"Use it up, wear it out, make do or do without." The more I hear this old Depression Era motto, the more I can relate to it. Let's face it, times are rough and they aren't looking to get much better any time in the near future so we have to make whatever we have last as long as possible. I have really been trying to do this, trying to see just how frugal I can be. You know what? I can be pretty doggone frugal when I have to be! I have so many great ideas that I have gleaned from different blogs that I am eager to put into use. What are they? So glad you asked!!! I was amazed at how many "common sense" ideas there are that I never really thought about before like using rags instead of paper towels for cleaning, using cloth napkins (cheap ones that don't need to be ironed!) instead of paper ones and using hard plates instead of paper. Oh, I can hear you now, "But Tracy, isn't that just increasing your work elsewhere like laundry and dish washing?" I thought of that and, really, I have to do laundry and wash dishes ANYWAY so a little more is NOT going to kill me. My son is all for this because we won't be creating as much garbage and it means he won't be having to take it out as often! I don't have the heart to tell him that it will just free him up to do other chores for me :) Some other money saving, skin saving and Earth saving ideas have to do with making my own dish soap, laundry soap, hand/body wash and shampoo/conditioner, even body lotion! Apparently, Castile Soap is going to be my new best friend! Google Castile Soap and you will see the many uses of it. I can't wait to get started.

I am happy to announce I FINALLY got some eggs out of my chickens. After 6 L-O-N-G months I went to check yesterday and there were 2 perfect brown eggs just waiting for me to collect them. I am willing to bet that I was much more excited about that then the hens that laid them. Can't wait to check today, I am running VERY LOW on eggs right now. The other 12 hens better get a move on!

On the cooking front, I have been doing a lot of it AS USUAL! I am almost all the way through the meals I put up in the freezer at the beginning of the month. I have just about enough dinners to make it to the end of the month...I think. Lunches are what throw me for a loop. I am not much of a sandwich person but if school takes longer than I have planned then I may not have time to cook anything and it's PB&J to the rescue. Dinners, on the other hand have been pretty well thought out. I also have a collection of recipes for next months' meals so, hopefully, the planning, shopping and cooking will go much easier. Today's meals consisted of the following: Oatmeal with raisins, apples and walnuts (oh my goodness it was yummy!) for breakfast. Lunch for me was slices of homemade french bread with slices of hard cheese and sliced tomatoes ( I must have been in a slice kind of mood). The twins fought over last nights leftovers and I made hubby a couple of sandwiches with the french bread. Dinner is spaghetti and I am using the french bread to make garlic-cheese toast! Dessert is pumpkin bread. I will be in Carb Heaven by the time I pass out in bed tonight! Doncha just have weeks days where you just want bread...ALL THE TIME! Today is that for me. I don't know what it is but once I got started on the french bread this afternoon I almost couldn't stop. You know how it is. You have to cut the ends off cuz no one wants to eat them and, since I can't waste it, I ate it. Then my tomatoes were about to be unusable so I HAD to do something with them, so I ate them AND the bread. Then, when hubby wanted sandwiches, I had to take some of the bread innerds (not even sure that's a word) out so he could bite into the sandwich so I ate the innerds too. THEN, I wanted something sweet and since I used the last of the sugar up in the pumpkin bread, my only option was....pumpkin BREAD! Whew, I feel better getting that out :) Now I think I will go eat some marshmallows...Hey at least they aren't bread!