New year, same wants

Things being what they are, I have been too busy to post. But now that the holidays are over, hopefully, I can get caught back up.

I have been looking at seed catalogs again. This is always torturous for me. I want to have a big garden, a couple of fruit tress, some grapes, berries, etc., but we just don't have the space without tearing up the whole back yard. That idea was very firmly nixed. lol Go figure?

So, I will probably just do what I always do, plant high yielding food like beans and tomatoes, and buy what I can't raise. It makes me sad though. We have less than 3 years until the boy graduates, and if my husband doesn't get laid off before then, we will almost have the house paid off. Then we can buy something out in the middle of nowhere with a few acres (and pay cash for it) and I can have my little homestead.

I really don't need much, just about 5 acres or so, with a decent house and preferably a barn already in place. A few chickens and maybe a milk cow (yes, I am dreaming) and a big garden to raise our food. Is it too much to ask for an asparagus bed, onion bed, some berry vines, a grape arbor, a few fruit trees, and about 1/2 an acre tilled onto garden? It would be nice if this is on the highway so that I can set up a produce stand to sell the extras or have a neighbor who is willing to let us set up on his.

All of this take money though. I would like to be able to be set up to be self-sufficient, or at least as close to it as possible. If things really start getting tight, at least we can eat.

I have learned a lot of skills that will be useful towards that end. Home canning is probably the most useful one. That, along with the dehydrator, have pretty much cut our grocery bills in half. We don't have to buy canned foods and the food I put up tastes much much better and is healthier for us than commercially processed food. It involves actually cooking, but I enjoy that anyway.

I can make bread, and do on a regular basis. It tastes different than the bread you get in the store, but at least it is really food with real nutrition instead of just empty calories. And it makes a mean grilled cheese.

I can make soap, and therefore, laundry detergent. I haven't bought bath soap or laundry detergent in over two years now. That is a BIG money saver. Who wants to spend 5-7 dollars every couple of weeks just on laundry soap? I can make 3 gallons (about 4 months worth) of laundry detergent for about 80 cents. Granted, it isn't a major boost to the budget, but it is kinda nice to not have to go down that aisle at the store.

I can sew our own clothes if necessary. Granted, there are some things it is still cheaper to buy, like socks and underwear, but for just daily clothing, I can do that. Especially if things get bad, this will be a useful skill.

I would like to have a wood stove to use for heat. That does involve cutting wood, but that shouldn't really be too big of a problem. And if it is done right, I can also use the top of the stove to cook on in the winter or if the power goes out. It wouldn't be the first time I have cooked over a fire or on top of a wood stove. It is actually kinda fun, in a strange way. Wouldn't want to have to do it in the summer, but in the winter it would be sort of nice to have a big pot of soup bubbling on the stove all day.

Maybe I am just strange, but I can do without a big house, fancy cars, and expensive clothes. I never really needed those things anyway. I am just a country girl at heart.

Saving Money

Everyone knows that saving money is a good thing. And everyone has little tricks they use on themselves to save the most. But not every tip will work for every family.

Take, for instance, the fact that I save money by cooking at home instead of eating out. That works very well for us because I have the time to cook and really enjoy it. Some friends of ours do not have that luxury. She works an hour and 15 minutes from home and doesn't get home in time to cook a nice meal every night and still be able to get the kids in bed at a decent time. And she doesn't really like to cook that much. But they both have good jobs and make good money, so eating out for them is an option.

For us, as a family, we really don't need that much stuff. We spend more on groceries than anything else. None of us are clothes hounds, we don't compulsively buy new "toys", we don't go out to the movies or dinner very often, and we don't just go shopping just to be shopping. When we do buy things, it is generally used DVDs. We watch a lot of movies at home. We won't buy them new. Why spend $20 on a movie that will be less than half that in a couple of months? We have a lot of movies, some of them really good, some really really bad, but most are just on the good side of average. Which is fine. There isn't really anything being filmed that is better than average anyway. And by paying $6.99 for a DVD instead of $7 each for movie tickets ($28 for the 4 of us) plus concessions, we are saving a ton of cash. And if one of us needs to take a break, we can just pause it. Much better than going to the theater.

I have seen lists of money saving tips all over the internet, and for the most part, it is good sound advice. And we do a lot of the things that make sense for us. But not everyone can grow their own food or make their own clothes. Or cut their own hair. Or bicycle to work. It just isn't possible for most of us.

The key is to be comfortable with it. Going from living large to being a tightwad over night is impossible. You will only make yourself crazy. Anyone who has lost their job will tell you that it is no fun living on pork and beans and mac and cheese. Work up to your savings goals. When you get comfortable with one change, then add another. Don't just stop spending cold turkey. You have to retrain your self to a new lifestyle. So work up to it. Slow and steady will work much better for long term change. If you feel yourself getting depressed or feeling deprived, have a treat. Just remember that it is a treat, and that you can't to do it all of the time.

So when you decide to start getting serious about saving money, study the tips. Make a list of your own. But keep in mind that if it isn't something that you can actually do, and will do consistantly, forcing yourself to do it will only make you feel guilty when you don't. Saving money should make you feel good, not deprived. I have found that having a goal in mind when you start trying to save money really helps. Something like, "I want to pay off this bill by the end of the year. How much do I have to save to be able to do that?" If you drink coffee shop coffee everyday, you can save 3 or 4 dollars a day my making coffee at home instead. That is around $80 a month you can add to your bill payment every month. Or if you go out every weekend and spend $30 at the bar, go every other weekend and save $60 a month. If you have a big dry cleaning bill, try to find clothes that don't need to be dry cleaned, or if you have to wear suits to work, try to wear them more than once as long as they pass the sniff test.

There are a million ways to not spend money, the secret is to find what works for you. Set a goal, add new tips slowly into your lifestyle, and if you start to feel deprived, splurge a little.

Getting ready

I have given a lot of thought into making a lifestyle change. My husband and I are in general agreement on being more self sufficient and not depending so much on how much money is in the bank. I have spent the better part of a year doing research on how to make this happen.

The first thing we have to do is find a place where we can have a couple of acres, but not really more than 10, to have a bigger garden and a place for some livestock. While this is possible to do in town, we really don't want to have neighbors complaining about our chickens or cows. Ideally, we would have enough house to have weekend guests without having to blow up air mattresses or have 3 or 4 kids to a bed. I would like a 4 bedroom, 2 bath house with a big kitchen, wood burning fireplace or wood stove, at least a small basement to use as a root cellar and/or game room, and a workshop of some sort.

The first thing I would work up would be a garden spot. It takes at least a year to get a garden spot worked up so that it will grow a good variety of food. I am actually thinking that a lot of smaller raised beds and multi-layer gardening is the way I want to go. I can grow more in less space and not have to spend so much time weeding and amending the soil. I have spent a considerable amount of time thinking about all of this. I think this way, I can have a good variety of vegetables and still not kill myself trying to work it. I will also have some small fruit plants like raspberries and blueberries, grapes, a couple of fruit trees like peaches, apples, pears, and maybe apricots. Strawberries are another possibility. They do take a little bit more room so we will have to see about that. I really want an asparagus bed. We really love the stuff and it is just so expensive to buy retail. But it takes a lot of time to mature, at least 2 years, but after that, it can keep producing for up to 20 years. If you let it go to seed every now and then, it will reseed itself and you will have a constant supply for the rest of your life.

I have thought about keeping a hive or 2 of bees, for polination and for honey. The problem there is that I am allergic. Not dangerously so, but enough to swell up and itch like crazy. Not really sure my hubby would be up for the bees, but they would definately be useful. Maybe we could just keep them for the pollination and only rob the hives when I can talk him into it.

But anyway, the extra produce we could sell for a little spending money. I wouldn't really want to make a business out of it, but I just can't see us letting it go to waste. And any little bit of extra cash will be welcome.

The chickens will also provide a possible bit of extra income. Eggs always sell well and by free ranging the chickens, the eggs will taste better and be healtier than store bought. Even if I start my flock with only 10 hens and a couple of roosters, and allow at least 1 hen to brood and hatch a nest of eggs each year, I can double the size of the flock every year. If I want to use them as meat as well, I can start with 25 or so and after 4 to 6 months, take one or two a week for the freezer. It is really easy to raise chickens, as long as you can keep the coop clean and the predators out. And since we wouldn't use more than maybe 1/2 dozen eggs a week, and no more than a dozen a week, we would have eggs to spare. If a neighbor has a milk cow, we might could trade eggs for fresh milk.

A pig would also be nice to have around. A pig is a perfect converter of kitchen scraps to high quality fertilizer. And they grow relatively fast so any little piglets would be ready for the freezer in less than a year. If you have enough room to change pastures every year, you can have the pigs work your garden areas for you. They will loosen up the soil for you, fertilize it, and remove most or all of the roots and grasses to make it ready to plant. And after all of that, you will get a Christmas and Easter Ham, close to 20 pounds of bacon, several roasts, a big pile of chops and some really great ribs. And that isn't counting the sausage and sausage products. Since we do not eat the organ meats, they can be used as fish bait for even more variety in your meals.

A small amount of feed grains could be helpful if there is space for it. Feed corn, for one, could be used for more than just feed the critters. It can be used to make corn meal and hominy, or coursely chopped for the chickens and pigs. Wheat and oats would also be good for the livestock or the pantry. The problem with growing grains for feed is that it just isn't really cost effective for a small 5 to 10 acre farm to try and grow the grain and still have enough room for pasturage. But the corn could be grown simply as a suppliment to the forage instead of a main staple and it wouldn't take up too much space.

I hope to be able to convince my husband to hunt, at least some. Some venison, wild boar, turkey, doves and ducks would be a nice change occasionally. And except for the cost of the hunting lisence, the meat would be basically free.

Since I have a smoker, meat grinder, slicer, heavy duty mixer, and a good knowledge of herbs and an inexpensive source for casings, I can make our own sausages. Breakfast sausage and salami are VERY easy to make, and from those basics, I can also make bratworst, smoked sausages, and snack sticks.

My dehydrator can be used to dry onions, peppers, fruit, other veggies, and make jerky and fruit leathers. I can dry fresh herbs for both the kitchen and medicinal uses. I could even make yogurt and raise bread in it.

I can make butter from cream, I can preserve food by canning, freezing, smoking, and drying, I can cook over an open fire as well as on a wood, gas, or electric stove, I can make breads of all kinds, I can cure and smoke ham and bacon, I can sew and crochet, and if I had to, I could build a shelter and live in the woods. I can live well without electricity. I have done it before for a week or so at a time when the power was out, so I have no real problem doing it again. I can make my own soap and laundry detergent, and I have washed clothes on a washboard before, and could do it again if I had to. It wouldn't be fun, but I could do it.

Granted, I don't want to live at the subsistance level in a one roon shack, but living without the need for a grocery store or Wal-mart handy is a good feeling. And not having to spend a lot of money for food every week would allow us to live a much less stressful life.

Summer Canning

I am sorry that I haven't posted in a while but I have been busy canning. So far this week, I have put up:

55 ears of corn
17 jars of Purple Hull Peas
9 quarts of cranberry beans
3 pints of mango
3 pints of mushrooms
5 heads of cauliflower
4 quarts of cabbage
13 jars of apple butter
and
11 jars of plum jam

And I am not done yet. I still have to put up some more mangoes and make another batch of onion relish. I would like to get some more beans this weekend and get those canned.

A guy that my husband works with gave us the plums so I gave him some of the jam. I think he may give us some more plums so I will have to find something to do with them. We really don't need any more jam.

I still want to get some peaches and maybe some more peas.

I have discovered a problem though. I really don't have any place to put any of this stuff. My pantry is already full and I don't have a closet anywhere in the house with space enough for a single 1/2 pint jar. But if this plan works out, we will be eating good on the cheap this winter.

Saving Money List

I have been thinking about all of the things I do around the house to save money. Granted, some of it doesn't save a lot, but over time all of the little things really add up.

Take, for instance, light bulbs. Granted, 1 light bulb by itself doesn't make a big deal, but all of the lights in the house over the course of the month actually do make a savings. So as a bulb burns out, I change it to a CFL(compact fluorescent light) bulb. They do cost a little bit more up front, but they burn about a tenth of the electricity and last much much longer. Making sure the lights are turned off if no one is in the room makes another difference.

I know I have mentioned this before, but a clothesline, especially in the summer, makes a HUGE difference. My dryer takes forever to dry things like jeans and towels and that eats a lot of electricity. And it heats up the house, making the AC have to work harder. So by hanging out clothes on the line I have seen a savings of between 25%-50% of the usage on my electric bill. So it is worth the $3 in string and the $2 in clothes pins? Absolutely. And on top of that, I can do more loads of laundry at a time because they dry so much faster. Usually by the time one load is washed, the first load is dry. A weeks worth of laundry done in 1 day.

Turning the AC up to about 78 degrees makes a difference too. With the ceiling fans to circulate the air, it feels much cooler than that and it cuts the electric use as well. If I am in the kitchen canning or baking, I use a box fan as well. If your summers don't get too terribly hot or your house is well shaded, don't use the AC at all. Just open the windows and use the fans. Believe it or not, they draw less power than running the AC.

Cooking from scratch instead of eating out or buying ready made or boxed meals is also another money saver. I can make at least 3 meals for 4 people out of a whole chicken that costs me $5. I actually once made a meal for 14 people out of 1/2 chicken, about 1/2 pound of carrots, some stray pasta, and some left over fresh veggies in the crisper(celery, spinach, onion, bell pepper, and a half shriveled leek) and a couple of dashes of hot sauce. It made about 3 gallons of soup, and we buttered up some sandwich bread that was going stale and toasted it in the oven. By the time every one got seconds or thirds, there was about 1/2 cup left over. With a little creativity, you can make some very inexpensive meals. Pasta, rice, and potatoes are great for stretching out meats to make them go farther without feeling like you are depriving yourself. More on that in another post.

I have also mentioned that I make my own soap and laundry detergent. Granted, making the soap isn't really necessary for saving money, but with all of the allergies in our house, it is just a good idea for us. The laundry soap on the other hand is wonderful. You can use just about any kind of soap you want and it just costs pennies a load. Very easy to make and costs about 70 cents to make 2.5 gallons. Much better than 6$ for less than a gallon of detergent.

We have just about stopped buying cleaning supplies too. Vinegar and water make a fine window and surface cleaner and baking soda works great as a Comet or Ajax substitute.

Stocking up on things when they are on clearance is another way to save cash. I have a freezer full of meat and veggies from the clearance sales. The pantry is full to bursting with food that I have canned myself or things that I have gotten on closeout or on a really good sale. The only thing I really have to grocery shop for is stuff like milk(and other dairy stuff like cheese and butter) and eggs. We have been buying our cereal at Big Lots and the dollar stores and the bread from the thrift store.

One habit we did have to break was buying food just because it was on sale. At one point we had almost 20 boxes of Hamburger Helper because they were on sale for a dollar and we had coupons for .50 off of 3 that would double to a dollar off. The problem with that is we do not eat a lot of Hamburger Helper. We have found that I can make the same thing without the mix. So it is almost a year later and we still have about 10 boxes taking up space in my pantry. So even though they were plenty cheap enough, it wasn't worth the .60 each we spent on them.

Gifting is another thing we have cut back on. It has been unanimously decided by both sides of the family that Christmas gifts are just not needed. We spend way too much time and money on things that will probably not be like or needed so we decided to just cut it out completely. None of us really have the spare cash at that time of the year anyway. For birthdays, we just call the folks and have a good chat. For Father's day this year I made my Husband a shirt instead of buying one. Needless to say, he was a little surprised. I haven't had the sewing machine out for a good long while and I made sure that everything was put away by the time he got home from work.

I have made 2 baby blankets (crochet) for shower gifts instead of buying something. It just seems a lot more meaningful if you make a gift instead of buying it. Time and effort do still mean something to people especially, if it is customized to their tastes.

I am sure there are other things I do to save money that I am just not thinking of right now. But I will pass them on to you when I think of them.

Grandma's house volumn 2

There are a lot of things that you can do to save money and energy that really don't take a lot of skill, time or effort. I try to think about how things were done 60 or 70 years ago. Clotheslines, wood heat, open windows, growing our own food...all of these things are not only "greener" but they will cut your bills dramatically.

I think of my Grandma's house for inspiration. She had AC but she almost never used it. She used cross ventilation with the open windows and occasionally she would use a box fan by the screen door in the kitchen when it got really hot.

She had a big garden where she grew most of the food for the year. Almost every meal had brown beans, potatoes, and biscuits. Breakfast was biscuits, bacon, eggs, and gravy. Sometimes as a treat for us kids, she would make chocolate gravy. Spooned over buttered biscuits, it was about the best thing we ever ate.

White bread wasn't something they ate very much. It was always biscuits. I remember she had this big flour bin beside the stove. She would put about 20 pounds of flour in there at a time and just dip out what she needed. There was also a salt cellar and a grease can on the stove. There was always a gallon jar of sweet tea in the fridge right beside the carton of buttermilk.

I don't think my grandma ever bought a box of hamburger helper or a TV dinner. There was a lot of chicken and pork, but not much beef. She sure could make a mean pot of chicken 'n dumplins.

There was a clothesline that was used just about every day. It had to be pouring down rain for her to not hang out clothes. Granted, she had a dryer, it just wasn't used much. She also had a dishwasher that she kept out on the stoop. The only time it was ever used was when the whole family was there. The rest of the time, they were done in the sink. She didn't have a garbage disposal because she took everything either to the pigs or chickens. She finally did break down and buy an electric percolator coffee pot. But she complained about it just not tasting right for the rest of the year.

I really miss my grandmother. She taught me how to peel a potato, make biscuits and gravy, chicken and dumplings, how to sew and quilt, and she taught me the value of the old ways. I still remember the time I mouthed off about how a rub board didn't look so hard. Then I got to wash a week's worth of my Pawpaw's work clothes on the board with lye soap. Then I got to do them again because they were not clean. I learned very quickly how to do it and that I didn't want to do it again.

Peanut butter cake was always on the table when we came over. With a cold glass of milk, that was about the best way to end a meal we could think of.

They never seemed to be stressed about anything, not even money. They were both living on a next to nothing Social Security check. Yet there was never a lack of anything. Once or twice a month they would drive the 20 miles into town. The grocery store was always the last stop. The only things she would buy were sugar, coffee, flour, maybe some meat if it was on sale, tea, salt and pepper, and maybe some butter or margarine. They just didn't need anything else. Very rarely, they would walk down to the corner market and buy lunch meat for sandwiches, but never more than a pound.

If I think back, life was much simpler when all you had to worry about was whether or not it would rain when you needed to pick beans or hang out clothes.

Saving Money with Common Sense

A couple of my friends have asked that I make a list of the things I do to save time and money around the house. I actually thought that they were just a little bit crazy until I really thought about it. The things I do are really not that difficult or even that unusual, but I guess if you are used to every modern convenience and having a store close at hand, it is a little bit different.

So, I will try to list the things I do to save money, and hopefully it will be in some useful order.

1) DON"T USE CREDIT CARDS! I am not sure some people actually realize just how much they depend on them for everyday spending. From gas cards and department store cards all the way to your Visa Platinum Plus card, they are all evil. Every time you think you have found an awesome deal on something and you buy it on credit, you need to figure in the interest rate and the number of months it takes to pay it off into the purchase price. That great deal on the 37" plasma TV will wind up costing you a lot more than the sticker price. And do you really need it anyway?

2) Learn to cook. Every time you eat out, you are spending the money you could be using on something else to pay a salary, insurance, electricity, manager bonuses, etc., in addition to the actual cost of the food you eat. Why not just make your burgers or steaks at home and enjoy a little family time in the process. Not only will you be saving a bundle every month, but you will know exactly what you are eating, without all of the preservatives and added fat and salt.

3) CFLs. We have changed most of the light bulbs in the house out to CFLs and it has made a difference in our electric bill. Yes, they cost a little more up front, but they do use less electricity to run and they last a lot longer. With the price going down on them, they are actually getting to be a reasonable option.

4) Clothesline. I was astounded at the money we have saved using a clothesline instead of the dryer. I know that a lot of people don't want to have to mess with it, or it is too much work, or "what would the neighbors think?" or whatever, but if you are serious about saving money, put up a clothesline. It takes me about 10 minutes to hang up a load of clothes. Usually by the time the next wash load is finished, the ones on the line are dry, or are at least close to it. In the hot summer months, they will dry in about 30 minutes. I can wash an entire week's worth of clothes for my family of 4 in 1 day without adding any heat to the house from the dryer. So the AC doesn't have to work any harder either. Which brings me to the next point...

5) Open the windows. Homes have window screens for a reason. Just because you have an Air Conditioner doesn't mean you have to use it all of the time. If you have windows on opposite sides of the house, open them and prop open any doors between the windows. It will create a flow of air through the house that will cool off the inside even when it is 80+ degrees outside. Ceiling fans will help even more. Any time you have air circulating through the house, even if the actual temperature us higher than you are used to, it will feel cooler. If your windows are covered by a porch or awning, even better. The outside air will cool off before it ever hits the window. Another option is to put a box fan blowing out on one side of the house. This will suck the warmer air out of the house while pulling cooler air in. This is especially good for kitchen windows when you are doing a lot of cooking or baking.

6) Make an investment in food storage options. This could be a freezer, a pressure canner, a dehydrator, a new pantry, whatever. Just do it. With grocery prices climbing upward, it just makes sense. When fresh produce is in season, buy a lot and preserve it for later use. When non-perishables are on sale, buy a lot.

7) Buy in bulk. You might be surprised at just how much toilet paper you actually use every month. If you can find it on sale, buy as much as you have room to store. That will be just one more thing that you will not have to run to the store for (saving gas too) every week. All paper items can be purchased in bulk and just stored until you need them. This works with soaps, shampoos, canned goods, even things like socks. Look at prices at dollar stores and retail closeout sites. If it is cheaper to buy them there, do it. You may have a case of socks stashed in the back of your closet, but you won't have to buy socks again for a really long time. As long as you have a spot to store it, go ahead and buy it.

8)Just because it is on sale doesn't mean you have to buy it. This one was kinda hard for us. We had gotten into the habit of scanning the shelves for closeouts and super sale prices. We wound up with a couple of cans of gooseberry pie filling( that we hated), scone mix (that sat on the shelf for months), some weird chipoltle pepper paste (that we still haven't used), about 20 boxes of Hamburger Helper( they were on sale for $1 a box and we had coupons) and some rice mixes. If it isn't something you will actually use, don't buy it. You will just be wasting money. Even the best sale isn't worth the shelf space if you don't use it. Only buy the things you know that you will use in a reasonable amount of time. No point in tempting the ants and other critters into getting in your cabinets.


I know that #7 and #8 seem to contradict each other, but actually, they really don't. Things that you will use, buy. Socks wear out fairly quickly so it just makes sense to get enough to last a while if you can get them at a truly good price. And most adults will not outgrow them so they will still be useful to you even years later. But you shouldn't buy a case of socks just to be buying a case of socks. If you don't have a place to store 50 pounds of beans you shouldn't buy them, even if that is the cheapest way to purchase them. Or if you have a place to store, say 20 pounds but not 50, split them with a few friends. That is true of just about everything. Just make sure that everyone will use what you are buying. Don't get 50 pounds of beans just to find out that you buddies don't want them.

The thing to keep in mind when you are trying to save money is to use common sense. Look around your home. Is there anything you can do to change your buying habits?

Saving money is fun!

There are times when I wonder just exactly why people will spend so much money on things that they don't really need or even want. We will spent $20 a plate on a steak dinner when you can grill your own for less than half of that. We will spent $30,000+ on a vehicle that uses $80 worth of gas a week when you can spend $8,000 on a very good used car that gets much better gas mileage. We feel the need to have our climate controlled homes set at the perfect temperature at all times regardless of the fact that the outside air is near the same temperature. All of our appliances have to have a digital clock on them so we know how much time we don't have before the minor event in our lives.

When my husband was concerned about getting laid off in January, we went thru everything in the house looking for ways to save money. My daughter only have 1 more year of high school before she goes off to college and we didn't want to have to move her away for her senior year. We looked at every expense we have, from house payments and utilities to where we spend our money.

It became a game with me to see where I can save money in the house.

We have a clothesline so we do not have to run the clothes dryer so much. That does a couple of things. 1) you are not using the electricity to run the dryer, and 2)you are not heating up the house with the dryer and making the AC have to work harder to cool off the house. Granted there are some things I still use the dryer for, like towels. They just get too stiff out on the line. But I can dry them on the line, then run them for about 15 minutes in the dryer with a damp hand towel to soften them up. Much better than the hour-hour and a half it takes to actually dry them completely in the dryer.

We have also been changing out lightbulbs to CFLs as they burn out. I think we have gotten about 90% of them changed now. Another thing is to turn off the lights is you don't need them. Every morning I go thru the house and turn off all of the lights except the lamp that I use behind the couch. Even though the lights all have CFLs in them, I have enough sun light coming thru the windows during the day to see. I don't need any extra lights.

I don't use the furnace or the AC unless the weather outside is extreme. We have had the windows open for about 2 months now here in Arkansas and it has been just fine. The pollen had us all sneezing for a couple of weeks but the worst of that is past now. We have been having 70+ degree days and low 60s at night so it has been just great. A couple of ceiling fans and open windows on opposite sides of the house keeps a very nice airflow going. I will probably be running the air this summer because it just gets so stinking hot here, but I will have it set on 78 or so.

On the grocery side of things, I have just been getting creative.

$2 a day for the kids to eat school lunches every day was just too much, so they have been taking their lunch every day since January. Lunch meat is expensive so I have been making ham out of pork loin, salami ( see previous posting on the how) and roast beef out of , duh, a beef roast for their sandwiches. Every now and then, they will get a PB & J just to change things up. I have been buying big bags of chips from the Dollar Store and putting it in baggies for them. I can get about 6 lunches out of a $1 bag of chips for them. I will make a pan of brownies and individually wrap them in plastic wrap then freeze them. That way I can take them out one at a time for lunch or snacks. A reused plastic bottle will hold juice or water or tea, add a piece of fruit and they are good to go.

I also looked at the grocery items that we used the most. Liquid coffee creamer was way up toward the top of the list. My husband and I would go thru about 2 quarts a week. And at $3.00 a bottle, that was just too much. So I did a web search and found that it is very quick and easy to make at home. Healthier too since I can actually pronounce all of the ingredients. Powdered milk, brown sugar, and either vanilla or cocoa powder.Wow! What a difference it makes. And I already had all of that stuff in the kitchen anyway.

I have already starting canning food for the summer. Strawberries are coming in season here so I have been making jam. Yesterday, I went to the local National Chain grocery store to get marked down produce. I got 22 ears of corn for $3.75 and 4 bags of apples for half price. 3 cantaloupes for $.99 each and 6 lemons for 89 cents. I also got 4 heads of lettuce for 59 cents each. Your local grocery store can tell you when their produce trucks run. You can usually get a really good deal on the produce they mark down or pull to rotate stock. Buy in bulk and can or freeze it. You can eat healthier for a lot less.

It is really fun to find creative ways to save money. Just go thru your house and look at the way you live. Are there options to the way you do things? Living well on less money is not really that hard. It just takes a little effort to find the right way for you.

Babies cost a fortune?

Living is a never ending cycle of things you think you have to buy. The problem is that we really don't NEED these things as much as we WANT them. Advertisers have convinced us that we cannot have a baby without a crib, changing table, diaper genie, baby monitor, stacks of disposable diapers, formula, bibs, special spoons and bottles, assorted baby medicines for teething, diaper rash, gas, special pacifiers that won't twist their teeth, teething rings, etc ad nauseum.

My kids got by without a lot of these thing simply because we didn't have the money to buy them. We didn't have a changing table, I changed diapers on the couch or the floor with a towel under them. A diaper genie was a waste of time so I had a diaper pail with a lid. Same thing but very low tech. No baby monitor either, we just left the door open a little so we could hear her if she woke up. I wanted to breast feed, but due to medical considerations at the time with my daughter, it wasn't possible so we did have the formula to deal with. I did breast feed my son at least until I went back to work. Then he was on formula too. No special spoons or pacifiers or bottle nipples, or any of that sort of thing. Their clothes were washed with the rest of the laundry in the same detergent. I didn't go for all of the special creams and salves designed for smearing over the diaper area. I used ointment only when there was a rash, and that wasn't very often. I think I only bought 1 package of Pullups. It is amazing how fast you can potty train a child when they wear the thick undies and plastic pants. I think I got them house broken in about two weeks, before their 3rd birthday.

All of the things you think you need are designed to separate you from your money. Literally Millions of babies survived without them in the past so we did too. And you know what? My children suffered no ill effects from the experience. Wow! Raising children the old fashioned way won't cause them to be abnormal, or less happy than if I buy the latest and greatest gadget for them.