Blog chat

I renewed my blogging excitement thanks to a beautiful morning at Mrs. Fussypants' home. (Her directions: "You'll see a black Suburban, plastic swords and old fries on the driveway".)

Karla (Looking Towards Heaven) showed us how to take a screen shot, and Lotus (Sarcastic Mom) taught me how to add a comment link directly to this blog's feed. Sometimes these things are best explained in person.

I've also deleted the no-follow code on my template so that when you comment, your blog link counts!

Let me take a moment to ask all of you, is there anything you'd like to see more or less of here in 2008?

Tidying and repurposing

The bottom finally fell out of the basket, but it was too much good texture to throw away.

Now, a backdrop for a bud vase of wild twiggy branches.

Winter blue

After clicking through design blogs, I fantasize about replacing everything I own with vintage *modern * spare. Or at the very least, Ikea.

Then I pick up another needlepoint pillow ($1), fond once again of eclectic jumble. It's a lot of cozy for the money.

Ivy the brilliant

Between the stolen funds and sick kids, I've done almost no after-Christmas shopping. That's okay, 'cause I've stopped stockpiling as many generic gifts these days.

Ivy at Home-Ec 101 reminded us not to overlook grocery stores for markdowns, and she was right. Kroger clearanced an entire aisle of gifts and wrap, including non-holiday specific baking supplies like sets of 4 ramekins for $2.

The best part? It didn't take a separate shopping trip to scoop up a few deals.

I diverted my money to a clearance cart of artichoke hearts (.89/can) and pumpkin pie filling (.48/can)--two items I rarely find with coupons, let alone in organic form. Also picked up a couple gallons of organic milk reduced to $2.48 each.

Making a retro clearance favorite: junket.

A gift for myself

Mom and I stopped by the Goodwill after returning a snow globe to Walmart.

I took a small portion of the refund and treated myself: a cozy mohair throw ($2) and a package of Florentine paper (49 cents). Much better!

Of course, I had to dig through a bin to find the stationery, but isn't that part of the fun?

Use what you have

Since so many readers weren't sure what to serve in that Goodwill hors d'oeuvres dish, here's another idea. Armetale is not too dressy for plain old chips and salsa!

Soup delivery

I love bringing food to people going through a rough patch.

My family doesn't mind, either. They usually benefit from a better meal than I would compose under normal circumstances.

Yesterday's reduced-for-quick-sale roast and gravy was shredded into a super-size vegetable soup, delivered with yellow cornbread and fresh pineapple salad.

Taking care of business

I've been busy replacing my driver's license, opening a new checking account, and getting notarized reports of my stolen Visa check card. I'm still kicking myself for my carelessness.

On the other hand, it's a humbling, naked experience to go about with only the cash in my diaper bag. It's much easier to resist buying extras without the insurance of my debit card. Not a bad way to kick off a new financial year, is it?

While we were at the express DMV downtown, we stopped in the Tennessee State Museum. Good, free field trip for school age children, with cool Paleolithic dioramas and artifacts.

Santa's Sixty Dollars

Some of you were curious just what secondhand toys we found. I would call this a blow-out Christmas. I can already tell that Santa bought too much.

Even though I pared our toys to the bare minimum beforehand, I will likely pack half of these games away for later.

For our 18-month old: about $24 total, including the $5 Radio Flyer Horse pictured earlier.

Playmobil train set/farm set ($3) is suitable for both of them.

The big gift was a Batman LEGO set ($4) and a giant bag of Bionicles ($6).

The Castle book (.50) and building set (.69) made a serendipitous pair.

Here's the big, big stack of things to do this winter-- bringing the total to just under $27 for my five-year-old. My out-of-pocket expense was less. A $25 shopper reward at Thrift Smart made some toys essentially free.

For more budget goodness, Mama Says details how a family of 9 did all Christmas--down to the ham--for $300.

How about you? Did you keep track of what Christmas cost?

King of Kings

The big gifts

I am so grateful that our modest, secondhand Christmas is every bit as thrilling as one from Toys R Us, at least for small kids!

I lost track of how much I spent over the course of the year, but I'm sure it was less for each child than the retail value of their big gifts, respectively.

(Lest you think I am truly obsessed with blogging, I got online to send photos to faraway grandparents, so I thought I might as well share them here for the morning.)

Christmas eve

Yard sale Santas wait for hot chocolate, muffins ready for the morning...

table set for Christmas lunch with April Cornell napkins, via Goodwill...

Kids reluctantly dressed for church in festive, frugal clothes. But no one's complaining too much. It's Christmas Eve!

Homemade vs. storebought cookie dough

Last week I wrote about cheerful frugality and cutting corners, using slice-and-bake cookies as an example.

While our kids were decorating cookies, a couple of friends and I decided to test a homemade gingerbread cookie against Nestle Tollhouse pre-cut gingerbread dough sheets.

The results were close. My Gourmet magazine recipe baked a darker, crisper traditional gingerbread. The packaged dough had a softer crumb and a more complex spice flavor, with less of a molasses taste. Tastewise, we liked them both.

The homemade gingerbread cost more, with its 2 sticks of butter--but it also made almost twice the amount of dough. The half we rolled produced two baking sheets of cookies. I stuck the rest in the freezer for later.

The packaged dough was pre-cut with 24 tiny gingerbread men, making it a good choice for families without cookie cutters or simply short on time.

Out of baking chocolate squares?

I was just flipping through an early Christmas gift, the new Entertaining With Friends of Vanderbilt Children's Hospital.

A note on the sidebar gives a handy substitution for baking chocolate squares: One square equals three tablespoons cocoa and one tablespoon shortening. What a great cheap tip!

Party leftovers

One of the unexpected benefits of hospitality is having all this nice fruit and greenery afterward. The $2.50 poinsettias found a place next to my dining room palm.

(The bakery cut me a better deal, giving me just enough for two pots.)

I even used the last of my 99-cent wired ribbon.

The table runner is a long paisley scarf from Goodwill. I never quite got the knack of wearing over my shoulder, but its color looks so rich against the black table.

What to do with toothpicks

We had, oh, about 500 toothpicks leftover from the breakfast. Andrew quickly claimed them as his own, and we've been making marshmallow snowflakes all morning.

The small nativity

This '60s Italian nativity cost only $1.99. I placed it in front of a small pot of ivy with a spray of pine.

Christmas home tour

Most blogs are quiet this time of year, so if you're looking for interesting reading, let me invite you to Notes Of A Cottage Industry's Christmas Home Tour.

I have long admired Tracey's sense of style and cost-conscious furniture makeovers. She's put together 3 posts full of holiday home photos and links for you to enjoy!

Rude awakening

Yesterday morning I woke at 4:45 to prepare for the breakfast. I heard a strange dinging in the driveway. I had been loading party supplies late last night, and no doors had been left ajar on either car.

Sometime between then and 5 am, a thief snuck back in the driveway, broke the window and stole my purse, which was carelessly stashed under my daughter's carseat after a late night Kroger run.

I reported our check card stolen at 5:05, but not before the thief spent $400 at Walmart at 4:30. He also got my Tracfone, the $40 dinner-and-a-movie gift card for my husband's secretary, and about $60 in cash.

If I had not been rising at dawn to prepare food for our household and portions for my servants (ha!), the damage could have been so much worse.

I'm still heartsick that someone spent more on Christmas "toys" than we spent in the last four Christmases together. I worry that this wasn't random. Do thieves read mommy blogs these days?

It will take about a week to get the money refunded. I have to place a permanent stop payment on the 4 checks left in my wallet, and I'll be spending the day after Christmas replacing my driver's license instead of scooping up bargains.

Such is life. Onward!

Breakfast

Okay, a quick recap of the faculty breakfast and then I have to run to a family party. As usual I forgot my camera until halfway through, so you'll have to imagine the table just brimming with food.

Covered the table with a linen bedspread undercloth and a silk plaid remnant on top...

Used the outdoor pot holders for indoor poinsettias ($2.50) surrounded by greenery...
$50 worth of pan dulce went a long way sliced in halves and thirds...
Too tired to make fruit skewers...
but everyone devoured the cheese torta with pan tostada and fresh sliced bolillo. I felt like the Pioneer Woman making something with 48 ounces of cream cheese and butter!!!

(Sorry for the second publishing--the photos keep disappearing. I'll add the layered cheese recipe later this week.)

Decorating with fruit

I remember an old Oprah show where viewers complained about a budget decorating tip--a bowl of lemons. "Don't you know how much lemons cost? Who can afford to let them rot?"

Oprah retorted something to the effect of "Even I don't fill the whole thing full of lemons! Use some crumpled paper underneath and put the lemons on top!"

I'm not fond of fake flowers, but I do use wooden lemons and porcelain oranges to bulk up the bottom of my fruit bowl.

Unless it's delicate or very ripe, you don't have to hide all your fruit away in a refrigerator drawer. Pull three Granny Smiths out of the bag and line them up on the windowsill.

Making a pie tomorrow? Set two yellow lemons on a blue and white saucer. (Room temperature citrus juices better, anyway.)

Only the extravagant could buy pineapples for decorating the top of a refrigerator. But since I have to cut these for Friday's breakfast, why not appreciate a basket of gold in the meantime?

You've paid for it once--enjoy it twice!

Freshening up

If I decorate the house just after Thanksgiving, real greenery is getting dry by Christmas week.

I don't mind freshening everything up a little. In fact, it's a good excuse to change the scenery.

Now is the perfect time to polish your silver and pull out your serving pieces. In the meantime, put them to work doing double-duty for decoration!

Snacks

Now you know what I decided to do with that $3 Armetale tray!

Winter village under glass

We haven't gotten around to making our traditional winter village buildings from boxes yet.

Instead, Andrew dug through our blocks. Over the years, I've picked up an assortment of tiny wooden houses, trees, and animals. I frequently spot them in free boxes, grab bags, anywhere small pieces go to die.

Hip hip hooray for toys which do double duty!

Arranging them in an inch of sugar snow was so much quicker than last year's project.

Simple Dollar abandons ads

A note of support for Trent at The Simple Dollar, who just removed all Google ads because of ethical conflicts. Since Trent has over 20,000 subscribers by feed alone, this was no small decision.

Like Merchant Ships has a no-ad policy for similar reasons. I feel uncomfortable showing you how to save money and--at the same time--encouraging you to buy.

Circumstances may change, but for now, I feel good about this choice.

Quick gifts of green

My husband needed some personal gifts for work, so I put together a few bowls of greenery.

The bases are wooden bowls I gathered for our authentic Thanksgiving lunch (25 cents apiece). A small square of Oasis in each holds clippings from our yard.

We didn't have any red berries this year, so I wound pieces of a berry garland around twigs for interest. I still have most of the 99-cent strand left.

I made two feminine groupings with one bunch of yellow roses from Aldi ($3).

I left two masculine with stronger notes of pinecones and yew.

They don't look perfect, but they smell great. I hope the recipients enjoy this little bit of nature on their desks or tables!

How often do you shop?

Q: I am AMAZED at the deals you find, and I know it's because you are always on the lookout and seem to have a good game plan in mind; you seem to know what your needs/wants are, so when you see something that fits the bill you know you ought to buy it.

I usually do the scatter-shot method which is not nearly as efficient; I buy things that appeal to me and later realize I have no need or use for them, and then give the Good Will an extra bonus by donating my purchase back to them. So, reading your latest find made me wonder, how often do you shop at garage sales & thrift stores?

A: I shop once a week on average--even if it's only a five minute walk through the neighborhood thrift store.
In the summers I like to yard sale with my mom on Saturday morning. Occasionally, when I'm on the other side of town, I pop in a thrift store that's close to the errand.

Most of our thrifts charge $3-$4 for a woman's shirt and $1.99 for children's clothing, just as a point of reference, with 1.99 being the starting point for most housewares and linens. There are smaller, church-run shops in some areas which still price the odd item at a quarter and may hold "everything you can put into a bag for $1" sales.

Otherwise, my best deals come from thrift stores' sale days or clearance tag colors. I rarely look at items which are not on sale.

Sad day when the thrift store is too expensive to shop full price, isn't it? Lucky for us, even things like that Armetale platter go half-price eventually...and other shoppers had 3 full days to buy it half price before me.

It's all a matter of eyes!

Handsome prints for the study

Are you as ready for a non-holiday decorating post as I am?

This group of historic prints at Opryland was like a breath of fresh air. I snapped a photo for future reference but thought you all might also enjoy the view.

My husband and I enjoyed the mix of frames and subjects: President Andrew Jackson, an antique Tennessee map, an engraving of an old tree, and three ornithological prints.

Perfect for a handsome study, a similar group could be assembled from yard sale finds and old book illustrations in secondhand frames.

Blurred

I'm going to remove the previous post because I don't like seeing my own grouchiness every time I visit here.

Bit by bit, I'm learning to let go of the perfect Christmas. One day I'll miss that blur of red, even if she didn't make for the ideal portrait!

Maple sugaring

Apparently, we're testing if it can be done this far south.

That's what I get for taking away the lead-tainted toys: now he gets his own hammer from the toolbox and finds a McDonald's cup in the ditch. Great.

Score!

My heart fluttered when I saw this sign at my neighborhood grocer. How crazy is it to be excited about an extra orange per dollar?

Since I just calculated fruit cost for my breakfast, I knew my price to beat was 25-cents, or the approximate cost of each orange in the "8 lb for $5" special.

This surprise deal saved me $2. Since I was able to select each orange by hand, I also saved myself the one or two rotten fruits I've come to expect in a big bag.

Don't laugh at my glee! I can now budget for two more pineapples, which are 99-cents at Aldi this week.

Added side bonus: The produce manager let me keep these handy foam trays. Santa will be slipping one in my husband's drawer to organize all his socks!

Cheap Christmas cupcakes

Peek at Mod Girl's tiny sugared Christmas tree cupcakes. I love it when amazingly natural and amazingly cheap align!

When to ditch the VCR?

The car's still sitting in the driveway, and now the VCR has joined it.

Hence the great debate: replace the VCR, or move into the modern age with DVDs only?

I prefer the slim profile of our tiny DVD player, but we have about 20 old VHS tapes collected for their educational value.

Do I dare?

I found this Wilton Armetale shell server in the case at Goodwill. Originally marked $6, it had been sitting half-price for three days before I grabbed it for $3.

Of course, I'd really like to keep it for myself! It retails for $40 on sale.

When I noticed its pristine condition and original paper tags, though, I wondered if it was suitable for a wedding gift. It has clearly never been used.

I could fold it neatly in white tissue and slip it in a gift box.

Our "real gift" is providing brunch to the bridal party on the big day, but I had planned to purchase a modest--and more permanent--gift as well. She is registered at Target, not a department store.

Am I the only one who's so fond of this no-polish servingware? Or would another bride send it right back to Goodwill?

Attractive toy storage

Did you see Mrs. Fussypants' WFMW tip? She transforms a plastic storage bin with fabric remnants.

Errand day

It looks like one of our cars has died--the same week my husband's boss has injured his back. Crazy all around.

The Sunday School class is handling meals for the family, but my husband's team needed to send a Get Well gift as a matter of courtesy. 4 people contributed $4 each for a total of $16.

I assembled the best snack and fruit selection available in fifteen minutes, choosing items which were nonperishable and sugar-free. I really felt God leading me as I raced through the store, sales flyer in hand:

two bags of organic chips for height ($2), 3 Campbells Select Soups ($4), mixed nuts ($2.50), rye crisps ($1), Laughing Cow cheese ($2.50), 6 individual sugar-free applesauce cups ($1), two packages of trail mix ($1), 4 oranges ($1) and 4 pears ($1).

Don't you hate how gift baskets are often half empty? Yet, you do need something to lift the base, or else everything settles at the bottom.

Instead of filler, I layered a package of paper plates and napkins across the bottom (25-cents from yard sale). Six applesauce cups elevate and cushion the fruits. A bundle of greenery adds color to the handle.

Fruit math

This platter of papaya and melon cost only $1.49 at the Fiesta E-Mart (and included about a third more before we started munching!).

I had Googled in vain until Tamara mentioned chile-sprinkled fruit in the comments. Buying a few of these packages would be even cheaper than whole tropical fruits to cut myself.

Now for the word problems! How many 8-lb bags of navel oranges should I buy, at $5 per bag?

Each bag contains about 20 oranges, with an average of 5 cut slices per orange = 100 orange slices. Two 8-lb bags would give me plenty of insurance, with leftovers to eat at home.

So, $6 in cut fruit plus $10 in bagged oranges would leave me $4 extra to put toward some kind of savory, layered cheese torta to serve with cut bolillos.

Mexican decorating without the pinata

The setting: a small, windowless conference room with a fluorescent lights and a table too big for regular cloths.

The challenge: make it festive without referring to Christmas in particular. I'll be serving people of every faith in an environment that's not my home.

What do you think about using the pastries as a Mexican inspiration? (Several of you beat me to the punch in the previous comments!)

No burros, sombreros or pinatas allowed!

By buying the pastries, I leave myself almost no budget for decorating. I don't even think I can spring for poinsettia plants.

Perhaps that's not a bad thing--large, sculptural paper poinsettias might seem less traditionally Christmas. I'd rather have a subtle nod to the season and to Mexico.

Colors? I'm thinking lime green, yellow and a rosy red. The room is painted light blue with slate blue chairs.

I'll have to find a bright woven fabric remnant to throw across the table. I could line baskets with bright tissue paper, or make some kind of tin-punched containers for tea bags and coffee stirrers.

All suggestions and special touches appreciated! Especially the music--right now all I can think of is Feliz Navidad. Any recommendations for a classical guitar CD or something instrumental, yet upbeat?