Archive for what’s in my hand?
A What’s In Your Hand Chore Chart
My just turned two year old grandson is enamored of all things Noah’s Ark. Also of all things Old McDonald, and animals in general. So when I was making the yard sale rounds recently and saw this Noah’s Ark wall hanging for two dollars, I knew I had to have it for him. Kindly pretend [...]
Three Storage Hacks
1. Take three Clementine boxes and make a handy storage shelf. You get a better picture of this in the sidebar of the blog I’ve linked- right side, scroll down 2, Take an old bookshelf headboard from a twin sized water bed and flip it on its end for a set of narrow [...]
So… What’s In Your Hand?
I started blogging here once a week back in 2007. There was a period of time when I was AWOL while life dealt our family a few knock out blows, but with God’s help we’ve been staggering out from beneath them for a while, and I’ve been blogging here regularly again. Although I’ve taken a [...]
Minimalist Kitchen
There are many reasons why one might have or need to have a minimalist kitchen. One might be a new bride or a college student away from home for the first time, and need to make do and get by while slowly adding to kitchen supplies as need and finances meet each other. One might [...]
Candles
Burning candles is something that makes the cooler, darker days seem brighter and warmer- but they don’t just ‘seem’ that way- they do make things warmer. One candle in the room adds the equivalent of one person’s body heat to the room. But where to get candles at a frugal price? We buy most of [...]
Celebrating With What Is In My Hand
While hanging the baby clothes on the drying rack with soft breezes blowing and sun shining bright, memories of my first born baby flooded my mind. Now grown-up and with a baby of his own in his wife’s womb, our family had decided a celebration was in order! As I considered how to celebrate this [...]
Summer Salad
Here’s a salad you can make without going shopping for the ingredients- although you might need to take a walk. As always, be careful and be sure of your plant identification: Lettuce- grow this in an ice-cream bucket of compost or potting soil. Sprinkle with lettuce seeds, sprinkle with dirt, keep damp and set in [...]
Joyful Frugality
I scanned through my daughter’s pictures for a few minutes last night looking for photographs of frugal good times, and then I started brain-storming a bit to flesh out the list. Some of these things are ‘dates’ and some of the are family activities, and many of them work just as well in either category. [...]
Ten Frugal Practices I Wish We’d Done from the Beginning
This list is off the top of my head. If you ask me again tomorrow, it will probably look slightly different, and the week after that I might remember something else I think is even more important. There is probably something more important that we do that I learned at my mother’s knee so I [...]
Frugal Eats On Road Trips
I tried to count the number of road trips our family has taken, but I really just can’t. I have no idea. And when I talk about road trips, I am talking about trips we have taken of several days duration, sometimes weeks, and, a couple of times, road trips that lasted over a month. [...]
Composting
Alright, you city folk, apartment dwellers, thinking that this whole composting thing doesn’t apply to you because you live in a small place and don’t garden… I think there could still be something for you in this post. You don’t have to have a big, involved composting system like ours to benefit from compost. This [...]
Self-Discipline
One of the problems with trying to get out of debt or maintain a budget is that things just keep right on breaking, often before you’ve even paid them off. Tires go flat, plumbing needs repairing, the alternator in the car needs replacing, the computer goes blank, the belt on the washing machine breaks- and [...]
Knowledge
Knowledge is another key frugality that perhaps doesn’t spring first to mind when somebody asks you how you live within your means. You can increase your frugal power by learning how- how to do things, make things, sell things, and how to get by without. How to be charitable when you don’t have much money. [...]
Frugal Ice-Packs and Learning to Plan Ahead
I assume we all know the emergency tip about using a frozen bag of peas or corn on a nasty bruise. But what about when it’s not exactly an emergency? This past week our daughter Pip had her wisdom teeth out- three cut out and one extraction, and she needed to apply ice packs every [...]
Flexibility In Your Hand
A while back in a post on my regular blog about drastic budgeting in the kitchen, I shared some links on cooking on a budget from an extension office, and then I shared some ideas on how to use that basic plan and make it even more frugal. The recipes and menus included a recipe [...]
