My Goal ***UPDATED***

**mrscornbread** · 03-24-2003, 08:31 PM

As most of you know I work for the schools, and the budget is very bad right now. Other issues have forced me to rethink the way I live and especially the way I spend what little money I do make these days. I got a memo last week that said that there will only be very limited positions for summer session. Even with that it is only one more check ( We get paid once a month) After school is out, I dont get paid again until October 10th!!!

So, my goal is to become as close to self sufficient as possible before June gets here and be able to pretty much sustain myself through the summer and int October, with the exception of milk, bread butter and so on. ( Darn I wish they allowed cows here, I would seriously consider it) My pantry and extra freezers are filling up nicely.

Anyway, any ideas anyone has would be greatly appreciated. I have learned so much from my frugal sisters now, but there's always room for improvement.

**************** See last post at bottom

**Heather** · 03-24-2003, 08:38 PM

to you Robin.....I have to go Robin, Delaney is calling me so I will think on this tonight and come back in the morning!!

I'm sure you will have lots of great advice by then but I'll have my list!

**captclearance** · 03-24-2003, 08:54 PM

We'll have to keep our creative frugal caps on....

**Mom23boys** · 03-24-2003, 09:30 PM

I work at a school district too. We don't have a summer session, but I get paid year round...thank goodness! We are off from the second week of June to the middle of August. We also only get paid once a month, but year round. Is there anyway you can set up your pay to get it year round? It would be less monthly, but at least you would have income year round.

I will put my thinking cap on for you.

**mrscornbread** · 03-24-2003, 09:37 PM

I need to put away X amount of dollars to carry me through the summer months, but a year with my dh being unemployed made that difficult at best. I should be able to pay my bills, but there would be nothing left over. My hopes are to make it as comfortable as possible this summer as far as groceries and the other things necessary to live. I have a year of toilet paper and bath soap (dove!) stockpiled, nearly that much in deodorant and toothpaste too. I am working on laundry soap, bleach, shampoo etc as coupons make it possible. I wish I knew how to do things like canning too, but I dont have access to yardsales for the jars and they are very expensive either new of in thrift shops. So anyway just thinking out load.

**Mom23boys** · 03-24-2003, 09:45 PM

Have you ever thought about selling the things you no longer need on ebay for extra income or even here at the village?

Do you have someone you can bartar with for services?

What about tutoring children in your home?

Just typing as I am thinking. Will see what else I come up with.

**homesteadmamma** · 03-24-2003, 09:54 PM

Well having just gone through a year of unemployment and then a couple of months of minimum wage, I learned to do a few extra things I never thought I would:

*laundry soap - you don't need near what they say you do. I cut mine in half and then cut it in half again. Its amazing how little laundry soap you really do need to wash clothes.

*dish soap - I dilute mine 2/3 to 1/3 water. It makes a few less bubbles, but washes the dishes just as well.

*gardening - you don't need to can things. You can freeze most veggies and even if you don't have a large area, its amazing how much you save by having fresh veggies from the garden.

*don't turn the a/c on unless absolutely necessary. We hardly used our a/c last year and we get extremely hot weather here and lots of humidity.

*stockpile has much as you can. Its amazing how little groceries I had to purchase because we knew ahead of time there would not be any employment. I stockpiled as much as I could.

*we cut our electric bill down by turning off all lights, but unplugging all the electric clocks we had and we just now have a battery operated one. We often use candles at night or use our oil lamps to save on electricity.

*when it came to washing clothes, I use the cycle that takes the less amount of time. That meant 12 minutes less electricity for each wash load. Its interesting, we always want more suds, more washing because we think our clothes won't be clean. We don't need it - they come out just as clean.

I'll probably think of more ways and will add more later.

**mrscornbread** · 03-24-2003, 10:44 PM

Okay, you're right, we could cut out lots of $$ by turning off lights around here. I have started cutting the laundry soap, interesting, I will try it again. I started buying it in big pails and it has a small scoop, everyone, including me puts two scoops. I dont do it any more. I plan to plant my garden very soon. Tomatoes will be a big help, my cucumbers last summer were great, I had a big, constant harvest of both. I guess I will vary the garden this year. I think I will also look into tutoring. Thanks guys, dh is home better fix my hungry man some food!

**Heather** · 03-25-2003, 07:23 AM

CJ stole all my ideas!!!!

Great ones though!! I make my own laundry detergent (powder) and am loving it!! Cleans just as good and saves SO much money.

I have a recipe around here for freezer pickles, you don't need to can them. I also froze alot of my tomatoes last year and have been making chili sauce, tomato sauce when I ran out of my canned stuff!

Gotta fly again but wanted to check in on you Robin! I am going away for the day (sitting in a hospital waiting room with my son, an appt for his arm to be re-broke) so I'll have more time to think!

**Shell** · 03-25-2003, 10:27 PM

I think having a stocked pantry is a great place to start. I also find having all your bills up to date and credit cards paid off helps a lot as well. For some extra income, you can sell books or clothes or even do a little baby sitting.

**doodlebug** · 03-30-2003, 12:19 PM

Do you have a neighbor or friend that has a big garden and does lots of canning? If so, maybe you could work out something with them; help them with the garden in exchange for some canned produce or help them do their canning in exchange for some of the canned goodies. Or "house sit" or "pet sit" for them when they are on vacation in exchange for produce.
Like Calico said, freezer pickles, they are super easy and taste great!
Go through the entire house, attic, garage, etc and look for things that are not used anymore, don't fit, aren't needed, etc and either have a huge yard sale or sell on ebay. It's amazing what you can find that you totally forgot you even had, lol.

**Katybird** · 03-30-2003, 01:13 PM

I like that ideas of selling on Ebay or a garage sale, It serves 2 purposes, declutters and makes money

.

What about the idea of doing a "summer camp" for kids a couple of weeks this summer. You already have a client base from the kids at school and you could do a day camp type of camp. Maybe at the park for 5 days at a time and have seperate sessions, you could plan science and outdoor activities and have them bring a sack lunch or you could just do it in the afternoon or morning. It would give other moms a chance to get their kids in an activity and give the kids something to do and give you extra money too.

**merky1** · 03-30-2003, 04:21 PM

Hi, just a thought but some canning jars are free example salad dressing jars the ball lids fit those jars the small and the 32 oz size salad dressing others are ragu I use these for jelly and jam seal with parafine you might start saving those and have others save for you, a few things that I grow that are easy and has lots of produce squase (sp) green beans , sweet potatoes, peppers, onions adds lots of flavor also pick wild blackberries & rasberries and you can freeze both or can lots of free apples here if not in your area go to a local orchard pick up off the ground and you can get a cheap or free price on most fruit . hope this helps I have just started posting hope this is ok to suggest.
Lisa

**mrscornbread** · 03-30-2003, 05:54 PM

Thanks Lisa, I dont know about canning with paraffin, I have seen it when I was a kid, do things have to be refrigerated if you put parrifin on top. I will try the canning lids on jars, that is another issue of mine, I cant seem to throw out jars! I love jar crafts too, so I cant throw any away, I have lots, I will try ball tops on them Thanks!

**merky1** · 03-30-2003, 06:16 PM

Hi, jellys and jams with parafine do not have to be refridgerated they keep very well like this , if you have jars already try the rings on them just remember that you can't reuse the lids but you can the rings, also I have used the juices like juicy juice 100% real juice to make jelly the apple juice is really good I know alot of people get WIC and end up with extra juice this is a good way to use some. Good Luck Lisa