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“If people let government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny.” Thomas Jefferson

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Tightwad tips for April- Part 1

Well, I guess I have had a good number of frugal accomplishments for the first part of this month. Here is what we have accomplished.

1. I made butter from the cream off the goat milk.

2. I made cheese and yogurt from our goat milk.

3. I bought chicken leg quarters on sale for 39 cents a pound.

4. We have eaten salads from the garden 4 times this month.

5. I made 3 play dresses for little britches from older clothes that I had saved but were not really in good shape to give to someone else or wear into town.

6. I saved the buttons off the clothes that I deconstructed for the play dresses.

7. Our grass is growing like crazy now so we were able to decrease the grain fed to the horse. She gets more in the winter because of the cold and no grass, only hay. So in the summer when we have plenty of grain we can cut her grain needs by half.

8. I baked potatoes in the crockpot.

9. I grilled one meal entirely on the grill.

10. Everything that possibly can be is on power strips to be completely shut off at night.

11. The solar shower was used 6 times which kept the water heater from having to be turned on.

12. I used by grocery store fuel perks to save on gas. We filled up both cars at the same time for 1.76 a gallon.

13. I am now able to collect some weeds, herbs, and such for the rabbits. So after spending a couple of weeks re-introducing these things slowly we are now able to replace 1/2 of their grain needs. This cuts the feed bill in half for the rabbits.

14. Since it is that time of year to clean out and replace bedding in the rabbit colonies we raked pine straw to mix in with the regular straw. This cut down on half the cost of the straw. It would be nice if we could just use all pine straw, but it isn't very absorbent. Mixing it in is about the best we can do.

15. We have a barrel set up for solar hot water and were able to wash the breakfast and lunch dishes by hand using the hot water from the barrel. This meant that the dishwasher ran every other day instead of everyday, cutting down on electrical useage.

Well, that is about it. I am hoping to have a solar oven and cooker up and running by the end of the month so that we can cook mostly with solar power during the summer. I would also like to make a haybox type cooker, but don't know how much that will benefit during the summer since we don't eat soups or stews or heavy meals in the summer.

Hope this gives others some ideas on little ways to trim those living expenses. It is especially needed nowadays since the cost of living is rising faster that paychecks are rising.

Have a blessed day,
Kat

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