DG's frugal journal

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Carleen
Posts: 395
Joined: Sun Oct 18, 2015 10:19 pm

Re: DG's frugal journal

Post by Carleen »

Howdy, DG:

I know what you mean about people who criticize frugalness. One long-ago neighbor wondered how we managed to live on "leaves and twigs". We had a large garden, fruit trees and an herb garden that would rival McCormick!!! Our fruit trees gave us pears, apples and some peaches (not the best crop of the peaches but they were a nice treat when they chose to show up!). My uncle gave me grape vines. I canned 125 quarts of tomatoes, canned fruit, made our own pickles, made bread, jams, yogurt and dehydrated herbs and spices. I can't even remember what all we preserved. Everything lasted until the following year's harvest.

We never purchased "designer jeans" for our daughters. When the older one got a part-time job, she asked if she could use her money to purchase some black brand-name jeans that she had been wanting. I said OK and she did so. One day after she wore them to school, the phone rang and it was the mother of one of her friends. She was calling to congratulate me for buying designer jeans. I told her that the kid bought them with her own money and the mom was aghast. You make her buy her own clothes???????!!!!!

Daughter wore those jeans until they were practically falling apart. Then she made a pillow cover that she put on her bed as a decoration. She simply could not get rid of them and she said in later years that she was glad she bought them but she probably could have found something more sensible to spend her money on. (Silent YAY for me!!!) When she left home and got married, she took her pillow with her. She has been married for 29 years and that pillow is on the bed in their guest bedroom.

Our new neighbor (of one month) actually asked me how we managed to do so much traveling, and asked me if we planned to have money left to live on later on. I started to tell her that we have lived frugally for all of our married life and I could see her eyes glaze-over. She's a lost cause. She is a real "piece of work".

Gotta go get busy. I'll save other tales of trauma/drama for other posts!

Oh, well. I guess that's enough from me. Thanks for the trip down Memory Lane!
.
Carleen...
Listening for the Shout
1 Thes. 4:16-17
alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: DG's frugal journal

Post by alliesmama4 »

Carleen wrote: Thu Sep 05, 2019 12:05 pm Howdy, DG:

I know what you mean about people who criticize frugalness. One long-ago neighbor wondered how we managed to live on "leaves and twigs". We had a large garden, fruit trees and an herb garden that would rival McCormick!!! Our fruit trees gave us pears, apples and some peaches (not the best crop of the peaches but they were a nice treat when they chose to show up!). My uncle gave me grape vines. I canned 125 quarts of tomatoes, canned fruit, made our own pickles, made bread, jams, yogurt and dehydrated herbs and spices. I can't even remember what all we preserved. Everything lasted until the following year's harvest.

We never purchased "designer jeans" for our daughters. When the older one got a part-time job, she asked if she could use her money to purchase some black brand-name jeans that she had been wanting. I said OK and she did so. One day after she wore them to school, the phone rang and it was the mother of one of her friends. She was calling to congratulate me for buying designer jeans. I told her that the kid bought them with her own money and the mom was aghast. You make her buy her own clothes???????!!!!!

Daughter wore those jeans until they were practically falling apart. Then she made a pillow cover that she put on her bed as a decoration. She simply could not get rid of them and she said in later years that she was glad she bought them but she probably could have found something more sensible to spend her money on. (Silent YAY for me!!!) When she left home and got married, she took her pillow with her. She has been married for 29 years and that pillow is on the bed in their guest bedroom.

Our new neighbor (of one month) actually asked me how we managed to do so much traveling, and asked me if we planned to have money left to live on later on. I started to tell her that we have lived frugally for all of our married life and I could see her eyes glaze-over. She's a lost cause. She is a real "piece of work".

Gotta go get busy. I'll save other tales of trauma/drama for other posts!

Oh, well. I guess that's enough from me. Thanks for the trip down Memory Lane!
Carleen you lived my dream!! I always wanted to do things like that but due to medical problems and working full at a very physically demanding job I did not have the time or energy to do things like that on such a large scale. Now sort of living the dream with my fruit trees and my frugalness. Although I did try to be frugal when working. However love all of the things you grew and the way you canned things.. The story of the black jeans and how frugal your DD was with the purchase and use of them is another wonderful success story. Some people just do not get it when it comes to being frugal.
Janet Alliesmama
Dgflorida
Posts: 4381
Joined: Wed Oct 07, 2015 8:10 pm

Re: DG's frugal journal

Post by Dgflorida »

Thank you Carleen and Janet for wonderful posts. I love knowing that there are other "extreme" frugal people around. Hugs to both of you.
Dgflorida
Posts: 4381
Joined: Wed Oct 07, 2015 8:10 pm

Re: DG's frugal journal

Post by Dgflorida »

Friday am

I am continuing the slow effort to get it together for fall planting. The planting calendar said I should have started my tomatoes in August, but I feel like I am paddling as fast as I can thanks to this knee. Sometimes, I wonder if this knee problem was a nudge that I was pushing too hard. It sure stopped me in my tracks. After all, I never intended to get old and I still don't really understand it.

Hubs got annoyed at me yesterday when I complained about having to move everything into the yard for the pest people and then move everything back for yard guy. "If you put things away".......... Well, I countered that I have so many steps in this knee and if I took it all to the shed, that would be my steps for the day and I wouldn't have enough to make dinner. Since he does absolutely NOTHING all day, I get annoyed when he tells me to do more work. He gets out of bed, takes a pee, goes to his chair, waits for me to bring him coffee, goes the to table to eat and then back to his chair. Repeat at lunch and dinner. Then he goes to bed. On rare occasions, he will fold clothes from the dryer, take a short walk, either to his dock or along the road. On even rarer occasions, he will sweep a small area. Well, I needed to vent. I feel better.

Sometime in the next couple of days, I will go to the grocery store and pick up hubs prescriptions. The county digging trucks should be done with our road today. Getting out around them is tough. It is a country road. So I will see how it goes and act accordingly. I hope to do laundry this weekend. I don't do it when the pest people or the yard guy is around. Afraid of accidentally spray and weed wacker dirt and debris.
Dgflorida
Posts: 4381
Joined: Wed Oct 07, 2015 8:10 pm

Re: DG's frugal journal

Post by Dgflorida »

More Friday

Thoughts about frugal things. I feel like I have pretty much reached the limit of frugal for me at this age and time. I have so many recycle projects and I feel I am struggling just to maintain and inch forward. It is always good to have things to look forward to. But there is a point when they become a burden, not excitement. And burdens are depressing. The recycle trash is picked up on Thursday and this past Thursday, I threw away 2 containers I recycled from the bakery and used as pots. Now, several years later, the plastic breaks so easily, they can't be used safely in the garden. Time to go. Same thing with a tote. Too fragile to use. I am going to start throwing junk away every week. I think I will plan to throw away a piece of sheet rock next. I used to do sheetrock repair all the time, but this was taken out of the wall when we enlarged the entrance to the master bathroom for hubs wheelchair. I am not going to use it. I also have some pieces of plexiglass from the old porch windows. The old plexiglass is just fragile now. I don't think it will work well for any purpose.
Dgflorida
Posts: 4381
Joined: Wed Oct 07, 2015 8:10 pm

Re: DG's frugal journal

Post by Dgflorida »

Saturday am

Despite the heat, I worked in the yard last evening for over an hour. Knee was good. But I was dripping sweat. Heat index was still over 100F. I should have taken a break, but I wanted to get as much done before the sun set. As the sun set, my shoes felt tight. My feet were starting to swell. An indication of dehydration. I came in at dark. I drank some water and took a salt tablet, then took a cold shower to cool down and wash the dirt and sweat off. The knee was still ok, but not great. I did 15 minutes with ultrasound and wrapped it. The leg was not happy. Charley horses in the calf and even some foot pain. Charley horses are electrolyte imbalance, so headed for the pickle juice. It improved. Got out the ice pack and put it on the calf trigger point. That helped. Then added a glass of vinegar water. That combination seemed to be enough. I finally got to sleep.

About 4 years ago, I tried a garden idea I read about on the internet. It was called kiddie pool gardening. It was recommended for shallow rooted vegetables like radishes and carrots. It never worked out. I kept it going until hubs went in the hospital and then I was too tired to maintain it. As anyone knows, sitting in a hospital is exhausting. I lost control of the area and then my knee went out. I am slowly recovering the area. Yesterday, I was able to get into the pool with the rake and begin to shake the good dirt from the weed roots. Shaking dirt is a good way to get covered with dirt. I was so sweaty and dirty, even the mosquitoes left me alone. LOL.

This morning, I am in the wheelchair just to give the knee a rest. We have an estimated 3 days without rain. Yesterday, I had to run my irrigation system. What a good decision to build it. I have the hose connection set up for a push on connection to the irrigation line. So I run a set of lines with my hose and then pull it off and push it on to the next section. Every section got watered. Also watered my driveway bed from the south rain barrel. The north rain barrel is not powerful enough to push water through the big garden. But it is enough to water the front of the house shade bed. I didn't do that yesterday. I may do it this today.
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