When Did Frugality Become a New Trend??

I just read an article on another website asking for ideas from anyone who was returning to 'the old ways' of doing things during these financially stressful times. That piqued my attention immediately thinking I'd find some awesome ideas! I had to chuckle when I read the topics she already had listed:

Baking bread    (check)

Living with cash instead of credit (check)

Cloth diapers instead of disposable (We did do that when we were at home! LOL)

Growing your own food (check)
Libraries (check, Although recently I've had a good supply of hand me down books!)
Lay away plans (I don't think the stores offer that any more...)

Christmas clubs (Hmmm, why did I stop doing this?)

They had a few other ideas such as using a cobbler for our shoes (not that the quality of shoes now-a-day is worthy of a cobbler if you could even find one!), leasing to buy, renting one time use items instead of buying them such as a wedding dress or tools etc., public transportation and making your own cleaning supplies.

I guess the biggest question in my mind is.... WHEN DID WE STOP DOING THESE THINGS!? :) Alot of us still live like this. We were raised with frugality in our blood I guess. Naturally we all splurge occasionally, but who can live without frugality is more my question! Early in my marriage a favorite publication was "The Tightwad Gazette"... yes, there is such a thing! And what was a 3-4 page newsletter folded and mailed monthly, is now sold as a book called "The Complete Tightwad Gazette"!

FRUGAL:  is the practice of acquiring goods and services in a restrained manner and resourcefully using already owned economic goods and services to achieve a longer term goal.

STRATEGIES: reduction of waste, curbing costly habits, supressing instant gratifications, using financial restraint (self-control), not getting trapped in the social norms,  etc.     (as defined by Wikipedia)

Sounds like simple wisdom to me!! I sure hope we have been able to model this type of living for our kids! There are sooo many traps out there in the big, wide world, and yes, we've all fallen into some of them...  but I hope & pray we all can see clearly now the wisdom our parents & grandparents!

THANKS MOM & DAD....


"Wealth from get-rich-quick schemes quickly disappears; wealth from hard work grows."   Proverbs 13:11

Cranberry Jelly

I found an awesome recipe on Food In Jars  for "Cranberry Jelly"!

I've made cranberry bread, cranberry sauce and I've added cranberries to stuffing... but I've never made cranberry jelly before!

This was a 'had to make' recipe for sure especially now that Thanksgiving is only a few days away!

After cooking the cranberries, sugar and a little apple cider till the cranberries pop and cook down a bit, I put them the sauce through a food mill to remove the skins.

This is the first jelly that I've made that didn't call for 'Sure Jell' or any kind of pectin in the recipe! I was a little skeptical to be honest, but it did solidify quite nicely!

And here they are.... the finished product!! Can't wait to try it on toast in the morning!! I bet it would be a wonderful glaze on a pork roast too! :) 

Mrs. Hacker's Chicken & Noodles.....

I tried something new today....  a friend's special family recipe! It was not too hard to make, a little time consuming, but the outcome is well worth the effort!    These are the noodles drying..... 

Here's the chicken all cooked, cut up and ready to go back into the broth with the noodles!

Broth with noodles cooking & chicken added back in!

One confession...  the recipe does NOT call for peas... but for those of you who know me well, you know I can never make ANY recipe without adjusting something!