Frugal Fridays...

So in my quest for things to blog about I decided to do Frugal Fridays... This is because when I think about what it takes to be a farmer "Frugality" comes to the front of my mind. This is not the same as being cheap at all. It is about making wise decisions about how to use resources.

In some cases this means spend more money now - on boots, for example. My $100 Ariat boots have lasted me going into the fourth season. The "cheap" $30 ones I got before lasted about 4 months and never were as comfortable.

In some cases this means making potentially difficult decisions. I always ask, if you are farming as a business, is there sense in driving a $25,000 new car and a $5,000 forty year old tractor? In our case we inverted that (value not ages!) The newer tractor will be reliable for years and not cause us some of the grief that the old one did, like when the seat broke in the middle of discing and we had to wait 4 days for a new one to be shipped - Nothing broken, except a seat, but all field work ground to a halt. If the car breaks down, Farmer Hubby fixes it, and if it really bad we can rent one for a few days. The new car will come as the tractor pays for itself, as it is already doing.

In some cases it means making due (replacing the blades on the tiller ($200) instead of spending $5000 on a new one), and in some cases it means doing without (like dropping cable.) In a lot of cases it means little things: sales, preserving, bulk buying, recipes, life style things, and other farm choices.

So in this segment "Frugal Fridays" I see it as being a hodge podge of different things. Some will be directly farming related, some will be food related, and others will just be real life. Hope you like it!