More on Grocery Savings

Here is a picture of my mailbox area, decked out in flourishing Black-Eyed Susans. They are more beautiful this year than last (that's when they were planted). Thanks to our mild climate, they are perennials instead of annuals. It's a balmy 81 degrees here, and it's nearly 1:30 PM. This 38'-long by 4' wide at the widest area was entirely weeds when we moved in here two years ago. After much exertion, it has been transformed into something lovely.

It was a pleasure to walk in such nice weather this AM. I think it was around 70 degrees at 6 AM. I had been having lots of pain and discomfort because my feet would swell in the afternoon/evenings. That has only happened one of the days I've walked. I'm sure the muscle workout has something to do with it.

So many have asked if I'm still doing the coupon-clipping grocery-saving thing. Absolutely. You have to keep in mind that there are 10 of us in my house. My DH is rarely gone for meals (maybe 4 meals a month). My 4 oldest children are gone for lunch a few times a week. I did some comparing of our costs for the past few months. Thank you, Bette.

I considered April a learning month because there was a lot to learn. Plus I had no coupons with which to save (at the time). I separate food from other personal expenses when keeping records. Thank you, Bette.

Including food, toiletries (shampoo, deodorant, toothpaste, etc.), and consumables for the whole house (TP, laundry detergent, dishwasher detergent, etc.)......

In May, we spent an average of $54/day for the above items. Roughly $5.40 per person for food, toiletries, and consumables. That's pretty remarkable considering that my 5 oldest children all eat more than either my husband or I.

In June, we were able to get by on $32/day!! That's 41% lower!! Whoo-hoo! And you should see our stockpiles. Just yesterday I asked Susanna (who is my most active partner in this) how much of different items (toothpaste, body wash, etc.) we have used in 3 months. Hardly any! So our out-of-pocket spending should decrease every month since we have been in the stockpiling stages for these 3 months.

Thank you, Bette. Thank you, Bette. Thank you, Bette. Bette is the one who got me started doing this. I'll know when she reads this. She might be so happy to see her name on the blog that she donates half her coupons to me. Probably not. But maybe so! I know she is going to be ROFLOL when she reads that. I expect a good kick in the back of my chair at the July 4th service Friday if she's there.

~Joan

It IS Finished!

This quilt is finally finished. I'll tell you, un-quilting and re-quilting is no fun at all. But finished is good. This is about 80" square, so it was not a little job.

Focusing on getting ready to go out of town in a couple weeks and making it a relaxing and enjoyable time for our family.

~Joan

The End is in Sight...

Above is the view of my machine quilt frame from one end. It barely fits in my bedroom. The second pic is a close-up of the quilt I'm re-quilting. It appears that I have about 4 more passes before I'm finished. After getting it loaded, winding bobbins to match the back, and all, I had a hard time getting back to it yesterday. But I did eventually. I quilted off and on in the afternoon.

Before I knew it, it was time to pick my son up from work and get ready for our mid-week service at church. A little more work on this today, and it will be FINISHED! Finished is good.

~Joan

4-Patch March

When I was downloading the pics of Isaac yesterday, this was already on my camera. Emily is piecing a quilt top for a customer (we LOVE doing that!). She or one of her siblings must have taken this pic of the 4-patches marching away from the iron! She is very methodical in her piecing. Notice the neat stacks of ironed units against the back of our "pressing station"? That's Emily!
Here's a close-up of her nimble fingers at work.
This block is not completely sewn. I layered the top and bottom units under the center to see how it would look when those seams were sewn. This block is called Windowpane. They are going to be set on point with a dark red alternate plain block. I think it's going to have a classic old-fashioned look. Finished blocks are 7" square, if I remember correctly.
Emily is having her wisdom teeth removed tomorrow. Please pray that all goes well with that. Her two older siblings had theirs out in the past year, and had very smooth recoveries. I pray that it is the same with her.

I'm still walking. Missed the last two days because I couldn't walk w/o a great deal of pain. All is well now though. It's only 63 degrees out now, but warming up steadily. Yesterday afternoon it got up to 96. Felt like it, too.

My WH and Susanna got home around midnight last night. They went to offer moral support to WH's grandfather, whose brother passed away last week.

Off to the races!

~Joan

Haircut: Before, During, and After

This boy needs a haircut. He and his next-older brother have the same hair type...it just gets thicker and thicker, but doesn't hang down. It kind of poofs out. The need for a cut kind of sneaks up on them, happening very gradually.

I've cut my WH's hair since before we were married. Only once has someone else cut his hair in our nearly 20 years of marriage...I was pregnant and on bed rest in a hospital.

As the children came along, I cut their hair, too. My WH will occasionally cut the boys' hair, but mostly it falls to me.

As gas prices have risen, I've been even more thankful for being able to do so much for ourselves at home. Think of the zillions of dollars we've saved by simply cutting hair! Well, maybe not zillions, but hundreds and hundreds at least!! Nine people every 6 weeks. I'm the only one that gets haircuts that are done out of house.

Here Isaac is before the haircut. He has a couple loose baby teeth--only adding to his charm.

We use a pair of clippers that have snap-on guides of several sizes. We've used the same pair all these years, only replacing the blades once--last year. For Isaac, I cut the top with a 3/8" guide, and use 1/4" for the sides and back. It's not unlike shearing a sheep, I'd imagine.
Here I am cutting from right to left in the picture. See the hair rolling up as I cut? With my two oldest boys and WH, it just falls to the floor as I cut. Not with Isaac and the next oldest boy, Benjamin. It just rolls and rolls as I cut, only falling (ending with a *boing* on the floor) when I reach the end of their hairline.
Voila! Here he is...freshly shorn. I made my WH the cape from parachute fabric when we were engaged. The hair just flies off of it. I took a big square, cut a seam up the back, finished the seam and neck (which I cut freehand in a circle), and had his initials embroidered on it for added flair! I put black Velcro around the neck to hold it in place.

Over 20 years of use, and still doing a great job.

My goal today is to re-quilt a customer's quilt. This has been something I've been meaning to do for months now. I quilted it with a thread recommended by the local sewing shop. I didn't think it would work well, but they insisted. After using the quilt lightly for only a few months, the threads started wearing down and eventually away on the top of the quilt. So it had to be un-quilted and then re-quilted. An arduous process, let me tell you. I have it about 1/5 re-quilted. I did that much on my DSM. Today I loaded it on the Little Gracie frame. I should be able to knock it out in an hour or so if all goes well. I'll post some pics later if I still have my sanity.

I placed safety pins about every 6" as it was un-quilted to keep the batting from shifting. I will remove them as I re-quilt. I can hardly wait until this project is off the list of things to do.

~Joan

Scrappy Stars Renamed...Center Finished

Lo, and behold...a mostly finished quilt top! This pattern is called "Scrappy Stars", but I had to rename it considering that I have lots of scrappy star quilts already. I think Zigzag Stars will be the new name for this. It still needs a thin inner and wide outer border to be complete, but this is a great start! It measures 68" square now. The original pattern only had 3 rows of blocks, but bigger is better here at the ole homestead. If you want to see past posts about this, search for "scrappy stars".

Just got some great news. My family will be "house sitting" for one of my husband's cousins for a week in July. They have a large in-ground pool (that's a big plus for us), and we can use their house for housing. It would cost a fortune for our family to pay for temporary housing for a week (hotel, condo, cabin--you name it!). So this is a huge blessing for us. We will be close to my WH's family, so we will be visiting with them as well.

~Joan

Stick a Daisy in Your Hat, and Be Happy

Contentment is a wonderful thing, but it's a conscious decision.

Sometimes when my children complain, I feel like it's my duty to remind them to decide to be cheerful. That's when I spout my famous saying, "Stick a daisy in your hat, and be happy!" I did not take the above photo, but it is so neat! Daisies are my favorite flower...they just look so cheerful!

Off to do a little hand piecing on my Seeds of Kindness quilt. Take care now.

~Joan