Reclaiming Simple Sundays & Simple Weekends…

Posted on August 29, 2010 by Frugal Trenches

Photo credit

The truth is, yesterday I finally broke out the camera (I purposely choose the rhythm of only going behind the lens when my soul tells me) and found a hiking trail and a park and a river and a massive water fountain that kids adults can frolic in. I also met two squirrels who happily sat next to me, a cat named Mowgali who was on a walk (with his owner and his brother the retriever); I happened on a drumming group, a free-style marching band and I laughed, skipped stones in the water, ran straight through the sprinklers (to the delight of the toddlers who watched me) and basked in the joy of the sweet nectar of life. [Real pictures to follow, once I find my camera cord...]. There is nothing like running through a sprinkler, no matter what age you are, it creates this sound of squealing delight that your soul may have forgotten exists within you.  And it is beautiful! And precious. And as perfect as life here on earth gets.

But no weekend, would be perfect without some good grub. And it was exactly this, cooked by yours truly; and it was good…

Photo credit minibeach

Add to all that perfectness, there was laundry doing & folding (the job I most cherish), swimming in a pool, diving galore, library visits, dvd watching, dusting while singing & bopping around the place & vacuuming. My idea of heaven on earth = clean lines on the carpets.

And then as I curled up with a mug of Moroccan tea, I sat and listened to Vinyl Cafe and the tears began flowing, happy tears, tears which remind you how beautiful tiny moments are. It was, perhaps my most favourite episode, where Sam spends time with his Grandma in Cape Breton and one of my favourite songs was played. And I remembered watching laundry somewhere else, in another continent and listening to the sweet joy of the vintage sheets flapping in the wind, hearing chickens cluck cluck, with my Rory girl on my knee and knitting in hand. And in that moment, all was perfect in the world…

The song…

Where I was when I last heard it…

And in that moment, all was perfect in my world and I took in a big breath, sighed and said thank you…

Total cost this weekend: $0
Feelings evoked inside me: Priceless

I hope your Sunday was reclaimed, relaxed and simple?

Posted in All Things Bright and Beautiful, Finding Myself, Life Is Beautiful, Reclaiming Simple Sundays | 6 Comments

Five Day Menu Plan

Posted on August 29, 2010 by Frugal Trenches

This week, I’m focusing on a bit of detoxing, so food should be interesting!

Breakfasts:

  • Yogurt with cut up pears, blueberries, dried cranberries, almonds & peanut butter, with a spinach smoothie x 2
  • Blueberry smoothie with rye toast & almond butter x 1
  • Stealcut oatmeal with blueberries & grapes x 2

Lunches:

  • Tuna with white beans on spinach with shredded cabbage x 2
  • Corn Chowder with tomato & avocado salad
  • Cut up yellow zucchini with homemade hummus & apple slices
  • Grilled cheese with beets & avocado on rye bread

Dinners:

Posted in Frugal Food, Meal Planning, Recipe | 8 Comments

Frugal Gifts Part II

Posted on August 28, 2010 by Frugal Trenches

In Part I I shared 10 ways to save money on gifts! Now onto Part II.

11. Make your own cards or buy a box of assorted charity cards, I buy mine from Toybox Charity - such an inexpensive way to always have a special way to tell someone you are thinking about them and it ensures you aren’t spending $3+ on a last-minute card.

12. Make your own wrapping paper, using brown post office paper, magazines or newspapers. You can jazz it up with stickers, paint, drawings or messages.

13. Use your left over money from the budget for entertainment or food shopping to buy gift certificates and vouchers. These are a great gift for a family in need, or a friend or family member’s Birthday!

14. Go online and search for codes or discounted gift vouchers. Often you can get $25 for $20 or less when shopping online.

15. Buy handmade crafts from people in developing nations - these are usually well priced ($10 or less), the “middle man” is cut out and you are supporting a great cause.

15. Make up hampers – they sound expensive, but buying a couple of $1 face masks, body oils, facial scrubs plus adding in homemade hot chocolate mix, some baked goods and a nice card, these can be very frugal and fun!

16. Get together to buy – pool your money with a family member or friend, if you know your friend could really use a $50 grocery voucher or your nephew could use some swimming lessons, but you don’t have the funds to do it yourself, get two or three people in on it together. Presents which meet people’s needs are always appreciated!

17. Give an experience – present a Birthday treat as a day together, pack a picnic, go to the beach or park and swing by for a hot chocolate afterwards. With careful planning you could give a “day together” present for less than $10.

18. Second hand books – now you have to be careful, not everyone will appreciate such a gesture (although, personally it is  favourite of mine!) but if you know the person would, this is a great way to give gifts. For example a friend of mine last year was trying to eat more beans & lentils, I knew she didn’t “mind” second-hand books, so I got her three fabulous (as in the “top” rated books) second-hand lentil & bean recipe books! No complains from her!

19. Don’t fall into the trap that giving gifts will make you more popular. I have many friends that have admitted to me that they say yes to every wedding and baby shower, just so they can  have more friends. All admitted it’s never worked, but they felt pressure to spend $50 +.  Don’t put yourself under that pressure! I remember an old friend (she was the type that dropped you the second she got a boyfriend and you would then not hear from her for a year + or until they broke up!) I hadn’t spoken to in YEARS sent me an invitation to her wedding shower, no personal note attached saying she would love to be back in touch, but she did put a written printed note on the cards telling people to “please accept if an additional wedding invitation isn’t enclosed, you are not invited to the wedding, we don’t want my parents to spend more than our $40,000 so had to limit who we invite. However we would love to see you at our wedding shower, the gift registry is enclosed”. There was nothing there that was less than $100, nothing. At the time I was caring for the children on one part time wage and so I decided instead I’d write her a lovely Congratulations card, wish her well, update her a bit on my situation & ask about her job, family etc and I think I made a small charity contribution in their name. I never heard back :)

20. Give magazine subscriptions! Often through reward points, airmiles, store points or seasonal deals you can get amazing offers on magazine subscriptions especially if you buy more than 3. I’ve given a year’s subscriptions for less than $10 before, to a magazine I knew would help and inspire friends.

Do you have any more frugal gift ideas which haven’t been mentioned in these posts?

And speaking of Frugal Gifts, my friend Daleea is having a giveaway today for her BellaBlushDesigns which I’ve blogged about before! Swing by and enter!

Posted in Frugal Living, Frugal Parenting, Giving | 13 Comments

An Email From My Mum

Posted on August 28, 2010 by Frugal Trenches

My mum’s hands – you can read about her here!

Do you remember when I emailed my mum this picture (blonde girl in socks) and asked her if it reminded her of me? I also asked her if she had made her Christmas cake yet – here was her reply!

I plan to make my xmas cake next week. It is not to late. I’m looking for a different recipe, lots to choose from using your books [this proves my point to her that having over 3675 many vintage recipe books is a good idea!]
 
Florida house looks lovely. Would love to holiday there. Chrismas would be nice, smaller house though. [I sent her a joke saying: look at this rental house in Florida, if I had $ I would treat you. I bet you wish your daughter was rich financially instead of rich in other ways! lol]
 
I looked at the picture you sent. It made me so sad those days of you being little are gone. They were the happiest of my life. You looked exactly the same but you were born smiling and never stopped. All your school reports said that your smile made the classroom bright. When I meet people who knew you as a child they ask if you are still smiling. I tell them you still are.
 
Work was ok today, not busy with client’s but phone rang nonstop. Tomorrow I can leave work early – goodie.  Monday is a bank holiday here. School starts next Wednesday. Met new couple from Birmingham who plan to start a choir so I said I would join——LAUGH [sidenote: if you heard my mum sing, you would laugh too!]
 
                                               Lots of love Mom xoxox.  
 
Just what is it about emails from your mum that makes a heart swell?
Posted in Ma Famille, Things I Love | 9 Comments

Financially Savvy Fridays

Posted on August 27, 2010 by Frugal Trenches

baking-day-049

My frugal tip for today is to always take the time to freezer cook & bake. It can be as little as 3 hours once every other week or even once a month. When you first begin start small, be realistic and think about what type of meals would save you time. When I had the four children time was precious, eating out was expensive and unnecessary but I was tired and busy. Even being single afterwards, I would often just think it was easier to get a quick take out, but even when you are buying for one or two, it still costs money to eat out. Here are some tips for beginning freezer cooking and baking.

1. Start by setting yourself a slot of 3 hours and put it on the calendar. If it’s there you won’t agree to meeting up with friends that afternoon, or schedule other things.

2. The week you cook make sure include any ingredients you will need in your weekly shop. Think careful about what type of meals would be of most benefit.

3. Make sure you have storage equipment and simple containers of different sizes and room in your freezer!

4. Involve your kids! This is such a great educational activity in measuring, recording, printing, timing and working on your fine motor skills! Make sure everyone has clean hands, aprons and the little ones who can’t participate are busy & in eye-sight (playdoh & colouring is great, as is playing with Tupperware!)

5. Set a goal of making 8 meals (2 meals for each week) and making two baked goods for snacks or breakfasts. If you think about it, that is only making four different recipes. Most can cook at the same time. For starting I would recommend making two lasagna, a big bowl of soup with at least 3 meals worth, muffins and bread (banana or sultana, orange & bran works well). Then work yourself up, now typically I would make two or three soups, chili, lasagna x 2, bolognaise sauce, curry, chicken strips (when eating meat. heh!), potato & kale bake,  muffins x 24, cookies, breads, smoothies, pesto and apple sauce. Generally now, one cooking & baking session a month gets me about 20 main meals, 10 breakfasts and another 10+ meals to donate to a women’s shelter or people in need.

6. Do your dishes as you go! This means at the end of the cooking time, your kitchen is clean and you can pat yourself on the back and say “job well done”!

7. Label what you’ve made with a date, ingredients, size of entrée.

8. Mark on the calendar what days you are going to have your meals and what to have them with (with lasagna I always serve a salad and a green veg like green beans or peas, with soup I always serve rolls & a salad), or mark 1/2 of the days and leave the rest for “I am so exhausted I feel sick” days [that's always been my strategy ;-) ]

9. Schedule your next freezer cooking day and reflect on what went well and what could have been better.

10. Enjoy the fruits of your labor; save money and time!

If you would like to read about one of my Baking Day’s and what meals I made, then see this post! 

Posted in 100 Ways To Save Money, Baking Day, Frugal Food, Frugal Parenting, Organization | 13 Comments

Help A Family Friday

Posted on August 27, 2010 by Frugal Trenches

This post is very close to my heart; it is the story of a fabulous family I followed/got to know through the blog world over the last three years…in many ways this post is very hard for me to write, it makes me question society, family, “norms” and the division of wealth; in many ways it makes me feel like I did when I was volunteering overseas, utterly helpless and filled with questions about why & how. I believe the world is a good place, filled with great people and yet I see this wonderful family and feel grief…

The Boxcarkids Blog is written by a wonderful woman who adopted four fabulous children on her own over a ten-year period. At the time she had a good job, owned a home and blogged about her lovely family. After her son became ill, she made the decision to move and rent her house out, expecting the renter to pay rent (as you do!). Sadly the renter didn’t pay the rent and suddenly she lost her job as a single mom. Obviously she could not afford the mortgage payments, lost the house and has been unable to find another job. If that wasn’t shocking enough…this family is homeless. They spent two months living in tents (with four young children!) and now live in an RV. They were just about to be kicked out of the RV park and are trying desperately to find another place, before their eviction, thankfully I’ve just had an email from boxcar mama herself and they’ve found another RV park who will take them in!

The truth is, when I think about this family, I cry. I don’t understand how it happens - not the financial side per se (numbers can be crunched), but how anyone can be homeless, not have someone take them in when they hit rock bottom. I have taken in friends before in bad places and would do it again in a heartbeat. It makes me thankful for my mum who would never question having me move in and it makes me determined that I would never ever turn my back on any friend or family member in need.

This family’s story is one of courage, determination and strength. Each day when I pray for them, I feel blessed to have read their story, to know that women are capable of coping with incredible hardships for their children’s sake, for children who started life without a family and now may not have what the average Western child has, but does have a family to call their own.

So how can we help this special family?

1. Pray for them & encourage them!

2. There is a paypal donation button found here which is also linked from her blog

3. She is selling on ebay some of her own goods and getting commission selling a friend’s goods. Please support the boxcarkids mama’s ebay sales

4. Consider volunteering with the homeless, giving grocery store cards to homeless people & families when you pass by on foot or in the car, take in friends in who are in a “bad place”, vote for people who know everyone exists and is important, because the truth is that everyone matters.

Posted in Easy Ways To Make A Difference, Help A Family Friday | 4 Comments

Healthier Peanut Butter Crackle Top Cookies

Posted on August 26, 2010 by Frugal Trenches

You will need:

  • 3/4 cup margarine
  • 1/2 cup white sugar
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1 egg, slightly beaten
  • 3/4 cup peanut butter
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 2/3 cup all purpose flour
  • 2/3 cup whole wheat flour
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 2/3 cup oatmeal
  • 2 tablespoons ground flax
  • 1/4 cup chocolate chips

Directions:

Cream together margarine and sugars and blend in the egg. Add peanut butter and vanilla and beat well. Stir flour mixed with baking soda, salt, oatmeal & chocolate chips.  Form into dough balls and if you want roll in some white sugar on an ungreased cookie sheet (I leave that part out as I find them sweet enough!). Flatten each cookie with a fork dipped in water. Bake at 375 for 10-12 minutes. Makes 3 dozen cookies! Consider making two batches!

I freeze some, give some away and smash up a few to add to my morning yogurt with fruit & seeds for an extra kick!

I have made these cookies to be vegan by omitting the egg, buying vegan margarine (or mixed 1/2 vegan margarine with a bit of applesauce). I usually just adjust other quantities as needed!

Posted in Frugal Food, Recipe | 7 Comments

What I’m Reading Around The Web

Posted on August 26, 2010 by Frugal Trenches

So many good resources this week!

Have you seen anything sweeter?

Posted in Engaging The Brain | 9 Comments

The Horror…The Congo

Posted on August 25, 2010 by Frugal Trenches

Every now and then I take a bit of time to unplug, often it is Wednesdays, my fasting day, where I strive for a bit more balance, rest and relaxation without the distraction of the internet. Today, I was feeling a tad sorry for myself so decided to spend a little time thinking about gratitude, reminding myself of God’s promises and times in my life where I’ve had a lot riding on my shoulders. As a result I spent less time on the internet and felt good, yet as I came online this evening, I read the news about massive attacks against women & children (babies) in the Congo and I felt sick, sick to my stomach that in 2010 these things occur each day around the globe. There I was today worried and wondering about jobs, income, big plans and people waiting for me, when my neighbours in this world were suffering so terribly, horrendous crimes which are impossible to understand. I can not imagine the pain these women, children & babies went through physically during those days and emotionally for years to come, thinking about it in any detail makes me physically sick. It is sickening that we can put a man on the moon and yet we still don’t have the basic understanding and ability to function as a society/nation/world in peace standing against violence, all violence.

I once watched a phenomenal documentary about Dr. Denis Mukwege, a gynecologist whose Panzi Specialist Hospital specializes in reconstructive surgeries for victims of rape in the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo. It moved me, taught me a great deal and made me so much more aware of the suffering of these women & children. You can read more about the specialist work this Dr & Hospital do here (a warning it is very upsetting). Last year, a wonderful friend of mine who was a Dr. in Africa died a very young death, he was supposed to die in his teens, but lived long enough to train as a Dr. in Scotland and then move to Africa to help. He could not speak about these women, victims of such horrific violence, without tears in his eyes, quivering lips and shaking hands. He had seen what they go through and it haunted him. He still remembered women being brought to hospitals, after attacks and being refused treatment because of the shame of what happened to them, he remembered them being dragged out and his running after them pleading with hospital staff to do something so they wouldn’t die, he remembered treating them on roads and grass in front of hospitals which didn’t want to get involved. And it haunted him as it should all of us. This isn’t Africa’s problem, it is the world’s problem.

So tonight, I will be praying for these women & children and the Doctors, nurses and fabulous Hospitals (which not only treat the victims but also give them training to help rebuild their lives again) that fight the prejudice and shame to save these women and children. Will you join me and support in any way you can? No woman, child or baby should ever be subjected to this torture…ever!

Posted in Be Part Of The Solution Not The Problem | 10 Comments

Reuniting A Family

Posted on August 24, 2010 by Frugal Trenches

I have a wonderful friend called Kerri, who has a fabulous, beautiful family through adoption. Kerri recently found out that her daughter has a sibling, who was relinquished in Ethiopia (to a different region and orphanage which is why Kerri wasn’t told about her before she was adopted) by her birth family. Her daughter’s younger sister was adopted by a family in Spain.  Many other details are private, but one thing Kerri is trying to do for her daughter is to establish  contact so they can have an ongoing relationship, which is in her daughter’s best interest.

Kerri has started a website to try to make contact with the family, for the sake of both of their daughters. You can read Kerri’s website called Looking For Buscando Eliham and maybe someone reading this, will know just the right person or family. The world is a much smaller place because of the internet and I hope and pray these two girls can be reunited!

Posted in Adoption, Help A Family Friday | Comments Off