The past 24 hours I've tested 5 of the recipes for the meal project I am doing and will be taking it to the local soup kitchen this afternoon. I found out on the weekend that they take any food including people's leftovers! So I made some Caribbean Rice & Beans, Moroccan Black Bean Stew, Split Pea Soup and Lentil Chili with cornmeal muffins. The meals serve 4-6 people each so I am hoping that will help them. I will make more food this week.

I've been lazy with yoga lately but should get there today. I have a gym pass left which would give me a free class. since it's my day off, i don't have any excuses..though we do have LOTS of snow now which fell last night, pretty sad as it's supposed to be spring! :(

I'm also ready to start planting my seeds indoors soon. I will use my hubby's empty egg cartons, empty yogurt containers I found at work and some toilet paper rolls to plant them. I just need to get some soil. I bought luffa seeds and will start that for the first time this year. I thought it would be a nice addition to give with my handmade soap.

I'm trying to Eco-Green my house now as budget minded as possible. It's tough. We now have our woodstove which will save us lots of $$ each year. Next is getting a special insulation blanket for the water tank and some foam insulation for the attic. The space could be usable if we could renovate it and lots of heat escapes from there, insulating is a good start! I've already replaced all my washcloths & handtowels with hemp ones as they are mold and mildew resistant. We'll be getting a hemp shower curtain as they will last years unlikes those awful plastic ones that we end up throwing out ever so often and end up in the landfill...yikes. I've unplugged almost everything we barely use, such as some radios and lights. I've also replaced all the soaps in the guestroom bathroom with handmade stuff and biodegradable versions. I just need to get some organic shampoo and conditioner which I am having a rough time finding cheap. I've come to the conclusion that sometimes it's best to get better quality stuff because then we won't have to replace them all the time.

I did a spring cleaning of my shoes and boots and ended up with a bag full which I will give to charity. The past 1 1/2 years or so I've been buying very good quality shoes on sale only and replacing all the bad shoes I have. I can't believe how much better my arthritis seems since I've been wearing good shoes. Sadly I have to rebuy all the stuff I had before though. I'm hooked on John Fluevogs right now and found a pair on the website for $100 (usually they are almost $300). The nice thing about fluevogs is that no matter what, you can sell them. Even after 10 years of usage, someone will buy them because there tends to be a lof of collectors out there. So worst case scenario if I am done with them in a few years, it won't be hard to sell them. So I never feel too bad about buying those :) I feel bad right after purchasing them but in the end I am always happy with my purchase.

I might and wait to do laundry for another few days as it might actually get warmer. I really wanted to hang my clothes outside! Oh well..darn snow.

Hope everyone is having a frugal weekend. Looks like apart from going to the gym and dropping off food at the soup kitchen, I'll be home most of the day as the weather is terrible.

Hope it is sunny wherever you are!

 

0 Comments | Post Feedback

Unless you live under a rock, you all know that Earth Hour is fast approaching!!! Most cities are having some kind of event! Mine is giving out free hot beverages (yep, still cold here!) and a few political people will give speeches. Personally, I'd love to go to a restaurant and eat in the dark by candlelight! I suggested it to my partner but then my frugal mode kicked in and I thought "Nope, let's celebrate frugally!"

Just in case you don't know what Earth Hour is, all you have to do is turn off your lights for an hour from 8:30-9:30pm your local time. That's it!! I saw a photo of a city lit at night on a normal evening, then another photo during Earth Hour. Wow, what a difference. This proves how such a small effort can make such a big difference. Our earth is sick, we need to heal and help her :)

There are so many frugal activities you can do during Earth Hour. Make an event of it, invite all your friends over and have a potluck (nothing to be reheated of course!). Pretend it's like a blackout, what do you do when the lights actually DO go out!? I am going to unplug a bunch of things, not use my computer and pretend like there really is no electricity. Imagine if we did this one hour a day how that would affect us financially and reduce energy!

I might just heat up the wood stove and have some food by candle light. Free pita bread and homemade hummus.

For more information on Earth Hour: Http://www.earthhour.org

I'd love to hear about what people are doing, would be great to get ideas!

HAPPY EARTH HOUR! :)

0 Comments | Post Feedback

As some of you might already be aware, I am VERY busy with my new blog. I am currently creating a project to feed Vegans (applicaple to vegetarians too) for one week on a low budget. It is similar to the Hillbilly Housewife one but  intented for those of you who prefer to avoid animal products. I've had some challenges with the project due to the high rising costs of food around here and have had to adapt some of my frugal recipes to make them even cheaper. I have the budget set to about $32US (40Cdn). (3 meals a day)

The plan will include Menu, Preparation, Grocery list and Recipes. The grocery list is intented for those who have nothing in their pantry aside from salt and pepper so likely this will be cheaper for a lot of you.

I also discovered that buying in bulk is always more economical so having to purchase small amounts of items was not only challenging but more expensive in the end. Some meals are fairly basic and include ramen noodles and others will be more exotic like Morroccan Stew. I am hoping to have the entire Plan posted within 1-2 weeks as I still have to test out some of my adapted recipes.

I have decided to reach out to my community and donate the tested cooked meals to a vegan/veggie family in need. Still waiting for some canditates right now as I just posted my offer on a few lists I am on locally.

The Menu will feed 4 adults and you might have some leftovers from some of the dishes, so in the end you are actually getting a bit more for your buck :) 

If you're interested in reading about it and other projects, feel free to check out my new blog:
Http://thefrugalvegan.wordpress.com

Topics:
Penny Jar Project, Meal Plan, Recipes, Budget & Finance, Bath & Beauty & more!

I will still post on here time to time, but I seem to have more readers there....sad but true! 
Hope everyone is having a frugal week!

peace.

0 Comments | Post Feedback

I finally sold the old sink yesterday, which gave me $25 this week for pocket money. My friend and I went to the market but I held back on buying too much, just some stuffed grapeleaves & a small treat for breakfast which was nice, organic cinnamon bun sweetened with apples & maple syrup! mmmmmmm

We were going to an Ostara (Spring Equinox) celebration all afternoon and since there was a potluck afterwards, I made some cherrio squares with some baking goods I had left in my pantry :) It was $5 to participate all day and included workshops and also a talk from a world-famous woman who organized this event: http://www.firethegrid.com/, She lives in my area so it was nice to meet her and know what she is doing! Her message is non-denominational which was quite nice too. Nothing worse than people giving these types of messages who are judgemental of others' beliefs right? So she got a lot of respect from me. We're all human. I guess I wish people saw our similarities more than our differences sometimes. :)

 I also attended the leather working workshop (not applicaple to me as a vegan but interesting nevertheless!) The potluck afterwards was really great so basically we got a free dinner out of it too.  Some man brough some free ready made Rooibos Chai tea in large bottles for us to take for free. He said they were a bit expired but were still good to drink, so we both took two bottles of it. I love free stuff!

Today I'll be baking some fresh bread, i have lots of flour and have found some breadmaker yeast in my pantry which I haven't used in awhile. I'll also be attending Food Not Bombs to see what kind of free produce I can get from there. I am really happy with all the food I've found and made this week, cleaning out the fridge and pantry was a great idea, though now it's getting a little bare! Let's hope I get my paycheck this week to finally be able to replenish properly.

I went grocery shopping with my friend and was price comparing for a project I am doing. I don't know about you guys, but seems like prices have been jacked up in the last month. I used to be able to buy coconut milk for 99cents and now it's up to $1.39!!! How did that happen?? There is a wholesale place that sells it too for 79cents if you buy more than 4 cans and will check if they still have some. I don't want to pay 1.39! Ouch. Small bags of pasta used to be 89cents and now they are $1.29. *sigh*. Today we'll head to the dollarstore as they usually have pasta there, and if I'm lucky maybe I'll find coconut milk, I tound some soymilk last week for $1 and bought 10 of them. I was thrilled. Now I'll be stocked for awhile. Price shopping just seems a lot more imperative these days,every cent counts.

I will also head out to the Lebanese bakery to try and get some free pita. I wanted to make hummus but the pita I had picked up there last week went mouldy beacause I forgot to put it in the fridge. Stupid me.

I love spring. I see the signs of it everywhere now and with all the decluttering we're doing, I feel more refreshed and happy. We're saving money heating the house with the woodstove which makes me feel good. I've noticed our waterbill is reduced because of our front loader washer/dryer and soon the electricty bill will reduce because we'll be drying clothes outside. Our shower heads are low flow too. I would love to make my house more "green". I've received the crochet face scrubbies  to apply my facial toner, so no more cotton ball waste. Now I'm just waiting for the hemp face cloths and hand towels I bought from some money I won. Hemp is great because it doesn't attract mold and mildew and will last longer. I will put my old facecoths and hand towels in a yard sale this summer.  The guest room has homemade "eco" hand, body & face soap now too. Things are finally coming together!

My breakfast this morning consisted of a smoothie made with frozen fruit I had on hand, a banana and orange juice I had gotten on sale for cheap, and a nice cup of Ethiopian Organic Coffee. That's one thing I never cheap-out on, is coffee. I cant. I'll buy no-name EVERYTHING but my coffee has to be fair trade organic. It's my guilty pleasure. That's what happens when you grow up French....coffee and chocolate really need to be quality for some reason. My whole family is like that :)

Off to run some errands, hope everyone had a frugal weekend!

0 Comments | Post Feedback

I had to work 2 extra hours last night at the office as we had meetings in there so we couldn't leave till the visitors were all gone. I had planned to make scrambled tofu and sweet potatoes for dinner but when I got home I was so exhausted and hungry, I didn't want to wait an hour before eating anything, let alone take 20mins to prep the food.

Since I've been cleaning out my pantry quite successfully lately, I've noticed that my choices for food are becoming slimmer and slimmer but that's ok! I need to use what's there.

I had TONS of ramen noodles (they seem to be going on sale a lot lately and I stock up) and at least 10 cans of tomato soup. I decided to cook a package of ramen noodles with a cup of frozen veggies, then add 1/2 a can of tomato soup, undiluted. I added lots of pepper as well. Boy was it good! It kind of tastes like Alpha Ghetti. I miss those canned pastas sometimes and i dont buy them because there is cheese in there. This is a perfect alternative. Cost me about 50 cents for my meal!

My sweetie took the other half of the can, made some soup and egg sandwiches. I haven't spent any money on lunches or even afternoon snacks this week. I now bring enough food to last me throughout the day at work, mostly just baby carrots and apples to snack on so I don't go running downstairs to get a fatty muffin :)

We didn't end up watching a movie last night, just talking in front of the woodstove for 4 1/2 hours about everything from frugal living to global economics. :)

Tonight my friend and I will make dinner at his place and watch a movie, another frugal night! Can't wait for that :)

0 Comments | Post Feedback

It's amazing how much my sweetie and I got done because the workers were coming to install the woodstove. We cleared out the living room, putting useless knick knacks in a box to give away and cleaning up. He was worried that the workers would think we were messy which is why he wanted to start cleaning. haha! 

Also with the new day bed and tv we acquired for the guest room, i'm getting rid of the 1980's tv & old dvd player that were in there taking up a lot of space. It's a small guest room and now it looks much better. I've found someone to come and pick up the electronics (they were too old to sell) tonight so it'll be out of our way! My partner will hang a small shelf on the wall where he can put the tv.

Sadly I haven't received my paycheck yet, was supposed to get that yesterday but it is being sent from the main government department in another city. I guess some paperwork got done late too. This isn't good because i've been without pay for almost 3 weeks now. In one sense, I'll get a big chunk of money in a few weeks (2 paychecks at one time) but on the other hand it's been tough as lots of payments are coming out soon. I counted on getting paid yesterday. I've had to move money from a loan which I didn't want to do. I'm being pretty forceful with trying to get this all sorted but we all know how things are when dealing with government; leaving messages on voicemails, unanswered emails and people not taking responsibilty. You'd think in these hard times that people who give out paychecks would be a little bit more "on the ball". *sigh* I might have held off on buying the used daybed had I known I wasn't getting paid. So much for relying on things these days!

That being said, we're staying in tonight and using up some foods that need to be eaten. I have sweet potatoes and tofu in the fridge that need to be used, so scrambled tofu and baked sweet potatoes it is! We'll also watch Slumdog Millionaire which we downloaded, and cuddle in front of the woodstove, I can't wait!

I managed to score some free pita at the Lebanese Bakery again. Haven't done that in awhile. They used to leave it in packages on the side for people to take but I see that they've been forced by the city again to take them out of the plastic bags. The bakery, knowing that many of us rely on their free pita supply, has been very good at still making it accessible. They've placed the pita in empty flour bags so it's easy to take. There were at least 10-15 gigantic bags full of pita to feed an army of people. I dug in one bag and pulled out a small stack (maybe 15 large pitas). Technically they are supposed to throw it in the compost but we all know how gross and dirty that can be. I love these guys. When my friend had no money at all, he said that bakery kept him alive. A lot of local people rely on it and it's food being used, not wasted. I will turn the bread into pita chips and make some hummus to dip them into :) I also heard that if there is no pita outside for the taking and you go there in the late evening when they are baking, you can knock on the door and they will give you a bag. I love my neighbourhood, most of us are pretty laid back and bohemian :)

Sunday I'll make my way over to Food Not Bombs and see what produce I can get. I love this organization and it's nice that they are all over the world feeding people with food that would have otherwise gone to waste. Sometimes I get tofu from there too. The weather is getting better so it's easier to sit outside now and eat what they've cooked up and look through the boxes for free food. North Americans are the biggest offenders for Food Waste, nice to see people have done something good with our horribly bad habits.

FYI: I will try and post more recipes soon, i need to get rid of some cherrios and marshmallows so if anyone has good recipes using these two items I'd love to have some. Thanks!

1 Comments | Post Feedback

I am almost done prepping the guest room downstairs for future paying visitors which I hope to get from www.airbnb.com I also host people for free on www.couchsurfing.com but given the fact that my contract could end any month now I am preparing for some ways to get a little income. I understand that temp agencies (probably the one I work for too) are having trouble placing people these days. I have an advantage due to my languages but even that doesn't guarantee me employment. Summers are always slow in the temp agency world from my experience!

I just replaced the airbed with a second hand beautiful IKEA day bed with a firm foam mattress. I already sold the airbed for $50. It sells for $120 but we bought it on sale for $60 so I'm happy with the $50. It's only about 6 months old so the person who bought it was thrilled with the price knowing how much she'd have to pay in the store for one right now.!Now it looks more like a REAL room :) 

Because I collect coffee contraptions, I put the Melitta One Coffee Pod Machine in there with creamer, packaged sugars I had picked up in Spain and Holland last year, and some packaged cookies I found at the dollar store. I also threw out some old pods that expired in 2007...eeek. I need new ones.

There is an old used tv and dvd player in there but no cable as we are not tv watchers. Both the tvs in our house are really old (late 80's early 90's!!) and at least one needs to be replaced soon. My sweetie wants to purchase a projector for the upstairs lounge where we usually watch movies but since they are about $800 it's not something we want to do right now. I looked online for used Flat Panel LCD tvs (between 15-17") but couldn't find anything. This is ideally what I'd like to get because knowing us we won't buy another tv for years...even the ones we have were free hand-me-downs! We've been together 14 years and have never bought a TV! :) We discussed it and decided that when I get my first paycheck from my new contract, we'll get the lowest price LCD which we saw at Walmart for under $150. He said that we could even use that TV ourselves to watch movies in the living room (which is right next to the guest room). We just got our woodstove installed and said it'd be nice to cuddle up & watch a movie in front of the fire! Still hesitating but I think that's what we'll do. I've been looking for a few weeks for a used one and still no luck.

There is also a recycled computer with wireless internet in this guestroom. I hadn't used it myself since my sweetie fixed it up last summer but went on it not too long ago to see how it runs. BOY was it slow! When you turn it on, it takes at least 15-20 minutes to start up. We had put it together from a mish-mash of old parts (he's a big techie), but it has been used by a lot of travellers since it's updating. This definitely needs to be revisited. Free computers are easy to find. I don't need some lightning speed one, just something a bit more functional, this one isn't at all. Even to surf the web it took ages to load. I felt like it was 1994 again. LOL. So next step is to find free parts to build a new one.

This guestroom has its own bathroom so I made some eco-green body wash, shower spray with tea tree oil, vinegar and water, and some handsoap using Dr. Bronners Castille Soap, water and a foam pump. I had made some green tea facial toner last week and had lots so I threw that in there too. I will make some honey facewash to put in the shower. All the toilet paper is made from recycled paper and will put a hemp hand towel & washcloth in there which i purchased on Etsy for cheap.

I figured, the more appealing this room is, the more I can charge though I do want to keep it reasonable. I have it listed for $20 a night but will revisit that as soon as I make all the upgrades.

I will not rent out the upstairs guestroom to visitors and will keep it for friends and family. It's much bigger but doesn't have its own bathroom and I haven't finished painting it yet. Also, my sweetie smokes (just upstairs) and I don't find that it's very welcoming to guests unless people know us already.

We are lucky to have a big house and just two of us living in it but I didn't want to rent out this room to people for a long time. I discovered airbnb and thought it was perfect! Even if I just rent it out 8 nights a month (say at $35/night with upgrades) that's about $270 a month for income! :) The website takes 3%

I'm excited. Can't wait for my first visitors. If all goes well I'll be ready for April!

4 Comments | Post Feedback

This has been such a good week so far. I have been on the lookout for a bed for the small guestroom and came so close to buying new, then something in my head stopped me, plus a big part of my prefers to recycle and purchase used.

I really wanted something IKEA as I love the style but we don't have one here...sadly. Closest one is in my hometown which is 900 miles away. So I went on kijiji.ca (.com in the US) and stumbled upon an ad where someone was selling an IKEA metal day bed with slatted bed & foam mattress, a beautiful floor lamp and side table for $125. I went online and looked at the prices for everything and if I worked it out including shipping this entire purchase would have been about $400!!! I picked it up this morning and the furniture was immaculate, as was the mattress. The girl lived at home and was moving out and the house was impecably clean. It looked like she had just bought it. So I didn't even barter with her which I normally do, I just gave her the money. I had a budget of about $250 for this so I was thrilled!!!

Because I was able to now put a night table in the second guestroom (I was using a grungy old computer table covered with a blanket I had found somewhere), I can now give away the computer table. I also didn't have a lamp in that second guestroom so..voila! I needed everything.

Woodstove insert is being installed tomorrow, so we're selling the fireplace grate and screen and also selling the airbed we had in the small guestroom. We also posted our old pedestal sink with faucet which we replaced earlier this year with a nice vessel sink. So if we sell everything, we get most of the money back for the guestrooms' furniture. Gee, I was so excited about that! Spring cleaning is good for something isn't it? I realized I have tons of bedsheets and duvet covers we no longer use as well, so I might just sell them in a bundle for cheap. If I sewed I might have even used them for something. :(

We headed over to a bargain store where they had special toothpaste on sale for 99 cents but they ran out..I was there Saturday and they had run out then too. Manager said they'd get more this week but apparently they are now out of them for good at that price. Oh well. I also found 4.4lbs  bags of sugar for 99 cents so I bought three but will pick up more as I was on foot. This will get me through my jam making season. I found some ramen noodles (5/$1) which is a good price, here they are usually 4/$1 at the cheapest place. Since I had stocked up on cheap ramen noodles last month, I only bought two packages. My sweetie doesn't like them and I don't eat them often as they aren't exactly healthy. I did eat some tonight with veggies and fresh ginger. mmmmm. I had a craving for them.

I loved having a day off, felt good to get things done! Off to the kitchen to see what else I can bake to get rid of things I don't need anymore. The clutter is diminishing..finally!

0 Comments | Post Feedback

Just wondering, I wrote two long posts in the last few days and none of them are showing up for some reason. :(  I lost everything. Is anyone else having the same issue? 

3 Comments | Post Feedback

My sweetie and I finally bit the bullet and purchased a woodstove insert for our fireplace! We had gotten all the information last year, even went as far as have them come down and measure everything too. Problem was, when we looked at our finances at that time we decided not to do it. We could have bought it then but had other priorities. :(

Thank goodness the company still had all our information. All we had to do was walk in there and tell them we wanted it. They repriced it (sadly prices go up..argh) and we got it. Since they are not busy this time of year, they said they could install it next week! Not much winter left but March where we live is really unpredictable; one day it can be sunny and the snow is slowly melting, then the next day it's FREEZING cold and we have a storm. Not that I want more snow, but maybe just one really cold day to try out the stove. This will save TONS in heating costs and we'll get our money back in no time. We're very excited.

Speaking of warm things...my sweetie was out the other night at a bar after a concert he had gone to and found one of those coffee cards that you can put money on. Usually you can register them so if you lose them you can just cancel it online. He told me he had no idea if there was money on it, but said that most people never register those things. I do! Today I went online, punched in the numbers and to my surprise it was NOT registered and there was a little over $7 left on it! WOW! I was so excited. Not only do I love coffee, but I love free things. I kind of felt bad for the person who lost it, but I did register it even though there was only $7 on it. I am not a huge fan of this coffee chain but hey, it's free coffee. I will keep it for my next trip, as where I am going there is one of these coffee shops right around the corner from my friends place so it could be useful and cut down on spending money.

I seem to be very lucky with things these days! So if you have one of those cards, you might want to register it before you use it so if you lose it or it gets stolen, your money won't be lost. Hopefully this person will learn that, though frankly, most people probably don't even care :)

Hope everyone is having a frugal weekend!

0 Comments | Post Feedback

Today I was out all day running errands & picking up produce. I made the mistake of purchasing those premade muffin mixes (65cents each) because they were on sale and I hadn't bought them in years as I always bake from scratch. I usually cringe at the chemicals found in cake & muffin mixes and always shy away from them. But for 65cents I thought...sure why not? I haven't used eggs in years for baking and have never had issues. When I used the muffin mix, I used my usual egg replacer and did the rest as per the instructions. I ended up with 6 gooey-ish tiny flat muffins...yikes. They don't taste too bad but now I'll have to give the mixes to friends who eat eggs. Might work out better, maybe the chemicals work with the egg. haha! I should have known better..live and learn! I never have flat muffins when I bake from scratch, so I'm not sure why this happened.
 

Right now my kitchen is a bit of a disaster. I had at least 100 spices in there, some from years ago and some in bags I had bought in Morrocco and Spain last year. I cleaned them out, threw out the old sketchy ones and now the spice shelf looks normal again though I still have at least 50 spices left! :) I do love my spices! 

After cleaning the spices, I decided to take a look in my pantry, freezer and fridge to see what I should use up. I took out some older frozen bread that had gone stale (which is why i had frozen it) and will make some french toast with it in the morning. I ran out of soymilk but always keep powder on hand, so I made a fresh batch today and will use that for the french toast. I can't wait! I also ran out of maple syrup which isn't good. I can't seem to eat that fake stuff but might have to make a batch of the sugar/maple flavouring kind tomorrow so I can eat the french toast. I might also use the "Miel de Cane" which is a honey like molasses tasting syrup from Spain that I bought last year. It has lots of iron so that could be an option too.

I discovered a master mix which I had made before Christmas. I had 2 cups left which wasnt enough for some of the recipes I had but ended up making some muffins and improvising. I added two small ripe bananas I had on the counter, a little vanila & frozen blueberries. WOW! Turned out amazing, so much better than the crappy mix! :)

I saw that I had an incredible amount of lentils on hand and made some Ethiopian lentils in the crockpot. The recipe is on this website so if you look up Ethiopian it's there. The kitchen smells delicious, much like the Ethiopian Restaurant I used to go to. So now I have some meals for awhile! 

I also discovered some frozen peas I had which had been there awhile. I don't use peas alot and had probably purchased them for a specific recipe. I took them out and made some pea soup for my friend as I am not a huge soup eater when the weather starts warming up. Here is my recipe:

PEA SOUP (using frozen peas)

2 cups of frozen peas

4 cups veggie broth or water

Several dashes of thyme, rosemary and mint

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp salt

1 carrot (diced)

1 stalk of celery (diced)

1/2 cup instant mashed potatoes (or one small potato) - i find this makes soup much creamier

Throw everything in a pot and boil for about 10 minutes till veggies are tender. Blend with a hand blender, then add instant mashed potatoes and blend again. If using real potato, add with other veggies. Season with some pepper!

This turned out pretty nice and creamy. I stored the soup in 3 containers and will give this to my student friend who rarely has time to cook these days so his diet hasn't been great. He could use the healthy food!

I don't know what was wrong with me today, but I bought a gigantic box of Golden Grahams cereal which was on sale. I used to eat them when I was younger and loved them. I made the mistake of going to the store when I was hungry too (same time I bought that muffin mix!). I rarely buy cereal because a lot of it is filled with sugar, but I had a bowl and BOY was it good! I fear I will eat the whole box in no time and don't want to do that, so I will make some Golden Graham Smores treats for work. It'll use 6 cups of the stuff and I'll be able to use the leftover marshmallows I had bought when I made homemade hot chocolate for friends for the holidays. Marshmallows are not vegan (they are made with either pig or cow gelatin...eeek) so I won't use them myself anyway. This will be a perfect way to dispose of some of that sugary cereal and finish of the marshmallows. yay!

I'll continue my kitchen pantry cleaning tomorrow and probably cook and bake more. I have so much more food that I thought, so perhaps you might want to look around your kitchen before you go grocery shopping, you'd be surprised what you'll find. I can probably live off what's in there for a month. Really!

PS: Posting on both blogs now, so if you see duplicate content that's why. The postings are different though but could have some of the same content. :)

0 Comments | Post Feedback

When I got home from work last night, I was excited to be spending some time alone as my partner was going out to a concert. I was feeling a bit bloated since I hadn't been to yoga in awhile (even though I had attempted to a few times!) and with the cold weather I've been eating a tad more, though not junk food, just a bit more food. I decided to have a veggie dog without the bun and almost an entire stalk of broccoli with it for dinner. Felt good!

After dinner, I worked on my zine and was getting impatient with some of the formatting. Usually my zines are very indie cut & paste type of projects but decided to make this one in Microsoft Publisher. Not sure it was a good idea because the feel of it isn't as homemade but I'm sure I'll decorate it with stickers, stamps and other things to make it look less professional :)

My friend wanted to spend his birthday money and invited me out shopping. I needed a break from writing so this sounded like a good idea, and I needed a few things anyways.

We ended up at Future Shop and I purchased a $12 bottle of stainless steal cleaner. *gulp* Honestly, I've tried everything to clean my appliances and nothing seems to work. Spring is coming and I was desperate to find something that actually works. I took a deep breath and spent the money. Now let's hope it performs!

Then, we went to the fabric store where i always check out the scrap bins for discounts. I can't sew but I like getting fabric for either wrapping or sending the pieces to my mom for her to make me little gift bags. My partner sews but he doesn't usually have much time for it. I was looking for some fleece material to make some enviro friendly facial toner and/or makeup remover pads. I had stumbled upon a blog where a woman used an old fleece bed sheet to make them. She cut a square, folded it in four and sewed the sides to make a cushiony type pad to apply her toner. I really lucked out and found a few yards of 100% undyed cotton fleece for $2 that people use to make reusable diapers. It is very soft, has that natural looking appearance to it and hadn't been bleached or anything. I needed to have these done before tonight, as my friend was coming over and I had made her some toner for her birthday bag and wanted to give her some of these pads. My friend surprised me and purchased me some really good fabric cutting scissors which were $30 but he bought them on sale for $20. Though I could have used these years ago, I never indulged because I rarely sew or cut fabric but wow...am I happy to have them! I cut out a sample square for my partner who said he'd sew the pads for me by tonight. *phew* Can't wait to see them when I get home from work.

We then ventured over to our usual coffee spot where he treated me to coffee and a piece of blueberry lemon loaf. I don't ever usually eat after dinner but I think I needed a little food after my diet dinner. :)

Apart from the fact that I didn't get much sleep,  waited outside for the bus for over 1/2 hour in FREEZING cold weather this morning and the fact that it's friday the 13th, I still think it'll be a good day!

Still working on my new blog, I did post one article on there. Will work on it more today. I am in a real creative zone lately which is why I am not sleeping..head is too busy! Will try to get some of that out of my head today.

0 Comments | Post Feedback

FINISHING UP A ZINE, ANYONE WANNA HELP AND MAKE $$?

I emailed a woman who runs another frugal site and got permission to reprint an article she wrote which I loved!  I offered a copy of the zine and a reference to her website. I had a hunch she would be ok with my zines for some reason. Lucky for me she accepted and I can print it for free! (some sites want $$$ or don't allow you to reprint because of copyright issues)

I write most of my content but do take some articles from various sources sometimes. The zine is almost completed but I am trying to find someone to write a Newbie Frugal Gardening Article for me, half a page. I posted a request on ThriftyFun but it is still pending at this time. An acquaintance was supposed to write it for me last fall, i waited all winter and never go it so now I am coming to you for help! :) I'm not a gardening guru and feel it's not my place to write such things and would rather leave it in the hands of gardening goddesses & gods who have a passion for it. :) So if any of you want $5US (which i am paying via paypal) and a copy of the new zine mailed to you in the spring, please send me a green/frugal/DIY/beginner gardening article (point form is good as it'll just be half a page). I'll pick a winner!! For the record, it IS an indie zine with some punk & hippy anarchist type content  sometimes that could offend some, so make sure you really want it. LOL. I'm known for my rants sometimes, so be forewarned, though this particular zine isn't too heavy on the rants! The article must be written from your own experience & written with some type of flair, very casual and fun as my readers are generally younger alternative type of people. It's up to you what tips you want to focus on, I will pick the right one. Email me at: goddessfreya@gmail.com with your submissions and write "Gardening Article" in the title. THANKS!

For more informaiton on my other zines, click here: http://www.thefrugalvegan.tk (all my zines are anti-copyright which means people can reproduce them for free & even resell them if they wish, this way the info gets out fast and around the world!)

TRAVELLING PLANS!

I know you won't believe this, but I am already planning another trip! Mid May if I can get everything worked out. Problem is, I just found a REALLY good seat sale with only a couple of seats left to where I am going. If I bought the tickets now, I'd be saving about $150 unless the competitor decides to do their own seat sale soon. Another option for me is to fly on my friends' passes which would cost save me about $300 believe it or not. The only issue with that, is travelling standby and I know how that worked out last time!! But I am flying within the country and the airline has more than one or two flights a day which ups my chances of getting on. Still debating...do i buy seat sale or do i just go standby?

Decisions, decisions.........

0 Comments | Post Feedback

MOVING MY BLOG!!

If anyone reads my blog on here, I wanted to let you know that I will be moving it to a new home soon. Still ironing out a few things and trying to figure the website out; the thriftyfun.com blog is much easier to create than the one I am currently trying to use. The reason for doing this, is that I'd like to write more but realize that I could offend some people with some of my content.  

I would like to incorporate my blog with my frugal zine website (www.thefrugalvegan.tk) (which sweetie is going to redesign as I don't have the patience) and be able to write freely without worrying about the "alternative" content of my writings.

Here is the new link in case anyone is interested but I won't be posting there right away. I will let everyone know when I will stop here and start there: http://thefrugalvegan.wordpress.com/

I just find that I leave things out on this blog sometimes,  fearing that it might not be appropriate for this website (even if they are saving tips!) but I'm now realizing I really want to write about my life more and how I save and what i save on :) Make sense?

Hope to see some of you at the new blog, it's more interactive too. Wordpress has some great blogs, as do blogger.com

0 Comments | Post Feedback

Looks like we're being flooded with spam blog posts in here again! How dare people? Sadly, most of us won't even read them so these people are truly wasting their time!

LOOFAH/LUFFA SEEDS

I decided to purchase some Loofah seeds this year. My florist friend suggested I grow them as they are easy and he knows I make my own bath/body stuff too. The loofahs would make a nice gift with a homemade shower gel or soap. I could even grate the loofahs and put them in my soaps to act as an exfoliator. I purchased them on ebay for $3 (140 seeds!). The man selling them has been growing them for 40 years so I'm assuming these are good ones :)

BAD WEATHER & LAZY COOKING

The weather has been quite nice lately, sunnier, a little warmer and lighter too. I was in a good mood in the morning as the sun was shining but when I left the office it was snowing hard and it got cold and dark all of a sudden. My mood just changed immediately. In the morning, i could have taken on the world but as soon as I saw that snow, I just wanted to go home and hibernate. I made myself some ramen noodles with two cups of veggies, a little soy sauce and fresh ginger. I just made it for myself as my sweetie wasn't home yet and I was starving. I RARELY cook in the microwave but told sweetie when he got home, that he'd be getting macaroni and cheese with a veggie dog which I did in the microwave in 10 minutes (I know, not that healthy but he was in the mood for it.) We had bought the mac and cheese on sale at 30 cents a box which is cheap here. He rarely eats that type of food so the food is there for emergencies, like last night when neither of us wanted to cook!

FOOD & FLYERS

For lunch I brought some Lentil Stew I had in the freezer, 2 apples (one for a snack in the morning and one for a snack in the afternoon) and some oatmeal with a banana to eat at work for breakfast since I did not have time this morning. I perused the flyers only to find stuff I never buy (meat, sugary and processed foods). Argh. So off to my fave fruit/veggie store this weekend and the bulk place to stock up on legumes, beans and grains. The only sale I found was for sugar (2kg for 99cents which is a good price here). I prefer not to use white sugar but I do buy it for making things like cakes.

EVENING PLANS

My sweetie is off to a concert tonight as his company got some free box VIP tickets. I could have gone but I really don't like this band, they play maritime type music, sort of that folky irish type stuff. Just not my style of music. He is just going because it's free and there will be free food and drinks. I'll have the house to myself and will make some Ethiopian Lentils & if I have the time, more muffins and some cocoa butter soap which I've been itching to make. If you guys are interested in making Ethiopian food that's really cheap, do a search on this website for Ethiopian, I posted tons of recipes on here with photos. EASY!

Will post more later....

0 Comments | Post Feedback

I just made a really lovely Honey Rose Facial Toner which i tested this evening just to see how it feels. I will keep using the green tea one i made then next week use the honey one and see which one I like best. Here is the recipe:

1/2 cup rosewater (found at mediterranean stores)

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar (try not to use white vinegar)

1 heaping tbsp of liquid honey

Mix everything together and store in a bottle. I like this recipe because it doesn't need to be refrigerated unlike a lot of toner recipes I've come across.

Right now I am using a washcloth to apply as I do not have cotton balls and the eco-green girl in me doesn't want to purchase them so i went looking for an alternative. Beacuse I am such a fan of Etsy.com and supporting indie artists, I went there to see what I could find. To my surprise I found some awesome reusable crochet cotton type balls. 25 of them for $4!! Comes with a mesh bag so you can wash them and not lose them. I purchased them thinking this is definitely a good investment! I'll never have to buy cotton balls now :)

Here is where I got them if anyone is interested. I'm sure she'll post more: http://www.etsy.com/view_transaction.php?transaction_id=14468263 These are listed in the "facial scrubies" section in her shop so if you don't see them right now just contact her and I am sure more will be posted. These are not only environmentally friendly but frugal. Great gift if you make the toner and give it with these.

If you can crochet, you can purchase a pdf file of the pattern from another seller for $2.50 to make your own!(http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=20799695

If you don't want to spend any money, you can easily use a facial scrubbie for the same purpose, perhaps you can make them smaller. I don't crochet so I am not sure how this would work, but here is an easy FREE pattern for a facial scrubbie: http://grannysquarewoman.blogspot.com/2006/02/vesy-easy-small-scrubbie-pattern.html This would be great if you have leftover cotton yarn from other projects.

I'm really getting into using natural homemade stuff. I have done this for years on and off but sometimes get caught getting stuff with pretty packaging...ugh. So back to the homemade products wave for now!

Images:

0 Comments | Post Feedback

Yesterday I had a great frugal day off! I was looking through my cards and noticed I had enough stamps for a free sushi lunch, so off I went! Then I discovered another card with enough stamps for a free coffee down the street from the sushi place...so off I went for that! Refills were only 60cents and the coffee is fair trade! I had brought my small ASUS EEE laptop with me and caught up on some emails since that cafe has free internet. I sat there for a few hours till our bank apt at 4pm.

Because of low interest rates right now, we consolidated a few things and ended up getting money to buy our wood stove insert for the fireplace and redo our kitchen! YAY! Wood Stove will save us TONS of money in oil costs and I have a friend who can get us free wood! Since my mom has always wanted to be an interior designer but claimed she was "too old" to go do it by the time we were out of the house, I am going to ask her to fly down and help me with the kitchen. I am a terrible decorator and not good with any home design projects. That always surprises people since I am very creative, just not good at the decorating stuff at all. My mom has a great eye and good ideas. My only concern is that money was never an issue for her when she designed her home, so as long as I stress to her that I don't want a $1000 granite sink I think we'll be ok. I remember her telling me that the custom blinds in her condo kitchen which cover a small window were about $700! She's BIG on quality stuff, though at the same time she understands that I am not made of money and I'm sure she'll find more frugal ideas for my kitchen :)

On another note, I made some home facial products that I am really liking. I made them for a friends birthday but had some leftover which I tested. These items make for a really great frugal "organic type gift for friends and family! Here are the recipes:

HONEY LAVENDER CLEANSER

2 tbsp clear honey

1 1/2 tsp Dr. Bronners Organic Fair Trade Lavender Castille Soap (you can use unscented)

1/4 cup vegetable glycerine

Combine eveything in a bowl and stir. Store in a dark bottle. Use about 1 tsp to cleanse face. Remember to wet your face/hands before applying cleanser. 

GREEN TEA TONER

3 bags green tea (steeped in 2/3 cup boiling water)

2 tbsp apple cider vinegar

4 drops ylany ylang essential oil

4 drops lemon essential oil

Combine cooled tea, cider vinegar and essential oils and store in a dark bottle. Use after cleansing your face. Then apply face moisturizer.

It was my friend's birthday and we ended up going to Boston Pizza as they have cheap pasta specials on Tuesdays! The dinner alone was under $20 for both of us, so definitely a good deal for a night out! We went back to his place to have dessert (the chocolate cake with peanut butter icing I made) and some coffee. This saved on dinner costs and he much prefers a homemade cake over getting something at a restaurant anyway.

Planning to make some cocoa butter soap tonight if I feel up for it. Stay tuned!

0 Comments | Post Feedback

Maybe it's just me but i've noticed that some people are flooding the blog with techie stuff lately. Any idea who modifies the blogs? Sure, tech stuff is useful (several friends of mine are IT people)  though it seems a little excessive lately....anyone agree?

2 Comments | Post Feedback

It's my friends birthday today and last night I made him this. He loves peanut butter so I decided to put it on a cake!

Chocolate Cake (from a zine called Don't Feed the Bears"

1 1/2 cups flour

1 cup sugar

1 tsp baking soda

1/3 cup cocoa

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 cup cold water

1 tsp vanilla

1/3 cup oil (I used sunflower)

Heat oven to 350F. Put all ingredients in a bowl in order given, then stir (not too much!!!) and pour into a square cake pan. Bake for 30-35mins or until toothpick comes out clean. Easy!

Peanut Butter Icing

1/2 cup natural peanut butter

1 cup icing sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 cup margarine

Stir everything till smooth. Ice cake when cooled.

I sprinkled the entire cake with cake sprinkles (coloured ones) and placed happy face round birthday candles on it.

1. ENJOY!!

0 Comments | Post Feedback

I was reading the newsletter that i get from another frugal website, and the woman who wrote the article recommended a site called Air B&B: www.airbnb.com If you have a spare room or couch in your house, you can sign up and rent out your space to travellers! The company mails you a cheque a week after the stay has been completed! You can choose how much you want to charge. I am the only one in my area who has signed up, so let's hope I'll get some guests soon!

I am also on couchsurfing.com which hosts travellers for free. I do LOVE doing this, but in this economy I could use the extra money and I have decided to also host a few couchsurfing people too, though at this time I might have to put paying guests as a priority.

It's a fun site to look through, even if you don't want to rent a room. Would be great for small business travellers to use this service, you can get a bed in New York for as little as $15! :) Neat isn't it?
 

0 Comments | Post Feedback

No one will ever know this is vegan, and BOY is it good! I bought some light rye bread from the market this weekend and know it will be stale by tomorrow, so this is a dinner I will make one evening. Breakfast for dinner? Sure!

VEGAN BANANA COCONUT FRENCH TOAST
(recipe adapted from vegetarian.about.com)

2 medium bananas (mashed)

1 cup coconut milk

3/4 cup non-dairy milk (soy, rice, almond...)

1 tbsp brown sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon (optional but yummy!)

Whisk everything in a bowl (I use a hand blender to get it nice and smooth)

Dip stale bread slices in and cook on each side until lightly browned. Top with fruit and pure maple syrup.

Images:

1 Comments | Post Feedback

I made some really good blueberry muffins that I found on allrecipes.com.http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Blueberry-Muffins-I-2/Detail.aspx

I used egg replacer instead of the egg, sunflower oil as the oil, 3/4 cup brown sugar instead of 1/2 cup white sugar and before baking I topped them with a tsp of raw sugar and sprinkle of cinnamon. My sweetie loved them, i gave a few to my friend and he said they were amazing. Very moist and almost cakey. I forgot to add the lemon zest even though I had some so will make more again tonight! :)

I also made a nice veggie chili for dinners/lunches this week. I never use a recipe for chili, just throw in what I have!
 

Tomorrow is my friend's birthday. I've been flooded with birthdays the past month but won't have any to worry about till June after this..haha. My friend doesn't have any other friends here, so I am taking it upon myself to organize something for him. My budget is really limited right now so I am making him some Chocolate Chip Banana Bread (everyone always requests it for gifts from me!) and some hummus which he also loves. I wanted to take him out to dinner, but I didn't want to take him out to the diner we usually go to and other restaurants he likes are too pricy for me right now, so I am making a spinach lasagna and will bring some vegan cesar salad with it and a homemade birthday cake. Good thing I have tomorrow off because I'll need to prepare all this in the morning as I have an apt in the afternoon. I just better get up early if I want to get this all done by lunchtime!

Work should go by quickly today as I have some work to do....

Hope everyone has a frugal week!

0 Comments | Post Feedback

This is a bit of a rant, so be forewarned! LOL

My recent trip to Kiehl's when I was in Montreal made me realize how much money and time we spend on beauty. What is beauty...exactly? And why our constant obsession to achieve it and why are we willing to spend so much money to get there? Is there a way to get beautiful without sucumming to all these advertisements making claims for a youthful appearance? Do we have to take out a second mortgage just to be beautiful? :) Of course not.......

For the record, I do believe beauty comes from the inside, but sadly so many of us have stressed out over-worked, unhappy insides.....I mean, what do we do?

My friends often tell me I am blessed with youth and good genes. I've even had to show ID to people who didn't believe my age when I told them. I'm 39 but apparently I look 27. Most of my friends are in their mid-late twenties and tell me they keep forgetting I am almost 40. One  friend even told me there must be something magical in our water, because my sweetie who is 37 looks 25. LOL. So what gives? Why do we look this way?

Of course I laugh at all these comments and know that *maybe* genes have a small part in this but it certainly isn't because I buy fancy creams, go to the spa twice a week or have a personal chef or trainer on hand :o)

So here goes:

DIET

I had a naturopathic doctor who herself was not vegan but told me that I look the way I do because of my diet. Food can be a poison but also a healer and we all know it can make our skin awful or beautiful looking. If we eat lots of raw fruits and veggies, have enough protein and move around a little, you'd be surprised what that will do! Eating chips for a snack and burgers and processed foods for dinner isn't going to make you look or feel good, especially if it's a habit. (watch a documentary called SUPERSIZE ME) Not saying everyone should be vegetarian or vegan because there are many of us who are who don't eat well! It comes down to this:  don't overeat, don't eat processed foods too much and increase raw seasonal fruits and veggies in your diet. I am not a health nut at all (believe it or not) but i have trained my body to tell me what it wants. A friend of mine who used to live with  me, once told the story to his mom that i'd come home sometimes and eat an entire stalk of broccoli as my body was craving it. Funny isn't it? But that's how it goes with me now. I was overweight for a big chunk of my life, so i'm not one of those people who doesn't understand what it's like to lose weight..trust me i do all too well. Once we train our bodies, it's very strange what starts to happen. Believe it or not, I CRAVE fruit and vegetables. I never could have said that 15 years ago. Granted, I do crave chocolate too, but I eat eat almost everyday..just the dark 80% stuff because it's so good! Nothing wrong with some indulgence, everything in moderation right?

LIFESTYLE

Another thing that contributes to youthful appearance and energy is one's lifestyle. Now granted, we all have different choices as to what makes us happy in life so I'm not going to tell you how to live a happy life on my terms. Sometimes I think people's views are distorted as to what REALLY makes them happy. I know I'll never have a midlife crisis because I've always done what I felt was right for me regardless of the ridicule i've experienced around me. For example,  I decided at 15yrs old that I did not want children and kept that promise to myself. I knew I just had too much to do in the world and wanted more freedom than children could give me. Some people say it's selfish but in the end, it made me such a happy person (not a miserable parent with a child). I  do LOVE animals and have adopted several, these are my "children" and they make me so happy. I've actually met people who said they love their kids but regret having them, now that they know what they know now. I've heard that WAY too many times and found it rather astounding. On the other hand, my mom is the type who just adores being a mom, she is an amazing mother who wanted us so much and I am thankful for that. Having children made HER happy. Luckily she respects my brothers' and my wishes not to have any. These are the choices she made and she was more than thrilled with them. Too often I see people doing things that they feel they HAVE to do because of societal pressures. In the end, these people get depressed and miserable, go on medication and start looking terrible. Before I go on too much of a rant, the moral of the story is to do what you FEEL is right for you and what makes you happy (as long as you don't harm anyone physically of course). I am one of the happiest people I know when it comes to my life. No one should EVER tell you it's wrong to want to go live on a beach and write for the rest of your life. It's your life, do whatever you want, as long as it makes you happy. Happiness is beautiful.

EXERCISE
 

We all love exercise right? Nope! Every magazine in the world is telling us different ways to move our bodies and demonstrating different contraptions on how to make it happen more easily. Most of us dread that trip to the gym or on the treadmill at home. Some of us like to move but our lives are so busy. I admit, I am not athletic even though my body is built to be. I never liked exercise and all the times I lost weight in the past, exercise was my least favourite thing. Myself, I got lucky and discovered something I actually like in the past year...yoga!!! I have  been slim for over 10 years now but I know I didn't move enough. Walking to the corner store just didn't count :)
It took me that long to find an exercise I truly enjoyed. I had done it in my late twenties and hated it but revisited it last year and loved it. So the moral of this story is, just because you hated something years ago, doesn't mean you would now. So keep trying new ways to move your body, it's amazing how great you feel when you do. I still love walking and when I travel that's how I mainly get around in the city I visit. I never liked running, but am curious to try it again, though nothing beats yoga and meditation for me! Next year i will take my teacher training!

AND THE MORAL OF THIS POST IS.............

We need to retrain our bodies and minds to recognize what makes us feel good inside and out. Miracle creams and diets aren't going to fix us, they will only make us feel like we're being defeated. Feed yourself properly, move around and make sure you fulfill your dreams and wants in life (not your mom's, neighbours or friends!). I have never felt so good and free in my life, and I look better now than I did when I was 20...because now, i know who I am, I do only what makes me happy and I eat good grub. :) Oh, and I have LOTS of love in my life and a partner who accepts me for me....always.

Excuse the rant, i was feeling this!!

Some less serious postings tomorrow with recipes! 

0 Comments | Post Feedback

Yesterday I finally felt like I was putting a dent in chores and errands. I didn't make it to yoga (argh!) as I had too much to do during the day. Then I meant to go to yoga again this morning and forgot about the time change so technically I woke up too late! Is the universe just telling me I am not ready to go back to yoga yet? Who knows?

We ended up at the farmers market yesterday where I bought some locally made organic tofu (a bit pricier but worth it as I like to support local businesses). Also got some stufffed grapeleaves and guacamole from one seller I buy from weekly. I realize I can make my own guacamole but right now avocadoes are ridiculously expensive here so buying the guacamole is almost cheaper if not the same price.

Then we headed to the fruit/veggie store and spent under $20 for a bag full of stuff: Strawberries, LOTS of bananas, sweet potatoes, cortland apples, broccoli, frozen local blueberries and a few other goodies). It's nice to have fresh produce again as I eat so much of it usually.

For dinner I had a few stuffed grapeleaves and a few cups of cooked broccoli. It was delicious. My sweetie had leftover pizza that he had bought at the store and has enough leftovers for at least 2 more meals.

Last night I had the house to myself, so I made a Citrus Honey Beer soap, some honey sugar body scrub and some pedicure stuff (rose geranium foot soak, tea tree & juniper foot cream). I have been tempted to go get a pedicure. I used to do it every 6-8 weeks but haven't in almost 5 months! I almost went last week but because of my big spending in Montreal, I stopped myself and did it at home last night. Here is what I did:

AT HOME PEDICURE

1.Fill a large basin with warm water & fill bottom with flat stones (this massages the feet). Then add 1/2 cup of sea or epsom salts, a few drops of rose geranium (you can also use lavender, tea tree, peppermint...) & some dried or fresh rose petals (2 tsp). Soak for 10 minutes.

2. I then used my professional foot file and took off the dead skin & rinsed in the foot basin.

3. Then, take a foot scrub (I used my honey sugar one). You can make your own by using 2 tbsp brown sugar, 2 Tbsp sea salt & 1 tsp olive or jojoba oil & 1 1/2 tbsp honey. Mix together, wet hands and scrub on feet. You can also just use a combination of sea salt and enough oil to make it pasty. Add some tea tree or peppermint if you have it on hand.

4.After that, I cut my nails, dried my feet and added lots of cream on them and placed plastic over my feet, then socks to keep it warm. I walked around like that for awhile and when I went to bed I took my socks off to find lovely soft feet!! I didn't polish them as I am not really good at it, I find the natural looks nice anyway right now :)

Since I missed yoga this morning, I will cut my honey beer soap and make some blueberry muffins. Off for coffee with my friend later this morning and I plan to cook and bake the rest of the day so I have lunches prepared for the week.

More tomorrow!

Images:

0 Comments | Post Feedback

Boy am I glad it's friday. Not that my job is stressful but I feel like I've been on the go now for 3 weeks.....Dominican Republic, then 1 week very ill and bed ridden then I had to gather enough energy to make it to Montreal for another 5 days..got back late from that trip and was back to work early the next morning. *Phew* I feel like three weeks have evaporated entirely and that I haven't had much time to myself. I don't know how people with children handle things sometimes, I need SO much time alone and can't imagine life without a lot of solitude. *sigh*

I've been holding the fort at work which means extra hours and being on call (though really no one ever calls). There are two other people in the office today which are apparently leaving at noon. That means I'll be alone from 12-5pm to finish up a few extra things. I brought a show I downloaded to work and will watch it on my computer later this afternoon.....yes, it's NOT busy at my job these days. Hurray for the government :)

When I got home last night, I discovered a box from Proctor & Gamble full of samples: Crest Advanced Whitenening Strip, Head & Shoulders Shampoo & Conditioner, Olay Night and Day wrinkle cream, Dental Floss, Fusion Men's Razor, Gillette Hair & Body Wash & Pantene Shampoo and conditioner packets..WOW! I was running out of samples to travel with so this came at a good time! The Fusion Razor will go in my friend's birthday gift bag, he loves those razors but apparently they are expensive so he'll be thrilled! YAY Free gift :)

I also discovered $200 in my travel savings account. I took money out before I left for the dominican and didn't think there would be anything there. Amazing how $25 every two weeks adds up! I am planning a May trip to Toronto so this money will come in handy.

Dinner last night was a big hit. The only setback was having to throw out 1lb of tofu. I had it in the freezer (I usually freeze tofu for a better texture), then when i defrosted it and unpacked it it smelled SO bad. I've rarely had tofu go bad on me but this was an asian kind i had picked up for cheap, the kind in lots of water. Lucky for me I had two more packages in the freezer of other types! My tofu scramble and sweet potato fries got made and we gobbled it  up. I have leftovers for lunch which is always nice.

I ordered some Protea seeds for my close friend who is a florist. His birthday is next week. I found a website in South Africa (that's where the flower comes from) which had TONS of varieties. http://www.finebushpeople.co.za . For about $6 I got him 3 types of seeds. The nice thing is that you can just order a couple of seeds instead of a package so I bought him 5 seeds of three different easy growing varieties & some type of smoke primer to help with growing. I thought that price was worth it, all including shipping and ALL the way from south africa! Sadly he'll get his presents late....this won't come in time and i have to send it along...good thing he's patient!

Last night I spent hours posting freebies on a website I contribute to: www.pricenetwork.ca. You get points for contributing and since joining I've received $75 worth of giftcards. I ordered tons of freebies I found (tourist maps, shampoo....) I go through phases where I sign up for tons of freebies, then i stop for awhile. So in 6 weeks my mailbox will probably be filled with goodies!

Tonight it's a home cooked dinner & watching a video with a friend. I suggested that to him since we're both trying to be frugal and he has a huge exam today and could be stressed. He'll need the relaxing evening. My dinner will resemble last nights: Tofu Burgers and sweet potato fries with broccoli. haah. I love tofu and sweet potatoes so i am not complaining.

Tomorrow I'll get to sleep in, go to the farmers market and FINALLY have time for a little yoga! Boy do I miss classes! My body needs a little rejuvenation.

Hope everyone has a frugal weekend, I know I will!

Images:

0 Comments | Post Feedback

Now that my travels are over till at least May (yes, I am planning another long weekend trip already!!), it's time to start saving and making a little money.

I went on my Etsy.com shop and posted a few new things...a frugal zine I had made for friends as a gift, which I saved electronically and selling for 50cents. I posted it twice within 12 hours and already sold two. Even if I just sell 10 of them, it's a few dollars in my pocket for work that I had already done. They charge 20 cents for the listing and probably another 5 cents or so when I sell it so I only end up with half of the money but that's ok! I also posted some handmade vegan soaps because I have tons right now!

Another way I will save money is start my penny jar. I have been meaning to do this for awhile now. I am starting a penny jar and will save pennies for a year, then buy a gift card with what I have accumulated! My sweetie started something like this too back in January but using all his change and already has $155 saved up in less than two months! Change really adds up!

We're going to the bank next week to talk about our mortgage and how to better pay off some debt. Right now is a good time to do this and we're confident our payments will go down afterwards :) People tend to be afraid of banks (I know I am!) and all that financial mumbo jumbo. Personally I think we're doing pretty good, as our credit cards should be all paid off within a couple of months, even with my big spending habits when I travelled last week :)

Went out to dinner last night. We hadn't done that in awhile...I tend to go out to dinner with friends sometimes but not often with my partner. We went to the new bistro we like because on Wednesdays they have pizza/pasta night for $10. VERY good quality food. I had a pad thai with tofu & I splurged and got sorbet for dessert but we both shared it and drank water. Tonight is tofu scramble & Sweet potato fries night..I can't wait!

I looked over the sales flyers today as they come out every Thursday in the paper at work. Sadly, no good sales. I don't buy a lot of processed foods or any animal products so unfortunately I won't be doing a whole lot of grocery shopping this week. There seems to be a lot of meat on sale right now...yikes.  We'll just eat what we have and I will replenish the produce at our favourite produce market.

I received a late birthday parcel from an online friend. Wow, does she ever know me! Anyone who knows me, knows that my guilty pleasures are dark chocolate and coffee. I received some Ethiopian Fair Trade Coffee beans and Fair Trade organic dark chocolate! Now I have coffee beans for another two weeks which will save me money! yay! My chocolate supply was running out too, i always have dark chocolate on hand. I got two bars from another friend and one is almost done (I eat a square every few days). I also received some lovely Protea and Dwarf Sunflower seeds! Am I spoiled or what?
 

I will be testing out the warm honey body wrap i made this weekend and if it is successful (my partner will be my guinea pig), i will post the recipe and instructions....stay tuned!

Peace.

Images:

0 Comments | Post Feedback

Phew...all this travelling has made me tired but the last trip (in Montreal) was very rejuvenating! On the downside, I spent WAY more money than I wanted to, but luckily everything I bought was heavily discounted apart from the products at Kiehl's.

My Montreal trips are usually filled with shopping trips, because where I live they are still pretty behind with a lot of things so I stock up on clothes (end of season), herbs and other new-agey stuff that is not available here.  Breakfast was included with our accommodations and my friend and I were frugal with other meals. We went out one night for a nice dinner which cost about $40Cdn for both of us. It was an indian restaurant and included lots of veggie dishes, rice, naan and dessert. It was worth the money! I also picked up an Eco-Green coupon book for $20 (Similar to the Entertainment Guides but a more new agey version) and included lots of 2/1 restaurant /cafe coupons. I only used 5 coupons during my trip and already got my money back. There are about 10 yoga coupons (free) which I will use when I go back in May.  Since I go there 4-5 times a year and the coupons expire in December, I'll definitely get my money's worth: www.conscienceverte.ca

I also booked two services at a holistic spa and was glad I did. I was still sick with a bad flu when I arrived and the massage I received really made me feel  better. I purchased my services here: www.spaandtravel.com which saved me about $50. I also had a coupon (code: wholelottalove). For example, I got a Warm Honey Jasmine Wrap which they list for $75 on their website. On Spaandtravel.com it's $60 and with my coupon code I saved another 15%. I saved about $30 on the service. If you rate your experience, you get another $5 coupon! Also try www.wayspa.com for more spas. Since I enjoyed my honey wrap so much, I am in the midst of creating a concoction similar to it and will post the recipe when I've perfected it. In the meantime, here is a nice Chocolate Body Scrub recipe:

Chocolate Body Scrub

Mix together:
1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup white or cane sugar, 1/2 cup canola oil & 1/4 cup cocoa (organic if you have it on hand). Scrub  your body and rinse well. 

I got a free facial at Kiehl's (www.kielhs.com) (we all know they do this to sell products) but I was surprised that they didn't push me into buying anything. I loved the men's scrub, foaming face wash and some eye concentrate so much that I did splurge. Because they knew I had a limited budget and that I expressed interest in other products I couldn't afford, the woman threw in tons of samples for me, one which is an eye cream I liked. She told me to poke a hole in the sample pack, use a tiny bit and it should last me a year!! I wanted to get something for my friend's birthday but really all I could afford was the small tube of handcream...the woman again threw in tons of samples for my friend of other expensive products I was looking at for her and wrapped it all beautifully in a box. So for the $15 I spent on the handcream, she's getting tons of goodies! I was pleased :)

Since there are no fashionable men's clothes in my city, I shop for my sweetie too. I ended up at Mexx and they had 75% off  alot of their winter clothes. I purchased two pairs of pants and a shirt for him. I also ended up at Banana Republic and bought three things for $30!! A tie that had been marked down from $75 to $9.99 and two white t-shirts for $20. My sweetie keeps his clothes a long time so I always buy quality stuff that is heavily discounted. He was so thrilled and loved everything. I must admit, I prefer shopping for men's clothes than women's!

On a good note, I am now earning twice the money i used to make as my job hired me on separate from the temp agency till the end of July. So with all that money I spent, I should be able to pay off my credit card bill with one cheque, so things could be worse!

So being  back home, I am tightening my belt. My boss is gone for a week so I am getting extra hours as well. I purchased a transit pass so I don't have to limit my bus trips as well.

Stay tuned for more :)

Images:

0 Comments | Post Feedback