Homemade Holiday Gifts on a Budget

I know it's hard to get excited about the holidays when you're broke, or nearly so. It can be pretty depressing to face the holidays with bills looming. Believe me, I know. And for most of us above the 34th parallel, the temperature is dropping and we're spending more on utilities just to keep the icicles from forming on our noses while bundled up at home. I mean, where's Han Solo with his Tauntaun when you really need one? (What? Too gross?)

Side note: I was always amazed that Mattel didn't have a Tauntaun action figure with his belly sliced open, so you could just slide your Luke action figure inside. I mean, yeah, gross—but seriously, as a 10 year old? That would've been the shit.

And if that imagery didn't get you in the mood for the holidays, honestly, I don't know what will.

Hello Winter, My Old Friend...

Modern Lumberjack—because why wouldn't you wear your flannel shirt open to the navel with a jaunty (and bulky) wool scarf touching your bare skin? Very practical.

I love Fall. I mean, I seriously LOVE fall. Not in the pumpkin spiced latte with a side of pumpkin cruller kind of love. More like the lumberjack wearing flannel everything (so long as it's not chafing) kind of love. Except, I don't love the colder weather, and I certainly don't love it getting dark or snowing before it's supposed to. (That's just rude.) And come to think of it, I don't love raking leaves. But I like the other stuff. mostly. sort of.

Christmas is Encroaching Once Again

Don't get me wrong. I love the holidays.

I am however thankful, for the most part, that stores weren't stocking Christmas stuff back in August as they've done in years past. But when one walks into Target on Halloween expecting to get that last batch of candy (to replace the all of the candy one may or may not have eaten), and finds Christmas trees set up where the costumes had been the day before, well... that's enough to cause a certain person's brain to frazzle.

Well, That Was a Bust—How We Bounced Back from a 5 Day Power Outage

There's nothing like a hurricane (or two) to completely blow your food budget for the month.

The first hurricane was a breeze. Granted, a very strong, knock-you-over kind of a breeze, but still... We managed to get through with minimal damage and only flickering power outages. (We did lose the Internet on that one, but I got a lot of reading done.) The second one, though, that was the doozy.

10 Things We Do to Consistently Save Money

By now you've seen every blog post there is about how to save money. Like me, you've probably even cycled through the same money saving sites more than a few times. And, like me, the money saving habits you initially adopted are so second hat by now that you've probably forgotten that they're still saving you money.

At this point in my frugalness, I need to be reminded of those things. I need to be reminded that, even though I'm trying to save more money than I did last month, I'm still saving more money than I was last year.

The Headache of Fixing Our Leaky Shower Pan Ourselves (with Pictures)

For the past year I've known that our shower pan was leaking. We have a one-story house with a crawl space. And had that crawl space not had plastic lining laid, I may've never known—at least, not until the floor caved in, or we tried to sell the house.

$200 Budget Laundry Room Re-do

You'd think after the disastrous shower pan re-do that we would never tackle another home remodel project again. That's what you'd think. (That's what I thought).... Silly rabbit.

Turns out that, after the bathroom re-do, both the kitchen and laundry room were a mess. Awash, if you will, with all of my tools and detritus from the shower pan project.

Thinking that the laundry room would be a nice, easy, contained space to revamp. I set my sights on it. I mean the room is only 81 inches square— bigger than the shower enclosure, but I wouldn't be tearing up the floor (or tiling) this time, so... easy peasy! (right?)

Two Major Financial Set Backs

This summer has been rough on us financially. First, we realized we could no longer put off repairing the leaky shower pan, so endeavored to take on the work ourselves. Then we had a pet emergency that blew most of our emergency savings.

The Best Ways to Save Money on Groceries

I'm seeing a lot of articles lately on "the 15 best tricks..." / "20 secret hacks..." / "10 killer ways to save money on groceries" / etc. And honestly they're all saying the same thing:

1. Use Ibotta or other rebate apps (yeah, they're cool, but not a magic bullet of savings)
2. Make a list & don't stray from it
3. Buy "loss leaders" (the really good deals on the front page of the grocery circular)
4. Use coupons
5. Buy on Sale
6. Yadda' yadda' yadda'

None of it is new, and there's no magic bullet of savings. You still have to do the work.

There are TONS of Plants That Will Grow In the Shade

I have this keen desire to turn my entire yard into a garden. Mostly because I hate mowing the grass, and my back yard has this killer slope—and while, at one point, fairly early on, I thought to myself, "this will be good, I'll be so buff from mowing my lawn every week..." that really lost footing after the first attempt at pushing the mower uphill. Instead, it became infested with invasive weeds and wildlife. To the point that I'm a little scared to go back there now.

A Little Rain Barrel DIY

As you might recall, last fall friends helped us put up a cute little greenhouse with cute little gutters and cute little down-spouts... and ever since then I've wanted to complete the picture with cute little rain barrels. But there were a couple of issues: 1. Rain barrels can be a bit expensive and B. there really weren't any smaller-sized rain barrels made for snap-together greenhouse gutters.

Replacing Disposable Items With Reusable to Save Money

It's no secret that I like lists. Lists are my wheelhouse. So when I'm trying to figure out how to save money on stuff that makes its way into our daily lives... I make a list.

I already know that after housing (& utility) expenses, my next biggest monthly expenditure is on consumables—primarily groceries—but there's the other side of that consumable coin: the non-food disposables. The things we use up and buy over and over. So I had to ask myself, are there ways to save money on that stuff, or things we can change so we don't have to buy the stuff at all?

I Don't Do Manicures

I Really Don't Do Manicures

I love it when penny-pinching bloggers post lists of the stuff they no longer spend money on—mostly because it reminds me that there are a PLETHORA of ways to save money for almost every lifestyle out there. That and I get the occasional chortle from some of the more ridiculous things people "give up."

This is Not Milk Reviews

In which I attempt to make nut, grass, and legume milks more tolerable by applying science-y bits in a very subjective manner.

Make Your Own Almond Butter

I've been contemplating the Whole30 diet for awhile—and to be honest, the main thing keeping me from diving in is the cost. I'm fine with giving up peanut butter, sweeteners, even dairy (although bread will be my achilles heal). But the cost, especially during winter, gives me pause.

One of the things we love, but stopped buying because it's gotten a bit pricey, is Almond butter. We'd buy it in 12 oz containers from our Whole-Foods-like store in town & it would put us back about $8. So, I decided I should price out almond butter around town, and then wondered what it might cost to make my own.

How on Earth are You Living on $1,800 a Month?

On my weekly Pinterest surf I came across a promising pin, "Living on $1,800 a month budget." It featured a picture of a woman holding a baby with the implication that $1,800 covered the budget for a young family. This, of course, made me click on it immediately because inquiring minds want to know. Just how *DO* you live on a budget of $1,800 a month? I mean clearly, you must not have many bills (and if that's the case I am seriously envious.)

Starting Avocados from Pits

Most of us, at some point in our elementary school education, started seeds on the window sill of our classroom. It was one of those "fun" lessons that almost always backfired on the teacher when the seeds didn't automatically sprout and grow into a magical bean stalks that rewarded us with gold coins. Damn you Super Mario Brothers.

Whether they were wrapped in wet paper towels and plopped into Ziploc baggies or pierced with toothpicks and balanced above a glass of water, we watched day after day, week after week, as they started to extend their gross little tendrils beyond their now failing husks. Of course, the avocado pits took so long to do anything that we got bored waiting and opted for kickball on the playground instead. Most of those pits ended up in the garbage can... because we were dumb kids and kickball was WAY more fun.

Here's the thing though, if second graders can do it without giving a flip about the results, you can do it to. because—hear me out on this—you're a grown up and kickball got way less fun.

How I Kept My Greenhouse Warm Without Electricity This Winter

I know winter is supposed to be cold, but I moved to the South to get as far away from the cold as I could. Seriously, *the* deciding factor for us leaving Colorado wasn't the expense of living there, or the tap water that you could light on fire, or even the wind so dry that you need a bottle of lotion just to get out of bed in the morning. No, we weighed the pros and cons like good, responsible adults and said "screw this" let's move somewhere warmer.

So, naturally, we moved to the south—where we've had, wait for it, unusually cold winters. Stupid irony.

How to Make Seed Starter Pots from Toilet Paper Rolls

There's really no need to go out and buy seed starter containers given the amount of perfectly good crap you can dig out of the recycle bin. Seriously. Save yourself a little dough by dumpster diving in the safety of your own home. (Common sense, safety gloves, and eyewear recommended.) My favorite seed starters are free—because I'm crafty... and cheap.

Starting a Garden on a Serious Budget

I got so sick of the cold weather this week that I decided to start some seeds for my Spring garden. A bit early you say? Well yes, but I'm tired of winter and this is how I cope.

Currently on my kitchen counter are all number of gardening experiments. From the 4 avocado trees that I started from pits discarded from a magical night of guacamole and Mexican tapas, to Pineapples whose tops were sheared of their pulp then plopped into jars of water to root. I have seeds from a key lime drying, and just-planted seeds from a particularly good spaghetti squash that I hope will sprout. I've repurposed plastic soda bottles into self-watering seed pots in which all manner of basil have been planted. I just can't help myself.

This year, the only thing I've shelled out money for is potting soil (as my compost is frozen at the moment). My seeds have been harvested from last year's plants or stuff we've eaten (plus a few leftover seeds from past years), and my pots are all from the recycled rack at the garden center.

Okay, NOW I Get the Obsession with Aldi

Let me take you back to my introduction to this odd little German-owned grocery store. The year was 1989. I was a tragically hip & cash-poor art student who was faced with the innumerable existential crises that face tragically hip, poor art students, including do I buy groceries this week or save my money to go out dancing? It was during this time period that I was introduced to Aldi. The savior of my entertainment (and food) budget. It was here that I could feed myself for a week on less than $10 thus saving the rest of my money for going out on the weekends—and was only *slightly* reminiscent of that Kids in the Hall skit in which two roommates lived off of mac & cheese and ketchup.