Kindly pretend you do not see the tape there. It was part of a project I was working on and I forgot to remove it for the picture.

What I initially planned was just to remove the strings, and give him the wooden animals as toys.

But his mother had recently expressed an interest in a chore chart that he would enjoy and understand.  The chore charts we looked at were either too pricey (his parents are on an incredibly tight budget), or they required too much work to put together and were of limted use with a non-reading 2 year old.   So,  together we worked out a plan to make this 2.00 toy I had in my hand his new chore chart.

The Dread Pirate Grasshopper's mummy took pictures of him doing his chores, or otherwise performing his routine tasks. These include such things as brushing his teeth, feeding the dog, putting away the silverware, tidying away his toys, and setting the table. She had them printed in wallet sized copies.

I laminated them. My husband hole punched them because I couldn't.  My contact paper, btw, came from the thrift shop.  Whenever I am at the thrift shop, I check for clear contact paper in the craft section because you never know.

As you can see in the picture, each pair of animals is attached by a long bit of twine which is knotted in the middle so as to make a loop for hanging the pair of animals on a peg. I untied the knot, then slipped the middle of the twine through the hole in the laminated picture and knotted it again, so there is still a loop which the DPG can use to hang up the pair of animals when he has completed the task pictured on the card with them.

Now, if we were more artistic, we could have drawn a picture of the chore on the back of the animal, but we aren't artistic at all. What we are is creative in the way that non-artistic people full of ideas they cannot implement need to be. Necessity is the M. of I. and all that, as Bertie Wooster would have said if he'd thought of it.

So, to recap, a picture of the toddler performing part of his daily routine is attached to a pair of animals. There is a small basket where the animals are stored, it also hangs on the Noah's Ark pegboard. He can either pull an animal pair out of the basket and then hang them up when he completes a task, or his mother could hang up all the animals each night and he can gradually take them down during the day. Or they can simply alternate- on Mondays the DPG takes animals off the chart as he does his tasks, puts them in the basket. On Tuesdays, he takes them out of the basket and hangs them up.

We did not have a picture for every animal, because he doesn't have that many 'chores' yet, so there is room for the 'chart' to expand.

Incidentally, he loves it. He was sitting in my lap as I wrote part of this post (trying to wait patiently for me to finish so he could watch another Old McDonald youtube video), and when he saw the picture he got excited and bounced up and down, telling me, "CHORE CHART!"

Now, the way to apply this frugal hack is not to go out and look for an identical wooden ornament.  The heart of frugality is flexibility. Other possibilities:

Magnets on the back of laminated pictures, and the fridge.

Laminated pictures and an ornament tree

Use your computer - put pictures on your desk top or remove them from the desk top as tasks are completed

Laminated or drawn pictures, a flannel board and an envelope.

Attach pictures to the outside of a decorated box or oatmeal carton, using clothespins.  Pull them off and drop them in the box when completed (along with the clothesepins).

You may also want to read more on kids and chores:

Don't be a Martyr Mother- if you love your kids selflessly, you will help them develop initiative and a good work ethic.

The Common Room: Chores and Children- Why? We believe in children doing chores. In fact, we believe in children working hard and contributing to the family's wellbeing. ...

Earn free Amazon gift cards from Swagbucks!

Advertise here

© DeputyHeadmistress for Frugal Hacks, 2011. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us

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. Horizontal waterbed headboard bookshelf turned vertical

2,  Take an old bookshelf headboard from a twin sized water bed and flip it on its end for a set of narrow vertical shelves for oversized books or magazines. (no picture, my camera batteries died again).

3.  Put one or two of these Over-The-Door Hanger Holder over your bathroom door. Put together a week's worth of outfits, each outfit (including underwear) on a coathanger and hang it up. Being in the bathroom will steam out wrinkles, and having your clothes already chosen will free up time and mental energy so you can apply it to frugal projects.

Other storage solutions, most using what you have in your hand, here.

Earn free Amazon gift cards from Swagbucks!

Advertise here

© DeputyHeadmistress for Frugal Hacks, 2011. | Permalink | No comments yet. Say something! | Add to del.icio.us

I go to the thrift shop fairly regularly, and while there I do a little stocking up on items suitable for gifts. Therefore, this last week when one of our two unofficial foster sons/godsons showed up for a two week visit and cheerfully announced, "I'll be here for my birthday again this year," I did not have to run to the store for a present. In my hands I already had a small lego car, still in the unopened packaging, some crayons shaped liked animals, and some balloons. Our 12 year old son added to the Lego theme by passing down some of his own treasured Legos, which he built into the shape of a hollow cake, with a few more Legos loosely packed inside. Other family members gave him crayons, a coloring book, more Legos, a book of science experiments, and a toy gun that shoots suction cup tipped darts. The presents were wrapped in gift bags that have been used for multiple birthdays, and topped off with a treasure hunt of seven clues (one for each year) to find his gifts. We did a treasure hunt last year for his birthday, and children are the most traditional of traditionalists.

In making this cake, Jenny-any-dots discovered we were out of cream cheese. We make a low-carb mousse-like dessert using sour cream, cocoa powder, and a bit of stevia, so she made that instead.

Some extra guests came for dinner. I had some leftover home-made bread, but it was just getting to the point where it was best used for bread pudding. Instead, I stretched the meal with an old trick of my grandmother's- I put some water in a saucepan, put a steamer basket above it, filled the basket with slightly stale rolls, put the lid on the pot and turned it up high. The steam will soften, reheat, and freshen rolls that have just started to get a bit hard. Keep the steam on until you are ready to serve the bread.
Other ways of stretching a meal: add potatoes (bake them quickly by putting them in a pan with water in it in the oven); rice or pasta; extra water or brother in the soup; extra vegetables; whip up a batch of biscuits (especially easy if you keep some home-made biscuit mix on hand)

We needed a kid-friendly cleaner that some gung-ho little boys could use to spray on door-knobs and light switches to wipe off finger prints, freshen up, and do a touch of disinfecting. The ingredients I had on hand: a number of essential oils and some natural dish-washing powder made by Jess at Titus Keepers. We combined them in a squirt bottle (just a couple spoonfuls of the dishwasher powder) with some warm water, shook it up really well, and let them spray away. It smelled great, worked great, made the little boys happy to be helping, and did not require a trip to town. Incidentally, if you are looking for a way to help out somebody in need- you could donate something to Jess, who is a single mother trying to be a keeper at home. Contribute to the Gunning Family either by buying her products through the link above, or by making a donation here.
Here's another recipe for a good home-made cleaner using ingredients you should have on hand.

Extra guests spending the night, laundry not done, and you need a pillowcase? Use a clean t-shirt.

Feel like eating a bowl of ice-cream, but it's not in the budget? A dairy-free friend taught me this trick- slice a ripe banana, put it on a cookie sheet and freeze. Put the frozen pieces through the blender, food processor, or blend with your immersion blender. Eat immediately. You can add things like peanut butter, melted chocolate, cocoa powder, vanilla, cinnamon, frozen strawberries or other fruit, etc. But the frozen banana is all you need. You don't even have to slice the banana, you can freeze it whole. But you should peel it.

What do you have in your hand?

Earn free Amazon gift cards from Swagbucks!

Advertise here

© DeputyHeadmistress for Frugal Hacks, 2011. | Permalink | 10 comments | Add to del.icio.us

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 have a small place without much space, and need to minimize the junk that takes up space.

One might be moving and need to reduce the 'stuff' that will be transported.

Understand that I do not really have a minimalist kitchen, although I have gotten by with one before.  I had far more than half my kitchen goodies in storage for almost three years, so I know I can do minimalist,  but the truth is, I like my kitchen gadgets too much to have left as many of them in storage as I should have.

But if you are just starting out, or you're moving and need the smallest amount of stuff possible, or you are in a tiny kitchen and need to make space, here are some tips that might help spark your own ideas for simplifying your stuff down to a minimalist kitchen:

1. Kitchen towels can double as hotpads.  Just fold them up very well, and be careful. Do I like my hotpads? Very much. But I can function without them if I need to.

2. Turn a glass upside down and use it to cut biscuits and round cookies.  I don't remember my mother ever using anything else to make biscuits or rolls.  Actually, you can just use your hands to make rolls in a quick, assembly line fashion as a baker once taught me. I demonstrate her method here.

3. Nobody needs a cake tester.  A fork, toothpick, a straw from an old-fashioned broom, or a bit of raw spaghetti will each work just as well.

4. In a pinch a bottle works as a rolling pin. It needs to be about the shape of an old glass soda bottle, so something like a bottle of ketchup, a bottle of worcestershire sauce or soy sauce will work. If you fill it up with ice water and put the lid on tightly you have a great rolling pin for keeping your pie crust flaky.

5. While I vastly prefer a good pastry Blender for blending fats into flours for biscuits and quick breads, you can cut butter into flour as for biscuits or pie crust by using two knives or a fork.  My mother never had one, and she made a lot of biscuits and pies. I never owned a pastry cutter until I was nearly 30, and I made a lot of pies and biscuits in that time-frame.  What also works is your clean fingers.  Wash your hands well, rinse them with cold water, drop small bits of fat into the flour and pick up a palmful at a time and gently rub your hands together until all the flour and fat are mixed together. Work quickly, and this works pretty well.

6. If you are crushed for space and/or funds, you don't have to have a spray bottle of oil such as PAM. I never use the stuff. You can spread oil on your baking sheets the old fashioned way, with your hands, or the other old fashioned way, with your children's hands.  There are spray bottles you can fill yourself, but I found they usually end up getting clogged up and I returned to the use of my hands.

7. A colander is really, really handy, in fact, of all the 'dispensable' things on this list, this is the least dispensable. However, it is a tool I lived without for years.  You can get by with a little coordination and a cooking pan with a lid. You just carefully hold the lid cracked a wee bit and tilt your pan to pour the liquid out (using your towel for a hot-pad, of course) while holding the lid and the sides of the pan.  It's a good idea to pour the liquid into a bowl in the sink rather than directly into the sink, so that if you drop your pan the pasta won't go in the sink.  Pour away from you, not towards you. Ladle out some of the liquid first to make the pot lighter and easier to poor. If you have a steamer basket you can have that double as a colander- put it inside a bowl or pan and ladle the food from pan to steamer basket.  Or, ideally, get a colander but make sure it's one that can also double as a steamer.

8. A vegetable peeler can be used in place of a cheese slicer. Some people use a paring knife, but I never mastered the art and skill of paring fruits and vegetables well with a knife.

9. A giant mixing bowl is a very nice thing for a large family to have, but you can also use a large, clean bucket, and even an ice-chest.  I have mixed yeast breads in buckets and large pasta salads in ice-chests before.

10. Specialty racks just for cooling your cookies- I've never owned one and neither did my mother.  She would tear apart brown paper bags, spread them open on the counter or table, and use a spatula to get the cookies off the pan and onto the paper. Brown paper bags are harder to come by, now, but a clean counter also works well.

11. Citrus Zester- many people never zest citrus and use it in recipes at all.  However, I love the sweet burst of flavor that the zest of a citrus peel gives to food, foods like Fennel Salad, wheat-free lemon poppyseed banana bread, lemon love-notes, or my special chocolate orange pound-cake?

I finally found a good citrus zester at a thrift shop, but for years what I did instead was to store all citrus peels in a container in the freezer.  When I needed the zest of citrus, I used my vegetable peeler to peel off a bit of orange or lemon peel (the colored bit, not the white) and then I used a pair of child's scissors to snip the rind into my batter.

12. Grain Mill- I love my grain mill.  But if you don't have one, there are two ideas I have for making do without.  One is to find a friend who has one and grind grains and legumes in hers, keeping the flours in the freezer.  The other is to make the blender pancake batter like this one, which grinds the grains in the blender with the liquid ingredients.

Some people consider tongs to be dispensable.  I am not one of them.   Tongs are good, in lieu of collanders, for scoooping out spaghetti. IN lieu of pot holders they are good for pulling out the oven racks, for serving salads, for serving pasta, lifting jars and tiny dishes out of hot water baths, reaching the jars that are up high inthe cupboard, turning cake pans in the oven (so you don't put your thumb in the top of the cake), serving ice, lifting, turning, stirring, moving, picking up and putting down.  We must have our tongs.=)

What are some of your substitutions?

Earn free Amazon gift cards from Swagbucks!

Advertise here

© DeputyHeadmistress for Frugal Hacks, 2011. | Permalink | 21 comments | Add to del.icio.us

But where to get candles at a frugal price?  We buy most of ours from the local thrift shop- I watch for seasonal sales in particular, as I don't much care if I am burning an orange candle in December, or a blue one smelling of the sea shore in January (in fact, I'd love that).  I also buy the little tea lights for fondue pots when they go on sale.

Stock up- CVS and Walgreens will often feature packages of candles as loss leaders- they will have a coupon allowing you to get four or six candles at a drastically reduced price.

Consider buying replacement wicks from the local craft store, so that those marked down, scuffed up and burned out thrift shop candles can be refurbished with a new bit of wicking for a longer life.

Getting the fullest possible use out of your candles:

If the candle holder is black from smoke, you can clean it up very easily by wiping it out with a cloth dipped in rubbing alcohol.

REuse the container for more candles- to empty it out of the leftover bit of wax, put it in the freezer over night.  The candle should pop out easily, with perhaps just a bit of leverage from a butter knife.

Don't throw the wax away- I save old candle ends and the last bits of crayon.

You can use these to rub on the edges and metal parts of a drawer that sticks to make it open and close more smoothly.

You can rub the bottom of a large cardboard box with a bit of candle end and use the box for sliding down a grassy hill.

If the candle is scented, you can melt it down (gently, over low heat) and pour into candy molds, freeze, pop them out, and you have those scented wax pieces for tart burners.

Make fire starters- take an egg carton and put old dryer lint in each compartment.  Pour melted candle wax over the lint. Let cool.  Use these on camping trips and for bonfires outside.  Good stocking stuffers for your outdoorsmen!

You can make another candle with them, or you can make the following Christmas ornament:

Directions here.

Earn free Amazon gift cards from Swagbucks!

Advertise here

© DeputyHeadmistress for Frugal Hacks, 2010. | Permalink | 6 comments | Add to del.icio.us

As I considered how to celebrate this occasion, I immediately thought of a splendid dinner and additional purchases that would add to the overall baby experience.  Then remembering the need for budget consideration, I had to make a few mental adjustments.  While thinking of how to prepare a tasty and better-than-everyday meal, the frugal man’s “surf and turf” came to mind.  Brisket of Beef is a favorite at Texas festivities, and Tilapia fish would make a great complement to the meal, as it was a choice New Daughter would enjoy.  I added some other popular family items to the menu, including sparkling grape juice served in fancy glasses.

The desire to have some decorations were what had given us the idea to  resurrect the baby clothes from the shed.  Daughter and I thoroughly enjoyed decorating the dining room with our on-hand resources.  Using twine strung tightly across our windows and clothespins found in the laundry room, we hung up the treasured baby items that once upon a time belonged to Firstborn Son.  His baby afghans, affectionately crocheted by family members, marked the chairs where Firstborn Son and New Daughter would sit.  We laid down a pound puppy flat sheet as a tablecloth, and we “puddled” the fitted sheet to make a backdrop on the center of the table for well-loved stuffed animals and memory-rich books from his childhood.  A few strands of silk autumn-colored leaves completed the centerpiece, and a lullaby CD, gleaned from days gone by, provided ambiance for the evening.

When Firstborn Son and New Daughter arrived they were delighted to see our décor.  Husband read from the Scriptures and prayed a blessing on our grandbaby in the womb, and then the feast began.  We had a wonderful time rejoicing in God’s gift of life and His providence of bringing forth a new generation, as well as reminiscing of past days and shared hopes for the future.

After the evening was over, Husband and I took down the precious little clothes to be given to Firstborn Son and New Daughter, and I realized what a blessing it was to be creative with what was in my hand.  The emphasis of our evening was on relationships, memory, and hope, and the celebration was a joy to all.  And you know what?  Those simple baby clothes and teddy bears added more to this feeling than hundreds of dollars worth of generic party decorations.

How do you celebrate meaningful moments?

Earn free Amazon gift cards from Swagbucks!

Advertise here

© DL for Frugal Hacks, 2010. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us

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 a sunny window or outside on your deck or patio.  Water regularly.  Harvest by pulling off outside leaves rather than pulling up the entire plant.

Purslane: it should NOT have a milky sap (milky sap is a different plant).  The leaves are succulent and I think delicious.  Purslane grows just about everywhere and is easy to find- make sure the purslane you picke has not been sprayed for weeds.

Day Lilies: NOT tiger lilies, but day lilies, the plain orange ones. Snip the buds into rounds, tear the petals into ribbons, or have the petals inside your sandwiches instead of lettuce.

Viola or Johnny-Jump-Up petals

Sprouts you've grown yourself (all you need is a jar, water, and a bit of old nylon or cheesecloth, and seeds- lentils, mung, alfalfa)

Lambsquarter leaves (young ones are better)

Toss with lemon juice, vinegar, and herbs, or salad dressing of your own making.

Serve with croutons of your own making (dice leftover bread slices into squares, toss with oil and herbs, toast in the oven)

Add other vegetables as you choose- from the garden, farmer's market, or store.

Choose a book on edible weeds for further explorations in wildcrafting

Do you eat from your flower garden or consider weeding the garden harvesting dinner?  What's your favorite edible weed?

Earn free Amazon gift cards from Swagbucks!

Advertise here

© DeputyHeadmistress for Frugal Hacks, 2010. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us

In no particular order, here's a romp through some joyful, and very frugal, memories:

.

Have a race.  Jump rope.  Play hop scotch.  Find a hill and slide down it on cardboard boxes (wax them by rubbing with the side of a candle for even more speed).  Skip.  Play Mother May I, Red Light, Green Light, or ring around the rosy.  Find a swing set and swing.  Even if you are thirty.  Especially if you are forty.

Go to the beach, a lake, a river, a stream, a creek, a brook or any body of water- hang out. Toss rocks in the water. Wade. Sit on a blanket or lawn chair and just talk to one another, enjoying one another's company

Have a picnic. We've had picnics at parks, at the beach, by the river, on the verge of a parking lot outside a museum, out of the back of the van, and on blankets on my living room floor. A couple times I even set out plastic ants.  Invite friends.   Bring cards, a ball, a book or all three.

You can have a picnic in the rain. This is from somebody's 18th birthday party, and she says it's the best party she had, ever, and all the friends who came agreed.

Go for a walk, even if it's muddy outside.  Drive somewhere new, park the car and get out and take a walk.  Go as a family or go with your spouse (above is our youngest child, our third youngest child, and their brother-in-law, only this was taken about three years before we knew that's who he was going to be).

Dress up and be silly and extravagant and more than a little ridiculous.  Speak in period or in costume.  Take pictures.  Dress up like this and go out for coffee and a piece of pie.  Split the pie.  Put on a play.  Let your kids put on a play for you.  Go to the thrift shop or a yard sale together and look for the most outlandish piece of clothing you can find for a dollar or less.

Yes, my family is macabre.  Go to the cemetary and find the oldest headstone, or the most interesting.  Take a picnic (yes, we do this).  Take a book.   Take paper and crayons and start a collection of tomb rubbings.

Find a bridge and play Pooh-sticks.  Walk slowly across it, hand in hand.  Skip across it.  Stop in the middle and sing a song to hear how your voice carries over water.  Sing Bridge Over Troubled Water, very badly.  Drop rocks in the water.  Look for turtles.  Slap mosquitoes and compare bite marks.  Scratch each other's backs.

Bake up a storm, take cookies to a neighbor or a new mom from church.  Have friends over for pie and coffee. Eat up your treats while watching a movie together.  Play a board game or a game of cards.  Play Charades.

Sing.  Karaoke.  Bring up midi files or youtube videos of songs and sing along with them. Make a family CD- everybody pitches in a dollar to pay to download a favorite song at Amazon and put them all on a single CD reflecting your family's unique tastes and vision.

Or you and your spouse put together your own special CD of romantic music and have a candlight ice-cream sundae in your room with the door locked.  REad the Song of Solomon together.

Sit under a tall tree in the fall and read aloud from Janice May Udrey's very charming picture book.

Pick a book to read aloud to each other, or as a family. Three Men In A Boat (To Say Nothing Of The Dog...) is pretty funny.

Look for free events in your town- concerts, lectures, museums, free days at the zoo or aquarium.  Does your little town have a local historical society?  A book club?

Volunteer somewhere together.

Weed the garden together.

Do the dishes together- you'll be surprised how much meaningful conversation can come from doing some mundane task together.

Take a free class together- card making night at the library, or a sign language class at church, or get certified by the Red Cross together.

The first couple of years my husband and I were married, we had to do our laundry at a laundromat. We would take along backgammon or mastermind and play one of those two games together while doing our laundry. Bring along a thermos of iced coffee or lemon-ade as well.

Visit a nursing home together.

Write down a list of people you know, put their names in a jar, take turns drawing names out of the jar and saying something nice about them- then write a note of appreciation to some of the people on your list.

These are just a few ideas. There are dozens of ways to have fun, meaningful, bonding, delicious, wonderful, joyful times together that do not need to cost much, or even anything. There are deliciously wonderful things which you can do to serve others, to grow together, to increase your level of enjoyment and understanding of one another- things that will bring wonderful memories and sweet fellowship without the bitter aftertaste of adding to your credit card, or finding that you really could use the money you spent on pizza for a pair of shoes or a visit to the doctor.

There is no lack of joy in frugal living. There is an abundance of all the things that matter most.

Earn free Amazon gift cards from Swagbucks!

Advertise here

© DeputyHeadmistress for Frugal Hacks, 2010. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us

1. This advice given to us at the beginning of our marriage.  We did know this one from the beginning, but we also strayed from this one too many times.  Still, having been told early on, we did do much better than might have otherwise. We'd have done better still to never use a credit card at all, or at least to never, not even once, use it without paying off the balance at the end of the month.

2. Laundry soap, home-made (Also check out my Q and A posts on the laundry soap here. also here, and for more information on suds try here.) This would have saved us a bundle if we'd done it from the beginning or our 1982 marriage instead of only the last five years.

3. After far too many years of ordering pizza delivered on pay-day, we finally realized that if there is any regular indulgence in your life that you can only afford on payday, you really cannot afford it at all and need to get your spending  under control.  We needed to get our self-control under control!

4. Home-made diaper wipes and travel wipes.  We did this pretty well for the last three children. Even though the 'baby' is now nearly 12 years old, I still make these from time to time for traveling.  So refreshing!  And so nice for sensitive skin.  Also, I asked my grandson's mama to tell me off the top of her head her favorite frugal tip she'd learned from me, and this is what she thought of.  My grandson's mama is my second daughter, and while I do love being the grandmama, I can't really say it's more fun than being the Mama.  It's loads of fun, but not more fun- just different.

5. This home-made stain remover, which works even on thrift shop baby clothes with yellowed stains of undetermined origin.  In fact, sometimes I can buy used baby clothes that are drastically marked down because of those yellow stains, and then I soak them, launder them, and sell them at a yard sale or consignment store for more than I paid.

6. Washing my hair with baking soda I do have incredibly soft water. When we went on vacation we stayed in places where the water was incredibly hard, and my hair just felt stiff and icky, so while we were gone I switched back to shampoo- only Head and Shoulders because my hair felt so gross (Pipsqueak, who has thin, silky, very blonde hair, does not use baking soda, and she, too, complained of her hair feeling 'gunky' from the hard water). I noticed that I had to shampoo my hair daily or it was greasy and clumpy, whereas, at home with baking soda, I can go three days between washings, and my hair still isn't as disgusting as it was in 24 hours with hard water and shampoo.

7. Washing my face with cod liver oil The first week I did this every night.  Now I only use the oil a couple times a month, and mostly just splash my face with warm water and baking soda the rest of the time (the baking soda when I am washing my hair), and maybe take clean, wet washcloth to it.  I don't wear make-up, so this regimen works well for me. If you wear make-up, the cod-liver oil is a great remover.

8. This recipe for cookies- no wheat, no corn, no eggs, no sugar, no dairy, but the Cherub still loves them!

9. Reading the Tightwad Gazette Books To be fair to myself, I could not have read these from the beginning because they were not published yet. I do have all my Progeny read them for part of their Home Economics class in our homeschool. If anybody tells you these are 'extreme' ask them how much they are saving each month and what their debt level is, and then ponder whether or not that's the sort of standard you share or desire.

10. Revising my way of thinking from 'what do I feel like having' to the What's In My Hand principle (see also here) , because the biggest aid in frugality is attitude. I know you've heard me say that before, but I don't think we can hear it enough. Y'all are probably much nicer than me, but there are always new areas I am discovering where I am a bit of a spoiled brat. I am 48 years old and I think I was a late bloomer at this growing up stuff.

So... what do you wish you'd known way back when and put into practice from the start?

Earn free Amazon gift cards from Swagbucks!

Advertise here

© DeputyHeadmistress for Frugal Hacks, 2010. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us

That's because for years our family "vacations" were known by another term- PCS move- that's Permanent Change of Station, or transfer, for you civvies out there. My husband was in the military for 20 years- he was in boot camp on our first anniversary. During his career, we combined our new orders with a road trip and a few visits to sites of historical or personal interest. He saved up his leave for these trips. This is how our family managed to live frugal and still visit places like Yellowstone, Mt. Rushmore, Lliard Hot Springs in Canada, the natural history museum in Regina Canada, campgrounds in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and the Northwest Territory of Canada, as well as all along the Al-Can highway, many a natural history museum, Little Big Horn, Chimney Rock, the Grand Canyon, the Painted Dessert, art museums in California, Nebraska, a cowboy museum in Texas, the Olympic Peninsula and so much more. We were moving, and we took a little detour here and a little detour there.

The military pays families who are transferring a per Diem rate for food. That is supposed to be enough to cover eating out a restaurant, but we never found that it was quite enough for our family- our daughters are surprisingly healthy eaters. It was, however, more than enough to cover picnics, and if we did those right we might even have enough left over for part of the museum entrance fee.=)

My husband retired from the Air Force six years ago, and we no longer get a per Diem travel rate, nor do we do as much traveling. (On the plus side, we do make a little more money in the civilian sector, and he doesn't go overseas without us for two months out of every year). Still, what we learned during our military travels still works for us. Here are some of the things we do while traveling with family.

Foods that travel well:
dried fruits and vegetables. Some of us love snacking on sun dried tomatoes (look for sales, or learn to dry your own), some munch on raisins, my husband's dried fruit of choice is prunes.
Granola- make your own.
Nuts
boiled eggs if you have a good ice-chest
summer sausage
jerky
oranges- they come in their own wrapping and don't get squished like bananas. On the other hand, they can be messy.
Cabbage- seriously, my husband loves to munch on wedges of raw cabbage.
Pretzels
bread and muffins- especially if you freeze it first, pack in single layers in a tupperware container, and store in the ice-chest. We're going to be trying these 'main dish' muffins later this month- they are really miniature quiches you can hold and eat one-handed. We know they work for short car trips as we've been doing that for a few weeks now.
snack mixes- like chex mix- made from scratch, of course.=)
bagels

Sometimes I like to pack meals that we can easily eat in the car, and then we use the time we would have ordinarily spent eating visiting a park or a museum.

We might bring brown paper lunch bags and fill up the bags with our snack items- things like carrot sticks, fruit, chopped wedges of cabbage, popcorn, celery sticks, crackers, cheese, slices of sausage, nuts, raisins, home-made cookies, dried tomatoes, and cherry tomatoes. The Headmaster likes to eat raw green onions. You can usually pick up dried prunes quite inexpensively at the local dollar store or discount grocery.

We like sandwiches in pita or pocket bread best, because the filling isn't so likely to fall out. One of our favorite fillings is this Chinese Pork, either on its own, or mixed with cream cheese. You can make up a batch of this, put it in pocket bread sandwiches and freeze them. Then pack them frozen and eat in a day or two when they defrost.

Sometimes I make sandwiches at home and freeze them in advance. Other times I just pack the fixings. A favorite lunch to have at a picnic table somewhere is miniature shish-ka-bobs. I set out olives, pickles, cherry tomatoes, cubes of cheese or sausage, mushrooms, and canned pineapple chunks (don't forget your can opener!). We supply toothpicks or pretzel sticks and napkins. Each person makes their own miniature shish-ka-bobs on the toothpicks or pretzel sticks (the pretzel sticks tend to break unless you poke holes in the food first).

We find that breakfast is usually the cheapest meal to eat at a restaurant, so if we are going to eat out, that's the time we choose. If we don't want to eat at a restaurant at all, I pack yogurt and homemade granola, and we eat granola and yogurt while driving. Yogurt keeps better than milk while living from an ice-chest.

The harder cheeses keep better than soft ones.

peanut butter, of course, unless you have allergies. Have the peanut butter in sandwiches, in celery, or mixed with powdered milk and a dab of honey for peanut butter 'play dough cookies' (we roll them into balls and eat them)

"Melba" toast- one of our kids favorite snacks when young was home-made whole wheat bread sliced and toasted at a very low heat in the oven for a long enough time that it was dried all the way through. This kept well while traveling (just store it so it can't be crushed to crumbs) and is delicious with a mixture of cream cheese and grated cheese.

For a couple of trips where we weren't sure of hitting a grocery store, I grew sprouts while we traveled. I soaked a jar of sprouts overnight before we left, topping it off with a square cut off from an old nylon stocking and a rubber band. Three times a day when we stopped somewhere I rinsed and drained them. I prefer drinking fountains and pumps at parks to gas station restrooms.;-) That way we had a fresh vegetable just about the time our other fresh produce was running out.

We have also put snacks in ice cube trays. This is fun, but a bit messy at times. I like the tupperware ice-cube trays that have lids. The fun part about this is that small children like having this smorgasbord of snacks to choose from all divided up into little containers, but they are not overwhelmed by the amounts.

We each get a bottle of water that we refill as needed. I like to put a sprig of mint in mine, and I like to wrap other mint springs in a wet paper towel so I can have more when my first sprig is ready to be tossed (or eaten). The FYG has her water rationed because, while we are not unreasonable about bathroom stops, we do think every hour is a bit much.

Where to Stop
Whenever possible I like to take our driving breaks at museums or sites of historical interest, but it's also good to stop at places where the children can run off their pent up energy.

When the children were younger we would stop at rest stops and have foot races, climb trees, ask the children race to the next tree by hopping on one foot, jumping, hopping backward, skipping, and somersaulting- we could ask them to do these things under a watchful eye while we were getting out the picnic stuff. I pack sidewalk chalk and a jump-rope. We can sketch out a hopscotch pattern on the sidewalk in a moment, and the jump-rope can be used in a covered picnic area or in a ground floor hotel room on a rainy day.

Things to pack:
can opener
tablecloth for rest area picnic tables. I also like a quilt to spread out on the ground
paper towels and home-made wipes
water bottles
plates- this is up to you- you can pack one dessert plate for each person, use foods that won't be too messy, and rinse them off after each meal stop, or you can pack paper plates. Or plan foods that don't need plates, and use napkins- cloth can be rinsed, rung out, and set to dry in a sunny window or on top of the ice-chest, or just relax and use the disposable ones. Consider how frugally green you are being by NOT eating at a restaurant=)
ice chest
cheese slicer
vegetable peeler
paring knife and small cutting board (I have one that is only about 18 square inches, it fits nicely inside a ziplock bag with the paring knife and in the side of our ice-chest.
salt and pepper
Ziplock bags or other food storage containers

Other tips:
Plan regular grocery store stops along the way to replenish a few fresh vegetables, fruits, cheeses, and yogurts. I would buy a package of cream cheese and one of grated cheese and mix them in a ziplock bag, kneading until well combined, for a cheese spread for crackers.
Cottage cheese, dill and garlic make a favorite dip for vegetables.
If you long for a hot meal, go through the drive through of a fast food place and order one hot thing from the dollar menu, supplement with your own fruits and vegetables.
Learn to drink water, make sure your kids are fine with water. You will save SO much money this way.

Do some advance planning and prep- cut up turkey ham and freeze it in cubes, bake and freeze muffins and cookies, mix up some snack mix (we like oyster crackers, peanuts, mixed with dill, garlic powder and buttermilk powder and tossed with a bit of oil), make and freeze sandwiches (spreading them with butter will keep them from getting soggy when defrosted), dehydrate some cherry tomatoes or other products, make granola...

What are some of your favorite meals while traveling? How do you save money on food during road trips?

Earn free Amazon gift cards from Swagbucks!

Advertise here

© DeputyHeadmistress for Frugal Hacks, 2010. | Permalink | 8 comments | Add to del.icio.us