From My Home to Yours
5/25/25
~ it's been a 'saving' kind of week with purpose ~
The purpose ...
to be able to save enough to make an additional vehicle payment each month!
Here's what that looked like this week ...
tray of herbs I purchased at a Mennonite greenhouse business while we were traveling
I looked at some of the supplements I take and came up with herbal remedies to replace them that I already make using herbs, etc from my garden such as ...
(supplements are expensive and if this continues to work, it'll be a significant savings! Please know that I will not take chances with what has been working with my health. However, if I can find an alternate that I can produce myself that works, I'm all for it! I'll be trying the following changes one change at a time!)
non-oder garlic capsules replaced with a tablespoon of fermented garlic and honey in a cup of warm water ...
purchased nettle capsules replaced with home grown and dried nettles powdered and added to my morning smoothie ...
turmeric capsules replaced with 1 tablespoon cider fire in a small amount of orange juice (I put turmeric root in my cider fire) ...
I also added a honey, lemon and ginger mixture to my daily routine for help in digestion, vitamin C, blood circulation, detoxification and inflammation
On the days I spend at least an hour outside in the sunshine, I won't take Vitamin D. You can't beat the kind of Vitamin D you get from being in the sunshine.
(I'm not a doctor and am only sharing what I'm doing. Please consult your doctor before making in changes in any medications you currently take.)
Let food be your medicine whenever possible ... and save you money in the process!
I did some more work in the garden this week. I planted in one side of my arched raised beds the following:
"Homemade' cucumbers planted next to the arch for them to grow up on ... (these will be my pickling cucumbers ... yes, 'Homemade' is the variety name.)
'mystery' tomato plants planted next to the arch ... (I call them 'mystery' tomato plants because they are volunteers that came up in one of our compost piles and we have no idea what variety they are!)
Ford Hook Bush lima beans
At the far end are my chives, they pretty much grow year-round here. If I want chives, I just make a quick trip to this raised bed and harvest what I need.
In one corner, there is a cabbage plant planted because I ran out of cabbage planting space, had one plant left and just plopped it down in this corner. (Gardening this year is including a lot of nooks and cranny kind of planting/gardening and while hubby's health issues have made us do things differently, we are still gardening, just on a smaller scale!)
Another 'savings' I did this week that will pay off down the road was to remove these pretty pink buttons from a garment that was given to me for repurposing purposes. I added them to my button jar and when needed will use them. That's a future savings, not having to purchase buttons for a future project ... the many things we do now to save in the future absolutely count as savings!
Ladies, the next lesson in our Bible study on Hagar has been posted HERE! I hope you'll pop over and take a look.
She looketh well to the ways of her household … Proverbs 31:27
You might be interested in my other blogs ...
I had to smile reading of your volunteer tomato plants popping up everywhere. When I was a child our dog (a greyhound, who was a very intelligent and cunning thief) stole a paper bag full of tomatoes off the kitchen worktop and ate the whole thing, bag and all. In the Spring we had very healthy tomato plants growing all over the garden. He also ate all the chocolate decorations off a 7ft Christmas tree, leaving just the strings hanging, but unfortunately we didn't get any chocolate plants growing in the yard afterwards!
ReplyDeleteLOL - funny story
DeleteTracy, that is indeed a funny story ... too bad the same didn't hold true for 'chocolate plants!!!!' Thank you for sharing!
DeleteI do some of the same things that you do with homegrown herbs etc. Ginger tea from fresh ginger is my go to every morning. I drink at least two cups. Ginger is a great anti-inflammatory as well is a digestive aid. Since ginger and tumeric are in the same family and for some reason I don't tolerate tumeric very well, ginger it is for me. We also do a lot of onion, as onion is very high in quercitin, which boosts the immune system.
ReplyDeleteThis week has been very busy for me. We went out to the farm fresh veggies and fruit and that's all we needed. We've had some new unexpected expenses so it's hunker down time for us as well. I tried a lot of new recipes this week, using what we have. I had some gluten free sorghum flour in the pantry so I made some yeast free quick bread with it, I made everything bagel seasoning and used some of it on a batch of no roll crackers that I made for the pantry. For some treats to keep in the freezer, 3 dozen egg free, almond flour chocolate chip cookies got made. Every time hubby has an organic orange I save the peel in the freezer and once there are peels from 5 oranges candied orange peel gets made. Some gets dipped in melted chocolate.
Basically free candy. I found a recipe for 3 ingredient chocolate bars. Here's the recipe -- 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder or cacao powder, 3 TBSP warmed coconut oil and 3 TBSP pure maple syrup or honey or agave nectar. Mix altogether and pour into molds or in a flat pan and refrigerate. Must be kept in refrigerator or freezer as it will melt left at room temp. Ours is stored in the freezer. It is delicious. In crafting I wanted some chalk paint for a project, which is quite expensive for a small amount. Googled if it could be DIY and it could. All it takes is a few TBSP of cornstarch and water mixed together and then 2 oz of paint mixed in. Doing it myself was a savings of $14 and it worked beautifully. Cookie
Cookie, it's good to hear from you! Can I ask how you make your ginger tea from fresh ginger?
DeleteI'm going to try your chocolate bar recipe, it sounds delicious!
I love your mindset and I'm working hard to get better at looking at everything, one thing at a time to see if there is a way I can reduce or eliminate its cost.
I would have never thought to google how to make chalk paint, that's the kind of mindset I'm trying to cultivate and improve upon! Thank you for sharing!
cookie, is there a secret to mixing the honey into the chocolate mixture? my honey seemed to go on the bottom some and make a sticky layer. it was good though. bonnie in southern pa.
DeleteHi Bonnie
DeleteI think warming the honey with the coconut oil and then mixing that with the cocoa would solve the problem. I used maple syrup for the batch I made. I forgot to say that you can also add in nuts , different flavorings, flake salt, even chili powder. Hope this helps. Cookie
Vitamin D is one of the less expensive vitamins and a really necessary one. I've read in several places that after 50 we don't assimilate it from sunshine as much as earlier in our life. Might be worth checking into it. My doctor tested my Vitamin D level a few years ago, and I was so low that I had to take a high dose for quite awhile to get it back up.
ReplyDeletePNW Vickie, yes, I know that some don't assimilate vitamin D from sunshine, especially as we get older so I'll be monitoring it closely. I have blood work done at least every 3 months and will be watching it. Thank you for bringing that very important fact up, it's a good reminder!
DeleteWe eat a diet high in good fats for my husband's brain injury. Because of that we get plenty of Vit D in just 15 minutes of sun exposure. There is a direct connection.
DeleteAnonymous, that is good to know! I'll be paying attention to my 'good fats' consumption in conjunction with sunshine and see what my next blood work shows. I find this all very interesting! Thank you!
DeleteI immediately thought of sources such as salmon (even canned which has the bonus of calcium if you leave the soft bones in and mix well. Fresh salmon, and canned tuan and sardines in oil are also considered to be good sources. Lean pork is high in Vitamin D so a good source of lard would be helpful. Yogurt and eggs and fortified dairy. Mushrooms, Oatmeal, orange juice and cereal. Mollyshomeguide.com lists basil, chervil, dandelion greens, alfalfa and parsley as great sources of vitamin D too. I had just recently studied up on this and was amazed at all the ways we can get it naturally through food...
DeleteAlso read that if we are trying to absorb vitamin d from the sun, one way to do so is to obviously choose the time of day when exposure is most likely to cause skin cancer, but NOT to use a sun block. Use lightweight clothing, glove, wide brim hat. However spending a few moments each morning facing into the sun and allowing it to hit you on the face will do something to the pituitary (? Hypothalmus?) gland which increases absorption rate through the irises. Can't find that particular article to site it but I do recall reading. Obviously one would not stare directly into the sun but you don't want to be facing it.
Terri, thank you for this info. I'll add it to my research.
DeleteHubby's vitamin D was so high that the doctor told him to stop taking vitamin D. It certainly appears to be an individual thing and something that needs to be monitored.
Saturday is our anniversary. Originally, we'd planned to go for an out of town weekend. To save money, we are going to go for a long drive in the country then try out a fried chicken restaurant that we've heard is excellent. Pricey, but far less than an Air BnB.
ReplyDeleteOurs is Sunday! We plan to go to lunch, which is always less expensive than dinner menus. We've planned for it and set money aside already.
DeleteLaura, Happy Anniversary! We can still celebrate without spending tons of money, can't we? Love your idea and way of thinking! I hope you both enjoy it very much!
DeleteI love these posts! Very informative and inspiring. We are downsizing our home to save money. This week I made a little bit of money by selling some items that I no longer need. It's been nice to have the extra :)
ReplyDeleteDebbie, selling things we no longer use, need or that fits where we are in life now is another option that we're exploring. Thank you for your encouragement!
DeleteI've continued to shop carefully or not at all. The freezer has a partially bare shelf. There are empty spaces in the pantry but when I take inventory I am overwhelmed by how much food we have on hand, so it makes it easier to stay out of the stores unnecessarily.
ReplyDeleteI was hopeful that this week would bring the annual spate of sales on mayonnaise, mustard, ketchup, pickles, barbecue sauce etc which is when I try hard to stock up on those things. Not much of a sale on those nor on the 'grilling' meats. But looking at a variety of store ads I was able to buy a fattier ground beef for less than $4 a pound, I got 4 pounds which will do us for 8 meals. I also found a shoulder roast for $4.69 a pound. Canned pork n beans for 49c a can. Marked down produce (tomatoes, bananas, green bell peppers, parsley, green onions) for less than $5 for all. And a bag of potatoes at 40c a pound. These will boost our current food supplies nicely.
We are also in the mode of 'what can we do to use what we have?' A trellis for a rosebush will be made with an old gate I had on hand and two t-posts that my son took up from a fence line he was removing.
The fig trees I'm trying to root have done fairly well. I counted 6 out of 25 stems sprouting new leaves. The others still look very promising. My 2-year-old fig tree has a fig, which isn't much but it's a start. I scattered chive blossoms that I let go to seed in the hopes of growing more. My chives have never bunched up as prettily as yours. They are always single spindly looking things but there's still something to harvest each year.
Today I planted ginger, tomatoes, parsley and dill that was given to me. I grew zinnias from seed and transplanted some of those. I found more seeds tucked away and plan to plant more things over the next week as I find pots and such that I can use. I explained to my husband today that it had occurred to me that while the patio is getting crowded, there's plenty of space to grow on the sunny side of our front porch and at the end of the house.
And one job that my husband was going to hire done, I went out and did myself. It's not perfect but it's vastly improved and he's not talking of spending any money to have that work done now. I call that a win!
Terri, I love the old gate for a rosebush trellis idea!!! Bring it on ... that's my kind of 'making do' and I love it. I don't feel deprived one bit!
DeleteI also love your mindset, way to go on saving money on the job your hubby was going to hire done!
Your comment is very inspiring! Thank you for sharing!
I loved reading your post today! I too had a severe vitamin D deficiency and had to get mega doses of it to get me back on track. I now try to eat foods that are high in vitamin D and I still take a supplement just to be on the safe side.
ReplyDeleteDebbie, when it comes to our health, safe is better than sorry isn't it!
DeleteGreat encouragement here! Terri’s comment about buying green onions nudges me to add that we buy green onions on sale and plant them in a ‘trough-type’ planter on the deck railing. You can then cut the green part as you need it and the onion continues to produce. I just bought a new set as the last we bought about four years ago were getting a bit tired (I let them produce seed pockets and planted them with the new set!). Thanking everyone for their input ! Conni
ReplyDelete