The Art of Frugality... Recent Practices

"How simple and frugal a thing is happiness."

~Nikos Kazantzakis 

As with most people, the advent of the new year has us combing the budget to patch the leaks... reassessing our spending habits... and battening down our spending in order to accommodate a tighter budget.  Because of this I've been especially inspired by all of the frugal ideas found throughout this wonderland of Bloglandia.  Sending gratitude and thanks to all who so generously share their life~enhancing frugal strategies... you are very appreciated.

Here are a few simple ways we've been practicing the art of frugality in our realm of reality recently.

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One of my goals for this year is to do more planting of edibles in our little garden.   I've already planted the herbs I received for Christmas (see picture in previous post... I'll write a longer post on our garden plans soon).  

I finally tried this great idea that's been rolling around Pinterest for awhile:  Instead of throwing out the stub of our organic celery I put it in a bit of water on the window sill and use the leaves in cooking.  If all goes well it will eventually go out into the garden with our herbs, cabbages and kale!  I did a similar strategy using organic Romaine lettuce cores (cut from store bought lettuce) with great results.  They sprouted on the window sill where I harvested a few of them to top Tostadas.  I eventually planted them in the garden but our resident raccoons immediately dug them up and ate them! Perhaps the next batch will be put into pots?

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I'm also trying another classic idea to further enhance our tiny edible garden: Organic green onions are stored in a glass of water.  After using the green stems (leaving just enough to reach the top of the glass) I'll allow them to sprout and then plant them in the garden.  I hope the raccoons don't have a taste for onions... but we'll find out!
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 Several months ago I bought a huge bag of California garlic from Costco and had several bulbs remaining.  After doing a little research in my gardening books I found that planting garlic with your other herbs and vegetables may deter critters (i.e., raccoons and munching insects) from digging up and/or nibbling on your garden edibles.  With so much garlic not being eaten, I decided to plant several of the cloves.  This is my first time planting garlic bulbs but my research tells me that one little clove produces twenty more...that's a very good return!  And if it keeps guard over the rest of the garden all the better.  Also...if you're wondering why I'm showing the garlic cloves in a jar it's because I soaked them for about an hour in a 20 to 1 solution of water and peroxide.  These were all planted about three weeks ago and they are all sprouting beautifully (photos to come).  I will keep you posted!~~~

Inspired by need, I dug out some of our thrifted vintage silver plated flatware and soaked it in an aluminum foil lined stainless  pot filled with water and sprinkled with baking soda and a bit of salt.  It worked fairly well to take the first few layers of the very dark tarnish from them but elbow grease had to take over from there!  We use these for our everyday flatware and I never tire of the pretty shapes and designs.
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Citrus abounds out here in southern California so I am doing my best to preserve the fruits of this winter season via dehydrator (seen above) and by freezing the juice.  Mike bought me a juicer for our anniversary last year (at my request) and we've made a healthy habit of it since.  Fresh oranges, lemons and grapefruits are delicious additions to our morning juices.  They are especially frugal as we get most of our citrus free from my father's trees or for a song from the local farm stand.  I plan on using the frozen lemon/orange/grapefruit juice to add to our juices and smoothies when citrus isn't so abundant and/or well priced.
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Thank you again for the abundance of ideas and inspiration everyone puts out here... it is so motivating and nudges me to action!

Sending love and good thoughts to all.
Warmly,
Tracey and Family
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