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• 'Putting food by' -- worth the time or not?

  Posted Sep 08 2008, 09:21 AM by Donna Freedman
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  Filed under: extreme savings, giving, Donna Freedman, groceries
  Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money

  I spent Saturday afternoon in the kitchen turning free fruit into food for the winter. Sitting on my countertop are nine pints of home-canned pears, six jars of apple butter, and five jars of plum-pear jam.
  

  I have enough apples left to make about four quarts of applesauce, but I'm going to wait until the last of the pears ripen. That way, I'll be able to process both fruits in the water-bath canner simultaneously. I got the apples and pears by putting a note on Freecycle, asking permission to pick fruit that wasn't being harvested by homeowners. A neighbor allowed me to pick plums -- I still have about 15 pounds of them to deal with -- and for the past few weeks I'd been picking blackberries around the corner from my apartment.
  

  Saturday's experiment in urban gleaning cost me $13.20 for sugar, jar lids, one box of pectin and the gas to drive to pick the fruit. I'm not sure how much it cost to run the stove on high for 20 minutes and to run a slow cooker for seven hours. Not much, I expect, since my average electric use is 39 cents a day and I make most of my meals at home.   Read More...

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• Coffee for 99 cents a pound? It's no java jive

  Posted Nov 26 2007, 09:37 AM by Donna Freedman
  Rating:
  Filed under: extreme savings, giving, Donna Freedman, groceries
  Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
  Yesterday I bought a pound of Starbucks coffee for just 99 cents. You, too, can get super-cheap brew, either for gift-giving or for your own frugal morning buzz. All you need is some empty inkjet print cartridges and proximity to a Staples or Office Max. Both businesses give $3 in store credit for each ink cartridge; certain brands are not accepted, so check each company's rules. The stores where I live let me use up to three credits, or $9 worth, per transaction. Both sell a number of holiday gift items: hoity-toity chocolates, fancy cookies, and specialty coffees, teas and flavored cocoas. Over the weekend I shopped for art supplies for a community gift program. At Staples, I noticed the coffee cost $9.99. I handed over three cartridges and a buck, and walked out with a penny in change and a pound of java. Had I been at Office Max, the brew would have been from another hometown brand, Seattle's Best Coffee . Jitter bells This is a frugalist's dream: nearly free gifts, or nearly free morning   Read More...
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