Yard Sale Report for May 29, 2010

Ah!!! Finally - a warm and sunny Saturday morning. After not getting much yard sale action the past couple of weeks due to holding our own sale and some miserable weather last week, I was eager to get out today. There was a huge street sale being held nearby (it's held annually and a very popular event!) Often many houses in the neighbourhood "piggyback" onto this sale, taking advantage of the steady stream of shoppers. So it's a great "one stop shopping" opportunity.

Normally I head out on my bike alone, but my family likes to tag along for this street sale, so off we all went in the van. Before we left I had headed out on my bike to hit a couple sales really close by my house while my hubby got the boys fed and ready to roll. I came home with two good quality blank journals in pristine condition (I paid $1 each for them, which was a bit more than I normally would, but it was a charity fundraiser and I don't haggle at those!)

We hit three more yard sales on the way to the street sale, then spent a long time wandering around at the main event. We came home with:
-a set of four 2x4 furniture books (my hubby loves these - they're a great source of inspiration for building with scrap wood!) We paid $1.50 for the set and there was a price tag showing the original cost for the set as $103!!
-a set of four framed historic prints of our city for $9.50 - one frame will need the glass replaced and we'll probably spray paint the frames black. I have just the spot for them on our dining room wall, where a lonely Monet print from my university days has been hanging out for far too long!
-a set of two molds for making tortillas into taco bowls for 50 cents
-a "natural" candle and scented oil gift set (brand new) which also includes a candle holder and smooth rocks to put in the holder for 50 cents (going in my gift cupboard)
-a garden journal and "practical gardening" book - both in brand new condition, for $1 each (also going in my gift cupboard, but not for long as I already have a specific recipient and occasion in mind!)
-a set of black and silver earrings for $1

Grand total for the day: 15 items for $17 or $1.13 per item.

My boys also found themselves a few deals (they're taking after their mama!). They each got a GameCube game for $4, plus my older son found a long-handled net for 60 cents (he'd been wanting to buy one at Value Village for $1.99 a few weeks ago and I encouraged him to wait, which paid off!) My younger son picked up an Indiana Jones whip and a toy made out of that disgusting rubbery plastic stuff (blech).

A good time was had by all, and we came home with some great deals, too! I definitely feel like I got a good yard sale fix after this morning's outing.

Addendum:

I was just hitting "post" on this report when my hubby walked in the door from a bike ride and informed me there was another unadvertised yard sale we had to go check out with lots of shoes and clothes (he'd ridden past it on the way home). So we biked on over to take a look and found these:

-a pair of funky brown corduroy Converse-style sneakers for hubby
-a pair of never-been-worn slippers for my younger son (I'm tucking them away for Christmas)
-a pair of fabric Mary Jane style spring & summer shoes for me (they're a size 10, which is a minor miracle - I have a hard time finding shoes to fit my long and skinny feet!)

We paid $1.00 each for these, bringing our new total to $20 for 18 items, or $1.11 per item.



If you made any great yard sale finds this week, please tell me all about it by leaving a comment!

Food Waste Friday: Another Zero-Waste Week!

I'm pleased to report that I had another zero-waste week! This one seemed pretty easy to pull off, actually - I didn't even have to make a special effort to save anything from an untimely demise.  In the last couple of days my fridge has mysteriously filled up with food (I'm not quite sure how that happened - usually most things disappear at the speed of light around here!) so I am going to have to be vigilant to keep myself on a zero-waste roll. Head on over to The Frugal Girl if you want to know how others fared with their food waste this week.

I'm also excited to announce that I'm going to be holding my first giveaway next week! I'm going to keep the specifics a bit of a surprise until the official giveaway post goes up, but look for it on Tuesday - I promise it'll be worth your while. The giveaway will be open to all my Canadian and U.S. readers.

If you missed my earlier posts this week, I offered up a deliciously different baked bean recipe and shared how I got a gorgeous perennial garden for free! As usual, you can stop by tomorrow to check out my weekly yard sale report - after a couple rainy Saturdays, this week the weather is supposed to be fabulous.

Happy Memorial Day Weekend to all my U.S. readers!

How I Got a Gorgeous Perennial Garden for FREE!

Once the warm weather arrives, there's nothing I like better than puttering around in my garden. When we arrived on the scene seven years ago, the garden was pretty much non-existent, save for an ancient rose bush in the back yard that probably hadn't been tended for about 20 years (I'm NOT kidding - my husband needed a handsaw to prune it back!)

There were no existing garden beds in the front yard when we purchased our home; we had created some the first year we were here but started out planting them with annuals while we took some time to decide what we wanted for a more permanent "look". In retrospect, I wish I'd started my foray into perennials a lot sooner! Not only does it save a lot of money, it's a lot less work on the gardener since you don't have to plant a ton of plants at the beginning of every season.

This year our gardening budget is especially tight (basically we only have enough allotted to buy veggies and herbs). I have a large bed along the front of the house that I've been planting with shade impatiens each year, but I knew that I didn't have the money to purchase those plants. And to be honest, I was kind of tired spending hours on my knees planting all those flowers! So I decided that somehow, some way, I was going to get myself some perennials to fill in that bed.

Things got off to a good start when a neighbour down the street asked me if I'd like some ferns. She had received an unbelievable amount of them from a friend and had way more than she knew what to do with. I was more than happy to take the surplus off her hands, and planted them along the back of the bed (in front of the climbing hydrangea which runs under the porch, the only plant that was already there).

That was all the encouragement I needed to see how creative I could get with tracking down some more free plants. I had already received some irises from a neighbour, and swapped a computer desk at my yard sale for a hosta, a Rose of Sharon, some columbine and another fern, and some wild violets. Those were all tucked into my back garden bed, which I'd been wanting to expand for years. I decided to post an ad on Kijiji offering to swap plants I had a surplus of (mint, chives, hollyhocks, and raspberry canes) for any type of shade-loving perennial. I only got one response, but it was a fantastic one. A woman was looking to clear a multitude of plants out of her backyard (all of which had been planted by a previous owner). She didn't even want anything in return, she just wanted to get the garden cleared out ASAP! I did bring her some mint and chives as she decided she was going to start a bit of an herb garden. In exchange, I received enough plants to completely fill in my front garden bed:

Three Yucca plants, two pink Columbine, a couple big clumps of lilies, some ground cover that I don't know the name of (please fill me in if you do!), and two Rose of Sharon bushes. I am absolutely thrilled with how it turned out and can't wait to see how it all fills in over the course of the season.

After this experience, I don't think I will ever pay for a perennial plant again! Once my new garden gets itself established, I will have even more plants to swap with other gardeners. Trading with neighbours is a great way to get started, but to expand your plant horizons even further, I recommend trying the approach I used of putting a swap ad on Kijiji or Craigslist. If you have a lot of plants to trade, you could even organize a neighbourhood plant swap. Another idea I've had recently is to leave a note for homeowners if you see a plant you like that is big enough for division, offering to swap with them if they're interested. I haven't tried this yet, but I may next year as I see lots of gorgeous perennials in neighbourhood gardens when I'm out walking the dog.

I'd love to hear about your experiences if you've had success "gardening for free", so please leave a comment and tell me all about it!

RECIPE: West African-Style Baked Beans

Here in Canada, we just had our May long weekend (it was Victoria Day yesterday) and I know all my American readers will be celebrating Memorial Day this coming weekend. That means it's time to break out some great warm-weather recipes!

Nothing says summer to me like a great barbecued meal with some baked beans on the side. While I love traditional baked beans, we eat beans so often that I like to shake things up a bit with something slightly off the beaten path. These beans really fit the bill! They are deliciously good, and very different from traditional baked beans. They are my own adaptation of Madhur Jaffrey's "Baked Beans with Nigerian Seasonings" from World Vegetarian. My version is much quicker to prepare and heavier on the peanut butter & tomatoes - I like lots of rich sauce and lots of flavour! This dish is guaranteed to please both carnivores and vegetarians; it has been extremely well received at potluck dinners. My family loves these beans served with barbecued ribs and a hearty salad (Colourful Cabbage Salad, green bean or broccoli). Vegetarians can serve them with sauteed or grilled veggies and a hearty whole grain bread (like my Whole Wheat Bread or Pull Apart Garlic & Parmesan Breadsticks).

Ingredients:
Two 19 oz cans navy beans, rinsed and drained, or about 3 cups of cooked white beans
2 tbsp canola oil or other light vegetable oil
1 large onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp curry powder
6 Roma tomatoes, peeled and chopped
1/4 cup peanut butter (I use 2 really big spoonfuls!!)
about a tsp or so each salt and pepper
1 1/2 cups water

In a medium frying pan, saute the onions and garlic in the oil. Add curry powder and mix until well blended. Add tomatoes and cook until they start to soften. Add peanut butter, salt and pepper, and 1/2 cup water. Cook until bubbly. Add another cup of water and stir until well combined.

Put beans in a medium size casserole dish (1/2 - 2 quarts). Pour the peanut mixture over top, and stir gently until well blended.

Bake at 375F for about 1- 1 1/2 hrs. It should be really hot and bubbly and have a nice "crust" on the top.

I hope your family loves these as much as mine does!

This recipe is linked to the GCC Recipe Swap

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Yard Sale Report for May 22, 2010

 There was rain, rain and more rain in the forecast today, so I thought I might come up dry on the yard sale front. I decided not to even try any of the outdoor sales, and talked my husband into going down to a church rummage sale with me. This is the first time this year that I drove to a sale - it was already raining and looked like it might get worse! Plus, it was several kilometres away and I didn't want to be that far from home on my bike if it was really tipping it down.

As it turned out, it was a good thing I had hubby in tow, as the only thing we found was a summer button-down shirt for him. I will sometimes buy him clothes when he's not with me (he's just a little bit bigger than me, so I can usually guesstimate his size okay) but I prefer to have him there if possible. We got this shirt for $1.00. It looks better in real life than it does in the photo. He really needed some short sleeve "dressy casual" shirts, so this will be a good addition to his wardrobe.

Here's hoping for better weather and a wider selection of sales next Saturday!

Food Waste Friday: The Avocado Got Me!

 Image courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net

Last week's zero waste victory proved to be short lived. The very next day I went to cut up an avocado I thought was just fine, only to discover that it was well on its way to the dark side. I managed to salvage about 1/3 of it, the rest ended up in the compost. That was the only thing I wasted all week.

To see how others fared with their food waste, head on over to The Frugal Girl.

If this is your first stop by Abundance on a Dime this week, you might want to check out my recent post on How to Make Yogurt without a Yogurt Maker, Heating Pad or Crockpot. And be sure to stop by tomorrow for my weekly Yard Sale Report. It's a long weekend here in Canada, but there are still a few sales running so I hope to do some serious treasure hunting!

How to Make Yogurt without a Yogurt Maker, Heating Pad or Crockpot

Making yogurt has been just about the only frugal kitchen skill that has eluded me over the years. I first gave it a try over a decade ago, using a yogurt maker given to me by my mom, but just wasn't happy with the results. I gave up (too soon!) and went back to buying sale-priced yogurt.

A few months ago, I resolved to give yogurt-making another shot. I searched the internet for recipes and instructions, and broke out the yogurt maker that had been gathering dust in a cupboard. My first attempt using a new recipe was quite successful and I wondered why I had given up so easily years ago. Then I made another batch, and another, that didn't set properly. In the end, I discovered that the yogurt maker wasn't incubating consistently at the right temperature. In fact, I've heard of so many people getting inconsistent results with yogurt makers, that I wouldn't recommend buying one. I know many people get great results using a heating pad to incubate yogurt, but I don't have one. I do have a crockpot, but that method didn't appeal to me.

Really, the only trick to incubating yogurt is to find a way to keep it consistently at 110-115F for 8-10 hours. I came up with this Thermos-jug-and-cooler method which has worked well for me and uses items that most people already have laying around the house.

To use this method, you will need the following items:

 -a 1 1/2 to 2 litre Thermos jug
-2 old towels
-4 large Mason jars (1 to 1 1/2 litres)
-a large cooler

Prepare your yogurt as usual (if you're new to yogurt making, I highly recommend reading the article in The Complete Tightwad Gazette on this topic!)

Once you've heated the milk and you're waiting for it to cool down (so you can add starter), fill the Thermos jug with as-hot-as-you-can-get-it tap water to prewarm it. When you're ready to incubate your yogurt, empty the water out, and pour the cultured milk mixture in. Seal it up as quickly as possible to keep the heat in. Wrap the Thermos jug in one of the towels, and place in the centre of the cooler. Then fill the 4 Mason jars with very hot tap water and place around the towel-wrapped jug:

Take the second towel and wrap it around the whole thing:

Now close up the cooler to keep everything warm and toasty inside! Leave it to incubate for 8-10 hours. You should have a nicely set batch of yogurt after that amount of time.

One thing I really like about this method (aside from getting more consistent results) is that when I'm not making yogurt, I don't have any extra pieces of equipment to store - these are all items that have multiple uses around my house.

I'd love to hear how this works for you if you decide to give it a whirl!

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