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This year I'm slowing myself down and not " rushing" to get chores finished, food cooked or preserved.

It is my plan to purchase a bench top oven to reduce electricity costs in using the big oven most days. Also to cook 2 days a week to cover dinner,dessert and baking. Weekends just have leftovers or open a jar of something.

I found your writings very encouraging Donna. I make a lot of soup and can it.  I discovered a health issue before Christmas and it has caused me to feel exhausted. What's in the garden still grows in spite of weeds. We've been so blessed to have had lots of rain and I feel that the weeds in the garden keep the soil shaded from the fierce heat of the sun when it does shine.

I pray everyone will have a coming year of peace and simplicity. To not be brainwashed by the ways of this world today is indeed a mighty thing.

Karen NZ

As we age I think we see more clearly what’s important. We are happiest at home doing little things. The world is so busy. Thank you

I am looking to “go back” more myself. Any ideas on how to do things like make our own soap when the ingredients are not readily available?  I am saying most of us don’t butcher our animals to get lard or tallow or burn wood to get our own lye, so we have to buy ingredients and that feels to me like we could just buy soap and be done with it. How are others handling that type of thing?  I also could grind my grain but I can’t grow it and I have to be gluten free.  I’m not criticizing, I am genuinely asking  

What I am doing is washing more clothes by hand, taking more bowl wash ups, air drying my hair, and trying to figure the best way to keep my extra food without freezing all of it. Once I retire I think I will be able to dive deeper into this. In the meantime I love getting ideas here. 

Is it ok to put on here that I read often The Legacy of Home books by Mrs Sharon White. They always take me to a place of peace and encourage in home based living.

Karen NZ

A story recently about the Country Women's Association of Australia said they are resurrecting their vintage recipes online to help people cut costs in the cost of living crisis 

It seems everywhere people are being like-minded with de cluttering and going back to basis lifestyles 

Your way of living certainly addresses true frugality. May I also say it is incredibly ecological/environmental. From everything that I have researched on macro-systems and the various crisis that we all face, everyone will have to become less modern. It is better to incorporate these changes now in our lifestyle than to have them eventually forced on us. Whether it is collecting rainwater, or growing our own food, or re-using in order to not buy more “stuff”, we all will eventually need to be happy with less. Thank you. You are an inspiration

I sure do appreciate this post.  Electric prices don’t seem to be going down anytime soon.  I have done the same using the dryer through “rough patches” then get back on track.  I have an antique kerosene stove that also heats I will be using during winter months. The kerosene costs money, but at least it will be serving two purposes.  (It’s also a warmer heat than electric, more like wood heat). 
Keep warm with the upcoming storms.  
Blessings

I don't have a wood cookstove, but I do have a wood stove, and I have been cooking on it more. I am also trying to learn to bake on it. Potatoes baked on the wood stove are the best. I just ordered a little muffin tin that will fit in my cast iron Dutch oven, which I use for baking. I have several books from the UK about cooking, rationing, and conserving fuel in WWII. They repeatedly tell you not to use your oven to bake just one item. They say that you should see if you can share an oven with your neighbor! I'm not going to do that but I have always felt it was wasteful to bake just one item in the oven so I never use the oven on my stove. It will be exciting to learn to bake on my wood stove. I heat water on my wood stove too. I also have old irons that I can use on the stove if I want to iron clothes. I have a clothes drying rack for days when it is too wet or cold to hang clothes outside, though I still dry them outside most of the time.

I don't plan meals before shopping because I shop at a salvage/discount grocery store and you never know what they will have. It sort of makes me feel like there is rationing going on. I went about 3 weeks with no fresh eggs; they went over $5 a dozen. I did have pickled eggs though that I canned. Now the price of eggs has gone down significantly but cauliflower is about $6 a head. The other day I was able to get about two pounds of grapes for .99 in the markdown bin. I hadn't had grapes for a long time so it was a real treat. Really everything is rationed by price. If you can't afford it you can't have it. I also got a box of cereal for .99 in the markdown bin. Often I can buy the ends and pieces of ham, chicken breast, or turkey breast for .99 a pound. I don't care if my pieces aren't perfectly sliced. I use most of it to make healthy bean, ham, and vegetable soup which I then pressure can. Whenever I find a really good deal on anything I try to preserve it. I am still eating mushrooms, green beans, and asparagus I canned at the beginning of the pandemic! There are many great vintage cookbooks with money-saving recipes at archive.org.

I buy my clothes, shoes, and household items at thrift stores when possible.

I try to use less electric lighting during the day. I need to start going to bed earlier to save electricity at night too. I also have solar lights hanging all over my house. They are handy for power outages but they save electricity daily.

I conserve water too. I get charged about $20 monthly for 2,000 gallons even though I never use even close to that amount. When I wash dishes I use the rinse water for mopping the floor. If I take a glass of water and don't drink it all I use it to water plants or put it in the pet dish.

I need to get back to gardening. I haven't done it for some years since I have found good deals at the salvage grocery store. However, even there the prices are going up and you never know what you will be able to buy so gardening is beginning to feel more necessary.

I am 100% debt free and I constantly strive to stay that way. I don't use credit cards or engage in any Buy Now Pay Later schemes.

Wishing you a year filled with joyful companionship and shared  happy days.  And, of course, good health outcomes for you both.  Thank you for the inspiration that I get from your posts throughout the year.

I am doing your “one room proper” at the moment and it is focusing me on what I already own, how I can repair broken things that have sat there for too long waiting for the “magic wand” fairy  to bring them back to use.  Today I taped a lampshade back into shape and now I’m looking at it and wondering how to give it another life by covering it with new fabric.  Decisions, decisions.

I had a lovely family Christmas where we supplied and cooked for 11.  Everyone got on...phew!  I did 2 questions..I asked them “what was their favourite Christmas present ever?” and “what was their funniest?”  It was a great ice breaker and we all learnt something new about each other.   It  was very insightful for the younger grandchildren to hear the adults talk about being children. 

My final question was “What was the best thing that happened to you in 2024”.  My littlest grandson said “changing schools” ....he had been bullied horribly at his previous school and his new one, had become his happy place with a beautiful caring principal.  Ahhh out of the mouths of babes.  We all clapped him! 

I’m sitting here with a sarong on, a fan overhead, and the sea breeze blowing...it’s 25C.  I’m in the  Australian subtropics and I’ve planted winter seeds of broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower in trays in my shade house ...as well as lettuce and radish.    I’m also thinking of how I can grow more flowers from what already flourishes. I want a garden for the bees that costs me hardly anything. I’m collecting seaweed and chopping it with scissors into small pieces and adding it to my compost tumbler.  (It’s free and no nasty chemicals)..... today I collected shell grit for my chooks as I walked over the rocks ..I had two swims along the way.   The bird bath is constantly in use by the birds, submerging themselves in the cool water...which is topped up 3 times a day.   Summer bliss!  

It’s a quiet time as hubby is in pain from an op and can’t do much and is antisocial.   I’m so thankful that I own my home, am debt free and I am filled with a heart filled with gratitude.  Wishing all Grandma Donna’s  lovely contributors a happy and prosperous frugal 2025.  

What is the stove called that you are cooking on outside and where did you get it?

Hello everyone,

(Karen, I hope your health issue is resolved soon. After having a year out if action for health reasons recently, I went back to the vegie garden to find it overgrown. However, once I got rid of the weeds, the garden started giving back to me with no further effort on my part. It was a beautiful and healing experience. The years I spent building up the soil must have helped. Peas, broccoli, potatoes, garlic...all sorts of plants started sprouting out of the soil by themselves. I hope you're OK and back in your garden soon!)

This year I plan to do an "audit" of all the resources I have available, including land, skills and knowledge (mine and others around me), and see how much I can achieve without buying new items and supplies.

I'm sure I will end up doing a lot of things in the old ways. This will be a good example to my daughters, if they take any notice!

I think the idea of some kind of measure of results is a really good one. Perhaps the Home Journal and Budget might expand to include other resources in addition to money. That would be motivating.

Any ideas on how to do things like make our own soap when the ingredients are not readily available?

Actually, there are several sources for making your own soap. I don't do it, but I know that some people do and if you search it, many sites will come up to show you how.  One is by an Australian lady, Rhonda Hetzel; who regularly and for years has made her own soaps and laundry detergent.  Her blog is called Down to Earth. and she has written several books available still.  Type this into your browser and you will see a plethora of soap making and and other ideas; besides the ideas offered by Grandma Donna here which are also of course very handy and valuable. 

Grandma Donna: A push vacuum? Is that one of those Fuller Brush non-electric carpet leaners? I have not seen or heard of one in years! I knew several people growing up who had one. They seemed to work great. 

Want to wish you and Charles a beautiful New Year and everyone reading this! I always am very inspired by everything you share with us all! Husband and I both recently retired and am enjoying our free time, it has been so nice to wake up with only my/husbands agendas to deal with. I am starting this new year on a no spend month and eating from the pantry/freezer only. It frees me to evaluate everything and make the necessary changes. It also keeps us out of public places  and lessening our chances of getting one of the current viruses rolling around. We are doing some indoor painting, planning the spring garden, making time for some walks, and doing general organization and cleaning around here. We will be hosting our son's wedding here in the Spring so we have jumped ahead on chores we usually take more time in doing. My husband built us a traditional Finnish woodburning sauna as a retirement gift to ourselves and we have been enjoying that. The bonus is that if power goes out during winter it will accommodate two sleeping cots with no problem! We have not made any plans for anything grand in our first retirement year as we adjust to a much lower income.  A few years ago we incorporated  curtains hanging over doorways to save on heat. It is a big difference as my husband likes it much warmer then I do so he can be toasty while I can be cooler in other rooms. Looking forward to your 2025 year posts and may God bless you both!

It's a happy new year! A fresh slate to build on last year's work and try new things. I'm always excited about new beginnings. I wish everyone the best year. 

I've found that since I've been teaching myself how to sew and mend that I have many more options than just throwing things away and replacing them. I'm finding a creativity in it that I never knew existed. I'm going to keep going with the sewing and mending this year and also try some of the visible mending techniques. 

Joan S -- I know just what you mean. When I look at the cost of ingredients to make things myself, most often it doesn't save me any money. Gardening has been the biggest money saver for me because I can make compost from yard waste, catch rainwater, use grass clippings for mulch, and save seed. I have control over the "ingredients" for gardening! 

Grandma Donna Wrote,  Karen S, I hope you are healing from your health issues, I will be sending prayers your way.  

Becky Sue K, it sounds like you have planned well to find ways to reduce spending. I purchased that stove on Amazon several years ago, it is a stainless camp stove, they no longer have that one in stock.  It is a wood burning camp stove.  We also have a rocket stove that we use.  

Claudia O, your question about the push carpet sweeper.  We do have an old fuller sweeper that we use but yes, they do sell them and we have a newer one that we like that we purchased on Amazon called a Yocada Carpet Sweeper Cleaner.  I just looked and they are on sale right now.  I am sending photos of the one we use the most which is the Yocada.  Nothing like showing my dirt but wanted to show that it always amazes me how much these sweepers pick up.  On the British series All Creatures Great and Small, Mrs. Hall frequently uses the hand push carpet sweeper. :)

Dear Grandma Donna,  

I love your site, I've been visiting on and off for years, and I love your way of life.  A visit to your site always makes me feel better and calmer and more grounded.  I aspire to live more like you do, and I admire you for all that you are and do.  Thank you for sharing your ways and wisdom with us!!  What kind of outdoor stove are you using with the cast iron skillet in this post?  I was just looking at an old article in the Ladies Home Journal from 1883 and discovered Lamp Stoves - a "modern convenience" for the time, it said :)  I came here tonight looking for your post on Oil Lamps, and the kind of oil you like to use, and got lost in your other gems.  Thank you again!  ~Dina xoxo

Grandma Donna Wrote, Dina S, It is a stainless steel camping stove I got several years ago off of Amazon.  I looked today and they do not have any of them at this time.  Did you find the post on Oil Lamps?  I will link it here just in case you did not find it.  https://gdonna.com/living-like-the-past/questions-...    Donna

Happy New Year Grandma Donna and Charles :)

To Joan S: I make my own soap and I do agree the initial ingredients can be a bit of an investment. I suppose it depends why you want to make it? I make it because its gentler on my skin. The only soap that doesn't dry my skin out from the supermarket is Dove. The main ingredients you would need are Lye, coconut oil, palm oil or tallow, olive oil etc for a simple soap. There are lots of places online to purchase sodium hydroxide (lye) and the other ingredients. Basic oils are just from the supermarket. One of my favourite you tube channels for soap making is 'Elly's Everyday Soap Making'. She's an Australian lady and her videos are tutorial style and very helpful, especially for beginners. I also first learnt to make soap from Rhonda Hetzyl's blog. I know someone else mentioned her too :) Normally one batch of soap will yield between 7 - 10 bars of beautiful soap. It also makes lovely gifts. I hope this is helpful to you Joan.

Money saving initiatives from my neck of the woods (NZ):

1. Still going to Op shops (thrift stores) to get books, clothes, shoes - most of the time and even got some of the grandchildren's Christmas presents from there.

2. Trying to save on power consumption by unplugging things that are usually just on standby. I switch the stove off most of the day, and do have a small stove top oven (which I need to use more).

3. We have cut way back on sugar consumption, to the point that I won't make jam for us this year, or bottle fruit. I no longer bake biscuits or cakes and only make energy balls with dates, nuts, seeds oats etc and use some maple syrup. I am only freezing fruit (not bottling it) as its ready on the trees and we use it in our morning smoothie. 

4. We've cut back on meat/eggs and dairy and have increased plants/grains, nuts, seeds and pulses, but have not cut out meat entirely. I especially find this to save money in the Winter, as we eat a lot of porridge and soup.

5. We have quite a lot of food growing in the garden (at various stages of readiness): silver beet, kale, potatoes, carrot, beetroot, zucchini, tomatoes, lettuce and corn + herbs and tons of fruit trees. We planted the fruit trees many years ago, as I saw prices sly rocketing and I foresaw that stone fruit especially was going to end up being a luxury if we didn't grow it ourselves.

6. We hardly ever go out to movies or cafes, as its too expensive and actually prefer to watch dvd's at home. I get a lot from Op shops, and we have also purchased various series eg: All Creatures Great and Small, Lark rise to Candle ford, Downton Abby etc etc (which are all wonderful)

7. As for things like rates, insurances - we are at the mercy of whatever the govt or the various agencies do...so always need some wiggle room in the budget for increases...also for petrol, power etc.

*I must add that over the many years I've been reading Grandma Donna's blog, her wisdom has been invaluable to me and I truly feel that I have improved :) !! I've got better at being frugal, better at saving money and better at sticking to a budget (for most things)..the grocery bill could still do with a little bit of work and discipline !! :/

Thanks Donna :) (Linda NZ)

I think that even if I have to buy the ingredients to make soap, it is still right and important to know HOW to do it. I can fall back on my knowledge when necessary.

Longing for a simpler house.  I inherited my parents home and it needed quite a few repairs.  Last week was the well.  Ouch.  Its too big and much to retire in and eats electricity lol.

Today's task for simple is a pot of bean and bacon soup.  I was disappointed with the Campbells version the last time I had it....so into the kitchen I go!

Love your blog...I think it gives all of us a moment to exhale.

Dear G’Donna,

I really enjoy your posts, thank you for the time you spend writing and posting photographs,  I know you are busy and could spend the time elsewhere.

Today’s post really made me think.  My husband passed away two years ago and with moving and all the other changes, I pretty much didn’t pay attention to my spending.  I didn’t go crazy but got very lazy.  I will spend this afternoon thinking about 2025 and what I can do more sensibly.   Thank you. Good luck with the upcoming cold weather, I checked and here in Arizona we will be spared.  My gardening effort has two tomato plants so I just bring them inside in the evening ;

I'm adding this because I don't think I made myself clear to some.  I think I worded it poorly.  I have made soap in the past, but buying the ingredients made it fairly expensive.  I can buy pure soaps online and at some stores for very reasonable costs, as well as from a local goat farmer who makes soaps. I haven't bought a "regular" soap in over a decade.  My question was, if we are trying to be more self-sufficient and frugal by reviving old skills while saving money, is it helpful to make my own soap when I have to buy the ingredients, the same ones that my ancestors had cheaply or free?  My grandmother just saved the fat from a butchering and rendered it to make soap.  Her soap was truly inexpensive.

I used to buy grain and grind it myself, but now I can't have wheat (I don't have celiac, but this is per my doctor and the current medical thinking for my particular condition, and that prohibition includes sourdough and soaked grain breads) and must avoid nuts, nut flours, beans and peas and their flours as much as possible. So I don't see well how to go back to the old ways with my baking and I can't economize like my dad's family did by eating dried peas and beans a lot in the winter.  I'm willing to do what things I can do, though.  

GDonna, as a little boy, my husband used to bathe in an old-fashioned tin bath tub at his grandmother's house, and they emptied it on her plants when everyone who was bathing was done with the water.  That might get heavy to lift, though.  

Thank you so much!! :)

Hi Joan S,

Do you feel like you need to have every specific skill, or is it also possible to trade or barter instead of making everything from scratch? For example, maybe you could provide fodder from your garden for the goats, in exchange for soap?

If you had the capacity to store whole carcasses or even half carcasses and to outlay for a bulk meat purchase, could you render the fat and use it for however much soap it would yield, and buy or barter when you run out?

That way, you are making the most of the whole animal, maintaining the skill of soap-making but not going to unreasonable lengths to be true to the frugal/self-sufficient ideal.

I wonder, in relation to your diet, whether there are recipes for bread that use potatoes for the starchy component? It sounds like a tricky set of restrictions to work within.

kind regards 

Kellie 

Joan S., 

I totally get where you are coming from on things like soap making, and I feel the same way myself.  

I think the only reason to justify the expense of making your own soap from commercial ingredients (which usually works out more expensive than buying bulk soap) is if you simply enjoy soapmaking as a hobby.  Which is totally cool, and could save money indirectly through the fact that it's a fairly cheap hobby.  

Budget aside, I don't see it as a skill to learn for prepper reasons either.  We are far more likely to end up in a situation where we can no longer get commercial lye from stores (already much harder than it used to be) than one where we can no longer get soap from stores.  Also, unlike oils that go rancid and lye that's a dangerous chemical requiring special storage, bar soap is very stable and easy to stockpile.  And the process of making soap from commercial ingredients is very different than the process of making soap from wood ash lye, so it's not like you can practice soap making one way and then apply it to the other. 

Now, I have made totally from scratch soap, using fat from a deer I butchered myself and ashes from my woodstove, because I'm into learning to do things the really old fashioned way.  But even that was more for fun than practicality.  Could I make my own soap in TEOTWAWKI?  Sure.  But would I want to?  Probably not, because venison tallow would then be more valuable for cooking. 

I think the same applies to a lot of other old fashioned skills that are really just being kept alive as hobbies now.  Food is kind of the big exception where most things are still cheaper to make at home even if you have to buy the basic ingredients, but you're generally going to pay more for candle wax at a craft store than for basic candles, more for yarn to knit your own socks than for socks, et cetera.  I always run into that with sewing.  Unless I can repurpose something, it's cheaper to buy clothing (especially as I mostly shop thrift stores) than to sew my own.  A fact which I find quite frustrating!

As far as "advice" I would just say, stick to learning/practicing skills that either save you money, or are enjoyable without costing too much extra.  If it feels like a tedious chore and is costing money, it's probably not worth doing.  Even if we might all (readers of this blog, not society in general) wish we still lived in a world where making things yourself was always the frugal way to go.

About grinding grains, if you eat rice flour it might still be worth it.  I know the grocery store I mostly shop at has white rice by the 20 pound bag for only 60 cents a pound, while the only rice flour they sell comes in a tiny bag for $1.90 a pound.  

Tea S.

Sewing.... I repurpose items like duvet covers, cotton sheets etc into clothing... Nighties,  skirts, blouses. I never buy gawdy prints and people don't even know where my fabric has come from originally. I can get a pair of sheets for $2 at a Thrift Shop ( OpShop) here in NZ.  Fabric in fabric shops is out if my price range now.

By the way just a warning that many man made " fabrics" these days have plastic as a component making them a fire hazard. The market is flooded now with cheap clothing that's made from these types of materials. I read recently there is so much clothing worldwide currently that it could clothe the whole world for 5 years!!!!! Even Op Shops where I live now put out signs saying they're not taking donations of clothing so people just dump it in landfill.

My mother had 3 dresses for during the week  that were called house dresses and 2 good dresses for Church or going out. She would say have 3 of underwear, socks. 1 on, 1 in the drawer and 1 in the wash. She also wore an apron.

Karen S

NZ

Weil ich nicht gerne über etwas diskutiere, ohne die Fakten zu kennen, habe ich jetzt den Preis für mein Seifenrezept ausgerechnet. Dazu bin ich von den aktuellen Preisen der Zutaten ausgegangen. Zutaten: Kokosöl, Olivenöl, Rapsöl, Sonnenblumenöl, Leinöl und NaOH.
Ich komme auf 4,38 € pro kg fertige Seife.
Eine vergleichbare Seife finde ich derzeit in Deutschland im Drogeriemarkt nicht günstiger. Die günstigeren Seifenstücke enthalten entweder Titandioxid (CI77981) oder Duftstoffe. Beides möchte ich nicht in meiner Seife haben.
Meine Seife hat 10% Überfettung. Ich verwende sie sowohl zur Körperpflege als auch zum Wäschewaschen.

Yes, I remember my own grandmother in England had one. But it would not be the same brand here, although that does not really matter. I watch the series and have read all the books as well. I also remember that Fuller Brush had one (mostly in red, of all things) but had not seen one in years.  I don't usually like to order from Amazon as they are almost a monopoly now, and do not treat others very well in business. I think they are too big; but it is almost impossible to totally ignore them as they do sell so much and are so big. Thank you for the pictures.

Stephanie G.  It is a wonderful Comments section GDonna began so we can all encourage and learn from each other.

GDonna and other "friends" Thank you so very much for prayers. I really appreciate it. Blessings.