A few years ago I read about making a sourdough starter. It seemed easy enough...flour, water, and time. I named my starter Sammy and I've kept him going ever since. I've made sour dough loaves and used the extra or discard for other things and even given away discard. Then the bane of my existence...I was looking at Pinterest and it showed an easy recipe for sourdough sandwich bread that looked far less crusty than normal sourdough. I kept thinking, it won't rise without yeast, but figured I could try and if nothing else, redo the dough and add yeast. Much to my surprise, it did rise and made a beautiful loaf of bread. It just takes longer to rise and one has to make sure the starter is bubbly and ready to go. But it pleased me. My husband teases me and calls me his Prairie Woman since I'm baking bread and trying things like this.

Well, it goes beyond that as well...I'm always trying to figure out ways to reuse things. I tease about Pinterest being the banke of my existence, but I do get some good ideas from the stuff on there. Most work; a few do not. I'm working on making my own Pine Sol. We have pine trees and vinegar is cheap. Hope it works! 

I planted strawberries and blueberies  for next year and years beyond and I read where coffee grounds are good for the soil. Our soil is very clay like, so I have been adding it to other places as well as I have added sand, hoping it improves the quality of the soil. 

My husband's late wife was quite the crafter and in the basement are a lot of things. I've never mod podged stuff before, but a few YouTube videos showed me how, and I have been using material I have to decorate plastic containers of things. The other day I sent cookies with the grandson back to school in a coffee container. I save all the plastic things we get and reuse them. I sent cake home with my husband's daughter the other day in containers that were for something else and she laughed and said she liked my frugal ways. 

I had a doctor's appointment Friday and since we had to drive to town 40 minutes away, we decided to do some other errands to make it worth our while. We thought we'd get a quick lunch at a local chain restaurant. We were shocked...a sandwich, chips, and drink for each of us was over $30 before tip! So today after church we had vegetable soup I made the other day and put in the Crockpot to heat and some bread I had made for lunch. Far less than $30 and probably far better for us too. 

I was going to include a photo of the bread, but whenever I try to post a photo, I get an error message.

My post from last week asking about stocking up had some great replies. The sad thing is, I guess there was a run on toilet paper and paper towels because local stores had signs limiting these products. I wan't suggesting people hoard, just be prepared. 

It's amazing that half of 2024 is passed and tomorrow is the 4th of July. Not a lot planned as far as celebrating, but will enjoy the freedom of living in the United States and having the benefits of that.

Glad the markets were good today and saw an increase in my retirement accounts.

Things are starting to even out as far as money and expenses. I'm living in a small town instead of a larger town and learning new places to shop. One store in a neighboring town gives 5% off on Wednesdays for senior citizens so I am often taking advantage of that. I still shop at Aldi, although I have to plan my trip since there isn't one nearby, the closest being between 35 miles away. But it makes me more mindful of what I'm buying. But I continue to cook a lot of things from scratch. I have made and canned chicken broth, and made rhubarb and berry jam and rhubarb jelly. It's kind of nice to see the jars starting to build up in the pantry.

Instead of buying store bought bread, I am baking bread to use. I feel like it is saving money since it isn't getting wasted. I had a little left of a loaf and made my own croutons for a salad and they were a lot better than one the store bought ones. 

My garden isn't going to town like I had hoped. We had extreme heat and although I water, since we have had little rain, it is surviving, but not thriving. We received a little rain this morning and we are supposed to receive some rain overnight. I hope it comes to pass. 

If you have big plans for July the 4th, hope you stay healthy!