A few frugal clothes finds: let someone else do the fixing

"'I like your clothes awfully, old chap,' [the Rat[ remarked after some half an hour or so had passed. 'I'm going to get a black velvet smoking-suit myself some day, as soon as I can afford it.'" ~~ Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

Part One

I sometimes feel like the luckiest thrifter around. Many times when I've worried about needing something expensive, or finding what I need at all, something used but good pops up and reminds me not to be so anxious. There was that time I searched for pants, and finally found them on the clearance rack at the thrift store. (I'm still wearing those blue jeans.) There were the scarves, and the shoes, and the hat, and the cardigan, and the hook with a bird on it (or the bird with a hook on it)...and Lydia's bed, and the dining room table...well, you know the rest. (I probably forgot to mention the bed, it was a couple of years ago.)

Last week I was looking for pants again; but nothing grey, because almost all my pants are grey. I found a pair of dark-wash, high-waisted jeans for $1.50, plus a pair of "skinnies" to replace my worn-out jeggings. The skinny jeans are labelled "khakis," which I find funny because they're navy blue. Anyway, I came home with the two pairs of not-grey pants, and a belt, and a book we're studying at church (I was using a borrowed copy), all for about ten dollars.

The dark jeans fasten with a zipper plus three metal slide-plus-bar fasteners on the waistband. The zipper was fine, but two of the slides were missing. It looked like they'd never been added at all (maybe that's why the jeans were in such good condition). Walmart sells multi-packs of slides and bars for $5 (plus tax), but a) I wasn't quite sure how to insert them, and b) what was I going to do with the lifetime supply of extras? I decided to inquire at the same shop that took in a too-big skirt and hemmed my grey jeans, and sure enough they have promised to add two slides, for only a couple of dollars more than the Walmart package (plus tax). I'll be good for jeans (and blue khakis) for quite awhile.

Part Two

I was thinking about summery colours, and along came this slightly crazy top with a giant beaded flower and lace sleeves.

Yes, I bought it, because it was that kind of day. It really belongs with summer shorts, but it's not bad either with a purple jacket and grey jeans.

Frugal finds and fixes, long-overdue update

It has been awhile since we posted a Frugal Finds and Fixes, so here is a new installment.

Our public library is subscribed to the Lynda.com video-teaching website, and I am planning on using it to improve some of my computer skills. Homeschoolers might find some of their techie courses interesting. They also offer quite a bit on photography and videography.

We had a homemade pizza night this week instead of getting takeout. Pizza dough is easy in the bread machine, and pizza is a very forgiving, use what's in the fridge kind of meal. We topped ours with mushrooms, peppers, salami, canned pasta sauce, and some mixed bits of grated cheese on top. The only bad thing about baking pizza at home is that it always sets off the smoke alarm, and even after we push the "never mind" button, it continues to hiccup for awhile. This never happens with frozen store pizza, just homemade (I think because we set the oven higher).

Tonight's dinner was sausage, ranch potatoes, frozen green beans and carrots, and blueberry muffins that I thought of at the last minute. This is nothing new, but we continue to use the toaster oven, slow cooker (s), and microwave as much as possible, turning on the big oven only when the food or the pan won't fit into anything else.  That would include cookie sheets, muffin pans, and the roaster (the handle makes it too tall).

Yesterday we dropped some of our clearing-out stuff at the thrift store, and had a look around inside. Mr. Fixit found a vintage Polaroid camera. Lydia (who was off school due to predicted bad weather that took its time appearing)* found some books. Mama Squirrel found a t-shirt for herself, and a black shirt from the dollar rack, that looked nice on Lydia but was missing a cuff button.

*When the storm finally showed up, it was a midnight thunderstorm with pouring rain. Basements were undoubtedly flooded, but, thankfully, not ours this time.

That's what button bags are for.

I also mended some leggings while I had the needle still threaded. I hate threading needles, but every time I buy needle threaders, they break. Somewhere out there, there must still be some decent ones for sale.

Finally, stay tuned over the next week or so, because it's almost time for a new Project 333 update.

Jeans fix

Not perfect, but not bad.

In which we get a blogger award

The Duchess of Burgundy Carrots has given us a Very Inspiring Blogger Award.  Thank you!

The rules of acceptance involve making a list of things that you, whoever you are, might not know about me (Mama Squirrel, since I take on most of the blogging duties at the Treehouse).  I did something like that a few years ago, but here are a few different ones.

1.  You know how when you take a babysitting class you have to take a doll or a teddy along for practice? Our first (and only) prenatal instructor asked us to bring a doll, but since we didn't have any visible children yet, we didn't own any suitable toys.  So I sewed a big stuffed baby and we used him/her to practice burping and diapering.  I don't remember if he/she ever got a name...we were having trouble just deciding on names for real babies.

2.  I have a dress that I bought when Mr. Fixit and I were dating. It still fits, and I would like to wear it once in awhile (if only for fun), but it was missing a gold-coloured button, and there were no extras inside or as decoration that I could swipe.  Today I was going through the button bag, hoping that maybe I had just dropped that missing one in with the others.  I came up with one that was close in size and even had a gold rim, but the centre of it was a sort of yellow enamel. About ten seconds after Ponytails said "Marker?," I thought of the metallic Sharpies that appeared in my Christmas stocking.  With that bit of gold markering, and switching the position of the new one to the very bottom, it's no longer obvious that there's been a "button hack"; and I can wear the dress again. (The photo makes it look like the second-from-the-bottom is different, but it's just the lighting.)

3. If you ask me to pick something from Tim Horton's, nutritional thoughts and messiness aside, I would probably pick a Dutchie.  I spent the first formative years of my squirrelhood around the corner from an early Tim's, and Dutchies are a hangover from those times.

I am going to pass on re-passing the award, not because I don't know any good bloggers but because some of them have already gotten similar awards and the rest are busy getting ready for school and other things.  But thank you again to the Carrot Duchy.

Frugal Finds and Fixes: Learning Curves

Sometimes frugality means learning something new. Or taking a risk.

For the past few years we paid someone to figure out our income tax returns.  This year Mr. Fixit used free online software and did it himself.  Besides saving money, it made him feel that much smarter, once he figured out how the program worked.

Ponytails has a favourite embroidered sweater, but the ribbing at the neckline was separating from the rest. She asked Mama Squirrel to fix it.  Mama Squirrel said she had no idea how to do it without ruining the sweater, especially since the pulled-apart spot was on the front, very visible.  The sweater sat unmended. Ponytails reminded Mama Squirrel that she really, really liked that sweater, and she couldn't wear it at all with the collar coming off.  Mama Squirrel decided that there was nothing to lose by trying, and rounded up a needle and purple thread.  It worked!  The repair required two stages: I sewed it together with thread, tucking in all the rough edges; then I went back over it with fine yarn, as close to the main colour as I could find in the scrap bag.  There was what looked like a running stitch at the base of each rib of the collar, and without the extra yarn stitching it would have held together but the repair would have been more obvious, so that's why I did both. If you look really closely, you can see that the stitching and yarn is slightly different; but you'd have to be looking for it.  So Mama Squirrel learned something this week too.

Dollygirl also picked up a project that had lain dormant for quite awhile: a small stuffed doll about five inches tall, meant for a dollhouse, with clothes to be sewn separately.  She had cut out two dolls from the same pattern (one I bought in the 1980’s and had never actually sewn); we had sewn the bodies, arms and legs together, and then she tried to embroider a face on one but it sort of got away from her and she packed the whole thing away for a long time.  This week she pulled the dolls out, finished the face on the other one, got it stuffed and sewed on the hair; she's now working on the dress which is a bit challenging--it is small, but it has a few tucks and pleats. I am really proud of Dollygirl for not giving up on what seemed too hard at first.  (photo to come when the dress is done)

What else have we fixed and found?  The usual baking and cooking experiments, this week featuring cranberries since they were the only reasonably-priced frozen fruit.  Ponytails discovered that her favourite microwave-in-a-mug treat works just as well without the egg that the recipe calls for--always good to know.  Mama Squirrel also noticed that the next-size-up bag of sugar offers a decent saving over the size we usually buy--that sounds too simple to mention, but sometimes you do get into a rut and don't think about small changes.

Oh, and we have been appreciating a variety of frugal entertainment, from free lunchtime concerts (we brown-bagged our lunch) to old radio shows (we had never heard "I was a Communist for the FBI" before), and even some vintage sitcoms online.  We recently upgraded our Internet service (the provider offered extra online time as an incentive to stay), so that makes it more feasible to watch whole shows sometimes.  This week it's been The Partridge Family.  Never say I don't tell all.

Frugal Finds and Fixes: Mr. Fixit continues his tightwad adventures

Well, if you've followed the blog recently, you'll know that we had assorted water problems including a wet but not disastrous basement flood due to freakish January rains, and general old-bathroom issues (replacing taps that were as old as the house).  And that Mr. Fixit partly solved the problem of leaky garage doors by fitting them with old/new weatherstripping.  I don't think I mentioned that the plumber's visit could have meant having to completely rip out a fifty-year-old bathroom vanity just to install new taps, if there was no other way to get at the pipes.  But once again we were lucky/blessed to get a creative and smart plumber with the gymnastic skills to work with his head under the counter and one leg halfway up the wall; it's a very small bathroom.  Anyway,  the replacement was accomplished without damaging anything important, including the plumber.

Although the weatherstripping Mr. Fixit found was the right fit for our old doors, the garage floor itself is a bit uneven and there are still a few gaps.  That may straighten itself out in the warmer weather, but for now the holes could still be a problem.  Mr. Fixit was talking to someone a few days ago who said he has a couple of two-by-fours wrapped in old rags that he puts against the doors when it rains or the snow melts--kind of like draft dodgers.

Oh, said Mr. Fixit, suddenly remembering something--so did his Grandpa!  That is, the Grandpa who lived in and helped build this house.  He used to put boards wrapped in rags against the doors in certain kinds of wet weather.  But Grandpa's boards disappeared years ago.  We could have just bought new two-by-fours and wrapped them in rags too, but Mr. Fixit came up with something slightly more elegant and almost as cheap. 

Dollygirl spray-painted a wooden clementine tray that's going to be a doll ottoman, and created a doll dressing table using fabric, duct tape, and an old mirror.(More ideas for reusing clementine or other wooden fruit boxes here.)  She's also been finding things to spruce up her own room, like fabric bows for a quarter apiece at Michael's. She picked up a pair of inexpensive discount-store boots for what's left of the winter--by next winter she'd have outgrown more expensive ones.  And we found her a $3 pair of Old Navy pants at a thrift store.

I used up some last bits of baking chocolate to make a cake.  I also used the rest of my Christmas-gift dried cherries and blueberries to dress up a pan of Budget101's MYO Chewy Granola Bars; I cut them smaller, more like squares this time.  I also refilled our hot-chocolate can with homemade mix, and used a stray can of pineapple to make sherbet.

This week's grocery trip was, again, expensive, even at Food Basics.  But we did score some deals on flour tortillas and frozen fruit.  Cubed round steak was a pretty good deal, turkey breast was a good deal, but chicken was out of sight.  Mr. Fixit cooked up some of the turkey for dinner tonight, and afterwards he said, "I remember sometimes how my mom would make a big turkey dinner or something, and we'd ask her what the occasion was.  She'd say, '59 cents a pound.'"

And that was our week.  How was yours?

Frugal Finds and Fixes: Sometimes it's there waiting for you.

One reason so much water came in the garage last weekend was that the old weatherstripping on the garage doors was past its prime.  After thing started to dry up, outside as well as inside, Mr. Fixit pulled off the old stuff and went looking for replacement stripping.  He bought some at the Large Canadian Chain, but when he got it home and examined it more closely, it did not look like it would fit well on our 1959 doors.  The Big Box place also didn't have what he wanted.  So he tried another place, a smaller chain where he's had good luck before.  This store has two parts: the main store building, and another building at the back for contractors, where you have to be invited in.  When Mr. Fixit explained what he wanted, the hardware guy showed him the regular stuff on the store shelf, and then said, "We have some heavy-duty stripping in the back building--do you want to check that out?" He got the key and took Mr. Fixit into the hardware holy place, and Mr. Fixit kind of did a double take: they had exactly the kind of real rubber stripping he had just taken off the doors.  Old stock, no bar code.  "How long has this been sitting here?" Mr. Fixit asked.  "I guess since before we were bought out by the new owners, so at least fifteen years."

AND the price was at least fifty per cent less than the not-as-good stripping he'd seen elsewhere.

So tell me that's all just a coincidence.  No? I didn't think so.

Frugal Finds and Fixes: featuring Mr. Fixit

The past week has meant ultra-cold temperatures all over the place (unless maybe you're in Australia), which is not good for people, heating bills, water mains, and vehicles.  Our van had a leak in one of its tires, with the weather at least partly to blame.

We discovered this early Saturday morning, but the only tire-fixer at the nearby shop had called in sick, and they asked us to wait until Monday.  After keeping it pumped up long enough to handle Saturday groceries and Sunday church, Mr. Fixit was worried enough to take it into the Big Tire Chain on Sunday afternoon, but it turns out they're not a warranty dealer for our brand of tires, and the tire was still fairly new.  So on Monday Mr. Fixit went to the other shop and got a new tire for the van, free under the warranty but paying the service charge to put it on.  He drove away to run another errand, but when he came out to the van he noticed there was no little cap on the tire, where you pump it up.  He went back to the shop and inquired about the missing cap, and was told that Caps Are Now Extra.  No way.  He further inquired where the cap to the old tire might be.  The tire-fixer had to fish through the trash can to find it, but we got it back. So there's our automotive frugal tip for the week, which also applies, unfortunately, to other businesses these days:  don't expect even small things to come gratis.  Ask to make sure.

Mr. Fixit has a 1958 Simpson 260 analog multimeter (their photo) that he got free over thirty years ago when his high school shop class went digital.  (He says most of the digital meters got blown within a year, and the school had to re-replace them.)  He used to use it a lot with older cars, but it had been pretty much set aside for the past decade.  Recently his newer, digital meter (the second in the past few years) quit on him, and he decided to resurrect the Simpson.  After cleaning it and replacing its batteries, he used it to test the voltages in a radio he was repairing, and he says it still works well.

Mr. Fixit also negotiated a slightly better deal this week with our Internet provider.  We were considering switching, so the company offered us a please-stay incentive.  That was supposed to kick in today, so there's not much so far to say about whether what we're getting is really faster or better.

From this Treehouse it seems like food prices are going up again.  We are trying hard to make the most of what we have, use leftovers, cook up bits and pieces.  This week we had a lot of ground beef in the freezer, so we've had both lasagna and Mexican Potato Casserole, which we found in Company's Coming Kids: Lunches, but which is almost identical to the one on the Mennonite Girls Can Cook website, and they say they got it from a church cookbook.  So it seems like one of those recipes that's made the rounds.  You coat cut-up potatoes in melted margarine and taco seasoning and bake them in a casserole; then, about ten minutes before serving, you add browned ground beef mixed with salsa and chopped peppers, and cheese on top. I just used the amounts of everything that we had on hand, including homemade taco seasoning and mild Cheddar instead of Jack cheese, but we thought it was pretty good.  (The recipe says not to peel the potatoes, but we prefer them peeled.)

We also made pizza on the weekend, using bread-machine pizza dough; a batch of granola; and I turned a cupful of mashed sweet potato into two dozen half-size muffins.

Finally:  Mama Squirrel was browsing through a particular money website and blog, and came across a post about holiday spending.  The author described what their family had spent on gifts and so on, and then other people commented and shared some of their "holiday totals."  The most common comment was something like, "Yes, we have a set budget for our Christmas gifts, entertainment etc., and it can't total more than X." And that would have been fine, except that X, for our family, would be an astronomical amount. And though in general that would not surprise me at all, these are people who read and comment on a financial, money-saving blog.  

Which makes me worry a lot about the people who don't read money blogs.

What do you think?

Yes, it's been a slow week

What's up in the Treehouse?

Mr. Fixit is fixing (and selling) as many things as he can.  Unfortunately, that didn't include our water heater, which suddenly quit after fifteen years, or our mattress, which gave its last bounce after twenty-plus.  Even Mr. Fixit has his limits. But clocks and radios--that, he's very good at.

The Apprentice is still cutting hair and getting ready to go back to classes.

Ponytails is getting geared up for Grade 10.

Dollygirl is trying to ignore the fact that school is around the corner.  Well, actually her school is in the basement, not around the corner, but you know what I mean.

Mama Squirrel is working on a lot of small projects.  Mr. Fixit and Dollygirl have one in progress too (not a radio). When a few of them are done, we'll do a photo post.

Till then...

So what are we supposed to do with our weekends now?

Grandpa Squirrel brought over some Toronto papers last weekend, including several auto sections he had saved up for Mr. Fixit. I don't usually read the car pages, but the front page of the September 16th Globe Drive section stood out: there was a hand holding a wrench, and the headline "The death of do-it-yourself auto repair."

It turned out to be a column by Peter Cheney, with the subtitle "The art of home auto repair has been shuffled to the scrap heap."

"Knowing how to fix a car used to mean something. In university, I studied the classics. My abiding memory was of Odysseus returning home to slay the suitors who had invaded his house. To me, overhauling an engine was a less dramatic version of the same process – I had driven out the forces of mechanical disorder.

"So how could I imagine that the golden age of the home mechanic was approaching its end?"

My own dad was never much of a do-it-yourselfer when it came to cars; he knew his limits and preferred to trust Ernie's garage on the corner. But my mom's brothers were die-hard wrench twisters from way back; I've heard the stories about how, lacking a hoist, they pulled up the front end of their jalopy using a rope and a nearby tree branch. And when I married Mr. Fixit, most of our cars (until emissions testing killed off the Caprices) were still the kind you had to tune up; the kind you COULD tune up. I got used to sitting in the front seat during brake jobs and pressing down on the pedal, while he crawled underneath or had his head under the hood. Vrm vrm...Again...Vrm vrm...Again...Vrm vrm...this usually went on for awhile.

"To [car designer Pete] Brock, a good machine is the elegant, real-world expression of an idea, not just something to be used and cast aside when it breaks. Machines are philosophies, expressed in metal."

And yet times change. Peter Cheney says that he used to be a professional mechanic but now rarely works on his own car himself. It's the same for Mr. Fixit, and that's only partly because of middling-aged back and knee problems. It's more just a matter of, as Cheney says, our newer cars now not "needing us" as much as they used to; and, in many instances, not being able to access the parts or supplies we used to get, or finding newer cars deliberately designed too complicated for home mechanics to deal with.

If cars aren't your thing (they're not mine really--I just pressed the pedal down when requested and appreciated Mr. Fixit's talents), consider this: that's only one example of the general death, or perhaps assassination, of self-sufficiency. At what point will there be nothing left at all that we can fix, clean up, make ourselves? Will we stop even comprehending Bible verses like "where moth and rust corrupt," because there we won't have anything that lasts long enough to get moth-eaten or rusty?

Your opinions?