Frugal Finds: Preparing for Christmas Gifts

On the 4^th of July, Todd and I went out shopping to pick up some oyster shells for our chickens who are now laying eggs!  We decided to stop by Dollar General which was next door to pick up a chew-bone for our precious puppy and they had a clearance table!  Oh how I love clearance items.

This is what we bought:

Each of these baskets was originally $3 – marked down to $0.90/each! I couldn’t pass them up!  We chose the 7 best-looking baskets and snatched them up!!!

I am planning on using these baskets to hold mason jars or wine bottles.  They fit 4 bottles perfectly and several mason jars (which will contain homemade jams/jellies and other items that will be posted throughout the 25 Weeks ‘Til Christmas series.)

I love finding new items at garage sale prices!

 What are your frugal find(s) for the week?

Garden Progress: July 7th

Our garden is still full of weeds, but we are producing! It feels like the garden is taking a bit of time this year to get going, but this may be due to all of the rain we had.  The weeds are thriving better than any other plant we have in the garden (figures!)!  We are currently brainstorming about a new garden area next year with more sun and hopefully less weeds! 

This is a picture of the product I’ve picked this week:

There are several snow peas, two cherry tomatoes and a pepper. As you can see, there isn’t enough to sustain us through the week, but my dream is to be able to sustain ourselves throughout the year with fruits and vegetables from the garden(s).

As a side note, our chickens started producing eggs July 1st!  This is what we've gotten so far this week:

The white one are from the store that we havent eaten yet.  Only one chicken seems to be producing any eggs, and it is once a day.  I'm not sure which one it is, but hopefully I can catch the egg-layer this weekend so I know for sure!  On Friday, 3 were laid, but two were pecked.  Now, we've had just one every day since.  Arent the eggs beautiful?  Todd and I are both kind of scared to be the first ones to try them! Silly, I know.  I've had farm-fresh eggs before, but they are just too nice to eat right now!

How is your garden doing?

Linked to: SmokityFrock’s Frugal Garden 101, FarmGirl Blog Hop and Homemaker By Choice.

Hot Water Tanks: Tankless vs. Traditional

When we purchased our home in 2007, there was an old 80 gallon hot water tank that came with the house.   Originally, it wasn’t working, but Todd was able to fix it for $40 and it’s been running fine every since.

I have wanted to replace this hot water tank because we have no need for an 80 gallon tank and I believe that it is using a lot of electricity.  It has been said that a previous owner of the home had a beauty salon on the one side of the house in which she needed such a large hot water tank.  That’s fine and dandy, but we don’t need or even want it for our one bathroom home.

Todd and I have gone back and forth about buying a tankless vs. traditional water heater over the past two years.  This weekend, we finally made our decision: We are purchasing a traditional hot water tank.

I would love to get our home to be as efficient as possible, and from what I had read, we thought the tankless would be the way to go.  We were never able to find anything online showing exactly how much (or little) electricity a tankless water tank uses versus the traditional.  We found out from Lowe’s this weekend that an electric tankless water heater has an EnergyStar rate of $485/year whereas a 40 gallon hot water tank has a rate of $508/year in electricity!  There really isn’t much difference!

The cost for the tankless to be able to provide our home with enough hot water is $495 versus $203* for the traditional 40 gallon hot water tank.  The difference in cost is $292 for the tank alone.

How many years would it take to break even?  12 ½ years!!!

I understand that a tankless only heats water as needed; however, at this point, we cannot justify the cost of putting in a tankless versus getting a smaller traditional water heater.  When it is time to replace the new water heater, we will go through the process again to determine which is better for our home**. 

If you have a tankless/point-of-use water heater, that is awesome!  My hope is that one day we will be able to install a tankless water heater when the efficiency is more noticeable versus the traditional water heater. 

If you have any additional information or comments that you feel we need to take into consideration before purchasing our traditional water heater, I’d love to hear them! 

*The water tank we are looking at has a 6 year warranty.  We could pay an additional $120 for one that has a 9 year warranty, but I have a handy hubby.  He can fix just about anything.

**Please note: a natural gas tankless water heater uses less electricity; however, we do not have natural gas where we live.  If you do, tankless may be the way to go!

25 Weeks 'Til Christmas: Week 25 Button Monogram

The first homemade gift idea for our 25 Weeks 'Til Christmas series comes from Myra at My Blessed Life.

Hop on over to get the full tutorial on how to make this beautiful  Button Monogram!  While out at garage/yard sales and flea markets, keep an eye out for inexpensive frames and buttons!  Also, a free way to find buttons is through your local Freecycle. If all else fails, there are sellers on ebay that sell bags of buttons by the pound.

I look forward to making these for my two nieces!

Every Monday through the week of Christmas will be a new homemade gift idea/project.  Be sure to check them out!  Happy Crafting!

This page is also linked with Homestead Revival's Preparedness Challenge #16.

Exciting News!!!

I have done pretty well with my own personal unplug challenge these past 4 days.  However, since being unplugged, I have had alot of time to think about what is going on around me instead of being preoccupied with the internet and TV.  I started to second-guess my dreams of building our homestead.

After noticing the strawberry patch was completely overtaken with weeds, I decided to start pulling.  The garden is an absolute mess of weeds that are taking over everything, and I cannot keep up.  Upon picking, I found several chutes with new growth!  This lifted my spirits instantly and made me realize that this is what I want from my life! I need to learn to be patient and be more attentive to the blessings right in front of me before getting so discouraged.
With my moods lifted, I was doing some things in the yard.  I noticed that the chickens were awfully quiet, which makes me nervous.  I go over to where they were huddling, and this is what I found...

One of the chickens laid its first egg on the deck!  For some reason, they pecked at it, and it broke.  I then decided I should clean out their nesting box in their chicken coop in case they wanted a clean place to lay their eggs and look what else I found!



 How could I have missed the egg this morning? Or did they lay it during the day?  When I went out to shut them in their roost for the evening so no predators could get them, I found a third egg!  This one had been pecked at as well.

I wrote a blog about the cost of raising chickens without really having any experience.  Now the fun begins and I can determine how much they truly cost.  I started a file showing how many eggs we get each day versus the price of their feed.  I will start researching more natural ways to feed the chickens once this 50 lbs of layer feed is gone, and then determine how much we are paying per dozen eggs. 

Chicken Stats:

• Breed:  Golden Sex-Link (just found this out thanks to this vlog!)
• We lost one more chicken to a predator- leaving us with 3
• The chics ate 40 lbs of "grower feed" the first 15 1/2 weeks of their life
• They started laying eggs after 10  days of switching to "layer feed"

For anyone who is still on the fence about raising chickens, I will tell you - they are so much fun! They make me laugh every time they follow me around the yard (always) and when they go running full-speed ahead! 

I cant wait to see how many more eggs we get throughout the Summer and Fall.  If anyone knows why they peck their eggs and how to prevent the pecking of eggs, please let me know.

Frugal Finds

This week, my "frugal find" wasnt actually at a garage/yard sale or a flea market:  it was something that came to us in our mailbox.  It was a postcard to lock in the rate for our propane at a pretty good price ($1.99/gallon) for the year.  This was the same utility that I fought to get lowered last year, so I decided I better go and lock in our rate before they increased by the end of the year.

The postcard stated that we had to go and sign up during "Family Fun Day" they had going on Saturday, the 25th.  I really didnt want to go, so I called to see if they would lock it in over the phone - they wouldnt.  Saturday morning, I planned my day around getting to the propane gas company by 10 to lock in our rate.  I'm glad I did.  I got there just as they started the "Family Fun Day" and it was packed! 

It took me less than 15 minutes to lock in our propane rate until March 31, 2012, eat some of the free food they provided, and get our grill propane tank filled for $10! By taking 15 minutes out of my day, we will be saving over $500 this year in propane costs!

$10 Propane Refill