Expecting Wonders: How to Test Your Seeds Before You Plant

I'm not the most organized of people. I'm sure there are gardeners out there who have their packets of seeds in special containers, organized into groups, stored at the perfect temperature, and everything is carefully labeled.

Honestly, I'm just glad that my seed packets are located one in place for a change.

The problem is that with this jumble of packets of seeds, it's easy to lose track of what I've got. There are folded up packets at the bottom, the leftovers from a few seasons ago. There are seeds in a zipper bag with only "Swiss chard" written on it. I have tomato seeds I saved from the yellow heirloom ones my mom grew -- seeing as it's my first time ever trying to save tomato seeds (I always just bought tomato transplants until last year when I grew tomatoes from seed), I've been a little worried that I messed up and they won't work. And even the seeds that are still in their packets from last year, I still wonder if they've been store correctly and if they're still viable (some seeds, like spinach, are called 'short-lived seeds' and are considered to only be good for one season).

Frugal gardener that I am, I just can't bring myself to throw out the seeds in question. There's so much potential in those little seeds. At the same time, I don't want to plant them and waste time with seeds that aren't going to grow. What's a frugal, sometimes disorganized gardener to do?

Test them. Testing for seed germination is so easy and takes only a couple days (a week at the very most) to do.

To test your seeds, you only need four things: seeds, paper towels, plastic zipper bags, and water.

Moisten the paper towel -- the towel should be wet (not too dry but not dripping, either). Put ten seeds on that paper towel, being sure to space them out.

Why ten seeds? It gives you a better idea how viable the whole package is. According to a post I read about seed germination, if 9-10 seeds sprout, plant your seeds as the packet instructions direct. If only 8 sprout, you've still got a pretty good chance they'll work out. If you get only 6-7 seeds to sprout, you may want to sow more seeds than directed as a back-up. If you get five or less seeds sprouting, buy new seeds.

Fold the paper towel over the seeds, then fold again. Put the folded paper towel into a zipper bag; seal it only partially. If you are testing out multiple seed varieties,  it's a good idea to label the bags.

Put the bags in a warm and sunny location (though not in direct sunlight) for a couple days. If the paper towel starts to dry out at any point, re-moisten it (I used a spray bottle).

After two days on my countertop, my peas looked like this:

Some were further along than others, but they were all starting to sprout. I'm planting my peas (including the ones I used in my test) this week!

If your seeds don't sprout in 2-3 days, don't give up! A few of my seeds (like the Swiss chard and spinach) took a little longer; the tomato seeds I'd saved from last year took about a week for one to even start sprouting (most of the others followed soon after).

Maybe this is the over-zealous gardener in me talking, but seed testing is fun, good for the soul even --especially at this time of year. It's exciting to see life return, even if it's wrapped in a paper towel, after the long winter months. It reminds me of that wonderful and oh-so-true quote from Henry David Thoreau: “Though I do not believe that a plant will spring up where no seed has been, I have great faith in a seed. Convince me that you have a seed there, and I am prepared to expect wonders.” 

{This post is linked up to Homestead Barn Hop, Your Green Resource, Simple Lives Thursday, and Little House Friday.}

I Made Laundry Detergent! (Again): Easy Homemade Liquid Laundry Detergent

Back in 2010, I made laundry detergent for the first time. I felt so self-sufficient and pioneery. I was amazed that it worked!

Then I stopped using it.

This was due to one factor: I was pregnant. I had made a big batch of detergent using Dr. Bronner's lavender soap and it worked fine. However, as my pregnancy progressed, the smell of lavender made my stomach turn like crazy (probably from grating all that lavender soap during my first trimester). Every time I pulled the container of laundry powder off the shelf and took off the lid, I felt like throwing up. But I couldn't put it in the trash and start with a different scent -- no way was I going to waste a bar of that soap!

So, yeah, it didn't get used for the rest of my pregnancy and once the baby was here, I still didn't use it. I was already getting the detergent at the store for the cloth diapers (I'd read mixed things about using homemade detergents on cloth diapers and didn't want to deal with that). Plus, I was so exhausted and overwhelmed that I just took a break from making detergent. I needed less on my list of things to do. Months later, even though I was taking on some of the things I done regularly before Baby #2 (as well as some new projects), I still just kept on buying the stuff at the store. My baby will be two this month and we just finished up the last of the store-bought detergent.

I've decided, though, to go back to the homemade detergent. I had my washing soda and borax ready to go, as well as a newly purchased bar of Fels-Naptha. But before I unwrapped the soap and pulled out my grater, I decided to look at some of the liquid detergent recipes on Pinterest. Most of them included grating and cooking and five-gallon buckets. Just as I was going to pass on the liquid stuff and stick to the good ol' powder recipe, I saw something different and waaaay easier.

It was a recipe from P. Allen Smith (I love that guy!). His version of liquid detergent couldn't be simpler to make. Seriously -- it takes less than five minutes from start to finish! It also costs much less than store-bought liquid detergent. You can find the video I watched here or you can follow these step-by-step instructions (plus, you'll also find some before-and-after pics like those ones on detergent commercials!):

To make this detergent, you'll need:

• 3 Tbsp. borax
• 3 Tbsp. washing soda (NOT baking soda. I used to only be able to find washing soda at Ace Hardware but now that homemade detergent has gotten a little more common, I can find it at Walmart in the laundry aisle.)
• 2 Tbsp. Dawn dish soap (the blue original kind)
• water
• an empty gallon-size milk jug

Pour the borax and washing soda into the empty milk jug.

Add the blue dish soap to the milk jug.

{Note:  I'm all for using natural cleansers and eco-friendly soaps; it's something I've mentioned a bunch on this blog. I totally get that Dawn dish soap is made from ingredients that aren't exactly "natural" (though it is biodegradable and there are no phosphates in it. Plus, the original blue kind doesn't have triclosan in it, either). I don't use this soap on my dishes, where traces of it could actually be ingested, for that reason. That said, I don't feel too worried about washing my family's clothes with this detergent -- it's a couple tablespoons of Dawn that's been diluted in almost a gallon of water, which will be diluted even further in when you use it in the washing machine.}

Add four cups of lukewarm water to the milk jug.

Put the lid on the jug and shake, shake, shake!

Next, fill it up with water from the tap, leaving just a few inches at the top unfilled. Don't worry about all the bubbles coming out as you fill it.

Put the cap on and give the mixture a shake again. I also just turned it upside to help the detergent mixture mix with the water.

Ta-da! Liquid laundry detergent! You could store your detergent in a fancy glass canister or in something with a creative label on it like I've seen on Pinterest or you could go my route: keep it in the milk jug and write on it with a Sharpie.

For each load, use anywhere from 1/2 cup to a full cup of detergent (it all depends on load size. I've been using a cup for all my large loads of laundry). A cup of detergent seems like a lot but since it's so thin and watery, you need to use more. Since it's so quick and easy to make, it's not a big deal that you use so much at a time, I think.

You might be asking now, "So does it actually work?"

I'm pretty sure that is chocolate on my six-year-old's shirt (a souvenir from my in-laws from their trip to South America last year) -- at least I think it is. Anyway, here's what it looked like before. I didn't do any sort of stain removal treatment before throwing it into the wash.

It works! The shirt came out of the wash as clean as ever. I also checked on some other clothes that had mud on them (welcome, spring!) and food stains and the detergent worked on them, too. (Sidenote: I haven't used this detergent with cloth diapers yet. Washing cloth diapers is a whole other topic. I've been using a detergent specifically for cloth diapers. I'll let you know what is if it keeps on working as well as it has). All in all, I'm pretty pleased with this new laundry room development.

Hooray for homemade detergent -- especially when you can make it in just a few minutes!

Note: I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I have disclosed.

{This post is linked up to Homestead Barn Hop.}

Observations & Lessons Learned from My First Winter with Chickens

I live on the corner of my neighborhood -- as a result, everyone in said neighborhood can see what's happening in my yard. As you can imagine, I get a lot of questions about raising chickens. One question I got a lot in the late summer and fall was, "What are you going to do with them this winter?"  I would just give them a non-committal, "Oh, I'm still doing some reading about that. We'll see."

Truth was, I was feeling pretty nervous about the whole wintertime chicken keeping thing. What was I going to do with them?  I couldn't move the tractor around in the wintertime, so I'd have to figure out some sort of way to keep things clean and un-muddy. My usual method of dealing with chicken poop (move the tractor, rake it up, put it in compost pile, repeat) wouldn't work during the winter months. Then there was the question of using heat lamps and artificial lighting. I asked some of my chicken keeper friends on Facebook what they thought I should do in that regard: half said yes to lamps, half said no. Even my chicken book I'd consulted for months and months didn't really have much information about keeping chickens in the winter.

So, with a little extra research, some prowling around in forums, with the help of a couple of great chicken blogs (I particularly like this one), I trusted my gut and hoped I wouldn't kill my three chickens this winter. Tomorrow is the first day of March and I'm happy to report that all three of my ladies are alive, well, and laying.

Here are some of the observations I made and some lessons I learned through these past cold and snowy months:

1. Chickens are tough.  
So after I put the whole "heat lamp or no?" question out to my Facebook friends and got mixed answers, I went searching around online. Again, mixed. I asked a couple people at the local feed store. They said to go with the lamp. I even had a kid from my church ask (when I told him that my girls weren't laying as much at the time), "You got a light on your chickens?" And to be honest, I felt bad about the ladies being out in the cold.

But I couldn't shake the arguments from the "no heat lamp" camp and the testimonials from chicken keepers in the Northern states like Michigan and Minnesota. I also couldn't help but think, "How did the pioneers take care of chickens before electricity?" It finally came down to what I read in an issue of Backyard Poultry magazine: I learned that chickens can survive in temperatures as low as -20°F, as long as they are sheltered from drafts. Chickens have over 8000 feathers which they fluff out and trap air with; their body heat warms the air and they stay surprisingly warm.  Plus, it's better to have them get used to cold temperatures instead of relying on a heat lamp -- if chickens that are used to having heat lamp lose that source of heat (like, say, in a power outage or if a bulb burns out), you could lose your whole flock.

So the girls didn't get a heat lamp this winter (though I still put in there -- hence the yellow cord in the picture -- just in case I changed my mind). Even in January, when we went through a stretch when the high daytime temperatures were in the low teens and the nights got as low as -10°F, they were fine. On those super-cold days I took extra care of them, which I will explain later in this post (see #5).

2. I miss the "chipple".
This past June, I learned about the chicken nipple (or as my husband and I call it, the chipple) watering system. Instead of having water dishes that get poop, food, and bedding kicked into them, you can hang the water containers and the chickens drink from the red nipple on the bottom of the container. The water stays totally clean and you don't have to change it numerous times a day. It's the best way to water chickens, in my humble opinon.

The downside to the chipple: it doesn't work in the wintertime (at least not in my experience).  The metal part  that the birds tap with their beak to release the water gets frozen and stuck in place. So even with my attempts to keep changing it and filling it with water, the first thing to freeze was that metal part. Knowing that I would eventually have to give up the chipple for the season, I ordered a heated water bowl (there are lots of great DIY ways to make heated waterers but with the limited space in the chicken tractor, I just went with the bowl).

The bowl works really well at keeping the water from freezing (it didn't even freeze when the temperatures hovered below, at, or barely above 0°F), but I forgot how messy chickens can be with their water. That bowl gets full of straw, poop, and food in no time. Sigh. I'm partly excited for spring just so I can go back to using the chipple and not have to deal with poopy water several times a day.

3. Chickens do lay eggs in the winter, even without artificial light.
I had lots of people tell me that they wouldn't lay in the winter if I didn't have a lamp on them. False. Granted, they definitely slowed down in their egg production, but they still laid eggs. I figured that chickens slow down in the winter for a reason, so I decided to let nature take its course. One of my neighbors told me that his hens have never had artificial light in their coop and the same hens have been laying for nearly four years!

My Rhode Island Red, Princess Leia, has been reliably laying for the entire winter season. My Black Sex-link, Foxy Cleopatra, has been off and on, though she pretty much stopped in January. My Ameraucana, Lenore, actually started laying her first eggs (I was so excited to finally see those blue-green eggs!) when the temperatures were coldest in early January.

At one point during the winter, I was only collecting getting one egg a day. This wasn't enough to keep up with my family's egg consumption, so I ended up buying some from one of my neighbors (her eggs are not only pastured but fertile, too). Most of time, though, this season I've collected 1-2 eggs a day; it'll be nice when I'm collecting three daily.

(Sidenote: If you do use lamps in your chicken coop, that's great -- I know lots of people who do and they did get more eggs from their chickens than I did this winter. I'm definitely not trying to stir any sort of debate up, I promise.)

4. Chickens can get bored and turn into jerks.

Since my hens have always been on the grass in the chicken tractor, they've never seemed bored. In the warmer months, they loved pecking and scratching around in the grass, digging little holes, taking dust baths, and eating all the worms and grasshoppers my boys could find. Then winter came and kept their chicken tractor in one spot. Some days it got so cold that they'd stay in the henhouse for a good part of the day. There was not a whole lot for them to do.

I had read about chicken boredom and tried to help them out by giving them treats (dried mealworms are their favorite). I'd sometimes toss a head of cabbage or lettuce into the tractor for them to peck at and eat. They liked pecking around for scratch, but I could tell that they were still feeling a little restless.

Then one morning as I was changing their water yet again, I noticed that my Black Sex-link was missing a lot of feathers on her neck. My first thought was, "Oh great, she's sick". So I took a picture with my phone (the picture you see in this paragraph) and sent it to my brother-in-law, my go-to chicken expert. His answer? Since it was only in that spot, it looked like she was at the receiving end of some pecking. I did some reading and found out that chickens are more prone to do this kind of thing in the winter. The feathers grew back on Foxy, but Lenore soon followed as the next victim with a section next to her tail plucked away. I'm suspecting it's Princess Leia who's the bully, especially since she pecked at me the other day as I was feeding them some kitchen scraps (and she's usually quite docile.).  I guess even chickens start to feel crabby when winter has worn on too long.

(I actually just found this blog post about keeping chickens occupied -- it's a little late for my ladies now, seeing as winter is almost over and they'll be back to the grass and bugs they love, but I'll still implement a few ideas.)

5. My chickens are spoiled.

Behold -- hot breakfast for hens.

On those below-zero mornings especially, I just felt bad for the girls in the backyard. They were fine but I still felt for them. So whenever it got really cold, I'd whip up nice steaming bowl of oatmeal for the ladies. I sprinkle in some scratch, a few tablespoons chicken treat mix, and some raisins. I always tried to do this on the sly in the mornings, a bit worried about the looks or teasing I might get from my husband (he finds it funny how I spoil our chickens). The ladies loved getting hot breakfast -- at least, they seemed liked they loved it, the way they would gobble it up.

That was just one thing I did for the ladies when it got super-cold this winter. I also paid attention to their combs, coating the combs of two of them with Vaseline so as to avoid frostbite (our Ameraucana has a short pea-comb, so the risk of frostbite is far less). I swear, my Black Sex-link liked getting picked up and having her comb rubbed with Vaseline; I could feel her body relax under my arm and she would sort of close her eyes as I took care of her comb.

So, yes, my chickens are bit spoiled (though still not as spoiled as some others I've read about, where people decorate their coops, knit them sweaters, and put diapers on them so they can roam the house). My husband finds it amusing the way I research and read about keeping chickens, the way I get all concerned over them. My rationale: healthy and happy chickens produce the best eggs -- and I'm pleased to report that my hens, considering the freezing temperatures and the many feet of snow we've gotten this winter, seem as healthy and happy as can be expected.

Note: Some of the links in the post above are "affiliate links." This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. 

{This post is linked up to Simple Lives Thursday,  Little House Friday and Your Green Resource}

A Gentle Reminder: Are You Saving Your Milk Jugs Yet?

We got about three or four inches of snow at our house yesterday, but I'm telling you, I feel spring in the air. I can't explain why or how I've come to this conclusion, but I just can tell that it's around the corner. Punxsutawney Phil has my back on this.

This is the time of year when I start planning my garden and ordering seeds. The idea of ordering seeds makes me a little giddy (this is my favorite place online to order seeds) -- I love flipping through catalogs, checking out all the different varieties, consulting my Western Garden Book to make sure what I like grows in my area, and planning out where I'll put them in my garden. (insert sigh of contentment here)

And as if that wasn't exciting enough, I'm gearing up to start my tender crop seeds again with the help of empty milk jugs. That's where the gentle reminder mentioned in the title comes into play:  are you saving your milk jugs? If not, you still have time! Once you finish a gallon of milk (or, as it goes at my house, a gallon of vinegar), rinse it out, remove the cap (more on that in a bit), and set it aside (though you could start some of your seeds right now, depending on what you're growing and where you live).

Are you reading all of this and thinking, "What on earth is she talking about?"  Basically, with a tiny bit of alteration (emphasis on tiny), you can turn an empty gallon-sized jug into a mini-greenhouse. This allows you to start your seeds outdoors with minimal effort. No need for special lighting or seed-starting kits or finding the space in your house for a seed-starting operation. Besides actually planting a seed directly into your garden, this is as easy as seed starting gets!

Want to learn more? You can read the a couple posts I wrote last year about my experience with mini-greenhouses:  "In the Backyard: My Milk Jug Mini-Greenhouses" and "How Empty Milk Jugs Changed My Garden".

I must give credit where it is due -- I first learned about this seed starting technique (called winter-sowing) from the blog, A Garden for the House. It's a lovely blog, full of great ideas. (Plus he seems like such a nice guy. I want to tour his mid-1800s house, chat with him about gardening, and enjoy his charlotte almondine.) You can find all of his winter-sowing posts here.  I highly recommend it.

One last thing about saving milk jugs: if you have kids, save the milk caps!

Not too long ago, I saw this idea on Pinterest, about creating a simple activity with an empty wipes container and milk caps. I'll admit, I was a little skeptical at first since some of the other baby activities I've seen on Pinterest and tried with my little guy have entertained him for like 5-10 minutes, tops (it's bad news when even a baby thinks it's boring). Seeing as I had a bunch of milk caps and an empty wipe container, I thought I'd give it a try.  Guess what? He loved it. I was amazed how long it kept him entertained. Toys made out of stuff I'd normally throw away or recycle? Love it!  (For some more great ideas of ways to use milk caps with kids, look here. Who knew?)

So start saving those milk jugs (and caps!).  Start your own seeds easily. I can't think of a nicer way to usher in spring. It'll be here before you know it. Trust me on this.

Note: I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I have disclosed.

{This post is linked up to Your Green Resource, Simple Lives Thursday, Little House Friday, and Homestead Barn Hop.}

Mama K's Peanut Butter Squares

The old saying goes that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach. With this in mind, I decided to whip up a batch of one of my husband's all-time favorite treats for Valentine's Day: peanut butter squares. These aren't just any kind of peanut butter squares -- these are made from his mom's recipe. He loves them. Early in our marriage, he called his mom, wrote down the recipe, and stuck it my recipe file. I don't make these bars very often, but when I do, Kevin is a very happy man.

From what I've been told, these peanut butter squares are like the ones that were served in school cafeterias back in the 1980s and 90s. Seeing as I could probably count how many times my mom paid for school lunch on one hand (as much as my brothers and I begged, Mom always sent us kids to school with homemade lunches), I don't really have that point of reference to draw from. I will say, though, that these peanut butter squares are absolutely delicious and dangerous beyond all belief; you can't stop with one.

I thought about tinkering with the recipe for this post since I'm still following a sort of paleo-ish diet. Maybe substitute all that sugar with honey, maple syrup or sucanat; perhaps toy with the flour and use almond flour instead (though gluten-free baking still intimidates me). Maybe I could make these treats little less dangerous to the waistline.

But I cast that idea aside quickly because these bars were for my valentine, a guy who doesn't totally buy into, as he would call it, all the natural/health food mumbo-jumbo (but he is totally patient and cool with me buying into it). I say, a treat now and then won't kill anyone (eating the entire pan, which you will want to do...well, that's another story). I even diverged a bit from the paleo stuff and indulged this past Valentine's Day.

Now, I recognize that Valentine's Day is over, but that shouldn't stop you. Why not make a batch today for Presidents' Day and raise a peanut butter square (and a glass of milk) in honor of George Washington's birthday?

So, without further ado, I bring you the peanut butters squares from my husband's childhood, in all their peanut-buttery, chocolaty, and sugary goodness.

Mama K's Peanut Butter Squares

3/4 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 3/4 cups peanut butter 
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

Topping:
peanut butter (around a cup)
chocolate frosting (my go-to chocolate frosting recipe can be found here).

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

First, beat the butter and sugar together until relatively light and fluffy.

Add the eggs, salt, baking soda, and vanilla. Mix.

Add the peanut butter. I used chunky peanut butter in this batch, though either creamy or chunky is fine.

Add the oats and flour. Mix.

Personally, I like the batter even better than the baked squares. As you can see, my almost-two-year-old was of the same mindset. Tread with caution here, folks.

Turn the batter out onto a greased cookie sheet.

Press it and shape it with a rubber spatula or you can use your hands like I do. See all those finger indentations? This is where I should mention that I don't fill the whole cookie sheet; it only goes about half-way. No big deal. Just trim of the ragged edge when you cut these up and no one will know.

Bake for around 10-12 minutes. The edges should be browned and the top won't be wet or sticky.

Spread peanut butter all over the top of the squares. Word to the wise: you might want to use creamy peanut butter for this step (though, as you can see, I didn't) because it makes spreading the chocolate frosting (next) on top of the peanut butter easier.

Then spread the chocolate frosting. I used my favorite chocolate frosting recipe for this step -- I did halve the recipe and I used vanilla in it instead of almond extract (the almond and peanut flavors just clash too much. The almond extract in that recipe is awesome with other desserts, though).

Love in square form, right there.

We ate some of these on Valentine's Day and then I sent most (we had to keep some) of the leftovers to work with my husband, so he could share with his carpool and anyone near his office. Really, it was better that way.

(This post is linked up to Homestead Barn Hop.)

"They're More Like Guidelines": On Best-By and Sell-By Dates

Did you know that it's estimated that 40% of America's food is thrown away? I'm not entirely sure how this statistic was figured, but I don't doubt that we Americans waste a lot of food. (When I was a dishwasher at various restaurants during my early teenage years, I was shocked at how much food was left on people's plates. How could someone leave half of a New York strip on their plate?!) If the statistic is correct, it definitely deserves attention and certainly some introspection on our parts, considering how many hungry people there are in other areas of the world.

Some of the articles I read on this statistic, though, painted Americans as greedy and gluttonous, as if to shame us all into wasting less. I don't think this is always the case.  I think there's a sort of spectrum of food wasting types. There are some people who truly are flippant and/or lazy. Some people waste food because they're picky (there are a lot of people who won't touch leftovers. Apparently food that is good enough for dinner is unpalatable the next day...). 

Honestly, though, I think the biggest factors that leads people to waste food is misinformation. I admit I was a misinformed food waster. This leads to my food wasting confessional: I used to throw out food solely based on the dates printed on the labels.

I never questioned the expiration (or sell by or best by) dates printed on food. I figured the producers of the food knew more than I did and I trusted those dates without question. I've wasted a lot of milk and yogurt, among other things, because of those dates on the labels. 

One day I was cleaning out and organizing a part of my house (we call it the Harry Potter closet since it's under our stairs) where the bulk of our food storage is located. On the shelf were several canisters of oatmeal that I'd purchased at a ridiculously low price. As I was moving them around, I noticed the dates on the bottom of them: they should have been used over a year ago and were well past the date printed. I didn't want to throw them out but they were old. So, on a whim, I called the customer service number printed on the label. The nice lady from customer service told me that date was more of a guideline and that the oats I had were perfectly fine. I asked, "What if they don't get used for another six months or so?" Her answer: "Still fine." I took her word for it and we used them without a problem. I think we may have polished off the last of the "expired"-in-2009 oats early last year.  

I became more open-minded about eating shelf-stable stuff past the sell-by dates, but until quite recently I was still wary of eating anything perishable (read: dairy) past the printed dates on the labels. Well, that was until I fed my little guy some yogurt that had lapsed the printed date by a week. I remember I finished feeding him the peach yogurt (which he happily gobbled up) and when I went to throw it out, I noticed the date. What had I done?!? I sniffed was left in the container. It smelled totally fine. So, of course, I did a quick internet search and found out, to my surprise, that yogurt is fine 7-10 days after the sell by date, just as long as your fridge is at the proper temperature. Oh, the yogurt I'd wasted over the years! 

Sell-by, use-by, and best-by dates aren't expiration dates -- I always kind of thought they were all the same thing. The only foods that carry expiration dates (as required by law) is infant formula and baby food. Sell-by dates are guidelines for food that is perishable; the dates give stores a good idea of how long they should keep items on shelves and in display cases. You should buy products at the store before their sell-by date, but you can store them for a little while past that date. Use-by or best-by dates are usually on shelf-stable foods and all those dates indicate is when the foods will be at their best taste and quality -- food safety isn't the concern with those dates (except if a can is bulging -- a sign of botulism -- or shows signs of spoilage). Food may not taste as good as if you'd adhered to the best-by date (the color and texture may change, too), but you'll be fine eating it.

A recent example: as I mentioned in my last post, I've been going sort of paleo for the last few weeks. I didn't realize how much of our milk is consumed by me. This has led to the gallons of milk in the fridge lasting longer. So when this whole gallon of organic milk (which is kinda spendy) passed the sell-by date, I had no qualms pouring it over my kindergartener's cereal this morning or filling my toddler's cup with it. Milk is fine, as I've since learned, for about a week after the sell-by date. Just be sure to give it a sniff now and then.

The takeaway from this post: the sell-by dates and best-by dates on food are more like guidelines than actual rules. A more in-depth overview of what the sell by, best by, and expiration dates really mean can be found here at the site StillTasty.com. You can also find a helpful tool there -- simply enter the food in question in their search engine and it will bring up the shelf-life for you. Their database covers thousands of different foods. 

As I type this post, I can't help but think of a sad/super gross episode from show Hoarders where a woman hoarded food. Most of what the woman had in her home was spoiled beyond belief. I remember the woman saying something about containers of sour cream that were months past their sell-by dates: "What's going to happen? It's going to get more sour?" I bring this woman up because common sense plays a huge part in the topic of wasting food. You can ignore the dates if you want, but don't ignore what your eyes see or what your nose smells. Your senses are one of the best ways to assure freshness or quality, even better than a printed date on a label. 

For a quick chart with shelf-life dates of general food groups, check out this link For a little more reading on this topic of labels and "expired" food (it's actually pretty interesting, I think) you can read here about how sell-by guidelines are decided and about tests run on a 40-year-old can of sweet corn (spoiler: it was still safe!).

{This post is linked up to Homestead Barn Hop, Simple Lives Thursday, Your Green Resource, Little House Friday, and Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways.}

Paleo(ish) Almond-Buckwheat Pancakes

One could say that I have an affinity for pancakes, seeing as this is my fourth pancake recipe on this blog. What can I say? I think starting the day with a stack of pancakes is pretty awesome thing to do.

You can imagine, then, my reaction when my doctor advised me to give up grains and dairy for a few weeks: What was I going to eat for breakfast?!  For a few days, I had eggs with salsa. Even with the salsa I canned a few months ago (seriously delicious stuff - best canned salsa recipe ever), I was feeling pretty burned out on just having eggs every morning. I needed some other breakfast options.

Lucky for me, my dad has been following a paleolithic diet  (everyone in the family calls it the "caveman diet") for years now. He swears by it -- he doesn't get migraines as often as he used to, his skin looks great, he doesn't get acid reflux anymore, and his doctor told him at his physical that he's as healthy as a 30-year-old. Take it for what it's worth. Anyway, my dad has avoided grains and dairy since 2010, so I called home for some help and my mom gave me this recipe for almond-buckwheat pancakes.

Now, I did a little reading and it's seems like the jury's still out about whether or not buckwheat is paleo-friendly. Since it's not a grain at all and is actually a fruit, some people say it's fine; others say that it's a no-go. If you're hardcore paleo and are wary about buckwheat, I figure you could just use all almond flour and skip the buckwheat. I kept the buckwhat flour in. Even if you're not on the paleo bandwagon, this is a great pancake for those who can't eat gluten.  And even if you're not sensitive to gluten or on a paleo diet, you could still make these because they're healthy and pretty tasty.

Almond-Buckwheat Pancakes

3/4 cup almond flour
1/3 cup buckwheat flour
3/4 cup egg whites
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 cup almond milk
1/4 cup honey
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar

Mix the dry ingredients (except the cream of tartar) in a medium-large bowl.

Combine the almond milk and honey in a small bowl and then add to the dry mixture.

Next, get your egg whites ready. It took about seven eggs to get the 3/4 cup of whites (I saved the yolks for another recipe, of course). That's a lot of eggs, I know. You may want to use the egg whites that come in a carton.

Whip up the whites until soft peaks form. While the whites are being whipped, add the cream of tartar. I used my KitchenAid with the whisk attachment to do this step, but you also do it by hand.

Fold the whites gently into the batter.

Pour the batter onto a hot griddle or skillet. Once air bubbles form, flip the pancakes.

Top the pancakes with butter (yep, butter is paleo -- I checked) and real maple syrup. Whether or not you devour them like a caveman (you know, lots of grunting and no utensils) is up to you.

{This post is linked up to Homestead Barn Hop, Your Green Resource, Simple Lives Thursday, Little House Friday, and Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways.}

100 More (Painless) Ways to Live Frugally

One of my most popular posts here on The Parsimonious Princess is "100 Painless Ways to Live Frugally". Being a girl who doesn't mind a challenge, I wanted to see if I could find a hundred more ways. Well, here it is: 100 more (painless) ways to save money and live frugally. Personally, I think this list is even better than the last one.

1.  Subscribe to The Parsimonious Princess via email or as a follower (either over there in the sidebar or of my Parsimonious Princess Pinterest board). That way, you won't miss a single post!

2. There is a difference between being frugal and being cheap. Knowing that difference can save you money. Read my post here to see what I mean.

3. Make your own hand soap - liquid or foaming. It's seriously easy and costs hardly anything to make.

4. Eat eggs. They're one of the best things nutritionally for you. Eggs happen to be a complete protein, containing all the essential amino acids your body needs daily. Eating eggs is great way to go meatless at least once a week. They're not just for breakfast -- some nights I'll make a frittata, a big omelette, or poached/scrambled eggs on toast. Simple, inexpensive, and delicious.

5. Buy white eggs. They're cheaper than the brown ones. Really. People think there's a difference between the ones with the white shells and the ones with the brown shells, but I'm here to tell you that the only difference is the breed of chicken that laid the egg. The reason why the brown eggs cost more than the white eggs is because the chickens that lay brown eggs are usually bigger breeds than the chickens who lay the white ones. This means that the bigger chickens cost more to feed and that extra cost is passed on to you, the consumer. We have chickens who lay brown-shelled eggs, we had a chicken who laid blue-shelled ones. They're all the same inside. If you're going to pay extra for eggs, buy the cage-free ones or organic ones or free-range ones -- that's when you'll notice a difference in quality. (Though, for the record, no egg from the store beats one from your backyard. Just sayin'.)

6. 1/2 cup washing soda + 1/2 cup hydrogen peroxide = homemade OxiClean.  Check out this link for the details.

7. Have you tried the green-onion-in-water trick? If you save the white ends of green onions, put them in water, and stick the jar somewhere sunny (mine are on my kitchen windowsill), the green onions will grow back. Forever. (Well, maybe that's a little hyperbolic, but seriously, they'll keep growing back). Be sure to change the water regularly and rinse the white ends occasionally so they don't get all slimy.

8. Reusable canning lids pay for themselves! You can use them over and over -- Tattler lids have a lifetime warranty (the rubber rings need will need replacing eventually, but the lids are guaranteed to last). I love my Tattler lids -- though, I have to admit, I do miss hearing that popping sound when they seal...

9. Packing a lunch for yourself or your kids is a great way to save money. One way to make it even more money-saving? Skip the disposable aspect of packing a lunch. Use lunch boxes or lunch bags instead of the brown paper sack; use a reusable water bottle or a thermos instead of juice boxes, bottled water, or milk cartons; use reusable bags or reusable containers (I love these ones -- my husband uses them all the time when he takes lunch to work) instead of plastic baggies.

10.  As I've mentioned a couple times on this blog, I love Tamar Adler's An Everlasting Meal. One suggestion she makes in the book is to take care of all your produce when you get home from buying it. Wash it, dry it, cook it, put it into containers. By doing this, you'll have everything ready to go when you need it. It will be visible and convenient in your fridge. This translates to less waste. I know that when I've taken the time to wash all the spinach and lettuce, for example, right away, I use it more because it's convenient. When I wash and store my herbs properly, they last so much longer. (Ms. Adler's book goes into depth on how to cook, store, and prep vegetables the best way.) Admittedly, I'm not perfect at this. Sometimes, after spending a bunch of time shopping with two kids, I barely have the energy to just put the groceries away let alone prep everything, but it's worth doing and I know you will waste less produce (read: less money) with this simple step alone. Watch this video of Ms. Adler's process. It's lovely.

How to Stride Ahead - Part Two from CJ Richter on Vimeo.

11. While we're on the subject of produce, if you want to buy organic produce but find it too costly (or if you are buying organically grown produce and are feeling the pinch in your wallet), a good trick is to pay attention to the Dirty Dozen list. The Dirty Dozen list tells which crops are most heavily sprayed and have the most pesticides. If a fruit or vegetable is on the Dirty Dozen list, then it's a good idea to go organic; if it's not on the Dirty Dozen list, then buy the cheaper conventionally-grown fruits and vegetables.

12.  A low-flow showerhead can save the average household $55 per person annually.  Low-flow showerheads have gotten a bad rap and for good reason. Most of them are terrible. That said, my husband and I have had a low-flow showerhead in our bathroom for the last couple years and we love it. It's made by High Sierra Showerheads and it's great! For more info about it, you can read my post here.

13. Keep a low-maintenance hair style and/or hair color. Less visits to the salon for trims and touch-ups will save money.

14.  Are you or your spouse in the military or a veteran? There are lots of discounts at stores, restaurants, hotels, and more out there for members of military, both active duty and retired. My dad is a retired army veteran and he gets discounts at lots of places by showing his military ID. Sometimes, you just have to ask.  For a list of 149 military discounts, check out this link.  There are also lots of discounts for teachers -- here's a link to 66 teacher discounts.

15. Don't buy extended warranties. They're a waste of money. I'd explain why, but Dave Ramsey does a better job here.

16. Chill out when you're behind the wheel; aggressive driving costs more money. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, aggressive driving will use 33% more gas on the highway and 5% more on roads around town. I read somewhere that you should pretend that there's an egg under the gas pedal -- don't ever push the gas pedal down so fast that you would crack the imaginary egg.

17. Learn to make homemade versions of pantry staples. My favorite guide for doing that: The Homemade Pantry: 101 Foods You Can Stop Buying and Start Making by Alana Chernila.  It's easier than you think, I promise.

18. If you're having a party or some other kind of get-together, make it a potluck. We do this every year for our Halloween party and it's always a hit because our guests come up with fun Halloween-themed dishes. We never know what people will bring and it adds to the fun. It's a pretty great way to feed a crowd and save money.

19. Use houseplants to purify the air in your home instead of an expensive air purifier. One book that I recommend is How to Grow Fresh Air: 50 Houseplants that Purify Your Home or Office by B.C. Wolverton. Mr. Wolverton is a NASA scientist who actually researched what plants would best create a breathable environment on the moon; this book details his findings in an easy-to-read yet informative guide. I'm willing to bet you'll be as surprised as I was when I found out how effective houseplants truly are at cleaning the air in the home.

20. Freshen the air in your home naturally, too. Simmering different things (cinnamon sticks, cloves, orange peels, essential oils, to name just a few) in water can go a long way in making your home smell nice and inviting.  Boiling orange peels is a cheap and easy way I freshen the air in my home.

21. If you have chickens (funny how I sort of joked about having them in my last 100 list...), save your kitchen scraps for them. This is definitely not a replacement for a balanced chicken feed, but kitchen scraps are a great supplement to their diet. My ladies eat the rest of the apples my kids don't finish, the outer layers of cabbage, wilted lettuce, leftover rice, oatmeal that doesn't get finished at breakfast, the pumpkin guts from our jack-o-lanterns, tops of tomatoes, the peels from batches of applesauce, and more. Not only do the nutrients in the scraps help my hens stay healthy and produce nutritious eggs for my family, but the ladies also make the scraps into great compost in the meantime. Plus, the treats make them happy and happy hens make the best eggs! For a good list of what scraps to feed (and what not to feed) to chickens, check out this helpful link.

22. Make your own laundry detergent. Thanks to Pinterest, it seems like making your own detergent has become more and more popular. For most recipes you just need a bar of soap, some washing soda, and borax. There are a bunch of recipes for homemade powder and liquid laundry detergent online; here's the powder one that I've used (along with some of my thoughts on the whole process) and you can find my super-easy recipe (it takes five minutes to make) for liquid detergent here.

23. Organize a baby-sitting co-op to save money. A group of women at my church have this system where they get a sort of credit for each hour they watch someone else's kid in their group. Each credit you get, you get an hour of baby-sitting by someone else in the group (they keep track with sticks -- each stick counts for an hour of free babysitting). So, say you watch your neighbor's two kids for an hour, you would get two hour-long baby-sitting credits to use with anyone else in the group. They have a Google calendar set up that shows when all of them are available to baby-sit -- just check the calendar, see who's available, redeem your credits, and, voila!, free babysitting. True confession time: I don't do this myself since I kind of hate watching other people's kids, but I can see how it could be really nice and convenient if you're more easy-going than I am.

24. Stop buying aerosol cooking spray and use a Misto, instead.

25. If possible, breastfeed. Baby food doesn't get cheaper than that. For my thoughts on the topic and some tips for success, read my post here.

26. Speaking of breastfeeding, one way to save money is to make your own nursing pads. They take very little sewing skill to make them. Besides, if you mess up, who's going to see them?

27. Also on the baby-feeding front, skip store-bought teething biscuits and make them yourself. They're so simple to make and your baby will love gnawing on them.

28.  Ant problem? Skip the poison spray and use ground cinnamon to deter ants. It's cheaper, non-toxic, and they hate the stuff. It doesn't kill them, but it definitely keeps them away.

29. Want to find the cheapest gas where you live? Find the best prices for gas with gasbuddy.com. All you have to do is pick your state (or Canadian province) and enter your city or zip code. Brings up all the gas prices in your area. Easy peasy.

30. This may seem kind of obvious to some, but don't wash clothes until they need washing. Just because you've worn something, that doesn't necessarily mean it needs to go straight to the hamper. Not only does this save money by cutting back on the cost of energy and water, but it also will help your clothes last longer.

31. Don't use a new towel every time you shower. When you're done showering, hang it back up, let it dry, and it's ready to use again. One way to cut back on towel laundering: when I was a teenager, my three brothers and I went through tons of towels (mostly from leaving them on the floor). Mom was washing them all the time. Her solution? She bought each of us two towels in our favorite colors (I can still remember that mine were purple at the time) and those were our towels for the week. If we were sloppy and didn't hang them up when were done using them, we were out of luck. Mom's strategy totally worked.

32. Grow your own sprouts. It's really, really easy. You can find my complete instructions here.

33. Water down your dish soap. I have an olive oil dispenser I use for dish soap. I fill it up half-way with water and then fill the rest with dish soap. I've been doing this for a while with no problem.  It has definitely helped me cut back on how much dish soap I buy.

34. Switch to flannel sheets during the cold months of the year. We keep our thermostat set in the low 60s at night, so it can get pretty chilly in our house at night. One little thing that makes a big difference: flannel sheets. A few weeks ago, I was feeling pretty chilly despite wearing pajamas, socks, and having a couple blankets piled on me. Then I remembered that we were still using our thinner 100% cotton sheets. I switched them for our flannel sheets and they made all the difference. Nights have been much cozier, despite our subzero temperatures outside and our lower temperature inside.

35.  Don't buy breadcrumbs. They're just too easy to make from stale bread, old hamburger buns, and the ends of the bread loaf that most people don't like for sandwiches. Click here for how I make breadcrumbs; click on this link I just found (yay!) on how to make panko crumbs.

36. Same thing goes for croutons -- don't buy them, either. You can read about how I've made croutons from scratch since my teenage years here.

37.  Pinterest is your money-saving friend. There are so many good ideas, tricks, tips, and articles that can save you a bunch of money. If you're not pinning stuff yet, you're missing out. Just saying. (P.S. -- You can follow me here if you like.)

38.  Speaking of Pinterest, that's where I found my favorite homemade glass cleaning recipe: the Alvin Corn glass cleaner. It consists of isopropyl alcohol, vinegar, cornstarch, and water. Works just as well, if not better, than the store-bought stuff.

39. Rotate your tires. For a great post about the topic and even a how-to for doing it yourself, click here.

40. Use a laptop instead of a desktop computer. Laptops use 80% less energy than their desktop counterparts because it's powered by a battery.

41. If you do use a desktop computer regularly, be sure to set your computer so it automatically goes to sleep after 10 minutes of not being used. This will not only save money, but make your hard drive and monitor last longer.

42. If possible, refinance your mortgage.  Interest rates are so low right now, so, if you can, take advantage of them. We refinanced a little over a year ago from our 30-year mortgage to a 15-year mortgage. We cut our term in half, but, because of low interest rates, our payment only went up around $150 per month.

43. Cancel your gym membership if you're not using it more than a couple times a week.  I've had a tendency many times over the years to keep my gym membership in hopes that knowing that money is coming out of my account automatically will compel me to go to the gym. Not the best motivation, really.

44.  Learn to knit. I mean, with a couple needles and a ball of yarn, you can make stuff! It's a great skill to have and you can knit all sorts of neat, handmade things for the cost of a skein of yarn. Even better, if you have a Ravelry account (it's free), there are literally thousands of free and inexpensive patterns at your fingertips.  Of course, there's a caveat to this: knitting can get expensive. Like, really expensive. You know you have a problem when you think about buying a $20 skein of bulky baby alpaca wool yarn (ahem) and it doesn't seem that outrageous. Yarn stores can be dangerous. Consider yourself warned. One other benefit: there is evidence out there that says that knitting is as effective as Prozac in helping with depression. I can believe that.

45.  If you pre-rinse your dishes before putting them in the dishwasher, use cold water. Skip the heated dry cycles on your dishwasher, too.

46.  Ice cube trays are a great tool for saving and freezing small portions of food -- that last bit of tomato paste in the can, baby food purees, pesto, herbs, etc.

47.  When your mascara seems like it's running it out, it usually still has some left (I read somewhere that even a quarter of the tube is left!). An easy way to get everything out of your tube of mascara or to give a dried-out tube new life: give it a few drops of contact solution. Use the brush wand to mix it up and you get more mascara. I've done this and it totally works!

48. Get that last bit of make-up/toothpaste/ointment/finger-paint, etc. out of a tube by snipping off the end with a pair of scissors. You'll be surprised how much you might have wasted just because you couldn't squeeze it out before.

49.  Become a compulsive scraper like me and wield that rubber spatula with pride!

50. Keep birthday parties under control and bring back the old-school birthday party at home. You can find my post about how we did my son's birthday party on a budget here.

51. Don't buy frozen waffles. Make them yourself, freeze them, and pop in them in the toaster for breakfast.  You can find a couple of my family's favorite waffle recipes here and here.

52. Skip the ice melt and just use cheap water softener salt for icy driveways and walkways. I buy a 50-lb. bag of water softener salt at Costco for $3 and it works just as well as the pricier, specifically-for-melting-ice kind of salt.

53.  Have you heard of crystal deodorant? Crystal deodorant is a frugal choice because it lasts up to a year. It's basically a rock. You get it a little wet, glide it on, and it keeps you smelling fresh for 24 hours. Something about the minerals it leaves behind on your skin makes your underarms inhospitable for odor-causing bacteria. My husband uses it every day and I can testify that it works. It's especially good for him because of his sensitive skin -- most deodorants make him break out in a rash; this one hasn't done that at all.

54. Close your closets to save money on heating and air conditioning. Apparently, from what I've learned, closing your closet doors lowers the amount of square feet your furnace or A/C has to heat/cool. Plus, closing closets along exterior walls of your home actually helps insulate a little.

55. Sell clutter. Have a yard sale. Sell old DVDs and books on Amazon. Try online classifieds. Your clutter may be exactly what someone else is looking for.

56. Take care of your clothes before washing them to make them last longer. Before you put clothes in the washing machine, zip, button, fasten hooks, and turn clothes inside out.  Doing this prevents snags, minimizes wear and tear, helps prevent piling, and helps clothes fade less, allowing you to get the most wear out of your wardrobe.

57.  Bring your own bags to the grocery store -- some stores offer small discounts per bag you reuse. I know from experience that Whole Foods gives a discount per bag (the ones in my state discount 10 cents per bag). I've read that Target gives 5 cents per bag, as well as Kroger's and Trader Joe's. For a super-easy and super-cheap way to make a reusable bag, you can see how I changed an old t-shirt into a bag here.

58. Buy generic and store-brand medicine whenever possible. The FDA actually requires that these versions of medicine provide the same benefits as the name-brand counterparts. They have the same ingredients! The name-brand stuff just costs more because they've spent more money on research and marketing. Since the generics don't pay for that, the savings are passed on to you.

59. I'm new to the whole smartphone thing, but from what I understand, data plans usually allow anywhere from 300 MB to 10 GB in downloads per month. Be careful what you download onto your phone because you may be going over your data plan limit without even knowing it. One way to really push the limit is by streaming video. For some tips on how to not go over your limit, check out this link I found.

60. Also, while on the topic of technology, there are plenty of people who want to buy your old and even broken electronics and phones. For some tips on how to make some money on them, check out this article.

61. Save money on beans by buying them dry instead of canned. A one-pound bag of dried beans yields about as much as three cans yet it costs half as much to buy them dry.

62. Pay yourself first. Arrange to have a certain percentage of your paycheck automatically deposited into a retirement fund (like an IRA or 401k) and/or some other savings account. This is something I learned when I was first married and read The Automatic Millionaire. With each paycheck, we have a certain percentage put into our 401k before taxes. We also have our bank take out a set amount each paycheck and put into savings automatically for us. When it's automatic, you don't have to struggle with having the willpower to do it yourself.

63.  Reuse rainwater. This is something I have yet to try (especially since it used to be illegal in my state. Go figure.), but I'm totally intrigued. I live in a very dry state, but even a little can make a difference: I read that during an inch of rainfall, 900 gallons of water flows off a 30 x 50-foot roof! You can find more information from these articles I've pinned, here and here.

64. Avoid rush hour and save gas. By leaving just 30 minutes earlier or later than you normally do, you'll spend less time idling in traffic and wasting gas.

65. Stock up on office and art supplies during back-to-school time. That's when I buy ten boxes of crayons (when they're only a quarter for the 24-count boxes), packages of pencils for 50 cents, a handful of trays of Crayola watercolors for 75 cents a piece, notebooks for 15 cents, three-packs of glue sticks for a buck, and a myriad of other things (have I mentioned that buying school supplies makes me feel a little giddy in the fall?) that my family will use all year.

66.  If you choose to cloth diaper (yes this can be still be on a list of "painless ways to be frugal". Cloth diapering is not nearly as bad as everyone thinks it is.), the most frugal way to diaper your baby is with prefold cloth diapers. My favorite prefold diapers range in price from $2-4 each (it depends on whether or not you want regular or organic cotton and what size you get), which is much cheaper than the other kinds of cloth diapers (like pocket diapers and all-in-ones, which usually range anywhere from $10-25 each). Prefolds are my favorite way to diaper my baby -- for all my reasons why, check out this post about them.

67. If you do go the cloth diaper route (again, don't knock it until you try it), a diaper sprayer attached to the toilet makes cleaning those poopy diapers much, much easier. For around $30 and hardly any effort, you can make your own cloth diaper sprayer instead of forking out $50+ for a pre-made one. For the supply list and complete instructions, check out my post here.

68. Canned and frozen fish is a great and frugal way to buy seafood.  Unless you live on the coast (you lucky people you) or you're at a higher-end store, the fish at your grocery store's seafood counter has often been frozen already. I actually had a guy working at the seafood counter at a store tell me that the shrimp they sell in the case is just thawed shrimp from the bags in the freezer section (and it cost more to buy it at the counter. I wonder why he was being so honest...).  Frozen fish is cheaper and, in many cases, fresher than the fish on ice in the seafood case. In fact, lots of fishing boats have freezers on board and they flash-freeze it right away. Canned fish is a great alternative, too. Canned salmon works just as well in fish cakes or in a salad as fresh salmon does. We use canned tuna quite regularly (my husband and six-year-old son love to eat the kipper snacks and sardines. Not my bag, but I'm glad they like them -- it's a super-healthy snack) and I particularly like to buy wild salmon in vacuum-sealed packs.

69.  Have you gone paperless with your bills yet? If not, there are companies that will give you a discount for getting your bills via email instead of in the mail. Just ask. It worked for me with my insurance company just last month.

70. Pay bills on time and avoid late fees. It's a no-brainer, but something I think most people are guilty of, myself included.

71. Skip the store-bought costumes and bring back the good, old-fashioned homemade costume for Halloween. You don't need serious sewing skills to do it, I promise. For some ideas, check out my post all about it.

72. Unplug your stuff and avoid "vampire electronics". I always thought this was a silly suggestion (I mean, how much energy can a still plugged-in charger waste?), but the U.S. Department of energy estimates that 5% of all electricity used in the country is to power stuff not being used. Who knew?

73. Buy items at warehouse stores but do it wisely -- not everything there is a good deal. For a good guide on what's a good deal (and what's not) at stores like Costco and Sam's Club, check out this helpful list I found.

74. Make your own furniture dusting spray with olive oil, vinegar, lemon essential oil, and water.  For the recipe, click here.

75. To resurrect an old broom, put a rubber band (or more if your broom is really suffering) around the bristles at the bottom (a few inches from the base).  Leave the rubber band on for a day or so and when you take it off, your broom will work as a good as (almost) new.

76. Vacuum out your dryer's vent at least once a year. Not only is all that lint in there a fire hazard, but when it's cleared out, your dryer works much more efficiently. When we vacuumed out ours, I noticed a huge difference in how fast things dried, especially towels. For a complete step-by-step how-to, click here.

77.  'Selective squeamishness' can save you a lot of money. I first learned the term from The Tightwad Gazette.  Basically, selective squeamishness means that you move past the initial "ick!" reaction and realize something's not so bad after all. For example, this past fall my husband and I picked tons of apples from his parents' yard. Since they don't spray their trees (yay! free organic apples!), lots of the apples had holes where worms had bitten them. Some were unbitten but bruised. No big deal -- we just cut around the blemishes and made applesauce with them.

78. An easy way to save money: whenever you pay in cash, save the coins. Only use paper money to buy things.  Use a jar, can, or even a traditional piggy bank like mine to save all the coins you get. A few dimes here, a couple quarters there adds up. I can't wait to see how much we get out of our bank (it's half-full and it's already so heavy!).

79. Have a big family? Save money during the holidays by organizing a gift swap where everyone draws a name of someone in the family. You could even set a limit to how much everyone can spend. Both my family and my husband's family have been doing this for the last few years and it has worked out well.

80.  Make your toilet a water-saving one by putting a water-filled jar into the tank. The jar displaces some of the water and tank doesn't refill with as much.

81. Grow chives.

82. Drive your car like you would ride a bike. You don't see cyclists gunning uphill -- they take it slow and steady. They use momentum on hills to their advantage. Cyclists don't hit the brakes at the last minute -- they slow down and ease into stops. Most cyclists start slowly after a stop and gradually speed up. Driving like you're riding a bike won't only save gas, but it'll be easier on your car, too.

83. Stock up on kitchen staples when they go on sale. Whenever I go grocery shopping and I see something we eat a lot of on sale, I buy extras. Also, some things go on sale at certain times of year. One example: around the holidays, all the baking stuff goes on sale and that's when I stock up on butter, sugar, flour, etc.

84. If a product doesn't meet its promised standards, tell the company.  For example, I bought a frozen pizza once from the health food store from brand I liked (I know, I know, I wrote a post about making homemade pizza on here, but I was pregnant and barely had energy to go to the store, let alone make a pizza). When I got it home and I unwrapped it, I noticed a hair on it. UGH! (as if I weren't nauseated already). It was, like, baked into the cheese. It wasn't the store's fault, so I called the company's number on the box. I wasn't rude, I made an extra effort to be polite, and told them what I found. They were super apologetic and sent me TONS of coupons for free stuff. Now you'd think that I wouldn't want anything to do with this company, but everything I'd used of theirs before had been great; I knew this was just a fluke. I did the same thing with a yogurt brand I loved -- I opened a couple of mine and saw that there was mold growing in them. I called the company and they sent me a bunch of coupons for free yogurt. Most companies want your business and will make an effort to rectify any problems so you don't waste your money. But, please, be polite to those customer service people and don't make a mountain out of a molehill.

86.  Buy spices in bulk, by weight. 

87. Make meal plans. It helps you use what you have better, helps you keep your shopping list focused, and you don't have to have that "I-don't-know-what-to-make-for-dinner scramble" in the evenings. Here's a link to a meal planning printable I've been using.

88.  Do a plant swap with a family member, friend, or neighbor when you're dividing plants and flowers in your garden or if your plants have sent off some volunteers. My mom has a really pretty orange flower that goes nuts in her yard every year, so she digs them up, puts them in little cups or pots with some soil, gives them to me, and I plant them in my yard. I've given her some of the sage in my garden to plant in her yard, as well as some lamb's ear. One of my neighbors gave me a bunch of columbines she was digging up. Hooray for free flowers!

89. Don't turn your nose up at cheaper cuts of meat. Instead of boneless, skinless chicken breasts go for bone-in chicken thighs and drumsticks (those parts are more flavorful than the chicken breast anyway). Cheaper cuts of beef usually have the words "chuck", "round", or "flank" (you can always tenderize these cuts by marinating them). With pork, one of the cheapest cuts (but my favorite -- I love PW's recipe for spicy shredded pork) is usually the shoulder (also called the butt roast, which confused me for a while.I called my dad, who was a butcher at the time, while I was at the store, "Where's the shoulder? All I can see is butt roast!").  Also go for family packs of chicken and meat, divide it up yourself, and freeze it. You can also buy a whole chicken instead of buying by the piece and cut it up yourself (for my complete how-to for cutting up a whole chicken, click here).

90. When you're preparing a meal, save scraps for stock in the freezer. Save your carrot ends, the outer layers of onions (not the skins, though), stems from herbs (like parsley), celery leaves, empty pea pods, and anything else you'd use in a stock in a freezer bag.  Save the bones from your cheap cuts of beef or chicken (but in separate bags -- you don't want to make beef-chicken stock. Best to keep them separate.).  You can also save shells from shellfish like shrimp and lobster to make a seafood stock. Keep these bags in the freezer and when you have some time, whip up a batch of homemade stock -- it's better than the store-bought stuff, it's crazy cheap (you're using stuff you would have thrown away!), and really easy to make.

91. Lower your water heater temperature. I read that lowering your water heater temperature from 140 to 120 degrees (which works for most people) can reduce your hot water costs 6-10%.  Right now we don't have our temperature lowered because I like using really hot water to wash cloth diapers, but once we're done with that phase, we'll lower it again.

92.  Don't buy microwave popcorn.

93. I'm sharing this news like it's gospel -- start your own seeds with milk-jug greenhouses. Seed starting just doesn't get any easier than that.

94. Get acquainted with coconut oil. It's incredible how versatile this stuff is!

95. Replace your furnace filter monthly, even in the summer. I had a repairman tell me that when he came to fix my air conditioner (and I trust this guy -- he gave me an honest second opinion when another company said I needed to spend over a thousand dollars to fix a non-existent problem). When your filter is clogged with dust, your furnace has to work harder, it becomes less efficient, and it can damage the furnace after long enough. He also said you don't need to buy the expensive filters -- the cheapest ones are fine unless you have severe allergies and require a special filter.

96.  Use a push mower. Our gasoline-powered one was really starting to wear out and smoke more, so we got this push mower. I'm telling you now, with the utmost honesty, this mower isn't any harder to push than our gas-powered one. It's amazing.

97. Create a waiting period for yourself before you spend more than $50 on a single item. Give yourself a 24- or 48-hour waiting period to decide if you really want/need that item or if it's an impulse purchase.

98.  Keep an open mind. 

99. Don't buy stuff you cannot afford. 

100. And, finally, some practically perfect advice from Mary Poppins: "Enough is as a good as a feast."

UPDATE: For another 100 ways to live frugally (list 3 of 3), click HERE.

Note: Some of the links in the post above are "affiliate links." This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. 

{This post is linked up to Your Green Resource, Homestead Barn Hop, Simple Lives Thursday, Little House Friday, and Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways.}