Frugal Tuesday: Go Camping!

Posted on July 19, 2016 by Elizabeth Vega

The weekend following Independence Day, we drove down to The gulf coast to help Burners Without Borders Corpus Christi do their annual beach cleanup and campout. In addition to about 150 Burning Man community members, who create a weekend “village”on the beach, complete with food, art, and entertainment, another 150 or so local residents pitched in with the Saturday cleanup to help remove about 4000 pounds of trash from the beach, most of it debris left by 4th of July revelers.

It was our first outing in our bus, and there were a few other buses, RVs, and trailers present, but most people camped in tents. Overall it was a wonderful weekend, spent visiting with friends and making new ones, and other than the fuel to get there and the optional donation to help defray the event’s overhead costs, it hardly cost us anything.

It doesn’t have to be an organized event, but spending a couple nights under the stars makes for an inexpensive getaway. And sleeping in a screen-free environment surrounded by fresh air is a sure way to smash some stress.

What are some of your favorite camping trips and tips?

Frugal Tuesday: Fixit Clinics

Posted on June 14, 2016 by Elizabeth Vega

Last Saturday, a good friend and I walked into Austin’s Recycled Reads bookstore, each with the unlikely goal of getting our pants hemmed. Rather, it would have been an unlikely goal, if the bookstore hadn’t been hosting a FixIt Clinic, where volunteers help members of the community learn to repair their own items. Past clinics have included bicycle and tool repair, and this past weekend’s focus was mending clothing.

My friend and I browsed the used bookstore while we each waited our turn, enjoyed the in-store performance of four live harpists, and finally got to sit with our volunteers. Mine was a lovely, motherly type who took my garment out of my hands and chatted away for about fifteen minutes while she tackled the repair all by herself, and my friend made herself comfortable on the floor and hemmed her own pants with her volunteer’s guidance and supervision. We had a wonderful time, both with each other and participating in our vibrant, active community, and we each saved the $10 it would have cost to have the repair done at a tailor shop or drycleaner.

Clinics a, organizations and events that assist community members in doing their own repairs are not only frugal, but also eco-friendly: every item that can be repaired or refurbished is one less thing headed to the landfill. And it’s a terrific way to interact with your community and meet more like-minded people. A quick online search led me to a Fixit Clinic Facebook page, which connects to clinics in many US cities, and similar programs such as the Fix-It Fair in Portland, Oregon, Bicycle Kitchen in Los Angeles, and U-Fix-It Clinic in Boulder, CO.

If there isn’t a clinic in your community, you can always start one. Many such events are held at public libraries, and you don’t have to know how to fix things to be able to search out volunteers who do, and organize an event.

What do you have that needs fixing? What do you know how to fix that you could help others with?

Frugal Tuesday: Juice It!

Posted on January 12, 2016 by Elizabeth Vega

The other day, we found ourselves with the quality problem of having more fresh fruits and vegetables than we could reasonably consume before they went bad. Noticing that some of them had already passed the point of being super-delicious for eating, Mr. Vega brought out the juicer and made some delicious green juice for us to drink. Super-yum. Bonus points for finding other uses for the pulp (zucchini muffins anyone?), or at least composting it (we did).

What do you do with produce that’s about to go bad?

Frugal Tuesday: Freeze it!

Posted on January 5, 2016 by Elizabeth Vega

Years ago, Nigella Lawson blew my mind when she suggested freezing the rest of any wine still left in the bottle, to use for cooking later. Poured into a freezer bag and tossed in the freezer, it makes a sort of slush that is easily measured for use in recipes. I tried it, and I haven’t looked back! You can freeze all sorts of things: bread, milk, grated cheese, casseroles, Chinese take-out… even fresh herbs in olive oil or broth, poured into ice cube trays. Do you like iced coffee? Coffee ice cubes are a game-changer!

Frugalista extraordinaire Donna Freedman has mastered the art of freezing food scraps in a “boiling bag “to be reincarnated as broth later. If you like soup even a little bit, this practice will ruin you for canned soup forever. Luckily, soup freezes well, too.

If you’re not freezing your leftovers, or your little bits of ingredients that are left after using what you need for a recipe, not only are you wasting food and money, but you are depriving yourself of the enormous convenience of having just-enough tomato paste, pesto, or other fantastic things to take your weeknight cooking from adequate to awesome.

What’s in your freezer?

Frugal Tuesday: Check Your City’s Webpage

Posted on December 15, 2015 by Elizabeth Vega

Many cities and utility companies have money-saving programs that residents are unaware of. In Los Angeles, we were able to find free mulch and compost, free large-item pickup tags, discounted worm composting bins (in exchange for attending a 2-hour class). Here in Austin, discounts on composters are also offered, as well as free paint, mixed from people’s hazardous-waste drop-offs! We have taken advantage of numerous opportunities for rebates offered through our local electric company, and just this past weekend, we got a couple of free shade trees for our Little Hippie House through an energy-company partnering with TreeFolks.

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Take a few minutes to browse around and see what your city or utility company might be offering that you can use… you may be surprised by what you find!

Frugal Tuesday: Create Less Trash

Posted on November 24, 2015 by Elizabeth Vega

Our new, smaller trash can was delivered today. After the initial mess of moving in calmed down, we noticed that we weren’t filling up the city-provided can that was here when we bought the house. If we forgot to take it out to the curb for a week– or even two– it was no big deal. We’re fortunate to live in a city that provide curbside recycling and even composting, and we also make an effort to buy used, and buy items with less (or at least recyclable) packaging. While we’re far from perfect, we think our new 24-gallon can will accommodate our landfill trash needs perfectly. The best part? Making the switch to a smaller can will save us about $8/month on our trash pickup bill, as compared with the 64-gallon can we had before. I can think of a lot of things I’d rather do with $96 a year than spend it on garbage. Plus, all the coolest neighbors on our block have the smallest can… peer pressure works, y’all!

If you are living in an apartment, or somewhere you don’t pay for trash pickup, focusing on generating less landfill trash might not seem like a money-saving activity, but it still is. You might be able to save your bottles and cans to recycle for return for cash. You might try starting a worm composting bin on your patio or balcony, which is an easy way to turn your daily food scraps into nutrient-rich compost that your potted plants will love. Your efforts at reducing your trash production may find you buying from the bulk bins and farmers markets, buying used, or going for out-of-the-box floor models at deep discounts. You probably already shop at stores that gives you a nickel or a dime off your grocery bill when you bring your own bags. The more lightly we can live on the planet, the more money we can keep in our pockets!