Up-cycle Sewing

Even though I have two five-shelf bookshelves filled with fabric, it sometimes happens that a child asks for something to be made that I don't have either the right color or enough of the color the child is requesting. This is what happened when my 3 year old had her birthday.

I always try to make (although sometimes I purchase) a dress for my girls for their birthdays. My 3 year old for some reason has grown a love for the color orange. I knew that she wanted her birthday dress to have orange in it and since she was in need of more clothing, I figured I would make some dresses for her birthday gift and they might as well be orange, too.

Since I didn't have much fabric with orange, I had to start looking. Anyone who sews or who has purchased fabric lately knows that fabric is not cheap and making clothes isn't always cheaper than purchasing because of the price of fabric. Well, God provided fabric for me through our local thrift store!

"Pillowcase" dress in which I added small sleeves
from the fitted sheet.

I found a twin fitted sheet that was orange and pink striped for only $1. The next week, I found an orange pillowcase ($ .50) and orange flat sheet ($1). I now had lots of orange to work with since I was up-cycling from previous products! I also still have lots of fabric left to make more clothes for her in the future!

We had been given the "Birthday Girl" shirt, but
since my daughter is long waisted, it was too
short to use as a shirt so I turned it into a dress.

I did end up purchasing orange thread. I could have made any of these dresses work by using either white or pink, but it wasn't the look I wanted. Of course, that one spool of thread will last through many more uses so I didn't mind spending it. In any case, I spent less than $5 for three dresses (plus material to make more)!

I love the frugality of up-cycling as well how much better it is for the environment. It also sometimes helps with time management because I can use things like the hemmed edges, or in the case of the last dress, half the dress was already done. Besides, it is just fun to give new life to something that most people just discard.

Do you enjoy up-cycling? I would love to see some creations you have made from up-cycling (and it doesn't have to be sewing related).

Mama Pads

I have written before about using mama pads (i.e. cloth menstrual pads). You can look back at those posts here and here. I have had lots of questions lately about the cheapest and best way to go about cloth pads. I thought I would share here as well so if others have questions, they can find the answers here.

We use cloth pads for two reasons. 1. To save money. 2. No chemicals, therefore, better for our bodies.

I know some women who go all out when making their cloth pads. They will spend up to $30 for the decorative top layer of fabric and about the same on PUL for the backing material and then spend even more for the inner layers and specialty snaps as well. While, this is still cheaper than purchasing disposables and still healthier, I don't see the need in all of that.

First, I created my own template for pads using a few other patterns and a purchased cloth pad for ideas. When I first created this template, I would also make "wings" and then add velcro for the closure, but have since come up with and even easier, quicker, and more comfortable option-the bottom of onesies. I have a large supply of onesies that were stained at the top, but the snaps were just fine. I use all scrap fabric for each layer as well. I have a bin where I will put left over pieces of fabric from sewing projects to use for these. I will coordinate the colors as best as possible, but in all honesty, that isn't a need if you just want to be frugal.

Recently, I spent about an hour cutting out the layers for a dozen pads. I then was able to put together a pad in about 10 minutes of sewing time and I would just do one or two as I had time during the next week.

This is the template I created. I made it on an old Shutterly envelope so it is sturdy and I can fold it in half for storage.

Here are my pieces. On the left is the bottom of an onesie. The next are layers of flannel for the inner core. I sometimes use knit or a combination of knit and flannel. The pink is fleece which I use as my backer. I have never had one leak through the fleece. The top layer is cotton.

My first step is to "quilt" the core to the topper. This time I just used straight stitches, but sometimes I have fun and use a decorative stitch.

Here is what it looks like on the underside.

Then I layer the pieces like this. Fleece right side up, onesie bottom, and topper wrong side up.

Sew around the edges leaving a section open for turning.

I use a chopstick to make sure all the edges are completely turned.

Then I topstitch around which will close the opening as well as help the pad to lay flat.

We have been using cloth pads for about five years. I still have the pads that are pictured in my post from two years ago. They are starting to show wear, but still in use.

I do make another style that one of my girls prefer and a friend of mine has used and prefers them as well. Maybe I'll take pictures and do another tutorial of that style the next time I make more of them.

As far as the practical application, we have a small bucket in the bathroom with a pail liner. We keep the used pads in there until we wash them. We wash them with the cloth diapers and/or towels. I know some people who wash with their regular clothing, but we always have cloth diapers to wash so we just combine them.

What are your thoughts on cloth pads? Do you use them? Would you like another tutorial on another style? Share your comments below.

Providing Clothing

Proverbs 31:13

She seeketh wool, and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands.

After going through the clothes for this spring/summer, three of my girls were still short on pajamas. I figured I would just make some. Just a few days later, we were given some bedding which happened to have some extra queen size pillow cases that didn't match other bedding. I use them to make pillow case dresses. I made two different styles as I used what I had on hand. I then took some material and made a "pillowcase" to make a third pillowcase dress. I added some lace to the bottom to make it a little longer.

Pillowcase dress made using bias tape and elastic.

"Pillowcase" dress using material, lace, bias tape, and elastic.

Pillowcase dress used by making a casing and using ribbon ties.

For all three of these it cost me nothing but my time which was maybe an hour combined to make all of them.

Birthday Outfits

For every birthday, we get the birthday girl or boy a new outfit. Since most of the time they wear hand-me-downs, this is an opportunity for them to get something that fits their personalities. Years ago, I started making the girls' dresses as it was easier to find something within our budget, fit their personalities, and met our modesty standards.

Here are a few pictures of dresses I have made this year.

This is the first year the twins actually asked for the same
pattern and same material. Usually it is either same pattern
and different material or same material and different patterns.

She wanted a Princess Auroa dress. It didn't turn out
as nice as I wanted, but she loves it!

This was my first time working with tulle and
with making an overlay skirt. While it was a
little more difficult to work with, I like the end result.

Since I'm new to sewing pants and tailored shirts, I have been doing something different for my little man. In the past, I made him a bow tie. This year I made suspenders and a tie, but purchased the pants and shirt (and matching hat).

There is the rare occasion where I do not make anything. For example, my oldest this year was given a very pretty sweater (new) from someone and then a very pretty skirt from someone else and they matched so well that she said that she wanted to wear those for her birthday outfit.

Fortunately, I didn't have to purchase any of the material used this year for any of the outfits! We have been blessed with people giving us material they either bought for us or had themselves but never used. I also didn't need to purchase buttons, ribbons, lace, thread, etc. The only thing I purchased this past year for their outfits is elastic and the clips for my son's suspenders.

I would love to hear if you sew clothes for your children and your reasons behind doing it.

More Sewing

I have been in the sewing/creative mode lately! I truly do want to use up scraps, but also make useful items.

I first made a bib. My son has destroyed some bibs and needs more for himself and I will need some for the new baby. I have several bib patterns pinned in my pinterest account and I tried this one first. The backing is green fleece and the front is a navy blue polkadot material which both came out of my scrap bin. I don't think it turned out too bad. He used it once. He doesn't care for the tie (his others are either snaps or velcro), but it was VERY simple and quick to make.

I know I only have 7 more weeks of my pregnancy, but I'm still low on maternity clothes that aren't stained (for some reason I keep staining the belly area!). A friend shared a maternity pattern so I gave it a try today. It is a simple pattern and I completed it all in the morning. I am going to go through my material to see if I have enough of a knit to make a knit shirt in this same pattern (this is a cotton blend).

As before, I used all material/notions I already had so these projects only took my time.

I have also started on my first pair of suspenders for my son's birthday. I really dislike turning "tubes" inside out so I told my girls I would pay $1 a tube for them to turn them. One is turned and a girl is working on the other.

30 Minute Skirt

Jaina is happy with her new skirt!

I discovered that Jaina was still short on some outfits. She had a shirt that fit and wasn't stained, but no skirt that matched it. I knew I needed to make another skirt.

It only took a 1/2 hour to cut the material and sew it together. It is a simple design.

I took her waist measurement and cut the top material to 1 1/2 times her waist measurement. You could just do that and cut it to the length you desire (plus hem), but I decided to make it a two tiered skirt so she would have more room to run. For the second tier, I took 1 1/2 times the measurement of the top piece of material. I then gathered the second tier and then sewed it to the top tier. I then sewed the entire side seam making sure I lined up the seam where the tiers are sewn together. I then hemmed the bottom and made a casing for the elastic at the top. Finally, I added the elastic.

Again, the material, thread, and elastic were all items I had "in stock". I love being able to clothe my family without spending a fortune or a lot of time.

Do you sew for yourself or your family? I would love to hear about some of your projects-comment below!

Another Sewing Day to Save Money

 I switched to using cloth menstrual pads about 3 years ago (you can read about why I did here). Up until this point, I have used purchased cloth pads. Well, as my girls grow older, there are more and more of us using cloth pads and while we've been able to work with what we have, I know there will come a point when we will need more.

I've been wanting to try making my own for at least a year, but I haven't really had much time. I tried a few trials that work, but not the best (they are only used if all the others are still in the washer or dryer). Since I have had more time and I need to use up scrap material anyway, I decided to give some a shot today.

For the two smaller ones, I used a free pattern off a facebook group for sewing cloth menstrual pads. The larger one I created my own template using a pad I already own. The larger size is great for overnight or postpartum.  All the material came out of our scrap bins (yes, I have two bins of just scraps!), the thread was all thread that has been given to me (and I was able to use up some almost empty spools), and the velcro was also given to me. I actually prefer snaps, but the velcro was faster to use and free. While I can't speak about how well they will work, they look like they will work better than the few I tried making in the past.

Fulfilling Needs on a Budget

For two days, I’ve discussed about the need to help those around us who are in need. This might be the single mother, the widowed man down the street, the family with the father out of work, or it may even just be a family who is going through a difficult time right now. God calls the church to take care of the needs of its people and the people of the community.

Many people give the excuse that they don’t have enough money to take care of their own family let alone someone else, but that is a pretty poor excuse. I know of churches who say similar things when it is struggling to pay all of its bills. But if God calls us to do something, He will provide a way for us to do it.

While there are definitely more ways you can help, some ways our family has been able to help those in need around us even when we have to rely on God to help us pay our bills sometimes are:

Share We’ve had people come and pick green beans from our garden, or given a dozen eggs, or even given goat milk to a friend who needed some to feed her animals. We have also given canning jars to a friend who needed them. Even though I “might” have needed them later, we knew God would provide and He did—the very next day!

Barter You might think this is a way to get your needs met, but it can also be helpful to someone else. They might need their car fixed, but they don’t have the cash to pay a mechanic right now, but they do clean houses. You could have them clean your house in exchange for working on their vehicle. Be creative with this idea. Sometimes people don’t want “hand-outs” but they are willing to work for something. Even if you don’t necessarily need someone else to mow your lawn, barter with them so they feel good about working for whatever need you are filling for them.

Be a Go-Between You might not be able to fill the need, but you might now someone who can. I had a friend who didn’t have money to buy her son a Christmas gift. I didn’t have extra money to go and buy him one either, but I wanted to help. I contacted someone who I new had an extra of something this young man wanted and asked if they would be willing to give it so she could give him a Christmas present. Praise God, they not only filled the need, they gave him a brand new item instead of a used one (although he would have been happy with the used one!). I have often seen something for free or great prices that I know a friend needs and have either just gotten it myself or notified her of the great deal so she could take advantage of it.

Time Give of your time. There may be a young mother who would like to just take a nap. You could watch her children for her. You might do your elderly neighbor’s grocery shopping for her so she doesn’t have to try to manage the crowds. You might be able to fill a need for companionship just by sitting and visiting with a lonely neighbor. You may man a table at a craft show for a friend trying to sell items to raise money for an adoption. The possibilities are endless!

Pray Don’t neglect to pray for those needs you see arise around you. This is the most powerful tool we have. Through prayer, God might just show you a unique way you can help or answer it in a way no one thought imaginable.

Strawberry Rhubarb Muffins

I've never cooked or baked with rhubarb before. In fact, for many years I thought I didn't like rhubarb because I had tried it once and didn't like it. Then, a couple of years ago I ate a dessert at a church potluck and was surprised that it was rhubarb. Since then, I've had more and more rhubarb and enjoyed it. While at my in-laws house for Mother's day, I mentioned that I would like a little rhubarb to try cooking/baking with it. My father-in-law ended up giving us a large box of it so I have lots of rhubarb cooking/baking in my future!

I figure rhubarb is a frugal food to use because it grows about anywhere and it grows in abundance. I am looking forward to finding new recipes for my family.

The first thing I made with it was a rhubarb pie which I thought was pretty good. Yesterday I tried strawberry-rhubarb muffins. I took a recipe I found on Pinterest and of course changed it to make it a bit healthier and to use ingredients I had in the house. Everyone liked it so I will probably just stay with my version instead of some day trying the other.

Here is my version of Strawberry-Rhubarb Muffins.

• ¼ cups Coconut Oil
• ¾ cups Sugar
• ¼ cups Safflower Oil
• 2 1/4 cups whole grain Spelt Flour
• 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
• 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
• ½ teaspoons Salt
• 1 whole Egg
• 1 cup soured milk
• ½ teaspoons Almond Extract
• ¾ cups Chopped Rhubarb
• 1 cup Chopped Strawberries
• ¼ cups Brown Sugar For Tops

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Grease your muffin tins (approx. 18 muffins).

With an electric mixer, cream together the butter, sugar and oil until smooth. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add the egg, soured milk and almond extract to the creamed sugar mixture and mix well. Slowly add the dry mixture into the wet mixture. Add the chopped rhubarb and strawberries and lightly mix in.

Scoop the batter into tins. Sprinkle a little brown sugar on the top of each muffin.

Bake for approx. 15 minutes until golden on top.

Squiggly Twigs Designs

Over the years, I have begun sewing more and more of the clothes for my girls because it is becoming harder and harder to find modest clothing for them. It is also nice to make them a dress in their favorite color, a pattern they like, and even to make coordinating outfits for them.

To help me with my sewing, I have utilized a number of patterns from Squiggly Twigs Designs. The two patterns I use the most are the Miss Patricia and the Pretty Peasant Dress Pattern. I really like these patterns because they are so versatile. I download one pattern and then can make multiple sizes from that one pattern. I am able to adapt them to whatever measurements I need/want and can even add ruffles, shorten or lengthen sleeves, etc.

Here is a picture of the girls wearing skirts I made for Resurrection Day 2011 using the Miss Patricia skirt pattern. I chose four different materials and then combined them in 8 different ways so each girl had a unique skirt. I was able to adjust each to the specific length needed. Also, when I ran into some problems with the pattern, but Debbie was quick to work with me not only through email, but also through phone conversations until we were able to get it worked out. Customer service is definitely a plus! Hava (the youngest at the time) is wearing a jumper using the Miss Maria pattern. I want to use this more because it is just too, cute!

I also use the Pretty Peasant Dress Pattern for making pajamas and dresses. I used it to make nightgowns for the girls at Christmas 2011. While they didn't have matching material, they all had some kind of pink (I used what I had been given!). Here are pictures of a few of them; I was having difficulty getting the pictures to load so I didn't do all of them.

I also used it this past Resurrection Day for their dresses. I purchased four different colors in the same pattern and then combined them to make their dresses. I used embellishments I already had on hand to finish them off. Again, they were able to have coordinating dresses but yet unique for each of them.

I highly suggest checking out Squiggly Twigs Designs if you sew clothes for little girls (or even women!). Every Tuesday she posts tutorials on new ideas and has many patterns available for download.

On Faith and Frugal Living

The girls and I were interviewed for the local paper earlier this week and an article about us ran today. Go to the Cadillac News and check it out!

Before she had children, Darcy Carmichael could not picture herself a stay-at-home mother.

She wasn't big on cooking and cleaning.

Today, the Manton woman is a stay-at-home mom of nine daughters, who range in age from 1 to 11 years old. She decided to leave her job as a teacher after the birth of her third daughter, Allyn, who's now 8. She jokes she was forced to learn to how to cook and clean.

Continue reading the story at Cadillac News.

Feeding Your Family on a Budget, Part 7

Meatless or Less Meat Meals

Scalloped Egg Casserole

10 hard boiled eggs

6 tbsp butter

6  tbsp flour

2 tbsp mustard (dry or prepared)

2 cups milk

1 tsp salt

2 slices of bread

Melt butter, whisk in flour and mustard and cook for about 1 minute. Whisk in milk until thickened. Grease a 9x13 casserole dish. Peel and slice the eggs. Put a small amount of sauce in the bottom of the pan, then a layer of sliced eggs, more sauce, and another layer of eggs, and keep going until gone. Butter bread slices and cut into cubes and put on top. Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

This is a good side dish or double to use as a main dish.

Quinoa and Black Beans

2 teaspoon vegetable oil

2 onion, chopped

6 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped

1 ½ cup uncooked quinoa

3 cups vegetable or chicken broth

2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

salt and pepper to taste

1 quart canned black beans

parsley

1. Heat the oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the onion and garlic, and saute until lightly browned.
2. Mix quinoa into the saucepan and cover with broth. Season with cumin, cayenne pepper, salt, and pepper. Bring the mixture to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes,
3. Stir frozen corn into the saucepan, and continue to simmer about 5 minutes until heated through. Mix in the black beans and parsley.

Note: Other beans may be substituted or substitute rice for the quinoa (you’ll have to cook longer though).

 

Lentil Sloppy Joes

1 cup dried lentils
2 cups water
1/8 cup onion, minced
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. brown sugar
1/2 tsp. dry mustard powder
1/2 tsp. chili powder 
1 clove garlic minced
1/2 tsp. celery seeds
1 can (6 ounces) tomato paste or ketchup
1-1/4 cups water (omit if using ketchup)
6 to 8 whole wheat buns or 2 cups cooked brown rice

Directions:
Rinse and pick through lentils.  Add two cups water to pan with lentils and bring to boil.  Cover, reduce heat, and simmer about 40 minutes until tender, but not mushy.
For the sauce, combine the minced onion, salt, sugar, dry mustard, chili powder, minced garlic, and celery seeds. Combine well and set aside.
When lentils are done, add the tomato paste and water. Stir in the sauce seasoning. Combine well and heat through. Let simmer for 25 to 30 minutes on low heat to combine flavors.
Serve on whole wheat buns or over brown rice.
Yield: 6 to 8 servings

Herb Bean Spread

1 clove of garlic
1 can Northern Beans, drained and rinsed
1 Tablespoon lime juice
1 Tablespoon water
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 Tablespoon basil, coarsely chopped
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

With motor running, drop garlic into food processor or blender. Add beans, juice, water, and oil. Puree until smooth. Add basil, salt and pepper. Pulse until incorporated and herbs are coarsely chopped.
Spread the bean spread on the inside of the pita and layer in the veggies of your choice.

Feeding Your Family on a Budget, Part 6

Even more ways to save money:

• Cook from scratch! Buying convenience food costs money. I can just as quickly whip up pancakes from scratch as from a box and they taste better and are healthier, too. If you think you don’t have time, then you could prepare extras on weekends or when you do have time.

• Don’t buy convenience foods! You can buy a lot more rice in a bag than if you buy minute rice. It really isn’t hard to cook rice and it doesn’t add a whole much more time (especially if you have a rice cooker because then you can just set it and forget it!)

• Eat whole grains! Whole grains fill you up faster so you will eat less. For example, before we made the switch to whole grain pasta, we would go through two pounds of pasta at each meal (back when there were just 7 of us). Just the other night I made a meal with only one pound of pasta for all of us.

• Serve lots of side dishes! I learned this one by accident. If you have out more options for sides, people won’t eat as much meat which will save you money! I was raised that every meal needed a meat, starch and vegetable, but if I offer two vegetables and/or a fruit, then the amount of meat consumed is less.

• Raise your own food if possible! We started with a garden to help us save money. Even if you don’t preserve your abundance, you will still save money during the summer/fall when you are picking from your garden. We now have chickens for eggs (and meat) and goats for milk. It costs a lot less for feed for those animals than it would for us to buy the food. Even if you live in the city, you can still do container gardening, square foot gardening, etc.

• Let your friends and family know you will take their abundance! We have friends who know they can call us if their gardens produce more than what they want. We just head over and pick what is left. I have friends who receive food from others and they might not particularly care for what was given to them, so they call us. We have even had friends of friends call and offer food from their gardens, old hens for butchering, etc.

Feeding a Family on a Budget, Part 5

Bean soup made with a ham bone and the little meat left on the bone.

Stretching the Meat If you really like having meat in every meal or have a family member who does, then you could just stretch the meat. Some common ways of stretching meat is something like meatloaf where you add crushed crackers, bread crumbs, oatmeal, etc. to the meat. You do the same thing with meatballs. I also will make chicken or salmon patties from leftover shredded chicken (or salmon).

Another option is to make lots of casseroles and soups. You can easily cut the meat in ½ without most people noticing. I can get away with making a casserole with only one pound of meat for my family of 11 without anyone complaining. With some meals, I have to prepare 3-4 lbs of meat to feed all of us.

You could replace ½ the meat called for in a recipe with beans or lentils. For example, I have a recipe I call Sloppy Cornbread. It takes a minimum of two pounds of meat for my family (they LOVE it when I use 3 lbs!), but I found that I can use one pound of meat and an equal amount of lentils (even better if you cook the lentils in beef broth to give a beefy flavor) and my family doesn’t complain. You could do the same with chili (using black, pinto or kidney beans), Spanish/Mexican rice (lentils, black, pinto, or kidney beans), or even meatloaf (use a mashed bean or lentil).

Feeding Your Family on a Budget, Part 4

Lentils, black beans, and great northern beans

Meatless Meals There are a number of ways you can have a meatless meal. You could take one of your favorite recipes and just make it without the meat. For example, have spaghetti without meat in the sauce or a soup without meat, or even a casserole without the meat.

You could also replace the meat in the recipe with something like tofu (although I don’t use this so I am not sure how much you would be saving), beans, or more veggies. If you like sloppy joes, make it with lentils instead of ground beef. Burritos—make them with just refried beans and veggies instead of with meat. Stir-fry is great and just double the veggies and removing the meat to save money.

There are also lots of great vegetarian meals out there. I’ve experimented and continue to experiment and have come up with a few family favorites that are not only vegetarian, but also cost effective.

Feeding a Family on a Budget, Part 3

Preparing Food Ahead I know some people will cringe at this one as well because they have visions of the once-a-month freezer cooking they’ve heard about, but that isn’t the only way to prepare ahead.

Can food. I don’t mean buy canned food, but to actually can it yourself. Having canned food available makes it easy when you have surprise company or what you planned didn’t work out for some reason or for those nights you know you will just need a quick meal. Many of the things I can I get for free from my garden or others share in their abundance or I buy at a reduced rate because I am buying in bulk.

When you are making one meal, why not just double it and freeze one. I do this often when making meatloaf or casseroles. It will save you time in that you are only doing the prep work once (and it doesn’t really take much longer to chop one onion instead of two or brown up two pounds of meat instead of one), and it saves money because you are maximizing the use of your stove, oven, etc. and you will have a meal already prepared for the nights when you used to go to a fast food restaurant or order pizza.

Cook up meat and freeze. Sometimes I will just brown up a bunch of ground beef and freeze in quart bags and then I can grab one quick for a casserole or a soup later. You could pre-chop veggies or mix the dry ingredients for your favorite recipes (pancakes, biscuits, etc.).

Feeding Your Family on a Budget, Part 2

Menu Planning I know many people will cringe when I mention this, but it truly does help in saving money. Not only will you be organized enough to have something out of the freezer and thawed so you can cook, but you will eat out less often because you won’t have to think about what to make for dinner come 4 or 5 o’clock and then just grab something from a restaurant because you don’t have time or can’t think of something.

Menu planning can be done in a few different ways—weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, rotational, or themed.

I do a weekly menu. After I go grocery shopping, I sit down and make a weekly menu from what I was able to purchase. This allows me to take full advantage of what I could find on sale, pull out of the garden or what was given to me. I do have a few things that I usually keep in the same slots because they are family favorites and/or easy to make, but even those are not set in stone.

I know some people who create a bi-weekly menu because they go grocery shopping every two weeks. I am transitioning into this because of gas prices and switching to bi-weekly shopping to save the gas money. The same reason applies for a monthly menu.

Some people choose to create a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly menu and then just repeat that same menu over and over again. I have heard of people that have a summer menu and a winter menu as well. For example, if it is a weekly menu, then every Monday night might be tacos, Tuesdays—spaghetti, Wednesday—roast chicken, etc.

Another option is to make a themed menu. For example, Meatless Mondays, Mexican Tuesdays, Slow cooker Wednesday, Italian Thursdays, etc. You would then have your recipes in those same categories and it would give you a smaller repertoire to choose from. I use a form of this in my menu planning as well. For example, Wednesdays are one-pot meals because we eat at the church and then I only have to carry one thing and Sundays are slow cooker meals because then it is cooked and ready for us to eat when we arrive home from church.

Feeding Your Family on a Budget, Part 1

I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while. I've been very busy (so busy in fact that I didn't finish my daughter's birthday dress until just hours before her party!). I will be posting the information I share at the class I taught a couple of weeks ago in probably six different parts. This is the shortest section, but I still wanted to share!

 

Some tips I have learned over the years that help with feeding a family on a budget are shopping sales, menu planning, preparing food ahead, meatless meals and stretching the meat.

Shopping sales I always look at sales ads before I go shopping. I have an approximate price in my head of what I will spend on an item; therefore, I know if a sale price is a good price or not. Some people will make price lists of items they purchase on a regular basis. I know this is a good idea, but I haven’t taken the time to do that yet. I will only buy what is on sale that week unless it is an absolute necessity. I have a few brand loyalties, but other than those few things, it is open to what is cheapest.

Saving Money Monthly

As women, we are blessed to experience menstruation (and yes, it is a blessing because without it we wouldn't be able to birth babies!). While some women bemoan the fact that they have to spend money monthly to "deal" with this issue, I have discovered some products that not only save me money, but also shorten my period.

Cloth menstrual pads and a menstrual cup!

www.gladrags.com

I first started thinking about cloth pads when I began using cloth diapers for the twins and also really got into watching Little House on the Prairie. It dawned on me that they would have had to use cloth back then because there wouldn't have been any other option. While researching cloth pads, I learned about the menstrual cup. I decided I would give it a try because with all girls, I needed to find a way to save some money before they all started cycling!

While I have patterns to make my own cloth pads (and I have every intention to make some some day), I just didn't have the time to make any of my own. I saw that Glad Rags were on sale in one of the co-ops I order from so I decided to order some and give them a try. Since it was on sale, I also ordered The Keeper to try.

I ordered the organic pads because I figured if I was paying for them, I was going to get something that I wouldn't be making myself later anyway. I also went with the Keeper instead of the Moon cup because I wanted something natural and silicone just didn't fill that description.

I have to say that while it felt weird at first, I am totally in love with my cloth pads and Keeper. I noticed from the first cycle that I used them that I went from my "normal" 7-9 days of menstruating to 4-5. This was a definite bonus! After doing research to find out why, I've come to the conclusion that the absence of chemicals is what is responsible for added bonus.

I keep a small bucket next to the toilet that I put the used pads in and then I wash them with the cloth diapers. I have a friend who just washes hers in with her normal laundry loads. I have heard of others that wash them with their towels and such.  There will be some staining unless you soak in something like Oxyclean (I am actually trying a homemade "oxyclean" just today and will probably post on that later) or hang them in the sun to dry and the sun will naturally bleach the stains out. I don't worry too much about the staining because it isn't like anyone sees them.

As for The Keeper, I love that as well. It does take a little time to figure out which fold is going to work best for you. Depending on how heavy your flow is, you will need to empty it once, twice or three times a day. On my really heavy day, I empty it three times. On my lightest day, I only empty it once.

Now, for to explain the savings! I have purchased the pads and cup over the last two years and I only order when they are on sale through the Frontier co-op so I have saved even more than purchasing directly from Glad Rags. I figure I have spent around $100 for all the pads and my cup. Just this past weekend I was caught off guard with my period because my cycles still aren't back to normal since having Tissa. I had to purchase pads and tampons. Since I won't use pads or tampons filled with chemicals, I purchased Seventh Generation pads and Natracare tampons. I spent $13. I used the entire box of tampons and half the box of pads so I am going to say it cost me $10.

Think about that in costs for a year--$120! After my first year alone using my cloth pads and cup, I was already saving. The cloth pads will last indefinitely and I've read about people using them for 8-10 years before replacing them. When I  think about when all my girls are menstruating, it would cost us over $1000 a year for disposable products. Using cloth will save us tens of thousands of dollars over the years!

I would be glad to answer any questions that someone might have. There are other brands out there that I am sure are good, but I can not vouch for them as I have not tried them. You can find links for free patterns to make your own as well.