Do you know why I make such a big deal about saving money on groceries?

Last night's dinner: black bean/brown rice/cheese burritos, with leftover,
homemade enchilada sauce, rolled up in a homemade, whole wheat flour tortilla,
garden green beans and carrots, and foraged wild blackberries,
with a dressing of melted crabapple jelly.

Groceries are one of just a couple of necessary household budget items that we identified as producing a significant savings, when reducing our spending, which could be carried out throughout our lifetime. We estimate that we save about $400 to $500 per month, every single month of every year.

Additionally, these were savings that we could feel the impact of immediately, when we implemented new grocery shopping techniques. In September of 1988, we went from spending $70 per week, to spending $30 per week on groceries, in the span of 7 days. I credit a magazine article that I had read, that very week with the changes in our spending. That was 28 years ago, next month.

Today, we spend about $45 per week. Back in 1988, we were a family of 3. We're now a family of 5. The USDA's food spending charts would have us spending $195.40 per week, on the Thrifty Plan, that's about $845 per month. And do you want to know something? I think our family eats healthier now, than it did back in 1988.

The dinner we had last night really drove home the point, to me, on how advantageous it has been to cut our grocery spending from the first year of our marriage, and on.

Gifts for the dudes

Some men are extremely hard to find gifts for, that is gifts that don't bust the budget. You can hardly craft or thrift a new iphone, tablet, or sports car. But you can find some appropriate gifts in places like pawn shops. Not that I am frequently pawning possessions, but I've been in a pawn shop or two. What I did see (that could be a good gift for a man in my life) are chainsaws and other tools and fishing equipment, at good prices. Most merchandise will sit a while in a pawn shop, so you can write down specific info on the items, go home and do some research to see if the price is fair, before plunking down your cash.

Otherwise, gifts on a budget, for the dudes, can be much more of a challenge than for the dudettes.

Edibles

My husband is always happy with edibles. Christmas is a good time to make a couple of items that are particular favorites of his. For instance, I don't care much for Rice Crispy treats, but he LOVES them. So a container of his very own Rice Crispy treats is always appreciated. My husband also loves, loves, loves salsa. Normally, I just make the regular tomato salsa. It's good, he enjoys it, but it's nothing special. For Christmas, I'm planning on making him a small batch of a special salsa, like this roasted pepper salsa, from from onetomato-twotomato.com:

I can make the salsa late this summer, and keep it hidden until Christmas. And with a large bag of tortilla chips, he'll be a happy muncher.

Other years, I've made a large coffee can filled with homemade poppycock/cracker jacks for my husband.

Sewing/knitting projects

I've used this pattern to make cotton boxer shorts for my husband, in past years. I had the fabric on hand, and only needed to buy the elastic. 

This year, I'll use the same pattern to make some lounge pants for my son. (Hubby's got all the lounge pants/pj pants and boxers he can use for now.) I'll extend the legs on the pattern, for his height, and use some elastic that I have leftover from making boxer-shorts. My only cost will be about 2 yards of fabric -- probably fleece. 

Last winter, my husband lost the fleece hat that I'd made for him, several years ago. Soooo, guess who'll be getting another hat this Christmas? I'll check my supplies for making one, here at home, then price supplies to make one from fleece or yarn. If I can make one for under a dollar, then I'll make it. However, Dollar Tree always has a large selection of hats. If it looks like I can buy a hat from DT for less than making one, I'll buy one. It could be that I'll have enough fleece leftover from making the lounge pants for my son, to make a hat for my husband. BTW, fleece hats are super-duper simple to make, no pattern required.

Manly soap-making

Hand-crafted soap is not just for the ladies. I'll also be making some soap for my guys. Only for them, I'll be making soap-on-a-rope and shaving soap/cream. 

Remember all of those Christmases when you gave dear old dad a soap on a rope? I've given my son SoaR a couple of times. It's kind of a novelty, but also very practical for those who only shower. The soap can hang from the shower head or faucet, and not sit in a puddle of water in a soap dish. 

I'll have some soap base leftover from making almond-oatmeal soap, so no cost there. I'll add some sandalwood fragrance oil, for a manly-man scent ($3.99 for a .5 ounce bottle at Michael's, with a coupon, as little as $2). I won't buy a mold, but will use a container from home. The rope or cord doesn't need to be anything specific. I'm thinking bleached, used shoelaces, with the capped ends cut off, should work fine. My bars of sandalwood soap-on-a-rope should cost about $1 each.

I'm thinking the soap on a rope will turn out something like these two, with the soap poured around the rope:

and

or, this, with a hole drilled after the soap is made:

For the shaving soap, I'm not sure yet, if I'll make a hard disk of soap, using my soap supplies and an empty chip can as a mold (then slicing), like this:

Or a creamy shave soap, in a glass jar, like this:

One more consumable, inexpensive gift for men

A couple of years ago, I put together a shoe-polishing kit for my son (blogged here). He wears dress shoes every week day, as does my husband. He likely needs some "refills" for that kit, more polish, and clean flannel cloths. My husband probably also could use some refills. The cloths I make from fabric I have at home, and the tins of polish are inexpensive (under $3 at Wal-Mart).

What's the difference between homemade gifts and hand-crafted gifts?

presentation

A homemade gift is shoved in a box with no afterthought to how it's presented. But a hand-crafted gift is "finished" with a nice label, a cute wrapper or nice tie/ribbon, and it might just look like something you'd pick up at a craft fair. At least that's my definition.

Presentation indicates the time, love and thought put into the gift.

As I'm finishing making something, I start to plan in my head how I'll put the final touches on the gift. how I'll package it, will I put a label on it or just a nice ribbon, what kind of ribbon do I have on hand to use, or will I need to "make" my own ribbon -- those kinds of plans.

Remember the dish cloths for my step-mom? Here, they are, finished. I made a set of 3 dish cloths to go with other items, for her. I could have put the 3 into a gift box, maybe with tissue paper. And that would have looked okay, not bad, but okay.

Or, I could take just a few minutes and "finish" the gift, with a nice presentation.

I didn't have a ribbon I wanted to use, so I made my own.

Yes, you can make ribbon!

I used a 3-inch strip of fabric, long enough to wrap around the bundle of wash cloths. I sewed the fabric scrap into a long tube, turn it right side out, and pressed smooth. After tying this new ribbon around the bundle of cloths, I clipped the ends to length, and tuck the raw edges into the tube, finger-pressing the edges nicely. Took all of 5 minutes to make, but it really adds to the presentation of the gift.

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers with a full garden

Friday

Grilled cheese sandwiches and apple wedges

Saturday

Black bean and chicken soup, topped with
Broken tortilla chips and cheddar cheese
Fresh blackberries

Sunday

Kale, olive and mushroom frittata smothered in marinara sauce
Brown rice
Apple wedges
French bread and butter
Blackberry pie

Monday

Bean burgers
Garden potatoes, pan-fried
Beet greens and Swiss chard sauteed with shallots and garlic in bacon fat
Apple and pear salad
Leftover blackberry pie

Tuesday

Leftover bean burgers
Lazy lasagna
Apple wedges
Cole slaw
Chocolate cake squares

Wednesday

A church dinner and speaker -- we had a chicken and pasta dish, green salad and garlic bread

Thursday

Black beans and rice skillet dinner
Sauteed garden kale and cabbage
Pickled beet salad
Steamed carrots
Fruit salad


It's been another week of lots of garden produce. I used cabbage, kale, Swiss chard, garlic, shallots, beets, carrots, apples, pears, blackberries, green beans, potatoes, and various herbs from our garden this week. This means I've not done much in the way of grocery shopping, in over a week. I've spent just under $50 on food, for the month of August, so far. The only difficulty is harvesting and cleaning the garden vegetables. They don't come out of the ground all clean and perfect!

I'm also quite busy these days. Some days, dinner isn't all that much. I try to make up for it by cooking lots on the other days.

I hope your week went well, and you're enjoying lots of summer produce. What was on your menu this past week? Do you have any favorite August fruits or vegetables?


(if you're not following the prices comparisons for making hand-crafted soap -- have a great weekend, and just skip the rest!)
More on gift-making, for the soap:

While the goats milk melt and pour soap was best priced at Michael's with a coupon, I've found some honey almond fragrance oil at Hobby Lobby, which is cheaper than either Michael's or Amazon. It's $3.99 for 1 ounce. There's a Hobby Lobby 40% off coupon online, good through tomorrow, Saturday, August 13. Hobby Lobby is in the same complex as Trader Joe's, on my errand route, so no extra stop for me. 40% off, leaves me with a cost of under $2.50 for this fragrance oil.

Otherwise, Michael's is a good deal on the fragrance oil, if using a high value coupon. Michael's almond fragrance oil is $4.99. In comparison, Amazon has Barnhouse fragrance oils, priced at $2.95/bottle, but there's a $2.94 shipping charge, bringing the final price up to $5.89. It's actually a few cents cheaper to go directly through Eternal Essence Oil's website. Eternal Essence Oil's price is the same as Amazon's, but their shipping is only $2.89.

So, Hobby Lobby, with 40% off coupon, best price in my area. Michael's, next best, Amazon's price the highest on this ingredient.

Also, for anyone wanting to make large quantities of melt and pour soap, like 100 bars (I'm thinking wedding favors, sort of quantity), there are a couple of sources for melt and pour goats milk soap at a decent price (better than Amazon's prices in that quantity). Brambleberry.com has 25-lb blocks that sell for $39 plus about $20 shipping, for my area (shipping charges likely vary according to destination). I have been thinking about large quantities of melt and pour soap, to use as favors, at a future event. For me, @ $60 for the soap base, which would yield 100 bars of soap, my cost per bar would be about 70 cents, once the extra ingredients were factored in. Just an FYI, in case large quantities of melt and pour soap are what you're interested in making.

More gifty stuff, this time some bargain shopping

Yesterday was yet another one of those very busy days. The morning found me running errands for several hours. While I was out, I stopped by Kohl's to use my latest $10 off coupon.

Here's what I bought:

In the back, that's a candle lantern. It was originally $39.99.
To the left are 2 7-oz Lindt milk chocolate bunnies, originally $9.99.
And to the right is a lavender-colored pair of women's panties, originally in a package of 4 for $26, so $6.50 for the one pair.

After discounts and coupon applied:

The lantern became 70 cents, the Lindt bunnies became 9 cents each, and the pair of panties became 9 cents. What I love about the receipts, though, is this:

The lantern may become a gift at Christmas. With a candle inside, I think it would make a nice hostess gift. Or, I may use it in our own decor. The chocolate bunnies, I may keep as is, and use in Easter baskets next year, or I may use the chocolate in candy for gifting during the holidays (like on English toffee). At 18 cents for 14 ounces, that's a steal for good quality milk chocolate. A cheap 12-oz package of chocolate chips is about $2 in my area, on sale for $1.50, at best. And the panties -- I needed to spend 3 cents to reach my threshold to use the coupon. I decided a check on the lingerie clearance rack was in order. A dollar is a great price on a pair of undies. This pair will go into one of my daughters' stockings, at Christmas. The other daughter will get a pair of knee-hi socks I got on clearance a while back. All works out evenly.

Also while out, I stopped by Michael's to use my 40% off coupon. I bought the goats milk soap base that I plan on using for gift-making. It is regularly $9.99. With coupon, the price came down to $5.99, for 2 lbs. This is a better deal than Amazon for melt and pour goats milk soap, in every size package. So, if you plan on making soap, as I am, you could save a lot of money on the soap base by buying at Michael's or other local craft store, using a high value coupon, such as 40% off. Of course, check your prices against Amazon's, yourself.

That's the progress I made on gifts yesterday. I've got a couple more posts on gifts that I plan on making, that I'll share early next week. 

I hope you're having a lovely August week. The sun feels like it's shifting already, here. It's lovely.

Do you keep a gift closet?

It doesn't have to be a full closet. It can be a dedicated shelf in a closet or cupboard, or a storage trunk, or a box under the bed. Just a place where you stockpile gifts as you buy, receive free, or make.

My gift closet is a small section of my bedroom closet. In it I have items suitable for birthday, Christmas, Valentine's, housewarming, weddings and bridal showers, and group gift exchanges. At Christmas, I raid the gift closet for stocking stuffers for my kids. And at Easter, I do the same for basket fillers. In my gift closet, I also keep components of a gift, such as jars that I plan on filling with something yummy, to use as a gift, or containers that I'll use to nicely package a hand-crafted gift.

When I have specific items for specific people, I put those items into plastic shopping bags, with handles, and hang them from a hook on the inside of the door to that closet. Just a way to insure I don't accidentally gift something intended for one person, to another, or for me to check my bag for a specific person and see if I'm about done and ready to wrap and box for shipping.

Which also brings me to this, I collect shipping boxes  and mailers, year round. Mostly I'm looking for small and lightweight boxes or mailers, trying to match the size of box as closely as possible as the gift, itself. And in some instances, when I have all the components to one person's gift, I wrap, pack and label the box, ready to drop at the post office near the occasion.

I often shop, long in advance of an occasion, for specific people. When I find a great item on clearance, for someone in particular, I pick it up, even if I won't be gifting it for close to a year. Last year after Christmas, I picked up several Christmas gifts for this year. Those items are in the gift closet.

I also have several people on my gift list with spring birthdays. I shop for their gifts in the after Christmas clearance sales, too. It's a real convenience to have their gifts already bought and waiting for the actual birthday. The bonus is that I make fewer trips to stores to buy gifts. I buy for several birthdays at a time. And then I don't need to even think about it until I'm wrapping the gift.

Sometimes, this backfires on me. Like the sweater that I bought for my dad, planning on gifting it to him the next Christmas. But he passed away the June before. It still sits in a box in the closet. If I don't give it to someone this next year, I'll donate it to our church's giving tree (you find an unnamed person -- someone in need that year -- on the tree branch, with info like male/female/what they need/want, then buy their gift, and a group from our church delivers all of the gifts). But most of the time, when I find I no longer need a gift that I've pre-bought, I simply choose to gift it to someone else.

Maybe this all sounds too planned, and takes the fun out of gift shopping. But, for me, it helps me to just relax and enjoy special events and occasions.

Christmas, Christmas, Christmas! The spa collection

This spa cloth took me about 6 hours, like the kitchen dish cloths

Over the summer, I've been perusing sites, checking books at the library, making up my list (and checking it twice) and generally being in the thought process part of planning for Christmas gifts.

Today I wanted to show you some of the inspirations for my gifts-to-make list (and keeping fingers and toes crossed that no one on my list will figure out who is getting what).

The spa cloths. Yesterday, I was asked if a spa cloth was the same as a washcloth. Yes! But doesn't "spa cloth" sound so much more, um, gift-like? So, if anyone on my list receives a washcloth from me, it's not that I think you need bathing, but more along the lines of pampering. Also, as either a knitted or crocheted cloth, it has more texture than a terry cloth, better for exfoliating and invigorating the skin.

The tabs on my lap top are filled with pages that have images of what has inspired me. Here's the spa cloth inspiration:

Looks really, really lovely, right? 4 spa cloths and 3 bars of homemade hand-crafted soap. The spa cloths in the photo look crocheted, to me. I was going to try to learn to crochet just to do these. But the learning would take extra time. And I figure I should play to my strengths, and not weaknesses, with putting gifts together.

So, here's one of my finished spa cloths (and they're not all ecru, I bought some colored yarn, too):

I knit the cloth following these directions: from ravelry.com, the pattern by Anne Mancine. It's a waffle knit pattern.

I used a worsted weight cotton yarn (sugar n cream by Lily), in Ecru, on size 7 needles. I amended the pattern for worsted weight, size 7 needles to casting on 41 stitches, and after knitting rows 1-4, repeating that pattern for 13 repeats -- total of 14 sets of the 4 rows of the body of the pattern. The finished size is 10 inches by 10 inches. (I first knitted this following the creators directions for casting on 44 stitches. It was looking too wide/big for a knitted spa cloth, hence my sightly smaller version.) 

Other than that, the pattern knitted up perfectly. I measured after 13 repeats, and it was perfectly-sized for finishing off with the repeat of rows 1 & 2, then seed stitch edging.

Although there are more rows and stitches to knit than the dish cloth, it knits slightly faster, due to a couple rows in the pattern being quick to knit (almost all K or all P for a row).

Aside from being slightly larger than a dish cloth, it's also slightly stretchier, which I think is more appropriate for a bath/spa cloth.

The cost of one spa cloth is under a dollar, with yarn bought on sale, using slightly less than 2 ounces of yarn.

This soap looks like cold process soap. But I will do a melt and pour soap, something that looks like this:

Like I said, I will do a melt and pour soap base. I'll be making goat's milk, honey-almond-oat, skin-soothing bars. I'll use a goat's milk base, along with ground oats, camomile tea, sweet almond fragrance oil, vitamin E oil, and honey. I'll combine several different recipes to get the skin-soothing product that I'm after. Instead of buying a mold for the bars, I'll pour the melted soap into a cardboard box, lined with waxed paper. Then I'll cut the soap slab into bars. Melt and pour soap doesn't require the long curing phase that cold-process soap needs. So, I can take my time accumulating the ingredients.

Which brings me to this -- these gifts would not at all be frugal if I just tooled on down to the craft supply shop and paid full-price on every ingredient. I'm using coupons and sales to accumulate all of the ingredients, one by one. And that's why it's been so important for me to begin the Christmas planning so early. So, I can take my time accumulating the ingredients, as well as time for the actual crafting. I've got a 40% off coupon to Michael's right now, and will get the soap base this week. A 2-lb block of soap base will yield about 8 bars, if poured into a small-ish snack cracker box, then cut. (Looks like we'll have to eat a box of Dollar Tree snack crackers -- oh, the sacrifices!) I'll check out their fragrance oils at the same time. but if I can't get that at Michael's, I've found something on Amazon that is a good price.

I expect my hand-crafted soap to cost about $1 per bar

In addition to the spa cloths and soaps, I'm planning to make soothing bath soaks, whose finished product will look something like these:

or, these:

I'll use the large-size, empty tea bags (available through Amazon, at about 6 cents per bag, bought in 100 pack), and fill with a rose petal, milk and colloidal oat blend. I've been drying and saving rose petals all summer. Colloidal oatmeal is simply oats ground to a fine powder -- I can do that in my spice grinder. And I'll use either powdered goat's milk (in the powdered milk section of the grocery store, or in bulk from a natural foods store) or ordinary cow's milk powder. By putting this into steeping bags, the tub doesn't get so messy (as opposed to a jar of tub tea/soak). The Amazon bags are biodegradable/compostable, as they are simply paper tea bags.

The cost per filled, individual bath soak bag should be around 30 to 40 cents, depending on extras that I decide to add, like rose fragrance oil, and if I splurge for the goats milk.

These are all small gifts, no liquids, and easily shipped. They make great girlfriend gifts, teacher's gifts, daughter/mom/sister gifts, stocking stuffers, as well as bridal shower favors. And I can make all of the items, fairly frugally.

In addition to these spa items, any one of them could be supplemented with a loofa or bath brush from Dollar Tree, hand-crafted bath bombs/truffles, or this nice crochet bath scrubber:

Anyways, this is my start on the spa collection for Christmas gifts this year.

Very busy weekend, and the beginning of my next Christmas gift

It was a jam-packed weekend, to be sure. But I found some time late Sunday afternoon to begin my next Christmas gift. I finished my dish cloths. And now, I've begun some spa cloths. A spa cloth is slightly larger than a dish cloth. 

I'm using a different pattern from the dish cloths. But also another good one for a relative beginner. I'll post a link to this spa cloth pattern, along with the changes I made to it, in a day or two, when I've finished this first one. I can give you the finished measurements, then, too.

I also finalized my Christmas gift list, for the gifts that I'll make. I think I've got everyone covered, including a couple of manly gifts. I'll give you that list this week, too.

I hope you had a great weekend. 

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for early August (with a garden in abundance)

Friday

Cod cakes, made with some frozen cod, poached and flaked, then combined with bread crumbs, parsley, Bay seasoning, an egg, lemon juice and salt
Cole slaw with our garden cabbage
Apple slices
Cheddar Bay biscuits (the Red Lobster knock-offs, made with homemade Bay seasoning)

Saturday

Fire-roasted hot dogs
Home-bake buns
Cole slaw (again with garden cabbage)
Fruit salad of blueberries, blackberries, apples, banana
S'mores

Sunday

Rice and black beans
Sauteed kale and mushrooms
Fruit salad of blackberries, apples, banana
Blackberry pie

Monday

Kale and shallot frittata
Oven-roasted purple and white potatoes
Apple wedges
Pickled beet salad over fresh lettuce
Blackberry pie

Tuesday

Herb-crusted pork roast, crusted with rosemary, thyme, garlic and lavender buds from the garden, plus cracked black pepper and sea salt
Rosemary, garlic and shallot potatoes (both purple and white potatoes)
Cole slaw with cabbage from the garden and the last of the pickled beets, added
Fruit salad of apples and blackberries in strawberry and blackberry jam dressing
Home-bake French bread and butter
Vanilla cupcakes

Wednesday

Black bean and chicken taco salad with lime-cilantro dressing (lettuce, celery, black beans, chicken, canned corn, cheese, olives, homemade dressing of tomato paste, lime juice, oil, cilantro, chili powder, cumin, garlic, sugar, salt)
Freshly fried tortilla chips
Leftover cupcakes

Thursday

Chicken, rice, kale and mushroom casserole (with celery, onion powder, garlic and thyme)
Fruit salad (once again blackberries and apples in jam dressing)
Cupcakes


So, even I have to admit that some of our meals this week have bordered on gourmet, for our family. I've been playing a little game with myself, in trying to use as many different items from our garden as possible. And, yes, my family is lucky to have me!! ;-)

And then there was Thursday's dinner. One of those slapped together casseroles that made me happy that my kids are past the must-have-everything-separate phase. The inspiration was a combination of cleaning out the fridge, and needing to be simple. It worked.

That's it! Another week of suppers at home.

How were your menus this week? Any thrown together casseroles on your table?

Have a great weekend!

First Thursdays

Today is the first Thursday of the month of August. Do you know what's so special about first Thursdays?

In many cities, Seattle included, the first Thursday of each month means free admission to various museums that normally charge an admission fee.

So, here in Seattle, there are several major art museums, the natural history museum, the Museum of Flight,  a museum dedicated to railways, the Museum of History and Industry, and a maritime museum -- that are free today. 

On top of free museum admission, many cities have an art gallery walk on First Thursdays, in the evenings, sometimes offering free parking.  For example, in Seattle's downtown Pioneer Square area, from 6 to 8 pm, tonight, almost 3 dozen art venues open their doors to visitors. It's a walking tour of the various galleries, museums, shops and small restaurants, with free parking in a few select parking garages in Pioneer Square. 

Some cities choose a different day for free museum admission, sometimes the first Friday or first Tuesday of the month. In some cities, it's referred to as "residents free day". It's worth a google, to see what's available in your area, if museums interest you.

Anyways, these free days make for great outings for me, and the opportunity to take in some of my area's wonderful cultural exhibits, without breaking the budget.

Does your community offer any First Thursday art walks, events or freebie admission?

A mid-summer bouquet and a summer collection

The lady at our church, who does the table arrangements for the fund-raising teas, made pretty bouquets of white daisies and giant violet-blue hydrangea blooms, a couple of weeks ago. I thought they were quite pretty, the white daisies adding just that pop to liven up the hydrangeas.

A few days ago, I put together my own bouquet for our kitchen table, fashioned after hers.

In the bottom of this vase, I keep my collection brown and white, washed, sea glass. Whenever I go to the beach, I look for sea glass.

I'm partial to the blues, greens and whites. I've collected these pieces, above, over the last 25 years. I keep them in a bowl on display in the living room.

I have other nature collections, from the other seasons, on display in our home, also. Collecting from nature is not only frugal, but I think trinkets from the outdoors are some of our loveliest home decor pieces, connecting us to the natural world, each time we look at them. And while these pieces of glass were once man-made. It's their life in the sea that has given them their character and beauty.

Making caramel topping to use as dip for apple slices

The apples on our early apple tree are ripening fast and furiously. I had been picking one or two at a time, directly from the tree. Then every morning, picking up and using all of the apples that had fallen in the night.

Over the weekend, the fallen apples had multiplied, significantly. I got out the taller ladder and began harvesting that tree, filling 2 drawers in the fridge with good, unbruised apples. I suspect we have enough apples for fresh, daily eating to carry us through the month of August. I can skip buying bananas or other fresh fruit, for the time being.

After some hard work, yesterday afternoon, I decided it was time for my dessert from lunch. I had thought to just make enough caramel topping to dip my own apple dessert. Remembering how much my other family members love apples and caramel dip, I decided to make a half-pint, to keep in the fridge. It really doesn't take much extra effort to make a half-pint over 2 tablespoons.

I didn't follow a recipe, but cooked some white sugar, molasses, water, corn syrup and salt in a small saucepan, until it was nearly sheeting off a spoon. Then turned the flame off, and swirled in vanilla extract and butter. (Those last 2 ingredients are what give the caramel topping it's old-time, candy store aroma.)

Anyways, a nice reward for all of the up and down on the ladder picking apples -- a plate of apple slices and some caramel dipping sauce.

For a little price comparison, 8 ounces of caramel topping costs about $1.25 to $1.50 at Wal-Mart. My 8 ounce batch of homemade caramel topping cost about 30 cents, and I got to lick the spoon!!

July 2016 Grocery Spending Journal

July 4. Dollar Tree for graham crackers to make s'mores. $1 It's not a big box, but about 9 oz, I believe, plenty enough for s'mores for all of us. As I can't find graham crackers for under $2 a lb in the larger boxes in regular stores, this is a good deal.

July 9. Coming home from a day at the farmer's market (and no, I didn't buy anything at the market, but enjoyed the atmosphere, had samples and got some good ideas), we stopped at WinCo, mostly for the bulk bin items. I bought a pound of milk chocolate chips (for making candy this week), at $3.11/lb, about 2 pounds of raisins, at $1.79/lb, about a half pound of chopped dates (to add to overnight oatmeal), at $2.14/lb, a half pound of instant milk powder, at $4.19/lb (breakfast shakes and peanut butter balls), about a half-pound of soy beans, at 85 cents/lb, a pound of raw, whole almonds at $5.99/lb (for making candy and non-dairy milk), 1/10 of a pound of unsweetened coconut (for adding to homemade soy milk, adds flavor and fats), at $3.15/lb. I also bought another 72-ct package of corn tortillas for $2.18, and 9 bananas at 48 cents/lb. I received a 6 cent credit for bringing my own bag. Total spent -- $20.69

July 9. Next stop on the highway coming home, I ran into Cash & Carry, primarily for all-purpose flour (50-lbs for $11.68), but also bought a 2-gallon box of 2% milk for $4.40, 10 lbs of carrots for $3.89, a 3-pack of celery for $1.67, a gallon of mustard for $4.19, and 12 oz of onion powder for $3.71. Spent $29.54

July 13. Dollar Tree for ketchup. I am making some sloppy joe filling for a church supper, and I was given very specific instructions for making it (no modifications to the recipe). So, while I might ordinarily make my own ketchup substitution, I couldn't for this night. Fortunately, it only cost me $1, which I think I can handle in my budget. Spent $1

Total spent for the month, so far -- $52.23. I'm doing okay for the month. We're almost halfway through and I've spent under 30% of the budget. Cheddar cheese is on sale again at Cash & Carry, so I may pick up a few 5-lb bags, later this week or next. And I need milk, always.

July 15. Fred Meyer, mostly to get milk, on sale, and pick up my 3 Friday freebies from the last couple of weeks. What I bought -- 5 half-gallons of whole milk, 99 cents each, 1 half-gallon orange juice, 99 cents, 5 bananas, marked down, 49 cents/lb, 1 lb of organic mushrooms, marked down, $2.39, 1 package of hot dogs, 89 cents, and the freebies, 1 2-liter of cola, 1 46 oz bottle of cranberry, cherry and blueberry juice, 1 Gatorade snack bar. I spent $10.11

July 21. Cash & Carry for the sharp cheddar on sale, $8.98 for a 5-lb bag, I buy 3 bags, plus 15 bananas, at 42 cents/lb. Spent $29.91

July 22.  Fred Meyer, for the coffee on sale. I find 1 can of Folgers 1/2 decaf, 1/2 regular for $4.29 on clearance, and buy 2 cans FM brand reg, a 1 can decaf, at $4.99 each. I also find organic mushrooms on markdown for $2.30/lb, and I get my freebie, a can of Mt Dew Kickstart. Spent $21.65

Total spent so far -- $113.90

July 29. This should be my last grocery shopping of the month. Went to Fred Meyer for 5 half-gals of whole milk and 1 half-gal of orange juice, all 99 cents each with coupon. Also stop by produce markdown section, and buy 2 8-oz packages of mushrooms (99cents each), and 6 red-tape bananas, at 49 cents/lb. Next I head to the meat marked down section, and buy a 14 oz package of chicken Italian sausage (5 links), reduced from $4.99 to $2.49. And finally, I go to the clearance rack in the back and find almond paste for filling pastries, 8-oz containers for $2.69, I buy 2 and will save these for a special almond-filled pastry. I also got my Friday freebie of a 17 oz bottle of peach sparkling iced tea. Spent $16.76

Total spent for the month of July -- $130.66

Coming in to the month of July I had a surplus of $239.89. Add that to my budget of $190, and I have $429.89 available to spend on food this month. I underspent by $299.23. That will be my surplus going into August, which when added to the monthly allotment of $190, will give me $489.23 that I could spend, if I find good enough deals to want to stock up.

What I bought:

Produce

2 pounds raisins
1/2 pound chopped dates
35 bananas
10 lbs carrots
3 pack of celery
12 oz onion powder
1 gallon orange juice
2 lbs organic mushrooms
1 lb whole mushrooms
46 oz bottle of cranberry, blueberry, cherry juice (Freebie)

Meat
1 8-count package of hotdogs
14 oz chicken Italian sausage link (5 links)

Pantry

1 pound milk chocolate chips
1/2 pound soybeans
1 pound raw almonds
1/10 pound unsweetened coconut
72-ct package corn tortillas
50 pounds all-purpose flour
1 gallon yellow mustard
1 bottle ketchup
2 liter of cola (Freebie)
1 Gatorade Fuel bar (Freebie)
4 large cans coffee/decaf (25 to 29 oz each)
1 can Mt Dew Kickstart (Freebie)
1 bottle sparkling peach ICE tea (Freebie)
16 oz of almond paste for baking

Dairy

1/2 pound instant milk powder
2 gallons 2% milk
10 half-gallons whole milk
15 lbs sharp cheddar cheese



Mid-month, we were given enough sandwiches and produce to last through 2 family dinners. Also, several of us attended 2 church dinners, eliminating the need to provide for those meals. Our garden continues to provide most of our produce. Every morning, I slip outside to pick an apple from the tree to have with my breakfast, and my daughters take salads and fruit from our garden in their lunches each weekday. My son still gets all his weekday lunches provided at work, gratis.

I didn't find any stellar deals on meat this past month. It's just as well, as I've got the extra freezer unplugged for the summer, and we're still using up meat from prior purchases.

In going through my supplies, I've noted that we're running low on butter. I'm down to about 9  1/2 lbs. of butter. At our regular usage, this amount will last us until the end of September. Awesome butter sales aren't found, much, until around Thanksgiving (in November for U.S.). That leaves me with about 6 to 7 weeks either without butter or having to pay a lot more for it. So, I'm having to do some sneaky things, like keeping the butter in the fridge, all of the time. And not putting the whole stick into the butter dish at one time, but only half. When it's kept out, in a dish on the counter, we seem to go through the butter much faster.  So, I just keep popping it back into the fridge, and that slows the consumption down. And by limiting how much goes into the dish at a time, it seems to nudge people into using just a little less. I know it works for me. I'm also going to return to making our own soft butter (that post, with instructions, here). Utilizing these strategies, I should be able to stretch out our butter supplies an extra month. Also, this week, Fred Meyer has butter on sale, with coupon, for $2.50/lb, limit 2. $2.50/ lb is not an awesome price. However, this week is the week with the Senior Discount shopping day on Tuesday. So, I'll take my coupon on Tuesday, and buy my 2 lbs of butter at $2.25 per pound. That will help. And I'll keep a watch on prices around town for deals on butter.



One thing to keep in mind, if your family spends a whole lot more on groceries, than mine: all 3 of my kids have their own earned money, if they want packaged snacky foods, they buy them. So, I'm not spending any money on those things. I save a lot by practically never buying prepared snacks like chips, packaged cookies or breakfast/snack bars, boxed cereal, and sugary drinks (other than a couple of bottles of juice per month). Instead, we snack on fresh fruit, raw veggies, popcorn, nuts and seeds, raisins, toast/bread, peanut butter, muffins and homemade cookies. And I've shared with you our available beverages -- iced herb tea, homemade lemonade, orange juice, smoothies, milk, black tea/coffee (hot and iced) and water. The bonus is, snacking/eating the way that our family does, is so much healthier for us.

There are times when one of my kids would like some of the packaged stuff. And they're all free to buy what they want, with their own money, or they can try to replicate the item they crave, with a homemade version. Last weekend, one daughter really wanted a milk shake, and was lamenting the fact that she didn't have lots of spare money (most of both daughters's earnings goes towards tuition). She said that if she did have more money, she'd go buy a milkshake at McDonalds (was this a hint for me to buy a shake for her? Oh well, hint not taken!). I told her how I used to make myself milkshakes/frosties with milk, chocolate syrup and ice cubes, in the blender. She tried it and was thrilled to have made a shake for herself, for free. Same daughter had a pot-luck to attend at work, on Friday. She was asking what she could bring that wasn't dessert, as there were already lots of sign-ups for dessert. She didn't want to use her own money to buy something. So she came up with a batch of scratch biscuits. And then, the other day, she really wanted a couple of cookies. Not enough to bake a whole batch, just a couple. She found a recipe online that made 1 large cookie. So that's what she did. She's learning! I'm proud of her for finding and trying ways to make a substitute for an item she wants.

It's been important to me, to not only teach my kids how to cook for themselves, but also to learn how to accept a substitute for something they might want. Sometimes, our career choices are less than lucrative, but profoundly fulfilling in other ways. I want my children to be able to live free of the pressure to have everything that everyone else has. Most of us won't get to have everything we want, and accepting substitutes is a big help towards living with that reality.


Whelp, that's it for grocery shopping in July.

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for the end of July

Friday

Chicken, vegetable and noodle skillet dinner
Fruit salad -- apples from our tree, blueberries from our garden and a banana in a dressing of plum liquid from stewed plums and homemade strawberry jam

Saturday

Homemade mushroom and black olive pizza
Fresh blackberries
Celery sticks

Sunday

Chicken soup, made with the leftover chicken and stock from Friday
Crackers and toast
Bananas

Monday

Vegetarian enchiladas, filled with rice, black beans, beet greens, garlic, onions and seasonings, topped with cheese/olives
Snow peas and carrots from our garden, raw, with homemade dip
Apple jello, made with old green kool-aid from pantry, lemon juice, gelatin, sugar, and added chopped apples from garden (apples that had been knocked off trees by squirrels. I cut off the bruises and chopped)
Blackberry cobbler

Tuesday

Leftover enchiladas
Leftover apple jello
Tossed salad
Leftover cobbler

Wednesday

Dinner at church, we had a taco bar and cookies

Thursday

Kale frittata topped with marinara sauce
Brown rice
Fresh apples, from our tree
Hot fudge pudding cake, topped with blackberry sauce (wild blackberries picked on our property)

Again, this week, I planned for an easy night, with making twice the amount of enchiladas that I normally make. Doing so gave me time to work on my knitting!

As I was watering the garden yesterday, I realized that we can get quite a lot for our meals, just here on our property, for the next 6 weeks. This should free up some of my grocery budget for stock-up items at Cash & Carry. For this month, I'm still below my budget. Of course, I still have some shopping to do later today. We'll see how I do by the end of the weekend.

On Wednesday, I worked in our church's kitchen helping to prepare the taco bar for about 100 members. I was working with 5 other ladies. It was interesting listening to them talk about some of the meals and foods they like to prepare. And it really drove home the truth that some folks cook frugally while others cook expensively. How we spend our money is an individual choice. As you all know, for me, I choose to cook frugally so that there is more money in other areas of our budget.

I hope your week went well, and you were able to keep cool. What were your favorite meals this past week? If you have a garden, what are you able to harvest right now? I'm still a few weeks away from tomatoes, but maybe we'll get green beans in a week.

Have a great weekend!

Planning for the most difficult purchase of this life

So, while I'm not exactly ancient, in years, it's time that I put aside the nonsense of living as if I'm immortal. That was fine when I was young, but planning for that most difficult expense is simply the mature thing to do, now.

Yes, I'm talking about planning our (husband and myself) funeral/burial expenses.

I won't go into what a frugal person should choose -- a pine box vs cremation, or plots with a view (who are we kidding -- whose view?) or remains scattered at sea (a lovely touch is to bring rose petals, and drop those along with the remains). But where I am in the planning process, right now, is getting used to the idea, and determining our wishes, on this.

My dad passed away in 2002. My brother, sister and I had to hastily make arrangements within a few days time. His passing came on very short notice -- diagnosed with cancer at the beginning of the month and gone by the third week of that same month. We didn't have a chance to talk about what he wanted, with him. We loved our father, so, of course, we wanted the very best of everything for his burial and memorial service. Isn't that how this plays out in most families? You want the best, so you spare no expense.

By talking about this now, and doing local research, I can let my children (they're all adults, so not talking to school-age kids about my end of life) know just what matters to me and how I want to be remembered. I'll tell you, this isn't something you can marathon your way through. I've had to do research, in small bits at a time, to prepare my mind for all of these details. But it's best to do this now, and not let the unspoken continue until the time for planning is too late.

Things that I've thought about . . .

. . . that I wish to be buried and not cremated
. . . but I do not want a viewing or embalming (which means I don't want someone putting makeup on my face for burial), and I'll wear my own clothing, thank you
. . . that I want a wooden casket and not a metal one (my box does not have to last forever)
. . . simple flowers, I don't need a large elaborate spray of flowers
. . . that I do want to be buried near our family home, so my kids can visit as they need, in the early years
. . . that I want a weekday burial service
. . . and a weekend memorial in our church (more friends and family could attend if they wish to)
. . . some music that was meaningful to me
. . . a small home reception, in the family home, perhaps using a grocery delivery service to provide deli catering trays
. . . that I'd like to help write my own obituary, now, with the possibility for updates by my children, later. I'll keep my obit with a copy of our trust documents.

And that's about as far as I've gotten on this.


What I learned in doing my research, besides caskets coming in a large range of price points . . .

. . . that there is such as thing as a cardboard casket -- who knew? And families will decorate these caskets to reflect the life of the passed family member.
. . . a large spray of flowers for the casket can cost a couple hundred dollars -- yikes! that is so not my style. I am honestly fine if my kids go to the grocery store the evening before the burial, and pick up a few bouquets to lay neatly, on the top of the casket, themselves.
. . . you can pay up to $10,000 for a plot in some memorial parks (and yes, that seems to be the industry name for cemeteries, these days -- memorial park sounds much lovelier), and a family garden (with room for several family members, a bench and maybe a small tree) goes for $150,000 in a swanky memorial park that I'm familiar with. But our local memorial park has comparatively reasonable rates of one to two thousand per plot.
. . . that Saturday burials often come with a surcharge
. . . that you can buy burial clothing through the mortuary. Um, just weird, to me. Something from my closet will do.
. . . that you can rent a casket. That sounds laughable, right? But seriously, if you plan to be cremated, you can rent a casket, for a viewing, prior to cremation, if that's your wish.
. . . and that there may be lower-priced caskets whose models are NOT on display. You need to ask about these, specifically.
. . . embalming is not necessarily required. It's pricey. You can spend close to $1000, for embalming and body prep work. The alternative is refrigeration. Minimal cost, average seems to be about $50/day.
. . . that there are lists, online, of popular music used at memorial services, and you can even find lists of the music played for the services of a few famous people (like JFK, Princess Diana). Ditto for poems and sayings/quotes.
. . . that there seems to be a charge for every single detail from death to final rest. Transportation of the body, death certificate copies, storage of the body before burial, a sealed casket (presumably to keep the elements out -- and, but why? I ask).


What I learned from my experience with my siblings, when our dad passed . . .

. . . there were so many decisions, large and small, to be made in such a short span of time.
. . . we each had our own ideas of what we thought should be done. Fortunately, the 3 of us are very good at compromise. But if we had known what my dad would have wanted, we could have saved a lot of time and energy.
. . . it was very easy to get swept away in the spending, with a thought process like "well, it's Dad's money after all, might as well go for the very best". And while the 3 of us get along very well, we have different spending/saving personalities.
. . . that while the funeral director is required to provide a list of all of the services with a breakdown of fees, we weren't in the right frame of mind right then, to take our time going over that list and find alternatives or do without some line items.


There's a huge benefit to beginning these talks now, while I'm still in good health. This difficult conversation is not charged with emotion the way it would be if I were seriously ill. And financially, planning for this right now, and talking about this with my children, will allow me time to budget and set aside money to specifically cover this expense, so my kids won't feel the financial burden when I pass.

This isn't morose. It's loving, to want to take care of my kids one last time in my life. Okay, someone hand me a tissue, please.

What I'm drinking this summer, for about a nickel a gallon

How much is a 2-liter bottle of soda? About 99 cents? How about 2 quarts of Kool-Aid? Maybe 20 cents? What about iced black tea? Plain, no sugar or lemon, depending on how strong you like it, if using 6 Dollar Tree tea bags, per 2 quarts, it would cost me 12 cents per gallon, and that's unsweetened.

I could be drinking plain water. And that would certainly be healthy. But I prefer some flavor in my water, and just a hint of sweetening.

This summer, I've been making pitchers of iced herbal tea, using the pineapple mint, spearmint, peppermint and lemon balm from my garden.

I use a large tea pot to brew the infusion. I stuff a very full handful of washed, fresh herbs (various combinations of the above), in the tea pot. Then I pour boiling water over the herbs and allow to steep. I pour this infusion into a 2-qt pitcher, add 1/4 cup sugar, and stir until dissolved. I then top off the pitcher with fresh, cold water, making 2 quarts.

The herbs are free. The sugar costs me about 2.5 cents per quarter-cup.

Would you like to hear an interesting comparison? Many years ago, I had a huge diet cola habit. I bought and drank a 12-pack of diet cola, any brand, every week. At the time, a 12-pack cost about $2.50 to $3. I was spending about $10 per month on soda, or $120 per year, just for me.

If I drink herbal iced tea, year round, my cost, at a gallon per week, would be about $2.50. That's a savings of $117.50 per year.

Knitting tips from one beginner to another

Yesterday, I showed you my first hand-made Christmas gift for this year, hand-knit dish cloths. There was a little more that I wanted to add about the subject of beginning knitting, in case one of you is also a beginner, and attempting to make these yourself. I know, many of you are much more experienced knitters than myself. In no way am I suggesting these tips would help better knitters. Just tips to help someone who is just starting out.

Avoid paying full price for your knitting supplies.
Shop sales, use coupons, and buy at thrift stores.
Michael's (the craft supply store), often has either a great coupon (50% off), or a good sale (40 to 50% off) on their yarn. Jo Ann Fabric's seems to always have a coupon out for at least 40% off, sometimes as much as 60% off.

If the yarn is on sale, but the needles I need, are not on sale, I've been able to use a high value coupon on the needles, buy my yarn on sale, and come out spending about half of retail prices. Thrift stores have a spot, usually tucked away, with needlework supplies. If you thrift much, just make a run past that section, and check out what they have, each time you're in their store. Know the retail prices for the items you might find.

If your project requires stitch markers, you don't need to buy anything.
Find a cheapo plastic straw in your kitchen and a pair of scissors. Snip off bits in 1/8-inch increments, for however many stitch markers you need. So long as your knitting needle can fit through the straw piece, this will work for a marker. Need a larger marker for really fat needles? Open up and bend a paper clip into the size marker you need.

Before you begin a project, do a sample of the stitching.
A small patch about 2 and 1/2 inches square, will be enough to get the hang of what you're trying, and a chance to change your mind, if it feels too difficult for your level. Also, at this time, check your work against an online tutorial or with someone you know who knits well. I discovered that my purl was wrong, during my last sample. Better to catch it on a sample, than at the end of the project and discover I'd done it all wrong.

As a beginner, knit in quiet.
Don't try to knit with the television on, or listening to music, or carrying on a conversation with anyone outside of your own head. Learning to knit is just like learning any other new skill. It requires concentration. You wouldn't attempt learning to drive with a bunch of distractions in the background. Think of learning a new skill as training your brain. Until your brain is well-trained in this skill, those distractions will cause you to make mistakes. And try counting out loud, if you have to. "knit 1, purl 1, knit 1, purl 1". Something about saying the words kept me on track with this pattern, in the early rows. It also guarantees that everyone will leave the room, and leave you alone to your knitting, giving you that un-distracting space to learn.

Find the "checks" in your project's pattern.
The checks are what I call how you tell if a row of stitching is on track or correct. For instance, on my dish cloths, the pattern is in an even number of rows, all the way through -- 4 rows to each section of the pattern. You know the yarn tail from casting on? Well, I know that if I'm knitting towards the yarn tail, I'm on an odd numbered row (row 1,3), and if I'm knitting away from the yarn tail, then I'm on an even numbered row (rows 2,4).

How does this help? In the pattern for the body of the cloth (not including the all-knit stitch edges), the pattern goes as such -- (row 1)K,K,K,P,K,P,K . . ., (row2) K,K,K,P,K,P,K . . ., (row 3) K,K,K,K,P,K,P,. . .(row 4) K,K,K,K,P,K,P. . .  Rows 1 and 2 begin and end with 3 knit stitches then switch to purl, knit, purl, knit, and rows 3 and 4 begin and end with 4 knit stitches, then switch to the purl, knit, purl, knit. If I know what direction I'm working on (towards tail - rows 1,3, or away from tail - rows 2,4), I can figure out where I am in my pattern of 4 row-pattern. This comes in handy when your mind wanders and you lose track of what you should be doing.

Also, on these dish cloths, if I come to the end of a row, and find I only have room for 3 knit stitches, when I was thinking I was on a row than ended in 4 knit stitches, then I know I've made a mistake along that row, somewhere. And I can fix it before I go onto the next row.

That's what I mean by the "checks" in my project's pattern. Those little details that tell you if you are on the right track or not.

Don't try to knit commando-style (this has nothing to do with going commando, that one is totally up to you).
Don't force yourself to knit for hours on end. Just knit in small fragments of time. Promise yourself that you'll just do one or two repeats of the pattern, then get up and do something else. When learning a new skill, mind-fatigue can set in, and that's when you're most likely to make a mistake.

If your knitting has a repeating pattern, try to always do your work in sections of repeat.
You will always know where to start up again -- at the beginning of the repeat. And if you do have to leave your work in the middle of a section, to say, answer the phone, write down on a slip of paper, where you are in your pattern and what to do next. And if you have to track how many sections to knit, write those down, tally-mark style, on a slip of paper, as you complete each section.

And when you make a mistake (it's not an "if" situation, all knitters make mistakes), don't give up.
Don't even unravel to the beginning and start completely over. Force yourself to make an attempt to fix your mistake. Sometimes, it will mean undoing 1 row of stitches, sometimes it will mean undoing 4 rows of stitches. If you at least try to fix the mistake, there's a very good chance you won't have to redo the whole thing. Get someone else's input on your mistake. Ask someone to help you undo it, if you need. For me, all it took was some emotional support from my daughters, when I went to undo one row. Then the next time I made a mistake, I felt confident to correct it all on my own.

You see, learning to knit is as much about learning to correct your mistakes, as it is learning the stitches. And your progress will be greatly hampered, if you don't work at learning to correct mistakes.

And this brings me to an obvious tip -- if while you're making a stitch, it feels "wrong", "tight" or something else, stop in your tracks, and look it over. 
Maybe you've not picked up the full loop of yarn, but are missing a very thin strand of it. Or maybe, you've picked up more than you should, on the end of your needle. If you stop, right at this point, and figure out why it feels wrong, you can save yourself a lot of correcting work, 10 minutes from now.

Go by measurements and not by row numbers, when working someone else's pattern.
Your knitting may be looser or tighter than the person who wrote the pattern. With my dish cloths, if I had knit the cloth exactly the number of rows specified, my cloth would have turned out to be about 8.25 inches wide by 7 inches long -- not square at all.

And her pattern had me measure to 7.75 inches long. She didn't specify how wide my 35 cast-on stitches would become, once knit. Mine came to 8.25 inches wide. And the border of 4 knit rows on my knitting was 3/8-inch long/tall, so the length of my knitting, before adding the border on the final end, should be 8  1/4 inches minus 3/8 inch, or 7  7/8 inches. Only 1/8 inch difference, but it would make the cloth not quite square. And since I do have the ability to make it square, shouldn't I try?

So, use measurements as your guide. You'll be more satisfied with the results.

And finally, take the time to do a clean job in finishing your project.
Leave about 6 inches of yarn for the tails. Weave the tails in neatly, wrapping around a couple of stitches, here and there. Try to do this in a way that is not visible to the front side. Then cut the last fraying bits of the tail, clean away. How you finish a project can make a simple dish cloth look well-done, or sloppily slapped together. It makes a difference.

And once that first project, following a pattern is complete, do another, just like it. And then another, and another. Really master that one item. You'll soon be able to make them with ease, and you will have that same basic stitch pattern down pat, to use in a future project. I'm on my way, with getting this pattern mastered. I've now completed almost 2 of these dish cloths. Hand-knit household items make great gifts, if you happen to knit, say, 10 dish cloths.


These are my rudimentary ruminations, from one beginning knitter to another.

I didn't learn to knit until I was well into adulthood. And I mostly learned from books. My daughters had the fortune to learn to knit, through their high school. Knitting qualified as a "art" class. They had a very talented knitter on staff at the school, who could walk them through large projects, helping them to correct mistakes, showing them how best to hold the needles and yarn, etc. And so, that's why they are my resident "experts" when I have a problem with my knitting.

First hand-crafted Christmas gift

Last week, I hinted a bit about making Christmas gifts. Here's the first I'll share with you.

Last year, just after Christmas, I bought this set of 2 tea towels on clearance from Williams-Sonoma (half-price, I believe). This pattern suits someone on my gift list, my step-mom (she doesn't read my blog, so no worries that I've spilled the beans).

To add to these tea towels, I'm knitting dish cloths in this sage green, all cotton yarn. I bought this yarn in 2.5 oz balls from Michael's this past week, at $1 per ball (on sale, regularly $1.99/ball). I bought 2 balls, and used about 2/3 of a ball to knit one dish cloth, following, a pattern from this blog, Creating Laura. The finished size is about 8.25 inches, square, on size 7 needles, with worsted-weight cotton yarn (Sugar 'n Cream, by Lily).

I'm a beginner knitter (still after all of these years, I've not made much progress LOL), but I was able to knit one cloth in about 6 hours. My plan is to make 3 dish cloths, with these 2 balls of yarn. If I can make 3 cloths, with 2 balls, at $1 per ball, my cost per cloth is 67 cents.

To this gift, I'll add a vegetable brush (from Dollar Tree), and several homemade, gourmet soup mixes. My step-mom lives alone, and I think some easy-to-make soup will be a perfect gift for her in winter. As I find soup mix recipes that I try and like, I'll share them with you.

A handmade gift is a gift of time, love and thought. At least that's how I feel about it.

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for a summer week

Friday

Bean and vegetable soup, w/sliced hot dogs
Cornbread
Tossed salad

Saturday

Tea sandwiches (given to us)
Tossed salad (lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes given to us)
Macaroni salad (given to us)
Grapes (given to us)

Sunday

Leftover tea sandwiches (given to us)
Tossed salad (given to us)
Vegetable and egg fried rice

Monday

Salisbury steak covered with Hunter's Sauce
Macaroni salad (given to us)
Creamy dilled cucumber salad (given to us)
Steamed carrots

Tuesday

Rice and beans, topped with cheddar
Tossed salad of lettuce, celery, black olives and shredded cheese, with homemade creamy vinaigrette
Fried corn tortillas
Stewed, frozen plums

Wednesday

Kale and onion quiche
Steamed carrots
Blackberry rustic tart

Thursday

Kale and onion quiche
Steamed carrots
Mixed fruit rustic tart


On Saturday, the girls and I volunteered our kitchen and serving abilities, again to our church's monthly fund-raising tea. After the clean-up, the lady who coordinates the teas gave us enough leftovers for a couple of night's meals. making dinner on those nights was easy-peasy.

Later in the week, I knew I'd want Thursday off from cooking duties, so I made a double batch of everything, on Wednesday. Maybe it was a bit boring to eat the same thing 2 nights in a row. But it solved the problem of how to cook when I wouldn't be home for much of the next day.

I am trying to use up my saved fat in the freezer. The ham and bacon fat is always used quickly. Next easily used would be either the chicken or the beef. The least popular reserved meat fat is the turkey fat. So, I am making efforts to use that one up. The kale quiches had such a strong flavor, anyway, with the kale and onion, that the turkey fat flavor went unnoticed. I'll be remembering that the next time I cook some kale.

My grocery bill went up by about $30 this week, and will go up again another $20. That's $50 spent, bringing me up to around $110 for the month, so far. I found sharp cheddar cheese on sale for $8.98/5 lbs. I bought 15 pounds. And I'll be stocking up on coffee tomorrow. Last week, I'd thought about buying coffee, but it was $6.99 a can at Fred Meyer, and that was more than I wanted to spend. So, I'd thought to myself that we'd just manage to get by with much, much less coffee until Senior shopping day in August, when I'd save 70 cents, at the least. Well, wouldn't you know it, coffee is on sale at Fred Meyer this week, same cans, for $4.99. By not buying any last week, I saved $2 per can. I like that! Coffee goes on sale in early fall, so I'll buy enough to get to then, and hope to find it on sale, on a Senior discount week, then stock up for winter.

I resisted going out to eat on several occasions. Yesterday afternoon, coming back from errands and a stop by the beach, I was very tempted to buy a burger and fries. Then I thought, maybe just the fries. And then I talked myself out of both of those ideas, and into a peanut butter on whole wheat, with the last of the macaroni salad, and a sliver of the blackberry tart. It was a wonderful lunch, all homemade, and didn't give me a stomachache. I'm glad I resisted the take-out.

What were the yummy things you ate this week?

So, that's it for me for the week. I'm working on some Christmas gifts. Maybe I'll give you a peek next week, if they seem to be turning out okay. Have a great weekend!