Gathering Seeds

Coriander Seeds, harvested from my garden yesterday.

One of the aspects of gardening that is currently tickling my frugal fancy is the idea of gathering my own seeds.  I've been propagating flowers by dividing them for a while now (it's the only reason I have the yard I do now), but gathering seeds then storing them for the winter and planting in the spring is getting me excited.  Sure, it's a lot more work than buying a seed packet or a seedling from the nursery, but it is an almost free way of growing flowers and food.

Some seeds are easier to gather than others.  The little coriander seed forms after the plant bolts and starts to flower.  You simply wait for the little green fruits to turn brown and gather them up.  A carrot rarely produces seed the first year of growing.  In my climate, where the ground freezes over the winter, we will have to carefully pull up and store a few roots then replant them in the spring.  Get this, they'll sprout new green tops, flower and produce seed.  Sounds complicated, huh!

I am so amazed at the beauty and order God has created for us.  So many plants are available to us and with a little work on our part and sunshine on His we could technically never go hungry or pay for food again.  I think it is absolutely amazing, and I am so grateful.

No, I will not be converting my entire 1/6th of an acre to food production, but it is nice to know I'm learning the skills to provide for my family if we're ever cut off from the food supply.  Plus, saving us a little money in the process.  Plus, I think it's really fun.

Our Frugal School Lunch Plan

Since it is back to school time here, and around the blogosphere, I thought I'd share our plan for lunch at school this year.

My girl's are fairly picky when it comes to food.  The oldest one rolls her eyes, but will eat almost anything.  The younger one refuses to eat unless she's forced.  I'm afraid they inherited their pickiness from me.  Sorry mom, now I know.

So, when faced with a strange meal everyday they aren't happy.  Don't get me wrong, I believe it is good for them to struggle and experience new things.  Maybe if they are starving they'll try something new and love it.  They react the same when they get a brown bag from home every day.  "But all the other kids get pizza..."

I also have concerns with them just having school lunch every day.  School lunches have a tendency to be rather processed.  My girl's probably waste any foods they don't like leaving them to eat whatever's left.  Cost is also huge.  The lunches at our school are $1.50 and I'm fairly confident I can pack them something for less than $.50.

Taking everything into consideration, included the kiddos favorite foods, we came up with a plan.  I am not going to advertise this as the only way you can do school lunch with your kids, but it is how we are doing it.  I feel like it has a nice balance of cost and ease.

To avoid confusion we will be sticking to this basic plan:

Mondays - Snack Lunch (Crackers, Cheese, Meat, Veggies, Fruits)

Tuesdays - School Lunch (could be traded with another day)

Wednesdays -  Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich w/ fruit slices

Thursdays -  School Lunch (Pizza Day!)

Fridays - Ham and Cheese Sandwich w/ Veggies

Any of the sandwiches can be made on any variety of bread, buns or tortillas (just depends on what we have on hand).  I'll also include a partially frozen water bottle for cooling/drinking purposes.

You may have also noticed I don't include snacks/juice/chips/pretzels a.k.a. junk food.  I'm not against them.  I'll include them if and when I can find them at a good enough price.  But, at our house those items are available for only rare or special occasions, it's not an everyday occurrence.  Just trying to keep it consistent.

  To Do: On Sunday afternoon read through lunch menu with girl's and have them initial the meal they want that week.

Buy these great divided containers, with a coupon of course, next time I'm at Wal-mart.

So, that's our plan for this year.  I really hope it will work as well as I hope.  What are your school lunch plans? (for those of you with school-age kiddos) and/or What was your favorite/least favorite part about school lunch growing up?

Note:  This post does contain my Amazon Associate link and I linked up to Org Junkie's Menu plan Roundup.

Frugal Strategies: Seek Efficiency

I've been trying to come up with a good working definition for efficiency to use with frugalness and this is what I finally settled on:

Striving to use time, effort, and materials in the best possible way to accomplish a task with a minimum amount of waste.  Try to eliminate or minimize unnecessary effort, wasted time and wasted materials.

Everyone is going to have a different "best possible way."  We all have different lives, responsibilities, and expectations.  What works for one will not necessarily work for another.

I think there is a careful balance between what you *DO* and how much you *SAVE*.  There are some things I could make for myself, but the cost in time and effort makes it very inefficient.

For an obvious example; I could wash my clothes by hand and put them out on a line to dry.  I would definitely save money on electricity to run my washer and dryer, and I wouldn't have to pay for those large machines and costly repairs.  However, the amount of time and effort to wash and dry by hand makes the benefits costly.  Not to mention the ginormous mess I would probably make and then have to clean up.

My time and effort are important and they need to be examined when trying new strategies to save money.

That being said, I did come up with a few things I could do to be more efficient, and save money, around here:

• Freezer/Prep Cooking:  Simply cooking once and eating several times.  I do a little of this and love it.  I'm planning on doing more.  You can save so much time and money creating your own "processed" foods.  This could be a whole series of blog posts in and of itself.

• Switching to CFL or LED lightbulbs: I need to do more research on these and start switching over.  There have been several articles lately about what a huge difference this makes to your electricity bill.  Do they print "how efficient are you compared to your neighbors" on your city bill?  Yes, I need help.

• Planning Errands and Grocery Shopping Trips:  We are getting some forced practice in this department.  I don't have a car most days so I really have to plan my errands better.  The days when I do have a car end up being a little crazy as a result, but I know we've eliminated many extra trips.  I'm learning that if I forget to buy something while I'm out I just have to make do with what we have.

• Switching our Checking Account to Interest Bearing:  The Fishographer and I have been trying a new budgeting method and as a result we are carrying a larger balance in our checking account.  Earning interest on that cash would eliminate some waste.

Look around and see what things you are doing that waste time, effort and materials.  I think of my money in the materials category.  So anything that you are spending money on, but not using, could fall into the waste category.

Go:  seek efficiency, save money for your ultimate goals and read more strategies here.

Frugal Strategies: Practice Delayed Gratification

"Waiting can be hard. Children know it, and so do adults. We live in a world offering fast food, instant messaging, on-demand movies, and immediate answers to the most trivial or profound questions. We don’t like to wait. Some even feel their blood pressure rise when their line at the grocery store moves slower than those around them."
          -- President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, "Continue in Patience" from the April 2010 General Conference.

I agree!  We are so used to getting everything we want when we want it.  That is just the world we live in.  Credit Cards and the internet have allowed us to spend without thinking.

• Have you ever been at the grocery checkout lane and grabbed a candy bar as the cashier was just about finished?
• Have you ever gone shopping for food and came home with toys, office supplies, movies and clothes?
• Have you ever seen a great new technological toy and had to stay up all night in order to be the first one to have one?
• Have you ever bought something you couldn't afford simply because you *HAD* to have it?

I'm not saying all of these things are terrible, I've done every one of them, but if we allow these things  to *ALWAYS* happen we will find ourselves heavily in debt and horribly unhappy.

Delayed Gratification is simply the practice of waiting.

I have a list of stuff I'd like to buy.  For the House, for myself, for the kids, for my food storage.  Right now the list is in my head, but what I'd really like to do is get it down on paper.  Next to these items I want to have an estimated price and a priority.  Nothing will be too trivial or too large.

• Flipflops for the kids, a number 1 priority, $20.
• Rug for my living room, a number 2 priority, $80.
• Popcorn (bulk), storage bucket, microwave bowl, seasonings, a number 2 priority, $40.
• Brown Boots for me, a number 3 priority, $50.
• Jeans for me, a number 1 priority (mine just ripped...think embarrassing rip), $10.
• Finish the basement, a number 2 priority, $ ????
• Tile the kitchen/bathrooms, a number 3 priority, $ ????

Some major advantages to this kind of system are:

• No more imperfect lists floating around in my brain (my mommy brain will forget!!!).
• Watching for a good sale or deal.
• Some things disappear from the list because we realize we don't really need them or we found another cheaper/free solution.
• Pre-made gift list to hand grandma and grandpa at birthday/christmas time.  (Hi Mom!)
• Know what needs to be bought when we go under budget, get a bonus, or tax refund.  (Yay for child tax credits!!!)
• Keeps us on track with our budget.  We only purchase what we know we have money for and are able to budget for things we want/need from our list.
• We take care of things that must be bought first instead of using up all our cash on fun stuff.  (not that fun stuff is bad...)

I'm planning on having a discussion with the Fishographer this afternoon and figuring out what form our list will take:  old school notebook, spreadsheet on the computer, or something else.  I want the whole family involved so the list needs to be accessible and utilized by everyone who writes.

Read more:  Frugality a definition and Frugal Strategies.

Recent Observation

The other night my husband and I were able to go out to dinner. Having four kids and sticking close to our tight budget means this is a rare treat.

We had just sat down and ordered when my honey slipped off to the potty to wash his hands. With nothing else to do I began to "people watch."

At the booth next to us there was a cute little family of five. Momma and Papa with three Littles under about 5 years. The papa was in his Military Fatigues. It was clear they had finished eating and where just waiting for the check. The momma was wrestling with one kid, the papa with another, and the tiniest was sound asleep in her carrier.

Their waiter arrived and apologized for the wait, but their ticket had been cleared and paid for by another customer.

The father looked at his wife with an indescribable look on his face, shook his head, and sighed.

It was at this point I started crying.

Yes, I know. Lack of sleep. Hormones. Whatever.

But, I couldn't help thinking I need to add to my list of frugal goals.

I would love to be able to give to others the way someone gave to this little family this night.

I want to be able to thank those defending my freedom the way someone did this night.

I want to give with no concern for accolades the way someone did this night.

I'm adding "give to others" to my list of reasons to live frugally.

Frugal Strategies: Identify and Eliminate Costly Habits

Continuing on my journey defining and brainstorming strategies to become more frugal I'm looking at number 2: Identify and Eliminate Costly Habits.

One of the dictionary definitions of a habit is: an acquired behavior pattern regularly followed until it has become almost involuntary. We don't regularly think about most of our habits and just what they might be costing us.

Here's my list of things I've changed or would like to change:

• Water as drink of choice - I have a small Dr. Pepper problem of late. It would be so much cheaper, and not to mention healthier, if I would just drink water all the time. Works for all those other beverages as well.

• Highly Processed Foods - We choose to make a lot of our food from "scratch." A frozen store bought lasagna is much more expensive and much less tasty than a homemade version (proof to follow shortly).

• Eating Out Often - I fall back on this habit whenever I start to feel depressed or out of control (read: my kitchen is a disaster and I can't bare face it to make dinner). We can hardly ever feed our family of six for under $20 when we go out to eat, but I routinely feed them at home for under $5. Don't get me wrong, we still go out to eat. You just know it's a problem after we go out multiple times in a week.

• Buying New - Some things are just as good used or borrowed.

• Leaving lights/computer/TV on - I can still hear my dad's voice warning me to turn the lights off and close the fridge. We need to do better with this at my house.

• Going Grocery Shopping without a list - This is one of the first things I learned when I began couponing. Not only is it nearly impossible to plan and remember a complete weeks menu while in the store, I never can remember what I have at home and what we need at home. {Do we have any more toilet paper?....um} I always came home with more pop tarts and less toilet paper than I needed.

I think it all comes down to being more aware of our habits and just what they are costing us. To some of us the cost is worth it, to others it is a cost we could do without.

Photo Credit to my husband the photographer!

Frugal Strategies: Reduce Waste

The first strategy for frugal living I'd like to explore is: Reduce Waste.

Waste can be defined as anything that is unwanted or unusable. One way to reduce my waste is to make it wanted or usable then it is no longer waste. Another is to find items that take the place of a waste product.

Here's my brainstormed list of things I have done or would like to do at my house.

• Buy in Bulk - Less packaging means less to throw away. It also means that companies will charge less for bulk-type items because there is less cost in producing/packaging them. (Not always though make sure you do the math.)

• Composting - I really want to try this. Not only will I be changing those unusable apple cores and potato peelings into something usable I will be getting a ton of free mulch for my garden and yard. Now I need to figure out how to make it work in my small yard.

• Reusable Grocery Bags - Did you know Smith's, Target and many other stores will give you money if you bring and use your own bags. True it's only $.05 per bag, but that really adds up after time. Plus, the reusable bags are so much bigger and nicer to use than those puny plastic ones.

• Recycling - Whenever I have an empty ink cartridge I turn it in to Staples and they give me a $3 credit at their store. Not bad. I know there are other items I could collect and turn in for cash. I just need to find them. Or, I know many of the local elementary schools collect tons of things to turn into cash for their own use.

• Reusable Packaging - Along the same lines as the grocery bags. After going through almost half a box of sandwich size Ziploc bags just since school started. I know I need to begin looking for some small plastic containers we can use and wash over and over again.

• Reusing - I need to do better about evaluating boxes and containers I'm about to throw away to see if I can use them somewhere else. Hey! I could make these boxes for my kid's lunch bags instead of buying new tupperware type boxes.

• Mending Clothes - I've done a small amount of this, but I know I can do a better job in making our clothes last longer. Check out these super cute mended jeans from Make it Do. Don't be surprised if you see my girls running around in similar pants sometime soon. Those kids put holes in their jeans in record time!

What other frugal things would fit in this category?

Frugality a definition

I think I need to back up a little with my frugal strategies.

I'm finding it hard to get back into the swing of writing. My thoughts are all over the place and I can't seem to get them down quickly enough. So, forgive me if I go back to the definition of "FRUGAL."

Here it is in case you missed it:

“Frugality is the practice of acquiring goods and services in a restrained manner, and resourcefully using already owned economic goods and services, to achieve a long term goal.”

Check out the very last word. GOAL.

This is the most important part of any quest to becoming frugal.

Why on earth am I doing it?

If you don't have a clear purpose from the beginning it is so difficult to give up when the going gets tough. Oh, yes. Being frugal is not easy. When I'm clipping a large stack of coupons or buying used or going without that great new (fill in the blank) it's nice to remind myself of our families goal. Then I can keep working hard because our goal means a lot to me.

Remembering also helps me avoid those moments of weakness. Can we please go out to dinner. Even though there's plenty in the fridge/pantry. Without a coupon. For the third time this week.

I'm going to share with you a list I made of reasons. Just so you can get an idea of why people are frugal. Then I'll let you in on what we determined our families goal is.

1. You can't afford not to be. While maybe not the best reason, since no one likes to do what they have to do, low income and job loss make this a common one in today's society.

2. You'd like to maintain a single income so mom can stay home with the kids. Much more inspiring then you "have" to.

3. You're trying to reduce your imprint. This is the category recycling-type guru's fall into.

4. You want to live a simpler lifestyle. You may not think, with all the coupon/deal shopping talk, that being frugal is simple, but it is.

5. You want to pay off your house before you're 40. I remember a few years ago my sister-in-law made her first mortgage payment the same month grandma and grandpa made their last payment. I really don't want to still be paying on my house in 30+ years. Do you?

6. You want to purchase your first house with cash. Don't laugh, it's totally possible. Read about Money Saving Mom's journey.

7. You want to retire a multi-millionaire. Who doesn't?

8. You want to live debt free.

9. Your church leaders tell you to. Again, not a fabulous motivator, but better than nothing.

10. You want to be a good example for your kids.

While all of these reasons are excellent and play a part in why I think it is important to be frugal here is me and my husband's reason:

When we retire we want to be able to serve a mission (or two or three) for our church. We can't do that as easily with a huge burden of debt and no savings. For us this will require a lot of work since we have a fine mortgage, not much savings, and relatively low income.

So, before you commit to a frugal lifestyle make sure you know what your goal is. Define it clearly and keep it in mind as you swim against the current of mainstream society.

Some Frugal Strategies

“Frugality is the practice of acquiring goods and services in a restrained manner, and resourcefully using already owned economic goods and services, to achieve a long term goal.”

Since I needed some sort of guide in my quest for frugality I've had to do a little reading. I have identified a few strategies that narrow the field, so to speak, individual things I can work towards and focus on.

Here's the short list, details and goals/plans to follow:

1. reduce waste
2. identify and eliminate costly habits
3. practice delayed gratification
4. seek efficiency
5. defy expensive social norms
6. avoid traps
7. find cost-free options
8. barter
9. become well-informed about my neighborhood and what's available