Knit your own royals, LOL!

Ha ha ha, Check this out! I wish I was craftier and had more time. As it is, I just paste links with funny knitted royals and call them blog posts. I am off to the theatre (say theat-ah with a phony british accent) to volunteer as an usher. This is how I see the play for free ;) Back soon with an Easter post! Enjoy the weekend!

Spring Break

Here in our neck o' the woods, Spring Break is two weeks long. Ten school days and two weekends to fill while all the kids are free to roam around, ask too many questions, try to ask for too many treats, watch too much t.v., yell too loudly, and just generally be kids. It would be fabulous if we actually had the money to go on a holiday to have the time off school, but as it is, the man works and I took time off to stay home and save the daycare fees. My job is casual, so I can do that, and I think it pretty well evens out financially so I might as well spend the time with my boy. I thought up a bunch of frugal activities well in advance, so I wouldn't be stuck for what to do when I just couldn't stand another minute in the house. I also hope to do some Spring re-organizing. ( I never say the C word, it's too demoralizing)

So far, on day three of Spring Break, we haven't really stuck to the pre-planned ideas, but it's nice to know they are there.

Here are some of the things we have done so far for fun:

-Practiced our Elvis dance routine for Aunty's 60th

-phoned Gramma to brag of our dance moves/accomplishments

-gone to the twoonie swim

-made homemade blizzards (yum!)

-walked around the multiplex, seven laps is a mile (good thing, too)

-Hunted through Value Village after donating 5, (count 'em 5!) blue bags filled with old stuff and earning a 30% off coupon.

-Cleaned out the entryway closet from winter to spring

-had $1.99 Whoppers from BK (need another seven laps :P)

-played at the park with a school friend.

What are you doing for Spring Break?

Feel free to let me know in the comments section.

Amish Friendship Loaf

I went to a dinner party recently and was given a gift: a zipper top baggie with batter in it to start my own Amish Friendship Loaf. The idea is to mix up your starter and then give starters to two or three friends, so they can bake up their own delicious loaves. If you keep a starter for yourself, you will be baking every ten days. This is the kind of motivation I needed to kick start my Christmas baking! Luckily for me, since I am impatient, my friend gave me my starter on day 9. Yes, this starter takes ten days to be ready to use, but I hear the results are worth it. In about an hour, when my loaves come out of the oven, I will let you know for sure :).

The starter comes with instructions, which you are supposed to pass on with the starter. They are not terribly difficult and it feels kind of like you are in a special bread club while you are baking. At least I felt this way while mixing away my batter. I was also thinking of whom I will share my good fortune with.Will it be my neighbour? My friend that I will meet for coffee later on? It is also nice to think about which of your friends will bake bread next and think of you, just as I am now thinking of the woman who gave the starter to me.

Here are the instructions for the basic loaf. There are many variations as well. Comment if you would like them.

-DO NOT use metal spoons or bowls for mixing (the photo here is some other bread I made, mine is still in the oven)

-DO NOT refrigerate

-If air gets in bag, let it out

-It is normal for the batter to rise bubble and ferment

Day 1: Do nothing

Day 2-5: Mush the bag

Day 6: Add 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup milk and mush the bag

Days 7-9: Mush the bag

Day 10:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees

Pour contents of bag into non-metal bowl

Add 1.5 cups flour, 1.5 cups sugar and 1.5 cups milk. Mix well.

Measure out three separate batters of 1 cup each and place into clean zip top bags. Pass on to 3 friends or 2 if you want to keep a starter for yourself. Give these directions and be sure to tell your friend which day the starter is on. ie: date the bag.

Add the following to the remaining starter.

3 eggs

1/2 c oil

1/2 c apple sauce

1/2 c sugar

2 cups flour

1 lg pkg instant vanilla pudding

1/tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp bkg pwdr

1/2 tsp bkg soda

1/2 tsp. salt

2tsp cinnamon

optional: 1 cup nuts, raisins, dried cranberries, choc chips, etc.

Grease two large loaf pans

Pour batter evenly into pans

Mix 1/4 cup brown sugar and 1 tsp cinnamon, sprinkle evenly over loaves.

Bake 1 hour. Cool until breads loosen from pan. Turn onto serving dish.

Frugality Update

Or, "What I have been doing with myself" could be an alternate title to this post.

I am trying to get my place to this level of banal sterility for the purpose of marketing. You see, the buyer needs to be able to picture their own belongings in the space...yep, that's what I have been up to, frugally moving, without actually moving...yet. Of course, time is my friend here, the more time you have the less money things cost. Over the past few weeks I have been collecting boxes a few at a time, for free of course, (who would pay for cardboard, I wonder, when it is ubiquitous if you know where to look?) and steadily weeding out the useless from the useful and donating the rest. Though this task has been daunting at times, repeating a certain question over and over in my head seems to help. The question is : "Are you willing to pay money to keep this item?" Same goes for buying stuff at this point. I know I will have to pack, ship, move and store this stuff, so is it really worth consuming anything right now? Nope, it ain't. It is really putting my non consumer attitude to the maximum and my recreational shopping to a bare minimum, which is a good thing. I will need that cash for the eventual move!

Here are some other random, frugal things I have been doing;

-making soup stock from grocery store chicken carcasses

-making chicken salad and casseroles from aforementioned chickens

-trying to buy as little new food as possible before the old food is used up. Chicken anyone?

-freezing things before they go bad in tiny little labeled containers

-REMEMBERING MY REUSABLE SHOPPING BAGS (OK, trying to remember)

-saving regular amounts of money, automatically!

-bringing in refundable containers for spending cash, (BOGO 25 cent DQ blizzards, yum!)

-taking the time to recycle properly

-turning my swagbucks into amazon cash.

Five bucks for Haiti

In Canada text HAITI to 45678 to donate five dollars to Salvation Army Canada. In the USA it is YELE to 501501.

Do it! It only takes a second and it's a good thing to do, the right thing. Pass it on!~