Dee

I cut off the bottom of my filled vaccum bag,empty outside into large trash can, restaple and reuse.I can get 2 or 3 reuses from one bag.

a cheaper form of feed for house plants - tea. A cold cup of tea left mixed in the watering can does some plants the world of good. Of course you wait until you've already used the teabag three or four times. If you re-use the bag, it becomes more economical to buy the more expensive bags.

Lowie one of the old time remedy's for Body Oder is to use Baking Soda as a deodorant and body power. I should check to see if that has the alum in it.

I sent numerous smaller boxes out to the fellows this weekend and also sent each a case of Macaroni and Cheese.. LOL They may be tired of it by the time they get home.

Reci slides in place next to Happy and bows her head in silent prayer........

Congrats Nana... I look forward to getting to know you. You are certainly loved here on the board. Its good to have you back!

3 lbs Chicken parts or breast 1/3 cup of honey 1/3 Cup of chili sauce or catsup 1/3 cup of soy sauce In a shallow baking pan arrange chicken. Combine remaining ingredients in a small bowl. Pour over chicken. If time allows, let marinate up to one hour. Bake 30 to 40 minutes at 350. Baste occasionally.

Everyone loves these- watchout they will put on the POUNDS and can be addictive. 1 1/2 cup of Powdered sugar 1 cup of crushed animal cookies or vanilla cookies can substitute ghramcracker crumbs if needed. 1/2 cup of salted sweet cream butter 1/2 cup creamy peanutbutter (recees is what we use) 1 Pkg semi- sweet Chocolate chips Wax paper cookiesheet (that fits in the fridge) Storage container if making multiple batches Mix cookie crumbs and Powdered sugar in a bowl Place butter and Peanutbutter in a small pan and heat slowly on medium till melted. Pour Peanutbutter mixture into the crumbs and Mix well getting everything gooy. Make small balls (Tsp sized) and place on a wax paper covered cookie sheet. Refridgerate 5 minutes (time to melt the chocolate!) Melt the chocolate chips in the microwave, no not over melt and scald! Top each Cookie ball with 1 Tsp of melted chocolate, making sure it "drips" down the sides a little. Refridgerate till firm and you can store in a ziplock or other container.

Low Fat Double Chocolate Mocha Trifle recipe Ingredients: 1 (19.8 ounce) package reduced fat brownie mix 1 3/4 cups cold skim milk 2 (3.3 ounce) packages instant sugar free, fat free white chocolate pudding mix 4 teaspoons instant decaf coffee granules 2 tablespoons warm water 2 cups frozen low fat whipped topping, thawed 3 (1.4 ounce) bars chocolate covered toffee bars, chopped Directions: 1 Prepare brownies according to package directions. Bake and cool completely. Cut into 1 inch cubes. 2 In a medium bowl, whisk together milk and pudding mix until mixture begins to thicken. Dissolve coffee granules in water and stir into pudding mixture. Fold in whipped topping. 3 In a glass serving bowl, layer one-third of brownie cubes, one-third of pudding mixture and one-third of candy. Repeat layering until all ingredients are used. Chill 30 minutes in refrigerator before serving.

1 Cup Margerine 1 Cup Cooking Oil or melted Oleo 1 Cup Powdered Sugar 1 Cup Granulated Sugar 2 Eggs Beat Well __________ In a seperate bowl, 4 1/2 Cups Flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon cram of tartar 1 teaspoon vanilla 1/2 teaspoon salt Sift & add to the above ingredients. Add 1/2 to 1 Cup chopped pecans. Make into balls, flatten slightly, bake at 350 for about 12 minutes.

Todays dinner fare consist of : Roast Beef with roasted potatoes, onions and carrots simmered in its own beef juices, Home made baguette with melted butter and onion power warmed in the over and chilled fresh whole peaches!

Got mine out over the weekend!

Thats the spirit Puss... let him know whose boss of the scratching post!

Congrats Granny!!! All babies are a joy! Have fun.

Toilet bowls come up shiny when cleaned with old, flat Coke or Pepsi. Leave overnight to dissolve limescale

Use bread to pick up fragments of broken glass.

Apply mineral oil over your shower doors and tile surface. That delays the mineral build-up in future use.

Aluminum The last three decades have seen a steady increase of aluminum in our environment and diet. Many junk and fake foods contain additives, for example raising agents in muffins and donuts and more than half of the water utilities use aluminum sulphate to clarify drinking water. Other source include antacids, buffered aspirin and anti-perspirants. Many food colors use aluminum salts to make the color brighter. Americans are most at risk and Europeans next with Africans and Asians much less likely to have problems. Aluminum (European spelling Aluminium) is harmful to all life forms. It damages all types of tissue. "Aluminum is a protoplasmic poison and a pernicious and persistent neurotoxin". No living systems use aluminium as part of a biochemical process. It has a tendency to accumulate in the brain and to a lesser extent, bones. It is considerably less toxic than mercury, arsenic, lead or cadmium, but it appears to be more persistent than any of them. The danger is one that only manifests itself over long periods of time. It is therefore prudent to avoid consumption. Avoidance is currently the best way of protecting you and your family from the serious, long term damage that can result from ingestion. Pregnant and lactating women, the young and the elderly are at risk. The most effective way of preserving your mental acuity in to your later years appears to be eliminating the sources of aluminum in the diet. One can take steps to minimise the effects of aluminium in the environment. A sustained, three pronged attack is the most effective response; Avoiding it, Blocking its uptake with supplements Eating foodstuffs that help to eliminate it from your system. Aluminum contaminated consumables are now very common. Being aware of the sources is the first step in elimination. Removing from your diet can be quite easy if a gradual approach is taken. The principal symptom of aluminum poisoning is the loss of intellectual function; forgetfulness, inability to concentrate, and in extreme cases, full blown dementia. It is also known to cause bone softening and bone mass loss, kidney and other soft tissue damage, in large doses it can cause cardiac arrest. Many of those who have gone on to low aluminum diets have reported a reduction in irritability, headaches and significant improvements in memory and ability to concentrate. Parents reported improvements in children suffering from behavioral problems. One series of tests came up with the finding that the majority of children suffering from an attention deficit disorder had much higher than average levels of aluminium in their hair. Experiments have shown that many of those Alzheimer's Disease patients given treatment to remove aluminum from their system experience an immediate reduction in the rate of deterioration. Feeding even relatively small amounts of some aluminum salts to laboratory animals results in brain tissue damage identical to that found in Alzheimer's sufferers (neuro-fibrillary tangles). Recent research using laboratory rats has identified aluminum fluoride as a particularly nasty substance, it readily penetrates the blood-brain barrier. Significant damage was registered when they were given drinking water with only 0.5 parts per million concentration. The following additives contain aluminium compounds: E173, E520, E521, E523 E541, E545, E554, E555 E556, E559. Antacids quite often contain aluminum trisilicate as does buffered aspirin. Foods containing aluminium based additives include dry cake mixes, pastries and croissants made from frozen dough, processed cheeses, some donuts and waffles, check muffins for E541. The list of substances containing aluminium salts is quite depressing, it even includes toothpaste!, especially tooth whitening products. A worrying development is the hidden aluminum in food coloring, even organic colorings such as Cochineal can have been treated with color enhancers or mordants, usually aluminum. The use of aluminum in drinking water is starting to be looked at in Canada and Australia, most utilities in Europe and the United States do exceed the recommended level of 100 microgrammes per litre, some by as much as sixty times! Another obvious and easily avoided source is aluminum cooking pots and pans, this can be quite easily remedied by using enamelled, stainless steel and cast iron pots. Cooking in earthenware and glass containers is another option. There is no need to throw out all of your aluminium pots, it is OK to fry food in aluminium pans and intact teflon coatings will effectively prevent any contamination. Pregnant women also those who are breast feeding their children should avoid all sources as should those on slimming and weight loss diets. Apparently when iron, and calcium, and to a lesser degree magnesium, silicon and zinc levels drop, the uptake of aluminium worsens. Taking mineral supplements seems to be a good idea, particularly for vegetarians, absorption is dramatically reduced by the presence of iron in the body. As it is cumulative, slow acting and extremely persistent, older people are at particularly at risk, the kidneys and blood-brain barrier lose their effectiveness as we age. Until the water utilities get the level of aluminum down to safer levels it is prudent to use untreated spring or mineral water for drinking and cooking. Few of us are wealthy enough to spend two months in the year at a health spa, however you can help eliminate toxic metals including aluminum simply by drinking sulfur containing spring water such as "San Pellagrino". Beans and garlic are believed counter build-up by their detoxifying sulfur compounds (sulf-hydryls). Unfortunately in the USA there is quite a strong and vocal effort by interested parties who use extremely well funded and organised lobbying and proxy organisations to present aluminium compounds as harmless minerals, however is is not all gloom and doom as there are now several independent researchers who are doing their own tests to establish the toxic effects of the metal. Despite the noise and doubts generated by powerful vested interests there is more than enough evidence to justify eliminating it from our diet. If you follow some of the links at the foot of this article you will find research that shows that aluminum is twice as effective as cadmium in producing the neurfibrillary tangles (sometimes referred to as microtubule damage) that are characteristic of Alzheimer's Disease. There is also a paper that describes tests of a substance, aluminium fluoride which is present in drinking water. Minute quantities, as little as 0.5 parts per million were found to result in the formation of beta amyloid proteins, a characteristic of Alzheimers disease. Are aerosol sprays harmful ? Use of aerosol sprays by pregnant mothers is to be discouraged: researchers at the University of Bristol England found a 25 percent increase in headaches among pregnant mothers who used them daily -- over those who use them once a week or less. Babies had 30 percent more ear infections and 22 percent more diarrhoea in homes where aerosol sprays were used-- Dave Edmunds If you keep pet birds then you should avoid using "Febreeze". Birds are acutely sensitive to zinc. Mammals can tolerate and in fact need zinc as an essential component of their metabolism. Also avoid using antiperspirants, they contain aluminum which is also very toxic to birds. Do not allow them to eat bread unless it is organic, bread can contain up to 40mg/Kg aluminum and this is enough to kill them (especially small birds) in quite a short time. Some muffins, waffles and donuts have even more in the form of aerating agents. The Blood-Brain Barrier and Dementia: An intact blood-brain barrier is essential to protect the delicate brain cells from damage from neurotoxic substances accumulating and poisoning brain cells. It is likely that any factor which reduces the effectiveness of the mechanism will result in a more rapid build -up of mercury and aluminium. The increased use of mobile phones is believed to reduce the effectiveness of the BBB and one can therefore expect an increase in this new form of dementia.

Many people buy "decaffeinated" tea, however it is easy to take the caffeine out of any tea... just steep it for about a minute, this releases the caffeine... pour that off and add water to re-steep. You won't notice a difference in the taste, but the caffeine will be mostly gone

If your watch has a plastic 'glass' - like Swatches do - and it has become scratched, polish it with Brasso. It might seem to get worse at first but persevere for only a few minutes and it will become completely clear and scratch free.

Twelve Secrets to Single Income Success by Ruth Demitroff --------------------------------------------------------------- Our family consists of working dad, stay-at-home mom, 3 sons - 16, 14, 11 plus a daughter 13, two beagle hounds, a cat and a fish. If we stop and think about it, most of us do know how to live on one income. Here are some tips to get you started: 1. Remember those College Days. Bet funds were limited then. If you don't remember, look up some campus newspapers on the internet and see what the poor crowd are doing for entertainment. 2. Think about those lazy, hazy summer days of tenting and cottaging. If you simplify your life drastically, people will say your lifestyle reminds them of being at the cottage. 3. Visit your grandmother or great grandmother and her friends. Many people who lived through the depression know lots and lots about household economy. They also know how to put a good face on poverty and present an elegant lifestyle to the world. 4. Go to the Library. There are all kinds of books on decorating, learning to cook, learning to clean, making things, etc. 5. Search the Web. Set a goal to find enough money-saving ideas monthly to at least pay for your internet access. 6. If you can't afford something, ask yourself what it is you really want and perhaps you can arrive at a better solution that is more economical. I need new nightgowns. I don't want to spend $20. I've been given a pile of printed cotton sheets. I have a sewing machine I'd like to learn how to use. Why not use an old nightgown as a pattern and learn to sew using the free sheets? If it works great. If it doesn't work - you're not out more than the cost of a spool of thread. 7. Talk to your kids. Find out what is and is not essential to them. I raised my kids in hand-me-downs. When I asked them if that was a damaging thing to do, they said they liked being able to play without having to worry about what was happening to their clothes. They thought the freedom was more important than having the latest styles. 8. Experiment with cooking. If you don't have the proper ingredients, consider trying a substitution rather than blowing the budget by going to the store midweek. My cooking can get pretty bizarre but the kids say they eat a lot better than their friends who always get take-out food. 9. Don't forget to have fun. Staying at home doesn't mean being indoors all the time. Go outside and smell the flowers. 10. Talk the family into pooling their possessions. I don't sort out T-shirts by who owns what. They are all put in the same closet and everyone grabs what they like in the morning. Everyone in our family goes to school looking like they have an incredibly large wardrobe but that's because they have 6 peoples' clothing to choose from. 11. Invest in things that have long-term play value - sports equipment, musical instruments, camping gear, carpentry tools. If you bought the camping equipment during a good year, the kids won't notice that things are tighter another year if they can go on the same camping trip. Last month, my son asked for a Titanic boat. I told him to go make one. He disappeared for days and when he finished he had made a wonderful boat from things he had found around the house and yard. 12. Remember those long, leisurely romantic afternoons from your youth. Recreate them and I guarantee you won't care what's happening at the mall.

Reuse Page One thing that I like to do is find other uses for everyday items and throw away items. I am including a few of my ideas. I have a lot but will add to it as I have the time. Some call them household hints, I call them reuses. Here they are: Reuses Toilet tissue tubes or paper towel tubes Milk Jug Lids Baby food and juice bottles Pantihose Plastic margarine tubs and whipped topping bowls Plastic bread sacks Popsicle sticks Plastic milk jugs 3 lb cans(instant potatoes or coffee) Plastic grocery bags with handles Plastic ice cream buckets Old mismatched socks Nail polish Reclosable plastic bags Plastic yogurt cups with lids Toilet tissue tubes or paper towel tubes- Stuff with plastic grocery store bags. - 3 fit in a tp roll and 6-7 fit in a paper towel tube. Cut in 2 - 3 inch widths and decorate for personalized napkin rings. Fill with small gifts or toys, or a baggie with snack size candy. Cover with a rectangle of wrapping paper allowing it to extend 2-3" past both openings. Use a pretty ribbon to tie the ends closed. You can then snip and fringe the ends and curl them or leave them as they are. These are poppers or English Crackers. They would be given to children for Christmas or special occasions. Pull both ends with a quick hard jerk and the tearing paper makes a popping sound. Fold up extension or appliance cords and insert in tube. Roll ribbons or lace on it that will be damaged if folded. Milk Jug lids- Use as paint palettes. One for each color. Wash or throw away when finished. Baby food and juice bottles Put ½ cup cold milk and 1 tbsp of instant pudding in bottle. Close lid and shake vigorously for 1 minute and refrigerate. Creates individual serving of pudding. Nail lids to bottom of a wooden shelf. Fill jars with nail, screws, etc..., and screw to lids. Store beads, paper clips, elastics, etc.... Pantihose Put in freezer overnight once when you get them. It strengthens them and prevents snags and runs longer. Cut off legs of clean pantihose and store onions in. Place in one onion and tie a knot. Repeat and hang in a cool dry place. As you need an onion, snip it off from the bottom. A leg can be placed in your tool box in your car. It can be used in an emergency for a fan belt. Tie between the two or more wheels the fan belt was on and pull as tight as you physically can knot the pantihose to keep them on.(double) Cut off excess. It will last long enough to get you to a repair shop or part house to get a new belt on.(mine lasted 2-3 weeks before wearing out and breaking off. I don't suggest you leave it on that long though.) Plastic margarine tubs and whipped topping bowls Use to store left-overs in the fridge. Punch holes with a paper punch evenly spaced around top. Sc evenly around the top of the bowl. Sc evenly for up to 4 or more inches according to size of bowl. Dc one row and sc 2 or 3 more rows. Weave a draw string(chain the length you need) through the dc row and tie ends together. It can be used for curler, Barbie doll clothes, toys, barrettes, beach supplies, etc... Plastic bread sacks Start at the top of the clean bread sack and cut in a 1" width around in a continuous piece. Crochet into bath mats, placemats, purses, slippers, anything you can think of. Rinse and dry thoroughly and store. Use to store fresh baked bread in when you need to freeze it.(I make 6 or 7 at a time). Keep one in the freezer to put bread heels in . When full I make stuffing from the bread. Slip one on your foot before putting on galoshes of snow boots. These will keep your feet dry incase the boots leak. Popsicle sticks Use as plant stakes for small plants Glue together and decorate for a picture frame(great idea for Mother's or Father's Day gift). Use to hold down something that has been hot glued. This way you don't burn your fingers. Plastic milk jugs Always wash and rinse thoroughly before reusing. Do not let the milk dry or sour or the jug is useless. Mix punch by the gallon. Freeze water in bottom 1/3 and fill the rest of the way with water for a cold drink on trips. Use as a watering jug for plants. Cut open the top front and use to store loose items on a shelf(decorate to match your bathroom. Cut in half through the middle and give to a child to use in a sand box. Cut off bottom and use as a funnel. Cut off bottom and leave lid on. This makes a great scoop for scooping potting soil. 3 lb cans(instant potatoes or coffee) Store beans, rice, pasta, etc... Add a bay leaf or two to each can. Wrap can in contact paper to match your kitchen for personalized canisters. Pour 1- 2" of cement in the bottom of the can and insert a 12" metal hollow pipe bigger around than your tent poles. When dry and hard, punch a small hole 1" from top edge. Put in tent pole and tie to can through the hole. This will keep your tent from blowing away in a strong wind. Make one for each corner. This is also good for shade tarps used at craft bazaars and fairs. Plastic grocery bags with handles Use as garbage bags for small cans. Already has the handle ties. Store yarn, paper towels, toilet paper, etc.. Tie closed and hang from hooks in a closet or storage room. Use when having a yard sale to pack the customers merchandise in. Plastic ice cream buckets Use to store children's toys in: blocks, crayons, doll clothes, cars, etc... Use to store small year supply items on a shelf so they aren't loose and are together: bar soap, toothpaste, spices, etc... Don't forget to date items or bucket so you can rotate your items. Old mismatched socks Fill with rice(not instant) and sew closed. Keep in refrigerator or freezer in a reclosable plastic bag and use as a cold pack. Keep rice dry. For heat pack, heat in the microwave for 30 seconds. It retains the heat or cold for a long time. As long as the rice is kept dry, it can be reused many times. Cut the same as the plastic bread sacks and crochet for an very absorbent and thick bath mat, etc... Use to create hand puppets for small children. Nail polish Coat tips of knitting needles and crochet hooks that have been nicked and snag.. It smooths out the tip like new. Use assorted colors to cover nicks in appliances. Reclosable plastic bags Place crushed ice in and seal for a quick ice pack. Use to store bandages, ointments, etc... for a travel first aid kit. 1 - 2 gallon size if great for storing skeins of yarn in. 3 fit in a 1 gallon bag and 5 - 6 fit in a 2 gallon bag. Place liquid poster paints in a large bag and seal with all the air removed. Lay flat on a table and let kids use fingers on outside of the bag to make designs without making a mess. Plastic yogurt cups with lids Can be used as disposable sick cups for children with colds, etc... Use to wash out paint brushes in. Store a lunch box snack in, raisins, granola, M&M's, etc... Store craft supplies in. Use to water plants that are to high to lift a watering can. Just fill and pour.

Gardening for (Almost) Nothing How and why to get seeds, seedlings and plants frugally for your garden Page 1 > page 2 Whether you have a coffee can full of compost or a thousand acres of farmland, you can grow at least some of your own food for much less than you'd pay for it, and in some instances for free. Get a few plants, a little water and some gardening wisdom, (the kind found at the local library or at Gardening), and you can frugally grow everything from potatoes and carrots to artichokes and asparagus. Careful, though, it can be kind of scary to walk into a garden center and look at the price of bedding plants! Believe me, that's not a frugal plan. For the price of a few of those plants, it seems to be cheaper (and certainly easier) to just buy a few tomatoes and lettuce at the store. Why do they cost so much? The grower has invested in all sorts of lighting and containers and heating and watering systems to make the conditions just right to germinate and grow the largest amount of seed possible with the smallest amount of fuss and failure. While it would be impossible to duplicate that sophisticated setup at home without an enormous cost, it is possible to grow our own bedding plants - and decide ourselves how much we want to pay for them. Method One This method is simple and straightforward, and while it can save money over buying the plants and/or the produce, it doesn't save as much as other methods do. You simply go to the store and buy seed, buy rows or racks of seedling pots, buy soil and/or peat moss and put them all together in a warm spot and water and wait and hope for the best. Method Two The second method is similar, except that you use the seed saved from last year, the pots can be saved from last year, or you can use empty food cans, or plastic bowls for containers or just about anything else you can scrounge. Be sure to punch drainage holes in the containers and don't use clear glass jars; the light can cause fungi and other nasties to grow in the soil. Method Three Third (you knew this was coming, didn't you'?) is the super frugal way. Save your own seed, or trade with other seed savers for what you want. Make seedling pots from biodegradable newspaper so you won't have to disturb the tiny roots of the seedlings. Use your own compost or trade with someone for some of their compost, to start the seedlings. Test the soil by putting a drop of vinegar in a teaspoon or so - if it fizzes, it's too alkaline. Then test it by putting in baking soda mixed with a little water - if it fizzes, it's too acidic. And yet another way If you're not really into starting plants from seeds, but you want to garden within your budget nonetheless, there are ways to get free, or almost free plants. Gardening from scraps When you buy fresh vegetables over the winter, look for plants that have some of the roots left. Often, these can be put in a dish of water and they'll begin to grow. Keep your eyes open, too, for food that's trying to sprout... potatoes are the most common of these. (No, you don't need special 'seed potatoes'.) Save potatoes with 'eyes' for spring planting outside. Turnip roots can be replanted indoors; so can celery roots and carrot tips. Don't cut too much of the vegetable away, but leave a half inch or so with the root. You can eat the rest. Carrots which have gone limp in your refrigerator will often grow beautiful tops in a container on a window sill. You can eat carrot tops fresh or cooked, and you can stick a radish that's looking pretty bad in a container of dirt with plenty of water and it will grow and give you delicious radish seed pods. At this moment I have, growing on my kitchen windowsill, two firm little white onions almost the size of golfballs. They grew from a soft little onion the size of a penny that was trying to sprout late last fall - the kind that gets thrown in the garbage. Why throw away good food? Just because it doesn't look so appetizing now doesn't mean it won't be good eating with the proper conditions. Give it a try. It's fun and it's extremely frugal! More reading: Seed Starting Basics has some good tips on getting those seedlings started and transplanted. No Cost Gardening includes the work, the compost, the plants... Flowers for free is a great idea for 'finding' free flowers. Seed Starting Basics Why do gardeners plant seeds indoors? It's not just that we can't wait for spring, it's to get a head start on everybody else. DEB SIMPSON CONTEMPLATING THE MIRACLE of plants from seeds is often what keeps diehard gardeners from becoming lunatics while awaiting the beginning of Spring. Seed catalogs and good conversation fill the gaps, but the truly industrious will prepare a method for starting seeds indoors. More About Seed Starting Web Resources • Clyde's Garden Planner • Last frost dates for major U.S. cities • Last frost dates by U. S. county • Seed spoons More Techniques for Seed Starting • From Garden Gate magazine Seeds are relatively cheap, and it's down right rewarding to spend a buck or so on a seed pack and have dozens of transplants for the garden early in the growing season. And it would be a pity to miss the beginnings of all those juicy tomatoes that you intend to harvest weeks before anyone else. The seasoned gardener will even make indoor plantings in intervals of a week or more, since the very first transplants into the garden may be well before the average last frost date. It's a gamble we enjoy making, and the rewards are great if we succeed. If all goes well, we manage to get a head start on the season with healthy plants well before disease, bugs and vermin become active. In addition, we've also felt only a light frustration of losing that first batch of transplants in the event of frost, since we have their replacements already waiting to try again. In defense of intervals, we also have Plan B in place not only in the event of frost but for things that we'd never even imagined --like a pet bird who nipped the tops of the basil seedlings, or a dog who felt a need to dig a hole inside the house. There's even an old family rumor of a well-meaning boy scout who applied an entire bag of fertilizer to a seed bed in an attempt to achieve his good deed of the day. All culprits doing what is natural to them, but at the same time justifying the need for germination at intervals. Average Last Frost - Find the average date of the last Spring frost in your area. Use it only as a guideline for estimating when to begin germinating seeds indoors: Consider the number of days before germination occurs (on the back of the seed packet), and add three or four weeks to this-- at least long enough for the seedlings to form a second pair of true leaves. Subtract the sum of these from your average Spring frost date for a proposed planting date. If you have enough seeds to gamble, plant intervals of a couple weeks earlier, then save enough seeds for a couple weeks after the average frost date. Better safe than sorry. Note: Many transplants won't do well if the ground still too cold. See Tips and Cheats. For example, the average date of my last spring frost is from January 30 to February 28. I might plant seeds inside that take 18 days to germinate. I add 3 weeks (21 days) to 18 days and mark my calendar to plant 39 days before my average first frost date. So I can take a chance and start planting in late December --theoretically, I could have sunflowers by mid-April. However, if a late frost takes out my sunflowers in March, and I have no Plan B, it could easily be mid-July before I have blossoms. So just to be safe, I'll germinate some seeds that will be ready to transplant two weeks after my average spring frost date. Subtract germination time (18 days) +3 weeks (21 days); subtract the sum of these (39 days) to TWO WEEKS PAST my average frost date (March 13) and mark my calendar to plant the last batch of seeds on February 3. If you smoke, don't do it when handling plants and seeds. Planting Depth - In order to germinate, seeds require moisture and oxygen in addition to the planting medium. Optimum conditions for achieving this delicate balance are determined mostly by planting depth. Follow the instructions on the seed packet for best results, but if these are seeds you've collected and/or no instructions are available, try planting the depth of the diameter of the seed. If they're so tiny that they can't be handled well, scatter them over the top of the seedbed and dust them lightly with your planting medium. Sowing seeds too deeply is the most common reason for poor germination. Very tiny seeds such as petunias and snapdragons can easily be planted one at a time using a seed spoon. These simple but valuable tools come in 4 sizes and are very inexpensive. After going to the trouble to plant tiny seeds one-by-one, be very careful when watering so that they don't wash away from the intended planting space. Thinning Seedlings - Many times a clump of small seeds will germinate together with their tiny roots intertwined, and though frugal gardeners often attempt to separate and replant the seedlings, this is most often unsuccessful since it disturbs the delicate new root systems. In this case it is always best to use a small scissor to snip the extra seedings away from the chosen one. When the seedlings are removed for transplanting to the garden, do not lift them by the stem; instead, lift them gently by one leaf. If the leaf is damaged, more leaves will come. If the stem is broken, you've lost the seedling. Light - This is a common problem with seeds started indoors. If seedlings are gangly and thin, they may succumb when their stems are too weak to hold the first leaves. Before this happens, seedlings are tall, thin, and desperately growing toward the light. This gangly appearance is caused by lack of light; move the seed bed closer to a light source. Even if they get ample light from only one direction, they'll lean in that direction; give the seed bed a quarter turn each day to prevent leaning. Tips - Mother Nature doesn't play the fool, but she does make allowances. Get help on providing warmth, water & food, seedling health & problems, along with special techniques for helping seeds to sprout from Garden Gate Magazine.

Follow the Frugal Food Formula: Food is not a place to skimp! Get the best foods, herbs & spices and other ingredients from supermarkets, farmers markets, specialty shops and your own home / backyard garden Swap food, recipes, coupons and other items with neighbors, relatives and colleagues, even on the Internet. And consider joining co-ops Have quality ingredients – you won’t need to buy extra condiments to bring out the flavor or add sauces and gravies to mask the shortcomings. You can really taste the difference Think outside the box (or can). In-house brands and generic brands may be far superior to pricier fare – they are probably made by the top brand companies. Taste test and keep a list of the results Remember the fresher the food the better

Apple Scones Ingredients: 2 cups flour 1 tsp. baking powder 3/4 tsp. salt 3 tbsp. butter 1/4 cup sugar 1 cup minced apples 1 egg, beaten 2/3 cup milk 2 tbsp. butter (reserve for topping) 2 tbsp. sugar (reserve for topping) Methods Sift together flour, salt and baking powder. Cut in the butter. Add sugar and apples. Mix in the egg and milk to make a soft dough. Knead until ingredients are well-mixed. Spread in 8" x 12" greased pan, and bake 25 minutes at 450 degrees (Fahrenheit). Cut into 2" x 2" squares when done. Split each square diagonally. Butter. Dust the tops thickly with granulated sugar. Serve warm.