Your library card - more than free books!

I already knew that you could borrow a watt-meter from the Ottawa Public Library to check your energy intake.
But I just found out today that you can also borrow a special pass at the library to go as a family for free at many local museums!
Plus your OPL card gives you discounts at various plays and music events!
Check out the LINK.

Less space is more money

Living in a smaller space allows us to save on energy from heating, but also money by not having to fill the space with stuff.

Here is a great site for dreams that push the limits of the small space. They are so cute!
http://www.tumbleweedhouses.com

Green Clean

It's true, you can keep your house clean using only baking soda and vinegar. It's cheap and reassuring that you can limit those extra chemicals.

If you want to get a little fancier, here are some great recipes. I bought spray bottles from dollorama to store them in. If I had to do it again I would buy colored bottle to identifie them easily, or just make the tags colored.

Soap Scum
1 t.s. borax
½ t.s. liquid detergent
¼ cup vinegar
2 cups hot water

Basic all purpose antiseptic
1 t.s. essential oil (tea tree or pine)
1 t.s. washing soda
2 t.s. borax
½ t.s. liquid soap
2 cup hot water

Antiseptic spray
2 t.s. tea tree oil
½ t.s. soap
2 cups water

Deodorizer Spray
½ cup water
½ cup vodka
10 drops essential oil (lavender for example)

Windows
½ cup vinegar
2 cups water

Inexpensive Ingredients

Sarah, my food-critique friend, sends these tips our way.
They come from the Epicurious site (For people who love to eat).

Here are their Top 10 Money-Saving Ingredients

• potatoes
• rice
• pasta
• chicken
• beans
• apples
• canned tuna
• eggs
• cheese
• flank steak

Check out the site for inspiring recipes! Even if it's inexpensive, it doesn't have to be bland.

Great deals!

For great deals on used (and sometimes new) items I love:
http://www.kijiji.ca/
http://www.usedottawa.com/
ottawa.en.craigslist.ca/

And for sales in canadian stores, printable coupons and free stuff check out:
http://www.redflagdeals.ca/

Recessionista

!Viva la recession! !Viva!

Well, not quite.  Actually not at all.  But recessionista is the loving nickname my husband has given me.  He wishes he had invented the term, but he heard it first on CBC (of course), and there were other terms that are emerging in these economic times, like staycation and frugalista.

Fifty cent bread

I love the Ace Bakery, especially the olive loaf. Unfortunately their breads are not 50 cents, they are usually between 3 and 5 $.
Fortunately my friend Sarah gave me an excellent bread recipe which I have been using for over 6 months and it gives lovely loaves similar to Ace's, crusty and tasty, and costs generally less than two quarters!
Here is the recipe and a how-to video.

Since my dutch-oven pot is a bit wider, I use for cups of flour (3 white and one of either rye or hard whole wheat), and depending on the flour I add about two cups of water, a bit more than 1/4 tea spoon of yeast and 1 1/4 tea spoon of salt.

Three variations I love are:

• adding pumping or sunflower seeds to the flour
• adding olives and rosemary (reducing the salt a little if the olives are really salty)
• adding walnuts and chopped up figs (yum!)

Here are some that we made...