This is your chance to ask me your questions!
After a super-busy week of attending end-of the school year activities for my daughter, I drew a blank as to what question to ask today. I guess my brain hasn’t been in blogging mode this week (though I’m planning to remedy that soon).
A trend I’ve been seeing around the blogosphere lately is bloggers answering readers questions. And I thought, “Why not?” I’ve been toying with the idea, since Marci made a comment on my anniversary post. She suggested that I have a brainstorming session for common frugal/organizing/money/whatever problems.
I thought that was a brilliant idea, so that’s what I’m going to do with my Friday posts. Thanks, Marci!
If you have a question, feel free to contact me. I’ll do my best to answer it in my post, and then I’ll turn it over to my frugal readers to add further suggestions. And I can tell you, it will be worth your while! Every time I ask a question in a post, the readers here come up with several suggestions I’d never considered! So thanks readers!
So have at it. Contact me to submit a question, and I will save the questions for future posts. I’ll do my best to answer all questions eventually, but I do reserve the right to limit posts to topics that are relevant to this blog.
I look forward to hearing what’s on your mind!
Photo by -bast-.
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I have been answering readers questions in a post a bit more over the past few months and you are right, readers comments often provide unique answers that I hadn’t thought of. The other big plus is that they are real-life situations that many others are likely dealing with as well.
So I’ll throw a question out there…
Question: Because of the rising fuel costs, which also makes the grocery costs rise, and the feed corn ground being diverted to fuel corn ground, what do you think will be the next thing that will be rising/short? And what are your plans to minimize it or deal with it?
My thoughts – for what they are worth… :)
Corn fed animals and their by-products will drastically rise in price or there will be a real shortage of them. As I’m not a Vegan, this will affect me. I predict great rises (more than already) in the price of Eggs, Chickens, Pork, and Finished Beef. I especially think that in 6-12 months Beef and Pork will be actually in a shortage.
I think Grass fed beef, as opposed to Grain finished, will be more common. But chickens and Pigs need grain or milk, or some substitute.
Short term – I am stocking the freezer when it comes on sale – but that is something that I always do anyway. Eggs can be frozen, but I really don’t want to go there. Eggs were my ‘cheap protein’ of choice – a chef salad for dinner, etc.
In my garden (NOT something new) I will be changing my focus to try and grow some greater protein veggies, and more starches. I may even try some grains if they’ll grow in this soggy place.
Question: Will a food processor or coffee grinder work for milling grain into flour? Such as amaranth?
2nd Question: Canning. Has anyone done the math to figure out how much it actually costs to can one can of something? Supposing one already has plenty of old canning jars… I am trying to find the break-even point between the cost of lids and rings, hot water to sterilize them, etc. and the 3/$1 canned veggies when they go on sale. I usually freeze or dry – but want to try more canning this year now that I remodeling and have canning jar storage space :)
I hope others throw out some questions also.
I’ve gotten a few question via email, and they’re really good questions, so I anticipate a lot of discussion over the next several weeks.
For your first question, it’s not something I’ve really thought much about, though you may very well be right. If the price of eggs gets any higher, I may cry. Either that or start raising city chickens.
And I don’t know about the coffee grinder either. I grind flax seeds in my coffee grinder with no problem, but I think it would be pretty time consuming to grind enough flour for bread, etc. I promised myself if I get into a good bread making routine, I’m going to invest in a grain mill. It’s certainly a lot less expensive to buy wheat berries than ground wheat, and they last longer too.
As far as canning, I think it’s probably less expensive to buy canned foods in the grocery store. For me, canning is more about knowing exactly what food is going into the jar. I’ve never run the numbers though.
Can i know concerning what i can ask questions? I got many questions for you on this topic but can i know if really you gonna help me or not? Thanks
Answer on Canning Cost: Ok – answering my own question…haha… The local extension office did not know the cost of canning. They referred me to the electric company (for me with electric appliances)
My electric co. says the cost of running a load in the dishwasher (to sterilize the jars), including heating the water, is about $1 per load. They say the cost of running my stove top burner is about 15-20cents an hour per burner.
If I figure 120 minutes total – 100 for the canner and maybe 20 min for boiling lids (just to get round numbers) I’m using 30-40 cents for the stove top.
Lids are whatever they are – I plugged in 16 cents apiece. For me to run 16 jars at once in my canner, one D/w load, 2 hrs stove time, and 16 lids would cost about $3.96, or 25 cents a jar for processing and lid. Plus my time. (free, of course :( ) That’s the figure I was looking for – 25 cents per jar, approx. (or less) Your costs may be different.
That does NOT include the produce cost, nor the cost of the jars, rings, or pressure cooker, all of which I already have.
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