Ashes to traction, dust to dust

If you have a fireplace or woodburning stove you have ashes. I find the fireplace ashes to be almost as useful as the wood that heats our house (almost). I save the ashes in a metal tin until there is zero chance that there may be any live embers. I then have several options. If our sidewalk or driveway is icy I can sprinkle the ashes on it to increase traction dramatically. I am careful to not put the ashes near the door so they don't get tracked into the house. This is a natural alternative that eliminates the need to buy salt which can damage plantings. The other use for ashes is odor control. We have chickens so the bin we collect their waste in before dumping it into the compost pile can get stinky in warm weather. A thin dusting of ashes from a large bag I keep nearby eliminates all odor. I also sprinkle under the chicken perch whenever I clean up their droppings to prevent odor. Works great. You can also add some to your kitchen scrap compost bin if you find it getting a little ripe. So don't make the mistake of tossing this great, free resource. Let me know of any other uses you've found for yours.

Gardening Helpers

I have one tool that I use beyond all others in my yard. A big old kitty litter container with a lid that flips halfway open and a handle to easily carry it. I put the weeds in it as I pick them, minimizing the trips to the compost pile. I scoop compost into it when I need to add it to my window boxes or planters and I put plants in it when I am dividing or transplanting to carry them to other areas of the yard. If you don't have a cat to provide you with this most excellent helper, fear not. You likely know someone who does and who would be happy to give you one the big lidded buckets next time they use up their supply of kitty litter. I even have one in the garage for scooping out the chicken coop a couple of times a week. I scoop the droppings into the bucket, add some ashes from my fireplace to reduce the smell and close it up.
My second favorite gardening helper is the clearance table at the garden section of Lowe's although any place with a gardening dept may have something similar. I make a beeline for it, trying not to be tempted along the way. I get plants for a fraction of the cost and I pick the ones that are either perennials or ones I know will continue to bloom with a little TLC. Today I got a beautiful healthy hanging pot of fuchsia for $5 because the plastic pot was cracked, several geraniums for $.50 each, a great big hanging pot of miniature petunias for $5 and some perennials for only a dollar each! What great deals for plants that will bloom all summer and some that will hopefully come back each year for years to come (if the chickens don't scratch them up). The geraniums I got last week are already sending out new blooms thanks to the compost I mixed in with the potting soil and regular watering from the rain barrel. Look like you took out a second mortgage for landscaping but your deals can be your little secret.

homemade watering can

Now that you have almost unlimited free water thanks to your roof and ingenuity, how about a free watering can. I've seen people use gallon milk jugs for watering cans but I recommend using kitty litter containers because they hold much more water and the large lid and opening means they pour more quickly and fill more quickly. If you don't have a cat I bet you know someone that does and would be delighted to give you an empty container. Simply take the container and drill or punch a small hole in the top back part of the handle. This allows air to go in and out as you water so your watering can pours smoothly. Next get a piece of scrap wood and put the lid from the kitty litter container on top of it with the flat part resting on the wood. Use a drill or nail and hammer to makes holes approximately equidistant throughout the top of the lid. Fill with water from your homemade rain barrel, screw on the lid and water to your heart's and your plants' content. If you want to be super fancy you can even decorate the outside of your new watering can with a waterproof marker. This prevents family members from mistaking your fancy watering can with trash;)

Easy Rain Barrel

I made a rain barrel a few years ago but broke the bottom when I was trying to get it ready for winter storage. So I made another that was even easier. I got two plastic garbage cans with lids. I cut a hole in the top of one to snugly fit a PVC plumbing item that looks kind of like an ice cream cone but open on top and bottom. I used a clamp for a dryer vent to affix some window screen to the large end of the PVC. This is where the water enters and the screen prevents debris like leaves and such to get into the barrel and it prevents mosquitoes from using your barrel as a nursery for 10,000,000 bouncing blood thirsty baby mosquitoes. I made a hole towards the top of the side of the first barrel and a corresponding hole slightly lower on the side of the second barrel. I inserted metal pipe fittings into each of these holes and then connected the two cans with flexible hose that fit these fittings. The last thing is to add a faucet to the top of one of the cans to allow the overflow to escape when your cans get too full. I attached an old garden hose and leave the faucet open full blast with the end of the garden hose emptying into our garden, away from the house. Change your downspout so it empties into the top of the first rain barrel and have the other barrel nearby to fill up when there is too much rain for one to hold. If you get freezing winters you will need to empty the barrels and put your old downspout back until spring. Whenever I need water I remove the lid of either barrel and dip in my watering can. Works great and holds plenty of water. This saves on your water bill and allows you to use natural rainwater on your plants instead of municipal water treated with chlorine. It also lessens the amount of water that storm sewers have to deal with. Less than a quarter inch of rain over my small house will fill and entire rain barrel and that is only using one of my downspouts! Let it rain!!

Book It!

When you think of the best place to get a bargain in town you may think of your favorite discount retailer, consignment shop or thrift store but actually the best deals in town are at your local library. You can get any book you want generally, either from their shelves or they can order it for you from another library. They also have magazines, newspapers, music CDs and DVDs to check out for free and programs for all members of the family that are also free. Don't forget about your friendly local librarian who can act as free book recommender and fact bloodhound if you have a question. Going on vacation with the kids and dreading the endless arguments that erupt in the back seat? Go to the library to pick up some books on CD to keep the kids occupied. The library is an ideal place to get books you think you will only read once or twice and it can allow you to give other books or magazines test drives before you decide to buy them (i.e. cookbooks). So bike on over to your local library and explore all the good deals that they happily offer.

Bike It

Okay you already know biking is good for your health and good for the environment. How good for your health? Half an hour of not too strenous biking and your last Krispy Creme doughnut is cancelled out or about 8 calories for every minute you bike! How good for the environment? Imagine breathing in the air from your tailpipe compared to the air that follows your bike. It is also much more frugal. The current government rate for operating a motor vehicle is $.50 a mile. That means by leaving your car parked in your driveway and taking your bike instead to go 2 miles to and from the grocery store, video store, library you are saving $2 and wear and tear on your car with each trip and getting environmental AND health benefits. I commute to work on my bike, do errands on my bike and go to the gym on my bike thus saving myself from having to use the super boring stationary bikes. If you haven't used yours recently, get it out, dust it off, pump up the tires and start pedaling. You'll be glad you did. Now if I could just find a "powered by chocolate" t-shirt to wear while riding.

Spicy Post

Usually health food stores are expensive but there is one section that will save you lots of money if you cook or bake - buying your spices from the bulk food section. You can buy as little or as much as you want. Aim for an amount that will last you the 6 months that is recommended for maximum spice freshness. So whenever I run out of fennel I buy a little and if I run out of cumin or oregano I buy a LOT because I seldom use fennel but I use cumin by the truckload when cooking. If you compare their prices per oz to what they charge for jarred spices in the grocery store you will be floored by the savings. I also use quite a bit of yeast between homemade bread, cinnamon rolls and pizza dough. I can buy enough for a jar full for my fridge there for only a couple dollars from the bulk section of the health food store compared to the $8-$9 for the jar at the store or even worse value the $2-$3 for the little 3 pack. The spices seem much fresher at the health food store than from the jars at the grocery. So keep your old jars, rinse them out and refill with fresher and much cheaper spices from the health food store bulk item section. This not only saves you money but you are reusing your jars instead of buying new ones and it is cheaper to transport the spices alone than to transport the spices in all those jars thus you are also helping the environment.

recycling that cashmere sweater that you can't throw away

I try not to spend a lot of money on clothes and generally either buy on deep discount at places like T.J. Maxx or Marshalls or from consignment or Goodwill. I can rarely find affordable cashmere sweaters and who doesn't love the soft, silky feel of cashmere. Well one lucky day I did find a sweater that was affordable because it was so thin it appeared to have been made out of the floor scrappings from the cashmere factory but who am I to complain, it was cheap and deliciously soft. I loved the sweater and wore it until it got a hole in a rather conspicuous place (think easy access for breast feeding). I am not a pack rat but I could not bring myself to throw this beloved and otherwise still good sweater out. It would be like shooting your loyal workhorse after it reached retirement age instead of putting it out to pasture. So I made a scarf. I cut out two equally wide strips from the sweater and sewed a zigzag stitch around all sides of these two strips to prevent unraveling. I then sewed two of the short ends together as the middle of my new scarf. This gave me a wonderfully soft, cozy and long scarf that I can wrap around and around and around my neck. Very easy and you give yourself a cashmere hug every time you leave the house on cold winter days. This is not limited to cashmere. I have actually unraveled other beloved sweaters of a thicker weave and used that yarn to knit a scarf. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Re-purpose!

New Candles from Old Candles or Let there be (cheap) Light

We use a lot of candles around here. No, we aren't Amish or living off the grid. We just enjoy candles. We use them when eating dinner and have them throughout the house for when we want a nice warm light. Candles are however expensive to purchase new. This is how I get around that. I buy all my candles at either Salvation Army or our annual Humane Society Garage sale (unscented only, I do not want chemical perfumes in my home). Through these two cheap methods I have a stockpile of both taper and large candles that would make a survivalist proud. But my savings doesn't end there. That only gets a silver medal in the green/frugal Olympics and I'm going for the GOLD. Often you cannot burn the last part of a candle but still have wax left and in the case of a large candle it can equal a good chunk of perfectly fine wax. I toss these ends into an old pan that I use exclusively for candles. When I have a good amount I round up some candle jars in need of candles and cut wicks for them from wick I buy at the craft store (the most expensive part of the process - I've also used embroidery floss but that tends to flop over and be hard to light). I put the bottom of this wick through an old wick holder from an already burned candle. I then wrap the top of the wick around an old disposable chop stick and hang it over the jar so it is centered and hanging down the middle to the bottom of the container. I now heat up my old wax either on the stove or in the microwave and once it is liquid I pour it into the waiting jars (be careful it is hot and I'm going out on a limb to guess it is also flammable). Once your newly made candle dries there is a rather deep indentation in the middle which, if it bothers you, you can fill by reheating the wax left in the pan. My last batch was birthed from the remnants of a big red candle and several white candles giving me several lovely new rose colored candles (as seen in photo above). These also make good gifts and you could layer different colors if you have lots of time on your hands and a craft streak in you that is roaring to get out.

City Chickens

We live in a town of about 40,000 that allows its residents to keep backyard chickens. We took the plunge about 5 years ago and have NEVER regreted it. Delicious eggs, non-stop comedy routines and even an occasional cuddle. We converted a corner of our shed/garage into the coop to keep them out of the wet and wind. 2 lights in the winter is the only heat source with homemade blankets around the outside of the cage to further prevent draft. A heated dog watering dish prevents their water from freezing. Add a little hay and some chickens and you are in business. For our household of 2 we have 3 hens but only 2 are currently laying which gives us about 10 free range eggs a week. They come running from all corners of the yard whenever they hear the back door because they know either we have treats in hand or they can talk us into some (they are a little spoiled). They love grapes, peanuts, stale popcorn, crackers, bread, leftover rice, oatmeal or tortilla chips along with their crumbles. They take about 5 minutes a day work but we spend more time than that with them usually. You will get beautiful eggs with super yellow and firm yolks and thick shells. If I lay in the hammock they always sit on the ground around me and nap to keep me company or one will fly up to sleep on my chest for a bit while I read my book. My neighbors may think I'm nuts but I find it endearing. Another bonus, if you are collecting those pesky japanese beetles they will gobble them out of your hand along with any grubs you dig up in the yard. If your community allows them we highly recommend getting a few birds. You can learn much, much more at backyardchickens.com including coop designs and information about different breeds. The cost of day old chicks is minimal (just a couple dollars a piece) and the cost of food and oyster shell is also cheap but building a coop does require some investment of time and money. For us, knowing that our eggs are coming from happy chickens who enjoy the outdoors and are able to live a normal chicken life instead of being confined in cages in a horrible warehouse makes the investment more than worth it.

homemade sugar sprinkles

Sugar sprinkles are easy to make. Simply mix a drop or two of food coloring with plain sugar and sprinkle over cupcakes or cookies. Make whatever color you like, have fewer containers in your cupboard and save a bundle on decorating your baked goods. WAY cheaper than the $2.50 for you pay for the exact same product at the store.

Clean Green (and frugally) in the bathroom

The amount of poisonous chemicals most households use to clean is astounding to me. I use only 3 totally safe, edible ingredients for the majority of my cleaning - baking soda, vinegar and elbow grease (okay I don't recommend eating elbow grease but you know what I mean). For my porcelain tub and sink I generally use a plastic mesh pad. You can either make your own out of an onion or potato bag or buy one with a handle. It lasts for a long time and it is easy to scrub off the soap scum that accumulates. If you use chemicals to scour you are not only touching and bathing in the residues of those chemicals but also inhaling them as you work. When you rinse these chemicals away you introduce them to the natural environment through our wastewater. For natural cleaning you can add a little baking soda to your mesh pad to make the job even easier and baking soda acts as a natural deodorizer. For the toilet I use a toilet brush and a mixture of 1/2 white vinegar and 1/2 distilled water from the dehumidifier. I keep this mixture in a spray bottle that you can get from the dollar store or simply reuse one you already have. The vinegar is a natural cure and preventative for mildew. You can also spray this mixture on your dish strainer if that tends to get moldy to inhibit mold growth. This can also be used as your glass cleaner. For our tile floor I generally just use an old dish rag and water. Do not expose yourself, your family and the environment to the chemicals in bathroom cleaners and do not expose your money to being spent on them when you have a safer, cheaper, greener alternative.

cheap and easy kettle corn

Supersize rip-off - popcorn at the movie theater
Giant Rip-off - popcorn at a popcorn shop
Really big Rip-off - microwave popcorn
Good Deal and way better for you - homemade popcorn

I have an air popcorn popper that I got at Goodwill for $2.55 (I know this because I've never bothered to take off the price tag). Popcorn that I make in this costs pennies a serving and has none of the fat and sodium that all of the other popcorns have. The problem is that when served plain, air popped popcorn also has none of the taste of the other options and salt doesn't stick to air-popped popcorn. That's why I invented homebrewed kettle corn. In less than 5 minutes you can whip up a delicious batch of something approximating a cross between kettle corn and fiddle faddle. Load up your air popper with a couple of tablespoons of kernels per person. In a non-stick skillet melt half a tablespoon of butter per person, 1 tbls of corn syrup per person and about a tbls of brown sugar. Cook and stir until sugar is dissolved. Now turn on popper. Once popcorn is done add a pinch of baking soda to the still hot sugar mixture. This causes it to bubble up a bit so it spreads more evenly over the popcorn. Pour sugar mixture over popcorn. Toss to coat with a spoon and if so desired add a few peanuts. Delicious, fairly nutritious and costs pennies a serving! Also doesn't have all the packaging that microwave popcorn does along with all the chemicals. Super easy to make and you will be amazed at how long a bag of regular popcorn lasts. Way cheaper, way healthier and less waste!! Enjoy!

a few favorite frugal websites (say that 10 times fast)

I can not take full credit for all my mad frugal and environmentally friendly skills. Here is where I get my online help.

epinions.com
This site has reviews of products like consumer reports but the reviews are by actual owners of the product. Useful for making the best purchasing decisions on both the big items (which car to buy) and small items (do those glade pet hair rollers really work and can they be jerry-rigged for multiple use). You can also add your own reviews which is very therapeutic for both wonderful purchases and things you bought that turned out to be pieces of crap. Producers of pieces of crap feel my wrath!... verbally.

half.com
Best for frugality and the environment is your local library for all your book needs but sometimes a book is soooooo good (Jane Austen, Charles Dickens) and you know you will read or refer to it sooooo many times (cookbooks) that you must own it. Go to half.com (owned by ebay) for great deals on used and some new books. Buying used instead of new is always friendly for the environment and your wallet. You can also sell the books on here that you no longer use. Fatten your wallet while that bound dustcatcher gets a loving new home.

allrecipes.com
If it were possible to love a website so much that you could marry it (circa 3rd grade) I would be happily married to allrecipes. Tons of recipes but they also thought of every helpful tool in the book. Having 30 people over for pumpkin pancakes? Tap a few keys and your recipe automatically converts to ingredient list for 30 servings! Nutrition information, metric conversion, but most helpful is the number of stars people give the recipes and their reviews and feedback on it. Also earning the star of total awesomeness is the ingredient search. You have 3/4's of a tub of sour cream left over after making brownies to mail off to your favorite frugal maven??? Put "sour cream" in the ingredient search and get a whole list of recipes that includes sour cream. No more science experiments growing in various tubs in the fridge!!! Frugal (check), Less wasteful thus environmentally friendly (check).

Happy hunting!

buttermilk

This idea is covered in many other places but I'm always surprised by how many people don't know about it. If you have ever bought buttermilk for a specific recipe, used some, put the rest in the fridge with the fine intention of using it up someday soon only to unbury it weeks later looking like it is well on its way to making very stinky butter this tip has your name on it. You can make your own buttermilk by simply adding a a tbls of white vinegar or lemon juice to regular milk (skim or whole) and letting it sit for a minute or two until it starts to separate. You won't taste the difference and it is cheaper and easier than buying a separate container of buttermilk.

cold wall first aid or poor person's insulation

If you live in a cold climate and in an old house you know that some north facing walls could double as extra freezer space if you just added some shelving. My solution for this is borrowed from the freezing, drafty castles of the days of yore... tapestry. In my case I'm not referring to hand made wall hangings of a hunting party chasing down a unicorn but a simple blanket that you can hang from a rod to be attractive but more importantly prevent frostbite of your extremities. I took some old fabric and sheets I had lying around or picked up cheap at Goodwill and a quilted mattress cover from Goodwill for the backing (cheaper than buying batting) and sewed a scene using the colors I had on hand. I then added loops of fabric at the top to run a dowel through (or in my case a leftover piece of trim). Put a few screws in the wall to hang it from and you will be surprised at the difference in comfort level. Mine is next to my side of the bed and on a frigid north facing wall. My nose no longer looks like I've spent years hitting the bottle on cold January mornings. Big improvement!

homemade eye cover / sleep mask for traveling

Tired of looking like a zombie as you get off the plane after a long flight? I have a handy bag of airplane sleep supplies that I take with me on all plane trips.
Item 1: Blow up neck cushion
Item 2: foam earplugs
Item 3: my homemade eye cover/sleeper's mask/ fancy blindfold
To make your own sleep mask take a middle sized scrap of medium to lightweight fabric and fold it in half longways. Cut out a rectangle that will fit across the front of your face. Cut a narrow triangle out of the middle for your nose. Put wrong sides together and sew up 3 of 4 sides. Turn right side out. If you want to get extra fancy get some dried lavender flowers or rose flowers from the bulk spice section of your local health food store and drop some of that in then sew the remaining side up. Last just sew on a ribbon across the top of the back so you can tie that puppy on around your head. I also made a little bag out of the same material to store it in. You may look like a dork on the plane as you're getting your beauty sleep but I'll take being conscious for the first day of my vacation to looking normal to everyone making their way down the aisle to the cramped airplane bathroom. Added bonus - sends a definite message to any Chatty Cathy you have the bad luck to be seated next too. Double added bonus - you have a blindfold ready to go for your next pin the tail on the donkey game. Also makes a good gift for people who travel a lot and aren't too vain.

more efficient fireplace

Fireplaces are beautiful and cozy but are actually 5% to -5% efficient. Yes that means your furnace may run MORE with a fire going in the fireplace because it has to replace the warm household air that is going up the chimney with the smoke and heat from the fire. You can increase your fireplace efficiency by investing in a fireplace insert. This is a glass fronted box with a blower. Once your fireplace reaches a certain temperature a blower turns on to circulate air around the hot box of the insert and then blows this heated air into the room. The air is heated by the fire but the air is not from the fireplace. This means almost no smoke unlike a regular fireplace and an efficiency of around 80%. An insert essentially turns your fireplace into a woodburning stove. It is an investment but if you can collect your own wood from people cutting down trees in your neighborhood (allow 6 months for the wood to fully dry and season) it will provide you with heat from a renewable energy source unlike your furnance. Learn more with this Mother Earth News article. We had one installed soon after moving into our house and absolutely love it. When we use it, the furnace does not turn on and the wood burns much more slowly than in a conventional fireplace.

firewood tote from old jeans

Got a fireplace? Got pine sap, bark and sawdust on your coat from carrying in armfulls of wood with a trail of sticks and bark behind you that would make Hansel and Gretal proud? If you have an old pair of jeans and a sewing machine you will no longer have to wear your badge of firewood toting honor down your front. Cut the legs off the jeans and cut open each leg near the inseam. Sew the wide end of the open legs together with a several rows of zigzag stitching. This needs to be strong since this is where most of the weight of the wood will rest. Take a wooden dowel like you would use for hanging clothes in a closet or an equally thick branch and cut it so you have 2 pieces of wood about 2 feet long. At either end of your now sewn together jeans cut out a rectangle out of the middle. Sew up each end so the dowel fits through and the cut out rectangle allows space for your hand to grasp the dowels directly. Slip in dowels. Carry your new tote outside, lay it on the ground and put in a bunch of wood. Pick up with the handles you cut out, holding on to the dowels and skip back to the house with your now contained load of wood. Beautiful? Hell No! Practical? Absolutely!
2017 update! I'm still using this exact same tote. Has worked great and held up beautifully!

brown sugar

Want to get the good sale price on brown sugar every time you use it? Go look at your ingredient list on the bag of brown sugar in your cupboard. Go ahead, I'll wait. See, it says granulated sugar and molasses. Now if you are like me, you have a dusty bottle of molasses in your cupboard for gingerbread and baked beans. If you want to make your own brown sugar just mix 1 tbls of molasses into each cup of regular sugar. Price per lb of white sugar at local bag your own store = $.42. Price of brown sugar per lb. at same store $.59. This means $.34 per bag of brown sugar savings and equally important less bags in your cupboard.

old towels

Do you have old towels that are starting to be transparent? If you have enough good section you can sew them into great, sturdy hotpads. Put wrong sides together, add a few layers of old flannel or other fabric, sew up three and a half sides, turn right side out, sew up remainder and pick up that honking iron skillet without third degree burns. I've used these for years as you can maybe tell!

fabric you know deep down you will never use

Got fabric laying around that you suspect may be buried with you when you die? Despair not! If you know how to knit get out some wide gauge knitting needles and cut the fabric into a continuous strip about 1.5-2 inches wide. Knit that into a trivet, hotpad or if you have a lot of material you can make a small throw rug. My rug below is far from gorgeous but its perfect to set wet boots on near the door and used up a ton of old fabric I was unlikely to ever use for anything else. You could also use old clothes.