The Frugal Girl — cheerfully living on less

1. Do Something With The Sweet Potatoes

by Kristen on May 5, 2012 · 22 comments

Pretty sure that’s how my to-do list needs to start.

These need to either be cooked or planted because soon, those shoots are going to be so tall, I won’t be able to shut my drawer properly.

Did you know there are other instances where you can plant food that might otherwise go to waste?

You can stick garlic cloves in the ground, and they’ll grow into a new head.

If cilantro or another herb has roots, it can be planted.

Green onions almost always come with the roots attached, and I’ve successfully planted them.

And of course, sweet potato and regular potato chunks can both be buried to grow more potatoes.

I’m sure some of you experienced gardeners can name a few more types of produce that are gardening-friendly…have at it in the comments!
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Today’s 365 post: A vole has been here.

Joshua’s 365 post: Starbuck (no, not the coffee)

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Food Waste Friday | What is it with me and strawberries lately?

by Kristen on May 4, 2012 · 42 comments

in Food Waste Friday

Every week, I post a picture of the food that has gone bad over the last seven days. Why do I do this? Because in March of 2008, I finally got fed up with the amount of food I was wasting, and I thought that showing my waste to other people would motivate me to use up my food instead of wasting it. Because this often embarrassing practice was so helpful for me, I invited other bloggers to join me in posting their food waste photos, and Food Waste Friday was born.

And it’s not that I don’t like eating them. Or that people in my house don’t like eating them. But goodness, it’s tough to get through a container without having a few go bad.

(photo taken after dark with a point and shoot. No glamorous lighting for my rotten produce this time!)

I also have a shriveled-up mushroom that smells funky, and that green, uh, thing.

It’s moldy and when I took it out of the fridge, I really couldn’t tell if it was a cucumber or a zucchini.

Would you like to guess what it is? I only knew once I cut it open.

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How did you do this week? If you blogged about your food waste, link us up by entering your info into the widget below. You’ll save money, reduce your trash output, and get a little publicity for your blog! And if you don’t blog, you can still share about your food waste by leaving a comment.

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If you blog on WordPress, just make sure you’re in html mode when you copy and paste the code, or it won’t work properly.

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Today’s 365 post: times four

Joshua’s 365 post: Another snake, another lizard

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Counting the Time Cost of Purchased Service

by Kristen on May 3, 2012 · 51 comments

in DIY

As you know, we’ve been talking quite a bit about the way that time relates to frugal practices and frugal though I am, I’ve said that sometimes, it makes sense to pay for a service in order to free up some time.

But as I was cutting my dear son’s hair recently, I was reminded that it’s also important to remember that even some paid-for services have a time cost too.

In short, it’s not always as if the DIY option takes 100% more time than the pay-someone-else option.

For instance, if I had someone else cut my boy’s hair, I’d have to drive to the barber/salon, wait for his hair to be cut, and drive him back home.

I’m guessing that would probably take about 30 minutes of my day, right?

Well, I can cut his hair myself at home in about 20 minutes and then clean up the mess in 5 (less if it’s nice and we can do the haircut outside!).

So, not only does his haircut not cost me anything in real dollars, it also doesn’t cost me any time. In fact, it might save me a whole 5 minutes.

I also remind myself of this fact when I’m tempted to get takeout instead of cooking at home. A lot of times, I mentally figure the time cost of takeout as 0 minutes, but that’s not really true.

(ok, maybe it is if you’re getting delivery, or you happen to be out near your favorite takeout joint. But neither of those things are usually true for me.)

That’s because I have to decide what takeout I want, order it, drive to pick it up, and drive back home. A lot of times, that IS faster than cooking an entire meal from scratch at home, but it’s not 100% faster.

And if you compare the time it takes to make, say, pizza bagels, to the time it takes to order and pick up a pizza, there’s not a lot of difference.

Of course, sometimes I do decide that it’s worth it to pay someone for a service even if it doesn’t save me a lot of time (I sometimes order takeout and I don’t cut some of my girls’ hair).

I’m not trying to say that DIY always saves time and money because that’s just not true!

But when we’re considering the relationship between frugality and money, I do think that we need to take into account not only the time it takes to do it ourselves but also the time we’d spend getting it done by someone else.

And if you’re like me, taking that into consideration might give you the push you need to keep on keeping on.

What do you think? Do you ever find that paying for a service doesn’t actually save you much time?

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Today’s 365 post: Well, hello there, end-of-the-math-book!

Joshua’s 365 post: Baby Robin

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What We Were Doing With Peppercorns (and lentils, popcorn, rice, and peas!)

by Kristen on May 2, 2012 · 17 comments

in Crafts

Well, we were making a bit of art, as part of my monthly do-a-craft-with-Sonia-and Zoe thing I’m doing this year. We made fancy paper snowflakes in January, glitter playdough in February, and, um, nothing in March.

Whoops.

But we did squeeze in this April craft (I’m posting about it in May, but I’ll have you know that we did do this in April!)

My mom used to let my siblings and me make these when we were kids, but this was the first time I’d shown my kids how. They were pretty skeptical at first (“What are we going to make with peas, Mommy???”), but they all had a delightful time.

This is a great way to use up pantry staples that are past their prime, and I hereby declare that if you use those things to make a mosaic, they are officially NOT food waste.

To make these, you just need to spread ordinary all-purpose glue to make whatever design you want.

A heavy duty piece of paper works best for this as thin paper will become quite wobbly once the glue soaks in a bit.

Then you can sprinkle or carefully place your dried food of choice on the glue to make your design.

I remember making abstract designs that covered my whole paper when I was a kid, but all of my girls chose to make pictures.

In case you were wondering, the peppercorns are smoke coming out of Sonia’s chimney.

And her sun has no rays because as she said, “Mommy. Realistic suns don’t have those.”

Right.

Duly noted.

Once the glue has dried, you’ll probably want to gently shake the papers over the sink or trash can to make sure all the loose pieces come off. This will reduce the number of peas and lentils you’ll find on your floor while the art is displayed.

After your pictures have finished gracing bulletin boards or fridges, you can just stick the whole thing in your compost bin (I don’t normally compost grain foods, but the small amount on these pieces of paper doesn’t worry me.).

I hope you and yours have fun with this easy project.

P.S. Lisey and I baked a no-yeast loaf of bread to share with you today.

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Today’s 365 post: A missive from an untidy room

Joshua’s 365 post: Micro (I really like this one!)

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Mandarin Orange Jello, um, Salad

by Kristen on May 1, 2012 · 27 comments

in Desserts

This is a recipe that is neither frugal nor healthy.

And it’s not exactly a salad either. So, I can’t really encourage you to eat this in good conscience.

Except maybe every now and again, like I do.

My mom used to make this (every now and again, mind you) when I was a kid, mostly on special occasions, like birthdays. Like my siblings and me, my own kids now regularly request this as part of their birthday meals.

And since some of you asked after seeing my 365 post the other day, I thought it might be fun to share the recipe.

I’m filing it in the Desserts category, but to be terribly honest, my family never eats this as dessert…we eat it right alongside the main dishes.

Surprisingly, none of us have died from it yet.

In a pot, combine one 3 oz. package of tapioca pudding mix, one 3 oz. package of cook and serve vanilla pudding mix, and one 3 oz. package of orange jello mix with 3 cups of water.

Boy. That’s not how my recipes normally start.

Cook and stir over medium heat until thickened and clear. I usually bring mine to a low boil.

Let that cool completely.

Then prepare one package of Dream Whip according to the package directions. I imagine you could use real whipped cream (or Cool Whip) if you preferred.

Fold the Dream Whip into the cooled jello mixture,

along with one small can of drained mandarin oranges.

Cover and refrigerate until firm.

I must apologize for not having a lovely plated photo of this for you…I took the jello to a family gathering and barely remembered to snap a photo at all.

On the next every-now-and-then sort of occasion where I make this, I promise I’ll do better.

Mandarin Orange Salad

1 small (3 oz) package tapioca pudding mix
1 small (3 oz.) package cook and serve vanilla pudding mix
1 small (3 oz.) package orange Jello
3 cups water
1 small can mandarin oranges, drained
1 package Dream Whip

In a medium-sized saucepan, combine tapioca, pudding and Jello with water. Cook and stir over medium heat until thickened, clear, and bubbling slightly. Cool completely.

Prepare Dream Whip according to package directions, and fold oranges and Dream Whip into cooled Jello mixture. Cover and refrigerate until firm.

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Pssst!

If you’re looking for something mandarin-y but a bit healthier (or for something that truly IS a salad!), perhaps Mandarin Chicken Salad would be more your speed.

Or Mandarin Spinach Salad.

Both of those recipes are easy and include directions for making two different but delicious homemade salad dressings.

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Today’s 365 post: The not-so-beautiful side of things

Joshua’s 365 post:Pop! (a.k.a. Baking With Joshua)

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Monday Q&A | Spray Build-up, Favorite Blogs, and Cell Phones vs. Landlines

by Kristen on April 30, 2012 · 53 comments

in Q&A

Every Monday, I answer a few of the questions that my readers send me. If you have a question you’d like me to answer in a future Q&A post, just leave me a comment here or email me (thefrugalgirl [at] gmail [dot] com) and put Q&A in the subject line. I look forward to hearing from you!

Like you, I am a big fan of Pyrex and I also use cooking spray, though not always a name brand. Do you ever get buildup on the outer edges of your baking dishes? I have some stubborn spots on the handles that just don’t come clean. Any frugal cleaning tips?

Thanks!
Christina

Sometimes that happens to me, despite my efforts to keep the spray contained to the actual cooking surface. I find that something like an SOS pad is pretty helpful for those baked-on grease spots, and since you’re talking about Pyrex dishes, the SOS pad won’t hurt the dish (I wouldn’t use that if you’ve got a greasy buildup on a nonstick pan!)

I am inspired by your blog and the post this week about the tightwad gazette. What blogs do you read that inspire you?

Jill

I wrote a post about that a little while back, but I kind of need to update that list, I think. I no longer read a few blogs on that list and there are some I didn’t include.

Here are three blogs that I always look forward to reading:

-Small Notebook-I just love Rachel and I think she must be a kindred spirit because she’s always posting things that I would think of posting myself!

-SouleMama-Following along with her farm-life journey is really interesting, probably because it’s so different from my life.

-Enjoying the Small Things-I’ve written about her blog before, but I’ll say again that Kelle’s optimistic attitude in the face of difficulties is lovely. And since she persists in being cheerful despite criticism for that (Dear Internet Public: Why must you hate people who choose to see the glass as half full?), I love her even more.

Just wondering what your thoughts are regarding cell phones and landline phones. It just kills me that we are paying so much money for both! I’m just wondering if I should cancel my landline and save $35 per month, but cell phones seem like such a rip-off too.

-Frustrated

I think choosing one over the other can definitely make sense. Thus far, we’ve chosen to keep our cell phones bill minimal by using pre-paid cell phones and then we have our regular phone service through Vonage.

There’s no one right answer for this question, unfortunately! I’d take a hard look at which service you use more and then cut back on or eliminate the one you don’t use as much. If that’s your landline, perhaps there’s a very minimal package that you can sign up for, or if it’s your cell phone, you could consider a pre-paid simple phone like mine.

You’ll want to take things like long-distance calling into consideration (Does your landline offer free long-distance? If it doesn’t, a cell phone plan might save you money.), access to 911 services (Is that still an issue with cell phones?), and how hitched you want to be to your phone (I personally choose not to have a smartphone because I fear I would use it too much!)

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Readers, how have you handled the landline/cell phone issue at your house?

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Today’s 365 post: I know it’s a little weird…

Joshua’s 365 post: Zoo pictures and a lolhamster!