Working Ahead Of Need: Inspiration From Storybook Woods

Photo courtesy of Clarice @ Storybook Woods.

Our good friend, Clarice (hi Clarice !) ...

over at Storybook Woods

has a very Inspirational

post titled...

Frugal Things I Love .

I HIGHLY recommend it to you all...

(and, no, not just because she said something nice about me in it, but that was nice too ;-) !


In it Clarice offers a host of charmingly useful ideas and...

a bevy of thoughts on how to work ahead of need...

preserving nature's summer bounty to enjoy later.

She provides some fantastic links for...

making your own...


Homemade Oil Lamps...

Simple tricks for dehydrating fresh produce (I loved her pantry trick)...

Easy ways to Grow Your Own Sprouts in a Canning Jar...

and many, many more.


I must say that I was inspired to action after my visit ...

and I hope you will be too!

Faithful HOLIDAY Budgeting... It's Not Too Early to Begin

All the above photos are from Heather's Beauty That Moves Etsy Store.

Start Saving for the Holidays Now Using the...

Envelope System

Many people use the envelope system to save up the cash for their monthly bills (using money orders to pay bills that must be mailed and possibly tracked).

Heather, over at the inspiring blog...

"Beauty That Moves" has charmingly practical fabric envelopes for sale in her Etsy store.

While we are proponents of the monthly envelope system, I find it especially useful when saving for the often cash strapped winter holidays.

====

Faithful Budgeting
Below is an excerpt taken from "Frugal Luxuries by the Seasons," Bantam Books, NY, 2000

"One of my favorite ways to organize my everyday and holiday expenses is to establish an envelope system. This is done by designating an envelope for each person on my holiday gift-giving list. On the outside of the envelope I write the person's name, the amount I have budgeted to spend on him or her, and any gift ideas that I might have in mind for the particular individual. Inside the envelope I put aside a designated amount to spend on that individual (and continue over the months until I've saved up enough). When I do my holiday gift shopping, I take the cash-filled envelopes (and no credit cards) and spend only what I have budgeted and put inside the envelopes."

----

Box of Lettuce in Origami Pots...

Box of lettuce
Originally uploaded by smallgreengarden

Here is a picture of those Origami Pots (see post below) made from recycled paper bags instead of newsprint!

If you are small space gardening, you will be inspired by Kate's blog...

www.smallgreengarden.com

...she does amazing things with very little!

Gardens are so miraculous...don't you think?

YouTube - How to Make Origami Pots for Garden Seedlings

YouTube - How to Make Origami Pots for Garden Seedlings

Shared via AddThis

The Secret Stones: A Budget Gardening Tale

Our friend, Cindy McNatt, over at the inspiring blog...

Dirt du Jour

tells us the SIMPLE SECRET behind these concrete "STONES".

"These concrete “stones” are easy to make and work beautifully at terracing a slope.

Here is how the gardener did it: She stacked bags of dry concrete in a row, then wet down the bags for a week or until the concrete hardened. Once hard, she tore off the paper wrapping.
Then she stacked another row on top of the first, wetting the second row of concrete bags, waited for the concrete to harden and then removed the paper - and so on until she had her vegetables beds at a height that worked for her.

Easy. Cheap. Not bad looking, and entirely doable."

------------

Click the link below to visit Cindy's amazing blog and learn a multitude of gardening secrets and wisdoms.

Dirt Du Jour: A gardening community of passionate plant people in Southern California