10 Tips for Saving Money, Water and Energy with Your Dishwasher

It’s often said that dishwashers save water over washing by hand. I’m not convinced, because it’s possible to hand wash dishes using very little water. And dishwashers use more electricity, and require costly supplies. My mother never used hers because she found it too difficult to bend down to take dishes in and out. Still, they are convenient for most and I have ten tips for saving money and resources when you wash by machine.

Extreme Frugality: Twenty Memories of My Mother

Wisebread wrote about her parents’ extreme frugality, leading to an  interesting discussion on the difference between being poor and frugal. When I was growing up, my parents were able to purchase good quality food, clothes and furniture. But my mother did not believe in wasting resources. Here are twenty ways my mother was frugal: Cooking […]

Ten Tips for Cutting the Cost of Running Your Refrigerator

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kygp/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 I could live quite well without a dishwasher, crockpot or oven. But no one wants to go back to the days before refrigerators. Because refrigerators work day and night, they use large amounts of electricity. Here are tips to keep your food fresh and your electric bill low. Avoid leaks. […]

Make Your Own Convenience Foods for Your Baby

Parents these days are busier than ever, and the labels on those costly jars and boxes of baby food promise wonderful things. However, babies don’t eat a lot and for a few minutes in the kitchen, you can provide your baby with fresh, “whole,” and inexpensive foods. Gradually more of baby’s food will be cooked with your own. Save even more time by letting your baby eat by herself while you are in the room.

As your baby grows the expense of purchased foods will grow too. Exposing your baby to your taste in food, and developing smart cooking techniques, are long-term investments.

Starting Solids the Easy Way, Feeding Babies Frugally Part III

This is the third in a four-part series on Feeding Babies Frugally.

Part I: The Early Months

Part II: Starting Solids: When and Why

Part IV: Make Your Own “Convenience Foods” for Babies will appear next week. Sign up by email or RSS Reader to get future posts.

People make too much of a fuss over baby foods. Ever since the baby food industry put so much effort into making and selling attractive foods, we feel like we’re depriving our children if we don’t prepare something similar. But you can make good, nutritious food for your baby with a minimum of time. And if you train your baby to eat solid foods on her own, you will save yourself hours of time in the future.

Evaluating Recipes

“This is delicious. Can I have the recipe?” Sometimes I want to try something, but when I get the recipe I find it doesn’t meet my cooking style. When I see a new recipe I ask myself whether is is fast, frugal and healthy. Fast. Fast recipes have few ingredients, few utensils, and short instructions. […]