Last night the January issue of “The Imperfect Homeschooler” went out to all subscribers. If you’re not a subscriber, you can check it out here.
This month’s lead article is the first in the Back to Basics 2010 series; it’s called “Kids and Cooking.” Let me know what you think!
(PS…..Just three days left on the Buy One, Get One Free sale…..don’t miss out!)
With four kids and eight nieces and nephews, we’ve wrapped a lot of Christmas and birthday gifts over the years. Wrapping big gifts and small ones leaves lots of odd-sized scraps of gift wrap, which eventually get wrinkled while stored and eventually thrown out.
So why didn’t I think of doing what home management expert and mom-of-five Deniece Schofield does? She cuts up some of her rolls of gift wrap! For instance, she cuts a 30” roll of gift wrap into two rolls, one 18” and one 12”. Then she stores them in empty aluminum foil boxes to keep them unwrinkled and to make them easy to use.
I can see using the 12” paper for wrapping DVDs, the 18” paper for books and puzzles, and saving the full-size rolls for the big gifts. Super idea!
Of course, I’m not surprised, because Deniece Schofield is one smart mom. I have one of her early books, but it looks like I need to get up to speed because I’m missing out on some great tips. Here are her top-selling books:
After so many years of reading homemaking tips in books and magazines, and later on at websites, I thought I’d read them all. But this week I stumbled onto two tips that I’ve never heard of, and now I wonder why I never thought to do them? They make so much sense!
The first tip is in this beautiful cookbook I’ve been reading called Organic and Chic: Cakes, Cookies, and Other Sweets That Taste As Good As They Look. (Seriously, it’ll give you a sugar buzz just flipping through it.)
Author Sarah Magid shares this tip along with her brownie recipe:
I like to be resourceful and eco-friendly by covering the bottom of the brownie pan with butter wrappers, butter side up. (Save butter wrappers by placing them in a plastic freezer bag whenever you go through butter sticks. Simply defrost when you’re preparing your pan.)
Later in the book, she elaborates a bit:
They make the perfect coating because they’re already covered with a thin film of butter. Just fold each one in fours and snip the corner off in a rounded shape and place it in the pan, buttered side up. It will open up into a round that’s perfect for smaller pans.
Ever since I learned about what’s in margarine, I’ve used butter for all of my baking and cooking, so I know I could amass a nice little stack of butter stick wrappers fairly quickly. And using them in baking pans would save money on parchment paper. Again, why didn’t I think of that?
By the way, did I mention that this is one gorgeous cookbook? Her cakes are works of art. Those concerned about the sources of their food will appreciate the fact that she bakes with only organic ingredients, and shares her sources for them as well as for her equipment.
I’ll share the other great tip next time 🙂
I thought of one more reason why I’m frugal. It’s because I see being frugal as a way of earning money without going to work.
For many years I homeschooled and raised kids and did not earn any money. But I viewed the money I saved by living frugally as being like pay: every dollar deducted from the store receipt total because of a coupon or a sale price was a dollar I had earned through my efforts at finding the best price.
As a bonus, it was money I earned without having to pay tax on it. (When wives going to work full-time first came into vogue, one of the criticisms of the concept was the fact that the second income often pushed a couple into a higher tax bracket. I was a newlywed back then, and that knowledge made an impression that never left me, I guess.)
I’ve also been conscious of the sliding scale between income and expenses. Back when I only had two children, I stumbled upon a job opportunity that allowed me to work at home as a writer and editor. The company I worked for gave me as much or as little work as I wanted.
At first, I took on as much as they would give me, thinking I could make a nice side income. But what I discovered was that the more I worked, the less time I had to make meals, thus driving up what we spent on pricy frozen entrees and restaurant food. I also realized that I was spending money on treats and toys for my kids because I felt guilty that I sometimes parked them in front of the television in order to make a deadline. I began to notice a trend: the more money I earned, the more money I spent.
I had to find a balance between earning enough money and saving enough money. So, where was the happy medium?
I never found out, because I had another baby and had to give up the job. Great way to solve that problem 🙂
These days, I still prefer earning money without going to work. We have a publishing business, so I can continue to work at home, and I decide how many projects I want to take on, i.e., how much I want to work. I divide my day between homeschooling our youngest, working on the business, and continuing to be a frugal homemaker. The ideal mix of those things is something I haven’t figured out yet. But one thing I know for sure: I enjoy the challenge of living frugally.
Lately I’ve been sharing some of the ways I try to be a frugal homemaker. Frugality is coming back in style now that the economy’s in bad shape again.
Yet I’ve heard criticism of frugality from some surprising sources, even from a few Christians who believe that being frugal ignores the reality that God is very generous to us, and that “there’s more where that came from,” so why try to make things last longer?
Most frugal people will tell you that while they do want to “stretch a buck,” being frugal is also something they do on principle. I guess my frugal streak comes from both principle and background:
I think being a good steward of your resources means letting nothing go to waste, if possible, and using what you have wisely instead of wasting it.
I’ve seen how hard my husband has worked all these years, and tried to make his pay last instead of spending it frivolously on things we didn’t need. Besides, six people living on one income is in itself a motivating factor!
I was raised by parents who grew up during the Depression. We weren’t poor, but we didn’t have any extra money lying around. I learned to maximize what I had and not to waste anything.
How about you? If you’re frugal, why? And if you’re opposed to frugality, why? I’d love to know how other people feel about it.