The Boys Went Fishing!

First I'd like to say:


"Dear Maybe I'll Blog, Maybe I Won't,

I'm so sorry that I have recently neglected you!  I've been very busy lately, but it is with great pleasure that I return to you dear Google Blogger!  I've recently fought a battle with Wordpess, and it wasn't pretty!  It's such a comfort to come back to the familiar and user friendly Blogger for awhile!

Thank you,
Your dear friend, Laurie"

Okay, so without further ado, let's turn to the topic of "The Boys Went Fishing!"

My son is an avid fisherman, and he also likes to hunt.  Right now it's bass season in our little section of the world, and you can only guess what he's been up to?  Right?  Well, of course...fishing!

Hubby doesn't always have the opportunity, time, or energy to fish as frequent as my son, but when the boy was little his daddy took him fishing often!  Now that the boy is nearing his 21st birthday, he can go alone, and daddy doesn't always go with him.  A few weeks ago, they did get themselves out to Otter Lake, and enjoyed bass fishing together.

They were so proud of their catch:

Six Bass on a Stringer

I bet you all figure we had bass for dinner!  Incorrect!  My son is going  to be living in an apartment with his buddy when he returns to college.  They both are stashing their 'catches' in the freezer, so they can eat for free all school year!

I'll let you all know how that turns out in the fall!

One more thing:  My son has a new blog that I want to promote!  Go check it out!  Click Here!

Frugal Tips!

Sometimes I just do certain things out of years of habit, then I realize they save me more money than I realize. 

During these tough economic times, I noticed that my blog gets a lot of hits on "Homemade Syrup Recipe", and other frugal tip posts.

I thought it might be nice to share a few more of my everyday money saving tips.

We don't hardly ever use paper towels in our house.  I have a large basket full of rags that I store in a closet.  It's just as easy to grab the basket of rags to clean up a mess than it is to tear off a paper towel.  Now, I do have a roll of paper towels on my kitchen counter for those messy, gross, clean ups that I don't want to contaminate my wash when I launder the rags; but we hardly ever use them.  If some messy chemical gets spilled, I use the paper towels, because I can throw it away and rid my household of the chemical.  I'm annul like that about chemicals.  A roll of paper towels usually lasts our household about six months until the boy comes home from college:(  He gets very used to using paper towels in his dorm room (and I can't blame him), so it takes a few weeks for him to get on track by looking for the rag basket.

I also have an old coffee container (it's plastic) that I store homemade liquid soap in.  I don't use this soap for dish washing or cleaning, but I put it into an old dish soap container for the guys to use for hand washing.  There's nothing more annoying for me than the hubby and my son coming in from outdoors, their hands are filthy; and they use half my squirt bottle of dish soap to wash their hands.  How do I make this homemade liquid soap?  I take bars of soap (I have a plethora of hotel soaps someone gave me for free), and I grate a couple of those little bars into the old plastic coffee container.  Then I add water.  I usually add about 10 times the quantity of water that I have in soap grains.  Then I put it in the container under my sink, and let it sit, and sit, and sit.  That's it!  In about 2 - 3 weeks, the soap particles actually dissolve in the water, and it makes a cloudy white liquid soap.  Great for washing up after dirty jobs in the yard or basement.  I also found it to be a fantastic cleaner for my stove top.  I just squirt a portion on the top of the stove (where someone other than me has left boiled over food:), and let it sit.  After 5 minutes, I just use one of those rags from the rag basket to rinse it off.  Bye-bye cooked on stains!

Just thought I'd share a couple of easy frugal tips with you all.  Sometimes we just do things out of habit to pinch a penny or two, but I've recently found myself becoming more mindful of those things.  

Swiffer Wet Jet Solution (pun intended)

I belong to a private message board. One of the members just had a baby, and she has limited mobility and time. She currently doesn't like to do the normal 'hands and knees' routine with her kitchen floor, because she has recently had a baby. She had a c-section, and her son is very little which means he needs her most of the day.

She posted that she kind of, sort of likes the idea of a Swiffer Wet Jet, but she isn't crazy about a few things. One of the issues she has with the Wet Jet is that the fluid is very expensive. The pads are very expensive and not re-usable.

I posted that I have a Swiffer Wet Jet and found I had the same issues as she did, but I had a few solutions. She liked my ideas, so I thought I would share them with you all.

I make my own solution and just add it to one of the old bottles. I had a problem disengaging the bottle from the mop unit without destroying it, so I poked a hole in the top and refilled it. The solution that I use is made as follows:

Squirt a small squirt of dish soap into the bottle, then fill almost to the top with warm water. Add a glug or two of ammonia (approximately 2 tablespoons). Cover the hole and shake well. This solution only costs me a fraction of a penny and it works really well.

Secondly, I don't buy the expensive pads that attach to the mop unit. I use a very heavy, old rag. I rubber band it on both ends to the mop head. I re-use the heavy, old rag as it is my favorite Wet Jet rag. Of course, I launder between uses.

Voila! A frugal solution to the expensive alternative.

I don't always use the Swiffer Wet Jet. I, too, am a 'hands and knee' kind of gal. But I do find that this works wonderful for those moments when you need a quick floor clean up.

Frugal Recipe Tips

I must admit that I hardly ever follow a recipe exactly. I usually play around with recipes and conform it to my family's preferences.

I also substitute cheaper items to make a recipe cost less.

Now, if you follow a recipe exactly to the letter, then that's fine. I think people who do that have less of a chance of making an awful meal.

I have made two bad dinners in my lifetime, which were lentils and cow dung. If you care to read about those two dinners, click here.

But back to some of the substitutes I use in my cooking....

For example, I substitute dry milk in recipes that call for fresh milk. (I probably should say I used to substitute with dry milk. Presently, the cost of dry milk is more or almost the same as fresh milk. So, I'll only go back to that once the price drops again.)

I also substitute for most canned soup. My family doesn't eat much canned soup, so I usually don't have it in my pantry. When a recipe calls for a cream based soup, I use the following substitution:

Cream Soup Substitute (celery)
Melt 2 tablespoons of margarine in a sauce pan. Saute 2 tablespoons chopped celery. Blend in 2 tablespoons flour, add 1/3 cup dry milk powder and 2/3 cup vegetable broth. Add salt and pepper to taste. Cook until smooth. (If you would rather use fresh milk, just add 1/3 cup fresh milk and decrease to 1/3 cup vegetable broth.)

If I want to make the above recipe Cream of Chicken Soup, I pass on the sauteing the celery and blend the flour, dry milk and chicken bullion broth.

I also substitute cheaper cheese for what a recipe may call for. If colby cheese is on sale, I'll buy that and substitute it for mozzarella. I know it will change the taste, but I'm okay with that as long as it's something my family will like.

When a recipe calls for wine, I might substitute chicken or beef broth.

I make my own bread crumbs from all the old crusts of loaves that no one ate. I just freeze them, then take them out and whirl them around in my blender on the 'crumb' setting. If the recipe calls for Italian seasoned bread crumbs, I just throw in some Italian seasonings.

If I'm making a recipe for my son and I, I might substitute canned tuna for imitation crab meat. Notice I said if I was making it for my son and I. My husband doesn't like tuna. Nope, his family of 10 children ate a lot of Tuna Noodle Casserole while he was growing up and he won't touch tuna for anything.

Did you know the little packets of seasoning in the supermarket labeled 'taco seasoning', are actually only chili powder, paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, cayenne powder and cumin? I have all those ingredients in my cupboard and can throw that together in a flash.

The seasoned boxed rice you buy in the store can be made right in your own kitchen with ingredients that you probably have on hand. You can even make your own variations of seasoned rice. Just add the spices and ingredients that your family likes.

Same idea can be applied to those oatmeal packets with flavors such as cinnamon, nutmeg, and apples. Just make your oatmeal and add the spices and ingredients that you like. Real apples in oatmeal tastes better to me than the dried flavoring they add to the packets.

These are just a few of the tips I use in making my own substitutions that not only cost less, but are most of the time, much better for you.

Too Many Deals Equals Too Much Clutter

If you've read my blog for long you would know that I'm one who is always looking for a way to save money.

Yup, I'm a penny pincher. My hubby likes to say that I pinch pennies until they scream for mercy!

While de-cluttering my house, I've decided that a good deal is a good deal, but clutter drives me crazy!

What do I mean by clutter?

I mean the things that have sat in a corner for over a year and no one has bothered to touch them, because we don't have a need for them OR we forgot it was in the pile to begin with.

In keeping down clutter, I find I don't need to 'clean' my house as often. I can see what's dirty or needs a little spiffing up, and I do it.


I Clean My House

One thing I have resolved to do this year is to minimize the clutter by restricting the urge to 'stock up' on things. I mean, yes, I'll still stock up on things, but I will be cutting back in the sense that if I don't have an immediate use (something within a month or two) for it; I'm not buying it!

A lot of my 'great deal' purchases in the past have contributed to the 'clutter' factor.

I'm doing well at this, because my girlfriend recently called me to tell me she was going to the great discount store that we sometimes meet up at. I told her I would go, but she absolutely had to keep me from purchasing anything. I told her I was de-cluttering and I'm not wanting to add to the clutter.

In my explanation of all that I've been doing with pitching this and that, she decided she wasn't going to go after all, because she, too, needs to cut back on the 'clutter purchases.'

So, those pennies are still screaming in my change purse, and my house is looking better everyday.


Close view of several pennies dated 1998

Standard of Being Frugal

When do you consider the standard to being frugal too much?

Through the years, I've found that we all have different standards of being frugal. What may seem extreme for one person, might not be for another person.

For example, I found an old cyber-friend recently, through her blog, and she was discussing leftovers here. She was describing her leftover meal in a phone conversation with someone that went from bad to worse, because the person couldn't deal with eating leftovers.

Now to me, that just seems like foolishness, but I'm sure I do things in the realm of frugality that totally stump people too, because they think it's too much. Yet, there are some things that I consider too much for even me.

For example, I don't re-wash sandwich bags. It's time consuming, and I don't like the clutter of a clothesline full of sandwich bags hanging in my kitchen. But I do wash and reuse the larger and sturdier zip-loc bags.

Also, I'm not one to take two-ply toilet paper, undo, and re-roll it into two rolls of paper. Nah, my time is worth more to me than that, but I have heard of people who do it.


Toilet Paper Boy

I've also heard of people who don't use the traditional 'paper' toilet paper. They use rags for toilet paper, then wash and re-use. Uh, uh, nope, sorry, I just can't bring myself to do that either.

Now, I'm not picking on people who do. I just couldn't possibly do that. I would be constantly thinking about the e-coli and, heaven knows what else, that was lurking on that toilet rag.

I think everyone's financial condition really dictates what they will do or not do when it comes to saving money.

So...share with me....what do you consider to be too much frugality?

Share something that you think is either too much grossness, or too much time, or not enough savings for you to try.

Neglectful Frugality

My girlfriend and I were having a conversation about being frugal, when she surprised me by saying, "I wish I could do it all like you do." I assured her that I wasn't doing it all, but as our conversation progressed, I had to assure her that it wasn't really all that I do that makes me frugal; it's more about what I don't do.

What do I mean by that? Here's a few examples. I don't buy chips, cookies and soda. I don't drive a brand new car (we've never had a car payment). I don't carry cash on me (most of the time). I don't eat out hardly ever. I don't need expensive clothes to look nice. I don't.....

Well, you get the idea. A lot of my frugality is expressed by not doing certain things. I know most people believe that the frugalites are always 'doing' something, such as, baking their own bread (yeah, I do that sometimes), or hanging their clothes out to dry instead of using the dryer (yeah, I do this sometimes, too). But most of my frugality comes down to what I don't do.

So when you think you don't have time to be frugal, I say, think again. I'm sure there are things that you can stop doing to save money.

As a side note, my mom called last night and said something about the earrings she put in my Christmas bag on the bottom wrapped in tissue paper. She was sure that I probably didn't receive them as I never mentioned them in my thank you. I told her I never found any earrings in the gift bag. She said she knew she should have mentioned them. I went upstairs to the attic where I keep all my gift bags to recycle for the following Christmas and sure enough....there on the bottom of the bag was the earrings wrapped in the tissue paper that I had kept. My mom said, "Gee, girl, I'm glad you don't throw those bags away, and you don't throw out the tissue paper either."

Just a couple of other things that I DON'T do.


Boston Terrier Puppy Inside a Bag

Homemade (Frugal) Pancake Syrup Recipe

Disclaimer: If your family is adept at recognizing 'fake' maple syrup, this recipe might not be for you. But, if your family is less than expert at distinguishing 'fake', then by all means read on.

My family has a tendency to not become overly concerned with the fakeness of cheap, maple syrup. They usually are quite happy to pour on this cheap imitation of maple syrup and enjoy!


Hand Pours Syrup onto a Stack of Pancakes

This is a recipe that I tweaked from Amy Dacyczyn (The Tightwad Gazette lady), which only costs 52 cents to make a 24 oz. jug.

Pancake Syrup

3 cups granulated sugar

1 1/2 cup water

3 tablespoons molasses

1 teaspoon vanilla (I use imitation, remember I'm cheap, cheap, cheap)

2 teaspoons butter flavoring (I omit, because it doesn't alter the taste, in my opinion...remember, I'm cheap, cheap, cheap)

1 teaspoon maple extract ( I use imitation here, too. I bet you can guess why, right?)


Bring all to a boil, stirring until sugar dissolves (a good rolling boil) for approximately 3 minutes. Turn off burner, but leave pot on burner until bubbling stops.

Let cool, put in old, generic-brand syrup bottle. Let set overnight and your family probably won't be the wiser if you're used to buying the cheap, generic-brand in the first place.

One other thing I'd thought I would mention. The really elcheapo brand in the store uses high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Now, there is a lot of controversy about HFCS, but some say it contributes to obesity, coronary heart disease and diabetes 2.

So, I think with that thought, I'll stick to my 52 cent, dirt-cheap, sugar based syrup!

Homemade Laundry Detergent

I used the homemade laundry detergent for years. Now, I use a variation of it here and there. Let me tell you that the homemade laundry detergent has many uses other than laundry washing.

It's a great spot remover. It took out ink stains from my son's 'ruined' football shirt with the help of some hairspray. I've always used hairspray for ink on clothing. Well, the big college man went and washed his white football shirt (which was part of his traveling suit) with a pen! There was ink stains covering the entire shirt. I used hairspray and washed it, but the ink only became lighter, but was still visible. Then I had DS rub homemade laundry detergent into the inky spots along with hairspray, washed and VOILA! Perfectly white shirt again with no ink spots after the second washing.

I rush to the container of homemade laundry detergent for all my clothing stains. ALL! I've washed muddy, grass-stained white football pants for years. Those things are nasty! The homemade laundry detergent always gets out the stains if I smear the pants in the solution, let sit for a day, then wash.

Some have complained that their clothes become yellowy and a bit dingy. I've never had that happen, I wonder if it's because we have soft water?? Not sure, but I suggested to a friend that she might like washing her clothing once per month in Tide and oxyclean. That's another great tip for whites: wash them in Tide and oxyclean! Okay, I cheat and use Tandil which is Aldi's brand of Tide and it works just as well. It costs almost 1/2 what Tide does. It makes your white clothing look 'marine white'.

The homemade laundry detergent is great for cleaning. When we moved into our home the baseboards in the kitchen had a greasy, grimy yuck on them. I took an old rag, globbed a big slothering mess of homemade laundry detergent on the baseboards and let sit for 10 minutes. When I came back that grime wiped right off. I got this idea mainly because when I used a certain pot to make the laundry detergent, it always washed up sparkling clean.

So, I guess you would like the recipe. Here it is:

1 bar of Fels Naptha soap (You can use Ivory or Zote, so I've heard, but I've always used FN)
1 cup washing soda (not baking soda)
1 cup borax

Grate the Fels Naptha bar into a 5 - 6 quart pot. Fill pot approximately 1/2 full with water and simmer. (It's important not to boil, as the Fels Naptha could be flammable at high temperatures).

Once the soap has dissolved and the solution is yellowy in color remove from heat and let cool slightly. Then measure the 1 cup washing soda and 1 cup borax into the bottom of a 5-gallon bucket. Pour the hot Fels Naptha solution over the top of the soda/borax and stir until it's all dissolved. Pour additional water into the bucket until it's full. Let sit for one day.

Now when you open that bucket a day later you're going to think that you have had a visit from Bill Nye the Science Guy, but no, it's supposed to look that way. It will look goopy and almost like a solid. This is the fun part.....roll up those sleeves (although some use a huge stick or paddle) and dig into that cold, gloopy 5-gallons of what looks like baby snot and stir it all up. It will break up to the point where you feel like you can scoop it out with a cup.

I add 1 cup of solution to my washing machine while it's set on the 'hot' water setting for about 30 seconds to a minute. This dissolves the goop and it won't settle and spot on your clothes. Then I switch the washer to 'cold' or 'warm' or whatever setting you like.

Pretreat any stains before hand with the goop. You can leave it on a stain overnight to assure it's power of treating stains!

One thing you must understand is that you don't need suds to get things clean. The homemade detergent just doesn't suds! So, if you need a bit of an allusion to help you with this, buy a bottle of Dawn dish detergent and squirt just a tiny, tiny squirt in the washer as its filling with water. You can have your suds AND Dawn dish detergent does cut dirt and grease in the laundry room, too.

I calculated a few years back that this laundry detergent only costs me about 1/2 cent per load whereas some store boughten detergents cost almost a dollar per load.

Better than Store Bought

This morning I had a burst of energy, well, maybe more like I told myself that I wanted to fully take of advantage of the day. So, I scrubbed a large portion of my kitchen walls and ceiling with my homemade 409 formula. This little magic in a bottle is very inexpensive. Here's the recipe:

Take your old 409 spray bottle and fill 2/3 full of warm water. Add a few drops of liquid dish soap. Add a glug or two of ammonia (about 2 tablespoons), then gently swish around in the spray bottle Voila!

This is so inexpensive and it works great for cleaning just about anything. The reason it works so well in my kitchen is because the ammonia cuts grease very effectively.

Another little trick that I do is add vinegar to my clothes in my dispenser for fabric softener. Vinegar is a natural softener in the laundry department and it makes the clothes smell fresh without a lot of perfume type odors. Some of the perfume they use in fabric softener just smells 'too much' for me. So, I use the vinegar instead. I buy it at the Dollar store for 75 cents per quart which is much cheaper than fabric softener.

I bought 4 dryer balls at the local Kinney's pharmacy and use those in the dryer. My clothes never have static cling. They cost about $10.00 for 2 of them, but I use four because some of the loads of laundry I do are quite large. I found 4 to be more effective. The verdict is still out on these little dryer balls, because I've been using them for several months and they seem to be in the same condition that they were when I bought them. I'll see how long they last, then decide if they are a money saver. (Oh, yeah, these are store bought, but I just had to include them in this post since I was talking about laundry).

Money Saving Tips

I utilize many money saving tips that have become so much a part of my daily routine that when people ask me what I do to save money I often 'forget' about mentioning them.

One of my all time favorite money saving tips is when I'm engrossed in surfing the web, I oftentimes remember to go to http://walmart.triaddigital.com/In-Stores-Now-Free-Samples.aspx
and sign up to have Wallie World send me any free samples that I would like to have mailed to me. I know I've received enough shampoo and conditioner to wash my hair for about a month without spending a dime. I have received small boxes of cereal, fiber supplement, deodorants, whiteners for teeth, lotions, creams, etc. It's a great way to get a surprise in the mail and it saves me money. I also have found many products that I really like above and beyond others.

Another tip I have used is to dilute shampoo and conditioner. I bought two 64 ounce plastic containers that I pour a whole 16 - 32 ounces of shampoo or conditioner into, then I add the same amount of water. I get twice as much shampoo/conditioner for the same price. I know many of you will wonder if the shampoo will really clean your hair or if the conditioner will really condition your hair when it's diluted like this, but I've found that I like it better than the 'full strength.' I've gotten used to the conditioner to the point that whenever I use condition right out of the bottle undiluted, it makes my hair greasy looking. The undiluted shampoo makes my hair feel dry and brittle. So, I really think it's helped the appearance of my hair, too.

I love to knit and crochet. I have tried this year to think way ahead of the Christmas season to craft a few of my gifts. I asked my sister-in-law if my niece would like a homemade knitted letterman sweater. She said she thought my niece would absolutely love to have one. She's very much into the school spirit thing. So, with my trusty knitting machine, about $6.00 worth of yarn and 6 hours of my time, I have a wonderful gift for my niece at Christmas-time.

I have made some darling dish clothes that are a bit more special than a plain old dish cloth. The url to some of the patterns is: krisknit.blogspot.com. I used the free ones. I've made the flower (spring) one and the heart (Valentine) one for members of my family for their birthdays. Now, I have requests from other members of my family making requests for them. They cost about $1 in yarn and about 3 hours of my time.

I also do not drive very far for bargain gas prices. Let me explain why. I have calculated that if a gas station is 10 miles away and has gas 5 cents cheaper than the one right in town...it actually costs more to drive those 10 miles to get gas than to just fill up at the more expensive station. For example, it takes 18 gallons of gas to fill my van. If I am totally on empty (which I rarely am) then it would cost me 90 cents more to fill my tank at the more expensive station. If I get 20 miles per gallon with my van (I actually get just a wee bit more than that), then it would cost me 1 gallon of gas to get to the gas station further away and then home again. So, in my area that would be $3.12. So, I don't want to spend $3.12 to save 90 cents.

Yes, you read that right. Gas is $3.12 per gallon in my area. Of course, there was a gas station in the city of Syracuse that was selling gas for $2.99 per gallon, but I wouldn't drive the 25 miles to get there, because I would probably use more gas than the savings would be to drive there for the cheaper price.

I also use the above method to figure out if it's worth my time and money to drive 10 miles up the road to the little city and buy groceries. If chicken is 10 cents cheaper per pound in the little city, I might just go to the little town grocer that is 1/2 mile from my house to buy that chicken.

These are just some of the automatic money saving tips I use on a regular basis. I hope some of these may help you.