One of this month’s goals is to learn a new skill. How about learning to sew? Who sews any more? The art or skill of sewing has really fallen out of favor. When I was a kid, everyone took Home Ec (well, at least all the girls did. After all, I did grow up in Ye…

The new financial crisis The statistics on college debt are staggering: 40 million Americans have student debt, owing a total of $1.2 trillion dollars. The cost of going to school has risen 4 1/2 time MORE than the rate of inflation. College debt as a percentage of personal debt has tripled in the last ten years.…

Thrift stores have become all the rage. And what’s not to like? You can get some super amazing bargains and you are helping the environment by using what would otherwise end up in the landfill. I’ve written before (like here and here) about some of the great deals to look for at thrift stores.* This past…

After raising three boys, it’s so much fun being able to sew for a girl. In case you’ve forgotten, last Christmas I made my little granddaughter a tablecloth playhouse, using fabric and trimming’s I found at the thrift store and on clearance. This year, my Christmas project for her was a princess dress. I found…

I’m in the process of converting my 40′ x 40′ garden into raised beds. The cost of materials to construct the beds and the soil mix make raised beds a bit expensive. So here are the details of how I am keeping the costs down on my raised beds. Keeping the costs down I used…

Summertime is rummage sale season–the perfect place to find bargains on equipment, tools and supplies to help you become more self-reliant. This article has some good ideas on shopping yard sales for prepping items. I have a slightly different take on some of the things this article lists, but it inspired me to make my…

Setting down a budget is the first step to getting a Preparedness Plan in place.   In theory… In theory budgeting is pretty simple: just don’t spend money you don’t have. Easy enough to say. But what exactly does a good budget look like? There are some good guidelines to setting a family budget. The…

When my youngest son goes off to college next year, I will lose a great help in the garden. So for the last two years he and I have been working on several gardening projects to make gardening less labor intensive for me. This spring we’ve already completed two big projects: new raised bed and…

I recently found a couple good deals at the thrift store and used them in a couple of quick and easy projects. I wanted to share what I did with you. Hopefully, it will inspire you to find some thrifty sewing projects of your own. From sundress to skirt My first project started life as…

A couple weeks ago I was asked to give a lesson in a special Sunday meeting for the adults in our congregation. The topic was mastering our money. I thought I would share with you a bit of the lesson and the questions we discussed in this meeting. Hopefully this will spark some good discussions…

If you are buying turkey and onions, you’ve probably tossed lots of plastic net bags that. Don’t throw them away! They have lots of good uses. Re-use the bags The larger bags, like the ones covering your turkey, are good for storing garden produce next fall. The onions and garlic from your garden will store…

I hope Christmas was as lovely for you as it was for our family. Now that the gifts are opened, wrapping paper tossed and the leftovers almost gone, I wanted to share a few of the things I made for Christmas (I couldn’t tell you earlier and spoil the surprise for some.) Maybe this will…

There’s an epidemic sweeping the country. It’s not your typical virus, but rather a highly contagious disease of epidemic over-consumption.  The symptoms include compulsive shopping, high debt, overwork, inability to delay gratification, a sense of entitlement, obsession with externals and “having it all,” wastefulness, and stress. Concern over affluenza is more than dismay at the…

 Wait!  What??? Doesn’t everyone have a stash of food in their basement? I talk about having food storage all the time like it’s something that all normal people do.  I have to remind myself that the idea of having a food supply is alien to many and sounds very doomsday-zombie-apocalypse-ish. Why else would anyone have…

We live in a disposable society. Just about everything that comes into our house is easily (and readily) replaced with something better, newer, cheaper or brighter. But our grandparents (who lived through some hard times) were just the opposite–they found a use and reuse for just about everything that came into the house. They were…

Rule One of Thrift Store Shopping: Don’t think you’re going to get exactly what you want. You might, but the selection is hit and miss, so most likely you’ll have to settle for something close. The finished product: black ribbon around the collar and each side of the button placket. I bound the bottom of…