New Year's Resolutions

As the end of the year and the beginning of a new decade approach, I think about what I would like to accomplish this next year and decade. I like to get a weekly engagement calendar and divide up my goals into reachable bite-sized portions, then write them into my calendar as 'to do this week" reminders. In this way I have written several books, dozens of craft and children's stories for children's magazines, along with illustrations. This year I want to create more puzzles for the children's magazines, as well as, illustrations and stories. I have several personal goals as well, such as loosing weight and exercising more, and reading through the Bible in a year (again). The engagement calendar costs me $14.99 but is well worth the expense to keep me on track.

Knitting Fair Isle

How many times have you seen yarn and knitting needles at the thrift store for a song? If you are a knitter like me, you always have pieces of yarn left over after a project... half a skein here, three-quarters there. Too little to make anything nice but too much to just throw away. Try Fair Isle style.

Fair Isle is a style where you knit using two or more strands of yarn at the same time. Knit with one color while dropping the other(s) behind according to a repeating pattern. It sounds a lot more complicated than it is. Try something small at first like a hat or scarf, before working your way up to sweaters and vests. It is a great way to use small pieces of nice yarn in a large project.

One of the sweaters in the picture was sold for $200 and the other for $150. I have also made a number of these for gifts for the girls in my family. My husband wants a hat done this way.

Amazon.com

I love books. Lots of books. All kinds of books. I must have hundreds (someday I'll count them). When these economic times hit us hard (my husband was laid off in May) I began looking for ways to save money and earn money. I found, quite by accident, that Amazon allows you to sell your used books and DVDs on their web site for a small percentage of each book price. Amazon treats you like a book store. You set up a name and load the names of books you want to sell. You rate each book according to condition; new, like new, good, acceptable, poor,-- and price it accordingly. The Amazon store has a price listing for new and used books to help with your pricing decisions too. For each book Amazon adds a $3.99 shipping for the purchasers to pay.

When a book sells, they send you an email notification. You then have two days to box it up , print a packing slip and mail it. Amazon pays you through Paypal or direct deposit once a month. I earned $150 the first month selling my used books back on Amazon.com and $125 the second month. I know some people who look over prices on Amazon and actually go to thrift stores looking for those most wanted, highest paying books, like Dr Seuss books. I have found some of my paperback are not worth selling as the used price has gone down to one penny each, with $3.99 shipping. If I sold those for one penny and mail it for $2.25 media mail, and Amazon takes their percentage, I only make about 20 cents. Not worth it.

I am still selling back books. My earnings aren't as good as the first two months, of course, but I can make from $25 to $50 a month just going through my old books and DVDs. Not too bad.

Thrift Store Bargains

You are already getting a bargain at most thrift stores but try this. If you find a shirt or Tee shirt at the thrift store with obvious spots (like bleach spots) or stains that won't come out, try to talk the price down and buy it. With shirts of only 50 cents or less, I took some acrylic paint (even liquid latex house paint will do if it's not too thinned) and painted over the spots. The acrylic not only covers the spot, it also reinforces it should it become a hole later.

Place cardboard inside the shirt so the paint won't bleed through to the other side. Draw some design with white (on dark Tees) or blue (on white Tees) colored pencil. You could use a stencil or trace some embroidery design. Paint over the pencil marks (they will wash out in the first wash). Surprise --- a decorative cheep NEW shirt. Great for gifts or for yourself.

Gardening

One of my favorite things to do when we lived in the country was gardening. I grew everything from vegetables, to seasonings, to flowers for drying and arrangements. Growing your own vegetables has always been a money saver. Here in California we have 3 growing seasons. Right about now the winter crop would be coming up and flourishing nearly ready for harvest. You can grow all the cabbage family in this weather like kale, cabbage, bok choy, brussel sprouts, etc., plus the underground vegetables like carrots, onion, potatoes, etc. Also parsley isn't too unhappy with the cooler weather. This is the time of year when you can use the dehydrator on diced carrots, diced potatoes, diced onions and seasonings like parsley for those great soup mixes.

More Gifting Recipes

Make a MIX for a gift. I remember 20 years ago receiving one of these and I was amazed at how much I loved it. The mixes can be put in ziplock bags or twist-tie bags and put in decorative boxes (like the ones I created in my Boxes book), or they can be put in a basket with other decorative kitchen gadgets. The possibilities are endless.

COCOA MIX

1 can cocoa (not the instant but the kind you mix in milk)
1 box instant milk
1 box dry non-dairy creamer
1 cup sugar
tiny marshmallows

In a large bowl, mix the dry ingredients according to the measurements on the boxes. Mix for 1 gallon of cocoa, 1 gallon of milk, with sugar and just enough creamer to make the milk richer, and as many marshmallows as desired. Stir them all together and put into separate bags for gifting. Great when given with a mug or two.

SOUP MIX

Beans, lentils, split peas (as desired)
dried or dehydrated diced onion, diced carrots, diced potatoes, sliced celery
Dry bullion (powdered or cubed, beef or chicken as desired)
Seasonings (as desired)
dried parsley, dried garlic or garlic powder, dried sweet basil, celery seeds, cumin powder or seeds, salt, pepper

In a large bowl, mix the soup ingredients as you like. You can mix and match and created different and interesting recipes.
You could make a chicken vegetable soup, or a beef bean mix. The possibilities are endless. Put into separate bags for gifting. Great given with pot holders or soup bowls.

TEA MIX

1 jar instant tea (sweetened or unsweetened)
Seasonings (as desired)
Cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves (powered) or stick cinnamon
Sugar or sweetener (if the instant is unsweetened)

This makes a great iced tea mix. Mix all or some of the ingredients to taste. Put into bags and gift with mugs or tumblers for iced tea.

More Thrifty Gifties

For some really great thrifty ideas, check out Farmgirl Cyn's blog at cindy50.blogspot.com. She has some really great ideas including homemade soap and dishcloths. You'll love it.

Gift Ideas

When my girls were little, we made gingerbread houses for friends and relatives. We decorated them with candies from Halloween. The expense was minimal and the day of baking and constructing was enjoyable... almost more than the giving.

GINGERBREAD COOKIE DOUGH

1/3 C shortening
1 C brown sugar
1 1/2 C dark molasses
1/2 C cold water
7 C flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cloves
1 1/2 tsp ginger
1 tsp cinnamon

Mix shortening, sugar and molasses together. Stir in water. Sift all dry ingredients together and add to batter one cup at a time until completely mixed. Chill dough.
Roll dough to 1/2 inch think for house walls and roof. Make a pattern of the sides and roof of house then cut them out and carefully place them on the cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees F for 15 to 20 minutes to insure they are hard enough to hold up. For soft cookies bake only about 12 to 14 minutes. Cool completely. Use frosting to "glue" the sides together and add candies.

We also made pumpkin bread with or without nuts and raisons. The pumpkins were grown at home, cooked down, mashed and canned, ready for this recipe. We poured the batter into small loaf pans so one batch made 8 small loaves.

PUMPKIN BREAD
2/3 C shortening
2 1/2 C sugar
4 eggs
1 can pumpkin or 3 Cups pumpkin
2/3 C water
3 1/2 C flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cloves
1 tsp cinnamon
2/3 C nuts and raisons

Cream shortening and sugar together, add eggs one at a time. Add pumpkin and water. Sift dry ingredients together and add to batter one cup at a time until throughly mixed. Nuts and raisons optional.
Bake at 400 degrees F for 40 minutes in small loaves or 60 minutes in large loaves.

Christmas

Black Friday is coming and people everywhere will be spending too much for things they don't need to please the kids that would be happy with less. My pastor said recently that Christmas has been hijacked by consumerism. The average American child receives 70 new toys each year... most at Christmas. That's just ridiculous. Most of those toys aren't going to even last the year. The bill will last longer than the toys.

I heard some people talking about cutting back on the amount of gifts given to the kids this year. One family said that they were getting one gift each. But that is just for this year. What about next year when things might be better or worse? One family said they were giving no gifts to each other, only one gift each to the kids. I think we have totally lost the reason behind the gift giving. Is it about building love? Gifts aren't doing that. Your time and attention does that. Is it about building character? Seventy gifts per year aren't doing that. If anything it builds contempt. Is it about building generosity? I know I wanted my kids to develop that, so then why did I feel so bad when I couldn't lavish more toys on them?

Perhaps if we each as parents, sat down and decided what it is we really want our children to "have" after the wrapping paper stops flying, we may have a different outlook. It has to be about what we can do for others instead of ourselves that really matters. Maybe this is the year to look around and see what we can lavish on those less fortunate than ourselves. Get involved in a mission project or a homeless shelter. The kids will never be the same.

Pictures

As much as my digital camera cost me.... it has saved me hundreds of dollars in processing and film costs. I take bathtub loads of pictures every year and processing adds up. Now I only print pics if I really need a "hard copy". I figured it to be $380 I saved this year alone.

Pencil Extenders

These are some of the pencil extenders from the last post made from plastic pen tubes.

Paper and the Artist

I'm an artist and art teacher, so a lot of my posts will have tips for saving on art supplies and paper. If you have budding artists among your little ones, you know what I mean. They can go through paper like nobodies business. So here are a few tips I found helpful.

PAPER:
I saved "scrap" paper wherever possible. Keep a box especially for scrap drawing paper
Advertising flyers are usually blank on one side.
Printer paper that mis-fed or was used and no long needed.
Homework or tests sent home that is still blank on one side.
Newsprint roll ends from the local newspaper (they sometimes charge $1 or 2 for these but have tons of paper)
Thrift stores will sometimes sell old drawing paper tablets that have begun to yellow (so real artists don't want it)
Keep your eyes pealed for yard sales getting rid of old art supplies.

ENVELOPES:
Snail mail is not as often used as it was because of the cost.
Reuse the large mailing envelopes. Tape a white paper over the old address and print over it.
Business sized envelopes can be reused by using peal and stick labels over the old address or
carefully cut the envelope edges apart and turn it inside out, then re-glue.
Dollar stores have good cheep bubble mailer for half the price of the major office stationary stores.

PENCILS AND COLORED PENCILS:
My little students went through a lot of pencils and colored pencils too. I hate throwing away to short ends which were still good but too short to use.

Create a pencil extender by using old ink pen "tubes". The cheap "Bic" type pens are best. Pull the old pen out of the plastic tube and throw it away. You are left with an empty plastic tube. You will need it to flair at the end. Heat it over a stove just enough to make the plastic soft (as in the picture). Don't touch the electric element with the plastic as it will stick and smoke. Shove in a pencil, point-side into the soft plastic to make it stretch. Pull the pencil back out and put the eraser end into plastic. You will have an extender to be able to get the last little bits out of your pencils too small to write with otherwise.

CRAYONS:
When crayons break most kids want to throw them away. I hate that. The crayon is still good, just short.

I invested in a crayon maker machine. Sure it was an initial expense but it has worked for decades. It heats the crayon bits using a light bulb and when they are heated to melting, it tips and pours the melted crayons into a little rubber mold that creates new perfect crayons. Being an art teacher, I still use my crayon maker machine regularly instead of buying new crayons every time someone breaks one. Takes the stress out of art. You can order a crayon maker machine through Nasco. www.eNasco.com/artsandcrafts or call 1-800-558-9595 and ask for the Arts and Crafts catalog. They will send it to you free.
You can often find used crayons, paints, and markers at Thrift stores and yard sales for very cheap.

Greetings

After viewing some really cool blogs, I noticed that few, if any, are devoted just to saving money and the cutting of corners exclusively. Many lovely blogs have frugal tips, but what if they were all in one spot? A helpful tool for we struggling Moms and wives to use daily. When my kids were growing up and my dear husband held three jobs so I could stay home with them, my philosophy was "If I can SAVE money for my family, I have MADE money for my family." It seemed simple enough. I may not have had a "real" paycheck job, but the work I did at home was just as vital. So I learned a few tricks along the way.

I'm sure I'm not the only one. I will share as often as possible (if not daily, then weekly) and invite all you frugal females like me to do the same. I am more than happy to post links to blogs that can help people save. So feel free to share.