Getting Fit On A Budget

Over this last year, we examined several issues concerning the way we lived, the way we ate, and the way we spent our money, and in doing so we have discovered changes that needed to be made in each area.  We tackled the issues one at a time and when felt like we had it in check with our new goals we would move on to the next item on the list.

Well, I'm glad to say we have gotten to the point where we can address our fitness levels. Over the last few years, life has really taken a toll on us.  Our stress level has been maxed out and we have used most of our energy just surviving day today.  Not anymore!  We are taking back our health, in the same manner, we took back our life, our food, and our money.

In order to do this, I need to lose weight and increase my strength, where Racey just needs to maintain his weight and increase his activity level.  How do we plan to do this while still living a frugal life you ask?

This is how:

• I will follow a low-calorie meal plan eating REAL food.  No diet bars or shakes, no 100 calorie packs, no frozen diet meals, just real whole food.

There are plenty of free online fitness sites that help you track your food, water, exercise, etc. They are easy to join and very user-friendly. I'm using My Fitness Pal if you want to join and be one of my buddies!

• I will cut back my carbonated drinks to 1 a day and drink more water.

• I will exercise three to five times a week.

If you have a gym membership that's great, but that doesn't fit into our frugal budget.  Plus, with only one car, I need to find things I can do here at home.  We have very nice mountain bikes we bought several years ago (when we were less broken than we are now) so Racey and I are going to start riding again.  For many years I've wanted to learn to do Yoga, but when I had the time I didn't have the money and vise versa.  Sticking with my frugal goals I found a great online yoga class that is totally free!  At this point, they have over 100 lessons available by the same teacher so I should be good for a while.  Last, but not least, I have two perfectly working feet I can walk with.  I certainly always keep frugality in mind, but I did buy a stability ball to work with as well for under $10.00.

• I will set trackable goals and make myself accountable for what I do, and take credit for things I don't do!

I have dedicated myself to an online weight-loss challenge.  I have a partner who I support through the challenge and she in return supports me.   In addition, other challenge buddies stop by your blog and comment and share things with you about how their trials and tribulations are going, which is a pretty good support if you ask me. Did I mention that's free too?

As for Racey, he is so happy to have me outside and in a good mood that any activity I come up with he is game for!

This weekend we hiked Kennesaw Mtn. (just over a mile +800 ft. elevation) on Saturday which burned 1213 calories.   Then, on Sunday, we rode our mountain bikes at Blankets Creek in Cherokee County with a calorie burn total of 1025.  All of these are frugal, free activities that don't require a paid membership to something or somewhere.  Besides, would you rather walk on a treadmill while watching TV or see the scenery in these pictures?

This weekend the weather is going to be nice again so I think we will go Geocaching (click the link to find out what Geocaching is all about) up north a little and either hike Kennesaw Mtn. again or find another trail at the bike park.  Needless to say, we will be outside enjoying life!

Hope to see you around!

Thrifty Furnishings

Using thrift store treasures to decorate my house is one of the simple pleasures I indulge myself in.  I love walking into a store and having no clue what I will come out with, if anything at all.  It has kinda become a game where I see how well I can decorate my house with thriftiness in mind.

As I walked through my house looking for items to take a picture of to post on the blog, I started noticing that 95% of the items in our home have been bought second hand.  Big ticket items like our beds, living room furniture, kitchen table and cabinet were purchased new, but they are filled with second hand touches.

When we moved into our house it was being repainted and I was asked to choose the colors I wanted for each room.  In doing that I also saw other things I wanted to replace before we moved in.  Like always our budget was almost non-existent! When I started talking with Racey about replacing ceiling fans, light fixtures and the kitchen sink I'm sure he was convinced that I had lost my mind.  I reassured him that I would only do what our budget allowed and that I would be patient enough to find all my goodies at thrift stores, estate sales, Craigslist, ect..

Here is a sampling of some of my finds!

This was a towel rack I bought at Goodwill still in the box!  I just assumed it would extend to the same length as the one I had hanging in the bathroom already.  When it turned up to be to short I decided to make it into a jewelry holder.

Towel Bar - $3.00

  I know you must be tired of seeing this as the back drop of most of the pictures I post on here.  This little treasure was also purchased at Goodwill.  It still had the price tag on the bottom and looked to have never been used.  I'm not sure what it was made to do but it serves as a caddy for all my frequently used kitchen items.  I use the kitchen table as an island when prepping meals and when it's time to eat I just grab the caddy and move it to another location so it frees up the table. 

Caddy - $5.00

 I found these the same day as the caddy pictured above.  They had price stickers on the bottom from Garden Ridge.  The taller one was $19.99 and the shorter was $12.99

They seem to be of the same style and that makes me wonder if they came from the same home. 

I paid $4.54 for the taller one and $2.52 for the shorter.  They still have the price written on the bottom from Goodwill!

This clock was being thrown in the trash because it didn't match the new decor in the teachers lounge of a school I worked at.

Clock - Free

I bought this chandelier off Craigslist as we were preparing to move in our house.

Chandelier - $35.00 

This is the matching ceiling fan.

Fan - $50.00

  

This lamp is another item the school was throwing away.  It gives our kitchen the perfect amount of light when we are having a quit candle light dinner or, if the kitchen is shut down for the night, I still like to have a small light on.  It helps the mood of the house!

This little treasure Racey found on the side of the road!  The people were moving and didn't want it.  He stopped and asked if they were throwing it away could he have it.  They said yes and invited him in to look at the other items they didn't want.  He took all of the things and we sold most of them and bought our sink pictured below!  I think it's meant to be a plant stand but I had McClane and his granddad cut wooden shelves for me to use as a solid surface.


Kitchen Shelves - Free

I found this at Goodwill and thought it could hold my necklaces.  Once home I changed my mind!

$ 1.81

This was a garden planter that I found at Goodwill and re-purposed into a kitchen utensil holder.

This is a trivet (I think) I like to use it as a spoon rest.

Here are several things from my bathroom.  The toothbrush holder was a pencil holder, the little pink girl at the well is an antique planter, and the hairbrush holder is another planter, who knows what the other dish was made for but as you can see I use it to hold my favorite soap and jewelry.  All these items were found at thrift stores.

Toothbrush holder - $1.51
Hairbrush holder - $1.21
Soap dish - $1.81
Girl at the well - not sure of price


As you can see many of the items that decorate our home have been discarded by others, and that's fine with me

Making Bread Crumbs

As I talked about yesterday, bread crumbs are very easy to make and can contribute to a frugal kitchen.  The only thing you need to make this product is stale bread, and who doesn't occasionally have a few slices that go stale!

I know many of you ladies could make bread crumbs with your eyes closed and one hand tied behind your back so I apologize in advance for such a basic post, but not to long ago I had no idea were to start! So this post is for my friends out there who like me are starting from scratch.

Ingredients:

• Bread - I bake my own bread so I had three mini or dinner loaves two of which I had tossed in the freezer sometime ago.

Slice bread and place in oven to toast.  Some ladies I know let the bread sit out on the counter or windowsill till crisp.

Once toasted crumble by hand and place in food processor.

Blend till the majority of bread has turned into crumbs.

I like to use my sifter to separate the larger pieces from the crumbs.

Then re-process large crumbs.

This is an in between size of crumb that I sometimes use for homemade casseroles as a bottom layer.

Here is a sample of the finished crumb.

I use a plastic container I found at Goodwill to store the crumbs.

Making Thriftiness Work For You

Most people I talk with concerning down sizing and frugality think that in order to live this type of life you must always be doing without.  That assumption couldn't be further from the truth.  Instead, living a frugal, self-sufficient life is simply understanding that it's your job to make most of the things you would normally buy, and source for the most reasonable price possible that which you can't make yourself.  Here are a few examples of things I have made instead of buying when the need arose.

I had three small loaves of homemade bread I knew would not be eaten before they went stale.  Most people would toss the bread into the trash or maybe feed it to the birds, but with a frugal mindset I decided to make bread crumbs.

The two loaves in the back had been tossed into my 'bread crumb bag'  in the freezer that is why they look a little wrinkly!

Take the stale bread, cut it into slices and place directly on the oven rack and toast it.  If you want to really be frugal, toast immediately after cooking something in the oven and you will be able to turn the oven off and toast the bread with the heat from dinner!  After toasted, place in food processor and 'pulse' till crumbs are fine.  Store in an airtight container.  If you want Italian bread crumbs here is the recipe!
Here is the link for step -by-step photo tutorial on making bread crumbs. 

I have very dry skin and was accustomed to purchasing lotions of every brand in the hopes of finding one that did what the label claimed.  Just the other week I made my first batch of body butter with all-natural ingredients and, to be honest, it's the best stuff I've found!  It moisturizes my skin and leaves it feeling soft even through the next day.  This is one of those times where I did spend money to purchase basic ingredients, but I was able to make a far superior product.
 

When Layna moved back home this summer she brought several items into the house, one of which was a Paula Dean jar candle.  The candle had only been burned a few times but she was ready to toss it.  Racey and I both love candle light so we eagerly saved it from the Goodwill bin.  After burning the candle all summer and loving the scent, the candles wick decided to move off center and would only burn for a few minutes before the wax would put it out.  Racey first tried to slowly melt the candle in the oven in the attempt to move the wick back to the center, and this did work for a while but the longer we burned it the more the wick gravitated to the side.  Then I had an idea!  As he tried to fix the candle in the oven it filled the house with the scent from the candle and that gave me the idea to use my tart burner to melt the wax and if we couldn't use the candle for light anymore we could at least use it for the lovely sent!

Here are the ways in which we used our thriftiness on this item:

• We didn't buy it, we saved it from the trash or Goodwill (people are always throwing or giving things away.  This is a great way to use your thrifty skills and save the landfills!)
• We used it for our pleasure and entertainment till it couldn't be used anymore (Don't buy or own items that just take up space and bring you no joy, only clutter)
• We attempted to repair it instead of throwing it in the trash (We didn't pay money for it after all so why not just be rid of it some might be thinking)
• Once the repair no longer worked we found another use for it as an air-fresher (most items can be re-purposed if you care to save it from the landfill)
• Once all the sent is gone we will save the wax for other projects we have planned 
• We will recycle the jar to hold something such as bath salts, foot scrub, etc

 As you can see thriftiness and frugality are not about doing without, but more about resourcefulness and using the products that are already around your home to meet your needs.  Many of us are fooled into thinking that our way of living and consuming will never end or decrease.  In reality though our planet has finite resources and our modern way of consumption will come to an end at some point if our budget doesn't get us first.  

In fear of being labeled a tree hugger here, I want to leave you with this thought...

Save yourself the money, save our natural, limited resources, and learn to live as if Wal-mart never opened their doors and you'll be happier for it!

Rediscovering the Pressure Cooker

Most ladies I talk with are working mothers and those that don't work outside the home volunteer, home school or take care of grandchildren so their adult children can work.  The one main theme coming from all these ladies is lack of time in the kitchen. Why is this?  We live in the 21st century, we have more modern conveniences than any previous generation.  We have microwave ovens, indoor grills, toaster ovens, blenders, rotisserie ovens,  bread machines, crock-pots, and $400.00 mixers just to name a few!  And somehow we still can't manage to feed our families fresh, non-processed food.

I've always been mystified by the housewives fifty years ago.  How in the world did they raise children, grow a garden, take care of the house, wash, dry and iron all the laundry and have three hot meals a day on the table.  I'm beginning to discover a few of their secrets, one of which is that they had basic kitchen equipment and knew how to use it.

One friend in the kitchen was the pressure cooker.  This piece of equipment allowed you to cook fresh, whole foods in a fraction of time.  Some of you are probably saying "so does the microwave", and I agree, except that the end product doesn't compare.  Most of us use our microwaves to reheat, or cook prepackaged, additive filled junk food, not fresh meat and produce.

This little gem was a staple in the pre and post World War II decades.  It started getting a bad name after the war when the market was flooded with cheap models that were constructed with weak metals.
Cooks held onto their prewar pressure cookers and often several families shared a single cooker. In a time when fuel and food were rationed and shortages were commonplace, the pressure cooker was fast becoming a necessity rather than a mere convenience. In a bulletin to homemakers, the government promoted the formation of "canning circles" to best utilize scarce resources and urged people who owned pressure canners to share them with other families. Warning that "only a few canners will be available for purchase this year," it was suggested that six or more families share each cooker.

Hopefully by now, you can tell what my favorite kitchen tool is at the moment! Yes, my pressure cooker!  The little whistle sound it makes as it cooks is a sound that takes me way back in my childhood.  If your mother or grandmother cooked from scratch then you too know the sound I'm referring to.

I lucked out and found my pressure cooker at Goodwill for $6.86!  It is a Presto 4 quart cooker, and it had all the original parts along with the manual that was dated 1961, which I love!  When I started looking through the manual I was astonished at the cook time it gave me for fresh meat and produce.

Here are a few examples:

• Beans (Green or Wax)      3-4 minutes
• Broccoli                            2-3 minutes
• Carrots (sliced) 3 minutes (whole) 4-8 minutes
• Potatoes (Baking w/skin)   15 minutes
• Potatoes (for mashing)       10 minutes
• Cauliflower (whole) 5 minutes (flowerettes) 2 minutes 
• Corn (On-the-Cob)            3-5 minutes

•  Hamburger Patties            5 minutes
• Meatloaf                           15 minutes
• Beef Pot Roast                  8-10 per pound
• Ham, picnic, plain cut        30 minutes
• Pork Chops, Breaded       12-15 minutes
• If your family eats dried beans or lentils no more soaking over night just to cook for several hours the next day!    

• most items cook in 1/2 to 1 1/2 cups of water

As you can see the cooking times are very short.  To think I can come home from a busy day and have fresh green beans in three minutes, or prepare a meatloaf in fifteen is almost crazy to me.  Why would we choose a boxed meal that has no real nutritional value or a minced meat product that is formed into a shape to serve our families when we have such awesome tools to help us cook real food?   

If you don't already own a pressure cooker I would highly recommend putting one on your wish list.  You could try Goodwill, Craigslist, or Freecycle just to name a few.  If your mom or grandmother have one they are not using anymore they would probably love to give it a new home. If all else fails you can buy one new. They now make a model that is totally electric and is so easy to operate a child could do it.  I prefer the older style models that only rely on heat, whether from gas, electric stove, or even a fire pit if it comes to that. If you are purchasing a used one, be sure to check out the rubber seal and safety valve.  There are plenty of websites that sell replacement parts very cheap if any of those items are damaged.  I found several site that actually carry in-stock replacement parts for my 1961 model.

Here are a few website with recipes for pressure cookers Site 1, Site 2, Site 3 which is my favorite due to it having 101 recipes!

I will cook dinner tonight in my pressure cooker and hopefully post pictures on the blog tomorrow if I have time!

12 Days of Christmas: Gift #2 - Jewelry

Today's gift is for the jewelry lover in the family.  This necklace and bracelet combo is for a special night out.  It is made with Swarovski crystals and .925 sterling closures.  It has a simple but classic design.  While it is handmade, it isn't cheap.  The crystals alone were over $100.00, not to mention the sterling silver closures.

If this is too dressy or out of your price range, here is an example of a necklace, bracelet, and earring set I made for my girls last year.  The total package was under $20.00 and they have had several family members try and buy it off of them!

If you have someone with long hair that likes to wear it up, this is a great idea!  I call them 'hair sticks' - original I know. ;-)  This item is what got me into jewelry making.  I saw a pair of these in a shop and they wanted $40.00!  I wanted them so bad but I couldn't afford them.  Each time I went back to this store I would look to see if they were still there, and each time the quantity had dwindled.  Racey surprised me one night with a special gift... sure enough my hair sticks!  I was so happy to get them that I started making my own!  Now I have several pair and wear them at some point nearly every day.

Last, but not least, you can make little trinkets.  I tend to use my leftover jewelry from a project, but you can use anything that suits your fancy.

I attached a little something to my sewing scissors to help remind people that these are not to be used for anything other than fabric.  Plus, when I hear them jingle and I'm not doing the jingling, I start hollering!  The key chain was a product of me using things up, but each time someone sees it they ask where I bought it.

So, as you can tell, there are many ideas for homemade gift giving that don't require you to pass on a fruit cake, or have your gift be considered cheap.  It's all about the thought and time you spent in preparing and making the gift that gives it real meaning.

I hope I have given you a few ideas, and I would love to hear some of the things you are making this season.

12 Days of Christmas - Foot Scrub & Body Butter

In the spirit of Black Friday, I thought I would get a jump on the shopping for this holiday season.  Unlike most Black Friday shoppers I slept in this morning.  Once awake I took my sweet time eating a little leftover Thanksgiving dinner for breakfast.  What?  Everyone doesn't do this?!?  Then I sat at the computer and looked at all the Google news stories about crazy Black Friday shoppers and all their antics.  What some people will do for a discount!  I'm all about saving money but this is just nonsense.  To me this is a prime example of how we have transformed into a consumer society where we are literally possessed with stuff.

Now don't get me wrong here.  I love things... I love getting gifts... I love giving gifts...I have a wish list as long as my arm as well.  I'm just at a point in my life that each item causes me to think about several things, such as the following:

• Where was this made?
• Who made it? (Maybe a child or severely underpaid parent?)    
• How much fuel did it take to get this item to me here in the States?
• Could it be made here in the U.S. and, if so, why wasn't it?
• Is it made of something that could possibly add to my personal toxic load?  If you are unfamiliar with this topic you can read about it here, here, and here. 
• Will this item be around and still in good working order in 3 years, 5 years, 10 years?
• Is this a temporary gadget, and will I be wanting the new and improved one in six months?
• How long will I or my husband have to work to buy this item?

As I said I love things, I just hate what it take for me to have them.  So back to my Black Friday plan!  I will still celebrate the holiday as I talked about in a previous post, my main focus will just be on spending time with the people I care about, enjoying a good homemade meal and giving small handmade gift as a token of love.

Here is my first handmade gift of the season!

 This is for the woman who loves to pamper her feet.  The jar on the left is a powdered foot scrub, and the blue dish is a deep conditioning body butter.  The foot scrub can be made with items in your pantry.  The body butter supplies can be found at any health food store.

Hear are the steps to make this wonderful, handmade, personalized gift for someone on your gift list!

Here are the ingredients for the foot scrub:

• 1/2 cup of  cornmeal
• 1/2 cup of oatmeal
• 1/4 cup of seasalt
• 10 drops of essential oil (I used lemon because that's what I had on hand.  It gave the mixture a clean citrus smell)

First you will want to put the oats in a food processor or blender and blend into a fine powder.

Next mix the powdered oats, cornmeal, and salt.  Once all dry ingredients are mixed add essential oil for scent.  This step is optional.

I used a wide mouth decorative jelly jar that I had left over from the canning season.  If you have a canning funnel it comes in handy for more than canning.

Here are the ingredients for the body butter:

• 1 tbsp. of Coconut Oil
• 2 tbsp. of Shea Butter
• 2 tsp. of Safflower Oil
• 2 tsp. of Grapeseed Oil

Coconut oil is a solid below 76 degrees and becomes a liquid at 77 degrees.  I measured both solids and heated in microwave for 20 seconds till soft but not melted.

Once softened, place in mixer and SLOWLY add oils.  This step can take a few minutes.  You will want to increase the mixer speed as the oil is incorporated.

Your final product should look like whipped butter.

I had a old Avon jar that I found at an estate sale several years ago so I used it to hold the butter.










Remember that this is a deep conditioning body butter, so a little goes a long way.  Because of the coconut oil it will have an oily feel to it, however, if you use a small amount it will be absorbed into the skin within a few minutes.

As you can see, this gift is one that is not expensive but is a little more time consuming than just picking up a gift card.  The purpose of this post is to show you that you can give gifts and enjoy the holiday season without becoming a crazy Black Friday causality.  The focus is not money as much as the mentality of the modern gift giver. Tomorrow I will post another homemade gift, so if this one isn't up your alley, check back then and see what you think!

*Note: The foot scrub is a powder so you will want to put a little in your hand then add a small amount of water to form a paste.

Can You Cook Without Eggs, Milk, or Butter?

Tonight I saw a post of Facebook by one of my friends/family who, by the way, has four children that said   "I have no milk and no cheese!  How do you cook dinner without milk and cheese?"  This gave me such a laugh because I can vividly remember being a young wife and mother and finding myself in the same situation!  Unfortunately for my family, that was before my preparedness skills had been developed.

Having a well stocked pantry can save you in more ways than one.  If you are like us and you are totally busy all day, everyday, then running out to the store for one or two missing ingredients is just a pain.  Many of you have young children and know quite well how inconvenient it is to load the kids up and drive to the store for one or two things, so much so that you would almost rather do without!  What if you could find a happy medium like something that would save you when you realize that you are missing one essential ingredient, like milk, eggs, or butter?

I have the answer for you!  It's dehydrated or powdered substitutes.  I know many of you are turning up your nose at the word 'powdered', but please remember we are using it to cook with, not eat as is.  In stocking my pantry for the unexpected, whether it be the loss of a job, an extra high utility bill, or an unforeseen major car repair, etc., these items are worth their weight in gold when I call them into use.

In my personal research and preparation I came across a company, Shelf Reliance, that sells all the essentials in a long term, shelf stable form which will hold for up to 25 years in most cases!  These items can be costly if you try and use them as everyday essentials, but if they are part of your stockpile or 'back-up' pantry then they are well worth it.  Tonight one of my grown kids turned their nose up at the idea of using powdered milk for their cereal until I told on myself and let them know that I've refilled the milk jug more than once with powdered milk and they didn't even notice!  This is really not my normal MO, but sometimes you just do what you gotta do.  My challenge for you is to look at the staples you use.  If you can find them in a shelf stable version then buy just one of each to begin your stockpile pantry in order to save yourself not only an inconvenient trip to the store, but buy just a little insurance as well.

Sidenote:  We've mentioned this site on one previous occasion on this blog.  In case you missed it, let us know in advance if you intend to actually purchase something from them.  We have a way to get you a discount on the items beyond the normal prices listed on the site.  And, for full disclosure, we have no affiliation or involvement with this site or anything like that, we just happen to think they have wonderful products that are tough to find elsewhere.

A Thrifty Kitchen

I have found that a thrifty kitchen is a busy kitchen!  Not because cooking is so time consuming, but because you begin to realize that half of what you're throwing away could be used in another dish or for another purpose. When you decide to quit buying prepackaged foods and begin cooking from scratch, your time will shift from grocery shopping to meal planning and preparing.

Here are a few tips I have found to be useful in my kitchen.

• Have a gallon size freezer bag handy, and as you prepare your meal toss any vegetables left over into the bag and freeze them.  Continue to add veggies to the bag until it's full and use all the "left over" veggies to make a soup.
• Plan your meals around 'intentional leftovers'.  On Sunday I cooked a ham for dinner, but I planned on using the leftover meat for sandwiches during the week.  By Thursday the meat had been eaten and the only thing left was a nice meaty bone.  On Friday I cooked a big pot of 15 bean soup and used the leftover ham bone for flavoring, and the remaining meat fell off the bone into the soup.  Those are what I call intentional leftovers.
• Designate one night a week as leftover night.  This usually works well for me on Wednesday or Thursday.  By that time I've cooked several meals and have a little of each in the fridge.  I pull everything out and divide it up according to who likes what the most and will cook just enough of something new to ensure that everyone is full.  
• Before you toss something in the trash, ask yourself if it could be used for something else.  If you have no idea, ask the Google (sorry, that's a Bush-ism, lol)!  For example, I realized my lemon and orange peals were great for freshening up my garbage disposable.
• Make your own mixes.  Here are recipes for several I use. (Bisquick, 'Lipton' style onion soup mix, pancake mix, 'Bakers Joy' pan release )
• When using the oven, try to bake several things at once and freeze the extra.  I cooked two meatloaves the other evening and froze one for dinner another night.  Not only does this save me time, it saves money by not using the gas another night.
• When making homemade cookie dough, make a double portion and freeze half of the batch another time.

This isn't an exhaustive list as you can see, it's just a few things that have keep our kitchen going when times were lean.  I would love hearing your personal tips and tricks.  If you're lucky enough to have older ladies in your life, ask them for any tips they might be able to share concerning a thrifty kitchen.