Tag Archives: homemade

Food Introductions

My son has recently started eating food. Well, This isn’t exactly true. For some reason this Dad kind of thought that one day they just started putting cereal into their mouths through some sort of magical “growing up” process that occurred on one specific day. One day my son is just nursing; the next day he is eating steaks. I’m joking (a little) but I really thought my son would be eating all sorts of baby foods and other items one we put the first taste of avocado into his mouth. I was quite wrong. The introduction of solid foods … Continue reading →

Tips for Slicing Homemade Bread

You know that I am a big advocate of making your own bread to save money (and eat healthier. Well, the other day, a reader of our blogs mentioned to me that she would love to have home made bread but thought that it was too much trouble. I suggested that she get a bread machine to make things easier. “Oh, it isn’t making the bread!” she said. “It is slicing the bread. The slices are always uneven or the bread gets squished or the slices are too big to use for sandwiches.” I was happy to hear this, because … Continue reading →

The Cream of Soup Budget

Isn’t it funny how even someone who has been practicing living frugally for a while now can still learn new things? Times can change making certain practices that were once very frugal only moderately so. Also, new information pops up all of the time, or at least our awareness of that information does. Both of these factors came on to play with what I am going to talk about next, my use of those canned “cream of…” soups. Previously, I used a lot of canned cream soups in my cooking for a few reasons. The first was that these soups … Continue reading →

Asthma, Allergies and a Few Frugal Cleaning Solutions

My two year old son recently spent a week in the hospital after suffering a severe respiratory infection. While he had been a healthy baby, now we suspect that he may be suffering from both asthma and seasonal allergies too. During the week of his hospitalization, I had a meltdown. I sent my husband to stay with him at the hospital while I frantically cleaned our home. I hadn’t slept for days and I was determined to kill whatever virus landed him in there in the first place. With my bottle of three-in-one cleaner in hand, I sprayed everything from … Continue reading →

Frugal Food: Make Your Own Hot Chocolate Mix

Last week the weather hit an unexpected cold spell and we all had the chills. it was just one of those cold dreary days. The kids were whiny and the adults were grumpy. I thought that hot chocolate might just cheer everyone up, but we were down to only one packet of instant hot chocolate, and I didn’t have a stockpile at hand. Since I try not to buy anything that isn’t on sale with a coupon, I decided to make my own mix. I’m not sure why I never attempted this before. When I do a quick calculation in … Continue reading →

Bake Your Own Bread

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Bake Your Own Bread Frugal living can mean many things to many people. My idea of frugal living is to live the best possible life at the lowest possible cost. That is where baking your own bread comes in. there is certainly some time and energy involved in baking your own bread, but when you work out the numbers, it is the least expensive way to get the best possible product for your and your family. You see, homemade bread is more filling than store bought bread and it tastes great. You always know what is in it and, believe … Continue reading →

Homemade Cat Toy

I was in the Sharper Image in San Francisco with my kids this weekend, and we saw many amazing things, like a small, round robot that goes around and vacuums your floors and then puts itself back in its own charger. My daughter wondered what the cat would think of it. We laughed about it being an expensive cat toy and moved on. The we saw…drumroll please…an expensive cat toy. Attached to a base was a springy rope with a fuzzy pouf on the end. The automated base moved the toy around in random motions so your cat could be … Continue reading →