Since our baby is due in August, I came very close to not even trying a vegetable garden this year...but then I went grocery shopping.  As I'm sure you've noticed, food prices are skyrocketing.  So I resolved to garden this year, even with my big belly.  I'm glad I did.  Even this early in the season, we've enjoyed fresh lettuce, spinach, and onions, and broccoli is just around the corner.

We built our raised bed last year, so this year the only labor involved in getting the garden ready was to clear out the weeds that built up in the box.  This could have been avoided if I would have put plastic or something over the bed last fall, but I didn't.  If I would have taken the five minutes for such a simple task, getting the bed ready would have been as simple as pulling back the plastic.

Here's the garden, as of a couple weeks ago. The broccoli is the most impressive thing, and there's some salad greens, carrots, and bush beans peaking up.  I'm also having a good run of onions.  There's tomato, jalepeno, and chile plants against the trellis, but we're having a short season this year so I don't know if those will do anything.



I also have a collection of containers in a sunny spot.  These have a bell pepper plant (that got cut out of the picture), a grape tomato, some pole green beans, romaine lettuce, carrots, and a cucumber.  The pots have a couple tomatoes and a zucchini.


I'm loosely following the Square Foot Gardening method for vegetables.  As you can see from the website, it boasts a technique that produces a big harvest with very little work.  I'm still working on the big harvest part, but raised beds definitely are not very much work.  All I do is plant the seeds or starts, water, and pull out any weeds that sneak in there.  Since we don't walk on the bed, the soil stays nice and fluffy and all the plants are close together so the weeds don't have room to take over.  Even in my 7 month pregnant state, I'm not having any problems maintaining my garden. 

As a novice gardener, I'm still in the experimental phase.  Square Foot Gardening swears that you can grow just about anything, even large plants like squash and tomatoes, in six inches of soil.  I'm not convinced since last year none of the tomatoes in my raised bed did anything, so this year I have tomatoes in a variety of pots to see which does best...and so far it's the one in the largest pot.   Although the seed packets say that you need new seeds every year, I'm using packets that are up to 3 years old and still come up, so at this point I figure I have nothing to loose by putting the seeds in the dirt and seeing what happens, even if it is trying to grow a zucchini in a container.  The tomato, broccoli, onion, and pepper starts were delightfully cheap at a local farm, and I only needed a few seed packets besides what I saved from last year, so I didn't put much money into my garden this year.

However, getting the beds set up wasn't cheap.  Last year, building such a large bed, a smaller bed, four small boxes, and two trellises,  following the Square Foot Gardening method, with their recommendations for a soil mixture, costs us around $100.  In hindsight I could have done it cheaper, like we put a plywood bottom in the big bed, and now I realize that we would have been better off with just some metal mesh (to keep out rodents) and landscape fabric because we would have gotten better drainage and deeper soil, and that would have saved us about $10 right there.  $100 was a lot to cough up at once, but it was worth it because this garden is so easy to take care of and stuff actually grows.  My first year in this house I tried to plant straight into the dirt, which was cheaper, but hardly anything grew so it was  pointless.  This year I had to buy some more manure and peat moss to add to the soil, mainly because I didn't fill the box enough last year, and then I lost a lot of soil yanking out weeds that collected over the winter.  If I got myself together enough to get good compost going I could save even more money because I wouldn't have to buy it. (Yes, true tightwad confessions...I have the sorriest excuse for a compost pile the world has ever seen.  But this summer I am determined to change that because I am sick of paying for rotted yard waste).

If you're thinking that you don't have $100 to throw into a garden right now, you could probably start with a 4 foot by 4 foot bed for about $25, or less, if you scrounge wood and have your own compost.  And then, if you decide it's working for you, you could add another bed next year.  I just started ambitiously.

My verdict is that, if you're going to have a vegetable garden, raised beds and containers are the way to go.  Even though the start-up costs are initially higher, the amount of time saved and the harvest make it worthwhile in the long run.

When we first moved into this house, I tore up a section of the grass to use as a small vegetable garden.  The veggies didn't like that part of the yard and my garden flopped, so the next year I moved on to raised bed gardening (posts on that to come), but I still had the tore-up grass that weeds would take over.  The following summer we cleaned it up and planted sunflowers, but the next winter it became a weed garden again and a very unattractive mess by spring.

I began to ponder something to fill the space that would be very little work and preferably free or extremely cheap, and, of course, attractive.  At the end of May, I finally came up with an idea after a friend who was moving cross-country gave me rosemary and thyme plants.  I already had sage and chives in pots, and I could get some lavender from my mom.  These herbs are hardy, low-maintenance, come back on their own every year, and some get pretty big. 

So after cleaning up the weeds, I put in my herbs, plus a mystery rose bush my friend gave me.  I bought a parsley plant at a farmer's market, and saved some spots that I originally planned for more roses, but after dealing with wilt and blackspot on my roses this season, I've changed my mind and am going to put blueberry bushes in the gaps instead, which do very well in my part of the country.  (Even if I have to buy them, I'll have fresh blueberries down the road!) I had some strawberries in a pot, so I moved those into the garden for a ground-cover around the rose bush. Until I get around to getting the blueberries in, which probably won't be until next season at this point, I planted some sunflower seeds to fill in the spaces. 

Here's the young garden:


From L-R, rosemary (which is really small now, but we gave it a lot of space because it will get big), a space for a blueberry currently filled with tiny sunflowers, chives, the rose (we have no idea if it's a tea or a climber or what...it'll be a surprise), strawberries, sage, more sunflowers, lavender, thyme, and parsley.  Then there's a dealy my mom gave me for Mother's Day, and there's some dill planted next to that, but so far it hasn't come up.  I also tried to start some cilantro from seed at the other end, but no luck there either.  I may try again now that the weather is warmer, but I'll probably just end up getting a start.   I have basil and oregano in a box by my kitchen door and some mint in a pot, too, so I have a well-rounded supply of fresh herbs for cooking!   (And eventually I will take down that trellis netting...)

It's uneven now, but in theory the plants should fill it in and I'll have a pretty garden full of useful things.  Since all the other plants were free, I spent less than $20 for the parsley, strawberries, basil, oregano, and seeds, and it only took me two afternoons to clear out the weeds and move in the plants.  We'll see how it fills out by next year! 

Here's a tip for those who sew...

What do you do with the bobbins that have a little bit of a random color of thread left on them?  Sometimes you can get away with pairing it with a close color of thread on a not-so important project, but otherwise they end up piling up until you have dozens of bobbins and none near the color you need.  The same goes for spools of thread with a tiny bit left that are cluttering your sewing area.

Now when I have to sew in something like interfacing, do a lot of basting, or sew inside seams, I put one of those random bobbins on the top of the machine or use a spool of almost-empty thread, and I don't worry if the bobbin doesn't match the main thread, and use those to sew those areas that will never see the light of day.  I just made a diaper bag for my sister that took a lot of sew-in interfacing and basting, and was able to empty three lonely bobbins and two near-naked spools!  If basting will be removed, using thread that contrasts with your fabric makes it easier to see what stitches need to come out.

Or maybe you're feeling artsy and want your visible seams to look like you just grabbed random thread.  Just remember that a bobbin can work just as well on the top of your machine!

Lately I've been kindling a romance with my hot glue gun.  Although duct tape is the traditional tightwad standby, hot glue guns are just as useful, and they do repairs without the "chrome" finish.  After an extended stay in the garage, my gun now stands proudly on the kitchen counter, waiting for its next assignment.

In the past week, I glued some clothespins to the sides of the shelves where I store diapers so I have an out-of-the-way place to air out wool diaper covers. It's not the prettiest thing, but the shelves are in a closet so I didn't worry about aesthetics.  To keep my girl's play tent from perpetual ruin, I'm gluing the little pieces to the big pieces so even when it does collapse, not quite as many poles and joints will be spread all over the house.  Now the top of my favorite hairbrush doesn't pop out.  And all the thanks go to a small black gun.

This evening I noticed my neighbors had a drying rack next to their garbage can.  They are good friends of ours; in fact, they're out of town and we were supposed to take their garbage to the curb, but my husband and I had a communication breakdown and it didn't happen so the day after garbage day their can still sits next to the garage.  A closer look at the drying rack showed that it only had a small break that looked like it could be fixed with some...hot glue!

I've needed a new drying rack for awhile, but have been stubbornly making the one I have work.  This one, even condemned to the dump, is in better shape than the one I'm using.  So I swiped it, and now I get to start a conversation with, "I don't usually take stuff out of your garbage when you go out of town, but..." when my friends get back.  I'm going to make sure that was intended to be thrown away and she's okay with my taking it before I undergo the repairs, but with a few minutes and a little hot glue, it looks like I just scored a new drying rack.

For the record, I was using cloth shopping bags before they were cool.  I'd like to say I started a fad, like when I was the first to bring my Skip-It to recess in fourth grade, or in junior high when I  figured out that if you froze your water bottle and then put it in your backpack wrapped in a dishcloth, it would stay cold and not sweat all over your books.  Within a few weeks, everyone was doing it.

Nope, I got fed up with the masses of plastic bags accumulating in my home and starting bringing my own cloth bags to the grocery store when the clerks still raised their eyebrows and I looked like some crazy hippie. One even asked me "are you some kind of environmentalist?" So now that everyone is BYOB to the store, and getting a 5 cent credit or entering a contest for each reusable bag, I can give some tips on good choices for shopping bags, since I've been at this awhile.

1. Use canvas or a heavy cloth material.  The burlapy bags, like the ones sold for less than a dollar in the check-out line, don't wash well.  If you get a spill or leak in one, they have to be handwashed or machine washed on gentle, while you can chuck a dirty canvas bag in the washer with the rest of your laundry.

2. Put in a hard bottom.  This isn't absolutely necessary, but if you cut a piece of cardboard or an old plastic cutting board down to the size of the bottom of a cloth bag, it's easier to pack and you will be happier with it.

3. They are really easy to make.  You don't even need to buy bags, and can piece together old jeans or use cheap home decorating material (like hitting the 50% clearance-price sale at Joann's, which I believe is coming up soon or going on now.) and make some stylish, heavy-duty bags that will make you the hit of checkout aisle.  If you have basic sewing skills, you should be able to figure it out without too much trouble. Google for "sewing shopping bags" until you find a tutorial you like.
 
4. Don't be afraid to mix store bags.  Besides my homemade bag, I take my Safeway bag to Fred Meyer or my Trader Joe's bags to WinCo, and I didn't think anything of it until my mom commented on when I brought my entire collection home from one store.  If these companies really care about going green, then it wouldn't bother them if you didn't buy a different set of bags for each store, right?

Cloth bags are a great way to reduce garbage.  Even recycling plastic and paper bags still creates environmental strain considering the processes used in recycling and all the gas used when transporting the materials.  A good set of cloth bags will last you years, and imagine all the disposable bags that will never even see a cart.

My 3 year old developed an obsession with fishing after seeing a fishing contest on Barney.  After hearing "I want to go fishing!" 30 million times, I asked her, "would you like me to make you a pretend fishing pole?"

"Yes!"

So I tied some scrap yarn at the end of a broken toy broom handle, and catching fish over the back of the couch provided enough entertainment to make it worth the minute it took to make the "pole."  We haven't heard a word about fishing since.

This reminded me how little it takes to entertain a kid, and how quickly the novelty of toys can wear off.  Sometimes when we go to a friend's house and she finds a toy there fascinating, it will cross my mind that it could be a good idea to get that toy for her when Christmas or her birthday rolls around, but I always check myself.  If the exact same toy was in our house all the time, the interest would wear off and she probably wouldn't even touch it after awhile, or so rarely that it's not worth it's space.   If I would have gone out and bought her a toy fishing pole, she would have played with it for an afternoon, and never picked it up again...and that would have been a bit annoying.

We rarely buy our girls toys.  Partly because we don't have to; our girls are only-grandchildren at the moment, so they have a flood of toys from grandparents, aunts, and uncles, but they regularly play with very few of them. The toys that go over best are "scope for imagination" toys, like the play kitchen I picked up at Goodwill for $1 (it was dirty, but after wiping it down, Amy declared it "wonderful!" and really does play with it), or a simple dollhouse we found at a thrift store for a couple bucks that she'll fill with random little toys and make up her own soap operas.  The goal is to find a toy that can be different every time she plays with it, whether she's telling herself a new story or making up a new game.

Our 1 year old doesn't even play with toys, and has never shown much interest in them, even when she was tiny; she's more interested in snooping around grown-up stuff and watching what her big sister is doing.  When I take her places sometimes friends say, "I don't have a baby toys," and I'll just reply she wouldn't be the least bit interested in them if they did.  Just flip a cell phone open a few times and that will entertain her, or give her anything with buttons.

I don't see much point in buying kids brand-new or expensive toys.  Here's a short list.

1. Pieces get lost. 
2. They'll break.
3. The kid won't even be impressed.
4. The kid will be impressed for about half an hour, and then never touch it again.
5. They can take up a lot of space, and it's easy to get to the point where the kid doesn't even have room to play.

Once at Ikea I was tempted to get Amy a set of play pots and pans, but then I remembered that she was perfectly content to use a set of old measuring cups and kitchen spoons in her play kitchen.  In fact, it's one of the toys she plays with the most, along with a Cinderella tea set my mom gave her for her birthday.  If she's happy to exercise her imagination with the measuring cups, why clutter up her room with a set of toys full of pieces that are bound to get lost? 

Now when it's time to buy presents, I look for stuff like this:

1. Re-stocking crayons, markers, play-dough or bubbles (even homemade), cheap coloring books, or other things that get a lot of use, but only last so long.
2. Things that encourage active play, like balls, jump ropes, or other outside toys.  Again, it doesn't have to be anything fancy, just something to get them moving outside. 
3. Books...good books!
4. Movies.  (Our kids, like most, go through phases where they want to watch a certain movie 30 million times.  By the time Christmas or a birthday rolls around, my husband and I are ready for something new, so that's really more for us than them. :)
5. Things that compliment stuff they already play with, like for Christmas I made Amy a set of placements to go with her tea set, and down the road I want to make her some dollhouse furniture and doll clothes.
6. Then there's always clothes, coats, new bedding, and other things that they need anyway, but giving it to them for a present can make it personalized or special.

Overall, I try to avoid stuff that will eventually become clutter and end up in a Goodwill box.  I want my kids to have space more than stuff!

This strays from my usual theme of moneysaving tips, but I know a lot of you have small children so I thought I'd share something I learned over the weekend...what to grab for your toddler before going to the Emergency Room.

On Sunday my 14 month old had febrile seizure, which, thankfully, are usually nothing serious, but we didn't know that then.  Some kids are prone to having a brief seizure with a sudden high fever.  These don't do any damage and they usually grow out the tendency by the time they start school, so we were able to leave the ER 3 hours later with no worries.  However, at the time, we just knew Kate's fever was getting high and were monitoring her closely, but when she had a seizure we did what any reasonable parents would do, especially those who never saw a baby have a seizure - freaked out and called 911.

Enter ambulance and paramedics.  They said it looked like she would be fine but wanted to take her to the ER anyway; the EMT said he always wanted to be extra careful with babies.  Her condition was already improving so they didn't rush us out of the house in a frenzy, so I had some time to gather my wits, and the diaper bag. That's all.

Since "what are the three things you'd grab if your house caught fire" is a meme question or party game, but "what three things would you grab to take your baby to the ER?" isn't, here's what I wish we had once we got to the hospital.

1. A cuddle-blanket.
Since Kate had a high fever, she went to the hospital in her diaper.  Once they got her fever lower and she was trying to sleep, it would have been nice to have something soft and familiar for her to lay on.

2. Her sippy cup.
She was never a bottle baby, and the ER only had bottles or cups - and no cups with lids, so we had a tough time trying to get her to drink some fluids.  So, if your kid likes a specific cup or bottle, grab it.

3. My wallet and insurance card.
This is an obvious one, but I'd misplaced my purse and had yet to find it when it was time to go, so I was stuck leaving without it.  Thankfully my husband was home and followed us in the car, and had a copy of our insurance card when we registered, and had a way to pay our copay, otherwise I would have had quite the headache.  So, if you only grab one thing as you scramble out of the house, make sure it's your wallet!

And to throw in one tightwad tip....
Know ahead of time if you will have an ER copay so you can have a plan to pay, and won't have yet another unpleasant surprise that day.

Hopefully none of you will ever need these tips, but we never know!

Here's a toddler feeding tidbit.  When your kiddo is ready for finger foods, there's no need to buy the tiny jars of baby-food brand cut-up veggies. Go to the freezer aisle instead and get a big bag of frozen veggies. You can start with carrots or peas, and move up to the mixed veggies when they're ready for larger chunks.  Shake what you need out of the bag at each meal and heat it up with a little water.  One bag costs a couple bucks and makes for many, many baby meals.

The catch to starting with the mixed veggies is the green beans, which can be hard for a kid without molars to gum down.  Until Kate was able to handle those as they came, after I heated up the veggies I pulled out the green beans and cut them into smaller pieces that she could manage.  She loves the mix - even the lima beans! 

Awhile back I ranted on how irritated I am with plastics and was looking for other alternatives for situations where I usually use something plastic.  A lot of these were easy, but I had one immediate hang-up.  I'm a freezer junkie, and how could I freeze stuff without my plastic containers?  Not like those were that great; they cracked and stunk and sometimes were hard to get clean.  But the only alternative I could think of would be glass jars.

I know the immediate problem with putting glass jars in the freezer is that, as the contents expand as it freezes, it can explode.  I don't like the idea of putting time bombs in my freezer, but a few days ago I decided to gamble it with one of my freezer favorites, cream of tomato soup.  I poured the leftover soup into some reused jars from pasta sauce or honey, and a mason jar.  I left a very liberal amount of headspace, at least an inch.  Then I let it cool completely, screwed on the lids, and stuck them in the freezer.

Tonight was a lazy dinner night, so I made some grilled cheese and pulled a jar of soup out of the freezer.  I very carefully removed the lid with no disasters, and then popped the jar straight into the microwave for about five minutes to defrost (a forward-thinker could defrost in the fridge, but this was not a forward-thinking evening.) 

 It worked.  No shattering, no huge messes.  I'll have to do some more experimenting, but this could be the answer to being freezer-happy without plastic.

UPDATE:  If you're having trouble getting the lid off a frozen jar, run it under some hot tap water and it should come right off!

The other night I was a bit spacey when I was making rice, and didn't measure the water.  I realized this as I was dumping the rice into the pot, but decided "ah well, it'll probably work fine."  Just for the record, brown rice cooked in too much water turns to mush that isn't appetizing with roasted chicken.

Before I chucked the rice, a Tightwad Gazette tip came to mind - serving leftover rice mixed with some milk and sugar for breakfast.  So I put the mush in the fridge, and the next morning I heated it up with some milk, brown sugar, and raisins.  It's a lot like oatmeal.  My 14 month old loved it. (But then, she'll eat anything, including dirt and day-old pancakes off the floor, so her opinion is questionable. :) If you mushed it up some more, and left out the raisins until you don't have to worry about choking, it would make a great early baby food.

There's a lot of possibility with this, including mixing it with other fruits or sweetening it with applesauce or juice, or substituting those for milk. Whatever sounds like a good way to start the day.

Tip:  If you add the raisins right away while you're heating it up, they'll plump up nicely.

Normally I don't advocate buying things in single-serving packets, since the cost per ounce is usually higher and it wastes a whole lot of packaging.  However, I've found one exception - Pedialyte Freezer Pops. 

When a kid got sick, the old routine would be to haul to the store as soon as my husband got home, get a bottle of Pedialyte (or the cheaper generic brand, which my brother, who would drink it when he ran cross-country, swore tasted worse), and Amy wouldn't drink enough to make a difference.  Pedialyte is only good for three days after it's been open, and we never finished the bottle so it would be thrown away. 

But on one of my store runs after Amy got sick, I noticed the Freezer Pops.  It was more expensive than the bottle and there was no generic brand, but I decided to give them a try anyway.  They get a big 10!

First of all, Amy actually eats them.  You can't really blame a kid for not wanting to drink Pedialyte, but she'll gladly suck on a few freezer pops in a day.  Second, since they are single-serving packets with a long shelf life, I can freeze some and store the rest in a cupboard to freeze them when they're needed, even if it's months later, so there's no waste.  Third, since they're already on hand, I don't need to worry about a run to the store when a sickness hits the house, at least for Pedialyte.  (For the same reason, there is always a bottle of baby Tylenol in the house...that's the last thing I'd want to be out of when a fever or bad teething bout hits at 1 AM!)

To take an even more frugal route, there are recipes for homemade Pedialyte out there, but I haven't tried them myself.  I found one that was pretty much highly concentrated Jello, and that just didn't sound like something I'd want to feed my kid. (However, for all I know Pedialyte is pretty much the same thing!)  There is also buying Pedialyte (or a generic brand) in the bottle and freezing your own popsicles and saving the leftover for the next sickness, but since I'm feeding a three year old, especially a sick three year old who dilly-dallys her way through food and is allowed to eat in the living room when she's sick, it's worth it to me to have the plastic wrapper to avoid messes and stains on the couch.  For an older kid, however, regular popsicles might work fine. 

Dealing with sick kids is always rough, but this is one thing that's made it a bit easier for my family!

Last week I went to a small-town Farmer's & Crafter's Market with my Grandma.  What a great place to glean ideas on crafts and gardening!

Prices on the crafted good tend to be high; however, the handmade goods are exceptional quality and if you're not into making things yourself and want to get someone a nice gift and support your local crafty folks, it could be worth it to look around.  (But watch out for people who are just selling junk you can get at the Dollar Tree at a crazy mark-up.) The plants and produce, however, tended to be reasonably priced, if not cheap, and very high quality. 

Grandma and I didn't buy a single thing while we were there, but I had some good chats with some of the people who ran the booths and got some ideas for some projects I'm planning to start. One lady was selling the scarfs I would like to knit for my cousins this Christmas, and she told me exactly how to make them.  Local gardeners selling plants can answer a lot of questions about what grows well in your area, what plants start best from seed or transplant, and other gardening questions.

Some people in a booth wouldn't like to share trade secrets and may get huffy when you realize that you have no intention of buying anything, but most of the people I talked to where very friendly and loved to talk about their passions, from sewing to gardening to knitting to woodworking, especially when they're having some down time between people who actually want to buy things. (Of course, good manners say that you'll get out of the way if someone comes up behind you with their wallet out!)

We've had a lighting dilemma in our house for awhile.  Next to our front door, we have a cheap, flimsy floor lamp that tends to get knocked down by kids who have no sense of breakable things that could be in their space.  After they broke the last cheap, flimsy, lamp, we simply replaced it with another cheap, flimsy lamp that my neighbors didn't need anymore, knowing perfectly well that it was only a temporary solution.

It didn't take long to get to the point where this cheap, flimsy lamp looked like it wasn't going to stand on its own much longer.  Here was our initial rundown of solutions.

1. Duct tape.  We tried this for cheap, flimsy lamp #1, but it didn't hold well and this lamp is in our living room, after all, and as big of a fan I am of duct tape, I'm not ready for make it a decorating tool. (Yet.)

2. Replace with another cheap, flimsy lamp.   Ack. Is there ANYTHING else we could do? Besides duct tape?

3. Come up with a new lamp that hangs from the wall or ceiling.  Urg. Headache. We'd either have to install it to the wall or hang it from a vaulted ceiling. And we'd have to spend money.  No fun.

Then, as I watched my neighbors tying to fix the pole to the badminton net by putting PVC pipe over it, I suddenly had an idea.  The net has the same problem as our lamp - the joint where the sections of the stand hold together stripped out, so it couldn't screw together anymore.  I could come up with some way to reinforce the stand with a pipe of some sort...but how do to that without looking tacky (spray painting a plastic pipe? Uhhh...) was the tough part.

After bouncing ideas around with my husband, we came up with a delightfully simple solution, that also would have saved the first lamp we got rid of (freecycled as: "Lamp, works but is held together with duct tape" - someone still wanted it!).  The stand is hollow on the inside, so we took the sections apart and jammed a wooden rod that broke of my drying rack into the inside of the stand, making sure part of the rod went between both sections when we screwed it back together, so it was reinforced on the inside.  The lamp is stronger than ever, and this may even be a permanent solution.

This led to a solution to another problem I've been pondering.  My wooden drying rack has lived a good long life; my mom used it back when I was in diapers.  But now it's missing several rods and pretty soon it will be time to let it go.  (it still has enough room for my diaper hanging needs..until it looses one more rod!) After the rod that broke off the rack salvaged the lamp, I looked at the drying rack, it all its lopsided glory, and instead of seeing a drying rack destined for the dump, I suddenly saw half a dozen perfectly usable wooden poles.  After a bit, I realized that the collapsible sides (that no longer collapse, with all the missing rods) would make perfect trellises for the climbing roses I wanted to move from the front yard to along the fence in the backyard. 

The roses won't be ready to move for a few months...and that drying rack still, for the moment, does the job.  But in a few summers I will have a lovely display of climbing roses on the back fence, and I will have the fun of knowing that the trellises are a reincarnations of a very well-used drying rack.

Lately I've become annoyed with plastic.  Besides all the back-and-forth on how healthy it is and how it can leaching chemicals into our food that is constantly in debate, I can stand by a few obvious reasons why plastics can be a pain.

1.  They break.  
Besides some bowls my grandma has used for decades or toys my mom saved that I played with as a kid, plastics sold today seem to break or crack under the slightest bit of stress, especially toys.  There's also our collection of plastic containers with no lids because they cracked, kid's dishes with hairline fractures, and even my Pampered Chef measuring cup that is useless because the plastic wore and now the top snaps off.  I have a set of stainless steel measuring cups I got around the same time (wedding gifts), and those still look brand-new.  All my plastic spatulas I got for my wedding almost five years ago are pretty much dead and gone, but I have some wooden ones Grandma used forever that are still working fine.  So, after watching cheap plastic whatchamacallits bust on me over and over, I'm done, even if means paying a little more for higher quality, or if it's something that will require a little more care and attention, like wool cloth diaper covers instead of plastic ones.

2. They stink.
I am notorious for leaving water bottles in the car.  Often they get thrown away just because I can't get the smell out by the time I clean it. Now, instead of plastic water bottles, I carry water in my travel coffee cups.  My favorite one is plastic that was a Christmas gift years ago, but it's a heavier plastic and, for some reason, doesn't absorb smells like the hard plastic bottles do.  I also have a couple steel ones that are great.  My biggest score in this area was a big steel Thermos my grandma gave away, so now we're set for road trips.  It's expected that a thermos or insulated mug will keep hot drinks hot, but they also keep cold drinks cold; the other day I left my cup on the top of the car in 90 degree weather, and the ice water was still cool two hours later.

3. They never, ever, ever go away.
After a, mostly, short-lived usefulness, plastics outlive us in a landfill.  Picturing a landfill ridden with broken toys, cracked Glad containers, stale water bottles, cloudy baby bottles, and other random stuff is enough motivation for me to work harder on avoiding plastic junk and reusing what I can. Sometimes, plastics can be handy; I have all my sewing notions neatly organized in baby wipe containers. (I don't buy baby wipes in plastic containers, but I must admit that those containers are handy). My girls' toys are organized in laundry detergent buckets covered in fun fabric.  But there are plenty of plastics in my house that just end up in the trash, so if I can buy one thing that will be useful for a long time - like a stainless steel bowl over a flimsy plastic one, or mason jars over plastic containers - then I can save a lot of space in the dump. 

Being frugal doesn't necessarily mean buying the cheapest thing every time. For me, it's about stewardship.  How can I make the most of my resources to get the most out of life?  Even though a couple plastic mixing spoons may be cheaper than the nice wooden ones, I'll have the wooden ones longer and when they get to a landfill, they'll eventually break down.  I just bought a set of nice wooden knitting needles for the same reason.  Stuff like that is worth the extra money to me.  I know my kids will someday get stuck cleaning out my house, and I'd much rather have them sort through a bunch of nice things than a bunch of junk, and I definitely want my lifetime of garbage to be easier on everybody.

On Easter I put some Crayola watercolor paints in my daughter's basket.  After the first day of painting, all the colors were brown since a three year old has a hard time grasping the need to rinse her brush properly between each color.  A couple weeks later, I was left with an empty pack of watercolors and a little girl with an insatiable desire to paint. 

I decided to seek out a better option for her artistic outlet, something that wasn't as expensive and better suited for her age.  As usual, turning to The Tightwad Gazette did not let me down.  Out of several kid's paint recipes, I decided to try this one first:


It worked!



We put the wire racks down because the paint is pretty wet (about the same as watercolors once a kid soaks them) and that kept the paper from soaking to the table.  The bland brown camel on the right was done with the last she could dig out of the store-bought watercolors, so you can compare that with the...well, whatever it is, on the left, which was done in the homemade paints, that definitely did not blend as quickly as the watercolors.

Staining was my biggest concern with these paints, since food coloring isn't the easiest thing to get out of anything.  The perk to Crayola brand stuff is that it really is washable (we tested that extensively) but it seemed like the dishsoap in this recipe made for easy clean up; all the spills wiped right off the table. If that's a concern for you (like if you have a white table), a few sheets of newspaper on the table should ease your mind.  I haven't had a chance to test it on clothing yet, so covering up your kid is a good idea if you're to give this a try. 

I don't know how these paints will keep, but I saved the leftover and we'll see how they look next time she's ready to paint.  Either way, they only took a few minutes to mix up for an afternoon of entertainment.  The Tightwad Gazette has another recipe that makes larger amounts using laundry starch, and I'll give that one a try in the future.  But so far, these satisfy our little artist.

UPDATE:  After several days of using these paints, it appears they don't dry out and can be used until they're gone, and, at first experiment (mom's shirt she splattered on when she was mixing the paint) they even wash out of clothing.  Further study will definitely be done, because they are still a hit!

UPDATE #2: Dare I say these paints are washable? A two-day old blue paint spill on the floor wiped right up and I haven't noticed it in any clothing.  So far, it appears to come up at least as well as the Crayolas.

As tax returns and stimulus payments come around, many of us who are living paycheck to paycheck are looking for ways to get the most out of our extra cash. From the title of this post, you may be thinking that I'm going to start talking about IRAs, CDs, 401ks, stocks, and all sorts of other places to let your money sit and make money on itself.  Those are not my area of expertise by any means, and I'm going to go into more practical ways to turn your money into more money, with little to no risk. 

1. Pay off debt.
This one is pretty obvious, and I'm sure many of us want to pay off debt as fast as we can.  It's also very wise, because especially when you consider the interest that can rack up, you can definitely save money in the long run.  Once you no longer have a monthly payment, then you have more money to work with overall.

However, even though paying off debt ASAP is generally a good idea, I figured out that it would be more practical to continue to pay off my student loan on schedule.  The interest rate is down to 1.6%, the balance is relatively low for a student loan, the interest is a tax write-off, and the monthly payment isn't hard for us to make.  (I know there are plenty of people who are in a tougher situation with their student loans and want to get rid of them, but I'm just using this as an example in our situation). When we have extra money, it seems wiser to find a way we can get a higher return than 1.6%, and that could range from saving for that down payment for a house (the higher the down payment you make, the lower your monthly payments, which could save a huge amount of money in the long run), or re-investing it in the ways listed below.   Pay off that high-interest credit card or make extra mortgage payments whenever possible, but take a look at your low-interest loans because it may pay off to let them ride.

2. Buy a freezer, plant a garden, and/or stock up on food.
With the prices of groceries going up, stocking up on food when it comes on sale can beat inflation and the rising prices. (See The Pantry Principle). As an example, I currently have ground beef and chicken breast purchased at 99 cents a pound in my freezer; I bought about 30 pounds of each when they came on sale.  Considering that they usually cost $3-$5 a pound, (I'll round to $3.00 for sake of the math) I saved over $100 in those two runs alone, and I do this several times a year.  There's also ice cream, bacon, frozen veggies, flour, hamburger patties, and a 20 pound turkey purchased at rock-bottom prices.  Then there's the homemade broth, prepared-ahead meals for busy nights (like taco meat and spaghetti sauce), and soon it will be the time of year for garden produce and berries.  A big freezer will pay for itself very quickly. 

Initially your grocery bill is higher when you take opportunities to jump on sale items, but it doesn't take long to even out.  As an example, once you have 60 pounds of meat in your freezer, you don't have to buy it for several months, and can spend the money you're not spending on meat on other pantry items, and eventually your grocery bill lowers because you can wait to buy most essentials when they come on sale instead of paying high prices.  When you have extra cash, it's a good time to increase your grocery budget so you can take full advantage of the best sales and get your food stashes started.

Of course, growing your own food can save money. If budget has been holding you back from trying, you can take extra cash and use it to get your garden going.  There are plenty of wise people and great resources with frugal gardening tips, but I'm still on the lower end of the learning curve there so I'll save advice until I have more experience.

3. Replace appliances that are sucking power.
When you switch out your olive green fridge, ancient water heater, or your dryer that takes two hours to dry a load, you're not only lowering your power bill every month, but doing giving the planet a break by using fewer resources. 

However, a little math showed that, in one case, it was more frugal to hang on to what we had.  We do a lot of laundry in our house, and I considered if it would be better to have a front-loading washing machine.  My husband and I decided to stick with our current washer, which is pretty new and works fine, because I estimated the front-loader, which would use half the water of our current washer, would only save us about $5 a month.  It would take years to recoup the cost of a brand new washing machine based on water savings.  When our washer needs to be replaced I will look into a front loader, but as long as it's doing its job we're going to hang on to it.

4. Catch up your car maintenance.
Too many cars have ended up dead on the side of the road (with a hefty towing bill) because a simple repair or maintenance that was neglected, sometimes to the point where it's too expensive to make it worth fixing.  Check your car's manual or go to a trusted mechanic to make sure your car is where it needs to be. 

5. Sit on it.
You can never go wrong with an emergency fund.  Even if the money isn't earning huge amounts of interest, think about what it could save if you suddenly needed expensive car repairs (which #4 would, hopefully, help you avoid), had to buy a plane ticket to see a sick family member, had an expected medical bill, or the countless other reasons when you would wish you had extra money.  Rather than pull out the credit card or take on expensive financing out of desperation, you can dip into the emergency fund, pay cash, and be free and clear.

If you continue to add to your savings, you may suddenly find that your emergency fund has turned into  enough money to start looking into other investments - retirement, buying a home, and all those acronyms that roll around the stock market and banks.  Now it may seem out of reach, but now if you keep grabbing sales, planting veggies, and making sure your spark plugs aren't worn out, you'll get there.

I am a book junkie, but I am slowing learning my lesson that a book bought on impulse might not get read...and I have bought many books that only sit on a shelf, especially "interesting" looking books from used bookstores.

So, as I take on knitting as my new hobby, I already bought one book, on impulse, at a bookstore, at full price.  I don't regret buying the book because it's been a wonder of help, but I could have saved a few bucks if I would have just written down the title and bought it off amazon.com.  Now as I compulsively look into other knitting books, it occurred to me that I can go to the library and borrow the books to see if I will like, and more importantly, use them, before I acquire yet another book permanently. 

In fact, since the knitting books I want to look at are apparently popular, I can go online to our community library and place a hold on a book that's out, to have the book mailed to me right at home once it's available.  

You can't go wrong to borrow an "interesting" looking book, only to drop it back at the library after a few weeks, once you realize that you'll never read it.  And if it turns out to be a keeper, then you can go a bargain hunt to find your own copy. 

Libraries also tend to provide free classes, children's story hours, groups for people with related interests (like poetry, gardening, or knitting), and an abundance of other resources helpful in the frugal life.  You can probably find most of these resources on your local library's webpage. 

If you haven't noticed commercial after commercial, next February all television will convert to a digital signal.  For tightwads who don't have cable or satellite, or a brand-new digital TV, this means we have to get a converter box to keep our free TV.  The good news is that the government is subsidizing the cost of the boxes, and if you register on their website (https://www.dtv2009.gov/) you can get a $40 coupon towards the box on the mail.  The coupons really do come - we got ours yesterday.

And to do a good turn, spread the word about the coupons, especially among the elderly or those who seem confused by the change in technology, and would need help applying for the coupon or choosing a converter box.

I posted this to another blog awhile back, and then I realized that it never made it here, so here is general cloth diapering Q & A, for those interested. 

Many of you have traveled with me as I delved into many ways to cover a baby's butt inexpensively.  Now, with baby #3 on the way, I have settled on a two-baby diapering system, and my explorations have ended. (Or, at least that's what I promised my husband).

You can see my past experiments with frugal diapering here, but when I settled on a style for two babies, it came down to space, value, versatility, longevity, and of course, how well the diapers work.  So my final verdict: Chinese Cotton Prefolds are the best diaper I've found for the money.

Prefold diapers are rectangles that have to be folded around the baby one way or another.  I do this wad-and-wrap thing (I will post pictures on how to fold a prefold sometime soon) and fasten it with this handy gadget called a Snappi.  Some parents find folding a prefold intimidating, but once you get the hang of it, it becomes second nature - even on a wiggly baby.



I was able to find most of my diapers on craigslist used for about .50 cents each, but I need two sizes, infant and regular, the regular size is really hard to find used.  I went to the Pro Diaper factory and getting the last two dozen regular size I needed, which were $1.80 each, and since I was able to get them all locally I didn't have to pay shipping. The diapers aren't made at the factory, (they make covers) but are shipped in and they sell them without as much mark-up as a retail outlet. Normally the diapers will go for $2.25. These diapers are very high quality and can last through several children, so I spent about $80 for 36 infant and 36 regular diapers, and if all goes as planned, these are the last diapers I will ever have to buy.  I've been scrounging up covers for awhile, and am still using the Gerber vinyl pants (which I've never bought from a store, but hunted down on craigslist, freecycle, and at consignment shops). These work great on my babies until they crack, which is inevitable. Now I'm experimenting with knitting wool soakers as another option for a cover. The catch to that is that I'm learning to knit as I take on this project, so it's slow going at the moment.

The infant size only fit the baby for a few months, but a regular would be so bulky on a tiny baby that they're necessary. The cool thing about the infant size is that they can be used as liners or doublers as the baby gets older; both my girls get an infant size diaper as a doubler overnight.  The regular size will fit the baby for a long time, and can be folded down in the back for a custom fit, which is another reason why I like prefolds - you can figure out a fold that fits your baby just right.

I also discovered microfleece liners.  All you need to do is find a yard of microfleece (I bought mine off craigslist, but you can get it in a fabric store) and cut it into about 10 inch by 5 inch strips.  Fleece edges don't fray, so once they are cut they're ready to use. Using these liners in the diapers wick the moisture away from the baby, easing (or even eliminating) diaper rashes, and make it easier to shake or rinse poop into the toilet, because you only have to deal with the liner instead of the entire diaper (most of the time). Since the baby will only get poop on the liner (again, most of the time), it also lessens staining on the diapers, keeping them white and pretty. (While I'm on this subject, remember that as long as your baby is exclusively breastfed, there's no need to rinse the poop at all, because it's water soluble and will come clean in the washer.)

Once I got all my diapers, liners, and covers, and made my overnights (including six of a larger size for my 3 year old), a two-kid cloth diapering stash cost about $160. There are cheaper ways to diaper, but I really liked the Chinese prefolds so I decided to go with those.   If you're looking for a quality diaper without paying a load of money, they are an excellent value.