cigarette. Cooking hasn’t been the easiest either, because I timed my cooking around how long it took to smoke a cigarette. Put something in the oven, have a cigarette. Boil some pasta, have a cigarette. To my surprise my car did start without a smoke and now when I’m in the car I listen to books on cd to occupy the time. I use the kitchen timer a lot more now when I’m cooking, and I’ve put down the wine glass because my taste for it has changed since quitting. However, I do enjoy a ice cold Corona with lime now, but I’m watching my calories, so now I’m enjoying vodka and seltzer water with a squeeze of lime, 90 calories baby.

I honestly believe that I have kicked it this time. So, what’s different this time? The pickle jar is what’s different. See, I had this large empty pickle jar in my basement. I dusted it off and attached a weekly chart showing the amount of money I would save by not smoking. Each week I have been putting that money in the pickle jar. It is such a motivation for me to actually see that money saved. If I hadn’t started the pickle jar I know the money would’ve gotten absorbed into other spending and I wouldn’t actually “see” the money. I like money a lot more than I like smoking!

Sure, I still get a craving every now and then for a cigarette, but it passes quickly and when that happens I just say out loud “It’s Not An Option” The Z Man quit smoking too and we are both breathing fresh air and loving it.

Yes the pickle jar still smells a bit like pickles, but that’s better than smelling like cigarette smoke!

Till Next Time,

Lori

Friday Frugal Five

We were traveling this week to visit with new family members. I’m a Grandma Y’all!!! 🙂

It’s hard to be frugal while traveling, but I think we managed pretty good. The MMGC (March Madness Grocery Challenge) wasn’t in effect while we were traveling, but I did try to keep expenses to a minimum. Before our trip my grocery expense was $0 for the month. As of today I have spent $28 so far this month on groceries. That $28 was on the way back home after an 11 hour road trip and I’m ok with that. Since I am allowing myself $20 a week, I’m still within my allowance as I don’t anticipate any other purchases in the next 3 days. I’m also ok with it because as tired as we were we didn’t opt for dinner out or picking up something to go after an 11 hour car ride. Instead I chose to throw some salmon on the grill, fry some potatoes and onions and make a salad, and it was delicious! No picture, because I was too tired to think about it.

I will be spending $45 on Monday, as I have a friend traveling to Vermont and offered to bring me a gallon of pure maple syrup that would cost me $80 here in Virginia. Challenge or not, that’s just wise spending. That will put me at a total of $73 leaving me a balance of (4.43 x $20 = $89) $16 for the month. It’s gonna be tight, that’s for sure!

Now, on to 5 frugal things…

washed and dried all our travel clothes yesterday taking advantage of the warm weather using the clothes line.
brought leftovers to work with me for lunch.
totaled receipts from our trip and will add back to the pickle jar today as it is payday. (More on the pickle jar next week)
our dinner last night consisted of everything we had harvested on our homestead. Pork ribs, corn on the cob, deviled eggs, roasted turnips and butternut.
working today instead of taking the last day of the week off after our trip because a day of making money is more frugal than a day of not making money.

Your turn….

Till Next Time,

Lori