Making It On One Income

Read this GREAT POST on how this one family makes it on one income. GREAT ideas, some I had not even thought of before.

Keeping Warm

Well last night we had to do it. We had to turn the heater on. Of course we kept it down at 60, and made sure to bundle up and have extra covers on each bed.

And when we woke up this morning, we had to get out of bed. LOL!

The girls were all in layers. And we dressed up JJ in layers too, all with clothes we got for him at a local clothing swap.

And the momma? Well I have a nice warm skirt hat I put on that stays kind of close to the body. On top of that, I put a denim skirt that is a six gore skirt. It is longer than the cotton/wool skirt I wore underneath, so it covered it up just fine. Then I wore a long sleeve shirt and a turtle neck black sweater on top. And socks too (I still need to find or make some wool socks). I was just fine! I did need a coat when I stepped outside, but i truly believe most of that is because of the wind.

I also wore a homemade crocheted panta to help keep the heat in my head. :)

I must admit that I looked pretty good (except for the extra weight I need to lose). Wearing two skirts did not add any bulk (mostly because the skirt I wore over it was a six gore skirt). I do have another cotton slip that I could wear under the first skirt if I had to. And I can tell the wool socks are going to be a must. But for now, it is good to know that we can keep warm at least to 60 degrees! :)

Spool Knitting, French Knitting or Knitting Nancy

My girls love to finger knit and do it just about anywhere, anytime. It is a great way to knit without having to pay for a spool knitter (or make one yourself).

A post on my other blog reminded me about how to make your own knitting nancy. I have several spool knitters that I have gotten (one is the Clover Wonder Knitter that I got on sale for about $3). But I have never taken the time to teach the girls how to use them. Maybe for Christmas this year, we will give one to each of the girls.

I found a page which has a small amount of patterns, one of them for a doll! (Well, it says "mascot" in the directions BUT remove the hat and replace with hair and you have a doll! I have three girls and most EVERYTHING is turned into a doll!) I have not had a LOT of time to explore the site, but the page does talk about how to find patterns and books and such.

And then this is this site a collection of everything you wanted to know about knitting nancies and more.

Have you found any great free online patterns? Share them in the comments below! I will add more later as I find them. You can always re-find this page by searching for "knitting nancy" or "spool knitting" in the upper search bar of this blog. It searches only this blog.

-=-=-=-
Spool Knitting has a GREAT tutorial as well as a GREAT idea for making rugs with little bits of left over yarn as well as old knitted/crocheted afghans and sweaters that are falling apart!

1900's pattern book free online! Included are videos to help show you the different types of stitches. Download the book without the videos.

Three Cute Projects

From spool knitting to loom knitting - GREAT make your own loom tutorial!!!

More Extending Gifts

I talked yesterday about how one mother extended her daughter's Christmas gift by giving her something to do/make, thereby extending Christmas a little longer.

I was thinking of other gifts that extend the present:

• books - that they can read over and over again, even trade with other children when they are done - just like Paperback Swap (where you get free books!) but in real life with their friends and neighbors
  
• paper dolls - they color them, cut them out and play with them over and over again, they can even create new clothes for their dolls. There are LOTS of patterns online, or create your own.
  
• a deck of cards - hours of fun with card games not to mention you can build with them too!
• board games - need I say more?
• blank sketch books and color pencils - for the artist in the child, plus this might make some good decorations!
  
• pattern and fabric to make a doll - there are lots of free patterns out there for fabric dolls and clothes.
  
• spool knitting/knitting nancy kit - give a spool knitter and some small balls of yarn (bits left over from what you have made) and a plastic yarn needle
• kits - where you have to put your gift together in order to be able to use it. But be careful. Buying something that requires batteries is only adding to the cost of the gift!

Do you have any ideas?

Christmas

I was reading a story about a couple who lived through The Great Depression. They were married at the time of the writing, but were children during the depression. The husband told of how finances were so tight one year that he had no Christmas. He spent his Christmas evening cutting pictures from magazines. The wife almost cried at hearing that.

While money might have been just as tight for her and her family, she was thankful for the great imagination of her parents. For on one of her most memorable Christmases , she received a tiny cupboard made from three wooden cheese boxes. And inside the drawers were doll dresses her mother had cut out for her to sew together by hand. Her mother had wisely given her something to do, rather than sewing the dresses herself, thereby stretching out Christmas a little more.

Being the frugal mom I am, I already have all the Christmas gifts for the kids this year. In talking to my husband, we will be making these gifts last at least two Christmases. I mean honestly, the kids do not need all those gifts, and definitely not all at the same time. It will be good for them, and us, to move away from the materialism and more towards gratefulness.

Tubes of Toothpaste

The other day we went to clothing swap our church was holding. It was great! We were able to bring lots of clothes that no longer fit me or the kids (that the resale shop was not taking and that I would not get enough money on ebay to make it worth my while) but that were still in REALLY good shape. It was great seeing people walk away with the clothes that we brought.

And thankfully we were able to get all the clothes we need for JJ (our 2yr) for the rest of the winter! And on Tuesday a lady is bringing some more winter clothes for him as well as boots! YEAH!!! :) If only I could have found stuff for my daughters. Oh well.

I was listening to Peter Schiff on the Glenn Beck show talk about buying gold because the value of the dollar is dropping. A caller said he didn't have enough money to buy gold (who does?), so what should he do?

I was intently listening to THIS answer. He said buy and stock up on goods. Things like coffee, cigarettes, food, etc. Goods, physical goods, would be more valuable than money!

Now I had recently started stockpiling, but that was mostly so I could stock up things when they were on sale, thus saving money on things I would have bought anyway. I never thought that someday I might be able to trade it for something else I might be in need of.

As I was cleaning and decluttering today I came across three tubes of toothpaste. I usually throw them away, as they have fluoride in them and we do not use fluoride. But this time thought better. Does it really hurt me to keep those tubes for a future time when I might be able to barter them for something else I need? I can learn now how to make my own toothpaste out of everyday household ingredients. It would be much cheaper to make my own with ingredients I already have on hand AND I can trade the toothpaste for something else I might need more.