Sunday, October 30, 2011

Mock Lofthouse Cookies




While browsing through Pinterest a few days ago I saw a recipe for Lofthouse Style Frosted Sugar Cookies (my mother calls them "sugar coma cookies") that was posted by Lisa at Authentic Suburban Gourmet. You know those wonderful little cookies every grocery store sells in the bakery. Well, between my sweet tooth and my frugalness I decided to give them a try.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Homemade Fire Starters

Fire starters are a cheap and easy item to make yourself. They are not very time consuming and only use items we would consider trash anyway. I have seen and heard this idea many times and doing a quick Google search will bring up many results with an explanation or video showing you how to make them. The basic concept is a cardboard (not styrofoam) egg carton with dryer lint shoved in each egg's cup and wax poured over/soaked into the lint.

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Preparing For Winter

Photo courtesy of www.don-denver.blogspot.com//2009/12/yule-blog-after-storm.html

Growing up in the Midwest, winter is never too far from my mind. This descendant of many generations of farm families tends to put on her "preparedness hat" as winter draws near. I have noticed that this is even more important to me now that I have children. If we lost power my husband and I would be fine, but we have an infant and she would not fare so well without heat. I can count on one hand the number of times in my whole life that we have lost power in the winter; however, that does not mean I shouldn't prepare for it. In January 2009 over 2 million people across 7 states in the Midwest were without power for an extended period of time, some for more than a week (Wikipedia).

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

I love garage sales!

I love finding something I was already going to buy at a really good price. My husband works very hard for his paycheck and part of what I consider my job as a homemaker is to stretch and not squander our money. In this economy I think it is even more important to get the most bang for my buck. This last weekend I was blessed to attend a community wide garage sale and find 3 items on my wish list, clothes for both of my daughters, and a few clothes for my SIL's upcoming baby. I also purchased a few other items and spent less that $40. What I am most excited about is the dehydrator I bought for $10. It didn't come with a manual, however I was able to find a PDF version on the internet. Look for a post on dehydrating in the near future.

In the mean time I would like to challenge you, in the next few weeks, to think of ways you can obtain or make the items you need for much less money than you would usually pay for them.