What did you do to save $ today?

[freemotion]

I have a gazillion of them, too. I just used four of them to cover the top of my recently (this morning) purchased bale (850 lbs!) of alfalfa so the guinea's don't poop or lay eggs on it or generally hang out there. I found three old (eek!!!) eggs when cleaning out the hay storage area this morning.

I plan on making re-usable grocery bags this winter. I have a bunch of the local store ones that were on special for $0.44 each, and a few I got for $0.99, but they are not holding up well, and they also support the continued use of plastic grocery bags, so....I'm gonna make some, based loosely on the store ones, which are a very handy size. I use them for all kinds of things. I keep my materials and manuals for my different classes stored right in the bags, so they are always ready to go and packed. I keep them in my car. I haul laundry from the office with them. I love them! Keep me posted....hey, let's start a thread on this. I'll go start one, watch for it.

I got my first gigantic bale of hay, and laughed to myself when I got all excited about the extra heavy baling twine that held it together.... I have no life And I was extra excited when I cut the strings, not knowing where the knots were, and ended up cutting within a few inches of them, giving me lots of usable heavy-duty nylon twine. Woo-hoo! Maybe that can reinforce the handles of my grocery bags.....

 

[FarmerDenise]

I don't throw those bags out either. We have used them for storage of sunflower heads and seeds. Sometimes we put stuff in them that needs to dry some more and hang them from the rafters of the hot garage. That way the rats can't get to them. We also use them to cover stuff.
Free I braid the twine and cut it with a torch and squeeze it with pliers so the ends melt together and don't fray. We then use it to make replacement handles on the large buckets we use.
Today I made strawbery and peach jam and canned it. We had been given nearly a flat of strawberries by different people over the past 1 1/2 week. We have been so busy getting the planting done that there has been no time to deal with the berries, except eating them plain .
SO has been bugging me to make strawberry jam. Claiming he would actually eat it. My peach jam goes to FIL and it seams I am the main person eating the black berry jam. Therefore I buckled down today and gathered all the dusty equipment from various locations, found the right size jars, scrambled for the lids, cleaned and boiled them all to sterilize and proceeded to make the jam. I was almost 2 cups short of strawberries. Some of the strawberries were too far gone to use. No problem thought I, I'll just run to the corner, where the guy is always selling strawberries. He wasn't there today . Now what? I was not about to run to the store to buy strawberries! I looked through the freezer in case there were some stashed away. No, but I did find some nice frozen peaches. I quickly thawed them out in the microwave, mashed them up and added them to my strawberries. They were just the right amount.
I ended up with 12 8 oz jars of strawberry peach jam. I tried some and it is delish. Now SO owes me
I put the strawberry waste in a specific patch in the garden in the hopes that some of the seeds will sprout. I have volunteers coming up from prior deposits of such waste.
Now I get to go outside and play (do outside work) and hang with my chickkies. I think it is wine time!

 

[FarmerDenise]

Hey Free, that is one big bale of hay!! Wow. Did you have it delivered? No wonder you are excited about the twine!! I don't have a life either I save all the string that comes on the feed bags too. SO thinks I'm whacko, but has learned to play along!!!
It's great having my fellow whacko friend on here, who get excited about twine and string and feed sacks.

 

[freemotion]

FD, I didn't even know these gigantic bales existed. I know about the big round bales. I was asking and asking around for alfalfa hay, rare in MA, for my goat so I can feed less pellets. I found a farmer who makes normal-size bales but it is too early yet, and he has a few of the huge bales from last summer. It saves me a few dollars buying one big one, so.....save money? Yeah, I'll buy one!

He and his father came with it on his dually, it filled the bed with the gate open! He couldn't get the dually through the narrow opening between my house and fence with my narrow lot up front, so I had him drop it next to the garage. I opened it up, and put 3-4 flakes on the wheelbarrow at a time and made many, many trips to the barn! I could lift two flakes at a time at first, then only one as I got tired.....half a flake fills my hay rack!

I moved my hay rack over tonight so that baby Ginger has it in her stall, and I put a board on the wall for Mya to put her front feet on so she can reach over the wall and pull hay out of the upper part of the rack, which is now right against the dividing wall. Fat pygmy girls can't reach it. Whew. I can now save money by not buying so many of those annoying bags of alfalfa pellets.

I like the idea of braiding the twine for the handles. I was gonna sew strips as mentioned by Alaska but I think I will like the look of the twine, too. I'll probably do some of each.

Now I'm thinking the natural jute twine would be great for basket-weaving, with something like grapevines as the frame of the basket (don't know the terminology!)

 

[FarmerDenise]

So far today I saved by stopping at the Hostess/Wonder bread outlet on the way back from the post office. I bought 3 large loaves of white bread for SO (I cannot stand the stuff) for $4.44, a bag of hamburger buns for $1.29 and 2 smallish loaves of french bread for $1.00. I was going to bake french bread today, but for $1.00 that'll save me time to do something else.
We are having leftover spaghetti tonight, but I need to add something to it to make it go further and to make it new. Teenage stepson decided to join us for dinner last night and brought a male friend, so I added another jar of homemade tomato sauce to the batch. Anyone who has witnessed teenage boys eat, knows they can put it away! Every one loved it.
I went around the field and found enough pigweed to make my greens bake, consisting primarily of a mess of greens, egg and cheese. I think it will do for tonight's dinner along with the french bread. Even if the boys come home for dinner again tonight.

 

[detali]

I saved money today by not buying canned beans. Instead I cooked three varieties of dried beans in my solar cooker. Not only is that cheaper than buying cans of ready to go beans but I did not have to use fossil fuel to cook them. I now have a jar full of white beans, black beans and kidney beans in the refrigerator. The white beans and kidney beans will be used in a three bean salad later in the week and the black beans will go into a squash and black bean soup. All for only pennies!

 

[TanksHill]

Farmer Denise, Spaghetti is always the easy way to go when you have a crowd.

Today I stopped in the Goodwill after I dropped the kids at school. No surprise there. I think they put the store right where they did for this very reason. He he!! Any ways I picked up a bag of fabric for 3.99. Must have 5 different fabrics at several yards each. I see sundresses and pj's and maybe even an apron for myself. Oh and several yards of Mini mouse flannel. The girls will just love pj's from that.

Oh, I also found a Butter Bell. I have been looking for an older more vintage one but have not been lucky. Today they had a modern clear glass square with the inside cup frosted. Kinda hard to describe but for 2 bucks I was happy.

 

[user251]

not me but my best ole bud, FFA had a sale at the local high school and he got a feed ring and a 500 gallon water tank, bbq plate tater salad, baked beans and bbq bread for $27.00. 10 bucks each for farm items and free bbq plate with a 7 dollar entry ticket! i missed the sale dang it!! :/

 

[FarmerDenise]

After doing initial dinner prep, I planted two different kinds of bush beans that we had started in pots. These came from seeds I swapped on BYC forum.
We realized this evening that we only spend about $20.00 on plants and seeds this year. In prior years we spent more than $100.00 on plants alone. We also did not buy more than a couple of packs of seeds. We either used what we had bought in prior years or we used our own. I swapped a few seeds on the BYC forum. We have more than enough and it feels great!
This evening got awfully chilly, so I brought my scrawny frazzle hen and her three youngsters inside and put them in the large aquarium that used to house our bearded dragon. This should keep her warm without having to resort to electrical heat. The poor thing is missing many feathers and she is an amazingly efficient chicken. I don't want to loose her.
When I was canning yesterday I used my home made funnel. I have not been able to find my canning funnel. So rather than buying another one, I cut the top of a 1 gallon juice container that had a handle and have been using that. Works like a charm.

 

[big brown horse]

Heads up if you live in NW Washington..Yakima cherries and corn on the cob will be at the Belfair farmer's market super cheap too! The owner of the market grows them himself with the help of his family...no middle man! Picked to table in 2 days or less...can't beat it.

At the same place today, I bought 1lb of brownish banannas for $.29 per lb!!! I just finished cutting and freezing them for smoothies! (Whew, it has been hot here lately!) I love the bargin bin!