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…

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…

Great Bargains this Christmas This year’s Christmas gifts were a bargain and I’m excited to share my successes with you. Last year a friend was moving and gave me a lot of her fabric stash. (Thank you, Dianna!) I made plaid flannel pajama pants for the three boys. Total cost for all three pajama pants: $1…

It’s not your imagination It really is getting harder to make ends meet. While the average income has gone up 28% over the last 13 yrs, the cost of living has increased almost 31%. But it’s even worse than that: during that same period, the cost of medical care care has gone up 57% 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…

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…

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…

Garden veggies in April? How would you like to be eating fresh vegetables a full 4-6 weeks before the rest of your fellow gardeners? You can with cold frames. What’s a cold frame? Basically, it’s a mini greenhouse that helps warm the soil and protect plants during the cold transitioning months of early spring and late…

The Gold Mine I love, love shopping thrift stores*. Not only can you get some ridiculously good bargains, but they are a gold mine for those that want to tap into their creativity. And by shopping thrift stores you are giving old things new life, saving them from the landfill and (depending on the store)…

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…

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…

 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…

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.…

Have you ever had one of those weeks? The week where everything seems to go wrong and you find your finances, time and patience put to the test? Maybe you’re having a busy week shuttling kids to activities two or three times a day, lots of home and garden chores plus a rush of other…

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…