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New frugal mamas thread?

post #1 of 97
8/29/04 at 1:55am
Thread Starter 
Anybody up for it?

Actually I just needed an excuse to brag about my find o'the freaking decade: an opera-length strand of vintage faux pearls. They're glass, so heavy! and the luster is just gorgeous. I keep running them through my fingers to watch the light play on them Guess how much I paid? A DOLLAR. I am so jazzed! Now I just need an excuse to wear them! They'd look gorgeous with the black velvet dress from Goodwill I've never worn either ... :LOL

But we found more practical things this weekend too: a glass pitcher (to replace the plastic one we kept our OJ in), some good cheap CDs, a Rodale Press Encyclopedia of Natural Remedies, lots of textured, cream-colored fabric to cover my nursing chair with, a pair of comfy boots that should fit ds just right by cold weather. Our friend Jim took home a wooden filing cabinet the seller said *he* bought from the Milwaukee Railroad Co. Total wad blown, about $20.

Anybody else finding good stuff this weekend?
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post #2 of 97
8/29/04 at 2:27am
Last weekend I found some Lodge brand cast iron skillets, an 8" and a 10" for 5$ at a garage sale. I am totally excited by that. And a nightstand for ds's room for three dollars. We sanded and painted it and dh made a drawer for it, and it looks great!!!
post #3 of 97
8/29/04 at 6:44pm
Thanks for starting a new one. I was thinking of doing the same for the new season
We had kinda a dissappointing yardsaling day. A couple neat kids books, a kid bike that needs some elbow grease, blah, blah. I just get so bummed when I drive the stinkin 45 min. just to get into town (which means getting the kids dressed and fed at very early hours) and there's nothing great. One YS did have lots of great HC Waldorf-ish kid's books but she wanted too much for YS books, so after trying to talk her down for a few minutes, I just scowled and left. darn! Hopefully I can find what thrift she donates them to!

Well, I'm trying to stay motivated today to can pears. I've done 6 jars, and sorted out all the other ripe ones that can be put up today. OT: I just went to the bitty-wee grocery near us to buy vinegar to help the pears not darken, and the didn't have it! WTH? What kind of farm-town country grocery store doesn't carry vinegar! :

BTW~ I'll go plug this thread on the older Frugal mamas thread
post #4 of 97
8/29/04 at 7:16pm
No yard saling today, but through freecycle this weekend, I have a twin bed for my ds, (just need to find a twin futon mattress and sheets), a microwave for my dh's job so he can bring warm ups to work and not spend 5-7 bucks a day on mall food and my best "find" - 3 awesome kitchen chairs that I am so in love with. My next kitchen table needs to work with them not the other way around. LOL.

I am in the middle of an afgan I am crocheting for a wedding present. Most of the yarn is from yard sales and the orphan bin at the local yarn shop. This wool and mohair jobby could have cost me me more than $200 bucks in materials, is costing less than $50. Now I just need to keep at it despite the heat and hopefully not break my heart when I give it up. It's just gorgeous. It needs to be done on the 11th so back to work.
post #5 of 97
8/29/04 at 11:03pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by dready*mama

Well, I'm trying to stay motivated today to can pears. I've done 6 jars, and sorted out all the other ripe ones that can be put up today. OT: I just went to the bitty-wee grocery near us to buy vinegar to help the pears not darken, and the didn't have it! WTH? What kind of farm-town country grocery store doesn't carry vinegar! :

BTW~ I'll go plug this thread on the older Frugal mamas thread
I learned this trick from my mom. To prevent fruit from darkening crush 6 tablets of 500mg. of vit. C per gallon of water or, of course, you can use fresh lemon or lemon juice concentrate.
post #6 of 97
8/30/04 at 12:30am
yeah, I went ahead and bought the little bottle of ascorbic acid to prevent darkening (this at the store that doesn't carry vinegar! - can you tell I'm having issues with this?). When I brought it home, I also realized that I could have probably just crushed up some vitamin C's! Oh well, maybe next time.

Does anyone know what to do when you've processed something and one or two of the lids don't seal? Is there a fix-it or should I just stick it in the fridge and use it up?
post #7 of 97
8/30/04 at 12:53am
Quote:
Originally Posted by dready*mama
Does anyone know what to do when you've processed something and one or two of the lids don't seal? Is there a fix-it or should I just stick it in the fridge and use it up?
If you're cold-packing then you can try processing again. Might want to take off the lid and wipe clean and then tighten or even replace the sealed lid. I've had good luck with this. If you're hot packing then it's recommended that you take everything out of the jar, reheat jar, lid and contents and process again. That's not worth it to me so I pop it in the fridge and save for next little mouth that's hungry.

Enjoy!
post #8 of 97
8/30/04 at 12:59am
No vinegar? Whaaaa? Maybe vinegar is more common here, but even 7-11 carries it.
My frugal move of the week is a literal one. We are moving back home where houses are cheaper, rent is cheaper and the people are nice. Yay!
post #9 of 97
8/30/04 at 10:34am
no ys here this past weekend
post #10 of 97
8/30/04 at 5:14pm
Ooooo!! I love this thread!!
Over the weekend I got a safety first booster chair for free. It is actually the 2nd free one I now own b/c I guess they don't sell at garage sales and people put them out for trash the next morning. Both are in good condition.
post #11 of 97
8/30/04 at 5:22pm
hi frugal mamas

I can't remember if I joined the last thread, but I try to spend as little money as possible. One thing I have been working on this summer is cutting down on the AC use. We have an old one that is less energy efficient than newer modles. In fact I'm going to go turn it off now :LOL

My most recent cheapskate discovery is bathing the kids like this: have them stand up in the tub (with no water), fill the sink with water, and use that to bathe them buy pouring it over them. I was able to wash my 2 year old with two (small) sink fulls of water and my 5 year old with 3 sink fulls, and my baby with 1 sinkful. Together this is less water than I used to use on a single bath for one of them.
post #12 of 97
8/31/04 at 11:10am
Thanks for pointing me here, Dreadymama.
My latest "good deal" was the living room suit my mom got at an estate sale/auction over the weekend for $35. (It's grown more and more on me for those who know my woes over the color!) I have my eyes open for some different throw pillows now is all.
post #13 of 97
8/31/04 at 1:39pm
Glad you found us!
Meowee~ Good thoughts for the bathing! Although my kids are so into water right now, they absolutely adore tons of water in the bath. But what we've started doing recently is for me to take a shower with the boys in there, too. I point the shower head nearly straight down, put the pressure on minimal, so it's just kind of dribbling out, and put the stopper in. It helps me take much shorter showers, and the boys are cleaner than ever (not that I'm proud of it, but before we started doing this, they were only getting bathed - at most - once a week). And it solves my 1yo screaming every time I take a shower b/c he wants to always be with me.

Alright, he's a question for everyone to ponder. What kind of (frugal, of course) gift do you give a 21yo college girl? This is my SIL. Last year we sent her a box with homemade cupcakes, a store-bought (on sale, of course ) tub of frosting, a plastic knife, a little baggie of sprinkles, and a candle; for a do-it-yourself b-day cake sort of thing. She seemed to get a kick out of it. But this year, I don't know. We made a card, and now I just have to figure out the present part! HELP!
post #14 of 97
8/31/04 at 1:59pm
As a college student, I always looked forward to my folks' monthly-ish care packages. They used real popcorn in baggies to pack stuff. My floor-mates would swarm on my room for the popcorn, cookies, twinkies and whatever else my parents saw while grocery shopping. I bet something along the line of the cupcakes would be great...
post #15 of 97
8/31/04 at 2:02pm
Ha! Dready Mama, I need the same thing for my sis who turns 21 next week.

My mom's neighbor moved and my mom bought a bunch of kid stuff from her for my DS. We got

a little tykes pinic table

a child table with 2 chairs from IKEA

2 more little plastic garden chairs

a wooden bead toy from IKEA

a twin mattress from IKEA

three storage dressers for toys

a scooter

a kiddie pool

I also got some hand me down clothes from my new SIL for my DS. It was a good weekend

On the bad side I did something dumb and not so frugal. I bought The Tightwad Gazette twice! I bought it from buy.com and later the same day I won it on ebay. Well, my friend said she'd buy a copy from me. That's good, but annoying that I did that. I still loose the money I pay for shipping. :
post #16 of 97
8/31/04 at 6:42pm
I haven't been to a yard sale in a while - we should really have one of our own . . .
I did get a free little tikes climber for my DD from Craigslist. Every time I check the local freecycles it's all spam or wanted postings

Oh yeah and I got a great deal on some Mother ease cloth diapers on ebay.
post #17 of 97
8/31/04 at 10:29pm
Hey now- why are y'all talking about buying things?

In The Circle of Simplicity, Cecile Andrews recommends that we ask ourselves a series of questions before making a purchase. Here is a Universal Shopping List, drawn in large part from Dr. Andrews’ work, to help consider purchasing decisions:
Do I really need this? Is there anything I can use instead?
Will this item bring enjoyment and beauty into my life?
Will it benefit others?
Will this item help me to engage in life more fully?
Is the cost of the item worth the time it takes to earn the money to buy it?
Could I buy it used? Borrow it? Rent it? Share the purchase with someone else?
How will this purchase affect the environment?

I'm sure many of your new possessions meet these criteria, but remember- buying stuff for cheaper is still buying stuff!
post #18 of 97
8/31/04 at 11:09pm
I think most all of our purchases meet those criteria. We're talking about buying things b/c this thread is set up to help mamas make the most of their money. Alot of these things are free or practicly free, so I don't see any problem with acquiring them. I like to live comfortably and not be in want, kwim?

Mermommy~ What's craigslist?
post #19 of 97
9/1/04 at 1:15am
Quote:
Originally Posted by dready*mama
I think most all of our purchases meet those criteria. We're talking about buying things b/c this thread is set up to help mamas make the most of their money. Alot of these things are free or practicly free, so I don't see any problem with acquiring them. I like to live comfortably and not be in want, kwim?

Mermommy~ What's craigslist?
I agree with your response to the previous poster. While I'm sure we can all aspire to be non-consumers I didn't think that was what this thread was about. Many of the listings are about people reusing items that others are throwing away - this helps just about everybody in the equation.
The list could be handy for limiting purchases and may in fact be used by some of the others posting here but it seems that it was meant to be more of an admonishment then a helpful idea and honestly that was uncalled for.

Craigslist is a free classifieds list - it's set up for various large cities so it isn't available everywhere. craigslist.org is the main site ( for san francisco) the other cities are linked on the right.
( just a note - I have no affiliation with the site I just read the local posts.)
post #20 of 97
9/1/04 at 9:14am
I don't think srain was trying to be rude in any way. I can see what she is trying to say. With risk of making someone mad I will say that when I started reading this list I was a bit confused and disappointed. It seemed to be the only thing posted was how everybody went to YS every weekend and bought stuff for really cheap. I thought great you can find stuff for cheap but it's still shopping and spending money. I read it to be kind of like a contest of who could get the most for cheapest. Now that can be a pretty cool contest and we all love getting deals, but I felt a bit out of place because I don't even have the money to spend at YS. I can't go YSing every weekend, heck I can't even find the money to go YSing once in six months. I know someone who will buy something just because it's on sale or a great deal but they don't need it or have use for it. Until I lurked on the list longer did I see that posting about great deals is a part of the list but not the whole list and that the mamas here are resourceful and not wasteful.

I just posted about all the cool stuff I got from my mom this past weekend because I didn't spend a dime and I wanted to express my joy with everybody. Now I know that's why people post about their good finds. It's just about sharing our excitment.

I love to hear about others frugal ideas and I see those posted as well. I guess when I first found this list it was mostly about YS because and that just happened to work out that way. Now I know that's not all this thread is about and I love coming here for cool ideas.