[Where I give you advice like I know what I'm talking about]

Seven small things that are easy to do and easy on your wallet.

1) (for those who menstruate) Use a menstrual cup.  No garbage, no plastic waste, no chemically treated cotton inside of you, nothing to remember to buy/have around each month except one discreet little cup!  This of course doesn't work for everyone, but for some people it can be a FANTASTIC solution.  It's a one time cost, but lasts for something like 10 years. 

2) Make your own salad dressing.  Some kind of oil, some kind of vinegar, some kind of sweetening, mustard.  Anything on top of that is icing on the cake!  Or spice in the dressing, as it were...

3)  Use vinegar for cleaning and disinfecting.

4) Water it down! 

5) If you eat meat, use less.  I'm not talking full on vegetarianism here (though that's cool if you want to), just cut it back a bit.  Say, halve the amount of meat you add into a recipe and double the veg.  Or take days off from meat.

6) Stop eating junk food.  Or cut it down.  Junk food is expensive and wasteful and never tastes as good as you want it to and makes you feel a bit icky afterward (or should I say, ME).  Of course, nothing beats a good burger, but at least find a GOOD burger.  Something that will be worth it to you.

7) Switch paper for cloth.  Bags, kleenex, towels, wipes, heck, some people even do it with toilet paper!  (A non-threatening way to do this is to just use cloth for #1...)

What other kinds of things do you do to save around the house?

Made It: Coconut Milk Frosting

I like how on the stand the cake looks like it's rising out of a lava rock island or something...

So as part of my goals for frugality this year, I'm trying to use everything we have.  That means that box of random non-perishables that Dave brought home after helping his friend move last month all got tucked away in our cupboards in preparation for using in our kitchen.  Because who are we to turn away something a friend has to offer?   And I must admit that some of these items have caused me a bit of consternation.  Here I am, trying to live a green lifestyle, a health conscious lifestyle, a frugal lifestyle, and a homemade lifestyle simultaneously, and what do I do with this box of Hamburger Helper?  Lots of times these different lifestyles will intersect and help each other out.  Use vinegar for everything - done.  Go no 'poo - done.  Make your own laundry soap - done.  But the handed down food items, they just don't jive with so many of my ideals.  Though if I discard them, then what do I become?  How does that make economic sense?

Simple.  Quit worrying and bake a cake!  (from a box!)

It's actually quite delicious, and almost even too easy of a project to get 19 month old Charlie involved in.  There were only 3 things for him to put in the mixer!  And the saving grace of this cake (aside from the awesome castle cake pan we got as a wedding gift) is the frosting.  And again, using everything we have...  I had about 3/4 c. of coconut milk in the fridge that wasn't getting used, so I decided to make coconut milk frosting.  It's pretty much a regular frosting recipe with coconut milk substituted for milk.  But it is so light and fluffy and delicious, it feels like a revelation!  Just your basic butter, icing sugar, and milk recipe with a touch of vanilla.  The other thing about using coconut milk is that with only a few tweaks you could make this into a vegan frosting.  Or a delicious coconut frosting.  The only thing is, the coconut milk doesn't add very much coconut flavour, so you might want to add some shredded coconut or coconut extract. 

Delish!

Coming Up...

One of the moms in my weekly parents' group had this great New Years' resolution:  Stop talking about what you want to do or plan to do or hope to do, and leave it to things you've done.  Those kinds of things count more, and keep you more accountable.

I'd like to do this (dare I say, I want to do this?) but I can't help giving a few hints of upcoming projects.  I'm pretty excited about them, and I'll let you know how they go:

- homemade pasta
- body sugaring
- eyebrow threading
- no shampoo
- lotion

Lots of these are more "personal care" items rather than recipes, but when you're strapped for cash, you can't be going out and getting your legs waxed and eyebrows threaded 'cuz that stuff costs!  I found in Edmonton it was pretty cheap to do the ol' eyebrow threading, and even the funniest little hole in the wall did a good job, but here in Kelowna, where the South Asian population is not very big, it's hard to find a cheap threading.  And so, I experiment at home!

Stay tuned!

Made It: WHO bread

In our need and greed for toast around here, I think I could probably make bread every day and not have to freeze any of it.  I've already had 4 pieces of toast today...  But that might be because I made some delicious bread yesterday!  It's just so - eatable!  It's soft and chewy and sweet and ever so lightly flavoured with honey and a touch of cinnamon.  Delicious! 

 I decided to try Soulemama's WHO bread (I think the "WHO" stands for wheat-honey-oat, rather than World Health Organization) and was pleasantly surprised.  The recipe is super easy and quick and does not call for very much kneading.  It also tastes so much better than it looks!  However, Dave has since pointed out to me that the bread should have been kneaded longer.  Apparently it has something wrong with it called an "M-fault," which is when the top of the bread is higher at the sides than in the middle, creating an "M" shape, which you can kind of see here.  It has something to do with the bread dough not having enough strength to stick together. 

This also means that the bread, while delicious toasted with jam, does not have the strength for something like a sandwich.  I could see it crumbling under the pressure of holding together some lettuce and cheese...

All of this has just reminded me that I need to get cracking on today's bread recipe, which is more of Dave's ciabatta.  No kneading in that recipe either, just a lot of stretching.  And waiting.  I'll try to make a post on how that one turns out as well, just to compare.

Goals for Frugally Living Well

One of the things I'm learning through financial restriction is how much of a privilege good food is.  By "good food" I mean food that is fresh, wholesome, and unprocessed.  For a low income family, it is next to impossible to buy locally grown meat, artisan bread, locally roasted coffee, and farmers' market veggies.  These are the things we are used to, but in these reduced circumstances, they're simply out of our reach.  Of course I'd rather buy an organic free range chicken...  Heck, even that "free from" packet of chicken thighs is looking good these days.  But at over $2/kg more than the regular chicken thighs, it's a tough sell.

I suppose financial restriction really just forces you to choose which is more important to you.  If I was stricter with myself, perhaps I would purchase that free range chicken instead, and only have chicken every other week.

At any rate, one of our big purchases used to be our bread selection.  We are a major toast family, and plain old grocery store bread just ain't gonna cut it.  (I can't decide if that's a pun or not...)  As it turns out, making your own bread is much tastier AND more cost effective than buying the grocery store bread.  Here is my list of things that I hope will help us to live within our budget AND live well:

1) Use everything you have.  This means not letting anything go bad in the fridge, and no daily shopping trips!

2) Bake your own bread

3) Make as much as you can yourself.  Future projects include mustard, salad dressing, ketchup, lotion, sunscreen, conditioner, soap, body butter, etc. This helps you to avoid weird ingredients and hopefully will also benefit the grocery bill.  (Though some of the projects have a bit of a start-up cost for materials)

4) If you can't fit anything in your closet (dresser, piles on the bedroom floor, etc.) you don't need any more clothes.

5) Decide what you can and can't live without.  One of the things that we don't cave on is peanut butter.  Yet.  But ordinary supermarket coffee will do for now.  Besides, they don't have Transcend here. 


That's it for now.  I'll probably add to this list as I learn more about our limits and limitations!