Tag: frugal living

The Dreaded Dusting Chore

Do you ever wonder what’s in dust? Do you care? I looked it up and common, household dust contains more than just dirt. I really don’t want to know any more details about the  dander, fibers and meteorite particles covering my furniture.

Tools have been conceived for the express purpose of moving dust around and, if we’re lucky, actually picking some of it up. I once had a feather duster. It was the perfect device to cause an accumulation on the furniture to become airborne. Swell.

My mother used dusting rags. She would spray them and dust the furniture. They were kept specifically for the purpose of dusting and were stored on the same shelf as her can of dusting spray. Periodically, she washed them and put them back on the shelf. I did that, too until I discovered dusters. Once I crossed over to dusters, I couldn’t go back.

I’m not here to bash dusters. They’re great, but there are some drawbacks to their use:

  • They can’t be cleaned because they are meant to be tossed after use.
  • They cost quite a bit to replace. My last box of 10 dusters cost $7.97. That’s nearly $.80 each. If you use one duster per week, you’ll spend over $40.00 each year on dusters.

The replacement cost prompted me to search for another solution. There are some clever people online who have designed DIY dusters that work very well. I followed this tutorial with some minor adjustments that made the dusters fit my handle better. Here is a similar duster.

duster1

When I made my dusters, I used a piece of fleece that was left over from another project. This act alone helps solve two problems in my house: the need for a frugal solution for dusters and a reduction in the overwhelming amount of fabric filling my closet. (I don’t know how I managed to collect so much fabric.)  It’s just a small piece of fabric, but I view it as another step on my journey to an organized sewing room. I do realize that I may never reach that destination.

duster2

Of course, dry dusting just moves the stuff around and scatters it in the air to settle in another place, or go up your nose and into your eyes.  A damp duster picks the mess up much better than a dry one, so spraying it lightly is good. I’ve found this recipe for dusting spray on several blogs, so I don’t know who to credit for it.

DIY Dusting Spray

1 cup water
1/4 cup vinegar
2 teaspoons olive oil
10-15 drops lemon essential oil
Spray bottle

Combine the ingredients in the spray bottle. Shake well.

The oil will separate as the mixture sits, so remember to shake before each use.

Happy dusting!

Picadillo Stuffed Peppers

One of the best cost-saving measures that I have implemented is cutting the amount of food that I cook. Most recipes are for 4 servings and sometimes more. We couldn’t eat the entire recipe, so the left-overs often sat in the refrigerator until they no longer resembled food. (I do miss the fun of guessing what the furry blobs in the container once were.)

Here is a take on stuffed peppers that is a little different. If you want a milder dish, then substitute bell peppers for the poblanos.

Stuffed Peppers

 

Picadillo Stuffed Peppers

  • Servings: 2
  • Print

1 tablespoons oil
1/2 pound lean ground beef
1/2 cup diced onion
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 cup diced tomatoes
1/2 cup chopped apple
1/4 cup raisins
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup beef broth
2 poblano peppers cut in half, seeds and membranes removed
1/4 cup Mexican-style shredded cheese

Heat oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Brown ground beef in oil until no longer pink.
Add onion and garlic. Cook until soft.
Add apple, raisins, cinnamon, and beef broth. Simmer until liquid is absorbed.
Arrange the peppers, cut side up, in a baking dish. Fill peppers with ground beef mixture. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes or until the peppers are tender.
Top each pepper with1 tablespoons of cheese and continue to bake until the cheese is melted.
2 Servings, (2 half peppers each)

Hold on for the Ride

tricycle

I saw Easy Rider when I was 16. Of course, you were supposed to be 17 to see it without an adult but, oh well. I got in any way.

It was a great movie then. It spoke to teenagers. It tried to showcase the alternate lifestyle that Hollywood thought we all aspired to achieve.

The movie was on television recently and I watched it again. Have I changed that much? It was lame, at best. The dialog was bad. The acting was bad. The plot was too predictable. My how our tastes change with age; all the things we thought were cool aren’t really cool at all.

You can’t go home again. Nothing is the same and never will be. Somehow we think that while our life has moved on, some things will be the same.

Have you ever reconnected with an old friend? Thanks to Classmates and Facebook, I have found people from high school and even a few from junior high. In all cases, once you get past the “what have you been doing for 40 years,” there isn’t much to say. Life went on, and I wasn’t in theirs for decades. The memories of our time together, if they still exist, are fuzzy. They didn’t stand still waiting for me to return.

So now, I think that life should be all about new things. There are more years behind us than ahead, so why waste any of it? New experiences, new skills, new friends, that’s where I’m going.

New things have to include the possibility of living on less money and that means changing things we do everyday. I’ve already begun to do things differently but, as the day of complete retirement approaches, I need to step up my game. Retirement looms. It’s ominous. It’s not for sissies.

Complete retirement means the day my husband finally bids adieu to his job. Not only does his paycheck stop but we face the demise of the benefits, too. Don’t get me started on the state of health insurance now. It’s one of the biggest hurdles to retiring before 65. But, that’s a discussion for another post.

I’ve lived frugally for decades. I started out of necessity when I was young and money was scarce. It became habit and I continued throughout life but I never truly embraced all I could do to save money. It’s easier to pick a product off the shelf but it’s better to make your own.

It’s unlikely that anyone can jump into total frugality all at once. It takes some experimentation to find the solutions that will work for you. Not all will. Experiment freely. You won’t be out much money or time.

Ease into frugality. Don’t try to change everything at once. Pick one area to work on and find solutions that work for you.

Cooking from scratch
DIY cleaning products
DIY health and beauty products
DIY garden care
Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without

Not all efforts will work for you. Just because a cleaning solution gets rid of grime doesn’t mean that it will be the best answer for you. If the ingredients are hard to find or include something that is irritating, that’s not going to be your answer. Find something else. I’ll show you the things that work for me but a quick Internet search will find dozens more answers.

This is fun. This is cool. Try it. It’ll be a great ride.