Wood Heat

I don't know about the rest of you, buy my electric bill keeps going up and up.  I thought all of these great energy saving appliances were supposed to save us money?

We have a split system electric heat pump for our home, and it uses way more electricity than I want to pay.  This year, we have opened up our fireplace and are starting to use it.  We get the wood for free from fallen trees in some friends' empty lots, and they appreciate it that it gets cleaned out.  We also scavange for firewood from the side of the road where people who obviously don't use it put it out for the county to pick up.  I set both thermostats to 65 and keep my fire going.  It generally stays about 71 in the house, so we are not suffering one bit.  Free heat is better than any other kind :)

BTW - in an effort to say our LP gas, instead of using the cooktop, I started using the fireplace some.  You can't do everything in it, but I have been suprised at what you CAN do!

Using the dryer when you have to

Right now we are being pelted with rain from Frankenstorm Sandy - we have had rain since yesterday and will be having rain at least through Monday - and we have a finite amount of clothing.

As much as I don't like to use my dryer, I do have to make sure we have plenty of clothes to get the job done, so I do medium sized loads and set my dryer to low .  Then they are done in about 30 minutes, which is about half the time required as large loads (plus being as low burns less energy too).  I can get by with about 1 load a day this way, sometimes 1 every other day until the rain stops, then I can catch up on sheets, blankets and towels then.

Plan your laundry, do the necessities, don't wash things that aren't actually dirty and you will be able to be a little more conservative when the dryer is your best option.

Conserving Candles

I read the Tightwad Gazette from time to time when my frugal mind is not being creative.  Lately, I was reading the part about candles, and tried the recommendation.

I took a bunch of candles that were on their wits end and melted the little bit inside and poured the little bits into a mason jar to cool in colored layers.  It looks pretty awesome, plus, with a new wick added, I have a new long lasting candle.

FYI - if you buy candles at yard sales or the thrift stores, you can use the wick that's there in a new mason jar style candle for pennies on the dollar.

No more wasted candles, and from the looks of the new candles I made, I won't have to buy anymore anytime soon either.

Happy recycling!

Load Calculations = How much energy my stuff uses!!

I will gladly thank my husband for telling me the actual title of what I was doing :)

I have been watching my power meter for awhile now, just going out and checking the number every few days and recording it.  So, after a couple of weeks I decided to figure out which appliances in my home were using the most electricity. Here is what I did . . . . . . .

I went through the house and wrote down the amps and the volts for each appliance and calulated the watts, then I multiplied the watts by 1000 to get the kilowatts (which is how your outdoor meter measure electricity usage).  I then multiplied the kilowatts by what the power company charges me per kilowatt hour (the amount of electricity used per hour).  My particular figure for this season is 11.231 cent per kWh (kilowatt hour).  Example:

My dryer (a great example of the typical power-hog)

28 amps x 240 volts = 6720 watts (6.72kWh)
6.72kWh/load (because a typical load takes 1 hour to dry) x 11.231 cent/kWh = 75.5 cent/load

Okay, let's take it out a bit further

75.5/load x 7 loads/week = $5.29/week = $274.82/year

Hmmm, with $274.82/year I could:

1 -  add more/improve insulation around the house to decrease electric bill
2 -  fill my LP tank completely full and my gas tank completely full once each
3 -  buy an entire months worth of groceries
4 -  buy an entire months worth of gas for the car
5 -  pay for 3 months worth of auto insurance
6 -  pay for our home phone for 6 months +
7 -  buy a 7"tablet (if that were on my list)
8 -  buy a large chunk of Christmas gifts for the year
9 -  put tires on my car
10- take the entire family to the dentist for cleanings


What could you do with that much money, and, more importantly, if you know how much energy your appliances use, how much more could you save by making the ones that really drain it more efficient?

I do believe that even just being aware of how much energy your appliances use helps you save money, because awareness increases likelihood of being consiously conservative of the resource. 

More on this topic later . . . . .

Thinning with water

This is kind of a no brainer in some ways, but sometimes I need the reminder ~ Almost any personal care product can successfully be thinned out with water, shampoo, conditioner, liquid soaps, lotions, hairspray, hair gel, etc. Facial care is a little different. I have gotten my best results by wetting my face and hands a little before applying eye creams and facial moisturizer. This way my hands arre not absorbing so much, and I can evenly moisturize my face instead of having some patches more moisturized than others and having some patches feeling heavy. I find this to work excellently! There are also quite a few household products that can be thinned: dish soap, fabric softener, laundry soap, bleach, ammonia, linen water, etc. Give it a try and save some money ~

DIY - everything!

I used to get other people (mostly my husband) to fix things for me all the time.  But I have learned that you can learn how to do just about anything by googling it or you tube-ing it.  Even surgery - for goodness sakes even surgery is on you tube!!! That is just crazy!!

But I digress.  I have been having some minor computer problems, and taking it to someone can be very, very, VERY expensive!  So, with some uninterrupted time and a lot of diving through websites, I have managed to fix some of my computer problems.

There will always be some things I cannot fix this way, but the more you at least try it, the better at it you become.

Soup/Gravy Thickener

I love roux.  I love butter, flour, and the beautiful toasty thickening bonanza it becomes.  However, I do realize that #1 - butter is expensive, #2 - butter is high in calories and fat, #3 - butter can burn badly and ruin an entire dish.  Cream is also a high dollar item to have go bad in your fridge.  So, I have been watching my Julia Child videos, and she gave a most valuable tip that is easy, cheap and healthy.  Use rice.  Take cooked rice and put it in a blender and add some water (just a couple of tablespoons for  a cup) and blend until smooth.  Then, add it to your soup, and voila, you now have a cream soup or a thickened gravy.

Today, I used leftover cooked brown rice and made a lovely, no lump beef gravy nice and thick.

Saving Money After a Purchase

Recently, we purchased a new computer through Staples.com. Of course, I had researched my product to make sure I was getting the most for my money! (We are economically savvy, yes?!)
Something I didn't consider before the purchase was
Don't forget about comparing prices for a couple of weeks (14 days after purchase specifically for Staples) after you shopped! I was leafing through my Sunday sales flyers and spotted the same exact one on sale again for $30 less than before. One painless 800 number phone call (about 10 minutes time with very polite customer service)...and that bargain I already had found got even better!
Other companies offer similar programs...so do your research and check those sales flyers!

Pantyhose

I had a dress emergency yesterday, and that 'necessity' made me 'invent' something useful and wonderful.

I needed something to smooth out my tummy and thighs. So, here it is, 4 hours before I have to leave for a funeral, July, hot and I had too many kids to run out and get a satiny thing to help me.  So, I took an old pair of pantyhose and chopped them off at the knee.  This gave me smoothness from the waist to the knee (read as 'no chub-rub), and wasn't too hot.  Plus it was a lot cheaper than a Spanx and I didn't have to go anywhere to get it.

Don't toss holey pantyhose - you never know when you are going to need them.

Shampoo Update

I can happily say, that after about 2-3 weeks of using baking soda instead of shampoo, my hair has not only survived, but done just fine.  No dryness, no frizzies, no funky feeling, no nothing, just hair.  And I love that!

Stretching Ground Beef

We eat quite a bit of ground beef here. Spaghetti, lasagna, nachos, enchiladas, hamburgers, beef skillet (a homemade version of hamburger helper), meatloaf, meatballs, shepherds pie, pastits, etc. Anyway, I have been working on ways to increase the bulk of the ground beef while using less beef, decreasing fat and calories, not greatly changing flavor and not going the soy route. Here is what I have come up with and how it works for us:

carrots: My preference with these is ground (if you have a meat grinder handy), but shredded works fine too, works best with Mexican and Italian flavors, decrease the amount in things like meatloaf and burgers

onions: I use this in pretty much all of my beef mixes, grind or finely chop

brown rice or steel cut oats: these give the chew texture that is similar too beef, dont go overboard with it though or it will give a 'fake chewuy' texture that I just cannot describe

mushrooms: these have a naturally earthy full flavor of their own that works well with beef. I would not buy them primarily as a meat stretcher, but it is a great way to use up extra mushrooms before they spoil, these go over well in burgers and meatloaf

breadcrumbs: use any type of leftover bread heels or whatnot for this, a little goes a long way, hels uwith binding for burgers, meatloaves, meatballs, etc

Anyone have any other 'dirty little secrets' for stretching and (dare I say) fortifying their beef?

Chest Freezers

My dad is giving me a chest freezer. It was given to him by a friend who didn't need it anymore, and he already has one so he is passing it to me. I am very excited as I enjoy bulk cooking, shopping, etc. to save time, money, waste, etc. I do think it to be imperative to formulate some sort of syystem/worksheet or something in order to keep up with what's in there, ane how long it has been there. Any suggestions or methods you have found effective?

Shampoo-less

I have finally found a shampoo recipe that does not leave a residue, does not dry my hair out and does not smell funky . .... . (drum roll please) - using no shampooo at all!  I was visiting the Simple Mom a couple of days ago and she posted about going shampoo free, the alternative recipe for a hair rinse she did post and I tried it, and it has actually worked better than any of the other recipes ever.  Add one tablespoon baking soda to 1 cup of water, stir well and pour on hair.  Use your hands to work it through a couple of seconds, do it again, leave on for a couple of minutes, then rinse.  If you use a lot of hair junk, you may have to rinse a couple more times.  But that was it.  There is the option of a vinegar rinse, 1 tbsp cider vinegar in 1 cup water, but that does leave a smell.  I did it yesterday, both the baking soda cleaning rinse and the vinegar softening rinse, and my hair looks and feels great - tonight I will do it without the vinegar and see.  I will post an update on this experiment in about  week to see how my hair is doing.

For a better explanation of how this all works, go to,

http://simplemom.net/how-to-clean-your-hair-without-shampoo/

The Summer Crockpot

Most people generally see the crockpot as a fall/winter tool, but I love it's versatility all year. For instance, tonight I made enchiladas in my crockpot. They were wonderful, and I managed to NOT heat up my kitchen in the process which is great because it has been in the 90's and I am trying hard to keep my AC unit from going into overdrive. So it's. Twofold victory - great dinner and lowered energy cost. Sounds win-win to me. Next recipe to try, crockpot lasagna!

I still need a good way to make bread in the crockpot, but that one is a little more difficult to sort.

One Week

. . . . And I am still on the same squeaky clean trash bag!

My List

I have a few things on my list I really want to accomplish, and I will post progress as I go.

1). I want to do once a month shopping, not cooking, but shopping. I was working on the numbers and I believe that once a month shopping, including Costco, is going to be least expensive way for me to go overall. For one thing, I drive an Expedition and gas is $3.50 a gallon. Another is that I have become an on sale/discount/coupon impulse buyer. So I need to stay out of the stores as much as possible. I think this will help me get under and start under budget.

2). I am in need of organizing my stuff. I have plenty of hand me down kid clothes to figure out how to manage so I don't double purchase things, plus my food storage is a bit messy and I don't want that stuff to go bad or break or whatnot. I also get really tense when the messiness and clutter builds, even a little. I just can't function optimally when I can't get to what I need when I need it. It becomes a stressor.

3). Style. My hair is atrocious and I need to figure it out.

Bag Reusing

Not everyone reuses ziploc bags or the like, but consider the potential. Each little baggie costs about .07, which I realize is not a lot, but let's say you reuse enough bags in a year to not waste 100 bags. That alone accounts for $7.00. Not much, eh? True, but one small habit started soon spills over into many habits that pile up. There is an old saying that I read in Isabella Beetons Book of Household Managemnt" that I love but will Americanize, "Take care of you pennies and your dollars will take care of themselves" (she used pounds and farthings I think )

I do have a few rules about reusing bags though, never after raw meat of any sort, allow to thoroughly dry after washing, when you fill it with water and the leaks resemble a sprinler system, either throw away or use for crayons and markers only.

Any of you have any good bag reuses?

I reuse store bread bags for homemade bread too.
I keep ratty reused bags in the car for trash collection.
In the summer I also keep spare bags for wet bathing suits,etc.

Trash Bags

I have been pulling out my tightwad gazette lately, so watch out.....

When you go to the grocery store, wal-mart, etc., you usually leave with a ton of bags whether paper or plastic.  In my area, the little plastic ones are pretty much illegal, so we get paper.  So I now have a ton, and I use them for lots of things, including wrapping books and packages for mailing since they protect the package nicely.  I have also been putting them in my trash can (with plastic glad bag lining the can).  This way, I just pull the paper bag up by the handles about once a day and toss it, instead of pulling out the much more expensive glad bag.  Plus, the paper bag is at least biodegradale, whereas the plastic bag is not. 

I wonder how long I can make one glad bag last

The proverbial wagon

Oh come on, we all have one- a wagon of some sort that we keep falling off of. Mine is record keeping of all of my purchases.

I have a desire to manage our money so well that I can account for every dime, and have eliminated as much waste as humanly possibly. But then I'll forget to write a couple of things down, and then get frustrated with myself and stop, then on the first of the following month, I will go through it and torture myself all over again when I fail. However, I was forgetting something, I don't have to wait until the beginning of the following month to stop letting myself drag behind the cart and get back on the cart. Where had that rule come from anyway? No one normal I am sure, and certainly no one with small kids.

So, I got back up out of the dirt and started writing it all down to evaluate again, a d it was freeing not to wait ntil the beginning of the following month Hallelujah!

Butter Paper

I know some people who save butter papers for greasing cookie sheets, etc, and that's fine.  I do not.  I use a scraper (the flexible, silicone type) and I scrape down the paper to get every bit of butter off and then the wax paper is generally butter free and has no use for greasing.  This is especially helpful when you let your butter soften in the wax and lots of it likes to stick.  You can lose 1-2 teaspoons that way easy!

So scrape it off, or grease stuff with it - but don't let all of that wonderful (and $3 per pound) butter get wasted!