Posted on 07/24/2009 3:37:21 AM PDT by nw_arizona_granny
Weekly Roundup - Living On Nothing Edition Category: Roundups | Comments(15)
Did you hear about the guy that lives on nothing? No seriously, he lives on zero dollars a day. Meet Daniel Suelo, who lives in a cave outside Moab, Utah. Suelo has no mortgage, no car payment, no debt of any kind. He also has no home, no car, no television, and absolutely no “creature comforts.” But he does have a lot of creatures, as in the mice and bugs that scurry about the cave floor he’s called home for the last three years.
To us, Suelo probably sounds a little extreme. Actually, he probably sounds very extreme. After all, I suspect most of you reading this are doing so under the protection of some sort of man-made shelter, and with some amount of money on your person, and probably a few needs for money, too. And who doesn’t need money unless they have completely unplugged from the grid? Still, it’s an amusing story about a guy who rejects all forms of consumerism as we know it.
The Frugal Roundup
How to Brew Your Own Beer and Maybe Save Some Money. A fantastic introduction to home brewing, something I’ve never done myself, but always been interested in trying. (@Generation X Finance)
Contentment: A Great Financial Principle. If I had to name one required emotion for living a frugal lifestyle it would be contentment. Once you are content with your belongings and your lot in life you can ignore forces attempting to separate you from your money. (@Personal Finance by the Book)
Use Energy Star Appliances to Save On Utility Costs. I enjoyed this post because it included actual numbers, and actual total savings, from someone who upgraded to new, energy star appliances. (@The Digerati Life)
Over-Saving for Retirement? Is it possible to “over-save” for retirement? Yes, I think so. At some point I like the idea of putting some money aside in taxable investments outside of retirement funds, to be accessed prior to traditional retirement age. (@The Simple Dollar)
40 Things to Teach My Kids Before They Leave Home. A great list of both practical and philosophical lessons to teach your kids before they reach the age where they know everything. I think that now happens around 13 years-old. (@My Supercharged Life)
Index Fund Investing Overview. If you are looking for a place to invest with high diversification and relatively low fees (for broader index funds with low turnover), index funds are a great place to start. (@Money Smart Life)
5 Reasons To Line Dry Your Laundry. My wife and I may soon be installing a clothesline in our backyard. In many neighborhoods they are frowned upon - one of the reasons I don’t like living in a neighborhood. I digress. One of our neighbors recently put up a clothesline, and we might just follow his lead. (@Simple Mom)
A Few Others I Enjoyed
* 4 Quick Tips for Getting Out of a Rut * Young and Cash Rich * Embracing Simple Style * First Trading Experience With OptionsHouse * The Exponential Power of Delayed Consumption * How Much Emergency Fund is Enough? * 50 Questions that Will Free Your Mind * Save Money On Car Insurance
Yup, she’s got a good mommy there!
Oooh, we love potato soup here. Talk about comfort food! When I’m too lazy to make the real thing I dump a bag of the frozen cubed hashbrowns with bell peppers and onions, a package of country gravy mix, and enough milk/water to make it soupy. Cheese optional. Heat and enjoy.
Onions are supposed to be a sort of antibiotic. Slice an onion and saute it until caramelized and eat.
Anyone remember that movie from like the early '70s titled something like "Lilies of the Valley"? I tried a search but couldn't find it. About all I remember was the man got sick and the little girl put boiled onions on his chest. I don't know how onions on the outside of you would do any good, but whatever.
Folks, don't use the powdered detergent because it does build up some sort of gunk in pipes. We found that out the hard way and have been using liquid detergent since.
Re: homemade refried beans - we had a big ol' pot of pinto beans for the cool days last week and it was getting down to the end of them so I drained the juice off (saved the juice to dunk white bread into for a comfort meal the next day), added a bag (about 12 oz) of cooked ground beef from the freezer and a 16 oz container of not so tasty but free! store brand salsa. That made the best burritos ever!
I thought this was common sense but it's unbelievable what some people throw out. Use a vegetable peeler on the harder part of the stalk. Chop the stalk and throw it into the pot with the flowerettes.
Reminds me of an old standard pot-luck take along fruit salad dish. Put a big bag of frozen mixed fruit in a bowl and stir in a box of vanilla instant pudding mix (unprepared). Store in fridge overnight. As the fruit thaws overnight it moistens the pudding mix to make sort of a sauce.
9. Italian Popcorn
Or sprinkle a little sugar and powdered garlic over popcorn for a sweet/spicy flavor.
Some of the most interesting recipes I’ve found online at sites like allrecipes.com and cooks.com, etc. is to use their search function and insert the word GRANDMA’s or GRANDPA’s — some very interesting olde time goodies. Also, there were some very interesting old family concoctions that I once found using the word ‘COUGH’ at various recipe sites.
I haven’t stayed current on it, but last month NPR had a long story about a canned pumpkin shortage this season.
I see there are quite a few stories at google about it — I know I read somewhere online that in some parts of the U.S. that it was very difficult to find any canned pumpkin, but not so, where I am.
So I picked up a couple cans of each different brand available here — usually I wait until the post-holiday sales to buy clearance-priced canned pumpkin, but I don’t know if there will be much leftover canned pumpkin this year, so I decided to pay full price, NOW, just in case.
Last month, somewhere or another, online I read someone post that whenever they felt a flu bug coming on, that they immediate put 2 Tbsp. of red pepper into a cup and poured boiling water over it, filled it up, stirred well, and sipped it all down — and they claimed that they NEVER came down with the flu.
I didn’t feel comfortable eating that much powdered red pepper at one time, so instead, I bought a small bottle of Tabasco Sauce, and put 2 teaspoons in a mug of hot water.
I was VERY surprised 2 days later to discover that I had several hives; and when I tried using ONE teaspoon of Tabasco Sauce, the same hives reappeared, elsewhere.
So... I guess that I must be allergic to jalapeno peppers... and I’ve been told here at FR to NOT play around with any allergic reaction like this, to avoid the Tabasco Sauce & jalapenos because the allergic reaction can get worse & worse & worse, even unto life threatening.
Now I am really wondering if through the years, when I’ve had an itchy bump here or there, NOTHING big mind you, but I wonder if maybe I’d injested something contained red pepper or jalapeno in the preceeding 48 hours and simply never made any connection.
I would never have found this out without trying out that “flu remedy” while I was well, and curious what would happen, as I simply don’t use much hot sauce or salsa.
About three years ago I couldn’t find any canned pumpkin here. That was the same year I couldn’t find candy corn, either. Don’t know how those two relate but there it is.
Sounds to me like it was some kind of distribution problem.
When I heard the report on NPR, they described the Libby’s plot of pumpkins in Michigan as being in very poor condition this year.
>>> I thought this was common sense but it's unbelievable what some people throw out. Use a vegetable peeler on the harder part of the stalk. Chop the stalk and throw it into the pot with the flowerettes. <<<
I remember laughing pretty hard when I read a posting on another board by someone who said she was amazed as a young adult to discover that there was boxed vanilla pudding to which one added milk to cook up -- and she couldn't imagine why everyone didn't simply use cornstarch to make pudding, why buy anything, as it was so simple to make.
We don't eat pudding very often, but sometime I'd like to make it from scratch, LOL - we only had the box-version from the store in my childhood, and it had never occurred to me that pudding was simply milk & vanilla & cornstarch & heat to thicken.
I've read that in Oriental countries, they throw away the florettes, which they consider inedible and only eat the stalks.
Granny, I haven’t had a chance to read the entire article but I think that this is right up your alley — it’s a firsthand account of the 1957 revolution in Yugoslavia, with of course plenty of parallels to current events.
Here’s the URL:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2370636/posts
sheeesh!
I meant the H.U.N.G.A.R.I.A.N. revolution, I knew something didn’t sound right, but couldn’t find it, LOL!
Here’s a small excerpt:
ILONA’S STORY
Free Range Patriots
25 October 2009 | ILONA TROMMLER
Posted on 10/25/2009 12:57:23 PM PDT by Moozle
“I came from where we are heading, I grew up in a Communist country.
“Unfortunately I see a lot of parallels between the then and there, and the here and now. I look at this national emergency as a manufactured crisis that provides the government with everything to do whatever they please.
“There are many rumors, and they may just be rumors about something brewing in DC. This administration has worked very hard to begin a takeover of the government, and I don’t see them stopping. If they make the decision to go that route, no law, not even the Constitution will stand in their way. They are looking for power over the entire nation...”
Vitamin D is a fat soluable vitamin, and so just like Vitamin A, it can build up in your body, in your fat tissues, and in your liver -- presumably to toxic levels, if you supplement too much for too long.
>>> "I'm thinking many are having colds and allergies but jumping to the conclusion it's H1N1. Many here are having sinus and allergy problems due to the wet weather. The weather is still nice in most of the country allowing kids to play outside." <<<<
Swine Flu Cases Overestimated?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2370251/posts
If you've been diagnosed "probable" or "presumed" 2009 H1N1 or "swine flu" in recent months, you may be surprised to know this: odds are you didn't have H1N1 flu. In fact, you probably didn't have flu at all.
That's according to state-by-state test results obtained in a three-month-long CBS News investigation. The ramifications of this finding are important. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Britain's National Health Service, once you have H1N1 flu.....
Canned pumpkin is in great demand in Oklahoma Shortage: Grocery stores struggle to fill shelves
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2351873/posts
Oooh, we love potato soup here. Talk about comfort food! When I’m too lazy to make the real thing I dump a bag of the frozen cubed hashbrowns with bell peppers and onions, a package of country gravy mix, and enough milk/water to make it soupy. Cheese optional. Heat and enjoy.<<<
Sounds good, would also work with leftover potatoes.
Anyone remember that movie from like the early ‘70s titled something like “Lilies of the Valley”? I tried a search but couldn’t find it. About all I remember was the man got sick and the little girl put boiled onions on his chest. I don’t know how onions on the outside of you would do any good, but whatever.<<<
Yes, onions have many uses on the outside of the body, the old ways used them as a poultice for cuts and boils and to draw fever out ...
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