What did you do to save $ today?

[baymule]

It is a wonderful thing to live in a little town. We are located in the middle of 3 small towns, about 8 miles to each of them. Getting to know the local business people is nice. The money you spend in your town is more likely to be spent in your town, thus benefitting more local people.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Let the new pigsters graze down the clover in the backyard. It is still weird to me to see pigs grazing, but they do. Saved me a little money in pig feed.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I hate it when it turns out that way...but congrats on selling the wine!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I had a free lunch at work...annual picnic. Good thing too cuz I spent nearly a grand on a new freezer...ugh.

 

[Mini Horses]

I made my chickens and pigs very happy with the grass clippings from the acre I mowed. Grass, plantain, dandelion, vetch, some other stuff.

Pigs ate & napped in the sun, ate again....still plenty in there. Chickens ate it & some bugs found and then spread it all on their run (where they'd scratched to nothing but dirt). Other grow out chicks loved it! Good use for it all.

Used the mower attachment (pain to do & dump) but more acceptable when it can be recycled. Weeds & seeds so, didn't want to use as mulch. Feed is better, saved $$.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Cooked up some semi-funky meat from the freezer....when I tell you that chickens are cannibals - I speak the truth, lol. Dogs had some, pigs had some but the chickens were the number one carnivores! Saved a bit of money on bagged feed for all the critters yesterday. Also boiled up about 5 dozen eggs that will go into the food chain today.

 

[baymule]

Sure makes the WORK seem more productive when we can turn the "trash" in "cash"......

And it makes it more fun to have a sheep sticking her head between my legs to be the first one to take a bite of yummy briar vines!

 

[sumi]

Sorry, but picturing that… lol

 

[DrakeMaiden]

This weekend is going to be freezer weekend. We are going to eat all the odds and ends that we have a tendancy to shove in the freezer cuz it is such a waste to throw it away.

I like that because I REALLY need to do that. SIGH.

My biggest money saving technique lately is to just not go grocery shopping as often. It helps that I limit how much cash I have on hand for a two week period. When it runs out, I'm done. There is a tendency to feel like I need this or that, but it turns out that I often can make do for longer than I imagined. Some times this means making substitutions in my cooking. Some times it just means going without. But that isn't so bad as I imagine it will be.

What I did last night was boil a big pot of water on our woodstove for bottling in our emergency water stash. I was inspired by one of the threads here. The woodstove was on anyway, so I figured it was a good use of energy.

 

[enjoy the ride]

This thread really did get me going thinking about stuff. For years I have vacuum packed things like cereal and grains- I buy in large packages and break it down in jars.
So I was doing that with my 4 lb rolled oat packages- taking the inner plastic?paper? lining bag inside the box and pouring the contents into the jars when I suddenly thought- I have this big bag in my hand and it's too good to throw out.
So I used that bag to hold my vegetable scraps til I take it out to the compost pile. At least it gets two uses before being thrown out. And how many years have I simply thrown it out without thinking.