December | 2014 | ThriftyRambler 2014 December | Explore the world with the money you have.

December, 2014

Best of 2014

December 31, 2014 by admin

As we welcome in 2015, we at ThriftyRambler wanted to take a few moments to reflect on 2014. Here are some of our favorite posts of the year:

http://www.thriftyrambler.com/2014/12/21/the-macgyver-solution/

http://www.thriftyrambler.com/2014/11/02/the-joy-of-listening/

http://www.thriftyrambler.com/2014/10/22/gender-frustration/

http://www.thriftyrambler.com/2014/08/29/begin-the-vegan/

http://www.thriftyrambler.com/2014/05/28/lego-to-go/

http://www.thriftyrambler.com/2014/05/23/tree-lover/

http://www.thriftyrambler.com/2014/02/14/winter-biking/

http://www.thriftyrambler.com/2014/01/01/knowing-your-ingredients/

http://www.thriftyrambler.com/the-thriftyrambler-kindness-project/ (launched in 2013 but continues throughout the years!)

http://www.thriftyrambler.com/2014/11/07/chili-with-tvp/

We are thrilled interact with all of our readers and we thank you for being a part of this homegrown project. We are excited to see what the coming year has in store for all of us! We encourage you to continue to reach out to us with ideas or comments.

Wishing all of you a peaceful, loving and prosperous 2015.

Category Rambler Ramblings | Tags: Animals,Community,Creativity,family,good eats,kindness,Learning,unplugged,vegan | Comments Off on Best of 2014
21st Century Vegan

December 29, 2014 by admin

We’re sure that a few of you remember what it was like to be a vegetarian in the 80s. It was a rather unfamiliar lifestyle choice for most people. You were lucky to find anything veggie friendly on a menu. And when you would inquire of a restaurant if something like the soup was vegetarian, the response was typically, “Yup. We just use chicken stock.” Your friends would tell you to just pick around the meat on a salad or topping on a pizza. It was a hard road back then.

Vegetarianism is more mainstream now, but TRMom finds that veganism today is a somewhat similar experience to being a vegetarian in the 80s. No, it isn’t quite as bad as most people have at least exposure to the vegan concept. But restaurant choices are still rather limited. Even though most food establishments now offer a veggie burger, it tends to be vegetarian and not vegan. You have to be diligent in your questions to waitstaff, “Are there eggs or milk in that dish?” Many servers simply think that vegetarians and vegans are the same thing. But with increased awareness of food allergies, most servers are accustomed to being asked very specific questions about ingredients- don’t be too timid to voice your concerns!

And friends aren’t as understanding of veganism. The meat eaters will humor a vegetarian. But they think vegans are starving themselves or making unhealthy choices. Even the vegetarians sometimes poke fun, “What’s the harm in a little cheese?” It is a flashback to the 80s.

We’re confident that with time, veganism will become as mainstay as vegetarianism. There are even some restaurants, like our local Green Owl (full disclosure: TRDad works at the Owl) that cater to vegans! Progress has been made, but it is certainly interesting to travel this new path.

Category Groceries & Meal Planning | Tags: good eats,vegan | Comments Off on 21st Century Vegan
The MacGyver Solution

December 21, 2014 by admin

As new hermit crab owners, we’ve been preoccupied with making sure our little friends are happy and comfortable.

Maintaining the preferred level of humidity in their sandy crabitat is one piece that has proved difficult for us.

We tried various ideas from misting the tank regularly, to making sure the sand was well moistened. Nothing seemed the right solution for keeping the humidity steady. And to the extent any of our methods helped, they all required a very hands-on, all day approach. What if we went away on a day trip? Surely, there just had to be an easier way.

So we started shopping for alternatives. When we saw the prices for crab tank humidifiers, we balked. After all we have already invested in our crustacean friends, there had to be a more affordable option.

We returned to our YouTube sources and saw various ideas for ways you could make your own humidifier for much less than any store brought option. So we took on this DIY task.

Building our own humidifier turned out to be quick, easy and only a few dollars investment.

Supplies:

Fish tank air pump

Length of air pump tubing

Air Stone

Plastic Bicycle Water Bottle

Glue Gun

Wire Cutters

Technique:

We first used a screwdriver to punch two small holes in the top side of the water bottle. We placed these holes just under the rim of the lid. This way, refilling the bottle wouldn’t require disassembling the whole system.

Next we cut a length of tube to go from the pump to the bottom of the bottle. We attached the air stone to this tube.

Another tube went from the top of the bottle, up into the tank. We used wire cutters to cut through the wire mesh removable top of the crabitat, just enough to let the tub fit through.

We used a glue gun to seal the the tubes at the edge of the bike bottle.

Then, all we had to do was wait for the glue to dry, and put some water in the bottle.

How It Works:

The air stone creates bubbles, which rise to the top of the water, creating super-humid air at the top of the bottle. The second hose then leads this humid air to the tank. Presto! A nice, humidity boost to the air of the crabitat.

We were so pleased that we could make this on our own, with only a purchase of a few materials! Our Bluey helped with the whole project (a great home lesson!) and was suitably proud of how well it all worked out.

Category Get Crafty! | Tags: Animals,Creativity,kids,Learning,Science,simple solutions | Comments Off on The MacGyver Solution
Holiday Tunes Update

December 19, 2014 by admin

We are huge fans of holiday music. Each year we try to seek out as many new songs as we can find to further fill out our extensive holiday playlist.

And we attempt to do it for free.

That’s right! There is so much free holiday music out there, that each season we are able to add several hundred tunes to our collection. You just need to know where to look.

Free downloads are somewhat harder to come by than they used to be. The big push to convince people to stream music instead of owning it outright has led many purveyors (like Amazon, for instance) to offer “playlists” and streams, rather than true downloads. But they are still out there.

Here are a few starting places for you:

Noise trade: Many artists use free downloads from Noisetrade as a way to gain fans. And this is no less true for the holiday season. Head over to the Noisetrade website and type Holiday or Christmas into the search bar. You’ll instantly see dozens of albums, eps and singles available for free download.

iTunes: Each week, the Apple iTunes store offers a free download from one of its many artists. Stop by and add few free tunes!

Let us know if you find other reliable sources for free holiday tunes and we’ll add them to the list!!

Category Thrifty Tips, Uncategorized | Tags: freebies,Holidays,Music | Comments Off on Holiday Tunes Update
Herman’s Hermits

December 17, 2014 by admin

Hermit Crabs? Yup! Hermit crabs are now counted among our family. This TR household is currently 4 humans, 1 dog, 3 cats, and 3 new hermit crabs.

We thought these crabs would be a simple, low-maintenance pet to add to our family.

But please be warned! We learned the hard way that welcoming hermit crabs into your home isn’t necessarily easy-cheesey. These little critters involve a lot of initial expense and set up. We had thought we researched this undertaking and were good to go. But it turned out that stuff like “keeping the humidity stable” is harder to do than we might have thought.

Tip1: Items recommended for your hermit crabs: heat lamp with day AND night bulbs, glass aquarium, substrate of sand, 2 water dishes (not metal), heat/humidity gauge, food dish, small hiding shelter, extra shells, and climbing toys.

We had a 5 gallon tank and decided that 3 small hermit crabs would fit comfortably in this space. We wanted to be sure that our hermit crabs appeared healthy and happy prior to purchase. We visited a few local stores before settling on the active hermits crabs at Animart, a locally-owned pet store chain. We picked our sand up at Menards, a local home & builder store (much cheaper than buying the fancy sands sold at pet stores) and some supplies at PetSmart– all for the lower prices.

Once home, we excitedly set up our new friends in their habitat. Our crabs seem to really enjoy a small ceramic tree that had been sold as a fish tank decoration, as well as some green moss we were able to get at Michaels (which is also where we found a big bag of extra shells).

Tip2: To reduce the odds of giving your crabs an illness or parasite, make sure all items for their tank are thoroughly washed and rinsed with boiling water.

It took us a while to get to the point where both the temperature and humidity seemed more or less stable in our ‘crabitat’. Since we obsess about taking good care of the critters that live with us, this struggle caused us some distress. We suspect that crabs are hearty crustaceans that can weather these issues better than we think. But we recommend you do full research if you choose to get hermit carbs, as you should for any new pet.

Tip3: We did a lot of our research using YouTube, but not all videos are equal. Some seemed to come from very experienced crab owners, some seemed like they were made by newer owners. (One, disappointingly, featured a man smuggling crabs from Jamaica to bring to his home tank in Canada.) We recommend you watch MANY videos to get an ample supply of ideas to make your crabs happy. Or take out some books from your local library.

Our hermit crabs have turned into fun little friends to have in the house. We occasionally shift them into a small plastic bin to interact with them. They really seem to like these encounters! They all start moving around and checking things out. It has been quite a fun, new adventure for our family!

Category Rambler Ramblings | Tags: Animals,family,Pets | Comments Off on Herman’s Hermits
Science Expedition

December 14, 2014 by admin

For Bluey’s birthday expedition this year, we surprised him with a trip to the Museum of Science & Industry (MSI) in Chicago. It was quite a day and a great trip!

We don’t often go on day trips of this magnitude (a 3 hour drive each way!) – but a special occasion calls for a special event! We told Bluey and Plum about the trip a few days in advance so they’d both have time to prepare and get excited. And it worked! Our whole fam was stoked about this adventure. None of us had ever been to MSI before, so we didn’t know exactly what to expect. But everyone was ready!

A few well chosen stops along the way fueled our spirits and we arrived at the Hyde Park neighborhood museum just a few minutes after it opened. We were surprised that MSI was already getting quite full of visitors so early in the morning.

Tip1: MSI offers parking in an underground lot for $20 a day. There is NO reason to pay this fee. We found free street parking within a stone’s throw of MSI. Just read the street signs carefully.

We typically visit museums on the weekend, so we were a bit thrown by the number of school groups. The nice thing about dealing with school groups is that the students are supposed to stay with their leader. So in a museum this large, we found it fairly successful to blitz past the students and find other sections of the museum to explore.

And boy, is there a lot to experience!

Tip2: We spent a long time at the Museum and probably only saw about half of it. We recommend taking time before your visit to map out exhibits that are important to you. Then come back a second time to explore the areas you missed.

We began at the ToyMaker3000– an automated toy machine that will create a personalized gyro-top souvenir for $5. We figured this would become quite crowded later in the day and we thoroughly enjoyed having it to ourselves first thing in the morning. The assembly of the gyro-top was fascinating to watch and it was even more fun to play with the toy later that day.

Tip3: We absolutely recommend you get a free map from one of the information kiosks! There is a ridiculous amount to experience, spread out over 4 levels. You’ll need a map to guide you from one exhibit to another.

We took a break midday for a meal from the MSI food cafe. The choices were plentiful but pricey. We highly recommend you pack your own food. In good weather, you can eat on the lovely lawns surrounding the museum.

After lunch, we saw a few more exhibits. We also visited the gift shop. There are not a ton of lower price point items and in retrospect, we recommend purchasing the gyro-top and skipping the gift shop. We then we headed home, exhausted but happy.

Category Jaunts | Tags: Chicago,Learning,Museums,Science | Comments Off on Science Expedition
It’s In The Bag!

December 10, 2014 by admin

Now that we are deep into the holiday season, gift buying and gift making are well underway in this TR home.

We have a generous supply of wrapping paper. But our kids find wrapping gifts more of a hassle than fun. The tape usually fights back and ends up in an unusable sticky crumple. And the cut paper is either too big or too small and refuses to bend into neat folds.

So what to do? Make your own gift bags!

Tip1: Gift bags aren’t just for the holidays. Make them for birthdays, cookie exchanges, etc.

We picked up a pack of 40 red paper lunch bags at a local box store for under $2.00. We thought red was fitting for Christmas but you can easily find an assortment of colors.

Once home, we got out our supply of winter and holiday themed foam stickers. Our kids got right to work decorating bags for all of their friends and family.

Tip2: A container of foam stickers from the box stores runs about $8 but you can usually find them on deep discount after each holiday. We’ve never paid more than $2 per container.

You can make the bags as fancy as you wish. Punch out holes along the top and weave ribbon through the circles. Jazz the gift bags up with glitter or coloring. The possibilities are numerous.

Bluey and Plum had a great time and were very proud of their creations. Adding a personal touch to any gift is always a move in the right direction!

Category Get Crafty! | Tags: Art,Creativity,Holidays,simple solutions | Comments Off on It’s In The Bag!
Cinnamon Ornaments

December 7, 2014 by admin
This TRFamily loves the holidays. And we greatly enjoy spreading the holiday spirit with handmade gifts to our friends and family. There is something special about the love and effort that goes into handmade gifts. And our children take great pride in creating gifts for the special folks that impact their lives.

Last Christmas, we made fantastic salt dough ornaments. But even though that was fun and successful, we wanted to do something different this holiday season. We decided to make cinnamon ornaments!

Recipe:
- 1 cup of cinnamon
- 1/4 cup of applesauce
- 1/2 cup of glue
Tip: Your batch will yield about 15 ornaments

Combine the cinnamon and applesauce, mixing until clumpy. Then pour in the glue and continue mixing. Dough will be incredibly sticky. We found it necessary to mix by hand and add liberal amounts of flour until we could roll out our ornament dough. Add decorations if you’d like. Punch out a hole in the ornament with a plastic straw and then bake at 200F for 1 hour. Let cool for at least 3 hours.

Bonus – You’re entire house will smell like cinnamon!
Category Get Crafty! | Tags: Art,Creativity,Holidays,kids,kindness,unplugged | Comments Off on Cinnamon Ornaments
Lego Designer Videos

December 5, 2014 by admin

For a quick and fun way to inspire your builders, let your young inventor learn from some of the best with help from a short on-line video.

Just point your browser towards YouTube, and type “Lego Designer” in the search field. Up pops a long list of videos narrated by actual Lego Designers, proudly showing off their works. Most of the videos are only 3 or 4 minutes long- just the perfect length for inspiration!

Get an inside look at the new Jawa Sandcrawler, or the Sydney Opera House. Learn the thought processes behind buildings, vehicles and movies sets.

Fun Sidenote: Lego Designers hail from all over the world. It is fun to hear their accents and think about what language they spoke as children.

You and your kiddoes will no doubt move straight from the computer to the Legos to try out new ideas!

For another twist, search under “Lego Designer Tips.” Here you’ll find not insights into existing Lego sets, but pro tips from the builders on everything from making cool furniture to jazzing up a motorcycle. These are all tips from people whose job is to play with Legos- the things they come up with are pretty cool and sure to get your builder juices flowing!

So when you or your kiddoes need a jumpstart, check out a few Lego Designer videos and get your creativity on!

Category Inspirations | Tags: Creativity,Inspirations,internet | Comments Off on Lego Designer Videos
Pollyanna, The Submariner Reindeer

December 1, 2014 by admin

As the holiday season gets underway, we wanted share with you the interesting life of reindeer Pollyanna.

Picture a reindeer.

How does it move around? Perhaps you are seeing it walk from place to place through the tundra. Or maybe you know that reindeer are good swimmers, so you visualize it swimming across an arctic lake or fjord.

And reindeer fly! Everyone knows that.

But did you know they also ride in submarines?

Well, at least one did, back during World War II.

Photo credit: Royal Naval Museum

Hard to believe? Check out this true story:

A British submarine named the HMS Trident was stationed as part of the British-Russian alliance at Pollyarnoe, a naval base near Murmansk on the Arctic Ocean. The commander of the Trident, Lieutenant Commander G M Sladen, chatted up the local Russian Admirals about life back in England. He mentioned his children and his wife’s difficulties in pushing the pram up the steep hills in the snow. The Russian leaders, in a gesture of goodwill between the Allies, decided to try to help.

When the Trident shipped out of Polyarnoe in August 1941, the Russians added a live baby reindeer to the provisions laded aboard. If reindeer could pull Santa’s sleigh, surely one could help out moving a pram! How could Lt. Commander Sladen refuse such a thoughtful gift? The crew dubbed the reindeer “Pollyarnoe” in honor of their Russian home-port, but soon Anglicized the name to “Pollyanna.”

Thinking the Trident would be returning to her base in Scotland in two or three weeks, the Russians provided a few bales of tundra moss for Pollyanna to eat. But plans changed and the Trident was at sea for six weeks straight! The whole time with a (growing!) baby reindeer on board. When the moss ran out, the crew fed Pollyanna table and kitchen scraps.

The crew took care of her and cleaned up after Pollyanna, but supposedly the deer would only allow Lt. Comander Sladen to be near her when the surface hatch was opened to allow fresh air into the sub.

After six weeks at sea, the now rather large reindeer was extracted from the sub with some difficulty and returned to dry land. After a few weeks with the Sladen family, Pollyanna took up residence at a Royal zoo, and lived out her life in peace and comfort.

There are many stories old and new, some true and many fictional, that capture the true meaning of holiday cheer and spirit. This is one of our favorites and we hope that you enjoyed it as well.

Category Inspirations | Tags: Animals,Holidays,Traveling With Pets | Comments Off on Pollyanna, The Submariner Reindeer