What did you do to save $ today?

[FarmerChick]

my savings was free vs. some cash I didn't want to spend.

put up a small dog lot off the back porch.

with all fencing I had. but dog so little that it could get thru the hog panels. well being a farm we had tons of panels so I doubled them. offset 2 panels to cut the size of the holes. Now I open the back door, out goes dog and does not escape. a few t posts and twine. done easy dog lot.

my backyard is fenced but hubby took down one side cause he wants a bigger backyard. taking land from horse field...and then he tells me he is going to take down some other trees and the other side of the fence from my second horse pasture. huh....now we are talking longer time to keep dog in backyard...lol

so being he is on a long leash out the front door the bugger was starting to dig the steps. muddy. heck no that ain't happening. so I scanvanged all my panels etc and jury-rigged a fence. it is great. can't stay, but great for the 2-3 mos. hubby needs to redo fences and take down trees around my house.


I tell ya. I thought about buying small dog fence, chicken wire, posts and thought, what the heck am I doing. I got it all here. just gotta build it. LOL

sometimes it is insane what I have on this farm and what I do own to get a job done.

so momma happy mutt can go outside and be contained, off the front porch where he was digging and I can now easily leave him for hours on the back porch and know he is secure.


yea I never thought a little mutt would be such a pain but he is LOL LOL

 

[me&thegals]

DH is butchering the turkeys and spent last night packing up ground beef and venison, today breakfast sausage.

DS and his friend spent last night turning 7 lb of venison into jerky.

I'm making food today while listening to a book Love it! Making pumpkin bread from our pumpkins, eggs and flour; breakfast cereal with our own wheat, bought quinoa and chia seeds; and making soap and bath tea bags for winter sales. I love cozy days like this

 

[FarmerChick]

gal you ARE busy. good busy

my Dad loves the books on tape. what are you listening to now?

 

[me&thegals]

Hi FC A good kind of busy day

I'm listening to "Manhunt" about the hunt for JW Boothe after Lincoln's assassination. I seem to have missed history in school and am spending my adult years trying to relearn it! I usually get my books on Playaway format, or CD, but this one I accidentally got on cassette. The only cassette player being in our kitchen, I've saved it for kitchen days like today

And your dog project sounds like a big one!

 

[wooddustmaker]

Found 6 lbs of sausage at .50c/lb. Great for spaghetti sauce, chili, or breakfast. Talked with a local butcher that lives near my fiance, and was very happy with his prices. I will definately be going to see him when I have some extra cash. He also does custom slaughter, so I know who to call when I get to that point in life. Found a very nice, heavy button up shirt, and a new phone charger at the thrift store for $5.00. Had leftover bean soup, with fresh, hot beer bread for dinner. Thats about it for now here.

 

[Denim Deb]

Went in the store today to buy the noodles I needed for making turkey noodle soup. While there, I checked out the meats that were marked down. Found a pork roast that was over 3 lbs marked down by $2.00. Found some steaks that were marked down by $1.00. And, I found 2 packages of bones for making broth marked down by $1.00 each! That meant each pack was under $1.00. Onions were $1.00 for a 3 lb bag. Noodles I got for $1.00 for a 1 lb bag. I saved about 35% from store coupons and sales.

 

[kimnkell]

I found pork roasts on sale today at the grocery for 1.19 per pound... I bought 4 big roasts for about 18.00.... I will be canning them for easy supper this summer. I do most of my canning in the winter so I won't have to heat the house up by cooking or canning so much in the summer. Plus I am canning dried red beans right now as I type...getting ready to take them out of the canner... Looks like I'm gonna have about 30 pints and a few half pints to put up...

 

[hqueen13]

Just put 3 1/2 GALLONS of chicken stock into the freezer today!!!!
Mom reminded me that I can use my pressure cooker/canner without the pressure if I don't put the weight on. So we dumped a stewing chicken and the leftover bones from several other stockpots into the big stock pot, loaded it with onions, celery and carrots and filled 'er up with water. 12 hours later we've got 3 1/2 gallons of lovely stock! WAHOOO!
I am THRILLED to have this giant pot! It took just about the same amount of effort to basically triple the output. I won't need to stock for a while!!
(Next project... beef stock!!!)

 

[k15n1]

Back when I was still using dry milk I kept it on hand for convenience only; at that time, and in my area it was not cheaper than liquid milk ... or, if so, then only by pennies. I don't know, this may have changed; its been a long time. However, I wouldn't use dry milk now for any reason; even if it were way cheaper. And it was some of the members here at SS that started me on that path. There are many old threads explaining why dry milk is not a good thing; this is just one of them.

http://www.sufficientself.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=2016

Hmm... I don't find this very convincing because it lacks credible sources. But it doesn't matter and it's OT anyway. Thanks for sharing your motivation to become SS. I'm trying to remember if there was a single moment I started thinking about being more SS. Can't think of anything in particular. I kind of grew up with my parents *doing* lots of things and encouraging me to learn how to do things. This forum sorta cemented a lot of it together, though.

Back on topic, I saved money today by cooking up some potatoes I grew last summer. I stored them in the garage, which functions as a makeshift root cellar. And we had canned orange slices, which were from when I got 20 lb of oranges for 0.50 $/lb. They were in light syrup, which isn't the best, but we also ate an onion pie (also from the root cellar), canned chickpeas cooked from dry, salad greens, and green beans, so maybe the healthy and unhealthy parts equal out... come to think of it, everything came out of a jar today, even the meat broth!

Sorry, I must not have been clear. Its really not terribly important to anyone but me, however my motivation to want to live more simply, and do more for myself, was established a long time ago. What I meant here was that several SS members brought things to my attention (dry milk and its problems being one of them) which helped me along. For a long time *cheap* was my focus (and when one's income is low this is a good focus to have); during and after my DH's cancer year I found that I was more concerned with *healthy*. Now I have not only *maximum* levels, over which I will not go when buying things, but I also have *minimum* levels of quality that I will not go below, particularly as regards food. Dry milk happens to fall under the *minimum*. I have offered the information above. I find it, combined with other reading I have done, to be compelling. I have no problems with the fact that you do not.

Have you seen "Fat Sick and Nearly Dead"? It's a documentary about a guy who decided to put health first---before money. He was totally rich, so it was hard to relate. But he met some other dude, a trucker, who was convinced to put health first. Neat story. Anyway, I get what you're saying about cheap vs healthy.

Here's a related funny. We could probably post this on some thread every week!

http://xkcd.com/386/

 

[ORChick]

Here's a related funny. We could probably post this on some thread every week!

http://xkcd.com/386/

Very cute! Thanks for the link. I could really spend a lot of time there