Craft Markets or Shows

A few days ago, I went to a local craft market.  I seldom spend money at these types of events being an avid crafter myself.  I basically go to get the ideas of what to make for holiday gift giving.  Every once in awhile I will buy something, knowing full well I can easily make my own version of it myself or at the very least find out how to make it.  If you are crafty, this is definitely the time to be spending a bit of time at craft markets or shows!

Craft markets or shows are rather interesting.  The crafts tend to be textile (eg. knitter or crocheted  items), wood items, hand crafted jewelry, homemade candles and homemade baked goods.  In my experience, vendors tend to have their prices on the high side but you are getting something unique and they do have to pay for their table along with all associated costs so they really are making nothing off of what they sell.  As a crafter, I am well aware of this so have no problem supporting fellow crafters especially during the holiday season.  It spreads a bit of good cheer :)

At the same time, I know and know where to find the resources these very same crafters are selling.  It doesn't matter that I'm not a competitor, it matters that I can make the very same thing myself at a fraction of the cost for gift giving.  Not only that, many crafters are very generous with sharing their suppliers and how they do things especially if they don't view you as being the competition.

While I am a avid crafter I don't sell my crafts.  They are created for my family, friends and our enjoyment.  I honestly don't think there is much of a market in many hand crafted items, certainly not enough to pay for the materials and time.  Rather, I craft out of the love of crafting and as a way to keep my hands busy while watching television.  Knitting and crocheting tend to help me relax as well, most times unless it is a poorly written pattern. Still, craft markets can be a mecca for supporting other crafters while getting a few new ideas of crafts you would like to make for gift giving.

Feather & Grass Decorative Planter

I have been spending a fair amount of shopping time at Home Hardware lately buying paint, painting supplies and gardening supplies.  They have a section of decorative accent pieces.  I noticed an artificial pampus grass planter that I thought would look nice in our freshly made-over main bathroom [More on that to come this week].   However, it was $59.99 so I didn't buy it as that money would be better spent painting another room in my quest to have all the rooms painted in the house before the end of May.  Then I came up with a brilliant idea, one that was less expensive and one that could be changed out without waste whenever I desired.  Off to the dollar store...

I bought one 6 - inch clay pot ($1.50), seven feather & grass spears ($1 each) and a bag of sphagnum  moss ($1) for a total cost of $9.50.  I recycled some packaging styrofoam from the garage to hold the spears.  I disassembled two of the spears to use the leaf portion and make the planter look a bit more realistic.  Once the spears were arranged, I covered the styrofoam with the moss.  I got the look I wanted for $9.50 effectively saving myself $50.49!  The best thing is, I can easily take the planter apart and reuse everything in other projects with very little effort. 

Garden Gnome
©2006-2012

Rain Checks

When it comes to shopping my general consensus is I would prefer not to, at least in the conventional manner.  You definitely would not catch me shopping for something to do or even weekly grocery shopping.  I tend to shop if and when I have to, usually if I need or want a particular item.  Then it tends to be the sales. 

We get the local sales flyers each week.  I sort them into two piles - interested and toss.  Those flyers going into the interested are grocery stores, Home Hardware, Canadian Tire and sometimes the lumberstore.  I compare prices in the grocery store flyers and if there is a few item to make it worthwhile to drive 20 minutes each way, I set that particular flyer aside.  Other than that most weeks the grocery flyers are tossed into the recycle bin.  Home Hardware and Canadian Tire are two of my favourite places for any necessary household appliances which are few and far between, home canning supplies and other necessary household items.  Most weeks those flyers end up in the recycle bin as well.  This week I had my eye on a Hamilton Beach programmable slow cooker at Canadian Tire to replace my slowly dying, ancient Rival with the spliced cord where it got burned.  With the new TOU and HST on the hydro bill I need to replace my old energy sucking Rival slow cooker with a new, a bit more energy efficient model.  This particular slow cooker performed nearly as well as the top slow cooker when tested by Cook's Illustrated.

This morning I called one of our kids to pick up the slow cooker for me as I had too many things to do to go into town today.  The main problem with shopping in smaller communities is there is less demand so the stores don't bring in as many sale items.  What they do instead is issue a rain check if the item is not available during the sale and while you have to wait for the item to come in with the next shipment, you still get it at the sale price.  Depending on the store this may take a week or two but most times they are fairly good.  A rain check resembles a hand written fill in the blanks coupon with a teller's stamp and expiration date.  Most rain checks are good anywhere from a week to a month depending on the store and expected time of arrival of the item.  Many people don't think to ask for a rain check but the beauty is you still get the item you want at the sale price simply by waiting a little longer.  Even the grocery stores in our area issue rain checks unless specified in the flyer.  Rain checks are in my opinion an excellent way to shop frugally!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2010

The Vacation Home Office Futon

Vacation Home Office Futon

September 17, 2010

When we bought our vacation home it was pretty much empty.  The previous owner left a kitchen table set, patio set, couch, chair, tv stand with tv, a double sized mattress with boxpring, low boy dresser and 2 night stands.  We were very fortunate that furniture was left as it saved us a bit of money in having to completely furnish the house.  Since our intentions were to rent the house out when we weren't using it, we had no choice but to buy furnishings and all the extras required to put the house into the rental program.

We are rather savy shoppers certainly not above buying good quality used furniture or knock down furniture.  I posted earlier about the knock down furniture we bought for the vacation home office.  This is really a cute little room with double French doors set on an angle to cut one corner from the room creating a rather appealing shape.  We immediately saw the potential to use this room for extra sleeping quarters if necessary.  The problem was we didn't want it to look like an extra bedroom.  As luck would have it we found a used futon in excellent condition that is a very close match to the livingroom couch and chair.  It is the same material, same colour and only differs a bit in design.  This is nice because the office opens to the livingroom so matching colours is a nice bonus.  The futon came with two matching pillows and has extra storage underneath for bedding.  The futon cost $125.  We also bought a floor lamp for $17.99.  The total cost to furnish the den was $271.21 coming in well under our $500 budget.

A couple of decorative elements will finish off the room.  I'm thinking a couple of artificial plants (practical as they won't need care when the house is empty) and a mirror or framed print will finish off the room nicely.  These won't be expensive items either.  It is just a matter of finding something that works well with the room.

Garden Gnome
©2006-2010

Setting Up a Vacation Home (1)

Over the past week or so I have had the great pleasure of setting up our vacation home. The two assets that assisted me on this endeavour were frugality and experience.  We started with a somewhat empty, in need of cleaning vacation home that was partially furnished with all appliances except washer and dryer when we bought it.  Trust me we were grateful for ever piece of furniture and appliances that came with the house!  Now picture this a nice kitchen with nothing other than large appliances.  Do you have any idea as to how much is needed to get a kitchen going?  It seriously was mind boggling and that is where both frugality and experience comes into play.  The next few posts will give a few tips on setting up a vacation home to make it feel like a home not just a pit stop.

Garden Gnome
©2006-2010

Finding Farm Stands

I strongly advocate buying locally as close to home as possible.  Ideally we try to consume foods that are grown/produced/sold within a 100 mile radius of our home.  I followed the 100 Mile Challenge a television series hosted by James MacKinnon and Alisa Smith and prominent locavores where 6 families took the 100 Mile Challenge to eat locally for 100 days.  What really amazed me is the amount of complaining about what they couldn't eat brought up by these familiess.

A 100 Mile Challenge would be rather easy where we live.  Surprisingly this does not eliminates a many foods as you would think given our location.  We are in the food belt of Canada which means a lot of locally grown foods.  Surprisingly sugar beets are grown in our area that are refined into sugar in Michigan still coming within the 100 mile radius and salt is mined also near-by.  We also have locally produced wines, whiskey and beers.  It's easier to list some of the foods that aren't grown locally such as peppercorn, cocoa, coffee beans, black/green teas, most citrus and tropical fruits, wild salmon (although occasionally locally caught), cinnamon, vanilla beans so there are definitely some foods we would have go without if doing a full challenge.  However, we aren't doing a full challenge so it works out that about 90% of the foods we consume are grown/produced/sold fall into the 100 mile radius.  The first question many ask is how do you find the smaller roadside stands?

Finding roadside stands in our area is not difficult.  Some are listed in Ontario Foodland pamphlets and some do a bit of advertising but for the most part finding the smaller ones are by word of mouth, luck or serendipity.  A slow drive through the countryside is sure to uncover roadside stands.

Pictured is a roadside stand sign we spotted while picking up our beef.  As roadside signs go this one is quite nice and at least visible before having to slam on the brakes then to do a quick reverse.  What is even more annoying is after you do all this the stand may be closed.  A lot of times the stands use the honour system self-service of trusting you to put the money in a provided container.  In most cases signage is hand written on small pieces of board nailed to wherever they can nail it so quite often there is little notice.

Signage is a great way to find roadside stands.  In Ontario look for the Foodland Ontario sign as well although as in this case it is not where you could easily see it from the road.  Farm stands are usually rather plan with a table for the produce and some type of sun protection over top.  Many serious sellers are putting up fancier shed shops.  They aren't big, only about the size of a large garden shed but they do standout against the landscape well before seeing the farm stand sign.  They are usually set fairly close to the road.



Bon Appétit!

Garden Gnome

Garden Gnome
©2006-2010

A Few Dollar Store Finds

A Few Dollar Store Finds

May 8, 2010

Last month I posted how  dollar stores are the new five and dime.  Some are a bit snobbish in that they feel dollar stores on sell cheap products and in fairness some products from China have really gotten a bad rap in recent months.  Despite this problem as long as you are an informed consumer there are a lot of excellent deals at the dollar stores. While a lot of products are from China a surprising number are from other countries including Canada and the USA.  Dollar stores are now carrying a lot more in the lines of groceries so they are quite popular with families trying to save a few dollars on their grocery bill.

Two or three times a year I check out a dollar store usually spending about $50 each time.  The times tend to be rather specific to spring when I'm gearing up for gardening, mid-summer before the busiest of the canning season and during the holiday season.  Of course a few other items find their way into the cart.  My recent dollar store shopping trip was to pick up damp traps (next post) and canning jar lids (the following post) along with a few gardening supplies.  I ended up spending $61.17 ($2.63 GST, $4.04 PST) total.

Pictured are a few of the extras I bought.  We have been using reusable cloth shopping bags for quite some time and we did splurge on a large insulated shopping bag that likely holds about 3 times the amount of cold foods as a normal shopping bag.  I found an insulated cooler bag at the dollar store for $1.25 that is about the same size as a normal shopping bag just perfect for bringing cold foods home from the grocery store when we aren't buying a lot.  This will help keep the food in the food safe temperature zone.  My cutting boards are getting to the point of needing to be replaced so I bought 2, one bamboo and one polyethylene.  Bamboo has natural antibiotic properties which is quite appealing but I want to see how the bamboo cutting board works with my knives before changing out the cutting boards.  This is an inexpensive way to do a kitchen test for performance.  I really like acrylic serving bowls for entertaining!  They have a nice sparkle while being functional indoors and out.  Since some of my serving bowls tend to develop legs throughout the year it seems I'm always replacing a piece or two.  I really liked the sparkly blue of the acrylic serving bowl that will look gorgeous on our dock!  I also bought a popsicle mold for when the grandbabies visit.  I can fill these with healthy juices for a summer treat.  The cost of the items pictured was $7.75 but they are are functional items that will last quite some time and save money over their lifetime.

Garden Gnome
©2006-2010