Does this give you a frugal thrill?

I wasn't going to post today, as I'm fighting the same cold my two daughters have had. But I had one of those oddball moments of frugal fun. Not even a moment, really. I'd say I was tickled for all of the dinner hour.

Do you get a frugal thrill when you find a bunch of leftovers and combine them into a tasty stew, or rinse a bunch of near-empty jars to add to the pot?

Last night, I did a little clean-out of the fridge and found a whole bunch of condiment jars, that in an ordinary household would have been deemed empty and disposed of. Not so, in our house. I save those jars to rinse and add to cooking. I used both sweet and dill pickle juice in a batch of baked beans. I rinsed out the jar of blackberry pancake syrup to add to the stewed mixed rhubarb and blackberries. And I rinsed the salsa jar to add to mashed potatoes and greens. Total number of jars used and cleaned out -- 4.

My fridge door looks presentable again, and dinner was seasoned nicely, with what may have been considered garbage in any other household. Yep, that gave me a frugal thrill.

How about you? Do you find particular fun in using the odd bits that others would consider material to be washed down the drain?

Getting my garden started indoors

I know, this gadget falls under the heading of toy/tool. Indoor grow lights will take many years to pay for themselves. But I do like my homegrown salads. And I can get a jump start on the garden, harvesting lettuce in early April, instead of June, by starting my seeds indoors.

Last week, I started a flat of lettuce, spinach and kale to transplant in March. I started them about a week earlier than in previous years, and am keeping my fingers crossed that I'll have a harvest that much sooner.

Starting most varieties of seeds indoors needs a soil temperature around 70 degrees, and light for the seedlings for about 14 hours per day. Although these are fluorescent tubes, they do give off a small amount of heat. And by positioning the lights close to the soil, there seems to be enough heat for my seeds to germinate. Once I had a couple of seeds sprouted, I set the timer on the light fixture for 14 hours/day.

The container with a blue lid is my indoor sprinkler. It's just a screw top plastic jar with a lid, into which I drilled a few small holes. It works well for wetting the surface of the soil for good germination of seeds.

I pick my toy/tools carefully, as I don't like a lot of junk hanging around the house. As for just how long this grow light will take to pay for itself, I did some figuring. I used to buy all my tomato seedlings each spring, spending between $15 and $18 per season. The grow light set-up was about $150 (less about $20 with an e-coupon). I now start all of my tomato plants from seeds, saving about $15 per season. I also use the grow lights to get one extra planting of leafy greens started and in the ground, saving about $10-15 on buying leafy greens at the produce stand each spring. On top of these savings,  I start smaller amounts of other veggies under the lights, too. My guess is this grow light will pay for itself in about 6-8 years. So, while not a great pay-back timeline, at least it's not a hobby that keeps costing me money.