Frugal Friday - its apple season!

I love our neighbors here. One woman especially is always so nice and brings us apples from her orchard upstate! Our apple trees haven't been so abundant this year, so I was so excited when she brought us a bag! I knew we wouldn't be able to eat all those apples before they went bad, and in the spirit of apple pie's everywhere, I made one apple pie and then made an apple pie filling for later. I thought about canning it...but I got nervous about it and decided to just freeze the filling for later. I've been talking about learning to can for awhile and every time I think about doing it and get ready, I get too nervous and back out of it. (this weekend, I'm really going to do it. I'm going to can pears on Saturday. No fear!! :) Buying or picking apples during apple season can save alot of money and preserving them in different ways can save alot too. First, I peeled about 5 small apples, and chopped them up. I put them into a pan with alittle water, about 1/2 a stick of butter, some cinnamon, some nutmeg, and about 2 tablespoons of brown sugar. I cooked this until the apples were soft. Afterwards, I let the apple mixture cool. Once the mixture was cool enough to put into a plastic freezer bag, I scooped it into a freezer bag for later. The way I make my apple pie is to take this mixture, add it to a graham cracker crust (we love the lightness of graham crackers crusts), with some apricot preserve and cranberries on top. I cook it for another 20 minutes.  This is the perfect way to save homemade apple pie filling for the holidays! If you are a busy lady with work, and/or with children, and you have some free time to bake and not so much free time when you want to bake, this will help! :)  You can also use this filling for an apple crumb. Just place the apple filling in a baking dish, add 1 cup flour, 1/2 cup butter, 1/2 cup brown sugar with 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg. Yum!

Happy Frugal tip Friday! Hope you're having a great one!

RIP Steve Madden sandals & Happy Pet Wellness Month!

Did you know October is National pet wellness month? When I was told it was pet wellness month, I had to let you all know.  Our pets are very important to us, they join our family and become a part of it so fast, shoe chewing tendencies and all. I've had my share, this past weekend Corbin tackled a shoe of mine that I loved while I was away at the Harvest Festival Craft Fair in Cape May NJ selling homemade soaps that my Mom and I make. I was very upset but I thought about it and after hiding my other shoes (we don't have too many places to hide them as the house still isn't ready downstairs), I thought, this is just a pair of shoes, yes they were one of my faves and they were totally cute (they were platform Steve Madden sandals with leather straps and leather lining on the base so that my foot just slid in so nicely, anyways, right back to the point), I love him and my sandals were just a thing. I can always replace the sandals (hopefully maybe I can get them on sale since they are not in season right now) but I can't replace his cutie, furry, soft face. Both he and Lealu are our pups forever and so special to us and just really cool puppies. So in honor of National Pet Wellness Month, Martin got them each a bone, not the ones with the raw hide which can hurt their tummies, but the real ones with the marrow inside (yuck, they go nuts over it). There is a great site that I was told about where a Pet Nutrition Center just began, called PetMD.com where pet owners can get all cool snippets of information as well as ask questions to veteranarians about what is healthy for your pet in regards to food, vaccines, anything really. You an also take a Nutrition Quiz on the site as well. Check it out! Its kind of like webmd but for animals!  In addition to the PetMd.com site, there is a dog food that I was told about called New Hill's Science Diet Ideal Balance. I'm interested to try it just based on the facts about the food. Our puppies are great with either Holistic or Purina One Beyond, other types that we tried that do not have so many natural ingredients and whole foods have given them the worst diarrhea, so I'll start them slow with alittle bit to see how they like it. If it doesn't work with their system, we have to stick with what works.  Here are a few facts about New Hill's Science Diet Ideal Balance -

• Offers natural ingredients and the power of advanced nutrition 
• Meat-first formula – first ingredient is fresh chicken 
• Contains whole grains, fruits and vegetables 
• No corn, fillers or artificial colors 
• Noticeable improvement in skin and coat in 30 days
• Not too much, not too little – just the right balance of natural ingredients for the best nutrition for your dog
• Available for Puppy, Adult and Mature Adult (two-three sizes per lifestage) 

They sell the Science Diet Ideal Balance at Pet Specialty stores so maybe they'll have it at Petco. Cost is not bad either, with the price between 9.99 to 39.99. Holistic can run up to 50$ for a large bag. 

I'll let you know how they like it! Hope you have a great Monday!

I was given a sample to try from Science Diet Ideal Balance. I don't know how Lealu or Corbin will do with their dog food, but after I give them a little, I'll make sure to let you know!

I had to share this video! frugal tip to come...

this little girl is an amazing singer! Gifted is all I can say.

House Update Wednesday - wordless!

I am so excited to show you this! My awesome Dad came up to the house on Columbus Day, (which was his day off) to help us finish the siding! How awesome is he!? He showed us some cool stuff, and not only showed us how to put up siding last year, but taught me that when finishing siding at the bottom, its best to have a piece of J-channel along the bottom (this will help separate the siding from the stone we're going to be getting in a few weeks, hopefully if everything works out). You can see the radon pipe, that big white pipe is now going straight through the roof, when the radon guys installed it, they made it go around the roof. We thought it would look better just going up through, so Martin got the tools and fixed it! He did an amazing job! Thank God for men lol. I think its something in their brains that know how to do this stuff instinctively, like how women just know how to multi-task. You can see Lealu and Corbin below playing, she looks kinda mean but I promise she's just defending herself. Poor girl gets pushed around when Corbin plays!

 Here is a gorgeous view of sunset on the lake. We were driving to dinner over the weekend, and pulled over to take this. Gorgeous, right!?

Corbin's funny face - wordless

Corbin's funny face! Poor guy will be getting neutered next week:( 

Frugal Friday - harvesting herbs!

Its getting cold outside already! Today was beautiful and sunny but with a chill in the air. My nice neighbor brought over some jam for us. She makes like everything herself, its amazing! (she doesn't make soap though, so I gave her a mint soap!)  When she came over she mentioned that she was beginning to harvest her vegetables and herbs. She picks the herbs, washes them and cuts them to put into a freezer bag and then freezes them for when she wants to use them later during the winter. I had never thought about harvesting herbs!  What a great idea and I figure this could save lots of money on buying dried herbs throughout the winter. I took a look at the herbs that were growing and decided to leave the herbs that were going to seed or would go to seed so that the seeds would be free to come up next spring. The herbs that I know die off throughout winter are the rosemary and parsley. The mint already went to seed, so did the cilantro, the basil and the sage. Here is a picture of the rosemary and parsley-

I picked most of the herbs

washed them and trimmed them, bagged them in freezer bags and labeled them.

Now all you have to do is freeze and use when you're ready to use, just open and take a few pieces out to thaw and place back in freezer for the next time!

Happy Frugal Friday!!

Do you have a frugal tip you'd like to share? I'd love to hear from you!
Email me at simplefrugalista@yahoo.com!

House update Wednesday - all words! :)

Good news! We received our certificate of occupancy! which means we can legally be here and all the inspections have been approved. This is a huge relief!

Our well water systems contact came through and installed a water softener along with another filter to clean the water and another system to bring up the Ph of the water. We also had a test by the town for the water to see the bacteria levels and all is well! Good enough to drink, and its great because its well water which means no flouride or chlorine.

We are in a standstill right now with a staircase because we are working on putting studs up, and then insallation can happen and then sheetrock and then the floor, and finally after that the stairs can go in...hopefully. We need them in before the winter though because we have to make sure the pipes downstairs stay warm. Hoping we get more nice sunny days like today!

Sometime soon I'll be painting the front deck and back stairs with water repellant stain so that should keep the life of the wood for longer.

Thats pretty much it for right now with the house! I can't tell you how great it feels to be taking showers and to be brushing my teeth and washing my face knowing we having good water! I feel like the richest person in the world lol.

I hope you're having a great week!!