Publix Gas Card Coupon Deal

In the Publix weekly ad there is a coupon for $10 off of a $50 gas gift card.  You must spend $25 on groceries in order to use the coupon, but with todays prices that's not hard to do.

Any time I can get $50 worth of gas for $40 I am there.  An easy way to save money.

God bless,
Pam

A Frugal Christmas: Gift Wrapping With Furoshiki

Last year I shared my home made, Christmas fabric, gift bags with you.  This year I am going even simpler:  Christmas fabric furoshiki.

Furoshiki are Japanese gift wrappings made from a square of fabric.  They were traditionally removed by the giver when presenting the gift to the recipient.  The fabric square was then taken back home to be reused by the gift giver.  This may not work in our western countries, but I am sure that any sewer, green/recycler and quilters would be glad to receive this extra gift of fabric.

There are many ways to fold furoshiki.  Furoshiki.com has a page showing many of the folds.  If you Google furoshiki folding you will find many pages offering instruction.  The two photos above show the most basic fold for square packages.

Joann Fabrics has their cotton Christmas fabrics on sale this time of year.  Try saving yourself from a wasteful pile of wrapping paper that will just end up in the trash by wrapping with furoshiki this year.

God bless,
Pam

Happy Frugal Thanksgiving

I wish you all a happy, family filled (whether twenty or two) Thanksgiving.   My brother in law, who is an incredible cook, has invited us over for Thanksgiving dinner.  We are bringing home made cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie with real whipped cream and dear husband's key lime pie.  I plan on taking a nap and thanking God for his kindness (not in that order).

God bless you all,
Pam

For Academic Achievement Kids Need Better Parents, Not Better Teachers

Since Reagan was in office the focus this country has had on education has been centered on improving teacher performance.  But the statistics have shown that grading teacher performance by testing students has had little positive impact on student performance.  I have always believed that this is because teaching to the test doesn't allow teachers to use their observation skills to tailor their teaching to reach their students' individual needs.

I have also observed over the years that the involved students that work hard at school and perform at a high level have involved parents.  This means being nosey and not accepting a response of "good" when you ask your children about their school day, helping with school work, being sure assignments are done and making sure your child gets to school on time, well rested and well fed.

Read this article on student performance and think about whether we should start holding parents accountable for their children's school performance and stop bashing the teachers when a child is failing.  I'm not saying that there aren't poor teachers that should be removed from schools, but we must recognize that there are poor parents that should be pushed and taught to support their children.

So, support your teachers by reinforcing their teaching at home.  I am one of those old fashioned parents that punishes my daughter at home if she has been punished at school.  This tells her that school is not a remote part of her life, but an active part of our family life.

God bless,
Pam

The Frugal Kitchen: Cranberry Sauce

When I was growing up my mom would serve a sad version of cranberry sauce that retained the shape of the can.  Fresh cranberries weren't available in many of the areas where we lived and in the 1950's - 1960's convenience food was considered fashionable.

Nooooooooo

Then, fresh cranberries became available and I was served a bitter, raw, ground cranberry hash that was not pleasant at all.  I was beginning to despair until I started hunting through old recipe books and found a recipe for a cranberry sauce that was more like a jam than a relish.

I played with the recipe and came up with a cranberry sauce that my family loves and it is amazingly easy.  It can be canned following the instructions on a jam recipe.  It is frugal because cranberries are BOGO at my grocery store this time of year, so I stock up.  If you don't like canning, fresh cranberries freeze well.

Easy Cranberry Sauce:

1 bag cranberries
1 orange
1 cup white sugar

Place the orange juice and cranberries into a pot.  Heat on low medium, covered until the berries burst.  Add 1 tablespoon, finely grated orange peel and sugar, then lower heat.  Simmer, uncovered, until the sauce reaches a jam consistency.

This sauce nicely complements any rich meal and is great on all kinds of sandwiches, not just turkey.  Once you have made your own cranberry sauce you won't want to eat the canned variety.

God bless,
Pam

The Frugal Pantry: Four Legged Pests

The first thing you will notice about this post is the lack of photos. I refuse to sneak around taking photos of pests or their signs. Yuchi!

But a foul reality of maintaing a stocked pantry is fighting off pests and this is the time of the year when our four legged friends are looking to find a nice, warm place to live with lots of available food.

Hopefully, you thought preventatively and have you food stored in tightly sealed metal containers. After the holidays is a good time to look for old Christmas tins at your thrift store. The big popcorn tins are great for storing large quantities.

But, despite your efforts you hear the pitter patter of little rodent feet over head or see signs of mouse droppings inside your house. Welcome to real life. It doesn't matter how clean you are, everyone deals with these creatures occasionally.

The first thing to do is find their entry points. Rodents can compress their bodies to enter the tiniest spaces, so look for small cracks, chewed holes in wood or screens. The big Norway rats can even chew through concrete. Then seal these places with metal. There is a brass or copper mesh that can be mixed with sealant to plug up small spaces. Sheet metal or welded hardware cloth can be used for larger holes. Look in areas where wires or pipes enter the home. Holes are often found behind appliances.

After you've sealed the house up it is time to trap. Good old fashioned snap traps are the best. They are much more effective and human than sticky traps and poison. With poison you can end up going on a frustrating hunt for a smelly dead critter. You can leave snap traps set all the time to catch the problem before you know you have them. If you have pets or small children, use the snap traps that are contained in a secure plastic box. Invest in a box of disposable rubber gloves from the drugstore to use for rodent removal and wash your hands very well.

Place the traps perpendicular to and touching the walls. Make sure the working end is closest to the wall. As for bait try cheese or peanut butter. You want the bait to be hard to remove without tripping the trap.

We sometimes have problems with roof rats when the citrus trees in the neighborhood are bearing ripe fruit. It is important to harvest immediately and not leave ripe fruit laying on the ground. Another problem is pet food that is not picked up after feeding. It can be frustrating because sloppy neighbors can undo all of your efforts.

The battle to protect food stuffs from pests is ages old, and one that we all fight. Paying attention to prevention and reacting at the first sign of a problem will help you avoid an infestation.

God bless,
Pam

Frugal Home Remedies: Earache Oil

For many years (hundreds or thousands) warm olive oil has been used to soothe earaches.  In recent years the routine use of antibiotics to cure earaches has been frowned upon.  There are several reasons for this: the prevalence of antibiotic resistant bacteria and studies that have found that earaches generally resolves themselves without medication.

To use olive oil for an earache first you need to warm it gently in a bowl of warm water.  Please be sure that it is comfortably warm, not hot.  Have your patient lay down with the bad ear facing up.  Use an eye dropper to place several drops of the warm oil in the ear.  Now lay a warm compress on the ear area for a few minutes.  Repeat several times a day to soothe discomfort.

If earaches are frequent in your family you may want to buy some dark glass dropper bottles to keep some oil in.  These will be easy to warm quickly when a treatment is needed.

This treatment also works well for anyone that suffers from excess ear wax buildup.  Use in the same manner described above, at night before bed, and the wax will naturally work itself loose.  It may take a week of treatment, but it will work.

God bless,
Pam