Frugal Friday-Swap Party

I admit, this was not my idea, but I am always open to great ideas. In these tough economic times, getting together for a Swap Party is a good way to obtain needed items and get rid of stuff you no longer use or need.

Here's how it works:

Everyone brings their gently used stuff to a central location. It can be clothes, shoes, kitchen stuff, books, even old magazines. The "stuff" is then displayed on tables and each person gets a ticket for each item they bring. I guess if some items are worth more, you could assign a higher ticket value, but we were very easy going about our Swap Party. Everyone looks over the items and for every item you bring, you can take home an item. This works really well if people who have similar ages of children, etc. get together to swap. We had our Swap Party last Tuesday night.

Stuff is arranged according to categories.

Checking out the goods, with tickets in hand.

If more than one person wants an item, then a drawing is held with each person's name on a ticket. The winner gets the item!

This would be a great idea for teenage girls or mommies with kiddies. One of our guests brought a ton of adorable baby boy clothes! We had scrapbook stuff, shoes, jewelry, toys and books. Everyone brings a treat to share and it's a great time. Then the rest of the "stuff" that is left over gets hauled off to DI or Goodwill-by pre-arrangement ahead of time.

It's a fun way to make the best of a tough economic time.....

Frijoles Refritos

No news flash here.

Beans are cheap.

I have canned my own jars of whole pinto beans for the last couple of years and I LOVE it! We eat beans a lot more than we used to and they taste SO much better than the kind you buy at the store. So today I'm going to share how I make EASY refried beans from my own home-canned beans. First, a blender:

This is a no brainer. I just throw the beans into the blender and let it do its magic. This is what it looks like: The end product is pretty runny. It works, but I'm going to tell you how to make it better. My friend, Maria, taught me how to do this:Take some garlic and onions and jalapeno and chop them up and saute them with a little oil, or actually a couple of tablespoons of oil....After the onions are soft, take them out and set them aside. Then throw those runny beans in the hot pan and stir.And stir, and stir......

Then something happens to the starch, something scientific which I have no idea how to explain. The beans get thick-maybe the liquid evaporates off....And then you have this:Nice and thick and creamy "refried" beans. You don't have to put in a pound of lard (although that is why the Taco Bell refried beans are so creamy and rich!) and they taste yummy! Then you can slap them on some crispy tortilla shells or in burritos, or whatever.

And then you have to make another batch because everyone loves them so much, they want more!

The Story of the 99 cent Pineapple

So, I was just driving along the road the other day, minding my own business, when I saw the sign:


Fresh pineapple-99 cents ea.


I made a quick decision that I couldn't miss out on this one, even though I was wearing old blue jeans and slippers. Quickly I went into the store (Superstition Ranch Mkt. for the local yokels) and grabbed four of those golden beauties.

How do I pick a ripe pineapple? In my opinion, you use your eyes and your nose.

First, it looks golden.
And it smells sweet.......yum!


So here's my tutorial on how I cut up the pineapple and freeze it for future green smoothies! I realize for some of you this may be old news but here goes anyway.....

First cut off the top and bottom of the pineapple.

Then cut off the crusty sides. Do your best, it's hard to cut close to the flesh and get all the skin off.

Then I cut it into quarters.

Then you have to cut that little core thing out of the center. The core is really tough on teeth and blenders (and probably the digestive system too).

Then I chop it into sections and pile it into my trusty bowl.

Shove it into ziplock bags and freeze. I have no idea if the freezer gods allow pineapple to be frozen, but I do it anyway (I'm just that rebellious!). Then I can have frosty frozen pineapple for my....

Pina colada green smoothie!

Scrumptious!

The Pantry Principle

I've wanted to share this idea for awhile but I needed to get my pantry cleaned up first!! =) I was telling my daughter-in-law about it and I realized that maybe others didn't know about it either. I learned about this years ago as a young wife from Barbara Salsbury She wrote a preparedness book that I devoured and I have been practicing her ideas ever since. (I don't think the book is still in print-but she has others)

She taught me the "Pantry Principle." It is an invaluable tool when first starting to build a food storage. It can seem so OVERWHELMING at first.

Simply defined, the Pantry Principle means to FIRST plan your meals around what you already have in your pantry/refrigerator/freezer. SECOND, check the food ads to see what is on sale to plan the purchases you could add to your food storage or to supplement your menu. This frees up a little more grocery money so that you can buy that extra can of soup or bottle of ketchup-only if it is on sale.

I think you would be surprised at how much stuff you already have available at home. After I told my daughter-in-law about this, she called me back and excitedly told me that she had enough food in her pantry to make meals for TWO WEEKS without having to go to the grocery store, except for maybe some fresh produce.

Keep doing this week after week and eventually you will be able to accumulate enough food that you'll be able to buy what you need only when it is on sale. You can go "grocery shopping" in your pantry! That's a pretty good "principle" if you ask me.

10 pounds PSI, Ham and Being Frugal

So how does the title of this post relate?

Good question. I am going to tell you.

It seems that being frugal these days is really hip.

Or necessary, depending upon the state of your personal economy.

I've found lots of really cool blogs and information on various ways to be frugal.

Some of them I really like.

Some not so much.

I've already done the cloth diaper thing.

First three kids in fact, been there, done that.

So I guess I was hip before I knew I was hip.

But I digress.

We were discussing ham.

During the holidays, ham was on sale, so I decided to buy one and then see how long I could make it last.....being the frugal girl I am.

First day, we had a lovely ham dinner with the requisite funeral potatoes.

Next day we had ham & pasta-a little dish where I throw together diced ham & pasta with a sort of semi-Alfredo sauce.

Next we had our breakfast dish that the kids like with bits of ham and hash browns and eggs.

And then using the ham bone and split peas, I made a big batch of split pea soup and scraped every last bit of ham of that bone.

FIVE DAYS! I was able to stretch that ham for five meals.

I was proud.

Then I got the brilliant idea to can some ham---(as opposed to green eggs and ham.)

So I sent a little prayer out to the heavens......

"The next time ham is on sale, I think I will buy some and make a large batch of split pea soup to freeze and then can the ham....."

Well, by golly, the heavens came through and last week I came across an unadvertised sale of very large hams at my local grocery store! Amazing! I bought 20 pounds worth, made my soup (pictured yesterday) and canned 9 pints of ham!

So I guess the point of my little post is this:

Being frugal can be fun sometimes.

The heavens really do listen and answer prayers.

Choose to be frugal in ways that work for you.

Remember I don't have toddlers hanging on to my legs every day.

So don't get depressed if you can't handle canning nine pints of ham.

Do what you can do.

Recipes? Umm, well I looked up Split Pea soup on allrecipes.com and then added my own stuff-sort of throwing in a little of this and that......sorry, but it did contain, water, split peas, hambone, dehydrated onions, poultry seasoning, diced potatoes and shredded carrots. Does that help?

Frugal Friday-A Miserable Failure

Remember This??

Homemade Laundry Soap = Not a success. (no-I didn't use pinto beans in the mixture)

I loved the smell.

It did clean my clothes.

But I got a very nasty looking film coating the stainless steel tub of my washing machine. Not a good thing. (yes, I used a few vinegar washes to see if that would help)

So reluctantly I returned back to the mega-size Gain box purchased from Costco.

{sigh}

Oh well, I tried.

P.S. If anyone out there has any suggestions, I'm still open to try again.

(Now I can delete these photos from my hard drive)