Discount Food and Dented Cans

Have you ever shopped at Discount Grocery Stores? I don't mean Save-A-Lot or Aldi's (which is where we buy 95% of our groceries)....I mean the Salvage stores that sell dented cans  and other items that have their packaging broken or ripped.

I love those stores and I wish we had one near us. You can find tons of cans for 1/4 of the price and there may be a bit of a dent in it, but so what? It is still good....I will draw the line though for canned tomatoes and tomato products because of the acid in the tomatoes. We had one back home and we went quite often. I know some people wouldn't be caught dead in a store like that and for others they have no choice or they just love saving money. Some of the salvage stores have meat and that I would have to say no to...but for cans there isn't a better place! Granted it is more time consuming to go to because you do have to really check everything out because you never know what is going to be there. My thinking is if the product is still fine and not opened and you have a store nearby, then why would you spend all that extra money on "perfect" cans.

We do have a store nearby that has a discount veggie and fruit bin....every morning about 30 minutes after they open they put out a huge cart of bagged up veggies and fruit. Each bag is 1$ and it may contain 2 pkgs of mushrooms, or a cauliflower, or 3 red peppers. You get my point....when I shop there, I always make sure that I go right around that time and get a bunch of veggies. Granted some may have to be used very quickly and others are fine for a good while. I like buying bananas and apples there because I bring them home and cut up the apples and freeze them for desserts...and for the bananas, we don't eat them fresh so I get them and let them turn brown and freeze them for banana bread later on.

Also at that store every morning they discount some of the meat that had a due date a couple days later....so for a couple dollars off certain pkgs you can buy them and freeze them and they will be great!

If you are on a budget this is a great way to shop and sometimes the only way. I love saving money and knowing that I can do groceries cheaper by getting discounts like this. I just wish there was a salvage store near me!

Do you shop at salvage stores or discount bins?

Line Drying, love it or hate it?

I don't know about ya'll but I just love hanging clothes out to dry. I remember back in the day when we had a wringer washer in the basement and I hung the clothes out. In the winter, we line dried them inside before my parents even got a dryer. Even once they had one, it wasn't used very often as it was just a lot of money to spend on electricity (my, how some things don't change).

Nothing beats the "April Freshness" of line dried towels or sheets. The first night sleeping in bed after the sheets had been dried out in the pure air was amazing. I love that smell, don't you?

Line drying also gives you that "sun bleach" and when doing the load of whites it always made things look cleaner.

You also have to think of the fact that the clothes actually last longer. How is that possible? Think of all of the lint that accumulates...that was part of your clothes at one time and another bonus of hanging clothes out is the fact that there is no shrinking. I am sure that it has happened to all of us at one point in our lives.

Dryers do have their benefits, I mean, if you are in a hurry and need your clothes right off it is more convenient for that. If you work in an office and have clothes that need to be ironed if you don't put them in the dryer, I opt for the dryer (I HATE IRONING), but as a rule, I don't buy things that need to be ironed.

Rainy days and winter months it may work well for you too. I guess it all depends on your preferences and your budget. If you like using a dryer and can afford the higher electric bill, that is your option. For me, I will use a dryer on occasion but very rare. I love having the clothes hung out to dry and in the winter or rainy days, I have a rack that I put them on or put them on hangers and hang on the shower rod. It may be a bit more work but it saves so much money and I just love it.

What do you do? Do you do a combination of both? Hang in the summer, dryer in the winter?

Grocery Shopping Once a Month On A Budget

Lots  of people have their theories of if  it is possible to do groceries once a month....some say no while others do it month after month! I am one of those people that do it month after month. There are so many people on pensions and fixed incomes that have no choice but to do so and some just find it simpler.

Now, we are on a budget and we go by it. We also go by the sales, buy generic, and use coupons when we can. I also make my own cleaners so we don't even have to think about those products (other than vinegar and baking soda monthly).

We usually shop or check out the flyers of three stores nearby and sometimes we only go to two of those stores, sometimes all  three it just depends on what we need and what the prices are at the time we go.

On average with coupons, we save about 10$ a month on things we need, which is usually razors, toilet paper, coffee etc. Now, I know 10$ isn't a whole lot of money BUT when you think that it is 120$ over a year, it adds up! Plus when you are on a budget that 10$ is a big deal!

So we head for the stores and get mostly generic brands of everything because even if I have coupons for some things, sometimes the generic is still cheaper than using coupons. You have to research and know your prices. I try to use coupons though by matching them up to sales, for example my husband and I both use Bic Razors, 2 months ago they were on sale for 3.99$ and I had  2 - 3.00$ coupons!!! So that worked out really well, we didn't need them at the time but for 99 cents we have them and don't have to think about them for a couple  more months!

 I am now making my own bread . I bought a 5 lb bag of flour for 1.99$ and wanted to see if it was cheaper to buy a bigger bag but it isn't (at least in the stores near us). It is actually cheaper to buy 8 -5 lb bags than a 40 lb bag!

One store that we go to has a 1$ bin of fruits and vegetables every day so when we go we know to get there about 20 minutes after the store opens when that stuff comes out or we will miss out on it. Nothing is wrong with any of these products just the date is coming close so you will need to use them up fairly soon but we have bought things from that bin many a time that last a long time. I like buying apples from there and cutting them and freezing for later desserts. So we get 99% of our fresh produce there and love it.

Granted by doing groceries once a month, we do run out of fresh produce but we buy frozen to get us through the balance of the month. Once we can do our garden then we won't have to think about this as we will have our own and I will can things to have during the winter months.

I actually find that we save money doing groceries once a month because we are not in the stores every week being tempted to buy something that we don't need.

For some it comes down to personal preference and others survival. I am so used to shopping monthly now and I just love it!

How do you shop?

Homemade All Purpose Cleaner

I have to admit that I am now addicted to making all of my cleaners and they are all AMAZING!!!!

I have been doing this for a while now and I keep trying new recipes and tweaking them to what I like.

I love this recipe for All Purpose Cleaner, so much that I make it by the gallon!

Here is the recipe I use:



13 cups of water (boiled)

2 cups of Vinegar

Mix the two together and let cool put in a gallon jug or jar with a wide mouth.

Add to that 4 lemons cut up with the peelings.

Let set for 2 weeks and then remove the lemons.

Pretty easy and it works great.

Variations:

You can use oranges, limes or lemons or a combination of them or you can just use the peelings of these fruit. It is all personal preference really. I love lemon and use the complete lemon. It smells so good and works so great!

Total cost per gallon: 1.00$$$

How can you beat that????

Sunday's of Days Gone By

I was just sitting here thinking of how times have changed since I was a child (which wasn't that long ago). I had to add that!!!

I remember Sunday was the day to go to church and for me, Sunday School along with all of the other children from the area.

It was a simpler time where families spent the day together. Where life seemed to stand still on that day so that we could be together and catch up with people. A time where the only stores open was possibly a gas station. A time where we got together as a community once a week and caught up with things that happened during the week. A time for rest.

My, how I miss those days. Nowadays, so many things have changed, there isn't a store that I know of that isn't open on Sundays, there are a lot more "broken" families and the children are at one parent's house on the weekend and the other during the week. It is really a shame, but it makes me really realize just how lucky I was to be brought up in a big family that loved eachother and by parents that loved us and were there for us.

I remember when I was a preteen, Sunday was a big meal for the extended family a lot of times, my aunts and uncles or grandparents would come and we would have a huge dinner (usually chicken and all the fixin's or ham) and there was always a yummy dessert to go along with it. We all visited and after the meal, we took turns gathered around the table playing 500.

I knew how special those times were back then and I cherish those days so much. Thinking back on those days always puts a smile on my face. I just wish and hope that the children of today will be able to say the same thing 30 years down the road.

Life is really about the simple things but at the same time, the simple things sometimes are the fondest memories you will ever have.

Have a blessed Sunday!

Homemade Laundry Detergent

It seems to becoming more and more recognized nowadays that people are getting on the bandwagon and making their own detergents and cleaners, and I am one of those people.

It has been about a year now that I have been making our laundry detergents and other various cleaners (which I will talk about in upcoming posts) and I can honestly say that I can't EVER see myself going back to the store bought any time soon.

There are many reasons that I started doing this, one being that I have been suffering from eczema for years and although I never had "issues" because of the detergents I was using, there were products that I was, so I thought I would find out more about making my own with less chemicals. There are tons of websites out there that you can learn so much from and get amazing recipes.

So I wanted to start with the laundry detergent and the first batch I made was a powdered version and I just did one gallon. We loved it! It does take time to get used to because it doesn't suds up like the store bought but the sudsing of soap has nothing to do with the actual cleaning power of it.

Powdered Laundry Detergent:

1 cup of grated Fels Naphta Soap

1 cup of washing soda (NOT baking soda)

1 cup of Borax

Grate the soap and mix everything together and there you have it! Use 2 tbsp per load!!!! If you have dingier clothes you may want to use a bit more.

You don't need to use Fels Naphta, you can use Ivory or any other kind, it just depends on what you like.

Liquid Laundry Detergent

Grate 1 bar of Fels Naphta in 5 cups of boiling water. Let sit while you prepare the rest.

Take a 5 gallon pail (with a cover) and put 3 gallons of hot water, add 1 cup of borax and 1 cup of washing soda until dissolved.

Add the melted soap mixture to the pail and stir well.

Cover the pail and set aside for 24 hrs. It is normal that it may be a bit watery or a bit gel like. If it is gel like make sure you stir well before putting into the washer.

Use 1/2 cup per load.

So why spend tons of money on store bought when you can make your own for so much less?

Fels Naphta      .99 cents

Box of Borax   2.99$

Washing Soda 2.99$

All found in the laundry aisle at Wal-Mart.

Happy Laundry!

Ways To Be Frugal and Live Simply

The way things are in the world today most people don't have the choice to cut down on costs and to become more frugal or money conscious. Some people think of frugal people as being poor or cheap. I beg to differ.

I find that a lot of people feel as though they have to keep up with what their neighbour has or keep up with friends that may not be in the same income bracket as they are and all that ends up happening is that they end up broke, in debt and unhappy. For what? To have a shinier car? A bigger house that is going to foreclosed on? Call me old fashioned but I really don't see the point.

I am the kind of person that what you see is what you get. I have simple values and morals that I was taught at a young age. I don't think happiness has anything to do with what you have or how much money you have in your bank account. It has to do with true friends, great family and in my case an amazing husband that I truly adore.

So here are a few things that you can do to live a simple and frugal lifestyle

1.  No Retail (or very little)

I shop at thrift stores, garage sales and craigslist for most things. I love the fact of saving all that money and I love the thrill of the hunt and finding something that is so cool that you haven't seen in years that brings back such great memories.

2.  Go to the library

Our library has all sorts of  fun things going on all the time and all for FREE. You can use the computer there, borrow DVD's and VHS tapes,  they have classes and book signings every so often and even movies sometimes on Sundays and of course you can get all sorts of books as well.

3.  Lose the landline

Our cell phone company has a shrinkage plan where after 6 months of on time payments the bill goes down 5$ until it is 35$ which includes unlimited phone, text and internet.

4.  No cable

Cable bills can be insane and we don't watch a lot of television. We have a converter and get 12 channels and that is perfect for us.

5.  Use coupons

I cut coupons on things we use, although we do buy a lot of generic the coupons come in handy for razors and toilet paper.

6.  Buy Generic

Most generic groceries taste the same, if not better than brand names. We buy 95% our our groceries generic and love it!

7.  Grow your own veggies

If you don't have the space for a garden, you can always container garden or if you are in town, lots of places are now doing community gardens.

8.  Don't eat out

Why spend 40$ for a meal you can make at home for 5$? We do order out, usually once a month for a treat or go out but when we do we use coupons.

9.  Learn to cook

Make your own food, from scratch. Why buy mac and cheese when you can make your own? We don't buy hardly any processed food, we cook everything from scratch and love it.

10. Make your own cleaners

I have been doing this for over a year and love it. Most household cleaners are made from baking soda or vinegar. Making cleaners and detergents are very easy to make and so much cheaper than buying from the store.

It really is all about what makes you happy and what you like. We like living simply and doing as much as we can to be as self sufficient as possible. I am constantly learning about new cleaner recipes to make and loving it. There is something about having the satisfaction of making your own from scratch, not to mention they are cheap to make!! So my thinking is it is a win win situation!

What does frugality and living simply mean to you?

The Frugality of Baking Bread

There is nothing like cutting into a fresh loaf of homemade bread. The smell of it while it is cooking is intoxicating and the butter on it when it is hot is just plainly delicious!

I have never made it the old fashioned way and I just started making the Basic White Loaf this past week when we got our bread machine, which I might add, we got on FreeCycle...so you can't get much better than that!

There are various recipes in the manual from wholegrain to cinnamon raisin bread and you can make pizza dough and all sorts of other yummy things with it. I know it is cheating to a certain point but it is amazing and cheap!!!!!

I will break down the cost to make a loaf using this basic recipe:

2 1/4 cups Flour
2 tbp of Sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp butter
1 tsp of yeast
7/8 cup of water

By the way, the recipe calls for a tsp on dry milk, I don't use it.

A jar of yeast makes 54 loaves so I decided to do my calculations this way and with the prices I pay for the ingredients here.

Flour = 3 1/2 bags x 5 lbs bags= 1.99 each            Total Cost  $7.00

Sugar = 8 cups which is 4 lbs = 1.99                      Total Cost  $1.99

Salt= 54 tsps                                                         Total Cost  $1.00

Butter= 7 sticks x 25cents                                     Total Cost  $1.75

Yeast= Jar                                                            Total Cost  $3.98

For a grand total of $15.72 for 54 loaves!!!!!!

Meaning a loaf of Basic White Bread costs 29 cents to make. Now this doesn't cost the electricity of the bread machine being on but it does put things into perspective. I will be buying flour in bigger bags if I can get it at a better price so it may even end up being cheaper than 29 cents a loaf!!!

Obviously the other loaves like the multigrain would be more expensive but not that much more besides even if it cost 1.00$ to make it would still be tons cheaper than buying store bought. The other benefit of making your own is you know EXACTLY what is in it and for me and my husband, well, we just love eating piping hot bread and butter.....So it is really a win win situation.

One thing I know for certain, I can't see myself going to buy storebought bread any time in the near future!

The Kitchen Of Yesteryear

How can you think about such a subject without thinking of old wood stoves and all of the hand utensils the women used back then? It goes without saying that the women worked and worked hard just to get a simple meal on the table. I have never used a wood stove for cooking but I have a friend of mine that does on occasion. It certainly would take some time to get used to.

Think of the bread that was made everyday with the stove no matter what the temperature was outside. I can't even imagine having to have the wood stove going in the summer, can you? Yet these women did it over and over again each day to  feed their families. It was certainly a simpler time  and for that I have to admit, I kinda wish things were somewhat that way now. The men did their thing, the women did theirs and there was always church on Sundays with the day of rest. It was a day for worship and for family.

The women also did huge gardens and canned the goods making pickles and jams etc to live off in the winters, which depending where you were could be REALLY long. Canning is somewhat becoming the thing to do now, with the economy the way it is and people trying to be more self sufficient it certainly is the way to go, at least in my thoughts.

When I go into antique stores or garage sales, I can't help but check to see if they have old kitchen utensils or crockery or mason jars. If only those things could talk. I remember my parents having two crocks so when we butchered our pigs my mother would pickle the hams in them. Nothing tasted as good as that ham did.

I have to wonder what the women from back then would think of the modern conveniences of today, for example the microwave or the bread machine. I hear a lot of people complaining about how they don't like cooking or that it takes a long time to prepare a meal but think about how long it took for the women back then to do that very same meal you are complaining about. I think you would be thinking differently for sure.

I admire those women because not only did they have to think about all the meals that took forever to make, they still had to do the laundry using a wash board and a wash tub....So for someone that says they have it hard with things in today's world, well I just have to laugh.

Road Side Stands

You can tell summer is here when you are driving down the quiet country road and see this kind of thing. A sight that most people just adore. The road side stand of a hard working farmer trying to sell his products to make some money to keep his farm going. Whether it be a small operation or big one, I always feel good buying from the local farmers and knowing that their products are as fresh as you could possibly get them.

Why pay more for store bought? By the time the things get in the stores, they could be days old and you are obviously paying more for them than if you would from the person growing them.

Some farmer's sell by the road and others do Farmer's Markets either way, the products are fresh and you know the money is going right back to the farmers and to the community. There are farmer's that opt for the market if they don't have enough traffic on their road but however they sell their fruits and vegetables. I support them as much as I possibly can.

Sometimes they also sell fresh herbs, jams,jellies,pickles. or even soaps that they make themselves.

The other benefit to knowing a farmer that sells his/products is that a lot of the time you can get things (tomatoes that are seconds) for a great price because they are not #1. The farmer is usually glad to get rid of them at a discount than stuck with something that can't be sold.

Whatever they are selling you know where it is coming from and you know that it is of good quality.

Do you shop at Road Side Stands?

To Coupon Or Not To Coupon

What is the big deal anyway???? The big deal is the big savings that you will notice on your grocery bill or any other places that take coupons. Whether it be restaurants or for oil changes. You can find coupons for just about everything these days and I think it is great!

There is nothing like the feeling of having a dollar off of something that only costs 99 cents to begin with. Am I an extreme couponer? Not at all, but I do coupon and we do save money. If you cut your coupons in the Sunday paper and apply them to something when it is on sale, a lot of times you can get things for practically nothing. Case in point, Bic Soleil Razors and Flex 4, I cut two coupons for 3.00$ off, I waited  til they were on sale for 3.99$ and so I managed walking out of the store with a package of razors for my husband and I for 1.98$!!! How good is that?

There are a lot of coupons that I don't use because I make my own cleaners and household products but for the things we buy, we average 10-15 dollars a month savings, not bad for ten minutes on a Sunday morning!

As far as restaurant coupons go, everyone gets coupons for Subway or Burger King  etc. Although we don't frequent those places, once in a while they have the buy one get one free coupon or if they are selling a new drink or something they will send out coupons with no purchase necessary.

It does come down to comparison shopping though because we do buy a lot of generic brands that are cheaper than the name brands even with the coupons. When you are on a tight budget though every penny counts.

If you don't use coupons and you want to help someone save money there are things you can do. I know of people that cut the ones that are of greater value and place them on those articles in the store so someone else can use them. Also, there is an organization called Coups For Troops that you can check out on Facebook or on their website and they used expired coupons and send to troops and their families overseas (up to 6 months expired) and it helps those families save money. I find both are a great way to give back and pay it forward and it is just a simple thing that could help someone out.

coupsfortroops.com


Do you coupon? Is it worth it to you? What are your thoughts?

Growing Up In The Country

I grew up in a little town in Quebec that bordered Vermont. I was of course in the country surrounded by mountains. It is a beautiful area that lots of tourists still come to, especially in the fall when the leaver are changing. I guess when I was growing up I never really thought of it all as breathtaking but it truly is. I think as you get older you realize and appreciate things more than you do when you are a young kid.

I was the youngest of 6 kids and we had a huge garden, chickens, pigs and if that wasn't enough my father started a sawmill when I was 3 years old. It wasn't intended to become a business, it was actually to save money when he had to build another barn to house the pigs. It just goes to show you just never know in life how things will turn out. He ran that mill for years and I grew up in "the business".

I remember as a young child having to go and clean up the sawdust from around the pulleys and feeding the calves during the summer months when I wasn't in school. We all had our chores to do but because of the age differences of all of my siblings by the time I was in high school they were all married with children or had moved away. Every summer, I remember going with my aunt and uncle to pick strawberries at a local farm and bringing them home and preparing them all to freeze. My mother helped doing that but she was sick most of my life so she couldn't do a lot.

For some reason, math was an easy subject for me...yes, I am a geek! LOL and I ended up as I was in High School doing the invoices etc for the sawmill. It wasn't easy being a girl  in a "man's world" but it didn't take me long to prove that I knew a lil about wood and how things work!  I kept doing the paperwork and dealing with clients mostly during the summer and it was a great clientele, mostly locals that were building or that had repairs to do, so lots of people were getting used to the "girl" being in the yard! Time passed and my mother was getting worse so I tended to her and ran the business along side my father. After my mother passed away, my life changed as you can imagine! I was with her everyday and it shook my world up to say the least. I threw myself into the sawmill and worked more and more with my father who obviously was doing the same thing I was....after all, they had been married 48 years! A year and a half to the date my mother passed away we lost our father. He had been sick that winter and in and out of the hospital. I brought him home to take care of him and with the help of  my siblings he stayed at home til the day before  he passed away. We all knew they were together again!

I ended up running the mill by myself with 2 employees, hard it was! I had never been on the lift before, that was my father's job! It was amazing to see the outpour of the community and the people behind me as I took what was once my father's and started it by myself, those clients that saw me as a lil kid in the sawdust now saw me loading it in peoples trucks and working in the mill along with of course doing all of the paperwork. It was very hard work and long hours. I was taught so much by my parents and although they are gone and I am now happily married and in the  US. I know they are smiling down on us all and glad that we are all happy and living the lives we want to live.

Laundry Through The Years

I can't imagine having to wash your clothes with a washtub and wash board but I do admire  how hard the women worked back in those days. So much has  changed since then but I have to admit there are times I wish life was still like that.

I remember doing laundry in the old wringer washer that my parents had in the basement and having to bring it upstairs to hang outside. It was sometimes hard to do, especially when it was sheets and jeans! I remember thinking that so many people had automatic washers and was hoping that we would get one. We did after a while and it was so much easier but at the same time, I felt as though I was missing something. We continued using the washer and I continued hanging things out and when it was raining I would put the clothes on the wooden rack to dry in the house.

Fast forward a few years and I am still doing laundry in an automatic washer and hanging the clothes but now I am doing something that my mother never did and something I never thought I would do.

What might that be??? Making laundry detergent! I have been doing it for about a year now and can't see myself ever going back to store bought, chemical laden products. It costs a fraction of the price and you use only 2 tablespoons per load (sometimes a bit more if the clothes are really dirty).

This is the recipe I use:

1 cup of borax

1 cup of washing soda (NOT baking soda)

1 cup grated Fels Naphta soap (you can use any kind really)

Mix it all together and use 2 tbsp per load. Sounds pretty darn simple doesn't it! Well it is! I now make it by the gallon and we love it. I can't imagine having to go back to store bought now and spending tons of money on something that is so simple to make.

One thing to note  is that there will be little or no suds with this but suds don't represent cleaning power. I think we all associate suds to how clean something is going to be but that isn't the case. It does take time to get used to that but it is so worth it.

Happy Washing!

Addiction to Thrifting

Am I the only one that loves garage sales and thrift shops? I doubt it! LOL

There is something about "the hunt" for that perfect thing, the cool knick knack, the wheeling and  dealing plus the fact that you save TONS of money!

I can't wait to get out on the weekends to check out garages sales. They say one man's junk is another man's treasure. How can I disagree? I love finding treasures that I can get for practically nothing and I love the fact that I can get things that are meant for one thing but can repurpose them into something else.

We have all seen pallets being changed into some cool furniture. What about sweaters being change into blankets, or t-shirts into grocery bags and the list goes on and on.

We also have an amazing thrift store nearby that has everything 50% off on Mondays. We have got some cool things and new things there that would cost lots of $$$$$ in any other store but there you can get for such great bargains. I would have to say my best deals there would have been clothes that still have the tags on them for very little money.

There are a few things that I won't buy second hand but there is something about second hand furniture or decor. Everything has a story to it and I think  that is amazing and what makes these things so great. Think about a kitchen table with scratches on it....who used it before? Was it a family with a couple kids? How many great conversations were talked about over dinner? If only things could talk, I am sure they would have so much to say.

Lost of people frown upon not buying new, I frown up spending money on things I can get for a decent price that I can afford. I don't see the point of keeping up with the Jones's and I am not like that.

So...til the weekend and the many garage sales!

Do It Yourself Carpet Fresh

I have talked a lot about all sorts of different DIY recipes for homemade cleaners using all natural products. We only use homemade cleaners now and I can't see us ever returning to any store bought brands any time soon.

This recipe is so simple and has 2...yes, 2 ingredients!

What I do is I keep my jars that have parmesan cheese in and use them for shakers. In that, I put in 2 cups of baking soda and about 10 drops of essential oils. You can use whatever kind you want, I prefer lemon or orange. Shake them up and voila, instant carpet fresh! I also like keeping a container under the sink and when I empty the garbages I shake a bit of that in the cans to keep them fresh! It works great and is so cheap.

What more can you ask for?

Hello

I am just starting this blog as a continuation of my Facebook page "Country Girl's Life". For any of you that are familiar with my page there it is full of all sorts of fun and informative information about living simply. You will find many recipes, gardening articles, animal information, tons of DIY ideas and crafts along with pictures of country living and antiques. This blog is going to be sharing some of the same kinds of things as my FB page does! I hope that you enjoy it.