Square Foot Gardening

Frudgal Dad makes a great point on his blog that the drought in California is going to skyrocket produce costs this year, which should inspire many people to take up growing their own. This is the case for us for sure!

I've been reading up on making a square foot garden - a way of economically utilizing space and water resources to produce three crops / square foot. Again, Frugal Dad has a great article about square foot gardening, or "SFG" as it's sometimes called. I wish his site had more follow ups from his previous year's attempt, though!

A great resource for SFG is the Square Foot Gardening website, which has videos and books about the method, as well as lots of info on how far apart to plant certain crops, etc.

Sheepishly Cheap Nursing Pads

I've been planning a sub-section of this blog to put up examples of the ways people are sheepishly cheap. Like spending big money on eating out, but agonizing over finding the most dirt-cheap hotel to stay at on a trip. Or getting fancy suits, but getting a secret thrill out of finding $1/pair socks.

This little ditty about using cut up panty liners as nursing pads would DEFINITELY qualify as a "sheepishly cheap" thing for me, since the only reason I'd do it is for a better deal, but the author, Amy Storch's reasoning is pretty sound and based not just on price, but comfort too. I learned the "panty liner" trick at the hospital this second time around - since I'd had a c-section and was there when my milk came in (you stay longer)  - I was surprised they didn't have nursing pads... until a nurse snipped up a couple of those gigunda sanitary pads and told me to stuff my bra with 'em. Pretty brilliant.

A Hip and Snappy Word on Frugality

I've already covered a few of these basics here in this blog, but Liz Gumbinner has a snappier take on them, plus a few others I haven't gotten around to talking about yet.

I'm particularly fond of her last suggestion - about not going cheap on key items like baby's first shoes. Her point? "Spending 30% more for something that lasts beats spending 100% more because the first pair wore down in two weeks."

True. That's the difference between thrifty and cheap.

Make Hay While The Sun Shines

This should really go in the "duh" department, but... it is very thrifty to buy Christmas ornaments, decorations, etc NOW, while the post-holiday sales are going on.

Also, I'm still new to the idea of having children, but I realized today while hunting for a last minute snow outfit for my daughter that I should have bought one last year during the big post-holiday sales. With children it's pretty easy to guess where their sizing will be the next year and, if they're outsized, the outfit will make a nice gift for someone.

I ended up getting something at a consignment store - another bit of thriftiness there. Reusing is great!

Play-Doh or Play-Don't?

Okay, play-doh isn't exactly one of those break-the-bank items. It's pretty cheap - something like 70 cents a can. But, here, at this blog, cheap isn't the goal - thrifty is!

Sure, it's easy to buy Play-doh, but the stuff comes in plastic tubs, is made in a foreign land, has to be shipped all over the world to get to your store... the environmental impact is fairly significant, especially since you can make salt dough for LESS (incredibly!) and it only requires ingredients you would have in your house for the most basic recipes - in other words, you're not contributing to the merchandising and shipment costs on a product you don't actually already NEED (flour, salt, vegetable oil).

Yes, Play-doh has a convenience factor - you don't have to make it. However, making the salt dough is a qualitative project that my daughter and I enjoy doing together. As she gets older, this simple little project will teach her progressive skills - math in measuring, dexterity in pouring, etc.

Here's the latest, greatest salt dough recipe I've found.

Thrifty Gifts

Everyone is feeling the pinch this year. If someone tells you they're not, they're either lying or seriously deluded.

In order to give presents to everyone on our lists, this year I made 13 pounds of chocolate almond toffee. It's remarkably easy to make, delicious and wraps beautifully in cellophane baggies that have Christmas trees on them.

I hope each recipient appreciates the love that went into making them! Besides being able to give something from the heart, we were able to give a meaningful gift to all our friends and family for a very reasonable cost.

I'll post my toffee recipe here soon!

You're not "Saving," You're "Cost Avoiding"

There's a big difference between "saving" and "cost avoiding." It's pretty thrifty to keep this in mind if you're out shopping. After grocery shopping, often times on the receipt it'll say "You saved $xx amount of money today." That's not true. What you've actually done is "cost avoided." If you put the money you cost avoided into a savings account, then you've actually saved.

Know the difference. Saving is powerful. Cost avoiding is just shuffling funds.