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I am on a saving money kick today, and am checking out frugal type web sites. You are benefiting from this in two ways: 1. You do not have to do the searches yourself, and 2. You and I can learn more ways to live frugally in these leaner times. Thefamilyhomestead.com is another great resource, though it, too, is not maintained by a single mother. I promise that, if you check out the site, you will find some useful information. The Homestead Kitchen offers up an array of topics, from making your own bread to menu planning, and it even has a section on the health problems concerning cookware and the advantages of using cast iron cookware. And, if you keep scrolling down, you will learn a lot more. I am particularly interested in the cooking with beans section, that explains how to cook dried beans and freeze them to use like canned beans in recipes. This will be very helpful to me this winter. The Homemaking and Home Management section also offers up a great deal of helpful information, from keeping your child’s bedroom organized to clutter control to making homemade household cleaners. You will find other sections as well: Crafts, gardening, homesteading, sewing, homeschooling and herbs, to name a few. One thing that I would like to mention. Some of the sites that I come across are religious based, others are not. I do not read the sites for the religious overtones. I read them for the good, frugal, time-saving tips. Happy reading! Shannon
So, why do I believe a housewives’ web site would be of great use to a single mother? Money savings, of course! Hillbillyhousewife.com is a great place for any mother to go to learn how to save money on the kitchen. Susanne offers up a multitude of recipes that will help us to stretch our budgets put our money where it is needed more. The sites even offers up recipes for ‘convenience’ foods. These recipes could prove to be especially useful to the single mother, because we all know how much our children love those foods when purchased at the grocery store. These would also be helpful when you have a teenager who begins, or cooks, dinner before you get home from work or school. Besides convenience foods, other sections include recipes for the holidays, snacks, main meals, breakfast and a lot more. It would be well worth your time to check out this site. Hillbillyhousewife.com also has many useful articles, from Turning Leftovers into Dinner and Lunchbox Basics, to Frugal Breakfast Foods and Affordable Herbs; Dry Them Yourself. There are even two very helpful sections on the site titled: $45.00 Emergency Menu and $70.00 Low Cost Menu. I hope that you all enjoy the site as much as I did. Shannon
What things do you do for yourself? How do you pamper yourself? There are a few things that I do for myself that may not typically be considered pampering, but they work for me. After all, the best way to pamper yourself is to do what you enjoy. Here are some of my simple, pampering pleasures:
So, what are your simple pleasures? Things that don’t take much money, but have a satisfying or relaxing effect on you. Shannon
I believe that crafting is a lot of fun. I don’t have any specific patterns or plans for you in this post, just some ideas. It can be relaxing to work on something crafty in the evenings, and you may even decide that you like a way of crafting enough to create a hobby from it. If you are already a crafter of some type, this list will likely give you a few ideas. Scrabooking/Cardmaking:
Beaders:
Plastic Canvas Creators”
Happy Crafting!!! Shannon
I took some time to gather some links for a blog post to give you some ideas of what you and your younger children can do to make your Thanksgiving a little more memorable. Here is some of what I came up with:
Children love to know that they care contributors to the family, so they feel a special sense of pride when their creations are displayed at special family events and holidays. Here are some other simple ideas for you to consider for your children. They can:
Shannon
Here are some articles from Living the Low-Income Life that may be useful to you. They are originally from my Low-Income site, so they may seem dated. However, the concepts themselves still apply. I am closing the site. The blog above gets a lot more traffic than the site does, and I will save money if I use the blog instead. Job or Career (Or, a vote for the WAHM. Originally written for the two-parent home, but would be useful to a single mother contemplating working from home as well.) Happy reading. Shannon
Teaching your children to support their communities can be hard for the single mother. With work and errands, as well as taking care of our children and homes, there does not seem to be a lot of time left over for this important aspect of learning and teaching. However, there are things that you can do to teach your children to have a sense of community. There are a couple of different ways in which your family can do some community service in your area. One way costs a some money, the second won’t really cost you much more than what you will be spending on your own meal. 1. Why not create one or two boxes of food for a needy family or two in your area. Maybe you know another single mother who is down on her luck, or an elderly couple who are barely making ends meet. You can buy a small turkey, a couple of cans of vegetables, stuffing, some potatoes, gravy and some cranberry sauce. You can also bake them a loaf or two of bread, as well as a pie. Your extended family and friends may even be willing to pitch in some money or their baking talents. Even if they have the components of the holiday meal on hand already, they will be able to use non-perishables at another holiday, such as Christmas. Also, pies and breads can be frozen for future use. You could include instructions for freezing these items just in case. You could deliver these in person. To remain anonymous, set them on their porch just before you know that they will be leaving or arriving back at home. 2. Invite the other single mother’s family, or the elderly couple, to your home to join in on the Thanksgiving festivities. Having a sense of community is very important for children and adults alike. Shannon
I don’t know about your family, but mine will be having a very hard time this winter. I’m not sure that I will even be able to do much for Christmas. In all honesty, I’m not sure that I will have even $100.00to spend. I know that Thanksgiving sisn’t even over yet, but I thought that I would pass along this information, in case anyone was interested.
Shannon
Along with cooking a Thanksgiving meal, teenagers can also create many things for the holiday. Are you a family who gives Thanksgiving cards and or small gifts to friends and family at this time of the year? Here are some ideas to get your teenager involved in the Thanksgiving preparations.
Other activities for teenagers include:
Shannon
I believe that animals can be very therapeutic, not just for children but for the entire family. I will be concentrating on cats in this post, but any animal can be therapeutic. A few years ago, my daughters and I acquired three cats. We do not consider these cats pets. They are members of our family. They are very important to us, and are treated very well. Some would even claim that they are spoiled. Cats are wonderful creatures. They are both playful and very loving. They are also great for telling secrets to. My daughter Skye, before she moved, used to tell her cat everything. Like he was a person. She’d talk and talk, and he would stay near her because he loved the attention. She will be bringing me two more kittens when she comes down on Monday, and will be taking her own cat (Zander) back up north with her. She is very excited to be able to finally have him go live with her, as she moved last December. He misses her as well. I believe that the therapeutic advantages alone are good enough reason for each family to have a pet, but you have to match that pet to your household. If you are a family with a limited budget and limited time, a puppy is probably not the best choice for you. Also, small caged animals and fish do not generally have long lives, though their are likely exceptions to this. I suggest researching pets needs and life spans before adopting one. If you have pets, how about sharing your experiences with them. Shannon |
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