Viggies Veggies

Frugal Friday – Jars

I’m learning to be more green and frugal by saving food jars to use as storage.  This will make it easier to keep hardware and etc for reuse that I’d normally throw away. And being better organized is never a bad thing.

Luckily one of my first finds was an asparagus jar wide enough to fit used canning lids to reuse for dry storage.  I’ve also already started jars for screws, collected juice singles, and change.  I sorted out my “junk drawer” type items this week, so I have them ready for jars as they become available.

Frugal Friday – Thrifted Clothing

I really hate spending money on clothes. I’ve always had a very small and functional wardrobe for that reason. So thrifting is one frugal thing I took to very easily. I’ve found some lovely things over the last couple years, some still with tags on, reselling for $1-4 dollars each.

Now that my well worn work clothes are wearing thin and starting to rip, I’ve been looking high and low for long skirts for most of the year to replace them. They are amazingly hard to find! I even checked the pricey clothes stores to no avail. I usually go to Goodwill for my secondhand things, but I finally bucked up and visited the ratty looking Salvation Army near me. Well, it was ratty…but they had some wonderful clothing and a whole rack of long skirts. It sent me on a shopping spree. I got myself these 4 outfits for $19.63 Since I haven’t found long skirts in to long I also picked up the other 3 nice ones they had in my size for $3 each.

Frugal Friday – Craigslist

The only place I’ve ever been on craigslist is the local freebies section. I’ve recycled moving boxes on there and weeded out my excessive craft supplies by giving away boxes of goodies. Someone really made out when I gave up trying to figure out the Sweater Machine and gave that away. I’ve also picked up a few things in return.

I’ve been using lanterns and candles more often around the house for light (and a little added heat), so I was excited to get this offering for oil lamps and oil recently. Free supplies and free light for a while

Frugal Friday – Powdered Milk

I love powdered milk.  Weird, I know.  But powdered milk is great in a lot of ways.  It’s cheaper than fresh milk.  I can mix up exactly what I need so I don’t have bottles going bad on me before I can finish them.  It’s excellent in recipes and means I can make homemade convenience mixes for more things…like cream soups.  And if I chill it over night, I honestly doesn’t taste different than fresh to me.

I started keeping powdered milk around a few years ago as a money saver.  It was convenient for cooking and a good fallback for weeks I decided the budget would look better without grocery money.  But as time went on I stopped picking up fresh entirely and have been using only powdered for at least a year now.

I still use it mainly in cooking, but every once in a while I go through a cereal phase.  So as I was mixing some up for the weeks cereal I thought of you and took a picture to share the moment.

Frugal Friday – Compost Crock

One thing I always drooled over in catalogs is those fancy looking compost crocks. They are supposed to keep your scraps smell free until you can take them out to the compost pile. But in the end, I decided to go the frugal green route. I reused this large margarine tub, and just keep it in the fridge to keep everything fresh until I’m ready to dump it.

Frugal Friday – Electricity Usage Update

Just wanted to update now that the new electric bill arrived.  It dropped from 454 last month to 269 kWh.  Mostly to due with cooling season being over, to be sure.  But I was surprised to see how little I actually use around the house.  Now it’s time to improve on that!