Covid savings

Due to the pandemic, we were not allowed to go to hair salons or barbers. Previously, my hubs would NEVER let me cut his hair. However, that all changed during Corona. After many YouTube hair cutting tutorials, I've been cutting my both my teen son and husband's hair. It's not salon perfect but not too bad either. I just did a trim on my son's hair and as well as a full hair cut and partial beard trim for my husband. They actually gave me compliments on the hair cut! Love it!!

Check out what my neighborhood is doing...

How cool is this??? In front of a community arts building in my hood, a fridge popped up for those who need some food. Even though it says "Coming Soon" there was already some food in there. I think it works like the "take a penny, leave a penny" principle.

Yogurt for all!!

For a long time I was fascinated with making yogurt but couldn't get the hang of it. After several failed attempts I found the best recipe. It's foolproof!!!

All of the supplies.

Love this large measuring cup. It holds up to 8 cups!

Here's my digital thermometer. It let's me know when it reaches the correct temperature so I don't burn the yogurt.

Here's my old one. It's not fancy but it works just fine.

I freeze some yogurt from a previous batch. It's a great trick!

Heating up the milk.

Whisking the defrosted yogurt and warmed milk.

Once the stove top cooking is complete, I like to transfer the milk/yogurt mixture into containers, then place them in the oven. (I think it makes clean-up quicker.) I leave it in the oven with the light on overnight. It warms the oven to just the right temperature.

 The final product before it goes in the fridge to chill!

Here's the recipe:

Favorite Homemade Yogurt Recipe

From FrugalLivingNYC.blogspot.com

Adapted from the New York Times’ “Creamy Homemade Yogurt” by Melissa Clark

I love this recipe and keep it handy in the kitchen. It’s quick and easy to make. I eat it with potato pancakes or tomato soup and can be used in place of sour cream in most recipes as a healthy substitute. My favorite way to eat it is on its own with some honey or jam. Delish! A great tip is to reserve four tablespoons from each batch and freeze in little cups to use for next time. Works great!

Equipment:

• Medium or large heavy pot

• Optional but highly recommended to have a thermometer. I have a digital one that beeps when it gets to the correct temperature, but a traditional analog one works great too.

Ingredients:

• 2 quarts (8 cups) milk (whole milk tastes best but any variety of dairy milk works) 

• 4 tablespoons yogurt (with live and active cultures)

Directions:

• Optional: Rub an ice cube over the inside bottom of a heavy pot to prevent scorching.

• Add milk and bring to 190 to 200 degrees Fahrenheit. (It should be a low simmer with bubbles around the edges). Stir the milk as it heats.

• Remove pot from heat. Cool to 110 to 115 degrees Fahrenheit when it feels warm to the touch).

• Whisk yogurt and ½ cup of the warm milk in a separate bowl until smooth.Add the mixture back to the pot of warm milk and mix well then cover the pot.

• Let the pot sit for 6 to 12 hours in a warm environment. This is the trickiest part. I prefer keeping the mixture in a cold oven with just the light on. Some people wrap the pot in a towel and set it on a heating pad or on top of your refrigerator. The longer it sits, the thicker and tangier it will become.

• Place the pot in the refrigerator to chill for at least 4 hours to thicken.

Greek yogurt:

• Line a colander with a cheesecloth, clean t-shirt material, or (my favorite) a nut bag. Place yogurt in the lined colander with a bowl underneath. Let it sit in the fridge for 2 to 6 hours to drain. 

• You can use the drained liquid, the whey, for smoothies, soups, and more. 

Covid Accomplishments

Here are my shoes, so far, that I purged.

 It's just a drop in the bucket, but it's something.

I have a very long list of less common, but necessary housekeeping things to do.  Here are a few of the weird, but useful projects I completed on Covid quarantine:

* Washed the kitchen ceiling. The ceiling was filthy and had stains and splatters on it. The other day I took my Swiffer mop and put on a microfiber rag (purchased in bulk on Amazon) which was soaked in water and dishwashing liquid. I then, turned the mop upside down and mopped the ceiling. It worked perfectly. I definitely need to paint the ceiling but this way there are no stains or dirt highlighted.

* Cleaned and organized the junk drawer.

* Cleaned and organized the tool box.

* Touched up the scratches on the wood furniture in the home with dollar store furniture markers. Such a difference!!

* Had the handyman repair the captain bed drawer fronts and drawers and shore up the loft bed. (The repairs were beyond our meager abilities.)

* Asked the handyman to repair the microwave handle that broke off. He was unable to fix it, then it stopped working altogether.

* Purchased a new dishwasher and over the range microwave. We comparison shopped and then went to the cheapest appliance store who came in well under the prices we had. It's been YEARS since our dishwasher died.  The handyman installed it lickety split and even took out and discarded the old one. (He needs to return with a helper to install the microwave.)

* Shelves above the pantry collapsed. Hubs was able to do the repair himself! Woo hoo!

* Organized several drawers of clothing.

* Bought two pair of like new sneakers for about $7 each. Score!

* And, last but not least, I went through my shoes and organized them and got rid of 8 1/2 pairs! (I can only find one shoe of set so that is the "half".)  It's amazing how many pairs of shoes I own.  The funny thing is I only wear a couple on a regular basis. There are a few more that may still end up in the toss pile.

I'm so darn proud!!

My 16 year old kiddo just refashioned a shirt!  The shirt was gifted to us by a neighbor and ultimately landed in our "toss" pile. It was too big on me and too businesslike for the kids. It was going to be sent to the thrift shop (when they finally reopen) or less likely to be sold online. 

She measured, ironed, and sewed on her own. Looks great to me! Love it when frugalness and creativity come together!

Caveat Emptor

Furniture markers from Dollar Tree. Love them!!!

Here's the after photo. Much tidier!!

When Covid quarantine first began, I spend my days at the kitchen table which became my "office". Everyday, I would do my work and stare at my living room. I became obsessed with one corner of the room.  (Basically, every corner of that room has piles of various stuff, but one corner was particularly troubling.) I've been tackling the corner clutter issue for years and years, with little success.  However, I had a brainstorm.

I thought that if I organized the mess of musical instrument purgatory. (That's the corner where all of the dumped instruments go when the kids no longer want them.) It would do the trick.  While organizing that area was helpful, it didn't do it all. Then, I thought that if I got rid of the broken magazine holder and purchased a (used) storage ottoman, the problem would be fixed.  So, I became OBSESSED looking on Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, and various other pre-owned furniture platforms, scouring the pages until I found what I wanted. Then, I pounced. I quickly (for me) bought one.  Problem solved?  Not yet.

I got an okay price of $45. While it's is significantly, less than the cost of new, this one had more mileage than I was led to believe by pictures from the owner.  Of course I tried to bargain down a bit, but he wouldn't budge.  This is why it's never a good idea to want something too much.  I should have walked away or at least thoroughly examined it prior. I would have had leverage to bargain, or at least be more aware of what I was purchasing.  Let the buyer beware!

But all was not lost. It was still in fair shape. I went to town and gave it a bath inside and out with a clean damp rag and some dish soap.  Then, I took a matching wood marker I already had from Dollar Tree (see pic) and touched up the wooden feet.  Finally, I took a cheap disposable razor and lightly shaved off the many pills covering the fabric.  Now, it looks great.  Just a little elbow grease and it's in tip top condition!!  

I took this opportunity to clean out the contents of the offending area.  I greatly decreased the sock pile (bag of single socks), put some blankets in the closet, and rearranged some things. While the corner is not ready for Architectural Digest, it's considerably better than it was and at least it's not an embarrassment anymore.  What do you think? (I forgot to take the before pics.)

I'm baaaack!

Hi everyone!  It's good to be back.  It feels right. 

So much to discuss.  Firstly, it's Covid-19 time.  Crazy!  Like most people, we've been social distancing and staying at home with all the kiddos, hubs, and doggy.  Recently, I had a Covid scare so now I'm on super-quarantine until negative test results are confirmed.  In the meantime, I'm confining myself to my bedroom and cancelling all outdoor activities. 

We were all looking forward to a camping get away to the annual Porcupine Festival in New Hampshire.  There I was to be a speaker on (you guessed it) Frugal Living as well as give detailed instructions on how to make homemade yogurt.  But, better safe, than sorry. So we made the hard choice to stay put.

FREE Halloween Event at Lincoln Center

Firewood Frugality

Clever people are abound. As I mentioned in a previous post, I recently went camping at a campground in New Hampshire.

This campground had a lot of people who stayed all season in RVs, in addition to folks who were there for just a few days (mostly tenting) like I did. On Sunday, when most folks were packing up to go home, some guys were going around in their pick-up truck to all of the tent sites from the non-seasonal campers. They were collecting the unused, leftover firewood that was purchased at the on-site camp store. That's a big savings. And so smart. They told me they also bring firewood from home, which is much cheaper than buying it at the camp ground. (Be cautioned before you attempt to bring firewood from home.  Many campgrounds do not allow this. One reason of the prohibition is because you can easily and unintentionally bring invasive pests and diseases to the campground which can destroy trees.)

I practiced a little of the firewood frugality as well. We gathered some wood from the nearby forest within the campground, though we purchased most of our wood. Before the guys came around, I had returned an unopened package of firewood a neighboring camper had left behind. Cha-ching. I made an quick six bucks.

New Tricks I Learned in NH From Some Fans

This past weekend I was camping in New Hampshire. We had a wonderful (frugal) time with old friends and new. I also did a speaking event on Frugal Living. I'm happy to say it was well attended and we all learned so much.

I am always learning new things. At the talk a couple of new methods of savings was mentioned by some of the attendees.

1) Buy text books on line

2) Get digital text books

3) Ask the professor I you can purchase older editions, which would be just a few dollars.

4) And most exciting for me, www.purse.io and similar sites for making purchases on Amazon. They claim 15% to 25% savings.

Volunteering has many benefits

I think volunteering is great. You can't get much better than helping others.

Sometimes there are tangible bonuses
as well. Given the opportunity to help clean up after an event, consider jumping on that. An awesome side benefit is you often get the spoils such as leftover food.  Usually, that's also a benefit to the charity as well since they often must get rid of extra food.

Another volunteer opportunity that our family participates in is that we are among the handful of volunteers who go food shopping for events at our synagogue on a regular basis. The synagogue sends us a long list to buy food at Costco, they reimburse us, and we get the points towards cash back on our credit card.

These volunteer opportunities are win-wins. The charity gets your hard work and efforts and you get a bonus!!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!

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Shlissel on my table

This picture is from last year.  It's the the final product on my shabbos table from the Sisterhood schlissel challah making event.

Good Shabbos y'all!!

Schlissel anyone???

It is the custom among some Jews to make a challah in the shape of a key or with an actual key baked inside it for the first shabbat after Passover. This is called a schlissel challah, literally "key" in Yiddish. The schlissel challah is supposed to be a good omen for livelihood.

Last year, the local synagogue's Sisterhood sponsored a huge community challah bake for women and girls. It was so much fun. We learned how to make challah from scratch, several braiding methods, and the spiritual meaning of the mitzvah of challah baking.  Afterwards we went home and baked the bread.

Below are a series of pictures from the event:

I make my family's challah in a breadmaker on the dough cycle, then take it out and braid it.  I'm not used to the manual method.  It's messier but you can make more or larger loaves.  It also seems more spiritual to make it by hand without a mixer or breadmaker.  I may have to do it on my own more often.

Here's the recipe we used...

BTW, NONE of the fancy braiding below is done by me.  I haven't been able to get the hang of it though I my tween daughter can.

The baked product.  My schlissel didn't come out that pretty this time around, but it sure tasted good.  Plus I had a really nice time making it.

The non-schlissel challahs came out much more attractive.  That's something, right?

Spice-er-rific

Believe it or not, I had a bunch of dried spices left over from the summer.  I've been using the spices consistently, but I had one last batch that never quite made it to the container.  Finally, I put the last batch of it in a re-used Italian seasonings jar to um, keep the Italian seasonings.  Yup.  I'm edgy like that.  :)

Update on the Plastic Bag Challenge

As you may recall, I gave myself the challenge to greatly reduce (or even stop entirely) the receipt of plastic bags when shopping.  What this means to me is that I will strive to not get more plastic bags via shopping.  I'd say it's been pretty successful.  While I use plastic bags, I TRY not to get new ones.  Though I have ended up getting new ones now and again, it's by far the exception. Typically, I rarely buy plastic bags--zip lock, garbage bags, etc.  Not that I would never buy or use a "new" zip lock bag, but I don't like single use products, especially when there are usually other options available.  So I haven't purchased any one-time use plastic bags since before the challenge began.

So, I've been carrying around currently owned plastic bags with me along with at least two cloth bags.  Let's face it, plastic bags are darn useful.  They keep stuff together, and often prevent liquids and other messy foodstuffs to spill all over the place when travelling.  I've been able to use the current storehouse of bags from my house or office.  (My dh likes to add to our stockpile, I can't seem to break him of the habit. Boo hoo.)

I'll continue to strive to greatly reduce even more my personal and family plastic bag footprint. 

Funny Story

Funny story.

I was in my garden this weekend planting a bunch of things.  It looked like it was going to rain, but nothing came of it and the sun came back out.  Okay, so I had to water the plants after all.

I hooked up two hoses so it would reach my newly seeded area and watered away.  I properly soaked the whole area with the peas, raspberries, blueberries, and other plantings. Then I drenched the main garden with my new seedlings and just seeded rows.  I then put away both hoses, gathered up my stuff, and began walking away.  And, wouldn't you know it...it started to pour.  Hard.  Oh well.  You win some, you lose some.  :)

My achin' shoulders...

Um, my shoulders hurt a bit from all the gardening.  But that's a good thing, right?  Right. 😃

Garden Day!!

Yesterday was a BEA-TI-FUL day.  Warm, but not too warm.  Sunny, but not too sunny.  Perfect!!  And, how did I take advantage of such a day?  I attacked my garden, AGAIN.  (And, I liked it!)

I planted my new seedlings (Brussel sprouts and strawberries).  Tilled and planted a new area for Alaska peas.  I've never had much success on planting from seeds, but I've heard that peas are pretty easy, so I gave it a try.  And, since I'm woefully short on plantings this year, I opted to plant from seed some cucumbers.  Four rows of cukes.  And, parsley seeds planted from a PJ Library promotion.  I also made fancy signs for many of my new plants (Duct tape, Sharpie, stick).  Really, the garden doesn't look that good yet.  I'd like to attach some photos, but I think they'll be blah.

I also intend to plant some flowers from seeds in the community part of the garden to pretty it up.

Oh, I keep finding small pieces of garbage, fruit stickers, shards of GLASS and various other unacceptable trash in and around the garden area.  The garden is in the communal backyard where lots of folks picnic, snack and play, so it's not surprising do find the errant wrapper. But, GLASS???  I know, I know, one bottle breaks an it leaves a million shards. But, yuck! It's not a lot, but enough to annoy me.