Frugal Tips-Family Activities

Family activities are another area which can be expensive. We all need to have a little fun and family time in our lives, and it doesn't have to be expensive. Since my injury and being temporarily disabled, we have learned a lot of ways to have inexpensive family-time and fun.

Hiking with friends. 

• Talk together as a family.
• Play board games or cards.
• Have a guest over for dinner and games.
• Write a blog.
• Read someone's blog and leave an encouraging comment.
• Watch animals; yours, neighbors, wild ones.
• Read a book.
• Watch free TV shows on-line.
• Visit a neighbor.
• Study the Bible.
• Go to church.
• Join a women's group. Our women's group has a breakfast meeting monthly, cost is $3.
• Write a letter.
• Keep a journal.
• Help your children with their homework. You never know what you will learn or how close you will become to your kids.
• Visit the elderly. I visit a 91 year old lady a couple times a week. She has an outrageous sense of humor.
• Make a phone call to a friend.
• Borrow movies from the library.
• Bake cookies from scratch.
• Play in the snow.
• If you eat out order the $1 menu or kids meal. 
• Don't purchase magazines. You can borrow those from your library also.
• Our community college periodically has free concerts from local musicians. 
• Find out about free days at the local museums and zoo.
• Volunteer for local events which allow you free entrance to their shows.
• Have a picnic.
• Go on a hike.
• Use a digital camera and see what interesting photos you can take.
• Have a contest with your family to see who can make the best desert.
• Family trip to the local feed store to enjoy the new spring chicks and ducks. 

With these tips you can have some valuable family time while having fun. 

Simplifying Crafts and Extra Activities

In my quest for a simpler life I've had to look at my crafts and all the other extra activities I take on:  groups I'm wanting to attend, volunteer opportunities and animals. I have to decide how much time I really want to devote to these activities, how much I really enjoy them, and which ones I'm good at.

The volunteer activities were the easiest. I've limited my time with volunteering because I've always been busy with work and family. At present I visit an elderly lady a couple times a week, take her out if we decide to and usually give her a mini-manicure weekly. This doesn't take more than two or three hours a week. I enjoy visiting her and she seems to like my visits.

I also volunteer in our church nursery every eight weeks. I started this because the church had a need and I had "baby fever". It only takes about 1 1/2 hours each time. I like watching the kids but I'm not sure this is something I want to do long term. I will keep this commitment for a year and re-evaluate again in October or November.

Visiting the elderly.

Our town is located in an isolated area in Northern California. The people are very community-oriented and there are many groups to join. I haven't involved myself in many of them because of the time commitment required. Groups I like to attend are: Ladies Bible Study on Thursday Mornings for 1 1/2 hours, mentoring meeting one hour a week on Tuesday mornings, Women's Aglow meeting and lunch 2nd Wednesday of each month for two hours. I enjoy these meetings and feel I am growing in the Lord by attending. I would like to start going to our church's monthly women's breakfast also so I can grow in fellowship with other church members. (If I could just remember when they have it.)

Crafts are a big issue for me. I know many crafts: crocheting, embroidery, latch hook, macrame, an easy type of weaving (I learned from my mother, Not sure of the name), painting on glass and sewing. Others I would like to learn are soap making, candle making and knitting. The problem I have with crafting is I don't have a habit of finishing projects, they can be expensive and time consuming. The only one I can do well is crocheting. I have chosen to finish crafts I have begun and stick to crocheting when I do a craft. Crafts are the one area I have to be more realistic at setting my goals. I can get carried away with all my craft ideas.

As for more animals, we will have to wait. I don't even go to the local shelter to visit. We may get a few chickens in the spring, but we haven't decided yet.

Please visit your local shelter for your next pet. 

Goals this area of my life will consist of:
1) Continuing to volunteer at the same frequency, re-evaluating church nursery in the fall.
2) Continuing with Ladies Bible study, Mentoring (through May) and Women's Aglow.
3) Find out and write down a calendar date for women's breakfast in February.
4) Finish crafts. Work on them 2 or 3 times a week for 30 minutes each time.
5) I won't take on any new craft projects until others are complete. Then limit myself to crocheting.

What are your goals to simplify your activities?

Looking Forward to Spring

I miss springtime; flowers, planting a garden and new baby chicks. Here's a glimpse of past springtimes in Northern California.

Banana Bread Recipe

My chickens recently provided me with a large number of eggs. (You can read about them and a French Toast Recipe here..) Even after giving some eggs away and making the French Toast I still had several dozen eggs. I thought time to bake.

One of my favorite recipes is Banana Bread. I received a copy of this recipe from my friend Carolyn in Knoxville, TN. Carolyn. When I make the recipe not only do I get a delicious bread but I get to reminisce about years gone by.

Carolyn's Banana Bread Recipe:

1/3 cup margarine or butter
2 eggs
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cup flour
3 old mashed bananas
1 cup nuts optional (I some times use walnuts)

Mix first five ingredients until well blended and creamy. Add bananas, mix, add flour, mix. Bake in greased pan at 350 for 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Enjoy.

Ingredients

1st five ingredients.

1st five ingredients mixed.  

Mashed bananas. 

Last ingredients. 

Ready for baking.

My son's snacks. 

I recently used this recipe to make muffins for my son. I left some out for him to enjoy and put the remaining in the freezer for later.

Frugal Tips-Clothes

Here is Friday's Frugal Tips related to clothes. It is not too hard for me to be frugal with clothes. I don't like to shop and I keep a simple wardrobe.

Jeans, the norm for me. 

• Don't recreational shop for clothes.
• Mix and match clothes you already have.
• Mix up your accessories with your outfits.
• If you do shop, purchase clothes and accessories from; yard sales, thrift stores, consignment shops, clearance racks, at the end of a season, online clearance if shipping is free.
• Don't buy or own 'dry clean only' clothes. Dry cleaning is expensive.
• Mend your clothes.
• Borrow clothes.
• Have a clothing swap.
• Wear clothes in basic colors. It is easier to mix outfits if they are basic colors.
• Shop Back-To-School clothing sales. 
• To decrease wear and tear on your clothes don't wash them unless they are dirty and hang them up to air dry.  If you put them in the dryer make sure buttons are fastened and zippers are zipped. Buttons and zippers can do damage to clothes while they are being washed or dried.
• Have basic colored and styled shoes to go with multiple outfits.(I know most women like shoes, I know they are a weakness for me. Remember to be realistic if you have more than two or three pairs. Make sure they are something you are really going to wear and not just look good on the closet floor.) 
• Save clothes outgrown by older children for younger children to grow into.
• Buy quality over quantity. I know I have purchased brand name items, still with the tags on them at second hand stores. Quality items last longer, saving a bundle. 
• Learn to sew clothes. Make sure you purchase good quality material which is inexpensive, or sewing can become expensive.  
• Keep a budget of how much you realistically can spend a year and stick too it.

I hope these tips help in cutting your clothing costs.

Black is always in style. 

Got Eggs? I do!

My six girls performed well last month, 123 eggs for January. Today I realized I had over six dozen eggs and I needed to start using them or I would run out of room in my little refrigerator.

Products of my girls.

I decided I hadn't made French Toast in a while; a perfect recipe to use some of the eggs and make a nice breakfast. (My family enjoyed the breakfast a lot.)

French Toast Recipe:
Eggs ( Quantity depends on how much French Toast you want to make)
Cinnamon
Bread (I like Wheat or Sourdough)
Butter or Margarine

I mix together eggs and cinnamon and melt butter on my griddle or frying pan. Dip the bread into the egg mix, coating both sides. Place in pan and brown. Flip over and brown other side. Serve with syrup, powdered sugar, jam, fruit spread, fresh fruit or just plain.

French Toast. Yummy!

A Close Call

Our male dog, Max, is a playful dog. He enjoys "herding the ducks", which you can read about here. Every night it's his job to ensure the ducks go in. The chickens usually go in on their own. No problem,  Right! There always seems to be an exception in every rule. Tonight was the exception.

Twin One

Max went out with my husband, Ted, as usual. One Bard Rock Chicken was still out. We call her Twin One because she looks like her sister. In the past we couldn't tell them apart. We now can because of their behavior, Twin One is gutsy and argumentative, Twin Two (Rockett) doesn't even like to come out of the house. She is a real loner.

With Twin One being feisty, she has had previous run-ins with Max. Being a fun loving boy, he always thinks she is playing. Until she repeatedly pecks him and Ted has to call him away before he gets hurt. (He has never attempted to hurt her.)

Max wanting to have fun.

 The ducks being in, didn't need to be herded. Seeing Twin One out was not normal, and Max, must of felt he needed to correct the matter. He picked her whole body up in his mouth and started carrying her into the chicken house. My poor husband started yelling at him "drop it!" Max stood there a few minutes with a confused look before he dropped her, uninjured thankfully. He is very tender-hearted dog and doesn't like to be yelled at. I am sure in his mind, he was just doing his job.

Ducks already in. No herding tonight.

I'm sure Twin One was emotionally ruffled, which is nothing new for her. I also believe she learned her lesson about not being in bed on time. Max is an obedient, quick learner and I'm sure he won't pick up another chicken.