I've moved

You can now find me here

Some of you may know that I have been writing for another blog.  Trying to maintain the two has been extremely difficult and I have made the decision to focus on this one located at Organizing Connections.  This blog's ideals and content is exactly that of my own and thought it would be easier to maintain one with the same goals.  So if you could change your links as the name on the blog is the same but the address is different .  I will continue to write on the same tips and ideas as always so please come on over. 

Budget Busters

I received this tag several days ago and thanks to the lovely flu bug we have been on our hiney's since.  Both of these frugal blogs tagged me and asked my top budget busters.  I have so many so I had to narrow them down to the following:

 

1. scrap booking stuff - Some of these products are very costly and can put a damper on any gals budget.  A good friend Kathy Thompson taught me early on to use creative fonts and placement to make nice layouts without breaking the bank.

2. photographs - If you have kids you have been sucked in.  Luckily my above mentioned friend is a talented photographer and captured my kids many times.  Without her I would have had to head to the nearest Wally World or an expensive photographer.  Although a couple of professional shoots are in order try filling in by learning to take some creative shots yourself.  With all the new technology out there you can simply hang a white or black sheet and play with lighting and props.  Check out some sites to get some examples of neat shots.

3. convenience food - make them yourself even when you don't feel like it...for me lately it has been tempting to resort to that but I held out and made oatmeal cookies and granola bars to tie us over

4. cleaning supplies - make your own using natural ingredients such as baking soda and vinegar.  This is not only kind on your pocket book but your kiddies as well.

5. movies and amusement parks. - create your own family fun such as this activity or a simple picnic in the park.  The memories created by these outings will last much longer than the thrill of that roller coaster.

so check out these two great blogs and find out some more neat frugal ideas.

 

Glimpse of Sunshine

 

Frugal Vegcafe

Shake Shake Shake

I remember back to when I was 9 and I received the opportunity to attend summer camp held at a historic site called King's Landing .  This was a living museum of sorts where tourists walked through a 19th century village complete with families portrayed by yours truly.and from around the world.  This was a summer camp that gave participants a chance to live the authentic lifestyle complete with parents and siblings with days filled with chores (shovelling poo and milking cows), class in a one room schoolhouse and activities  that were conducted by people of that era.  One thing I remember in particular was the chore of making butter.  Every couple of days we were responsible for beating on this wooden stick in a barrel until one of two things happened:

A. Our arm fell off or....

B: the cream turned into butter.

Since we were told to switch arms should the former happen the only alternative was for B to hopefully take place before you had to resort to your feet (option C by the way).  I swore from that day on there was no way I was ever going to do that much work for such little reward.  Fast forward...well let's say a few years and now I can get some sick enjoyment from seeing my child do this tedious task.  No just kidding he had fun trying out this long lost art and although it is fun as a treat it will not replace our household consumption of butter.

I saw an article on how easy it really was to convert regular whipping cream into the yellow stuff we smear on our morning toast.  Wanting to teach my child where this comes from I thought it would be a great tool to do just that.  I simply filled up a 500 ml mason jar with whipping cream and put the toddler to work shaking and dancing with it.  Since the average attention span of most toddlers is approx. 5 minutes it is now up to you to finish the manual labour which could take up to 20 minutes.

When you first start shaking it will look like diddly squat is happening and you're doing nothing more than wasting your time...keep going, trust me.  After about 10 minutes you will feel the cream starting to harden and there will be little noise as the cream is the consistency of cool whip...keep going.  After an additional 10 minutes the sound will turn to a watery sploshy (not a word I know but it is the best description) substance and if you open it there will be a ball of butter in the midst of a watery liquid that is better known as buttermilk .  At this point I like to pour the buttermilk into another mason jar and add some more water and shake a couple more minutes to get as much of the liquid out of the butter.  Some suggest to take this further and squeeze the butter to get additional liquid out as this improves the flavour.  Speaking of which this is where you can add as much salt as you like or leave it au naturel as the pilgrims did it. 

I even found some great recipes that call for buttermilk.  Normally you add vinegar or lemon juice to duplicate this ingredient but with the real stuff the results are outstanding. 

I now exclusively use butter to spread on the kids toast as opposed to margarine or other type of butter spreads.   The one downfall to this is the fact that the butter is hard and normally requires warming to spread on toast or bread.  To remedy this we place a small amount in microwavable custard cup and warm for 10 seconds or lately I have been sitting the ramekins on the metal bar of the toaster which enables the butter to melt while the toast is cooking.

So now you've seen how easy it is to make authentic butter from cream and you can easily shake this while talking on the phone or watching reruns of CSI on Spike TV.

For more great kitchen tips visit Tammy's recipes

Do you like my hat?

I am sure many are aware of the benefits of shopping chez the dollarstores.  Too often we get wrapped up in the excitement of the price and fail to look at quality.  Ultimately our perceived bargain ends up in our junk drawer and winds up in the 5 cent pile at our next yard sale.  I am now aware of what is truly a deal and what is a waste and wanted to share with you one of the former.

We recently enrolled our son in swimming lessons and had to get one of those sexy bathing caps.  We finally tracked one down at Wally World for the outrageous price of $8.97. (for a piece of spandex) Having no other option than shaving him bald, I forked it over and proceeded to complain.  Three days later I was in the Dollarstore and there was a huge wall of identical caps for a buck. AHHHH.  On top of that there was every colour combo available, some good some well not so good.  I overheard the cashiers saying they sold out quick and more than likely not getting any more.  Needless to say I picked up a few to put away as I am sure over the course of my kids lives we will go through more than our fair share of caps.  Now some may say that the quality is not that great but until he reaches the likes of Michel Phelps I am not too worried.

 

 

Can you tell the difference?  Neither could I....for the record my son liked neither. 

For more great ideas visit Biblical Womanhood Online

Thrift store Thursday's

Well I haven't been out and about this week so I thought I would bring one of my treasures out of the archives. This was a haul I got form our local thrift store for $5. I actually looked at these toys recently and was astonished and the price for them new. And the Baby Einstein video's, can you ever have too many? Seriously if it wasn't for these sometimes irritating movies I would not have showered for the first year of my son's life. He would happily watch them in the playpen while I got my hair washed AND conditioned.

So show me what you got.

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A neat site with lots of eye candy (food people food!!!)

Since discovering Blogs I rarely use cookbooks for new recipes and I have even gone as far as to purge some.    I find that you get a first hand account of the recipe and especially love the neat tips and tricks that you don't normally get from a cookbook.  I wanted to share one in particular that I frequent every day and has now become a favourite of mine.   Her meals are complete with "real" pictures of her food and she puts so much work into providing this to her readers.  Please take some time to check it out and leave her some comments. http://momsfrugal.blogspot.com/

Mom's Frugal

Santa and Easter bunnies

There never seems to be a shortage of chocolate in our household.  With all of the holidays that just passed, from Christmas, Valentines Day and Easter we have a freezer full of hallow bunnies, large hearts and solid milk chocolate Santa's.  Many were received as gifts from friends and relatives but I do buy a great deal of them after the holidays when on sale.  When I have accumulated a large stash I simply chop by hand or use my food processor to make smaller pieces and store them in a large freezer bag.  When I have a recipe of cookies or pancakes I simply use this chopped chocolate instead of the more expensive chips sold in the package.  These small pieces are also convenient should I have to melt some for either drizzling or dipping cookies into.   

 

 

(yes that is a decapitated Santa)

 

For more great tips visit Tammy's recipes

giddy up cowboy!

We recently celebrated my sons's third birthday party.  Since we live on a horse farm and Landon's pony is appropriately named Cowboy...we went with the obvious theme

Luckily we were not short on decorating ideas and a couple of stinky saddles later we had not only had the authentic look but the authentic smell as well.  We hung up some saloon style signs I picked up for $3, real checked tablecloths from my picnic stash, painted horseshoes, metal buckets for chips and an oversized stuffed snake that draped from the light fixture.  I also created these cute wanted posters using school pictures I had of the children planning to attend.  I personalized each one with an authentic western nickname and a crime suited to the child personality.  They loved this touch and were able to bring them home with them. 

For food I started several days prior making a dozen pre-baked pizza crusts as well as a large batch of crock pot pizza sauce.  I purchased some plain ruffle chips to accompany the pizza and garlic fingers with homemade donair sauce and washed it down with root beer, of course.   

The children entertained themselves by colouring printed cowboy pages I found online while anxiously awaiting the cake.  The birthday cake was decorated by my father the mechanic/cake decorator who used this idea and transformed my homemade boring chocolate cake into a replica of an authentic campfire.  I was a little nervous of the outcome because it could have turned out one of two ways: 1. there were no disputing the logs burning amongst embers of charred coals made out of powdered doughnut holes while flames shot up made by cut out orange fruit roll ups. OR 2. it could have looked like mounds of brown stuff you normally step around while on a farm.....  Luckily it looked like the former and it was a hit both in looks and taste.

 

 

 

After a fun filled afternoon the kids left toting their goodie filled loot bags.  Simple brown paper bags were embellished with Cowboy scrapbook paper adorned with thank you tags held on by strands of brown bailer twine.  Inside I filled these with Popeye sticks, chocolate cow tales, old fashioned taffy, gummy snakes and twix bars. 

All in all the kids and parents had a blast, but what Cowboy theme party would be complete without a real pony ride?.  As my son cried his eyes out, the other guests took much anticipated turns around the arena on the world's best pony. (I am not sure how much Cowboy enjoyed this) but the kids did and that is all that counts.

Total cost of party was $50 including all ingredients for pizza, garlic fingers, chips, pop, cake, decorations and loot bags. 

Now I have to start coming up with something for next year.

Everyone needs a little wiggle room

I want to thank my babysitter Extrodinaire Brawnlyn for reminding of this long lost fun activity.  When I think of Jell-O I actually have memories of that thick bottom layer that nobody wanted to eat and you somehow always got stuck with.  For this reason I kept my distance with this little box of coloured gelatin but I overcame this fear by giving these Jell-O jigglers a shot.

Entertaining a toddler is no small feat.  I am constantly trying to come up with small ways to keep him busy for more than the usual 4-5 minutes.  I quickly whipped a pan of these jigglers up and let him go to town with my basket of cookie cutters.  The good thing about this activity is Dane, my youngest could easily participate (eat them) while my oldest carefully cut the shapes out.  This was a very inexpensive way to keep Landon entertained on those yucky rainy/snowy days, which have been nearly everyday lately.

Recipe:

Take 2 large boxes of jell-O and dissolve this into 2 cups of boiling water.  I sprayed my 9x13 pan with non stick spray and let the stuff chill and set in the fridge.  When cutting with cookie cutters you can spray them as well but they still work should you forget that step.

For more frugal ideas visit Biblical Womanhood online

Thrift store Thursday's

 

I am still excited over this little gem. When I brought this home my family cocked their  heads to the side and said "what the heck is it and why is it so big?" Large it is, but carrying my little 10 month old chunk in one of those cute baby slings is not cutting it anymore. After trucking through the snow on our sugar bush outing this past weekend I knew then and there this wrap had to be retired.

So this is what I bought for $5. I did a google search and found one similar in style for over $150. Not bad. Now Dane has the best seat in the house. Note my oldest crying because he could not take a ride...oh my aching shoulders.

So please show all of us what you scored on your latest outing.



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What duck tape is to Red Green, Bailer twine is to us.

I hate to bring up this subject now that the sun is shining but I wanted to share this practice before it goes back into the deep recesses of my mommy brain.

Our main source of heat is a large wood stove situated in the kitchen/great room.   For the most part the stove stays lit  but for those unfortunate times that it went out (like say...when I forgot to put wood in it) we had to start it up.  The usual practice is to fire it up by using paper and kindling but we have found that paper burns so intense and quick there was little chance for the kindling to catch.  In addition we always had to gather this material before fall which usually meant contacting some mills and or carpenters for scraps and remnants.

My dad came up with this ingenious idea.  So here Dad, this ones for you.  Because we live on a farm we are not short on two things; poop and bailer twine.  Seeing we have not come up with a way to cash in on the pile of manure we thought "why not get some use out of the mass quantities of twine we end up throwing away"?  Although a tad time consuming yet therapeutic at the same time we bundle up a dozen strings and tie a large knot in the he middle.  In our kitchen I have an antique round box that easily houses a large amount of this product.  When the time comes to light the thing up we stack the stove with a half dozen of these bundles and add a few sticks of kindling to the top.  The fire is a intense but slower burning fire that quickly heats up enough to allow us to start piling logs in.  We did have a problem with wet wood this year and this heat quickly dried it out to gather some warmth. 

Now not everyone has a farm at their disposal but I am sure if you ask around you would have no problem getting this.  Normally this is thrown in the trash and farmers would gladly gather this up for you.  Other than burning the stuff I cannot think of another use for this...actually it makes a heck of a belt when you run out of clean clothes and have to resort to your hubby's jeans....yes I am speaking from personal experience.

For more great tips visit Rocks in My Dryer

tuna and eggs...yum.

 

 

 

Nice combination eh?  Yes, that egg IS that big and I would hate to come face to face with the hen that deposited that one. 

So what does that unlikely combination have to do with this topic?  Well, one of our favourite family recipes has to be egg Mcmuffins.  We make these on our outdoor occasions, most recently this one I wrote about.  To make our egg's even and round we cook them inside a tuna can.  Simply cut the top and bottom out and place in the centre of the skillet. When flipping you can easily run the metal spatula underneath the egg and tin and flip it.  Now they are familiar in shape to those calorie packed, arterie clogging goodies normally bought at the golden arches. 

For those similar to Subway simply spray the insides of a round Tupperware container with Pam and whisk an egg, some milk and a little butter.  The egg pops out easily and can them be piled with fresh veggies.

No more misshapen, lopsided egg mcmuffins.  Not like they tasted bad like that but sometimes presentation is nice....sometimes.

 

For more great kitchen tips visit

Tammy's recipes

The "Great Grampie Conspiracy"

I have no problem buying generic brand food products. Luckily my DH and I are not fussy and will resort to these if the name brand items are not on sale. My dad on the other hand seems to think the name brand stuff rivals all others on every level. I have to say that there are two items that we never buy generic, that being ketchup and peanut butter. Not saying I have not given them a chance, I have, but there are some things you just have to fork over the big bucks for.

The other item that my dad places on the name brand pedestal is the Aunt Jemima 15% real maple syrup. Yes folks he actually thinks it's real maple syrup because it says so.. One day while visiting one of my favourite sites, Amy wrote about making her own pancake syrup that she got from Hillbilly Housewife. I saw that and thought "what a perfect time to experiment on my father, the pancake connoisseur". I quickly whipped up a batch and filled the empty jar of name brand stuff and under the cloak of darkness (insert 007 music now) swapped this with his full one. The night of our weekly breakfast dinner we all sat down to a large batch of pancakes and began to drown them in the sugary goodness. And there we waited, waited for the look of deceit.  To our surprise it never came and only after the last bite did we ask him if he thought something was different. He didn't so we concluded with the theory that not all generic brands are superior and sometimes packaging plays a big role in how we perceive things. 

The only difference is the homemade version results in a thinner consistency but as far as taste I would almost go as far as saying it has a stronger maple flavouring.  But who can argue that the price is the deciding factor? The cost of a name brand kind can cost upwards of $4.50 and the homemade version is approximately 25 cents (could be even less but I am being generous)

Here is the recipe courtesy of Hillbilly Housewife

My hubby's rags to cleaning rags

I know that those micro fibre cleaning cloths are all the rage right now. Barring they can completely scrub the toilet on their own, there is no way I am forking out the bucks they are asking. A rag is a rag in my book and my biggest complaint in a cleaning cloth is the thickness. If a towel is too dense I find It difficult to pick up those nasty spit out crumbs that seem to adhere themselves to the floor underneath the kids high chairs.

My favourite material to use for cleaning material is plain old t-shirts. I especially love the ones that have been used for many years, are thread bare, thin and plain ol' nasty. This enables me to get in those nooks and crannies where the thicker towels can't reach. Each season during wardrobe clean up I go through my DH shirts and replace at least 2 with fresh new ones. The old ones are quickly (before he can try to convince me he NEEDS them) cut up. I usually end up with plenty of rags to last me until the next clean sweep. The best part is they can be easily identified from dish cloths and there is no mix up when the laundry is complete and ready to be put away.

For more frugal ideas visit Biblical Womanhood online

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Thrift Store Thursday's

Ok time to show off my thrift store cast offs. Another Thursday edition of Thrift Store Thursday's. I know you gals have great stuff out there, so come on and strut your stuff. I know that little "high" you get when you just scored that great deal. Well I am going to show you mine.

For all you scrapbookers out there VOILA.

Last night I stopped at Michaels and priced it new....drumroll please $19.99. And the paper trimmer was nearly the same. I actually wanted a larger circle punch but even with the 50% off coupon $10 is still quite a bit for machine that makes a circle. I still have a hard time explaining that one to my DH. It does sound a little silly when I say it out loud as well but for 99 cents, who cares?

So please write a post on your latest gem and send them back here or better yet spread the word.

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Two timing blogger

Well I have officially started moonlighting at another blog.

I am so excited about this venture and I wanted to share how it all came about.  Recently we had a professional organizer come to our Mom's group to give a presentation on her trade.  Being the keener I am I positioned myself front row centre in her face and hung on every word she said.  At the end I was the first in line to talk to her and took no time to shamelessly plug my blog.  Conveniently *wink* *wink* I had posted on organizing my cupboards and asked her to take a quick look for some input.  Luck would have it she loved it and called me several hours later to discuss a possible job prospect in regards to their new business venture they were launching. 

They were looking for a blogger for their new site called Organizing Connection.  WOW! Writing on something I love AND getting paid for it. Truly amazing!  This site is truly unique in the fact they use video to teach people about organizing all aspects of their life, something even so called organized people
(subliminal message here) need help in.  For people who are visual based learners, this is the site for you.

So swing by and check it this awesome site out and don't forget to leave me a message on the blog so I know you were there.

Site is Organizing Connection....Join the Revolution.