Homemaking Tips - Frugal Living

 1.  Packed Snacks.

We packed kettle corn, carrot and celery sticks, almonds, dried coconut, dried apricots, and a jug of water for our drive to Idaho last week-end.

Kettle Corn

3 Tbsp oil
4 Tbsp sugar
shakes of salt
1 cup popcorn kernels

Put oil in stir-crazy popper until it gets very hot.  Add popcorn kernels and sprinkle sugar and salt over all.  Pop until it's done.

2.  File boxes.

Organizing sans Ikea

For the past ten years, I've been keeping my teaching files in two large Rubbermaid containers,  They are bulky and heavy to move around.  I was constantly needing something out of the bottom tub no matter which one I put on top.  One day I saw an empty egg box at the grocery store and brought it home.  It was the perfect size for files, it had handles, and it was deep.  (The first time I saw a box I asked the shelf-restocker for it.  He was glad I took the box and said it helped him out.  Now I check the egg section every now and then and if a box is almost empty, move the eggs to another box and bring it home.)

Each box holds one year's curriculum.  I briefly considered covering them in contact paper, but quickly vetoed the idea and just put a piece of cardstock over the label on the side placing out.  They look orderly stacked in the top of the closet.

Easily accessible is the best part of them, but FREE runs a close second.

3.  Chicks. 

Calvin hatched this year's chicks from eggs our hens laid.  FREE is the best part of them, but cute runs a close second.

First one (by Calvin's hand) is out and you can see several others with cracks.
It never ceases to amaze me a chick can peck its way out.

A few hours later we have a little flock.  Amazing they all hatch within a few hours of each other.  (You save up eggs
for a few days and then put them in the incubator together.)  Calves need their mother to lick them dry, but chicks fluff up on their own in no time.  

A few hours later, and off they grow . . . 

4.  Stayed with family.

I mentioned what great hosts my niece and nephew were this last week when we went to Idaho.  They were better than any motel Calvin and I've ever stayed in.  While it wasn't frugal on their end, it was on ours.

My niece asked me to help her make hamburger buns, so I put an empty baked-beans can (aka bun cutter) and a package of yeast in a cellophane bag and tied it up with baker's twine as a small thank you gift for staying with them.



What is something frugal you did this week?  I'd love to hear about it.