October grocery money journal - month end

I keep a journal of how much I spend on groceries each month. It's a running total, so I know where we stand with that part of the budget, at all times. And it's a place I can reread and find motivation to keep on doing what I do. I share it here, in case there's something in this that could help someone else.

Oct. 15. I wanted to add some mushrooms to a beef stew I was making so stopped at my favorite produce stand (yes, we still have a highway produce stand open in October -- they close just after Hallowe'en, big clearance sale then). While there, I bought 3 heads of garlic and a 2-pack of marked down bell peppers. Total spent $3.16. The peppers will go in chili tomorrow. Month to date -- $135.27

Oct. 17. Stopped at the grocery store for some pecans for more Pumpkin Praline granola. The granola is baking right now and smells heavenly! Total spent -- $2.08. Month to date -- $137.35

Oct. 20. Bought candy today. Hallowe'en candy, not for the trick-or-treaters, but for us! My reputation for serving healthy food to my family is now tarnished. Yes, I have to make a confession -- I love candy! I bought those mellowcreme shapes. They have the taste and texture of candy corn, but are in the shapes of bats, ears of corn, sheaves of wheat, pumpkins, jugs of maple syrup and moons. These are a family tradition for us. Every fall, I have to find these. Sadly, last year I could not find them anywhere. I about made myself crazy looking for them. Then this year, as I'd given up on our ever enjoying this treat again, one of my kids googled this stuff and found out they were indeed still available. We thought we'd have to mail-order them, when I lucked out and found them in the drug store. So, $2.68, and very worth it! (Sometimes you just have to have a special treat!)

Oct. 21. Both daughters and I have colds today. In no mood to make dinner, I went out and picked up a Little Caesar's pepperoni pizza. I also made a tomato salad with the fresh tomatoes ripening on the counter, and we had some applesauce from the freezer, and some whole wheat sourdough bread (just to help stretch that pizza. Pie for dessert, courtesy of the nice ladies at our church's tea time. My daughters washed all their dishes yesterday afternoon, and their rewards were 3 almost whole pies, and a half Costco bag of trail mix. Pizza was $6.56, including tax, bringing the month-to-date total to $146.59.

Perhaps you've noticed, we do a fast food thing about once a month. Last month it was Jack-in-the-Box, this month, pizza. Just something we do. Keeps us from feeling deprived. It's one of those small treats that feels bigger than it really is.

For lunch, today, I made a really tasty sandwich spread from cooked black beans, salsa, olive oil and salt. Just ran it all through the food processor. This was really good.

Oct. 24. Stopped at the craft store and bought the food coloring for finishing the pumpkin cookies. Used a coupon. Total spent $1.37, bringing to-date total to $147.96

Oct. 25. A frugal win today! Two daughters are away at a retreat overnight, so just the 3 of us for dinner. I considered getting take out. I really thought I'd do that. But then I remembered how much I need to clear some space in the freezers for turkeys next month. So, from the freezer, I pulled out some sourdough bread, soup, and applesauce. I also made some deviled eggs and we finished off the last pie. A double win, really -- cleared space in the freezer and didn't spend $$ on take-out!

Oct. 26. Shopping and errand morning. I stopped in at Subway and bought a 3" flatbread breakfast sandwich. Very yummy! And especially so as it was free, with a gift card someone had given me as a thank you. Went to Fred Meyer to find some much needed items. They carry just about everything -- can be a tremendous temptation. But I was armed with coupons and the sale flyer. The only "groceries" I bought were a can of coffee and a truffle for myself, total spent $6.99. Next stop Trader Joes for Lactaid milk for me (I'm trying to rotate my "milks" as I develop intolerances fairly easily). Milk was $3.99 (yikes! maybe I should just pour chocolate syrup on my oatmeal -- it'd be cheaper). Total to-date spent for the month-- $158.94.

Oct. 29. We're still eating quite a bit from the garden. Saturday's dinner was  prepared by my 3 kids. They made Sourdough Apple Deep Dish Pancake. 

For Sunday's lunch I made a pot of pumpkin soup, using a slightly under ripe pumpkin and some potatoes from the garden, and Italian sausage from the freezer. 

Tonight we'll be using turnip greens, broccoli, potatoes  and pears from the garden (but not all in the same dish -- it's a pot roasted beef with mashed potatoes, sauteed turnip greens, broccoli and onions, half of a squash, and some fresh pears).

I baked some breakfast goodies this morning, pumpkin-spice cinnamon buns and apple muffins. We'll alternate those items with oatmeal, for the week.

Oct. 30. Again, no spending, but trying to eat up what's in the freezer. Tonight's dinner was sloppy lentil Joes, on homemade burger buns, green salad from the garden (it's been mild here this month), the other half of the squash and plum gelatin. When I'm trying to use up some fruit (like the last of the fresh plums I had in the fridge), I cook it with water and some sugar, then puree and mix with unflavored gelatin -- homemade fruit gelatin. I do this frequently in the spring with rhubarb (here's my recipe for a creamy version of rhubarb gelatin).

Tomorrow is Hallowe'en. We're either having Chili Mac, or Beefy Chili (vegetarian chili that I'll add some chunks of beef to) with corn-on-the-cob. I've got the chili thawing in the fridge overnight. Then right after dinner we'll make the popcorn balls, have some apple wedges, eat candy, and watch a movie while waiting for trick-or-treaters.


I can see that I'm getting low on supplies, needing flour (both wheat and white), sugar, oil, salt, cornmeal, cheese, and eggs, plus probably a lot of other items, as I've let supplies run down this month. I'll pick these up Friday, on the way home from daughters' school, so they'll fall under November's budget. 

November will be a big spending month, with Thanksgiving and fall stock-up sales. I'm thinking 3 whole turkeys (we did 4 turkeys last year, and I had 1 dissenter in the ranks over the prospect of doing 4 turkeys again, so looks like it'll be 3 this year), 1 bone-in turkey breast (we like the white meat the best), and 2 half hams -- this is all if the price is right. I've been clearing space in the spare fridge and freezer to store all this.

Also, Nov. 1 is the big clearance at my favorite produce stand, before they close for the winter. I'll pick up produce with good keeping qualities, like carrots, oranges, garlic and winter squash. 

That's it for this month. I hope everyone has a happy Hallowe'en!

Hallowe'en traditions: popcorn balls

Do you have any favorite Hallowe'en traditions?

Don't you just love Sissy's big white hair ribbon?
Dad looks so smart with his slicked-back hair!

This is the first year that none of my kids are going out trick-or-treating (I let my teens go out last year. My mother would've never let us trick-or-treat when we were in high school! Times have changed.)

I'm actually relieved to not be doing the trick-or-treat thing this year. I trick-or-treated for 21 years! That's a lot of freezing myself silly. Hallowe'en is quite chilly here in the Pacific 
Northwest. I'd bundle my kids up in parkas and we'd all wear gloves. Some years we dodged the raindrops, too. So, yes, I'm glad we're done with the trick-or-treating.

This also means we don't have to squeeze all of our little traditions into those couple of hours between getting the kids home from school and going out trick-or-treating (around 7:30PM here). Making and eating dinner, making our popcorn balls, getting the treats all set out and ready (okay, not a huge job) and helping everyone into their costumes -- all these things take time. Now, we can enjoy each moment.

I think one of my favorite traditions is making the popcorn balls. I use a recipe from a holiday celebration cookbook that my mom had. We all stand around the stove and singe the tiny hairs off our fingers while forming the sticky balls. Then we eat a bunch of them, until our tummies can't hold any more. I think popcorn balls taste a lot like snickers bars without the chocolate. Imagine how yummy they'd be coated in chocolate.

So here's the recipe we use.

Popcorn Balls

5 quarts popped corn
2 cups sugar
1  1/2 cups water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1 teaspoon vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla
optional -- candies for decorating the balls

Keep the popcorn warm, in a large pan (I use my turkey roaster), in a 200 degree F oven.

Butter the sides of a medium saucepan. (If you popped your con in oil, in a large saucepan, you can make your syrup in that pan, and skip the "buttering pan" step.)

In the saucepan, stir together sugar, water, salt, corn syrup, and vinegar. Bring to a boil and cook to 250 degrees F (hard-ball). Remove from heat. Add vanilla. Bringing the syrup to 250 degrees F takes about 10-15 minutes.

Removed popcorn from the oven. Pour a thin stream of syrup all over the popped corn. Working quickly, use a large spoon or spatula to combine, as best as possible. Butter hands and scoop coated popcorn. Press firmly into balls. 

Optional -- decorate with candies as desired.

Does your family have any Hallowe'en traditions? Any special, kid-friendly dinners? Ours was always grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup. 

No-sew draft snake : it's no. 3 and it was free!

So, I've been needing to make the 3rd and final draft snake this month (for the entry hall). But I've been more than reluctant. First of all, I want this to be no or low-cost, after all, I'm trying to save money with a draft snake. Why spend money to make this?! Second, my supplies of large scraps of fabric are dwindling, and I did not have something that I really wanted to use. And third, I'm just not in a sew and stuff "mood". And I wanted to make this in under 45 minutes, which I definitely did! Just over 30 minutes, once I found all my supplies.

If you are thinking you'd like to make a draft snake, but don't want to sew, this one fills the bill!  It's quick and easy, and so much more attractive than a rolled up towel! No one will ever guess that you didn't get your sewing machine out of the closet for this one!

Our entry hall has tan walls, white trim, oooogly yellow tile floor from the 70s (try to cover that up!), and a bit of dark wood. So that's my color scheme.

All of this really limited me.

• "Free" meant that I had to choose from what I have here.
• No fabric that I really wanted to use, meant that I'd do something with what I've got, with the idea that I could change this snake and salvage the fabric at some point, if wanted.
• No-sew meant I'd be limited to hot glue, and fabric self-ties.

What I found. . .

this piece of tan and white checked wool

my pinking shears

hot glue
rubber bands
4 buttons from my mom's button box (that alone might make me really like this draft snake)

the last scraps of a comforter, and some dried beans and baggies

First step:
I measured the doorway and added 6 inches to each end. I folded the edges of the fabric in on each end, to achieve this length. I had thought I'd turn under the final long seam edge, that would be on the exterior of the snake, but underneath. I decided not to bother. If the fabric had been a thinner material, I might have turned under this edge and ironed a crease, so it would look more polished.

Second step:
Using pinking shears, I cut wide strips of fabric (some 2-inches wide, for the ends, and some 3-inches wide for the mid section) to use as self-ties on the ends and along the stuffed portion of the snake (to hold it all together, as well as be a decorative touch).

Third step:

I placed the comforter scraps (any batting or stuffing would also work), a couple of inches in from one side edge, all along the snake, leaving 5 inches per end unstuffed (for tying candy-roll style (think wrapped Tootsie Roll). 

I filled zippered baggies with dried beans, about 1/2 cup in each. I lined these filled baggies up next to the batting scraps, and added one more length of batting right on top of the baggies, to hold them in place. Then I began rolling the fabric up.

Fourth step:

At each end, I slipped a rubber band, to hold it while I tied the 2-inch wide strips. I tied the ends candy-roll style. 

Next, I added 4 more self-ties (cut to look like they were buttoned) all down the snake to hold it sealed and give it a finished look. I hot-glued these 4 self-ties closed, then hot-glued the buttons on top. They look like they're buttoned up!

Fifth step:
Sealing up the long seam along the bottom of the draft snake. When the hot-glue had set, I carefully rolled the snake over, and using the hot-glue gun, I "sealed" the long edge of fabric, that would be the seam on the underside, between the self-tied bands, with several short lines of hot glue.

Voila! One totally free, no-sew, fabric reusable, made in just over 30 minutes, draft snake!

Will the hot glue hold as well as a sewn draft snake? Probably not. But "repairing" with more hot glue is no problem. And I may just take a needle and thread to this some day, and hand stitch the seam with a running stitch, all down the length of the seam, if it seems like it will bother me. But for now, a super easy no-sew draft snake!

*update -- I've now used this snake for 4 winters, and it's still holding together as well as the day I made it! 

(See No. 1 draft snake                         and           draft snake no. 2).

Using what you have

Wednesday afternoon, I had one mood collide with another mood. I wanted to "purge" parts of the house, while at the same time be productive in some way.

I went through drawers and cabinets, trying to get rid of something from each area. I retired 3 very holey tee-shirts, and 1 equally holey fleece jacket. I had been in a store the week before, took my winter coat off to try on a new fleece jacket, only to feel embarrassed at the state of my tee shirt underneath. Yikes! I'd worn one of my "only around the house" shirts out in public! So, got rid of the worst of the worst.

Recycled a bunch of product boxes (why do I save these things?).

Found loads of bars of soap (and I thought we were about out of soap -- silly me). These are bars that I've received as gifts over the years. I put them in drawers to add fragrance. Well, it's time to begin using them. We now have the most lovely of soap in all of the soap trays!

I also found this vase, this candle and this part of my sea glass collection (the browns and whites). I set the candle aside for the day.

Then back to that store where I'd tried on the fleece jacket while wearing the holey shirt. I happened to pass some nice glass candle holders. And I thought to myself, "now that's what I need for the candle that I found!" I was ready to buy one of those holders when I remembered that glass vase. Candle, vase -- I think I may have something here. Now if only I had something to set the candle on inside the vase, that would complete the look. Aha! The sea glass collection that's been gathering dust all these years!


Putting the three together, I now have a nice candle in a holder, for the coffee table in the living room, all using what I had!

What fun things have you done lately using what you have?

4 Ways to Cook Fresh Pumpkins

(Update 2022: Check out my latest method for cooking pumpkin -- skin-on cooking and pureeing. This is one of the easiest methods, and it uses almost all of the pumpkin. That post is right here.)

If you want to turn Jack into food, don't be in a big hurry to get him carved! 

Although sugar pie pumpkins make the best cooked pumpkin, field pumpkins can also be used in cooking (and they're free, if you already plan on buying one for a Jack O' lantern). Just don't carve yours until a day or two before Hallowe'en, if you want it for cooking. (We carve ours the evening before, I refrigerate overnight, then we bring it out for Hallowe'en afternoon and evening. I pop it back into the fridge for one last night, then cook it up on Nov.1.)

Sugar pies have better flavor, are a bit drier (so cook down easily), and are less stringy than field pumpkins. They're what I grow in my garden. But I also pick up a couple of field pumpkins, at rock bottom prices the day after Hallowe'en (some stores give them away for free on Nov. 1, others mark them down, and still a few keep them at the inflated prices of pre-Hallowe'en, but even at a "high" price, field pumpkins are a nutritional bargain, usually around 20-30c per pound.)

There are several methods that can be used to cook up your pumpkin, but just to let you know, all are messy to a certain extent. I find if I just face that fact from the get-go, then I can muster through whatever mess may follow. I've cooked pumpkins all of these ways, every year choosing what I think will be better. But in truth, they each have their merits, and drawbacks.

Basically, there are 3 cooking methods: dry heat (oven), moist heat (stovetop or slow cooker), and microwave.

The microwave method
As with other foods, the microwave will cook your pumpkin faster. The drawback is you are limited to the size of microwave and dish. And you may have to do your pumpkin in batches. There will still be a lot of liquid to deal with afterward, as the pumpkin will not have dry heat to help with evaporation. An easy way to deal with this excess liquid is to simply strain it off in a mesh strainer (see below).

To microwave:
Cut pumpkin into halves, scoop out seeds. To start, place halves cut side down, in a large, microwaveable baking dish. If your pumpkin is quite large, cut the pieces smaller, to fit the baking dish. Microwave on HI for about 15-20 minutes, turning pieces every 3-4 minutes to ensure even cooking. Check for softness after about 12 minutes, and continue checking every 3-4 minutes. (To check, poke with a spoon and see if it indents.) Once cooked and partially cooled, scrape the flesh from the skin, and puree with stick blender or food processor.

The oven method
With the oven, the big advantage is you put it in the oven and leave it, no stirring, no fuss. The disadvantage is you have the mess of scraping the flesh, once cooked. There will also be that lovely caramelized surface of the cut pumpkin which will add flavor to the cooked squash.

To oven cook:
Cut pumpkin in half. Scoop out seeds. Place cut sides down in a large jelly roll pan, and add about 1 cup of water. Cover with foil. Bake at 375 for 1 hour. Remove foil and continue to cook for 30 minutes, or until soft (press with a spoon to check for softness). Cool partially, then scrape the flesh from the skin. Puree. 

The stovetop method
The stove top is the traditional way to cook a pumpkin or squash to a puree, but it is labor intensive. You need to peel and cut up the pumpkin, and then stir, stir, stir, to prevent scorching. But, what you are left with is a puree similar to canned, if you cook it down long enough.

To cook on stove:
Cut pumpkin in half. Scoop out seeds. Cut pieces into chunks about 2-inches by 4-inches. Trim off skin. Place peeled pieces in a large, heavy-bottomed stock pot. Add about 1/2 cup water (to prevent scorching in the beginning, water will weep from pumpkin upon further cooking). Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover and simmer until tender. 

When soft, remove lid and mash with the back of a large spoon or potato masher. Raise heat to MED and stir regularly, as pumpkin boils down. (I use a flat-edged metal spatula to stir, the same as what I use when making yogurt and pasta sauce in my huge pot.) When cooked down, cool somewhat and puree.

The slow cooker method
The slow cooker's big draw is you set it and forget it. Halve the pumpkin, remove seeds, and cut into pieces which fit (but don't need to be small, in fact bigger pieces means easier scooping after cooking). 

To cook in slow cooker:
You can actually cook your pumpkin whole, if it's small enough to fit. In that case, with a sharp knife, pierce the pumpkin in several places. Cut off stem. Add a couple of tablespoons of water to cooker and place pumpkin inside. Set on LOW and cook for 6-8 hours, until soft. When cooled, cut in half. Scoop out seeds, and scrape flesh from skin. Puree.

To cook a larger pumpkin, cut pumpkin in half, remove seeds and cut into large pieces, to fit in cooker. (A 6-quart oval cooker is an excellent shape and size for a standard pumpkin.) Place pumpkin pieces into slow cooker, set on LOW and cook for 6-8 hours. When cooked, cool, then scrape the flesh from the skin. Obviously, the larger the slow cooker the more pumpkin will fit. 


What to do with too "wet" pumpkin and/or excess water in baking dish:

Pour excess water off and use in soup stock.

After you puree the pumpkin (either with a stick blender or in the food processor), scoop "wet" pumpkin into a mesh strainer set over a large bowl. Allow to sit for a couple of hours. The remaining pumpkin puree should be thicker and drier. Use the liquid drained off in soup stock.

Cooked pumpkin can be frozen and kept for 6 months or so. I freeze mine in measured amounts for pies, muffins, and breads, marking the container with the amounts inside. I like to have enough pumpkin in the freezer to use in cooking, once a week for the next 4 or 5 months. It's great with sage, garlic, Italian sausage, and Parmesan cheese, for a lovely sauce over penne pasta. We love pumpkin soup at our house. And of course I do a lot of baking with it.

Playing games: Tag, I'm it!

I never did outgrow my love for childhood games. Red Rover, Red Rover, Mother May I?, and Tag were among my favorites. And now I get to play again!

On Monday, Pamela at Feral Homemaking tagged me!

So, tag, I'm it!

As I want to keep the game rolling, but have been under time constraints this week, I will break my end of the game into 2 parts, the first half for today and the second half for next week.

Here are the rules of the game, as listed in Pamela's post:

"link back to who tagged you, post eleven random facts about yourself, answer their eleven questions, ask eleven new questions, and tag other bloggers with 200 or fewer followers (post on their blogs to let them know).  The original rules called for people to tag 11 bloggers with fewer than 200 followers, but like Pamela, I will do a greatly reduced amount."

Okay, so for my 11 random facts about myself.

1) When I was a teenager, I was a Candy-striper at our local hospital. My two departments were Peds and Geriatrics, and I don't really know which I loved most!

2) I adore fashions from the 1940s.

3) The bath tub is my think tank. When I've got something on my mind, I head for a long soak.

4) I love cats, but I'm terribly allergic. And I'm partial to black cats, or mostly black with white paws.

5) I became interested in gardening when I was about 9 years old, and my best friend's mom let us plant things from her kitchen in a small strip of dirt in the side yard. Popcorn and avocados performed the best.

6) I'm a middle child. Supposedly that means I'm secretive. Shhhh, don't tell anyone!

7) When the weather is bad outside, I jog on an indoor "track" in my house (a loop between the kitchen, family room and hall).

8) I eat tomatoes like most people eat apples or peaches, just right out of hand.

9) When I was a girl, I had a pet mouse named Rainbow. Rainbow used to squeeze through the bars on his cage regularly, and I remember my mom often coming into my room late at night with a flashlight, looking under my bed, in the closet and behind the dresser for Rainbow.

10) I'm quite good at climbing trees, for an old gal!

11) My dream vacation would either be to Ireland or a river cruise through eastern Europe.

So there you have it! I hope you enjoyed reading some odd things about me!

Setting up a budget: determining goals and priorities

On Tuesday I posted a brief "in a nutshell" view of my budgeting and bill-paying. Since the post published, I received one request via the comments section and one request via private email, for me to elaborate. First of all, that I'd even get an email from a reader always comes as a surprise, as I receive so few emails through my blog. But even more surprising is that I'd have two people want more budgeting info from me. I'm always surprised that anyone wants to hear about how my life runs. So this is significant. It's an area that some must feel needs addressing. And because this is such an enormous topic, I've broken this down into a series of posts. (And if this doesn't interest you, for whatever reason, go on your merry way and skip this post.)

So, here is creative savv's Basic Budgeting

What is a budget? A budget is a realistic (emphasis on realistic) plan for spending the money you bring in. A budget is the way that you choose how your money will be spent.

What a budget is not. A budget is not a constraining, overly restrictive plan for self-punishment (or imposed punishment on the rest of your family). A budget does not prohibit you from living the life you want.

A budget is freeing. You decide what matters to you, and plan for that. If travel is something that matters to you, you build travel into your budget. If you are wanting to buy that first house, then your budget will help you meet that goal. If early retirement is your dream future, then having a budget will insure that this priority is kept. You choose -- what matters, and what really doesn't.

A budget will help you stress less about money. You'll set aside a realistic amount of money to cover any possible expenses. Once you determine your goals. you'll be able to build a plan to meet those goals. 

A budget is a visual. When you can see where your money is going, you can readjust the details in your budget to fit your income. And quite possibly, you may determine that what you need is to bring in more income, or find new ways to reduce your spending. And no matter how it feels in the moment, there are almost always ways to reduce spending. It just takes some creative thinking.

I just want to emphasize again, a budget is a realistic plan for spending what you bring in. If your income is moderate, then it's not likely you'll be able to spend your golden years on world cruises, 6 months of every year (unless of course you land a job aboard a cruise ship, then you'll cruise while working).

Be intentional: set goals and priorities

The first step we used, in setting up our budget, was to decide on our goals and priorities, both long-range and short term. Here are some questions you can ask yourself.

Do you want to provide for your children's (or even yours) higher educations?
Do you want to retire early?
Do you want financial security in the form of substantial savings and investments?
Do you have some sort of disabling condition/situation that could result in costly later-in-life care?
Do you like to travel?
Do you want to have a side income to bring in some extra money?
Do you want to scale back on your work hours so you can have more time with family? Or more time giving back to your community?
Would you like to go back to school and change careers?
Do you have debt (car, home, school, credit card) to pay off?
Do you enjoy eating out (or other expensive entertainment) regularly?
Do you like to be generous in your giving?
Do you need to take more shortcuts in cooking everyday meals, due to circumstances?
Are you happy to cook from scratch most meals?
Do you want to keep your home more comfortably warm?
Do you need to drive a nice car (or wear nice clothes) for work purposes?
Do you live in an older home that requires costly maintenance and upgrading?
Are you hoping for some major improvements on your home (new kitchen, addition, new deck, etc)?
Are you saving for your next home?
Do decorative objects and furnishings bring you joy to look at?
Imagine you in 10 years, what are you doing everyday? Where are you living? How does it feel to be this future you? How does your future you look different from the today you?

Very few of our dreams are really too big to ever at least partially achieve. My future me wants to travel, at least a little bit, and spoil grandchildren with homemade cookie fests, and maybe live in a small town where I can walk everywhere and know everyone. My future me wants some sort of creative career, which may involve going back to school.

This is for you to choose. There is no one right way to spend money, even amongst the most frugal. 

We all have our priorities. You might be surprised at some of the things that our family finds important, as well as the things that we find unimportant. As you've seen, in our house, we're fine with spending less on food (provided someone in the household is willing to put in a fair amount of labor), driving an older car, using an indoor antenna for TV reception instead of cable, and shopping in second hand shops for some of our clothing. In exchange, we take nice vacations regularly, are financing our children's educations, and are putting a large percentage of our income into investments for future significant financial security. (What you don't know about my circumstances is that my husband has a disability as a result of a motorcycle accident. This disability could cause him to need to retire earlier than planned, and/or require special (and costly) care. We've built this into our budget, by putting away a large percentage of our income each month.) 

We don't feel it's necessary to be 100% frugal, 100% of the time. (Despite how it may appear on this blog, this is a frugal living blog afterall, so I showcase the frugal living part of our lives.)

Answering questions like these, helped us to decide what really mattered, and then as a result of those decisions, we were in effect, choosing to spend less in other areas.

So, decide what matters most to you. And in doing so, make a conscious choice to spend less on the items which matter less. Write your goals and priorities down on a post-it and keep it in your office area, near your budget. So every time you reconcile your budget, entering in expenditures, you remind yourself why you sacrifice in some areas. When we aren't clear in our own minds just what our goals are, we lose focus with our spending. 

We like to give our kids a voice in our priority choices. By priority choices, I mean do we want to spend more of our money on eating out, keeping the house warmer, a fantastic vacation, etc. I appreciate their input, and want to hear what is important to them. (Sometimes I'm surprised that something is not as important to one of them, as I had thought.) But they understand that theirs is just an opinion, and not a vote. Taking age and maturity into consideration, this may not work for every family.

My husband and I are 50/50 partners, as much as if we were business partners. Even when my husband and I are at odds about something, I still see him as my partner, and try to act accordingly. When we see inconsistencies in spending priorities, we address them. It's really not fair for one partner to scrimp and save, 24/7, while the other continues spending like he/she were single. 

Partners have to compromise to meet common goals. Sometimes it's just a matter of discussing goals, clarifying what's important to both people, to help bring some equity to spending and saving. Compromise is key. You may have to scale back on your goals, to meet some of your S.O.'s goals. I think it's important to regularly revisit your goals with your S.O. For us, it reminds us of our priorities, and gives us the opportunity to change our vision for the future.

Be aware that not every one in your circle will "approve" of your goals and priorities. But guess what? They don't have to approve, because your goals are your goals. We've been given free will, and we may exercise that free will. If we are happy to cook from scratch every day, do without cable TV, drive an old beater car, so that at the end of the year we have enough saved for a somewhat extravagant vacation, then we "get" to do that, regardless of how others, outside of our immediate family, feel. Just keep in mind that they're coming from someplace else. Nod and smile, but continue on your journey towards your goals.

One final word with regards to setting your goals. Do not feel guilty when you have to say "no" to someone, if saying "yes" would severely compromise your goals. My kids have come to me and asked for money for things or events that I knew were not terribly important to them, but they still just wanted them. I have then reminded them of our goals, and they understand instantly, as many of the family goals directly benefit them. 

I also will provide some suggestions for alternative ways to raise money for such items/events they desire. Sometimes it's just a matter of me saying, "we can go by the dollar store", or "if you can wait until next week, I should have a coupon to use for it", to help them see that we don't always get everything we want, right when we want it.

And when yet another person comes around, raising money for worthy-cause-of-the-day, it's okay to say, "I'm sorry I can't help you. Right now, we're paying off our debt/saving for a house/paying tuition for our kids' university." Most folks would not want you to compromise things of significance in your life. You might feel bad having to say this (I know I always feel badly when I turn down the kids who sell gift wrap for their school), but remember your goals. It would be a good idea to take a moment to reflect on this.

Maybe you'll need to work this sort of donation/charitable purchase into the Giving section of your budget, if you give this some thought, and you believe that you want to be helping worthy-causes-of-the-day. Or maybe you'll look at your budget and see that you really are supporting many worthy causes already.

Be intentional. Know your vision for your future. This is your life. Make it into the life you want it to be. 

Making our October cookies

Our family has a favorite cookie for the month of October. We do these every year. Or rather, I bake the cookie part and the kids and hubby do the frosting and decorating part. They're just your ordinary sugar cookies, cut out with a pumpkin-shaped cookie cutter. Then they're frosted with bright orange buttercream frosting, and faces designed with candy corn. Nothing fancy, but we all love a frosted sugar cookie.

Last Friday afternoon I baked the cookies. Then on Saturday, the family went to it with the frosting and candy. Unfortunately I ran out of yellow food coloring, so only made a bowl of frosting large enough to do half the batch of cookies, that is to say, half a batch with the large amount of frosting we all like on the cookies!

I had one of those moments on Friday afternoon, when I could have stopped at the craft store to buy more food coloring (even had a coupon in my purse that would be good on any purchase). But I thought, no, I'll have enough food coloring, no need to make a stop (and I was right there driving past the store). Saturday afternoon, I was mixing up the frosting, and you know how it is, since I decided not to buy more coloring, of course it would turn out that I needed more. One of those goofs!

But maybe this is a good thing. I'll pick up the needed coloring this afternoon, and the kids and hubby will get to do more frosting this coming weekend. You know, there is always a silver lining.

Our budget in a nutshell

My managerial skills seem to take a vacation over the weekends. I just go with the flow of the family.

But on Mondays, I get back to structure. I tie up all the loose ends from the weekend. I make sure all the laundry gets delivered to its owners. I tidy up the kitchen and family room. I look ahead to everything going on during the coming week. And I do all the household paperwork.

By paperwork, I mean that I handle the receipts, bills and budgets. I take all the receipts from the previous week and enter them into my ledger. I pay all the bills that have come in during the previous week. Then I file the papers that need to be saved for future tax purposes, and toss the rest.

(One area I haven't completely made the transition to is online and/or scheduled bill payment. I've got a couple scheduled for online or phone payments, but I'm still working the rest. I have a difficult time going from paper to screen. I prefer to have the paper in my hand.)

If the Monday happens to be the last Monday of the month, I also write up my budget for the coming month. Since our income can vary a bit from one month to the next, we do a combination of two things. We base our next month's budget on the previous month's income, and we carry a surplus forward, to borrow from, as needed.

This surplus that we carry forward from month to month, is our back-up fund. It covers unexpected dips in income. This is not the same as our emergency fund, which covers larger losses in income. But instead this back-up fund covers things like a temporary inability to work as many hours in a month, or paperwork that wasn't filed on time for proper payment. It helps keep our spending on an even keel, regardless of the exact dollar amount of our income.

The greater emergency fund is one we've been building over the past 4 years. When the stock market tanked, around 2008, we felt that wake-up call to build a locally-accessible account. Should we find ourselves with no income whatsoever, this is the fund we'd tap first.

We add to it every month, even if it's just a couple of dollars. This amount is worked into the budget before the month begins. It's not an after-the-fact, what's left over category. This is a fund we keep in a CD at a local bank. It's accessible with minimum wait, in contrast to trying to cash out other investments to use for emergencies. It is still not nearly what all the experts recommend for an emergency cushion. But we're working on it.

It can take years to build a good emergency cushion. We didn't start nearly soon enough. But now that we can see how important it is, we are making it a priority.

How about you? Do you have a system for bill paying, budgeting and saving for emergencies? What was it that kicked you into gear to start up an emergency fund? Do you use online bill-pay? How did you overcome the feeling that you "needed" to see bills on paper?

Growing cranberries: ornamentals with benefits

My son and I harvested the cranberries this weekend. We picked a little over 4 quarts of cranberries. They're all tucked into the freezer now. 

Our yard really does not get the amount of sun to ripen our berries fully. But I figure, hey they're cranberries, they're supposed to be sour, right? And we're up against the very end of the season for leaving them still on the plant. So we picked, even though some are not the fully deep cranberry red we've all come to expect.

Good thing, too. It's thundering right now, with a very cold rain.

I understand, a lot of folks just don't enjoy cranberries. It's one of those love 'em or hate 'em sort of fruits. But if you do like cranberries, and are interested in growing your own, I'll tell you a little about them.

Cranberries are a ground cover. We use them as an ornamental in our landscape. The tiny green leaves turn a lovely rust in autumn, and are an evergreen. This makes for a lovely ornamental in the winter landscape in areas where the ground is exposed (meaning little to no snow). They can be planted in a patch, to make harvesting simpler, or can be used in the general landscape, as specimen plants.

In areas where winters are harsh, they can survive, and quite well at that. (New England cranberry crops are legendary.) It may serve your plants well to mulch with something like pine needles, just as the ground freezes, as very cold temperatures will dry the plants out. Rake the needles off in early to mid spring (when overnight temps are consistently above 28 degrees F), and you're good to go. New shoots on the plants will suffer if left exposed below that 28 degree F temp. If you live in an area with severe winter weather, I recommend consulting a local nursery about protecting the plants.

In our milder winters (we have a few weeks in winter with consistent below freezing temperatures, but usually not more than that), my plants have never been winter mulched and have not suffered that I can tell. 

They blossom later than my fruit trees, which is a plus here, as there are always bees around by cranberry blossom time. And they are self-pollinating, no need for a different variety.

Cranberries do not like soggy soil conditions during the growing season, contrary to the myth that they grow in bogs. Traditionally, they were harvested by flooding the fields. Ripe and good berries would float, making them easier to harvest. But they can survive "wet feet" in the dormancy of winter. 

They also do not tolerate drought well. Cranberries prefer a soil medium which is both well-draining and retains some moisture, such as peat moss combined with sandy soil. 

Cranberries are acid lovers. We have ours planted in an area adjacent to some blueberries, azaleas and rhododendrons.

If you're serious about your cranberry production, you can fertilize with a fish emulsion for the first 2 years. This will cause the plants to send out many runners, filling in your bed. But suspend fertilizing after that, or you'll have all runners and no fruiting up-rights (the part of the plant that grows vertically and has the blossoms). But, I never fertilized mine. Not even once. I just planted them in very good soil (we'd lasagna gardened this soil up, both raising the level of the soil and improving fertility). They began producing fruit the second year.

Plant either mid-fall or mid-spring. I ordered mine through a catalog in spring, one year. The plants were quite small, but I have enormous patience with this sort of thing. I think I paid about $3 per plant, and bought 3 plants. Those 3 have filled in a patch about 4 feet wide by 20 feet long, over the course of about 8 years. And they've yielded about 4 quarts of berries every year for the last 5 years.

I enjoy baking with the cranberries. Cranberry bread or muffins are always a hit in our house. I likely would not buy as many cranberries as we harvest. So this is definitely one of those fruits that I'm very glad we planted.

And I'm afraid that's the extent of my cranberry-growing knowledge. 

Inherited clutter or treasured heirlooms?

For petite little things, my daughters are amazingly strong. I'd been trying to move this one sofa all week. I'd move it about 4 inches, hurt my back and call it quits on that for the day. I did this every day this week, and barely got that behemoth moved. This is my parents old sofa, and I think they stuffed it with their early 18th century anvil collection. The fact that it's so heavy must be a good thing. It must mean that sofa is built to last through this century and then well into the next. But man, is it heavy to try and move.

So why move it? My thoughts exactly, halfway through the week. Oh yeah, it was sitting right in front of the heat register in the living room, blocking the flow of warm air. So I wanted to rearrange the furniture and try and open up some space in there, and allow heat to actually reach human beings who may just choose to sit in there this winter.

In come my two teenage, near champion, weight-lifting daughters (or at least they could be, or maybe I'm just getting weak and frail in my advancing years). They muscled that thing around like it was made of cardboard. And not only did they move the sofa for me, they helped me move a piano. Now that's impressive, don't you think?

So we got the sofa off the heat register, moved the piano to the other side of the room, and discovered that we have too much stuff! 

Most everything in that room has been wished upon us. What do you do with furniture and knick knacks, that one, are too big for the space, and two, really aren't your style? It's difficult, as these things belonged to my parents, who passed away many years ago. 

Some items are small, and I couldn't part with them, but don't know how to store or display them. My mom collected little angel figurines. I have a share of her collection. But I don't think squeezing them onto an already crowded fireplace mantel does them justice. 

Some items are large, like the 4  1/2 foot square Parson-style coffee table. If that thing were dinner table height I could fit 8 people around it! Again, something of my parents. I'm not as sentimentally attached to this coffee table, however. 

I'm reluctant to just give most of these belongings away to strangers, because these are my ties to long-gone loved ones. I guess I'm waiting for some of my kids to have places of their own, and then I can wish some of this stuff on them . . . er . . . I mean, I can help them furnish their new places.

Friends, what do you do with items that have been wished upon you?

Frugal kids' Hallowe'en costumes

Hallowe'en is a week and a half away. I'm sure it has not gone unnoticed in your household. Candy displays fill the stores. Neighbors have begun decorating their houses (since when did Hallowe'en become a "season" needing weeks of decorated houses?), and your kids may have begun to talk about what/who they want to dress up as.

Maybe you don't do trick-or-treating, but do a harvest party at your church. The church we went to in another town held one of these every year. Our child did dress up for this event, too.

If it's a priority to you to buy a fabulous factory-made Hallowe'en costume for your child (read-spend a lot of money), that's up to you. But if you're looking for a frugal alternative, let's brainstorm a bit and see what we can come up with.

When our kids were young we came up with some very frugal costumes. We never spent more than $2 per costume, and many years spent nothing at all. Here are some costumes we used:

• mummy -- wrapped child up in 1 roll of bath tissue
• robot -- cut holes in large cardboard box, for head and arms. Taped stove knobs on front. Drew "technical" stuff on front, sides and back. Wore box over gray sweats.
• skeleton -- dressed child in black sweats. Cut out bones from white contact paper, and adhered to sweats. Made skull mask out of a paper plate.
• mad scientist -- borrowed lab coat from work. Used rubber tubing as props. Spiked up hair all over to look Einstein-ian
• geek -- dress clothes, bow tie, black glasses "fixed" with duct tape, pocket protector in shirt pocket, calculator on belt in holder
• ghost -- white sheet-turned curtain lining, turned ghost costume. Ghost has since been reincarnated into Goddess toga, and Julius Ceasar toga
• princess -- doesn't every little girl have a bunch of princess dress-up clothes?
• ballerina -- same as above?
• fairy -- leo and tutu, wings made from poster board and ribbon straps
• flower -- white sleeper pjs (from Value Village), with a yellow, petaled hood made by moi (I was quite proud of this!), out of one of my maternity t-shirts
• a hand-me-down tiger suit that 2 of my kids wore multiple times each (came from a cousin, she wore it once. My kids loved it so much they asked to wear it year after year, go figure?!
• an artist -- beret, wore one of husband's old white shirts, for a smock, liberally splattered with paint, and carried a "palette" cut out of white poster board, along with paintbrush
• hula dancer -- swimsuit plus a "grass" skirt made out of a roll of green crepe paper and elastic waste
• black cat and bat pair (obviously this was they year both daughters had some black clothing, leggings and long sleeved tees). I made cat ears from black poster board and glued onto a headband. I made bat wings from a black garbage bag, using black electrical tape to secure the top edge of the "wings" to her tee shirt sleeves and neck.
• butterfly -- she wore colorful clothing and wore dress-up wings that she already had
• Tinkerbell -- green dress, with an over-skirt I made out of the lime green lining of a jacket that was handed down to me, that I would never wear. I think we made some green wings that year from green poster board.
• Oreo cookie -- 2 sheets of black poster board, cut into circles with Oreo motif drawn on in felt pen. This was worn sandwich-board style (shoulder straps made from some white fabric stapled onto poster board), over white turtleneck shirt and jeans

My Hallowe'en costume designing has centered around using clothing and props that we already had or had access to, supplemented with homemade cheap accessories made from posterboard, plastic garbage bags, cardboard boxes, sheets, and clothing destined for giveaway. 

Kid costumes only need to survive a 3 hour window. But they do need to be safe. Things that could be a tripping hazard, highly flammable, strangulation hazard, masks that obscure vision, all need to be used with great care. 

I am a bit worried about fire and kids. So that possibility was always on my mind. The hula skirt we made from crepe paper was probably the most flammable item we made, so we made it on the short side, so no pieces of paper could accidently come in contact with a candle in a jack o' lantern sitting on the ground. The bath tissue mummy, could have also been a fire hazard, so we made this costume stop at the waist, and child wore very light gray sweat pants. And as it turned out that evening, it rained and rained and rained. By the time we got home, the bath tissue was as inflammable as any could be.

The only actual mask any of my children wore was the skeleton mask that my son made from a paper plate. He wound up removing it halfway through the evening, because it was sweaty. We never did any masks after that. 

We never had longish costumes that could pose the possibility of tripping. Our costumes never came below the knees (mostly because that's how much fabric or other materials we had on hand, but not being a tripping hazard was a nice bonus).

None of these costumes would win any prizes, but my kids were always very happy to have them. I think kids are easier to please than we adults know.

Some things to keep in mind with kids' costumes and trick-or-treating. If your children are quite young, you have the opportunity to keep their costume and candy expectations small. From very early, we put it in our kids' minds that costumes would be home-made from what we had on hand, from a thrift store, or, handed down. 

Kids like to help make these things (kids like making stuff in general). So we always encouraged their help with the making. When my son went as a skeleton, I drew the bones on the contact paper and he cut them out and stuck them on his black sweats. The year my daughter went as an Oreo, all I did was help attach the straps to the poster board. My son's robot costume was designed by him. All I did was cut out arm and head holes. He did need an adult to do the winding of the bath tissue when he went as a mummy. As much as possible I got the kids to help me with this. Their part in it gave them pride of ownership in the project, and satisfaction with their costume, regardless of how perfect or imperfect it looked.

We also limited how many houses our kids went to in the first few years. We set the limit to one house per year of age. So when my kids were 3 years old (first year trick-or-treating) they got to trick-or-treat at 3 houses, 4 years old, 4 houses, etc. About age 9 we changed the trick-or-treating limit, not to how many houses, but a time limit, increasing as they got older. Mostly, with these limits, we wanted to minimize the greed-factor. A little bit of candy and treats are fine, but a huge sack full for a young child is just too much.

Now it's your turn. What inexpensive costume ideas have you used, seen or thought of?